"Well, I decided to stay in Amaryllis for the time being, and I got myself a pretty nice apartment." Mary talked to herself as she relaxed in her new bed. Since she joined Phoenix Flame, she got herself a place to live and settled in. She raised her right hand and stared at the forest green guild emblem that she now has. "Never thought I would actually join a guild, so this better be worth it."
"Hey! Mary, are you up there?!" Mary took a look out her window and spotted Maru and Sandy. "Hey! You settled into your new place?!" Maru called.
"Yeah. All seems fine." Mary said. "Hang on! I'm coming down!" She came down and met up with them. "So, what's up?"
"We came to see how you were doing." Sandy said. "It looks like you managed to get a pretty nice place."
"Plus, I figured you would like to get to work." Maru said. "Since you're new, I thought I lend a hand with your first job until you learn the ropes."
"Really?" Mary questioned. "Sounds good." 'Mostly because if there's danger, I get a lot of money and this guy can handle the dangerous stuff for me.'
...
Phoenix Flame
"Okay, let's see what's available." Maru said as they all took a look at the request board to see what's there.
"Wow. These jobs sure do pay a lot." Mary said as she looked over some prices more than the actual jobs. "We've got one that will pay you five-hundred-thousand jewel! Eight-hundred-thousand! I see a lot more! There's some with great prices that I don't know where to start."
"I wouldn't take those if I were you." Maru said. "I would avoid the higher paying jobs because those could be dangerous and you're new around here. I would try something else. Besides, some of the jobs have some pretty good pay, but that's not the only benefit. You also get to travel around and see some interesting places and meet all kinds of new people. Let's see if we can find something more suited for a beginner like yourself."
"Like what?" Mary questioned.
"How about this one?" Sandy questioned as he found a good job. "They're asking to get rid of a colony of insects that has been causing some problems in a farm town."
"You mean like exterminators?" Mary questioned. It didn't sound that great to her.
"I think it's a good start for a newbie, and at a decent price of sixty-thousand jewel." Maru said. "I say we take it."
"Oh joy... We're dealing with bugs." Mary said as she wasn't looking forward to this.
...
Maru and Mary
So, the three of them decided to take on this job together. They got themselves a carriage and were on their way to where the job was taking place. Although, Mary was hoping for something more extravagant than doing exterminator work.
"Maru, are you sure it was a good idea to let Mary in the guild?" Sandy asked. "So far, she doesn't really seem like a good person. She's only interested in the money, and she was stealing when we met her."
"I get what you're saying, Sandy, but maybe all Mary needs is a little guidance. Something to give her a fresh start in life. Besides, I don't think she's really all that bad. We don't really know her that well." Maru said. "After all, she might just be in a desperate situation. We should at least try to help her simply because we're good people." Sandy get what Maru was saying, but he still wasn't sure about it.
'If I were you, I would have listened to the cat.' Mary thought.
"We're here!" Maru said as he could see the village. Once they got there, they all walked right into town. It seemed like a mere farm town, but it appeared that everyone was hard at work. There were dirt patches, farmers, and all of them were trying to put some muscle in it as they tried to get their crops to grow.
"Wow. This place appears busy. Farmers all around." Mary said. Maru took a look around himself and noticed something seemed off. Everyone appeared to be miserable and exhausted, and he noticed some crops appeared to have been ruined while they were still in the ground. The job might be to deal with some bugs, but Maru is starting to think there's more to it.
"Excuse me. Are you the guild wizards that took the request we asked for?" All of them were met with another farmer.
"We are. We come from the Phoenix Flame guild. Are you the client?" Maru asked.
"More than that. I happen to be the chief around these parts. Thank you so much for coming. Our town is in dire need of your help." He claimed.
"Yeah, yeah. Where's the nest you want us to knock down?" Mary said as she just wanted to get this over with.
"Slow it down, Mary. Sir, do you mind telling us what's going on?" Maru said. "The flyer said you needed help getting rid of some insects, but it looks like there's more to it than it sounded."
"You're right about that. You see, some days ago, our town became infested with plague of insects. They come to our village and devoured our crops, destroying them in the process, and hardly leave anything for us. Our entire town is suffering from it."
"Wait. The whole town?" Mary questioned. She thought that was weird as she looked around to take notice of how far the place went. "But there are fields for crops all over the place. Your saying little insects did all this damage? Just how big of a swarm are we talking about?"
"Well... That's the thing... They're a type of insect called hornet marauders. Much larger than your average insect. They're even bigger than your little cat there."
"Bigger than me?!" Sandy said as that sounded scary.
"What?! No one said anything about giant insects?!" Mary said. "Forget this! I'm out of here and going back!" Mary turned around and tried to leave, but Maru caught her and stopped her.
"Mary, these people need help." Maru said. "We can't just turn away because we don't like it. That's not how our guild works. We don't turn away from a challenge."
"Please. I'm begging you for your help. We're on our last leg." The chief pleaded as he sounded desperate. "Our town makes profit out of the crops we grow here. The reward for completing this job is the best we can do. It's only going to go down from there, and if this infestation continues, we'll go hungry and can't make any more money. Everyone is working as hard as they can to restore their crops, but those insects continue to destroy it. Please help us." He's begging for their help. It sounds like this place might not last for much longer if something about this isn't done soon. They'll all go hungry and poor. Maru and Sandy can't say no to them now, but what about Mary?
"Come on, Mary. They need help now." Maru said. Mary didn't seem that persuaded, but then she noticed something. She saw even a small child trying to help his father, but even the poor kid looked tired and hungry. Seeing that struck a chord in Mary as it reminded her of something. She might be a little harsh, but she isn't selfish or heartless.
"Fine. Let's go squish some bugs." Mary gave in.
"We'll take the job." Maru told the chief with him so glad to hear that. "Do you know where we can find the nest?"
"I'm afraid not. We've been so occupied trying to keep ourselves alive that we haven't searched for the nest, but they always come from the north." The chief claimed.
"The north... At least we have an idea on where to look." Maru said.
"I can fly up there and see if I can find anything." Sandy said.
"We'll find it a lot faster if we use more than just you." Mary said. She held out her charms and focused her magic. "Come forth, the one with unmatched speed! Mercury!" She called on another olympian through the Mercury charm. Out came a hawk-like creature that was quite large covered in brown feathers with glossy eyes and even had an orange mullet-like style on its head.
"How's it going, Mary?" Mercury said.
"You summoned a giant bird?!" Maru said.
"That's totally different from that other one!" Sandy said.
"This one is name Mercury. He's quite a fast flyer with a sharp eye. He can find what we're looking for." Mary assured. "Listen, I need you to fly north and try to find something resembling an insect's nest like hive or something. We're looking for giant bugs, which I'm not going to like."
"One bird's eye view coming up." Mercury assured and flew off with him flying pretty fast.
"Don't worry. If he can't find the nest, I'm not sure anyone can." Mary said.
"Sounds great. Let's get going. We can meet him halfway." Maru said. All three of them headed off and went to search for these insects. With a desperate town in need, they have to finish the job.
...
The Woods
"Let's see. Where would I find a..." Mercury flew around and soon spotted something. Something big and nasty. "I spy with my little eye something not so little." He hurried back to the others and met them just as they were going to the woods.
"Mercury, did you find it?" Mary asked.
"I found something. It's in the rock quarry." Mercury claimed.
"Already?! Wow, that was rather fast!" Sandy said.
"Show us." Maru said. Mercury showed them the way to where this nest might be. He brought them into the rock quarry.
"There it is. All big and nasty." Mercury said. It wasn't easy to miss. They just saw a massive hornet's nest right in it.
"We have to get rid if that thing?" Mary said as she was pretty scared now.
"Yep. That's the job." Sandy said. He took a pebble and threw it as hard as he could.
"Wait! Are you nuts?!" Mary shouted. The pebble managed to hit the nest, and there is only one outcome when you hit a nest. It stirred the hornets inside and got them to come out. They warned about how big the hornets were. When they came out, they were all black and big enough for small children to ride on.
"You crazy stupid cat?! Why would you throw a rock at something like that?!" Mary shouted.
"I didn't think you would want to climb it. Plus, it will be easier to deal with them like this." Sandy said.
"What have I gotten myself into? Look at those things!" Mary said as she began to feel like she was in a horror movie.
"And our job is to get rid of them." Maru said as he readied himself because he wasn't scared to face some bugs. One flew right at him, but Maru was ready. "Divine Hammer!" He smashed his fist against one and it and squashed one of many.
"Here come the rest!" Sandy called with so many flying at him, but Maru formed three lights in a row for them.
"Three-Star Formation: Orion!" Maru unleashed the lights and they blasted right through some of the hornets. However, there was still much of the swarm left, and they were heading for Mary.
"Wait! Why are they coming for me?!" Mary shouted.
"I've got you!" Mercury called. He grabbed her with his talons and got her out of the way. "That was rather close."
"I'll say! Wait! You're a bird! Birds eat bugs, so can't you do something about these things?!" Mary said.
"Well, bugs aren't really part of my diet, but I can do something for you. Hold on!" Mercury said.
"To what?!" Mary said as she didn't like this one bit. Mercury kicked it up. He flew at incredible speed right through the swarm. Mercury was so incredible in speed that he sliced right through the bugs with some clean cuts. It also made Mary feel rather sick. "Don't ever do that with me riding on you again." Regardless, they were starting to take care of the swarm. Even Sandy lend a hand as he mounted one of the hornets and pulled on its antenna and steered it like it was horse. Sandy caused it to bash against some of the other insects and took some of them down.
"This is actually rather fun!" Sandy cheered. However, there were still a lot of them left, and the swarm didn't appeared to be getting any smaller.
"Just how many of these horror-shows are left?" Mary said.
"They might be vast in numbers and size, but they're still insects." Maru said as he thought of something that might be able to help. "These things are just acting like regular hornets. They're agitated because their nest was disturbed. If there's a nest... If they are acting like most bugs..."
"What are you thinking?" Mary questioned. Then, Maru just took off and charged right at the nest. "Wait! What are you doing now?!"
"Sandy! Give me a lift!" Maru called. Sandy heard his called and unfolded his wings. He flew down and grabbed a hold of Maru. He lifted Maru off the ground and got right over the nest.
"What are you thinking?" Sandy asked.
"Something a little crazy, but we might be able to solve all of this in one shot." Maru said. "Go ahead and drop me." Sandy trusted Maru and dropped him down. As that was happening, he gathered light into his hand for a chop. "Solemn Strike!" He smashed his attack right against the attack and did a little damage to the nest. When that happened, Maru jumped away.
"Oh! I get it now! Destroy the nest to get these bugs to fly away!" Mary said. "Not a bad idea, but you might have to do a lot more than that."
"That's not what I was going for." Maru said. Mary didn't get it, but she was about to. Something else was in that nest and it was coming through where Maru struck. Whatever it was appeared to be much larger than any of the other hornets.
"Uh... What is that thing?" Mary said as she was beginning to feel even more scared.
"I think we just met the queen." Maru claimed. The queen of the nest came right out of the nest, but it was massive. The other hornets were nothing compared to how huge the queen was. It seems that rather than going for the nest, Maru is aiming for the queen bee, or in this case the queen hornet, itself.