Chapter 10

Payback

Shinon left the Dragon Fang Coliseum with Eli, Hrothgar, and their new companions Griffin the buster sword wielding mercenary, and Dinah the stealthy assassin from the Order of the Shadows. Following the direction of the young mage, the group traversed through a forest and then found themselves walking on the same beach that Shinon shipwrecked on several weeks ago. The camp of the Unforgiving Sword mercenaries was located in a nearby section of the dense forest that made up that portion of Tyseria, but Hrothgar advised the squad to travel through the beach to avoid conflict with vigilant mercenaries.

Over the past day of travel, Shinon was able to learn much about his new companions. Dinah, was a skilled assassin of the Shadow Order. As a Shadow, Dinah was frequently hired to be a killer, or a stealthy informant. Her clan often hired themselves out to the highest bidders and would frequently be a force that could change the course of an entire battle by either eliminating a specific and important target, or learning key information that can change the tide of any war. Dinah did not give any details why she currently was not with the Order of Shadows, and wandering around with this rag tag group. Shinon suspected that there was more to her then what met the eye, but the beautiful woman did not speak much.

Griffin on the other hand, never stopped talking. Most of his conversation was directed to the quiet assassin, who would quickly shut him down in a cold phrase that would leave the man demoralized, but not for long. In other conversations, Griffin revealed that he and his partner Arthur (who Shinon had left for practically dead in the Coliseum) had grown up together on the plains of central Tyseria. Arthur was a son in a wealthy family, and Griffin was a kid of the streets that befriended him. Arthur frequently would sneak food to his homeless buddy, and the two grew quite close. Their town was destroyed in a savage fire, twenty years ago, killing all of Arthur's family among many other people. The two boys left the decimated town and started their journey to become Tyseria's greatest heroes. Their shared motto was "Whatever it takes", a reminder that they would gain fame and glory no matter the cost.

As the gang was walking on the sand, suddenly Hrothgar, on horseback rose his arm abruptly, motioning them all to stop in their tracks. He pointed forward and spoke. "Look ahead! There is a small gathering of Sea Pirates. We should probably go around them, and avoid needless conflict."

"Oh this conflict is hardly needless..." Shinon grinned wickedly, as he readied an arrow and began moving forward. "It's time for me to get payback for what those fish freak sub humans did to me!"

Shinon ran forward, and Griffin unstrapped his massive buster sword and followed along, as he yelled, "Alright! A fight with sea vermin, count me in!"

"Wait, don't go!" Eli yelled out at the two men, who were not listening at all. "Whenever there is a small camp of Marines, more are always close by...Those morons!"

Dinah sighed as she grabbed her knives from her belt and looked at the young mage, "Don't worry, kid...I'll make sure they don't die." And Dinah too ran off to the fray of battle.

The small gathering of eight untransformed foot soldiers in the Marine Laguz clan had no warning that they were about to be attacked. As they sat around their campfire, two swift arrows zoomed in, and found their targets into the skulls of two unlucky pirates, who instantly fell to the sand dead. Five of the sea pirates jumped up and grabbed their tridents ready for battle, as the sixth who was their human mage stepped back for cover, and withdrew a blue crystal orb and began to cast the one spell his pirates permitted him to cast.

Griffin and Dinah rushed forward to meet steel with the fish pirates, and their blades killed three more. The mercenaries were outnumbered, but their battle skill dwarfed the low ranking sea pirates, especially in their human form.

The tide of the war changed as the sea mage's spell began to show fruition, rain began to fall where they stood on the beach. Suddenly, as their bodies became wet, the Marine Laguz gained their ability to transform into their fish forms and grow in strength. The fighting became harder for Dinah and Griffin, but luckily Shinon now entered the scene to help.

As the Sea Pirates transformed, their skin turned blue and gills began to pop out of their bodies. Then went from looking like humans to fish very quickly.

"They aren't nearly as tough on land!" Shinon exclaimed, as he shot an arrow into the eye of a fish man coming towards him. "Payback's a bitch, bitch!"

"Don't get so full of yourself..." Dinah said loudly, but calmly, "Marine Laguz are connected mentally with one another...I am sure these lowlifes had alerted their superiors of this ambush."

"Let them come!" Griffin yelled, as he chopped another pirate in half. "I welcome the challenge!"

And as if waiting for an invitation, suddenly out of the ocean waves came ten more Sea Pirates, but the higher ranking officers...the Shark people. The massive fully transformed Laguz surrounded the three mercenaries and growled ferociously as they hungered to devour the flesh of their human enemies.

The three mercenaries huddled closer together, back to back, as the massive shark people moved closer. Griffin was the first to admit the flaws of their previously logic. "In hindsight, maybe we bit off more then we could chew..."

"Speaking of biting off and chewing..." One of the shark people spoke in man's tongue so the mercenaries could understand him and feel threatened, "It's dinner time, men!"

Shinon felt more annoyed then usual from the light taunt, that he rushed forward, ducking and dodging, a few shark attacks to punch the main laguz in the face. His punch held a little bit more power then usual, and knocked the shark man back a little. Shinon rushed forward, but was quickly grabbed by two other large sharks. Tried as he might, even with his enhanced might and rage, Shinon could not move.

Meanwhile, Eli and Hrothgar watched the scene from a distance and Hrothgar spoke to the young mage. "What should we do, sir? Do we intervene, or cut our losses and let the fools die?"

"Why didn't they just listen..." Eli spoke, gritting his teeth and feeling his own anger rise. "I have gone through to much trouble getting these worthless sellswords for them to die here to the Marines...such...stupid..."

"Lord Eli might I suggest taking a breath and calming down..." Hrothgar spoke watching the tint of the eyes of his young lord flash a little yellow, as his cheeks started to show signs of a black tint.

"I'm fine!" Eli roared back, with a voice that had strangely much more bass then usual. "Stand back, Hrothgar, I'll take care of this foolishness!"

Eli withdrew his dusty old tome, one of the last remaining spellbooks of the Sunder tribe., and it flipped to the correct page all on it's own. Eli closed his eyes and cast his spell, and as he opened his eyes, they were in a yellow and demonic tint.

Out of the book erupted his Electric Golem that shot high into the air in the form of several lightning bolts that moved swiftly around the beach. All the bolts zapped around until they all met each other, and formed the golem. The fighting on the beach stopped, as all the fish and shark people stared at he terrifying sight in horror. As Shinon was being held down by two sharks, he took note that his time the lightning that was radiating out of Eli's book was a pale yellow tint, instead of the bright white, "normal" color it was in the coliseum.

With a couple swift hand motions from Eli, the Golem flashed forward and around the beach battle field, surging through all the fish and killing them suddenly. The power of the electricity either made the weaker fish blow up, or it simply sent the sharks to the ground, dead, with fried bodies and smoke raising from their burnt corpses.

One the shark sea pirates, who was the last to died, tried to escape, and as he attempted to lunge back into the sea, he shot a massive dart in the direction of Eli. The three mercenaries thought this would be an instant killing blow, because the mage was wide open to an attack, but with great reflex and precision, Hrothgar moved forward and thrusted his lance defensively and blocked the dart from his young master. After all the sea pirates were destroyed, Eli fell to the ground, exhausted and unconscious.

As Hrothgar picked up his motionless body and placed him lightly on his horse, Shinon noticed that the gawdy, ornate, metallic bracket that Eli wore and tried so hard to hide from everyone, was surging a little with electricity, and the gemstone was glowing. Shinon wondered, what caused Eli to fall unconscious, the use of his strange powers to such an extraordinary extent, or that bracelet?

"What just happened?" Griffin asked, stunned with surprise once again by the mysterious youth.

"Is he a..." Dinah began to ask, but was interrupted by Hrothgar.

"What he is, is the boy who just saved all of your worthless lives." Hrothgar gave each mercenary a dirty look, judging all of their lack of professionalism and strategy. "Now I suggest we all leave before another round of Sea Pirates come to seek justice for their fallen comrades. Young Eli will be out of commission for a little while, and I do not recommend you all going a third round with Marine Laguz without him."

"Enough said." Griffin said with a shrug, "Let's get our asses back into the forest, shall we?"

And the company continued on their expedition towards the mercenary camp of the Unforgiving Sword.