Scion's Grimoire- Chapter 4
Alexandria's Underword
"Wake me up after they've had their bottles…"
--Emperor Soh-Nohs on the Senate
"Hrm… Seems pretty safe so far…"
"Reis, every time you say that something goes wrong!!!"
"What are you trying to say, Al…? That I'm bad luck…?"
"NO! I'm saying that saying THAT is bad luck!!!"
"Are you sure it's not just your screaming?"
"…"
"What was that…?"
"… I'm going to prove myself right, so I'm being quiet now."
Do they do this every time…? Rebecca thought. They sound like… like… a COUPLE!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I KNEW I had no chance…!
The party was shaken out of it by a bunch of growling noises coming from down a corridor. Albert didn't skip a beat and his sword was out in the blink of an eye. Reis took a second longer, and Rebecca fell on her behind.
"They sound like xenophages… Big ones." Albert muttered. "Reis, watch Rebecca, don't let her get into direct combat…!" Reis nods in response and quickly moves to guard an indignant Rebecca.
"I'll have you know that I can fight too! Hmph!" Rebecca retorts angrily as she stands back up. Drawing in a deep meditative breath, the Siren girl draws her rod into a chain-casting position. "I can chain-cast, so don't worry about me! I can handle a bug or two."
"Sounds like I'm going to have to take about 80 of them then… Because here they come!" A psyched up Reis yells. Wasting no time, Albert does a side flip, smashing his large sword onto the steel floor, creating a mana based shockwave that knocked many unseen skittering monsters even farther out of sight.
"Xenophages love to mess with machinery, stupid, mutated, mechanical/living, bug-things!" Albert says. "At least they aren't that strong." Albert brought his left fist up to swat a large biometallic insectoid creature that was lunging at the back of his head. He quickly brought his sword down in a continuing motion to cut one of them in half, the monster's mechanical sounding cries filling the hallway, going reasonably unheard among the rest of the noise caused by the still living ones in the swarm.
Reis was slicing them in half left and right, while Albert was doing the same. Rebecca summoned a small cloud of leaves that rushed through one of the beasts, ripping it to shreds. Continuing her chain-casting, she then cast a spell that made a wooden spike pierce through one of them from the ground, and then disappearing moments after. Albert made a hand signal to Reis and she leapt in front of Albert, while he started charging light elemental energy to his sword.
"Now!" He yelled. Reis rolled out of the way, and with a cry of "Heavy Blade Beam!" Albert unleashed a large blast of energy from his sword along the ground, incinerating countless xenophages in a swathe of deadly light. After the beam ran it's course, Reis smirked.
"Whirlwind Ripper!" She yelled. She did a series of sword slashing cartwheels whilst a small storm whirled about her body and the bugs she had sliced.
After the dust had settled, the carnage was undeniable. With two attacks, one of the stronger ones in Albert's repertoire and Reis' strongest, they had nearly cleaned out the corridor. Rebecca's mouth was agape in awe at the power these two commanded.
"It's a good thing that they are relatively weak and use their numbers to attack, otherwise that would have been just a huge waste of energy…" Albert explained.
Eheh… Could have fooled me! Rebecca thought whilst poking one of the bug corpses with the end of her rod nervously and curiously at the same time. I'll trust Albert's judgement on things like these…I don't know monsters like him and Reis.
"So, where to now, Al?" Reis said, flicking the bug 'guts' off of her sword and sheathing it at her hip. "I need to get the xeno-tech oil out of my dress before it stains too much."
"Don't worry about it, I'll pick up one for you later. Either that or some detergent." Albert said off-handedly. "Besides, there are a few valuable minerals in this mess. We can also gather vials of the xeno-oil for lubricating our armor and weapons." Albert bent down with a collection vial, a small liquid vacuum, and started filling them with the strange oil. Reis agreed and opened the pack on her hip, mimicking his actions at a different mess of bug chunks.
"Pardon me, but can't you get this stuff in town?" Rebecca asked Albert quizzically, still poking a bug.
"Hm? Oh, yeah." He responded. "It's a lot better when you get it from the damn things themselves though."
"Cheaper too." Reis added. Rebecca nodded in understanding, and decided to analyze the chemical properties of the oil, seeing as she had the time to do that.
Hm… It's organic yet synthetic at the same time…She thought, rubbing a small amount between the tips of her fingers. And when I run gaea mana through it, I can sense the presence of nano-machines. I suppose that's what allows for them to 'live' and 'breathe' as well as reproduce. I think I'll take a sample myself. So she did.
"The problem is, you usually need to purify it a little bit before using it, or the dead nano-machines will make the oil all chunky and worthless." Albert explained. "It takes a couple days for that to happen though, so we should be fine." Standing up, Albert put the vials of oil in his hip pack and dusted himself off, and running a small diagnostics program on his power fist, and making sure he didn't get any crap in its mechanics. Then, he pulled out a fold up circular disc-like object about eight centimeters in diameter, and after a few button presses, it brought up a holographic display that was a three-dimensional map of the service tunnels of Alexandria, with a dot pointing out his location.
"Right, let's go. We got a ways to go, and there are likely more cute critters in these tunnels waiting to greet us with all sorts of love…" He stated dryly. "And I'm sure boss man is getting impatient, even though we've only been down here for…" He looks at a watch he pulled from his pack. "Fifteen minutes, give or take."
From there, the trip was relatively uneventful, give or take a few goblins that thought that they would win against the trio. Albert once again proved his immense strength by getting a strike with a random screaming goblin he threw at the rest. Reis cutting down a few goblins that made it past Albert and his Power Fist o' Doom, and his Regular Fist O' Ouch-that-hurt. Rebecca poked a few goblins that were strewn about.
"Al, how much farther?" Reis asked. Albert shrugged and popped out the Holomap again. He used the keys to adjust the view, and scrolled towards the destination.
"We still got a ways to go…" He answered. "But when we get the generators up and running again we can ride the service elevators to where we need to go." Rebecca was silent throughout, her excessively paranoid thoughts about Albert and Reis' relationship keeping her already limited attention at the moment.
Albert led the group from his position at point, the light of the holomap illuminating the dim pathways of the understructure of Alexandria. Albert was having a conversation with Reis off to the side about something that Rebecca couldn't quite pick up, but with the knowledge she gained about him in the brief time she's known him, it was likely about business, and that was calming to her, but nagging doubts remained. They continued onward in the dim tunnels to the generators, without incident.
Yakyu Hama-Shima was having a great morning. Her uncle gave her a birthday present, one that she was not expecting… The Hosenka. She remembers clearly what her uncle said at her reaction to the gift.
"My little blossom has bloomed into a wonderful flower… It is only fitting that you get the Fire Flower that has been passed down for generations by this family, regardless of whether you stay here in the Hama-Shima Islands or not."
She drew the blade, examining it again. It was much straighter than a regular katana, and a bit shorter. The blade was a flawless silver with engravings of flowers near the crossguard, and the pommel adorned with engraved cherry blossoms. She learned a long time ago that the blade was forged with an affinity for fire mana, something that she could take advantage of, considering that her element was fire as well. Shrugging off the whys for now, the young elven kunoichi headed to the city square, where a small festival was taking place in her honor.
It was a typical Hama-Shima fare, with ancient games being played, stands for winning prizes, food in excess… Yep, her uncle was behind this. He was always treating her like a princess when her parents died while in service to the Emperor. She didn't blame the Emperor for that because the rebellion called for him to rally soldiers for the cause, and Hama-Shima has always provided powerful agents for their cause. Besides, she met the man when little and found him to be a good ruler, if a bit lazy.
Yakyu was broken from her little walk through memory lane by one of her Kunoichi peers. She smiled at her friends, but inwardly was somewhat saddened by their presence at this time. They would try to get her to hook up with one of the guys at the festival, but she would turn all the men down. Her friends meant well, but their targets were not of the same mindset that she was.
"Yakyu! C'mon, let's have some fun, girl! This WAS thrown for you, y'know!" One of the elven kunoichi said.
"Chikaru, you know how I feel about these festivals thrown for me…" Yakyu groaned. "They treat me like a princess, and it makes me uncomfortable. I wanna be treated like a normal person for once…"
"Girl, you ARE a princess!" her friend exclaimed. "You'd have to go to Seles for that!" Yakyu started thinking at what her friend just said.
"You know, I might just do that…" She muttered, earning small gasps from the two kunoichi. "It's annoying being waited on all the time here. Princess this, Princess that, it makes me feel that I'm not a person, just… Just an object to worship…" The two kunoichi frowned, understanding what she was saying. They were nobles too, but not the caliber of Yakyu. Her last name is the same as the continent's for god's sake…!
"You know your uncle won't go for that…" The other kunoichi, Sasami pointed out.
"I already figured that." Yakyu deadpanned. "He'll just have to deal with it, now that I'm an adult and capable of making my own decisions."
"Yeah, that'll fly well." Chikaru snorted. "He'll tear the planet apart looking for your well shaped ass."
"Yeah, I know my ass is nice. You and those men won't stop reminding me." Yakyu said wryly. "It doesn't bug me when you hit on me though, Sasami. So don't worry. You know I'm straight." Sasami did an over acted I-was-rejected scene that she does every time Yakyu pointed out she was lesbian. After she was done, she just shrugged.
"There are a lot of other sexy ladies in the galaxy, but you'll always be the prettiest flower in my eyes!" Sasami said cheerfully, pinching Yakyu's nose playfully.
"Alright girl, so what are you going to do about your uncle?" Chikaru asked. "Are you going to outright tell him that you're leaving, or are you just gonna hitch a ride on the next airship that docks down in Namikaze?"
"I… Think I'll tell him… If he tries to stop me from leaving, well… I'll just have to improvise from there, I guess."
"Well, in any case, I think you should actually enjoy the festival for once." Chikaru said, changing the subject. "If anything, go take a run in the arena. I'm pretty sure you'll do well!"
"I've never been in the arena before… Well that's 'cuz I wasn't old enough then, but now I am! Let's do it!" Yakyu responded in earnest.
The Grand Arena in Hama-Shima was where all sorts of fighters tested their mettle, settled disputes, proved honor and so forth. It is not open to the general public during the year normally, but on days like this one, it was open season to sign up for the tournament. Yakyu could barely contain her excitement! The only problems she had were the looks of surprise she got from the receptionist at the counter at The Lady Hama-Shima showing up for a bloody and dangerous contest such as that one. Yakyu gave the elven woman a glare that would set ice on fire and encountered no further comments about the subject. Yakyu was in the third round. To the young elven kunoichi, her turn could not come fast enough. However, her turn eventually came around and she could finally stop hyperventilating in excitement. She checked all of her equipment, made sure her new ninja-to was fastened properly to her hip, examined her technique scrolls, and then walked out when her name was called.
Yakyu walked out to the center of the arena floor with a predatory look on her face. She loved combat, but she hated killing. This was a perfect place for that combination. Her opponent was a Titan from the continent, and looked incredulously at his opponent.
"My opponent is this cabbage headed bimbo?" He asked the referee, who rather hurriedly scooted away from Yakyu, since he had seen what the woman has done to anyone who called her a bimbo before. He felt his heart stop when he saw the sickly sweet smile on her face and decided to get the hell out of there as soon as possible.
"Opponents, prepare yourself!" No point in saying that really, it was more of a tradition. "Threetwoonegobye!!!" The ref yelled before booking it somewhere else rather ungracefully.
"You're gonna pay for that insult before, meat head!" Yakyu said before moving at speeds that trained warriors would have trouble keeping up with. She tried a direct charge that feinted into a flank attack with her shuriken, but the Titan's armor was too resilient for that. The titan male was stunned at the woman's speed. He knew she would be quick, being a ninja and all, but this was borderline ridiculous!
Seeing an opportunity when she was finished with her shuriken salvo, he performed a quick, wide sweep with his massive sword, with a result he wasn't expecting, but inwardly happy he got to witness. Yakyu had bent backwards in a display of flexibility that would make a few contortionists proud, the massive blade sweeping past her face and assets by mere inches. To keep fluidity in her movements, she then backflipped a few times to gain some distance from the big metal thing o'doom. Sasami and Chikaru were in awe; the latter for her grace and dexterity, and the former for other reasons…
Yakyu took the time during her flips to charge up her mana for a fire spell. It was one of her favorites.
"Fireball!" She declared, launching a fireball from her palm about the size of a basketball rapidly towards her opponent. The man had no time to dodge or block, and wound up taking the blast directly.
Anthony DePellegrini Page 5 4/15/2010