Chapter 7 - We Met New People Too
When we were on hunts, we weren't always the only ones. Most hunts were open requests, right, so sometimes we had to help other people, or other people helped us. The money was split so that was fine, but some of the people were jerks. We ended up, a few times, forgetting the bounty and fighting the people we were supposed to be working with. Those times were... well, not nice.
One time, we were on a hunt, hunting a pack of dragons. I didn't know dragons moved in packs. I always thought they were loners, to be honest. Shows what I know. Vincent explained it to me, these dragons hadn't actually made any, like, violent actions against anyone. But someone was concerned about them or something. Money's money, I figured. Vincent thought the same.
"Mornin' Yoshi," Vincent greeted me as soon as I walked into the kitchen. He'd even made me a cup of coffee and got me some toast.
"Mornin'," I yawned, sitting down next to him at the table. He'd left all the info for the hunt out. Not just the notice either, some maps and pictures of the place we had to go, info on the dragons, stuff like that. I never understood how he could always be so organised. I must have been up early, too, since usually it was all gone by the time I was up.
"I'm running a bit late today," Vincent admitted. "Only got up twenty minutes ago."
"Wouldn't worry 'bout it," I said. I had a mouthful of coffee while he started sorting through all the info.
"I don't think we're the only ones on this hunt," he said. "Guy who gave me the notice said it was popular. I'm kinda glad, since the dragons look tough."
"We've fought dragons before," I said around a mouthful of toast. He grinned at me.
"Shouldn't talk with your mouth full," he chided. I just grinned at him. "And yeah, but never six or seven on them."
"I guess," I agreed. I leant across and kissed his cheek once before going to wash my dishes. I didn't expect him to follow me and stand right behind me, his hands on my hips. "Hey hey hey, I'll drop the dishes," I said, joking. I didn't mind. I really didn't mind.
"Who cares?" He said. I laughed, then turned around to kiss him properly.
"You know, if we stay like this we'll never get that bounty," I said, pulling back slightly. He laughed, but agreed with me.
"Yeah, I guess," he said.
"There's time later," I commented, winking at him. He laughed again. "Anyway, ready to go?"
"Yeah, just about," Vincent said. I could practically see his brain going over the details. I was just thinking, 'Dragons, sword, stabby'. I was really far too impulsive. Still am. Once Vincent gave the go-ahead, we teleported to the location.
Someone else had got there first, though. And they weren't having that much luck. As soon as we arrived, the guy was thrown straight past us, and we were forced to start defending ourselves. Vincent stepped in front of me and threw up a barrier to protect us from the fire breath while I checked on this guy who was fighting them.
"You alright?" I asked, helping him to his feet. He was pretty tall, about as tall as I was, with dark, messy hair with a big blonde-ginger streak in his fringe, that he'd styled into a side fringe. He was pretty well built, but still kinda thin. Wearing a black t-shirt with some logo on the front, and skinny jeans. He was also holding a katana. Kinda like one of my swords, but mine had no guard on it.
"Yeah, cheers," he said. "You after the bounty too?"
"You know it," I said. "Vincent, what's the plan?"
"We can't take them down one at once," Vincent said, still holding that barrier. "They'd slaughter us. We have to split up."
"Can you manage that?" I asked this new guy. "I'm Yoshimitsu, by the way, and he's Vincent."
"Eddie, nice to meet you, and I'm pretty sure I can, yeah," the guy, Eddie, said. I nodded and turned, charging one of the dragons.
Now, you'd think going into a full-on-attack against a dragon would be a terrifying experience, but it was nothing new for me and Vincent. It was just another dragon. I'd fought dragons before. I knew what to expect, like when they open their mouths wide, they're gonna spit fire at us, or when they turn away they're gonna try to swat us with their tails. Nothing new, nothing original.
So I ran to the dragon, I think it was the biggest of the lot. Shiny blue scales and kinda big wings. As far as dragons went, it was a prettier one... well, as pretty as dragons can go, I guess. I jumped up, right over its head and twisted in the air, which is pretty damn difficult to do, and blasted a wave of lightning from my hand, my arm tingling. It still felt a bit weird, using elements. Anyway, the electricity hit it in the middle of its back, but I dunno if it did anything, since it just roared and tried to hit me with its tail. It quickly moved my sword to defend, just so its tail-spikes wouldn't rip me to shreads.
I figured Vincent and Eddie were having the same issues - fighting a dragon alone is tougher than fighting one alongside your friend. I jumped on to the dragon's head, using its confusion to look at Vincent and Eddie. Vincent wasn't doing too badly, he was just dodging everything the dragon could throw at him, and not attacking. No clue what his strategy was. Eddie had done the same as me - he's charged the dragon, but I'm guessing he wasn't as agile as me, since he was sporting a few cuts, and a nasty looking cut on his arm. I jumped over to his side.
"Okay, stay still a sec," I said. I fired ice at the dragon, coating its eyes so it was distracted. Then I turned. Another cool ability of mine - healing. This one is one of the few I can't really explain. It's not really healing, it's accelerating the natural healing process. It's more like time acceleration, I guess. Anyway, I put my hand on his arm, and focused on the power. This one made my hand tingle as well, but not electric-tingle, just... weird-tingle. A few green sparks jumped from my hand on to his cut, sealing the wound. It just looked like a scar now.
"Cheers," he said. "Wanna give me a hand against this thing?"
"Err, Vincent said we'd get wiped out if we went for them one at once," I said. Surely Eddie heard that.
"And we're not - your friend's going for that one, and when we've dealt with this one, you can go help him while I go for another one, and run it like that," Eddie suggested.
"Sounds like a plan, let's do it. I'll get its head," I said, nodding.
"Oh sure, give me the spiky end," Eddie complained.
"I have to put up with fire breath and teeth," I pointed out. Eddie grinned, then ran around the dragon, heading for its tail. I looked at the head, the ice had been shattered off, and its eyes were bleeding.
"Oh, lovely," I muttered. I couldn't just rely on dumb luck this time, so I pulled out my second sword. This sword was a special one. It was called Shinkuu. I got it a while ago, when I could actually stand Alex. He took me to this place, where he told me I'd get a weapon that'd be unique to me. He was right. All I have to do is say the sword's name and it changed. So I did.
"Rise into nothing... Shinkuu!" And the sword changed. It's like it had a mind of its own, and it moves to my shoulder and kinda... well, fuses with my arm. The blade wraps around my arm, loops at my wrist and forms a kind of wrist-blade. I can make the blade either flaccid, ribbon-like, or turgid, like a normal sword blade. I charged back into the action, new weapon read. I kicked off the dragon's snout and flicked my wrist, the blade losing its integrity and whipping down at the dragon's head. Shinkuu was also sharp. Just from that one hit, I'd opened a gash in the dragon's face.
"Hey, you have one of those weapons too!" I heard Eddie shout. "Check mine!" I looked at him.
"Pierce, Tsuki Kiba!" His sword changed too. His wasn't a sword at all any more, though. It turned into a Guan Dao. I had one of those, too, but mine was just a Guan Dao. His was... well, it was impressive. The blade was slightly curved and kinda... glowed. The divide between the blade and the staff was pretty ornate too. It looks kinda like a wolf head, but... a tribal one? Abstract? Not a normal wolf head. The blade came from its 'mouth'. The staff part and the divide were black with silver markings on them. Eddie grabbed his new weapon, and shoved the blade into the dragon's back.
"Yoshi!" Vincent shouted, and my eyes snapped to him. The dragon was advancing on him, and it looked like his barriers weren't holding.
"Eddie, stall this one!" I shouted, running to Vincent. I swerved around the dragon, moving at super speed, and planted the tip of Shinkuu into the ground. That's something else, Shinkuu can extend. It has its limits, but they're not very... well, limiting. I planted the tip into the ground, then looped around the dragon's head, making a kind of collar that stopped it from getting closer to Vincent.
"Thanks, Yoshi," Vincent said, raising his sword. It was glowing, and I knew what he was gonna do. Something Vincent could do, he had this weird power where he can focus a whole load of... I think its some kind of energy or something. Anyway, he focuses it all into his weapon, making it pretty damn powerful. He shot at the dragon like a bullet, driving his sword straight through its head. It wasn't a pretty sight, I'll tell you that. That was one dragon down.
"Phew," Vincent panted. "I need to stop using that."
"No time to worry, Vince," I said, pointing at Eddie. "Go help him while I get the next dragon." He nodded and went to help Eddie, who was holding his dragon at bay by firing these weird glowing orbs at it from his Guan Dao. I ran at another dragon, spinning Shinkuu around myself, building up momentum. That was something I learned from using Shinkuu - more momentum when it's like a whip means more power. I flicked my wrist again, Shinkuu flying at the dragon and cutting open its snout, up to in between its eyes. I guess it got some blood in its eyes, because it started rampaging. Not just at me, either, it was attacking the other dragons.
"Vince, Eddie, come here!" I shouted. Vincent and Eddie looked at me, then had to move when the dragon I was fighting attacked the dragon they were fighting.
"Yoshi, what did you do?" Vincent asked me. He looked stunned.
"I dunno, I cut its head and... it just started going mental," I said.
"Looks like it's seeing red," Eddie said, pointing at its eyes. I looked, so did Vincent, and I couldn't actually see its eyes behind red. Blood.
"So... our bounty's... killing itself?" I asked.
"Looks like it," Vincent said. "The other dragons are attacking each other too."
"Well, that was... um..." I said.
"Easy?" Eddie suggested.
"Lucky, I'd call it," I replied.
The bounty did kill itself, actually. I guess the dragons weren't really a proper pack. Maybe a convenience thing, instead of some kind of link between them. Either way, they turned on each other, and ripped each other apart. I wasn't complaining. Just holding that dragon for Vincent to kill wore me out. Dragon's are pretty hard to hold. They're bloody strong. It was late by the time the dragons had finished attacking each other. You'd think they'd kill each other faster than they did. But no, they took ages. It was dark by the time they'd finished.
"Hey Eddie, you were pretty good out there," I said.
"Cheers. You weren't so bad yourself," Eddie said.
"Thanks," I said, ignoring the apparent arrogance. "Me and Vincent are gonna go back to our house, if you wanna come?" Vincent nodded in agreement.
"Er, yeah, sure, if you don't mind," Eddie said.
"It's fine," I said. "Probably gonna have a few beers or something."
"Good stuff," Eddie said. "Sure it's alright for me to come?"
"Yeah, it's fine," I said. I took Vincent's hand, put my hand on Eddie's shoulder and teleported us back to the house.
So yeah, sometimes we made new friends on those hunts. Eddie was actually a real help sometimes, but... Not yet. There's still more to tell.