Akira looked at the rising morning sun for several moments before returning to stare in the direction of a road that led to the distant sea where Kodria’s ships were stationed.
“It’s already several hours past the agreed meeting time… what is taking them so long?” muttered an impatient Akira.
“Yap!” said Fluffball as he sat down on Akira’s armored feet. He did not want to lay on the dusty ground or on any of the tall and sharp grass that covered the entire area around them.
Qorn, the elderly Lumen race grandfather, walked out of the tall grass that was hiding the rest of the gathered rescue party and walked up to Zundar who was standing next to Akira.
“Why are we not leaving? Every second we wait here is a second that my granddaughter could meet the end of her life!”
“We need the help of people who are similar to those new enemies who have joined the Oni. They are not simple enemies and all have special skills that they use to attack people and they are hard to keep dead. If what you told us about the people who took her then It would be too dangerous to try to chase them with our current force. It would be a death sentence to send normal fighters to deal with such kidnappers,” said Zundar slowly as he tried to calm down Qorn.
This only placated Qorn for now as he stopped speaking and began pacing back and forth.
They were forced to wait several more hours before the sound of several footsteps and a loud argument reached their ears.
“How was I supposed to know that was the long way around? This map that was sent to us looks like a bunch of squiggly lines. Trying to figure out which road is which from such a mess is nearly impossible, look at this and this! There are clearly some serious measuring errors in the lines drawn!”
When the noisy group rounded the bend in the road that passed through two large hills, their arguments stopped when they saw Akira picking up Fluffball and stepping out into the middle of the road to grab their attention.
“We finally arrived! We’re sorry that it took us longer than it should have but this map is really b… what are you waving your hand about like that for?” asked Sweety while looking at her brother.
Beater stopped his discreet gestures and made a motion with his eyes pointing at Akira. He knew of Akira’s hobby of drawing maps…
Although she was a little slow reading his silent gestures when she saw Akira’s depressed expression she realized the problem.
“Ahem… well we are here. What was so important that you called us here without explaining anything?”
“We thought you had been attacked by other demigods and were going to die… but you seem fine,” said Beater.
“It is related to the hostile demigods. They have captured this man’s granddaughter and taken her to a new hub of villainy Known as the ThiefCityy. Since we have little information on who or how many of them are holed up inside we need your help with infiltrating and scouting the inner city so that we can come up with a plan to rescue his granddaughter,” said Akira pointing to the pacing elderly Qorn.
“This is a perfect task! I always wanted to save a damsel in distress!” said Beater as he punched his chest to pump himself up.
“How are the ship repairs and fortifications going?” asked Akira.
“Captain Pegleg’s ships have all been fixed and are now patrolling the shoreline of this large island to ward off or capture any ship from any outside sources. Kodria’s naval forces are in fine shape and are currently protecting the coastline around our fortified encampment,” said Crowbhar.
“Alright, since our backup has arrived… Everyone, let’s go!” shouted Akira waving for the large group of warriors to exit the tall grass… Only Kodria’s soldiers stepped out of the tall grass.
Zundar let out an embarrassed cough staring at Akira who was flapping his arms before he turned and translated the orders to the rest of the hidden AAF warriors who had all volunteered to join this mission.
“What’s with such a large force? I thought this was supposed to be a covert rescue mission?” asked a confused Beater seeing such a large force pop out of the tall grass.
“Of course it is, but we also decided that we should liberate the town from its demigod control at the same time. They are too close for comfort and if we don’t take action now there will only be more problems for everyone. The thief city is still a few days travel away so we need to head out now. I just hope nothing happens to Qorn’s granddaughter during that time,” said Akira.
“YAP,” said Fluffball as he jumped out of Akira’s arms and landed on the ground next to him.
“We are not tired yet and can keep going but which direction are we supposed to take?” asked Sweety pointing at the multi-pronged road ahead of them.
“Mr. Qorn knows the way to the city so we should have no problems!” said Zundar.
“Ah! I feel so much better hearing that. I was worried that we would have to follow a map that … ahem.”
With that said an awkward silence fell over everyone as they began marching in proper formation behind Qorn who was explaining everything to Zundar at the front as he pointed out which winding paths to take.
With each step they took they were marching closer to the center of the island which was the core of the Oni territory. According to Qorn the Thief city was in a neutral zone between the two factions and was used as a hub for trade. That did not mean it was safe. Far from It, there was more likely than not trouble brewing ahead of them.
***
“Is this the last of the monsters?” asked Akira as he slashed down and severed the head of a large black rodent that had over one hundred eyes on its head.
They were only several hours into their march and this was the third time they were attacked by odd-looking monsters.
Spearia was muttering something to Zundar with confusion clear all over her face.
Zundar quickly translated, “It is odd how such rare monsters are popping out while we are traveling. Normally these rare monsters are only seen once in one’s entire life!”
Akira had been watching Qorn the entire time as he used a personal map to navigate to the Thief City.
Ding!
-
Quest received! Akira’s bad gut feeling +1
Now that he thought about it, this feeling that he was getting from Qorn was horribly familiar vibes that he had not felt in a long time.
Wherever they went on the many different trails Qorn was constantly being smacked in the face by branches, tripping over roots, stubbing his foot on large rocks embedded in the ground, and now they were constantly running into extremely rare monsters…
‘Yep… He’s one of those people…’ thought Akira as he watched everything happen to Qorn. It all made him remember his first few months traveling with Mileena. She had constantly set off every trap and lured all types of trouble toward them forcing them to endure many life-and-death situations.
Akira shook his head. Some people were just magnets for trouble and bad luck.
As night was falling the Mino’s forward scout came back to the main group with news of a large caravan camped on the side of the road for the night. It was not that far from them.
“Do we know who they are?” asked Akira.
Zundar frowned as he listened to the scout and then said, “Slavers.”
“Is it possible that the demigods have teamed up with this caravan of slavers?” asked Akira.
The scout shrugged and spat out a few quick sentences answering Zundar.
“There are several cages with people inside them but he could not tell who they were, only which demon race they were from by their body outline in the night shadows from the camp’s firelight.”
Spearia pointed to the direction that the thief city was supposed to be and Akira guessed that she was saying that was where the caravan was headed also.
“There might be demigods with them so we can’t just storm in and attack. We might be able to overpower them but we would likely receive many wounded and that would jeopardize our secondary goal of freeing the town even if it is known as a lawless thief city…”
“They will kill all those they have captured to not allow us to be able to save them if we try something like that.”
“I will go over there and see how many of them there are and see what they are up to since I can take care of myself,” said Akira as he pulled out a furry beard that was from a rare goat species that they had encountered earlier. He poked some holes into the thick beard and tied some leather string to it before placing it over his ears to hold the makeshift beard mask in place. To cover up the string he wore a cheap leather helmet.
“Not bad,” said Akira as he looked at himself in a handheld mirror for a second. “Zundar, you come with me. Act like my servant and we should be okay. The rest of you stay here and protect Qorn.”
Zundar was skeptical about this plan but decided to stay silent and silently walked behind Akira who was walking with a large wooden stick that had many fake packages tied to it.
A small group of werewolves continued to trail them from hidden positions off the road ready to rush forward and help them if something went wrong.
When they had walked half the distance to the encampment Akira remembered something important! ‘I don’t know how to speak the ancient language! Oops!’
It was too late to turn back now as the guards that were watching the road started shouting and pointing them out to everyone else inside the encampment.
A few questions were shouted out in their direction to which Zundar answered.
Whatever he said caused them to stop being so rowdy as they just stared at Akira.
“You are here to buy slaves. Just act naturally and don’t speak, I will do the talking,” whispered Zundar.
As the two walked up to the half dozen Oni guards that appeared on the road they stopped a few steps away. Akira let out a sigh as he looked at their faces and saw the guards did not look all too concerned or suspicious of them and only made small talk with Zundar trying to see what type of slaves they wanted.
“Stupid hicks,” came a voice from a campfire near a large tent where two men sat. This voice startled Akira as it was spoken in common not the ancient language.
‘Demigods! This has to be the group we were looking for right?’
“Tell the guards not to bother selling to this guy. He can’t afford the price for anything we have. If he tries to barter junk for a slave I will personally kill him,” said the demigod.
“Shhhh… one of them is looking at us,” said the second demigod.
“Who cares if they can’t understand us, we might as well try to trick them into signing a document to bind them into slavery,” said the first demigod.
Unfortunately for the demigods, both Zundar and Akira understood them all too well but kept their anger in check as they scoped out the camp and haggled for the price.
“You guys stop talking with them. Tell them to f*** off,” said the first demigod as he stood up and walked towards the guards.
“Let’s just kill them,” said the second demigod as he also stood up and started to walk over.
“Sorry guy I don’t care who you are but you came to the wrong people,” said one of the demigods to Akira not caring if he understood.
As they were reaching for their weapons Akira and Zundar acted first and launched their own attacks.
Unlike the weaker demigods from the village they saved, these two seemed to be skilled enough in combat that they were able to defend against the surprise attacks.
“Hey, what’s the big idea attacking us? We don’t want to harm you!” said one of the demigods as he jumped back dodging Zundar’s attack… only to launch a glowing red skill attack from his rapier that shot out and opened a large gash on Zundar’s arm.
With the start of the fight, the hidden werewolves rushed out and engaged the Oni guards leaving Zundar and Akira the task of dealing with the demigods who were bombarding them with skills trying to overwhelm them.
While trading blows with each other for over five minutes the demigod fighting with Akira tripped over a wooden stool behind him and exposed himself as he fell allowing Akira to pounce and stab his sword through the weak neck armor pinning him to the ground.
Akira stomped on the demigod’s hand that was trying to reach for a potion and then pulled out his sword before raising it up high and sending it plunging down with all his might to pierce through the thin metal armor covering his heart.
Zundar continued to trade several heavy blows with the demigod in front of him breaking many of his bones while also receiving many large wounds on his body from the piercing red skill attacks of the demigod.
With one last blow, he managed to crumple the demigod, finally killing him.
“Zundar, drink this,” said Akira tossing a small vial with red liquid over to him.
There was enough for a full mouthful which Zundar down in one gulp and watched as the wounds on his body started to stop bleeding and scabbed over.
Ding!
-
You have received a new title: Bad Actor!
Fame +10
“Let’s figure out how to free these people,” said Akira as he looked at the several cages.
While Akira was searching for the keys In the demigods’ tents Spearia, Qorn, and the other AAF members all rushed to the encampment and started searching for their loved ones.
When Akira exited the tent he walked over to a large cage and used the keys to open it. To large red-skinned men only wearing fur loincloths stepped outside. They were even taller than Zundar and just as muscular if not more so and they had three eyes not just two.
When Spearia and the others saw them they rushed over and began excitedly chatting with them.
Zundar helped translate the conversation allowing Akira to understand what had them so agitated.
“They are known as half-giants, a nomadic people. It was because of their demon race that the AAF was able to survive for so long but now there are not many of them left as they were all targeted in past wars due to their extreme power. It seems that these two were ambushed by over five demigods and managed to kill 3 of them before they were subdued.”
As Spearia chatted with the two large men they looked up and stared at Akira after hearing something interesting from her. a
The two walked over to Akira who could see one of the large half-giants’ faces had been scared by horrible burns.
“Ouwanotuonuu!”
“They want to join us,” said Zundar.
Spearia quickly ran over and began explaining to Zundar more details about the two men.
“They heard about our mission to save the Qorn’s granddaughter and since they were already headed to the thief city to look for their captured family members they would like to join us.”
“They are welcome to join us, the more people there are to help us the better!”
