So. Here is the seventh chapter of Mercenary. Hope you enjoy. I'm also adding a another OC that a person made for me to put into this story. Bet I am going to butcher everything about that OC right now because I might do just that trying to write him. I'm such a horrible person. I am going to write and see if I can take this OC as a main stay character or just a little side guy for a couple of chapters. And before any of you get any ideas; this is simply a test of whether or not I should add other people's' OCs into here. Let's just get on with it. I bet everyone is going to hate me for this. Anyway, enjoy.

Chapter Seventeen: Ravens and Thieves

I am absolutely terrified of Anna right now. You want to know why? I really don't want to tell you but I guess I have to. A few hours ago we arrived at the village. I half won my bet of the village being rubble because half of the village was rubble. The other half was behind a makeshift palisade with Archers and Sages galore. After dodging a few arrows and convincing them we are the good guys; me and Anna got some bad news. The Bazzar Bandits stole the schematics to create that teleport staff Anna said. After being told that, a group of Bandits attacked us and the villagers. Safe to say Anna was pretty angry at that point seeing how nothing was going along with the plan she apparently made. By angry, I mean killing all but one bandit so she could torture him for information! Before she started her torture session, Anna ordered me inside the palisade and to wait until she was done. After a few hours of nonstop screaming, Anna found out where the bandits' base was. Turns out the base is located in a little abandoned fort on the other side of these mountains in Plegia.

Because of that, I am now stuck with a seething ball of rage known as Anna while we walk to the fort to take care of the bandit problem. The more I talk about this the more it makes me wonder if I'm telling about that fairy tale about a dragon man whose shout could tear people apart. Good story but I can't really focus on that too much seeing how Anna is super angry right now! Maybe I could buy her something nice to cheer her up after this. Or get some loot from those bandits. All bandits must have some form of treasure after all. I'm getting too side-tracked now. Back to the present.

I walk behind Anna as she storms through the tunnel system. I am holding a little torch and its flame flickers light across the walls and ceiling of the tunnels. We have been walking for two hours and I am getting pretty tired. I bet by the time we make it to the fort it's going to be night. We haven't even had any lunch yet! I hope this ends soon. Like, really soon.

Anyways, me and Anna continue walking through the tunnels until we hear a noise. Anna motions me to hide while she presses her back against some rubble, hiding from whatever that noise is. I take positions across from her, behind a wooden support that is holding the tunnels up. We wait as the noise grows louder and louder with each step. Suddenly, five Barbarians pass us as they run through the tunnel. There is a noise behind them; making me and Anna wait a bit more until the noises are gone. The Barbarians continue on their way, leaving the noise behind them in the dust. Anna and me wait a bit more when a Thief comes to a stop, his back facing us. He has his hands on his knees and he is catching his breath through labored gasps. The Thief himself is barely of age and he is running with a bunch of bandits!

I look at Anna and motion to ask her if I can ambush the Thief. She nods at my movement. Here I go. I get behind the Thief, he still hasn't noticed me at all for some reason, and slam the handle of my sword against the kid's head. He drops like a sack of grain. Anna gets out of her hiding place and grabs the Thief.

"Come on Aiden; let's interrogate him. Whoa! This kid is pretty heavy! What is he eating?" Anna says, struggling to lift the Thief. I help Anna and also find myself struggling to pick the Thief up.

"Wow! You're right this kid is heavier than a sack of rocks. Here, let's just drag him." Me and Anna se the Thief down and grab his arms instead. We drag the Thief a good couple of feet back and into a little side cave. Anna searches the Thief and whistles in awe.

"Look at this Aiden! A silver sword. This kid must be pretty important if he is carrying such a good weapon." Anna holds up the Thief's silver sword, still in the scabbard. I nod in appreciation but the Thief starts to groan, signalling his waking. Me and Anna look at each and silently argue who gets to be good guard or bad guard. After a short but intense staring contest, I get to be bad guard. Amazing I must say.

The Thief looks up, his eyes a sparkling blue. Usually blue eyes are located over in the Valm area in the world so this Thief is a foreigner as well as a kid. His gaze grows frantic and terrified as he looks between me and Anna, saying, "W-who are you people?"

"We'll ask the questions here!" I shout, punching the kid in the face to solidify my point. The kid whimpers as he massages his now bruised and cut cheek; blood starting to slide down his cheek from the deeper cuts. Maybe I should have taken my gauntlets off… Ah well! Bad guard style. What? You didn't think I wore gauntlets? It's part of a Mercenary's armor! I'm getting off track. Back to the action.

Anna leans forward and rubs the kid's head, saying sweetly "Listen here cutie, I need to know a few things about those bandits. Like how many guards are there in their base? What kind of weapons do they have? Questions like that. If you don't answer or lie to me, I'll let my friend here beat you black and blue. Also, I very good at lying so I'll know if you lie to me. Now; how many bandits are at the base currently?"

"Last time I checked, there are always twelve patrolling the halls while three guard the prison. Bazzar hides in the treasure room all the time so he is probably in there." The kid acts sullen, his body and head turned away from us in a protective fetal position. The hood has come off to reveal short but spiky black hair.

"Good! Now, who do you have imprisoned?"

"A patrol found this crazy Dark Mage in the woods a week ago. He killed at least seven of us before we managed to knock him out. Kinlog the Snake is trying to convince him to join us but has been unable to so far. So far that is it."

"Excellent work so far little..?"

"My name is Kaito. Kaito Highguard. I'm a pureblood."

"Nice try on the bullshit."

"I try sometimes."

"Well little Kaito; thank you for your participation so far. Now, how powerful is Bazzar?"

"Well he is a General so he is pretty powerful." A General! Well looks like we are going to have a pretty big fight on our hands.

"Ok! Two more questions. First one is there schematics for a teleportation staff in the treasure room? We really need to know. It may or may not affect your life right now!"

"Y-yes! There is one! Bazzar always carries it on him. Says it's really important to him. Something about teleporting someone here."

"That is going to be trouble… Ok! Last question. Why are you a bandit? You're so young so it's a little shocking someone as young as you is a criminal." Kaito just mumbled something unintelligible for Anna's question. Anna snapped her fingers, an obvious signal for me to fuck him up. I punch the kid again, his cheek now bleeding steadily. The kid whimpers in pain while Anna just stares at him, her finger on her chin.

"Are you going to answer the question correctly?" She says, her eyes drilling into the kid despite the sweet smile on her face.

"O-ok! I'm a bandit so I can raise enough money to pay for my best friend's treatment." Treatment? This is going to get spicy.

"What are you talking about Kaito?"

"My friend, Murrial is her name, got sick a few weeks ago. She started to cough up blood and has had a lot of fevers. I didn't want to see my friend be in so much pain so I joined a group of sellswords to earn enough money for some royal magic people to come and heal her. THese bandits used to be sellswords but Bazzar killed almost everyone and the few who remained joined him. The only reason I lived was because I was his only Thief at the time. But now that he has gotten a few offers to join by this group of Thieves, I am probably going to die."

"So why go back now? You could be walking to your very death." I say, looking down with sympathy at the boy.

"Because I plan on sneaking under Bazzar's noise and I'm taking as much loot as I can. He has enough in there for five treatments!" Wait a second, this is giving me an idea.

"Say kid, want to join us? We plan on doing the exact same thing as you. Except we are going to kill the bandits too. I think." Good idea isn't it?

"Really? Thanks old timer! Come on, I know a secret entrance that could get us past two me!" Kaito gets up and runs past us. We turn and follow him, Anna having a sly smirk because she still is carrying Kaito's sword. It takes everyone about another hour before we arrive at the fort. Well inside the fort to be more precise. Turns out Kaito really did know a secret way inside.

"Ok. We are in Mingla's room. He should be in the armory trying to figure out what Dark Mages wear. He always wanted to be that class so we should avoid that place." Kaito opens the room's door and peeks outside to see if there are any guards.

"I don't know. Maybe we should go to the armory. Never know what kind of weapons are in there." Anna says, nudging me with her elbow. I nod my head in agreement.

"Fine. Just don't slow us down. Patrols will be walking around so I don't want us to be spotted." Well he has a point. Kaito leads the way to the armory while me and Anna, our weapons out of their sheathes, follow up from behind. We have a few close calls with this drunk bandits but we manage to make it to the armory undetected. Kaito opens the door and we are shown a man, his back turned to us, cleaning an axe. I push past Anna and Kaito and towards the man as silently as possible. I somehow make it behind the man without him noticing me. I raise my blade and slash downwards. My blade cleaves the man skull in two. I wipe my blade on the corpse while Anna starts to search the armory for something. I look behind me and see Kaito gagging. I guess he isn't used to seeing someone die. Thieves have it so easy seeing how most just go for the treasure.

"Hey Anna; what are you looking for?" I say, turning away from the kid to look at her.

"Something that can help us kill Bazzar like an Armorslayer or Lancereaver, something like that." Anna says, pushing a crate of weapons on it's side so its contents spill out.

"Good idea. Want me to help?"

"No, you stand guard. Kaito, help me find weapons like that now." Kaito, looking a bit green, runs to help Anna. I turn and am about to walk to the door when my foot hits something. I look down and see a black tome, it's cover colored in an intricate pattern. I pick it up and pocket it. Probably bring some gold towards my way. After thirty minutes of searching, Anna and Kaito find nothing. Looks like our fight with Bazzar is going to be tougher than hell itself. Kaito leads us to the prison rather reluctantly after Anna sweetly threaten him to take us there. We are going to recruit a Dark Mage.

We walk down a flight of stairs and as we reach the bottom, we hear someone scream. We rush forward to see a man in Plegian Dark Mage clothing, a raven and a crow resting on either shoulder, laughing while an Archer contorts in inhuman positions before dying. What. The. Fuck. Dark magic is so freaky!

The Dark Mage looks at us, smiling like he doesn't have a care in the world, and says, "Nya, ha, ha! Looks like some more bad guys to give the old one, two with. Say, I wonder if one of you guys is secretly a noble because I've never seen someone bleed blue before!"

"Whoa! Wait a sec guy! We're your friends. We came to help you." I say, dropping my sword and holding my hands up in surrender.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Aw… I wanted to see if you guys had blue blood instead of red blood! Ah well; let's go kick some bad guys' butts! Nya, ha, ha! Except I ran out of cursing stuff and I can't find my little black book of death. It's like Death Note but shoots Dark magic instead." Ok..? Is the book he is talking about… It probably is.

I take out that black tome I picked up and toss it to him, saying "I think this is yours magic man."

The Dark Mage caught the book and danced around like he was drunk. "Wowza! Thanks a whole bunch! You're a really nice guy for someone who probably lied to me and I'll have to kill you later. It's for the blood, you understand."

"I-I'm not lying to you. We've come to free you and ask you to help us-"

"Kill the big, bad guy in that treasure room upstairs? Sure! It never gets old when you watch someone in case in armor have the armor crumble inwards; crushing the person's body to mush so bad that blood pours out of them like a waterfall. Mhm… Waterfall blood…"

"...Ok…" What a weird guy.

Aiden and Henry have achieve support level C


"Say; what's your name Slick, Soulless red-headed beast, and Smalls?"

"My name is Rider."

"My name is Anna and I'm not soulless. Unless someone offers me a lot of cash that is."

"A-and my name is K-Kaito."

"Neato! Name's Henry, at your service. Now leggo kill some bad guys! Nya, ha, ha!" After saying that, Henry charged past us and up the stairs. Me, Anna, and Kaito all looked at each other, confused, before we heard screams. I guess we're going loud! We rush after Henry and see him cast a ball of Flux at a Barbarian. The Flux slams into the Barbarian and instantly kills him, the Barbarian's body turning into ash. I don't think that's Flux Henry is casting. A Fighter rushes Henry while he is starting to cast another spell and I run towards Henry to save him. I manage to make it and tackle the Fighter, my sword plunging into the Fighter's ribcage. I stand back up, pulling my sword out of the Fighter as well, and am about to block an attack from a Thief when Henry casts another ball of Dark magic, killing the Thief.

After that, a bell starts to ring frantically and Kaito says, "Gods! The alarm is going to attract every single bandit here! We'll be overrun!"

"Well pick up a sword then! We are going to need all the hands we got!" I shout, looking at the three enemy Fighters coming our way. Kaito shivers and reluctantly picks up the dead Thief's iron sword. He walks behind us and stands next to Henry who is casting another spell, a sadistic smile on his face. Me and Anna meet the Fighters head on, Henry taking out one of them with a spell. I focus on one Fighter while Anna focuses on the other. I block a strike from the Fighter and swing my blade at his stomach. The Fighter blocks that swing but I manage to push the Fighter on his back. I then rush forward and slam my blade through the back of his head, killing him. I turn to check on Anna and see her disembowel her Fighter.

We then began to run to the treasury. If we defeat Bazzar I bet we can rout all of these bandits. Somehow we manage to make it with only minor injuries for me, Anna, and Henry. Kaito is still ok because he didn't join in any of the fighting. I kick open the treasure room's door and we file in before me and Anna slam the door shut. Hopefully no bandits will come in here.

"I knew I should have killed you back then." I turn around and see a General carrying a Spear, not the general weapon the special kind of lance called a Spear; staring down Kaito like he was dead meat. Which he might be to be honest seeing how big that General is. Kaito just shook like a leaf in the middle of a storm and backed away from the General.

"B-Bazzar…" Kaito says, looking at the General in fear. Bazzar simply lifted his weapon up and pointed it at Kaito. Ok, here we go. Me and Anna rush from the door and towards Bazzar. Bazzar thrusts his weapon forward to skewer us like ham on a stick. Me and Anna dodge the weapon and strike Bazzar. However, his armor took our blows like it was nothing. He swung his Spear sideways and bowled me and Anna back onto our backs. He then turned to Kaito and swung his spear, dropping Kaito like a fly. I stand back up, helping Anna to get up as well, while Henry fight the General. Thank gods for magic because we would be dead by now seeing how Henry is peel apart Bazzar's armor like it was nothing. I'm being serious about that. Henry is using Dark magic to rip apart Bazzar's armor piece by piece. Bazzar then just tore his armor off and wield his Spear like a Soldier.

Kaito stood up, his head bleeding profusely, and grabbed his sword. Bazzar noticed him and ran towards Kaito and stabbed at him. Kaito managed to dodge the Spear, the stab tearing his Thief's cloak, and in the heat of battle; slammed his sword into Bazzar's chest. This killed Bazzar instantly, his body slumping over. After Kaito realized what he did; he let go of his sword, backed away, and threw up. Guess he doesn't have a stomach for this stuff.

But… Look at all of this treasure.


Me, Anna, Henry, and Kaito said our goodbyes outside of the fort. After looting almost all of the treasure and finding the schematics for the teleportation staff; Anna was a really happy camper. Like, really happy. Henry just left us with barely any treasure but did say something weird.

"Hey Rider, Anna! I'll come see you guys if you are ever in trouble. I'll appear in a flock of crows. Or ravens. Maybe both! Nya, ha, ha! Smell you later!" Henry said before disappearing in a cloud of birds and animals.

Kaito simply looked at us after Henry left and said. "Thank you for helping me save my Murrial. If you ever find yourself in a little village called Kingston, ask the local bartender where does Kaito live. I'll buy you guys something nice."

So. I hope you enjoyed this. I bet I mangled canon and someone else's oc to bits. You can hate me. I deserve it for being trash. But I'll keep going if you guys like it. So, bye. Also I like bacon.