Dry Heat p2 [Job/Tenma]

The Job:

Having accepted the job offer by the troubled priest overseeing the construction of the Black Pyramid, Tenma and Zadi were given a more specific task. Namely, to defeat some rowdier-than-normal scorpions. Noticing what the priest said about "normally peaceful" creatures, Zadi couldn't help but feel a little guilty. It was becoming more obvious that the destruction of the Black Pyramid is linked with the hostility that these creatures suddenly possess. However, maybe there was an outside source involved that was controlling the creatures and using the Black Pyramid's destruction as an excuse or cover-up. Zadi was going through an endless number of scenarios in his head that couldn't be proven, none of them. This frustrated Zadi a little because an unsolvable case is somewhat annoying at the beginning. Zadi decided to outright ask the priest before leaving with Tenma to go defeat the scorpions;

"Before Tenma and I head out, you don't happen to be able to tell us what caused these creatures to become hostile now of all times? Seems odd that the only cause would be the destruction of this pyramid."

The priest seemed a little perplexed with Zadi's query. The priest thought it most likely to be the pyramid's destruction that caused the creatures to become hostile, yet Zadi stating such a connection to be odd confused the poor priest, "What do you mean by 'odd'? Seems reasonable to make such a connection, no?"

Being asked a question peaked Zadi's interest in explaining what he meant. After all, sounding smart felt good, "Well you see, if the only cause of the hostile creatures was the destruction of the Black Pyramid, then the creatures should have become hostile sooner rather than this late. According to when the news was released on the destruction of the Black Pyramid, the hostility should have started around five to six months ago-" Zadi realized that the priest became ever perplexed, most likely because of the nonsensical complexity of Zadi's assumption, and therefore ended his talking before it became rambling nonsense, "Ah, I'm just rambling now. Better get rid of those pesky scorpions, right Tenma?"

352/1,000

P.S. - Zadi and Proxy are neck and neck in a race to become Omega-tier! Who will come out on top!? (Proxy and I have around the same exp...finally)

The swordsman would listen to both of Zadi’s and the priest’s conversation, but it didn’t really pique up his interest of the matter as his mind was not there at that moment. His mind was drifted into the way to find his sister and how doing this mission would help him to find the way, but he did listen to everything they said even though he didn’t really put it in mind for further understanding. He just wondered about why the blond man was very concerned about the ‘destruction of the temple’, but Zadi’s voice snapped him and he laughed to the warrior before nodding in agreement. “I agree, my friend. Let’s head out now, shall we?”

Tenma was lucky enough to not encounter any danger when he was heading to the temple before since he did encounter some creature but it could be easily taken down, but now he could see closely that there was some creature swarming around and seemed hostile also looked somewhat strong. He would stare at the scorpions and sighed, trying to decide whether he wanted to do it quick or to play around. The weather was not his favorite weather since the heat was sapping his energy and he felt somehow dehydrated, luckily for him, he got some water in his leather pouch. When the water wetting his throat, he would let out a happy sigh after and then offered his companion some before handing him the pouch if he wanted. Even though he already went to train himself hard in the desert back then, it seemed that the hot scorching weather still affecting him after all as he started to be drenched by his own sweat. The one eyed man would take off his coat and loosening his tie before tying his coat around his waist. He would also roll his sleeves to make it easier to move around, especially when his hands were the body part that he used a lot.

They were far enough from the scorpion, but close enough to observe them. Before actually attacking, the one eyed man needed to learn about their movement and their body shape as well as creating some assumption about what kind of attack that they might be delivered. After a while, Tenma would see that there was total five scorpions there. So far that amount indeed could interrupt the worship moment, so probably killing them would be the best. Tenma looked at his companion, wanting to ask for his suggestion. “What do you think, Zadi? Perhaps you prefer to deal with it quickly?”

WC: 430/1000

OOC : Lol! Go for it Zadi, beat Proxy :p

Tenma and Zadi headed towards the path that the scorpions have been attacking with Zadi hoping to find out more about the hostile creatures. Granted, if there would be no immediate evidence of foul play such as a magic tool stuck in the backs of the creatures, then Zadi would just do his job and get rid of the creatures with Tenma. Obviously, finding evidence of foul play with an obvious piece of evidence, the Black Pyramid in this case, makes solving a case difficult and clouds judgement so if there wasn't anything solid to go off of, then Zadi would move on and not think about much else. His memory wouldn't actually let him forget completely, but the next few cases could end up piecing things together. Anyway, Tenma offered the black magician some water and Zadi accepted, "Thanks. Pretty dry today, hm?"

Zadi took a sip from Tenma's kind offer and gave it back. Tenma and Zadi's relationship seemed to be going somewhere, but Zadi couldn't tell. Granted, he didn't really care unless something interesting came out of all this Black Pyramid business for that would "prove" that being with Tenma garnered interesting events to occur, much like with Chimera in a way. Zadi looked at this notebook that Chimera gave him in hopes of finding a message somewhere, but the few pages that it possessed didn't have anything inscribed onto them, such as a note as to where Chimera went. Very saddening indeed, for Zadi didn't have a dungeon partner that he felt like sticking with for a while, if ever. Chimera's disappearance definetly left a mark within Zadi's story.

A little time after taking that sip of water from Tenma's pouch, the two characters came across the scorpions in question. Zadi and Tenma stopped short of being noticed so as to observe the the crawling creeps in a non-violent state. Zadi didn't notice anything odd about their behavior nor did he see anything about them that was odd aside from their larger-than-average size. With such a size, they were likely not venomous in the slightest. The smaller the scorpion, the more venomous they are, most directly due to their size compared to their surrounding threats. Anyway, the scorpions were in a group of five. Nothing special about the scorpions aside from being a group and not attacking each other. After a few seconds of observation, Tenma asked Zadi for his suggestion on the matter, "Alright~" for which he answered with 4 groups of 2 lasers each aimed at 4 of the 5 scorpions. Zadi then whistled to see how fast the scorpion's reaction timings would be against one meter diameter lasers traveling at 25 m/s. All but two scorpions remained when the lasers struck. One of the aimed upon scorpions clashed using a tail strike. It seemed to have the fastest reaction to threats.

If Tenma remembered, Zadi had a cultist stolen from him not too long ago so this was Zadi's form of revenge, "Only two left, so have fun. I'll wait here if you don't mind."

280 magoi/stamina

Tech(s):

863/1,000

The swordsman wondered what brought the scorpions to the desert as he remembered that he had fought some before. He was pretty sure that he already defeated the queen, but how did they appear again? The usual scorpions were not this hostile if he remembered correctly, and after the queen was killed, Tenma didn’t remember if he had heard about any attack from scorpions in the town. However, judging from the shape, perhaps they were not the same type as the one he fought before. But the scene was surely bringing back his own memory about his childhood again, about when her sister played with the scorpion… Ahh, this was nostalgic for him. How this made him missing his sister more and more. Why the fate had to be very cruel? But he had no other choice other than just accepting it; he knew there was nothing good from grieving about it too much. All he had to do was just to find his sister while trying to look for what reason his family was chosen to be killed. However, time was not that friendly for him, the more he tried, the more he lost everything; his sanity, his true self… his desire… everything. But that was a small price to pay as long as he can be reunited again with his sister that was the ultimate happiness for him, even if he needed to lose some limbs.

His guess was right about the warrior beside him, Zadi was not an ordinary swordsman. He assumed that the blonde man was similar with Kaveh, but with different magic type. It seemed that his magic type was more complicated than the heat magician’s one and probably much stronger. The laser like attack easily pierced the scorpions even though some was smart enough to clash with it, but still, Tenma know it was just merely luck for the remaining scorpions to be able to avoid death. The one eyed man shivered, he was excited to see such interesting attack and wondered that maybe one day he could slice it, well… perhaps one day…

Hearing the blonde man’s word was clearly amusing for Tenma, it increased his interest even more and then he pulled the shield that was hanged on his back before he make it stood firmly on the sand. Then without even saying anything, he concentrated himself and the shield produced a high lava wave which instantly devouring the two remaining scorpions inside it. “ It was the swordsman first time to use the shield and he thought that the ability was pretty impressive, he was glad to be able to master that ability which could make him become stronger in the battlefield. Tenma would then laugh to Zadi, “I had fun, my friend. Shall we go to take a closer look if there is something odd from the scorpions?”

When Tenma approached the remaining of the scorpions, he would check it one by one before letting out a heavy sigh. He couldn’t find anything odd from the scorpions so why would they become hostile if they were not controlled. Perhaps they were upset because something was interrupting their peaceful day? Tenma was not sure about it, but maybe that was a logical guess for now . He would then hear to what Zadi had to say to him if there was any before then suggesting to went back to hear more from the priest.

[exit]

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WC: 1003
Magoi/Stamina : 270/300

Item and Ability Used [Shakunetsu no Yogan]:

The scorpions seemed hostile now that they saw something moving against them. However, Tenma was swift in his actions and defeated the other scorpions easily, using lava of all things. Zadi thought that it must have been the shield that Tenma grabbed from his back that did the trick. A magic tool in the form of a defensive weapon. Zadi thought about the strength of his own shield and didn't like what he remembered. Too weak compared to the enemies that may come at Zadi in the future either for starting an underground company or some other reason. Anyway, Tenma made quick work of the scorpions which allowed for a some time to snoop at the remaining corpses a little closer, only to find nothing new or special about these scorpions, "Nothing odd from what I can see. Alright, back to the priest I suppose."

WC 1,000+/1,000

[exit]