- Job Desription:
It had taken the train a full night to get to it's destination: Era, the seat of the magic council and one of the biggest cities in Fiore. Of course, Herakles didn't know that. All he knew was that it was not this " Mountain Village " that he had tried ending up at, and that he was lost and frustrated. He sat on a bench near the train station, his baggage beside him, unsure what to do. He sighed. With no money left, he couldn't even get a hotel room, buy food or other basic necessities. He was in a dire situation and had no other choice than to look around the city for something that would make him at least a bit of money. With that, he stood up putting his rucksack on his back, walking away from the train station and onto the main road that would lead him to the inner city.
It was still rather early in the day, the air was fresh and the sun was shining, so there was still potential for him to continue his journey, but first he'd have to earn a bit of cash to stock up his supplies. With that, he asked his way to the market area of Era, he figured that would be the best place to get information on jobs, especially since this city seemed to be the seat of the magic council of Fiore, and was brimming with magic and mages alike. He followed the road that led to the market area and entered the plaza a short while later, only to be awed by what he saw. A huge amount of various different carts, booths and shops seemed to be evenly spread around the place, with goods stacked up all over and an even larger crowd that was buying different goods. It was unlike anything he had ever seen in Desierto, completely different from your average market or the bazar.
Herakles started walking through the different alleys between the different kinds of shops, looking for anything that could give him hint him to something that would help him earn some money when, after a bit of searching, he spotted a small crowd of what seemed to be mages, offside from the rest of the larger crowd of people roaming the marketplace. It caught his eye and, as he got closer, he could see that they seemed to be gathered around what looked like a large board, with posters, flyers, letters et cetera covering the entire thing. From what he could gather, this was one of the boards the magic council of Fiore, along with an organisation called the "Rune Knights" used to distribute different jobs and tasks they wanted done. The names didn't ring a bell, but Herakles figured it would be his best bet, so he made his way through the small crowd and took a look at the large board.
On there were mostly wanted posters for dark mages, a few jobs here and there that seemed like they were a bit above Herakles' paygrade, and also requests for various items and services. He sighed, almost ready to turn around and leave when out of the corner of his eye he spotted a flyer that caught his interest. He ripped the thin piece of paper from the wooden board and stepped out of the crowd, sitting down on a nearby bench to read it more carefully. The magic council wanted someone to eliminate a bunch of dire boars that were running rampant in the rural area around the city as they posed a threat to the population, with several farmers that tried to stop them already having been killed. There were a couple of jewels in for Herakles, and it said he could keep the meat from the boars, which was excellent in his situation. He could turn some of that into supplies and use the money for transport. With that he stood up, heading straight for the nearby woods.
Herakles had some experience as a hunter, and, although it wasn't much, it was hard to miss the trail of destruction the beasts had left behind, even for an amateur. After roughly an hour of searching and following their tracks he had found them: 5 gigantic hogs with tusks like swords, and one even bigger one, which he guessed to be the mother. Even though Herakles was a trained warrior, he gulped a little at the sight of those magnificent beasts.
He concentrated, still hidden, and summoned Centaur. "Hey Centaur, I need your help" he whispered to the hybrid of man and horse, signaling for him to be quiet and stay down "What is it I can assist with, my summoner ?". "See those hogs there ? I need you to stay down and wait right here. I'll telepathically give you the sign, and you'll take 3 of them out. After that, you'll go back to the mythical realm, how does that sound ?" "Agreed, my summoner, let us proceed". Herakles smirked. Centaur was an expert bowman, he would have no trouble with the task he had given him. Herakles quietly sneaked his way to a nearby bush, all while watching the animals closely, looking for any anomalies in their behaviour. Once he was in position, he gave Centaur the signal to fire, and moments later he saw 3 fiery arrows flying in their direction. He hit 2 of the smaller ones right between the eyes, they collapsed instantly, but one had turned slightly so the arrow struck the beast at it's head, making it scream out in pain. Centaurs task was done, and he disappeared, but the hogs were now confused and enraged, unsure about what just happened, and they started stamping in anger.
Herakles was still hidden, but he now pulled out his spear from behind his back and raised his shield to his chest. He started concentrating on one of his other Summons, and a moment later, a gigantic scorpion appeared before him. Naturally, the hogs noticed, and Herakles instantly commanded "Scorpio, charge !" before storming out himself, charging spear first into the animal that Centaur had wounded before, ramming the weapon into the beasts side. The animal let out a shriek of pain and collapsed, but Herakles had no time to catch his breath as another hog was charging at him. He let go of the spear that was still stuck in the hogs side and drew his sword, climbing the dead animal and jumping onto the one that came charging. He rammed his sword down with all his might and the large beast broke down. He jumped off to see that Scorpio had used his tail to sting the last one of the smaller hogs while fending it off with his claws, and Scorpios poison started to take effect. The animal stumbled and fell on it's side. The only one left now was the large one. Herakles looked around, but he couldn't see her anymore when behind him he heard wood break. He quickly turned to witness the gigantic beast charge through several trees that broke like toothpicks.
In panic, he jumped to the side, one of the tusk missing his leg by mere inches, and he saw the hog ram Scorpio, launching the poor arachnid several meters through the air before it landed on the ground and disappeared. "That'll take him out for a while" he thought before sending "Sorry, Scorpio, next time we'll do better" to the mythical creature telepathically. He quickly summoned Stymphalid and the bird instantly started to shoot it's feathers at the beast that turned around to charge at Herakles again, creating several large wounds. Herakles dodged the animal once more, but this time he pulled the spear out of the body of the smaller hog and threw it at the ginormous monster, piercing it's chest with a loud cracking sound. The beast collapsed, giving Herakles the moment to finally catch his breath. "Well then ... phew ... I guess that's it"
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Word Count: 1340/1000
