Chef Rescuers

It was early morning and Jin was busy cooking in the tavern, he was preparing breakfast as it was his duty as a chef. After becoming the guild’s ace and receiving the dryad mark not to mention getting married, things had almost returned to normal. Sure there were the occasional visits from his wife and right now Kaya wasn’t with him as she usually was. Kaya had been receiving special treats from Mrs. Jin so she was quite happy. Jin assumed it would be better for the two to bond and he could focus on the cooking that way so, win win. It took him a few hours and he was finally done with the cooking. He came outside to the bar and sat down where a red velvet cake awaited him. He picked up the plate and started eating, before long a flyer was placed in front of him.

Jin looked at the flyer and then at the bar tender who had placed it in front of him, ”gwhat?”. Jin asked with a mouth full of red velvet cake, he meant to ask ‘what?’. ”Sophie came earlier and left this for you. She said you should probably take that chef cook with you too”, the bar tender explained. Jin nodded in reply as he continued eating while his eyes scanned the paper for more details. ”So those pesky vulcans are troubling people? Kidnapping ladies, jeez.. these creatures have no dignity” he thought to himself as he almost finished his cake. After finishing up the cake, he stood up from the table to look around for Magna. Kaya was still up in his room with his wife, ”I’ll get her after I ask Magna”, he decided as he continued searching for his chef friend.

Maiden Snatcher:

Magna, the other chef in Black Rose, was doing what all good chefs do and that was cook. However, he wasn't cooking for people. Nor was he cooking for himself. Well, not for hunger reasons anyway. No, instead he was cooking in order to try out some new recipe ideas. Currently, he was trying to improve his seafood recipes as he didn't have that big a repertoire in that respect. Well, not of his own recipes any. He knew dozens of other people's recipes that he'd picked up on his travels. Now he was back on the island it made sense to try and discover new recipes. So that was what he was doing.

He was currently staring at a can of mackerel. There had to be something he could do with this. He looked around his room for inspiration and saw a burger bun. Inspiration struck and he opened up the can and drained the juice into a bowl. He mixed breadcrumbs, mackerel, onions and eggs and lightly fried them with some salt and pepper using the poelle technique to make the edges crispy. He mixed ponzu with the mackerel juice and potato starch that been diluted with water to make a sauce. His keen sense of smell and hearing identified the burger as being ready and he flipped it out with a spatula onto the bun. He poured over the thick sauce and nodded. The burger smelled delicious and it was sizzling nicely. The juice that remained in the burger was soaking into the burger softening it further and making it easier to eat.

It was at that point that he saw Jin outside and called out to him. "Hey Jin. Want to try a new reciped I just thought up?"

As he looked around the guild the familiar voice caught his attention as he turned to look at Magna. The scent of delicious food was in the air and despite that he didn’t suspect it would be Magna’s doing. He waved at the chef, greeting him: ”Yo Magna!”. Before he could take another step he noticed Kaya run right past him and towards Magna as she yelled:”Maggy’s Food!! Gimme Gimme!!”. She sprinted across the guild hall and came to a halt right next to Magna, pulling on his pants to give her the food. Jin walked towards the two as Kaya continued to ask Magna for the food. ”Didn’t Fira give you something to eat?” he said looking at Kaya who was apparently too focused on the food. Fira Evensong, was the name of Jin’s bride who had now begun to live with him after the ritual.

Having become an ace, Jin had now the dryad mark that he wore proudly. He even began dressing differently since he wasn’t wearing what he usually did. This time his shirt was sleeveless and he wore long gloves that covered most of his arms but the upper parts of it. The right part of his arm that had the new dryad mark was visible to one and all. He did say that the dryad mark would be the symbol of his pride. His shirt was white and the gloves were contrasting black, the trousers were black in color and underneath were white and black sneakers along with his usual accessory that he always wore.

He sniffed the food that was freshly prepared as he looked at Magna, ”This smells amazing, mind if I take a bite?”. He recalled that he was looking for Magna for a completely different reason. He extended his hand that held the flyer as he broke a small piece of the bun and gave it to Kaya who was growing restless by now. He then took another small piece and bit it as rich flavor exploded inside his mouth. ”I’ve never tasted something like this before, it’s just magnificent” he said as he enjoyed the taste.

Magna smiled as Kaya ran in asking for his food. It seemed she wanted some of his food. He was quite happy about that. She seemed to have enjoyed his food enough that she was almost addicted. So much that she was actually pulling at his leg to try and get the food. He smiled and stroked her head. "Let Jin have some first." he said with a smile. "I did offer it to him after all." It was then that he noticed that Jin was wearing quite a new outfit and had a mark that was visible. If he recalled correctly it was a mark associated with the aces. He didn't quite understand the concept, but it seemed they were quite important within the guild.

To his surprise and confusion Jin asked Magna if he could try some of the food. "Well, I did offer it. Be kind of rude if I didn't let you have it now wouldn't I?" he said with a slight confused look on his face. As Jin took the food he gave Magna a flyer which he began to read. It seemed that some vulcans had kidnapped some women for dark and, if he knew vulcans, probably perverted purposes. It seemed that he was asking if Magna wanted to come along on this job. He thought about it for a little bit. "This sounds pretty important, not quite like the principal job, but yeah I'll go on this."

He watched as Jin and Kaya both enjoyed his food. "It was an idea that popped into my head. Normally a burger is made from ground meat, but I thought why not try it with fish." he said with a shrug. It worked quite well in this case. "Seems one of my experiments turned out pretty good." he chuckled as he remembred on his other ideas. "Don't even ask about the squid tentacles in peanut butter."

Jin nodded as Magna compared the current job with their previous one which involved the two of them taking down a dark magic using principal. ”Yeah not quite that one but it seems less complicated to. It’s more like a rescue mission. Find the kidnapped ladies and teach the vulcans a lessons, simple enough, right?”. He took another bite out of the tasty recipe Magna had just made, he couldn’t get enough of it. ”The buns are just right though, even with the recipe I doubt I’d be able to make it like you have” it wasn’t flattery, he really meant it. Kaya too enjoyed the food she had just finished up. She already had her breakfast and was just being greedy and curious about what Magna had made. If only she had more space in her stomach, she would’ve asked for more. ”Jinny, you should start learning from Maggy asap” she said bossing around her owner. Jin couldn’t help but only chuckle at that and be a tad bit embarrassed since his cooking wasn’t even comparable.

Having received an affirmative response from Magna, he took back the flyer and decided to head off to inform Sophie. ”I’ll go inform Sophie. Kaya, you go tell Fira that I’m leaving for a job okay? In case, she worries”, he was a married mage now; it kind of came with the territory. Jin headed off after Sophie and Kaya left for Jin’s room where Fira would be having her breakfast. After some time, Kaya returned and a little while later, so did Jin. ”So we’re approved for the job. Let’s be off then” he said to Magna after which the two began their journey towards the port.

"Its just a matter of knowing the right timings. Even a second too long or too little can ruin a dish." he said with a smile as his cooking was acknowledged. It seemed both of them enjoyed it and Kaya wanted Jin to learn from Magna as soon as possible. Well, he planned to learn magic from Jin in the future and in exchange he was going to teach Jin some basic cooking technicalities. For one thing it was all about efficiency in gourmet cooking. You had to have the right dish for the right moment and be able to prepare it as quickly as possible without compromising the taste. Everything was a fine balance. "Cooking is like a knife edge. Stay but a little and your meal will fail." he said paraphrasing a quote from a lacrima movie he had seen on his journies. King of the Bracelets if he remembered rightly. Or something like that anyway.

Whilst Kaya went off to tell Fira, whoever that was, about the job and Jin went to tell Sophie he began to pack up his equipment and leave his 'cooking station' clean. Sure it was his room and not a gourmet kitchen, but it was better to do it now rather than later. He looked around his room and saw something on his table and paused briefly before nodding and putting it in his pocket. It would be useful later he was sure. Particularly if there were large numbers of these vulcans.

"Yeah let's go find some vulcans. Maybe i'll make dumplings and monkey stew." he joked as they began to leave and then shook his head and chuckled. "Then again it would probably be a bit stringy due to the muscles."

Ever since he had asked Magna to teach him cooking, he kept getting helpful tips from Magna. Slowly but surely, Jin was learning the right way to cook. Each time when he had to cook, he would spend some time rethinking what Magna had told him and then would try to follow it. He paid attention to what he was told and tried his best to learn from his teacher. ”By experience, I’ve learned that cooking is all about delicacy. Just like you said, it’s like a knife edge” he could relate to Magna’s explanation. When he first became a chef, there were quite a few failed recipes. Cooking was not his passion and not his specific skill set, failing was only natural. It was thanks to the chefs who already worked in the tavern that he had gotten better at it. Now with a proper chef to train him, he could actually improve more.

Jin laughed when Magna said that he would consider cooking vulcans, ”serves them right but would it be a tasty recipe though?”. He wasn’t serious when he asked that but when Magna commented on how the dish wouldn’t taste good he was a bit startled: ”He actually considered cooking them?!”. ”Monkeys.. ewww!” Kaya voiced her feelings about the new recipe. She was technically a carnivore and should probably like any kind of meat but she had some refined taste. She wouldn’t just eat any kind of meat, she had her own preference.

The group arrived at the part from where they boarded a large plant based vessel and set off to Magnolia. It would take them a few hours to arrive at their desired location and then they would have to take some land transport to head towards the east forest.

"Not really something i'd choose to cook, but monkey is considered a delicacy in some areas." he said in response to the reaction from Kaya and the startled look on Jin's face. He shrugged as he thought about it some more. "Hopefully we can just scare them off as I don't really like fighting animals I don't plan to cook, at least not when the battle might kill them." It was a rule of his. He valued life highly. However, he understood the nature of the food chain better than most. It truly was a circle of life. People ate the animals, humans decomposed, the plants ate the decomposed human, animals ate the plants, other animals ate those animals etc. The conversation ended soon after and eventually they were aboard one of the ships.

In all honesty he quite enjoyed the ships. They fascinated him and he honestly wondered if they would make good ingredients. He assumed they would have a heavily salty taste that would need to be refined somehow. Perhaps he would get the guildmaster's permission to try one of them. He wondered if they grew from seeds. Those would likely make a good stock for a soup or gravy. Yes, he was very curious about these ships.

"So who is Fira anyway?" he asked as they sat on the ship. He didn't know who they were. In truth he didn't know much about Jin despite the fact that they had been on several jobs together. "And whats with the new look?"

”Whaaaaaaaaaaaaatttt??!!!” exclaimed Kaya when told that monkeys were a delicacy in some areas. It was unheard of, at least for her; her weird word made Jin embarrassed and he blushed a little but didn’t say a word. It was the usual thing with Kaya, she wasn’t shy not even the least bit. ”Yeah we could try and show them the difference in our strengths. If they can understand it that is. My previous experience with vulcans isn’t that good”, he had fought vulcans before. He remembered the last time there was a blockade set up by a few of them and he and Elyx took care of it. It was an easy job but it involved quite a bit of beating for the vulcans, he almost felt sorry for them. With Elyx and Jin, they weren’t a merciful duo if the perpetrator was involved in something perverted or inappropriate. Vulcans had both those attributes so they received the worst kind of treatment from both of them in the past. ”These vulcans are helplessly stupid, so much so that I feel sorry for them” he remarked recalling the events of the past.

Jin sat next to Magna as Kaya ran around the ship like usual. It was then he was asked a question that made him slightly blush, he hadn’t told Magna about Fire yet. In all honesty, he didn’t know much about Magna and Magna probably didn’t know much about Jin either. Travelling was the perfect time for them to ask about one another and get to know each other. ”I recently got married, Fire is my bride” he said as he blushed a little when he said the word bride. He hadn’t told anyone yet, only Kakuma knew since she was the one who conducted the ritual. Only the dryads knew since they were also present at the ritual. ”And I’ve been made the guild’s ace, so you can say the new look is a symbol for change I guess”, he replied as he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

Even though he was young he was married as it was necessary in order to become the guild’s ace and a dryad. Jin didn’t mind, Fira was a decent woman and she got along with Kaya right away. He felt the warmth and kindness of a gentle heart when he first saw her; that’s why he didn’t say much when he was told they were going to be married. ”When we go back, you should come meet her. She’s going to love your cooking and she has heard of you”, they did talk a lot. Fira liked knowing about Jin and Jin was the talkative type; so they got along well.

It seemed that Kaya was quite surprised that monkeys were a delicacy in some areas. "People eat strange things when there is nothing else on offer. Insects are quite popular. If I remember rightly it was the brains of the monkey that were popular...chilled monkey brains." he remembered being served it once and he remembered the taste perfectly. Well, in truth he remembered everything perfectly. He had an eidetic memory. To him it was surprisingly good. Not great, but better than he would of expected. "Still, let's just scare them off. Maybe the fire technique we used on those possessed kids might work. Most animals are scared of the red flower." Then again they were going to a forest so fire might not be the best bet for them, but it was a good idea for driving them off. Perhaps with that they wouldn't have to fight at all. Strangely, despite not knowing that much about eachother they worked well together and their magics appeared to be a good combo. "Though Aegis' new toy might be enough" he hinted at the weapon that they had got repaired recently. It was Aegis' weapon of choice and was pretty powerful. One of his techniques in particular might work very well in the situation.

"Wait you got married?!?" Magna asked increduously. How had he not known of such a thing happening? Sure he wasn't always around Jin, but to miss something like that. He'd also miss Jin becoming an ace, which was why he'd change his clothing style. "You should of asked me to cater the wedding. I've always wanted to." he said with a grin and a chuckle.

"I look forward to meeting her. Maybe i'll cook you two up a little congratulations feast. You'll have to tell me your favourite dishes." he said and then stroke Kaya as she ran past. "You too little one."

”I still won’t eat monkey brains” she said as some random object caught her attention and poof, she was off. Jin laughed as she ran away, she had quite the short attention span or maybe since she wasn’t that hungry, she wasn’t interested. ”I’m sure if you cook it and she’s hungry, she’ll eat first and ask later” he whispered to Magna. ”Fire in a forest may not be a good idea though. I was planning on using ice based attacks unless we ended up fighting one of those mountain vulcans”, finding a mountain Vulcan was rare. However, they didn’t know about the situation or the kind of Vulcan that was bothering an entire town. The probability of that happening was low but it was still possible.

It appeared that Aegis had a new weapon from last time. He could recall that because of the rain, Aegis didn’t do much in the previous job they were on. That wouldn’t be the case this time but that made him think of weapons. He hadn’t one neither did Kaya had any kind of armor. Sure, they had gotten along just fine without them but they would certainly be an improvement. ”I wonder if I should get a weapon for myself. Probably some armor for Kaya would be nice”, for a moment he drowned in his thoughts.

He returned from his world of thoughts when Magna said something about his marriage. He nervously scratched the back of his neck and blushed when Magna offered to cater the wedding. ”haha.. well you see.. There was no ceremony, it was more like a ritual. To become an ace of Black Rose, one acquires the dryad mark. For the dryad mark, you can’t just simply acquire it. You need to marry a dryad. So, Fira was the dryad who married me”, he said looking into the distance. He was probably glad to have met her and married her, she was a kind girl even though she was a bit hot headed. ”I’ll look forward to that” he said with a touch of appreciation in his tone. He was grateful to Magna for being so happy for him.

The ship came to halt and they arrived at their destination. The east forest of the town was still at a distance. They got off the ship and got themselves some means to travel by land. It would still take them a few hours to reach the east forest.

"Yeah. Though it depends on the weather. If its rained in that area recently the wood might be too wet to burn and that makes fire an extra edge as I doubt the vulcan's will expect it." he said as a final comment on that situation. At jin's comment on using ice unless it was mountain vulcans he was inclined to agree "Ice sounds like a good option, it worked pretty well against the principal I think." He remembered that mission vividly. He remembered everything, but some memories stood out more than others. He remembered being frozen, his neck being slowly crushed until Kaya had shown her true colours and grew huge in order to knock him back. He'd used one of his most effective combos superheating the target and then freezing it. It hadn't been enough to win, but he felt confident it had helped significantly. "Though I only have a couple of spells for freezing so I might have to pull out some other ingredients in the upcoming challenge."

Magna listened to the words that Jin said. So, he got married to become an ace? Not for love or anything like that? That seemed a weird custom, but he'd met many odd customs on his journeys around the world. Still, to become an ace you needed to get married? Did that mean that he couldn't become an ace till he was of marriageable age? Not that he was aiming for it, but considering Jin was one it would be nice to be on par with him to some extent. Then again Jin never acted superior. He never showed off or did anything like that. In fact, he seemed very appreciative of Magna, particularly on the cooking front. So much that he wanted to learn from Magna and indeed had a bit already.

"And I look forward to making it." Magna said as they walked off the ship and got some transportation from there to their actual destination. Travel was probably the biggest annoyance of being a mage. Well, not so much the travel to new locations, but the always having to return to the guild afterwards. When he had journeyed before he had just roamed freely from place to place learning as much as he could. This travel seemed almost pointless except for the bond it was building between him and his guildmates. "I wonder why the guild doesn't invest in some faster travel. That way we could get more jobs done." he said as a conversation point. "I've heard Blue Pegasus has an airship for example."

He hadn’t thought about the guild’s means of travel. Sure they were slow but they were large plant based ships, what’s not to like? Perhaps the speed was undesirable. If they could get a flying plant based ship, now that would be even more amazing. ”Well, it is a guild members’ query. I should bring this to Sophie attention and probably tell Kakuma too”, he wasn’t sure if he would be able to talk to Kakuma seriously though. Those were rare moments when Kakuma would be serious and not think about food. His ascension to the guild’s ace was of those rare times when Kakuma was serious. He hadn’t seen her that much serious ever since he joined the guild. ”I’ll have to discuss the travel arrangements with Kakuma and Sophie when we get back”, he said with a serious tone. He was sincere; if a member had some queries it was the job of an ace to act as a bridge between the higher ups and the members.

Their conversation came to an end as they arrived at the edge of the forest, beyond that they would have to travel by foot. ”It appears we’re here” he said, nudging Kaya’s head since she had fallen asleep on his shoulder again. It was like a routine, she would play around and then fall asleep after that she would wake up when they arrived. It was a good thing though, she wouldn’t complain about getting bored on their journey and was fresh when they arrived. She was small, so travelling around on Jin’s shoulder didn’t inconvenience Jin or her. Jin took out the flyer from his pocket and read it again; they had to find a damsel in distress. How to find her though? Would tracking help? In order to search for heat signatures, he used his thermal vision and looked around. From their current position, he couldn’t find any suspicious heat signature. ”I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. No alarming heat signatures for now. We should move ahead, may be I’ll catch something”, he said looking at Magna.

This was a hostage situation, they would have to be careful. If it was only their life at stake, then going all out would be the easy way out. However, there was an innocent lady or ladies being held ‘hostage’ by a probably mindless and perverted Vulcan. Being careful was the smart choice.

"Yeah talking to Sophie seems like a good idea. She is the one in charge afterall. Kakuma...I suppose their opinion is valid too." Magna said thoughtfully. In his mind, as he hadn't had the thought correct, Kakuma was more like a guild pet. Someone who was tolerated, but not exactly important. Sophie on the other hand was definitely in charge or seemed to be. She was the guildmaster in his head. This was of course incorrect, but until told otherwise or seeing some proof otherwise it was what he would believe.

They had arrived at the location and now they had to be cautious. Stealthy even. However, they had to be stealthy without appearing stealthy. That way if they were spotted it might look like they were just on a ramble through the woods. "Hey Kaya. Can you smell them?" he said quietly. He didn't specify what them was, but hoped she would understand and tell them yes or no without making it too obvious what they were looking for. His eyes were peeled and he was ready to summon Aegis should it be necessary. Hopefully, it wouldn't be as with any luck they could find the girls and get them out of there without too much of a fight.

"So Jin. How goes the cooking practise?" Magna asked conversationally. He knew Jin didn't want to be a cook and instead became one for the guild. However, it seemed he was the type who if he did a job he wanted to do it well and so had asked Magna to offer him a few tips. Generally, Magna just told him a few things his father had told him like 'The mark of a good chef, messy apron, clean sleeves."

The member 'Shard' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

It was a bit weird why Magna thought whether or not Kakuma’s opinion mattered. Probably because he hadn’t seen her around much, little did he know that Magna thought of Kakuma as the guild’s pet. Kaya was asked if she could use her sense of smell to guide them. She shook her head, she couldn’t smell any humans nearby and by scent it wouldn’t be possible to find out whether the Vulcan they sought was around. Until they found a human captive or some Vulcan attacked them, they had little data to go about. ”This is a saturated atmosphere. If she was tracking something I’m sure that would be a different scenario; however, I don’t think she can help with the given situation”, Kaya simply nodded. It made her sad as she frowned but Jin patted her head and smiled to prevent her from being discouraged.

”It has certainly gotten better thanks to the tips I got from you. The more attention I pay to it, the more rewarding the outcome”, he summarized his recent experience. It was true, he hadn’t learned as much as he had now thanks to the tips he kept getting from Magna from time to time. Cooking was all about delicacy and the thing about delicacy is that it demands ones attention and concentration. Jin was now more focused and devoted to it and thus he was improving. ”I think we should cook something together sometimes. That way I can show you how I’m doing” he said as he scratched the back of his neck. He wasn’t that sure but he still wanted Magna to see where he was at cooking.

As they continued to walk he sensed multiple hostile auras around him, he stopped and looked around and then looked at Magna. ”It appears we’re outnumbered” he said as a total of eleven foes appeared out of nowhere. Kaya jumped off of Jin’s shoulder and awaited their move, Jin took a defensive stance. There was one among them that outsized the others, probably the leader. They would have to choose their opponents, one of them would have to do crowd control and the other would have to take on the larger one. Jin’s abilities were suited for both battles since he could do crowd control along with Kaya and his summoned warriors. Also, he could take on the larger Vulcan with the help of those two so he would wait for Magna. After Magna had decided on what he wanted to do, Jin would assist him accordingly.

Magna thought for a moment considering if there was anyway he could help Kaya with finding the creatures in question or their kidnapper. "Thanks for trying anyway Kaya. Perhaps try to understand the scents that are here and see if anything smells different." he said as a suggestion. It was the only thing he could think of really. Unless they found something to give them a clue. "One of the girls might of been wearing perfume maybe."

"Well i'm glad your cooking has improved." Magna said with a smile. It was good to know that his friend had been able to improve based on the advice and tips that Magna had provided. As for cooking together. Well, that sounded like a fantastic idea to him. "Maybe we can do two things at once. Improve our cooking whilst you teach me magic." He said as an idea. He really wanted to learn Jin's magic. The ability to control heat, absorb it and redirect it sounded really useful for a chef. He mostly wanted it to be able to perfectly judge the temperature of food he was cooking and chill food for transport. However, it would likely be useful on jobs. "Maybe we can think up some combo recipes and combo techniques." He looked over at Kaya and winked. "Maybe you and Guardy can find some combos too."

Suddenly though Jin stopped and mentioned that they were surrounded. A quick cursory glance revealed 10 small creatures and one large one. The large one smelled a bit familiar. Possibly a vulcan. The others he didn't recognise. The breathing pattern sounded right for a vulcan too. "Looks like we are going to have to fight." he unwrapped the cloth from around his wrist and tied it to his brow. As he did so his eyes seemed to gain a slight red tinge. He wasn't completely serious yet, but he was getting that way. He pulled out the knife that housed Aegis and like usual it glowed brightly before forming into the tall knife.

The knight said nothing, but raised a hand to the green gem on his forehead which began to glow. Magna was surprised. It seemed Aegis wanted to bring out his new toy sooner rather than later. A few seconds later the glow faded from his brow and a large golden axe appeared in Aegis' hand. At its base was a large, sharpened, green gemstone. He did not say a word, but suddenly lunged sweeping with the axe and chopped a tree down in such a way that it fell and went towards a couple of the weaker enemies. It didn't manage to crush them, but it did startle them. The vulcan on the other hand leapt forward towards Aegis's side. The knight however suddenly struck with a palm strike that sent the vulcan flying. Aegis was quite a skilled fighter. It probably came from him being quite an ancient being.

Kaya rejoiced when Magna mentioned about her and ‘guardy’ working together. Jin turned to look at Magna when he said ‘guardy’, he wasn’t sure if Aegis would appreciate that. However, he hadn’t heard Aegis talk much so there was a good chance he wouldn’t complain. ”That would make things easier, let’s do it sometime” he said nodding. Teaching magic while using cooking would definitely be easier since Magna was comfortable with cooking. The rest was just a matter of explaining a few things while Magna practiced. It wouldn’t take him much time if he used cooking to learn Heat Magic. Though he couldn’t be sure, he hadn’t taught anyone the magic and it was a complex advanced level magic too.

With the summoning of the armored guardian, the battle between the two Black Rose mages and the monsters began. As Aegis charged at the smaller creatures, Jin assumed that he would be good enough for them. With that assumption, he looked at Kaya who nodded and increased in size turning into the frightening saber tooth that she was. With her increase of size, two warriors appeared at Jin’s side as well out of thin air. One of the warrior had a large spear and the other had a katana in his hand, both awaited Jin’s command.  The large Vulcan stared at the saber tooth and the two warriors and then Jin, what had just happened? The poor creature couldn’t understand it.

Taking advantage of the confusion Jin charged at the Vulcan along with the two warriors while Kaya joined Aegis’s side to take on the smaller monsters. She pounced on top of two of them, crushing them underneath her feet and then jumping away. Her large size made quite the ruckus and did some serious damage as well. The two warriors separated with one heading to the left the other to the right while Jin headed straight for the Vulcan. An attack from three sides with equal speed, it would be impossible to avoid. The only matter was to choose which attack to take and which to block or dodge.  The warrior with the katana attacked with a horizontal slash while the one with the spear launched a mid ranged attack and Jin got closer. As he got closer, he swung his arm downwards using his spell: Heat wave. The blade wasn’t something he could block and Jin’s attack was an invisible heat wave so he managed to block the spear but got hit by the other two attacks.

Magna meanwhile had not been yet attacked. Aegis was standing nearby using the long reach of his arms aided with the axe at its full length, almost the same as his height, to bat the small creatures away whenever they got close. Magna observed the battle. Kaya's size changing ability was always impressive and the summoning that Jin performed was always useful. Or was it summoning? It seemed like magic, yet not like magic at the same time. It was rather odd. He'd have to ask about it later because at that moment two of the small imps managed to get past Aegis' stalwart defense and charge him.

"Deutch Stil Olbeshichtung." he said and a large bottle of oil appeared above the creatures and emptied out onto them. Instantly, they were greased from head to toe and slipped over on the ground. So great was the slickness and so fast as their charge that when they fell they continue to slide. Magna stepped to the side and watched with a slight smile as they slid right out of sight. It was one of his more useful techniques even if by itself it was almost 100% non-lethal.

The battle would not last much longer. Seeing the damage so easily done to the vulcan, the sudden appearence of the axe wielding knight and the saber tooth tiger had been enough to scare the imps into a retreat. The two spirit warriors probably hadn't helped either. The vulcan itself though was not quite down for the count, but nor was it really able to fight. "Vulcan's are capable of speech right? Why don't we just ask him?" Magna suggested.

magic:

The horizontal slash of the katana cut the Vulcan’s body and Jin’s attack left quite a few burn marks to the front. The creature fell on its back having witnessed such formidable foes. Even though they were outnumbered, the mages were able to turn the tables in an instant. ”Argh!” it cried out in pain as blood began to spill from its wound. Magna proposed they should just ask the Vulcan but he wasn’t sure. Last time Jin tried talking to a Vulcan, he refused to reply just because Jin wasn’t a girl. Well, there was no harm in trying once again; what could possibly go wrong? ”Sure. So where are you hiding the females? Spill it if you don’t want to get injured anymore” he said with a touch of seriousness. Jin was a kind hearted person, not the kind who would scare others. However, since he had caused considerable damage to the Vulcan, the creature looked helplessly at him. Then it stared at Magna, Aegis, Kaya and then the two summoned spirit warriors.

”Fine, even though none of you is a woman and I don’t feel like talking to you” it said looking away rolling its eyes. Jin cracked his knuckles in reply making a scary face as the Vulcan backed away. ”Okay okay, stop. Just go straight ahead, I hid them in a large tree trunk there”, it said as a sweat droplet dropped down its face. Just to be safe, Jin sent the two summoned warriors to go ahead and find the trunk. The two went ahead and came back after a little while accompanied by the kidnapped women. ”Now listen to me Vulcan, if you do something like this again, we will find you and we will make you regret it”; he said the last part differently to give it more significance. The Vulcan nodded and walked away dragging its feet because of its injury.

The threaten tactic had worked and it seemed despite their gender the vulcan was telling the truth and indeed he had for soon the spirit warriors had returned with the kidnapped women. They varied in age, but none were over the age of 21 that was clear. It seemed the vulcan only had a taste for young women rather than the older more experienced kind. As the vulcan walked away Magna quickly ran in front of it. The vulcan looked at him.

"I told you where they were. I won't do it again." the vulcan said pitifully. Magna nodded. "What do you want from me now?" 

"I know you won't do it again. But I don't want you going away injured and ending up getting further injured for it." Magna said calmly and bid the vulcan to stand still. It was clearly scared and did what it was told, but it also seemed intently curious about what Magna was about to do. He focused and summoned up a bottle of alcohol. He tore off a bit of his top and poured the alcohol onto it. "This will sting a bit, but it will clean the wound." With that he began to dab at the wound causing the vulcan to wince at the stinging, but he was still too scared to move. Once Magna was satisfied that the wounds were cleaned he summoned up some ice and told the vulcan to place them on the wounds. "Keep your wounds clean and keep the ice on the burns. They may blister, but it should help heal them." With that Magna left to follow Jin. As he had said before he didn't like to hurt creatures he wasn't going to use for cooking and letting this one die due to its injuries just didn't sit well with him.

[END]