Job Link
Mayumi was not a huge fan of the cold. Why she had taken this job, then, she didn't know. Perhaps because it had a good reward, and she was running low on funds. Or perhaps it was because she felt a connection to the situation. It was said that there was a cave far to the north that was filled with restless spirits. She was keenly aware that it happened. After all, she herself could summon some spirit warriors that could not let go of this life. Usually it was because something unpleasant tied them here, especially related to their death. She felt that she herself had probably come close to being one of those restless spirits once, and she knew it must be a horrible situation to be in. These weren't really people anymore, and they were trapped in a cave where they probably died. They needed to move on, and if they needed help to do that then, well, she would make sure that they got that help.
Not that she knew the first thing about settling spirits, of course. But there was an elderly woman here who claimed that she did. There was some type of ritual she had to perform, and it had to be done in the cave. The trouble was, that was a dangerous prospect, and not just because of the biting cold and dangerous animals that roamed the area. The spirits themselves were said to be dangerous. If the woman was going to make it through the cave, she would need some sort of protection. And that, of course, was where Mayumi came it. Protection she could handle.
The woman lived in a small village near the tundra where the cave was. It was a tiny, run-down collection of houses, seemingly in the middle of no where. Just a single road, with a couple of store fronts and about two dozen or so homes. They were built of stone, unsurprisingly. There weren't many good trees that grew around here, and it would be very expensive to have wood shipped in. Stones, though, would be pretty plentiful. The roofs were made of large ceramic tiles, all very deeply sloped, presumably to prevent snow from accumulating and breaking the roofs. Still, the roofs were low to keep the heat near the people. It was all very practical, considering the climate. The town was also surrounded by a low stone wall, closed on both ends of the main street by gates, although both were open at the moment. The job has warned that there were dangerous animals roaming the lands surrounding the town. She supposed the wall was meant to keep those animals out.
She stepped up to the house that had been listed in the job, ignoring the stares from the curious villagers and she knocked loudly on the door. After waiting there for several minutes, Mayumi was beginning to think no one was home. Then, all of a sudden, the door opened. The woman before here seemed positively ancient. She had long gray hair, unnerving blue eyes, and a frightening amount of wrinkles. Not to mention that she was just shy of five feet tall. Still, she seemed friendly enough as she smiled warmly at her visitor.
"Oh, you must be the mage! Yes yes, you're right on time. I'm Erin. Please, come in! You must be freezing out there!"
Really, what gave it away? The fact that the ground was completely blanketed with snow and ice, or that Mayumi had bundled herself up in a heavy fur coat to try and keep the warmth in. Still, she supposed that for a local here it wouldn't seem that cold. After all, it wasn't even winter yet. Still, she was glad to walk inside, finding herself in a pleasant little home that was, thankfully, heated. She supposed it would be polite to introduce herself, so she decided to start with that.
"Hello. I'm Mayumi. I understand that you need help getting to this cave I've been hearing about?"
The woman nodded. "Oh yes, the Cave of the Hitodama. It's very important, you see, to placate the spirits. I used to be able to do it on my own, but I'm getting a little old to be fighting, so I need you to help me make it up there so I can do the ritual."
Mayumi smiled. "Well, I can certainly do that."
The woman smiled in return. "Well, I'm glad to hear it. Here, just let me grab this and I'll be all ready to go."
'This' turned out to be a bag of equipment that looked like it had to weigh at least twenty pounds, and the poor woman looked like she was struggling to lift it, which Mayumi just couldn't bear to watch. She decided to step in.
"Here- I can carry that."
She scooped up the pack before the woman had a chance to object. After all, she'd carried much heavier things before, so she could handle it just find.
"Oh, thank you!" Erin exclaimed. "I think we're all set. I'll lead the way. Watch out for trouble once we make it out on the tundra, though. There are a lot of dangerous animals roaming around."
So the two headed out of town, Mayumi trailing dutifully behind with the pack. As they left the town, the woman pointed out the valley the cave was in, and her heart sank. It was all the way across the frozen landscape. It would take them hours to get there. She sighed. It was a good thing she'd dressed warm.
As they trudged through the snow and ice, Mayumi was starting to get very bored with the environment. It was so very cold, and white, with almost nothing living in sight, save for the grass underfoot. It seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be a dead area. Perhaps that was for good reason. Mayumi couldn't see how anything could manage to survive out here.
Then, to her surprise, something moved. Whipping her head around, she spotted what appeared to be a reindeer of sorts. It had been grazing a moment before, but it had stopped to study the intruders that were now in its territory. Apparently it decided to take them as a threat, because it clearly wasn't too thrilled at their presence. Instead, it lowered its head and charged!
Mayumi quickly drew her sword, placing herself between the animal and Erin. She didn't like to kill animals, but if one attacked her she would definitely protect herself. And her client, for that matter. The beast didn't stop its headlong charge, so she danced out of the way at the last moment, slashing her sword down its side, hoping the pain would scare it off. No such luck. It just turned back of her with a renewed vengeance, charging at her full-on again. She sighed. Oh well, she'd tried. The next blow was to the face, opening a deep gash down the animal's forehead. That seemed to finally bring it to its senses, and it decided that perhaps it shouldn't mess with her. It took off running, and she finally relaxed.
"Thank you."
Mayumi glanced back at the woman who had spoke.
"Of course. Any time." It seemed weird to her, to be thanked like that when she was only doing the job she'd been hired for. Still, the woman was very polite, so she was hardly going to complain about it.
The two set off again. It was a brutal hike, but they eventually made it to the valley. Along the way they'd run into two wolves, and unfortunately, they hadn't been so keen to back off. In fact, they'd seemed to be hunting them. Probably didn't have much food around here, and thought the pair of travelers would be an easy meal. She'd had to kill them. They probably would have backed off if she'd severely injured them, but there was a very good chance that they wouldn't survive that. It was more humane to just kill them and have it over with. She'd gotten scratched by one, which definitely stung a bit, but other than that they were both fine.
They entered the valley, following the small river that wound through the valley. It was a sluggish little stream, with chunks of ice floating in it. The fact that it wasn't frozen over entirely was a miracle. It flowed down the valley away from the cave they were heading for. In fact, Erin had said that it started in the cave. Mayumi wondered if that was part of the issue with the spirits. She'd heard that they had difficulty crossing running water, or some said they were actually drawn to water. Either way, it could be at least part of the problem.
As they drew ever nearer to the entrance of the cave, Mayumi decided she wasn't looking forward to running into these spirits. She had spirits of her own, and the first one she'd summoned had tried to attack her immediately, despite the fact that she was supposed to be in control of it. If the spirits here were half that aggressive they could be in some trouble.
They finally hit the mouth of the cave, and she couldn't help but stare. The entrance was narrow, but rather tall. A narrow stone pathway started at the entrance of the cave, running alongside the river. Clearly it had been a well-visited location at some point. Not, of course, that she had any idea why they would want to, especially with dangerous spirits around. Then again, perhaps that had been before the spirits started showing up. Speaking of...
"So how long have there restless spirits been in this cave?"
Her elderly companion shrugged slightly. "Well, there have always been spirits around this cave. It's a spiritual place, although no one is quite sure why. People used to come here all the time to perform the appeasement rituals, and it kept them calm. But then people started forgetting. I'm the only one who remembered. But now that I'm starting to get older I haven't been able to come here in a while. The spirits have been getting more and more restless, and now they're attacking anyone who dares come near the cave. It's getting out of hand, and I need to perform this ritual before something horrible happens."
Mayumi nodded. It made sense. It also made her a little more nervous, and she caught herself holding her breath as she stepped inside the cave. Even here in the entrance of the cave it was very dark, although there was some kind of glowing moss growing on the walls and along the riverbank to give some light. The walls were made entirely of gray stone, with veins of some lighter material running through them, although it was impossible to tell what exactly they were made of. The riverbank was made entirely of small, smooth pebbles in a wide variety of colors. She even spotted some bright blues and greens, and she rather suspected that there were some semi-precious stones mixed in. The path they were walking on was made of much larger, flat stones. They didn't match the walls or the riverbed, so she suspected they had been brought in from elsewhere to build the path.
She half expected some spook to pop out and attack them immediately. Thankfully, that did not happen, although she had no idea if there were even any lurking nearby. It was too dark to tell. She stared down the long path. She'd expected a shallow little cave, but clearly that was not that case.
"So... How deep is this cave, exactly?"
"Oh, it goes for about five miles ago, all the way down to the spring that the river comes from. That's where I have to perform the ritual."
Oh. Well that was one long cave. And unfortunately, that left a lot of time for spirits to attack them. For a moment, Mayumi considered the option of taking the lead herself, so that she would be first if they ran into trouble. It was the obvious choice. But she shrugged that off. Considering that they were dealing with spirits here, they were just as likely to be attacked from behind as from the front, and she had a better chance of spotting the forward attacks before they hit. She didn't want the woman she was guarding to get hit from behind before she realized what was happening, so she continued to follow the woman down the winding path.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for them to run into trouble. The pair was just walking along, minding their own business, when suddenly shapes began to emerge from the darkness. There were three of them in all, and difficult to see until they were almost on top of them. They were mostly see-through, and seemed to emit a very faint glow. Other then those two small details they looked like, well, regular people. One was an older man, probably close to Erin's age, wearing the type of fur clothing she'd seen in the village, so she assumed he had been a local. The second, a younger man closer in age to Mayumi herself, was wearing what looked like a ridiculous white safari outfit, complete with a massive backpack and binoculars. She suspected he'd been either an explorer or tourist. And sadly, the last of the spirits was a little girl, who couldn't be older than about ten, wearing a pretty pink dress with white fur trim.
At first, Mayumi didn't think the spirits would cause any problems. They just seemed to watch the travelers for a long moment. Then, suddenly, they attacked. It took Mayumi less than a second to decide that these enemies might be a bit too difficult to handle with just her ordinary sword, so she immediately called on her magic.
"Requip: Whip of Entanglement!"
The weapon appeared in her hands almost immediately, and she swung it at the nearest spirit, who happened to be the younger man. "Bind!"
She used the weapon's special attack, and the blow landed, binding the spirit in place for one turn. Just as well, since she had other company to attend to. The older man was almost on top of her now, and she lashed at him with the whip, catching him right across the face. He responded with a blow of his own, punching her in the chest and knocking her back for a moment. Then a second strike from her weapon took him down, and she turned back to her original target, who had been freed from his captivity and was coming at her again. One more swing of her whip brought him down too.
Then she turned to face the last spirit, the one she'd been avoiding from the start of the fight. She couldn't bring herself to attack a little girl. Of course, then the girl hit her, which kind of hurt. Yeah, the hell with that. She was dead anyway, and Mayumi was just defending herself. And her client for that matter. Two quick blows finished the fight, and she was finally able to stop and breath again.
Its duration over, her requip weapon disappeared once more, and Mayumi let herself relax for a moment, nursing her injuries. They weren't too bad, but they definitely stung a bit. Then she realized Erin was watching her.
"Not bad at all."
Mayumi smiles wryly. "I'll be honest, they were a little... Weak. I expected the spirits here to be tougher."
The older woman laughed. "Oh, those were just wayward ghosts. Ordinary travelers who died here and were trapped. They usually aren't violent, but they're very restless now for some reason. No, the real danger here are the Hitodama that the cave is named for. They're the spirits of deceased mages, and they're a lot stronger than the spirits you just fought."
Mayumi groaned quietly. It just had to get worse, didn't it. Well, there wasn't much she could do about it, save to keep her guard up. "Well, I guess you ought to lead on then."
The woman did just that, and Mayumi trailed behind. As the minutes passed, and then almost an hour, Mayumi began hoping that they may not run into the Hitodami the woman had mentioned. Of course, as soon as that thought so much as crossed her mind, something appeared out of the darkness surrounding them. Or rather, two somethings. They were both tall, dark, shadowy figures. No glowing for them. One wore long robes, deep crimson in color, with their head completely covered. The other was a woman, dressed in an ice blue tunic with white leggings and long white hair.
"Uh... Those wouldn't happen to be Hitodama, would they?"
It was a fair guess, since she could tell they felt different from the spirits from earlier. Before her companion had a chance to answer, however, two fiery javelins appeared in the hands of the first mage, and he flung them both at the two women. Mayumi grabbed Erin and pulled her out of the way of the attack.
"Yup, that would be them."
Well, she'd figured that out based on the attacks. Those were definitely mages, alright, and she didn't exactly fancy the idea of getting too close to them. She wasn't sure what spells they might pull out. She decided to play it safe in this fight.
"Requip: Armor of Endurance! Requip: Guns of Sureness!"
Both items appeared, and just in time. It seemed that the second Hitodama had launched two javelins of her own at Mayumi. One missed, but the other struck home. It was a good thing she'd been wearing the armor. But now that her guns' ability had slowed her opponents, perhaps the odds would be a bit more even as she began to fire at them. She managed to land four shots on the first mage and two on the second, dodging a couple more javelins in the process. It was time to act quickly, before one of them got lucky and managed to hit her. She decided to use her gun's special attack.
"Fire at Will!"
All six of the rapid shots were aimed at the first mage, the one who had so far taken the most damage. Four hit, and that was enough to take him out of the fight. One down, one left to go. She decided using her guns would take too long, since each shot only dealt half damage. It was time to go in close, and she released her guns, calling on a new weapon instead.
"Requip: Sword of Fury!" Then, almost as an afterthought she added, "Requip: Bracelet of Power! Requip: Armor of Might!"
The armor change was to boost her damage. Same with the bracelet and sword. It was time for her to do as much damage as possible. Now it was time to end this. She charged forward at her opponent. As soon as she got close, the mage unleashed a burst of powerful ice magic. It hurt like hell, but Mayumi didn't slow down, swinging the massive sword at her opponent. The spirit managed to dodge the first strike, but as it would soon find out that she was surprisingly fast with the unwieldy sword. Her follow-up hit landed, and her increased strength combined with the two hits she'd landed earlier was enough to bring the spirit down.
She kept her requip equipment up for a long moment, in case any more trouble arose, but when none did she let go of it. No point in keeping it around if it wasn't needed. She turned back to her companion, panting lightly.
"Alright, let's get this over with as quickly as possible, before more of those things show up."
Thankfully, it didn't take the pair long before they reached the spring in the deepest part of the cave, and Mayumi stood guard while her companion performed the ritual, but no more threats appeared. Mayumi could tell the exact moment that the ritual succeeded, because the entire atmosphere in the cave suddenly lightened.
"It's done?" She asked.
The woman just nodded, and Mayumi had a feeling that she was exhausted from the ritual.
"Yes, it's done. Now we just have to get out alive."
Mayumi sighed. Oh, it was always something.
It was after dark by the time the pair reached the village again. They had encountered a couple of the wandering spirits on the way out of the cave, but oddly, none of them attacked. Mayumi suspected it was because of the ritual they had performed. They ran into a few animals on the way too, but she was able to scare them away easily.
Once they were safely inside the house, Erin hugged Mayumi.
"Thank you so much for your help, dear! I wouldn't have made it there and back without you."
Mayumi shrugged off the praise. "Oh, it was nothing. That's just what I do."
More pleasantries were exchanged, and the woman invited Mayumi to stay the night, but she had other things to do, so she headed out. One more job, successfully completed.
Word Count: 3,537
Mayumi was not a huge fan of the cold. Why she had taken this job, then, she didn't know. Perhaps because it had a good reward, and she was running low on funds. Or perhaps it was because she felt a connection to the situation. It was said that there was a cave far to the north that was filled with restless spirits. She was keenly aware that it happened. After all, she herself could summon some spirit warriors that could not let go of this life. Usually it was because something unpleasant tied them here, especially related to their death. She felt that she herself had probably come close to being one of those restless spirits once, and she knew it must be a horrible situation to be in. These weren't really people anymore, and they were trapped in a cave where they probably died. They needed to move on, and if they needed help to do that then, well, she would make sure that they got that help.
Not that she knew the first thing about settling spirits, of course. But there was an elderly woman here who claimed that she did. There was some type of ritual she had to perform, and it had to be done in the cave. The trouble was, that was a dangerous prospect, and not just because of the biting cold and dangerous animals that roamed the area. The spirits themselves were said to be dangerous. If the woman was going to make it through the cave, she would need some sort of protection. And that, of course, was where Mayumi came it. Protection she could handle.
The woman lived in a small village near the tundra where the cave was. It was a tiny, run-down collection of houses, seemingly in the middle of no where. Just a single road, with a couple of store fronts and about two dozen or so homes. They were built of stone, unsurprisingly. There weren't many good trees that grew around here, and it would be very expensive to have wood shipped in. Stones, though, would be pretty plentiful. The roofs were made of large ceramic tiles, all very deeply sloped, presumably to prevent snow from accumulating and breaking the roofs. Still, the roofs were low to keep the heat near the people. It was all very practical, considering the climate. The town was also surrounded by a low stone wall, closed on both ends of the main street by gates, although both were open at the moment. The job has warned that there were dangerous animals roaming the lands surrounding the town. She supposed the wall was meant to keep those animals out.
She stepped up to the house that had been listed in the job, ignoring the stares from the curious villagers and she knocked loudly on the door. After waiting there for several minutes, Mayumi was beginning to think no one was home. Then, all of a sudden, the door opened. The woman before here seemed positively ancient. She had long gray hair, unnerving blue eyes, and a frightening amount of wrinkles. Not to mention that she was just shy of five feet tall. Still, she seemed friendly enough as she smiled warmly at her visitor.
"Oh, you must be the mage! Yes yes, you're right on time. I'm Erin. Please, come in! You must be freezing out there!"
Really, what gave it away? The fact that the ground was completely blanketed with snow and ice, or that Mayumi had bundled herself up in a heavy fur coat to try and keep the warmth in. Still, she supposed that for a local here it wouldn't seem that cold. After all, it wasn't even winter yet. Still, she was glad to walk inside, finding herself in a pleasant little home that was, thankfully, heated. She supposed it would be polite to introduce herself, so she decided to start with that.
"Hello. I'm Mayumi. I understand that you need help getting to this cave I've been hearing about?"
The woman nodded. "Oh yes, the Cave of the Hitodama. It's very important, you see, to placate the spirits. I used to be able to do it on my own, but I'm getting a little old to be fighting, so I need you to help me make it up there so I can do the ritual."
Mayumi smiled. "Well, I can certainly do that."
The woman smiled in return. "Well, I'm glad to hear it. Here, just let me grab this and I'll be all ready to go."
'This' turned out to be a bag of equipment that looked like it had to weigh at least twenty pounds, and the poor woman looked like she was struggling to lift it, which Mayumi just couldn't bear to watch. She decided to step in.
"Here- I can carry that."
She scooped up the pack before the woman had a chance to object. After all, she'd carried much heavier things before, so she could handle it just find.
"Oh, thank you!" Erin exclaimed. "I think we're all set. I'll lead the way. Watch out for trouble once we make it out on the tundra, though. There are a lot of dangerous animals roaming around."
So the two headed out of town, Mayumi trailing dutifully behind with the pack. As they left the town, the woman pointed out the valley the cave was in, and her heart sank. It was all the way across the frozen landscape. It would take them hours to get there. She sighed. It was a good thing she'd dressed warm.
As they trudged through the snow and ice, Mayumi was starting to get very bored with the environment. It was so very cold, and white, with almost nothing living in sight, save for the grass underfoot. It seemed, for all intents and purposes, to be a dead area. Perhaps that was for good reason. Mayumi couldn't see how anything could manage to survive out here.
Then, to her surprise, something moved. Whipping her head around, she spotted what appeared to be a reindeer of sorts. It had been grazing a moment before, but it had stopped to study the intruders that were now in its territory. Apparently it decided to take them as a threat, because it clearly wasn't too thrilled at their presence. Instead, it lowered its head and charged!
Mayumi quickly drew her sword, placing herself between the animal and Erin. She didn't like to kill animals, but if one attacked her she would definitely protect herself. And her client, for that matter. The beast didn't stop its headlong charge, so she danced out of the way at the last moment, slashing her sword down its side, hoping the pain would scare it off. No such luck. It just turned back of her with a renewed vengeance, charging at her full-on again. She sighed. Oh well, she'd tried. The next blow was to the face, opening a deep gash down the animal's forehead. That seemed to finally bring it to its senses, and it decided that perhaps it shouldn't mess with her. It took off running, and she finally relaxed.
"Thank you."
Mayumi glanced back at the woman who had spoke.
"Of course. Any time." It seemed weird to her, to be thanked like that when she was only doing the job she'd been hired for. Still, the woman was very polite, so she was hardly going to complain about it.
The two set off again. It was a brutal hike, but they eventually made it to the valley. Along the way they'd run into two wolves, and unfortunately, they hadn't been so keen to back off. In fact, they'd seemed to be hunting them. Probably didn't have much food around here, and thought the pair of travelers would be an easy meal. She'd had to kill them. They probably would have backed off if she'd severely injured them, but there was a very good chance that they wouldn't survive that. It was more humane to just kill them and have it over with. She'd gotten scratched by one, which definitely stung a bit, but other than that they were both fine.
They entered the valley, following the small river that wound through the valley. It was a sluggish little stream, with chunks of ice floating in it. The fact that it wasn't frozen over entirely was a miracle. It flowed down the valley away from the cave they were heading for. In fact, Erin had said that it started in the cave. Mayumi wondered if that was part of the issue with the spirits. She'd heard that they had difficulty crossing running water, or some said they were actually drawn to water. Either way, it could be at least part of the problem.
As they drew ever nearer to the entrance of the cave, Mayumi decided she wasn't looking forward to running into these spirits. She had spirits of her own, and the first one she'd summoned had tried to attack her immediately, despite the fact that she was supposed to be in control of it. If the spirits here were half that aggressive they could be in some trouble.
They finally hit the mouth of the cave, and she couldn't help but stare. The entrance was narrow, but rather tall. A narrow stone pathway started at the entrance of the cave, running alongside the river. Clearly it had been a well-visited location at some point. Not, of course, that she had any idea why they would want to, especially with dangerous spirits around. Then again, perhaps that had been before the spirits started showing up. Speaking of...
"So how long have there restless spirits been in this cave?"
Her elderly companion shrugged slightly. "Well, there have always been spirits around this cave. It's a spiritual place, although no one is quite sure why. People used to come here all the time to perform the appeasement rituals, and it kept them calm. But then people started forgetting. I'm the only one who remembered. But now that I'm starting to get older I haven't been able to come here in a while. The spirits have been getting more and more restless, and now they're attacking anyone who dares come near the cave. It's getting out of hand, and I need to perform this ritual before something horrible happens."
Mayumi nodded. It made sense. It also made her a little more nervous, and she caught herself holding her breath as she stepped inside the cave. Even here in the entrance of the cave it was very dark, although there was some kind of glowing moss growing on the walls and along the riverbank to give some light. The walls were made entirely of gray stone, with veins of some lighter material running through them, although it was impossible to tell what exactly they were made of. The riverbank was made entirely of small, smooth pebbles in a wide variety of colors. She even spotted some bright blues and greens, and she rather suspected that there were some semi-precious stones mixed in. The path they were walking on was made of much larger, flat stones. They didn't match the walls or the riverbed, so she suspected they had been brought in from elsewhere to build the path.
She half expected some spook to pop out and attack them immediately. Thankfully, that did not happen, although she had no idea if there were even any lurking nearby. It was too dark to tell. She stared down the long path. She'd expected a shallow little cave, but clearly that was not that case.
"So... How deep is this cave, exactly?"
"Oh, it goes for about five miles ago, all the way down to the spring that the river comes from. That's where I have to perform the ritual."
Oh. Well that was one long cave. And unfortunately, that left a lot of time for spirits to attack them. For a moment, Mayumi considered the option of taking the lead herself, so that she would be first if they ran into trouble. It was the obvious choice. But she shrugged that off. Considering that they were dealing with spirits here, they were just as likely to be attacked from behind as from the front, and she had a better chance of spotting the forward attacks before they hit. She didn't want the woman she was guarding to get hit from behind before she realized what was happening, so she continued to follow the woman down the winding path.
Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for them to run into trouble. The pair was just walking along, minding their own business, when suddenly shapes began to emerge from the darkness. There were three of them in all, and difficult to see until they were almost on top of them. They were mostly see-through, and seemed to emit a very faint glow. Other then those two small details they looked like, well, regular people. One was an older man, probably close to Erin's age, wearing the type of fur clothing she'd seen in the village, so she assumed he had been a local. The second, a younger man closer in age to Mayumi herself, was wearing what looked like a ridiculous white safari outfit, complete with a massive backpack and binoculars. She suspected he'd been either an explorer or tourist. And sadly, the last of the spirits was a little girl, who couldn't be older than about ten, wearing a pretty pink dress with white fur trim.
At first, Mayumi didn't think the spirits would cause any problems. They just seemed to watch the travelers for a long moment. Then, suddenly, they attacked. It took Mayumi less than a second to decide that these enemies might be a bit too difficult to handle with just her ordinary sword, so she immediately called on her magic.
"Requip: Whip of Entanglement!"
The weapon appeared in her hands almost immediately, and she swung it at the nearest spirit, who happened to be the younger man. "Bind!"
She used the weapon's special attack, and the blow landed, binding the spirit in place for one turn. Just as well, since she had other company to attend to. The older man was almost on top of her now, and she lashed at him with the whip, catching him right across the face. He responded with a blow of his own, punching her in the chest and knocking her back for a moment. Then a second strike from her weapon took him down, and she turned back to her original target, who had been freed from his captivity and was coming at her again. One more swing of her whip brought him down too.
Then she turned to face the last spirit, the one she'd been avoiding from the start of the fight. She couldn't bring herself to attack a little girl. Of course, then the girl hit her, which kind of hurt. Yeah, the hell with that. She was dead anyway, and Mayumi was just defending herself. And her client for that matter. Two quick blows finished the fight, and she was finally able to stop and breath again.
Its duration over, her requip weapon disappeared once more, and Mayumi let herself relax for a moment, nursing her injuries. They weren't too bad, but they definitely stung a bit. Then she realized Erin was watching her.
"Not bad at all."
Mayumi smiles wryly. "I'll be honest, they were a little... Weak. I expected the spirits here to be tougher."
The older woman laughed. "Oh, those were just wayward ghosts. Ordinary travelers who died here and were trapped. They usually aren't violent, but they're very restless now for some reason. No, the real danger here are the Hitodama that the cave is named for. They're the spirits of deceased mages, and they're a lot stronger than the spirits you just fought."
Mayumi groaned quietly. It just had to get worse, didn't it. Well, there wasn't much she could do about it, save to keep her guard up. "Well, I guess you ought to lead on then."
The woman did just that, and Mayumi trailed behind. As the minutes passed, and then almost an hour, Mayumi began hoping that they may not run into the Hitodami the woman had mentioned. Of course, as soon as that thought so much as crossed her mind, something appeared out of the darkness surrounding them. Or rather, two somethings. They were both tall, dark, shadowy figures. No glowing for them. One wore long robes, deep crimson in color, with their head completely covered. The other was a woman, dressed in an ice blue tunic with white leggings and long white hair.
"Uh... Those wouldn't happen to be Hitodama, would they?"
It was a fair guess, since she could tell they felt different from the spirits from earlier. Before her companion had a chance to answer, however, two fiery javelins appeared in the hands of the first mage, and he flung them both at the two women. Mayumi grabbed Erin and pulled her out of the way of the attack.
"Yup, that would be them."
Well, she'd figured that out based on the attacks. Those were definitely mages, alright, and she didn't exactly fancy the idea of getting too close to them. She wasn't sure what spells they might pull out. She decided to play it safe in this fight.
"Requip: Armor of Endurance! Requip: Guns of Sureness!"
Both items appeared, and just in time. It seemed that the second Hitodama had launched two javelins of her own at Mayumi. One missed, but the other struck home. It was a good thing she'd been wearing the armor. But now that her guns' ability had slowed her opponents, perhaps the odds would be a bit more even as she began to fire at them. She managed to land four shots on the first mage and two on the second, dodging a couple more javelins in the process. It was time to act quickly, before one of them got lucky and managed to hit her. She decided to use her gun's special attack.
"Fire at Will!"
All six of the rapid shots were aimed at the first mage, the one who had so far taken the most damage. Four hit, and that was enough to take him out of the fight. One down, one left to go. She decided using her guns would take too long, since each shot only dealt half damage. It was time to go in close, and she released her guns, calling on a new weapon instead.
"Requip: Sword of Fury!" Then, almost as an afterthought she added, "Requip: Bracelet of Power! Requip: Armor of Might!"
The armor change was to boost her damage. Same with the bracelet and sword. It was time for her to do as much damage as possible. Now it was time to end this. She charged forward at her opponent. As soon as she got close, the mage unleashed a burst of powerful ice magic. It hurt like hell, but Mayumi didn't slow down, swinging the massive sword at her opponent. The spirit managed to dodge the first strike, but as it would soon find out that she was surprisingly fast with the unwieldy sword. Her follow-up hit landed, and her increased strength combined with the two hits she'd landed earlier was enough to bring the spirit down.
She kept her requip equipment up for a long moment, in case any more trouble arose, but when none did she let go of it. No point in keeping it around if it wasn't needed. She turned back to her companion, panting lightly.
"Alright, let's get this over with as quickly as possible, before more of those things show up."
Thankfully, it didn't take the pair long before they reached the spring in the deepest part of the cave, and Mayumi stood guard while her companion performed the ritual, but no more threats appeared. Mayumi could tell the exact moment that the ritual succeeded, because the entire atmosphere in the cave suddenly lightened.
"It's done?" She asked.
The woman just nodded, and Mayumi had a feeling that she was exhausted from the ritual.
"Yes, it's done. Now we just have to get out alive."
Mayumi sighed. Oh, it was always something.
It was after dark by the time the pair reached the village again. They had encountered a couple of the wandering spirits on the way out of the cave, but oddly, none of them attacked. Mayumi suspected it was because of the ritual they had performed. They ran into a few animals on the way too, but she was able to scare them away easily.
Once they were safely inside the house, Erin hugged Mayumi.
"Thank you so much for your help, dear! I wouldn't have made it there and back without you."
Mayumi shrugged off the praise. "Oh, it was nothing. That's just what I do."
More pleasantries were exchanged, and the woman invited Mayumi to stay the night, but she had other things to do, so she headed out. One more job, successfully completed.
Word Count: 3,537
