To Valhalla (Solo Job)

Job:

Alistaire always found beliefs in life after death and all those weird things far too confusing to think about. He was scared of death, but somehow couldn’t get himself to feel safer or calm by all those stories about the afterlife. Sure, there were ways to trick death and keep living, but Alistaire didn’t know if he even wanted that. Right now he would be more than happy to give up every single belonging for eternal life, but his opinion would most likely change later on in life. Perhaps he would turn into a lunatic like his current client, someone who wanted to be killed so he could move on to “Valhalla”, yet another world for afterlife that many clung onto to take away their fear of death. Alistaire didn’t know if these places were real, but he wouldn’t believe until he actually saw it with his own 2 eyes.

Alistaire had taken a couple of days to decide whether he was going to actually do this job. Killing someone isn’t something he particularly enjoyed, even if they wanted to die. He had never taken the life of anyone, so he wasn’t sure if he could even handle the burden of being responsible for someone’s death. Despite acting all high and mighty, Alistaire wasn’t brave enough to kill someone with a straight face.

The novice mage made his decision when he remembered the words of possibly the most annoying man he had met so far, his grandfather. He was a very, very grumpy man, but the few moments he actually enjoyed his life he said some pretty inspiring thing. His grandfather was also a Requip mage, but unlike Alistaire he only played around with close range weapons. He would always call Alistaire a coward for only wielding weapons, which eventually caused the boy to also start training with melee weapons so he could prove that he wasn’t a coward. Sadly, his grandfather’s health had taken a huge blow, eventually getting too weak to even open his eyes. One of the last sentences he muttered was anything but soothing to the mourning family members.

“I wish I would’ve died on the battlefield.”

His grandfather was a warrior at heart, so for him to die in a bed, surrounded with sobbing family members who all loved him dearly, probably felt humiliating. Alistaire kind of understood, since he would rather lose his life protecting someone he loved rather than having the lights go out while he’s weak and useless. Still, it was frustrating to Alistaire that the old man had passed with regret, and he didn’t want that to happen to this stranger. So, Alistaire decided to travel to Oshibana, ready to take the old man to Valhalla.

Alistaire arrived at Oshibana exactly at sunrise, quickly making his way towards the location chosen by the old man. It was a humble house quite a distance away from the others, a large garden with all kinds of flowers decorating the place with various colors. It was a nice place to end one’s life..

It didn’t take long for Alistaire to make his way towards the house, knocking on the wooden door before taking a small step back as he waited for the old man to open. Alistaire was doing his best to look confident, as if he had a heart of stone, but he simply couldn’t. He was going to kill an old, innocent man.

Though Alistaire would’ve appreciated a minute or two to calm himself down again, the door swung open merely a few seconds after he had knocked. He was greeted by the sight of a tall and surprisingly fit man whose long beard and mustache made up for his bald head. The man looked pretty healthy.

“Ior Valiir, I’ve come to battle you.” Alistaire’s voice was slightly shaking, but it hopefully wasn’t clear enough for the old man to notice. He didn’t want to look like a coward, since getting beaten by a coward would probably be worse for the old man than to die a natural death.

“Very well, I will meet you in the garden once I’m ready.” The old man offered Alistaire a sincere smile, something that the black-haired boy hadn’t expected. He had been imagining this man as a clear copy of his grandfather, which he obviously wasn’t. Anyway, Alistaire walked back into the garden, admiring the beautiful flowers as he waited for the man to arrive. He wasn’t ready to fight, but he couldn’t back out now.

It didn’t take long for the old man to appear in the garden, now wielding a shield and sword. Alistaire couldn’t sense any magic around the area, so Ior was probably not a mage, which made it even more unfair. This fight wasn’t supposed to be fair, though, as both parties already knew the outcome. This would be Ior’s last fight.

“Are you ready?” Alistaire turned his gaze away from the flowers, now eyeing the old man who was getting into a stable position. “More ready than I’ve ever been.” A playful smile was still glued to the old man’s face, he really did seem to be alright with the fact that he was about to die. “I won’t hold back, so I suggest you don’t either.” the man said, clear confidence in his voice.  The comment caused Alistaire to smile slightly, summoning two brass knuckles by activating “Lil’ Smasher”. These weren’t the weapons he was going to end the man’s life with as that would be far too barbaric. His other weapons wouldn’t allow for a pretty death either, but at least they’d make an end to it a little faster. These were the moments that Alistaire regretted that he didn’t have any simple tools that could end life a little quicker.

“Trust me, I won’t.” The nervous boy quickly charged forward, running straight towards his target that wasn’t moving at all. He had his shield held in front of him and the sword pointed forward, simply waiting for the younger male to get close. Already regretting his choice to take this job, Alistaire pulled back his left arm while running, a dark red energy surrounding his hand and quickly forming a drill-shape, putting his hand through light-torture due to the pain that came with activating Unload. As he came closer, he threw his fist forward, hitting the shield right in the middle, causing it to break immediately. Because Alistaire wasn’t paying any attention, the old man took his chance and slashed his sword horizontally, successfully hitting the side of Alistaire’s stomach and creating a light cut. It hurt, but wasn’t going to stop Alistaire from  fighting. The young man quickly jumped back, forcing a smile onto his face. “Nice hit, Old man.” Alistaire was still trying to keep up his usual act of overconfidence and bravery, as if he wasn’t afraid of killing. He hoped that this would make the man feel a little better and be alright with the fact that Alistaire was the one that took his life. “Seems like I’m still a great fighter after all this time.” The man replied and chuckled, already out of breath from those few movements.

Obviously, Alistaire saying he wasn’t holding back was merely a bluff. If he hadn’t held back, the old man had already been blown up by his rocket launcher or had received a shower of fire from his shotgun, but instead he had picked a pair of weapons that would at least give the man a chance. He wanted to make him feel strong, because that would probably make him feel better. His choice in weapons would not make this fight one-sided, so that it was actually a fight worth to die in.

After a couple of seconds simply standing in a fighting stance, Alistaire ran towards the old man once again, making exactly the same movement as before but this time not activating his ability. The man’s punch was aimed towards the older man’s chest, but the man somehow managed to get out of the way before Alistaire hit, quickly retaliating with a diagonal slash of his sword, aimed at Alistaire’s side. Luckily, the boy pulled off a quick dodge to the right, deactivating his current weapon before quickly bringing his shotgun out to fight. Alistaire hesitantly pulled the trigger, sending bolts of fire straight towards the old man who was far too close. The majority of the bolts managed to hit, dealing a decent amount of damage, but not enough. The old man let out a groan, but quickly focused back on the fight, slashing horizontally at Alistaire, who was in slight shock after having hit the man. This was what Ior wished for, but he felt like he had just done something horrible.  Still, the boy managed to block the hit by using his shotgun to take the hit, both hands tightly wrapped around the weapon as he pushed back before dodging to the side once again. Alistaire knew he wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long, as he felt like he was going to break down. Thus he made the devastating decision to end it all now.

Reluctantly, Alistaire activated the ability of his shotgun, sending forth flames that, upon hit, brought the old man down to his knees, his sword still tightly held. Alistaire aimed his shotgun at the man’s head, his finger shaking on the trigger. He couldn’t do this. The young man froze in place, causing the older man to look up, once again showing a smile. How could he smile now? How could he possibly be alright knowing that he was going to die? How…

“Thank you, young man. I’m sure we will meet again in Valhalla.” The old man’s voice was calm, not showing a single sign of him being in pain. Still smiling, the man closed his eyes, ready to go to the afterlife.

“It’s an honour to have met you, sir. ‘T-till we meet again.”

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the gardens, closely followed by the sound of metal hitting the ground. The job had been done, finally.

Alistaire let his shotgun fall onto the ground, making it disappear almost instantly. He tried to calm himself down by constantly repeating “He wanted this to happen” in his head, but it didn’t seem to have any effect. It was definitely going to take a few days for Alistaire to calm down.

After fighting back a few tears and slapping himself as an attempt to get back into his role of the brave warrior, Alistaire had pulled the man into a different position, simply laying on his back, his sword right next to him. He had also carefully picked some flowers from the surrounding area, and had placed them beside the man as a sign of love. Alistaire didn’t know the man at all, but he kept thinking of this man as his grandfather, making him even more emotional. He hated being like this, which is why he quickly left the area, ready to go back home.

WC: 1846/1000 Job Completed.