Chapter 16: Nowhere to Run! The Traps of Drywood

The group walks slightly into Drywood from the hole. The entire city looks barren and empty.

Melanie: Damn, I was hoping to catch them with their pants down by coming in this way. But they’re all away and in their positions it seems.

Oscar: Maybe no one’s here? They heard us and went running! I mean, look how quiet it is.

Iricryo: It’s all a part of their setting. Trust me, just keep close and move alone the wall.

He sees Oscar has already completely ignored that statement and is running straight into town.

Iricryo: Idiot.

Oscar: Hello? Anyone he-!

A trap springs as he is running. Two halves of a round cage spring out of the ground on each side of him and close around him.

Oscar: What the hell?

Sniper takes aim at him from his tower.

Sniper: Idiot, now this shot couldn’t get any easier. Bye, bye.

Oscar: TENSHIROU MOON!

He bursts completely through the cage bars and out of the cage. Just as he does that, a sniper shot hits part of the cage where he used to be standing. He looks back at the shot with wide eyes.

Sniper: Huh? What kind of technique was that? And his timing for breaking out of the cage couldn’t have been more perfect, I missed completely. Did he know I was aiming at him this whole time? Some kind of a genius?

Oscar is still looking at the shot that just missed him with wide eyes.

Oscar: Someone…someone…someone just tried to SHOOT ME!

He runs around in circles screaming, narrowly avoiding two more sniper shots as he does.

Sniper: I’ve never seen a method for avoiding sniper fire like this before. It’s so random and erratic, it’s impossible to get a clear shot on him. I’m dealing with a real expert right now.

Oscar is still screaming, finally taking cover behind a low building. He bends over, panting.

Oscar: Who…the hell…was shooting at me!

The rest of the group watches behind the safety of another, long building.

Iricryo: Good, well hopefully he can keep that sniper’s fire distracted long enough to find out where he’s hiding.

Melanie: Iricryo, that doesn’t take a genius.

She points to the tallest building in the center of town.

Melanie: You can see it from anywhere in the town, and it can see anywhere in the town. Any sniper is going to pick that spot.

Iricryo: Oh, yeah…I knew that.

Sarah: It wouldn’t be easy to get over there, though. This entire place is just riddled with traps, not to mention those Spidersilks have all picked strategic locations throughout this city. We could be jumped at any time.

Iricryo: In other words, this is going to be a big pain in the ass.

Melanie: The best thing we can do is try to take that sniper out first. As long as he’s up there, we’re pinned down no matter where we are. We can worry about the rest of them later. Let’s go the opposite way of Oscar, since he’s the one they’re all going to be watching now. We may be able to move more undetected.

Iricryo: So we’re just going to leave Oscar alone out there? He’s a sitting duck.

Sarah: I think I’d like to join Oscar in the “get everyone’s attention” group. I came here to make some fireworks, after all.

Melanie: Alright. Me and Iricryo will try to remain undetected and go around.

Sarah: Best of luck to that.

Oscar is peering around the corner, trying to figure out what to do.

Oscar: Ok, you can do this. He’s just one sniper, after all.

Oscar doesn’t notice as he is looking around the corner, but the small building he is hiding behind is opening up a wall, and explosives are dropping out from it, landing at the back of Oscar’s feet. One of them taps Oscar’s foot.

Oscar: Huh, what was that?

He turns around and notices a stock of explosives all piled up behind him, about to explode. He screams and panics. There is a massive explosion, and the entire building is blown to bits.

Iricryo and Melanie are running along the walls of buildings, moving quickly between the gaps, when they hear the explosion.

Iricryo: Damn, that didn’t sound good. I hope Oscar’s alright.

Melanie: For someone claiming to just be forced with the group, you sure seem to care a lot of Oscar’s safety.

Iricryo: I…I’m just worried about the condition of the gloves, is all.

Oscar looks up, certain he was blown into oblivion. He sees Sarah standing directly in front of him, a magical barrier in front of her blocked that blocked the explosion.

Sarah: Damn, you certainly are luckily I decided to jump in.

Oscar: Sarah! Where did Melanie and Iricryo go?

Sarah: They’re taking a different path, and it’s our job to keep everyone attention focused on us with loud, violent displays. You up to it?

Oscar: Sounds like fun!

Guki and Rido walk through the hole Oscar left in the surrounding wall for the town. The noticed the rubble of the exploded building, smoking just a little bit up ahead in the town.

Guki: Well, looks like things have already gotten started without us. Should we get in positions?

Rido: There’s no time! See how far into the town they already are? We must stop them ourselves!

Guki: They’re not that far, and our orders are to always report to our positions when there are intruders in the town.

Rido: Orders can be broken for the case of an emergency! Let’s go!

He runs at full speed into the town towards the exploded building.

Guki: An emergency? I’d hardly call it that…

Melanie and Iricryo carefully allude a trap that springs spears from the wall by tossing a rock in front of them to set off the trap.

Melanie: This place is so fucking covered in traps. How much time did this have to take them to set up.

Iricryo: I just hope Oscar and Sarah are able to avoid them as well. Some of them are very deadly.

Oscar and Sarah stand in a pile of destroyed traps. Some of them are exploded, some electrocuted, and some of them punched in. They were all activated and then destroyed through brute force by Oscar and Sarah. They stare at two large dragon-heads sticking out of the ground, shooting fire at them, desperately trying to get out of the way of the flames.

Oscar: Do something! You’re the one who activated this one! Handle it!

Sarah: Yeah, well you stumbled across the last three!

Oscar: And you walked on that land mine right before that!

Sarah: And I saved us from that one, so chill out!

Oscar: It’s hard to chill when there’s fire EVERYWHERE!

Sarah: God damn these things!

She shoots a spray of water up in the air, and rain pours down on the field, turning the flames to smoke.

Sarah: It’s only a temporary spell, quickly, trash those things!

Oscar: TENSHIROU MOON!

He bursts through the first one with so much force that he just continues through the second one, destroying that one as well. The dragon heads collapse to pieces, and the water mist fades.

Oscar: Well, I’d say that we should have everyone’s attention by now with how much noise we’ve been making.

Sniper is trying to get a shot of them, but his view is blocked by large pieces of destroyed traps and building.

Sniper: Oh, god damn! This is starting to piss me off! No one can possibly plan their cover this well!

Oscar and Sarah kneel down behind some collapsed building.

Sarah: Do you think they’ve sent anyone after us yet?

Oscar: Maybe, but I don’t think I want to leave this spot. We have to have destroyed all the traps in this area by now!

Sarah: Are you alright?

Oscar: I’ve used Tenshirou Moon a few too many times. I get exhausted quickly with it.

Sarah: Are you serious? You need to learn to spread yourself better with techniques like that. God damn, you’re no good to me if you’re too exhausted.

She reaches into her robes, lowering them a little so she can reach what she wants. Oscar’s face goes red seeing this. She pulls out a small jewel and pulls her robes back up.

Sarah: Here, don’t show this to Iricryo or Melanie, though, they’ll probably try to swipe it from you.

Oscar: What is it?

Sarah: It’s a very rare jewel, keep it on your person and you will recover your energy five times as fast as normal. It doesn’t work on magic energy so I really have little use for it, I’ve been trying to sell it but I’ve been having trouble finding someone who can come up with enough money to pay for the damn thing.

Oscar: Uh, thanks.

Sarah: Don’t get too attached to it, I’m taking it back as soon as we get out of here. Just work on recovering some of your energy right now before we set off again.

Rido: I’m afraid you have no time for rest.

Rido stands at the edge of all the destroyed traps. He smiles wickedly at them.

Rido: I’m afraid you don’t have much time for anything anymore!