I do not own Legend of Dragoon or any of the characters.
Wasteland
Cade hummed thoughtfully as he walked into the blacksmith's shop, looking around at the weapons and armor.
"Welcome!" he smiled. "How can I help you? Are you looking for a new sword? Or perhaps a different kind of weapon?"
"Armor, actually," Cade said. "Something light, but it needs to be sturdy. I have pretty bad luck and always end up fighting things that are faster than me."
"Ah, of course!" the blacksmith nodded. "How much are you looking to spend?"
"Let me see what you have and we'll see," Cade said.
The man nodded and walked around the shop for a moment before bringing over three sets of armor. One was a leather cuirass, one was a plate mail cuirass, and one was what looked like a cross between scale mail, leather, and plate mail, though all of the plates and scales looked like some kind of green-tinted chitin. The standard leather and plate mail armors were fairly generic, being only light armor, but the third was lighter and was substantially more eye-catching, which was probably why the other two were plain. This one was expensive.
"What's this one made out of?" Cade asked, trailing his fingers over the chitin plates.
They were surprisingly smooth, but they were also as solid as metal. There were two plates for the chest, scales over the lower abdomen and the sides for flexibility without sacrificing protection. On the back, there were two sets of overlapping plates running down either side of the spine, allowing flexibility, then a line of thick scales down the spine. All of the chitin armor was set into a thick leather armor vest.
"You have a good eye," the owner of the store said. "They're made out of the plates of giant scorpions native to the Death Frontier. They're the hardest natural substance in all of Endiness, and yet are incredibly light. That's what makes the scorpions so dangerous, even without their venom. They're fast, powerful, and their exoskeletons is incredibly hard to get through, except around their faces."
"Well, you were smart to set it out with two sets of plain armor," Cade said. "How much is it?"
"Seven thousand," the owner smiled.
"Practically highway robbery," Cade said. "Alright, I'll make you a deal. If you can dye it black within an hour, I'll accept it."
"Consider it done," the man smiled, putting the other two away and taking the armor behind the counter to work.
As he did, Cade walked outside to wait, looking around and seeing the others walking toward the inn. He whistled and they all looked over before walking over to him.
"What are you doing here?" Dart asked.
"I bought some armor," Cade said.
"About time," Rose said.
Cade rolled his eyes. "He'd dying it black right now. He should be done in about an hour."
"Well, whenever he's done, we're going to try heading to Donau," Dart said. "It's about a day following the road."
"Alright," Cade nodded. "I hope I can find another poncho there. I'm bound to get this one ruined soon." He tugged at it absentmindedly.
"What is it with you and that poncho?" Rose asked. "And the color black."
"I look better in black than anything else," Cade said. "As for the poncho, I just like them."
"It does look pretty good on you," Shana said.
"Thank you," Cade smiled.
They discussed the trip for the hour they had to wait, making sure they had enough water and healing potions, since they were going to be travelling through a bandit-infested wasteland on the way there. Then, finally, Cade's armor was finished and he walked inside, handing over the money before pulling his scarf and poncho off, pulling the armor on over his shirt before putting his poncho and scarf back on and walked outside. They all turned and headed out of the city once he was ready, then turned East, following the road. Within a few minutes, the sun was beating down on them, the hot, sunbaked sand around them raising the temperature rapidly. Most of the others looked miserable, besides Rose, and Cade smirked internally. The poncho kept the worst of the sun's heat off of him.
After a bit, they reached a stretch apparently called the Barrens, which had rock formations and cliffs, forming a sort of canyon pass. On the bright side, it was going to shield them from the sun, but on the down side, it was also the most heavily-populated stretch, as far as bandits were concerned. The cliffs and rocks around the path would allow them to ambush people easier.
As they walked through the shadows of the rock formations, Cade ran a hand down the front of his armor, glowing symbols spreading over the entire cuirass before fading. It wasn't a spell to make the armor stronger, unfortunately. He didn't know any of those for armor. However, the spell would make any damage done to the armor regenerate after a while, so he wouldn't need to buy new armor anytime soon, in theory.
"So how soon should we expect an attack by bandits?" Haschel asked.
"Oh, I'd give it about ten minutes," Cade said, just as he heard the sand shift behind them.
He spun, seeing a massive, brown scorpion with its left claw much, much bigger than its right burst out of the sand, its tail flashing toward Rose. He stepped to the side, drawing his sword and slashing it aside before stepping forward and slashing an upward arc through its head, flipping it backward and killing it. Another burst out of the ground in front of him and lunged, snapping at him only for him to jump back out of the way. Then, Rose stepped past him, deflecting the tail before stabbing it in the head. Its legs skittered for a moment before it collapsed, its tail crashing down behind them. Cade turned, looking ahead of them just as Albert's spear deflected the tail of a scorpion in front of the group. At the same time, Haschel punched its larger claw down into the ground. Then, Dart leapt onto its back, stabbing down into it. It shuddered for a moment before collapsing.
"Man, Dart sighed, grunting and struggling to pull his sword free for a moment before finally succeeding. "These things are solid."
"The heads are softer," Rose said.
"That would have been nice to know," Dart sighed, sheathing his sword.
They continued walking, Cade keeping his sword out in case any more scorpions decided to attack them, or anything else. The path wound and wove as it snaked through the canyon, passing over a stone arch like a bridge at one point, only to wrap around a massive stone spire before passing under that same stone bridge. As they were passing under it, a loud buzzing began to reach Cade's ears. He stopped, looking up and his eyes widened as he saw a Stinger nest above them. The Stingers, giant insects the size of a grown man's torso with poisonous stingers which was what they got their name for, began to buzz loudly as soon as he saw them, beginning to fly down at them. The nest was about the size of a horse, and a total of six Stingers flew down from it.
"Ew!" Shana complained.
"Could be worse," Cade said. "At least it's not a-"
A loud crash echoed from off to the side and they all looked over at a massive rhinoceros with stone plating over its body.
"Nevermind," Cade sighed. "Can you all handle the stingers?"
"Easily," Dart said, slashing one as Shana shot one and Rose slashed another.
Cade turned, sprinting at the Earthshaker, as the stone rhinoceros was called, and it moved to charge as well. He stepped off to his left, slashing the Earthshaker as it passed. It crashed to the ground, blood running out of the gash and Albert drove his spear down into its head as Rose killed the last Stinger.
"Okay," Cade said. "Let's get moving before we have to fight something else."
They all agreed and continued through the gorge, only to stop barely half a mile later as they reached a straight stretch with a stone arch above them, three people standing atop it. Two of them were dressed in sand-colored rags that covered most of their bodies but with small yellow beaks sticking out of the their face and both held a small dagger. The one in the middle, however, was short and in a low crouch, wore a pair of silver pants and shoes, had a lean build with toned muscles, was mostly bald except for a single orange ponytail reaching back from the top of his head, and had a brown vambrace on his right arm with three claw-like blades extended from it. He laughed as they reached the bridge, doing an excited backflip.
"Are you taking those girls on a date in a place like this!?" he cackled.
"Who are you?" Dart asked.
"Did you hear?" the middle one cackled. "They're asking who we are."
"They must think we're doctors!" the one on Cade's right laughed.
"They're bandits," Cade said, stepping forward and holding his sword at his side.
"We're not just any bandits!" the middle one said as the three leapt off the stone arch and landed in a semicircle in front of them. "We're members of the one-and-only Gehrich gang! We're so bad we scare ghosts back to Hell!"
"Never heard of you," Cade said. "Now get out of our way. We have more important things to do than to kill three pathetic bandits."
"What did you say!?" one of the other two demanded. "Yo, Mappi, how should I cook these dumbheads?"
"Well," Mappi hummed thoughtfully, grinning wickedly as he did. "I know! Let's take all their money and the bimbos!"
Cade stepped to the right, placing himself in front of Rose, despite the fact that she definitely didn't need to be protected, and Dart likewise stepped in front of Shana.
"We don't have much to give you," Albert said, stepping forward and setting the end of his spear's shaft on the ground. "But if you insist, how about a miserable ending for each of you?"
"Stop yapping!" Mappi snapped. "Just leave your valuables and the girls! It's that simple!"
Dart drew his sword as Cade held his horizontally level with his chest toward the three with both hands, turning his left side toward them.
"Get out of our way." Dart said. "We don't have time to play with you."
"This is your last chance," Rose said, drawing her sword and stepping up beside Cade. "Get out of our way or you'll need a real doctor."
"Wha-" Mappi recoiled in surprise before shouting in rage. "I'm totally pissed! Smash their heads will ya, brothers!?"
The two identical bandits both charged instantly. Dart slashed at one and he leapt aside, moving to stab Dart with his knife, only for Shana to send an arrow at him and make him leap backward to avoid it. At the same time, the other one sprinted at Cade, who moved to meet him. Cade slashed upward at him but the bandit leapt to the side. However, just as he landed on his feet, Cade pivoted, slashing back down across the bandit's back, splitting his spine in half and killing him. He turned to the bandit fighting Dart just as he moved to attack Haschel, only to receive a fist to the face, hurling him backward into the cliff face. He crumpled to the ground below it, immobile and silent.
Mappi roared in rage, streaking forward instantly, and slashing at Albert as he passed, only for Albert to deflect the claws with his spear. He shot toward Cade as well, but Cade spun around him, slashing, only for Mappi to block it, sailing backward through the air. He flipped, landing on his feet and lunged at Rose, slashing her sword aside, then moved to slash back the other way, only for Haschel's foot to crash into him, hurling him away from her. He flipped, landing on his feet and leapt away from Cade's sword before streaking toward Shana instead. Dart moved into the way, slashing at him, but he flipped over him, kicking him in the face and knocking him away, also slashing one of Shana's arrows out of the way. He cackled as he landed in front of her, instantly leaping at her. She turned to try and get out of the way, but he grabbed her around the upper body, knocking her to the ground and raising his claws. Just as he began to drive them down at her, Cade's sword hit the claws, diverting them over her head. Then, Albert slammed the shaft of his spear into Mappi, hurling him off of her.
He flipped, landing on his hands and feet as Rose slashed at him. He deflected it and lunged, knocking one of her legs out from under her, then grabbed her left upper arm, swinging around onto her back before throwing his weight to the side, yanking her to the ground over him in time to force Cade to stop his slash. His claws flashed down toward Rose's throat, only fore Cade's arm to block them, the claws getting stuck partway into his bone. Rose slammed her head backward into Mappi's nose instantly, then shoved his claws out of Cade's arm and stood, both backing away from Mappi as Dart slashed at him. Mappi blocked it, but Dart kicked him in his nose, breaking it and sending him staggering backward into the cliff wall as Dart walked after him.
"W-Wait!" Mappi pleaded, pressing himself back against the cliff face and holding out his arm. "Wow! I-I messed up!" He placed his palms together, bowing to Dart as he pleaded with him. "It's...It's my fault! I won't do it again! Please forgive me!" He pressed his forehead to the ground, hands pressed to the ground on either side.
"Kill him Dart," Cade said flatly. "He's lying."
"Got you," Mappi grinned, shoving off the ground and leaping at Dart.
He slashed at he passed, and though Dart managed to avoid the blades, they did manage to scratch his leg, ripping his pocket open and sending his Dragoon Spirit flying. Time seemed to slow as both leapt after it, but Dart was a split-second too slow and Mappi grabbed it before rolling several times to escape them before standing, the stone held in his right hand and a wicked, victorious grin on his face.
"What's this?" Mappi asked, staring at it.
Rose sprinted at him with Cade, but Mappi dodged out of the way of several slashes, deflecting a couple, then kicked Cade into Rose and spun, streaking away from the pair. Everyone sprinted after him, Cade refraining from using his wings or magic, but as they ran, Mappi hurled a small cloth pouch into the air. As they were passing it, several arrows stabbed into the ground around them. They all spun, looking up at the tops of the cliffs to either side as monsters with the body of a lion, then a muscular, humanoid upper body, each holding a bow and already pulling another arrow back. They fired as they began to scramble down the sloped cliff faces.
"We don't have time for this!" Rose shouted as they scattered, Shana shooting one of the creatures in the humanoid chest as they did.
That once dropped instantly, tumbling down the steep stone slope it was on. A moment later, one of them leapt off of its cliff face in a pounce at Cade, only for him to step forward so that it would land behind him, then slashed it along the underside as it passed, killing it. The others all reached the bottom and began to run around quickly, firing more arrows, only for everyone to avoid them. Rose and Dart each slashed one of the creatures and Haschel kicked one into another before Albert hurled his spear, impaling both. Then, as the last charged at Rose from behind, Cade slashed its two right legs off and it crashed to the ground where Shana shot an arrow into its face. Albert retrieved his spear and they turned, following Mappi again, only to slow to a stop as they reached a fork in the path, no sign of Mappi in either direction.
"He's gone," Albert sighed.
"It's my fault for not being careful enough," Dart said angrily.
"A Dragoon Spirit being stolen is the last thing I wanted to have happen," Rose sighed.
"Well, if we can find the Gehrich Gang, we can probably get it back," Albert said. "It's probably going to be a while before they sell it, if they do at all."
"I think the closest village is Donau," Cade said. "That's probably our best bet for finding out anything about them."
"Agreed," Albert said. "It's to the right here."
They all nodded and turned right, continuing to walk in silence, everyone's mood having dropped through the floor. As they walked, Cade finally drank a healing potion, bandaging the shallow cuts that remained with some rags from his shirt that had been ruined in the fight against Doel that he'd kept for that exact purpose.
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