Liberation of Slaves (Kihia, Axil, and Yours truly)

It was great and all that Xavier brought down probably one of the highest value targets on their mission by himse- ermh, with assistance…. (Thanks Kihia) But now he had to get her to a secure location before she came to and possibly tried to make a break for it. He walked up to her and for a moment, glanced at his arms. Yeah, this might work… Getting to his knees, kneeling in front of her, and pulled her over his back by her arms. It was awkward to hold her, and her chest pressed onto his back uncomfortably. As he stood back up her hat toppled off of her head, so to keep it from happening once more, Xavier flipped it onto his head, and adjusted it accordingly. It look kinda nice on him almost like it belonged.

“I guess I’ll just walk towards…” Xavier glanced at the massive tear through the wall of crates that was left in the wake of destruction from what he could only assume was Kihia’s doing, and how it robbed him of his glory moment, and chance to fight a worthy opponent. He gripped his nose pinching it in frustration. He dragged her forward slowly. “Dang… you’re heavier than you look, Scarlet…” he muttered under his breath for the worry that she might hear him in her slumber. He heard her mumble something but for the most part she was silent and motionless. He approached his guild mates, looking amongst their body count and almost felt jealous, but his battle-readiness was boiling down for once. Xavier tripped over a downed man’s arm and found himself being crushed under Scarlet’s weight. The kid just could carry her effectively. “Um… a little help?” He said to anyone who could hear him.

Cyrus waltzed over to his smaller friend after his Rift ability had dispelled. He lifted Scarlet off of Xavier and shackled her with restraints made out of his own clouds. He helped his friend off the ground and motioned for the two of them to make their way back to Kihia. As they walked by, he gazed at the collateral damage. Broken boxes, a snow covered harbor, and lots of unconscious slavers.  Boy did they have some explaining to do to Zuo when they got back to the guild. Cyrus let out a slight sigh as he thought of what the repercussions might end up being. Looking up he quicky changed his expression to a smirk at Kihia.

"A Slayer huh? Well that's new isn't it? What exactly happened with this whole thing then?" he inquired interested in hearing the Ice-Mages answer. After receiving the information which he so desired he quickly turned around and faced the ship, which had not left the harbor thanks to the efforts of the mages. He began running through processes and scenarios in his head. They had probably knocked out all the enemies on the ship, but you could never be too sure. Also they had no clue where the slaves were being held, so they couldn't exactly act quickly without being noticed by potential accomplices nearby. This was an interesting situation they had found themselves tied up in. They had technically won, but the challenging and strategy had just begun, and Cyrus was prepared to face the problems that lay before them now. Cyrus vocalized his concerns, "So what exactly are we doing now. I have some ideas to help us get the slaves found and out, but I'm wondering what you're guys' take on this is."

Kihia stood there for a moment and watched as Xavier came over with Scarlet, slumped over his back and tripped over one of the downed slavers and was seemingly crushed by Scarlets weight. Before he could react Cyrus walked over and aided his team mate. “Good work at defeating Scarlet by yourself Xavier… You certainly did well today… a testament to both Clustering Wishes and our Guild…” Kihia then watched as Cyrus shackled Scarlet and placed her amongst the various unconscious slavers, he then heard Cyrus’s question about the magic he had just used. Kihia remained silent for a moment before lifting his left arm up and turned his left forearm into pure white ice. “I am now the Ice Demon Slayer… I was visited by an Ice Archangel… at a time of peril… he gave me this power hand has trained me to use it as an evolution from my ice make…”

He then heard Cyrus’s words about if they had any ideas how they should proceed in finding the slaves. Kihia thought for a moment then frowned, “I have none, but I feel it is best if I stay here and keep watch over these slavers… we probably took out most of the crew they need to run the ship…” Kihia then held both his hands out palm up and formed two flare guns out of holy ice. He tossed one over to Cyrus, “use this to Signal if you found them… I will use mine to signal for the authorities to arrive… Today Gentlemen… you two will be the Heroes of this mission…”

When Cyrus removed the woman crushing him from his back and handcuffed her, he looked down on her while she was unconscious, and realized he wasn’t even sure of how that fight began, just the final shot he took. Her hat slid down in front of his eyes while he contemplated this, and he adjusted it so he could see again, the previous though wiped from his mind like irrelevant data. “Sorry, Scarlet. I think I’m going to be keeping your hat.” It wasn’t really his color, size or style, but he found oddly fun to wear, and that was all the incentive he needed. “Thanks Cyrus.” Then he listened intently on Khia’s little confession. “Woah, that’s… awesome. I’m sure you’ve been given the power and responsibility speech plenty, so I’ll spare you the details and just trust you. Besides I can’t take all of the credit for the big catch, you’re little upgrade is already paying off nicely.” He said giving an honest wink and smile.

He watched as Kihia tossed Cyrus an ice-flare gun of some description, trying his best not to question exactly how it works if flares require fire and etc, etc. “Alright. Since we don’t know how many accomplices they have, we ought to branch out and search a wide area to be safe. We’re all capable of holding our own should some problem arise. I’m going to search the boat, and hope it yields results, don’t bother giving me a flare you’ll know if something is up.” He tipped the captain’s hat to the gentlemen and politely made a dash from the boat left without a crew bobbing in the waves of the surf.

Cyrus nodded to both of his teammates. He smiled, "I just get to show off a lot today don't I?" infiltration on the sea is relatively easy for me. He walked over to the edge of the dock and jumped in the water. His body dissolved as he circled around the water in the bay. Just his luck. This boat wasn't quite up to par, and there was a very minor leak caused most likely by the commotion going on outside. As he traveled through the water, his body rematerialized in the leaky area, plopping him in inside of the ship. Luckily there was no one else present. Turning around, he saw that there was a sleeping guard near a group of shackled people. The slaves lit up when they saw the mage, but he quickly motioned for them to shush. He snuck up on the sleeping guard, and struck him over the head with his word. Once he had made sure he was knocked out, the mage moved over to the slaves, unshackling them using a key made of clouds. After he had finished he began to lead them up the stairs to the top of the ship. Clearly the noise or so many people moving was too great. He heard footsteps overhead, and all he could do was hope that one of his teammates would catch the assailants before they reached him. If not, being in such a condensed area with so many civilians would be a troublesome spot to fight in.

Kihia watched as both Cyrus and Xavier took off towards the ship, he nodded at them and then pointed his own flare towards the sky and pulled the trigger. A bright sphere of magical energy shot out of the barrel and flew into the air acting like a beacon to the surround district of Hargeon. He then opened up his hand has the flare gun dissipated into magical power. He then looked down and surveyed the scene, The Military should be here soon… just have to make sure they cannot escape… Kihia adopted a wide stance and extended his hands towards the area that was covered in snow. He then swept his arms towards the majority of the pirates, excluding scarlet. The Snow flew off the ground and swept right between Kihia and the unconscious slavers. He then pointed his left hand outward and withdrew his right hand inward, this caused the snow to start wrapping around the slavers until he formed a dome of swirling snow, he then hardened the dome into a dome of solid ice.

He then placed Carver right next to scarlet, forming a line of rope out of ice he thoroughly tied them together leaving no room to be able to move. At this Kihia nodded and walked a few steps away before turning around and channel a bit of his magical power to his right foot. "Cage of the frozen Angel…” At this he stomped his foot on the ground causing the cage of ice to erupt around Scarlet and Carver preventing them from having a chance to escape.

Rushing up on to the deck of the ship, Xavier frantically searched the upper levels to see if anyone was there, but they seemed to be abandoned, and his search was fruitless. He heard a distinct splash on the starboard side of the ship as the Cyrus dived into the sea bravely. “Your skill set only seems to grow as the day goes on.” Unlike how Xavier particularly specialized in doing lots of damage, Cyrus had his act under tight wraps. But perhaps he could help yet. Descending, he made his way to the lower decks as Cyrus freed those who were tied up, and could see that he tried to escort them quietly away from a slumbering gentleman. He opened a hatch in the floor, and lowered a rope ladder that had been pulled up specifically to prevent the slaves from escaping even if they managed to free themselves of the chains. In the darker area down below it was easy to get everyone’s attention, using his lightning to light up the area and draw attention to himself and the ladder, and gestured to them as they noticed him.

He left before them, seeing that the job was nearing its end, and they had done well, except for the part where they destroyed nearly everything, but to be honest what fun would it be not to do so? He gazed up at the sky as the flare Kihia shot seemed to be maintaining its last few moments airborne, it almost seemed like a firework, cracking in the sky alone. It was nice to watch, and in time he found himself dwelling on the moments before. Something had… overtaken him earlier. What was it…

Cyrus saw a low light. It appeared that Linx had provided an escape. Once Cyrus had made sure everyone was off the ship, he broke apart the leaky spot in the hull of the ship, causing it to begin to flood. He sunk back into the water in his composite form. A slaver walked down, one of the last on the ship, realized the position they were in and then ran upstairs presumably to warn everyone to get off, where they'd be intercepted by the Rune Knights that were most likely starting to arrive. That was that. Cyrus 'swam' back to shore and regained his physical form.

The Rune Knights had, in fact, apprehended the four or five slavers still conscious, and were loading all of the slavers onto vehicles to be sent to the prisons. Meanwhile, other Rune Knights were dealing with the slaves themselves, asking about where they were living and how to get them back home. Cyrus was conversing with one of the Rune Knights when a little girl ran up to him. She passed him a thin piece of cloth. Inside of it was a collection of herbs and spices, along with one eerily black berry. By the time the mage looked back up, the girl was gone. He sighed to himself, "I always get the weird rewards for quests don't I?" the mage said, pitying his confusion. Either way, he accepted it, and decided to just head back to the guild, a job well done.

Kihia watched as the rune knights arrived and asked Kihia for a rough debriefing. Kihia then spent the next few minutes reporting the operation to the Rune Knight captain, when he got to the part of how he ended up destroying the numerous empty crates. After he got done debriefing he received a small scolding from one of the officers and ordered him to dispel the cages of ice he had formed to keep the slavers imprisoned. “Thank you for your Assistance Sir Avoa, We will look forward to working with you in the future, but please try and keep civilian property intact next time.” Kihia’s right eyebrow twitched as he bowed to the Rune Knight officer, “ My Apologies, I will do my best to help clean up this area… my companions safety always comes first but I will make amends for any damages I may have caused…” The Rune Knight gently smiled and begun to turn away when he suddenly remembered something, “Ah, if I am not mistaken you had asked us to relay to you any information we may uncover about a particular mercenary group?” At that Question Kihia tensed giving the answer visually to the Officer, “Well as it turns out we may have located their main base of operations… I don’t know why you have interest for such a group… but becareful…” Kihia simply nodded, “What of the men you had taken custody of…?”

At this the Officers eyes furrowed as he handed Kihia a slip of paper which he accepted, “Well, as it turns a week after their incarceration, all of them were somehow assassinated, and all investigations turned up nothing.” At this Kihia formed his hands into fists as he turned around and started walking away from the group, in a thoroughly sour mood.