Breaking and Exiting // Solo Job

Job:

A loud sigh filled the formerly silent bedroom of the blue-haired boy as he made his way inside. Today had been rather tiring, considering he had spent the majority of his time to help his father on a quick fishing trip. Quinn had volunteered to go along with him after having heard they spotted a stray magical fish that the novice mage most definitely wanted to offer a safe place to live. Sadly, the little creature hadn’t shown itself today, so Quinn would have to go back another time.

It wasn’t all too uncommon for Quinn to join his father or his acquaintances when they travelled around the sea by boat. Not only did he usually enjoy it, it was also the perfect time for him to make an attempt at searching for more creatures in need of a new home. Being only 16, Quinn wasn’t quite ready to make it his job to just travel around the sea to do so, though. Besides, he wasn’t even close to strong enough to house let alone summon more creatures than he currently did. Luckily, Quinn would usually release certain summons back into the wild once he deemed them ready, and that’s exactly what he had to do again today.

He had to say goodbye to two creatures he had both found once they were still very young. They used to be very well-behaved, but while their length and width increased, so did their confidence. Bold decisions led to the injury of several innocent fish, so Quinn decided it was time for them to go back to where they belonged. It might’ve been a selfish decision to just dump them in the sea without solving their ferocious personality, but Quinn didn’t deem it as something unnatural. Predators would always remain to be predators, and changing that with magic was not something he took for an option.

The young boy had already thrown himself onto the bed, ready to close his eyes and go to sleep after feeling the warm and comfortable embrace of his blanket and pillow. Apparently, the world did not want tired little Quinn to go to sleep yet because they sent a loud crowd of people past his house that caused the young boy to jump up and look through the now opened window. It only took a couple seconds for him to realize what was going on, though the female voice screaming “STOP THEM!” made his decision to go after the dumb bandits a bit easier.

Frankly, Quinn was grumpy. His mood had become worse as the day passed, and this definitely didn’t make it better. He felt nothing but negative emotions towards the bandits as he followed the path towards the docks, right after the bandits. He had managed to catch up quite easily, though there were still a decent amount of meters between him and the bandits. When one of them tripped over his own feet, Quinn was about cast entangle by calling out its name, sending a chaotic collection of seaweed towards him and completely immobilizing him as a result. However, a few fellow normally-functioning citizens had caught up and thrown themselves onto the law-defying bandit.  Knowing that he didn’t have time to grab his trident beforehand, Quinn decided to borrow the bandit’s longsword that had been dropped upon falling. The blue-haired boy wasn’t very familiar with the use of swords at all, but it was better than having nothing.

None of the other bandits had done anything more than just quickly glance over their shoulders upon their friends unfortunate fall. They were too busy carrying leaking bags of jewels and mindlessly running forward, pushing away the few people that were still walking around on the streets. They were desperate, but, sadly for them, not prepared to face off against a not-so-powerful lower ranked wizard! They would feel his wrath soon.

One benefit of living in Hargeon Town since birth was knowing the way better than some common scum. Quinn was all too familiar with shortcuts that made it quite easy to get to the docks sooner than the 9 bandits still running for their lives. The younger boy simply assumed they would be heading to the sea, seeing as it was the direction they were going in as well as being quite a logical way to leave Hargeon Town quickly.

Quinn’s lucky guess had proven to be correct, seeing as the young boy was politely greeted by the sight of 9 bandits running towards a ship that Quinn conveniently standing 10 meters in front of. The young boy clumsily aimed his sword forward as the bandits came closer and slowed down, seeing a grin appear on two of the idiots that hadn’t put a hood on. “Stop right there!” he shouted, still looking severely annoyed. There wasn’t too much fear to be found in his system, mainly because his blue jellyfish was right by his side. If he hadn’t, the bandits probably would’ve run straight over Quinn, but luckily Bubbles wasn’t too busy mindlessly floating around in his artificial dimension, so he could help his summoner.

The bandits didn’t seem as scared as he had wanted them to be. In fact, they didn’t seem bothered at all. “Get out of the way, Kiddo.” a hooded dumbo exclaimed, running forward with his knife as another bandit followed soon after him. Quinn spoke up as soon as humanly possible, telling the jellyfish to charge forward, activating his ability and sending him directly to the two bandits. Luckily for Quinn, both of the seemingly adult individuals were launched back, falling down on the ground and not really looking like they were going to get up again. Seeing another two of their kind down on the ground did most definitely make an impact on the other hooded bandits, considering all 7 were now in action. Quinn’s eyes darted from bandit to bandit, noticing that all 7 went for a more brave but stupid approach. Quinn held his sword tightly as he tried to predict the closest bandit’s action, slightly tunnel visioning on her and sadly to be taken by surprise by a heavy bag filled with jewels. The blue haired mage hadn’t expected them to give up even one bag of jewels for the sake of getting away, but apparently, he had guessed wrong. Falling sideways onto the ground, Quinn quickly exclaimed “Spin!” in an attempt to secure his own safety whilst also punishing the surrounding adults. Because of its long range, the blade managed to hit all 7 of them, even those that were busy running for the ship, which was also hit by the powerful blade of water but didn’t actually suffer much damage. Quinn got up to see a bunch of groaning morons on the ground, some of them trying to get up while some had apparently been neutralized by the painful fall. “GET UP YOU IDIOTS! RUN!” a low-pitched voice shouted, coming from one of the bandits that had actually gotten back up on their feet and was now running for the boat with a bag of jewels in one hand. His inspirational speech had motivated 3 others to get up, making the situation a bit trickier to take care of.

Quinn offered the bandits a bit of hope for just a few seconds, eventually casting entangle on the bandit that recently called out, surrounding him in seaweed and causing him to pitifully fall face forward. Another running bandit had been bumped in by Bubbles before he even managed to pass Quinn. He did create a bit of time for the faster two bandits to run past him, and Quinn didn’t really have any more abilities to quickly take them down. Not like he really needed them, though.

Running after them, Bubbles managed to shove one of the unfortunate bandits directly against the ship, falling down into the water before desperately trying to pull himself back up again. The final thief was halfway up on the ship’s ladder before Quinn managed to latch onto his leg, having jumped up to grab it and thus hanging above the ground. This caused his full weight to now depend on the other person, who apparently didn’t have enough strength to keep moving. Quinn telepathically gave out a final command before quickly letting go, his feet landing the ground just slightly before the fleeing bandit was furiously bumped off the ladder. The blue-haired boy let go of his sword as he gave bubbles a pat on the head while looking around to see if any bandits were still standing. Luckily, there weren’t any still willing to attempt an escape, now it was just a matter of time before they would be arrested, and Quinn eagerly waited for that moment.

Luckily, the young and tired boy didn’t have to wait very long as justice quickly arrived to take care of the bandits. To his surprise, he was actually rewarded with a fair amount of jewels that did happen to lighten his mood slightly. Now it was time for him to quickly return home in the hope that his parents had yet to have woken up and started to worry about his whereabouts.

WC // 1533/1500