“Where’d you learn to use guns anyway?”
Sariah looked over to Lance with a slight smile. “Why? You interested in picking them up?”
Lance shrugged. “I was just curious since they’re not part of the Knight program, and that’s where you got your combat training. Plus, Commander Roy said he doesn’t trust them, so I doubt he taught you.”
He was surprised when he heard her laugh in response to what he had said. While Sariah definitely had a teasing edge to her, she normally gave off such a serious vibe that her giggles and jokes felt like an out of character tonal whiplash. To Lance, anyway.
“The only reason Roy doesn’t trust guns is because he can’t aim to save his life,” she said. “He’s near-sighted and anything outside of arm’s reach might as well be invisible to him.
“To answer your question, though: I didn’t learn from the Knights, but I did learn during the time that I was stationed there.”
“Huh?”
“I was never particularly good with a sword, to be honest. It just didn’t gel with me personally. It didn’t bother me much at first, since I never planned to stay in B3 for long anyway, but during one of my unit’s assignments, I worked with a police couple, and they taught me how to use them.”
“Did it take you long to train at it, or were you a natural?”
This time, Sariah’s smile had an air of self satisfaction to it. “I picked it up quick. Haven’t touched a sword since.”
Lance’s eyes moved down to the handgun holster on Sariah’s leg. The conversation had definitely been poking at his curiosity. “Can you teach me?”
“Sure. And if you get good at it, maybe you can impress Lady Raschell.”
“H-huh?!”
Fortunately for him, Sariah refrained from poking at that lion any further. The two then fell into silence for a few more minutes of their walk, until Lance, having recovered from his embarrassment, was ready for more questioning. “Do you….kill people with them?”
“That’s typically the goal when you point a gun at someone.”
“Have you ever assassinated anyone big? Like a corrupt CEO or a government official or anything like that?”
Sariah’s eyebrow began to curve upward. “Assassinate? You know, rookie, with your ‘secret agent’ and ‘spy’ and ‘assassination’ comments, I gotta ask: What exactly is it that you think I do in G13? What’s Roy been telling you?”
Lance paused for a moment to gather his answer. “Uh, I dunno….I mean, I guess I figured you, like….go on secret missions and stuff? Maybe….disguise yourself and infiltrate big wig parties, steal information from crime lords, engage in rooftop gunfight escapes, that kinda thing?”
“….”
“I….I’ll shut up, now….”
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
After a few hours of walking, talking, and occasionally, monster slaying, the two arrived at a small encampment. Or half encampment, rather, as it appeared to be in the midst of packing itself up. Ecclesian Knights were marching all around, taking the tents down with efficiency and loading them up into two caravans, each bearing the symbol of the Ecclesia — a purple circle surrounded by a mighty golden dragon.
Sariah and Lance were immediately approached by Commander Roy, along with a much younger and frailer man lagging a bit behind him. “Sariah. Lance,” he greeted with a nod. To the latter, he also threw in an additional “straighten-your-back” motion, free of charge. “Perfect timing. We were just about to head out.”
“Where to?” Sariah asked.
“We’ll be stopping in Port Rysa for a time, then continuing northward if we’re not needed there. Are you headed the same way?”
“Possibly.”
The Commander let out a playful and exaggerated sigh. “So secretive you are, Sariah! Even to a dear old friend like me!”
A similarly playful grin appeared on Sariah’s face. “That’s just part of the secret spy assassin job, right?”
Roy seemed a bit confused at her statement at first, before glancing over at Lance and mentally piecing the puzzle together. “Oh, right….” He sighed once more, although this one definitely felt more genuine. “I told him not to glamorize you like that. Field agent, not secret agent, boy.”
Lance’s cheeks reddened. “S-sorry….”
“He hasn’t been a bother to you, has he?” Despite his embarrassment, Lance definitely wanted to hear her answer to that question.
“He’s been fine so far. Little awkward, and definitely inexperienced, but he’ll get there.” The rookie felt a warmth of pride wash over his heart.
Roy nodded. “That’s good to hear. He’s a good kid, but don’t hesitate to let me know if he starts getting in the way.” And then, in a flash of surprise and realization, like when you suddenly remember you need to check on the food in your oven before it overcooks, Roy remembered that he was currently being accompanied. He quickly turned his head and extended his arm out toward the Knight standing behind him. “Oh, right! This is, uh, Eurus, right?”
The Knight nodded. He bore a painfully dull expression on his face, which was entirely unremarkable, like a model in a stock photograph with a “bored” tag kinda unremarkable. He was quite tall, but with how thin he was and how hunched his posture was, especially when underneath the Ecclesian Knight armor, you wouldn’t really even notice. “Yes, sir….” Even his voice had no flavor in it, like food overcooked in the oven.
“Why don’t you two help pack the camp up?” Roy then said, dismissing the two young Knights from the conversation.
Once they had left, Sariah said, “He seems like a bit of an….odd fit for the Knights, yeah?”
Roy chuckled. “Yes, well….We don’t really get the most ideal recruits in this area.”
“Makes sense,” Sariah responded. “This place’s pretty barren. Anyone fit enough to fight would probably rather go to Leotera or Vash rather than stick around here.”
“Indeed, which is why I’m a bit peeved that you snatched Lance away from us. He’s got genuine potential, that one.”
“‘Snatched him?’ You’re the one who recommended him. I didn’t even know G13 had recruited him until the day I got back.”
The Commander shrugged. “It’s what he wanted. Knight activity here just isn’t exciting enough for him, and there isn’t much room in any of the neighboring regions. It was better to let him go pursue something else than stagnate here.”
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
Sariah nodded her head in agreement. It was a fairly similar situation to her own all those years ago — Roy had wanted her to stick around in the Knights, but she was determined to move on to new experiences, and to find a more suitable station for herself. And so, when the G13 branch was in its opening stages, he had personally recommended her as the Ecclesian representative.
Getting back on track, Sariah tossed in a new question. “Has anyone spotted the Knight?”
Roy shook his head. “No, but we did find the remains of a battle not far from here. A big one, too, from the looks of it.”
“Thanks. I’ll check it out.”
“If you’re heading north, you’re welcome to ride with us,” he said, jabbing his thumb in the direction of the caravans. “It’d be much faster than walking.”
Sariah looked over his shoulder to the Knights. Now that she was getting a proper look at them, she was able to notice how….lacking they seemed to be in comparison to other units she’d interacted with. It took three whole people to lift one crate into the caravan, Eurus looked completely winded after dismantling a tent, and another Knight awkwardly stood around in the center of the encampment, completely unsure of what to do with himself.
“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass,” she replied. “I’d hate to intrude on you boys’ fun.”
“Won’t get bored on the way? There’s not much to look at ‘round these parts.”
“I’ll live.” She nodded her head in the general direction of Lance. “Rookie keeps me company.” She reached her hand down and patted her palm against the holster on her leg. “He said he wants to learn how to shoot, so that should help pass the time.”
Sariah felt a devilish thrill blossom inside of her as she took in Roy’s predictable grimace. “Bah. The kid’s got talent for the sword. You’d better not flush it down the drain.”
“Get with the times, old man,” she responded, waving him goodbye as he headed off towards the caravans.
* * * *
ULTRA KNIGHT
* * * *
The remnants of the battle Roy had mentioned before bore no fruit usable in the investigation’s smoothie. While the scars the fight had left in the grass, the dirt, and even a nearby tree helped tickle the imagination, conjuring up an exciting reenactment of the events, there wasn’t much else to use.
And so, Sariah and Lance continued their walk northward. Not for very long, as the sun began to set and they weren’t close enough to Port Rysa to justify continuing.
They set up a small camp for themselves, using a kit that Roy had given to Lance before his departure, as he had known the two would have to make use of it. They wandered off the dirt trail and found themselves a nice spot near a tree where the ground was smooth enough to set the tent into and not lead to back problems in the morning.
Lance walked over to the tree and ripped an apple from the branch before strolling over to Sariah as she finished setting up the fire. “So….how we doing this?”
“You can sleep first. I’ll keep watch.”
“I’m not really tired right now, though,” he replied, taking a seat on a log. “Are you?”
“Nope.”
They began to snack away rather than talk for the next bit of time. Sariah had had the smarts to bring some sandwiches with her, and, upon seeing this, jealousy stirred within Lance as he chewed into his apple — a fruit that, while fine, wouldn’t quite make his top ten list of fruits. A sandwich sounded like a much better dinner meal, but he didn’t have the nerve to ask for one of Sariah’s.
“Here.”
He almost didn’t hear the word, as he was too distracted by the mental debate of whether thirteenth or fourteenth place sounded right. When he shook himself back to reality, Sariah was standing in front of him, holding out one of her sandwiches. “Huh?”
“Eat it,” she said simply, dropping it into his lap before returning to her own seat. “It’s a more filling dinner than an apple.”
“Oh, uh, thanks!”
Perhaps it was because the last thing he had been chowing down on was shiny red mediocrity, but when Lance took a bite into the sandwich, he felt….happy, for a faint moment, at least. The kind of happy when you go home for your family’s annual holiday dinner and you get to eat grandma’s unbeatable cookies, or when you try a local burger joint after a childhood of exclusively fast food and microwave burgers and you learn that you didn’t truly know what a burger even was up until that point. The kind of happy that flavors a food better than any spice could ever dream of. The kind of happy that doesn’t really make much sense and is probably just an exaggerated pleasantness from enjoying the simple things in life for the first time in a while.
“Wow, this is so good! Did you make these?”
Sariah nodded, although not before giving Lance a concerned look. “Uh….yeah? They’re just ham sandwiches.”
Lance, however, was wolfing his sandwich down. Like a wolf. Eating something very….hungrily. Perhaps I should be the one to take the first sleep shift in the tent.
After finishing their little dinners, and after Lance confirmed he still wasn’t tired, Sariah decided to take the first sleep shift.
A mere four minutes after Sariah zipped up the tent behind her, Lance came to the dreaded realization that he now had absolutely nothing to do. No one to talk to, nowhere to go, and nothing to eat.
With a bored groan, he stepped away from the log and instead threw his back onto the grass, tucking his hands behind his head to stare at the night sky. The first thing he took note of was that two of the three moons were visible — the bright, silver-white Baihu almost directly overhead, and the tiny little dark blue Genbu off to the side. Those two specific moons in their current positions were said to symbolize lovers, as well as happiness. And a good harvest….and bad weather….and luck in gambling, the coronation of a new noble, war, peace, the migration of the gryphons, nights of conception that would lead to virtuous offspring, a time when Energizers needed to refocus, cut ties with toxic people in their lives, and be their best selves, and death. There were likely many, many more meanings associated with the current moon situation, but Lance had run out of the ones he had heard of.
Boredom had truly begun to consume him. As he lay there in the grass, boredom had crawled up from the earth and wrapped its arms around him to drag him away.
Wait, no, that may have been a skelemental.
The sensation of the powerful boney hand attempting to suffocate him snapped Lance free from his astrological prison. He instinctively rolled away and leaped to his feet, narrowly managing to avoid the full clutch of the skelemental’s hand. “What the-?!”
Upon seeing the monster and realizing what it must be, he hurried over and grabbed his sword, ripping it free of its scabbard.
He swung the blade down in a perfect cut fueled by one part talent and two parts training. It was a precision shot aimed straight for the neck to sever the head.
However, rather than cut through the bone, the blade clang!’d off of it as though it were a dense block of metal.
The deflection threw off Lance’s sense of balance momentarily, which bought a second skelemental enough time to lunge at his feet. Forced to refocus on this new foe, he plunged the tip of the blade down into the monster’s skull with all his strength.
But once again, it proved a useless endeavor. The blade failed to even microscopically scratch the surface of the bone, leaving Lance back at square one.
The skelemental did not stop its approach, attempting to wrap its arms around his leg and lock him down. “Get the hell offa me!” Lance barked, kicking at the beast until he was able to tug himself free from the incomplete hold on him.
With the sword clearly proving useless, Lance put some distance between himself and the skelementals and switched his strategy up.
Tossing the blade away, Lance held his hands up to his chest, one curved atop the other.
FIRE!
Each hand hurled its own fireball in the direction of the two skelementals, although several more had begun to join them, bursting free from the dirt.
The fireballs blasted their targets directly before exploding in a burst of flame in all directions. But when the embers cleared, the skelementals remained undeterred in their pursuit.
“The hell’s with these things?!” he said, now truly at a loss for what to do.
The sound of gunfire nearby caught his attention. Sariah had awakened and exited the tent, firing shots at the skelementals. Though her aim had been perfect, just like Lance’s blade they were useless against these monsters.
Lance hurried over to her side. “What do we do?! Nothing’s working!”
“Quiet,” she said, firmly but not harshly. “Look away.”
“Huh?!”
“Just do it. Focus on the monsters.”
Confused, but without much else to do, Lance complied, turning his back to Sariah to face the incoming horde of skelementals. Now he was free to take a good look at the things….their bones appeared almost metallic, with a dark sheen to them rather than the brittle whiteness bones would ordinarily be, and that made sense given how his sword had failed to break through them.
There was a dull green light buried in their deep black eye sockets that was simultaneously intriguing but also somewhat off-putting. Pairing them with the strange way the creatures moved — like an animation missing several frames — gave the skelementals an eerie, disturbing feel to them.
And then, from seemingly out of nowhere, a powerful voice echoed from behind.
GOSPEL!
The air around the campsite began to ripple to the point that Lance’s clothes and hair began to dance on the waves. Before he could turn around to see what Sariah was doing, the entire area exploded in a flash of silver-white light.
He was forced to bring his arms up to shield his eyes as a storm of glowing silver-white spears rained down from the heavens and pierced through each skelemental once, twice, thrice, and more.
The beasts all let out howls of pain as they exploded into dust, completely disintegrating and scattering into the wind.