Chapter 3 - Fanatical feminist
"Actually the elf makes a good point" Vivli said, not actually agreeing with what Voldos said, make realising he unintentionally made a different point. "What are we here to do?" This sensible and some would say needed comment was met with silence and blank stares from the rest of the group.
Before they disbanded a year ago they mostly spent their time adventuring the world, doing quests for anyone willing to pay and doing the odd mission from the Bastokian government, however after their year away discovering themselves and other things quests and missions had been trivialised and they needed something a bit more juicy to sink their teeth into, something of world ending proportions that they could go out and save the world for, something like the time the world was in danger of a new ice age due to a mad mages diabolical schemes. This the band of adventurers had fun dealing with, and even though they never actually got the credit for it, it was still an extremely proud moment in their lives.
"Well has anything been happening here? Mad mages? Eccentric Warriors bent on world domination?" Their thoughts were vocalised by a wondering Voldos.
"Not here. Bastoks been quite it's probably ever been. Not even The Quadav have been acting up." Bootus replied having already been told the lack of news by his 'father' over the linkshell when he was on his way back to Bastok.
"Well that seems odd in itself… why wouldn't the Quadav be acting up? Through personal experience we know how much they'd love to take over Bastok and eradicate the Hume and Galka population, and any other poor sucker who's in the city walls at the time." Voldos, itching for a fight after his earlier humiliation to show his fellow warriors how much he's improved in the art of war since they've split up.
"Well why don't we go down the mines and check it out? I mean we might as well start our refreshed adventuring somehow." The previously quiet Zinkata's suggestion was met with happy and hopeful smiles
"Then off to yonder-wonder we go!" Bollo said pointing towards Bastok South Gate while being picked by Bootus and put on his left shoulder.
As the group of six confidently walked to the South Gate, led by an overly excited Voldos, Vivli wondered why Bootus never gave her a ride on his shoulder. The original reason for Bollo being there is that his little legs usually meant he got left behind and this meant the other had to wait for Bollo to catch up and even when he did catch up they had to wait for him to catch his breath, so one day while they were headed for the exact same mines Bootus decided that it was best for everyone if Bollo from then on rode on his shoulders, this left Vivli in practically the same situation. Before it didn't matter that she was extremely slow as Bollo being slower meant she could take her time, reach the others and not be out of breath however with Bollo no longer running it was Vivli who reached the destination late, panting and puffing feeling quite embarrassed. She had always hoped that Bootus would do the same for her instead of complaining and making jokes at her expense for her slowness but Bootus hasn't offered and Vivli being to stubborn and proud never asked. This meant quests and missions usually took longer than needed.
As they walked through South Gusteberg Voldos saw a thing of beauty on the horizon. Voldos's delusions of perfection stemmed to all parts of his personality this included the way he handled the opposite sex. Whenever a new beautiful women caught Voldos's eye he was there within seconds reciting corny chat up line after corny chat up line. The women usually gave Voldos an annoyed sideward glance and walked off, some slapping him and the extreme rare few thinking Voldos was cute and giving him half a chance to make something of their relationship. However Voldos's arrogant nature and general stupidity ended these relationships pretty quickly. Now Voldos saw a new conquest on the horizon, prime for the picking, or pick up as the case may be.
"Zin. See that lushes warrior women coming towards us? How much you want to bet she'll be in my arms within a minute?" Voldos's confidence with the women was unfathomably high with his past track record.
"Willingly or not?" Zinkata asked knowing this was his way to a quick 100 gil
"Willing of course. The Voldo doesn't need force just his charm." Voldos said giving Zinkata a wink and gun finger point.
"hmmm she seems especially independent … 500 gil"
"Better get counting Zin." With that Voldos trotted ahead to meet with the mysterious women in shiny blue armour and long blond hair in a pony tail.
"Hey beautiful how about -" Voldos was cut extremely short of his usual opening chat up line by a forceful fist in his chin. It would appear Zinkata's assessment of the women's independence was a bit of an understatement.
With the women's fist still under Voldos's chin he lost consciousness and fell to the dirt floor.
"Thank Shiva it's finally happened! He's finally got what he truly deserved!" Vivli's enjoyment of seeing Voldos finally getting his comeuppance blinded her from the oddity of Voldos being knocked unconscious with one punch, however this wasn't lost on Bootus or Zinkata. As Bootus began to walk towards the warrior women he set Bollo back down on the ground and rested one hand on the hilt of his Great Katana.
"Excuse me ma'am but don't you think that was a bit drastic?" Bootus asked hoping to advert a fight and settle this with words where they'd go back to the tavern in Bastok and laugh about the misunderstanding.
"You males are all the same. Arrogant and stupid. I think it's time women ruled this male suppressed world." And with that she jump towards Bootus twirling in mid air and delivering a kick to his face before he could even block her attack. Unfortunately for Bootus not only was her attack fast but also extremely strong and sent him a good 3 feet flying, landing on the hard dirt on his back.
"God damn whore!" Bootus's Monk background meant he could with stand and ignore extreme amounts of pain allowing him to stand his ground against the mightiest of foes. Conjuring up all his Monk and Samaria skill he got to his feet, drew his great katana and charged the fanatical feminist. However he was back on the flaw on his back as he was floored by a massive fireball to the chest. Coughing up blood Bootus tried to get up once more, the thought of how this women possibly got this much power continually entering his head as he fought the pain and unconsciousness.
Zinkata having seen enough drew his sword, readied his shield and charged the seemingly invincible warrior himself. Just as he was about to slash her across the back of her knees where her armour was weakest a green sphere of lightening formed around her sending Zinkata back a few feet, finally being stopped my a mountain.
"A mere male being able to contend with me? HA! I'll give your gender one thing: You amuse me with how you delude yourself with thinking your our equal!" With this the warrior women gave Bootus a swift kick in the stomach sending him into unconsciousness, ending his fight.
Vivli never felt 100 safe when she was facing an adversary with all five of them being at full strength let alone being left with the Bard/black mage to face some insane feminist bent on world domination who could kill his with her little finger, let alone the massive 6 ft sword she wore on her back. As she stood in fear she realised Bollo was doing the same thing hiding behind her leg and tried to think of something to do to at least defend them before the bitch made her way to them to end there suffering once and for all. As she remembered her summoning powers it was too late, she was right in front of the terror struck duo and would attack any moment. As Vivli closed her eyes and waited for her body to meet cold steel a thousand thoughts went through her mind consisting of why she didn't deserve to die and what she would do to make everyone's lives better if she was aloud to continue living. However cowardly this action might have seemed she was faring better then Bollo who had passed out when the warrior women had finally reached Vivli's side but both actions weren't needed as she just walked past the two mages without even a second glance.
After five minutes of confessing her ever sin Vivli realised that cold steel death wasn't being met. At first Vivli thought her soon to be murderer had decided to torment the pair a little longer making the final action of killing that little bit more sweeter. After another five minutes it became apparent to Vivli this wasn't the case and as she reopened her eyes she noticed that she was alone with four unconscious bodies being the only life around her.
Voldos was alone in a black void of nothingness. When he tried to scream no words came out. When he tried to move his muscles wouldn't respond. This terrified Voldos almost to the point of tears as his eyes feverously looked around to try and find something that would explain his predicament. Then he saw beautiful white light coming towards, soothing him and comforting the once scared Voldos. As he closed his eyes he could hear familiar voices, though he couldn't make out what they were saying. It sounded like he was at the opposite end of a tunnel to the other people and as he listened he noticed the voices were getting louder as if the bodies belonging to them were getting closer. Then the noise turned into words.
"I don't know! He should be up! Maybe he suffered brain damage or something." Vivli. That was Vivli's voice, what's she doing in the void of nothingness? As he thought this he opened his eyes to see a familiar face in a void of unknown. As he opened his eyes he was no longer in the dark scary void but back in South Gusteberg, a concerned Bollo bending over him looking into his eyes.
"It's ok! He's a wake!" Bollo said straightening himself and starting to dance with joy at the elvaans renewed consciousness.
"About bloody time! Do you know how many cure spells I had to use? I don't get me started about you getting us into this mess!" Vivli was rightfully annoyed. In the space of an hour of meeting up with her friends she'd been mocked, humiliated, terrified and seen three of her friends knocked unconscious without being able to put up a fight.
"Calm down Li. I'm awake now aren't I? Just needed a few minutes nap is all.
"A nap ….?"Vivli looked to be at breaking point as she stared at Voldos just getting off the dusty ground sheer madness in her eyes.
"I think we have more important things to deal with than Voldos's laziness at this moment Li." Zinkata said hoping to focus the anger and hate on the person who caused the terror and pain rather than the one who provoked it.
"Zinkata's right. Well it would appear that the whore's some kind of new feminist movement group out to take over the world." In the panic and terror it would be easy to miss some of the easiest of plot points, Bootus saw his job as to make sure everyone was clued up on their situations.
"Damn! And here I was hoping it was a new girl band!" Voldos saw his job as bring perfection to the group, however what he actually brought was annoyance and pain to Vivli who couldn't stand stupidity, especially elvaan stupidity.
"Well Let's go to Bastok - wastok and see if she therey - wherey." Bollo's input was thankfully more useful than Voldos's and gave them a direction to go in.
As they approached the South Gate the vacancy of guards caused the group to hope that the Bastokian guard and Mithril Musketeers was enough to null this attack. But as they entered Bastok none of them were prepared for what they saw.