Strange Vulcans Part 1 [Axel, Natalia]

Job Details:

Axel found himself walking in the town of Clover again. He met a woman that he could not get his mind off a few days ago. Her name was Natalia, and Axel thought it was kind of bad leaving her with Kaseki the way he did. He hoped that the dark mage would not come around again, but the only thing he could do was hope, which bothered Axel. He wanted to arrest Kaseki, since he was a Rune Knight and Kaseki was a dark mage, but Axel understood Kaseki's actions. Axel would tell him to leave though, if he came again. Axel found himself walking into the cafe were he met Natalia before. He sat down on the table they were at before. Axel hoped to meet Natalia there again, because he wished to ask her if she wanted to go on a job with him. It may indirectly be Axel's ideal of asking Natalia out on a date, and it would make Axel less nervous than if he was on a real date with her.

As Axel waited, he called a waitress to his table and ordered the same thing he did last time, which was coffee and a cupcake. He had a hunch that this was in Natalia's routine every now and then, to go to the cafe.

Natalia strolled down the street on her way to the cafe where she usually stopped by to pick up a cupcake nearly everyday now. She was thinking deep in her mind about what she might do for a job, most of the jobs were rather boring or in some cases annoying. She walked up to the cafe where she saw someone who seemed familiar to her. She took a closer look from a distance in hopes of discerning his identity without him noticing her, however any memorable characteristics were quite difficult to pick up from this far. She walked into the cafe taking quick glances at the individual as she went to take her usual seat. She caught a glimpse of his different colored eyes with one glance and she remembered, his name was Axel he was a Rune Knight and he used some sort of wind magic.

Natalia didn't move any further towards her usual table and instead approached the table at which Axel was seated. "Um... Axel?" She questioned in her usual quiet tone though she may have been too far for Axel to hear her. She tried to smile but as usual her face was a bit sad.

Finally, a girl that dressed in white was nearing Axel. He could not tell exactly who it was, but he wwas almost certain that it was Natalia, and sure enough, it was. Axel's dull expression turned into a smile, as he waved at Natalia, who he was now able to see perfectly. Once she sat down, Axel began to talk. "Natalia! I am glad to see you here again! I am almost certain we will not have any interruptions today. Anyway, I came here to ask you to...." said Axel, but he stopped talking, because he forgot what he even wanted to ask her. Axel must have been so excited, that, his memory got jumbled. Of course, this is not the first time it happened. Whenever Axel gets really happy and excited, he begins to have short-term memory loss, and that is always bad. "Hmmm, seems I forgot what I wished to tell you. Anyway, while my mind tries to remember, how about we just chat for a little? Helps me think more," said Axel.  

"So, you told me how you liked Blue Pegasus before, so now tell me what types of people are there, like what kinds of magic they hold. I love hearing about the magic of others," said Axel. He truly was interested in pretty much all mages in Fiore, since most had unique magics, or simple elemental, but tweaked to there liking. Axel even kept a data log at home to take notes on the various magics he hears about.

Natalia tilted her head to the side, Axel wanted to ask her to do something. Her heart felt a little strange, Axel had that kind of vibe about him that he was interested in her for something. Her head spun a little at the thought of what he might be asking, but the fact that he had forgotten what it was put ideas out of her head. She sighed and shut thoughts out of her mind, surely he would remember soon enough. She made her usual order of Tea and a cupcake when the waiter arrived with Axel's order.

She frowned and shook her head when Axel asked about the people in Blue Pegasus, it wasn't in her place to tell others outside of the guild about magics that weren't her own, it would be particularly bad if Axel was trying to spy on Blue Pegasus for information the Rune Knights could use against them. "I'm sorry it's not my place to tell you about the magic within the guild, I would be betraying my friends trust if I spilled anything they didn't want outsiders to know." She answered as polite as she could hoping that Axel would understand. She did know Axel was honorable, he was in fact a Rune Knight but she didn't quite trust him just yet. "Is there a reason why you sought me out in particular?" She asked hoping to gain clarity as to why she was being questioned by a Rune Knight.

Axel listened as Natalia told him that she decided not to divulge information about her guild, because it was not her place to tell. Axel could understand that, but he never talked to someone on the defensive like that. Axel knew he had to make Natalia trust him, but he did not know how. The fact that he is a Rune Knight probably gives Natalia another reason to be on the defensive. Axel guessed that she thought he might be gathering intel for the knights. All he wanted to do was talk to her, and get to know her and her guild better, but that was not happening now, so Axel just decided to think harder about what he came to ask her. Axel finally remembered that he came to ask Natalia to go on a job with him.

"Oh! Of course! I came here to ask you to go on a job with me!" said Axel, as he got out the job form he had in his pocket ever since he left Era. "Here, the job asks us to take down Vulcans that have appeared in the spooky forest, stealing food from the villagers. I wondered about doing the job on my own, but I thought it would be more fun if you went with me," said Axel, with a large smile on his face. He really wanted to see what Natalia was capable of, her magic power, and if she had any physical traits. The number of vulcans might be large, but Axel has dealt with them before, so he could protect himself and Natalia if he had to.

Natalia's order of a cupcake and tea arrived just as Axel proposed they go on a job together. Axel a Rune Knight had requested her to go on a job with him, Natalia took a moment to let the words sink in. She recomposed herself and took up her cup of tea for a quiet sip, she then raised her head and looked Axel dead in the eye with her beautiful blue eyes and smiled. "Of course I will go on a job with you, if anything it will help me get stronger." She politely took the piece of paper from Axel's hand and began to read over the details.

"Don't you think the amount of vulcans might be an issue?" Natalia asked as she finished reading the job description. She wasn't too sure of her capabilities of fighting the vulcans, she did at one time assist in taking down several vulcans before but there wasn't this many. She took a moment to think again, he was asking her to go on this job and she wasn't content with being an obstacle. Wait, why ask her to go on this job when he would have asked one of his rune knight buddies. She became a bit more serious. "Actually why are you asking me to go on a job with you? Don't you have friends to go on jobs with, or do you have some other reason to ask me?" She asked intent to know why he would ask her on a job.

Natalia said yes to Axel's proposal that they go on a job with each other, however, Natalia was curious as to why Axel would ask her instead of one of his Rune Knight associates. Axel did not really think of that. Natalia was just the first person to pop up in his head when he felt like doing a job. Of course, then he thought about the fact that this would allow them to get to know each other better.

"Well Natalia, I didn't want to go on a job with them, because you must realize I have fought Vulcans before, so I could take this job by myself if I wanted to. I am asking you to come with me because I only want you to come. You see, our last meeting was interrupted by a dark mage, which made things so awkward I left you hanging. I am so sorry for doing that, but you have to understand I feel hatred whenever I am near one of them. My relationship with Kaseki is a bit weird, but that is besides the point. I wanted to talk to you again, and this job was a good excuse to, was it not?" asked Axel, deciding he would be as straight-forward as possible.

He did not want to hide anything from the girl he was starting to crush on. He got up from his seat, and faced the direction were the Spooky Forest would be. "If you want to come, The forest is not that far away from here. We can walk. I understand if you don't want to," said Axel, as he began to walk towards the exit of the town, and towards the Spooky Forest, hoping that Natalia would begin to walk with him there. If she did not, then Axel would leave her alone for good.

WC: 309

Natalia stood up to quickly fallow behind Axel while sticking her cupcake in her mouth and grabbing Axel's cupcake which he forgot to eat. "Heyf wait upf" She tried to shout a bit muffled by the cupcake in her mouth. She took a moment to catch up to Axel, she wasn't exactly used to running, even while in combat which tended to be a slight detriment but it gave her more brain power to concentrate on spells. When she had managed to fall into step next to Axel she held the cupcake in front of him and finished eating her own. "Never let a tasty treat go to waste especially if someone else made it for you then it would be rude." She said as she attempted another sad smile for Axel.

As they continued to walk towards the spooky forest she began to wonder, how did Axel get to clover so easily all the time. "Excuse me Axel. Can I ask how you get here so easily?" She asked. No ships would have came in this early, at least she didn't think so considering she hadn't lived in clover for very long, And not to mention that the docks hand this weird smell about them and thus she couldn't watch the ships come in for long periods of time. Her mind began to wander as she thought about various things and as such it was beginning to snow lightly.

As Axel walked towards the exit of Clover Town, Natalia told him to wait up, with her mouth full of cupcake. Axel was glad that Natalia decided to come along with Axel. He really wanted to see her magic in action as well. Once Natalia cought up with Axel, she handed him the cupcake he never ate, and told him to to waste food. He took it and began to eat it, then noticed Natalia's sad smile again. Axel wondered why Natalia always looked sad. He wished he could help, but thought it was too soon to ask about it. Natalia then asked Axel how he always got to Clover Town so fast.

"Oh, well, I am a Wind Mage, so naturally I can fly. I just love the sky, so I usually fly everywere I go. You should try it sometime. The breeze that passes you is the best," said Axel, as he began to smile. Axel and Natalia were now in the Spooky Forest, and the village was very close to them now. Axel ran towards the village hoping Natalia could keep pace with him. Once they arrived, Axel saw a merchant being protective over his carriage full of merchandise, because standing in front of him were three vulcans.

WC: 212

The member 'Axel Rover' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Natalia got the answer she was looking for, Axel used flight to travel which seemed quite like him. However Natalia couldn't fly, not to say that she disliked it but it made her very sick to fly. She was about to respond to Axel's suggestion when he just bolted off, this wasn't fair she wasn't fast like he was how did he expect her to keep up. She began to chase after him but began to find herself lagging behind him, in fact where was him. Natalia looked around worried for a moment wonder where Axel had gone, she was lost in the middle of the spooky forest which was full of Vulcans and the only one who may have been capable of dealing with these primates had run off without her.

Her heart was beating quite quickly, she needed to find Axel fast or she might find herself as a primates prisoner. She froze when felt hot breath on her back, she almost knew what had come up behind her. She turned around to come face to face with a vulcan and boy did his breath stink. Natalia let out what was almost a shriek but quickly stifled it and began to run from the vulcan, she was took close to fight this thing her only hope was to get some distance.

The member 'NWolf' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Once Axel stopped in front of the huge Vulcans, he looked behind himself, and saw that Natalia was not there. 'Crap, I left her behind? I would go back for her now, but the villagers need protection from these three. After that, I will surely go back for Natalia,' thought Axel. The Vulcans stopped messing around with the merchant, and looked dead at Axel, giving everyone in the area time to get away far enough not to get hurt. Everyone was now watching from far away. "Hey, you stupid apes! Who told you that you could mess with people! I want you all to go back to wherever you came from peacefully, I will not not show mercy!" said Axel. In reply though, one of the Vulcans charged Axel. 'Animals never learn, do they? How annoying...' thought Axel. On a recent request, Axel has learned to hate most vicious animals, because he realized that they did not care who died, as long as they were ok.  This was not alright with Axel, so he would make sure to kill every Vulcan in the Spooky Forest. Axel took out his sword, and once the Vulcan launched his right arm in a swinging motion, Axel ducked, got behind the Vulcan, and slashed at him multiple times, until he was dead. The other two came after Axel at once, yet he still managed to cut them down.

WC: 235

The member 'Axel Rover' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Natalia kept running, she needed to find safety from this Vulcan chasing her and there was very little she could do in his home territory. She continued running when she came across a pair of rotten old trees and that is when he strategic mind began to work. If she couldn't hide from the ape, she was going to have to stop it instead. She tested the location of the vulcan using her snow sensory and she discerned the proper amount of force and the direction she would have to hit the trees in order to cause them to fall on the Vulcan's head. Her only hope was that he was stupid enough to take both trees one after the other without learning. She charged up a snowflake shuriken and aimed it in the direction she would have to hit the trees in order to knock them both down at once.

The Vulcan continued his chase after Natalia though he came across her with some sort of thing in her hand. She was going to be easy pray now and thus he began his next charge. Natalia however was ready for this and she waited for the Vulcan to reach a certain point before she unleashed her snowflake shuriken throwing it at what was supposed to be the perfect angle to knock both trees down. However it didn't go according to her plan as she didn't account for the wind slightly redirecting the Frisbee like projectile which impacted the first tree at the complete wrong angle though shredding through most of the tree causing it to fall on the vulcans head it however dispersed instead of continuing to strike the other tree. The vulcan though slowed down by the impact of the tree was still ready to come after Natalia, she was going to have to find some other way to take down the other tree.

Spells Cast: Snowflake Shuriken
Magic Power: 90%

As Axel killed the three Vulcans, three more came from the forest behind him. He turned around around to face them. "You guys are relentless, aren't you? How many of you do I have to kill to get my point across?" said Axel, but the Vulcans did not care for what he had to say, as the one in the middle began to rush towards Axel. He got his sword ready, and once the Vulcan was near him, he raised his blade and launched a downward slash towards the Vulcan, but the Vulcan had a good enough reflex to move to his right and dodge, then he took his right leg and launched it towards Axel's waist in a sweep kick, which landed successfully. Axel got knocked back a few feet, but ended up doing a backflip in the middle of it and stood strong, recovering from the blow easily. The Vulcan did not stop there, however, as he rushed Axel, but Axel was ready as well. The Vulcan swiped his right arm at Axel, but he ducked, then stabbed the Vulcan right in his heart. Axel took out the blade , then the Vulcan dropped to the floor, dead.

Axel then rushed the other two Vulcans, and once he got near them, the one on the left began to jab at Axel's face with his right hand, but Axel jumped on his arm as it was heavy enough to support him, and Axel then lifted his sword into an upward strike, cutting the Vulcans face in half. Axel then jumped off of the Vulcan's arm, and in mid-air, came at the last Vulcan with a stabbing force in his sword, stabbing him in his heart as well. The Vulcan went down as Axel pulled his sword out of him, and sighed as he saw three more Vulcans come his way.

The member 'Axel Rover' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Rolling again

The member 'Axel Rover' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Natalia stared at the vulcan who had taken a moment to take good long glare at her, clearly upset about getting his head clobbered by a tree knocked over by just a simple girl. Natalia was already thinking about how she could get herself out of this situation, she didn't have time cast a snowblind and sneak away let alone ready herself in a meditative stance. She was going to have to use either the second tree or use a snow wall to block the vulcans advance. It was all up to the vulcans next move and right now he seemed to be content with glaring at her angrily.

Natalia decided she was going to have to blast over the second tree using snow blaster and hoped that it wouldn't just fall on her own head. She took on her prepared stance and began to gather a large enough amount of snow to blast the tree. If she blasted it in an upward angle the tree would most definitely fall towards the vulcan but there was a good chance that it wouldn't fall at all. She decided to risk her own head over the chance to just waste magic power and risk herself to the vulcan. He was still glaring at her angrily, she needed to coax it to begin a charge or else he may just dodge the tree. "Hey stupid ape, you just going to stand there dumbfounded all day?" The taunt seemed to have worked and the primate began a charge at Natalia however he was too fast the tree wouldn't fall in time to hit him. She hesitated releasing her spell anyways and unfortunately the tree began to fall towards her. The vulcan roared as he began a swipe for Natalia which she took the full brunt of but at the same time she was knocked out of the path of the falling tree. The tree impacted the vulcan square on the head knocking him clean out but at the same time the tree rolled off his head right onto Natalia's foot. Natalia responded to the crushing pain with a cry of agony, hopefully Axel would have heard and would come to help her.

Spells Cast: Snow Blaster
Magic Power: 80%

'Hmmm, this makes, nine of them. I believe Natalia must have stopped to fight one, or that she was clobbered  by one of the nine here. I really hope that is not it, and if she is fighting thee last one, I hope she makes it out safely,' thought Axel. These last vulcans seemed to come in different sizes, unlike the last two pairs that all had the same size of vulcans. This pair included a small vulcan that looked almost like a child, an average-sized vulcan that Axel just killed six of, and a much larger vulcan. Axel did not think much of the smaller sized vulcans, but the larger one would be a problem. the smaller sized vulcans charged at Axel and both swiped an arm at his face, but he ducked and ran towards the largest vulcan. He figured that if he took out the biggest first, the challenge would be easier. The vulcan was big, but a major disadvantage was that it as too big, and as slo, so as it raised it's hand to hit Axel, he went in with a barrage of slashes, killing the vulcan. The other to came behind Axel, but they got barrage-slashed as well. Axel believed he was now done with the job, and went to leave the village when a boy shouted, "You monster! Why would you kill them!" This pissed Axel off. He came towards the boy, and then said, "Hey, listen here you snot-nosed runt! If I did not do what I just did, the vulcans would come back and murder everyone in this village because they can! I did you a favor!" Axel shouted, but the kid's mom just moved in front of him, as to protect him from a monster, which in this case was Axel. "You are welcome, you ungrateful citizens," said Axel as he walked off into the forest.

As he walked, he suddenly heard someone scream in agony. That someone sounded like Natalia, so he instantly began to run off into the direction of the sound. After a minute, he found Natalia wwith her leg stuck under a tree, so Axel used all of his strength to lift it, and began to  carry Natalia. He also saw the Vulcan she knocked out. 'heh, you knocked one unconscious, I killed 9 of them, who wins as monster of the day?' Axel thought, as he remembered what the kid said. Was he really turning out to be a monster? Axel did not think so, because he killed for justice, but is killing animals ever justified? Axel carried Natalia back to Clover Ton, and sat her on the table in the cafe. "We finished the job, so that is why I carried you back here," said Axel

Natalia let out a sigh of relief as Axel came to assist her with the tree. The pain was excruciating, the tree must have broken her ankle which wasn't a good sign. She wasn't going to be able to walk back so she was going to have to deal with Axel carrying her. She spent most of the time on the return journey either feeling sick from being carried or glaring at Axel for getting ahead of himself and abandoning her to the mercy of a vulcan, but mostly being sick.

After he sat he down at the Cafe she reached up and slapped Axel as hard as she could. "Do you have any idea what I went through? You ran off without me and look at what happened!" She was almost screaming which eventually turn into crying as she lowered her head into her palms. "Just go, bring the reward back to the cafe some other time, I've had enough adventures for today." She said trying to wipe up tears and calm herself down. "Can y-you at least buy me a cupcake?" She made her final request to Axel, she shouldn't blame him to much for this accident, she was in fact slow and in a way she was guilty just as much as he was.

Once Axel set Natalia down, she got furious and shouted at Axel, because he left her in the forest alone, and got her ankle broken. Axel felt really bad, but he had no ideal Natalia was as slow as she was. Of course, not everyone was as fast as a Wind Mage, but Axel liked to think everyone was. "Listen Natalia, I am so sorry for leaving you behind, so please don't cry. I forgot that not everyone is as independent as me, and I need to work on my teamwork. I assure you, if we go on another job in the future, I will not think just about my self," said Axel. He honored Natalia's last request to get her a cupcake, but got her 3 instead of 1, and a cup of coffee. They came, and were placed next to Natalia. "I really wish to meet you again, and I mean it. I believe I am starting to get addicted tobeing around you, but that is a topic I wish to see too later on. Cya later," said Axel, as he headed back to Era. Throughout the trip back, he could not take his mind off of Natalia.

EXIT