Fantasia
Arc4: Seeking the origins
Chapter7: Isolating the queen
Following Juan's instruction, the four heroes proceeded in their plans to save Nimmy and stop queen Vivian's insanity, as the shepherd and his ragon friend separated from Tsuki to complete their task of distracting the guards away from their leader.
"Good, the weaponry room should be around the corner after these stairs" Juan noted.
The two men ran off ascending the stairs toward the weaponry room, when suddenly they saw a shadow growing from the corner; it was for certain the man who guards the room.
They stopped for a moment, when Zolu tried to jump back as a natural reaction Juan grabbed his hand firmly reminding him that their job is to get the attention of the guards.
They stood there attending for the person to show, Juan tightened his fist ignoring the light pulses growing over his bruises, while Zolu unsheathed his knife preparing to protect his friend, it was a matter of a moment until the man was revealed to be Barth.
"Kid! What the heck are ya doin'?" the thief asked.
"Barth! Thank God you were assigned to guard this room, you got to help us" Juan asked catching his breathes.
"Nevertheless, you got to the room where your friend is, you should be hittin' the road now! What kept ya in?!" he scolded.
"Makai told us that the girls were cursed and thus they won't be able to leave Nebura until the queen allows them" he explained.
"Agh! And you crazy enough to confront the queen?!" Barth exclaimed.
"Don't worry, we had Tsuki to take care of her" Zolu answered.
"But Zane…" the thief wanted to say.
"He's defeated, she already knocked him out, and we're here to distract the other guards until she manages to reach Vivian" the shepherd interrupted.
"Good, but still you can't keep'em all busy, there're dozens of us, and you barely survived fighting one of them!" Barth complained.
"That's why we need to get to the weaponry room, we hope to find some gunpowder, and since you are here we'll need your help" Juan instructed.
And while Barth was listening to the shepherd's instructions, something grew inside him; it was respect, he was looking up toward this young kid who was probably fifteen years younger than him yet for a certainty he was ten years wiser and braver.
Despite Juan was going through this ordeal to save his friend, Barth saw another thing he was doing, he saw Juan as a savior; yes a savior for him, he remembered when he joined Nebura for the first time seeking the life of a rogue escaping from the grief of life after he lost his family.
He recalled how he accepted to work for this lustful Vivian, serving her for the money he'll receive later then leave this guild to start his life anew, convincing himself foolishly that this was the right decision of his life, but alas after he discovered that the vile woman's curse was casted upon him and he's bound to be a rogue for the rest of his life.
Then he saw the image of his deceased nephew in Juan, it's like his ghost was haunting him, and showed up in a flesh and blood to free him from this curse, he saw the angel that grabbed his sinned hand and pulled him from the hell he was in, to fulfill the dream he always clung to…to live as a proud man.
After Juan explained his plan to Barth, the thief separated from them, and headed down while the two proceeded to the large room; it was a tunnel more than a typical cavern, blades of different sizes and shapes were hung from the ceiling, while barrels were spread all over the place.
Zolu approached one of those containers and sniffed it; it was the stench of explosives he smelled.
"Yep dude, it's gunpowder." the ragon claimed.
Juan almost showed no response as he was knocking on the walls of the room and using his ear to examine them.
"Dude…what do you think?" he asked.
"Um, Zolu, how much water can you manipulate?" Juan asked.
"Not much dude, I barely can control what fills about ten barrels, and I cannot keep the pace too much time before I'm out of energy"
"Hmm, so we can't count on you that much" Juan noted before kicking a barrel.
"So what's the plan?" Zolu asked.
"You help me set these barrels at the end of the tunnel" he instructed.
And so in silence the two men carried about seventeen barrels of gunpowder, and lined them to go from the rear of the storage to the sides, then he asked the ragon to pick the wall creating a small hole.
"Now I want you to pull some water" the shepherd instructed more.
"But dude if the water spilled over the barrels the explosives will be spoiled" the ragon objected.
"No, I want you to pull the water and keep it levitating, I don't want you to manipulate so much, a thin stream will do the work, then I need you to stand by the door" was Juan's idea.
And so his friend did, with effort he could make water leak from the hole, and started walking slowly toward the entrance of the room kneading a thread of water along with Juan who was extending the trail of powder as well toward the gate.
Meanwhile, beneath at the crossroad, a thief was walking by carrying a bag of gold he snatched, when suddenly he glanced a suspicious shadow, so he dropped his stash and followed it, he ran until he ended up meeting with Barth who was holding his left arm which was tainted with blood.
"Barth! What the heck?!" the man asked.
"They are gone this way" the injured thief pointed up the stairs.
"They?! How many? How did they get in here?"
"I dunno, I've seen four, they were cloaked, they went up, tell the others, one of them is strong with knives…be careful, I'll be tellin' the queen" Barth answered in pain.
And with a flicker, the thief headed back and shouted alerting ten men to follow the "intruders" while Barth was leaning toward the wall witnessing his comrades fell in Juan's trap.
He lifted his right hand as the blood on the left arm disappeared magically.
"He he…I can't believe it, it worked…that kid is a genius"
It was a trick Juan thought about after knowing Barth's ability of projecting his thoughts, what the thief saw; both the shadow and the blood were nothing but illusion casted by Barth, and with a simple lie he tricked his guild companions to follow these "intruders" upward were Juan and Zolu prepared their hopefully efficient trick, leaving the queen open to be assaulted by Tsuki.
He smiled a bit but then he remembered a vital information that might help the team even more, so he entered the throne room in a rush not forgetting to project blood over his arm.
There he noticed a small blot of suspicious shadow (Which obviously was Tsuki's) by the pillar, the imp saw him as well so she swiftly slithered and joined under him.
Then he had to face the so called "Vivian's servile dog" and his leader: Kruger; a slender man in his late twenties with noticeable muscular build, wearing a flashy garment consisted of a tight black sleeveless shirt and loose blue pants covered partially under his cape.
"The queen! Where's she? Someone broke in the fortress" Barth asked in panic.
"Oh is that so? How many were they?" the leader replied.
"I dunno, I've seen four"
"So you alerted the rest" Kruger asked.
"Yes, we have to tell the queen!"
"But you know how angry she'll be if someone interrupted her night" Kruger noted.
"They defeated Zane!" Barth shouted hitting the ground with his foot.
"Defeated Zane? Hey Barth you wait here…" the leader said with a grin "I'll take care of them" he boasted while pulling a hidden lever by the pillar next to the throne activating a mechanism that locked the room by the rear under heavy bars of steel.
Witnessing him leaving, Barth released a heavy breath not believing that his idea worked; he simply knew that Kruger will be by the throne, fearing that he may sense Tsuki's presence (who shared the same feeling) and tangle her task.
He simply acknowledged that a boastful man like Kruger will like to "reap" the glory of catching those intruder to himself and join the rest of his gang, but he also knew how careful he was so he'd lock the queen in safety, but before that Barth kicked the ground alarming Tsuki to proceed before it's too late, and now the queen is simply trapped with Tsukiname.
…
Returning to the upper floors, Juan and Zolu were standing in front of the weaponry room, facing a horde of angered thieves.
"Dude we've done it this time" the ragon mentioned.
"Calm down Zolu, they are just a dozen or two of thieves who are probably older…and stronger than us…" Juan said while pulling the blade he carried from the ground violently causing a spark to crawl along the trail of gunpowder.
Zolu noticed the small light fade faster behind the almost closed door, and fortunately he was the only one to notice, then he pinned his eyes on the thieves and asked:
"Just one thing before you start mutilating us, I just wanna know…why do you people serve that Vivian hag anyways?"
The thieves ignored him and approached another step carefully, "they don't seem harmful"…"but they managed to defeat Zane"…"And where are the other two"…"what if approaching them was a part of their plan?"…"What if they were luring us to attack them when something horrible comes out of that door"…all these were ideas that prevented the rogues from taking down these obviously feeble youngsters.
"Seriously, he's right, why do you live under that vile woman?" Juan added.
They were obviously winning time with these taunting questions until the spark reaches the barrels.
"I mean c'mon you together are capable of taking down a village for your own, yet you are working for a foolish hag who enjoys herself with chicks!" Zolu boasted.
"Is it because she cursed you? You can't attack her? And you can't escape away from her? She fooled you didn't she? You live like pets for her!" Juan noted.
Despite this wasn't their intention, Juan somehow managed to move some hearts with these words, since some of those angered men looked to the ground in disappointment, while some dropped their weapons, creating an inside fight, between each rogue and the other, and between each rogue and himself.
Zolu grinned lightly, while glancing to see that the spark almost reached its target, so he calmly laid his hand down making the line of water he carried thinner remembering Juan's instruction.
The whole point behind this water line was because of the natural terrain of this place, the caves were beneath many intersected water paths, Zolu was simply pulling the water behind the rear of the storage creating an attraction force that kept the flow as near from the wall as possible, and the moment the gunpowder explodes they will already have the current emerge at sufficient initial speed that'll violently gush out of the room and flood the thieves away.
Juan took a deep breath knowing what'll follow, he knew that he still suffers from his unreasoned fear of water, but this is a sacrifice he must give in order for his plan to succeed, he somehow felt pity for the thieves, he wanted to help them too, and he probably will ask Tsuki to break the curse on them after this, he thought of all this in few seconds, it somehow troubled him, he always hated how he thinks deeply in the last moments but he's one second away from being flooded.
He turned slowly to his friend but suddenly, he felt vibrating pain growing with every single bone in his body before he realized that he had been electrocuted, his feinted eye was able to glance who did it he was a scar faced man with a slick mustache…what was his name again?...yes Kruger, he was the leader of the gang, and one of the strongest three that Barth mentioned earlier.
He reacted by swinging his blade to drive the man away but the pain was intense and his head was pulsing in pain, he stepped forward to stab him but the latter was faster and hammered him and his friend with another bolt.
But then even after the two men were easily defeated, their plan worked and the mighty torrent of water broke through the gate washing everyone away, luckily Zolu and due to his nature as a ragon his body restored a bit of strength being drowned.
So he pushed his body quickly and carried Juan to the surface, then he swam to the edge of the current where he clung into a jetting rock waiting for the water to be drained away along with the rogues.
Shortly he jumped on the ground, Juan seemed passed out, so the ragon had to lay his friend on his back and push his chest forcing the water out.
"C'mon dude! Breathe! Don't force me to do it! I know you're my bud but I don't want you to spoil my first kiss to be with you!" Zolu said in panic.
"Do you have to say it always like a pervert" Juan commented coughing water.
"Dude! You scared kelps outta me!" the ragon said.
"Well, I guess our plan worked" Juan commented witnessing that many thieves were out of conscious.
"Dude! Watch out!" Zolu shouted pushing Juan to be safe from a lightning bolt.
The two then turned back to see something unpleasant yet expected.
"Humph, I cannot believe that I'll say this but…Some impressive lads you are!" Kruger commented adjusting his pale locks.
"But…you can't be doing this all alone" he added "Wait! The queen!" Kruger concluded their plan so he wanted to rush to his leader but Juan's arm morphed into a tentacle to pull him violently to the ground.
"Very well then! I'll fight you kids!" the angered man said covering his body with sparks he emitted from his hands.
To be continued
Things you might learn from this chapter:
-Never corner a nerd and his amphibian friend, because they may set a trap that'll flood you all.
-Juan's monologues in this story are much longer than his dialogues.
-Zolu is a complete virgin! (Hey and nothing wrong about it btw :P)
-And he doesn't want to waste his kiss even if his friend was choking.
however stay tuned because the next chapter will contain Tsuki :3