Red Dragon's Roar - Fall of the Kuroinu! Chapter 7, an Elder Scroll series + Kuroinu: Kedakaki Seijo wa Hakudaku ni Somaru Crossover fanfic

Last time, our dastardly crew met the holy knight Reynold who had attempted to block their path, only to be defeated...with misunderstandings cleared, our heroes are now in Luco...However, Darkness looms and that looming is coming from ALL directions... Find out now!

Chapter 7

Luco's orphanage, Mess hall

Anderson led the crew through the halls to where the mayor was waiting, each taking note of all the images and crosses hanging around.

Traysek frowning at some of them, rose an eyebrow, 'Strange symbol...what is it with that cross? almost feels like a cult with that many,' Glancing at Anderson's Rosario, 'Including present company...'

Recorder was trying to compose herself, having mild flashbacks of her old orphanage, "Keep it together Record...we're almost through this hall..." she muttered quietly to herself.

Lucien on the other hand was intrigued by the artwork and symbols, smiling at the portraits as they passed them, 'Art work here is fantastic! although what interests me more...is the strange cross emblem...what does it mean? perhaps I'll ask Anderson here when I get the chance,'

Inigo on the hand, took a minute to mutter something, "Gods above, forgive me for what I have done..."

Erik rolled his eyes, "You do that in every temple we go to,"

"It is a habit, if you knew the things I did before joining you guys, you would understand," Inigo sighed, shaking a bad memory out of his head.

While Anderson may have been leading the group, that didn't go unmissed... cutting a quick eye behind him, but said nothing...not sure if out of respect or some other motive.

Eventually, they reach the doors to mess hall, the crew able to hear chatting from the other side of it.

"and we're here..." Anderson said, putting his hands on the door, but hesitated on pushing them through, putting raised eyebrows on everyone else, "Before I take you in there...What are your intentions once you do find him...?" that familiar chill coming back, stronger, which put the crew on edge, almost everyone putting a hand on their sword hilt, "I know Grave loves to send little errand boys to collect for him...this isn't the FIRST time it's happened...So I need to know and honestly, I'm good at detecting a lie..."

Traysek had a narrowed-eyed glare on him, yet didn't have his hand on his sword this time, "Originally, yes, we've been sent here just for that...however, after seeing the state of the village...and the people here...Now? I want to know what happened here and what can be done," waving the other's down.

The rest of the crew deflated, hands now off their blades, as Anderson stared at him for a moment, as if judging him, eyes unable to be seen from the glint of his glasses, adjusting them, "Interesting...very well, right this way," pushing open the doors, opening it to a room full of people, eating, talking, laughing, despite WHAT they were eating, they seemed happy.

"He should still be in here, poor bastard barely eats...doesn't want to take from everyone else," Anderson sighed, shaking his head, "We'll find him in here, he's a rather slender man with a bodyguard standing over him,"

Traysek rose an eyebrow, "Wait 'We?' I get us, but what are you going to see him for?"

"Lets just say, it concerns those black dog mercenaries that pop through here from time to time," The priest said, gritting his teeth, "Daft cunts..."

The Dragonborn went into thought, frowning at him, 'The black dogs...? Volt's people? what do they have to do with here? Gods I'm not liking this...not one damned bit,' clearing his throat, coming out of them, "I see... I've been hearing a lot about him recently, I'm curious to know more, especially if we're going to be business partners and all,"

Anderson stared at him for a moment, almost in disbelief, "I can hardly believe you're even working with that cunt, I guarantee after telling the mayor what's been going on with them, I doubt you'll even want THAT with him," before looking around the room, spotting an armored guardsman standing by a man hunch over the table, "Found him, he's in far back corner," turning to the group, "I don't need to tell you how suspicious it looks walking up on them with this many numbers, I'll need your boss and somebody who can negotiate,"

"That's me, I'm the crew's negotiator and scholar, I can probably get your mayor to open up to us if anything," Lucien chimed in.

Traysek nodded, "I agree, he's good enough to charm himself out of a dragon's jaws if it came down to it, we'll need him if it comes to that,"

Anderson had a hand on his chin, slowly nodding, "Alright, you're coming too, the rest of you, there's an empty table nearby, wait there until we're done,"

"Don't need to tell us twice, let's go guys," Recorder said, ushering Ingo and Erik to said table.

When the group split, Anderson led both Traysek and Lucien over to the downtrodden man, whose guard stiffened at their approach.

"Hold on, he knows me," The father said, stopping them for a second, walking up to the guard, "Boris! how are things? still isn't eating?"

"Ah, father, good to see you, and no he hasn't touched a single drop of the stew," the guard Boris, sighed, "and something tells me that's not going to change either,"

Anderson took a deep breath, "Of course not, man's committed to this, but I've brought some help that will hopefully change the mood of things around here," motioning to the duo behind him.

The mayor rose his head up, his brown hair a mess, coupled with the five-o-clock shadow, green eyes as tired as he looked, glanced at the group, as he sat up, "What's this father? who are they? hired help?"

The Redguard was the first to offer his hand, "Something like that, I'm Captain Traysek of the Red Dragon Company, nice to meet you mayor-?"

"Ernest Laplant, Mayor of Erdora, but please call me Ernie," The mayor introduced himself as, shaking his hand before turning to Lucien, "And you are?"

The scholar smiled, "I'm Lucien Flavius, Scholar and scientist, at your service," offering his hand.

"Pleasure's mine, so...what brings you here and to me today?" Ernie asked, folding his arms, "I know this isn't a social call, wouldn't come all the way here for that,"

Traysek smirked, taking a seat, Anderson, and Lucien following suit, "And you'd be right to think that, we are here on business and it's about time we got started,"

Meanwhile, in the field...

Reynold took time to take in his surroundings, taking a whiff of the air with a grin, "It's been too long since I've been here, it's never lost it's beauty either...now where are they?" looking around, until he spotted a group of kids, one of them with minotaur horns, "Found them...alright then," moving towards the playing group.

Two boys were wrestling in a ring made by the children spectating, the largest one with bullhorns pinning down one of the other children, as another began to count.

"1...! 2...! 3! and once again, Minos remains the champion!" the boy exclaimed, holding the larger's arm up in victory.

"Oh yeah! undefeated! this is getting disappointing, who else wants to step up?!" The horned boy challenged, getting nervous smiles from the other kids until...

"How about me? for old time's sake!" a voice called out, freezing him dead in his tracks, as well as silencing the other children. When they turn their heads in the direction it came from, they found Rey standing there, smirking, "Hello Kids, did you miss me?"

Not even seconds after he greeted them, he was tackled by Minos in a hug, "BIG BRO! I'VE MISSED YOU, MAN! WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME ALONE HERE?!" the boy shouted in between sobs, his hug getting tighter.

"Ack...! Min-min, it's good to see you too...! but I can't breathe...!" The holy knight struggled to get out, as the other kids began to surround him.

"Hey, we wanna see brother Rey too, don't go hogging him for yourself!" a girl's voice cried out.

"Yeah! think of other people!" another yelled out, shadowing over them.

Rey chuckled at this, as Minos groaned, standing up, offering his hand, "Yeah yeah, I get it, sheesh," helping him up.

...

Now at one of the tables, with four of the children, Rey was regaling his battles and the places he's been while on tour. he had their attention, especially when some of the more exotic places were mentioned. When it was said and done, he placed the large sack that he had with him on the table.

"So that's why you were gone so long, we thought you died bro," A dark skin boy said, with a worried expression.

Rey sighed, slightly sweating, "Honestly Ali, the way that battle was going, I almost WAS, I was lucky I even had a sharp weapon left,"

"Wow...I wish I could've been in that if only I had more training..." A dark elf girl sighed, imagining herself standing victorious over many.

The holy knight sighed, "No Nancy, I'm glad you weren't there, that battle was as brutal as it came, we lost so many in that fight against Olga's army,"

"I know it's just...You've been teaching me how to fight and I want to be useful in that, I can't be HERE," Nancy said, pouting.

"There will be a day, a time when you are, but for now? Enjoy being a kid, trust me, there are days I wish I could've taken my own advice here, but you still have the option to do that, don't trade away your good life for a life of bloodshed, because once you're in it, there's no coming out..." Rey darkly warned, watching her sulk, "And besides Nancy, you DON'T want to enter this bloody world I'm in, war changes people, and I don't want to know what that change would do to you, ANY of you!" looking around at the rest, who had their heads in sulk.

Nancy looked at the ground for a moment, until she sighed in defeat, "I...understand...I just thought I could make a difference, that's all, I'm sorry I asked,"

"Don't be, one day you will become a powerful swordswoman, at that point, not even I will be able to stop that, and I won't because I'll be too proud that day..." Rey said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "And you are making a difference, you're here with your siblings... despite them not really being that, they've more than filled the hole there, haven't they?"

The dark elf girl slowly nodded, "When you put it like that, I guess it's not so bad...it's still a little undercutting, but I understand,"

"Thank you, that's all I was trying to do there," Reynold thanked, ruffling her hair, causing a giggle.

He then felt tugging at his lower armor straps, turning around to find the smallest child, with a shy expression. "Aww little Nicky, I didn't forget about you, come here," giving him a hug, "I've been thinking about you, so much so, I got you something special," going into the sack, and coming out with a cute red Dragon plushie, handing it to him, "This is Fenor, he's a special kind of dragon, he'll protect you from those other monsters, take care of him and he'll take care of you,"

The toddler looked at his new stuffed dragon and hugged into it, nodding.

"Aww~ I think he loves his new friend, it's cute," Nancy said, smiling at the toddler, "So, I noticed there's plenty in the bag, what else is there?"

Minos hurredly nodded, "Yeah! what else is in there? come on man, it looked heavy,"

"Alright, Alright, hold your horses, or in your case Minos, hold your horns..." Rey chuckled, "I brought something back for everyone to enjoy, and speaking of that, Minos," going into his bag once again, coming out with a scroll and gada mace, "I got you a scroll of advance wresting techiniques, so you don't lose to me so quickly...AND the mace was because I remember you being interested in learning how to use one,"

Minos grinned, "I was and I like how it looks, thank you Rey," inspecting the mace, before giving it some practice swings away from them.

Rey nodded, going back into the bag, "Now for you Nancy, I got you a book on sword techniques from the east, wasn't easy to find either, had to comb several libraries, but I think I found the one that suits you," pulling out a training sword from the sack, "And I got you another training sword, since your last broke from our other session,"

The dark elf girl took the book and sword, smiling, "Thanks Rey, I can finally train again and I've got new moves to check out,"

"You kids are welcome, but I noticed there's only four of you out here? where's the rest?" Rey asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ali put a hand on his chin, "Let's see...Ron's in the kitchen helping Milla and Sister Margarette out, Amelia and Rumy are in their room, sharing stories like a couple of neeeerds,"

"Hey! there's nothing wrong with being smart, if anything you should aspire to be as such, which would be better than your light-handed habit," Rey deadpanned.

"I'm working on that...daily, I've gotten better with it, okay?" Ali defended, folding his arms.

Rey gave him a knowing look, but chuckled, "Of course you have, and since you weren't in trouble when I got here, I also have a gift for you," holding a small chest towards him, "A treasure chest for my favorite mate, Arrg!" in mock pirate tone.

Ali took the chest and opened it, finding gold and silver coins as well as gems inside...His eyes grew like dinner plates, "Actually treasure? Yaaarrrg!"

"Hold your horses there, only the coins are real, but the gems are candy and there's plenty of them in there, so you can't sell them, but it's better eaten anyway" The holy knight smiled, as the boy began to pose like an explorer.

"With this treasure in hand, I shall rule as the pirate king! bwahahahaha!" Ali laughed, feeling proud of his new toy.

Rey playfully mocked intimidation, "Uh-oh! I think I just gave him the power he needed, Eostia's done for now!"

The kids were roaring with laughter, as Rey continued his joke...however nearby a set of antlers watched the whole scene. Greil had been there watching the whole thing and didn't know what to make out of it...in many years he's never once seen humans caring to anything other than other humans...to see a holy knight of all people show that kindness to something other than himself, made him wonder if there were actually more humans like that out there...

'Interesting...if lady Olga could see this now, I wonder what'd she make of it...'

His thoughts were interrupted when his magic mirror glowed, prompting him to answer it, "This Greil speaking..."

"Sir are we ready to do this yet...? the men are getting anxious..."

Greil paused on that for a minute, before looking back on the field, looking at those happy faces, human, demi-human, and Dark elf, he took a deep breath, "No, we continue as planned, we wait until they leave this place, no one is to attack it, understood?"

"Understood, we await your orders,"

Greil put away the mirror, going back to observing the field, 'Not a moment longer...it really is a shame that we're enemies, holy one...'

...

Back with the children, things have died down a bit with the group, Rey stands up and grabs his bag, "It was good seeing you kids, I'll find the others and give them their gifts before heading in, Stay safe and out of trouble," giving Ali a knowing grin on the last part.

"No promises!" He responded, a cocky toothy grin.

"Bye Rey! next time, you're showing me some more moves!"

"Alright bro! but remember we still have unfinished business, so no running off until then!" Mino playfully threatened.

Rey chuckled, Yeah yeah, don't worry before I leave I'll gladly put you in a headlock," bending down to hug the toddler, "Bye little nick, it was good seeing you again," giving him a hug.

"B-b-bye big bwother..." The boy struggled out, going back to being shy.

Rey felt himself blush, giving a smile, "Aww~ you're getting better at that, keep at it little nick, I'll see you later, okay?" giving his hair a ruffle, going for the tree where two kids were seated.

A pair of bunny ears rose up, causing the young girl to look up, to find Rey approaching, "Hey, HEY Rumy, look who's here,"

The young gothic looked up from her book, a sly grin plastered on her face, "Well well, now there's a face I haven't seen in a millennia, welcome back Reynold,"

Rey sighed, at the mention of his full name, "I see you're still as cryptic as always, also it has not been a "millennia", it's literally been a year since I've seen you all, stop it" chuckling after.

"A year can feel like an eternity to those of the night," Rumy recited, causing the other girl to roll her eyes.

"What dark and gloomy here is trying to say, is that she's happy to see you, so am I" Amelia greeted, hugging him.

Rey returned it, "I'm glad to you too Amy! how's the book club going?" jokingly.

"Well it could go better if we got some new material, we're running out of things to read," Rumy complained.

"Correction, you are, I'm still on that last magic book I got from him, which speaking of..." turning to him, "Why is it so heavy...? There are so many pages and I haven't even gotten to the part when I start casting yet,"

Rey deadpanned at this, "You were the one who wanted to learn magic and I warned you then that it would be a slow process, don't complain that you have to put an effort for it, most magicians are usually studying and training harder than this, this is easy compared to that...you don't want to know what I had to do become a knight, you'd pass out, trust me," chuckling at the thought, until another occurred, "You know, I did meet someone recently that is a magic user, perhaps I can introduce you guys sometime,"

"You mean those people you came here with?" Rumy asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rey nodded, sighing, "Yeah...especially the man in red...he's the magic user I mentioned, and a skilled one at that, was even able to make himself intangible" having a flashback to that moment, 'And I'm still trying to figure out HOW he was able to do that,'

Ameila's face went blank, blinking twice, "I-intangible...? like a ghost?"

"Pretty much, yeah, it was a...interesting sparring match," Rey lied, rubbing the back of his neck.

Rumy rose an eyebrow, "Uh-huh..."Sparring match" you sure that's what it was...? you have the face of a defeated puppy,"

"Wait...you didn't actually lose...did you?" Amy asked, ears drooping.

Rey scratched the back of his neck, "Well I didn't lose, but I didn't exactly win either..."

"That's the definition of losing, So you lost then," Rumy added in.

"Okay yes, but don't please tell Minos or the others yet, I at least want to be the one to break the news when I get to it," Rey pleaded, admitting it.

Rumy and Ameilia shared glances with one another, the demi-human sighing.

"Fine, we won't ruin your bromance, even though lying is against your code," Amelia smirked, prompting an eye-roll from said knight.

"I said I'd tell them, I mean that...when I get around to it,"

"Right. when you get around to it, I wonder how long that'll take," Rumy teased, chuckling with Amelia.

Reynold bitterly laughed with them, "Ahahaha very funny, I see you've gotten better at humor as well as your poems, speaking of," reaching his hand into the bag, coming out with an exotic book, "I got you a book of vampire poems from the lands in the south, very goth but an interesting read,"

Rumy took the book and scanned the cover, "I've never seen a title like this, who knew Vampires actually put out books, thank you master Reynold," taking the book with a bow.

"Hey, I've told you about the master thing, but regardless you're welcome," Rey said, reaching into the bag once again, "And for you Amy, I got you book on magical creatures and monsters, some that could even be summoned, although that's a seperate book, and I'll get it for you, once you study this one,"

Amelia took the book, flipping through a few pages, "It's on almost every monster here, especially those that come from the dark fortress...Where did you get this?"

"From the library in Ken, I went ahead and bought the book, instead of having to return it later, so it's yours," Rey told her, shouldering the now nearly empty sack.

"Thank you for this, big bro, I'll study on this alright," Amy said, with a gleam in her eyes.

Rey chuckled, "I'm glad you liked your gifts, I would stay but I haven't even seen Ron or Millia yet, so once I'm done I'll introduce you to my new friend," standing up to leave, until his arm was grabbed startling him.

"Wait! Reynold, please wait..." Amelia begged, putting a rose eyebrow on the knight.

"Amelia...? Is there something wrong?" Rey asked, now concerned.

Rumy had her head down as if she couldn't get out what was bothering her, the same could be said for the demi-human who was also hesitant, which did NOT sit well with the holy knight.

"Girls...? what's going on? the last time I've seen those faces, is when we first brought Nancy here...if something has happened, you need to tell me!" Rey pressured, feeling a sense of dread.

Amelia sighed, "Alright, alright...it's about Sister Annette...she's...well she's..." beginning to choke up.

"What about sister Annette? what's happened?!"

Rumy finally broke her silence with a groan, "I can tell you everything that's happened...especially last night,"

"Go on..." Reynold said, as the girls began to explain what happened...

Meanwhile, back in the mess hall...

"So let me get this out of the way first, Captain," Ernest began with, "This isn't the first time people have been hired to strongarm us and with the lack of guards in our village, that's been made even easier...so it's no surprise on why your here, but if Rey trusted you enough to let you to me, then it speaks volumes and I can work with that,"

Traysek nodded, "Agreed, although he didn't make it easy, after coming here, I can understand why...Normally this is the part when I ask what happened to your payments, but I think we're past that point now...way past that point,"

"It's not that we haven't been making payments, we haven't been getting any services, despite Celestine and I's relationship...for some reason our village degraded the more we gave, not only that, it causes so much infighting, that half our village along with the council, left...so it's been one headache after another,"

Lucien whistled, "By the gods...I imagine you haven't gotten much sleep during this, have you made an appeal to Celestine?"

"I tried that, only to find a return letter from Grave, my guess is that he found the appeal first and she never saw it..."

Traysek nodded in agreement, "Of course she didn't, a man like Grave isn't losing a meal, if that means he has to defy her to keep it, he will...that's dangerous, not only to you and but to your village entirely,"

"Exactly, and with him turning a blind eye to what keeps happening to our village, It's taking a toll and a major one..." The mayor finished, taking a long gulp from his tankard.

Traysek and Lucien glanced at each other for a moment, until going back to the mayor.

"So, what do you want us to do? it's obvious you need help and you're not going to get it from any other source," The imperial said, getting a slow nod in response.

"I know, I'm also aware I don't have the money to hire you, and you and your party seem rather expensive, " Ernest said.

Traysek nodded, "We are, but we can arrange something, payment to me doesn't just come in gold," taking a gulp of water, "So with that out of the way, I think I know what's happening to your payments, or at least one of them, passed it on the way here,"

"What do you mean by that?" Ernie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, Before we met Rey, we came upon a destroyed convoy, some looked like your guy there, others were holy knights, didn't seem to be a trace of anything left and the corpses were still warm... if THAT was the payment you sent out, then yeah, you were robbed before it even made it there," Lucien added in.

Earnest was in shock upon hearing that, "Damn...so it never even made it...no wonder Grave's been sending mercs, by Celestine..." clutching his head.

"Do you have any idea who did this? any notable bandit gangs or guilds that you may have had a falling out with?" Traysek asked, raising an eyebrow.

Earnest sighed, facepalming, "I MAY have a theory on who could've done this...but even then, that's stretching it,"

"Any lead would work, as long you have a suspect in mind, we have a good place to start," Lucien cut in, getting an agreeing nod.

Earnest rubbed his temples, "Alright, but don't be surprised if it comes to be a dead end..." looking back up, "I had said before that my council and I had a falling out, correct?"

"Yeah, you mentioned something about a disagreement that led to it," Traysek said, rubbing his chin.

Ernest nodded, "Right, well, it more than the council that left... half the village went with them, and they sought out a new settlement...at first we thought nothing of it, but then my scouts had located them..." pulls out a small photo from his pocket, sliding it over to the duo, "They live like bandits now...A man I once trusted, my right-hand, leads them now...they often rob Caravans, mostly food and clothing, sometimes gold and jewels...I don't want to believe that my old friend did THIS to us, I really don't...but I'm beginning to, especially with how our last argument ended..."

Traysek took a gulp from the tankard sitting back down, "I think your theory might be correct...What was his name? your second?"

"His name was Tormand, big dragon beast-kin, but despite his fierce appearance, he had a good heart and was one of the founders of our village...always did what was best for Erdora, that's why I don't want to believe it," Ernest said, rubbing his temples.

The Redguard nodded, "It can be a hard thing believing that, trust me...however, experience has taught me differently...sometimes you really don't know who your friends are...not until they show you, and that could be with a dagger in your back," taking finishing gulps, sitting the tankard down, "We can locate your funds, we have a good place to start and so it's not like we're going in blind, and that I'll gladly do for free,"

The Mayor's eyes lit up, "I-Well...why I do appreciate the initiative...that's not what I'm hiring you for...if you do manage to find that money, I'll be happy, but the real reason I'm hiring you...goes way deeper than you think..." his expression now serious.

"And what's this real reason...?" Traysek asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ernest sighed, hesitating on what he was trying to get out, "Our problem right now...is all the missing-"

Before he could finish the sentence, the doors to the mess hall burst open, Reynold out of breath and sweating, "There you all are!" marching up to them, "We have a problem and I do NOT mean the missing money!"

"Ah, Reynold, I was getting to that...you're just in time, please, have a seat," Ernest said, offering him a spot, "We have also already discussed the matters on that as well, the captain has agreed to find it for us,"

Rey took his seat, "Well that's good, I'm glad for that, but why didn't you tell us about the missing women in your village?"

Traysek frowned at that, "What this about missing women?"

The mayor sighed, rubbing his temples, "Yeah, about a week ago women started turning up missing, first it was only one a night, then two, and then what we have now... At first, like everyone else, I thought the monsters from the queen's army had something to do with it...that was until last night..." giving Anderson a nod.

"One of the nuns got attacked outside, and they weren't monsters either... they were Human. And from what I witnessed... a good number of them, around eight or nine," Anderson explained, scowling behind his glasses, "I gave them a good chase for awhile, but the bastards managed to splinter off,"

Traysek paused, taking a nod, "I see, so people have gone missing and you want someone to investigate, okay...we can do that, but have you tried sending your own men before hand? I notice there's a lack of guards here,"

"Yeah...and none of them have come back, we sent more than a couple of search parties out there...now THEY'RE missing, so you're our last resort," Ernest said, taking a drink, sitting it down.

Traysek and Lucien shared glances, until they nodded at each other...

"Well, consider this job looked into, I'll bring my men up to speed," Traysek said, standing up.

Reynold stood up as well, "I'll go with you, if they have high numbers, you'll need an extra blade,"

The Redguard gave him a nod, turning to Anderson, "And you father? you feel like going?"

Anderson sadly shook his head,"As much as I want to, No, although there is ONE more detail I'm inclined to share, and Ernie, you might want to pay attention to this one..." reaching into his back pocket, pulling a something wrapped in bloody cloth, "I was waiting for a moment I could bring this out, but since we've gotten here...now would be a good time," turning to Traysek, "Captain, would you like to do the honors?" offering it to him.

Traysek frowned but took the bloody wrapping, slowly unraveling it, blood running cold when he saw what was hidden...

"What...the hell...?" In both shock and anger, which put worried looks on the other three at the table.

Lucien leaned in, "What do you see boss...?"

"This is a black dog Crest...the people we're working with..." gripping the cloth in anger.

"What?!" Lucien exclaimed, taking it, "Let me see...! yeah...no it's them alright, by the gods it's them...and from how bloody it is, that means the guy you caught..."

"Was a black dog member, yes...as I said before captain...those guys like to pop up around here often, sometimes unannounced...so do you still want to be business partners with him...? after all this?"

...

At the other table, Inigo's ears were up like antennae twitching rapidly...

"Oh by the gods no...There are times I wish I didn't have the hearing I have...this is one them," Inigo groaned, with a look of disgust.

Erik rose an eyebrow, "What? what did you hear...?"

"I think we've gotten mixed up with some scumbags, that's what I heard..." The blue khajiit growled, "The boss just got one of their emblems from the priest who was trying to catch them, apparently they are the reason they are barely any ladies in the village right now..."

Recorder blinked at that with shocked looked, "Oh my god...I'm litterally the only woman here...outside of the nuns and children..."

"Yeah, and even one of them has gone missing, that's why Rey ran in here so quick..."

Recorder gritted her teeth, "Goddamn it...! what do we do now? hows the boss even taking this?"

"From what I hear...angry, as he should be...but they're still discussing what do, when I hear anything else, I'll let you know..." Inigo said, lowering his ears.

Recorder nodded, "Yeah, keep us posted, especially learning that our partners are that-" but before she could finish a strange ring came from her hip, putting a frown on her face, "That's strange...my communicator is getting a call..."

Inigo frowned at that, "Huh? why would that be strange, that's probably someone from Rendspire..."

"That hasn't happened in the last three days Inigo...how is it happening now?" She asked, as it rang.

Erik nodded, "Well answer it, that could be anyone calling, probably the rest of the council,"

She picked it up and answered it, "Hello? is anyone there?"

"...corder...Re...corder...RECORDER COME IN!" A deep gruff voice, finally broke through, her eyes going wide at it.

"Agamor?! yes, I can I read you loud and clear! for once I'm saying it, but I'm loving the sound of your voice!" Recorder cheered, excited.

"Finally! after three days! where have you all been?! we've been looking for you for days, I sent so many men out! is Traysek with you?"

Recorder sighed, "Yeah, he's here but in a meeting with a client, apparently something's come up...so we're passing some time until our battle tomorrow,"

"Battle...? forget it, I'll ask moe about it when I can... I'm just glad I got through to one of you...but now, there's another problem...a few days ago, I sent someone out to your location, the problem is...they haven't reported in, figured they would be with you,"

Recorder frowned, "No...it's just been us five here, you sent someone here? who?"

"Yuriana, Traysek's bodyguard and healer...I figured you would all need that depending on how you all ended up, but if she was not with you, then most likely she too got lost,"

Recorder blinked twice at that, "You sent...Yuriana...here...HERE? what the hell were you thinking man? how do you know she didn't end up in a volcano or something?"

"That's why I was contacting you...I tried the others but all I'm getting is static from them...yours for some reason works, and if it works that good...you can also confirm if she's been sent there or not..."

Recorder thought about that for a second until it hit her, "She has one too, you want me to track her with our tech...seems risky, could be anywhere in this world...but I'll give it a check, see if she's nearby or far away..." clicking a few buttons on her device, sending out a ping until she found nearby signals, and one a bit further away from everyone, "I found her, she's a bit ways away from here, but in the wilderness nearby...we'll pick her up on the way,"

Inigo's eyes went wide, "Wait, Yuri's here? how did she get here?"

Recorder shushed him, as she heard a deep sigh...

"Good...that's very good, means she might be still alive, if you do find her, please call me back if not...get Traysek to,"

Recorder nodded, "I'll keep you posted, let everyone know we're alive so they don't have panic attacks would you?"

"Absolutely...I'll be in touch..." The line clicking ending the transmission.

Erik frowned at the device, "So...what did Agamor want? I heard something about Yuriana being out here but that's it..."

"Yeah, sent her out for us a couple of days ago...I don't know why he did that, because if she's like us right now...she dead in the water, and we have to find her...Yuri's a few miles away from here, not too far but not close enough..."

Inigo grinned, "Fine by me, I could see more of these forests anyway...is she moving? or still?"

"For now, still...but that could change at any moment, that said...we still have to wait until the meeting's over, but at least I'll have some good news for them when they get back here,"

...

Ernest was shocked, staring at the black dog crest laid out on the table, "I can't believe this...after all this time..." Turning to Anderson, "Thank you for showing me this, from the blood on it, I know this isn't fake...but why would they do this?"

"Who knows? all I know is that when that member confessed, he managed to let slip the location on where they could be keeping them," Anderson added in.

"And where's the location...? the sooner we find these women the better," Traysek said, expression serious.

Anderson gave a nod and smirk, "There is an abandoned storehouse a few miles from here that the holy army used to use, there have been locals saying that there were moans and groans coming from them, almost in a cacophony...but with what I was told, I think there's another reason for those sounds..." pulling out a pen, "I'll mark it on your map if you have one

Traysek narrowed his eyes, "Moans and groans huh...? yeah please mark it, I think that's good enough for me," handing him his map, watching him mark it, standing up after taking it back, giving the mayor and Anderson a bow, "Consider us on the job, I'll bring the rest of my men up to speed...it was nice meeting you, Ernest...let's go guys,"

Ernest bowed back, "A pleasure meeting you Captain and Lucien, I wish you all the best of luck,"

Lucien stood up and bowed, "Nice to meet you as well, Ernest...we'll take care of this, don't worry..."

"I'm coming with you! if what was said here is true, you're gonna need another blade despite what you have already," Rey said, walking with them.

Traysek nodded, "Very well, you probably know the lands better anyway..." turning to Anderson, "And you father...? are you coming, you look strong as is,"

Anderson chuckled, "You flatter me captain, but my days of fighting are behind...almost as if it was done in a past life..."

The Dragonborn frowned at the comment but shook it off, "You're interesting guy Anderson...Sometime we'll have to share a pint, until then...we'll see you later," leaving for the crew's table, with Lucien and Rey behind.

Outside of the orphanage...

Once the crew, with the addition of Rey, made it outside...Traysek pull out his smoking pipe and lit it, taking a puff...

"And that's the gist of it, everything we need to know...find the missing women and then the money...seems like a simple enough task," The Redguard sighed, taking another puff from the pipe.

Inigo nodded, "I see...well that makes this easier, did he mark the location for you?"

"Yeah," Traysek said, pulling out his map, "A few miles west, supposedly we'll hear it the closer we get...lots of moans and groans coming from it apparently..."

The rest of the crew had hard frowns...

"'Moans and groans' sir? that almost sounds like it's haunted..." Erik said, feeling a chill.

Rey turned to him, "You'd think that until you remember that people are being dragged there...considering that locals are still hearing noises coming from there, that narrows it down..."

Traysek nodded, "Right...and with that thought, I'm getting sicker by the stomach every second I think about it...so, we're heading west first...if we find the money we find the money, but it is NOT our primary objective,"

"Good to know, spares us the time of having to search for coins..." Erik said, getting eyebrow raises from everyone except Reynold, "I mean don't get me wrong, I love gold like anyone else but these are people..."

"We get it, Erik," Recorder cut in, "Boss, I should also let you know something else...we've actually got THREE things to do,"

Traysek, Lucien, and Reynold frowned at the revelation...

"Three"? what's the third job?" The Redguard asked, hard frowning.

Recorder nervously chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck, "Okay so...you're not gonna like this...like at all...I need assurances that you're not going to shout me into a wall,"

"Just tell me Recorder, I promise whatever it is...it can't possibly be bad as-"

Moments later...

"I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL HIIIIIIIM!" His voice roared, a loud and violent sonic boom following after...that blasted through the entire village, causing many to grab their ears in agony.

Traysek was huffing and puffing out of anger until he realized what he had done... and turned around to find everyone knocked out, "Oh shit, no! wake up! dammit wake up!" charging up a grand healing spell.

The elite soldiers nearby were holding their ears as well, one of them coming out of the stupor.

"What...was that?! I heard someone shouting and then a loud boom followed after that..." checking his magic mirror, "General? General? come in General Greil!"

Unfortunately for the Elite soldier, their General happened to be a proximity too close...Rendered unconscious in his hiding place, laid out completely out...

"I think something's happened to the General, he's not responding..."

"Uuugh...ow...I'm here...I'm alive...I know what caused that...ow, but don't worry about it..." Griel groaned, waking back up, "Get...ready to move...*huff* they're leaving soon and I want this out of the village...understood?"

"Understood...all forces, prepare yourselves for a hunt...'

Greil put away the mirror, struggling to stand up, 'There's no mistaking it...what caused that sonic boom just now...was that man's voice...In all my years I've never witness a voice with that much power...Olga is right to be afraid and I can't let this invade us...' Regaining his balance, "We'll see how well you can wield that weapon of yours, outworlder...!" his orange eye narrowed on the golden light, watching the knocked-out people get back up and had what could be perceived as banter before leaving...

In the wilderness, west...

The crew with the addition of Rey, marched through the forests, some of them still rubbing their ears.

"Ow...I can still feel the ringing from that, geez..." Inigo groaned, rubbing his.

Traysek sighed, "Sorry about that, I let my anger get the better of me for a second...But that, that was just stupid...he didn't even contact us, never mind that we didn't know was possible, but then he sent her here while we were unconscious...there's no telling WHERE she ended up..."

Recorder took her hand off her ear, "Well I've good news there, she's out here somewhere, like in this part of the wilderness...not too from where we were, I'm tracking her as we speak," holding a radar.

The Redguard blinked at that, "That's...not too bad actually, thought we'd have to go a cold region or something...how far is she?"

She checked the Radar, eyes widening, "What...? she was still at first but now she's moving and slow...check your Scouters,"

Traysek and Lucien checked their goggles and Scouters, to find an aura signal coming from a direction...

"By the gods...She's there alright...but there's something else, all those Red signals around her...those are enemies..." Traysek confirmed, drawing his scimitar, "Draw your swords, I have a feeling we're heading into a fight..."

The others obliged, drawing out their weapons, Reynold brandishing his giving Traysek a worried frown.

"You can see where she is from that thing?" Checking the blade's sharpness.

Traysek nodded, eyes glued to a direction, "I've got a reading alright, follow me!" sprinting off into the direction of, with everyone behind on foot.

Elsewhere...nearby...

Deeper in the forest, a convoy of men were moving through slowly, one of them dragging something by a chain...that something was a busty woman with a bag over her head, donning a crimson pirate wench outfit and dark boots.

One of the men walking with him, sneered at her, licking his lips, "How's our new prisoner...? she seems like a tasty one from looks of it...and tough too, " chuckling after.

The chained woman growled from the bag, "You touch me...I'll cut off something you won't live without!"

"Oooh~ got a fiesty one boys!" the leader of the group cooed, causing the others to cackle, "I like to see you try girlie~ hate to break it to you, but I don't think your grasping the situation...for you anyway,"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?!" She yelled from the bag.

The group of men cackled again, sending a chill down her spine...

"It means my dear, things are about to change...for you...if you get my meaning," The group leader chuckled, giving her chain a yank, "Oh and...if you try that healing bullshit ever again, you'll be messed up before you make it there...we clear?"

The woman growled from her hood, "Crystal..."

"Good, now then," giving her chain a yank, making her yelp, "Where were we...?" marching back on with his men.

...

Coming out of the path, the signal that Traysek and the others were tracking had gotten much stronger since they sprinted in this direction. he and the group continued this run, until they reached a hill, finding a group of people below in form of a convoy.

Traysek pulled out a telescope. narrowed his eye on them, "Looks like a convoy...but what are they transporting...?"

"Or who are they transporting...look boss down there!" Recorder pointed, directing his telescope to chain the woman with a hood over her head, a familiar crimson outfit widened his eyes, causing him to check his scouter..."By the nine...it's her alright, but she seems to have to gotten into some trouble, and from the look of the guys, I'm going to assume these must be kidnappers..."

Inigo nodded, peeking from a bush, "Definitely looks that way, should we intercept them? cut them off?"

Traysek stared at the moving convoy for a minute, shaking his head, "No, I've got a better idea...why don't we follow them back to where they're going...?"

Rey looked at him in disbelief, "That's one of yours down there, shouldn't we get her now?"

"I know that's my mate down there, but what's better? saving her now? or letting these rats lead us to the rest of their nests?" Traysek asked, getting a sigh in response.

"Well when you mention it like that...I could see the strategy there, but what if they take us somewhere else instead?"

Traysek smirked, "Then we'll deal with them there and free her, but for now...lets tail em' see where they go,"

Lucien stared at the scene, nodding, "It does seem like they're taking her somewhere, it would be wise to follow..."

The rest of the group concurred as they moved quietly behind the convoy, taking care not to make too much noise or draw attention...despite the eyes they had on them...

Abandoned storehouse...fifteen minutes later...

The convoy finally arrived at what looked like a ran-down storehouse, the leader of the group had a lecherous smile on his face.

"Feels good to be back here," he grinned, turning to the prisoner, "We're here, welcome to your new home," walking up to her, and removing the hood, as a mess of red hair and an angry face waited for him, "Aww now that's a face I'm going to miss,"

"Go fuck yourself...!" she spat, before literally spitting on his garb, getting a reaction from everyone else there.

The leader looked at his garb, lowly chuckling, "Oh honey, they are gonna love you! get her inside and get her...comfortable, I'm going to have a smoke..."

"Yes sir!" one of them said, walking up to her and licking his lips, "Let's go meat before you spoil out here..."

"Did you just call me me-ah!" getting yanked inside by her chains, as the men behind her stared at her bent-over ass.

Traysek and the others had finally caught up with them, finding them just now dragging her inside with her hood, the Redguard noting her Red hair.

"Yeah, that tomato red hair...there's no mistaking it now...okay, so we found her and the storehouse it seems..." He said, reaching into his haven bag.

Inigo nodded, watching a few go in, a couple of them remaining out, "I see that, but how are we going to get in? we obviously can't go in as ourselves..."

"He's right, they would recognize you for sure if not me..." Rey added in, watching the patrols.

Recorder nodded, "That might be true, but we've never met THESE guys on our way back,"

Traysek smirked, coming out with a few masks, "That's why we aren't going as ourselves...even if they don't know us, we'll be ratted out if we go in bare-faced, half-masks and cloaks should be enough," laying them in a pile.

In the selection of cloaks and Masks, Traysek had fished from his bag, were multiple dark cloaks and a few half masks, each grabbing a set, donning them with the exception of Reynold.

Once the crew had their cloaks and masks on, Traysek donned his last, throwing up the leather hood from his garb, along with his face mask. Reynold just wore the same cloak and hood he had earlier.

"Alright folks, time to get our mate out," cocking pistol...

...

A couple of the men were posted about, looking for anyone that may or may not be coming...another grunt coming from around the back.

"Just finished dumping the last ones in the back, gotta say, I have no idea who keeps sending these guys, but if they haven't noticed them coming back, you'd figure they'd give up by now," The grunt chuckled.

The other two chuckled with him, as another cleared his throat, "Eh...gives us an excuse for an exercise when the girls aren't providing it..."

As the men shared their laughter, a smoke bomb was dropped on them, making them cough.

"ugh...! what the hell is going on?!" the first one shouted in it.

"No Idea but I think-ah!" was all he could say before he went silent, another shriek coming from the next grunt before silence,held in chokeholds by Masked Inigo and Erik, brandishing his sword.

"Who the hell are you freaks?!" he growled, until he felt a tap on his shoulder, making him turn around to find a Red eyes staring into him.

"Hello there~" Traysek grinned under the mask, quickly knocking him out with a punch, dusting his hands off, "Too easy~" signalling the others to join them at the door.

When they joined him at the door, they could hear sounds of struggle coming from behind it, Inigo frowning at the noise.

"I don't like how that sounds, I hope she's alright in there..." he said, getting a nod from the captain.

"If she not, she won't be in that for long," He said, checking the door, finding it locked, "Damn...of course they locked it..." pulling out a lockpick, working on the door for a second, Reynold raising an eyebrow under his hood.

"Hmm, not the approach I would've taken, but not bad regardless..." The holy knight whispered.

"Oh i'm sure you'd kick the door down, problem with that is we don't know what's behind these doors, or how many of them...went for the safest option," Traysek whispered back, a satisfying click could be heard, "I got it, wow...I actually expected a tougher lock...ok then, guys, stack up on both sides, from what I can see from just here, it's completely dark in here with a few little lights going through, hope you brought your torches," looking through the keyhole.

The masked crew did just that, lining up against the wall with their pistols drawn, as Traysek drew his sword and pistol, Reyonld joining him at the center.

"On three...one...two..." Reynold started off with.

"Three...!" Traysek finished, slowly pushing the door open, easing in with the others behind...

Inside...

When they made it in, it was dimly lit inside due to the shreds of light going through it, giving wake to a path and somewhat their surroundings...however they kept their voices down, following the shreds of light in the darkened room, Traysek with his scouter activated, led everyone through, following the glowing trail of signals he picked up.

Meanwhile, the others gazed around the corridor, looking at the tools and chains littered and tossed around, as if in a hurry...Inigo frowned at one of them had some strange substance on it, dripping off the chains...he took a whiff and his ears went back with a low growl, passing them by.

When they reached the door to the end of the hall, it was then they could hear it...the sounds of struggle, moans and groans as well as twisted laughter in a sickening cacophony...putting angry scowls on the masked group, the red-eyed man, glaring the hardest at the door...

"whenever your ready...no rush...I can hear it too..." Rey whispered, getting a nod from the Redguard, turning to the others, and getting the same affirmative nods.

Traysek moved back a few feet, getting a running start, charging through the door with a hard kick, startling everyone in there...

...

There were many things the Red dragons have seen, horrors that many would still sleep with their lanterns today...seeing something of horrid nature never deterred the dragons...until now...inside this room, not only did they find more of the black dogs, but caught in the act... In complete shock and disgust, the crew could not avert their eyes nor intervene, too busy processing what they were seeing at this moment in time...Recorder on the other hand...

"Bluueeerghh...!" She quietly vomited, unable to contain it further, hands going over her mouth looking back at the scene with shock and anger...

One group of men were having their way with a woman in the center, or were... while surrounded by cells of other women there...ragged, scared, crying and some even sick... while this was happening, a small group of men, who were dragging Yuriana to another table, hungry looks plastered on their faces...

Rey slowly drew his sword out, glaring death at them. Inigo growled, his claws coming out tightly clenching the gun...Erik had now drawn his ax, baring his teeth...Lucien was trying not to black out, slowly aiming the gun at them. And Recorder...was trembling while gripping her drawn swords...but not out of fear... the men at the tables turned to them, glaring at the intrusion, some grabbing a few tools and chains.

"Who the fuck are you?! how you did you get in here? what happened to the men outs-" before he could finish that statement...

"BLAM!"

The naked man dropping to the floor with a gaping hole in his head now, Traysek holding the smoking gun, eyes now slit and cold...

"You know? I was going to be clean about all of this...I was...but, I think we're past that point now, wouldn't you agree?!" putting the gun away, building crimson lightning in his hands with an insane crazed look in his eyes, "Suddenly...I don't feel like using my sword, you guys are more than welcomed to...I'm going to have a more...hands-on approach this time..." walking towards now a scared and naked group of men.

Battle ost-Militech theme- Cyberpunk2077

Giving them no time to react, Traysek blasted a torrent of lightning at them, frying a few, one of them breaking free from it to attack him, only to get his chest smashed through by the Redguard, blood spraying around as he ripped his hand out of him, causing some screaming by both hostages and captor. Another tried to attack from behind, chains swinging in his hands...that was until Inigo clawed him from behind, shoving his sword into him, after.

"Mind if I get in on this my friend?" Inigo laughed, charging at the next one who came at him with a poor ax, evading the swing, countering with an upward claw swipe, and finishing him off with a beheading slice.

As this was happening, Recorder ran at the oncoming attackers, slicing and dicing,"Ahahahahahah! you boys picked a bad time to get caught with your pants down! makes cutting you down all the easier!" slicing the attacker from the side in the leg, giving him a devastating knee to the face, finishing him a ground stab.

Erik spotted the men with the Red-head woman while hacking down one of the naked men, turning his attention to them, rushing at them next.

Reynold noticed that, evading the attacking dog, countering with a quick slice to his neck, sending him to the ground holding it, as he rushed to join Erik in freeing their friend.

Meanwhile, Lucien, took the opportunity to start freeing the hostages, occasionally shooting any captor that tried to stop him...as he was freeing one of the women from the cells, an enemy surprised him from behind, forcing him to draw his sword, clashing with the dog...

"By the gods...! for such a cheap sword, you're not that bad!" The imperial complemented, breaking the clash by firing into his leg, getting him to scream out, and running him through the gut after, getting a gurgling cough with blood, dropping when it was pulled out, "Nevermind...I've been wrong before..."

Traysek turned his head to where he was, nodding at him, "Go help Erik and Reynold! we'll worry about the rest once we're done here!" now drawing his sword, "WULD, NA KEST!" he shouted, rocketing over to where Recorder was, slicing into the few that tried to attack up, leaving behind a mass bloody trail when he finally stopped...with more coming at them, he took another deep breath..."Fo...krah diin!" a blast of frost coming out of his mouth, blanketing the captors. Recorder moved in with both blades, slicing the throat, limbs, abdomen and even heads of the frostbitten group, all the while laughing...

Lucien ran off to where Rey and Erik were fighting, jumping in with a slash, and taking one of the captors out.

"About time you showed up! help us with this!" Erik shouted, burying his axe into the last of that group's face, ripping it out.

The trio went up to the chained woman, Erik taking off the gag they forced on her.

"Guys! thank the gods! hurry and get me out of this!" Yuriana exclaimed, grinning as they cut her down from the table, helping her stand up as another grunt came out of nowhere with a knife behind Erik, prompting her to push him out of the way and grab the enemy, slamming his head into the table repeatedly, before picking him up and tossing him into a far wall, "Much better, now for my weapon and clothes...!" ducking the next deadly swing, countering him a gut punch, sending him down winded, before she brought her boot down on him, hard...

Rey whistled, shaking his head, "By Celestine, she's strong...I can see why you guys went through the trouble,"

"Really wishing they left her in clothing, would've made cutting her down all the less awkward!" Lucien remarked, shooting another merc.

Erik chuckled, "You act as if that's the first time we've seen it, Lucien...it definitely won't be last, Rey that's for sure!"

"You guys can shut up at any time now!" Yuriana yelled out from the background, making them chuckle, as they continued to fight.

While all this insanity was happening there was another prisoner there...donning a red mask in a short black and red accented kimono, staring in disbelief in what was happening there...however this was the window the woman needed...A small razor slid out from her cuff, working on the ropes she was tied on...once freed, she looked around in the storehouse, until she spotted her swords near Inigo, who had one of the naked men up by his throat, choke-slamming him into another table, before getting tackled by another...

'There they are...I know nothing of this other group, but they are in way...!' Quickly dashing to where they kept her weapons, throwing shuriken at a couple approaching her, leaping over the table and Inigo to grab the swords...However, once the Khajiit got done punching out his attacker, he moved back just in time to avoid an attack from the mysterious woman, getting back into a stance with a snarl.

"And who are we supposed to be? some kind of ninja?" Inigo questioned, his answer coming in the form of rapid slashes, attempting to block and parrying her rush, taking a few slashes to his chest and arms... he growled, going for a wide swing nearly coining her, until she turned into mist and black feathers, "What...?!" the blue khajiit gasped, his sword completely hitting air... "Guys, watch yourselves! we've got an assassin in here!" barely dodging the surprise attack from her.

Traysek kicked one of the kuroinu into a wall, webbing it as he looked up to see that very assassin engaging his first mate, "Shit...! and now we have this problem..." using a teleportation spell, as a few grunts tried to grab him...and failed...

Recorder also spotted the assassin making her way to them, trying to get through the hordes of enemies...Inigo tried his hardest to get an effective blow on the newcomer, only to come up short every time she used mist raven...eventually, when he tried to go for thrust, she stomped down on his sword, pulling his posture off before delivering Nine dancing deadly slashes, which he mostly blocked and tanked until that last blow struck, going through his defenses and critically wounding him, sending him down to his knees... holding his bleeding chest. When he looked back up, she had both her swords around his neck in scissor fashion until...

"FUS, RO DAH!" Traysek shouted, sending her flying into a pile of broken tables...He walked up to Inigo and gave him a quick heal before helping him get back up, scowling at the newcomer, "You did well, Ini, I've got this, go help Recorder, I'll deal with our new problem," drawing his pistol.

Inigo glanced at Recorder getting overwhelmed despite her efforts, sighing, "Alright...I'll let you handle this, stay alive alright? she almost took me out,"

"I saw that...not too shabby either, but I'll be fine, I'm more durable...go help Record, I'm serious," Traysek said, getting a nod from him, watching him dart off to where that crowd had gathered, shouting.

"Hang on my friend, I'm coming!" with his blades out, jumping into them.

Traysek focused back to the rubble, watching her crawl out, "I don't know what technique you used, but it was impressive...either way, I'm going to make you PAY for what you tried to do there!"

Battle song- Strength and discipline- Sekiro ost

That assassin got back into stance after struggling to stand, glaring at the man in red...dropping a smoke bomb soon after...However it was thanks to the half-mask, he wasn't coughing... his scouter remained on, tracking her rapid movements, taking out a few unsuspecting grunts that wandered in with quick slashes, 'My my...aren't we a fast one...' aiming his gun at her signal...

when she finished slashing down the next kuroinu, a bullet flew right past her ear, prompting her to dodge, the second, grazing her shoulder, causing her to flinch and wince at her new wound...

"I can see you just fine in this!" Traysek's voice echoed, putting her back on guard, "You're not the only one trained in the shadows, assassin!" as she sensed a slash coming from behind, forcing her to quickly parry the blow, attacking again to catch only air...

'Damn...I wasn't expecting this...is he too a shinobi?' She mused, dodging another slash from the smoke, parrying the next blow that came at her,Lounging at the shadow again, connecting with it as it skittered, hearing a splash.

This time an oil pot came flying at her, which she slashed in two, however when she did this, she was rewarded with a blanket of fire, quickly trying to pat the flames off of her, 'Not...good!'

"Ven, Garr NOS!" Traysek voice boomed, this time a rushing winds swallowed her up, a whirlwind of smoke built up with her caught in it, carrying over into the nearest wall with a loud crash, the smoke now cleared, A wound on his shoulder rapidly healing and sizzling.

Traysek took an Inhale, "Finally, some clear air..." exhaling while watching her stand back up, struggling to anyway, sighing and looking at his gun, "I guess this doesn't quite cut it..." holstering the gun, taking a deep breath, "Gron!" he shouted, green aura shining over him, blasting the draw spell on one of the bodies, getting the death element, imbuing the chilling aura into himself, armed now with his sword and ward in the other hand.

After she applied the medicine for the burns, the assassin used some strange pellets to heal herself, picking up her swords, and glaring at her enemy.

'It seems like I need to get serious with this,' the assassin took a blue candy and ate it before taking a pose where her left arm was closed and close to her chest, and the right one was an open palm 'Ungo spirit, aid me to victory.' a blue light was emanating from her.

After drawing her swords she threw a shuriken before dashing forward.

Traysek threw up his ward, reflecting the shuriken, dodging her blow with a sidestep, countering with a power attack, coating himself in a frosty aura as he did.

'Damn it. I have a bad feeling about this,' the assassin tried to come up with something 'But I guess that I can use the firecrackers to open a window for me to strike' she then tossed some black dust toward Traysek.

Traysek stopped his deadly spin after the firecrackers had landed, distorting him a bit once again, 'Damn... the firecrackers again...that what counts as magic here?' Giving a wide swing, getting only mist and feathers.

"I don't have time for this..." the assassin mumbled, but loud enough to be heard by her opponent "I need to report back to father..."

She sheathed her swords as the wind began to swirl around the scabbards.

Traysek focused on her blades, narrowing his eyes 'That looks like it's going to hurt...okay rabbit...give it your best shot!' Lowering his defensive stance, hardening it.

"Sorry for what I have to do," the assassin spoke with a sad tone "But I have a mission to do, and you stood in my way." she unsheathed the blades in a flash.

"Boss!" Lucien's voice yelled out...

At that Traysek smirked, disappearing from the spot, before the blades connected, hitting the air and causing a devastating shockwave...

The assassin widens her eyes in horror as she felt the presence of her enemy behind her 'Mist-Raven?! No, I should have noticed the mist and feathers. Then what could it be?!'

"You've gotten slow, my lady." a male voice said as Traysek received a kick that plunged his head into the floor "You should go report to Master Owl."

Battle song end.

"You're right, Masanari." the assassin ran out of the storehouse.

The newcomer, Masanari, looked at Traysek getting up "Sorry about that, but no one has the right to kill Lady Fox besides Master Owl."

The Redguard shook his head of the rubble and blow, narrowing his eyes on the intruder, "So, that's the name of that assassin...just like I know yours now..." shifting back into position, using The whirlwind cloak spell on himself, "Look I don't care for your master owl or her. we came for our friend and she got in our way...much like you're doing..." eyes going slit.

"She was investigating those deserters," Masanari said "There's other women, and you blew her cover with this." he then looked around "Now, all the efforts of Lady Kaguya are dust because of you."

Traysek blinked twice at that, "I'm sorry, do you really take me to be a fool...? Deserters my ass, their fucking flag is even hanging on the walls in here...that's desertion to you? must be a strange phenomenon here, never heard of it anywhere else...as for Kaguya...when we do meet, I'll make it up to her but for now...these villagers want their women back like we want our friend back. I'm sure she'll be more forgiving, especially given the number of dead men here..." building up a lightning spell in his hand, "Maybe you should take the same advice you gave her before I fry and eat you...!" he snarled, taking an aggressive step towards him.

"Why don't you try to think," Masanari said as he began to leave "If someone was to find this place, they would blame Volt. And a lot in the Black Dogs want to get Vault's place, after all, he's a hero." with that, Masanari disappeared with a smoke bomb.

Traysek covered his face, when smoke landed, clicking on the scouter to find that he had left, 'Damn...! he's gone, wish I could've gotten more from that...what the hell did he mean by that though? I already know he's got a hero status here...that's nothing new...so what then...? I don't like the sound of any of this...I'll have some questions for Volt later but for now...' Ducking under a swing from another grunt, countering by running him through the gut, harshly ripping it out in a gush of blood after, "Have to finish up here first..." walking towards the others who were finishing things up with the mob.

...

As Fox was jumping through the trees, she was pinned face first by Masanari.

"Annoying brat, I had to lie to cover you." Masanori said with a threatening tone after making sure that they were alone, "I should just end you right now..."

"What were you doing there?" Fox asked as she was trying to free herself.

"Your father gave me orders to keep an eye on Volt, even act as an ally if I have to." Masanari replied as he tighten his hold on the girl, "You're just a dead weight."

After letting her go Masanari jumped away, to another direction.

'A dead weight...' Fox sat there, thinking.

...

Back in the storehouse, the group finished up with the rest of the enemies, Erik and Inigo tossing the corpses in a pile, As Traysek gave everything an overall look with Reynold coming up from behind.

"Finish letting out the Rest of the hostages...?" The Redguard asked, getting a nod.

"Indeed, Lucien just freed the last set from their cells," Rey answered, with a worried look, "You doing alright? I saw that battle back there with that assassin, I would've helped you, but I was too busy keeping them off Erik and Lucien with the woman,"

Traysek gave a solemn nod, rubbing the back of his head, "Yeah, I'll be alright...but that was weird, and more than usual...did not know those two had an assignment here too...definitely would've planned it out better..." he sighed, walking towards Yuriana and Recorder who was helping her dress herself back up, "Well well well, look who can't stay out of trouble... how did you g et captured this time?" he joked, getting a slight scowl.

"One, fuck you...I didn't start anything and two...I was out foraging for someone while looking for all of you and ended up getting tricked by these goons..." Yuriana spat, fixing up her shirt, adjusting her belt after, "Thank you though...that was about to go south...waaaay south if you all didn't show up..."

Traysek gave a nod, "Not a problem, also," nodding his head the holy knight approaching them, "This is Rey, a knight in the holy army...he's been helping us today,"

Yuriana eyed him up and down, "I see, well sweetheart~ the name's Yuriana, it's nice to meet you, and once again, thank you for your help..." giving him a bow.

"Oh...uh...it's not a big thing, it's my duty as a holy knight to see that all is being treated fairly..." Rey said, regaining our composure.

Traysek smirked at him, clearing his throat, "She's our healer, bodyguard, and most importantly...the most important thing of all...our best barmaid..." with his fist to his chest.

"Thanks, you could've left that last part out..." Yuriana said, facepalming, "But yes, I'm also the crew's bar maiden...hoo...ray..." with obvious sarcasm, with an unamused expression.

"I see, well I hoping we can work together later on Milady, you seem pretty strong handling yourself, and with barely anything on to boot," Rey complemented, getting a giggle from her, until he heard groaning nearby, "Anybody hearing that...?"

Lucien looked around, finding a nun laying down with a cough, "Guys...! I found a nun here!" kneeling down to her, "Are you...Sister Annelotte?"

The nun looked up at him, her cerulean eyes meeting Lucien's, "Yes...I am...who are you...?"

"It's fine Sister! they're with me!" Reynold told her, running to them, kneeling as well, lifting her head.

"R-reynold...it's so good to see you..." She coughed out, "I thought nobody would come...*Cough* *Cough* how are...how are the kids...?"

Rey's eye's widened with worry, "The kids are fine, Milady...what has happened to you? are you sick?"

"I'm afraid so...one of the brutes that had their way with me...must've had something...*cough* *cough* ugh..." Annelotte sighed, after coughing a bit of blood up.

"Shit...! hang on Anne! I'm going to get you some help," Rey panicked, looking at Lucien, "Isn't there something you can do?"

Lucien slowly nodded, "I can try Rey, first I have to see if there IS anything that can be done," taking off his glove, placing his hand on her head, nodded, "Okay high fever, severe coughing...it's bleak but this can still be treated..." reaching into his bag for something, coming out with a red potion, "It's a long shot, but this a potion of cure disease, if this doesn't work we'll have to make a stronger variant, but it should," handing it to him.

The knight rose her head, "Okay Sister, I've got something that can help, a potion for your Illness..." offering it to her.

Annelotte took said potion and drank it down until it was empty, handing it back to him, "Th-thank...you..." taking a relieved inhale, before passing out.

"Sister? Annelotte, what's wrong?" Rey said, slightly shaking her, as Lucien threw a hand up.

"It's fine Reynold, that's a side-effect...she just passed out, which means the potion is doing its part," The imperial explained, watching the holy knight calm down, "At the very least, we found her and managed to help, is there more you could ask for?"

Rey took a sigh, slowly nodding, "I suppose this is...acceptable...by celestine...how could they do this to her? she takes care of kids! she takes care of kids..." shaking his head, stroking her hair, "Father Anderson is going to want their heads for this, just as I do now..."

Traysek and the girls, walked up to them, the Redguard frowning at the scene, "What's going on here? I heard there was a nun in here...is this the one?"

"Indeed captain, this is Annelotte...she was just up a moment ago, sick from one of the brutes touching her... coughing blood until Lucien here gave her a potion...she passed out after," Rey explained, getting a nod.

"She got sick in here? that's not just sickness, Rey, that's an STD... she needs two..." Traysek said, reaching into his bag next, handing him another one, slightly bigger, "When she comes to give her that...trust me, she'll be fine after an hour, at least from sickness, there's no telling what's been done to her mind..."

"Thank you, when she wakes she'll appreciate this...I know I would," Reynold smiled, picking her up bridal style, "I'll get her outside, that carriage is still there too, so it'll be perfect..." carrying her to the exit.

Traysek nodded, "Alright, we'll be out of here soon anyway, pretty sure the guys wanna pick over what's left in here..." putting a blunt in his mouth, lighting it with a fire spell, taking a deep pull, and exhale, watching the crew loot over their kills, "The six of us back together again...it's almost poetry..." smirking after.

Two sets of feet were approaching him from behind, causing him to frown.

"E-excuse me? Are you...the leader of this group?" He heard from behind him, turned around to those voices, finding two women there with meek expressions.

"I am, we were hired to find and rescue you all, as our friend there," Traysek said, nodding his head towards Yuriana, who had joined up with Inigo and Erik.

"We know her...she was with us at the settlement nearby for a couple of days...has been nothing but nice to us..." The brunette explained.

Traysek frowned at that, "Settlement...? you mean the one that broke from Erdora?" raising an eyebrow.

"The very same...we also heard a bit of your conversation with that shinobi..." The blonde told him, getting a nod.

"Yeah, tried to convince me that the other assassin was here to investigate and that I just ruined it...called these men deserters," Traysek said, ashing the blunt, taking another pull.

The brunette shook her head, "That is a lie...these were not deserters and I've seen volt come here a couple of times during our stay here...no idea why he told you that,

Traysek sighed, "Me neither, and I'm getting a headache the more I think about it..." shaking his head, "So...since we're on the topic of your settlement, that's actually where we need to go next, know the way there?"

The girls glanced at each other, until the blonde nodded, "Yeah, we do, we can take you there...Name's Ingrid by the way, this is Natasha my younger sister..."

"Charmed to meet you both, I'm Captain Traysek of the Red dragon crew, " Traysek slightly bowed, "While this is a good time to meet everyone, maybe we should get out of here...that smell is starting to pick up," holding his nose.

Ingrid nodded, "Yeah...it's getting stronger too, ugh...lead the way captain,"

"Right, guys we're leaving! let's go!" Traysek called out, as the crew finished their looting.

"Not yet boss! they took my hammer, I'm still trying to find it!" Yuriana called back.

Inigo looked around for it, until he spotted a gold glint coming from the corner, going to it, finding a large golden hammer, "Found your hammer Yuri, it's over here!"

"Yes, gimme gimme!" She said, rushing over there, picking up her hammer, hugging it, "Oh...! I've missed you, I swear I'll never take you for granted again!" w, before looking up with a grin, "Okay I found it, we can leave now!"

Back outside...

The men they had knocked out were now tied to a tree, Inigo finishing the tightening knot...

"That should do it, that way when the holy army finds these guys, they'll take the blame not us..." The blue khajiit said, dusting his hands off, watching the women load on the carriage.

Rey finished helping the last one up there, "Okay that seems like everyone, alright then...which one of you can drive a carriage?"

"I can, sir knight... I can take us home," An older woman told him, getting a nod.

"See to it that you do, and make sure you get the sister back to orphanage with that medicine,"

"Will do, thank you for your help today, sir Reynold...those mercenaries you hired seemed nicer than the dogs...it's a shame there isn't more them," The older woman said, before grabbing the reins, the carriage now departing to the village.

Traysek and the others waved at their departure, until they disappeared down the road, "Safe Travels ladies...safe travels..." He said.

Now with the group and the two other women left there, Traysek turned to them, "Okay, part one of the job is done...now for our second part, Ingrid, you said you could take us to the settlement right?"

"Absolutely, it's just the opposite way from Erdora but shorter from here, we're ready when you guys are," She said, nodding.

Traysek grinned, "We're ready to move, time to get the second part of the job done..."

"Yaaaay...more traveling...kill me please..." Recorder groaned, following behind them.

Yuriana chuckled, "it's not that big of a distance, you'll blink and we'll be there,"

"Now we get to see where you've been for a few days...I hope you haven't done anything awkward there..." Lucien groaned, getting a scowl, "Oh what? you already know why I'm saying that, do I have to go there? really?"

Yuriana gave him a hard stare, sighing in defeat after, "Alright fine...I'll let you have that doubt, but really I haven't done anything strange...nothing outside of what I would do anyway..."

"Right...so I'm guessing we won't know until we get there then..." Erik said, smirking at her scowl.

Inigo looked around, "Doesn't seem like there's anyone else tailing us...lets keep moving for now then."

And with that, the crew followed the hunters to their settlement, the sun beginning to set over the horizon...though it wouldn't take as long to get there...the surprise waiting on them would be a different story...

45 minutes later...

The two hunters had led the six through the forest, Inigo's ears twitching as they passed by trees, lowly growling at something.

"Hold on my friends..." Inigo said, stopping them, sniffing around, ears going back.

Rey rose an eyebrow, "Is something wrong Inigo...? you hear something or smell something?"

"Yeah...smells like dark magic and there's a beast smell all around us..." The blue khajitt said cautiously.

The Redguard nodded, "Yeah...I can sense something too...stay on your guard everyone, I get the feeling we're not alone out here..."

They kept moving until Traysek spotted an armored figure nearby with a seemingly large orc, behind it was burning "Hold on guys, let's check that out..."

...

"General!" a female voice called "We did as you asked and took this... village." it was a Dark Elf with short red hair. She was wearing dark armor and had a bastard sword on her back.

"You did good." a male deep voice replied "Make sure that none of the monsters get their hands on the women, Meila. Remember why we're here."

"Sir!" the dark elf put the device in a pouch before turning to an orc "You heard him!"

The orc growled lowly before moving away from the woman.

Unfortunately for the dark elf, the group was right around the corner and heard everything, Reynold's eyes widening in horror...

"By Celestine...Olga's forces have occupied the settlement...this changes things..." Rey said, eyes on the orc, "But whose the woman they have with them?"

"No idea...but if that statement held any truth to it, we need to get there quickly..." Traysek whispered, narrowing his eyes on the trio there.

"So what are we going to do about them...?" Recorder asked, raising an eyebrow.

Traysek smirked, "Thought you would never ask," turning his head to Inigo, "Inigo, help me subdue them...the rest of you, check if anyone else is around,"

"Right, we'll keep watch go ahead, guys..." Yuriana said, watching them both creep up on the duo.

An arrow go flying through the orc's head, dropping like a pile of bricks, as elven soldier was now looking around in a panic as the hostages ran off. it was then that she heard a click along with something pressing into her back, making her drop the sword.

"Nice and easy now~ looks like we got here in the nick of time...just how many of you are in there, eh?" Traysek said, while holding her up.

"You're that human..." her voice was full of disgust and venom.

Traysek let out a chuckle, "You know of me...? well that's interesting...I had yet to meet any of you," smirking, "as for the human part well... I'm not so sure how true that is anymore...now back to my question..." giving her a tap to the head with his pistol, "How. many. of. you. are. in there...?" in a threatening tone this time, Inigo stepping out, keeping another arrow trained on her.

The elf smirked as she said "Are you waiting for me to get on my knees and worship you? Well, too bad for you... I'm loyal to the general and the queen. Also," electricity began to get around her "Let's see if you can survive an arcane explosion." light began to emanate from her "For the Kletzkrieg!"

"FUS, RO DAH!" He shouted, sending her flying before she exploded in electricity, "Nice try, bitch!"

Inigo put away his bow, "She was really about suicide bomb us...? Wow...that's crazier than anything I'd come up with, seriously,"

"We have to get to the settlement! there's no telling if anyone's alive anymore!" Natasha exclaimed, getting nods from the crew.

"Yeah, that was a bad sign if I've seen one, let's go!" Traysek said, breaking into a run as the others did the same...

...

A male dark elf noticed the explosion as he turned to the others.

"Prepare to move the prisoners toward the hideout." he ordered before taking a naginata in his hands "As for you, monsters, time to prove your worth. The one who will bring me the human's head will have the right to choose a girl from the prisoners." the monsters all cheered as they went searching for Traysek.

"What about you?" asked a scout.

"I'll detonate myself, and the village..." the naginata holder replied "As a member of the Kletzkrieg, it is our duty to give this world to our queen."

"We'll send the report to the general" the scout said before catching up with the others.

The Kletzkrieg member sighed before drawing a rune at his feet "Time for me to join my ancestors..."

...

When they neared the settlement, they could hear the roar of monsters approaching them, prompting them to all stop and pull out their weapons.

"You guys all heard that right? or was that someone's stomach..." Erik said, feeling a cold sweat come on.

Traysek narrowed his eyes, clicking on his scouter, "No...We're surrounded actually...and they're not human, not even close...Gron!" activating his dragon magic again, his pupils going slit, "And from the look of things, looks like the horde found us..."

Right as he said that, an orc came charging at Ingrid, only to get intercepted by Recorder who ran it through with both her blades in a charge.

"Holy shit, are you ok?" She asked her, getting a nod in confirmation before another orc came at HER this time, the hunter quickly drew her bow, putting arrows in his chest, gaining its attention before Recorder slashed its legs, sending it to the ground in agony, finishing it with a stab with both blades to it's neck...

"What the fuck kind of orcs are these?!" She cursed as more types of monsters began to emerge.

Rey gritted his teeth, "Damn...Olga's monsters, so what she was saying before about Kletzkreig...by celestine this does not bode well," slicing down an imp, "I've got a bad feeling about this, get to the settlement captain, the rest of us will hold them off here!," holding his sword at the ready.

Traysek took a deep breath, "FUS, RO DAH!" clearing the way to the settlement, followed by the two hunters, who were putting arrows into a few demons they ran past.

The remaining five, stood face to face with the remaining demons there, drawing their weapons, Recorder being the first to step first, frowning at them.

"You guys are one ugly motherfu-" she started to say until the demons all charged at them at once, all of them screaming as they did...

At the settlement

When Traysek and the two hunters got there, they found flames as well as monster and human corpses lying around, Natasha had a hand over her mouth in shock,"

"By Celestine...No...it can't be...everyone is..." She choked up, as tears started rolling down her face, her sister coming to comfort her.

"It's ok sis...we don't even know if this is everyone here, I don't see Tormand or most of the people we know... let's look around," Ingrid said, with a hand on her shoulder, "Captain we won't be far, we're going to check on our family...at least see if they're still alive,"

Traysek glanced at them, noting the sobbing of the younger, sighing, "It's too dangerous to do that right now...but I understand the sentiment...do what you must but whistle if anything goes wrong, yeah?"

The younger nodded, wiping the tears away, as they began to look around in the burning place...

Traysek took the time to search around, keeping his sword out when he ran into the occasional monster, "Is anyone there? anyone alive?!" checking for survivors, wincing at the destroyed building, until he came upon another armored figure, the same kind of armor as the last soldier wore, charging the same spell but much bigger, 'Is he trying to destroy his traces here? no can do!' taking a quick inhale, "SU!" he quickly shouted, using the first word of Riftwalk, interrupting the spellcaster, while stealing a bit of magic from him.

The elf turned to him and took his weapon in hand "You... you're the human we were told about." he then sighed before saying "You humans are the same, greedy and selfish" he destroyed his connection crystal "Even if this is my last battle, I won't stand back." a burst of electricity ran through him.

Traysek let out a bitter chuckle, sheathing his sword, grabbing his haven bag, "And yet you were about to destroy everything to cover this up, people who had NOTHING to do with this suffered here, but we're selfish? that's funny coming from you, no..." reaching into his haven bag, pulling out something long and black, turning out to be an ebony quarterstaff, "It's hilarious...just like how killing you is going to be," giving him a wicked grin.

"The general was right, you are wicked and worthless. Nevertheless..." he rushed down and began to spin his whole body as he spun his weapon with an incredible speed. He then kicked Traysek's chin up before using this opening to kick him away "It won't be easy to take me down."

After he stumbled back, he spat a bit of blood out, still grinning, "Hehehe...that's all you got? Lir Fahliil...this won't even be a sport to me, Joor!" teleporting and ending up behind him, giving a harsh thrust to the Elf's back, making him stumble, going into a violent spin with the staff.

The elf got back on his feet before coating himself and his weapon in electricity. He then spun it once before using the momentum to strike Traysek.

Both weapons collided...

Traysek gave him an approving smirk, "Not bad, for a mortal..." bashing him in the face with the shaft, kicking him back, taking a deep breath, "YOL, TOOR SHUL!" sending him back with a firey blast, "But alas, you face the dovahkiin, DRAGONBORN!" proudly declaring, with his staff raised, "WULD NA KEST!" rocketing after him.

The elf turned into electricity before heading to where he drew the rune "Enough! I won't let you destroy our efforts!"

The elf began generating enough force to obliterate the entire settlement until a harpy caught him and flew with him "You are to go to the general, he ordered it."

"What? Why?"

The harpy looked at him and said "He found her."

The elf widen his eyes before turning to Traysek "This isn't over Dragonborn!"

Traysek stopped on his heels, looking at the fleeing duo, "Getting away huh? we'll see about that," using arcane thievery to slip something into his inventory, smirking, "Now then... let's see where the birdy goes," pulling out his compass, clicking a button that brought up a radar, tracking him, "That's right, lead me to your general,"

Meanwhile...

Battle song- Demon killer - Dmc

Reynold and crew engaged with the remaining monsters that were there, more than a few demon corpses already littering the area. Inigo ducked the swoop of a harpy, firing arrows at it, scoring a hit on its body and bringing it down.

"Looks like the harpies are back in force, my friends!" he yelled, jumping away from a charging orc with a club, attempting to smash him, "Trying to turn me into a pancake?" leaping on a tree, before rocketing down on the orc, stabbing into his head, bringing him down, killing him, "Is it me? or are these orcs a bigger than usual?" ripping his sword out.

Reynold was parrying the blows from two blade-wielding imps, separating them by slamming his shoulder into one, turning around to stab the other, killing it, splitting him in half with a hard tear, "No! they've always been that big!" evading a smash from one, rushing forward to slash into its neck, nearly taking its head off, 'But why are so many here...? it's almost like this is a-' Barely avoiding a thrown knife, forcing him out of his thoughts, "Right...think on that later..." charging at the knife thrower.

Recorder stayed on the evasive side of things, keeping her distance with her throwing knives and fireball staff... blasting large crowds in the process. Another monster orc came charging at her, taking the thrown knives, before she rolled out of the way of its smash, ending up behind him, stabbing her sword through his head, kicking him down after, "So these are monsters huh? I can see why you guys needed the help!" sidestepping an imp, slicing it in half.

Erik retained his guard, as two orcs were trying to smash through his shield, gritting his teeth, "Damn...stronger than the ones back home..." Bashing one of them with a shield, rolling out the way of the second orc, pulling out a Bomb, tossing it at them, causing them to panic before it exploded in dirt and body parts, "Ugh...messy," he sighed, shaking his head, until he heard flapping coming from above, finding a harpy carrying one of the elites, "Guys, up there!"

Yuriana who was smashing in an orcs head after knocking it down, looked up and noticed the fleeing duo, "I see them, but where's the boss?" ducking from a harpy coming at her, countering with a bat swing, smashing the harpy into gore and feathers, shouting something that caused a healing wave through the group.

"Thanks! he's probably still inside!" Lucien added in, while on the back of an orc who fighting to get him off, "Easy big guy, the sun getting real low!" bringing both hands to his head, discharging a powerful lightning spell, "Haaah!" he screamed, frying the monster, jumping off as the creature collapsed, taking it's last breath, as it smoked...The imperial stood up, huffing, shaking his head, giving the orc a quick stab to the gut, "Nothing personal big guy...just your turn..."

Song ends

When they had finished up with the monsters there, the entire party was out of breath, sheathing their weapons.

"By the gods that was hairy...I know we've dealt with the Daedra before but...this...this was something else," Lucien panted, sheathing his sword.

Recorder tiredly nodded, "Yeah...tell me about it, orcs in Skyrim were never that difficult, must be some kind of mutation or something...they seemed feral,"

Inigo sheathed his sword and bow, "Either way, we dealt with the threat here, for now, that is..." turning to Yuriana who was shaking off her bloody hammer, "Thanks for the heals Yuri, I knew our team was missing something,"

"What? me patching you guys up again?" She snickered, "You're welcome Inigo, but try to remember that you DO have potions, you don't have to just rely on me...even if I'm going to do most of the time,"

Rey sighed, sheathing his sword, "By Celestine...why were this many here? who are they even looking for? you guys?"

Erik slightly nodded, "Possibly, they were coming at us harder than you...Guess our way here didn't go unnoticed by them either...just like that elf the boss and Inigo held up...said something weird too...Kletzkits or something"

"Kletzkrieg..." Reynold said, his blood running cold, "That...is the name of Olga's Elite forces and they're no joke...every monster attack we've fended off had one of them as an officer and they've been known to cause problems...but they all answer to someone and only one comes to mind..."

Inigo rose an eyebrow, "And that's who?"

The holy knight took a deep sigh, "General Griel of the dark army...if he's here then that explains why everything's been happening, from the settlement to monster attack on us...by celestine this is bad...he's the same beast that took Volt's hand all those years ago...A skilled tactician and very dangerous, we need to regroup with your boss to figure this out,"

"I agree with you there...there's no telling if he's around us even now..." Erik added in, as the party made their way into the settlement.

...

"General." the elf knelt in front of Greil "The human and his friends are still alive."

"I see..." Greil pondered as he watched some men in the village learning how to use growing magic from a female dark elf "Tell me, Mayek, did you learn anything from that fight?"

Mayek looked at him and said, "It seems that he has the same power as you when you use your battleshouts."

Greil turned at him "Explain better."

The dark elf nodded and said, "He seems to talk in an unknown language, and that grants him powers."

"I see..." Greil looked back to a group of elves that are repairing the houses and strengthening them "An enemy with a power related to words and magic..." he then turned to look at Mayek again "I see that you destroyed your communication crystal."

"Better that than having them use their magic to spy on us," Mayek replied.

Greil laughed before saying "You grew from the boy who was found on death's doorstep. I'm sure that your ancestors would be proud."

"Thank you, general." Mayek bowed his head down before looking up again to Greil "The harpy that brought me here said that you found her... is that true?"

Greil smiled before saying "I talked with the man in charge to look after the children, he said that you're allowed to go there, as long as you don't get violent while in there. That place is a holy and sacred one, it must be respected."

"I understand." Mayek nodded before heading toward the church.

Back at the Settlement

With the crew reunited, Traysek nodded at the thing they were telling him.

"I see, so you guys saw them fly out of here...did you see where he was going?" Traysek asked them, raising an eyebrow.

Erik nodded, "Yeah, seemed like he was heading back to the village in that direction..."

The Redguard rubbed his chin, before checking the compass, finding that signal had indeed stopped there, "So that's where he went...that means their general was back there...the entire time..." The realization hitting, I could've found him way before we got to this point...by the gods... at least we know where he is now,"

Yuriana looked around, "I noticed the girls aren't with you anymore, where'd they go, boss?"

"They went to see if their loves were still kicking, haven't heard a whistle since we've split up, so I'm going to assume things are going alright..." Traysek sighed, looking around, "Although too much silence...is never good, I'll give them five more minutes, after that we're checking on them,"

"Right, any luck finding the money...?" Rey asked, getting a headshake.

"Didn't have time at first to check for it...nor do I think the guy who has it is even still breathing...But I haven't seen the corpse of a dragon beast-kin, so the leader might be still alive somewhere..."

As they continued to talk, they heard running steps and turned around to find the youngest sister out of breath.

Traysek widened his eyes at her approach, "Natasha? Is everything ok? I assumed you guys got lost or worse, where's your sister?"

"We couldn't find our family...but, we did find a survivor, but he's badly wounded...my sister is tending to him now, " she said, as Yuriana walked up to her.

"Take me to them, maybe there's still some hope for him," She told her, getting the younger to nod, as she led the rest of the crew there.

Near a hut, a wounded man had his head held up by the hunter, keeping her other hand on his bleeding wound.

"Stay with me Mikael, help will be here soon!" She told him, as he gave her a weak grin.

"Heh, I hope so...this really hurts...by the gods this hurts..." He winced, feeling the pain kick.

When the others arrived, Yuriana rushed over to them with Traysek walking behind, kneeling next to them.

"It's you...you're that healer...!" He gasped, "I'm glad you came back...I didn't think you were...*cough*"

The Redhead shook her head, "I almost didn't...luckily for me my friend was here...and now I'm here to help you," giving him a smile, "Let me wound, from the amount of blood you lost, I can tell how bad this is..." she offered.

The young man nodded, moving his hand to expose a large deep wound going across his gut, causing most of the crew to wince, including her.

"Okay...it's bad, but it can be healed, it's just going to take more energy than usual...and I'm going to need some help here," Yuriana said, staring at the deep wound.

"Right, I know enough restoration magic, just tell me what I have to do," Traysek said, walking up and kneeling.

"Keep healing hands on him, I'll call on the mystic phantom and use greater heal along with the healing shout," She said, getting a nod from him.

"And that'll also keep my magic replenished because of its area of effect, alright, let's do this," The Redguard said, applying healing hands on the wound, "Just relax friend, death doesn't get his with you today,"

The Redhead summoned her mystic phantom, which began feeding him lifeforce, before she herself applied greater healing to his wound, the damaged organs repairing themselves before it started to close faster and faster, "That it, just a little more and we're done," keeping it on the nearly closed wound, until it completely healed, widening the eyes of both hunters in Rey in shock.

Yuriana wiped the sweat from her brow, "Too close for comfort, but he should be alright now, the way he was open, certain death around the corner..."

"Yeah, no kidding, moments before we could see his stomach," Lucien winced, at the memory.

Traysek ended his spell, Rey helping with him sitting him up, "Not everyone gets a second chance like that lad, so I need you to tell me, what happened here? why was the dark army about to destroy this place?"

Mikael took a gulp of offered water, taking a minute before sighing, "We were minding our business, my father and I just came back from a hunt when we found our entire settlement surrounded by monsters...most of the men, including me, tried to fight back, but the dark army was stronger...we were wiped out in minutes, I feigned my death to prevent it...but I didn't think about how deep my wound was..."

"Easy brother, did you see anything before you blacked out?" Ingrid asked, getting a slow nod.

"Y-yeah...I overheard their general talking about "returning what was stolen" at first I didn't know what he meant until I saw the people he had in chains as well as the loot we had taken..."

Traysek blinked twice at that, "...Come again...? you mean to tell me, that the loot we came here for, is back at the place it was stolen from...?" in disbelief.

"Yeah...that's where I believe he was going..." The young man explained, "Please...you have to help them...there's no telling what that monster plans to do with those people..."

Rey put his fist to his chest plate, "You have our word, we'll help your people, just take it easy now...you're still in no condition to do anything,"

"Yeah...I'm getting that...I leave it up to you then..." before passing out.

"Mikael? Mikael?" The blond called out, worried, checking to see if he still had a pulse, sighing..."Thank the gods, he's still breathing..." turning to Traysek and crew, "If what he's saying is true, then that means they've gone to Erdora...I'll stay here, you guys need to go find and free our people...I'll see if anything or anyone is left here.

The Redguard nodded, "Alright, we know a quick way back, is your sister staying too?"

"Yes, I need to at least help bury the dead...I can do that at least..." The brunette said in sorrow, before giving them a grin, "Thank you all for getting us this far, there's no telling how this would've gone for us if we would've come back ourselves..."

Erik grinned back, "No problem ladies, try to take it easy, alright?"

"We'll try warrior, we'll definitely try after this..." Ingrid chuckled, walking with her sister to scavenge what was left, disappearing around the corner.

Traysek sighed, waving them away, "So, now with that settled, I believe it's time to head back,"

"Captain, from this distance, we won't make it back until midnight, the sun's almost down," Rey complained.

Traysek smirked at him, "I know, that's why we're going to JUMP there, once I've seen a city or village, I can teleport there anytime, long as I'm outdoors...and I can take people with me as well,"

Rey rubbed his chin at that, "Interesting...so that's why you haven't been panicking, you had this trick up your sleeve, and the enemy doesn't know...it's perfect...almost Ironic," a slight smirk forming.

The Redguard chuckled, "Glad you know where I'm getting at, that said, is everyone ready? this is a one-way trip, if you have to take a piss, do it now..."

The other men there glanced at each other, before raising their hands, while Recorder rolled her eyes along with Yuriana facepalming at this point.

"Really? all of you?...fine...five minutes and then we go," Traysek said, with a hint of annoyance, as the guys ran off, sighing after frowning at himself" Godsdammit I might as well go too, shit..." walking off to another corner.

...

In Erdora, the mayor was walking alongside Greil.

"This place changed in so little time..." the human pointed in awe.

"We may not be the same species, but that doesn't mean that we don't have honor." Greil replied "With how much this land was cursed, it meant that your resources would be limited."

"What do you mean by cursed?" Ernest asked as he frowned.

"Someone put many curses, but even if they were weak they were strong enough to cause troubles." Greil answered "Luckily, the mages of the Kletzkrieg are more than powerful to deal with a curse made by humans."

"You did so much for us..." the mayor sighed before adding "Not even Ken dared to come all the way here... if not to steal from us..."

"We are all children of the Earthmother, we should help each other... but you know how humans are."

"I know, I know." Ernest replied "I feel bad for thinking that all monsters are the same"

"That's natural." Greil smiled before saying "The perception of good and evil changes with time and place; for us, humans are evil since they took, and still take, dark elves as slaves. Meanwhile, for you, all monsters are barbarians that commit atrocious acts. In the end, there's no victor."

"You are wise" Ernest stated before adding "A surprise coming from one of Olga's monsters"

"There are a lot of things that you ignore." Greil said before looking at a soldier "It seems like my troops are in need of me. If you excuse me."

After leaving the mayor, Greil walked to the dark elf soldier.

"Sir. The gold and all the loots from the bandits are here"

"Good." Greil nodded before taking a look at the prisoners "We'll give them to the mayor Ernest, he would see what to do with them."

"Everyone!" the soldier screamed, gaining the attention of the civilians "Come and take what's yours."

Everyone rushed to the loot and began to take from it.

"Take the gold to the treasurer," Greil ordered before continuing to walk.

...

In the village center, a large purple summoning orb appeared there, the crew along with Rey stepped out of it, Recorder giving them an annoyed glare as they did.

"Geez guys, five minutes my ass, you guys too way too long!" She complained, getting an eye roll from the other men.

Rey let out a bitter chuckle, "You try getting IT out of this armor, it's not as easy as you think"

"And on top of that, I've been holding that in since those monsters jumped us," Inigo added in.

As the crew began to bicker over who took the longest, Traysek was the last to come through the purple portal, closing it, looking around, eyes going wide with shock, "This is...! guys, guys shut up for a second and look around!" getting their attention, as they stopped to do just that...finding, everything built back up,"

"It looks better than how we last left from here... how?" Erik said, in disbelief, "Did they really have the money to do this?"

Recorder shook her head, "Couldn't be...there'd be no way...not after sending us to do all that,"

"Erdora...Restored to her glory...this doesn't make any sense..." Reynold said, staring at the rebuilt walls.

Lucien glanced around, noting the happy faces there, "Well, whether we like it or not...the people seem happy with this, more often than usual even...I wonder what's been done here?"

"Or more importantly, who took the time to fix everything up here? I remember being here a few days ago, it was worse than this...much worse..." Yuriana added in, rubbing her chin.

Traysek nodded, "Yeah, and that's what worries me...and if that dark elf soldier was indication...that means we really need to watch our backs here, perhaps we can find out more from the mayor, but last I checked he was at the orphanage so I'll check there first for him,"

"And what do we do?" Inigo asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Split up and cover more ground, you, Erik, Recorder, and Lucien are to find out what's happened here, but do not engage...not unless you have to," The Redguard ordered.

"Aye Captain, we'll try to keep our killing tools at bay...but if they come at us..." The blue khajiit, started with.

"Defend yourselves, obviously...but for now, try to keep the damage as minimum as you can...at least until we figure...this out,"

Inigo's ears slightly drooped, but he slowly nodded, "Alright, we'll see if anything strange has happened here, come on guys," leading the rest of the crew in another direction.

Rey and Yuria stayed back with Traysek, turning to him, "I'm going with you to see Ernest too...this whole thing stinks and I want to know why,"

"Agreed, this is a strange feeling...guess we won't know until we find Ernie, so know where he'd be at this time?" The Redguard asked.

"Yeah, outside...but I don't see him yet...probably walking around, we're sure to run into him, let's go," The buxom woman said, as they began to search for them.

Two dark elves soldiers were patrolling through the streets

"I heard that you want to join the Kletzkrieg." the first one said.

"The general will be picking the next ten members," the second one replied "And I will throw my name in the selection."

"By the Earthmother, you know how hard the initiation is, right?" the first one said with wide eyes.

"Better than those humans who worship a fraud of a goddess." the second one said with anger in his voice "Goddess Reborn this, Goddess Reborn that," he spat before continuing "While her people are dying, she stays in her luxurious palace turning a blind eye to everything but the nobles and people who are rich."

"You know that the general said to respect her... even if she did nothing to earn that respect."

"You see," the second one said before adding "At least, with the Earthmother, we have answers."

"Can't argue with that..." the first one stated as he looked around, not noticing Traysek hidden in an alley.

The Redguard watched the two, slowly turning his head to Reynold, "How interesting...I didn't expect them to say anything nice...but that...that there leaves a certain taste in my mouth..." narrowing his eyes on him.

"The enemy will never understand how Celestine does things, they would rather follow Olga's dark path than see light..." The knight said, through gritted teeth, glaring at them.

Yuriana had a hand to her chin, "But are they wrong...? because I've seen some of the things your army has done myself, kid, and I got say...I'm not a fan of it...in the slightest, Also...why does this 'Earthmother' remind me of Kynareth? "

"Look, no one ever said this was easy, our goddess is trying, alright? she fixed your arm captain, if she didn't have a care, don't you think you still would've had a busted arm?" Rey questioned, getting the other two to glance at each other before back to him.

Traysek nodded, "I get that, Rey, but the same thing could apply to Volt pulling us out and I REALLY don't know where to even put HIM right now, I'm just letting you know...I'm not a fan of what I've been hearing so far Rey, and being in Ken didn't help that perception... from an outsider's perspective, how you all greet travelers, let's just say we've gotten friendlier greetings in Windhelm...and those people there match the cold tundra" he said with a hard frown, moving away from him, "We're going to keep moving though, but something for your thoughts as we do..." turning his back on him, "I've seen more beauty from the darkness, than I have in the light," before moving away from the alley.

Yuriana walked to Rey, tapping him in the shoulder with a look of pity, shaking her head as she followed the Redguard. The holy knight sighed and rubbed his hands through his hair, begrudgingly following them further.

'By Celestine...this is taking a strange turn...I hope you can trust in the light more than that darkness...Captain...all of you...'

They all walked until they saw two figures standing in front of a group of men being trained to use a bow by a member of the Kletzkrieg.

"I must say," the mayor began "I heard all kinds of rumors about those forces, but to see them helping us..."

"Lina is the finest arrow among all the dark elves." the figure next to Ernest, three times the height of the man, replied, "I thought that she would be useful to deal with any sentry or archer in this village... but to think that you were abandoned like this."

Traysek stopped a few feet away, smirking, "Well well well~ looks the village got renovated while we were gone, hello again Ernest," watching the duo turn around, The Redguard noted the appearance of the other, a large Bullman with antler in earth-colored armor with a flowing brown cape that has yellow outlines...giving him an inquisitive stare, until he glances back to find both Yuriana and Reynold slowly drawing their weapons, "Stand down, both of you...I've got this,"

"Captain no, this is the General I was telling you about, you can't trust anything he says or does..." The knight protested, drawing the attention of the elven soldier.

Traysek gave him a harsh glare, "I said...stand. down...! we are not doing this here, last warning..." he threatened, cutting his slit eye back him.

At that, Rey felt a chill run down his spine with that statement, making him sigh in defeat, "Fine...we'll play this out, for now..." glancing around at the staring elven forces.

Traysek cleared his throat, his eyes going back to normal, "Sorry about that...holy knight syndrome and all, I see most of the dark forces are here...minus the demons...you must be General Greil then," giving a formal bow, "I'm Traysek of the Red Dragon crew, and you've caused me more than enough troubles today..." slightly glaring at him, taking a calming breath, "However, despite this...I'm willing to request a parley, especially given the situation now... motioning around to the rebuilt village.

"How strange to ask a parley with the enemy," Greil chuckled before adding "But it would be disrespectful of me to turn it down. My full name is Greil Thunderhoof." one glance at the soldiers from Greil was enough to have them resuming their patrol "By the Earthmother, they're more tense than a harpy protecting her nest"

"I wouldn't get used to it..." Rey lowly growled, keeping his hand trained on his sword.

Traysek chuckled, "Well, considering the enemy of their nation stands before them and from the reaction of my friend here, It's a given..and it's even stranger for a nation against humanity, to be rebuilding for the ones here..." grinning now, "I'm not at all bitter that you did half our job for us, after all, we agreed to do it payment free ...but I just want to know, why? you literally had cards to hold here and yet, instead of destroying this village like you did the settlement, you rebuild it...and more than that, you've returned the money the other settlement took...you're a hard man to figure out Griel," taking out his smoking pipe, lighting it, and taking a pull.

Greil laughed before saying "You would have preferred to see me killing brainlessly those people who were betrayed by their kin?" He then looked at a harpy patrolling through the skies "There's no honor in fighting those that can't fight"

Traysek stared at him for a minute, slowly nodding, "Huh, That's something I actually can agree on ...no point in shedding blood if you don't have to, hence why WE didn't draw on you here..."

"You care about honor...?" Rey frowned, "How many cities did you help lay in ruin? all done on the orders of your Queen...? you can preach honor all day, but those monsters you send on a daily...there's nothing honorable about ANY of that, tell that to all those who fell or still have the scars!"

Once again, The Redguard gave him a harsh look, simmering him down, sighing, "He's got a point though...from what I know about your army, you've killed more than a fair share of humans...Honor would be a rather suggestive term here, no?"

"In war, one needs to know when to attack, and when to help" Greil looked at some villagers "In my eyes, this village was abandoned by those who were supposed to do what we did. While I do frown on Celestine's inaction here, I do understand that she's being manipulated by the humans that she relies on." he then turned to Rey "Tell me, boy, if your goddess asked you to kill a child in front of her while questioning your loyalty, what would you do?" after sighing, Greil looked in deep thoughts "I met a human here once, he told me that in a fight, a battle, a war... hesitation is defeat. And those cities and villages where I sent my soldier were ones that I choose for strategic purposes. I want this war to end, but that doesn't mean that I would prefer fighting alongside humans... not after what they've done..." that last part had anger, the same kind of anger that people leave for too long.

Renold froze up hearing this, choking up trying to find the answer, "S-she would never-" getting looks from not only Traysek and Yuriana, but Ernest as well, "-I don't know what'd I do...if it came that... if my loyalty was questioned...I wouldn't desire it, not at all...but it would be hard to disobey..."

Traysek clasped his hands together, giving Rey a frown, "I figure the answer would be an obvious one," turning to Greil, "Where we come from, a wise man once told me, that most dangerous monsters aren't the ones found in caves, ruins, or even castles...but sometimes it's the man next to you... the neighbor near you...or even family or friend..." eyes darkening "I never understood what it meant during the time...took it as an old wise tale, it was too late that I learned that lesson..." stroking the scars on his face, "Way too late...but, since then...I can understand how monstrous other humans can be...despite claiming they're better than when in reality...there's no monster worse...than the human one," ending that statement in a dark tone, clearing his throat "That said, my friends and I have no animosity towards you or your people. We too wish to end the war, but..." sighing after, "I do owe Celestine a debt for fixing my busted wing when the dogs couldn't...and I'm not one to walk away from one...I am going tomorrow and I expect you to be at your best because believe me...I'm coming at you with all of mine," giving a genuine smile.

Greil laughed as he extended his arm for a handshake "It would be an honor to fight you, Traysek. I will give my all to achieve victory, and if I die, I would die fighting."

Traysek completed it, with a firm handshake, "I look forward to it, Greil, may the best warrior win...either way, I'll have no hard feelings," widening his grin.

The Redhead woman, gave him a polite bow, "As do I General, I am Yuriana, the head wench...I look forward to facing you tomorrow as well, it was nice meeting you though, I won't forget this,"

Rey sighed, taking his hand off the blade, "This changes nothing...but you might see me there, and if I am going...you will feel the sting of my blade, General...that I swear" he declared.

"Well then, I think that I must go back now." Greil looked up and a harpy came down "We're leaving, I'll let some stay here with Mayek at the command and Lina as second. Pass the message." the harpy bowed down before taking flight.

As the majority of the elven forces approached the harpies flew away.

"Let's head back to the fortress, we have to prepare ourselves," Greil said with a high voice before heading away with his forces.

Traysek nodded, watching him leave, "I suppose we'll do the same, since the women made it back and all," turning to Ernest, "I'm glad he didn't hurt you...once I call my crew back, we'll leave as soon as possible,"

Rey sighed, "Was that wise? trust him like that, Ernie? You know what the demon army has done to villages like this...so why would you trust them so easily," frowning at him.

"Look around, what do you see? Is this place the same one that you left?" Ernest asked with a serious tone "It's true that we were scared at the beginning, that we prayed to the goddess, that we wanted them out... but now, I begin to ask the same question that the general was asking. Does this village have any value to the eyes of the Goddess Reborn? And if it's true, then where was she when we were praying?"

Rey once again choked up on his words, "Ernest... you know me... I was there the day she agreed to help you. There was no malice or deception...I will admit, the way things are in the holy knights right now could be better...way better, but by Celestine, I'm trying and you know I am..."

"You know? maybe, in the beginning, this was a good deal...getting funded from the church and the seven shields...who wouldn't take that deal? probably kept Erdora afloat for a while... but look at what he lost to gain it..." Traysek pointed out, to the chained men "His own council walked away from him with his second because that deal took away from the village...and now, the other faction shows up...and proved that despite them being the monster faction...they had enough decency to help these people today...that insight...gave me a new perspective entirely..." sighing after, turning to Ernest, "I can understand why you're choosing to remain neutral now...going through all that again wouldn't be worth it...you can only kick a dog so much...same goes for people...I'm sorry you went through this and what we were hired to do," nodding at the people walking around with bags of gold, smiling, "As for the money...sod Grave and his money...he's going to get something called: fool's gold, from me,"

"I've talked with Father Anderson," Ernest sighed before continuing "We'd rather give those who left us a chance at working for the good of the community, but I don't think that would suffice for all the harm they did..." he then looked at a dark elf healing an injured man with magic "I used to think that the Dark Queen was our true enemy, but this shows that sometimes your own kin can betray you." he looked at the girls being treated by a group of dark elves "I'm pretty sure that the Holy Army will come to collect the taxes here..."

"They won't, you have my word" Mayek approached them as he glared at Traysek "Dragonborn..."

Traysek shot him a glare right back, "Hello again, You must be Mayek...I just met your general..." his glare somewhat softening, "We had a nice parley, seemed like a good guy, Very honorable for one considered a 'monster' it's almost Ironic, a shame really..." shaking his head, "That said, we're leaving PEACEFULLY...today...tomorrow? expect us at the black fortress..." his hard glare coming back.

"As much as I want to go back to take your head, I have a reason to stay here..." Mayek looked at the orphanage, with a look filled with both sadness and happiness "I have a duty to protect this village. And by the name of the Earthmother, I won't fail... not like before..."

The Redguard rose an eyebrow, "Before?" until he threw up his hands, "You know what? forget I asked It's none of my business, long as you're just doing that, I'm not going to pursue you,"

"He won't but I will," Rey said, frowning at him, "Who are you talking about, there's literally only one-" coming to a realization, "-dark Elf there...Nancy? what does she have to do with you?"

"How do you know my sister's name?" Mayek's tone became darker than anything "Have you done something to her?"

Rey went wide-eyed, "Sister...? I didn't know she had a brother...and as for what I did... the only thing I've done was help her get away from her abusive slave master who's rotting in the dungeons for it, as we speak...brought her here after realizing I couldn't leave her in any of the cities...especially Feoh. I've been teaching her combat and swordplay ever since,"

"So that's why you're staying, and I think I've seen that child around too...looking at you now, I can see the similarities there..." Traysek said nodding.

Mayek narrowed his eyes before turning to walk away "I have my duties."

The four of them watched him walk away, Traysek glancing at Ernest who had a nervous expression.

"If THAT becomes a problem don't hesitate to contact me, I'll be here to handle it..." Traysek sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, turning to the other two, "We're leaving, time to find the others, make sure THEY didn't get into trouble with them," turning around to leave.

Yuriana gave Ernest a bow, "Thank you for having us, I was here before but we did not meet...but I'm glad we did now and I hope we do come back...it's really beautiful here...it really is," giving him a genuine smile.

Reynold sighed, giving him a bow as well, "It was good seeing you again, events today have given me something to think on...I only pray nothing between US has changed...despite how you feel about the holy army,"

"Don't worry, my boy, you'll always be welcome here" Ernest said before turning to the Redguard "If I can give you a piece of advice; be ready when you face general Greil... his cunning is something to be afraid of" he then shook his head "He also seems to have his own objectives for victory."

"Yeah...I'm getting that, perhaps more than you know...I'll see you around Ernie," Traysek said, walking away after that with Rey and Yuriana following...

Meanwhile...(During Parley)...

(Inigo and Lucien)

Both Khajiit and Imperial scouted around the town, finding elven doctors treating people, feeding people or hell, giving them back gold...those things alone made them both frown and glance at each other, as they continued with their scouting, finding an Elven sniper with a bladed bow, giving instructions to a few people.

"Hey Inigo, look at that," Lucien pointed out.

Inigo watched the dark elf score a bullseye, nodding in approval, "She is pretty good, but I bet I'm even better..." he smirked, walking towards them.

"Inigo, where are you going?" The imperial questioned, watching his friend head to the crowd.

"I feel like doing a bit of showing off today, feel free to join me!" he chuckled, as he disappeared into the crowd.

Lucien went slackjawed, "Inigo! Inigo!" he harshly whispered, before begrudgingly following, "Godsdamnit...fine...I'm coming..."

"Make sure that you use your entire strength to manipulate a bow, letting him overpower you is a grave mistake a hunter can do." the elf explained "Any questions?"

"Sure! I have a couple!" she heard a voice say, as an ebony arrow came flying, splitting the other arrow in half, replacing that one...Another "thwip!" sound and another arrow found itself next to it, in the same bullseye...both now going through...The shooter turned out to be smirking blue beast kin, "Hello there, I couldn't help but overhear your lesson, nice bow!" he greeted with a bow.

Lucien finally caught up, sighing at the shot arrows in the targets, "Oh geez...he really went and did this..." rushing over to him.

"You're that walking pelt..." Lina said with anger and disgust "I received orders to form these humans to the art of the bow as the general taught me, so go waste someone else's time."

Inigo frowned, "That's not nice...you don't even know why I'm here yet...maybe I like the display of skill, I am a fellow marksman after all..." rubbing his chin in thought, "How about we shoot for it? your skill against mine...a little contest between you and me, and the class can take it as a part of their lesson, what say you?"

Lucien quickly walked up to them, bowing his head in apology, "I'm so sorry about him ma'am, I tried to stop him before he interrupted your class, don't worry, we're leaving, let's go,"

"Hold Lucien, not yet...as you see she's thinking on it," The khajiit gently shoved him off.

"You think that you can beat me?" Lina's voice sounded like she's up for the challenge "I'll humble you, cat."

Inigo's grin widened, ears standing completely up, "Oh really? I've never lost! let's do this!" the class cheered after that declaration.

"Oh...by the gods..." Lucien groaned, already not liking where this is going, "This side of you is going to get you killed one day, man..."

"Hehehehehe!" was Inigo's response to that.

Lina shot first without looking, getting a bullseye "I've been trained by the general himself, like every member of the Kletzkrieg, don't think that you stand a chance against me."

The class applauded the shot, the khajiit nodding, "Okay, starting off with blind shot, nice...never got that one down, but," taking aim at a random building, Inhaling as he drew and exhaling letting it loose, bouncing off from one building to a post before another, and then to a target, hitting a bullseye "I'm no rookie when it comes to everything else...here's a Trick shot!" earning applause as well.

"Not bad there chap!" Lucien clapping as well, glancing at the other archer, 'But I wouldn't get comfortable yet...'

Lina narrowed her eyes as she accepted to get more serious. She took two arrows and pulled on the bow. Both arrows were coated in lighting, however, instead of shooting at the targets, she aimed at the sky where the arrows turned into lighting bolts and struck five targets.

Inigo whistled as the crowd awed at the lightning, "Ooooo~ someone's arcane archer, I'm not really magically attuned like the boss or you, good thing I have a few tricks," pulling out a scroll from his pocket, wrapping it on an arrow, causing it to spark, before taking aim and firing once again, a bolt firing from his bow this time, chaining to six targets "Chain lightning in an arrow, now that's a shock!" earning a bit of chuckle with that applause.

Lucien applauded while shaking his head, 'Oh inigo...great shot, corny joke...'

"Let's see if you can do better than this." Lina shot an arrow in the sky. After some seconds, hundred of arrows began to rain on the targets until nothing was left "And I held back."

Both Inigo and Lucien had their jaws to the floor as well as the crowd there before a loud cheer and applause ripped through...The imperial glanced at him.

"Do you have an answer for that...?"

The khajiit shook his head, "I don't think I do, no..." turning to her, "Well, you went and took everything out, I'd say we can call it a day here...your victory..." giving her a bow "I gotta say, that's was a pretty powerful arrow storm...I've never seen that many at once...I'm almost jealous of you for it,", he chuckled putting the bow away, offering a handshake with a friendly grin, "We'll have to do this again sometime, this was fun, maybe when I learn more tricks, yes?"

She simply gave a handshake as she nodded "This was entertaining. After all, no one in the army dared to challenge me like this."

After they broke the handshake, The khajiit turned around and nodded, "Alright Lucien, now we can go...I've seen plenty today..." leaving the area, stopping one last time, "Oh and guys, your breathing is the key to your shots, see you around," waving back, walking away.

Lucien sighed, turning to her, "Awesome magic display...I think he had plenty of fun though, this was nice, but we must depart," giving another bow, before following Inigo, "Slow down, Inigo!" rushing to catch up with him.

'Why were they here?' Lina thought as she saw them walking away 'Maybe that I should inform the general.' she then saw a harpy approaching her and narrowed her eyes.

Elsewhere...

(Erik and Recorder)

Recorder scouted by rooftop while Erik remained on the ground, looking up, "See anything weird yet?"

"No! not yet... still looking for the horrid monster shit..." she said, sighing as she jumped down to him, "So far, I'm just seeing them open soup kitchens, handing money back, and healing the sick..."

Erik rubbed his chin, "Ah, so the same thing even with a bird's eye view...no surprise there..." Shaking his head, "At this point, we're fumbling around in the dark trying to find reasons why this could be a trap..."

"Hmm...or maybe, and just follow me here Erik..." Recorder started with, "What if WE'RE on the wrong side...?" getting an eyebrow raise from Erik, "No no no...not like that, I'm not talking about our defacto boss here, no...I'm talking about the people we JUST signed up with...what if we're on the side of the oppressors and our enemies are the oppressed...? wouldn't that make US the bad guys here?"

On that Erik actually took a second to mule on that thought, "That's...a really good question...didn't actually take the time to think on that...huh...honestly, from what we've been seeing, it's starting to seem that way...if the others didn't get memo by now...I know we're starting too,"

"Agreed," She said, leaning back with her arms folded, "We should just keep moving then..."

The duo kept walking through the village, occasionally waving at people they passed by...eventually as they continued their scouting firey glow from the distance catches their attention, putting frowns on their faces.

"Hey Erik, you see that too right? or is the felldew withdraw finally getting to me?" She asked, rubbing the back of her head.

The Nord shook his head, "I see it too, and what...? what about felldew now?" with a hard frown.

"Nothing! let's check that out!" she said, power walking away from him.

Erik stood there for a minute, blinking, "Okay Recorder...sure..." rolling his eyes, before following.

When the reached the source of the glow, they were treated to a strange altar, comprised mostly of sand and rock but there were other things there too, that made this even stranger for them...a bowl of water was on top of the sand and rock pile, water flowing out of it, a volcano rock that seemed to float over the bowl, burning which gave that light and lastly, it was surrounded by beautiful leaves, different colors but mostly green.

"What in Oblivion is this?" Erik frowned, walking up to it, "It almost looks like one of those wild shrines, boss talked about," giving it an overall look.

Recorder strolled up to it, looking it over, "This wasn't here the last time...so is it the monster army's? it looks so...pretty...not at all what I was expecting,"

"Right, usually it's something grotesque or gnarly looking...feels like I'm looking at nature at it's core here..." Erik said, smiling at it, "I'm getting a more peaceful feeling from this statue than I did at the church in the city..."

As they awed at it, they weren't unfortunately paying attention to the two elven soldiers approaching them from the side.

"What are you doing at the shrine of the Earthmother?" one of the soldiers asked.

They both turned around and glanced at each other before easing relaxed hands on their blades, faces remaining neutral.

"Earthmother? is that what this statue is?" Recorder asked, turning slightly to look at it, "It's very pretty, not at all what we were expecting,"

Erik nodded, "Agreed, personally, I would like to know more about this 'Earthmother' this seems more...peaceful, not really in-your-face compared to the holy army's" rolling his eyes at the thought.

Both soldiers looked between them before the other one began to explain "The Earthmother is where we live, the spirit of our world. All of the components on the altar are symbols of our world; the rocks and sand symbolize the ground people are walking on, The water symbolizes the life given by the Earthmother, and the volcanic rock is there to remind others of the Earthmother's wrath, and the leaves symbolize the air that everyone breaths thanks to the Earthmother"

"I see, so it's not really its own being but more so the world we're on...okay, I think I follow," Erik nodded, turning to Recorder, "Been to Solsteim once, this reminds me of the skaals and their god...the All-maker, very similar, yet different,"

Recorder frowned at him, "Right...who's the All-maker again? I tend to forget with many gods are in Tamriel..." Turning to the Elves, "Despite what he's saying, it's still very beautiful...and I love what each thing symbolizes, especially the volcanic rock and bowl,"

As they continued this conversation, Yuriana approached them from the alley, noticing that Recorder and Erik were talking to two dark elves near the statue, 'Strange Altar...could this be that Earthmother I keep hearing about? maybe I should ask since I failed to do it back there,' She mused, walking up to them.

"From what we know, the Earthmother loves everyone... not like a certain high elf..." the first dark elf said with a hint of venom in the last part.

"I see, so that's what this statue resembles," they heard a voice say, turning to it, finding a redhead woman with her hands up, "Apologies, didn't mean to offend, like them, I've been curious about your Earthmother since hearing about it..." turning to them after, "The boss sent me to fetch you guys, we're leaving the village,"

"Already? I really liked it here, do we really have to go back to that gilded cage...?" Recorder moaned, getting a sad nod from the former.

"Like we said to your friends, the Earthmother is where we live, the spirit of our world. She watches over us with her children; the moon and the sun. Some elves in the mountain city pray to the sun, while others pray to the moon. Praying to the Earthmother gives us a blessing in elemental attacks, but also help us get access to her protection, and helps with our harvesting of all kind of resources." the second elf explained with a smile "It's all thanks to the general's tribe that we knew about that, and for establishing a connection with the Earthmother... if only the humans didn't do that, that day..."

The trio frowned at that statement, feeling a strange ping of pain for a moment, the Redhead slowly nodding...

"So it's a connection to the world we're on, the nature and the strength of it, and for worshipping her, you get protection...very interesting," She said with a slight smile, "As a Dibellan, teaching others to love universally is our purpose, be it through Art, Music, or even passionate love~" adding a seductive purr at that last part, causing Recorder to visibly gag, "That said, worship is very different here. I've heard of a reborn goddess, but after hearing certain things about her, I think I'll remain with Goddess Dibella," chuckling after, turning back to the statue, "I will say one thing though, there's a sense of tranquility from this shrine...if I had a choice to switch, I know what choice I'd go with,"

"I think that I heard something similar..." the first one said as he began to think.

"Really, where?" asked the other.

"When I was in the mountain city." the first one answered "One of the founders prays to them. You know, the Hero of..." the elf began to think "Vakatch? Katch? Vkatch?"

"Kvatch...? The Hero of Kvatch? is that what you meant to say there?" Recorder asked, Eyes widened in shock.

Yuriana blinked twice, "That's...well that's awkward...Really Awkward..." rubbing the back of her neck.

"By the gods...I've read stories on him, many in fact, mostly on his travels...but he's been dead for 200 years back home," Erik said, equally in shock, shaking it off, "Nah, it couldn't be...probably different people, this is another world after all and names have different meanings here. The reason he was even called that in our world, was because that's a city in Cyrodill he hailed from...but if he's alive here, then sure they're different people,"

"Right," The Redhead agreed, "Forget how that works sometimes, anyway, this was nice, but it's late and we do have places to be," giving them a bow, "Dibella's blessings upon you," with a smile and walked away.

Recorder gave them a nod, "Thanks for not Drawing on us and explaining what this statue was, it's shame we don't get it this friendly where we're going, see you around," she said, waving and following Yuriana.

"For enemies, you guys aren't that bad...It's a damn shame...be seeing you around," Erik said, giving them a slight bow, before following the other two.

The two elves looked between themselves before that one of them spoke "What just happened?"

"I don't know." the second one replied before adding "What should we do?"

"I think that we should just continue our patrol."

With that, the two elves continued their patrol.

Near town center...

At the center, Traysek, Reynold along with Lucien and Inigo, waited for the others to meet up with them. the khajiit telling the other two about his contest, getting a chuckle from the Redguard.

"I see, seems like you had fun Ini, I'm just glad she didn't decide to turn that storm on you," Traysek laughed, getting a nod from the khajiit.

"It was something to behold my friend, every target was destroyed in an instant...first time I've ever lost a challenge like that," Inigo said, ears twitching, "But one thing is clear, they don't seem to want to hurt the people here, after all, they wouldn't be giving them archery lessons,"

"Right, they'd want their enemy weak, not stronger...okay," Traysek said, turning to Lucien, "You see the same thing or something else,"

Lucien rubbed his chin, "No, I saw what he saw, we went together, better than going off alone...tons of elven healers helping either the sick or wounded,"

"Okay, that's two..." The Redguard counted, turning to Reynold, "Still think it's a trick?"

"I'm not yet convinced..." The holy knight responded, as the rest of the crew finally caught up with them.

"There you guys are! hope you didn't wait long," Recorder said, apologetic.

Traysek shook his head, "Nope, we were just talking about the shooting contest that Inigo lost in," smirking at him.

"Did NOT lose! just respectfully forfeited after that beautiful technique, it's not the same...!" He growled, between a grin and snarl.

Yuriana frowned at him, "But that's the same as losing...in fact it is," chuckling after, ignoring his sneer, "Anyway, I've bought them back but there's something you should know before we go,"

"Oh? and that would be?" The Redguard asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well sir, there's this strange Altar that you should probably check out," Erik added in.

Traysek's frown hardened, "Huh? what Altar...?"

"Apparently the dark army has their own practices, we met a couple of them that told us about it, very different than how we thought it be," Recorder said.

"Interesting...I might wanna check this out before heading back," Traysek said, in curiousity.

Rey gave him a raised eyebrow, "With all due respect, we really need to get back, the sun's already down and they'll be looking for us,"

"Oh come on now, learn to live a little," Traysek responded with "This little detour to see this Altar is going to be quick, besides we're still in tourist mode and I do intend to see the world for all it has to store," turning to Recorder, "Where did you say this Altar was?"

Eathermother's Altar

With now at the Altar, Traysek gave it an overall stare, especially on the floating burning rock in the center. Lucien walked up to it, inspecting the statue.

"My word...! such a druid statue...I wonder how long it took for them to build?" The imperial said, kneeling down to look at the flowing water bowl, "Very intriguing"

The Redguard nodded, staring at it, "Yeah, almost like a wild shrine...and those helped my powers grow when I found them, I wonder..."

Inigo glanced at the colored leaves, smiling, "So many colors...what tree did they pluck these off of to get those?"

Reynold glared at the Altar, "That's a heretics Altar...what did they do with the Statue of Celestine that was here? Destroy it?"

"Probably," Yuriana bluntly started with, "but from what we learned, their earth-mother is the connection to the natural world and those in it... even the moon and stars are worshipped, which is no different than how the Magna-Ge did their worship...Apparently, they gain natural protection from the worldly elements here for every blessing,"

Traysek rubbed his chin at that, "I see...and since Satakal's my patron god, any blessing I get is amplified depending on how much he favors me, and right now, that's pretty high..." touching the Altar, which caused a swirl of elemental lights to emerge around him for a second before it quickly faded.

"Woah...! those were gorgeous lights, are you okay though?" The Redhead asked, getting a silent nod.

Reynold shook his head, facepalming, "Great, and now you're cursed...this is why we don't touch Heretical statutes," drawing his sword, glaring at it, "Now move, so I can destroy this thing..."

"You will do no such thing..." The Redguard coldly replied with his back turned, as electricity started to flow from him, "As for how I'm feeling...?" discharges a powerful bolt to the sky, startling them, "Never been better... let's go," turning from it to leave.

"R-right...time to move guys," Recorder stammered out, "Geez...he could at least warn us when he's going to do that, gave me a heart attack there..." following after him.

Lucien whistled, "That was quite the bolt there...even for a thunderbolt, that's stretching it..." giving the statue a glance, before shaking his head, leaving it, with the others following him.

Reynold remained there for a minute, pondering if he should go through with breaking it or not, until he sighed in defeat, leaving to catch up with the others...

After that they left, two dark elves assassins exited the shadows.

"He's very different than the other humans." said one of them as he eyed Traysek.

"Do you think that it's a problem?" the second one asked.

"I don't think so. The Earthmother approves him, therefore, he must mean good for us" the first one answered.

"Even so, he chose to side with those that enslave us..." the second assassin put his arm on one of his daggers but was stopped by his fellow assassin.

"Remember what the general taught us; the initial draw isn't the final strike"

The second assassin sighed before letting go of his weapon.

Elsewhere...

In a ruined temple, Fox knelt in front of an old man with long white braided hair.

"Father, I'm back..." the girl said with a low voice.

"What did you find?" the old man asked with a rough old voice.

"Volt and his mercenaries do plan to attack Rad." Fox answered.

"And what about the rest?"

Fox thought for some seconds before saying "He seemed to be kidnapping women from nearly everywhere." she then added, "I've confirmed the location of the hideouts in Rad, but not the rest."

"Getting those out of Rad would be enough to satisfy Kaguya." the old man stated with a smirk "With that, I can focus on more important things."

"I forgot to mention something." Fox said, gaining his attention "There's a group that invaded the warehouse where I was taken."

The old man narrowed his eyes and said "Did they laid their hands on you?"

"No." Fox replied, "They were more occupied with the other ones."

'You're lucky, Volt.' the old man thought before saying "What about that group that marked you?"

"One of them is very skilled," Fox said "He was able to keep up with me even in a smoke bomb."

The old man found himself in thought before saying "How strong would you say?"

"Can rival, even go further than Juzou." Fox said before adding "He even has something that's like Mist-Raven, but faster."

"I see..." the old man sighed before saying "Go rest, I'll see that you get your reward later."

Fox nodded before leaving the old man.

"Seems like I need to call on Masakumi... this new enemy can prove to be quite the hassle," he said, not noticing Fox that was listening in on him.

Ken

10:00pm

This time the group arrived by Psjiic shimmer, Reynold shivered not used to being teleported around.

"Ugh...that one felt weird, never do that one again," The knight winced, getting a chuckle from the Redguard.

"Eh, you'll get used to it...long as you're with us anyway, but" He sighed after, "I know you have your superiors, so this was nice but we do we have to part ways,"

Reynold slowly nodded, "I agree, but...are you really going back to that pigsty? after everything today?"

"Yeah, but not to stay...can't sleep under the same roof of people that do things like that, so I'll be grabbing our things before bunking it in the ship," Traysek said, offering a handshake, "Despite earlier, hanging out with you has been a real blast, I hope we can do it again,"

The knight completed it with a smile, "Same captain, same...but if it's a place you're looking for, I can offer a spot at my family's estate...not like they don't have the room and I would like to introduce you to my father,"

"I see, well...I'll definitely consider it, first thing's first though...gotta make this fool's gold for Grave, and that'll be the easiest part of this entire thing..." Traysek chuckled.

"You're actually serious about that...?" Reynold sighed, raising an eyebrow.

Traysek nodded, "As serious as a dragon attack on a city," tapping his shoulder, "I'll see you around Rey, maybe I'll take your offer up after I get my things," walking towards the bar.

"It was nice to meet you, Rey, I know we had a rough beginning, but I'm hoping we're good now," Erik said, giving him a fist bump.

"For sure Erik, it was actually...fun hanging out with you guys today, I'm just worried that today's events didn't set anything off," Rey said, looking in the Direction Traysek was headed in.

He waved it off, "I wouldn't worry about that, we tend to find our way out of trouble often, you'll see one of these days," before turning to leave, "I'll be seeing you around, friend," walking to join Traysek.

Recorder gave him a nod, "It was nice to meet a soldier that wasn't a complete dick...you've got your bad habits, but it's nothing we can't vibe to," giving him a wink, "Take care Rey, and don't let them bully you," leaving as well.

Inigo gave him a fist bump as well, "I'll be on my way too, it was good to meet you, Rey, I hope we'll be teammates in the future, you fight pretty well,"

"You're not too bad yourself Inigo, just watch where you shoot those arrows of yours," Reynold laughed, "I see you around Inigo,"

"Likewise!" The blue khajiit smiled, leaving to follow the others.

Lucien walked up to him and offered him a handshake, "Thank you for giving us a chance to at least try today...if it helps, I'll definitely try to convince him to take your offer up, after all, I'm interested in meeting your father,"

"I pray you can manage, Lucien...but if you can't, no harm done," Reynold said, completing it, "Be seeing you around as well, Lucien,"

When they broke the handshake, the imperial left with a wave, as the last member, Yuriana remained...

She gave him a polite bow, "While I don't understand how they met you, I'm glad they did, thank you for your help in freeing me from the hell hole," giving him a slight grin, "Despite who you serve, you're actually a good kid...it's shame that you work with such stiff conditions..." looking away for a second, "That question with the General...' if you were...ordered to kill a child under command from your goddess, would you do it with your loyalty in question...' that stuck with me, because you hesitated when that question was answered..."

"Who wouldn't? Do you think I'd want to kill those kids? the fact that I brought most of them there? yeah, I hesitated...because I wouldn't know what to do!" The holy knight responded, in defense.

The Redhead pondered in thought for a minute, "I see...Well, if it helps...if I had such a goddess, that was cold enough to order me to slaughter children...over my loyalty...I would no longer revere that goddess,." Eyes cold and serious, until she broke it giving him a sly wink, "I'll see you around kiddo, I really do hope we end up together again..." walking away after to catch up.

Rey stared as she walked off, shaking himself from his thoughts, "That...that was a weird but fun group...can see myself hanging out with them again or going on a few missions...and speaking of," turning his head to the Tower of Celestine, "I still have my own mission to complete...wait until they get a load of this one...!" making his way toward the tower...

Chapter 7 End...

Well folks, things definitely took a strange turn...not the lemon spice I know most of you were looking for (Trust me that's next chapter) but more so on the action here...I know some people are put off by the hentai scenes of that anime but don't worry...I'm going to be leaving disclaimers every time something more extreme comes along, that way no one can say that they weren't WARNED...that being said, my friend, General Feng Xiang helped out with this chapter too, his characters Griel, Fox and the Kletzkrieg members will be featured later on...Another thing is that I'm also going to be adding a lot of elements as well as crossing a few things over from the soulsborne games...such as Elden ring, Bloodborne and Sekiro...I will also be adding in elements of For Honor too, as well as the MANY diverse class of warriors. because, why not? the source material was so void of life and I didn't like how that went and ended (like many of you) so be on a look out for more of those characters...but for now, I'm taking a month or 2 off until I put out another, WHICH WILL TAKE TIME...please don't rush me...(I have Aspergers) but until then...may the gods watch over your stories my friends :)

P.s for the minor characters, I couldn't generate them or didn't exactly take the time to, I'm sure some of you don't care but I figure apologize in advance anyway...I figured showcasing the crew's sixth member would be sufficient for now...needless to say, if you're on Here , you won't be able to see this, so I'll leave a link up Ao3 if I haven't already as well...have a nice day :)

Yuriana:

Age: 28

Weapons: Mara's platonic hammer of love (Shown on her back) Ebony mace, Wenches's Bulwark shield, Crossbow (40x steel bolts) Dwarven rifle, (40x fire rounds) Throwing axe (15x)

Armor/Accessories: Pirate wench crimson outfit, Buxom wench combat armor, wolf circlet crown.

Equipment: Bear trap, (3x paralyze) Storage and shopping whisps, rope, woodcutting ax, alchemy set, traveler's tent

Classes: Tank, Healer, supporter

Final note: Buxom Wench Yuriana is available on Nexus or loverslab...Don't bother trying to find her on the bethesda site, (You won't...) but if you're looking for a follower that's a total powerhouse, Tank, healer and supporter, this is your girl...