Chapter 3
In it for the Money
Aldebrand could feel the blood flowing through his veins at an astonishing rate. He could feel the sense of urgency and alarm driving him onward. His expression had moulded into one of absolute fear.
Hell, if anyone else were in his shoes, they would probably be as panicked as he was now.
But then again, what normal person would find themselves being pursued by a large fireball?!
Running as fast as his legs would carry him, the mercenary continued to evade his unusual pursuer. Suddenly, desperation formed a plan within his mind. A plan that was so simple, yet so effective. A plan that required the right amount of guts, determination and timing.
A plan that was so simple.....
Taking his chances, Aldebrand bowed his head and leapt straight for the ground. He landed on his stomach with a soft thump.
He didn't dare to look up. But his ears caught the sound of the fireball burning it's way through the air above his head.
Eventually, the fireball travelled away from the scene, growing ever the more distant from the prostrate mercenary.
According to the Aldebrand's ears, the fireball was gone. But the mercenary didn't raise his head straight away. Instead he paused, contemplating how safe the current situation was. Had the fireball really gone for good? Was he out of danger entirely? And what about those interlopers? He knew they were on his tail as well - so how far away were they? Had he managed to lose them?
Why should he care? He's faced many adversaries before. And he slaughtered them all - even when they ganged up on him and the odds weren't in his favour. Why should these newcomers provide much of a threat? As far as he was concerned, they were just another bunch of obstacles - hardly a threat at all.
But they can cast spells - And Aldebrand's experiences with facing enemy magic has led him to the conclusion that the craft of magic is one of most unpredictable nature.
But then again, why should that be a bother?
Eventually the mercenary got up off the ground and raised his head.
A mistake.
Immediately, Lina's fireball burst out from nowhere and engulfed the hapless mercenary!
The mercenary fell back onto the floor, flames dancing up and down his flesh.
How is that possible? He thought he evaded the fireball! He was certain of it! How the hell did it come back?!!??
But should he complain? He, after all, could've heeded the doubts that ran inside his head.
Okay so maybe that's how much of a threat a spell-caster can be.....
By the time Lina and Gourry came across the scene, they found a fairly sorry sight. There was the mercenary, fried to a crisp. His hair had been singed, his flesh had turned to charcoal and he was, completely, utterly incinerated.
Lina chuckled at the pathetic sight before her.
"Well that's what you get for spying on us!" she grinned.
"Hey Lina" Gourry said. "I wonder who this guy is? He looks like he's seen a few battles......"
"Well I can tell you one thing" the red-head replied, cracking her knuckles. "He's not going to see any more!"
And with that she grabbed Aldebrand by the scruff of his collar. But even though, the mercenary sensed certain doom, he didn't show it.
"Do your worst!" he snarled at the sorceress.
"Very well then" Lina replied with a shrug.
And with that she hurled the mercenary with all her might! The hapless Aldebrand flew through the air with a scream of utter terror.
Fortunately, for the mercenary, his flight path was short lived.
Unfortunately for the mercenary, his flight path ended abruptly - with a tree.
Aldebrand hit the tree with a tremendous crash. He groaned with pain as the full impact of the crash, reverberated through his body. Then, with a sound that revealed the utter agony that was cursing through the mercenary's system, Aldebrand's injured form came down to the trunk of the tree.
But the mercenary's troubles were far from over yet! He wasn't the only one in that part of the forest at the time: Amelia had too been making her way through the area - She had been several feet away from the tree when Aldebrand crashed into it.
Needless to say, Amelia got the shock of her life upon seeing something huge and black suddenly come thundering through the sky, out of nowhere only to hit a nearby tree with such incredible force!
But it didn't take her long to draw to the conclusion that this sudden event bore all the signs of the handiwork of Lina Inverse.
Grinning an amused grin, the princess strode over to the hapless mercenary and grabbed him by the collar. Slowly Aldebrand, opened his eyes.....
......only to be confronted with a pair of enormous blue eyes. But when confronted with such a sight of beauty, there was little he could do but quiver with panic. He recognised this girl all right.....
Oh no. he thought. Will this ever end? Who the hell are these people?!?!
"Did you know that spying is a violation of the Code of Justice?" Amelia smiled, sweetly.
Code of Justice?!?! The mercenary thought. What the hell is she going on about?!?
Oh, what does it matter? I gotta get outta here!
Riding upon the desperation of the situation, Aldebrand's mind quickly began formulating a plot. A plot that may not benefit his employer's plans but it may save his own skin.....
"You're intruders here!" the mercenary snapped. "You are trespassing!"
Just then, Amelia caught the sound of running feet. Looking she saw Lina and Gourry run up, whilst Zel hurried onto the scene from the opposite direction.
"Amelia!" Lina beamed.
Then she noticed Amelia's prisoner. "Ah, I see you've found him as well"
Amelia giggled.
"I say we kill him" Zel growled.
"You do that and my secrets die with me!" the mercenary retorted.
"Secrets eh?" Lina murmured, grinning a malevolent grin. "Now, I'm curious....."
"I'll take it from here" she said to Amelia.
The princess nodded, and released her grip on Aldebrand's collar.
Aldebrand blinked - before Lina's arm quickly pulled him into a choke hold!
"Now then" Lina purred. "What were you saying about secrets?"
"There's a gold mine not far from here! I don't want scum like you finding it!"
It wasn't so much that he wanted to give away the secrets of his employer but all the mercenary wanted was to escape these lunatics!
Upon hearing Aldebrand's words, Lina looked up with an expression of pure astonishment. She didn't even feel her grip loosening on the mercenary nor the sound of him falling to the ground of a huge thud.
What mattered was one thing: GOLD!
Immediately, her eyes began blazing with greedy fervour and her mouth morphed into a twisted grin.
"There's a gold mine around eh?" she murmured.
And she would've sprinted off - had not Zel shot out his hand to grab her by the wrist.
The sorceress, her expression now sour, turned to see Zel looking rather concerned.
"Outta my way Zel!" the red-head said. "I gonna find that gold mine at any costs!"
"Do calm down Lina" the chimera replied sternly. "Shouldn't you be rational about this?"
"So what?" Lina yelled. "There's a gold mine! That's all I need to know!"
"Yes but he gave his information away so willing!" Zel retorted.
"Yeah!" Amelia agreed. "It could be a trap!"
"Not when there's gold involved!" Lina retorted.
And with that, she burst from Zelgadis' grip and sprinted off in a cloud of dust. Gourry shrugged before taking off after her.
Zel and Amelia exchanged glances.
"Do you really think she cares?" Amelia asked.
"I seriously doubt whether she will ever learn" Zel replied. "She doesn't seem too concerned that she might be walking into a trap"
"I feel more sorry for the people who are waiting for her!" the princess chuckled.
The gold mine wasn't a cheerful sight. It was a compound made up out of shabby buildings centred around a steep mountainside. Slaves toiled under the warm sun and in sweat as they delved deep into the earth to mine gold to satisfy the demands of their master. Cruel overseers each worked with a whip and a vigilant eye to make sure the slaves did their job without complaining or any type of protest.
As the slaves had been working from dawn to dusk for so many days, they lost all concept of time. And being secluded in a deep part of the forest, in such a position of isolation, their work went on without any type of interference.
But all this was about to change.
Already the day was looking out to be another day of hard work.
That was until the compound was rocked by a huge explosion on the edge of the forest.
Such was the force of the explosion that all the occupants of the mine, overseer and worker alike, all looked up. All onlookers wondered what on earth would've caused such an explosion.
They didn't have long before they got their answer.
Suddenly from the trees, came a red-headed sorceress, running at top speed. Her eyes were blazing with gold lust and she was rambling on to herself whilst counting off on her fingers:
".....And when I get my huge palace, I'll will get a thousand servants and then my own personalised restaurant and then......"
And hot on the sorceress' heels came a tall blond swordsman.
All in the mining compound stared in astonishment. All but one overseer. He was a huge, muscular brute with a massive scar on his left cheek and cruel face.
"Get back to work!" he bellowed, taking control of the situation. "I'll deal with this!"
Immediately, the workers all returned to their respective tasks - Whilst the brute advanced towards the gates of the compound and towards the newcomers.
As Lina and Gourry charged at full speed towards the mine, the brute stood firm right in their path. He confronted these approaching intruders with a ferocious snarl.
He shouldn't have bothered.
No force on earth can ever stop Lina Inverse when she is possessed by gold lust. Consequently, Lina charged right up to the brute and pushed him aside - as if he were a little child! The brute came crashing down to the floor, whilst Lina and Gourry charged into the compound.
The sorceress ran up to the nearest miner and grabbed him by the collar.
"WHERE'S THE GOLD?!?!?!?" She shouted, with a huge grin. Fortunately for the sorceress, this miner wasn't the type to provide any sort of confrontation. Well, anyone in his position wouldn't have stood in Lina Inverse's way!
"Over there!" the miner blurted out, pointing out the hole in the mountainside.
Satisfied with her answer, the sorceress sprinted over the hole, knocking all the miners and overseers who stood in her way. Needless to say, such obstacles proved to be of little threat - Indeed, they were too startled by this sudden intrusion then to even deal with it.
Eventually, Lina made it to the entrance of the mine and charged inside.
Two miners who happened to be lurking near the entrance, exchanged bewildered glances.
"Who on earth was that?" one of them asked.
The answer to that question came from Gourry's lips as he raced past: "Lina Inverse!"
The miners exchanged horrified glances: "Lina Inverse?!?!?"
Immediately, the two miners sprinted back through the compound yelling out that the intruder was none other then the famed bandit killer and property destroyer.
It was only a matter of seconds before the compound was swept up in a tsunami of mass panic. All the miners immediately forget all about breaking rock by command of their malevolent master. And all the overseers lost all concept of restoring order.
All that mattered was that Lina Inverse was in the compound. And now was not the time to hang around.
At the gates, the brute of the overseer, got up off the ground. He didn't who was that lousy bitch who knocked him over but one's thing for sure: She won't be alive long enough to regret it! He is going to find that woman and teach her a lesson through the business end of his trusty blade!
As feelings of vengeance flowed through his veins, the brute stood up.
Only to be knocked off his feet again by a crowd of fleeing miners and overseers, all keen to flee the compound.
Lina charged into the mine. And as all the miners had already fled, she met no challenges in her path. But what did it matter? She was gonna be rich!
The sorceress ran down a seemingly endless passageway cut into rock, driven on by her greed. But had she stopped to notice, she would've noticed that the rock that made up the walls of the passageway bore signs of being picked bare.....
Eventually, Lina reached the end of the passageway - only to be confronted with another overseer. This one was too of muscular stature and cruel features. He also had a eye patch covering his left eye.
He was also wondering where all his miners had got to.
Thus, he was not expecting to see Lina show up.
The overseer fixed the red-head with his one cruel eye.
"Who are you?" he snarled. What are you doing here?"
Lina didn't answer. Instead she jumped onto him and grabbed him by the collar, her eyes glittering more feverishly then before.
"Where's the gold?" she demanded with a twisted grin.
"Gold?" retorted the overseer. "Ha! There is no gold!"
And in an instant, the greed that drove Lina onward lost it's sparkle.
"No gold?" she exclaimed. Her grip on the overseer loosened and her facial expression paled - it was as if this sudden piece of news was too much to handle. She was so taken aback by this revelation, that she didn't notice Gourry march onto the scene.
"Yeah that's right" the overseer snapped. "There's no gold. We've already taken out all the gold that was here and dispatched it to our master. We were only minutes away from abandoning this site and......."
But Lina wasn't listening. Now that she had been confronted with the fact that the mine had been drained of all it's gold, the greedy fervour in Lina's eyes died away completely - only to be replaced seconds later by fervour of the furious kind!
"YOU'VE TAKEN ALL THE GOLD?!??!?" she roared at the overseer, now returning to a firm grip on the overseer's collar and looking seconds away from throttling him.
It was there and then that Gourry decided to intervene. He reached out and grabbed Lina in his arms.
"Hey!" Lina shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"Forget it Lina!" Gourry said. "There's nothing for us here! You heard him! There's no gold left!"
"But......"
"LEAVE HIM LINA!" the swordsman shouted. "There's nothing left."
Lina squirmed in Gourry's arms, but eventually, as she contemplated Gourry's words, her struggling ceased and she nodded her consent.
Satisfied that a conclusion had been reached, Gourry set the sorceress down and headed back through the passageway and out of the mountain. Lina, now looking rather forlorn followed.
"No gold...." She was muttering. "There was no gold.....someone's gonna pay....."
And when Lina's pissed off, no force on earth can withstand her wrath. And if Gourry had been more perceptive, he would've noticed Lina mouthing silent words.
Eventually, after spending so much time walking, Gourry saw sunlight up ahead. Grinning, he turned to Lina.....
.....only to see her turn around and utter two words of doom.
"DRAGON SLAVE!"
"No!" Gourry shouted.
But it was too late - within seconds, the passageway was engulfed in blinding white light.
Back at the entrance of the mining compound, the brute struggled to his feet. He already knew that the crowd who overcame him were the workers he was charged with. But what had made them flee like that? Was this their idea of a revolt? Or was it out of mass panic?
No matter, he is going to get to the bottom of this and find those responsible.
And make them pay.
Suddenly, the brute found himself being shoved out of the way by a pair of strong hands. The overseer went down, again, with another great crash.
Zelgadis and Amelia charged into the compound, looking for Gourry and Lina.
"Curious" Zel said. "What is this place? It looks abandoned."
"Do you suppose this is where Lina and Gourry went?" Amelia asked.
"Could be" the chimera replied. "This place bears signs of recent use."
Amelia opened her mouth to speak.
But no sound came as the mountain suddenly exploded! The ground shook with the force of a tremendous roar! Great amounts of rock came tumbling in from the heavens!
The chimera and the princess exchanged astonished glances.
"What the....." Amelia started.
"GET DOWN!" Zel shouted. And with that he, using his body as a human shield, grabbed Amelia and dived into cover, as the entire compound shook from the explosion. The pair had dived behind a house and waited....
The rumbling echoed throughout the compound for several minutes. Rocks of all sizes came plummeting down and hit the ground with incredible force. Various sounds of destruction echoed throughout the buildings, but Zel and Amelia never looked up once.
Eventually, the rumbling slowly died away - to reveal a deathly silence.
And it was in this stillness that Zel slowly looked up. Was it over? Has the danger passed....?
Suddenly he felt Amelia's soft hand on his chin. He looked down to see that, in providing himself as a human shield, he had now pinned her to the floor.
Amelia smiled warmly as a soft blush made it's way across Zel's face.
"Are.....are you all right?" Zel inquired.
"Of course" Amelia smiled. "Thanks to you"
It was there and then that Zelgadis' blush grew even redder - much to the princess' amusement
"That's another time you saved my life" she said softly.
And with that she raised her head and planted a small kiss on his cheek.....
Zel sighed softly. Eventually, his lips formed into a grin.
"Come on" he said, reaching out his hand. "Lets get out of here"
And with that, he helped the princess to her feet.
The two friends then stepped out from behind the house. All around was utter devastation: The entire compound had been engulfed in a huge cloud of dust, the mountain had been obliterated - leaving nothing but a smouldering crater. Some of the buildings in the compound had either collapsed from the force of the explosion or had been crushed by the rocks which used to be part of the mountain itself. And small fires were burning all around.
"What on earth happened here?" Zel demanded.
"You don't suppose this is Lina's work do you?" the princess inquired.
"That's a fairly obvious question" the chimera chuckled. "How else could that mountain exploded?
"A mazoku perhaps?" Amelia theorised.
Suddenly, it was there and then that the conversation was interrupted - When a scream echoed out from up above. A scream that sounded distinctively familiar....
This scream was soon followed by human-shaped object. An human-shaped object that came plummeting in from up above - before striking the ground with such a force and eventually skidding it's way up to the feet of the two startled onlookers.
Although dazed and bruised, Gourry Gabriev looked up - to see Zelgadis and Amelia gaping in disbelief.
"Hi guys" the swordsman managed to mumble. "What's up?"
"Does that answer your question, Amelia?" Zel said.
Amelia didn't answer. Instead she knelt down beside Gourry, to cast a healing spell.
The chimera also knelt down - but he was more interested in finding out how the mountain was obliterated.
"Gourry" Zelgadis said, urgently. "What happened to the mountain?"
Although still dazed, Gourry still managed speech:
"Lina.....went to....find gold....But found it empty......Wooohooooo!"
Upon hearing this assessment of events, Amelia and Zel exchanged bewildered glances.
"If Lina didn't find any gold then she would've been furious....." Amelia said.
".....Furious enough to cast the Dragon Slave spell" Zel finished.
Silence followed
.....only to be broken by the distant sound of approaching footsteps.
The chimera and the princess both got to their feet.....
.....to see Lina Inverse emerge from the dust cloud. She looked grubby, battered and bore signs of once being controlled by her fury. But at the same time, she looked vindicated.
Upon seeing Amelia and Zel, the red-head's face lit up.
"Hey guys!" she grinned.
"Are you feeling better now?" Zel said, his voice showing signs of apprehension.
"You could say that" Lina replied with a wink.
Meanwhile back the entrance, the brute, once again, got to his feet. At this point in time, he was extremely furious. He had been shoved out of the way by intruders to the mine and he had crushed by a panic drawn from his underlings!
And as the brute looked around, he had further reason to get infuriated. He saw that the entire mine had been obliterated! The buildings had collapsed and there was a huge dust cloud all around! What the hell had just happened here?!
No matter - now was the time for a change.....
He was now being urged on by a blood-lust. He was going to find the bastards who caused this little uproar and send them to hell as painfully as possible.
He looked up, through the dust cloud, to see four strangers all gathered in a group.
The brute grinned. So, these are the troublemakers are they? Not for much longer....
Suddenly, two words rang out, as clear as a bell:
"DEMONIC CRYSTAL!"
Instantaneously, the brute found himself engulfed in a strange crystal formation. A formation that rendered his limbs immobile and his joints paralysed. He couldn't move, he couldn't speak, he couldn't do anything.
So much for vengeance...
Just then, Naga, with Sylphiel following close behind, came running over to the little group.
"Aha Lina!" the raven-haired sorceress grinned. "There you are!"
"Ah, ha, ha, ha" Lina stammered. "Naga.....you're still alive....."
"Of course!" Naga retorted. "Nothing can ever defeat Naga the serpent!"
Lina quickly saw where this was heading and interjected:
"But you haven't done anything!" she protested. "All you've done is get in my way!"
Upon hearing this, Syl spoke up: "But that doesn't give you a good reason to blast your former friend with an Explosion Array spell!"
"Syl" the red-head replied. "Naga is NOT my friend."
"That's right!" the raven-haired sorceress yelled. "I am Lina's most powerful rival!"
The shrine maiden blinked. "But....you were just....."
"Don't worry Sylphiel!" Naga went on. "If I get in Lina's way, then I am stopping her to becoming more powerful the I am!!!!"
And then......came the laugh:
"OH-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO-HO!!!!!!!!!!"
This was soon followed by Lina twitching with rage, Syl looking utterly bewildered by the events transpiring before her and Gourry groaning with derision from the floor.
Amelia. however chuckled to herself - until she felt Zel's hand on her shoulder.
"So let me get this straight" he asked, nodding towards the cackling Naga with a concerned expression. "She is your sister, right?"
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