Elemental Forces
Lancer stretched his arms and shoulders as an elderly man approached. As the man neared he cleared his throat and straightened his back. He took a step forward to greet him but Erza blocked him with her arm. "Your garb may unsettle him" Erza said flashing a half-hearted smile
"Aww it can't be that bad" Lancer said chuckling
"It is" Gray said clapping Lancer on the back as he passed, causing Lancer to question why he wore it
"Hello, I am Mayor Nakahashi, I heard you were the wizards kind enough to accept this request, may I ask your names?" the elderly man asked a sparkle in his eye
"I am Erza Scarlet, the man currently stripping is Gray Fullbuster" at the mention of the fact he was stripping he freaked out
"Uwahh, I uh well…" Gray stuttered
Lancer sensing the struggle spoke up, I'm Lancer Octivus, the one who actually accepted the mission, these two are here to make sure I don't screw up, show him your guild marks." Erza ex-quipped into her shirt and skirt and displayed hers, Gray however had already stripped. "I'm new so I haven't gotten mine yet" Lancer explained
"I see…follow me, I'll explain our situation as we walk" The Mayor said as he turned and hobbled off. Lancer followed, Erza shortly behind, and Gray whom was fiercely struggling to put his pants on while walking causing him to trip and face-plant. Lancer scanned the surrounding village seeing that it was in a sorry state. As he scanned the buildings he saw a shadowy figure darting between the buildings. He narrowed his eyes, but averted his gaze as to trying to lure them into a false sense of security. He formulated a plan while the Mayor explained the situation mentioning bandits demanding money and extremely powerful raiders coming and pillaging the town.
"Mayor, I would actually like to tour the town, may I have a quick look?" Lancer said
"W-what? Out towns in danger and you want to be a tourist?"
"Don't mind him" Erza quickly added in, "He's just…having difficulty processing" she said glaring fiercely
"Actually I completely understand, your townspeople are being murdered, however I won't be long" Lancer said, then he bowed and turned
Gray walked up to Erza "What's the idiot doing?" he whispered
"He's onto something, let's leave whatever he's up to alone, he can hopefully handle himself" The red haired woman whispered in reply
Lancer looked back at the others, and called out, "I just want to check out the village", and then he winked and continued walking. As soon as he reached the building he swung around behind the building and pushed the person against the back of the run-down brick and mortar. He tugged the hood they wore and revealed their face. It was a black-haired girl with a pointed nose and dark brown eyes, she looked frightened. "Who are you? He asked sternly raising her off the ground slightly by her collar. He made sure she could breathe to talk
"I…look who I am doesn't matter" she said causing Lancer to narrow his eyes and lift her higher. "What does matter is that your friends are heading into a trap"
Lancer lowered the girl to the ground, she was young about 16, "Who's setting it, the Mayor? Tell me what we need to be ready for"
"No, the Mayor has no idea, the ones setting the trap are wizards from the Dark Guild Blood Maw, they're a guild of high class wizards"
"Damnit… The rumors were true, where's the trap to be set? Do you know?" Lancer asked
"It's near they're camp, that's all I know. Look into the trees and watch the floor closely"
Lancer turned and began to run, he stopped suddenly and turned, "Thanks" he muttered then he continued to run.
He dodged between building, ran through the gates and sped down the trail. He saw a less traveled trail so he split to the right and stumbled through the underbrush. He heard voices so stopped and leaned against a tree. He tightened his turban doubling as a mask. And focused on his surroundings. There were large trees around him, climbable and they had large curved branches, "perfect for a counter ambush".
He listened to the voices as he climbed the large tree with the broadest branches, he made out some words such as "they will be here shortly" and simply "money"
Lancer continued to climb he misplaced his foot and a branch snapped sending him into a free-fall to the people below. He stood up and brushed himself off, and studied those surrounding him. They all had calm expressions, a woman stepped forward, her hair was dyed green and she had a fierce tactical expression. She waved her hand at Lancers legs and the ground shook and formed around his ankles securing his feet. Lancer pulled as a test for their durability but it didn't budge. He looked around ignoring the woman he saw a boy, slightly younger than himself. The boy was locked up in a metal cage
"We have another hero, what shall we do with you Wizard?" she said smiling smugly
Lancer pulled out the metal cylinder which he began to fiddle with it while watching the boy intently. He unscrewed it showing off the copper wire just enough to catch the boys attention. The dark wizards walked up the take anything valuable from him. As they reached for the cylinder he threw it to the cage wrapping the heat resistant wire around the metal bars. They turned and ran towards the cage as lancer focused his energy and sent a bolt towards the wire. The electrified wire melted a small hole in the bars just large enough for the boy to be able to escape. While the bandits were distracted Lancer sent multiple bolts catching the Wizards off guard. They turned and started casting magic circles, Lancer didn't recognize the design but didn't want to wait and find out. He started struggling against the stone bonds the woman noticed but knew he couldn't escape. The boy, noticing the struggle casted weak earth magic and the stone bonds started to slowly crumble. Lancer frantically working on breaking the bonds started throwing bolts like he had previously trying to by himself more time, while the boy started throwing stones in the general shape of a lance and strong gusts of wind to knock the woman off her feet. Lancer yanked his left leg out of the crumbling stone then his right. He tripped but then sprinted full force at the group of wizards. He stuck his shoulder out and body slammed the nearest wizard interrupting the magic circle. One of the wizards unhooked a flail from his belt, and another pulled out a katana. The 3rd one that he had body slammed stepped back and raised his hands.
Lancer stepped back and dwelled on how he was going to take out all three of the s-rank wizards. "S-rank depends on the overall strength of the guild, they may not actually be that powerful" as he said that, the wizard with the flail coated the spiked ball with denser and heavier metal. The wizard with the katana stepped behind the Metal user. The Metal dashed forwards and flung his flail from his left leading through to his right, while the katana user jumped off the metal users back and swung downwards sending a blade of air speeding towards Lancers position. Lancer side-stepped to the left, stuck his arm out and caught the flail around his wrist by the chain, and stomped his foot sending arcs of lightning towards his opponents. The lighting struck the wind user and sent him sprawling to the ground, meanwhile he sent electricity through the flail leading into the metal users body, however he sent a pillar of metal off of himself taking the energy with it. Lancer released the flail and stepped back to reconsider his position. He looked over at the boy who was helping him, he was losing. Badly.
"I need to finish this quickly" then he noticed the wizard in the back, he was a fire make wizard. Lancer didn't have time to examine what the wizard was creating as the Metal user charged a second time. Lancer turned heel and ran towards the cage that the boy had previously inhabited. He dove down and grabbed the wired cylinder from the rough, grainy dirt. He electrified it and yanked the super-heated metal through one if the steel bars. He caught the bar as it fell. He took one half of the cylinder and concentrated on lightly welding the steel bar to it, it was loose, but it would serve its purpose. He took the other half and flung it to the left of the wizard successfully distracting him. Then he electrified the bar and swung down, not intending to actually hit the wizard. The metal user acted exactly as Lancer predicted, he stuck out his hand and caught the bar, realizing too late that he had done himself in. The wizard fell in a crumpled heap, but when Lancer turned the boy he had rescued was being used as a hostage by the fire-make user and his fierce leader.
"Surrender, we have the boy" the woman said with a smug look
"Yeah surrender" the fire-make wizard said smiling broadly
The woman snapped back, "shut up".
It was almost typical how things ended up, "all I have to do was stall, but how…." He thought silently
That's it for chapter 4, please comment, tell me how I'm doing. Follow and Fav if you enjoyed! Till next Time!