A Single, Solitary, Possibly Accompanied Note

Erie raced through the last set of tunnels, the structures twisting and turning with a bizarre sense of manic energy. The black-haired female mage put a burst of strength into her legs, and indeed, her speed increased, allowing her to explode through that final stretch, the final exit appearing before her eyes! Without hesitating for a second, Erie ran through the light and found herself racing into the area where Rapante had formerly lived... and died, as she deduced by spotting his motionless form on the ground nearby, a decent bit of smoke drifting lazily from his back.

What the...? she thought to herself, before her amber eyes locked onto the rest of the room. Knave was standing in the center, crouched slightly in his usual fighting position, while a few inches away from him stood an odd looking man. He was like a weasel, or some kind of rodent, with slicked back tanned hair and the faintest hints of a five o’clock shadow. He wore a simple yet large white coat, decorated with a trim of red flame. His mouth was twisted in a sadistic grin, and he was pointing a still-smoking cigarette at Knave, who remained surprisingly calm and collected despite the situation.

As he detected Erie’s footsteps, the man turned around to face her. “Ahh, yes,” he said smugly, “I forgot you were here too, cutie. You were the one with the little ‘plan’ right? The one this idiotic marimo ruined, correct?”

“...Who-?!” Erie began, but the man interrupted her via raising his other hand quickly into the air, his smirk still grinning. This done, he lifted the hand up, so that it directly covered his face, obscuring it mostly from view. The man then flung his hand through the air as hard as he could, and as he did so a massive amount of magical particles flew through the air, wrapping around his face in something of a protective cocoon. As soon as they had safely taken up this position, they began shifting around rapidly, color flooding into them and reshaping even further, taking the form of.... a face? And not just any face, but that of the rich man who had addressed them back in Landdown, the same man who had given them the job to take down Quick Hands in the first place!

“This more familiar to ya?” the man said, smirking devilishly through their client’s (now revealed to be fake) face.

“...You really played us all for fools, didn’t you?” Erie asked, a frown appearing on her face as she gritted her teeth slightly behind her closed mouth, keeping up the aura of calmness as best as she possibly could, given the circumstances.

“Damn right I did,” the man answered, allowing the facade to vanish, the particles lazily drifting away and dissolving, before bringing his cigarette back to his mouth and clenching it tightly between his teeth, taking another long and satisfied puff, “but, y’know... you really figured it out too quickly, even back there. You sensed something fishy, right? Someone with that kind of intuition isn’t going to be a help to my guild in the long run, so...”

And with that, the man vanished! As Erie and Knave briefly gaped at his action, he reappeared right in front of the black-haired female mage, his hand held aloft into the air and coming down rapidly towards Erie’s forehead, the wind itself being bent due to the speed of the motion! “I’ll have to let ya die here, okay?!” the man cackled as he did so!

Before his palm could land, however, two things happened. Erie put a burst of pressure into her heels, causing her to throw herself backwards slightly, somewhat out of the way of the man’s hand given the time she had to react. In the same amount of time, however, Knave lunged between the two of them, quickly surrounding one hand with pulsating wind and lightning and flinging the hand directly in front of the man’s! The man’s hand came down, clamping down around and gripping Knave’s storm-covered wrist tightly, locking it in place!

“...Hoh?” the man whistled under his breath, as he refused to relinquish his grip on the marimo’s wrist, “so you’ve got more moves than I give ya credit for. Still....” and at this the man allowed a sinister, almost bemused grin to materialize on his face, “that was a damn stupid thing to do, kiddo.”

The entire area that he had gripped with his palm flashed briefly, so quickly that even the man himself might not be able to get a good glimpse of it, before it was filled with a miniature maelstrom of fire and smoke, all in an instant! It was, indeed, an explosion, and it struck Knave’s wrist head on, struggling briefly against the storm before managing to break partially through, searing into the marimo’s nerves and causing him incredible pain as it slightly tore the training bandages around there to pieces!

“GAAAHH!!!” Knave cried as his knees buckled slightly, the marimo dropping down a few inches as the man let go of his wrist, allowing Knave to bring his wrist to his other hand, grasping it carefully and assuaging the pain as best as he possibly could, still wincing from the initial attack.

“Knave!” Erie called out, an edge of worry inching into her voice as she managed to get away from the immediate area where the two mages were fighting.

The man threw his head back up into the air, letting a hyena-esque laugh explode from his lungs and out into the open air surrounding them. “That was awesome, kid! Usually my explosions would’ve taken out your entire wrist, but that storm and those bandages... they’ve got some defensive power to ‘em, right? Or... maybe that storm just has enough offensive power to counter my lil’ explosions... Hmm...” The man gained a serious expression, studying and thinking over the event, but before he could come to an accurate conclusion, the marimo acted!

“Storm Dragon’s...” Knave began, his mental state recovering quickly as he commanded a decent amount of storm to be generated and swirl around his remaining free hand and wrist, “...Turbulent Fist!” He swung the fist up, passing through the air between him and his opponent with ease and colliding violently with the dark mage’s jaw! The man let out a small grunt as a response, as he stumbled backwards, his hand quickly racing up and cupping his jaw, making sure that the damage was as not-severe as he had initially hoped. This done, he allowed his hand to drop, giving his jaw one last rub before returning his attention fully to his adversary.

“Not bad, kid!” he laughed again, “not bad at all! Didn’t expect you to recover that quickly, but you seem like the idiotic sort, so I suppose mangling your wrist like that should only keep you for so long.... Ah, what the hell? I haven’t had a really fun fight in a while. Let’s go all out...” The man glanced around the area, a look of disapproval on his features, “...but this area kinda blows for a hardcore fight. So, let’s just fix that up.” And with that, he placed his hands onto the ground, the light beginning to flash from his palms once more. “GRAND BURST!” he cried, and explosions flew from his palms again, rending the very earth beneath them and causing the entirety of the floor surrounding them to collapse!

Knave and his opponent each found themselves on one of the remaining bits of rock, now more boulders than an actual floor, as they slowly toppled down into what appeared to be a much more extensive cave system, albeit one that looked almost unexplored, as if the guild had never noticed that it was actually there, or was saving it for further expansion if need be. After a few seconds of this tumbling, both combatants leaped off their respective rocks and landed safely on the cave floor below, the debris crashing down and shattering all around them as they faced each other once more. Knave’s damaged wrist now had a small layer of storm constantly swirling around it, acting as something of a makeshift bandage, while the weasley man appeared perfectly fine, and was even taking another drag from his cigarette as he waited for the fight to resume.

Up above, Erie peeked her head over the edge of the hole, peering down below and, to her shock, only just being able to make out the figures of Knave and his opponent down below. As she continued to strain her eyes in order to make them out, Gopher flew up beside her, before allowing his wings to disappear and dropping to the floor next to her. “Can you even see what’s going on down there?” the cat asked her.

“Barely,” Erie sighed, “can you see any better than I can?” She directed her gaze at Knave’s feline companion, watching him carefully for his response. The cat looked carefully down at the two combatants, and gave a small nod.

“Yep,” Gopher answered, “it’s a tiny bit harder to make out, but I think I can-”

“Hey, you guys!” Duncan’s voice called out as he ran through his own entrance into the room, still racing at top speed until he noticed the hole in the ground! The barfighter came to a skidding stop, a good deal of pebbles and other debris flying from the area around his feet and into the chasm lying before him. The purple-haired male mage gaped, glancing down it himself. “What the hell happened here?!”

Erie sighed once more, rubbing her forehead with one hand. This is gonna be tougher to explain than I expected, she thought to herself, before looking upwards to face Duncan once more. “Just keep watching what’s going on,” she said simply as a magical raven began to disengage itself from her being, so as to see the battle a bit better than relying on the cat’s explanations, “we’ll explain it once this is all over.”

“Storm Dragon’s....” Knave howled as the marimo lunged forward, the force his movement causing the area around him to crack and explode slightly, leaving a slanted crater and a small burst of smoke in his wake as he surrounded his free fist with storm once more, aiming it in a punch for his adversary, “...Turbulent Fist!”

“Burst Palm!” the dark mage cackled in return, his hands flashing in a flamboyant manner throughout the air, before he flung one forward in a standard palm strike, which promptly collided with the marimo’s own fist, as an explosion emerged from the palm in question, the storm and flame mixing together, before exploding once more as one, while the two fighters lunged back, avoiding the influx of magical damage that lay before them!

“Heh!” Knave laughed as he landed on the ground, his feet skidding on the ground briefly before he managed to halt himself. The marimo then stood up fully, facing the dark mage who stood a few feet away, having been knocked backwards as well, also stopping himself in a similar manner to Knave. “You’re a pretty strong guy!” he called out, “who the hell are you, anyway?”

“Name’s Kagurin,” the dark mage laughed, reaching up and removing his cigarette, inspecting it. Upon noticing that it had finished burning, he shrugged indifferently, and tossed it other side, having no more use for it, “and you’re pretty damn strong yourself. I mean, not as strong as I am, but... I get to use a little trick on ya.” The hyena-like grin and laugh returned, just as strong as they had been when they had last been used.

Knave titled his head to the side, not comprehending the dark mage’s meaning. “Trick?” he asked, “the hell’s that? Is it the same thing as a town?”

There was an awkward moment of silence as Kagurin took in what his opponent had just said, not entirely believing that he had been matched up with someone filled with such naivete. Finally, the dark mage seemed to give up on holding an intelligent conversation with Knave, as he stood back up to his full height, practically towering over the young Dragon Slayer. “You dunno what the hell a trick is?” he asked, lifting both hands to his sides and extending them outwards, as if waiting to grab something with both hands, or engaged in an odd sort of prayer, “well then... a trick is something... like this!”

“BURST WEBBING!”

From directly between Kagurin, a massive explosion occurred. But not on the ground, rather, it was positioned exactly in the middle of the area, as if it was connected in some way to the dark mage’s back. And rather than simply remaining as an explosion, the firey inferno reformed itself into numerous spikes that whipped around the dark mage and flew towards his marimo opponent, crissing and crossing until it was they appeared almost tangled together, but still spread out enough to limit any attempt at avoiding them useless! Knave reacted quickly, charging forward into the whips of explosion and moving as quickly as he could, managing to dodge the first few rounds of the attack!

“It’s useless!” Kagurin howled as more and more of the whips began to converge upon Knave, all looking to strike him through and skewer him! “No matter what you do, you can’t avoid these!”

“Then I’ll just go through them!” Knave called out, his voice filled with pure defiance and his eyes alight with determination, ready to do just as he had said!

“Eh?”

“Storm Dragon’s...” Knave began, his entire body slowly beginning to be wrapped up in storm, cloaking the entirety of his form in a protective layer of wind and lightning, though it actually did not make contact with him, as it slowly took on the shape of a large funnel around the entirety of his body! “....Whirlwind!” Knave’s feet left the ground, and the marimo was lifted up into the air, the storm funnel around him colliding directly with all the storm whips at once! Knave let out a loud cry, pushing his magical power to the maximum, the storm straining against the pure force of the flame!

Finally, after several seconds of this brutal struggle, the storm gave way! However, it had done its work, as the opposing flame whips had been more than halved in number. As soon as Knave’s foot touched the ground once more, the marimo put another burst of speed, charging straight through the explosion whips! Knave didn’t let his mouth make a single sound as the explosions tore through him, leaving long bloody gashes along his shoulders, arms, sides, and legs, and he finally pushed through the last of them, ending up right in front of Kagurin, who could only recoil in shock!

“Storm Dragon’s... Downburst!” Knave howled, his leg becoming surrounded with a massive amount of storm! The marimo put the last of his strength and magical power into this attack, forcing himself to spin through the air at an incredible speed, so much so that he appeared to be a blur! At the end of this movement, the marimo completed his final arc, and brought his kick directly into Kagurin’s shoulder!

The dark mage let out a cry of pain as his shoulder popped, becoming dislocated from the pure force of the attack alone! He toppled backwards, collapsing onto the ground and skidding for a goodly distance, a cloud of dust and debris slowly trailing after him as he did so! This finished, he finally came to a stop a good few feet away from Knave, who dropped to the ground as well, panting heavily, blood spilling freely from his wounds. As the marimo attempted to take a step forward, all the energy suddenly seemed to drain from his body, and he collapsed, using all the effort in his body to keep himself on one knee, still looking to where his opponent had landed.

After a few seconds of his own, Kagurin slowly pushed himself to his feet, a small bit of blood leaking from his shoulder and mouth, and his coat was heavily dirtied by Knave’s attack. He stood up fully once more, wiping the blood away, and stood facing the barely conscious Knave. His smile slowly returned to his face, and he took a few steps towards the marimo, lifting up his hand. “Well, well,” he said to himself, “that was a fun little battle, but...” A small explosion came into existence on his palm, “...this little battle is about to end.”

However, before the dark mage could rush forward to deliver the finishing blow, the quick movement of something small and dark was detected at the corner of vision... and then he sensed something sharp nearing his neck. Kagurin halted, refusing to move, as the raven Erie had released crawled up to his shoulder, keeping its beak firmly right next to his neck. Almost immediately after the dark mage noticed this, Erie flew down, Gopher holding her back the back with his own magic activated, while Duncan landed down in a somewhat less graceful fashion, using a simple Genie Spring to cushion his impact.

“Stay away from him,” Duncan said simply, jerking his head towards the magical raven that was prepared to slit the dark mage’s throat should he continue the offensive, “or you know what happens.” Erie gave a small nod, still staring at their now collective opponent.

Kagurin grinned once more, as he flashed his hand throughout the air in a single movement, his hand catching the bird and cutting neatly through it. With a loud squawk, the two halves of the magical raven where flung violently into the air, before they collectively bulged, eventually exploding! As their remnants slowly dissolved, the dark mage turned to look at the two new opponents. “Ah, don’t kid yourselves,” he said in a laid-back tone, “you wouldn’t kill me. Neither of you. And don’t try to fool yourself into thinking differently, cutie, because trust me, I’ve seen plenty of people ready to kill, and you aren’t it.”

“Why, you...” Erie growled, but the dark mage seemed to walk forward in an instant, clapping his hand down upon her head. The female mage froze for a second, surprised by his actions, before Kagurin withdrew his hand and began to walk away, letting out a loud and lazy yawn as he did so.

“I’m done with this battle, anyhow,” the dark mage replied, “it was fun while it lasted, but the job’s done as it is. Quick Hands probably won’t recover from something like this. And besides,” and with this Kagurin glanced back at Knave, still staring defiantly at him as he gripped some of his wounds to hopefully stop the bleeding, “I want to to fight this Dragon kid again. He seems fun.”

And with that, the dark mage walked out of sight, deeper into the cave complex. As soon as he had apparently vanished, Erie, Duncan, and Gopher collectively rushed over to Knave. Gopher reached there first, catching Knave’s neck in a bear (er.. cat?) hug and holding him tight, while Duncan and Erie simply crouched down near him, checking up on his condition. “Are you okay?” all three collectively asked, looking at the marimo with a decent amount of worry.

Knave let a slow smile appear on his face as his eyes drooped slightly, some blood also running down his forehead. “Yeah...” he said, before glancing down at all the wounds around his body, “..so this is... blood loss, huh? Ragius said it was.... Oh, hey, look at all the salamanders and butterflies... why are they all... tango lining...” And with that, the marimo fell forward, his head collapsing onto the floor, the young Dragon Slayer passing out from his injuries...

As Kagurin made his way back from the guild, still navigating through the seemingly endless expanse of tunnels and similar structures, he felt a little buzz in his ear, and the communications lacrima there also began to glow once more. Sighing, the dark mage reached up and tapped it, opening up communications with the person on the other side.

“Is the job done, Kagurin?” Viscia’s voice rang out from the other end, now perfectly emotionless.

“Yep~!” Kagurin said happily, kicking his legs out and taking longer and more playful strides as he walked ever forward, “even met a few interesting kids there too. Seems they’re stronger than I expected. Oh! Might want to tell ol’ Gail-sama that there’s another Dragon Slayer nearby. Should pique his interest at least.”

“Acknowledged.”

“And...” Kagurin paused, wondering if the question he was going to ask would even be answered. Deciding the risk was worth it he proceeded ahead, “do you have any idea where those kids are going?”

“Hmm...” the sound of typing could be heard as Viscia worked on answering his question, “you said they were heading in the opposite directions of the mountains, originally?” Emotion had begun to work its way back into her voice, bit by little bit. Once Kagurin gave the affirmative, she entered another round of typing, before the answer became clear to her. “Well,” she continued, “they should be running into the Bewitching Magical Festival, actually, if they continue on this path.”

“Ech,” Kagurin harrumphed to himself, not pleased with the answer, “damn it. I really wanted to fight ‘em all again. Shame they’ll all get finished off there. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted, right?”

“I suppose so,” Viscia answered, “Now, are you heading back to the branch office or not?”

“On it,” Kagurin groaned as he tapped the communications lacrima, cutting the call of. With that, the dark mage resumed his whistling, now heading for what he believed to be the correct exit...

“Akel-sama,” a random aide said, running up to his heavily armored boss, “we’re almost at the location for the next Festival, sir.”

“Hmph,” the armored man said, dipping his hand into a random bowl full of food and pulling out something. He proceeded to quickly stuff it through the mouth hole in his mouth, and the sounds of chewing were quickly heard, followed by the sounds of gulping. “Any good potential targets here?”

“Well, sir,” the aide said, pressing a small button on the remote lacrima he carried with him. Directly in front of Akel, a small screen popped to life, displaying three images... those of Knave (with Gopher over his shoulder), Erie, and Duncan, “it seems that there are three to four people who are worthy of truly participating, sir.”

“Hm. Most interesting,” Akel said, relaxing slightly, “then let’s get everything in order, old friend of mine. That Clear Note bloke has really paid off in the long term, hasn’t he?”

“Indeed he has, sir.”

“Then set a good damn course,” Akel laughed, his voice taking on an edge of sadistic glee, as if he was truly looking forward to what was going on ahead, and indeed, he did, “let’s have some fun this year. It’ll be a damn good crop, I can feel it. Don’t underestimate a professional’s gut instinct, got that? Never, ever do it.”

“Of course sir,” the aide bowed, his voice carefully controlled so as to not accidentally provoke his boss in any possible way, “that’s why you’re one of the greatest magic hunters in the entire world, correct?”

“Damn straight.”