Barteool
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Barteool sat near the lantern together with his party, wondering how they got to this situation. They've just returned to the Guild from completing a quest, when one of those Curmin guards casually approached them. For a team mainly composed of Raaketig, that was common only in one scenario, but that was not allowed here. Internal laws of the Guild forbade any kind of violent conflict from happening amongst its members anywhere in the visual range of the Guild. You could still talk shit to each other and fight it out once the Guild is out of sight, but that was sort of a gray zone.
As expected, the Curmin approaching Barteool and his party right after entering the Guild, naturally drew the attention of other members, currently sitting in the lobby with various drinks on the tables.
"Are you Barteool, one of the silver rank members of the Guild?" asked the guard captain. Barteool could tell it was a captain based on the insignia on Curmin's shoulder. He wore a full set of leather armour, signifying openly, that he's serving one or the royal families of the Empire.
After Barteool gave him a single nod, he and his party were guided to a Briefing room on the second floor of the Guild, where they received a mission with barely covered threats in case they'd refuse it. They were to search for a prey to hunt in a planned hunting event of royals. The pay was shit and without any benefits whatsoever, maybe except the fact they'd not be banished from the country, but what else could they expect from the Curmin.
Now they were here, camped in the middle of the poisonous Forest of Mushrooms, with him having to worry about his friends being either killed by poison all around them, or entangled in a vicious plot by the guardian spirits, because they stepped on the wrong patch of grass or something. Meanwhile the Curmin royalty that hired them sat in an artificially made clearing with mana stones protecting it all year long against the spirits.
"This sucks" said Maeli, a Raaketig, and the group's mage, who was leaning on a fallen trunk, and chewing on some dried rations.
He was immediately scolded by Nhaerria, also a Raaketig, and the group's healer. "Don't complain. We had to either accept this, or escape the empire with our wanted posters in every single town along the road."
"That doesn't mean I have to enjoy sitting here and eating some dried rations instead of a nice breakfast in a pub." retorted Maeli.
"Stop whining Maeli. None of us enjoys it, but it's still better than the other variant." Daente, a member of the Merten race, and the group's fighter/warrior, joined the discussion. Merten are usually taller than Raaketig, about 1,3 meters tall, and with their feathered bodies with their two arms and legs, they were considered outliners and a weird species. Daente was a typical member of this species, although only 1 meter tall, with feathers covering most of his body. What was not typical, however, was the black and gray coloration of his feathers, which made it very difficult to join the Merten society.
"Oh come on Daente! You as well?! At least Moti is on my side, right?" As his last resort, Maeli turned to the silent Moti. Moti was a Qerter, a race that evolved for easier movement in water and wet environments. Moti in particular, being quieter than your usual Qerter, had no problem finding a job in the security division, but he rather chose the Guild life, traveling with a bunch of morons across the empire with a set of chainmail, a bucket helmet and a sword made of simple steel.
Moti, upon being called upon, wisely chose to ignore Maeli's tantrum, and continued to drink his wine.
Sighing, Barteool finished his breakfast and stood up. "Alright. I'm gonna head out now, before dawn comes. Nhaerria will take command until I return. For those of you wondering 'Why Nhaerria? I'd be better suited for it,' the answer is simple. She'll have to heal all the damage and poisoning you'd suffer from the commands of the camp leader."
"Alright Barty. Can you tell us where are you heading? And for how long? I don't want to have this target on my back longer than necessary." Nhelaerria asked.
"Dunno. See you soon, hopefully." With such nonchalant words, Barteool left the camp, only turning around once he was at the edge of the clearing. "Make sure my bow won't get all wet, you understand?!"
He was the group's scout, also referred to as ranger or thief, specializing in the art of silent movement and knowledge of nature. He was the only one of the group, that was able to move freely within the forest full of poison.
With some food and water in his bag, and some throwing knives and a dagger on him, he picked a random direction and began to make his way through the thick underbush.
About half an hour later, he heard a familiar noise of multiple bodies making their way in a certain direction. 'Could be a Silver Deer or something similar' he thought, so he waited in place to take a look. He was then surprised, as a group of roughly 25 Curmin in chainmail ran past him, not noticing the slight colour difference his scales and armour made with the leaves surrounding him.
'Isn't this supposed to be a hunt? Why would they send out such a force just to hunt some common beasts?' He knew that it was none of his business, but his curiosity won in the end. Silently following the Curmin, he made sure not to make a blunder by stepping on some rare herbs or snapping unnecessary twigs. The Curmin, however, did not care about such matters. Their armoured paws smashed into the ground, iron claws unearthing whole patches of grass and herbs, and those who had bladed tail coverings even cut off some branches that irritated them in one way or another. This made following them more difficult for Barteool, as the air began to fill with poison vapours. He had to keep up with the group, but not get too close to them in fear of being killed.
About 15 minutes later, Barteool saw a clearing in front of him, illuminated by a small fire on the far side of the clearing, and the sound of combat in between.
He stopped for a while, unable to decide his next course of action. He then went around the clearing clockwise, looking for a suitable tree to climb, with a view of the clearing. About 15 metres further down the road, he found a decent tree and climbed into the crown. He could now see the clearing, save the part where the fire burned, and he couldn't really believe what he saw.
Out of the 25 Curmin that made it here moments prior, 12 were laying on the ground, either writhing in pain, with their chainmail pierced through, or eerily silent with pools of blood spilling out below them. The other 13 Curmin circled around a weird being. Bipedal, with no scales and only a little bit of fur. It was very tall, about two times his own height, with clothing that would help it disguise itself in a normal, non-poisonous forest. Now, however, it was covered from head to toe in stains of Curmin blood. It held two tools in its hands. A very big blade, that was about 30 cm long, and an even bigger axe. A
As he watched on, he saw one Curmin rush out of their formation to strike the creature's unprotected back, just to get hit to the side by a blunt edge of the ax in its left hand, joining its friends on the ground. He watched on, as the being took care of three more Curmin in quick succession, just to have its axe stuck in one of their helmets. It now had only its blade, and nine opponents to go. He could see a few stains of red liquid spreading over its legs, presumably from successful Curmin attacks.
'Something so big might be able to escape them, so why is it not running away?' he thought silently. 'I have never heard of a guardian taking this form…' Just as he thought this, the Curmin attacked all at once. The being, having lost one of its weapons, was in a very bad position now. It was able to cut three of them down, kicking into another three, but it was then slashed on the inside of its legs, falling to the ground. Howls of victory and anger echoed in the air, as the Curmin slowly circled around the being.
Barteool was indecisive in what to do. On one hand, he had nothing to do with this, but on the other hand he hated the Curmin, and taking the number of dead bodies into consideration, three more would not be all that suspicious. His thought process was interrupted, as one of the Curmin spoke to his friends.
"Finally! This stupid thing's down. Calmeer! Loinn! Let's finish it now. We can take care of the Raaketig near the fire later!"
He made up his mind. Taking out his throwing knives, he aimed for the unprotected joints he could see, and threw all twelve knives in quick succession. Nine of them found their target, and as two Curmin fell to the ground with pained yelps, the third one made its way to escape the dangerous situation by running towards the edge of the forest.
Barteool did not have any throwing knives left, so he had no choice, but to leave it to escape and inform ist higher ups. The same, however, could not be said about the Thing, as it threw its blade after the escaping Curmin, burrowing it deep in its back. He was absolutely astounded, as he didn't expect it could throw such a heavy looking blade accurately.
The thing then stood up and walked to its axe again, ripping it out from the helmet it was stuck in, and finishing off the Curmin writhing in pain on the ground. With an axe dripping with blood, it walked to retrieve its blade and then look at the two Curmin Barteool immobilised. It killed them in a quick succession, no questions asked. Pulling out the knives, it looked straight at Barteool in the crown of a nearby tree, gesturing him to come down to the fire, and took the knives there.
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Barteool swiftly climbed down the tree and took out his dagger, holding it in a defensive position next to him. As he entered the clearing, he understood that this group was only one of more groups sent here. In front of him was a pile of bodies he hadn't seen from the tree, some of which had leather armour on, and five of which had chainmail. The being was sitting near the fire, checking on its wounds, and had a small, green bag with a mark of a red cross in a white field opened beside it.
Barteool slowly made his way towards it, looking for any signs of aggression, but the being was busy checking its wounds and pouring some kind of medicine on them, after which it always stiffened its muscles.
Carefully coming slower and closer, he watched the being up until he saw the reason it stayed here instead of running away. About a meter tall, with grey scales and Ognyana sleeping on her. "Virria!" he yelled, as he discarded any semblance of wariness and ran to check on his friend.
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Aragami
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His legs gave out. Those fuckers did not cut through his pants this time, but it still felt numb. This was the third wave of those fuckers. 'Damn it. Why did I let that stupid cat from the first wawe escape?! It went back to their camp and brought back the armoured ones. At least they split up and the first five armoured guys warned me, so I could take my axe. Otherwise this would be much hoarded with the spade. Come on, you shitheads! You're the last three of this batch. I won't let you escape!' as he thought this, an idea suddenly popped into his head. 'Noir?'
'Yes, Aragami? What do you need?' Noir's voice sounded in his head. It sounded… displeased. Noticing this, he made sure to explain himself.
'First of all, I know I've made them suffer, but that's what I had to do. I'll end their suffering once I finish these three.'
'Okay. I can accept that.' Noir agreed, now in a slightly better mood.
'Secondly, I think at least one of them will try to escape. Can you teach me how to throw things accurately? Even if it costs all the Prayers.
'I can do that. Give me a second aaand… Done.'
Feeling the surge of power once again, he felt confident he'd stop them from escaping. 'Thanks Noir. Now all that's left is to finish off these three.' He was about to lunge at he foes in front of him, not really caring about what the said to each other since he didn't understand, when he sensed feelings of malice from the crown of a tree on the edge of the clearing. At the same time, throwing knives started to appear in the unarmored parts of two Curmin in front of him, immobilising them. He didn't have time to look at the one who threw them, as the third Curmin beelined to the forest. 'I'm glad I bought it' he thought, as he threw the machete after the escaping Curmin, hitting him near the spine and killing him.
He stood up, grimacing slightly, as he put weight on his wounded leg. 'Fuck those assholes.' He made his way towards his axe, pulling it out and finishing off the survivors, and then retrieved his machete. Turning back again, he went to retrieve the throwing knives for the one in the trees. He sensed indecisiveness and slight distress as he approached, but when he waved at his benefactor it disappeared.
Now that he took a good look at it, although his scales were coloured differently, his benefactor seemed to be of the same race as the lizard lying near the campfire. So instead of bringing the knives to the bottom of the tree the lizard was on, he decided to take them with him and gesture to the lizard to follow.
Sitting at the campfire, he threw the last wood into fire and began tending to his wounds. Couple of surface cuts and a few bites was all he had to suffer, but they still hurt quite a bit. Not to mention the bruises he is sure to get from the attacks that didn't penetrate the thick pants he wore. Sighing, he pulled up the legs of his pants, and searched in the first aid kit for Hydrogen Peroxide B to clean his wounds and bandages to close them up.
'This will hurt.' he thought, before cleaning the cuts and bandaging the worst ones right away. The dark green lizard was approaching him warily, with its knife on the ready. Aragami eyed him a little bit, but made sure to look like he didn't see it up until the point the lizard made a weird noise and ran towards its kin on his mat, instantly checking on it.
Aragami looked at the lizards, but opted to finish cleaning the two remaining cuts on his leg before taking a sip from the water bottle and heading there. The green lizard, noticing his presence, quickly turned around to look at him, but seeing he had no weapon except his bottle calmed down a bit and made some space so he could sit down next to him, grimacing
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Barteool
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Virria was fine, just sleeping. That was great to hear. The question was why was she in this forest, in this weird armour she never wore, attacked by the curmin and defended by whatever that thing was. Speaking of that thing, it was walking towards him! He turned around, knife ready to stab and run, but seeing it had nothing but a weirdly shaped bowl in its hand, he calmed down a bit. Making room for it to sit down, he watched it carefully, as it lowered itself beside him. He catches a glimpse of the wound on one of its arms. It pierced skin, but stopped before reaching flesh. Not a mortal wound, but surely a painful one, which was confirmed by the grunt the Thing made as it sat down next to him.
The thing drinked something out of its bowl, before offering him a sip. He took the bowl and smelled the liquid, just to find regular clean water inside. Taking a sip, he nodded to the creature, which nodded back at him. It then reached behind Virria, into a weird bag, and took out a Tamer's bag with Virria's insignia woven into it. It then handed the bag to Barteool, signalling him to open it in a simple motion of its arm.
Doing as instructed, Barteool undid the buckle holding the cover and opened the bag, just to stare in disbelief. Instead of the summoning crystals that should have been in each slot, there were parts of bodies of different creatures he recognised. All of which had some distinct features, and all of them were parts of the familiars Virria had acquired during the years of travelling. Also, all of them had signs of Curmin claws on them, that were made either when they put them into the bag, or before as they killed the familiars.
Closing the bag, he handed it back to the creature and gestured from the bag to the things weird bag. It seemed as if the thing understood him, as it put the Tamer's bag inside its weird one, and covered it with some cloth. Thinking what he'd do next, he looked at His friend, laying there without any movement whatsoever, when he noticed her eyelids rise a bit.
"Virria!" he jumped to her, losing eyes with her. "Virria. Can you hear me? Do you understand what I'm saying?"
A look of confusion showed for a moment, before she recognised him. "Barty. How did you find me? Did you save me?" she said with a weak voice.
"That's not important now. What happened to you? You've been laying here for a while now." With a worried look on his face, he watched for any sign of pain or wound.
"I'm fine." Said Virria in a voice that was a lot of things, just not fine. "I'm just tired from running for the better part of the whole day. Say, is there Nhaerria nearby? Could she replenish my stamina for a bit? Also, could she spare some clothes so I don't have to wear this rigged armour?"
'Running for the better part of a day? Rigged armour? That does not sound good.' "She is not nearby, but I'll get you there. Don't worry. You are with me now. We'll take care of you, so you can tell us what exactly happened, okay?"
"Okay." she said sleepily. "I'll sleep now. I'm sorry for the inconvenience." She went to sleep again, showing just how exhausted she was.
"Don't worry. I'll get you to Nhaerria as fast as I can." he looked around, only now noticing the thing looking at them intently. 'It seems strong. Should I try to talk it into carrying Virria? It shouldn't hurt her. Right?' He slowly stood up, attracting the creature's gaze, and mimicked picking up Virria and walking away, then pointing at it. The creature looked hesitant, so he showed it again, this time sure it would understand. For his little theatre, he received a nod from the creature. It then turned around, starting to sort its things out, packing them and putting them into the weird bag. It packed everything else and put out the fire, including masking up the fire pit, before turning to Virria. It then gently lifted her up, and then set down just a few metres away, and packed the mat and sleeping bag into its bag. With a small spade attached to the side of the bag, blade in its scabbard on its thigh, and ax tucked into the belt, it gently lifted Virria again and held it securely in its embrace. It was almost comical, seeing Virria, the biggest Raaketig he'd ever seen, being carried like a small child.
Chuckling to himself, he gestured to the creature to follow, and led the way towards his camp and his friends in it. The thing followed him, evading most of the twigs in its way. Three times the Thing stopped him from disrupting guardians and animals of the forest with such an accuracy, Barteool bagan to think if it was able to děsně the will of things around it, or just knows the forest so well. He was still contemplating this, even as he approached the camp, only snapping to attention as he heard his friends' voices.
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Daente
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Daente was on guard duty. It was boring for most people, but he actually enjoyed it. He liked this forest, although it was poisonous and he had to have his guard up all the time.
When he heard a slight commotion, coming from the underbush, he readied his spear in expectation of a wild animal coming out. To his relief, the one who emerged from the Bush was someone he knew very well.
"Barty!" he yelled, waving at their ranger, and laughing a little bit, as Barteool snapped to attention and jumped a little.
"Don't do this to me." Barteool said in an annoyed voice, trying to mask out his shock.
Shrugging, Daente asked the question he carved to know the answer to. "Did you find something?"
This question earned him an inept look from Barteool, after which he turned around to see the thick bushes behind him. "Ooh… okay." Barteool turned around and spoke to Daente. I'll show all of you at once. Could you tell me what happened here while I was away?"
"Oh, nothing much, the usual. Maeli disobeyed the camp leader's orders and took a bite of one of the less poisonous mushrooms, saying he wanted to build up poison immunity. He's been treated and Nhaerria is scolding him now."
"Damn him, that Maeli." Barteool facepalmed. "Okay. Could you bring everyone together? I will tell you what I found. As quick as possible, to the lantern, please."
"Why won't you call them yourself? You're here after all…" Daente asked, not really understanding what's going on anymore.
"I still have to take care of something." Barteool said, as he turned around and walked towards the bushes. "I'll be there in just a few minutes." After saying so, he walked back into the forest, leaving the perfectly confused Daente to gather all the other members of their party together.