Resort in Ruins [Tor & Aurora]

“Thank you very much for the past few days, Mr Fulgur,” the green-haired man in the black suit, looking sharp as always, said as he shook Tor’s right hand with a firm but relaxed grip. His name was Alec Cameron, a wealthy businessman from the nation of Stella. He was the second son of the Cameron Steel Foundry, a major group in Stella that was part of the country’s backbone. With the way their country was so industrialized, Crescent Island in Fiore was one of the few places that he could get away from all the stress of managing the family business and navigating the family politics to relax with his family that consisted of his wife Jenine and twins Carmine and Buck.

“I hope to see you next time you return to Fiore, Mr Cameron,” Tor answered with a smile on his face, returning the businessman’s firm shake before releasing his hand. Tor had been added into the businessman’s security detail, appearing to Alec Cameron as the leader of squad of guards under a company called Vanguard. It was an undercover job that served two purposes, for the Rune Knights to gather intelligence and keep an eye on such influential people that entered the country. With his roguish looks that made it impossible for people to align him with the Rune Knights unless he specifically mentioned it, Tor could confidently say he had done an awesome job.

The goodbyes finally ended when the Cameron family boarded their private ship and left the port. They kept up the pleasantries until the ship finally left their sight and Tor turned around to look at the men standing behind him with a wry smile.

“Good job guys. You can return to the office first,” Tor instructed before releasing the tie knot around his collar and walked away. However, the moment he took his first step towards returning to the Jade Moon Resort, one of the few top resorts on the island, a huge explosion erupted from the center of the resort grounds. Tor’s first reaction was to lower his body as he covered his ears while looking at the mushroom cloud that was rising into the air. After the initial shock of the sudden explosion, Tor immediately kicked into action and ran as fast as he could towards the resort.

As he neared the resort, he was perplexed that he hadn’t seen anyone running outwards from the destroyed resort. By right, the survivors should have been stampeding out of the resort, saving their lives and getting away from the blast zone but this was too weird to believe. The situation was giving him the goosebumps as it seemed more and more out of place, the idea of a terrorist attack never occurring in his mind, until he finally arrived near the resort entrance.

Tor never made it to the entrance, moving too fast to stop himself abruptly and just threw himself to the side into the bushes. With a roll that negated any injuries from the fall, Tor slowly rose from the bushes and looked towards the resort entrance. Armed men were milling about the entrance, guarding it from any entry and exit. Elsewhere, Tor could see men patrolling around the top of the buildings around the perimeter of the resort.

The whole situation was laid out bare for him and everyone else to understand when a booming voice, magically magnified through magic, shouted across the island for all to hear.

“People of Crescent Island! We are the Syndicate! Consider this entire island ours for the taking! We have made our demands to the Magic Council and we are not afraid to use force!”

This was a situation that Tor had never prepared for, and instead of getting his blood pumped up, the Rune Knight despaired instead. He didn’t know if there was any other Rune Knights stationed on the island. He was nothing but a Private, and he was far below the rank to receive any proper instruction and training on how to handle himself during such an event.

The only thing he could think of?

“What would Shane do?” Tor asked himself as he began to calm himself down. Heroics wasn’t his cup of tea, so that meant he wasn’t going to just barge in like an action hero and try to take things into his own hands. And yet, as a Rune Knight and a decent human being, he wouldn’t just walk away from the situation. Tor sighed as he considered Shane’s potential plan. “The man would probably equip his fucking shield and just charge in.”

Lamenting his fate, Tor began to formulate a plan in his mind as he watched the men at the entrance and tried to think of a way to enter the resort stealthily. Memorizing the entire resort plan had been part of his job undercover. For now, he would have to go at this alone and try to get deeper into the resort before he could come up with the next step of his plan.

[841 words]
[Total WC: 841 / 10000]

As he was ready to proceed with his plan, still partially hidden within the bushes lining the side of the main road leading to the resort entrance, Tor suddenly noticed a fluctuation of magic energy in his surroundings. His first thought was that he had been discovered and he crouched lower in the bushes, a gauntlet appearing on his right fist. The gauntlet looked ancient, entirely dark gold with accents of pale gold to make it more distinguishable, but all of it waned before the blue jewel embedded on the back of the gauntlet. Tor’s left hand hovered above the turquoise gem, ready to press down on it at any moment’s notice.

What he saw was a human-like figure sprinting towards him, her body entirely covered in golden flames. Her eyes were two balls of golden light. Tor had no idea this was a colleague, having just newly joined the Rune Knights for only a few months. As such, aside from the Skystone Vambrace that he had summoned, Tor’s left hand moved backwards, and a translucent blue spear formed within his grip, the tip pointing down at the ground but prepared to be swept upwards in a diagonal slash, ready to start an offensive should the newcomer show any signs of aggression towards him. 

However, when she approached, the coat of golden flames withered away to reveal a proud female, dressed in a full-body uniform of blue, gold and red with a golden star on her chest. This struck Tor with a sense of familiarity. It bore resemblance to Shane’s combat suit, which he had only seen once but imprinted deeply in his mind. The color scheme was very close, but the feeling it gave off was very much the same.

And when she spoke, Tor relaxed and smirked slightly, releasing the tension in his left hand as the blue spear of ice disappeared without much indication as though it hadn’t even appeared. But the Skystone Vambrace was still equipped on his right hand. It was part of Tor’s plan to sneak into the resort for some additional reconnaissance before he could make another plan to neutralize the situation. 

While the newcomer’s words sounded harsh, Tor’s EQ was entirely capable of processing the meaning in her words and what she meant. To another person, it might have sounded condescending, but he had seen his fair share of the ugly world to be able to discern whether he was truly being looked down upon or this was just the person’s way of speaking.

“Toril Fulgur, Rune Knights, Private,” Tor said with a smile as he held up his identification badge, showing it to the woman before returning it to his pocket. 

“I’ve been stationed here for some time as part of an undercover job, so I have a relatively good understanding of the resort. At this moment, we know nothing about the enemy and the number of their forces, so I think some reconnaissance will be beneficial. How about I go take a look around and then we discuss on our plan after this?” Tor offered as he stood up. When he spoke, a dark purple shield had appeared on his back. From the front, it seemed like two malicious looking horns had appeared from his shoulders. 

He had summoned the Draconic Shield, something that he had obtained from Shane as a gift to wish him well when he encouraged Tor to embark on the route to becoming a Rune Knight. Dark purple wings erupted from his shoulder blades, spreading out widely behind as Tor gave a smirk before pressing down on the gem on the vambrace. Immediately he vanished and one second later, with another press of the gem, Tor reappeared in the air, the wings flapping behind him with soft, measured strokes, that kept him in the air while not making much noise.

“I can fly and I can become invisible, so it will be easier for me to do it. What do you think?” Tor said as he spread his arms widely as well, showing off his wings before folding them and dropping gently back to the ground.

[690 words]
[Total WC: 2101 / 10000]

Tor felt himself let out a small breath of relief when he realized that the woman in front of him was a Private as well, but the huge discrepancy between her suspected power level and her rank was something that intrigued the male Rune Knight. He was also glad that the woman had agreed to his plan. Tor had no doubts that if she was alone, Aurora could have just went all out and beat up this entire gang. She gave off a similar vibe to Shane, but in this case, Tor believed that prudence was key. No doubt they could just rush into the compound, but that would only work if the two of them were equally strong. Without that balance, Tor was just a liability as much as he hated to admit that. If there was more than one person inside that could give Aurora a run for her money, then Tor would be the weak link that brought them down.

“Yup, I know which one it is. I’ll see you later,” Tor said as he once again activated the button on the gauntlet. He could feel a tingling sensation creeping up from the gauntlet, slowly covering his entire body, indicating that the invisibility spell had worked. The purple wings behind him had been rendered invisible as well, and with a strong flap of the wings, Tor ascended into the air. He continued climbing upwards before he took a hovering position, checking out the entire resort layout from a bird’s eye view.

Tor took a good long sweep over the entire resort from air. The first thing he had noticed that this terrorist group was awfully organized, very much like soldiers. Especially the way they had set up patrol points around the entire resort. The lower-level goons were all appropriately equipped, and they took their job seriously. A few key installations in the resort were especially highly guarded at the entrances.

The Rune Knight took a huge risk by dropping slightly to one of the buildings, a luxurious three-story gym, and peered into the huge slabs of glass that served as the walls. A row of treadmills and cycling machines faced the glass, allowing the users to immerse themselves in the beautiful surroundings. Glancing into the third story of the gym, Tor noticed a particularly buff man in the room. There was no one else apart from him, and he was pumping iron like no tomorrow. His biceps were almost the size of Tor’s head.

At that moment, the man who was breathing in and out heavily while vigorously worked out his pecs, suddenly turned to look towards the outside. Tor could feel them making eye contact but it was just a trick of his mind. He was invisible after all. But he couldn’t discount the fact that the man’s senses were particularly stronger than the lackeys. It wasn’t unusual for mages of higher power levels to possess more astute senses, especially now that Tor was cloaked entirely in magic.

Assuming that the rest of the buildings that were more heavily guarded would contain such characters, probably division leaders under the commander of the terrorist group, Tor flew back up and headed for the rendezvous spot that Aurora had pointed out. He landed near the female Rune Knight, dispelling his invisibility shield and his wings before approaching her.

“The resort’s extremely well-protected. They have sentries keeping a good look over the entire resort area, patrols moving up and down key entrances and exits. Certain buildings in the resort are more heavily guarded than the rest. I assume that each of them is occupied by key members of the terrorist group, with 11 buildings like that. The last boss is probably in one of them,” Tor said as he sat down on one of the chairs.

“There’s no point to charging in. We lack the manpower and the firepower, in my case. I say we take them by surprise. We hit them one by one, starting from both sides of the resort and work our way to the middle. This way we pull their attention to both sides and thin them out slightly. As to how strong our targets will be, I think that’s up to luck. The key to this battle would be finishing off their key members and their boss, ignoring the small fry.”

As Tor spoke, he took out a map of the resort. On the map, all of the facilities were numbered and their names appearing in a legend to the top right side of the map. The resort was one of the best on Crescent Island, and as such, its size had to be on par with its status. There were a total of twelve buildings that housed the facilities on the resort grounds and while there were twenty clusters of five villas per cluster. Another three buildings stood to the side, also hotel rooms. Tor had circled all of the buildings that were highly guarded and he drew an arrow on each side of the resort, indicating their direction of attack.

“What do you think?”

[852 words]
[Total WC: 3403 / 10000]

Tor’s listened to Aurora’s feedback towards his plan, nodding at random intervals as he took in her words. He knew himself, that he was an amateur when it came to tactics and strategies. He would still strive to present his ideas but he was also equally welcome to taking in suggestions from others that he believe to be more experienced than he was. Tor was also relieved inside that instead of dismissing his ideas entirely, Aurora had taken a more constructive approach to build on top of his ideas. She was even providing reasons to her proposition which made Tor feel that he was being treated as an equal.

‘I guess I still have a long way to go.’

‘That Captain rank is still a distance away.’

While he had joined the Rune Knights and thought of it as a job, he still entertained thoughts of climbing up the ranks of the organization. He had set his eyes on the Captain rank so far, not daring to aim as high as General.

‘Oh crap, wait, get back to what’s at hand.’

Without showing that he had been distracted by a few minor thoughts, Tor scratched his chin lightly and then looked at Aurora with a small smile. While the two of them were the same rank, the male Rune Knight would treat his counterpart as a superior and heeded her suggestions.

Tor got up from his chair and bent his neck to the left and right, creating cracking sounds as he flexed. Stealth and speed were something he was trying to make his trademark, so he was glad that Aurora would pass this job to him. A gauntlet appeared around his left hand.

“Give me some time, I will do better. Instead of taking another flight, I will get some on-ground intel through invisibility,” Tor offered. At the end of his sentence, Tor pressed down on one of the buttons of his gauntlet with his right hand and shimmered out of existence, as though a mirage. Tor could feel a wave of magic energy washing over his entire self from head to toe, and once he felt it reach his feet before dispersing into the floor, Tor nodded to no one in particular.

‘This is my time to shine. By not being seen,’ Tor chuckled to himself at the silly joke before getting back into serious mode. ‘I’m an idiot.’

Tor walked to the edge of the roof and dropped off it silently, landing in a crouch and stabilizing himself with his fingers on the ground before slowly getting up. The resort was too huge for him to cover in a short time on foot, so he was forced to make guesses and choose his targets for reconnaissance. Going through the memory of all the VIPs he had seen earlier, as Aurora had referred to them, Tor finally decided to check out the resort ballroom. If they were going to take hostages, that would probably be the best place to keep them controlled.

He arrived at the place in no time, and by slowly opening doors when there was no one looking or following behind someone going through the doors, the Rune Knight slowly made his way towards the largest ballroom and scoped out the whole place.

‘This concentration of people.. It seems I’m right.’

There were plenty of goons carrying weapons, guarding every possible doorway into the building. But the one thing that really got Tor to subconsciously took a big gulp as he neared the largest ballroom, was the intense amount of magic power emanating from the room. Every step felt like he was wading in a swamp, and each step was accompanied by a voice in his mind that screamed for him to escape.

‘No. She trusted me to do this.’

He finally arrived at the door and got a shock from seeing nearly a hundred hostages. The hostages were a combination of the resort staff and patrons. There were quite a number of dead bodies on the ground as well, dying the carpeted floor red with their blood. Tor had no doubt that those people were mages that had tried to fight their way out only to run into a wall. And they also served as an example to the rest to deter from doing anything stupid. In fact, it worked, as the hostages were currently cowering in small groups, their heads down and eyes full of despair. Not a single one of them held any intention to try and escape.

However, Tor had lingered too long. The thick magic energy that was being emanated throughout the whole place was suddenly focused on him as one of the VIPs suddenly glared in his direction. The mild-looking man’s eyes were similar to that of a beast, and when he looked in Tor’s direction, the Rune Knight froze up for a second.

‘This is bad.’

Tor slowly withdrew from the ballroom and hastily made his way out of the building. Meanwhile, the VIP who had thrown his attention in Tor’s direction earlier was puzzled, thinking he had mistaken it. For a moment he had thought he sensed someone there, someone of considerable magic power but when it disappeared abruptly, the VIP eased back down.

‘I probably sensed the magic energy from one of the hostages,’ the VIP thought to himself, thinking that they might have accidentally released it due to their unstable emotional state.

Hoping that he hadn’t make a mess, Tor fled to the roof that Aurora was waiting at. He released his invisibility the moment he stepped on the roof and presented his findings to Aurora in the shortest way possible.

“They’ve got nearly a hundred hostages in the building housing the ballrooms. There’s three VIPs in there holding the fort. I can’t identify who’s the leader though,” Tor said. “But one of them almost sensed me while I was invisible.”

“What’s our plan now?” Tor asked with a wry smile. “Are you going to sweep those in the ballroom while I sweep those outside?”


[1009 words]
[Total WC: 4787 / 10000]