Managing the Monsters (Axil and America)

Info:

A portion of the city of Hargeon had been quarantined off. The magic council had apparently been studying the occurrences that had been going on across the land of Fiore. Sigurd recalled quite some time ago when he met up with two individuals: a demonic mage from Sabertooth named Kenna and a slayer named Gangting. It was one of the most intense battles in his life, and following his near death experience after fighting a gryphon lord, he began to train in using his summons more intently, vowing to never act with such weakness again. And now, here was his opportunity to prove himself. It seems as though the very same monster collective which had been terrorizing Fat Monsterland was now appearing within the walls of several cities and villages throughout Fiore. Thanks to certain mages using information based magics for the sake of the magic council, it seemed that Hargeon was one of the next targets. They had even identified the general area in which they thought the monsters would appear, and have since evacuated a large area around that zone. The particular area bordered the sea, and stretched significantly into the town, encompassing several residential buildings and even an open air market area, complete with booths guarded from the sun by colorful, patterned shades.

Sigurd gritted his teeth. It was incredibly worrying to him that people's residences and livelihoods could be effected by this monster invasion. If the magic council hadn't sensed this ahead of time, how many could have been injured, or worse? He was absolutely sick of this monster army threatening the peace of Fiore, and he was ready to try and take them down once and for all. That being said, he didn't know if he was the only one on this mission or not. He was directly contacted by the magic council due to his notable work taking down the last group of monsters, but it seemed that there were several instances of the exact same events happening all around his country, thus meaning that mages were in higher demand. The summoner wasn't quite sure whether he'd have any help this time like he did last time. It was typical for the Magic Council to include that information in their request, or at least follow up  with a secondary letter, but Sigurd had no time to waste this time. He left for Hargeon immediately after hearing about what was going on.

Wearing his dark armor and skull shaped mask, he aimed to strike fear into the monsters hearts. In his mind, that was what his duty was as a hero. His frightening stance and garb would be sure to pierce the hearts of villainy and force them to understand that they weren't up against any mage. As he stood there, he began to run through the new spells he had learned, and steeled his nerves in preparation for the upcoming battle. Sigurd would not let any harm come to the people of Hargeon, nor would he allow even a scratch to their homes or businesses. He would show the Magic Council for a second time that he truly had the heart of a hero. The question however remained... would anyone be fighting by his side, or was he being left to his own devices?

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Mer's day had started out completely normal with her even being able to sit down and drink a smoothie. Her day was boring so far, but she knew she would be able to find something to do. She had never really been bored in her life because she lived in that forest all her life with amazing people and nothing to compare the life she had then with a world on the outside. Now that she had finally been able to leave that forest and travel while doing cool jobs made her expectancy of excitement to be higher than usual. It was quite saddening for Mer, because of the fact that she had no jobs to do today. There were no interesting ones on the board, which was actually quite worrying, and there was nobody around for her to talk to. With a moment of realization, she had never had a free day since she got out of that place and it was sort of odd knowing that she had been living life to the fullest since then. With a smile to herself, she looked down towards the table and muttered to herself, "I hope you're proud of me, mommy and daddy."

A tear rolled down her cheek, but it was quickly cast away when a Lamia Scale member came through the door. He seemed to be yelling about a new event going on, run by the magic council. Apparently, anyone who was ready to set out should go to one of the marked towns on the flyer. Lamia Scale was one of the most prioritized guilds for advertising due to our extensive knowledge of monsters, and our abilities to hunt them down. With a shrug, Mer decided to take a flier and get a look at it. As she took it, she saw an area that caught her eye. It was the area that she was dropped off to whenever she left Fantagia. Sometimes, she would go there and stare at the forest hoping that she might see her parents once more. She had to make sure that she had to get to it before anyone else did. It was the closest to the guild hall/port which meant that everyone would want to get it. So, she signed up and ran towards the area. The park also referred to as, "Serenity Glades."

She ran towards it, hoping that she wouldn't miss anything. On the way there, she seemed to have bumped into someone. They were male and had a muscular figure to him that made him look like a giant to little Mer. As she looked up towards the man, she saw as the wind flowed through his hair and in awe, she stared at the face covered by the brightness of the sun. She could barely see his face, but she knew that this man had to be a member of a guild. So, she extended her arm towards him trying to gesture for a handshake and said aloud, "Hiya, I'm Mer and I'm from Lamia Scale. I'm guessing you're here for the job/event thing as well?" As she awaited her answer, she grinned as big as she could and hoped that the man would be nice to her.

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Sigurd turned to see a girl, almost an entire foot shorter than him, with long, crimson hair. She couldn’t have been very old, probably in her mid teens. She introduced herself as Mer, of the mage guild Lamia Scale. Sigurd remembered them from when he was looking at guild listings. Of note was their interest in the natural world, a factor which the young mage thought admirable, though not something he thought would align with much synergy to his goals and ideals. Still, the idea of working with someone from this particular sect was appealing to the blonde summoner, and Mer seemed nice enough, so he was content with his working conditions.

“Hello,” he said, turning away from the light, his eyes piercing through holes in the mask he wore. Despite his appearance, he did his best to present a friendly enough tone of voice that his young companion would not find him intimidating, “I am Darknight, Hero of the Void, and ally of Crystal Swan, and you are correct in assuming I’ve been called here by the Magic Council to deal with the monster hordes. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” he looked around and surveyed the area, they were at a local park, and they stood in a clearing. The area was relatively unobstructed, but ahead of them was a wall of trees.

Suddenly, a voice echoed through his and Mer’s head, communicating telepathically. Moments before his companion had arrived, he summoned one of his simpler summons, “Godot Jr.” to run forward and scout out the area. With the voice of a young boy, he relayed information to the two mages, “Attention, Mr. Darknight, I’m extending the range of telepathy to your companion who just arrived. Several portals have just opened up between twenty and thirty meters of your current location, brace for impact!”

Sigurd turned to face the trees and, listening as closely as he could picked up on the rustle of some leaves. He drew Gilgamesh, his sword, and prepared to fight. While still facing the direction his foes would be coming from, he spoke to Mer, “Sorry to cut introductions short, but that was one of my summons who I sent out to scout. I dispelled him to spare him the fight, as he’s not much of a combative force, but that was him you heard in your head just now.” Though Mer wouldn’t be able to see it through his skull-shaped helmet, perhaps she could sense the electric energy running through Sigurd’s body as he prepared himself to try out a few new summons he had been developing. “Now then,” he said, trying to make his voice boom triumphantly, “Let us protect this town, as heroes should,” before running forward, as the first few flame elementals broke the perimeter and charged towards the mage duo.

As they were up against a bunch of fire based enemies, Sigurd knew exactly who he should call upon. Pointing to the earth, he created a summoning seal with his magic, and called forth his water summon, Nautilus, Defender of the Seas. He raised his arm and fired off his signature “Aqua-Blaster” attack. Though the attack was a narrow stream which only hit a single fire minion, the spray was enough to douse the entire horde which was trying to attack Sigurd, making them significantly smaller, and, Sigurd supposed measurably weaker, as their entire bodies were composed of an element wholly weak to Nautlius’s. In addition, the wet earth would prevent the whole clearing from catching fire. As Sigurd and his summon beat, hacked, and slashed away at the fire elementals, he noticed more enemies pour out of the woods. First it was a pack of dog sized rats, seemingly rabid. Next it was a group of foot tall goblins, weilding what looked like to be pretty decent weaponry.

“Uno!” he called out, dispelling Nautilus and summoning one of his new companions. This particular companion was a robot with spherical features, and as soon as it appeared, it rushed off to attack the rat swarm at high speeds, far surpassing that of the swarm itself. Sigurd turned to face the goblins, and noticed that Mer was wrapped up in her own struggle. Thinking quickly, he telepathically commanded Uno to activate its power. Feeling his muscles lighten, he out-sped the goblins, surprising them with this burst of energy. Such a maneuver was menacing enough that the few that weren’t split open by his blade recoiled and retreated back into the woods.

He dispelled Uno, and summoned Zwei. The second Robo-Defender activated its defensive capabilities. The rats began to surround Sigurd, but thanks to his armor and the ability of his summon, the toxic bites had trouble reaching his skin. He managed to throw them off, and despite receiving some damage, he dispatched his foes.

Finally, he unsummoned Zwei and summoned his strongest new summon, Trois. He commanded the robot to boost his ally Mel. Obeying, Trois raised his arms and released magical energy in an effort to empower her attacks on the rest of the monsters.

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Mer saw as her ally sent off one of his cool looking summons to scout the area. She thought it was so amazing how people could just summon beings like that into this world with ease. It made her smile and feel light and airy once she knew what people outside of the forest could do. In awe, she watched as he talked to her and went on a rampage. The monsters stood no chance against the summons her brought to the field. He even brought one up that strengthened her. She felt as power coursed through her body once she was blessed by the powers of the summon he called "Zwei." She felt so invigorated by his grant of strength. With that, she felt ready to fight off the rest of the hoard.

As she closed her eyes, and said the word, "Butterfly" as her head began to glow. With it, came out a stone rune with the rune of the butterfly on it. As it touched her hands, she grew her signature butterfly wings as they appeared beautifully on the back of Mer. She smiled as she felt how ready she was to fight. With that, the hoard of monsters came rushing towards her. There were plenty of goblins with that, along with even other flame like creatures. They came rushing towards her as she flew backwards to try and dodge their multitudes of attacks. Then, she activated her jaguar rune as night fell upon the area, leaving Mer invisible from the sights of the monsters. She didn't want them to go after her partner, however, so she activated the abilities of both the jaguar and butterfly rune at once. This led to a multitude of the hoard being dropped down, and Mer feeling victorious. She cheered as she congratulated herself for killing most of those monsters. However, there were still a few more, but she knew that she would be able to kill the rest of them. There weren't many, but the few that were there were the strongest out of their friends, which meant Mer had to play this smartly. As she activated her fox rune, her wings were replaced with 9 fox tails. They flowed in the wind gracefully as their beauty truly showed off their demanding look. So, Mer used her active ability multiple times as she sliced down the hoards and set flame to them all in a few swift movements.

As she finished up the monsters, she looked over to her partner and smiled as she cheered with joy. It seemed like there weren't anymore monsters to be spawned, since it got destroyed during the fight. She walked over to the man and said to him, "It was nice working with you!"

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