Of Kin and Heritage [Epic Quest - Ayero Shiba]

The Fanalis is mostly silent as she leads the Imuchakk back up the mountain, only speaking to give direction when necessary. Several hours into their journey they would reach the small village once more, or rather what had remained of it. As Yakuroro went to work looking for clues, Ayero tentatively entered the ruins of her old home, hoping that this time around she might be able to find something that would help lead them to the men who caused such destruction.


Entering the charred remains once more, Ayero finds that she can’t keep her gaze lingering in one spot for too long. Every overturned object, every crack in the wooden floor and every black scorch mark reminded her of the struggle that had taken place. It wasn’t long before she felt a queer mix of anger and nausea and began to back up towards the exit, fighting the need to remain in the place she’d once called home and the urge to be sick. A scrap of paper in the corer catches her eye, the dull white sheet contrasting starkly with the earthen tones around it. Her eyes narrow in curiosity as she approaches the paper and picks it up. Paper was an uncommon good and generally wasn’t necessary in a place like this. As far as she knew, no one in her family save for herself and her departed father were literate. There little need to learn how to read and write living such a secluded life, and her own skills were rudimentary at best.


Her eyes suddenly widen in realization and memories come flooding back as she studies the sheet of paper. Staring back at her are eleven Fanalis and one human male, all sketched with a piece of charcoal whittled thin. The drawing was done by one of her younger brothers, someone whose name she struggled to remember. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know her sibling’s names by heart, but at the moment she wasn’t able to pin the artistic attribute to one of them for certain. Folding the paper with gentle care, she slips it into the side of her breastplate lest she let it distract her any longer. She would have the rest of her life to reminisce.


Stepping out into the light, Ayero shields her eyes from the blinding cover of snow reflecting the sun. Wondering where Yakuroro had gone, she soon finds her answer when the magician casts his tracking spell. She approaches him slowly in an attempt to not disturb him from whatever magic he was casting, but still eyes him with a curious gaze. Had he found a clue that would help lead them to their mark? As he calls her and Akatetsu to him, she quickens her pace before nodding in affirmation of his news. Though she was rather impressed that he possessed magic capable of tracking someone down, she doesn’t vocalize it due to circumstance.


Leading Yakuroro through the rocky mountainside once more, Ayero grunts lowly when he signals to her. Her eyes were fixed on the figures in the distance, at last she had something physical to pin her anger to. Even just the sight of them causes her heartbeat to quicken and her blood to pound against her veins. A red-hot anger smolders in her eyes once more, all of her focus narrowed onto those six men. Hopefully the young woman wouldn’t succumb completely to her blood lust and vicious revenge.

Ayero and Yakuroro would see a bandit camp in the distance. Only two of the bandits would be visible on their approach, one at the fire and another asleep in a make shift hammock. There were makeshift tents surrounding the fire, indicating there were more than two bandits at this camp. If the two attempted a casual approach, the bandit at the fire would stand and draw a sword, warning them to be on their way. If they refused to turn back, the bandit would give a signal and four other bandits would approach, all with similar swords in hand. If they chose a stealthier approach, they could possibly take out the two visible bandits before the others appeared.

Enemy information:
Name: Ruthless Bandits x5
Rank: B
Damage needed to take out: B
Description: Each bandit wears warm, dark clothing with triangular hats. Each wields a sword capable of B-tier damage and moves at 7 m/s.
Abitlities:
Vicious Slash: Their blade moving at 20 m/s, the Ruthless Bandit jabs their sword forward to inflict A-tier damage.
Parrying Strike: Moving their blade at 20 m/s, the Ruthless Bandit brings their sword up to block a strike and redirect it away from them.
Dodging Roll: Tucking into a ball, the Ruthless Bandit moves at 20 m/s and rolls 10 meters to the side.
Painful Deterence: Twirling and bringing their blade down at a diagonal at 20 m/s, the Ruthless Bandit strikes at the bundle of nerves at their opponent’s neck, paralyzing the arm for 3 posts.

It was hard for a blue haired giant and an equally tall bonehead chimera to stay out of sight and remain inconspicuous, but it seemed as though for now Yakuroro and Akatetsu were able to go unnoticed by the sentries in the camp. One could suppose they had the trees and other foliage to thank for their concealment. Turning his head to look at Ayero hoping to discuss a hushed battle plan with the woman, Yakuroro saw the fury smoldering behind her normally beautiful eyes that were now giving off an aura of destruction. The magician gave a sigh and realized that it would not be easy to talk Ayero out of charging in like a beast. Thankful that she had the control to prevent herself from simply leaping into action the moment they spotted the camp, Yakuroro spoke in a whispered voice so the men in the nearby camp could not hear.

"It looks like there are more of them based on the number of tents. But somehow this doesn't strike me as a group large enough to take down a small village with a family full of people with fanalis blood. There may be a larger group somewhere else." Remembering the way Ayero cut down the Brotherhood of Ash assassin, Yakuroro added in quickly, "If possible we should keep some of them alive to question afterwards." After watching Ayero briefly to try and ascertain how open she was to these suggestions Yakuroro was about to begin explaining to her that he would support her with an invisibility spell using water magic. But after recalling how little the fanalis knew of magic, Yakuroro caught himself from making a lengthy explanation to condense things down into a shortened vesion. Perhaps it was not detailed, but it should be better suited towards keeping Ayero's mind focused on the task at hand rather than bogged down by magic concepts that were beyond her.

"I'm going to make you invisible for a bit using magic. Don't be startled if you can't see yourself. Okay? I'll leave the heavy lifting to you. Bending Veil." The Imuchakk then pointed his staff at Ayero wrapping her in a shroud of blue rukh that used water from the air to bend light around her effectively making the fanalis woman vanish from view. Now, if she approached the camp, even if the bandits could hear her coming they'd never see her blows in time to avoid being struck down.


Magoi - 260/300

Spoiler:

”Alive?” She grunts lowly, clearly not pleased at the idea of allowing at least one of these scoundrels to live. Upon further thought, she realizes that she’s also not entirely against letting one man linger painfully on the edge of death in exchange for information. Initially she had set out with the intent to end their lives as swiftly as possible, but dark thoughts of cold revenge began to creep back into her mind the longer her gaze lingered on the bandit camp.


Her face remained hard, unreadable save for the light of anger and displeasure that remained in her eyes. A nod is her only response as the unseen rukh flutter around her. Casting a quick gaze down at her hand to prove to herself that the magic had worked, she’s still a bit surprised that she can’t see the limb. Keeping her gaze fixed on the camp and unsheathing her sword slowly, she quickly scales a nearby tree, a vague feeling of familiarity as she clambers up the bark and onto a branch. She’d spent some of her free time as a child climbing trees, and even more time getting her siblings out of trees when they had either climbed too high or refused to get down…or both. Leaping from limb to limb, the Fanalis woman’s feet barely touch bark as she makes her way through the trees. Landing on a branch bordering the tents with as little force as she could to reduce noise, the halfling pauses for a split second to orient herself.


Gaze fixed on the man sleeping in a hammock, a sudden spark of rage lights her eyes and she launches herself from the tree tops, sword reeled back before delivering a slash aimed down the middle of the hammock as well as the man’s body. Should she hit her mark and the man not somehow awaken and leave the hammock, the fabric would rip and tear, no doubt arousing the attention of the man by the fire.


Watching him quietly for any movement, Ayero would use both feet to perform a Great Leap into the air, aiming for the second bandit. She would be silent as she sailed through the air, bringing her blade back once more as she reached her apex. Moving her arm in front of her, she aims to deal a blow straight down the man’s back.


[Stamina: 180/200]

Spoiler:

Ayero’s first strike to the bandit asleep in the hammock would fall true, nearly cutting the man in half. The bandit near the fire would jump up in shock, not seeing what had eviscerated his comrade and then the half-Fanalis woman’s blade would find a home in his back, making him cry before his breathing turned to a gurgle. The commotion would wake the three bandits in their tents, all of them scrambling as they came out by the fire, panting with their swords drawn. They would look around and find the two bandits guarding the camp quite defeated and useless, with no visual signs as to who or what had done such a thing. One of the direct the other two to spread out and begin looking around the edges of the camp while he went to check on his fallen comrades.

He would kneel beside the bandit that had been sitting by the fire, examining the wound on his comrades back and finding it looked like the clean slash of a blade, not the random tearing of animal claws and he would look around sharply. With a high pitched whistle that would travel for quite a distance, he alerted their leader to a problem at the camp as he stood and looked around, his blade raised in a guarding position, ready to cut down whatever had attacked the other bandits.

As the other bandits emerged from their tents and began to fan out, Yakuroro would pat Akatetsu on the side and mutter to the beast, "Now it's our turn. Let's make sure those men find more than what they were looking for." The chimera nodded and took Yakuroro's words to mean that he should try to intimidate the men whilst sowing confusion among them. The large bonehead began stomping trough the woods using his thick skull to bend smaller trees out of his path. A loud roar bellowed from Akatetsu's maw as he charged the two men looking around the edges of the camp moving at 5m/s. Yakuroro would sprint after Akatetsu remaining behind the lizard-like chimera's silhouette.  

Upon reaching the fist of the men, Akatetsu would try to ram him into him using his thick skull do deal bone breaking damage. This attack would halt Akatetsu's forward motion allowing him to act as a platform of sorts. Yakuroro then ran up Akatetsu's back a few steps and rose his staff high into the air before leaping from behind the horizon of his son's form. "Frozen Horn!" Yakuroro shouted causing a swirl of liquid condensed from the atmosphere, fueled by his magoi, forming the shape of a large Rampaging Unicorn horn. The water froze over in an instant creating sharpened edges along the branches of the ice horn just in time for Yakuroro to bring his staff downwards during his descent. The spell would threaten the other searching bandit with a crushing blow capable of rendering most men out of commission.

All the while, Yakuroro sustained his invisibility spell allowing Ayero to retain the element of surprise even among the midst of the enemy.

Magoi - 215/300

Spoiler:

Satisfied that the two men had fallen to her invisible blade without so much as a struggle, Ayero keeps alert, aware from the number of tents and the damage she had seen in her village that there would be more than just two men to deal with. She uses the commotion the men had made after being roused from their sleep to mask the noise of her footsteps as she moves toward the opposite side of the fire after confirming that the light of the fire did not cast her shadow. Her footprints would be left in the snow and may be visible in the dim light, but likely wouldn’t be of much suspicion as they could have easily belonged to the man who now laid dead by the fire.


She watches the other man carefully as he surveys the scene, letting out a whistle before raising his to defend himself from the unseen attacker. Ayero can feel her heart pound heavily in her chest, not just from the adrenaline but from the realization that he had alerted someone with his whistle. Gritting her teeth as another wave of anger flooded over her, the sudden sounds of Yakuroro and Akatetsu’s assault flood her ears. Taking a cue from them, she takes advantage of what she would assume to be a confusing situation for the bandit and scoots her foot closer to the fire. Should he turn his back to survey the chaos, Ayero would kick some of the kindling from the fire onto his person before rushing forward herself and following the burning pieces of wood as they made contact with the man. The metal armor she wore on her body might heat up slightly, but overall she passed too quickly through the fire for the flames to do little more than lick her skin and leave a sparse coating of black residue where they had touched.


Remembering that Yakuroro had mentioned that it would be a good idea to keep at least one of the men alive, she begrudgingly holds back and delivers a weaker slash to the man’s body, enough to subdue him but not enough for him to immediately bleed out or pass out. Eyes trained on the weapon he held in his hand, she would attempt to grasp at his wrist and squeeze with her Fanalis strength, hard enough to break the thin wrist bones and ensure that he wouldn’t be able to hold a sword.


[Household: 410/3000]

The bandit butted by Akatetsu went flying back, hitting his head on a tree and rendering him unconscious. As the bandit facing Yakuroro sees an ice weapon form, he uses Dodging Roll to try and move out of the way but the icy spear strikes into his leg, making him cry out in pain and shake in fear.

The bandit Ayero faced looked around wildly as embers were knocked up at him, making him raise an arm to defend his face just as Ayero’s blade came down, dealing a devastating blow to his arm, and nearly removing the appendage. When she grabbed his opposite wrist and nearly crushed it in her grasp, he fell to the ground whimpering.

“Please, don’t kill me~”

His words would be interrupted by the sound of a crashing tree. The crashes became louder and suddenly a massive man appeared at the edge of the camp, swinging a monstrous blade.

“Useless men!”

The man looked cruel and hard, his large blade dragging on the ground. He had no use for cowering idiots and he would not risk the other camp being exposed by blathering fools. His eyes settled on the bandit whimpering on the ground, seemingly held at the wrist by an invisible force.

"Show yourself! Face your death!"




Name: Raizul
Rank: A
Damage needed to take out: Omega
Description: Raizul moves at 9 m/s and carries a massive broadsword that is just over one meter long, capable of dealing A-tier damage.
Abitlities:
Parrying Strike: Moving his blade at 20 m/s, Raizul brings his sword up to block a strike of A-tier or lower and redirect it away from him.
Painful Deterence: Twirling and bringing his blade down at a diagonal at 20 m/s, Raizul strikes at the bundle of nerves at his opponent’s neck, paralyzing the arm for 3 posts.
Stabbing Jab: Raizul jabs his sword forward at 25 m/s to deal A-tier damage.
Slashing Knock-Back: Raizul swings his massive blade around at 25 m/s, dealing B-tier damage to anything within 1 meter of him and knocking them back 10 meters.

With his tackle successful, Akatetsu stood his ground and roared for all to hear. The chimera let his presence be known with the bellowing cry and then looked at the bandit he'd injured with a snarl. Yakuroro had also been blessed with good fortune and his ice encased staff crushed the leg of one of the men. The Imuchakk magician ceased his sustained flow of magoi to the spell wrapped around Ayero as he watched her deal with the few remaining bandits, but he would find himself regretting this decision soon. He turned his attention instead to the man whose leg had been broken and shot him a friendly smile. The screams he was making didn't faze Yakuroro's amiable demeanor one bit as Yakuroro hefted the Frozen Horn to rest it upon his shoulder, "Shhh, hush now. I don't want to hurt you any more, but my son here doesn't like loud things..." Hearing these words, Akatetsu turned to face the bandit and growled at him with a glare full of animosity. "He tends to eat them."

Hopefully that threat would scare the man into silence. Yakuroro and Akatetsu then began approaching closer to the camp when suddenly a force came stampeding through the woods like a large beast. But the cause of the commotion revealed itself to be a man, not a monsters, or perhaps both. It was then that the regret at having lowered the invisibility from Ayero hit Yakuroro. He would not be able to cast the same spell again for some time leaving his fanalis companion visible for this new threat to see. Yakuroro held his ground at the edge of the camp and scanned for any remaining bandits aside from their leader whom had just arrived but otherwise did not take action. The Imuchakk wanted to observe the situation first and would decide how to act after taking a moment to analyze the situation.

She gives pause at the sound of something large crashing through the brush, the hairs on her neck raising at the sound of the deep gravelly voice belonging to the bandit leader. She releases her hold on the man’s wrist only to deliver a sharp blow to his back with her foot, turning on her heel with the injured bandit now forgotten.


Her breath hitches in her throat audibly as her eyes land on the towering beast of a man. Ayero had faced her fair share of intimidating opponents before, and the woman was nearly unmovable in the heat of battle. But memories of the not too distant battle with The Brotherhood of Ash came rushing back. Though their group had quickly felled their opponents, the strange old man with the flute had left them with an illusory parting gift.

---

From Unfinished Business


Her brows furrow when the crisp sounds of battle reach her ears, causing the bewildered woman to turn toward Akatetsu and Maxia. But what greets her vision is not the enemy fanalis and the chimera, but rather a handful of hulking figures, their features obscured by a strange sort of darkness. ”There’s more of them?” She grits her teeth and narrows her eyes in irritation, not expecting their opponents to have such…strange backup. She tightens her grip on her sword and shifts herself into a battle ready stance as the figures begin to slowly move toward her, the eerie dark miasma trailing from them and fading into the air as they moved.

Soon they were nearly upon her and although the figures made no aggressive movements, a heavy feeling of dread overcame the young woman. Something wasn’t right. These shadowed men had reached her far too quickly for the speed they were moving at, and they seemed to multiply by the second. Though her ears were working fine, her senses were completely drowned in her hallucinations. The figures stopped moving roughly a meter from her and simply stood around her, shrouded heads tilted slightly downward as if they were watching her, judging her. The ominous feeling in the pit of her stomach grew in intensity as they did this, a wave of panicked confusion washing over her as she unconsciously backed away. What was going on? Why weren’t they attacking her?

---

Even after discovering that the foes she fought were not real, Ayero couldn’t shake the ominous feeling in the pit of her stomach. It had plagued her for the remainder of the day and into the night with unsettling dreams. The feeling had gradually left on its own, and Ayero had mostly forgotten the disturbing situation. But now, a realization dawned on her. The man she saw before her held the exact same shape, the same outline as the shadowy foes she had faced.



And all at once, the foreboding feeling she had written off as fatigue or poison from Kabu’s bite made sense. Was it her own psyche that had tried to warn her? How did she know what this man looked like, she swore that she’d never seen him before. But the illusion were magical in nature, so did magic have a hand in this? The questions whirred through her mind a thousand miles a minute but soon made way for her anger. As her expression melted from utter shock to pained rage, the magically induced invisibility that had hidden her began to dissipate. Holding her blade out to the side, she spoke in a strong tone, her voice wavering in anger.










[Household: 676/3000]

The bandit near Akatetsu and Yakuroro immediately silenced himself at the words of the frightful magician, even once the magician wandered over towards the camp, his only noises being a slight whimper and the scraping of leaves as he attempted to lean himself against a tree and treat his leg.

Raizul gave a hearty laugh as Ayero appeared before him, the sound echoing through the woods.

“Well, aren’t you a pretty thing! Your family? You mean those whimpering brats in that joke of a village? Ah, yes… the red hair does look familiar. You think to take my life? HA! Wretched girl, you do not know who you are dealing with!”

With a scoff and a lunge forward, he waited until he was closer to the young woman before twirling around and bringing his blade down in a slash, intending to strike the warrior woman with Painful Deterrence on her sword arm.

”Kkttt…” The anger is clear on her face as Raizul speaks, taunting her with heavy ammunition. She knows well enough not to let the rage get the best of her, but it’s building up rapidly behind her dark brown eyes. There was absolutely no way that she would allow this man to live, Yakuroro’s words of warning lost in the sea of cold revenge.

She refrains from speaking, her body language and expression giving all of the non-verbal response that was needed. Instead she readies herself and keeps her eyes trained sharply on the man, prepared to counter any movements that he made. When he closes the gap between them and twirls before raising his massive sword above him, Ayero responds swiftly by raising her own blade to meet his in a Parry. Should she be able to successfully intercept and knock his blade to the side with her own, the Fanalis woman would use the force of the parry to lurch forward and aim a blow at the man’s stomach.


[Household: 847/3000]


[Stamina: 160/200]

Spoiler:

As the Imuchakk observed the clash between the two red haired fighters begin, he noticed Akatetsu begin to step forward. The chimeric beast was eager to help his friend, Ayero, and sought to protect her from harm. However the Frozen Horn on Yakuroro's staff fell to block his way. Turning his bonehead back to Yakuroro, Akatetsu saw the magician shake his head solemnly. "This is something she must do on her own. If we carelessly interfere, it may do more harm than good." He said in a sobering tone. Akatetsu didn't quite understand even with his enhanced intelligence, but he trusted Yakuroro's word as if it were gospel. Making an uncomfortable sound of reluctant agreeance, Akatetsu stepped back and watched the fight unfold.

Knowing that Akatetsu was worried about Ayero, Yakuroro placed a hand on the beast and pat its back assuringly. Didn't you hear me correctly? We can't interfere carelessly..." Yakuroro said with a mischievous grin. Turning the see his father's expression Akatetsu's eyes lit up with hope. "Run around the left side and make some noise, but don't engage. I have a plan." The beast nodded and then followed Yakuroro's orders by circling around Ayero and Raizul to the left. Akatetsu stomped about and roared keeping a distance of about 10m which meant he was close enough to attack at any moment making him a large potential threat.

Meanwhile, Yakuroro allowed the ice around his staff to crumble away and melt as he circled around as silently as an Imuchakk could to the right. He would seek to move into a flanking position 15m away from the fanalis and her opponent. Hopefully Raizul's fight with Ayero and the rampaging beast on the other side of him would keep the fighter's gaze from settling upon Yakuroro. Either way, he would aim his staff towards Raizul and a bit off to the side so as not to catch Ayero in the range of his spell as Yakuroro muttered under his breath, "Equilibrium..." willing green rukh to spread from his staff in a cone towards the enemy generating a loud ear piercing tone for a brief second. The magic would be invisible to everyone but Yakuroro, but its effects would have a very noticable effect on Raizul should he lay eyes on Ayero.

Yakuroro hoped that his interference in the fight would be subtle enough that Ayero's pride was not trampled upon.

Magoi - 195/300

Spoiler:

Raizul grunted as his move was parried to the side, the sound of crashing trees and roaring catching his ear. The momentary distraction of the noise allowing the hit to land in his stomach. Unsure of how far away the noise was coming from but certain that he would hit at least the young woman, Raizul used Slashing Knock-Back with a loud roar by swinging his blade in a complete circle around him, the massive blade aiming to deal damage and knock back anything close enough to hit him. The half-Fanalis woman packed quite a punch. After his swing, he would turn to locate the woman to see if his hit had landed, only to have the ear-shattering tone strike him. When he would set eyes on Ayero, his vision would be reversed.

The sound of Akatetsu crashing through the brush nearby and his familiar roar tickles her ears, but she pays it no mind. She wasn’t aware that all of the bandits have been subdued and was grateful for the aid of Yakuroro and his chimeric son, so she had assumed that the struggle was going on. Had she been less absorbed in the battle she may have though that the Imuchakk was up to something, but her focus was dead set on her clash with Raizul. She’s satisfied when her blow lands, but the man is quick to recover and deals a swift rebuttal, successfully knocking back the Fanalis 10m.


Grunting, Ayero quickly scrambles to her feet, barely able to feel the pain due to the adrenaline pumping through her system. She wastes no time in charging him, sprinting with her blade outstretched to her side. Feeling the urge to help his enraged master, Kabu rises slightly from her perch on her shoulders and lets out a low warning hiss before rearing his head back and spitting a Poison Shot aimed at Raizul. Unaware of Yakuroro's spell and not wanting to make the mistake of taking the man head on, Ayero takes advantage of her Fanalis speed and begins to weave as she approaches her opponent, hoping to try and catch him off guard with her movements. After moving into striking range, the woman lowers her body and raises her weapon to his left side, bringing it down in a sharp diagonal slash in an attempt to deal damage.

[Household: 1104/3000]

[Stamina: 140/200]

Spoiler:

With Yakuroro's gambit successful he decided that his role in the battle would be more or less complete unless Ayero seemed to have significant trouble. But he suspected that with the debilitation inflicted upon the bandit leader, she could find victory without extensive trouble. The Imuchakk stopped int place and stood as a bystander observing the ongoing fight to witness who came out on top. He'd taken care to limit his involvement so that it would not seem as though Ayero had to rely on his power too heavily thus far and he would not recklessly ruin that image simply because he witnessed his fanalis friend get knocked back and wounded. Confident in Ayero's capabilities, Yakuroro looked on without even so much a slight worry for her safety. Akatetsu maintained his noisy rampage in the meantime, but he too was keeping an eye on the combatants somewhat more unsure of the eventual outcome than his Imuchakk guardian.

Raizul raised an arm to block the poison shot, but the poison ate into his arm, making him grunt. When Ayero weaved toward him, he would not realize that he was seeing her in reverse. When he went to raise his blade for a Parrying Strike, he rose it to the right instead of the left and the poison had slowed his reaction time incredibly. The slow reaction time meant he barely had a chance to raise the blade at all and the spell from the magician had him raising it in the wrong direction, causing Ayero’s blade to strike across his chest in a vicious gash. He snarled in pain, coughing up blood.

“Stupid GIRL!”

He would lift the sword above his head, the hellacious wound across his chest making the move difficult as he tried to swing it down on the young woman with all his might. Everything about this fight felt wrong to him, the woman should not be this strong. Her family had been easy targets, the group of children in varying ages strong but clumsy. This woman had fighting experience and the rage of her family’s death fueling her. His strike would miss as it came down, and he would fall to a knee, glaring up in disgust at the woman.

“I shall not fall to the likes of you!”

In one last attempt, he would swing his blade along the ground, hoping to take out Ayero’s legs.

Even after the devastating blow had struck him and brought him down to one knee, Ayero wasn’t able to feel any satisfaction. This served to fuel her anger more than his words. Wasn’t seeing him in pain supposed to soothe her, or at the very least give her a feeling of triumph? Relief? She shifts her head to the side, the small movement enough for her to dodge the sluggish strike of his blade.


Her eyes were wide and spoke clearly of her emotion even if she herself did not. Catching the motion of his sword out of the corner of her eye in a last-ditch attempt to wound his opponent, the Fanalis woman thrusts her sword into the ground below next to her leg in a Parry in an attempt to block his blade. Her eyes flash with fury and the snake at her shoulder mirrors her anger. Lunging forward with a violent hiss, Kabu wraps himself around Raizul’s sword arm, squeezing hard as he Constricts his body tightly while hissing lowly. The snake didn’t know of Ayero’s past, but seeing her act so bloodthirsty along with the scene he saw at the mountainside lead him to believe that something devastating had happened. As Raizul’s arm would begin to go numb from the squeezing, Kabu would unwind himself quickly and make his way back to Ayero.


While she expected to feel the intense rage, the growing feeling of fear took her by surprise. She was afraid that she would never be the same again, that she would always feel heartbroken and furious. She couldn’t ever picture herself coming to terms with the death of her family. Staring down at the injured man, she can’t seem to find any words for him. But then she speaks in response to his last jab, ”You have already fallen.”


Gathering her magoi into her right arm faster than ever before, the enraged woman raises her arm straight above her head, ready to deliver the finishing blow. Even still, poised to eliminate the last of her family’s murderers, her lust for revenge burned strong. After she felled this man there would be no one else to blame. No one but herself.


She visibly wavers, wincing from the implication of her sudden thought. Ayero had struggled with the grief of abandoning her family under the guise of finding their lost brother throughout the past ten years. While reuniting with Neem was something she did indeed intend to do, her other reasons were more selfish. She loved her family dearly, but couldn’t stand caring for them night and day, never getting the chance to see what the outside world had to offer. She was so repulsed by the idea of spending her days in the tiny mountain village that she took advantage of a tragedy to free herself. If she had stayed though, she likely wouldn’t have been able to protect her family. But at least in the end, she would have been with them.

Clenching her teeth in aggravation and inner turmoil, Ayero changes the direction of her Cross Slash from the man’s throat to his chest. The magoi-enhanced blade slices down his middle and through his hip, the blow not immediately fatal as she had originally intended.




[Household: 1657/3000]

[Stamina: 70/200]

Spoiler:

As Raizul began to fall, Akatetsu ceased his false rampage in order to turn his full attention towards the scene that played out. The beast gazed at Ayero feeling an empathic sorrow for the woman who was standing at the edge of a great cliff known as regret. The hesitation she showed made it all too clear that even with the death of her family's killers that all would not be right with her world. There was a gaping wound on her heart that perhaps may never heal fully. But the chimera stood solemnly silent knowing that there was nothing it could do to interfere with this cruel fate. Yakuroro had come to a similar conclusion, but instead of sorrow the smile on his face spoke of an entirely different emotion stirring in the Imuchakk. He had recognized Ayero would have a terrible scar on her emotions from this ordeal since she told him of the slaughter back in the village at the foot of the mountain. But what he saw before him now struck Yakuroro as a sign that she had not let the flames of her rage consume her humanity.

While Ayero had taken the life of the man responsible, it was too much to ask her to forgive him and the man deserved his punishment. Yakuroro, as witness to Raizul's execution, knew that this event would eventually become a defining moment in Ayero's future. He could only hope that when she looked back on this moment she remembered the weight of whatever thoughts had given her blade a brief seconds pause and not the blood that soon coated it or the face of the man it belonged to. While the moment undeniably would shape her future, it didn't mean that the killing of this man had to define who she was. Nevertheless, with the final blow dealt, Yakuroro turned away and decided to give Ayero some time to herself knowing that he didn't have much of a right to intrude upon her in the aftermath of what had just occurred.

Akatetsu was not so insightful as to whether or not the woman might need solitude, but perhaps his naivety would lead to him making the right choice. The bonehead slowly approached Ayero and cooed a soft rumbling growl in his throat that was meant to convey sympathy and compassion. The large chimera would gingerly place his head against the woman and moved his tail to wrap her in a hug as he had seen some humans do in the past to console one another. Meanwhile, Yakuroro made his way over the the bandit he had injured earlier. If he found the man trying to crawl away, Yakuroro would halt such paltry attempts at escape by placing the butt of his staff on the bandit's broken leg and putting all of his weight on it. If the bandit was simply laying still however, he'd be spared the pain of this action.

Regardless, Yakuroro would lean on his staff and smile down at the bandit innocently before speaking in a polite tone. "As you can see, your leader and all of your companions have been incapacitated or killed. It'd be a shame to have to dig one more grave and spend any longer up in these mountains than we need to...would you mind telling me what you attacked the fanalis family for in the first place? If you tell me something good then I might be able to convince my friend over there not to add your body to the calculations of how big a hole I'll need to dig." The cordial nature of the Imuchakk's tone was in stark contrast to the subject matter, but the master conman was capable of making himself seem completely genuine. This would almost put a dull edge on the fear induced by his threat hopefully keeping it from being too extreme that the bandit would be unable to answer, paralyzed with fear. "Oh, and do speak up loud enough for her to hear all the way over there. I don't like relaying information as an inbetween. Don't you find that kind of behaviour to be childish?" He'd then reach down and lift the human up by his collar and hold him out towards Ayero giving him a good shake to let him know to start talking.

When Yakuroro returned to the single living bandit, he was propped against the tree, trying to figure out a way to keep his leg from bleeding. When the magician appeared in front of him, his face paled to pure terror and he whimpered at the words of the blue-haired giant. This was not how he had intended to die. He had never given much thought to his death at all, but to be ambushed by a magician and a young woman seeking vengeance? It was never on the list of possibilities to him. He was not a bright man, nor was he especially old. He also did not have the hardness of his leader or most of his crew. He had just been following instructions and tried to stutter out that much to the woman.

“I… I’m sorry… we… they were easy targets. Raizul… he… he said to… to get the kids to shut up… and we… we just did what he said! I’m sorry! S-s-sorry!”

He was so frightened, he wet himself, his whole body shaking in fear. He could clearly see the damage done to his leader by the woman and he broke down in sobs, begging for his life in a pitiful voice. He didn’t want to die here, alone in these miserable mountains.

Raizul fell forward, barely holding himself on his hands after the vicious carving from Ayero, gurgling on his own blood, disbelief still on his face at being bested by the young woman. He was not the type to apologize and the blood dripping from his lips made his next taunts difficult to decipher, though the look in his eyes conveyed what the blood covered.

“They cried… for… their…mother… whimpering….begging for… anyone… to save… them…”

The fight appeared to be over, but the adrenaline still pumped rapidly through Ayero’s veins. She’s aware of Akatetsu as he draws closer, making gentle noises in an attempt to comfort her. She closes her eyes and exhales as he places his head against her own and wraps his tail around her body, feeling her shoulders relax ever so slightly at the touch. Despite the noise, Ayero had nearly forgotten about Akatetsu and Yakuroro in the chaos. The chimera’s touch reminded her that she was not alone on this mountain.


For a few silent moments she’s unsure of what to do next, but her instincts told her to leave this area and descend back down the mountain as soon as possible. But it would not be so, not with the words the frightened bandit shakily got out. The man was clearly terrified as he spoke in a small voice, his words shaking much like his body. In the back of her mind she regrets taking out the others so quickly, deeming a slow death far more suitable for this scum. Perhaps this young man found himself in the shoes of her departed family.


Ayero opened her eyes and placed her hand on Akatetsu’s tail in a gentle signal to let her go, intending to turn towards the bandit with a stone cold look in her eyes. But Raizul’s garbled voice grabs her attention and she freezes in place. His words elicit a traumatizing image of her siblings, falling one by one to the bandits while trying desperately to protect their home and their family. They could have run, taken refuge in the thick forests that only a native would know how to navigate properly. They could have hid, it might have saved their lives. The things that Vincenzo must have seen, and to have the strength to bury his family in the aftermath…


Letting loose a sudden primal scream that almost shakes the forest, Ayero dashes forward towards the dying bandit leader. She often did well to control the hot-blooded Fanalis side of herself, but at times it bled through her cautiously stern exterior. But no part of her was strong enough to hold her back in this moment. She swings her sword cutting into Raizul’s neck, blood spraying through the air and coating her blade as well as the front of her body as she slices through his artery. She brings her scimitar down on him again and again, her movements less controlled and precise and more barbaric in nature. Each blow did nothing to lessen the pain and she cries out again in anguish, tears misting at her eyes before streaming down her cheeks.


[Household: 2103/3000]

Akatetsu reluctantly let released Ayero from his embrace at her gesture and seemed to be hopeful that she would be alright now. But the dying words of the bandit leader ruined any chance of a swift conclusion to the tragic ordeal. The chimera was highly intelligent, but he was still just a child. Akatetsu backed away in slight fear in the face of Ayero's outburst. The beast's head lowered and he slowly retreated no longer confident in his ability to comfort her aching heart. Yakuroro was less surprised by the resulting rage Ayero displayed, but felt equally disappointed over it. The Imuchakk pulled the bandit he held in close to his face and with the same gentlemanly smile he muttered through grit teeth, "I appreciate your honesty, but don't you think you could have been a bit more thoughtful of how she feels?" The Imuchakk then dropped the bandit allowing him to fall onto his broken leg. The rat had clearly only been thinking of pleading for his own life when he spoke and in doing so likely sealed his fate.

With a sigh, Yakuroro walked away from the man, not wanting to be nearby should his fanalis friend decide to turn her passionate fury onto him. Instead, Yakuroro moved to the fire and stared into it regretting having had the bandit speak in the first place. His eyes stared into the crackling flames somewhat sad that so many deaths had to take place here. As naive as it may have been, he had been trying to minimize the loss of life even among these scoundrels but he failed miserably by the looks of it. He didn't quite expect that he could turn the lives of the men around and help them down a better path. Yakuroro simply wanted to lighten the burden Ayero would have to carry once all was said and done. Unfortunately he was not omnipotent and lacked the foresight to make the right calls. Looking up to the sky, Yakuroro wondered if it was fate's will that his friend should have to suffer so much.

Looking back from the heavens, Yakuroro turned his eyes towards Ayero and decided it was still not best for him to bother her. Instead, he made his way over to the tents of the bandits and began searching them for things that the men had looted. Perhaps there was something among the belongings that could serve to bring Ayero memories of a better time knowing that when the rage had passed she would likely need such an anchor to keep from losing herself. Yakuroro knew that it might bring her more pain and that if she decided to, she could take such a gesture as being more agony than it was worth. But the Imuchakk had to hope for her recovery while he let the storm pass.

The rage, pain, and grief poured from the woman into her blade, ending any other words Raizul might have used to further antagonize her. By pushing her limits, he had actually ensured himself a swifter death than bleeding out on the cold mountain dirt. The one surviving bandit cried out in pain at being dropped back to the ground and decided to use the distraction of the grief-stricken woman by pulling himself along the ground by his arms. With any luck, he would be forgotten in her bloodlust. As he dragged himself, he took no notice of the blood leaking from his leg and gave no thought to the large number of predators in the area. While most of the wildlife had been frightened off by Akatetsu’s rampage, they would return quickly once things calmed down.

During the slaughter of Raizul’s body, from the front of his outfit, a small piece of jewelry would tumble out. Ayero might recognize the half-orb with a metal backing attached to it. If she were to open the latch where the flat side of the orb met the metal, inside she would find a very carefully sketched picture of three children, Neem, Ayero and Astrid. The three children that had left home, but never left their mother’s thoughts or prayers. If she were to look especially close, she would see a small magical symbol etched into the flat surface of the orb. If they were to look through the tents, most would not contain much aside from basic supplies, but in the corner of the largest tent would be a stash of jewelry from the villages they had pillaged along with papers. In the stack of papers would be a few sketches from Ayero’s family home, the charcoal drawings including one of her parents.

Raizul’s body had long gone still but Ayero can’t stop herself from hacking at his already dismembered body. She didn’t think that taking revenge would completely quell her anger, but now it only seemed to fuel her grief further. At last her muscles began to burn with fatigue, the adrenaline reaching its peak as its effects slowly wore off. She ends a slash by thrusting her sword into the cold ground, sliding down to her knees as sobs wracked her body. The flame of her anger had been put on the backburner for now, raw sorrow taking over as she’s unable to stop the flow of tears from her eyes, mixing with the bandit’s blood staining her face.


Her vision was blurry with tears, but she was able to spot the glint of the orb in the sunlight. Raising her hand to rub at her eyes and clear her sight, she realizes that she recognizes the small item of jewelry that belonged to her mother. Her family didn’t have much, but she never saw her mother without wearing this necklace. It wasn't particularly high quality, but it was one of the nicest things the family owned and seemed very dear to the Fanalis mother. Hands shaking more than she imagined they would, she uses one to steady herself against the ground and the other to reach out and grab the object.


Fumbling with the clasp on the back, Ayero removes the paper from inside and unfolds it. She nearly drops it in shock as three figures stare back at her from the aging piece of parchment in her hand. Neem, herself, and…her younger sister, Astrid? Her brows knit in confusion as she sniffles, her sadness momentarily overshadowed by confusion. Why Astrid? As far as Ayero knew, her pink-haired sibling had remained at home. Her heart skips a beat and she struggles to remember the number of graves Vin had led her to, wondering if the number added up to make sense. She stares down at the picture. Had something happened to Astrid? She bites her lip, her mind a confusing mess of feelings as she carefully places the paper back into the orb, holding it tightly in a closed fist as she rises. She sheaths her sword and gives Raizul’s corpse an almost pitying look. If she notices the bandit trying to crawl away to the forest, she doesn’t seem to care.


She makes her way over to the bandit tents where she caught a glimpse of Yakuroro’s large form, salty tears still stream freely down her face and the occasional sob choking out of her. In an attempt at a sympathetic gesture, Kabu nudges one of her tear stained cheeks with his scaly head.


[Household: 2590/3000]

Sifting through the various things the bandits had collected, Yakuroro found his search going a bit less well than he had hoped. The first tent had nothing but supplies and such so he backed out of the lodging and moved to the other tents. One had plunder of various kinds, but none of it seemed to be the kind of things Ayero's family would have owned considering how far out in the mountains their home had been. But near the stack of jewels and gold trinkets Yakuroro spotted a stack of papers. The Imuchakk noticed a few stray white rukh fluttering near them, drawn to the feelings put into the charcoal sketches. He did not need to look through them in order to know that the papers where just what he was looking for.

Hearing Ayero approach from behind him just outside the tent, Yakuroro pulled back from the tent flap and turned to face the fanalis woman. She looked like a wreck but he smiled at her anyways. Walking past Ayero, Yakuroro stopped beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "In that tent, in the corner, there is something that probably belongs to you now." would be the only words he departed unto the fanalis before removing his hand and walking on towards Akatetsu. When he was close to the chimera and out of whispered earshot from Ayero, the Imuchakk patted his son assuringly and nodded to him, "There there, she needs time. Cheer up, Tetsu. Ayero is going to need good friends like you when she has calmed down."