The Poring

5: Ahahah! Sara!

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A quiet night in Prontera. In the square, only one living being was there—a lost novice1. That is, until, a certain blonde thief decided to barge in.

"Let's jet, Ses!" screamed Lidia once out in the Pronteran City Square.

"You said it, boss!" mewled Sessy.

The Poring, at the sounds of their voices, woke up. Talatsu inside the Poring also woke up. "Hmph. The thief girl. Where are you taking me?"

"You shut up and be a nice li'l weapon. You're gonna be sold goods soon!" answered Lidia, jetting as fast as she could.

"And, pray tell, how? Even though you can convince everyone that there are weapons inside this creature worth zillions of zeny, they won't be able to see us for themselves…"

"Oh, I don't know, since I have this after all…" Lidia got a green apple2 from her pocket. "This'll make the Poring do whatever I say… even though in fits of demonic possession. Ha-ha!"

Talatsu fell silent.

"Wow, it shut up, finally! I thought you're as unbearable as your weilder, Skurai! Hahahahah… OOF!" In her moment of over-confidence, Lidia made the mistake of not watching where she's going…

She collided against a certain tall, blonde warrior woman with a big-arse sword. "Eep!" Lidia, who was holding the unripe apple that would have tamed the Poring, watched as it flung from her grasp and rolled harmlessly away… stopping at the feet of the Novice. ("LOLZ ty ty ty!!1!1")

"Well, this is interesting," Talatsu said smugly as he watched Sara loom over Lidia's fallen figure. "You…" the now-dangerous Valkyrie drew her sword and pointed it at Lidia's neck.

"Meeps..!!!" was all Lidia could say. Of all people, of all times, why Sara Irine?! She thought to herself regretfully.

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The warlock may have been KO'd quite effectively by the thief, but no creature on earth (or Rune-Midgard, for that matter) could stay asleep for long when he or she's in the same room as Iris Irine.

Fenris opened her eyes, waking abruptly to the sound of Iris' snoring… and the first thing she felt was the rather painful bump on her head.

"Ow… ow," she mumbled. At first she pondered whether she fell off the bed or if she chose to sleep on the floor… which was quite unlikely since she sleeps very still and she wasn't the type who enjoyed getting back-aches from sleeping on the floor. Then, she remembered…

"Are you up to something again, Lidia?"

"Oh! You wanna sleep! I got Spore-spores here! They'll make you sleepy! Here!"

Fenris frowned. Asides from being had by the thief, she was beaten in a most humiliating manner: mushroom spore poisoning. Besides her having a bump on her head, apparently Spore spores (sounds redundant, but that's what they are) have a 'hallucinogenic' effect with them; she remembered dreaming in technicolor. And that dream involved her, the gang in colorful costumes (she distinctly remembered Loki in a kitty costume and Skurai as a member of Kiss) and tons and tons of flowers in Komodo… so, in other words, she was drugged. Temporarily…

Looking around, she noticed something: the group's moneybag, which was her responsibility, was gone.

"I'll get her…" the warlock muttered to herself, putting on her shoes and running outside. "I'll bet she's still in the Town Square… I haven't slept for that long."

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"You know, first time I saw you, I didn't want to kill you… thief," Sara took a step nearer to her, "But I've lost a few good scraps of dignity back there. That merits for… how many hours of torture?"

Sessy ran for her and her two-tails' lives.

"Eep! Ses…!!!" Lidia said helplessly as she saw her pet run. "Lidia! I'll try to call for help!" it said.

"Hmph. Don't bother, kitty, it'll be too late by that time…" Sara muttered.

Loki, by that time, was hiding at the shadows of a nearby building. "Should I or shouldn't I…?" he thought to himself. Although it would be relieving to have the thief out of commission for a while courtesy of the Valkyrie, he thought about his duties as an Assassin of the Cross, you know, "keeping the balance in Rune-Midgard" and everything. "… maybe I should watch first…"

Lidia bit her lower lip. But she had a good idea. "Er… Poring-thing…? Why don't you eat her weapon?" she said to the Poring in demonic possession.

"Ahahah! I would rather watch this!" answered Talatsu.

"Eh?! Why not?! Come on, you should treat your new body right!"

Sara blinked. "The creature talks." She stated.

"No, 'tis Talatsu talking, my dear, dear Valkyrie," Talatsu said through the Poring. It turned to Lidia. "And, no. If she attacks you, blood will flow… And I shall be able to feed!"

"Ugh…" Lidia said, edging away from the Haeryongdo. "Laevatein…!! You're not going to let Talatsu get away with this, are you?"

The Poring's aura changed. The white glow came back, and the monster donned a gentler facial expression. "… eh," replied Laevatein.

"… huh? I thought you were the good weapon! What do you mean, 'eh'?"

"Er… I kind of heard from Talatsu that you KO'd my mistress with a bunch of mushroom spores…" The Poring looked uneasily at Lidia.

"But Sara's gonna kill me!" Lidia said in despair.

The Poring bit its lip. "I dunno…" But then, a sudden change of aura. The glow became reddish-pinkish-whitish (what kind of color is that?) and its eyes became a bit sharper. "NO! We gotta help her!"

Silence. "Who the hell's that?" asked Lidia.

"It's me! Vision3!" said the Poring… apparently now being possessed by Chaos' weapon.

"…. I didn't know you talked," commented Sara.

"I didn't know either," if the Poring had shoulders, Vision would have made it shrug. "Anyway… you're planning to kill one of my boss' friends! And that's just plain wrong! So… don't do it!" said Vision in a heroic way… which of course sounded kind of cheesy.

Sara frowned. "I'm not sure your boss even likes this girl, anyway…"

"But it's just plain wrong to kill!" insisted Vision.

"Yeah… but I'm a bad girl…" the Valkyrie shrugged.

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Meanwhile, Loki, still unseen in the shadows, was waiting for the right time to strike… when the Valkyrie was most vulnerable (having no weapon is a great disadvantage, and he knows how freakin' strong Sara is.). But unconsciously, he was watching and debating with himself whether to help Lidia or not. He figured he has about… 3 options:

a) Help Lidia - The pros would be the keeping of the balance in Rune-Midgard, justice (although he was neutral, he still abided by the law…) and the maintenance of the aesthetic component of the town square. But doing this would mean having Lidia get away with his and the other's weapons… or her being truly convinced that he must be her "eternal other half". Which generally gives him the heebie-jeebies.

b) Let Sara kill Lidia – This, of course is a bad thing because his conscience would forever plague him, and besides, the Assassin's Guild might demote him from his high-and-mighty position as an Assassin of the Cross. But he misses his Swords of the Shadows badly…

c) Wake up others – he doubt if this will help at all. Iris will be bent on vengeance (You killed my daddy! WAAAAH! Die!), Chaos will make a speech about 'the horrors of bloodshed' again, Fenris… well, maybe she could help, but then she might not because she was just drugged by Lidia… and Skurai might be an old man already by this hour.

His thoughts were interrupted when his senses picked up a certain scent in the air. Spore-spores… He suddenly saw non-existing colors in front of his eyes. Because of this, his other senses were temporarily useless.

He didn't hear running footsteps behind him in time. He turned around… a split second too late.

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CRASH!

Before Sara could make another move, or before Lidia could scream in terror, or before Vision could make another heroic speech, a certain collision happened. Turning around, they saw a pair of bodies entangled in an… ahem… interesting manner.

The Valkyrie's eyes widened. "Oh my. Fenris Fenrir and the Assassin." Was all she could say.

Apparently, Loki was hiding so effectively in the shadows that Fenris, running at super speed (take note! SUPER speed) towards the empty town square, didn't see him. She crashed into him, and now both warriors are on the ground, moaning.

The Poring switched to Laevatein mode and gasped. "M… mistress?!" It would have hopped over to Fenris, but it was… shocked. "Oh dear…"

Fenris opened her eyes the first time after collision… and was suddenly very aware of her position. Loki was underneath her, their legs were in a tangle, one of Loki's hands was laying very near her behind, both of her hands were behind his head… And staring at Loki's tomato-red face, she realized that he was as aware as she was. "Ack…!!" she choked.

"lolz get a rm!!11!!" the novice who got the unripe apple shouted at them.

"It's not what it seems!" the two shouted desperately at the same time.

Sara giggled at first, then laughed loudly and arrogantly afterwards. "Oh, really now?! It seems as if you two are doing what it seems!"

Lidia was at a loss for words, her face aghast.

Fenris blushed. "N… no! Ugh… (Of all people, why Sara?!)" She clumsily got up, but Loki somehow regained his composure first and helped her up along the way.

(Meanwhile, the Poring which was in Laevatein mode earlier was now having a battle in its tummy. Talatsu was arguing with Vision. "I want blood! And I want it now!" "No! We have to help our friends!" "The girl's not even your friend! And since when did you learn how to talk…?!" )

"Ha ha ha ha! Anyway… don't wriggle out just yet, girl," she said to Lidia, who was inching away quickly from the edge of the Haeryongdo. "Now… despite the circumstances, I really can't waste any more time…"

Before any of them could react, the Haeryondo was raised, ready to strike down Lidia with all force….

But after the 'flashes of her life' stage, Lidia heard a bouncy sound and a familiar, "THE BLOODSHED STOPS NOW!" rather than the bloody doom of the Haeryongdo on her pretty blonde head. She opened her eyes… and saw that the Sword of Retribution4 bounced away from Sara's reach, and that a Vision-possessed Poring was in front of her.

"The hell?!" Sara screamed. The novice made a move to get the Haeryongdo with his grubby paws, but the Valkyrie cast a quick "CRIMSON PYRE!4
that charred him and put him out of commission.

Sessy ran over to Lidia and rubbed her all over. "AAH! LIDIA! I THOUGHT YOU GOT KILLED!" it cried kitty tears.

"Oh my gawd!" Lidia screamed. She hugged Sessy back. "I thought I got killed!"

"Grr…" Sara Irine teleported from her spot to where her Haeryongdo was lying harmlessly. "Don't get too comforted yet!"

"Sara…!!! Stop!" Fenris yelled, running in front of Lidia. "You'll have to face me first!"

"Tch!" the tall, scantily-clad warrior woman (I assume you know who I'm talking about) lowered her sword and observed her. "I suppose you'll do that without your weapon…?"

Fenris nodded. Loki stepped up. "Valkyrie… before you face the women, you'll have to challenge me first." He gestured for the Warlock to back away.

Lidia sighed, little hearts popping out of her eyes again. Then, she hid herself and Sessy behind Fenris, who held on to her shoulder.

Sara frowned. "You don't have your weapons, either. Are you really that stupid?!" she demanded.

"We're just victims of circumstance," replied Loki. He pointed to the Poring… which was already beside Sara.

"Wha…?!"

"AAAAH!" Vision-possessed Poring chomped down on the edge of the Haeryongdo.

"!!!!" Sara swung her sword around in an attempt to shake off the Poring, but Vision's steely determination helped in swallowing it faster. The Valkyrie ground her teeth violently. "You…!!!"

"Now we're even," said Loki, taking a step closer and enabling his bone armor. "Now we fight."

Sara glared at him, but smiled sadistically afterwards. "Don't be so cocky so soon, assassin." From a sheath hanging on her thigh, she drew a short sword—Shinryongdo5. "Now I have a change to display its power…"

The Poring was too busy having an internal battle to know for itself what's going on. ("No! You stupid sword! Stay! I MUST SEE BLOOD!" "AAAH!" "Oh dear…")

Loki frowned. But he still had to do what he had to do… for the women's sake. "Let's go."

At super speed, the woman with a much smaller sword and the man in the skeleton suit ran towards each other. At the same time, both players readied their weapons (for Loki, his sharp, bone-armored hand) and prepared to strike upon contact…

"AHAHAHAHAH!!!!"

They froze in mid-air. (Loki, being unable to levitate, landed back on the ground shortly afterwards.)

Skurai ran in the square, crow's feet adorning his face and his bluish-black hair having a few streaks of white, towards the Poring. The Cursed Prosecutor hugged it immediately. "Ah! I almost died of old age!" he screamed. Immediately, his normal looks were restored.

Sara had a funny look of disbelief on her face. Well, seeing the Dread Skurai, make-up and all, in the middle of the night in town wearing only pajamas and hugging a Poring will do that to you. "What is this?!" she yelled.

Skurai turned to her. "Hmph…!!! Ahah! Sara, isn't it! AHAHAHAH! What a small world we have!!"

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1 The novice mentioned here is a stereotype, isn't he? I'm sure my fellow RO players have met him in one instance or another… (although he's a slightly different version in pRO. XD)

2 Unripe Apple – if you remember, I mentioned in the previous chapters that this is the Poring's taming item. It's expensive for our heroes, but Lidia is richer than she lets on.

3 Vision – Chaos' trusted weapon, which once was gifted with Tyrfing's powers! By special request, Vision talked. I originally made him to be like Chaos, but I don't know how he turned out…

4 Sword of Retribution / Haeryongdo – two ways of calling Sara's larger sword.

5 Shinryongdo – I'm pretty sure Sara stole this one too. You can find it in her picture at Book 5. Kind of looks like Chernyongdo (Iris' sword) but it's there… I don't know how it functions though.

Author's notes: I'm saddened. I was on a roll, but then our profs gave us tons of homework, and I didn't write this continuously. I must have gotten lost in the middle of the fic… anyway, once again, OOC-ness; I think I made Loki too nasty, don't you think? I tried my hardest not to make Lidia suffer (since I'm a good girl and all) but I'm not very fond of her… sigh

Oh yes, please review! I'm not pushing you or anything, but I'd appreciate it if you let me know that you've read this piece. Thanks.