The Ghost Biker (Job / Javel and Mashyuu)

Motor City deviated from the traditional towns that Javel had been to in his time in Fiore. Unlike the peaceful and beautiful scenery that the other towns offered, this peculiar location was entirely different in atmosphere and design; it felt polluted and heavily urban if not outright steampunk in a sense. And Javel was not fond of it, oh no, he took an immediate disliking to the utter lack of grace this place lacked compared to towns like Hargeon or Oshibana. It confused him how it was even remotely possibly for this city to come into existence by the Magic Council's permission; this nation was one he felt he would never fully understand.

Alas, the dark mage didn't come here for sightseeing. He had a mission to do and this was the unfortunate destination that the client is requesting from. It was far from Spooky Forest, but Javel couldn't care less about something as trivial as that, so as long as he has getting paid and learned more about Fiore.

Javel across his destination after riding through the vehicle-crowded streets of the city; it was a small store with an open window displaying its interior in plain view which fit the description of the location the mission slip provided him. Slowly tapping his brakes to an eventual halt, the dark mage dismounted off his motorcycle and approached the store's front door.

Javel took a glance at the store's sign; it appeared to a mechanic shop and had a diverse range of strange-looking machines and objects to sell. This city certainly had a culture that differed than the norms the dark mage had grown accustomed to in the other towns. He placed his hand on the door's handle and pulled, opening it and allowing him to step into the shop.

In front of him was a mostly empty store; columns of shelves filled a section of it, with the main counter being directly in front of him. There was an old silver-haired man behind the desk; Javel reckoned he was the shop keeper and it appeared that he was busy what seemed to be a customer, tall and down-to-the-earth in terms of clothing and appearance. Not given any context before judging, he had no way of knowing that it wasn't actually the case.

Since the store wasn't too occupied, the dark mage took the opportunity to approach the shop keeper, mission slip in hand. As he came closer, he slowly overheard the discussion between the keeper and the 'customer' in question. Given the sound of it, the former was in desperate need of help and the situation was not as shallow as it seemed initially.

Guess the 'customer' being there was a little too convenient to be the case. Not halfway through the small store was Javel suddenly noticed by the latter with little time to even react. Assuming it was magic energy that mages tended to emit, the dark mage found himself face to face with another mage who just so happened to have accepted the mission he was suppose to partake in alone.

This particular mage turned around and greeted him an awfully nice manner, waving at him and speaking openly. He claimed to have taken responsibility for the mission, but was more than willing to accept an 'extra set of hands' for the said job. Javel was silent and listened; his name was Mashyuu, if he heard correctly and he was a Sabertooth Wizard and Earth Dragon Slayer.

Sabertooth Wizard? Earth Dragon Slayer? Javel took note about the descriptive choice of words; it sounded as if this man prided himself in such titles. A little arrogant, it seemed to  the dark mage, who had no reason to know what guild he belonged to nor what magic he used. But, it seems that his confidence is overshadowed by his direcness. Almost immediately after introducing himself, the mage set focus on the mission and was already telling Javel of the plan on how it was going to be done. The dark mage couldn't help but feel a degree of respect for his down-to-the-earth mentality and quick thinking, not all that different from how Javel himself did things.

Of course, this didn't make things any less strange for the two of them. With nothing really to say to Mashyuu due to the sudden introduction, the dark mage simply stared at him oddly, only nodding to his offer and plan and shaking his head when the former asked for his ideas and opinions to it. Javel's awkward silence was at its finest and it was very clear that he wasn't very social to begin with.

Javel watched as the man pat him in the shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile. When the latter asked if he was the silent type, the dark mage responded with a question of his own, "What would you have me say?"

Just then, he heard small bumping at the the door which the mage directed attended to, opening and allowing what appeared to be some sort of magic animal made of stone enter the store. By the looks of it, it was dog-like in behavior and Javel couldn't help but roll his eyes by the notion of it, given the past couple of missions he had to go through that involved dogs...

The thing was apparently an elemental and it had a name; Mashyuu chose to call it 'Rocky' and the dark mage was unsure if the pun was intentional or not. Back on the mission at hand, he followed the Sabertooth mage outside and into the street. The dark mage gave one glance back into the store at the shopkeeper, who nodded back to them before the door went shut. This shouldn't be hard...

Javel darted his eyes around the whole block and noticed an alley on the opposite end of where they were standing. He signaled to his fellow mage. "There."

The question was a general one, but it wasn't one Javel recalled being him commonly asked about. Still, A truthful response would suffice in his situation, so Javel's answer to Mashyuu's question was plain and simple, "Requp magic."

Honest answers were not always the best as dark mages had to be discreet about revealing themselves in public to not risk drawing unwanted attention, but Javel knew he wasn't drawing any suspicion and it helped that Mashyuu was fortunately gullible enough to think of him as a trustworthy person. It made the dark mage wonder if dragon slayers could sniff out the bad from the good, but if the Sabertooth mage really did know what kind of mage he was, he clearly wasn't showing it. And he hoped it stayed that way for the rest of the mission; picking a fight with someone bearing the title of Dragon Slayer sounded like something only an uneducated moron would do.

That reminded him. As the roaring of motorcycles reached its closest point and their engines coming to a halt, Javel glanced at his fellow mage and asked him. "So you said before you're an Earth Dragon Slayer?" The dark mage was curious about the kind of magic he used and what power the latter had in store waiting to be unleashed. He reckoned that the Sabertooth mage must be strong if he was confident enough to speak about it as part of his introduction but words usually had to be backed up by action if it were to be believed and it just so happened that an opportunity was about to come up in a matter of minutes.

Javel watched the Earth Dragon Slayer make his first move and as he had not underestimated the Dragon Slayer's power. It had not even been a full minute and already Mashyuu downed one of the bikers with a simple pillar of earth. Of course, this short-term victory was not without consequences; almost immediately after throwing the first attack the bikers immediately surrounded the two mages in their tracks. Javel estimated there to be about a dozen of them; it was no wonder why customers got scared out of their pants whenever they showed up.

The dark mage unsheathed his blunt weapon from his back and took a swing at the closest one he could reach. He missed; the biker saw it coming and ducked with reflexes as quick as a running cockroach. Not a second later, another thrashed him with a long chain from the back and the dark mage couldn't respond fast enough to block it. He turned around and tried to swing at him, only to miss again. They were moving way too fast and it was only made worst with Javel's utter lack of range for a situation like this.

But it got him thinking about how the old shopkeeper describing these thugs, and with his back to Mashyuu's, the dark mage snarked. "I don't recall ghosts ever being tangible or even needing to dodge. Any ideas?"

The kicking up of sand camouflaged them from the bikers, which meant that they would definitely have to come to them; this finally puts them in range of Javel's strikes. The dark mage nodded to his comrade, but the former wasn't just going to wait to spill some biker blood. Seeing that the chain that struck him before was still on Mashyuu's neck, the dark mage took immediate action to take care of it. Since the chain was still being held from the other end, Javel placed the front of his weapon along the rest of the chain and pumped its slider frontward like a shotgun. His weapon did the rest, as it had a unique function no other known weapon in history had and that was the hand gimmick, closing and gripping the chain tightly in its sturdy grip. With proper leverage and a furious tug, Javel pulled and he heard a yelp as a disloged biker came into their range in a mere instant. The dark mage took no chances and stomped him in the face, knocking him unconscious.

That most certainly caught their attention and Javel could hear more revving up coming from the bikes. An incoming charge and imminent and the dark mage braced himself.

Javel did not like the the idea of being sucked underground, but had no time to voice his disagreement when the spell took effect. They reappeared back on the surface on the other side and the Earth Dragon Slayer, in a display of power, activated yet another spell that utterly demolished the incoming bikers when they weren't expecting it. The dark mage impressed, so that was the power a Dragon Slayer was capable of.

Their celebration was short-lived. The attack was impressive, but within the center of the initial charging mob was one specific biker unlike the rest, with bulkier appearance matched by an equally sturdy magic motorcycle . The Tremor Stomp did its part but then...the center biker was unharmed? Instead, the stomp gave the biker some air time before he proceeded to continue and floored the throttle, speeding past the two with Javel barely having enough to leap out of the biker's path. With such skill, it meant one thing."That must be their leader."

The sole biker was picking up at tremendous speed and was quickly out of their range for any of their attacks. Javel, to say the least, was displeased with that. "He's getting away." The dark mage was quick to rush to his own magic motorcycle and mounted on.

Javel was off and gave chase, racing through the crowded and polluted streets of Motor City as he tailed the retreating leader. The enemy was pulling off sharp turns here and there, darting past traffic and blatantly ignoring the pedestrians around him as he tried to get away; Javel himself found it increasingly difficult to keep it and was being outpaced. Whoever this man was, he knew how to utilize a magic vehicle and trying to follow directly wasn't going to work on him. The dark mage decided to switch it up a bit and turned his bike down an alleyway, opting for a detour instead.

The dark mage swerved through the small space between buildings and picked up speed as he did so. He kept his eyes peeled as he stared at any split-intersections to keep track of the biker's location and slowly closed the distance now that the road he was taking was mostly devoid of obstacles. He was getting closer...

Closer...

Closer...

The sound of the rival biker's motorcycle was in range. Javel pinned the throttle and accelerated out of the alleyway, his magic vehicle slamming into the other's in a head-on T Bone collision.

The collision had put both victims involved in a temporary shell-shocked daze. But, since the both possessed the will of iron, they recovered seconds after. Javel took a good look at the bulky biker standing in font of him; his dull eyes meeting the skull mask the other man was wearing. These punks were scum, all of them.

With his weapon in hand, Javel was the first to step forward and attack. He let out a flurry of violent swings and bashes at his opponent, who returned the favor with an equal amount of aggression with his preferred weapon in the form of a lead pipe. The clashing of metal echoed through the air as both fought at the damndest to ensure the other will fall. And they kept it going for god knows how long.

'Kill...' the dark mage thought.

In the end, it came down to who was more willing to kill. Javel had killed many living things throughout his life - not just people but animals and monsters as well. This scum before him would be no different and the dark mage was the first to gain the upper hand, despite his shorter stature than the muscular man in front of him before finally striking him in the head with a well-placed swing amongst his many attempts.

'Kill...'

Javel coldly watched as the biker's skull mask broke in half while he fell to the ground from the strike. The dark mage eerily looked at him with his dead blue eyes as he approached the worthless maggot in front of him. He could see the biker's expression as he came closer with each menacing step. Was it surprise that he was getting beat by a smaller man? Or was it fear that his life was about to be over in a matter of seconds?

'Kill...'

Javel could care less, so as long as the punk was dead. He found himself looming over the dazed biker and he raised his weapon above him, preparing for the killing blow. He stomped on the latter's leg, breaking it so he wouldn't run away. He screamed in pain and could only realize in horror what the dark mage was about to do soon. Javel weapon reached its highest point and he gave one last ominous glare at him.

'Kill...'

As if by coincidence, Javel had turned up, returning back to the initial area where the fight started. The dark mage dismounted off his bike and approached the Dragon Slayer, who seemed to have done rather well on his own. Despite being outnumbered, he was able to utterly demolish the opposing force with not so much as a scratch on his person. His power was one of great potential and he would've been relieved...if not for the fact that the eleven remaining bikers that he dealt with were still alive writhing in pain. That was not tolerable to him.

"Not bad." Javel said as he made note of Mashyuu's strength in his half-compliment half-remark statement. Then, he ominously spoke. "Now let's finish this..."

He unsheathed his strangely bloodied weapon and proceeded to make his way towards the piled up bikers. This was the perfect chance to finish them all at once. And the closest biker in his view was none other than the one Mashyuu just struck down no less. He raised his weapon, and prepared for the killing blow the same way he did it before...

Javel held back his swing as the Dragon Slayer immediately stepped in his way. The dark mage's  stoic expression turned to an aggressive frown, faced with the disbelief that someone would dare get in the way of serving some much needed justice on the crooks. "What are you doing?"

Mashyuu's response wasn't the one he was looking for. "Hey the town's safe now. You aren't going to hurt these guys anymore. Time to give it up. What's up with you man? You seemed so soft spoken and gentle before this entire thing even started."

The dark mage was utterly baffled by the dragon slayer's defensive stance on the subject at hand. How could a mage so talented and so strong be willing to defend a bunch of good-for-nothing pieces of filfth without so much as a hint of doubt? He could not understand the light mage's rationale of thinking and his willingness to protect the opposing side, despite all the reasons Javel could name at the top of his head to argue otherwise.

It was a nuisance for him. Javel's dull eyes were like that of a predator, full of anger and murderous intent as it met with Mashyuu's calmer ones. Whoever the former was when he first met the Sabertooth mage wasn't who he is now. His reply was as venomous as a snake as he coldly spoke, "They're the enemy, dragon slayer - the kind of people that would threaten an old shopkeeper without any second thoughts. The town will never be safe so as long as people like them are still alive."

Mashyuu's defensive take and threat towards Javel only confused the dark mage even more. Did this man not understand the point he was trying to get across? It wasn't about being better; it was about doing the right thing and what action could be more righteous than to end these punks right here and now? The question in his head kept repeating itself. Why?

He couldn't have been any more reckless and it suddenly occurred to him. All these questions made Javel realize he was coming dangerously close to exposing his status as a dark mage to him. With the rune knights coming, this was not the kind of bad rep he wanted to earn himself right now. Gritting his teeth, he begrudgingly acknowledged Mashyuu's request and lowered his bloodied weapon. Defeated, he muttered, "How naive..."

His glare was still deadset to the incapacitated bikers behind the Sabertooth mage. "I don't understand you...I don't think I ever will..."

It was ironic, really it was. Standing before him was man capable of slaying dragons and possessing a power many could only dream of having. And yet despite such gift, he chooses not to put scum in their place and to do the right thing. It irked Javel to think that such talent could be wasted by someone too soft for their own good. Was the man blind from the cold reality of the real world or was this bastard deliberately turning away from it? All Javel knew was one thing, he was weak and this weakness would cost him dearly in the future...