Fairy Tail: Story of a Redeemer
A/N: Hello there readers, and welcome to my first Fairy Tail story. This is rather new to me, although I have been writing for a different franchise and used elements of Fairy Tail in it, thought it was about time to give it a rest and come on over here to unleash my ideas upon this area of the site. Also all future author notes will be located at the end of the chapters for now on. The rating is T, but it is subject to change in the future. I also do not have a suitable cover image at the moment since I cannot find anything that fits the theme of the story, so if anyone can find something then that would be much appreciated, in the meantime it'll be left blank unless anyone or myself finds something. If you have any ideas, feedback or anything else in general then feel free to let me know. For now, I hope you enjoy it and, if possible, have a good day.
Chapter 1: A Freelancer's Predicament
The bright sunshine was unrelenting in the evening light, encasing all the land in its rays. The sky was bare of clouds, the wind was nowhere to be found or felt, yet the heat was not as bad as some had predicted, in fact was quite pleasant. People went about their daily business - trading, walking, talking, merrymaking, laughing, even throwing a couple of punches at someone for a laugh, all of this happening both inside and outside of the old yet impressive town. The town was more of a large old castle town with high and mighty battlements, towers and stonework. The main portion of the castle town was situated upon a hill with a river that ran nearby alongside luscious green forests and vast tree-clad mountain ranges surrounding the area, from afar one could see a tall, expansive castle right in the centre of town upon the tallest point of the spherical hill; it was hard to miss, considering it was home to the main branch of one of Fiore's disputable strongest guild, Phantom Lord. This was Oak Town, a bustling hub of trade, tourists and magic users.
On the road to Oak Town a young man gazed at the castle in the distance, figuring that it was of some importance. With a grunt and a slight maneuvering of his heavy backpack he continued on his way, hoping to find something of worth when he reached his destination up ahead. The sun was beating down upon him, but the young man did not seem to care at all, far from it in fact, even though his expression was difficult to tell. He brushed aside the fringe of his blood red coloured messy hair with his bandaged left hand and took a look at his surroundings, finding them to be a good distraction from the pain that had been growing in his feet and legs for the last four hours. He had been walking for a long, long time.
Not a bad looking place, by my standards anyway. Nice river over there; pity I don't have a fishing rod, or else I'd have some juicy fish for supper later. The young, blood red haired man thought to himself as he walked closer to the river now that Oak Town was nearer. He could see a couple of people fishing merrily by the river, some even had little rafts anchored in the water for a better catch before the sun began to disappear over the horizon.
Nonetheless, the young man continued on his way, eager to get to town and find a place to spend the night, it had been a day or two since he had been to bed and had a good sleep, whether the town would provide these needs was unknown though. Upon passing some people who were curious as to who he was, the young man finally arrived in Oak Town. It was big, and finding an inn for some food and bed seemed like a daunting task. With a disgruntled sigh he began to walk on the stone cobbled ground in search of some sort of inn or tavern, or whatever the people had around the place, which by his reckoning could be anything.
However, after passing a magic shop that just closed for the evening the young man was starting to believe that it was easier to simply ask than to get lost - would not have been the first time he found himself in such a situation. Upon seeing a middle aged man with a black coloured thick moustache and a bald head, along with savvy business clothing, the young man crossed the path and caught up with him. "Excuse me, sir, do you know where I can find an inn around here?"
The businessman raised an eyebrow and took a long good look at this strange young man who ran up to him. He appeared to be at least five ft seven in height, looked rather young for a teenager, had messy blood red hair with a wavy fringe covering two-thirds of his forehead, the pupil of his right eye was coloured coal black while the other eye was covered by a small layer of bandages that wrapped around from the lower left chin up to the upper right part of the head, bandages went up from his left hand all the way up his left arm and disappeared under the sleeve, his clothes and face were covered in grime and he smelled as if he had not taken a bath or shower for several days.
He was wearing a short sleeved dark blue collared shirt with a black coat above it that had blood-red lining and elegant design patterns across the front to the sides and back, the coat reached down to his upper legs and appeared to be cut around the edges by fire and something sharp, a black hood was attached to the cut down coat, and a 'P' sign with two lines crossing through the centre was stitched into the sleeve of the upper right arm; a grey belt, black pants, brown boots and a black glove with steel riveting around the knuckles on his right hand. Then there was the leather brown belt that was strapped from his left shoulder to the right side of his waist, which was covered in small pouches like the belt around his waist, but what their contents were was unknown.
"Um, you sure you're okay there, son? You look like you've been through hell and back. Did you get caught up with some Forest Vulcans? There's been a few more than usual along the roads near the forests these days," the shopkeeper asked in a concerned tone, seemingly forgetting the question he had been asked beforehand.
The young man merely shook his head. "No, I'm fine, I always dress like this for… reasons I don't want to divulge. Anyway, you haven't answered my question. Where can I find an inn where I can get some food and bed, oh, and a bath as well?"
"Oh, right, sorry about that. Continue on this path and turn left when you reach the clothing store up ahead, then head on down that path until you see a sign called 'The Oakwood Inn'. They have beds, baths and good food, too," the thick moustached man finally answered while pointing in the general direction of where the young man had to venture forth towards.
"Got it. Thanks," the young man said with a nod of the head before walking in the direction he had to go along with to get to the Oakwood Inn. The business-dressed man took one more look at the now disappearing young blood red haired man, sighed and shook his head before continuing on back towards his home.
As the young man turned down the corner and caught sight of the Oakwood Inn further down the stone-clad path, he almost bumped into what appeared to be a few wizards from Phantom Lord, at least that was what he judged them to be from due to their badges and tattoos. There were three of them, and all seemed to be in high spirits for some reason or another. The leader of the three man group, a tall man with a black cloak and hood with fur lining along with an orange scarf, fingerless grey gloves, daggy grey pants and a black shirt with orange lining and decorations around the sides. The grey haired young man stepped aside before bumping into them and watched them walk on past, their looks - especially that of the group leader - were that of suspicion and wonder. Hardly surprising, considering that the young man had most of his left arm and left eye wrapped in weather-worn bandages.
They were heading for the Oakwood Inn as well, judging from their general direction. However, it mattered little to him as he began to trudge back down the path towards the inn once the group of Phantom Lord wizards had passed on by. As the young man got closer to the inn he could begin to clearly hear the clanking of mugs, the chattering, the laughter, and the sounds of knives and forks getting clashed together by random people. The wizards from Phantom Lord were the first to enter the Oakwood Inn, soon followed by the coal black eyed young man, who ignored the odd staring gazes as he pushed open the thick wooden door and walked into the inn.
It was quite a sight to see, for an inn at least. The teen stood in the centre of a large wooden and stone building, thick wooden pillars dotted the large room, dozens of chairs and tables were situated all over the place, magical blue orbs floated upon little stands on the walls and pillars, people sat and stood about all over the place, various paintings dotted several areas of the walls, a flank of stairs in one corner led up to the second level, and many of the occupants appeared to be travellers such as himself, but they looked less conspicuous in appearance. Trails of smoke flowed from the smoking pipes of a group of people in the corner of the inn and even from the counter, meanwhile someone threw a half empty mug of ale across the room and crashed against someone's head, to which they responded by leaping over his chair, across the floor and tackled the thrower to the ground.
The young man raised an eyebrow at the sight of the two brawlers punching it out on the floor, much to the amusement of many spectators, and continued on walking towards the counter as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. After finding an empty barstool that was not close to anyone, he sat down and unslung his backpack to the ground where it leaned up against the feet of the barstool. A bartender, who was a short woman with blonde hair that was tied up into a bun at the back of her head and wore a dress with several layers, calmly approached the teen and smiled kindly at him, as was customary in inns and taverns.
"Good evening, and welcome to the Oakwood Inn. May I take your order, or are you here for a room?" she asked courteously, successfully ignoring the oddity of this lasted customer.
"I'm here for both," was the teen's initial reply. "I need a room, a bath, some food and something to drink as well. Can you fix that up for me if possible?"
The blonde bartender nodded her head. "Sure thing, I can do that for you. Fortunately for you we do have on more room available for rent, that and we have a lot of food and drink that can last for months before we need a restock. I'll go get you that room and the key for it, once you have some food and drink. So, what would you like? We have a menu if you want to take a look at that."
"Much appreciated," the young man said along with a nod. He was then given a three page menu of different meals and drinks, and the costs for them.
The young man sighed and shook his head, realising that he was going to lose a lot of Jewels tonight. The teen did not have a whole lot with him since jobs have been running dry due to the guilds, which made it more difficult for freelancers like himself to get any sort of job that was able to give him some good income. He groaned and took a look at his wallet to see how much money he had; only 3,000 Jewels were left. It was enough for a meal and something to drink, and possibly even a room with a bath, but he was running low on supplies and doubted that he would have enough to last until he reached another large settlement. He needed a job, and fast.
The blonde haired bartender returned, a key jangled in her right hand as she gave it to the teen. "Here you go, sir. It's room thirteen, just down the corridor to the right, pass a corner and it'll be the first on your left. Now then, what would you like to order?"
"Um, I guess I'll just have the traveller delight special and some water please," the blood red haired teen responded, to which the bartender nodded and smiled courteously before taking the menu away to get his order.
Once gone into the kitchen, which was located close by near the counter, the blood red haired teen took a look around him as discretely as he could, for he did not want to attract any attention towards himself while looking for possible employers. He was not quite sure if there would be anyone willing to give him any job at all, in fact after several minutes of spying about the teen swiftly came to the conclusion that there would not be any jobs for a freelancer such as himself due to the proximity of Phantom Lord.
Well ain't this a buggering hole of misfortune. No job, running low on Jewels, used up the last of my bandages and I don't have a map. I knew I should've gone after that Forest Vulcan after he stole my map while I slept in his cave right after giving him a good beating. I should probably just continue on with my travels until I reach some unimportant town, then hopefully I'll find some good jobs to do. Hopefully. The young man thought to himself as he looked back at the bar in front of him, content to wait for his meal to arrive before slugging off to his room for the night.
Eventually the bartender returned with his meal: a plate with four thick slabs of bread, some cheese on the side and a bit of butter. It certainly was reminiscent to the pack lunches of some travellers and soldiers. Next up came the mug of water, and a glass bottle filled with some more water just in case he quickly drank the contents of the mug. The teen nodded a 'thank you' to the blonde bartender, who smiled back at him, then proceeded to start munching away.
If there was one thing that the young man knew about inns, it was that they were a treasure trove of gossip - one could find much in the conversations that might lead to something, maybe even something profitable as well. That was how the coal black eyed teen had managed to get meagre jobs as a freelancer across most of northern Fiore, although business was hard to come by when you are not a member of a guild, magical or not. At any rate, the young man needed a job. After swallowing some cheese he began to listen more closely to the conversations of others around him, hoping to find something that was worth his time and skills. Around the centre of the inn he could hear some people talking about the latest exploits of Phantom Lord, further away from that he heard some more storytelling and laughter about a guild called Fairy Tail, closer to the door the teen could hear something about Forest Vulcans becoming more active and dangerous to the south, meanwhile the rest of the other conversations seemed to be more about their day rather than anything important.
But not everyone was talking. As he munched down on some more bread the young man glanced over his shoulder to gaze at a silent corner, there he saw three people sitting down around a table, their attention focused to the card game they were playing; the three of them did not look like citizens of Oak Town, judging from how one was armoured and another appeared to be a mercenary due to the bright blue guild mark across the left side of her face. The third member, however, was unlike the other two, for he seemed to be more of a civilian, a somewhat rich one at that due to how he was dressed - the well dressed man appeared to be some sort of merchant.
Finally, something worth my time- protecting a merchant is profitable and could get me some Jewels. Although, come to think of it, I doubt I would be hired because those other two are probably mercenaries who work for him. Well, there goes my lucky break. The teen thought as he continued to eat away what was left of his bread and cheese before downing it with the cool water from his mug, a dissatisfied sigh soon followed.
"Yeah, life is like that for some people, isn't it?" a man said as he sat down next to the blood red haired teen, who looked at him with suspicious eyes. At a glance, the man had black hair that was tied up at the back of his head and stuck out everywhere from there, he also had a white shirt with high collars with a red shirt underneath. Aside from that the teen did not get to see much, nor did he care to. The black haired man took another look at the teen and soon afterwards paid full attention to him. "Not much of a talker, are you? That's fine, that's fine, just means I can talk without interruption, until my comrades return that is."
"Uh huh," the young man replied without looking at the conversationalist before returning to what was left of his traveller delight special dinner.
It was obvious that the teen did not care about his new talking buddy, but the black haired man seemed to be enjoying himself as he kept talking after taking an order for four mugs of ale. The conversation was merely small talk, such as the weather, the state of the kingdom, some old rumours that meant little, overall it was a rather boring affair and the only noises the young man made were usually "uh huh", "mhmm", "yep" and "hmm?". However, things were to get interesting once the black haired man's companions arrived.
They were odd to say the least. One was tall with a square-shaped face and dark hair, which is arranged on the front in a flat tuft going upwards, on his face were six distinctive whiskers with each cheek bearing three of them; another was short and wide with spiked green hair, fat lips and a round face; the last was tanned, had a pointed nose, a sharp chin and a distinctive yellow and black jacket. All of them meant business.
The man with the yellow and black striped jacket and hood walked up to the black haired man and leaned over his shoulder to gain the man's attention. "Hey, what's going on here? Why're you talking to this little pipsqueak? You need something from him or something?"
The black haired man gazed up at his companion and smiled kindly at him. "Hmm? Is there a problem with being friendly to a stranger who is obviously not from around here?"
"And neither are we, so let's beat it already and get some damn rooms for the night, Kageyama. We've got a lot to deal with right now so we'll need all the strength we can muster to find that damn flute," came the response from the square-shaped face man, who was starting to grow ever so slightly annoyed due to his evident impatience towards Kageyama.
"Don't worry about it, we'll find what we're looking for, and that certain someone we've been tracking as well," Kageyama responded with a grin, to which his companions seemed to lighten up ever so slightly.
The young man, however, got a nasty feeling in his gut about the whole situation at hand. He took one more quick glance at the four men who were now starting to look at him with menacing gazes, indicating that something was going to happen, at it did not look too good either. The the three newcomers surrounded the teen as he finished off the last of his bread, their chuckling giving away their purpose. They wanted to fight him. The blood red haired teen sighed and glanced over at Kageyama, who still kept his bright yet dangerous smile, and gave him a blank expression.
"I get it, I'm the one you lot are after. Is it because I defeated several members of Eisenwald when they attempted to acquire supplies that did not belong to them? You're lucky I didn't kill them, otherwise you would all be dead. Now leave me be, otherwise you will all get what's coming for you. Heh, you Dark Wizards, you never learn. Idiots," the young man said in a monotone voice without blinking even once. It chilled the fat man right down to the bone, while the others simply became enraged by it.
"You what, little punk?! I'd like to see you try!" the tanned man with the odd jacket exclaimed in a fit of fury as soon as the teen insulted them and gave them a death threat. The tanned man then raised his right hand back as the black band around his fingers began to expand outwards into thin black cables, working their way around the area and up the chair the teen was sitting in. Meanwhile the square-faced man readied himself for his own magic, the fat man stood further back while Kageyama steadied himself for whatever plan came their way.
The blood red haired young man, however, merely looked back at his empty plate, drank the last of his water then proceeded to jump out of his chair before the tanned man could hit him with his magic. The barstool splintered apart as wooden and metal pieces tore through the air. The teen had just managed to avoid the attack by jumping off the stool and over his opponent's heads. As soon as he landed, however, the tanned man swung his arms around to get a good shot with his magical black cables, which he managed to do. The black cables smashed against the young man, who blocked them with crossed arms while being sent across the room into a nearby wall. By this point people were either running or staying out of the way.
The tanned man was less than impressed with what he was seeing. "Ha! Is that all you got? Come one, where's that bravado from before? Byard, let's go get him!"
"On it, Rayule! Heh, this'll be fun," the square-faced man by the name of Byard replied as his fists lit up with Light Magic, then he pounced at the staggered teen. "This is for Eisenwald, you little punk!"
The blood red haired teen gazed up at the attack and, just before it collided with him, he raised his hands as a dark magical seal opened in front of him. "Shadow Wall!" the young man shouted as a wall of shadows erupted from the magical circle, blocking Byard's attack and sending him backwards. It was followed up by a blast of dark shadow-like energy from the palm of the teen's gloved right hand. "Dark Shadow Blast!"
The attack hit Byard straight in the face, which sent him flying backwards into a group of chairs and a table. Rayule gazed at the young man with wonder as well as annoyance. Soon afterwards he looked over towards Kageyama. "Hey, this punk uses the same magic you do. Want to show him who's better at it?"
"With pleasure. It'll be a treat to see him squirm in agony," the black haired man said as he stood off his barstool, put his hands in his pockets and glared at the young man. "Let's see how well you do against me, kid. Knuckle Shadow!"
The blood red haired teen jumped out of the way and became one with the shadows nearby, which helped avoid an attack from the black cable magic that Rayule used once more. The attack smashed aside a pillar, making it break in two and collapse onto the ground, crushing a table and a magical blue orb. More people ran from the fight and out onto the streets, some no doubt with the intention to alert the authorities. The few wizards from Phantom Lord that were in the inn finally chose to take notice of the fight and step in to prevent any more harm to be done; coincidentally these Phantom Lord wizards were the very same ones that had passed by the blood red haired teen on the way to the inn in the first place.
"Hey, the five of you, stop this or else," the leader of the group demanded as he and his two comrades edged closer and closer to the fight, where Rayule was smashing his cables into everything the young man passed through, which was then followed by Kageyama who did the same thing with his shadow magic; the fat man, called Karacka, used his own magic to disappear into the wall behind him, no doubt for some ambush tactic.
Byard looked over at the Phantom Lord wizards and grunted in annoyance, finding their intrusion to be unnecessary and repulsive. "Stay out of this, Phantom wizards, this is between us and the annoying brat. Gah!"
The square-faced man was interrupted by the blood red haired teen, who emerged from the shadows and launched an attack against the Dark Wizard's chin with a shadow energy encased fist, sending him to the ground with a bloodied bruise to the face and chin. The young man then swiftly ducked a swarm of shadow snakes and jumped away onto a table, then leapt upwards onto a wooden beam above him near the ceiling and ran about on that, launching more Dark Shadow Blasts at his opponents below, causing much destruction and a disruption between the Eisenwald wizards' battle plan.
The Phantom Lord wizards now entered the fray, hoping to strike down the Dark Wizards and the destructive freelancer before the entire inn collapsed. They first struck at Kageyama, who was the closest to them. Now it was a three-way fight, and it only got more destructive and chaotic than before. Kageyama now turned his attention to the three Phantom Lord wizards by using his Shadow Form ability to blend into the ground, confusing his opponents as they missed their mark. Karacka now entered the fray by appearing behind the three wizards and quickly neutralized one of them by using his Phasing Magic to badly wound them.
Rayule continued his assault upon the blood red haired teen, who managed to keep dodging attack after attack from the tanned man's Urumi Magic. Splinters from tables, chairs, pillars and floorboards flew all over the place as the black cords smashed into inanimate objects while failing to hit his target. "You little punk! Stay still while I try to hit you!"
Suddenly he found his mark. The long, thin cables swung around, crashed through another pillar and collided full force with the young man. The teen, however, grabbed hold of the magical cables and, with an audible grunt, pulled them and his attacker towards him. Rayule, caught off balance and off his guard, tumbled towards the young man, who sung back his right leg back and brought it up against the tanned man's chin and across his chest after a loup and a swing, causing a gust of shadow energy to explode forth. "Shadow Talon!"
Rayule crashed into a pillar, his back aching with pain from the attack, that and the amount of splinters sticking into his flesh. But the blood red haired teen was not yet finished. The young man jumped from one wooden beam to another as a shadowy dagger appeared in his hand as a wisp of Shadow Magic enveloped it. "Let's get this over and done with, I have to go to sleep you know. Shadow Strike!" the teen shouted as his body was covered in a shadowy black mist.
The young man struck forward by leaping off the wooden beam with such swiftness that he looked more like a shadowy misty beam as he collided with the Eisenwald wizard, striking him across the face, chest, arms and slashed upwards from Rayule's lower chest to his chin with his shadow dagger, then kicked the tanned man in a roundhouse kick across the room into a pile of fallen tables and chairs. He was badly wounded, bleeding from his multiple slash marks and unconscious. Two Eisenwald wizards and one Phantom Lord wizard down, three more all together to go.
Kageyama wanted to get to grips with the blood red haired teen, but first he had to contend with the two remaining Phantom Lord wizards, and they were not going to go down without a fight. The black haired man dodged a magically equipped sword from one Phantom Lord wizard and barely missed several blows from a magically imbued rifle. As another blow from the swordsman came towards him, Kageyama stood hunched forward with his legs spread apart, waiting for the right moment, then it came.
"Pft. Is that all you can do? Guard Shadow!" A shadow dome appeared around the black haired man, blocking several sword strikes and magical bullets alike. The Phantom Lord wizards grumbled and continued their assault, hoping to break through the defence barrier that had been put in their way. As soon as the two wizards broke off their attacks Kageyama lowered his defence and struck with his own counter-attack. "Let's see if you can withstand one of my attacks now. This is love from the powers of darkness. Shadow Orochi!"
Multiple dark purple and black snakes with glowing yellow eyes burst forth from the black haired man and raced head-on towards the two Phantom Lord wizards. One of the two took the attack full-on, yelling in pain as he was sent hurtling backwards into the wall behind him, dripples of blood flowed down to the ground. Kageyama then turned his attention to the last Phantom Lord wizard, the swordsman and leader of the group, who by now had gotten more than a little angry with the sudden counter-attack.
"Why you damn… I'll end you! Grah!" the wizard growled as he lunged forward at Kageyama, his sword buzzing with magical energy. Kageyama merely used Shadow Form and circled around the Phantom wizard, dealing blows here and there whenever the opportunity arose. This state of affairs continued on for the next several minutes until Kageyama caught the PHantom wizard off guard and prepared to finish him off from , the blow never landed, and the Phantom Lord wizard was not the one who stopped it either.
When Kageyama was previously defending himself against the two wizards from Phantom Lord, the blood red haired teen had rolled out of view behind the bar, where he saw the blonde woman who served him his dinner cowering in the corner with her arms around her knees, begging to herself to be safe in a whispering tone. The young man approached the bartender and patted her gently on her right shoulder to calm her down, which only somewhat worked. "It'll be alright, miss, I have a plan to take out most of them in one swoop," the dark coated teen whispered to her before launching his left fist backwards and into the face of Karacka, who had used his Phasing Magic to appear behind him through the wall.
The blonde haired woman was amazed with how quickly the blood red haired young man had noticed Karacka and neutralised him, he had not even seen the fat man even appear at all. "H-How did you do that? Do you have eyes on the back of your head?" she asked him with a quivering tone.
"I've had experience with such sort of combat before a couple of years ago," the teen responded before slamming his right foot down on Karacka's head, silencing his pained groaning for a little while.
A blast of energy from the magical rifle blasted off Kageyama's shadow dome and collided into the wooden beam above the young man and the scared bartender. Upon swiftly noticing the wooden beam starting to shatter from its position and collapse, the teen wrapped an arm around the bartender, grabbed Karacka by the scruff of his neck and leapt out of the way, missing the wooden beam as it collapsed onto where they had just been.
"Too close," the young man muttered to himself before letting go of the frightened blonde woman and dropping Karacka. Then he turned his attention over to the last Phantom Lord wizard and the black haired Dark Wizard from Eisenwald. From what the blood red haired young man could see, the Phantom Lord wizard has having a difficult time trying to catch up with Kageyama and deal a deadly blow with his magical sword, for it was difficult to attack someone that had turned into a shadow, at least the Phantom wizard found it to be so.
It was when Kageyama appeared out of the shadows behind the Phantom Lord wizard that the blood red haired teen decided to make his move. Before the Eisenwald wizard struck his blow in the back of his opponent, the young man leapt over from where he was towards the fight, flicked open one of the satchels on his belt and pulled out a vial of red liquid, opened the lid and some of the red liquid spilled out into the air. The young man then began to concentrate his magical energy mixed with the liquid, and within moments the liquid began to bubble and expand until it solidified and rushed forward towards the two combatants ahead.
"Blood Seed!" the teen exclaimed as the red liquid exploded and solid shards of red spikes shot across the ground and air in a certain radius, piercing through the legs of Kageyama and the Phantom Lord wizards. But the young man was not yet finished. As the two combatants were stuck in place for a very short moment, their legs in utter agony as blood dripped down and their clothing was torn while yelling went on, the coal black eyed teen rushed forward and swiftly kicked the two of them across their heads, hurtling them down to the ground. The young man brushed the dust off his hands and took a good look at his handiwork with the two barely conscious wizards lying before him, both groaned in pain as they twitched about.
"There, that should do it," the blood red haired teen said as he dusted off his coat and sighed with relief. He looked back at the bartender and helped her up to her feet. "Hey, you feeling okay? It's over now."
"Oh thank the heavens, now to call the authori… Wh-What the hell happened to the inn?! You idiots wrecked the damn place! Now where the frigging hell am I supposed to work?! This was my first job dammit!" the blonde bartender shouted upon seeing the damage wrought upon the Oakwood inn, her personality taking a complete one-eighty.
Indeed, some of the inn had been totaled, other areas were close to collapsing, and some were completely unsafe to even tread near or upon. Fortunately nearly all of the occupants had escaped the inn unscathed, and the ones that had remained either suffered no injury or got a few bruises and cuts, or happened to be too terrified to say or do anything, such as the enraged blonde haired bartender that the young man saved. The young man watched, dumbfounded, as an entire wall collapsed with some of the second level; the teen's jaw dropped in shock as the amount of damage became perfectly clear in his mind. The bartender, growling in rage, glared over at the young man and savagely smashed him over the head with her left fist, sending him to the ground in one blow.
"Bet you didn't see that one comin'! Sheesh, now I have to go find another job tomorrow," the bartender grumbled before marching off down the street to somewhere else in the town, most likely to unleash her frustration upon something or someone.
Once the bartender was out of sight the young man sat up on the ground and rubbed his head to relieve the pain that swelled up in the area, grumbling away as he did so while looking at the damage he, the four Eisenwald wizards and the three Phantom Lord wizards had done to the unfortunate inn. All of a sudden a person, a woman in fact, walked up to him and grinned. "That's some magic you've got there, kid. What is it exactly?" she asked him while brushing aside her short, spiky grey hair.
The blood red haired young man looked over at the woman and noticed that it was the same one who had the large blue mercenary guild tattoo on the left side of her face. She was wearing a fiery red jacket with leather-clad shoulderpads, a small metal breastplate over a simple white shirt, grey shorts and black heeled boots. She did not seem to put off by the destruction of the inn, in fact she appeared to be more amused and interested in his unwhaton destruction and magic wielding.
The black coated teen, however, was not as interested with the devastations of the Oakwood Inn and the peculiar magic used as much as the mercenary was. He raised an eyebrow at the remark and grunted with an expressionless face while getting back onto his feet. "Why do you want to know about it? What is it to you?" the teen replied back harshly, his eyes empty of any emotion.
"Meet me outside the town to the north, my boss might have a proposition that you would be interested in. See you soon, if you manage to get pass the guards and Phantom Lord wizards that are flocking to the inn," the mercenary informed the young man before running off down the path towards the main entrance of the walled town, leaving behind only questions that the young man could not answer on his own.
Ugh, out of the frying pan and into the fire. Again. Might as well take up her offer and speak to this boss of hers. Who knows, I might get a good paying job for once. Right, that does it, I've made up my mind - let's go. The blood red haired teen thought to himself as he quickly came to a decision. Suddenly the flesh around his upper and lower back began to sting with immense pain, forcing him to groan and rub the throbbing areas with his right hand. "Not now… not now."
That was when he noticed the town guard and wizards up from Phantom Lord rushing towards the wrecked inn, intent on capturing the culprits and extracting answers from anyone there. The young man grumbled as he rushed forward for his backpack amidst the ruins, slung it over his back and took one last look at Karacka, who had managed to gather his Eisenwald comrades into a corner of the inn where the area was undamaged; it looked as if he was preparing to get himself and his companions out of the town. Karacka noticed the blood red haired teen and began to twitch uncontrollably on the spot, frightened at what was going to happen next. As the wide wizard was to find out he was lucky, in a sense.
The young man walked up to the Eisenwald wizard and glared viciously at him, his once monotone expression was replaced by one filled with annoyance as his eye seemed to pierce through the dark wizard's soul. It was a frightening sight to behold for him as the teen spoke harshly. "Hear this, and hear it good: come after me again and you will all die, get others to come after me and they too will all die. I don't like killing, but I will not hesitate to do what must be done to keep myself safe if it means that you all stay out of my way. Got it?"
"W-W-Well, uh… er… S-S-Sorry!" was all Karacka could respond with before using his Phasing Magic to get himself and companions out of the inn, leaving the young man by himself to potentially deal with the incoming flux of guards and wizards, who were all drawn to the destruction.
The teen looked over to his right to see a squad of guards getting closer and closer until they had almost reached the destroyed inn; all were armed and ready for combat. The commander of the squad took one look at the teen and ordered for him to stop in his tracks. "Hey, you there! Stop this instant!"
"Like hell I will," the teen responded coldly before jumping over towards the shadows behind him and utilising Shadow Form to escape the clutches of the guards and wizards, much to their combined frustration.
"What the… Where the hell did that kid go?" the guard captain growled as he poked his spear into the rubble of the inn to find something of interest, but to no avail - only small splatters of blood, clothing and ruined chairs, tables and magical orbs could be found. After getting no answer, and no items of interest, the captain grumbled to himself and kicked aside a small rock. "Was he a wizard? If so then what guild could he be from?"
"Not from this town's guild, that's for sure," a voice called out from behind the guard captain. It belonged to a man with clean cut sandy brown hair, bright green eyes, a light grey cloak with black lining and a several layered robed vest and tunic, brown pants and weather-worn black boots; the sleeves were long, the robes and robed shirt had an artistic touch with all the embroidery stitched into the clothing around the brim of the sleeves, vest and tunic. Around the back of his cloak a symbol could be clearly seen - it was a purple circle with ten pointed stars and a skull in the centre. The man looked like he came from a guild, and it was definitely not Phantom Lord or any other guild that the captain knew of.
The guard captain decided that the strangely clothed man could be useful for some information, so decided to go ahead with asking him some questions. "So do you know who that kid was from or what guild he's associated with? Will need this information to write up my report, and just in case the Magic Council gets involved again."
"I'm afraid that I do not know, but I wouldn't be too concerned about it if I was you, there are much more dangerous beings and guilds out there than some ruffian like him," the robed man responded before walking off down the track to the entrance of the town, the moon starting to rise and shine it's rays upon the town and neighbouring land.
But before the robed man could properly leave, the guard captain called out to him. "Hey! Who are you anyway?"
"Me? Call me Francis de Maine, guild master of the Galician Fangs," came the reply. The guard captain watched as the robed man disappeared down the path, leaving him and the rest of the squad to figure out what to do next.
The blood red haired teen had managed to leave the town behind him and escaped into the wilderness, the worn out pain in his feet and legs seemed to go away due to all of the adrenaline that flowed through him during the fight and his eventual escape. But now that he had managed to get away into the forests north of Oak Town the adrenaline had left him, leaving his body in an overtired state, more so than before. The young man sighed heavily as he collapsed to the ground and sat up against a large tree with thick trunks weaving around through the ground and above the surface; exhaustion had finally caught up with him.
"Days… It's been days since I had a proper rest. Days since I had a proper meal, a proper sleep and a proper paycheck, and now I have the people of Oak Town after me - if I was a part of a guild I guess things would be a bit more easier on me. No, screw that idea, that's a terrible thought. Urgh! I. Am. Getting. Annoyed!" The black and red coated young man growled to himself while rubbing his forehead out of frustration and exhaustion. He knew that patrols would start to come out of the town and search the area for him and the Eisenwald wizards eventually, and maybe even with the aid of Phantom Lord since three of their members were taken down during the bar fight. "This day just can't get any worse, can it?"
"Not if you remembered what I told you, and what my boss has to offer you," the mercenary said as she leapt down a tree and onto the ground firmly. She was not alone.
Out of the wild bushes came her heavily armoured companion, who looked more like a plate armoured knight with a flat visor that had a cross in the centre that connected his eyes, nose and mouth together; a long, flowing yellow and blue cape with the symbol of Fiore imprinted on the back, and a long blue and yellow tunic over his armour. He looked like some sort of ex-soldier from the Fiore Army. "Are you sure he will do? You've been sure about other people like him before, and they usually end up either dead or have enough within the first few couple of days. How will he be any different?"
"Because you never seen him in action. I have back in the inn before those wizards started to destroy the place when you escorted the merchant out of the building - should've let him stayed a bit longer to get a good look at this kid," the short, grey haired mercenary responded while glancing back at her heavily armoured companion, her right thumb jabbing in the young, blood red haired man's general direction. "Besides, you heard what the boss said when I told him about this guy when I finally got out, he wants to talk to him about a job."
The knight grunted and walked off, apparently not completely liking having the young man around for some reason or another; the young woman appeared to be the exact opposite though. Soon enough a third figure emerged and entered the conversation. It was the merchant that was with the two mercenaries back at the inn, the one who was dressed up like a rich middle-class nobleman. He took one look at the young man, raised an eyebrow then grinned as he walked up to him.
"My caravan guard over here says that you are quite efficient with magic, is that so? And sort of magic do you use as well, if you truly are a wizard? What guild do you come from?" he asked with curiosity while rubbing his chin in a thoughtful manner.
"You can say that I am a wizard, of a sort anyway. I'm more of a mixed sort to be perfectly honest. My magic… I prefer to not talk about it in great detail, but suffice to say that I had quite the teachers, and I'm pretty good with sneak attacks. And no, I do no come from any guild, and don't make that same mistake again; I have a… problem with guilds. Why're you interested anyway? Have something in mind for me or something?" the teen responded as best he could without divulging too much personal information about himself. He wanted to get the conversation over and done with quickly in case there was some people from Oak Town coming after him.
The merchant nodded, seemingly pleased with the small amount of answers he received from the young man. "Good, very good indeed. Yes, you will be of some use for my caravan. How would you like to sign up on my merchant caravan for some time? The pay will depend on how much produce is sold and how well you do with the job. I cannot promise that it will not be dangerous, if it was not then I probably would not have hired two guards and attempt to hire a third. So, what about it? Good pay depending on the situation, and good locations as well for sightseeing. So, how about it? You up for it?"
The blood red haired teen glanced over at the grey haired woman, who simply grinned at him from her position up against the tree she was leaning up against, the knight grunted and glance away towards the darkening sky to view the stars, the merchant kept his expression unclear. The young man thought it over for a few minutes, wondering if it would be even worth it to sign up for caravan guard duty. But, eventually, he sighed, stood up and stared deep into the merchant's round and slightly large eyes.
"All right then, you have yourself another guard," the young man said as he adjusted his accurately torn coat. The merchant appeared to be pleased with the answer, and the female mercenary seemed to be pretty excited to have a wizard, or at least some sort of person with capable magical power, in their midst. The knight did not seem to care in the slightest. The young man cracked his neck and looked back at the merchant. "All right then, where to first? Hopefully somewhere with beds - I've had enough with sleeping outside already, plus I doubt Oak Town will be willing to let me back in."
"Well I am not completely sure that we will be sleeping in a comfortable inn tonight, but the next major stop will be Cait Shelter, which is just to the south-east of here. It's a long walk, but it is a part of the trade route I'm on. They have exquisite textiles and clothes that you cannot find anywhere else around Fiore," the merchant explained as he pulled a map of Fiore out of a satchel that was slung over his right waist and spread it out for the teen to look at for some reference. The young man gazed his coal black eye sternly at the map, more specifically Cait Shelter.
"Cait Shelter, eh? I think I heard of it once or twice some time ago from some passing traders, but never looked into it. What is it? Some sort of town?" The young man asked with curiosity.
"It's a wizard guild, at least I think so anyway - we'll find out when we get there," the grey haired woman said as she leaned off the tree and headed down a dirt track alongside the heavy armoured knight, the sounds of some sort of large, four-legged animal - perhaps an ox, a cow, or something else entirely - could be heard. That was probably where the mercantile goods were located. Before they disappeared out of view, the lightly armoured mercenary looked back at the young man, a question forming in her mind. "Hey, what's your name? Never bothered to ask before. Mine's Morwen, and this over 'ere is Reginald, the merchant is called Iptacens Woodstock by the way."
"Call me Belisarius," the teen responded, still refusing to show any sort of emotion or proper expression that could be read. Nonetheless, Morwen looked to be pleased with finally knowing the young man's name, though Reginald could not care less. As they disappeared from view, the blood red haired teen wondered what he had gotten himself into this time as he pulled a purple straw out of one of his pockets and bega nto chew down on it. Well, it's not like a whole lot can go wrong this time, all I'm doing is guarding a small trade caravan; not like anything too bad can happen.