Diego's Kios Adventures: Fate's Attendant [Job/Solo]

Job Name: Finding Answers
Job Rank: B-Tier
Job Location: Reim
Job Rewards: 200 xp, 15k Huang, Knowledge of Fate's Attendants
Chain Bonus: 100XP/10k Huang
Job Prerequisites: Diego; Visiting Kios; Hunting Undead
Job Overview: After searching the graveyard for clues, Diego stumbles across a ravaged town nearby. Judging by the destruction, the recent uprising of Zombies slaughtered the townspeople. As he looks for clues, Diego stumbles across a stranger who gives him a cryptic message before he is attacked again by more zombies and a magician. Keep the magician alive to learn who is behind the zombies.

Enemy Name: Zombie Enforcers (x2)
Rank: C-Tier
Needed damage to take down: C-Tier
Description: The Zombie Enforcer stands two-and-a-half meters tall and wields a sword. Moves at 10m/s.
Abilities:
Sword: Deals C-tier Damage.
Natural Weapons: Teeth and fists deal C-Tier Damage
Undead Strike: The user strikes at target with their sword at 20 m/s to deal B-tier damage.
Piercing Misery: The user stabs their sword at a target at 15 m/s to deal C-Tier damage.

Enemy Name: Juniper
Rank: C-Tier
Needed damage to take down: B-Tier (C-tier Borg and C-Tier damage)
Description: A nervous wind magician that stands five feet tall and mumbles to himself.
Abilities:
Twister: The caster summons a fifteen meter tall tornado that travels at 20 m/s over thirty meters to deal B-tier damage to all in its path.
Wind Blade: The caster creates a ten meter blade of wind that travels at 15 m/s over twenty meters to deal C-tier damage.
Gust: The caster creates a ten meter wide gust of wind that throws anyone in its path off balance and pushes them back ten meters away at 15 m/s.

When Diego came to his senses, Augustus had passed out. Leaving the man to fend for himself, the Fanalis wandered around, searching several graves. He studied the markings left in the dirt, gauging how old they were. Diego counted fourteen empty graves, which meant that two of the zombies were left. Deep down he hoped there were no more children to be killed, the sight of one decapitated baby was enough to bring him to tears. He felt a pang of sorrow for the agony Augustus must feel.

He started to come across older graves and followed those to the outskirts of the graveyard. The path led them up a hill that overlooked a small village. Madam Trixie and Zanzibar followed Diego into the village on either side. The Fanalis boy had a bad feeling in his stomach as he searched each building and found no one in sight. With Jagang around, Diego had to be careful, the magician could be anywhere.

One of the buildings that Diego entered had a sign in the window declaring it a General store, but it was fashioned into a make-shift hospital. Shelves were pushed back along the walls to make space for several disorderly beds. The room smelled putrid and Trixie let out a whine as she followed him in. Diego almost turned around when something clicked in his head. Jagang being around meant that he could have poisoned the villagers. He found a stack of papers and grabbed them before escaping the smell.

Diego found a tree to rest against as he read the papers for anything of use. Trixie and Zanz cuddled up against the Fanalis, alert for any signs of danger. The top layer of papers detailed different patients and painted a picture as to what happened. A few weeks ago, a few families became sick before it spread like wildfire, leaving only a few adults and the children. Diego found that strange, but noticed that it did finally spread to the children but the notes stopped a few days ago.

The bottom stack of papers were mostly receipts and stuff that related to the business. He set them down and rested his head against the tree in thought. The physician's notes revealed that people had gotten ill but something was off. If the disease made people come back to life as a cannibalistic beast, then didn't that mean people would have started to die from attacks instead of the disease? Something else was in play here, but Diego wasn't sure what. When it came to matters of magic, Diego usually relied on Yakuroro, but the Imuchakk wasn't here. He wondered if it had been stupid to go searching alone, what did he expect to do if he stumbled across Jagang?

Diego shook his head, he wasn't breaking his promise by searching, even if it was risky. Trixie's movements roused the Fanalis from his thoughts and he heard the clomping of hoof against hard earth. Diego stood up with a hand on his bow as he saw a man riding a tired mule, who pulled a small creaky wagon. The man wore a faded and tattered brown cloak, his face hidden underneath the hood. When the man seemed to notice Diego, he stopped the donkey and pulled back his hood to get a closer look.


The man's long, golden hair glinted in the afternoon sun, as he stared at the Fanalis boy with a cold look. It quickly faded and was replaced by a wide smile, "Good evening, I am a traveling merchant. I was hoping to trade but the village seems quiet."

Trixie stood tense at Diego's side, which did not go unnoticed by the boy. The Fanalis boy had a bad feeling of the man, but responded with a sorrowful look on his face. "I was just traveling through as well. It seems like everyone got sick and died. I'm not sure I want to stay around much longer, might catch something."

The golden-haired man stayed silent for a few moments and his gaze lingered longer than Diego felt comfortable with. Finally the man nodded, "That is sad news. I guess you're right, we would be better off if we attended to our own fate. Farewell, traveler. Be safe!" With that he snapped the reins and the donkey sprung into a slow walk. The man slid his hood up once more after sparing a final look and waved.

When the man had disappeared into the distance, Diego let out a breath and turned to Trixie. "That was a scary man. Come on, we should probably go."

[768/1500]

With a grunt, Madam Trixie rubbed her body against his side, nearly knocking him over. Diego laughed and skritched behind her ears, before urging her to follow him back to Kios. Zanzibar skittered up the tiger's leg to lay on her back for the trip. Diego pointed at the spider, "Lazy! You've got eight feet, she only has four!" Diego smirked at Zanizbar's angry warble in response.

They didn't get very far before Diego heard a strong wind rushing towards him. He barely had time to look over before he and his pets were sent crashing into a building by the Gust. Diego rubbed his bruises and crawled back through the hole that he made. He saw a man standing in the road who hadn't been there earlier. The man held a staff in one hand while he nibbled at his fingers with the other.

Trixie snarled at the strange magician and followed at Diego's heel as the boy approached closer. He slid an arrow onto his bowstring and aimed it at the nervous man. The man began talking to himself and let out a squeaking giggle. Diego arched a brow at the man's behavior, "Why did you attack us?"

The man seemed startled that Diego had addressed him. "He spoke to us! What do we do? Kill him? No, can't have that." Each statement came out with a different voice, some old, some young. "No, darling. We shall bathe him in fire." A sultry woman's voice spoke that time.

Diego took a step back and clicked his tongue, giving Trixie free reign to act while he planned to support her. She started to slink along the magician's left side while Diego tried to distract them with words. He kept the bow pointed at the babbling man. "My name is Diego. What is yours? Why did you attack us?"

The man fidgeted and tittered softly, "I think he means to hurt us. What shall we do? Forget him, watch the tiger! The milk will spoil if you take much longer!" The cascade of voices settled and the man flicked his staff violently towards Trixie. Juniper conjured a Wind Blade that streaked towards the tiger and slashed her side, catching Zanzibar as well. "It bleeds! Yes, it bleeds well! It would go great with milk. Not if it's spoiled, nimrod!"

Diego shouted in fury and sent a Bodda-Boom arrow behind and to the right of the magician. The arrow sailed through the air and struck the ground, which triggered a chemical reaction in the arrow to create a huge explosion. The force of the attack would shatter Juniper's Borg, yet Diego would not realize it. A wail of pain erupted from the magician and when the dust settled, the Fanalis boy saw Juniper writhing on the ground.

"You will pay, boy! I thought we were going to make HIM bathe in fire. Silence! The Fate's attendants will make you pay, boy!" Several voices shouted at Diego in unison.

Diego shivered, between the writhing magician and his accompany of voices, it left the Fanalis feeling uncomfortable. What was up with this village? Who were the Fate's Attendants? Diego didn't have time to focus on these thoughts as he heard footsteps shuffling behind him. He turned around to see the last two zombies running towards him, though these were much larger. One of the zombies hit Diego's arm with an Undead Strike nearly severing it in two. Diego's bow clattered to the ground as he held his injured right arm to his chest. The other zombie stabbed delivered Piercing Misery to the boy's thigh.

Trixie appeared at Diego's side as he crumbled down to the ground, howling in pain. The tiger leaped into the air and wrapped her jaws around its throat as she tackled it to the ground. A wet sucking noise accompanied a violent jerk of her head, detaching it from the zombie. She then turned to the other zombie and swiped at it with her claws, removing its leg. She let out a roar before swiping at its head to crush the zombie's skull.

With the enemies defeated, she rushed to Diego's side and nudged his shoulder with her nose. Tears ran down his face from the pain and Zanzibar skittered off the tiger's back to give the Fanalis a Healing Bite on his arm. The spider also administered a Minor Heal by drooling onto his thigh. Diego hissed at the spider's tender care and couldn't decide if the healing hurt worse than the actual pain.

Somehow, Trixie managed to help Diego slide onto her back and she carried him back to Kios. Thankfully, they didn't come across any trouble on the way back. When Ariella's farmhouse was in sight, Diego succumbed to the sweet refuge of sleep where it didn't hurt. Octovius and Gillus were sparring with swords in the field nearby and when they saw Trixie carrying an unconscious Diego they rushed over.

Trixie growled as the two approached, but Octovius knelt down and assured the tiger they would take care of Diego. She seemed to calm down and Gillus picked up the Fanalis boy, wincing at the arm that barely hung on. He carried Diego back to the farmhouse while the Grumptoes officer rushed on ahead to get Viri. The older woman tittered over Diego when she saw him and began to tend to his wounds immediately.

"If only Miss Ari were here. She would be better at this than me. Get me the bandages and lots of towels. Sophie, get my needles and some thread." Viri shouted out to the kids who were nearby. Octovius ran upstairs to grab the bandages and towels, while Sophie did what she was asked. Viri looked to Gillus, "What happened?"

Gillus shrugged, "I'm not sure Miss Viri. We found him like that on the back of his tiger." He looked to Trixie who stood as still as a statue by the table that Diego laid on. She looked from her master to Viri, her eyes pleading at the woman to help him.

Viri gave a sad smile to Trixie, "He is lucky to have such a loyal pet." When Zanzibar warbled from behind Trixie, Viri chuckled. "Pets. Gillus can you go into town and grab the midwife? I could use her help."

---

Diego groggily woke up and sat up, accidentally putting his weight on his injured arm. He collapsed back onto the bed and cursed. Taking note of his surroundings, he felt Trixie and Zanzibar laying at his feet. A pair of tear-filled blue eyes looked up at him from the side of the bed. Ella had been watching over him and she smiled to see him awake. "Hey Ella."

"Diego! You're ok!" She squealed and wrapped her arms around his neck, taking care to watch out for his injuries.

Diego chuckled and gave her a half-hug back, "I've been better, but I'm alright."

Later, Viri came into check on him and he asked her to find Janus. When the woman arrived, Diego explained everything he had learned and asked her to watch over Kios. He told her his plan to go back to the Capital to get Yakuroro's help. Diego felt bad about having to break Ariella's promise, but he didn't think he could do it without the Imuchakk's magic. The Fanalis wasn't strong enough to handle it alone, something that crushed him to admit.

[1500+/1500]

[140/200]

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