It’d only been a day since they visited Rylian’s shop and they were still tracking where the burdenbeasts went. All the guild told them was that they were still within two kilometers of the settlement.
Geniveria was the one to suggest making a camp to try and attract the burdenbeasts, after all, Rylian told them that they were rabid animals which meant that they’d definitely be attracted to the sounds of people.
She also set up traps around the camp, primarily to alert them if the burdenbeasts were near, but none came through the night.
“Weapons check everyone!” Rayleigh advised as she helped pack up their camp.
“My sniper rifle is fine,” Geniveria called out while she put out their campfire. Her sniper rifle lay to her side.
Kenhilt sheathed his sword and nodded, “No problems on my end. My sword and rifle are clean.”
Nikeol pulled out a bookmark and closed the book she was reading, “My equipment is fine. I already checked it beforehand.”
Rayleigh gave everyone a nod, “Hmm, good.” She clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention, “Now, we still don’t know where the Pestilant is, nor do we know where the burdenbeasts are. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get them to come to us?”
Geniveria shrugged, “Ask Nikeol, she seems to know everything.”
“I do not!”
“Funny,” Geniveria said blankly, “You sure seem to act like you do.”
“Just because I know more than the average person and I’m willing to correct others doesn’t mean that I–”
As the two got into a heated argument, Kenhilt shot a pitying look at Rayleigh. Rayleigh sent a pleading one back, but Kenhilt shrugged and mimed getting stabbed.
Rayleigh let out a deep sigh of frustration, which went unnoticed by the two arguing women.
She briskly walked over to Kenhilt who slowly backed away from her, although it was no use, with Rayleigh reaching him in a matter of seconds.
“Hand me your gun,” Rayleigh asked in an extremely cheerful manner. An extremely disturbing cheerful manner, so despite his own reservations, Kenhilt handed her his Elemental Rifle.
With a smile on her face, she pointed the gun toward the sun, hopefully in a direction that wouldn’t have anyone there, flicked the safety off, and pulled the trigger.
The resulting crack of Kenhilt’s rifle shook Geniveria and Nikeol out of their argument as the two of the grabbed their respective weapons, a bow, and a battlestaff respectively.
Rayleigh threw the Elemental Rifle back at Kenhilt who caught it and began reloading it. She clapped her hands together, “Now, are you two finished?”
Geniveria glanced at Nikeol, “I suppose so.”
“Good.” Rayleigh nodded to herself, “Now let–”
A loud roar emanated from the forest around them. Both Knehilt and Geniverai pointed their guns at the source of the sound.
Everyone froze as mere moments later a large horse-like monstrosity dashed into their camp. The only thing that was somewhat normal was the shape of its body, else it was completely different. It was bulging with muscle, and the bright red irises of its eyes shone even in the day.
Abscesses and tumors littered its body, each of them pulsing and filled with veins.
“By Ovion’s kilt! Who thought that thing should exist!” Kenhilt yelled.
The burdenbeast charged at the nearest person, that being Rayleigh who was staring at it with a mixture of confusion and horror. Geniveria had to push her to the side, the two of them landing on the ground just barely managing to dodge the monstrosity, with the beast’s hoof scrapping Geniveria’s leg.
A sharp pain ran through her body, and she let out a small yell.
Kenhilt realized that maybe, he should be doing something and shot at the thing’s eye. Instead, his shot hit one of the many abscesses on its mutated body which burst into a shower of blood and pus coating the dirt around the beast.
Nikeol retched at the sight but still slowly pointed her battlestaff at the beast and muttered an incantation, launching a bolt of flames at the monster.
The burdenbeast screamed as the pain of its abscesses popping and the flames of Nikeol’s spell hit it all at once. With rage in its eyes, it charged at Kenhilt who swiftly rolled out of the way.
However, far faster than they could’ve anticipated, it changed it’s target to the pair of girls on the ground. Rayleigh, realizing that she was in danger got to her feet and vaulted over a nearby log.
Geniveria wasn’t as fortunate.
The two of them crashed into a nearby tree shattering it entirely, she didn’t even have enough time to scream before she rolled over onto the ground unconscious, her leg bent at an unnatural angle.
Nikeol turned her attention to Geniveria’s prone form and with a curse, reluctantly changed the incantation she was chanting to a different one.
“Vulneribus consuo!”
The scratches and wounds on Geniveria’s body began to slowly stitch themselves together with the help of spectral sutures, thankfully Geniveria was unconscious else she would surely begin screaming in agony.
“Raylei–” Nikeol stopped before she finished saying her team leader’s name and turned her attention back on the burdenbeast. Her leader was already taking on the other two burdenbeasts mentioned in the contract.
She was hanging on pretty well and with her AUAF Exoskeleton helping to increase her body’s natural strength and agility, she cleanly severed one of the burdenbeast’s legs making it collapse onto the forest floor.
Roaring wildly, the other attempted to kick her in her stomach with its powerful legs but she simply ducked underneath and with an upward thrust, stabbed it in its stomach releasing blood and several infected intestines onto the forest floor.
Turning her attention back onto the last burdenbeast she noticed that it saw how Rayleigh was brutally stabbing its breathen and began charging at her.
She cursed and began chanting an offensive spell.
“Lancea Flammae!”
A small spiral lance made out of burning flame burst out of the earth in front of Nikeol. With a flick of her index finger it swung around with an a burst of flame and angrily launched itself toward the burdenbeast’s eye.
Much to her surprise and horror, her conjured lance missed slamming into a nearby tree instead, setting it ablaze.
“Fanden!” Kenhilt cursed. He watched as the fire spread to some nearby vegetation, yelping when some of the flames touched the tree he was taking cover behind, “Nikeol, watch where you’re throwing those things! You’re gonna start a–”
“I know!” Nikeol yelled out, “Cover me!” Kenhilt nodded, rolling out of cover, he shot a bullet at a charging burdenbeast taking its attention away from. Seeing that it wasn’t charging at Rayleigh anymore, she pulled out a small vial of sky-colored powder and pink liquid.
She read over the label she put on it to make sure it was the right formula before throwing it at the flames.
As soon as the vial hit the ground, it broke apart into several fragments, spewing the powder and liquid everywhere. Mixing together, a chain reaction occurred and a veritable ocean erupted putting out the flames before it rapidly dried up.
“Why do you ha–”
“Not the time!” Nikeol angrily shouted at Kenhilt who winced and resumed shooting.
Two out of the thee burdenbeasts lay on the floor dead from both Rayleigh’s sword and Kenhilt’s rifle, but even then their abscesses and bodies kept twitching wildly.
The third had managed to successfully kick Rayleigh to the ground with her AUAF exokseleton taking the brunt of the damage. It had clearly been damaged and dented in everywhere from the force of the blow.
Kenhilt pulled out a throwing knife and threw it at the burdenbeast hitting in the back of its head but not managing to fully pierce through its tough skin.
But it was enough to catch the burdenbeasts attention.
“Petra cuti–” Before Nikeol could finish her incantation, with a loud roar, the burdenbeast rammed into Kenhilt with the force of its entire body breaking several bones in his body and shredding the armor he wore into bits of cloth and metal.
He landed on his stomach on the hard dirt with an oomph and fell silent. And without any hint of hesitation, the burdenbeast stomped on his back creating a sickening crack.
“Gottverdammt!” She wasn’t able to cast the spell in time.
A loud gunshot rang out from the other side of their camp hitting the burdenebast directly in its left leg, piercing through and hitting the leg on its right, causing it to trip on the ground wildly. Its face smashed into the dirt cracking its neck.
Nikeol turned to see a limping Rayleigh with a now-awake Geniveria using her shoulders to steady her sniper rifle.
Nikeol let out a deep breath, “Nice shot, you could’ve woken up sooner,” She paused and clutched her head, “Ow,”
“You alright?” Rayleigh asked concerned.
Nikeol nodded, “Yeah, I think that healing spell took a bit mo–” Everything in her vision began spinning.
“Oh no, Geniveria help–”
The last thing Niekol saw was the two of them running to catch her.
Ceol placed a glass of Afgrunden on the countertop.
His bar was a bit less busy today and his wife Eclipse was currently talking to Carnell back in the kitchen so he couldn’t even tease her. Thankfully one of his favorite conversationalists nearly knocked his door down interrupting a questor fireteam drunkenly singing about one-hundred bottles of beer.
“Long day?” He asked the tired-looking brown-haired man.
Rylian groaned as he sat down on a bar stool, “Yup.”
Ceol’s bar, the Shaken Soul, was a common haunt for Veteran questors in the area. It was clean, served the best drinks in town, and both the Ceol and Eclipse were willing to spar and teach people. What else could a questor ask for? Not to mention that Ceol was a great listener and his interactions with his wife were frankly adorable.
He looked up at the glass, “That my usual?”
The blonde-haired man nodded and began making another drink, grabbing his mixer up, “Yep. Already had it ready. Agapi came by earlier and mentioned you were in one of your bad moods.”
“Of course. What’d she say?”
“A couple of new questors came by your shop. Arrogant ones.” Rylian nodded and took a sip of his drink, lightly coughing afterward. A burning sensation traveled down his throat and spread all around his body, but the slight aftertaste of lime was pleasant, “She also mentioned that you chased ‘em off with that shotgun of yours out into the street.”
Rylian paused right before he took another sip, pointedly ignoring a group of questors who were having a loud drinking contest behind them. He sighed and put the drink down on the counter.
A nearby questor fireteam began a loud arm wrestle competition pulling in other fireteams to join. The sounds of arms hitting tables, cheers and jeers alike filled the room.
“Gods be damned, that’s already gotten out.” He slammed his face onto the smooth bartop, careful not to hit his face into his arms.
Ceol snorted, “Don’t damage my bar. If you’re going to slam your face onto something, slam it onto that anvil of yours.”
“No thanks, I like having a decent-looking face unlike yours.” Rylian responded with his face still on the bartop.
“Decent looking he says, Eclipse would say you’re average-looking.”
Rylian sat straight up and shot Ceol an affronted look, “No she wouldn’t. She’d pat me on the back, apologize for you being you and then call me slightly above-average-looking. Before proceeding to get embarrassed that she said that outloud.”
The two men paused before they both laughed, the noise being barely audible over two questors loudly sobbing in the back over the fact they left their enchanted amulet at the restaurant they ate at, a town over.
“Alright, so what’d they do to cause you so much trouble that you chased ‘em outside all the way into the river?”
“Well, it was more a combination of things that got me angry. It all started when they knocked over my armor rack…”
Ceol’s Bartender Notes:
“Rylian:
Preferred Drink: Afgrunden
Ratios:
40mL of Krystal Forår Spirit 90% Proof
10mL of Mutt Whisky
5ml 1mL of Freshly squeezed Warrior’s Demise
3g 2g of Void Fruit Shavings
3 cuts of Limoen Onkruid
1 Leichte Blume for garnish
Flavor Profile:
Notes:
Alcoholic, very alcoholic. And even adding just 1mL of Warrior’s Demise was still a risk even with the spirits diluting it. Gods, I can’t image how Chisarious’ worshippers drink gallons of that stuff considering how poisonous it is. Still, Rylian prefers to have it in his drink rather than not having it which makes sense considering how he mostly just wants to feel the burn going through his whole body.
The only time I’d recommend this to someone who isn’t either a worshipper of Chisarious or Rylian himself, is if they wanted to get as drunk as possible which as a bar owner, isn’t something I’d recommend because fines do be crazy expensive these days.
-Ceol Cadwgon, a Very Good Bartender
Rylian’s Questor Compendium:
“Ceol is one lucky bastard. If he wasn’t so fun to be around, then I’d have punched him in his blond-haired, blue-eyed pretty boy face. But, maybe not because then I’d have either an angry Eclipse after me or a sad Eclipse. The latter of which, I would not wish on anyone because you’d have pretty much everyone else hounding you and more importantly, the guilt of causing her to cry in the first place.
But even if that doesn’t affect you, the de glemtes rige has nothing on her family coming after your ass. Her brother and her old fireteam are terrifying. Expect to find a knife on your bedside cabinet and a pipebomb hidden in a breakfast that someone else made while you were asleep.”
-Rylian Quinn, Retired Questor
