Chapter 15: Ira Captured! Is it Time for Reckless Heroism or Retreat!?

The group makes their way to rear of Drywood and hide behind the trees.

Ira: Alright, the plan hasn’t changed much. You all are going to wait right here and I’ll stealth my way inside. The only difference is now I have Sarah here to cause a scene, it should greatly increase my chances.

Oscar: I don’t see why I can’t cause a scene as well.

Melanie: You’re not nearly strong enough to hold your own in there. Do you want to live long enough to fight the High Council or what?

Sarah: Besides, you’d only get in my way. A lot of magic is going to be tossed around, and I couldn’t promise you wouldn’t be hit by any of it.

Her smile shifts to a somewhat wicked form for a moment, then relaxes and returns to its sweet smile disguise.

From up in the tower, the sniper continues watching the scene. He laughs as he sees another figure approach the group from atop the wall.

Sarah: Alright, I’ll go run around and charge the front like I was planning on doing anyway. When you hear all the fireworks, you know I’m in.

Voice: Well, well, look whose back! And so soon!

They all look up and see a man standing on top of the wall. His feet are outstretched flat on the wall, despite the wall being far too thin, and his arms are crossed cockily across his chest like the laws of physics have no bearing on his perfect balance. He has long, white hair that flows down wildly and uncontrollably in every direction. His face is twisted in a eccentric grin, and he stares at the group with some amusement. His armor rapidly changed from red cloth on his chest to silver plate leggings to dirty brown leather gloves and boots. The clashing colors and armor styles seem to have no reasoning at all. His spider emblem is seen dangling from his neck between breaks in his hair.

Ira: K...Kester! Damn! How did you know we were here!

Kester: You obviously underestimated the abilities of our buddy Sniper over in that tower there. No one can even come close to Drywood without us knowing.

Oscar looks up at Kester, smiling happily.

Oscar: So, are you one of those Spidersilk Bandits!?

Kester looks at him, slightly confused about Oscar’s eagerness.

Kester: Uh, yeah, that’s right. Sorry, kid, but I don’t do autographs.

Oscar: Autographs nothing! I was hoping I would get to test my skills on one of you! So how about you come down here and fight!

Kester: You’ll meet your fate soon enough, kid. But there are quite a few of you down there, and I find it unlikely you would give me the fair chance of a one-on-one fight. Besides, I’m just here for the girl.

Iricryo: Psh, take her, the plans already ruined, no way to rescue her boyfriend now and collect the rest of our reward.

Melanie: (sweat drop) You are such a nice person, you know that?

Sarah: That’s right, just keep standing there talking!

Sarah: Cause they’re the last words you’ll speak!

Lightning comes down from the sky, striking a violent coalition of bolts onto Kester. The entire town is lit up in bright light.

Sarah: And that’s the end of you, you arrogant freak.

Ropes are tossed for the wall and rapidly wrap themselves around Ira.

Sarah: What the –

Kester stands, completely unaffected by the bolts. He holds the ropes that bind Ira, giving them a pull to lift Ira unto the wall with him.

Ira: Ah! Let me go!

Kester: You’re boy-toy’s being a real pain, you know, not wanting to do any craft work for us. We were hoping you would come back, now we have the material for negotiation.

Oscar: Ira!

Sarah: My magic…completely ineffective?

Kester: See you all later, I’m sure.

He hops of the wall onto the other side, into the town, taking the captured Ira with him.

Iricryo: Well…that could have gone better.

Oscar: We have to go in and rescue her! Come on!

Iricryo: That wasn’t part of the job!

Oscar: But…what…Melanie, you understand, don’t you?

Melanie: Sorry, Oscar, but charging recklessly into that town might as well just be us giving up at the game. There’s no chance we could make it out alive. We can’t be the big hero all the time, you know.

Oscar: …but…

Sniper is watching the scene from his tower. The other figure is still in the room with him.

Figure: Are they coming?

Sniper: Maybe, looks like they’re discussing it. But if I had to guess looks to me like they’re considering retreat the better option.

Figure: Huh, so they’re not idiots.

Sniper: Well we can’t just let them leave here alive. It would defeat the whole purpose. Send out the advance squad. They’ll force them into the town.

Sarah: You know, I still plan on charging the town. I planned it before I met you all, and I still intend to go through with it. If it means that much to you, I think I can restrain my magic enough to let you come in with me. A meat shield would be nice, after all.

Oscar: Really?

Melanie: I don’t get it. Why are you so dead set on charging through this town? The reason of “taking out the competition” that you’ve been giving doesn’t explain a suicidal charge.

Sarah: They took something that belonged to me. And I intend to get it back.

Iricryo: What the hell could be so valuable?

Melanie: Coming out of the mouth of a rare hunter?

Sarah: Honestly, I’m half surprised that you’re not volunteering, Iricryo. You know, every single person these people have killed, they collected up their rares and keep it in their treasury. It’s a massive collection by now, it’s how they keep themselves funded. In fact, I’d go as far as to think its quite possibly the largest collection of rares in one place in this whole half of the world. But, I guess it’s not worth risking your life over, huh, Iricryo. … Iricryo?

Iricryo is staring blankly, his mind racing with ideas of a large collection of rare ideas mixed with gold, glistening and sparkling. His eyes widen and get all watery, and his mouth begins to drool.

Sarah: Iricryo?

Iricryo: On second thought, we do have a commitment to maintain. We promised to help Ira, no reason to back down now!

Oscar: That’s the spirit Iricryo!

Oscar smiles happily, oblivious of Iricyro’s motives for his change of heart.

Melanie puts her head in her hands.

Melanie: Sigh…guess I’m the one out-voted on this one. Suicidal reckless charge through the town it is.

Two men wearing the spider emblems around their necks are walking around the town. One of them, tall and skinny, with short, tidy red hair and a bored expression, leads. He wears a tight fighting, red leather outfit, with spiked shoulder and knee pads. The other one follows slightly behind, huddled over. He walks in a state with his that his face is always down at just above the levels of his knees. He wears dog collars and black leather, and various jewelry in addition to the spider emblem, though it is arranged in such a way that the spider emblem is made prominent in the line of view.

Tall Guy: Do you have to walk like that? It’s embarrassing to be seen with you, Rido.

Rido: Do you always have to complain like that? It’s embarrassing to even be in the same game as you, Guki.

Guki: Well maybe if I wasn’t always paired up with you I wouldn’t complain. I think the idiots in charge get the misconception that we’re friends.

Rido: In your dreams, Guki. And for your information, I walk this way for the advantage of my surprise attack, you know that.

Guki: Doesn’t mean it looks normal.

Rido: Well…neither does your face!

Guki: Oh, nice.

Rido: Let’s just kill these assholes already! Such a waste of my time, to have to be spending it with you!

Guki: I believe we were just instructed to lure or chase them into the town, let the traps take care of them.

Rido: How boring.

Guki: You know how we operate, better safe than sorry. One of these guys might have actually been able to pull off something to surprise us.

The group is standing at the back wall of Drywood.

Sarah: If we’re going to break in, we need to go around the front. There’s no way we would successfully get over this wall. We could climb it, but we would all be picked off by their sniper the moment we got to the top.

Melanie: The front entrance would be too heavily guarded. So we’ll just burst our way through here. That should at least help us avoid some of their traps.

Sarah: That wall is made of wood, but it’s a non-flammable, extremely strong wood, made by the designers to be more sturdy than most metals. Even my magics can’t burst through this wall.

Iricryo: You really haven’t been with us long, have you? Just watch. Oscar, do your thing.

Oscar smiles, winding up his arm and then stretching it.

Oscar: And in we go! TENSHIROU MOON!

The attack explodes through the wall, and Oscar smiles proudly as the debris clear at the gashing hole in the wall.

Sniper in his tower has to turn quickly to see what happened. All he can see is dust rising from the impact.

Sniper: What in the hell?

Figure: Clever bastards, they figured out a way to avoid the front door, huh?

Guki and Rido arrive close by just in time to see the large, gashing hole, spewing debris, the group already inside.

Rido: What was that you were saying about them surprising us?

Guki: …shut up.