Cleaning Up

Job Title: C-Rank Free-form
Rank: C
Job Location: Anywhere
Solo Word Count: 1,500 words
Additional Requirements: N/A
Job Description: Shane is tasked to clean up a few gangsters that's trying to set up a gang in Hosenka.
Enemies: The gangsters are normal thugs who try their best to look at dangerous as possible. There may be a few mages who lead them.
Reward: 10,000 jewels


Shane pushed open the swinging doors of the Blue Room, a trendy club that had just newly opening in Hosenka. The drink of choice here was always sake, a classic go-to drink after a nice hot bath in the spas and hot springs of Hosenka town. He had always heard of how soothing and meditative it was to soak in the hot springs, letting the hot spring water work its magic on the knotted and tense muscles, a one-way trip to utter relaxation. The spas were even more famous, the fingers and hands of the masseuses, delicate yet firm, to knead away all the stress and worries.

It was too bad that he didn’t had that kind of Jewels to spend on things like. Neither did he have the intention to.

His eyes looked quickly around and he found who he was looking for. The man stood out like a sore thumb, his grizzled appearance capturing much more attention that he had intended to, as compared to the young and clean faces mingling around. Acaelus was just taking a gulp of sake from a masu, a square wooden cup that only certain groups of enthusiasts would use but only for sake brewed in wooden casks. Those normally came at luxurious prices.

“Master Harrdun used to enjoy drinking that as well. Cleans the palate, he said,” the blonde mage said as he sat down opposite the swordsman. Acaelus smirked for a bit, as if remembering some long off memory before setting the masu down. He leant back into his one-piece Winchester sofa, the same design as the one that Shane was also sitting on. As he leant back, Shane’s brows furrowed for a slight second as he noticed for the first time the long parcel leaning against the side of Acaelus’ sofa. It couldn’t be his sword, as it was leaning on the other side.

Acaelus followed Shane’s sight with a smile on his face, a tinge of bitterness in it as he took up the parcel and laid it on the table, right in front of Shane. He said nothing, just gesturing with his hand for Shane to unwrap it. The blonde mage did as instructed, doing it carefully as he rolled the parcel around while unbinding the cloth until his hand finally touched steel. The rest of the cloth came off, holding it dumbly in his left hand while his right hand held the weapon. It was a peculiar one, a spear but at the length of a longsword. Shane looked at Acaelus, waiting for an answer.

“It’s called Breaker. You only knew your master during his retirement, before he disappeared. Every one, Harrdun included, were trained to handle weapons. He was a master of unarmed combat. And equally skilled in armed combat. It was his favorite weapon. It's essentially a magic-enhanced weapon, and you can easily extend or contract the length of the shaft. It can be a combat knife, a sword or spear as per your will. The sword form was how he used to carry it. He used this in the war against the God King… and after that,” Acaelus trailed off, followed by an awkward silence. He had lowered his head, shielding his face from Shane, his expression of one struggling with utmost agony.

“It’s… beautiful,” was the only thing that Shane could say after a while. He had guessed that his master’s disappearance had something to do with Acaelus’ appearance. There was no such coincidence.

Acaelus took a few more seconds to compose himself and then looked up again. This time, it was guilt on his face.

“I need your help, Shane. The best of us, the Dawn Guard, have been killed over the years. Thirty of Jorsin’s best champions, dwindling down as we struggled to carry out our duty. And now, there’s only a handful of us left. I will tell you the story another time… and the last moments of your master. But I have a greater decision now that I need you to make. Harrdun and your parents would never have wanted to involve you in the war, that’s why he left quietly. And this pains me to ask of you. Will you join what remains of the Dawn Guard, and continue where they left off?”

Shane was about to reply when he caught a very small detail. “My parents? I’m not sure if my master ever told you, but I’m not from Earthland. I’m an… alien, for lack of a better word.”

Acaelus looked at Shane quizzically, myriad expressions changing on his face before he finally rubbed his face with right hand. He let out a sigh.

“Another story to tell you then. You are from Earthland, Shane. You were just sent away, as did many of the Might Dawn and Dawn Guard, to keep their children safe. Your parents were Durzo and Kiraena Stern of the Mighty Dawn, another group that precedes the Dawn Guard. They were the ones who had installed the Dawn Guard in place, the ones who lead the fight against the God King, and we the ones meant to finish it. I can explain it to you in due time, but right now, there are more pressing matters at hand. And I have to selfishly ask this of you. Somehow you were the only one who managed to make it back. I know because we were also tasked to keep tabs on all of you. I don’t know if it was a coincidence, but I’m willing to take this as a sign that you were sent back for a purpose. Will you carry on the efforts of Durzo, Kiraena and Harrdun, their burden, their unfinished goal and join me to end the God King once and for all? Even if it goes against their wishes?”

Shane had leant back into his sofa from all the truths thrown at him. If this was a fight, Acaelus would have been pulling off punch after punch without any resistance. The blonde mage sat back in his sofa, stunned as he processed all the information. His right was still gripping the sword tightly. His eyes were focused on the weapon. Opposite him, Acaelus’ eyes were completely stuck on him, waiting with bated breath.

“I… I don’t… My parents… Master… About the Dawn Guard…” Shane was trying his best to make a cohesive sentence but there were too many thoughts rushing to come out at once. However, under it all, the superhero-in-training managed to glint the key. The only thing that mattered. What happened to his parents and his master was all just circumstances now, unchangeable. Only to be accepted, and that could be done slowly. The only thing now was the God King. “This God King. Even if I join you, how will that help?”


A relieved smile broke on Acaelus’ expression, his wound up shoulders loosening for a second at Shane’s question before he perked up again.

“In the last battle, we managed to end it with drastic losses to his side and our side. For now, the God King will still need some time to recover his strength. The God King had always held six Amulets, granting him power over nature, earth, fire, water, will and blade. He had always channeled a portion of the powers of the amulets to his generals. However, in the last battle, overcome by a moment of weakness and desperation, the God King had sent away his six generals and the Amulets with them. We managed to seal him during this time, but we will never be able to fully kill him until we destroy all the Amulets.

“We will need to hunt down all six Amulets, destroy them and then we will face the God King once and for all. Sound simple enough, but it’s a monumental task.”

“Train me then. I will pick up where they left off, and finish it,” Shane answered, determination lining his voice.

“Train you, I will. But not in the most conventional ways. I will need to be off, to do my own scouring and locating the six Amulets. You, will be staying here in Earthland. I have picked up a few missions to equip you with the field knowledge and combat abilities for our future fight. That’s how I train. First off, this will be the job for today. A bunch of thugs has decided to make Hosenka their new base. Your job’s to take care of this plague, make sure none of them remains in Hosenka to ruin this beautiful town and its sake. Report to the jobs office as usual when you are done.”


“Simple,” Shane said as he picked up the job sheet that Acaelus had just placed down. Acaelus had explained the gist of it, which was in further detail on the job sheet but nothing useful he had left out. Acaelus grinned at Shane’s reply.

“That’s the official job. Now’s how I train you. You will do this job without your magic. You will only use the spear.”

Shane looked at Acaelus, his right eyebrow raised. Questioning what he had just said. “Challenge accepted.”

“Good. I will know if you use your magic,” Acaelus replied without batting an eyelid, left hand pointing at Shane and shooting a small beam of dark light towards the latter while his right hand picked up his square up for another sip. Shane felt nothing different in his body, but a black tattoo, a black band around his left wrist, had appeared. “It doesn’t restrict your magic, but it will send a signal to me if you use it.”

Shane sat atop one of the roofs, Breaker strapped to his back safely in its sheath. The two had parted after Acaelus had finished his sake and wishing him good luck. The blonde mage had been patrolling the streets for more than an hour, looking out for suspicious activities. He had tailed a few people multiple times, trailing quietly behind them like a silent predator. And it had always ended up as the wrong target. They may have acted sketchy and suspicious, but they were just normal people, the working folk of Hosenka going about their daily lives.

And at the final minute of the hour, he chanced upon a man with an extremely unpleasant expression for a face, shocking orange hair and dressed in a green trench coat. It wasn’t like him to judge a person by his appearance or fashion sense for this situation. What he trusted was his observation.

The man’s eyes were furtively looking left and right as he tried to walk as straight as he could. Something stuck out from the back of his trench coat, Shane guessing it as a weapon of sorts. Everyone who was here in Hosenka would typically be here for relaxation. Being armed on the streets was unusual. The blonde mage let himself drop to the streets as silently and stealthily as he could in an adjacent alley, tailing the man from the five meters away the moment he exited the alley.

Shane acted as naturally as he could whenever the man with orange hair turned around to check his surroundings. His stalking skills weren’t the best, next to nothing actually. What he knew was what he had picked up and imagined from watching TV in his old life. This time, Shane quickly turned around and picked up the first orange he could grab from the fruit stall by the roadside, seemingly listening to the vendor promoting his fruits while he was watching the orange-haired man from the corner of his eyes. The man had stopped in mid-step again, eyes turning left and right and back before finally swooping into an alley. Nobody around him found it suspicious. Hosenka itself was a mix of various cultures and people.

Muttering a thanks and putting down the orange, Shane hurried down the street and charged straight into the alley without checking. That wasn’t wise. It was the first thing that popped up in his mind when he walked straight into knife point. An arm, in green sleeve, extended from a recessed doorway hidden from immediate view, held the knife. Jackpot.

The man Shane had tailed, the guy with the orange hair and green trench coat, exposed himself fully, still holding the knife at Shane’s neck. It wasn’t the mocking smirk that Shane had expected. Not the arrogant smirk of turning back the game on the other player. No, the man was pissed.

“Why shouldn’t I kill you right now?” came out all nasally, losing the threat behind the words. Without a single word, Shane brought up his right fist, punching at the man’s elbow as quick as a snake. He wasn’t allowed to use his magic, but he was still more than enough to fight his opponent with his base strength alone. The man cried out in pain, releasing the knife as he leaned back into the doorway. It wasn’t enough to subdue him. Shane extended his left arm and pulled back the guy by his right, and again, threw another punch to the elbow, this time with more strength. A sickening crack registered, and the man was howling this time. Shane pulling him in amplified the pain.

Another hook to the man’s temple and he was thrown to the ground. The superhero-in-training was still holding on to the man’s right wrist. It resulted in another bolt of pain shooting through the man’s arm. With a well-placed kick, he popped the man’s shoulder socket and finally released his grip. The man was lying down in the dirt, his face barely missing the puddle of water on the ground. He was whimpering pitifully. This was one of the men trying to establish their territory in Hosenka?

Shane was going to squat down and pull the man back up when a bottle flew in his direction. He blocked in haste, and came away with a few scratches on his right forearm when the bottle broke. The distraction was good enough for the attacker, as he rushed in, picked up his injured friend and ran away. Two men, one supporting the other was supposed to be slow. But the other man was a beast of a man. He had picked up his fallen friend, heaved him up onto his shoulders like cattle and ran away down the alley.

Letting out a grunt, Shane chased after them, slowing down briefly to pick up the knife that the one in green had dropped. He held it by his fingertips, holding it by the hilt as the gap between them closed. He couldn’t help thinking how easily he could have closed the gap with a single bound if he could use his magic. I guess this is training. However, the distance neared. Regardless of how big he was, there was no way he could keep his running speed constant while he carried his friend. Judging that they were within appropriate distance, Shane held up his right hand and let go of the knife with a swing. And just as it was about to hit, the man turned around a corner into another alley.

“Damn this place!” Shane raged as he slid to a halt before making the corner. The two of them were still running. Out of nowhere, a heavy kick slammed into his back, the impact nullified by the metal scabbard of the sword on his back but he was still sent stumbling forward nevertheless. Shane turned around just in time to see his attacker, slashing down with a sword. The blonde mage’s eyes widened in surprised and slammed into the wall to his right in an attempt to avoid the slash. There shouldn’t have been any pain from the minor crash into the wall, but Shane gasped. He had inadvertently tried to soften the slam with his right arm. His injured right arm.

With his body leaning on the wall, still on his right hand, Shane lifted his left leg and kicked it to the side at the guy with the sword. He tried to evade, clumsily and still ended up taking the kick. It wasn’t too powerful of a kick. The swordsman stumbled into the wall opposite Shane and the two of them sized each other up as they shifted so that they each leaning on their backs. Shane wasn’t a natural with the sword, especially not in this tight alley.

The two of them acted at the same time, lunging towards each other. Unarmed, Shane deftly twisted his body as another downwards slash came. He could now confirm this thug wasn’t that much of a swordsman. Just a man with a sword. An elbow was swung into the man’s face, as his body angled forward following the slash, his momentum helping to amplify the blow. Shane ignored the pain in his right arm and shifted his weight to his right leg, twisting his body again and slammed a heavy hook into the man’s unguarded ribs.

He didn’t have the strength enhancement from All Might, but damn if he knew how to throw his punches. The punch connected, with some cracking sounds. From Shane’s own knuckles and largely from the man’s cracked ribs. Shane followed up with another straight kick to the man’s stomach when he dropped his sword after the punch, and send him stumbling and falling into a pile of rubbish bags. His fall caused the bags to burst outwards, bringing with the stink of rotting garbage.

He wasn’t going to make the same mistake this time. He rested his right knee on the man’s chest, allowing his weight to press down and sensing the rising panic. His left foot was on the man’s right bicep. He had pulled out Breaker and held it in his right, to the side.
“Are you guys the ones who wanted to start a gang in Hosenka?”

The man nodded fearfully, trying to speak but failing. His almost non-existent courage had completely leaked out. His eyes were constantly glancing between Shane’s face and the sword. And then the sudden twitch of a muffled grin. There was tingling on the back of Shane’s neck and instinctively the mage flipped into the air, twisting his body and landed. A large crystal of ice had been shot at where he had been earlier. The icicle crunching noisily as it penetrated the gangster on the ground.

“Wasn’t he one of yours?” the blonde mage asked as he readied himself. Not using magic against another mage. Now, this is training.

“He’s replaceable,” the ice mage said coolly. He was still standing at the mouth of the alley, the slow death of his man and the diluted pool of blood that kept expanding as the ice melt, seemingly invoking no reaction out of him. He made a few gestures in the air and within seconds, icicles were flying at Shane’s direction with a fling of his hand. “Now’s your turn.”

Without thinking, Shane instantly used Burst, kicking off the ground as the muscles in his lower half flooded with power, evading the icicles with a great leap over them and then landing directly in front of the ice mage. During his leap, Shane had contracted Breaker into its dagger form and held it now in a reverse grip. The moment he landed, the blonde mage swiped forward with his right hand. He was aiming for the mage’s chest, but the mage had reacted with equal speed in the face of Shane’s sudden appearance. The blade slashed across the chest, slicing through cloth and shattering the thin layer office pulled off at the last second.

But Shane wasn’t done. The moment his right hand completed the wide slash, Shane shifted his weight back from the left to his right side and smashed an open palm into his opponent’s face. What ensued was a small explosion of blood from the broken nose, and a loud scream. He followed it up with another body hook to the mage’s right side and smashing Breaker’s pommel into his ribs where his heart was supposed to be. A kick to the gut followed but before Shane could even fully lift his right leg, a black substance coiled around their feet from the ground and threw the two of them up into the ground.

The ice mage dropped to the ground bodily, another roar of pain erupting from him while Shane merely did a flip and landed on the roof of the house looking down on the alley. The moment he landed, Breaker was already in its sword length, gripped tightly near the pommel as though a sword. Shane could hear shrill whistles advancing on his position, combined with the heavy thudding of boots on the ground. Someone had alerted the constables of the racket they were causing in the alley, and they were on their way over.

A black portal opened up in the wall of the alley and a man stepped out from it. He wore an unpleasant expression when he saw Shane and it further twisted when he saw the whimpering ice mage on the ground.

“You are a disappointment, Alex,” the man, probably a mage specialized in shadow element magic, said, before leveling his gaze at Shane. The incoming police force was also noted by the man. “You win. This time. Mr Stern.”

As he spoke, he retreated back into the portal and a length of the shadowy substance materialized itself as a large claw and was about to drag the ice mage into the portal as well. The claw had caught the mage, but before it could even retract, a spear had landed on the ground, piercing the ice mage’s clothes and pinning him to the ground.

“He’s staying,” Shane said, his voice even, gaze intense and expression stoic. The shadow mage, regarded him again for a few seconds. With a humph, he turned around as dramatically as he could, his cloak swishing around behind him and walked off into the portal. The shadows collapsed unto themselves until there were nothing left. It was as if the man hadn’t appeared at all.

By the time cops appeared, Shane was already collecting his spear, contracting it to its sword length and storing it in the sheath. A short conversation later, Shane left the police to their job and walked towards the Magic Council office in Hosenka with a slip of paper in hand. It was an acknowledgement by the officers of what Shane had done and to verify him for the reward money. His eyes glanced to his left wrist when he was done with the paper, noting that the black mark around his wrist had disappeared. It only left a single word on it. Failed.