K ateri listened to her mission with robotic precision, tuning out her own thoughts about this midget so she could tune into the task at hand. Her first surprise came when the shrimp opened a part of the wall to reveal a hidden secret that was right under her nose. Her next surprise was when the guild master said he had a mission for her that was incredibly dangerous, and important. It made her wonder why he didn't take care of it himself, or ask Dmitry, or even that new chick to do it since both of them were easily twice, maybe even three or four times as powerful as her. The third surprise for Kateri came when she found out that creatures from out side the guild were able to learn of matters that happened within the guild hall. This pointed out a flaw in the system, or a mole in the wrong tunnel... something she would have to flush out and stomp in later on. The second to last of the surprises for the night came when Kateri found out that there was a whole damn labyrinth directly below the guild hall... connected to the kitchen. "H-how... in the hell did no one find this?" she accidentally said out loud upon her and Ni ju reaching the entrance to the dungeon of madness. "Uh... I'm sorry Ni... ummm... shit. I'll just call you Ni-ni from now... please continue." she said with a slightly embarrassed voice. She gave another awkward smile at the rather adorable little boy guild master, and let him continue.Kateri nodded as the guild master told her what he'd be doing, which answered her question as to why he didn't do it all himself; but it didn't answer the question as to why the heck she was here and not someone with more power. "What are your thoughts, master?" the small creature from around Kateri's neck asked her curiously. "My job's to clear out a group of invading enemies. However, they're sentient enough to have known that Lamia Scale was in a state of disarray as well as have found a weak point by which to enter a room that only a few members actually knew of." Kateri said, voicing her thoughts as they came. "What of the possibility of magical intervention? A puppeteer controlling the insurgents, and the targets being unintelligent in nature?" Shadow asked, adding onto Kateri's list of possibilities. "That's another option to weigh. If that's true, either he or she's pulling the strings from within the labyrinth itself, or he or she's pulling the strings from somewhere within the city." the long haired girl responded, her voice suggested she was thinking about it quite heavily. "If it's the former, and not the latter?" Shadow asked, his voice was intrigued at the possibility itself. "Then we fight in the name of our guild masters, and protect Lamia Scale and the city of Hargeon." Kateri said confidently. She pushed herself off the wall, having leaned her back on it earlier so she could begin brainstorming her situation. "There's another thing, master. I have reason to believe this is a trial of some sorts." Shadow stated calmly. "Why is that?" Kateri asked, having not thought of the possibility. "First off, your level of power. No offense to you my master, but between you, the soul wizard, the man with the jinn, the current guild master, and that new woman... You are the absolute weakest of the group, despite being among the strongest of the guild." Shadow stated. "Next is the fact that there are multiple 'Hero' positions open, that have been open for quite some time. This new guild master... this Ni Ju-" "THAT'S HIS NAME! Oh, sorry... please go on." Kateri shouted, immediately turning to an awkward tone. "-he has been on the side lines for quite some time. He was present from the guild master before sir Avoa, and has seen that this guild requires heroes. Would he not task the strongest of the guild with a trial to test their competence in order to find those best suited to fill them?" Shadow said, acting as though the interruption had never occurred. "That... actually would make some sense..." Kateri said with an amazed voice while walking down the initial path. The thought of Kateri being considered for one of the guild's hero positions didn't actually form an opinion for her despite it being an honored title. For her however, it was just a glorified name for someone who's grown strong faster than the rest of the guild and nothing more. But if Ni-ni wanted to acknowledge her, the weakest of the guild's elites, before considering the others then she'd give him no resistance. "Say, you think I'll get a new cloak if I impress him enough to get a position? This one's needin' to get retired pretty soon..." Kateri asked Shadow. The creature let out a few deep chuckles at the fact that she was probably being offered a title of power, and her thoughts were for a new cloak. He was chronologically younger than Kateri, but mentally had aged and become wiser much faster than her.
Kateri turned a corner, not having entered the area only even thirty minutes ago at most and already was hearing the sound of footsteps. From the shuffling, she could tell there was at the very least five of them traveling together. The jangling she heard was likely a type of weaker heavy armour, maybe chain mail, or possibly make shift plate armour... she knew for sure it wasn't something light weight like leather, or ceramic since the sound was much to clanky to be either of them. A grinding sound let her know they were armed, it was the same noise produced when someone sharpened steel against a whetstone. Finally, the voices started coming from the other side of the wall. "What you doing dumb dumb!? You alert humans we here!" the voice was high pitched, a bit raspy, and very annoying. From their manner of speaking, she was able to ascertain the fact that Shadow was right. Her enemies would be unintelligent, and not capable of forming proper plans. This meant they had a master of considerable intelligence and power. They argued with each other, and did things to give away their position too. It let Kateri know they weren't being controlled directly by this master, which also meant the master was nearby giving orders. This in turn meant that Kateri would have to find, and apprehend him or her. Kateri placed her ear to the wall again as she wanted to try and figure exactly what she was dealing with. "Me Poky stabby not sharp! No human hear me sharpen. Big high war chief say human not smart as goblin, not good at do stuff. We domi... dom... we better!" the one who rubbed the blade against the wall said to counter the other one's statement. Kateri backed up a few feet and pulled out her sniper, the sound was heard from the goblin's side of the wall. "What that!?" one of them exclaimed. "What, what!?" the other shouted back. "Me no hear nothing." the third said, not knowing what was going on. "Me thinks we no alo-" the sound of an exploding wall, accompanied by the speaking goblin's brain and half its body being used as a new coat of paint on the labyrinth's wall interrupted the little conversation. The sound of Kateri pulling the bolt back, and then pushing it forward to load a new one in the chamber was heard through the gaping hole in the wall. "That's a fourteen point five millimeter anti-retard round. I'll give you to the count o' two before I show you dip shits what I got for your boss!" Kateri shouted at the invaders, hoping they'd just turn themselves, and their boss in. The four remaining goblins immediately charged in through the hole, the first two with daggers, the third with a sword, and the fourth with a morning star. Kateri's expression turned blank as she dropped the sniper and pulled out one of her revolvers. The loud bangs were heard through the tunnels for quite a distance and three bodies hit the floor with large, high caliber bullet holes between their eyes. The goblin with the morning star had jumped over his dead friends, more determined to survive the encounter than take the glory of killing Kateri, and tried swinging his bulky weapon at the gun wielder. A bullet to the shoulder would send him reeling back in pain. The morning star was dropped, making a loud thud as it hit the ground and the goblin began backing up quickly. He felt the wall touch his back and slid down to the ground while grabbing his bleeding wound. Kateri approached, not bothering to stop when the goblin stretched its arm out with a terrified look in its eye. Kateri placed the barrel of her six-shooter directly against its left testicle, stating "You have five seconds to answer three questions. If you don't answer them, I'll shoot it off." she said calmly, coldly, and with the full intention of doing it. "One... who are you working for?" Kateri said with an emotionless voice. "M-me no say nothing! Big high war chief make immortal when humans die!" he shouted, his voice already making Kateri want to pull the trigger. Another gun was placed against the bottom of his chin as Kateri started counting. "Five..." she said, pressing the barrel of the revolver at the left testicle down even harder. "Four..." she said, pulling back the hammer slowly creating an eerie clicking sound. "Three..." she said while pulling the hammer back on the revolver placed at the goblin's chin. "Two..." she said, gently pressing her finger to the trigger. The goblin blurted out "Me serve big high war chief! Him make us strong, and no let dead ones stay deaded! Him big master no human kill! Please let Dribble live!" with a terrified voice. "Good. Question two, where is your 'Big High War Chief' giving orders from?" Kateri asked with a level tone. "H-him in big room, l-largest room! Bo-gar have map!" the goblin shouted, not giving Kateri the chance to begin counting. It pointed to one of the dead bodies on the floor. Kateri pulled the guns from the goblin's body and tucked them in their holsters before extending a hand to help the ugly fucker get up. He grabbed the hand, giving it a tug and pulling himself to stand but immediately fell to a knee out of fatigue. "Y-you no kill Dribble?" he asked in amazement. "You betrayed your master, do you have a home to return to?" Kateri asked with a firm voice. "D-dribble not never have home... big high war chief let Dribble live only if him serve him." the goblin said sadly. "Follow this path, you'll find yourself in a large building. Let them know Kateri sent you and they'll take care of that gun shot. As of this moment, you're a member of Lamia Scale. Your life will forever be spent working to help make this world a better place. You're pretty damn stupid, so I'm assigning you to the library. Read up, learn some stuff, and from then on you'll keep it organized." she said with an authoritative voice. "D-dribble will live with human? N-no human kill him yes?" the goblin asked, his voice sounded like it had some hope. "You have my word that you'll be provided for, protected, and treated fairly." Kateri said with confident eyes. "T-thank you master Kateri! D-dribble go home to big human building!" the goblin shouted, getting up off the floor and hobbling down the hall. Kateri knew she'd only asked two questions, but her third one was answered when the goblin 'Dribble' told her where to get a map.Kateri wiped her hand on her cloak while walking to her sniper, trying to get the possible grime off of it from touching that thing's hand. It was the first time she'd seen a goblin, and she felt like she needed a bath after simply looking at one. Grabbing the sniper, she immediately realized she'd have to search through the corpse of some nasty, dirty ass creature to find a piece of paper that's likely just as filthy as the creature. A chill ran down her spine at the thought, but she didn't let it stop her from kicking the corpse over and using the barrel of her rifle to turn over pieces of loose clothing, open pockets, and lift the armour's chest piece. A slip of paper slid out from under the armour, surprisingly it was bone dry but that wasn't an unwelcome surprise. Kateri grabbed it, studying the path that was drawn out. It was a single black line that marked the exact path from the guild's kitchen to the middle of the labyrinth. For Kateri, it marked the exact path to the mastermind she had to take down.Kateri tucked the paper away under her cloak and switched her sniper out for the assault rifle. While the sniper was good for smashing through walls, which would make getting to the center much easier, Kateri wanted to damage as little Lamia Scale property as possible. As for her assault rifle, it was an old time weapon that fired high damage rounds at a low speed. It was easier to aim down sight, had enough range, and was small enough to not make moving a hassle. Turning a corner, Kateri saw another quintet of those ugly pointy eared fuck knuckles turning the corner to face her. They each began drawing their weapons, but five well paced shots would send the magic bullet straight through their skulls. Each body hit the floor as the tips of Kateri's pig tail flickered past them, her turning the corner they'd just came through. "Master, I'd like to ask why you let that first one live." Shadow said while Kateri continued moving at a half run, half jog pace while keeping her gun at port arms. 'Because he cooperated with me. He didn't have a home, so I gave him one. He needed protection, so I gave him an army of mages. He needed family, so I let him join ours.' Kateri responded using her telepathic bond with the creature. Another two goblins were turning a corner, one looking at what Kateri assumed was a map judging by how the goblin was turning it about. The gun slinger quickly bashed the first on in the face with the stock of her gun, and transitioned to kick the one with the map in the balls while it was reaching for his ball mace. The two distracted momentarily, Kateri popped a round into both their heads and sent them to the grave. "Would it not be wiser to had just kill him like these ones?" Shadow asked, trying to figure Kateri's logic. Kateri continued running, telling Shadow 'Once their boss is dead, these ones will have no master. I can't take them all in, and none of them are of use to me anymore. It's more merciful to kill them than let them all suffer.' her inner voice was every bit as cold as her outer one. She felt a nudge as Shadow nodded beneath her cloak, accepting the answer for what it was instead of questioning it further. Over the short time Kateri had been in the guild, she'd become a much gentler, and merciful person. Remembering the first interrogation she did, even though the man gave her all he knew Kateri still killed him even after she'd shot off one of his balls. Now, Kateri skipped the testicle shooting entirely, and even let the poor guy live. The half dragon felt pretty impressed at his master's maturity considering she was technically a six year old.Kateri stopped just before the turn that would take her to meet her true enemy. She wanted to take some time to catch her breath before entering what may be a massive ass battle to the death, so she waited a good ten minutes. While waiting, Kateri still felt the influence of the moon being strong with her, it couldn't be any later than three or four in the morning but that only mean she'd have to work fast. If the battle lasted another hour, the moon would begin setting and her magic won't be as strong."Are you done resting?" A menacing, but feminine voice called from the room Kateri was planning to enter. It wasn't surprising that her presence was known, it isn't exactly easy to ignore the sound of unsuppressed gunshots. She let out a sigh and walked through the opening in the walls, pausing with her eyes wide open at the sight before her. It was an enormous dragon, clad in black that appeared to be adapted to an aquatic lifestyle. "Master!" Shadow called, snapping Kateri out of her daze from her first encounter with a full blooded dragon. She straightened her face and continued walking into the massive room. "I am Kateri, heir to the Tribe of Souls. Identify yourself dragon." she demanded of the large beast. A chuckle came from the female dragon, followed by it saying "I take no orders from your kind... I eat you and pick my teeth with your BONES!" the dragon's shouting caused a great wind to flash past Kateri. The dragon opened its mouth and exhaled a massive blast of black fire at the girl. Kateri's first reaction, her primary instinct was to slam her palm on the ground and cause a set of ice pillars to rise up in front her to create a type of barrier. At first, the flames were shot off in both directions, completely missing Kateri. But then, Kateri saw the bottom of the pillars turning black as the flames began melting it there. Her eyes grew wide and she tried jumping up to avoid the flames to come, but the bottom snapped and the entire wall of ice slammed into Kateri, sending her into the wall with the ice pillars over her. Her saving grace was that the pillars hadn't been completely melted when the fire attack ended, but so much was gone that what was left crumbled as Kateri fell from the wall. Staring at the ground, her eyes were wide with shock from the power behind just one of the dragon's attacks. "So you are an ice wizard..." the dragon said. "Ah yes... the legendary, forgotten Tribe of Souls... Your people were once famed for having the strongest and weakest of all fighters. Back in a time when cities were settlements, and power was granted by the gods." the black dragon said. Kateri just stayed on her hands and knees, trying to think of a way to beat something that just melted a supposed to be indestructible spell. "Last I heard... they were completely wiped out by some kid. Stupid boy contracted with a demon without even knowing it, and then he killed them all..." the dragon said. Hearing the story of Niyol, brought anger to Kateri as her voice finally found a way to escape. "What do you know of my father..." she asked angrily. "Oh? That fool was your father? So he broke the taboo and mated with a whore from outside?" the dragon said inciting Kateri. "My mother was pure blood of my tribe, and my father is the strongest mage in Fiore!" Kateri shouted at the dragon. "Your mother is dead, and your father is a traitor..." the dragon said with a slow, arrogant, and judgmental voice.The air grew frigid as Kateri grew thoroughly angry with the beast. Ice began forming on the walls, the great beast began letting out a bit of laughter. "I remember this now! You were that little brat your mother DIED trying to save AH HAHAHAHA!!!" the dragon exclaimed, sounding quite pleased at the outcome. Kateri had a flashback, herself as a child hiding behind a tree as her mother fought off a massive beast. From how small she was then, the dragon was far larger... but now that she remembered, this was what killed her mother. Kateri activated a spell that would increase her power for a short time, but during that time she'd have to win or die trying. The power of the moon, and this monster's own malevolence aided to further Kateri's power. Within seconds, the floor had become nothing but an ice rink and Kateri's domain. A violent storm brewed in the room, Kateri had created a small blizzard that would engulf the entire room in so much wind and snow that she became a blur. Her blue hair, along with her glacier colored eyes changing to a pure snowy white as she began transcending the natural limits placed on humans to a near godly level. While Kateri blended into the white flurry around her, the black dragon did not. Kateri took off her cloak, letting it float away as she began running on the ice to try and get closer to her enemy. The dragon however didn't need sight to kill the girl, he could hear her feet tapping the floor. Unfortunately, he couldn't smell her as the violent winds pushed her scent everywhere at the same time. The snow covering the ice absorbed so much of the impact from Kateri's feet hitting it that the dragon could barely use the vibrations to sense her direction. Worst of all, from being around those goblins for so long, the only thing he tasted was the putrid smell of their unsanitary hides. A gunshot was heard and the dragon reeled back as something massive slammed into its arm, shattering some of the scales and exposing the soft flesh beneath. The dragon reached out and slammed the ground in the direction the shot came from and felt nothing. Thinking quickly it whipped its tail around, feeling it impact something enormous. "What!?" the dragon exclaimed as it realized that it was touching something far too big to be Kateri. The dragon squinted, focusing in on something large, long, and jet black hidden in the midst of Kateri's blizzard. Suddenly, the figure shot out latching onto the dragon's neck with long, crystal clear fangs that didn't stop at a single row. Thirty more sunk in, shattering another row of the dragon's scales, and ninety more smaller teeth behind that row. Shadow, having used his ability to resize himself had entered the fray upon hearing that this being killed his master's mother. Kateri hadn't tried to stop him, but rather used it as a distraction to allow her a chance to jump on the dragon's tail and begin running up its length.The dragon had reeled back, partially being forced by Shadow's sheer strength and power. Eventually, after a few large steps back the unwelcome guest had got her footing and slammed its claws into shadow's body. Having his the armour on Shadow's spine, the claws did little more than create large gashes in the plating without even shattering. The force however had force shadow to the ground. He turned over to see the dragon on top him, and a blast of inferno being express delivered. Thinking quickly shadow moved his wings in front his exposed underside and managed to shield it from the blast. Meanwhile Kateri had managed to work her way to the dragon's shoulders when she'd slipped off from all the tossing around between the two behemoths duking it out. She grabbed a hold of a scale, and used it to pull herself back up. Snow had collected between some of the scales by now as Kateri's natural cover had been going on for a good few minutes. Using the snow, she created ice and controlled that to shoot herself straight to her enemy's head. A rocket launcher gifted to her by one of her guildmates was pulled from Kateri's back and stuffed in the dragon's left ear hole. Sensing something, the dragon stopped its breath attack and tried to motion to claw at Kateri, but was interrupted by Shadow slipping from under it and wrapping around the dragon. The round inside the launcher was charged with magic power, increasing its damage significantly. The click of the trigger being pulled, followed by a blast of magic energy that completely destroyed the dragon's ear drum would cause it to howl in pain. The howl so great that Kateri was unable to keep her foot and was thrown off by the flailing while she was busy covering her own ears.Kateri's blizzard subsided, just in time for the dragon to notice a new addition to the battle. A girl wearing a red jacket holding a small dagger was standing before it. Not thinking clearly enough to try and rip itself from Shadow's coils, the dragon slammed its fangs down on the illusion and reeled back in confusion when it realized that it didn't hit anything. Kateri was smiling as she stuffed the barrel of the rocket launcher down the other ear, charging another shot and blasting the dragon's other ear drum to hell and high water. Another scream of pain escaped it and out of panic, it had forced Shadow to uncoil and darted to the other side of the room. Skidding to a stop, the dragon panted while glaring at Kateri's pet and wondering where the girl had gone. 'That damn girl...' the dragon though while scanning the room. Shadow however stayed on the other side, using its hind wings to keep stable, and extending its from wings to make himself seem bigger than he actually was. He kept his teeth in plain view, letting his opponent see the blood covered gems. Something impacted the dragon's head, sending it slamming to the floor. Another one a few seconds later on almost the same spot, and then another, and a fourth barreled into the dragon's skull. A fifth round hit it and Kateri had ran out of bullets. The dragon looked up, spotting Kateri high up on a massive ice covered structure and immediately blasted the item with flames. Shadow took the opportunity and charged in, ramming his opponent's throat with his enormous teeth, causing the flames to go off target as the enemy dragon toppled over. As a hope, a prayer it would do something to stop the assault from her two opponents the black dragon let out a miasma. A black mist filled the room, infecting Kateri and sucking out some of her magic power, but also concealing her position once more. The dragon now on its back, Kateri pulled out her launcher once more and took aim at the general direction. Shadow flew up, having a direct link with Kateri he knew exactly what was about to happen. Kateri pulled the trigger, releasing a single blast from the weapon that split off into even more smaller ones. Each missile hit the dragon and dealt immense damage to it, cracking most of the plating on its white underside and making it a massive weak spot. The miasma was inhaled by the black dragon as she prepared for a final blast of inferno, aiming directly for Shadow this time. Kateri placed her palm on the ceiling, hoping her spell would travel fast enough to do its job. Shadow, still latched onto the dragon's neck was in a bad spot. He could let go and try to escape, but the chances of success were slim. Or he could take the hit and hope his master would be able to finish the fight alone. Suddenly, the blast was released with the dragon howling in pain as a set of ice pillars impaled the dragon's weakened, and vulnerable underside. Shadow detached himself and spun around, smacking the black dragon in the face with his jet black, sword like tail. The flames still spewing from the enemy's mouth slammed the walls of the labyrinth, turning them to molten as the flew through. Several goblins were incinerated, those who weren't began spectating as their god was being dethroned. Kateri, low on magic power, had began charging everything she had into the next round of her rocket launcher and waited from the right moment. The black dragon rammed its fist into Shadow's underside and spun around, slamming its tail into the long creature and sending shadow clear across the room. It turned to Kateri and began flying up at her with its mouth wide open, a blast of fire ready for when it was close enough. A small twinkle, a blue light entered the dragon's mouth before a plume of frost exited it. The dragon flew to the ground, wheezing, coughing, choking on ice that was clogging up its throat. Shadow darted across at max speed, bombarding the larger dragon with his thick, armoured skull and sending it to the ground. The enlarged dragon began slashing at the exposed underside wildly, ramming his sword-tail into its body and drawing blood every time. The black dragon kicked Shadow, and exhaled a blast of fire to clear its throat. Just as it happened, Shadow came in and latched onto the side of the black dragon's neck while coiling around the rest of it. A quick twisting, jerk and a loud series of snapping sounds was heard and the black dragon went limp.Kateri fell from the frozen structure on the ceiling. Her temporary boost in power had run up, just as the rest of her magic power had been used on that final rocket. Shadow was quick to catch her, and gently place her on the floor. The icy air left by Kateri's attacks caused the molten walls to cool off quickly, and a horde of goblins stepped out looking in awe of the smaller of the two reptiles. "You kill big high war chief..." one of them said unable to believe it. "Him new big high war chief!" another exclaimed. Spears, swords, maces, and other weapons of all kinds were raised as they began cheering for their new deity. Shadow looked down on them all, his silvery eyes narrowing and breaking the cheering. "I am no god. Take this girl to the place you were to attack, and then leave this place. Should you return, you shall ALL feel my scorn ten thousand fold!" Shadow's angered voice boomed through the labyrinth.The next morning, Kateri woke up with Shadow in his much smaller form, laying across her stomach. Dribble, the goblin from the day before that she allowed to live in the guild hall was seated across the room. He was still butt ugly, but Kateri could tell he got bathed. "Master Kateri not die!? Master Kateri kill big high war chief... she new big high war chief. Little lizard big high war chief no want to be big high war chief, but Master Kateri no refuse. Me tell others she no die, so them make her new one. She tell other what to kill now, but old chief make them leave." the goblin said. Kateri began scanning the room, looking for Ni-ni to ask if she completed her mission. |
![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
