Taking back the town [Solo;Mission]

You know you're desperate for money when you're helping your enemy to get their weapons back. 

Alek had long since considered anywhere that publicly accepted slavery to be his enemy, even in the heart of Reim he had never truly felt comfortable, and yet here he was giving the people who did such a disgusting act help. 

Why was he doing it? Because he needed more money to buy new weapons of course. Was there any other reason why he would go out of his way to help these lunatics? Because, quite frankly, he had his own group of lunatics that he had to look after. 

Yaku seemed pretty driven to wind up at his master's house, Dyn was sort of awkward to be around nowadays. Ever since he had made that comment in the back-alley about how it was wrong to enjoy killing people, he hadn't been able to look him in the eyes properly. 

It wasn't that he enjoyed killing innocents, he would never do that! He couldn't even consider killing an innocent, that was wrong in so many ways! But... there were people in this world who hurt others with their mere continued existence. How was it wrong that he should want to take them out of the world? 

It wasn't wrong, it couldn't be wrong! Every time that he thought about it, he got worked up, so maybe that was another reason why he was doing this. Stress relief. 

Loading his bo staff onto his belt and his crossbow over his shoulder as usual, he had been moving to the town where they created the weapons for this place for the last few hours. When he finally got to the outside of the gate, he looked at what was standing in front of him. 

Quite honestly? It looked like an everyday town. Why would someone risk the lives of good, innocent people by constructing weapons this near them? Didn't they know that armament producing areas were the first to be hit when there was a war? 

Zou was one of the most fractious nations in the entire world, so it wasn't like they weren't expecting a war. They were basically looking for an excuse to pick a fight with another nation at this point, so why would they risk good people like this? 

He didn't know... no. Yes, he knew, he knew all too well, but all the same there was something so horrific about the conclusion that made him not want to think about it. Unfortunately, he couldn't put it out of his mind completely. 

This place was in the home of innocent people because... the Emperor didn't care. He wanted workers, he wanted people to work in his factories, so it would take a lot less time to get in to their workhouses if they were built out of the villages where they lived. 

Gritting his teeth, he pulled the crossbow off his bandoleer and began to move towards the entrance of the town, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. 

510 / 1500

Entering the town by the front gate, his crossbow sticking out in front of him to make sure that nobody tried any funny business, he realized just how similar this was to those old story books that he had found around Reim's libraries when he was teaching himself to read seven years ago. 

All those "fights at noon", the walking down with his boots clinking to the center of town to arrange the combat. However, there was nothing so dignified and organized about the way this was run; the moment one of the bandits saw him, they ran out of their hiding place and threw themselves into the public space. A single flick of the trigger and he caught the fool with a single bolt straight through his head, pinning him against the wall; His body began to go limp as more and more blood poured out of the body. 

Turning around to see the second one come out in a similar position, he waited for the man to get close before stabbing the arrow into his eye, his sheer brute strength causing it to pierce into his skull like some sort of make-shift knife, pulling back out and letting him slump to the floor dead. 

Slipping his bolt back with the rest of them, he slipped his crossbow back over the shoulder. there was no real need for it, he could handle these petty fools easily. they really were little fish in big ponds, he thought as he pulled out the bo staff. 

Pressing the button, it extended to its full length just in time to accompany the third and fourth men coming out of their little hideyholes. He barely even needed to try - A single thrust down with his staff shattered the arm of the first, and as he turned to greet the second, the dagger clashed against the steel of the staff, before the dagger bounced off harmlessly. The guy's face noticeably fell before Alek accompanied that with a crack around the face with it, caving in his skull and sending him flying to the floor. 

The only one left alive was the one who's arm he had just shattered. "Now, tell me where you're keeping the villagers, or I'm going to do the same to your other arm." His words seemed almost sickly sweet, like he was telling a baby to eat its food. Except, instead of "here comes the aeroplane" it was more 
"Here comes the guy who'd rather see you dead". 

Of course, it worked like a dream. "They're in the town hall, but our bosses are waiting there with them. If you go in there, they'll slaughter you on sight. They're armed with bows just like yours, so you're going to need to be careful." 

Oh, wow, he was actually giving him tips on how to survive fighting them? He must be really desperate for that life of his. Forcing a taut little smile, he moved out of the way 

"Good. The nearest town is around five miles away. You can walk there in around a day or two. Enjoy the arm until then, okay?" Well, he naturally had to let him go, he wasn't a monster after all.

1061 / 1500 

Entering the town hall was easy. He still had a whole quiver full of bolts left, and he knew the way basically since he'd been quite a number of these towns during his journey by now. However, since they were using long distance weapons, he couldn't risk using his staff since it'd take a few seconds to deal with their attacks. 

Pulling his crossbow back out and loading it with a special surprise for the unlucky bastards who he was going up against, he opened the door to the town hall with his hands up, as if he was coming in to surrender. 

"Don't shoot. I'm here to speak to the boss of this operation." The ploy was a dangerous one, if they decided to attack him anyway they were going to end up taking him out pretty easily. He couldn't let that happen, if he was to ever go out it would have to be in a hail of bowfire and glory rather than being pegged by stupid bandits. 

The leaders seemed pretty interested by the fact that a Fanalis had just walked into the camp; His race was able to fetch an amazing price for just a few hours work from them, they were easily worth five times a normal human slave. However, as they realized the bow in his hands was loaded, their interest turned to anger, and he felt lucky that they were shit shots. 

A couple of stray rounds almost hit him in the arm as they fired a volley off at him. Ducking behind a stone pillar, he had time to do what was needed. Thankfully, since they were bandits rather than trained mages, they didn't actually have a defense for what he was about to do. Looking out of cover for less than a second, he acquired his target and fired. 

The arrow went sailing through the air, getting closer and closer to them... until it hit in the wood. As it had approached, it became obvious that it wasn't going to hit them - to the degree where they actually laughed about the "Bad shot". 

Yet, as it hit the wood, the sudden stop caused the contents to combust, blasting both of them and sending them flying in opposite directions. This was an arrow that he had designed for just these occasions, and as he slipped his bow back into its holster on his bandoleer, he realized that the most extensive thing he was going to need to do now was to find out where these captives were. 

Hopefully they weren't too far away, because he would like to get out of here before there was any chance of reinforcements. 

1500 / 1500