Chisato, Aaogan and Thoma stood at the entrance to level two of Geffen Tower, with Cornflakes close by at Chisato's feet. Chisato had never been here before, but Thoma and Aaogan seemed to be familiar with it.
The air about the Tower seemed musty and moldy with a slight chill to it. Chisato shivered despite herself. It was darker down here than the floor above with only a few torches lit scattered around. Walking straight forward, she noticed on either side of them what looked to be ruins of great structures built long ago. It made the rumors of Geffen all the more real. Chisato could feel excitement build in her thinking about it, but she didn't have long to relish in the feeling.
It wasn't long before they found themselves being attacked by a few Whispers. The fast flying ghost like creatures made a whizzing noise as they rushed forward to attack. The three of them immediately fell into a fighting stance, each ready to attack them at once. Aaogan swung his Fire Claymore at the first one, hacking at its sheet like cover. Thoma bashed at a second with her Fire Chain, knocking it sideways with the blow and stunning it. Chisato trapped and shot down a third using Fire arrows, igniting it into flames at once.
The Whispers were exterminated quickly by the elemental weapons as Cornflakes bounced about picking up the remains of their kills. Chisato heard a loud ding as her Whisper had disintegrated; it dropped something. She picked it up and examined it, twirling it around with her fingers. It looked like a hoop with a long pole sticking out the bottom with what appeared to be something to hold it into place. She had no idea what it was though.
"Check this out," she said as Thoma and Aaogan moved closer to have a look.
"It's a Halo," Thoma giggled as she gave it a look over, then placed it on Chisato's head.
"It looks cute on you," Aaogan smiled as Chisato felt around it, feeling her face burn a bit at being called cute.
It wasn't long before they were attacked again, this time by a group consisting of Familiars, a couple Argos and a Jakk. Chisato flipped back to keep a safe distance from the Argos, then threw down a trap for the Jakk and started to shoot at it. Thoma and Aaogan bashed and hacked away at the Familiars first, then the Argos, as Chisato came to a fearful realization that Fire arrows had no effect on the Jakk. Aaogan and Thoma finished off the Argos and Familiars when they noticed Chisato's problem.
"Use Silvers!" they called to her. She took their advice, swiftly taking out the few that she had and let them fly. It worked. Its pumpkin head broke open with a loud crack and splattered about, leaving a nasty mess behind. It gave off the smell of rot as it began to disintegrate, making her turn up her nose. Thoma and Aaogan shot her a thumbs up for a job well done.
The trio only had a short amount of time to do or say anything before they were attacked again. Each time they were quick to act, and without fail they came out victorious. Teamwork was the key to taking them down, each covering the others' back. The collection of Red potions in Thoma's cart had barely been touched.
After half an hour had passed, and about a few dozen Whispers later, still no card. But Chisato didn't care too much. She and the others seemed to be enjoying themselves. She couldn't remember the last time she had worked with anyone, preferring to solo. But she found Thoma and Aaogan to be great company and hoped that they would party up again sometime in the future.
An hour passed, still no card. Two, two and a half, three, four hours, still no card. They were wearing down now, their collection of Red potions starting to dwindle.
"Ok, maybe we should call it quits for now," Thoma said, looking wound down.
The three of them were sitting down, facing each other in a triangular shape on the floor. Chisato agreed, and so did Aaogan. She was feeling sore, and Cornflakes kept complaining he was hungry. Thoma and Aaogan looked equally beat, both agreed food sounded like a pretty good idea. They stood up and dusted themselves off, ready to make their way back up the Tower.
As they began to walk back, they suddenly heard cries and shouts echoing as if someone was being ambushed nearby. They all turned in the direction the sound came from, glancing back at each other, then agreed silently to go investigate.
Rushing forward, rounding a nearby corner, they found the origin. It was a Knight being attacked from all sides by about seven Whispers, and a few Poison Spores to add insult to injury. He cried out angrily as he'd slash at one only to be hit by a few others. He looked beaten up and weary and they knew he wouldn't last much longer if this kept up. Chisato threw down a few traps as Thoma and Aaogan dashed forward to the Knight. They began to pick off some of the Whispers as Chisato shot at the Spores.
The Knight gave out a holler, "No, don't!" he wheezed. "I can handle this myself," he screamed as he tried to swing at one of the Whispers, but was then smacked again hard from behind, pushing him down to the floor.
"Don't be stupid," Thoma chided as she was bashing down on a Whisper, "there's no way you can handle them all in your condition."
The Knight laid face down and motionless on the floor. The trio hurriedly tried to finish off the Whispers and Spores, and within a few moments they were gone. Thoma then ran and grabbed a Yggdrasil Leaf and a few of the Reds left in her cart then rushed back over to him, Chisato and Aaogan already by his side.
Aaogan turned him onto his back, then supported his head so that Thoma could give him the leaf. Chisato knelt down next to them pushing some of the Knight's shaggy brown hair from his beaten face, wondering if he was still alive, and hoping they weren't too late. Thoma then placed the potion's bottle to his lips, pouring it slowly so that he wouldn't choke on it. He seemed to respond slightly as they could see he swallowed it. He slowly started to come back around, his eyes fluttering open.
Chisato breathed a sigh of relief to see that he was still alive. His teal eyes shot around them all confused. He shot up to sit straight and glanced around, pushing them all back from him in surprise. "I told you not to help me," he hissed.
"Is that any way to talk to the people who just saved your life?" Chisato growled back.
"I never asked you to," he said hoarsely.
"Hmph, whatever," Chisato said, standing up. To think she was glad to see him alive. She crossed her arms and turned her back to him.
"Oh, so you would have rather us let you die then?" said Thoma, joining Chisato, crossing her arms as well but keeping an annoyed look on him.
"It would have been an honorable death," he coughed, trying to get to his feet but stumbling around as he was looking punch drunk.
"There's not much honor in having a bunch of low leveled monsters kick your ass," Aaogan said, looking equally annoyed as the other two as he got to his feet.
The Knight was using a Fire Bastard sword to prop himself up, looking very unsteady. He seemed to look irritated and dazed, like he had just been jolted awake from a long, deep sleep. The Ygg leaf and Red potions should have been plenty to get him back to health. They didn't understand what his problem was.
"How long have you been down here," Aaogan asked.
The Knight shot him an unfocused look, then seemed to be thinking about it. "I'd say twelve to fourteen hours, give or take," he said lowly.
Chisato stared at him wide eyed. No wonder he looked the way he did.
"He's crazy!" Cornflakes squeaked, saying exactly what they all had been thinking.
"We should just leave him here," Thoma said bitterly. "He obviously doesn't want our help."
Aaogan watched him, looking to be thinking long and hard about what to do with him.
They watched momentarily as a Familiar had flown up to him to attack. The Knight looked to struggle to even lift his sword to hit it, swinging it around blindly. With that, Aaogan walked over and took it down with one fluid swoop from his Claymore. He then put his arm under the Knight's shoulder to support him before he would find himself back on the floor. The Knight resisted at first, trying to pull away from Aaogan, but had little energy to keep it up, and finally gave in. Aaogan looked back to Chisato and Thoma, titling his head motioning to the Knight, beckoning one of them over the help him as he was now shifting his weight onto Aaogan.
Chisato felt her face burn. As much as she would love to just leave an ungrateful and insane idiot like him here to perish at his own wishes, she couldn't find it in herself to do it. Chisato reluctantly joined him, taking the Knight by his other side to support him. He was quite heavy. Along with being muscular, his armor added on extra weight.
Thoma grabbed her cart and led the way as they walked back to the entrance.
The way back up was laboring. Thoma had to fend off the Poison Spores and Familiars on the first floor by herself as Chisato and Aaogan dragged along the Knight who could just about walk on his own.
It was a miracle when they finally made it to the Geffen Inn. They laid the Knight to rest in a room adjacent to the one Aaogan had got and decided to go and get something to eat, figuring he would be fine on his own, and most likely, out cold for a long while.
Over dinner they discussed what to do with the loot they collected, deciding to split it all equally. Even split between them, it would be a nice bout of zenny for each.
"It's a shame we didn't find the card," Chisato said disappointed between mouthfuls of food. She was starving now, scarfing down food like she'd never eaten before. Cornflakes was just as eagerly chowing down apples on the floor next to her chair. She had missed breakfast and lunch that day due to oversleeping, and had explained that to Aaogan and Thoma who eyed her perplexingly as she inhaled her food.
"It's ok," Thoma said, taking a swig from her goblet. "It was still a good time though."
Aaogan concurred.
After they were full, each headed up to bed, deciding to wait till morning to head to the bounty office to cash in their loot. They each agreed that after all the fighting, they needed a good night's sleep.
Chisato had changed her clothes and plopped onto her bed. It had been a while since the last time she stayed at an Inn. The soft warm bed was a welcome comfort over the cold hard ground. Cornflakes found himself a pillow to rest on and began to doze off.
"Those two are kind of nice, aren't they," Cornflakes said groggily.
"Yeah, they are," Chisato said and smiled, feeling kinda lucky, though a little guilty about the way she had reacted to Aaogan when they first met. She laid on her stomach, resting her head on a pillow and looking up and out the window behind her bed. She gazed out into the dusking sky as shades of orange and red slashed about as the sun sank into the horizon, a few stars already starting to dot the sky.
"Not like that Knight, huh?" Cornflakes said, yawning.
Chisato didn't say anything. She looked down to her pillow and frowned. She wondered how anyone could overtax themselves like he did. He would have rather died than have them help him. She never heard such foolishness. Knights were fools anyway in her opinion. Sure, she hated asking for help. But if it was a life or death situation, she sure as hell wasn't going to let her pride keep her from seeking it. She loved living and shuddered at the thought of dying now. She was only twenty-two and there was still so much to do, to look forward to, to prove to herself and others. Having it end now was the most depressing thing she could fathom.
She pushed that thought from her mind, not wanting to fall asleep with those thoughts still lurking about. She could hear the soft breathing from Cornflakes next to her, he had fallen asleep. She smiled at him. He was so cute when he slept, probably because it was the only time he was actually quiet. She stroked his head a few times, then rolled over to her side, pulling the covers over her and shut her eyes. It had been a very long, somewhat confusing, a little disappointing, but overall, worthwhile day.