Picking up the pieces [Sabin/B-tier/Solo]

mission

Spoiler:

The land of Kou! Man, I think I recall my father talking about how precious the hot sauce was over here. " Sabin never really traveled further than Reim before, but it was about time that he spread his wings after receiving that note from his father. So many things happened so fast at once. A man that was claiming to be his father gave him some important information that Sabin couldn't believe to be true. It stated that he was alive and waiting for him in Tartarus, as well as information about a dungeon and other places of interest. To Sabin, it seemed that his father was his mysterious benefactor all this time. But why all of these detours? Why not just go to see him now and take the rest of his family.

"Am I not ready? Am I not strong enough? What is "Tartarus" anyway? Sounds like a fish." Sabin felt like he could go for some fried fish at this moment. Heading into the nearest tavern to be served the best Kou cuisine was the only thing that he could think of at this moment.

---

With the smoking hot meal, he wondered if he could make something just as enjoyable as this. Sabin himself was a culinary artist, but survival meals didn't always have that kick to them, not if he wanted to be filling and packed with nutrients that any traveler on the road would need.   However, as Sabin enjoyed himself, he heard a ruckus outside.

"huh? I wonder what all the commotion is about?"

Stepping out for a bit, Sabin would notice a woman and a guard arguing near the local job board. It was a bit of a back and forth, but it seemed that the local government had no real interest in taking her request due to the inability to pay. Or, It was something along those lines. It resulted in the woman standing outside with her flyers instead of having the Kou government help with the circulation of the job.  Piquing his curiosity, Sabin went back and made sure to finish the meal very quickly and have the bill paid before approaching.  At first, she didn't pay him any mind, striking a blow to sabin's ego and forcing him to snatch a flyer out of her hands.

"Hey, give that back! I'm not playing around here, kid!"

Sucking his teeth, Sabin looked at the contents of the job.

"A Bounty? You're in luck then. I just so happened to know a very talented bounty hunter." Getting excited now, the woman would look around Sabin, wondering if the person that h was talking about was close by."

"...."

Noticing what she was doing, Sabin would give a loud cough and point at himself before she went back to her semi irritated state.

"You? The fate of my village is on the line. Are you sure that you are someone that can do anything? "

"You got to give me a chance, you're too judgmental for a person who's asking for help. I'm already 16, it's not like I'm not a man, I probably don't have the appearance that you were expecting but I wouldn't get caught up in those if I were you. "

Sighing once again, she introduced herself.

"My name is Fang-Lei......and I need your help."

---

Finally managing to convince her, Sabin and the girl went back to the ruined town, just a few miles off the coast of Kou. The travel took about two days on food and about six hours on horseback, which made Sabin realize that it could have been the reason why some people wouldn't have bothered to go out of their way to help a place that was so out of their way. A bounty hunter is used to such long-term travels, and with Sabin's demeanor, she started to realize more and more that this young man was exactly who he said he was.

"Go over what happened again for me? You said that the bandits weren't a part of the religious organization that burned this place to the ground?"

A little bit of small talk, eyeing the fire damage that was around the small town. He only nodded quietly as he dismounted from the horse and brought it to the stables.

"The other group uses magic and basic means in order to set fire to everything. We keep to ourselves in regards to religion, but without the
security of guards or anything like that, the "nonbelievers" as they called us were punished. But we didn't do anything wrong!"

Sabin grit his teeth, trying to control his emotions and maintain his composure. He didn't want to show the potential client that he was quick to anger, or have any bad judgments.

"So this new group capitalized on that, right? The Dynasty of flame?"

Before they could continue, the village chief was walking over frantically towards, Fang-Lei. Sabin could tell, the older man wore some kind of traditional garb and had a strangely carved walking stick in his hands.

"Fang-Lei, I told you not to leave the village. What if they caught you and took you like they took the others?"

"Cheif, I managed to bring help but....what do you mean....there were here again?"

The bell started to ring suddenly, alerting everyone in the village as they rode over with the horses.

"The bandits are back!!!!!!!!"

Sabin looked to Lang-Fei and gave her a small nod. She was his main contact and his employer at the time, so he only needed to talk to her for the moment.

"I'll get into position, act natural. "

---

"Shouldn't we take everyone in one go?"

"The boss said that small towns like this could serve as a great base of operations, we just need to "Convince" them."

The dynasty of the flame bandit group had arrived in Yamagata, and on their agenda today was violence.  However, Sabin wasn't going to let that happen. Armed with the swarm bow from 40 meters away in hiding, Sabin pulled back a bow and did an explosive shot after setting up the trick arrow, scaling it up to an A-tier explosion to deal A-tier ability damage. As the arrow was flying towards the enemies, most of them were caught off guard, but one of them managed to see it coming.

"Oh shit!"

He grabbed one of the dynasties of flame members and used them as a shield for the arrow. Much to their surprise, the arrow exploded into a 25-meter radius, creating a shattering noise as it killed two of the dynasty of flame members.  The villagers watched in awe, wondering how Sabin was capable of such a thing. However, the one who used one of the enemies as a meat shield by using their body and the light armor of the unfortunate victim to protect themselves was still alive.

"You're gonna pay for that."

The man was pretty skilled and fast, dodging Sabin's basic shots as tried to close the distance and aimed at sabin with the tiki torch once he was 15 meters away.  

"Burn in hell!!"

The flames would spread out in order to try to strike Sabin.  With the crown of the fae prince, sabin used the prince's playground and sent a stream of water that had enough power backing it in order to deal A-tier ability damage. The water destroyed the flamethrower and crashed into the last bandit, knocking him and drowning him in the process.

"You first...."

Breathing rather heavily, Sabin started to frisk the body for anything important, including the flamethrower. "Not much of Value..."

---

Heading back to the Yamagata village, Sabin sits down on a nearby log and drinks a gourd of water. "Well, they are dead, but I don't think that's the end of it." Lang-Fei walked over, sitting next to Sabin with a concerned look on her face. "Are you ok? Are you hurt? You look like....you have done this before. " Looking at her, Sabin shook his head. "No, I killed creatures before, but this is the first time killing an actual person.  But you shouldn't worry about that, a bounty hunter sees the job all the way. These people, I have a feeling that they were going to burn a few of you guys if I didn't do anything. You faced enough tragedy,  so I don't regret my decision."

There was still the question of payment, for Sabin's service, but he only shook his head. "There can be paid in other ways, don't worry about the money right now. I'm sure there is still work to be done, maybe my crown can help with that. " The crown of the fae prince was definitely an interesting magical tool, it was the first time that he used ittoo. Sabin hoped that he could help the town, it seemed that there was no one that was really on their side. However, that was not true.

He was on their side for sure.

Spoiler:

190/210 magoi
200/220 stam

1500/1500