Edit 8-10-2019: Fixed issue with motion tracker.
X
2 Days Post-Arrival
Frontier Town
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XX
The early morning sun shone brightly over the horizon, bathing all the world in its infinite glory.
Noble Six stood in front of the same large wooden doors as he had the day previous. He had come to stand there after spending the entirety of the night and early morning scouting the layout of the town and it's surrounding area. After much thought put into the subject, Six had decided to take his first "job" as a mercenary today. He had mostly put off doing so the previous day due to his wanting to know what would most likely be his base of operations for the foreseeable future, but also partly because he hated the feeling the knowledge of being a mercenary gave him.
With his thoughts gathered and his mind focused, the Spartan reached his hand towards the doors to let himself in. However, it seemed someone inside had the opposite idea, as the doors swung open before he could reach either one of them. Golden visor met golden eyes, and the person standing across from him gasped.
"O-oh!" Guild Girl exclaimed, surprised, "Spartan! You're here early, I was just opening up."
Six nodded in acknowledgment, and calmly strode into the guild hall, towards the bulletin board that usually held all available quests. Guild Girl watched as he walked past her with a slightly dumbfounded expression. Once she regained her bearings, the woman quickly closed the doors and walked after the Spartan.
"Um, If you don't mind me asking, why are you here so early?" The blonde questioned, stopping right next to Six, who stood in front of the empty quest board.
Six slightly turned his head to look at her, "Work," he stated. The Spartan returned his gaze to the blank board, "Where are the quests?"
Guild Girl stared confusedly at him for a moment, before realization dawned on her, "Oh! We don't post the available quests for another two hours!" she slightly lowered her gaze and ran her hands over her flat pencil skirt in embarrassment, "Sorry, I guess I forgot to mention it to you yesterday."
The Spartan paused at this new knowledge. It would have been much more useful to have known this information beforehand. If he had, he would have been able to utilize the extra time to scout out possible places of residence within the town. Six, refusing to show any of his inner frustration, turned to leave.
"W-wait! Where are you going?" Guild Girl questioned.
Six paused his advance towards the guild doors, "Out." the Spartan stated. Guild Girl stared after his hulking form as he began to leave once more. Right before the super-soldier was able to exit the guild, a high pitched, feminine voice called out from behind him.
"Good morning, Guild Girl!" both the Spartan and Guild Girl turned towards where the voice originated, and a small smile came to the latter's face.
"Good morning to you, too, Padfoot Waitress." Guild Girl returned, giving the bubbly chef a small wave. Padfoot Waitress was a brown-haired girl in her late teens, wearing a medieval-style waitress uniform. She had a pair of fox-like ears on top of her head, along with a long, furry tail thanks to her Padfoot lineage.
Six stared in slight shock at the girl's appearance. Thoughts of how someone could possibly attain such lupine body parts flowing within his mind. He continued to silently stare as she approached the blonde woman who still stood next to the board.
"You'll never guess what I managed to get the recipe to!" The Padfoot exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.
"Um…" Guild Girl seemed to think for a second, placing a dainty finger to her chin in thought. After a moment of silence, she shrugged, "I don't know, what is it?"
Padfoot Waitress' grin grew impossibly large, "You remember the soup that they served at the royal festival last year?"
Guild Girl's eyes grew wide in disbelief, "There's no way…" at the Padfoot's excited nod, the blonde woman's jaw dropped, "How?!"
The Waitress gave her a sly wink, "Trade secret." her smile shrank to a more friendly size and she placed a hand on her hip, "I'll be making it the special at the end of this week, hopefully I'll have it mastered by then so it'll be at it's best." It was then that she finally noticed the elephant-or rather, spartan-in the room, who still stood silently by the front doors.
Padfoot Waitress' brown eyes met the towering Spartan's neutral visor, and whatever good mood there once was instantly dissipated. Guild Girl looked nervously between the Waitress' slight glare and the super-soldier's impassive visage. Six's form was tense, muscles coiled and ready to spring into action the moment the mutant showed any hostility. Just when the unnatural tension between the two seemed to almost become palpable, the Padfoot allowed a small smirk to adorn her face.
"Hey… Are you hungry?"
All tension immediately shattered, and both of the other occupants within the hall stared dumbfounded at the Waitress. Well, one of them, the other was merely confused by her random question.
"What?" Six questioned, allowing some of the tension within his powerful muscles to fade. Padfoot Waitress wore a friendly grin in response to the confusion in his rumbling voice.
"I asked if you were hungry. Most people who come to the guild this early usually come for food, so I thought you'd be the same." The Waitress paused, putting on a contemplative expression, "Then again, I've never seen you around here, and you'd be pretty hard to miss, so you're probably new." her easygoing smile returned, full force, "Well, maybe not that hard to miss, I didn't notice you when I was talking with her." she nodded to Guild Girl, who stared at her with her mouth agape.
Noble Six stared at the strange mutant girl in front of him. She wanted him to eat, supposedly, something she would be cooking. And while Six would admit that he was hungry, it would be a cold day in Hell before he ate something a mutant made.
"So, what do ya' say?" The Waitress asked.
Six had already made his decision. He promptly turned around and walked out the door.
Noble Six silently stalked through the forests to the east of Frontier Town. He kept a close eye on both his motion tracker and his forested surroundings, looking out for any of the horned mammalian creatures he had spotted on his trek to Frontier Town the previous day.
Six idly thought of the young girl he had saved from those disgusting creatures. He wondered how she was handling the deaths of her parents.
A large grey blip on his tracker and the nearly inaudible sound of sticks cracking told him that his prey was near. The Spartan was wraithlike as he skulked from tree trunk to tree trunk, advancing on his prey in a manner not unlike that of a wolf. Once he had gotten a visual confirmation that his prey was indeed the same species as the once he had spotted previously, he crouched down just behind a large bush that barely hid his hulking form from the creature's sight.
Six did not feel the need to waste a bullet on his prey, and instead opted to use his combat knife, unsheathing said weapon without a sound. After adjusting his posture to a more aggressive slouch, the Spartan sprung into action. All in one swift movement, the super-soldier leaped from behind the bush, tackled the large creature, and plunged his 10-inch knife into the creature's skull.
It was dead before it could even comprehend what had happened.
With his prey dead and his future meal in mind, Six hoisted the corpse of the horned creature over his left shoulder and made his way back to his makeshift camp. A couple of minutes of weaving through dense trees and webbing from some sort of arachnid later, the Spartan arrived at his temporary residence.
The camp was rather quaint, with a large log as a seat and a circle of stones as a container for the fire he planned to cook his food with. It was in a rather convenient place, a small grassy clearing surrounded by trees, similar to the one he had first found himself in when he mysteriously arrived on this planet.
After a quick session of gutting and cleaning the carcass of the creature he had killed, B-312 sat on is makeshift log-seat and watched his meal cook over a blazing fire, lost in his thoughts. The UNSC, this planet, the guild, that overly friendly mutant that he was sure wanted to poison him. Six still couldn't quite wrap his head around the fact that there was an animal-human mutant on this planet, let alone the fact that there had to be someone twisted enough to create them.
God forbid if there were more.
Six remembered what Guild Girl had said about the quests being posted earlier this morning. That had been around an hour and a half ago, so he had roughly 30 minutes before he needed to return to the guild. Just enough time to fill himself and cover his tracks. Six allowed the venison-like meat to cook for another 10 minutes, before finally taking it off the fire.
Six knew he would, obviously, have to remove his helmet to consume the meat, and gave his motion tracker one last glance. Seeing no signatures, the Spartan placed the wooden spit impaled through the meat on the rocks that contained the fire, and grasped his helmet on either side of his visor. With a twist and a low snap-hiss, the atmospheric seal that kept him alive within the suit was broken, and he lifted the gunmetal-grey helmet from his head.
A surprisingly young face greeted the outside world with a seemingly permanent cold scowl. Unkempt curly brown hair fell out of the helmet in short tufts, falling just short of the piercing and stormy gray eyes that were reminiscent of a hawk's. The exposed skin looked as if it had never seen the light of day, being an unhealthy alabaster and covered in scars. The Spartan placed his battle-scarred helmet on the log, just to his right. He lightly shifted his posture to more comfortably bear the barely noticeable weight of the weapons on his back and reached for the impaled meat that was kept warm by the dwindling fire.
As he ate, Six focused all his mental power on the sounds of the forest. The crackling of the embers in the fire, along with the distant sounds of avians singing their morning songs greeted his augmented ears. As he continued to listen, he began to feel something deep within his core. A feeling he would have never thought he could have achieved any day before he arrived on this planet.
Peace.
The call of the birds, the crackling of the fire, the rustling of the leaves. It was something he had never experienced before, and he wasn't sure he had ever even wanted to. War had given him purpose, and that was all he needed.
With that thought, the peace ended, and the storm of thoughts the temporary serenity within him had managed to hold back filled his mind once more. Six opened his eyes, having not even realized that he had closed them, and focused on finishing his meal. He was on a tight schedule, he would have time for R&R later.
After finishing his meal and replacing his helmet in its rightful place, Six kicked dirt over the fire to put it out, and making sure he left no obvious traces of his presence, he began the short trek west to Frontier Town.
Six stood down the street from the Adventurers Guild, watching the flow of armored and robed adventurers flow through the front doors. There were a lot of people there, much more than had been present the previous day, to be sure. Out of the corner of his vision, the Spartan could see a group of people glancing at him and whispering amongst themselves, almost assuredly about him. Six was mostly used to it and could easily ignore the attention he usually garnered, but it still put him on edge to be in the attention of so many, especially those who were not under his command.
Just as he began to approach the guild entrance, the Spartan heard a familiar voice call out from behind him.
"Mister Spartan!"
Six turned around, and spotted the same girl that had led him to this town the previous day-Farm Girl, he believed her name was-running up the road towards him. Six stood still as she stopped in front of him and doubled over, panting heavily.
"You-" She stood straight and took a second to catch her breath. After her breathing had calmed down, she clasped her hands in front of her and gave the super-soldier a smile, "You're still here!"
Six stared at the much shorter girl before slowly nodding, not really understanding the purpose of such a statement.
Farm Girl lightly blushed and looked away from his visor, "I-I just thought that you might have left town already. You never told me you needed to be here, so I just assumed…" she trailed off, lightly wringing her hands in front of her.
Huh. She was acting rather strange, even for a child. Six thought that it might be due to her recent orphaning, but he wasn't really too sure.
He glanced at the bottom right of his HUD, checking the time with a mental command. If Guild Girl's information was correct, the quests would have been posted around 8 minutes ago. And assuming that there were a limited number of quests for the taking, then he needed to be there as soon as possible to acquire the best paying quest he could.
"I need to go." Six stated, and began to turn away from the teen.
"W-wait!"
Of course.
Six stopped, and glanced back at her, his emotionless visor clearly imploring her to speak quickly.
The girl seemed to shrink under his gaze, "W-where are you going?"
"The guild."
Farm Girl's eyes widened in surprise, "Wait… You're an adventurer?" she seemed to reach some sort of conclusion within her mind, because her expression transformed from realization to… disappointment? Six wasn't quite sure, he was never good with emotional expression.
"So… you only saved me because it was a quest?" she asked with a frown. Six stared at her, even more confused than he had been beforehand.
"Negative. I have only been with the guild since yesterday." Six stated factually, growing slightly impatient with the girl's incessant questioning.
She looked more than a little pleased with his answer than was reasonable. To Six, at least, "Oh, good!" She paused, as if she had not meant to say that out loud, "Well, um, I wouldn't want to hold you if you need to get to the guild." A little too late for that, Six thought, "I'll see you later, Mister Spartan!"
Six gave her a nod in farewell and turned away from her. He hurriedly approached the guild entrance and entered through one of the doors. The guild hall was as full as it was yesterday, if not even more so. Three-one-two recognized some of the adventurers seated at the tables in the middle of the hall, the same as had been there the day before.
Thankfully, they all seemed too engrossed in their breakfast and conversation to notice him, and he made it to the quest board without so much as a glance his way. Six turned his helmeted head to look over the collage of papers stapled or tacked to the board. There were many different kinds of jobs, from tending to gardens to slaying dragons.
Six almost snorted in amusement at that. Of course this world would have dragons. He quickly decided not to think upon the possible ramifications of such creatures existing. He already had enough on his mind as it was.
The Spartan continued to scan the board until he finally found something right up his alley. An extermination quest for some kind of creature called a draugr. It was a porcelain ranked quest, and it seemed like it would pay fairly well. With his decision made, Six tore the quest paper from the board and turned to the front desk.
"-You can find quests on the board- Oh!" Guild Girl looked surprised to see him. A young-looking girl with long blonde hair that reached down to her waist stood in front of him, staring at him in open-mouthed shock. Six observed her, noticing her strange priest-like robes and her black and gold staff. He felt a slight amount of confusion at why a child would be at the guild, but quickly brushed the thought off. Six turned his emotionless gaze to the woman behind the counter, who's previously shocked expression was replaced with a small smile.
"Spartan!" Guild Girl exclaimed. She glanced down at the paper clutched in his hand, and her small smile quirked upwards, "I see you've found a suitable quest. Just allow me to finish helping Priestess here and I'll get you on your way."
Six nodded in acknowledgment and tuned out the blonde woman as she began to speak to the strangely dressed teenager once again, finding no reason to listen. He idly watched the inhabitants of the guild, making sure not to turn his head in an attempt to make his gaze less obvious. As he continued to watch the adventurers go about their morning routines, Six noticed a brown-haired boy with a sword strapped to his waist approaching the blonde in front of him. He allowed his hand to glide down to his magnum, just in case his intentions were less than friendly.
The boy walked up to the girl and leaned up on the counter of the front desk, giving her an arrogant grin, "Hey, wanna go adventuring with us?" He interrupted. Both Guild Girl and the girl named 'Priestess' turned to him.
"Huh?" Priestess questioned, giving the boy a confused look. The boy raised a brow at her expression.
"You're a priestess, right?" He asked. Six watched as two more teenage children walked up behind the boy, both females, "My party's missing a priest, but we've got an urgent quest to do." One of the females behind him, one wearing some sort of purple martial artists uniform, nodded, while the other merely readjusted her glasses, "We were looking for another person with a certain set of skills, and you would fit that position perfectly. Would you come with us?"
Priestess looked slightly overwhelmed, and gave Guild Girl a questioning glance. The woman seemed to think for a moment, before slowly nodding. Priestess turned back to the trio and gave the boy a nod.
"Sweet! With the four of us as a party, those goblins won't stand a chance!" The boy declared. Six's eyes narrowed at the mention of those green monstrosities. He knew for a fact that if they were as capable as their appearances suggested, they would most likely all be killed if they faced any goblins. He wondered how the guild could even allow children to take quests in the first place. The irony of such a thought was completely lost on him.
Guild Girl looked sharply at the boy and her eyes widened, "Um, you're all porcelain ranked, right?" the boy gave her a nod, "Then I'm sure if you wait a little while, more experienced adventurers will show up." she explained.
The boy didn't seem to agree on her reasoning, and it was then that he noticed the towering form of the Spartan just behind the girl he had recruited. The boy's face went from shock to an expression of realization, and he grinned at him. Six felt light suspicion at the sudden change in demeanor, further narrowing his eyes at the small group of teenagers.
"How about you?" The boy looked him up and down, "You seem capable enough." Six could guarantee that these children had never even seen something as capable as him.
Wait, the boy wanted him to join their quest?
Guild Girl looked up at the Spartan, opened her mouth to speak, but paused. She seemed to think for a moment before she slowly nodded. Whether this was in response to the boy or to herself, Six couldn't tell.
"Well," Guild Girl began, looking at Six's visor, "That could work. I'm sure Spartan here is more than capable of helping you. That is, if he's willing?" Six gazed at the woman behind the counter, before looking to the group of teenagers. They all stared at him, and the boy seemed to have stopped breathing for some reason.
Six carefully considered his decision. On one hand, he in no way wanted to work with anyone else period. It would feel… wrong. Especially after he had just lost the last of Noble team. But he couldn't just allow children to go off to their deaths. And while he doubted his ability to dissuade them from taking the quest without having to resort to threats, he did not doubt his ability to keep them safe, should he accompany them.
Six had to withhold an annoyed sigh at having to work with children.
Irony strikes once again.
With his decision made, Six nodded, and dropped his own quest on the counter, "Hold that for me. This won't take long."
The group looked shocked at his acceptance, and the boy pumped a fist in the air. Guild Girl looked even more surprised than the rest, but she quickly seemed to shrug it off in favor of giving the Spartan a smile.
"Ah, I will." The blonde woman looked to the boy, who was chatting with his purple clothed companion, "Do you need the quest location?"
The boy shook his head in the negative, "Nah, we already know where to go, but thanks anyways." Guild Girl nodded in acceptance and smiled at the group.
"Alright, be safe!"
After the rest of the group waved their goodbyes, the boy led them out of the guild, and towards their destination.
"Well, this is the place." The boy, who Six had discovered to be named Warrior, stated.
They stood in the middle of a small opening within a forest, roughly an hours walk away from Frontier Town. The "place" that the sword-wielding boy was referring to was a small opening in the side of one of the walls that surrounded the path they had been taking. To the right of the entrance sat some kind of decorated skull mounted on a pike. The Spartan felt slight unease at the eerie sight of such a barbaric construction, lightly thumbing the safety on the MA-37 in his hands.
Warrior looked slightly apprehensive as he looked at the impaled skull, but put on a brave face as he glanced back at the younger members of the group.
"Alright, um…" The boy trailed off, seeming to not know where to go from there.
Six took the lull in speech to take the lead, "I'll take poi-lead." the Spartan had to remind himself to speak in a manner that civvies would understand, "I need to know each of your offensive capabilities. You," Six nodded to Warrior, "How do you fight?"
Warrior looked caught off guard by Six's sudden speech, but he recovered quickly, "I usually just use my sword, but I'm no slouch with my fists." He pulled his sword out of its scabbard and showed it off to the Spartan.
Six shook his head at the boy after seeing his sword. It was at least a foot too long to be properly utilized inside of a cave as small as this. Warrior would need to find a different way to fight, "Your blade is too long for swinging within the cave. Either use hand-to-hand or stabs to fight off any goblins you encounter." The boy looked like he was about to argue, but after a glance at the size of the cave and, comparatively, his sword, he merely settled for grumbling under his breath.
Six briefly contemplated allowing the boy to use his combat knife, but ultimately decided not to. The teen would probably reject the offer anyways. He then turned to his next teammate, the girl in purple. She noticed his gaze and answered without his prompting.
"I spent years under the tutelage of my father, learning the martial-arts style we've kept in our family for generations." She stated, slightly puffing her chest out in pride. Six would be the judge of whether or not she deserved that pride, "So I'd say I'm pretty good with my fists." Six gave her a nod, then turned to the one called "Female Wizard". He didn't quite understand the relevance of her namesake, but assumed that she would soon explain it to him.
The aforementioned girl lightly pushed up her glasses, "I am an accomplished practitioner in the Sage Arts. I graduated from the Sage Academy at the top of my class in both the practical and written forms of the Sage Techniques." She said, an aura of arrogance radiating off her every word.
Six had absolutely no clue what a "Sage Art" was, but it didn't sound like it had any real use within any combat scenario. Then again, dragons were apparently a thing, so he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
"Sage Arts?" Six questioned. The girl looked at him as if he had just blasphemed her religion.
"Y-you don't know what the Sage Arts are?" she continued to look at him like he was some ill-minded degenerate, "How could you not? All of the King's greatest advisors throughout history have been masters in the Sage Arts!
Six impassively stared at the teen as she spoke. He really couldn't care less.
"What are you capable of, offensively?" He neutrally asked. He hoped the irate girl would give him an actual answer this time.
Female Wizard made a face portraying some emotion Six couldn't decipher, "I am proficient at the three basic level incantations- Flame, Gust, and Force -and I can cast the Healing technique." she sent a small glare at Priestess for some unknown reason, "And while the Sage Arts might not be as… powerful as a priests miracles, I am not limited whatever amount of casts my deity deems sufficient. As long as I have enough mana, I will be able to fight." she finished with a huff, giving the Spartan a slight glare.
Six understood none of what she had just "explained" to him. The witch-like girl couldn't possibly be saying that she could use some sort of… magic, could she? The Spartan felt his head spin at the very thought of it.
"Could you demonstrate?" Despite the confusion he felt, Six made sure to maintain his disciplined mindset. Showing weakness would only serve to lower his team's morale.
The girl seemed to think to herself for a moment, before nodding, "Yes, I could. But only one of the basic level incantations, using the Healing technique requires an injury to use it on." Female Witch finished, staring at him expectantly.
Six thought about which one would hypothetically be the best to use for close-quarters combat. Flame would probably be the worst out of the three, simply because they would have to halt their advance to avoid being burned, thus leaving them susceptible to an ambush from the rear. He assumed Gust to be a blast of wind, which would be next to useless against the goblins, seeing as there would be nowhere to blow them into. That left Force, and he had next to no clue as to what it could be.
Six couldn't believe he was devising strategies on how to use magic. If only his Chief-Instructor could see him now, "Show me Force."
The girl nodded, pushing up her glasses, before she turned towards a fallen tree slightly further up the path. She closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate for a moment. Female Wizard, opening her eyes, pointed the crystal-tipped end of her staff at the midsection of the trunk. The orange crystal began to glow with a similarly-colored other-worldly radiance, and Six felt his eyes widen when she spoke.
"Force."
A blast of pure, concussive Force, ripped through the air, blasting anything within it's path aside. The blastwave made a sound akin to rolling thunder as it moved, causing the rest of the group, sans the Spartan, to flinch. Within the blink of an eye, the visible shockwave reached the log and shattered it's center. The remaining pieces on either side of the impact point were thrown at least 5 meters down the path, roughly rolling before coming to rest.
But there was something… wrong about her voice when she had spoken. It was almost as if it was a multitude of people speaking at once, with a voice far deeper than her's overcoming the girl's own voice.
The rest of the group stared in shock at the display of power, the three non-wizard teens in particular. Warrior looked at the results of the blast in open-mouthed shock. He turned to the Wizard, who looked mildly winded, and gave her an awed look.
"Woah." he simply stated, clearly impressed.
Six had to agree with his statement, although he was far less awed than he was contemplative. He couldn't possibly fathom how Female Witch had done what could only be explained as unexplainable.
A lot of things on this planet seemed to fit that description, now that he thought about it.
The Spartan's thoughts kicked up a notch as he began to think about the possible applications of these… Sage Arts in warfare. The idea that any human could fire blasts of fire, air or pure concussive force at will, made him wish the UNSC had discovered this strange planet sooner. And Female Wizard was apparently only a novice at best. If given time and proper training, who knew what kind of soldiers the UNSC could create.
Who knew how the War would have gone if he had they had this kind of power at their disposal. Maybe then, so many wouldn't have had to suffer. Maybe then, so many wouldn't have had to die.
"U-um, Mister Spartan?" Six snapped out of his inner turmoil at the sound of the blonde-haired girl's voice. He mentally berated himself for appearing weak. This couldn't happen again.
Six looked to Female Wizard, who seemed to have recovered from her previous fatigue and was staring expectantly at him, and nodded, "Impressive." Six stated simply.
The Wizard's lips lightly quirked upwards at his comment and she, along with the rest of the group, turned to Priestess.
Six nodded to the girl, indicating for her to speak. Priestess straightened her back and tightened her grip on her ornate staff.
"I-I have been trained to use miracles of the Earth Mother in the Temple. I c-can cast, um, Holy Light, and Minor Heal." the girl paused, "H-Holy Light can, um, blind people or provide light when t-there is none. A-and Minor Heal can heal s-small injuries." she explained, nervously stuttering in-between her sentences.
Six assumed that these so-called "miracles" were also some kind of magic, seeing as she had referenced to their usage as "casting". He immediately wrote the 'Holy Light' miracle off as nearly useless, seeing as he had both near-perfect night vision and the dual halogen lights on either side of his helmet, and warrior had brought a simple wooden torch with him. That left the one called 'Minor Heal', which would be useful for any injuries the others might obtain.
Six quickly formulated a squad formation in order to best utilize the adventurers abilities, while also allowing himself to assist, should they need it.
The Spartan looked to Warrior, "You and Priestess will form up behind me. You two," he pointed to Female Wizard and Fighter, "will cover our rear." Six addressed Female Wizard, "Use Force to eliminate any hostiles at range." he turned to Fighter, "Kill any that get too close." Finally, he took a step back and surveyed the children he was about to lead into battle, "Do not be afraid to ask for assistance should you need it, and do not let your guard down." Six spoke, channeling as much as his inner authority as he could, "Understood?"
They all nodded, faces serious and postures rigid, although Priestess still looked to be slightly nervous. Six turned to face the open cave and clamped his assault rifle onto his back, choosing instead to use his combat knife. His ranged weapons would only serve to alert the goblins and deafen his allies.
Once ready, Six glanced back at his team and waved his hand forward. After a moment of scrambling and Priestess nearly running into the Spartans backside, they were in proper formation, and ready to advance. Six lead the group inside the dark and dreary cave. Warrior held out a freshly lit torch in his left hand, providing equal light for both sides of the team.
Six kept a keen eye on both his motion sensor and the deep cavern ahead of them as he silently marched forwards. With a thought, Six activated the lights on his helmet, sending beams of bright light down the narrow pathway. He heard a gasp come from behind him, but continued onward when no one spoke up.
A couple of minutes of walking and light chatter from the other adventurers later, Six noticed the path ahead split into two, with another tunnel off to the right. He glanced at his motion tracker and noticed multiple Grunt level signatures in the side tunnel, most likely hostiles. The Spartan held up a clenched fist to signal the rest of his team to stop, but the small impact and the light "Oof" from behind him clearly showed they hadn't understood.
"Hold here. I'll scout ahead." Without waiting for their reactions, Six silently moved forward, combat knife in hand. His helmet slowly moved back and forth as his augmented eyes darted from tunnel to tunnel, occasionally checking his motion tracker for anything he couldn't see.
Without a sound, the Spartan stalked around the curve of the tunnel to the right and spotted his enemies. 5 of the disgusting, green creatures that plagued the humans of this world. They all stared directly at him, clearly shocked at the sight of his armored form. Just as the one nearest to him looked like it was about to act, the Spartan lunged forwards, burying his combat knife up to the hilt in the infernal creature's misshapen head. Before any of the remaining goblins could react, Six lashed out with a kick that splattered the next one's brain and bits of skull on the cave walls.
Two down, three to go.
Six tore his combat knife from his first victim's skull and roughly slit the throat of another goblin, the creature making choked gurgles as it drowned in it's own blood. He pulverized the next's body with a lightning-quick punch to it's grossly malnourished abdomen, before delivering a powerful stomp to it's head to end it's life. The last of the disgusting creatures sat with it's back against the wall, pointing it's primal looking dagger while shaking in fear. In the blink of an eye, the Spartan threw his combat knife, the weapon finding purchase perfectly between the creature's eyes. The goblin was killed in an instant.
With the last of the green creatures dead, Six retrieved his blade, allowing the goblin's previously impaled corpse to slump to the ground. He quickly surveyed his surroundings, and found that the area he had just fought in was just a small pocket of open space, not really leading anywhere. It seemed the goblins utilized this area to ambush intruders, and such a fate would have befallen his team had he not acted in advance.
Six looked down at himself, seeing that he was clean of any blood or gore that could have been left after his assault on the green monstrosities thanks to his energy shielding.
The Spartan, after piling up the mangled corpses of the jackal-like creatures, returned to the main tunnel. His team all gave him surprised looks, and Warrior spoke up.
"That was fast. Did you see anything down there?" the boy questioned.
Six nodded, revealing his bloodied combat knife, "Five goblins. Looked like they were waiting to ambush any intruders. I took care of them." He calmly stated.
Warrior's jaw dropped, and the rest of the group's eyes went wide.
"B-but you were only gone for like ten seconds!" the boy objected, disbelief coloring his tone. The others nodded in agreement. Well, he had been gone for 12 seconds, but Six didn't see any reason to correct them.
"Form up. We're going into the right tunnel, be on guard." the adventurers quickly shuffled into their assigned positions behind the super-soldier, and they continued their advance deeper into said tunnel. Female Wizard and Fighter returned to their previous conversation, although much quieter than they were before, while Priestess and Warrior remained silent. Six could appreciate that.
Noble Six narrowed his eyes at the tunnels ahead as multiple grunt-level signatures popped up on his motion tracker, along with a much larger Elite-Spartan level signature in the middle of the smaller signatures. The way they were spread out, along with the potential size of the larger signature, told Six that there had to be some sort of open area ahead to contain them.
Six's theory was soon proved to be true, as the tunnel the group had been traveling down opened up into a large, rocky cavern. The open space contained at least 10 goblins, with a strangely dressed goblin that held a similar staff to the one Female Wizard used, sitting in some sort of throne made of what Six assumed to be human bones. The sight filled him with a cold rage, but he quickly clamped down on the surge of emotion. In the middle of all the goblins, sat some sort of super-goblin. It was tall, easily as tall as the average man. Six was still taller by quite the amount, but seeing such a large variant of the creature was certainly disconcerting.
As Six processed the sight before him, he held up a fist, telling the others behind him to hold their positions. He watched the line of signatures on his motion tracker hold position just behind him. Good, they had picked up at least one of his hand motions.
"What do yo-" Six quickly silenced Warrior by holding a finger to the front of his helmet.
Six spoke to the group behind him in a low whisper, "Hostile contacts in the room ahead. Ten goblins, one abnormally large goblin, and one with a staff in a throne." the group's collective eyes widened in surprise, no doubt at the number of goblins, "Work together to eliminate all hostiles, but prioritize the one with the staff, it's most likely the leader. I'll take care of the abnormal. Understood?"
His team nodded, and their expressions hardened. Six watched their faces for a moment, before turning back to the goblin filled room in front of him. He considered using his shotgun, but quickly ruled it out. As great as his aim was, the spread on the shot would be too unpredictable, not to mention if they were to ricochet. No, firearms would just pose too much of a hazard to his teammates.
He would have to make do with his combat knife, and, if need be, his energy sword.
Six flipped his grip on his blade, "We engage on my mark. Ready," Six placed his free hand on the handle of the energy sword, a plan on how to kill the large goblin taking form within his mind, "mark!"
The Spartan shot forward, becoming nothing more than a dark blur to even the sharpest eyes. His team hastily followed after him, Warrior and Fighter letting out battlecries as they attacked the surprised goblins. The green monstrosities let out shrieks as the adventurers began to slowly kill them off.
Six was nothing more than a flash of gray as he engaged the abnormal goblin. Before the disgusting creature could react to his presence, he plunged his blade into its neck, the creature letting out a choked cry as it's lungs were filled with it's own blood. Six tore the 10-inch blade from the creature's throat, allowing blood to spurt out of the wound like a gory fountain. But the hulking goblin was not yet dead. No, it was clearly still alive, and it was mad. Like a cornered animal, the goblin wildly swung it's meaty arms at the Spartan, the first of which he dodged with speed and elegance that only a spartan could possibly possess.
Just when the creature began it's second swing, Six decided this battle -if it could even be called that- needed to end. With speed and strength only a spartan of his caliber could ever hope to muster, Six grabbed the offending limb, and with a disgusting squelch, tore it from it's socket, sending blood and giblets of fleshy gore flying across the cavern. The massive goblin let out an excruciatingly loud, gurgled cry, as blood continued to flow out it's mouth, throat, and shoulder. Six threw the limb at a distracted goblin, the strength put into the throw giving the creature no time to react, resulting in it's rather embarrassing death. The behemoth of a goblin fell to it's knees, no longer having the will or the strength to continue the fight.
Six stared down at the bleeding creature before him and grabbed the hilt of the alien weapon from his thigh. With a hiss and a spark, the hallowing orange plasma came to life, promising a quick and painful death to any that may oppose it. Six gripped the handle tightly and swung the blazing blade of death horizontally.
The monstrous goblin's head fell to the ground with a loud sizzle, with it's lifeless and bleeding body quickly following after.
The Spartan had executed it.
With his foe dead and his mind focused, Six loosened his grip on the hilt of the bright orange blade, before replacing it on his left thigh. His eyes widened in surprise when his shields suddenly dropped by 10%, and he began frantically looking around for his attacker.
The rest of his team were handling the goblins -or what remained of them- quite well, even for humans without any sort of modern weaponry. Warrior and Priestess were together, with the former guarding the latter from the assault of two goblins wielding stone shortswords. Warrior swung his sword back and forth to either strike at the green monsters or parry one of their admittedly weak blows. The other two members of his team were fighting off the last of the goblins, with at least 3 of their corpses in the duo's wake. The crumpled body of the goblin that was previously sitting atop it's bony throne now sat on the floor to the right of it's seat. Six assumed that to be Female Wizard's handywork, seeing as she was the only one who could have killed it at range.
But what the Spartan found most confounding was the lack of attacker on his part. Of course, his shields had already regenerated in the short time he had spent surveying the battlefield, but there was nothing in the room that could have attacked him.
Unless…
Six quickly put two and two together, and with a thought, pulled up the energy sword's status on his hud.
The sword, which had previously been at 90% charge due to the goblins beheading, now sat at 100%. Six felt the corners of his mouth twitch upwards in an ever-so slight smirk as he realized what had just happened.
The energy sword had recharged using his shields.
Six spared his teammates a glance. They were clearly beginning to grow tired, if Warrior's slowing swings and Fighter's sluggish jabs were anything to go by. The Spartan quickly decided to continue his pondering on the alien weapon at a later date, and moved to assist his team. In less than a second, Six crossed the distance between himself and the goblins assaulting his sword-wielding ally and quickly engaged.
The Spartan sent a roundhouse kick into the backside of the first unsuspecting goblin, shattering it's spine and splattering it on the nearest wall. The other one didn't even have time to react before Six plunged his blade into it's vertebrae, killing the snarling creature instantly. As soon as he wrenched his combat knife from the creature's limp corpse, he looked to Female Wizard and Fighter, but was relieved to see that they had eliminated the last of the goblins on their side.
All his teammates looked absolutely exhausted. Both Fighter and Warrior sported shallow cuts along their torsos and arms, but nothing fatal. The two magic-using members of the team were nearly free of injuries, save for a small gash on Female Wizard's left arm.
After a moment of silence, Six's teammates taking the time to regain their breath, Warrior seemed to notice something.
"H-hey, where're the girls? There were supposed to be some kidnapped girls here. Rescuing them was the whole point of the quest!"
That was news to the Spartan, "You never mentioned kidnapped girls." Why would the goblins kidnap human females anyways? Wouldn't they just kill them?
Warrior looked slightly embarrassed as he scratched the back of his head, "Heh, uh, whoops. Must've slipped my mind at the time. Sorry."
Six honestly wasn't surprised that he had managed to forget to tell him the primary objective of the quest, the boy hadn't exactly proven himself to be the brightest.
Fighter tiredly walked up to Warrior and weakly slugged him in the arm, the boy giving a greatly exaggerated "Ow!" in response.
"You're an idiot." she stated simply, something the rest of the team seemed to agree with.
Priestess looked at Six, "Um, w-what do we do now?" the rest of his team all looked to the Spartan, clearly expecting him to know what came next.
And so he delivered, "Heal Warrior and Fighter's injuries. We leave once they are in optimal condition." The girl nodded in understanding, and quickly got to work, chanting that in the same strange double-tone that Wizard had when she cast her own magic.
Six went from corpse to corpse, checking both his motion tracker and kicking or stomping on the bodies to verify their kills, just to be safe. Once the Spartan was sure that all of the corpses were well and truly dead, he gave the order to move out, leading his team back the way they came.
If the group had stayed just a moment longer, they would have heard the faint sound of an infant's cries echo throughout the cave, originating from behind the shattered remains of the goblin's throne. An omen of things to come, for many.
"Welcome back!" Guild Girl greeted the group. Six led his soon-to-be dissolved team to the front desk.
"The goblins are dead."
Guild Girl looked visibly surprised by his statement, "W-what? You already finished the quest?" She looked to the other members of his group for confirmation. Her eyes widened further at their collective nods, "B-but how? You've only been gone for three hours!"
The rest of his team looked to the Spartan, slightly awed expressions on their faces.
"It was mostly him, if I'm being honest." Warrior spoke, looking humbled of all things, "I don't know what would have happened to us if he hadn't come. I still can't believe that you ripped that thing's arm off!"
Fighter nodded her head, looking at the boy with an amused smile, "He's right. Without Spartan's skills and leadership, I honestly think we'd be dead." she shivered, a slightly disgusted look on her face, "Or worse."
Female Wizard gave Six a smirk, "His physical capabilities are beyond exceptional, and he is a formidable leader." she pushed up her glasses at the end of her statement, "I can say with certainty that our success was mostly thanks to him."
Priestess nodded in agreement, giving the Spartan a smile.
Six felt a generous amount of surprise at their statements. Yes, he knew for a fact that he had done the majority of the work, but for them, children, to admit it. That was not what he had expected. The Spartan gave his former teammates a contemplative look, his emotionless golden visor staring down at them.
Maybe these kids weren't so bad. Six still would have preferred working alone, as he usually did, but being on a team with them hadn't been… unpleasant. Just inconvenient.
With that thought, Six gave them a simple nod, and they grinned.
Guild Girl, seeming to overcome her previous surprise, gave the group one of her signature warm smiles, "Well, I'm glad that your quest was successful. Do you happen to have your quest sheet on you?" Warrior pulled a folded up piece of paper from a small pouch hooked to his pants, and handed it to the blonde-haired woman. She unfolded it, spent a moment reading whatever it said, and wrote something on the massive book that sat on the counter next to her. Guild Girl glanced back at the quest sheet, before she opened a cabinet behind the counter, and produced a large sack.
The metallic jingle the sack made upon contact with the counter clearly identified it as their reward.
"Here's your reward, five gold and ten silver coins."
Six wasn't sure how much five gold coins was, but it had to be quite the amount, considering the rest of his former team was practically salivating.
Guild Girl's smile grew at the sight of their reactions, "I'll also need one of you to fill out a report of what happened. Nothing too much, just a short summary of any notable events."
Warrior stepped forward, leaning against the counter, "I'll do it." the boy widely grinned as he grabbed the bag of currency from the counter top.
The former team quickly split the funds equal amongst themselves, each of them ending up with a single gold coin. Six watched as the rest of the group exchanged glances, as if silently coming to some sort of agreement.
The Spartan was slightly confused when Female Wizard held out the sack, which still held the remaining 10 silver coins within.
The witch-like girl smiled when he didn't move to take the sack, "Spartan, we all know and acknowledge that you are essentially the sole reason we came out of that cave alive. As such, we've agreed that you should take the remaining coins, as a way of giving our thanks." the others nodded at her speech, seemingly in agreement.
Six looked between their faces, and slowly took the sack from the girls comparatively tiny hand. He placed his gold coin in the small cloth bag before placing it inside of a small compartment on the underside of his chestplate.
Six felt his lips slightly upturn in the ghost of a smile, "Thank you."
With their quest done and the group of adventurers safe, Six considered his business with them done. His former teammates expressed a decent amount of disappointment at his sudden departure, but the Spartan, for what little amount of camaraderie he shared with them, was adamant in his leave.
He still had a job to do, after all.
Adventurers Guild - 3 days post-quest:
"-ave you seen Spartan, by chance?" Priestess questioned, worried.
Guild Girl shook her head in the negative, "I'm afraid not. He took an extermination quest yesterday, though I'd have to get permission from the guild administration if you want to know where the quest sent him." the blonde woman gave the younger girl a curious look, "Though, if you don't mind my asking, why are you looking for him?"
Priestess frown deepened in disappointment, "I-I was hoping we could go on another, um, quest together." the girl looked slightly embarrassed as she spoke, "I'd go with Warrior and Fighter, but, um, no offense to them, they aren't as… reliable, as Spartan is." despite the fact that the girl was objectively right, she still looked ashamed.
Guild Girl let out an amused laugh at Priestess' statement, "Well, you're not wrong." Guild Girl spared the opening doors behind the girl a glance, and her eyes widened in surprise.
The blonde woman seemed to think for a second before something clicked, and she gave the younger girl a smile.
"I think I may have found a solution." At Guild Girl's confusing statement, Priestess turned to look at what the older woman was referencing, and her eyes widened.
Guild Girl excitedly waved her hand at the figure in the doorway, a fond smile and a light blush on her face.
"Welcome back, Goblin Slayer!"