Rock the Casbah II[Job Chain/C]

Spoiler:

After returning to the town and receiving her compensation for exploring the mine, Ayero settled back down into her routine. The money she earned would keep herself comfortable for a week at most, but the job board was mostly bare and she wanted to save up more money before continuing her journey back to Remano. She had grown tired of camping for the time being and insisted on sleeping on a real bed, hence her continued business at the town’s inn. When there was no work to be found, Ayero busied herself by training in the surrounding forest, honing her skills with her bow, blade and beasts.

As predicted, several aftershocks shook the small town in the coming days, though none caused any lasting damage. The town only suffered minimally from the primary quake, and the following shocks were even weaker. The townspeople weren’t as unnerved as some of the travelers, many of them being used to the occasional quake while living in the mountains. A few miners from the surrounding towns began to float towards the new mine, curious to see what work they could do there after learning that the mine was fertile.

Unfortunately one of the miners became a little too curious. After venturing into the mine, his comrades became nervous and went to check on him—but all they discovered were his screams of anguish. The miners fled to the town and reported the death of their friend, understandably too scared to return to the cave and find out what had happened to their friend. The men were pointed in Ayero’s direction—told to look for a red haired woman with a snake—and asked for the woman to return to the mine and investigate the death of their companion. After discussing the terms of payment, Ayero checked to ensure that her weapons were in decent shape before beginning the trek to the north once more.

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This is strange. Ayero hummed softly in dissatisfaction as she took careful steps along the darkened cavern. Like her last visit to the mine, she held a torch in one hand and had Kabu out in front of her, the snake naturally adept at detecting thing that Ayero could not see with her naked eye. Said woman had her blade gripped in the other hand, this time more wary as she continued deep into the belly of the mine. Neither she nor Kabu had run into anything on their first visit, and as far as she knew the snake didn’t detect any life then.

This had better not be a wild goose chase. I wonder if they’re drinking on the job or something. After walking for so long with nothing eventful happening, Ayero began to grow cross and hoped that the men had not hallucinated or were simply playing a joke. She ruminated on those thoughts for a short while, close to giving up and turning back when Kabu suddenly stopped and have a low, deep hiss. Ayero instinctively bent her knees and widened her stance, ready to defend or strike. By now she knew that type of hiss, and her body reacted on its own. The snake swiveled to the opposite side of Ayero and gave another hiss, this one higher and more ferocious. A warning hiss, Ayero recognized. Something was coming.

As if on cue, the ground began to rumble, the sound growing louder by the moment. Ayero lifted her torch in front of her, squinting as Kabu continued to hiss in warning. And then in appeared, a….thing. A thing rolling in the rocks, heading directly towards her. And it didn’t look like it was stopping.

”…!!” Ayero ducked and performed a Swift Roll to the side, narrowly dodging the rolling obstruction as Kabu hurried to bunch himself against the wall to avoid the same thing. Ayero came out of her roll springing upwards, her body tilted forward in an offensive stance. As she did so, the creature that had nearly bowled her over unfurled itself, standing as a vaguely humanoid rock monster that seemed to be held together by…slime? Ayero didn’t have time to try and figure out what the thing was made of, but she was sure that it had something to do with the miner’s disappearance.

The young mine guardian didn’t seem to like Ayero’s presence much more, charging at her and bringing a hand down in the first part of its attempt to Double Smash her. Ayero’s eyes flickered as she caught the creature’s speed, raising her blade to Parry the beast’s hand away, and then again as the second fist of the Double Smash attempted to rain down on her. Irritated, the mine guardian sent out a punch towards the woman, which Ayero swatted away with her sword.

Damnit…I hate fighting in caves. Ayero was limited to using one hand as she fought, seeing as how her other hand was occupied holding the torch. She was pretty sure that a creature living it’s life underground could see in the dark, and didn’t want to handicap herself. The creature went to punch her again but she met his punch with her foot, pushing the rock beat back several meters with minimal effort.

This thing seems pretty tough. Time to end it… Ayero forced on the mine guardian, jogging towards it as it hauled a large rock over its head. Ayero Slammed her fist into the rock, shattering the rock to pieces as she continued her path. The young mine guardian was caught off guard by the woman going right through his attack rather than blocking or being crushed by it, and was quickly slashed by her blade.

Ayero watched as the creature fell to the ground with a thud, waiting a few moments to ensure that it was out of commission before venturing further into the mine. Several hundred yards down she discovered the body of the miner, bludgeoned and beaten heavily from the blunt force of the rocks. Mumbling to herself, Ayero loaded the broken man onto her back and turned back for the town, figuring that the miners would want to bury the body of their deceased companion.

[1000+/1000]
[220/290]

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