A Simple Bounty
In the darkness, a dark shape emerged from the water. It was formless but as it walked it took shape. The form walked eyes closed, with sword in hand. It opened its eyes and looked before it, one red eye glowing brightly. Yuria woke up from her dream, still dwelling on what she had saw. She then looked at Metas with one of his gauntlets and pauldrons removed. His right arm was now exposed and he had a few scars that lined it. He put some ice on a rag on his shoulder to relieve some pain from his "injury". He gritted his teeth and sucked in breath.
"How is it?" Yuria asked. "It burns." Metas put the ice down and sighed. They stayed in a small shed owned by the shop owner. They had helped in moving supplies and buying ingredients and materials in exchange for their momentarily stay. Ellyn walked in, visibly tired. "No sign of her anywhere." "Damn..." Metas responded. Yuria munched on some bread. "Going from place to place and relying on other people or staying on the streets." Said Yuria. "We should at least be able to afford somewhere to stay." Said Ellyn. "You're right. No use breaking into the capital when we can't even have something to eat or stay in." Metas wrapped the mark with some bandages and began to put his armor back on. "Maybe we can help with some odd jobs, try to start something up?" Ellyn sat down on a wooden box in the shed. "No, it would take too long." Metas rubbed his chin in thought. Ellyn and Yuria thought for a while as well.
"How about bounties?" Yuria suggested. "Hmm, quick and might be right up our alley." Metas stood up slowly with strained effort. "Do you need to the wear all that armor?" asked Ellyn. "Yes." Replied Metas as they went out. They went in the store from behind, and the man whose glasses glinted and labored in sweeping the floor mustered a goodbye. The streets were now weary and tired in the afternoon orange glow. The children had gone inside after playing in the morning, but the merchants and the townsfolk were still chatting and toiling away. "This way." They made way through the crowd, and Metas kept his face hidden remaining vigilant of any watchful eyes.
They soon heard a crier outside a location which had paper sheets that had marked a few "wanted" individuals. "Bounties! Bounties! Reward for capture. Dead or alive!" The group approached the crier and observed the wall, some of the wanted posters had already been crossed out. "Hello good sir! You look capable, are you looking for a bounty?" Metas looked at some of the available ones on the wall. "Yes." The crier noticed his armor and asked: "You wouldn't happen to be a knight?" "No." answered Metas studying the worried look on his face. The crier let out a chuckle. "Ahaha, even though we're officially sanctioned by the state, sometimes officials and knights would drop by to check with us. They must be spread out thin these days. That explains all the bounties... Well, come in." He wiped his sweaty brow as he gestured towards the entrance of the place. There was no door but a mere flap of cloth in the doorway, the group entered and saw all sorts of folk drinking and polishing weapons discussing or surveying bounties. It also served as a bar, but the smarter bounty hunters only reserved ale for after the bounty.
They wore outfits that were normal clothes but reinforced with armor or some other way. They had swords, crossbows and other weapons and had other gear for detaining live targets. They sat on a table and a woman with a scowl on her face handed them a stack of papers which showed prospective bounties. "Hmm… Bandits. I wonder if the blue demon is here?" Yuria said to herself. "Hah!" A boisterous man from another table laughed. "There are other easier ways if you just want to die!" A few others laughed along with him. "Nobody can get close to him, not even the knights." Another younger bounty hunter walked towards them and put his hand on her shoulder. "Besides with a little girl like you I wonder what he'll –" Yuria caught him off guard and had a dagger pointed to his neck. He backed away and at the sight of it Ellyn searched herself and found that she had lost the dagger. "Sorry, you dropped it and I meant to give it back." "No, you can keep it." Said Ellyn sitting back down.
Metas was watching silently and loosened the grip on his spear. The boisterous bounty hunter wiped the foam off his beard and downed another drink of ale and laughed. "I like women who can handle themselves!" He then went silent. "Well rumor is, if you can take his head, the kingdom will reward you handsomely. And some of the other bandit leaders have been mysteriously killed. Some say its infighting but I say there's someone working behind the scenes." He took another sip. "You might not even get another chance even if you can take him down."
There was silence. "Well good luck and don't die." The conversations and drinking continued and they all went back to business. The group surveyed and studied the bounty papers and looked over each one. "Not this one." Said Metas. A bounty on a thief that has been spotted around the neighboring cities. "This would take too long." Ellyn remarked. "The rounding up of every member of a band of underground rebels... No." Metas exclaimed. "Damn." Yuria put her fist on the table. "We shouldn't have left all those bandits there when we could get some gold for them." Ellyn interrupted her. "What do you think about this?" Metas leaned over to see what she held. "An abandoned ruin at the edge of town, occupied by cultists. Clear them out and get a thousand gold coins." "Seems simple enough." Says Yuria. "Hmm… That's close by." Said Metas in deep thought. "The cultists? They're crazy and attack anyone who get close. Whoops sorry, that's the last time I'll intrude on your conversation." He appeared to be drinking another cup of ale. They stood up and walked off towards the outside.
As they walked outside the crier addressed them: "Found a bounty?" Metas faced him and showed the bounty paper. "It's getting late." The sky was bright orange now. "Better that we get there as soon as possible." Said Metas. "This is really important to you, huh?" Ellyn asked. "Yes." Metas replied as they walked across town to their destination. The merchants were going home now, and the stalls were closing shop. Some other merchants were beginning to emerge for the night market. They walked until the amount of people on the street grew more and more infrequent and the houses and buildings became less and less inhabited.
The day soon turned darker and it was now dusk. They heard distant clamoring of people and were alerted by the sight of torchlight. Ellyn kept the map and bounty parchment and ran along with them. A few knights were trying to keep a crowd at bay who were armed with torches and pitchforks and clamoring to get in. "Stop! Stop! No one is allowed past this point!" "They stole my baby!" "They took my brother!" "Settle down!" Metas, Ellyn and Yuria soon reached them and moved through the crowd and came face-to-face with the knight. "Stop! Are you part of the official knight forces?" "No, we're here for a bounty." Metas held out the bounty paper. "Sorry pal, this has become the official and sole jurisdiction of the knights. Ever since they took hostages all bounties are now a no-go." "Hostages?" Yuria asked. "As of now, you are regarded as a citizen. Like the others if you have any grievances take it up to the corps!" The knight then moved to quiet the other members of the mob that were clamoring to enter. "We've got to get in there!" said Ellyn.
Metas was unmoving still thinking, whilst Yuria stood unsure. Ellyn then rushed in and the guard tried to stop her saying: "Hey! You can't go there!" Metas followed suit while Yuria used the crowd to sneak in past the other knights. "Hey!" the knight yelled as the group ran up past the blockade and onto the ruins. The crowd tried to take advantage of the opportunity so the knights outside were forced to stop their advance. They stopped just before the entrance. Ellyn held out her arm and recalibrated and extended her crossbow arm. Metas readied his chain-spear and snapped his fingers on and off to check for his flame. Yuria gripped her dagger tightly and readied the enchanted chalice.
"Stay behind me." Metas said as he entered first, Yuria second and then Ellyn at the flank, her arm cocked and ready. They walked down stone steps into a dark, dank structure. Each step of theirs resounded in wet ground and throughout. Metas then conjured up flame to alight the darkness. A makeshift spear shot towards them in an instant and Yuria reacted quickly, ducking and scooping up water to create a barrier. Ellyn and Metas then shot projectiles into the distance, taking down a few of the cultists. They approached slowly and saw that they wore wolf-hide robes and had red painted markings of blood. A single red eye was on the hood of their robe which stared back at them in silence. Metas shut off his flame and motioned for silence.
They stood and listened for a while before they heard footsteps in the darkness." Brothers? Have you dispatched of the intruders?" The group maintained silence. Three cult members walked towards them. In the darkness they crouched and Yuria noticed that Metas' blasts had separated one of the cultist's hands from their body and she carefully picked it up with disgust and regret as well as picking up a few bone trinkets from their body. She noticed that they wore seemingly regular clothes but were stained in blood.
As they turned the corner they faced the cultists, Ellyn loosed a shot to one's throat, Metas slashed at one with his spear and Yuria used the chalice to throw water on their face, creating a bubble which disoriented them enough for Metas to finish them off with another slash. Yuria collected more bone accoutrements, dreading to think what their origin was from, while Ellyn retrieved the crossbow bolt from her target's remains. They pressed further on. They could hear chanting from a short distance. They walked until they were in view of a large room. The room was in contrast with the dark tunnels with an opening in the ceiling which revealed a full moon.
The hostages were tied up and gagged and surrounded an altar. Robed individuals stood around a circle and a basin full of dark liquid lay in the center in a reflection of the moon. They chanted louder and louder, incomprehensible to Metas and Ellyn but Yuria could understand. "Turn the sky to crimson. The moon into the bright red eye of darkness. Behold a being of darkness, may he come upon the world." Yuria whispered these words as she understood what was being said. "Looks like ten, maybe a dozen. This'll be hard with the hostages." Whispered Metas. "Ready your magic." Said Ellyn counting her bolts before feeding them into her crossbow, ready for use. Yuria clutched onto the bone trinkets she had gathered.
They entered the room and swiftly began their assault. Yuria unleashed multiple spears of bone which struck two of the cultists but the others ducked or moved out of the way. Metas swung and spun his spear striking one and tripping another, when two of them rushed him and he used his flame to shoot concentrated shots at them, rendering himself tired and panting. Ellyn launched a flurry of shots which struck multiple targets but she only took down one of them and injured the other targets. They began to escape and run into adjacent tunnels, a few carrying a hostage with them.
Young and old alike were tied up, a few were children and more were older folk. Ellyn thought for a moment to try to free the half a dozen or so hostages but went in pursuit of the other cultists. The tunnels they went into had short hallways and numerous but winding corners. As Ellyn went left, Yuria went forward and Metas went right. The two that Yuria pursued didn't carry any hostages and Yuria sent forth another projectile of bone to the back of one of them. She maintained chase and turned corner after corner, ready to use magic to attack or defend herself. As she turned one corner she came face to face with the cultist, ceremonial blade raised high to attack. In surprise Yuria took a dagger and placed in front of her, stabbing and rendering the cultist lifeless. She shook and shivered, and dropped the blood-soaked dagger with bloody hands. She breathed shakily before slowly picking up the dagger and strained running back to the others.
Ellyn ran after three cultists, one of them dragged along a hostage. They used the hostage as a human shield, preventing her from attacking them with her bolts. One of the cultists tripped and fell courtesy of the arrows stuck and pierced across their body. Ellyn used a bolt to stab them in a quick instant. The narrowness of the passageways also restricted the full extent of her crossbow, making it also difficult to use. She could feel exhaustion overcome her as she breathed harder and ran slower.
She turned a corner into a long hallway and saw one of them stab a blade into the hostage while chanting some incantation. She used her crossbow to strike them down with a few well-placed shots and went over to the hostage. One of the cultists spoke. "Its too late, its emergence has begun!" she struck them in the neck with her prosthetic arm and tried to shake the hostage awake and tried to perhaps treat their wound.
She jolted back as a dark mass suddenly enveloped the body, and it started to grow. Ellyn hesitated and struggled but forced herself to loose a single shot. Only that did not mitigate its now continuous growth. Metas threw his spear and took down the cultist he had recently tripped and followed the other two. Metas struck down the other cultist with his spear and went after the other one. He breathed tiredly as he pursued without delay.
They looped back to the entrance and the cultist was struck down by a sword. The sword that stabbed into the cultist, setting them aflame and into ash in mere seconds. In the glow of the moonlight, bloodstained white cloak shone, and golden armor glinted. "What a coincidence seeing you here, Metas." She let down her hood which revealed red hair, scarred face, and a wide grin. Metas held onto his spear tightly and breathed shakily. "You." The full moon shone brightly above them.