Chapter 3 Serpens Fang
Once Marco had packed up his things him and the others had started their trek through the woods. "So uh... where are we going?" Marco asked. "Actually, what do you guys even do? I know that I said I'd join you but I really don't know what I'm joining."
"Well to start how much do you know about Fiore's guild system." Pete asked.
"None of it." Marco answered dumbly
Pete grumbled and sighed. "Alright I'll start from the top then there are three main types of guilds legal guilds, illegal guilds, and independent guilds. Legal guilds are approved by the magic council and reside in a stationary guild hall."
"Or multiple guild halls." Ricco chimed in. "I hear Phantom Lord has about nineteen different ones all across Fiore."
"Yes thank you for your contribution Ricco." Pete grumbled. "But as I was saying all legal guilds have to be recognized by the magic council."
"Question." Marco raised his hand. "What's the magic council?"
"How do you not... never mind." Pete sighed. "The magic council is the group in control of the guilds and wizards of Fiore. While they technically still serve under the king... you know what a king is right?" Marco nodded. "Alright, while they still serve under the king they generally tend to do their own thing."
"Okay but that doesn't really answer my question..." Marco said.
"I was getting to that." Pete growled "Legal guilds are under the control of the magic council. Getting approved is fairly simple all you need is a Guildhall, a guild master, and at least ten potential members. There are guilds for just about anything including but not limited to mercenary guilds, treasure hunting guilds, merchant guilds, and most famously wizarding guilds."
"Alright But I'm still confused." Marco frowned.
Pete grit his teeth. "How could you still possibly be confused?!"
"Guilds are essentially places where a bunch of different people with the same profession go to find work. People join guilds so they can make money." Sakura explained.
"Ohhhh that makes more sense." Marco nodded.
Pete's eyebrow twitched. "Anyway there are also illegal guilds or dark guilds. Dark guilds operate the same as legal guilds except dark guilds aren't recognized by the council and they take illegal job requests."
"Then again the legality of guild jobs is kinda weird I mean for some reason assassination requests are still perfectly legal." Yoro said.
"Theft and assassination jobs are constantly regulated." Pete explained. "You can only kill murderers and criminals and you can't steal anything that values over 3,000 jewel. So there are some precautions, they aren't very good precautions but they're still there. Dark guilds however don't use those precautions killing innocents and stealing precious artifacts. Then finally there are independent guilds."
"That's what we are." Ricco clarified.
"Ricco your input is unnecessary." Pete said coldly.
"Sorry..." Ricco muttered.
"He is correct though we are an independent guild. We're not certified by the council, but we also can't be labeled as a dark guild." Pete said professionally
"As for what we actually do it's really quite simple. We take it upon ourselves to find and disband different dark guilds." Yoro said.
"Oh alright, is that where we're going now?" Marco asked.
Pete nodded. "Yes, but I have to admit I'm taking a bit of a gamble with this one."
"Oh? You think we can't handle it?" Ricco asked.
"Yes that's exactly it." Pete said seriously. "The guild we are heading towards is known as Serpent's Fang and unlike the other guilds we've gone up against they have a small group of members that we could consider actual threats. They're known as the four heads of Serpent's Fang. The Serpent, the Cobra, the Anaconda, and the Python."
"So what, if they have a couple of strong guys we can take them on no sweat." Yoro said confidently.
"Even if you could take one of them on we still need to defeat their guild master and he'll be much harder to beat then the rest not only is he the strongest member but he's also a sneaky conniving bastard.
"What does he do?!" Marco asked.
"Forget to turn off the lights?" Yoro said.
"Keep the water running?" Ricco suggested.
"Jaywalk?" Sakura guessed.
"Are those really the most evil things you guys can think of?" Marco asked.
"I can guarantee you that he does all of those things but it gets even worse. It doesn't matter what evil deeds his members do he can always find a way to bail them out of trouble. He has a heart made of ink and a soul full of malice. He's as slippery and conniving as the beings he's named after. Viper the guild master of Serpent's Fang."
Serpens Fang Guild Hall
Sitting in a giant velvet clad throne in the middle of a large room was a tall slumbering man with slick navy blue hair. He wore a black t-shirt and shorts and was wrapped in a large navy blue cloak with the Serpens Fang Guild mark on the back in black. The mark was simply a snake in the shape of the letter S but it still looked quite intimidating. On the man's lap was a large yellow snake who was also sleeping.
In the left side of the room two males were playing darts. The first was a muscular tanned man wearing light blue striped shirt with the sleeves ripped off. He had a scar over his left eye and wore a red bandanna. On his left bicep was an anchor tattoo and on his neck was a light blue Serpens Fang guild mark. His name was Sesor Arachi.
Next to him was a much taller slimmer man named Moray Eelon. He had bright yellow hair in a Mohawk. In contrast however he also wore a tux and dress shoes. In the right corner of the room a girl with short messy light green hair was tending to some plants. She wore a short orange dress and light brown sandles and her light green guild mark could be seen on her left hand. Her name was Nina Rundo.
Another male was meditating near the back wall of the room. He wore a full suit of red samurai armor and had two swords strapped to his side. He was known as Roku Tribola. "Yarharhar!" Sesor laughed "You lose again Moray better luck next time."
"Oyoi how in the world do you keep winning? You only have one eye your depth perception should be all messed up." Moray grumbled.
"Ha! Magic is truly a wonderful thing ain't it? I only have one eye but I can see like there's two." Sesor laughed.
"Can you keep it down they are getting aggressive." Nina chided.
"If that's the case maybe you should put them on the balcony. None of us want them to get too rowdy." Moray suggested.
"Or you could just get rid of the blasted things." Roku said gruffly.
Nina gasped and covered the plants as if they had ears. "How could you suggest that?! These 'things' are my pride and joy."
"Then you must live a very sad life." Roku said matter of factly.
"Ha! You think my life is sad?" Nina shot back. "At least I do something either than sleep and train all day."
"It's called meditating!" Roku growled.
"Oyoi there they go again." Moray sighed.
"Yar... I'll take care of this." Sesor sighed and bashed their heads together. "Shut the hell up!"
"Sorry sir..." Nina said dizzily.
"I apologize to no one!" Roku said in a similar state.
It was then that one of the guild members came storming into the guild masters room. "Master! Master!" He cried.
Viper yawned from his throne and slouched over. With his pet snake waking up soon after to wrap it'self around his neck. "Hey" He said nonchalantly "what's the big deal."
"There is a group of mages heading this way, there's only about five of em and they're all kinda young but they have about as much magic as you guys." The member said.
"Oh is that all?" Viper asked. "I wouldn't worry about it, we haven't hurt nobody so they don't have a reason to attack us. But still stay alert, just in case they try anything."
"Yes sir!"
"I guess that's one way to wake up huh Master?" Moray joked.
"Eh I had to get up sooner or later anyways." He spotted Nina and Roku from the corner of his eye. "You two were fighting again?"
Roku and Nina glared at each other before looking away. "I'll be heading to the roof to meditate." Roku said.
"I think the greenhouse needs to be checked on." Nina said.
"Oyoi" Moray sighed. "Those two never change."
"Yarharhar!" Sesor laughed. "They may hate each other but at least they can stand living under the same roof."
Moray snorted "Oyoi Unlike some people I know."
Two more Serpens Fang members ran into the room "Master Sesor!" "Master Moray!"
"What is it now?" Moray asked.
"There's flooding coming from your room!" "The right half of the base's power has gone off!" The two members said in unison.
"Arrr... again?" Sesor asked.
"Oyoi... this is the third time this week." Moray grumbled. "Well I guess I'm going to have to fix that."
"Same here" Sesor sighed "I swear the damn thing gets flooded every other day."
"So what does the Serpens Fang guild look like exactly?" Marco asked.
"From what I've gathered it's a huge castle located somewhere in these woods." Pete answered.
"Like that castle over there?" Marco asked pointing at a large stone structure in front of him. It had four large towers that reached up about three hundred feet each. With long gray stone walls connecting the towers. In the middle of the structure was a slightly smaller tower with a banner containing the Serpens Fang guild mark hung like a banner.
"Wow..." Ricco deadpanned "they aren't even trying to be inconspicuous.
"They don't need to, that slime ball of a boss they have is bailing them out of any legal troubles they come across." Pete snarled.
"Do you know this guy or something?" Marco asked.
"No I'm just going off of rumors I heard." Pete admitted.
"Ahhh that makes sense." The rest of the Squad said in sync.
"Pete tends to over exaggerate things." Ricco said answering Marco's unspoken question "So he usually ends up jumping to the worst possible outcome. If he hears that a greedy man walks into a museum he immediately assumes that they're going to try to steal half of the museum's exhibits."
"It's even worse that because he always talks in the same serious tone we can never tell what's the truth and what is an over exaggeration." Yoro sighed.
"Unless it's a completely ridiculous claim which has happened a few times already. But the reality of this is probably just something like this Viper guy is just a local thug who runs a dark guild a few miles away." Sakura said.
"Couldn't he also just be a decent person?" Marco asked.
"Hah!" Yoro laughed "He's a dark mage Marco, he's a criminal by definition."
"Alright I guess I'll take your word for it." Marco said "But I still have one question. What are we supposed to do?"
Pete cleared his throat. "That is a very good question and one that I'll answer right now. Normally our strategy for taking out dark guilds goes like this, I use my Living Shadow magic, which allows me to make sentient shadows that can take almost any shape, to make a bird or another winged creature to take me to the top of their base so I can sneak in through the top."
"Then if the building is big enough I'll go up with him using my Earth make magic, magic that lets me create objects from solid earth, otherwise I end up in the strike team with Ricco and Sakura." Yoro explained.
"As the strike team it's our job to take out the weaker members of the dark guild so Pete can defeat the master. I use my summoned Yo-Kai, powerful spirits that I've befriended, and my Requip magic to fight." Sakura continued.
"And I use my bow to launch arrows that mimic natural disasters I have red, blue, yellow, wind, white, and orange arrows. For fire, water, electric, wind, snow, and earth disasters respectively." Ricco boasted. "You'll probably be added to the strike team so you should explain your magic as well."
"Okay then." Marco shrugged. "I use Mind Dragon Slaying magic I fire blasts of Psychic energy and can eat the thoughts and memories of others to replenish my magic. I don't have to eat the thoughts of other humans though, animals and monsters can also replenish it."
"Dude your magic is kinda messed up." Ricco said.
"Says the man who can create earthquakes on a whim." Sakura joked.
"Yeah I guess that's true." Ricco said sheepishly.
Viper sighed as he watched the security camera's outside of his castle. "I guess those kids did decide to cause trouble huh?" Viper picked up a lacrima and spoke into it. "Attention all mages! The castle will be under attack very soon! If you do not wish to fight get out now!"
"No way boss!" One mage yelled. "This is our Guild and we'll fight for it!"
"You'll be fighting children..." Viper added.
"Never mind!" Multiple mages shouted at once.
Those mages never got a chance to escape however as three figures burst into the Guildhall. "Green Arrow Twister" Ricco fired an arrow and raging winds flew out of it sending the other mages flying.
"Requip" Sakura took two hand fulls of kunai out of her Requip space and threw them at the dark mages.
"That seemed a bit unnecessary don't you think?" Marco asked.
"These are dark wizards this is completely necessary." Ricco said.
"Besides it's not like we're killing them or anything." Sakura defended.
"Yeah I guess that's true. This still doesn't feel right though." Marco muttered.
Viper sighed. "So that's how it's gonna be huh? I didn't want this to come to violence but you leave me with no other option."
"Oyoi a power outage and now this?" Moray asked. "It looks like today is just not my day."
"Oh come on..." Nina whines the plants around her were growing frantically turning the greenhouse she was in into a small jungle. "I just calmed these things down too."
Yoro raised a stone plate from the ground and jumped onto the roof "Step one complete, now I just have to find one of those heads. I've been craving a good fight for a while now."
Sesor clenched his fists. "Looks like those kids decided to cause us some trouble after all. It looks like I'll have to prepare something for em."
Pete flew high above the castle on a shadow eagle that he created. "Where is Viper?" He asked himself. "The guild masters of dark guilds, are truly the worst kinds of trash."
Roku was meditating on the roof of the castle. "It appears that there are some children causing trouble." Roku opened one of his eyes and spotted a bird flying high in the air. "It appears that they are sneaky children as well."
Marco sighed "I guess I should at least help out." Marco muttered to himself. "Mind Dragon Roar" a giant blast of psychic energy came barreling out of Marco's mouth knocking out multiple dark mages. "I don't really know why I'm doing this." Marco admitted "But I do know that if I backed out of this I'd feel worse about ditching my new friends then I would about beating up a bunch of criminals. So I guess I'm going to war!"