Adventure in a Tomb [Job w/Luceam]

Zeshin glared at the sun, which currently made the temperature in the desert unbearable. Not so long he was doing a job in the ice cave, and now he is on freaking desert. Honestly, why couldn't everything in life be balanced? It would be so much easier if he was fire or ice mage. They could ignore temperature from what he knew. Nevertheless, Zeshin didn't want to go blind, so he stopped trying to force sun into submission with a glare and continued on his journey toward Ace of Spades. He had a friend there, who needed help. What form of help, Zesh didn't know. Still, he liked to help other people as long as they had good intentions. That's why he decided not to ask for details.
"Chris, if this is a joke, I will really kill you." He grumbled under his breath, cursing his friend. Helping hand maybe he was, but no one said that Zesh wouldn't be a bitch about it. At least his clothes made the journey a little safer. Over his standard outfit, redhead wore old, brown traveling cloak which effectively was blocking the sun from burning him to a crisp. Zeshin patted himself mentally on the back for thinking about taking cloak with him. Sometimes he was smart. Aside from the stupid sun, the weather was quite nice. A little wind accompanied him all the way, making his journey cooler. Sometimes it was the reason why sand got into his eyes, but he was able to survive this inconvenience.

After a while, Zeshin noticed someone in the distance. That someone was shorter than him and seemed to travel in the same direction as the redhead. For the young mage, it meant traveling partner. It was always more fun with someone, that's why he jogged a little towards that person."Hey there. Are you also going to Ace of Spades? Mind if I tag along?" Zesh asked the traveler, who was ahead of him.  It was probably a girl, at least that's what redhead noticed looking at the stranger, but he didn't really pay her that much attention for one reason.

The wind picked up. A little bit too much in Zesh's opinion, that's why he started looking around the desert. Desert wind could be a nice thing or a very dangerous thing. Feeling the strength of it, redhead feared that it was the second option. The big, sand cloud in the distance confirmed his thoughts. Sandstorms weren't friends of people from what he knew and Zeshin didn't want his journey to end like that. It would be embarrassing. "Scratch that. We should find cover." He said pointing at the sandstorm.

Approval
Job details
Word count: 445
Total word count: 445/2500
@Luceam

Redhead nodded without much though, hearing words of the girl. Or woman. Zesh wasn't sure because of all these clothes, but at this moment, the importance of that knowledge was close to zero. Still, it was nice to think of himself as older than others. With this conclusion, he ran after his temporary companion. He saw some strange rock on his way and when the girl started looking around, he also tried to find something. It looked like she was searching for something, but in redhead's opinion nothing was there. Maybe this traveler was one of the less sane people?

It has been proved otherwise when the girl has fallen into the sand. Hearing her words, Zeshin's mind went blank for a second. She wanted for him to believe something like this? If something went wrong, surviving this would be hard, despite his resistance towards all things wanting him dead. Redhead looked around again, hoping to find something more not-dangerous-cover like, but with no effect. And the sandstorm was quickly closing in. "Well, shit. Time for faith to work its magic." Zeshin wasn't a believer in his own luck. Still, he took a deep breath before covering his mouth and nose with his cloak. Closing his eyes, mage dived after the girl, hoping for the best. Somehow finding the hidden opening, boy maneuvered carefully, not wanting to be entangled in a mess of limbs with his apparently quite smart companion. Finding himself in a room, redhead stood up a shook his clothes out of the sand. He also coughed a few times. Stupid sand.

Zeshin was trying to clean his eyes off the sand when he heard a voice of his companion. Opening them lightly, mage looked around the place they were currently in. He guessed someone told this girl this place was supposed to be a shelter. For sure it didn't look like it.
"If it's really bandit stronghold, then are you in the mood for some bandit cleaning?" Zeshin asked with a slight smile at the prospect of a good fight. It was always nice to clean out bandits. After all, the desert would be safer with them behind the bars. "Ah. I almost forgot. Since we are going to explore together, it would be nice to know your name. I'm Zeshin, a simple mage liking to help others and explore." He said and extended his hand towards the girl. Though, his quite visible guild mark probably informed the girl of his affiliation. Ah... perks of not buttoning up a shirt.

Not really feeling like coming back to the surface, Zesh started carefully walking down the jagged corridor. "Have you heard anything more about this "shelter" from the bartender?" Redhead said, trying to make some small talk with his exploring companion. Being silent wasn't really his thing. After a few minutes of walking, jagged corridor quickly ended. It led them to a bigger corridor. It looked like it belonged to some ancient ruins. On the walls were decorative paintings depicting people at sea, and the ceiling was supported by square columns. Here and there, sand fell from the walls and ceiling, emphasizing the old age of the place and covering the floor under its layers. It was all nice and interesting and mysterious, but Zeshin wasn't focused on it. He was more focused on 3 personas he was seeing ahead. To be blunt, it was skeletons. Simple as that.

"It doesn't look like bandit hideout, don't you think?" He asked his companion, glancing at her for a moment."Want me to deal with them, or do you also want to fight?" If the girl wanted to fight some monsters, he would totally understand it and leave one skeleton to her. Or two, if she was greedy.

Approval
Job details
Word count: 627
Total word count: 1072/2500
@Luceam

"That's fine with me. Everyone has a secret or two about themselves." Zeshin answered with a little smile. Hell, if someone knew half of his true past, they would certainly report him to Magic Council. Or they would try to recruit him if Dark Guilds heard about it. Probably. Though when his companion said about not being an enemy, redhead laughed a little. This sounded kinda like a threat or superiority complex, but Zesh doubted there was some hidden meaning in this guy words."Well, good for me then. No point in making enemies around the globe."

When redhead heard girls answer, he smiled and stretched lightly. "Don't worry about it. Some people are battle-oriented, and others focus on support. Again, others like dealing with problematic things by punching them, while rest use their smarts. That just how it works." Zeshin said, not wanting the girl to feel bad about herself or something like this. He could respect supports or defenders. Even if the girl wasn't a support, she was smart, not like him. Still, he didn't look at her anymore, just at skeletons walking around the place. They haven't noticed them yet so it was probably good. "It could just be some ancient dungeon, but I never heard about this place, so I will leave thinking to you. While I deal with them, you could search for something in this room? Maybe something will confirm your theory."

With this suggestion, Zeshin started slowly moving towards his opponents. Skeletons looked quite simply. Unless they were vastly reinforced with magic, they shouldn't be a big problem. Still, his blade would be useless there. In every story he heard, a sword wasn't a weapon good against skeletons. Blunt force enough to crack bones seemed to be a better choice. Which left him with hand-to-hand combat. Zeshin also didn't want to show his magic to Shirain. It wasn't really.... morally good. No one likes dealing with blood mages, because they always are close to something taboo. And it's kinda disgusting. Shaking his head out of stupid thoughts, young mage started running towards skeleton closest to him. All of them were quite close to each other, so it was irrelevant which one would fall first.

Now, the most dangerous thing these skeletons had was clearly sword. Even magically reinforced bones wouldn't deal high damage. Well, in most cases weapon user without his weapons was easy to beat, but skeletons especially. When Zeshin got close to the monster, it quickly tried to vertically slash him. For redhead his swing was very easy to dodge thanks to his training with sword master. Quickly sidestepping it, young mage grabbed skeleton's wrist and two times palm-striked its elbow. Enchanted blood which increased his strength made it quite easy to break it. After that, Zeshin threw bone hand far away and quickly did a sweep kick. Then he grabbed falling skeleton's leg with both hands. Of course, its friends weren't standing and looking at Zesh actions with indifference. They were already close enough to almost reach him with their blades. That was exactly the reason why he grabbed theirs friend's leg. He rotated and with a mighty swing, hit incoming skeletons with their friend sending them into one of the pillars, cracking it slightly. It was good that the human skeleton's wasn't that heavy. Quickly using 'Power Dash' to close the distance before they could regain their footing, Zeshin hit them again with a 'Superpunch'. Force of the spell lifted sand into the air, created shockwave around the room and cracked the pillar even more, though it still didn't break completely. Jumping away from the skeletons, the redhead looked at them and waited. After a few seconds, two skeletons stood up. The one with a broken arm stayed on the ground. They started running towards him and he waited for them to come. When one of them reached him and tried to pierce him, Zesh simply chopped side of the blade, changing its trajectory, and punched skeleton two times in the head, before front kicking it in the chest. It quickly changed into a bunch of human bones lying on the ground. Still, it kinda damaged him. Redhead used a low amount of strength when changing blades trajectory... too low. Now his biceps was bleeding quite nicely. The last monster didn't even blink at the death of his friend. Well... they were already dead. And he didn't have eyes to blink. This skeleton tried to slash him, this time horizontally. Actually, a monster's attack was faster then he expected. It even reached Zesh cheek, cutting it slightly open, before he grabbed it's hand and stopped rest of the attack completely. With a glare, young mage mightly kicked skeleton in the face. It fell to the ground because of the strike, but it still "lived". Well, for a while at least, because Zeshin quickly stomped on its head a few times, cracking it quite nicely. Just to be sure.

"Soo... did you get some information or we are just going forward?" Zeshin asked without a care about beaten skeletons and looked at the girl. Seriously, smart thugs were stronger than some casual skeletons. Well, maybe they were quicker than normal skeletons. Still not fast enough for a close-combat oriented mage.

HP: 300/375
MP: 375/375
Word count: 880
Total word count: 1952/2500
@Luceam

Zeshin looked at the girl for few seconds when he heard the answer. How did she deduct it was bandit target, Zeshin didn't know. He was also pretty sure that even if she would explain things in more details, he still wouldn't understand. His IQ was too low for things like that. That was also the reason why he did crush skeletons heads. Normally he would leave them behind, but after a quick mental battle with himself, he decided that better to be safe. Magic worked in strange ways sometimes.

Hearing girls words while walking down the stairs, Zeshin began to think a little more about the fact that someone was trying to discover this place. It would be really hard to find if someone didn't have prior knowledge of the entrance. "Well, maybe your bartender told a few bad people about this place. Some adventurers got there, and the thrill of adventure and riches lead them here. Or something. We will ask them later... well, that is if they didn't get killed by some monsters like these skeletons." Zeshin said with a shrug. It wouldn't be strange if some adventurers or even bandits reached this place in hope of easy money.

The redhead was bigger frame then girl, so when he heard a quiet whistling sound, he quickly crouched avoiding arrows. Hearing girls words, mage nodded quickly. It would be best to make quick decision and quickly deal with them. "Got it. I will meet you down there." He said and waited a while before the girl was a little bit further from him. He could deal with this bandit in a few ways. A quick dash down the stairs and punch, or just fly down the stairs and collide with him. Redhead however, took the most... magical method. Shirain wasn't currently looking at him, so he could use a bit more of his magic without fear.

"Blood Rain" He whispered quietly and created hundred of blood needles. Then he waited for a while. Finally, he heard whistling sound over his head. Calculating trajectory of the arrow, Zeshin sent blood rain on his opponent. Quickly walking down the stairs to be sure that he hadn't missed, Zeshin found a common bandit with bow lying unconscious - he checked his pulse to be sure - on the lower stairs with blood spots all over his body. There was a torch near guy's body making the place a little bit brighter. Stepping over bandit's body, Zesh grabbed a torch and waited a while for his companion. Only now did he register, than Shirain could be in danger. There could be a bigger amount of enemies then they expected or something like this.

Before he could start walking back up to help Shirain, he heard girl's voice. Young mage instantly looked at her and tried to check her status. He didn't see any visible wounds which was good. He wasn't sure if she could deal with her enemy. Though, these archers didn't seem like great shots or professional, so maybe it shouldn't even be problematic. Details. "You okay? Any injury I should know of?" Zeshin asked just to make sure, caring more about his teammate than another archer status. He was probably unconscious somewhere behind them. It worked like that most of the time.

All would be good, if not for the growl Zeshin heard from below. Quickly looking down the stairs, redhead found hell hound there. At least, the flame's in this dogs mouth said so. He didn't really have any time to admire its beauty, because it looked like the monster dog was concentrating flames in his mouth. It was only 5 meters away from them, so possibility whatever attack he was loading reaching them was quite high. "Shit."

Acting quickly, the redhead grabbed Shirain by her arm and pulled her as close as he could, before crouching down. With a surge of MP, he created 'Blood Wings' and covered their bodies with it, right before fire breath hit them. "Sorry for being rough." He said through clenched teeth, trying to endure flamethrower. When it ended, his wings looked much worse for wear. His shirt also was torn at the back, courtesy of wings. "Catch up with me, kay?" With these words, Zesh dispersed his wings and used 'Power Dash' to close the distance between them and monster. After that, he quickly 'Superpunched' it, sending it on another side of the hall. One deep breath later, Zesh stood up from his crouched position, still looking at his enemy slowly getting up.