Save the Sacrifices

Job details:

Shane was parched. He didn’t have much experience travelling under weathers of extreme heat even in his home world. Fumbling for the water bottle on his waist, he hesitated to bring up his hand to his mouth as he felt the weight of the bottle. It was only half as heavy as when they had originally started and they weren’t exactly close to their destination. He shielded his eyes from the killing glare of the sun, searching for its position as a rough means of gauging time. It was only slightly past noon. And there was nothing beyond the horizon, wherever his eyes looked.
Nothing but sand. And even more sand.

Hearing once more the sigh that came frequently, Alberto was amused as he looked back at his employer. A native to Desierto, and one of the best guides in the area, Alberto was no stranger to watching and listening to tourists complain about the hot and dry weather. And he never ceased to be amused by their antics. Shane was slightly better than the rest, but Alberto could still see his difficulty in coping with the weather.

“We will be arriving soon within three hours, Mr Stern,” Alberto said as he turned his head back to the dunes of sand before him, and could somehow make something out of it. Shane smiled wryly, firstly at Alberto hearing his sigh despite how low he tried to keep it and secondly at Alberto addressing him as Mr Stern. Giving a good slap on the behind of the creature they were riding, Shane quickened the pace of his ride and came up beside Alberto.

Shane had completely no idea what they were riding. It was a large animal, resembling the camel of his own world but instead of hooves, the beast had feet and claws very much like a cat’s. And their tails were long. Fan-shaped, leaving wide trails as they dragged along in the sand. Alberto had called them Shayek.

“My job mentioned a demon called Mutura. What do you know about him?” Shane asked his guide. Angling his head up to look at the sky with a thoughtful look on his face, it was five seconds later when the tanned guide returned the look to Shane.

“It’s a legend that’s been passed on for generations. The details are obscure but as far as I could remember, Mutura was once a centipede accidentally imbued with magic. Mutura eventually grew to develop sentience and intelligence, but was only a centipede demon. It was an unknown demon that had granted him more than power than he ever knew, letting him rampage across the deserts until a mage known as Acaelus subdued the monster. He has been sealed ever since, and sometimes you could hear his roars among the howling of the wind, raging for someone to free him.”

“So what does anyone get out of freeing him?” Shane continued to probe.

“People have said that if released, Mutura grants you overwhelming power, huge wealth or whatever that storyteller so happened to covet.”

“Has there been many instances of people trying to revive the demon?”

“Regrettably. Every once in a while, the guides or merchants passing by the ancient ruins said to be Mutura’s seal will find dead bodies strewn around the ruins.”

Shane was beginning to ask another question but was disrupted by the sudden tremor that caused the Shayeks to almost throw them off their back. The two of them held on tightly to the reins and sped off in the direction of the ruins after exchanging a quick glance. Something had happened and they were definitely not going to arrive on time.

It was an hour of non-stop galloping as the Shayeks ran themselves almost to the point of drop dead exhaustion to get the two men to their destination. And a great scene had unfolded before them. A tornado of sand and stones were circling the ruins, obscuring their sight. Shane jumped off his mount, followed by Alberto and they walked as close as possible near the sand storm.

“I know it’s obvious, but this is bad,” Alberto exclaimed with a strained voice, something catching in his throat. The fear had gotten to him. It took everything in him to not just abandon his employer and speed off in the other direction, riding or not.

“Alberto, find someplace to hide. I’m going in,” the superhero in training instructed as he stood back a few steps. He leant forward, right leg extended to the back, straight. His left leg was bent. White steam began to emerge from his body. Shane was going in strong with All Might activated right off the bat. Taking a deep breath and flashing a grin at Alberto, Shane kicked off with all his might and plunged straight into the sand storm.

His appearance seemed to have caught everyone’s attention. The mage who had been the target of the job, the one who had brought the slaves here as summoning materials, was in the middle of completing the summoning ritual and had stopped to look at Shane. The superhero in training was sure if his entrance had been that unbelievable or if the merchant was really easy to distract. All Shane cared about was the nine slaves still sitting on the sand to one side of the summoning array, hands and feet locked down with manacles and all of them linked by a long chain, one for the legs and one for hands.

Shane turned back towards the mage who was still staring at him blankly, yet to register what had happened. Had the barrier of sand actually meant to stop people from entering? And yet, a C-rank mage like himself had broken through it that easily? Shane ignore that line of thought and focused his eyes on the female slave in the middle of the summoning array. Her eyes were closed, but Shane could still make out movement in her chest. She was still breathing, unconscious. Good.

A slight snarl coming from his lips, Shane lost his trademark smile and charged right at his target. There was no mercy for people who toyed with lives. Not for such men. His speed allowed him to cover the distance within a second, starting off fierce with an enhanced lunging knee strike.

“Shirotsume Smash!!” he roared. The mage finally reacted upon observing Shane’s violent introduction and almost instantly threw up a shield of sand. There was no blocking the Aurora mage’s attack, the sand shield giving way in the face of absolute force and the knee connected with his target’s arms, crossed in front of him. A bone-breaking snap caught their attention as the enemy mage was thrown off across the ruins, stopping only when his back came up against a pillar. He had screamed in pain earlier. His face was twisted in pain and fury, his left forearm bent at an awkward angle after having taken the full brunt of Shane’s enhanced strength.

“Who are you and why are you doing this? Stand,” Shane ordered as he walked forth. He may have walked carelessly, but his arms were tense, ready to throw out another spell if the enemy mage tried anything funny.

The enemy mage said nothing. He kept his mouth completely shut, even when he commanded to sand to gather around his broken arm and with another sickening crack, set it straight by tightening the sand. Barely a whimper exited the man’s mouth. The sand was still gathered around his arm, probably to act as a splint.

“Don’t expect to leave this place alive after meddling in the Godking’s business,” the mage sneered. His left arm, bound in sand, dangled by his side, the pain forgotten. Godking? Shane had never heard of this term being used in Fiore. He needed to get this mage to the Magic Council. The mage swept his right arm from his side and brought it up to chest level, the sand a few feet away from rising into the air together and formed into a flurry of curved blades. With a flick of wrist, the ten or more blades of sand were thrown in Shane’s direction. Running to the left, Shane kept looking to the front as the blades whizzed past him as they shot towards his original spot. He had evaded all but one, that cut into his right arm, a light cut.

“That’s all you got?” Shane replied with a smirk, cutting a sharp turn and pulled off his own offensive. “Balsam Smash!”

Again the enemy mage was thrown backwards from the force of Shane’s roundhouse kick, this time there was no shield put up. Once more the enemy mage was thrown towards the pillar, but he had also attacked at the same time. Just as he settled on his feet from his roundhouse kick, a half-formed spear of sand was shot out from the enemy mage’s hands. Fortunately, the half-formed portion has been the spearhead, ending up as a blunt warhead that struck Shane in his gut. The momentum behind it though, was full and ended up sending Shane in the opposite direction. Similarly, he slammed into one of the pillars.

Another large spear flew fast and true for his head and Shane avoided it by dropping to the ground. The pillar behind him suffered a huge dent, losing almost half its width from the impact, creating a circular hole. The superhero in training’s head would have been popped like a watermelon had he not avoided. Directing an excess of energy to his feet[1], Shane kicked off and blew up a huge amount of sand behind him. He was right beside the enemy mage in an instant, and he pulled off a powerful uppercut to the mage’s jaw, lifting him up into the air with the punch and slammed a straight kick into his abdomen when gravity claimed him.

As he watched the enemy mage drop to the ground after crashing heavily into a pillar farther away from them, making sure he was unconscious, Shane’s instincts flared up out of nowhere and he spun quickly in place. A man, face covered with a hood and wearing a large brown cloak, was standing opposite him. He was holding a sheathed sword in his left hand. From beneath the hood, among the unshaven mess of a beard, was a grim smile. The imposing figure ignored Shane’s stare and approached the summoning circle. He bent down and touched the runes carved into the unknown material, brushing it lightly with his fingertips.

“I will need to seal this place off…” the man mumbled as he stood back up and then walked towards the unconscious mage. His right hand was moving to the hilt of the sword, when he felt a vice-like grip on his wrist. Shane was now standing beside him, clamping down on the swordsman’s right wrist with his left hand. He looked to his left at the man with a steely gaze.

“You are not killing him. I’m taking him to the Magic Council, whoever you are,” Shane spoke, threatening with every intention of making true on his threat if forced to. The man turned in his direction with a bemused smile.

“Fine, let my hand go,” he spoke in a gravelly voice, as if he hadn’t spoken in a long time. Shane considered it for a few seconds and slowly released the strength in his grip. The swordsman relaxed his right hand as well, letting his right arm fall to his side.

“Who are you? You seem to know a lot about the summoning array back there,” the blonde mage queried.

“My name is Acaelus Thorne. Are you sure you want to know more? There’s a very big world out there and there are things that you shouldn’t get involved in. From what I can see, you are moldable into a powerful ally but the chance of losing your life by just knowing equally as high,” the swordsman spoke while he flipped the hood away from his face with his right hand. Revealed to Shane was a rough face, thick eyebrows, bright red eyes and a thick beard. A diagonal scar ran through his left eyebrow.

“He mentioned something about a Godking,” Shane added, only just recalling the word. Acaelus ran a hand through his messy brown hair, deep in thought with a frown before pulling out a map from his cloak’s pocket.

“Meet me here five days later. Arrive at 9am sharp. A minute later and you won’t see me again,” Acaelus instructed. He then pulled his hood back on and began walking away. “I’m not even sure if I should anticipate your arrival, disciple of Drake White Oak.”

Shane stood there, stunned. His master’s name had been brought up out of the blue. Few people knew of his master. He barely even knew his master. What were the chances?
The departing swordsman drew his sword and slashed in a wide arc before him, barely leaving a yellow glow trailing after the tip of his blade and the entire sand storm still circling around the ruins crashed down in a rain of sand. And he disappeared just like that. As mysteriously as he appeared.

Alberto ran towards Shane and the thump on his shoulder woke up him from the stupor.
“Are you okay? Is that the guy?” the desert guide inquired as he pointed as the unconscious man leaning against the pillar. Distracted, Shane nodded and then got Alberto to assist him in shackling the enemy mage and to tie him to the Shayek. They were going to drag him as they marched through the sands. The slaves that he had brought along had been freed, and walked quietly behind the two Shayeks as the group made their way back to the Magic Council.