The Quaint Village
"Just hold out for a little longer Mr. Tetsuga! I'm on my way!" Derrick exclaims as he runs through the village with haste. On Tetsuga's side, the onslaught kept on coming as bullets rippled the air still. "C'mon! Just run out already!" Tetsuga thought to himself as he waited for them to reload. "Crap! We're out!" The bandits say as they looked at their ammunition to see they were all running on empty. Hearing this, Tetsuga develops a slight smirk as it is finally his time to shine. He cracks his neck before peaking out the corner of his cover to attack.
"See how you like 'em!" He says. His arm starts to glow a blue hue again but this time, the hue converts into a glowing blue rope as it latches onto the flintlock that a bandit was using. He pulls it back, bringing the gun with it before whipping it back at them. "Ack!!" The bandits head reels back as the gun smacks him in the face. "Screw the guns! He can't take all of us!!" The other bandits say as they threw their guns away to switch over to their blades as they go in to rush him. Tetsuga runs towards the bandit that got hit by the gun and uses him as a springboard as he leaps onto his face before pushing one of his legs off of it.
A bandit tries to swing at him while he was midair but gets countered as Tetsuga maneuvers himself to kick the sword away before delivering a backspin heel kick. Taking out the bandit as he lands. "Don't mess with us!!" One of them screamed as they rushed in wildly. They swing their sword diagonally but Tetsuga leans to the side to avoid contact before landing a punch to his face. "Back off!" Tetsuga yells before delivering a kick to their chest. Sending them towards the bandit behind them, taking out both in the process. "Rah!" Suddenly, a bandit screamed from behind as they threw a punch towards him.
Tetsuga spins to the side, avoiding the bandit. After failing to land the hit with his fist, the bandit tries to hit him again with his sword as he swings it towards his chest. "Nuh uh!" Tetsuga spoke before blocking the sword by grabbing a hold of their hand before the sword could make contact. He then elbows the bandit in the face before pulling him so they could shield him from the next attack, That attack being another flintlock shot as the bullet hits the bandit that Tetsuga used as a body shield. "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!" The bandit rambles as they struggle to quickly reload their flint lock. Tossing the Injured bandit away, Tetsuga use his magic again and attached the blue rope to the bandits leg and their hand as well.
"Uh oh..." the bandit said before Tetsuga pulled on his leg, grounding him on his. "Take you out on a spin why don't we!" At this point, Tetsuga seemed to enjoy this moment as right after his little quip, he proceeded to pull the bandit through the ground into a spin which knocks down the other bandits within the area due to the magic rope that extended from Tetsuga's hands being tangible. Once he had taken out a majority of the bandits, he released the one he latched onto as they skid on the ground to a stop. "Alright! Who else wants some!" Tetsuga yells, the adrenaline coursing through his body. Then, from the distance, an old challenger comes in as Yurie bolts towards him with fury a plenty. Ready to cut tetsuga down.
"Uh oh!" As Tetsuga sees the incoming Yurie, he thought fast as he quickly approached the bandit he spun around and used him as a hostage bargain as he put him in a headlock in front of himself, hoping to stop Yurie from attacking. "You wouldn't hurt your own men would ya?" Tetsuga asked to receive but one response, an angry shout as not only did Yurie not stop, but he went faster. "Oooohhh.... yeah he's not stopping for you." Tetsuga says before releasing the bandit and kicking him In the direction of Yurie as they screamed in fear. "Aaaahhh!" Yurie shoves the bandit to the side as they land on their face before swinging his saber at Tetsuga.
Tetsuga leans to the side, dodging a diagonal upward strike before sending back a right hook. Yurie drops down, missing the hit before using the hilt of his sword to hit him in the robs. "Argh!" Tetsuga yelled in pain as he clutched his side. Yurie tries to go in for another strike with his sword but Tetsuga intercepts it with his foot as he pushes it away, creating some distance between them. "Do you know how long it took me to get here!?" Yurie starts yelling as he rushes back in. "Probably not long since all you do is steal!" Tetsuga retorts back as he sends a backspin kick at Yurie who grabs his foot with his free hand. Taking this chance, Tetsuga jumps with his free foot and spins, sending his heel towards Yurie's head.
"Bastard!!" Yurie shouts before blocking Tetsuga's heel with his sword then pushing it away. Tetsuga lands onto the floor but recovers with a roll as he gets back up. "Tetsuga! I got it! I got the stuff!" Then from a distance, Derrick comes bolting in with the pyrocetite in his hands. Yurie pulls out a flintlock hidden away in his outfit and then points it towards Derrick. "Always with the flintlocks!" With an exasperated yell, Tetsuga uses his magic yet again to latch onto Yurie's hand and whipping it down, making him miss his shot as the bullet pierces the ground. "Grah! Filthy magic user!!" Yurie screams as Tetsuga tries to pull him in but surprisingly couldn't as Yurie was the one to pull him in.
He pulled back as hard as he could, causing tetsuga to stumble forward right into his line of sight as they swung their sword to cut Tetsuga's head. Thinking fast, Tetsuga leans all the way back as he knee slides under the slice as he watches the blade almost clip his nose. Once he had slid past Yurie, he swept at Yurie's feet with his leg as he knocked him down. "Mr. tetsuga!" Derrick calls for him but fails to notice one of the bandits that got taken out, finally recovering and was now rushing towards him. "Derrick! On your left!" Tetsuga tries to warn but as soon as Derrick could look, he was already tackled to the ground by them. In an attempt to save him, Tetsuga uses his magic to latch onto Derrick and pulls him out of a pin. But while Tetsuga's eyes were away, Yurie takes advantage of it and goes in for another stab attack. "Raaagghh!!" He screams, taking Tetsuga's attention back to him as they see him coming in.
"Not this time punk!" Tetsuga slaps the sword to the side before delivering a headbutt as soon as Yurie had gotten too close. "Argh!!" Yurie yells in pain but while still being dazed, Tetsuga hits him with right then left hook before front kicking him away through the door of a house that was right behind him. "Doesn't feel good doesn't it?" Tetsuga celebrates with a quip but has done so too soon as he gets ambushed from behind as a bandit jumps onto his back and starts strangling him from behind. "Ack! Too soon!!" He screams as his windpipe slowly gets crushed. While Tetsuga was preoccupied by the bandit on his back, the others that he had taken out had slowly recovered and stood back up. "Get!... off me!!"
Tetsuga yells before grabbing the bandit on him and flipping him forwards, smacking him hard to the ground. "Screw the weapons you guys! Just dog pile him! Together!! Raaahhhh!!!" One of the bandits commands before rallying everyone else to start charging towards Tetsuga in an attempt to pile on him. "Woah! Easy! Watch it!" As they all rushed towards him, none could however get a hold of him as Tetsuga weaves through each one of them who tried. While this was happening, Derrick watches the whole thing before glancing at the pyrocetite in his hands. "I ain't done with you yet!" Then from behind the boy, the bandit from earlier tries to grab a hold of him again but this time, Derrick was fast enough to dodge. "Slippery son of a-" the bandit was going to say but fails to as Derrick grabs a handful of dirt and throws it at the bandits eyes.
"Aarggh!! My eyes!" The bandit yells as he frantically tries to rub the dirt out of his eyes. Then, using the same trick he did with the three bandits earlier, he takes out the vial he used and shoves it up his nostrils as it takes him out to sleep. "Ha! Ha!" Derrick laughs in victory before glancing back over at Tetsuga as he struggles to keep the persistent bandits off of him. He looks around for a moment and notices another vial on the ground, right next to a satchel. But looking back to the vial, he recognized what it was. Giving him a burst of inspiration, and a very messy idea. "Mr. Tetsuga! The green vial!" Derrick shouts. Tetsuga hears it and finally remembered the vial he took with him after inspecting Derricks' little laboratory shack. "Aha! Got it!" He says as he dodges another attempt at grabbing him. He stands clear of all the bandits as they all walled up in front of him.
"You bandits stay back! Or else I'll use this! On you!" He says as he goes to reach for his satchel which was not there. "... Where's my satchel?" He says, frantically patting down his sides with no signs of such a thing on him. He then mentally facepalms himself as he assumes that it flew off of him when he threw the bandit off of him. Luckily, Derrick was there to guide him as he pointed it out to him with a shout. "On the ground! In front of you!" Tetsuga looks beyond the wall of slowly approaching bandits to see the satchel and the vial next together on the ground. "You boys mind if you let me through?" He tries to ask politely which was not received so well as they all started bolting it again. "Guess not!" He says as he rushes into them as well.
With not so much of a plan in mind, Tetsuga maneuvers himself through them once again as he dropkicks the first one that got in range, sending them back towards some of them. He then recovers with a slight roll back before sending back a kick to a bandit that almost got too close. "Ough!" They stumble back, giving a chance for another one to try but couldn't as Tetsuga blocks his right hook with his forearm before grabbing his arm with the same arm and twists it in a direction that it wasn't meant to go on. "Aaarrggh!!!" The bandit screams in pain but that wasn't the end of it as Tetsuga then uses him as a body shield as he pushes forward through the remaining bandits with him. Once he reached where the vial was he flips the bandit over him towards the other bandits before grabbing the vial.
"Alright! What now?" Tetsuga questions as he needs a bit of guidance at the moment. Looking up to where Derrick was, he sees him gesturing for him. "Throw it at this!" Derrick yells from his spot as he points towards the Pyrocitite in his hands. Now with a clear directive, Tetsuga prepared to throw the vial towards Derrick. "You think .. you can STOP ME!!?" then from the doorless house, Yurie comes back out. Rage fueling his every step as he rushes towards Tetsuga "again!?" Tetsuga exclaims at Yurie's persistence but notices that Derrick had thrown the Pyrocitite into the air for him to hit. And as things start to narrow with little options left, time starts to slow down a bit as Tetsuga needed to do this in one quick action.
So with one big breath, he shoves Yurie away to create enough distance between them both so he could throw the vial towards the Pyrocitite. "You bastard!!" Yurie screamed in anger as Tetsuga threw the vial Into the air, in a head on collision with the Pyrocitite. Then, as soon as Yurie could get close, the vial smashes into the Pyrocitite and in one quick reaction as if it was instant. The outer shell of the Pyrocitite fracture as it releases the compact gas from within causing a massive explosion that blew everyone away, including some of the houses as the outward force of it was great. Tetsuga gets flown back and lands harshly on the floor along with everyone else. With smoke filling the area, it was still clear that with an explosion like that, everyone was going to be out of the count. Except for one however as Tetsuga looked over to his right, he saw Yurie struggling to get up.
"Nuh uh..." Having none of it already, Tetsuga gets up first and grabs Yurie's saber, then with one decisive motion. He uses the hilt of it and brings it down hard onto Yurie's head. "That's enough outta you!" Tetsuga exclaims as the hit connects and smacks Yurie's head back down to the ground. Knocking him out instantly. Breathing heavily, he looked around as the smoke was clearing. Unconscious bandits, a few blown on houses, but one thing which was certain for him. The battle was done. "Derrick!" Then from the other side of the village, the villagers had come into view as they witnessed the destruction before then with bandits strewn about the floor after receiving the blast of the Pyrocitite. The Cheiftans daughter rushes to Derrick as she helps him up from the floor.
"I apologize for the mess, but it was necessary to stop all the bandits." Derrick says as they watch as the villagers quickly apprehend the unconscious and non unconscious bandits to prevent them from either fleeing or fighting back. But as the girl looked around, her eyes then fell onto Yurie. The man who had killed her father in cold blood. The one that had taken everything from them. Her blood begins to boil as she left Derricks' side and began to approach where Yurie was with a fury unprecedented. And as she got close, she stopped right in front of him. Looming over his downed self as she sees the man before her as nothing more than a pitiful excuse of a man. Two villagers walk to her side as they look upon him as well. "So, this is the man that took our village.... what do you think we should do about him?" They ask.
"Pick him up." With so much emotions fueling her, she orders the two villagers to pick Yurie up so she could see him face to face. They did so with no question as they picked the man up by his arms as Yurie's head hung low. "... my father was a good man... a man that you slain with no remorse! All because you wanted everything! And you may have taken everything but you didn't win! Especially today... for today, we will take back what's ours... and make you feel the pain we felt!" She screams at him. Not knowing if he heard her or not. But it didn't really matter to her. As long as she could tell it to his face, it was enough. Then from the side, Tetsuga came in as they looked over at him. "You?" She says as she looks at him perplexed. "Thought you might wanna use this." He says as he hands her Yurie's saber. She takes it slowly as she looks at it in her hands as now, she had but 2 choices in front of her.
"Yurie the bandit... for killing my father, I have many reasons enough to have your head!" She says as she lifts up the sword and hovers it in front of his head. "You took away the man who raised me... who helped the village become what it was and will still be!!" She says as her eyes couldn't hold back no longer as tears started to flow down her cheeks. "I could kill you right here and right now with your own damn sword!! Just like how you did so my father!!..." She screams as her head hangs low. The other villagers around her start to gather as they couldn't bear to sit back and not watch. Silence filled the air as everyone could do nothing but stare and await the decision that she would make. But her decision surprises them as she slowly lowers the sword before finally dropping it to the ground. "... but I won't... because to do so would be to act like you... and a man such as yourself... does not have the right to death." She says with clenched teeth as she wiped her tears with arm and raised her head up high. She looks back over to everyone behind her as the rising sun starts to rise over the horizon. Casting but a yellow sky above them all.
"Father... if you can hear or see me from above.... I hope this is enough to avenge you..." she says as the decision was made. The villagers looked amongst themselves with a smile on their faces as they knew.... they had taken back their quiant village.
...
"Are you sure you two dont want to stay? You both are more than welcome." The Cheifans daughter who wad now promoted as the village's new cheiftan say as she was now going to see the two off. "It's fine. I think Veridia's got some inn's I could hang out in." Tetsuga says, declining the offer. "Sorry again for the destruction. It wasn't our intention to do so." Derrick apologizes as he couldn't foresee how big the blast radius of the Pyrocitite was. "It's alright. The place needed renovating anyways. Now that we have extra hands to put to work, then it'll be rebuilt in no time." She says as they all glance back towards the village as they see all the villagers putting the captured bandits to work as they help lug around the materials around the village. "Gotta say. Making the bandits work for stuff had really gotta sting on their ego." Tetsuga spoke with a chuckle. Finding it amusing to see the irony of their punishment.
"Anyways, if you two ever need a place to stay, just come by here. After all, we can't really thank you both enough for saving our village." She says with a grateful smile. "By the way, I believe we haven't really properly introduced one another did we?" Derrick points out as they never got her name during all that time. "That's right! In that case. I'll go first." She says as she extends her hand out for them. "My name is Amelia Sacron. Daughter of Felix Sacron." She says. "Derrick Barnes! Alchemist by trade!" Derrick reintroduces himself as he shakes her hand. "Tetsuga. Katsugoyo Tetsuga. Wandering traveler." Tetsuga went to Introduce himself next as he shook her hand right after Derrick. "A pleasure to meet you both." She says with a smile. "We should probably get going now. Wouldn't want to keep you from your cheifly duties." Tetsuga says as he makes her chuckle. "Alright then. Farewell you two. Safe travels!" She bids them goodbye as the two make the trek back home.
"So... does this mean we're partners now?" After making it a fair bit away from the village, Derrick begins to make some light conversation with Tetsuga as he asks if their little escapade earlier had now bonded them to be partners. "Woah, slow your roll there kid. I don't usually do these kinda stuff on the daily so I don't think we're partners." Tetsuga tells him as he makes Derrick think about it more. "I see.... how about as friends?" He asks which made Tetsuga think this time as he places a finger on his chin. "Hmm.... yeah. Sure let's go with that" tetsuga says with a smirk as he ruffles Derricks' hair with his hand. "Ha! Ha! Splendid! Then would you like to hear about why the Pyrocitite exploded like it did earlier!?" Now with a newfound excitement as well as a new friend, Derrick couldn't wait long for him to start bestowing all his knowledge upon Tetsuga. "Don't push it kid." He says. Shooting him down bluntly. Though, later he would find that to be pointless as Derrick would do so regardless as they both walk down the beaten forest path. Awaiting whatever the day was gonna throw at them both. Thus, concluding their short escapade within the quaint village in the woods.
....
Back at the village, the villagers walk about while the bandits slave away at reconstructing the damaged buildings. Over at a specific part of the village, can be seen the three bandits that were tasked to capture Derrick now working construction as the leading bandit and Craig carried the construction materials while the lazy one of them struggled with pushing a crate full of cement bags. "I can't believe we have to work in construction now! This sucks!" Craig complains as his back has started to hurt from all the work being done. "You're!... one to!... talk Craig!..." the lazy one says as he still struggled with moving the crate. "Pipe down you two. Just be glad they didn't decide to kill us." The leader among them says, pointing out the good from their situation. "Hey, whatever happened to Yurie?" Craig asked since it had been a while since he or the others have seen him especially after the whole fight went down. "He's... probably getting... what he deserves... right now! Freaking hell why do I always get the heavy stuff!!" The lazy one assumes before starting to yell his complaint to nobody in particular.
But as they spoke of Yurie, the man himself had been sent to the cell house that he had made for the villagers, to rot away for the rest of his life. But unbeknownst to the villagers and Amelia, Yurie was nowhere to be seen within the cell. In fact, he was already long gone from the village as he was now running through the forest as fast as he could. "They think they can stop me! I am Yurie! The greatest bandit to ever live!! I will rebuild and I'll kill everyone in that stupid village!!" He rambles as he runs through the forest with nothing but the clothes on his back. But before he could run any more, the rustling of bushes catches his attention as he stops for a moment. "Who's there!?" He yells. Demanding for whoever to come out and face him. To which they did, but the face he saw was not one he wanted to see especially after what happened.
"Where is the boy." The mysterious figure says as he walks out from the bushes. Meeting Yurie face to face. "You.... I couldn't get the boy. Someone came in and ruined everything! But I can get him back! Just give me time to rebuild my crew and I can-" Yurie tried to explain his failure but the mysterious figure cut him off before he could finish. "So you mean to tell me you failed." They say as it sends chills down Yurie's spine. "Y-yes but I can-" but before he could say anything else, the mysterious figure disappears then reappears behind him with a sword outstretched to the side like a phantom. "... unfortunate." They say as Yurie slowly falls to his knees as blood starts to leak out of his mouth, then his neck before finally a fountain of blood shoots out. Staining the green grass red with his blood. "I'll see to it that I get the boy myself.... clearly hiring bandits to hunt him was a mistake on my part." The figure says as they sheathed their sword before walking away. Leaving the bandit to choke on his own blood.