Chapter Seven: Persuasion
With Knight Master busy with the earthling and everyone else distracted by the previous events Rufus had taken the time to sneak away without anyone knowing for a bit. He knew that now that he was part of the Grand Chase he wasn't supposed to be taking on any contracts, but how else was he supposed to make money? Besides, with the war going on there were a lot of people that wanted others killed, and a big boom in the Black Market.
The only person that had seen him creeping from the camp was Rin. He'd gotten kind of careless lately, and that wasn't good. That was what taking a break from his bounty hunting did. He'd been creeping into the forest when Rin had surprised him from behind.
"Where are you going," she had said.
"A walk," had been Rufus' reply.
Of course Rin knew very well that Rufus was not going for a walk, but she'd decided to say nothing about it.
His mind began to wander towards the events that had happened earlier that day. About the girl, the adaptor. What interested him the most was that Jin had said she was from Earth. If that was so, he wanted to know how. Were there portals opening on Earth like there was in the demon world? And if so, who was opening them?
Rufus approached a shack he was supposed to meet his newest client at. It was more of a bar to be honest. Even though everyone had been evacuated from Bermesiah, quite a bit of people had stayed back. Mostly wanted criminals and black marketers who needed to keep their businesses going.
He could hear the laughter of men inside of the shack. If they don't quiet down an Infected will scout them out and crash their party, he thought.
Rufus stood in the dark waiting for a while. After a couple of minutes the door to the shack creaked open.
"You coming in or what?" A man's voice asked.
Rufus smiled. So they had finally noticed him. He walked towards the shack and entered through the door. Inside was exactly what he had expected. A bunch of drunken men and slutty women.
The man that had let him in led Rufus to an empty table at the very back.
Sitting down, a waitress who happened to be showing a lot of skin poured him a drink that he did not want. Once she left, Rufus got to the point.
"So who is it?" He asked the man sitting across from him.
His voice had made him sound a lot older than he was, but now that Rufus could see him somewhat clearly in the dim light of the shack he estimated the man to be about 27.
"I heard you're one of the best around. Your awfully young to be a bounty hunter don't you think?" The man asked.
"If all you're going to do is chat then its best I'd be going," Rufus replied.
The man smiled exposing his rotting teeth. "Alright alright, I'll get to the point," he said, chuckling a bit.
What the hell was so amusing, Rufus thought.
"I need you to kill a man," he continued.
Well obviously.
"He's a drug dealer from the black market. At least that's what he says. Turns out he's working for one of them Infected'. I saw him conversing with one myself, and he saw me watching him. That's why I need him killed. He's out to get me."
Rufus nodded. That was a good enough reason for him. You see, though he was a bounty hunter he only took on contracts that he thought were...somewhat noble, you could say or contracts that interested him. "I'll do it. But you'll have to pay a pretty hefty price considering the fact that he's close with the Infected. Who knows, maybe he could even call them in for back up."
The man nodded. "I understand. I'll pay whatever, just please get rid of him."
Rufus stood up. "I need the cash up front," he informed.
The man looked surprised. "Right now? I don't know about that..."
Rufus shrugged. "Goodbye then."
He took a couple of steps in the direction of the door.
"WAIT!"
Rufus turned to see the man right behind him.
"Ok,ok. I'll pay," he said, giving in. "How much?"
Rufus smiled."150,000 coins."
"How much longer, Arme? I'm getting really tired..."
Amy had begun complaining about the trip 2 hours into it. How had they not caught up to Sonia yet? Had she really run the whole way?!
"Amy, calm down," Arme said, we're pretty much already there. Look. The ground is already turning into sand."
Amy squealed. "Yay!"
The four of them quickened their pace. Kerrie Beach was just up ahead. This was their one and only lead. If they couldn't find Sonia here, they'd have to look around for more clues.
All of a sudden, Arme stopped. She was at the front of the group so everyone noticed.
"What's wrong?" Sieghart asked.
"Shh, I heard something," Arme explained.
Everyone quieted down and listened. At first there was nothing, but then they heard it.
"Are those…goblins?!" Jin asked.
"I think so," Arme replied. "By the sounds of it, it seems like they've scouted something out. You don't think it's…"
"Sonia!" Sieghart finished. He was about to run when Arme held him back.
"What are you doing!?" he demanded.
"We can't just run in there," Arme said," we have to remain unseen. Who knows how many there are."
Sieghart sighed. She was right. "Alright, then how do we do this, Arme?"
"I suggest we split up into groups of two. One of us will make our way to the other side of the beach. The other two will stay on this side. If we need to attack, we'll get them from both sides by surprise."
Sieghart nodded. "Got it. Jin, you come with me."
"Alright," Jin agreed.
Arme was getting even more excited than she had been before now. "And I guess you're with me, Amy. Ok, let's do this!"
"Come on run faster! We have to get to the other side!"
Sieghart and Jin had been running their fastest but they still hadn't made it to the other side of the beach. It was bigger than it looked.
Earlier they had snuck to the very edge of the beach to see what was going on. What they had suspected had been right. On the beach was a bout 15-20 goblins all lined up. They were lined up side by side and there seemed to be a leader lecturing them about something. They couldn't make out what was going on though since neither Jin nor Sieghart were fluent in Goblin.
"Jin…" Siegharts voice trailed off.
Jin turned around to face Sieghart. He was standing a couple of meters behind him looking straight up. Jin couldn't understand why. "Sieghart, what are you doing! Come on your wastin-"but then he saw it.
Up in a tree was Sonia trying to climb down as fast as she could. So it really was her that the goblins had spotted.
It looked like she was having a lot of trouble getting down. She kept slipping and losing her grip.
"HEY!" Jin yelled, to get her attention.
Sonia looked down. When she saw the two boys she was so shocked she lost all of her grip and fell out of the tree.
"Catch her!" Jin called out to Sieghart.
Sieghart ran to where he estimated Sonia would fall, but before Sonia made it to the groud she caught hold of another branch.
"What do you want!" she demanded. "Leave me alone!"
"We're here to help you," Sieghart explained.
Sonia shook her head. "NO! GO AWAY!" She tried her hardest to climb back up, but then she remembered the goblins. "I need to get out of here. There's something weird on the beach."
"We know," Jin said. "That's why we're here. To help you."
"I don't need your help," Sonia said. She dropped to the ground and landed on her feet. "Ow…"
"Oh, you don't need our help? Then tell us how you're planning on getting somewhere safe," Sieghart challenged.
"Run," Sonia said. She was about to take off when Sieghart grabbed the back of her shirt. "LET GO!"
"No."
Sonia turned around and tried to punch the boy, but he dodged it and she missed.
Jin walked up from behind. "We're not going to hurt you," he explained. "We honestly didn't mean to frighten you or anything. There's just something about you that doesn't make sense."
But Sonia didn't want to hear anything. She twisted from Sieghart's grip and ran without paying attention to where she was going. She ended up on the edge of the beach, in plain sight of the goblins. Sieghart and Jin ran up from behind her.
Sieghart sighed. "Now look what you've done."
From the opposite side of the beach Arme and Amy had been silently watching when they saw three figures run onto the beach.
"IT'S THEM!" Amy shouted. "Ooo, what's Sonia wearing? It's so cute!"
Arme glanced at Amy. "Its almost the same thing you have on." She got up from behind the bush to get a better view. Amy was right. It really was them, but what the hell were they thinking!? Running into plain sight like that! The goblins had surely seen them.
Guess there's no surprise attack, Arme thought. "Come on, Amy. We need to help them."
Arme and Amy were about to run onto the beach as well, when they realized just how stupid that was.
"Wait..." Arme said. "Let's wait a bit and see what they do."
"But Arme, the goblins..." Amy said.
Arme looked over at Amy and glared at her. There was something she wanted to see happen, and Amy would just have to deal with it. Right now, Arme was more serious than ever. "Trust me."
