Author's Note: Lack of reviews makes me cry.
The Story So Far: Hiruma Youichi is a half-human, half-Succubus with a Unit of the Ventish army and its head general at his command. Hiruma is also over seeing the actions of Kali and Malhavoc, two of the Underground's best assassins. On top of this Hiruma has his football playing comrades at his side in a fight to stop the Necromancer Blake. Right now they wait for Zeke to rejoin their group.
Replies for anonymous reviewers:
It's Ok- This is the closest thing to a flame I've had in sometime, though I understand your complaints. I don't personally feel as though I've made Hiruma into a weak character in this story, but I can see how you feel that way. Perhaps your opinion will change if you read the entire rest of the story to the up to date parts. Thank you for reviewing, I do really appreciate critique.
Weapon- What makes Hiruma such a doomsday weapon? Mainly that there's only one of him and his peroperties are unique. Now as for breeding another one of him, that's a particularly hard thing to ask. It'd be like asking some guy on the street to screw a cow to have a human-cow baby. If the cow was as smart as us, it'd probably not want to be screwed by the human. That's why they don't breed another. And they aren't any assurances the creature won't turn out to be extremely corrupted like Blake did. I hope that answers your concerns and thank you for reviewing.
Hidden
By: Bar-Ohki
Chapter 37: Dungeon Master Dalboz
Elec rolled out his parchement where a detailed map of the Mount Fuji area had been drawn. There were several circles with notes written in some box-like language that Hiruma correctly assumed was Ventish Elfin around the mountain. These circles were colored and a detailed red break had been drawn on one of the sides of the circles.
"That's the hole in the barrier?" Hiruma pointed to the red crack.
"Aye." Elec nodded. "We're 19 leagues from the center of the seal."
"That's almost three steps…." Sena muttered.
"There are two basic approaches to the issue," Elec went on, "the first is that we could try to repair the barrier and the second is that we stop Half-Fire perminately."
"Perminately?" Musashi asked.
"Kill him." Kali answered simply.
"Or maim his magic perminately, that's always an opition, ya know." A male tenor remarked from about Elec's head.
"I suppose that would-" Elec cut himself off as he stared at the really stange-looking shadow that had fallen over the map. It looked like it belonged to a bat. Elec looked up and saw something he had only heard of, but never seen in person.
"Devil bat!" Elec gasped, staring at the flying red bat. It had pointy, horn-like ears, big green eyes and a fangy mouth that resembled a vicous dog. It also had taloned feet that resembled that of a hawk and a pointy devil-like tail. Currently it was flying slightly, using silent wing strokes.
"Ya-ha!" The devil bat quipped, its fangy mouth grinning. "Nice to see you again Elec-boy!"
"D-dalboz!?" Elec gasped, recalling the voice now.
"Dad?" Zork asked, staring at the creature in awe. Dalboz simply flew over and landed on Zork's head.
"Hello there son." Dalboz used one of his wings like a hand and scratched Zork behind the ear. Zork simply smiled and sighed contently.
"Elec!" Zeke walked up, staring down at his nephew in mild surprise. "How'd you manage to leave Vent?"
"I have an Envoy's Badge." Elec answered curtly.
"They exist?" Togano muttered, rather confused by the appearance of the devil bat.
"It looks just like our mascot!" Mamori whispered loudly.
"Now, now lady, my name is Dalboz, not 'it'. And if it helps you at all I am very much male." Dalboz rolled his eyes at Mamori. "Now that the pleasantries are over and done with, we've got a Necromancer to deal with."
"You're not wasting any time." Hiruma observed, having already managed to recover from the fact the imaginary creature he thought he had come up with was right there before him.
"You're pretty high spirited." Kurita observed.
"I had Zeke here suppress my memories right before my death." Dalboz explained quickly. "Apparently I'm a no-fun acidic bastard with 'em, so I'm better off without."
"He's like Suzuna." Monta muttered.
"Dalboz, why don't you take a look at this map?" Elec suggested, knowing full well that Dalboz was easily distractable.
"Who's in charge here?" Dalboz asked as he finished his short flight over to the map.
"Hiruma here is." Elec guestured to Hiruma.
"Youichi? Damn, you've gotten big!" Dalboz commented with a chuckle. "The last time I saw you were this little, feisty baby."
"Feisty baby?" The Huh brothers exchanged looks.
"Oh yes!" Dalboz exclaimed. "You bit me a least four times when I first held you."
"Dad!" Zork gasped, somewhat morified for some reason. "Aren't we here for something else!?"
"Malhavoc's resting in that Upground transmech over there." Kali pointed at the bus.
"Transmech?" Juumonji muttered.
"More weird nouns…." Kuroki muttered.
"Underground people are all strange." Togano finished.
"…The barrier's beyond saving." Dalboz had gotten somewhat serious and had a good look at the map Elec had brought. "We used the Elder's portion as a Keystone for the entire spell because their magic wasn't hindered."
"…He cracked a hole in the Keystone of the barrier?" Hiruma was unsettled by the notion.
"The keystone that keeps a church upright is no stonger than any other stone." Dalboz pointed out wisely. "What matters is that the general shape remains, which it currently is."
"How long?" Elec asked.
"Days." Dalboz sighed. "…Say is there an Elder around here?"
"That'd be me." Tsubasa stepped forward.
"Are you connected to the barrier?" Dalboz asked and got a nod. "How bad is it?"
"…I can't feel it that well, but I don't think it will be able to break completely without me." Tsubasa explained. "The barrier got significantly weaker everytime the enemy captured one of the Elders."
"Blood magic!" Zeke gasped. "Of course Blake would."
"Blood magic!?" Elec paled.
"Huh?"
"He's using the blood of the Elders as a Medium to destroy their part barrier." Zeke clarified. "He's probably got plans to use Lotem's blood as a means to control Youichi."
"That's horrible!" Mamori gasped.
"Blake isn't a good person." Dalboz remarked dryly. "He was abused and hated a majority of his life and for that reason has turned into a very bitter person."
"On top of that he partakes in extremely corruptive magics that schews any emotion or thought into something extremely horrible and morally corrupt." Zeke added gravely.
"…You seem to be well versed in this corruption." Kali remarked causually, making Zeke jerk.
"I've had my share of fights with it, yes." Zeke left it at that.
"Back at the matter at hand, we've got to get to Blake and stop him perminately." Dalboz continued to study the map. "Our first issue is getting through what remains of the barrier."
"Eh?" Sena blinked. "But didn't you make it?"
"The moment I died I lost all ties to any spells I had cast in life, those are ties I can never regain." Dalboz told Sena flatly. "And it is not within Zeke's power to allow for free passage within that barrier."
"Huh?"
"It's how magic works." Doburoku explained. "If you cast a ward and then you die, the ward will remain until it runs out of power."
"For some wards and barriers, the powering can be sent onto a descendant," Zeke added with a nod, "that was the case with everyone involved with Half-Fire's barrier."
"In other words, Zork is the one in control of my portion of the barrier!" Dalboz announced with a fangy grin.
"Me!?" Zork gasped, stunned by the notion.
"Why do you think you're so powerful even though your magic hasn't awaked properly yet?" Dalboz countered easily. "That's because your body's been trying to uphold my portion of the barrier and forced itself to become stronger."
"…That explains it then." Zeke muttered. Zork's insane magical growth had been bothering Zeke for sometime. "You'll probably grow into your magic earily then."
"But-!" Zork protested.
"No buts kiddo, this is reality." Kali pointed out simply.
"Of course you have no control over it," Dalboz sighed, "your magic is just maintaining all the things I asked of it and no more."
"…Is there a way to get Zork to control it?" Elec asked.
"Not until he grows into his power." Dalboz shook his head.
"…I could accelerate that process." Zeke confessed.
"You will do no such thing." Kali told Zeke firmly, her green eyes producing a nasty glare.
"It may have to come to that." Dalboz told Kali darkly. "The issue is that the barrier prevents anything from moving within it, that includes ourselves and the enemy."
"And altering the barrier to allow us through will probably allow Blake movement, or in the very worst case, collapse the entire thing." Zeke added. "I'm afraid those are not good alternatives."
"You had control over your part of the barrier, right?" Hiruma asked Zeke and Tsubasa. Both adults nodded slowly. "Why don't you extend your part to allow us through?"
Zeke said nothing and instead went into deep thought. Tsubasa simply shook her head.
"It's not my expertise." Tsubasa admitted.
"From what I can gather, Sena can get all of us to the edge of the barrier without trouble," Elec began to summarize while Zeke continued to think, "once there we have to get inside to confront Blake personally, which leads us to have three issues."
"Three?" Kali asked.
"First issue is concerning moving around inside the barrier. The second issue would be dealing with whatever the enemy has left as a defense. I happen to know he's got a few of his major minions running around in the area, I strongly believe they are his last stronghold of defense." Elec explained. "The last issue is how exactly we go about periminately stoping the enemy. …Does this agree with you?" The last statement was directed at Hiruma.
"What?" Hiruma stared at Elec, not too sure why the elf had asked that.
"You're the leader here, not me." Elec reminded Hiruma with an annoyed look. "Which is why you must tell me if I need to be considering other thing or not."
"I don't fucking know if you're missing anything." Hiruma admitted. "I don't even fucking know what kind of things you have in your 'Unit'."
"50 persons total. 10 elfin mages, 10 human archers, and 30 infiltry knights, a mix of human and elfin, all of which specialize in dealing with magical foes." Elec answered simply. "Kali here is a hired assassin whose job is to help me find my father."
"But now that Malhavoc has been found, I have decided to work for you, kiddo." Kali smirked slightly. "We'll discuss my payment later."
"Huh?" Huh!?" Huuh!?!"
"You'll take information, right?" Hiruma asked and got a nod. "Good."
"I don't have a specialization as far assassinations go," Kali admitted, "despite that I am an S-rank assassin of Rune."
"S-rank?" Yukimitsu asked.
"Elite rank." Kali explained. "I'm a Jack-Of-All-Traits Elite Assassin of Rune."
"Useful." Dalboz commented. "I'm fairly sure Elec's got all of the issues at hand covered."
"…I can." Zeke said suddenly. "It can be done."
"What?"
"I can merge my part of the barrier with Dalboz's and allow movement." Zeke explained.
"The price?" Dalboz asked.
"I'd have to power both portions." Zeke admitted. "But a simple support channel from those mages under Elec will keep that from being an issue."
"Sounds fine enough." Hiruma nodded.
"Not quiet, Zork'll probably have a rush of uncontrolled magic power if we do that." Dalboz shook his body (since his head was mostly his body).
"I'll handle it." Zork assured his father.
"The next issue is the minions and the traps." Kali continued without missing a beat. "How did you take care of the minions you've encountered so far?"
"Malhavoc killed 75 of them." Kurita answered with a shiver. "Tsubasa-san and Hiruma managed to get Sakuraba's curse off of him."
"Takami we think touched some of Hiruma's blood on the door-" Musashi provided when Kali cut him off.
"Your blood has magic-absorbing properties?" Kali asked Hiruma pointedly.
"I guess." Hiruma shook his head.
"It does." Zeke assured Kali.
"If I had some of that, I could turn it into a poision that ate curses without too much trouble." Kali smiled. "Non-fatal and with little side-effects."
"…I still have a majority of the batch the Elders took from you." Zeke confessed. "Do you want me to give it to Kali?"
"…Yes." Hiruma decided after a minute.
"Here." Zeke pulled out a small flask with red liquid inside. Kali held it up and looked at it.
"This bottle is contorting space, no?" Kali observed.
"Yes."
"It'll take me several hours to make it." Kali admitted. "And I need equipement…."
"I can provide you with that." Tsubasa assured Kali.
"We're not going to do anything until my dad wakes up again anyways." Elec assured them. "He needs at least six, maybe 7 hand's whiles until he has enough magic to move around again."
"Then I'll toil over that until he wakes." Kali nodded.
"That leaves the issue of Blake himself." Zeke observed. "…Have you tested Akumetsu on mages yet?"
"What!?" Hiruma stared at Zeke like he had grown another head.
"You have to know what Akumetsu does to a mage." Zeke pointed out. "If it does something useful, we'll use that."
"And if not?" Kali asked.
"I'm not opposed to killing him, but I would have to take measures to make sure he stayed dead…. I'm not sure I'd win that fight." Zeke admitted. "Necromancers are ferce beasts when in spirit form."
"…If it comes to that, Hiruma-san could eat his magic out of him." Shin pointed out.
"…I could." Hiruma admitted, grimacing at the thought of eating more of Blake's magic.
"…I think we all need to get some rest." Dalboz announced. "We have enough time and everyone here needs to be at their fullest when we strike."
"Yeah." Elec stood up and wistled. Out of every hiding place imaginable, 50 people, men and women, elf and human, clothed in blue armor came into view.
"That's your fucking Unit?" Hiruma asked.
"Yeah." Elec waved them over. "They'll follow me into the barrier."
"Very well then." Tsubasa got back on the bus and everyone passed into the barrier and into the Elder's headquarters without any trouble. Kali offered sleeping draughts to anyone who thought they'd have issues getting some sleep. Yukimitsu took one. Other than that, everyone was left to their own devices until Malhavoc woke back up.
"Well Zork, looks like you'll be getting a lesson in magic instead." Dalboz announced as he flew just behind Zork's head.
"Okay." Zork nodded. "We're going to be okay?"
"Elec's working with Shin on every possible way the major minions might attack." Dalboz remarked. "And Kali's making her poison. I think Malhavoc will check over it before we leave."
"That's true." Zork nodded.
"And I'm sure Zeke and Youichi will discover many things about Akumetsu, hopefully enough." Dalboz sighed. "You never can tell with artifacts."
"Mm." Zork nodded.
"We'll be okay though." Dalboz grinned. "We've got several advantages over the enemy."
"But are they enough?"
"They have to be." Dalboz answered. "And therefore, they will be."
_=_=_=_=_
Dalboz is a character isn't he? I hope you like.