Title: Quite the Introduction
Summary: Fafnir makes a new friend~
AN: Is there really any other way to introduce Axel~? Enjoy!
Fafnir had walked to the weapon shop on his own numerous times before without incident. But as he stepped from the curb to cross the main road that led to the entrance of the labyrinth, he felt a familiar but unsettling sense of anticipation. It was a feeling he was more accustomed experiencing inside the labyrinth. Not in the middle of town.
He made it midway across the road when he heard a startled cry, that of a human. What immediately followed was the sound of a horse neighing. And yet…it didn't sound right.
As a chill raced up his spine, Fafnir snapped his attention to the location of the labyrinth and saw people, locals, running in all directions. Startled yells and cries were plainly heard. At first, Fafnir was confused as to why the locals of High Lagaard were panicking, thinking that perhaps a horse had gotten loose from its cart and was causing trouble. But then, he saw why.
Though the animal cry was that of a horse, the purple fur and golden antlers were unmistakable. It was a ragelope. No, there were two of them!
Fafnir felt himself tense as he reached for a weapon that wasn't there. He hadn't anticipated getting into a battle during a routine errand. He hadn't expected to face a monster in the middle of town. He wasn't prepared in any shape or form.
Damn. What should he do? He didn't have his weapon with him, but he couldn't turn his back to the chaos and run. He might not be able to actually fight off the pair of ragelopes, but he could at least ensure that others could get away without injury. And, hopefully, he would be able to distract the two FOEs long enough for someone who was better equipped than him to take them on.
In a city that relied mostly on explorers, surely there was someone in town strong enough to take out the two ragelopes.
While everyone else rightly ran away, trying to put distance between them and the seemingly gleefully prancing ragelopes, Fafnir sprung forward. He focused in on the ragelope that was the closest, and the one that seemed to be staring menacing at a child that was lying on the pavement, having fallen and scraped his knee. He was crying hysterically, calling out for his mother.
Picking up the child would only pull him into further danger, so instead Fafnir darted in front of the ragelope, lingering long enough to grab its immediately attention. The deer reared back onto its hind legs before turning toward Fafnir, ignoring the child, who of which was abruptly picked up by picked up by a man in silver armour and carried away.
The ragelope suddenly whinnied loudly into the sky, as if calling for its companion.
No, it was. The other ragelope neighed in return before abruptly bounding over in their direction. It paused by the other deer's side, it too looking menacingly at Fafnir.
Keeping his eyes on the two FOEs, Fafnir backed into an open area. His desperate little stunt seemed to have worked. The ragelopes' attention was focused entirely in on him now. Good. But what now? Fight them barehanded? Wait for the patrol guards? Keep eluding them in hopes that they'll return to the labyrinth…?
Transform…?
His Fafnir Knight Transformation would end things quickly, but should he? What would everyone think about a man dramatically turning into a strange dark knight? Did it matter in the long run?
He had better think of something. Quick smart. They were both slowly approaching him, not making a sound other than their hooves clipping against the stone paved roads, their heads down and waiting for the best opportunity to charge.
As Fafnir looked for a possible exit, trying to keep one eye on the ragelopes, the other at their surroundings, something abruptly appeared a mere few feet in front of him. A red and blue blur. He heard a mild grunt, like that of exertion before the unmistakable sound of something sharp and strong cutting through the air.
The ragelope to the right of him had its head at an odd angle and had all but stopped moving. Turning his full attention to the FOE, Fafnir saw the reason why. There was an axe embedded deeply into its head, almost taking its head off completely.
His eyes trailing up along the handle of the axe, Fafnir watched as a man dressed in casual blue clothing, no armour in sight, fluently removed the axe from the obviously incapacitated ragelope. The man, who had to be a landsknecht, a highly skilled one if his ease wielding such a cumbersome weapon was indication, was tall and muscular, but not overly so. He had tanned skin, similar to that of Fafnir's, his hair was red, slightly messy but kept all the same.
Lifting the axe with one hand, the muscles in his arms evident, Fafnir could tell that the redhead was not using his full power. From what Fafnir could deduce, the landsknecht could easily have taken the ragelope's head off with one clean swing. Perhaps he chose not to in town in fear of traumatising the locals further.
Turning his attention to the other FOE, the man's foot slid across the stone paved ground smoothly, effortlessly reforming his stance to take out the other FOE. He was almost…graceful in a way. The double-edged war axe caught the sunlight for a fraction of a moment, causing the blade to shine as it cut through the air before being embedded into the neck of the second ragelope, in a seemingly weak area just behind the antlers.
All it took was another single smooth motion and the second ragelope was cut down, partially decapitated like the first. It crashed to the ground, legs flailing and twitching as blood gushed from the massive wound in its neck.
Dead. They were both dead.
Pushing himself to his feet, Fafnir was surprisingly speechless. The power this landsknecht held must be incredible.
Dropping the head of his axe to the ground and casually leaning against the handle, the landsknecht took one last glance at the two FOEs before turning to look over at Fafnir.
"Hey," he said in a surprisingly friendly manner as he looked over toward him through one eye, the other closed for whatever reason, and granted him a half smile. "Thanks for distracting them for me."
"Sure," Fafnir said quickly in return, subtly surprised. He was about to respond in kind, showing his gratitude for the timing of the redhead's appearance, but was cut short when the axe-wielding landsknecht abruptly turned his attention to their surroundings, a slight frown on his lips.
"Do you know where these bastards came from?" he unexpectedly asked.
"No," Fafnir replied simply before pointing toward the edge of town. "A yell, near the labyrinth's entrance was all I heard before they pranced into town."
"I see," the redhead murmured as he rested his foot casually upon the blade of his axe, completely comfortable around the weapon. "Maybe a guild pissed them off and they chased them into town. Need to look into it."
Fafnir felt a frown tug on his lips. "This happened before?"
"Only a couple of times, a while ago at that," the landsknecht replied before lightly kicking at his axe, jutting it into the air and effortlessly swinging it around to be holstered upon his shoulder in a highly casually manner.
He then sent Fafnir a slight grin and offered his hand. "Anyway, the name's Axel."
Fafnir felt no hesitation in shaking the man's hand, finding himself oddly comfortable around him despite his nimbleness around an axe and obvious overwhelming strength. "Fafnir."
"Fafnir, huh?" Axel repeated, his grin gaining an edge of amusement as he dropped his hold on Fafnir's hand. "I think I've heard of you."
Fafnir blinked before quickly realising that the name Axel had been mentioned to him a couple of times before as well, along with the guild known as Guardians. Something about the two of them getting along because they were both ludicrously protective of their guildmates. One said guildmate in particular.
And one particular barman was adamant that they should never met let alone become friends. Something along the lines of the causalities after a bar fight would only increase.
"Cass?"
Axel's smile widened a fraction. "Ridiculously deadpan swordsman."
The corner of Fafnir's mouth twitched into a smirk. "Ridiculously overpowered landsknecht."
Axel released a short chuckle as he idly bounced his weapon on his shoulder. "That's one of the things he likes to call me."
Fafnir was beginning to understand why Cass liked this Guardian Guild so much. Axel was outrageously casual despite having just near-decapitated two ragelopes.
"Fafnir!"
The sound of Flavio calling his name in a subtly panicked manner pulled Fafnir from his thoughts and he immediately turned around. "Hm?" he murmured before a mere split second later Flavio was upon him.
"There you are!" he said in a slightly breathless manner and grabbed Fafnir by the shoulders, immediately checking him over for injuries. "Are you ok? I heard that ragelopes had made their way into town and someone else said that you were there, and cornered, or something. And I knew you didn't have your sword and-"
"I'm fine," Fafnir said as he cut him off mid concerned ramble by placing a hand against his side and steering him to look at their surroundings, and at the two now beginning to decompose ragelopes. "See? They're dead."
As Flavio skittishly turned his attention to the corpses, an expression of surprise appeared on his face. "Oh," he murmured and seemed to struggle to find words to speak. "Ah…"
He was interrupted slightly when Axel chuckled in a sincere manner, not at all mocking or annoyed. "So, your partner's a fusser, too, huh?" he said, his question clearly directed toward Fafnir.
While Flavio flushed lightly from both embarrassment and indignation, Fafnir nodded his head in agreement as he turned his attention back to the redheaded landsknecht. "To everyone but himself."
From the corner of his eye he saw Flavio tilt his head in confusion. "Wait, what?"
Axel chuckled in a knowing manner as he flexed his hold on the handle of his axe idly. "I know all about that. Mine's extremely selfless, too."
"Axel!"
The grin on Axel's lips softened into a warm fondness. "Speaking of which, here he comes," he said before he turned on his heel and headed in the direction his name was seemingly called from, waving an idle at Fafnir over his shoulder. "See you around."
"Sure," Fafnir said easily in return, his hand still resting lightly against Flavio's side.
Flavio watched as the redhead walked away before he turned toward Fafnir, an expression of confusion on his face. "Uh, who was that?"
"The guy that Cass didn't want me to meet in fear that we might team up for a bar fight and level the place," Fafnir replied as he kept his gaze on the said redhead.
"Oh," Flavio muttered before he, too, returned his gaze toward Axel. He released a soft sound of surprise when a young man, shorter than Axel, raced over to him. His orange hair and violet eyes seemed to compliment the white medic coat. "Oh, that's Lynus."
Fafnir's hand slid around to rest against the small of Flavio's back, feeling a sense of kinship toward the two when Axel dropped his axe from his shoulder and reached out with his other hand to place gently against Lynus' side. He smiled as the tangerine head seemed to fuss over him, checking him over for injuries, quite literally patting him down to make sure.
Axel must have said something to him about their meeting as Lynus tilted his head to the side before suddenly glancing over in their direction. A kind smile quickly appeared on his lips and he sent a small wave in their direction as he stayed close to Axel.
Subconsciously, Flavio moved a step closer to Fafnir and returned the wave with a small one of his own, also wearing a smile.
"They seem really nice," Flavio commented. "I wonder what the rest of their guild is like."
Fafnir got the feeling that they would find out soon enough.
