ACT IV
RESTLESS HOLDIAYS
“So, what are you up to now?”
“What does this thing do?”
“Won’t it be dangerous?”
“Hey, squeaky, watch for the explosion.”
“Gramps,” Hans shouted back, “just stay still for a minute. I’m trying not to blow this up.”
“But —”
“Jeez, don’t you have something else to do, gramps?”
Hans sighed, since that unfortunate day, Rudolf was following Hans like a little girl stalking her crush, and it was getting annoying on so many levels for Hans. Rudolf interfered in every little thing he was doing. So, frustrated, Hans pushed him with all his might, “Just give me some space, Grandpa. I’m begging you.” However, even with Hans’s full force, Rudolf couldn’t budge a bit, “No way, Squeaky,” he responded, “My ears still hurt from your grandma’s nagging. I’m not taking chances here. Just one more week, and you’ll be back in Concordia. Aah, it feels working there was more of a vacation than returning home —” “Boom,” “Ah! My head. What now?” Rudolf asked, almost fuming, but Hans innocently pointed at the Manor’s front, “It's not me this time.”
“Which bastards grew balls that big to attack my place,” Rudolf said as he jumped to the entrance in one leap. “ Show off,” Hans commented and followed him on foot. He needed to run through the Manor since they were in the backyard at the moment. He ran straight, passing through the anxious servants " I should've gone around the Manor. I thought this was a shortcut." He kept his pace, evading them.
‘Go downstairs, underground, hurry up.’
‘What's happening.’
‘Just evacuate fast, don’t dilly dally here.’
‘Yes, we’ll be just a burden here.’
Hans found Hodges in his most active form yet, escorting the servants hastily. He looked past him, no one was following them, and it confused him, but the old butler’s experience told him that they would soon see blood. They both crossed paths, and Hodges grabbed his hand, stopping him he said,. “Young Lord, come with us.” he pleaded, but Hans shrugged him off, “Don’t worry, I’ll run if I can’t fight,” and disappeared from Hodges's sight, making him more worried.
“You finally caught on, slowpoke,” Rudolf remarked without even turning back. “There are ten people, all very strong. Be on guard,” he added. However, his words surprised Hans, “What? That's something, I thought you would send me to hide.” he remarked, and he was right, but Rudolf knew this was bound to happen sooner or later, so he deemed, it was better for Hans to experience his first fight under his eyes. “These are not the beasts, they can think and improvise. Don’t drop your guard even after killing them.” He cautioned him, but Hans remained playful, “Wow, you are asking a ten, no Eleven-year-old child to kill someone —”
“Squeaky, stop joking, this is serious,” Rudolf shouted in seriousness. However, Hans replied, turning to his enemies while keeping his laidback attitude, “One of my favourite characters once said this,’ It's your funeral fuckers',” Then he raised his right hand, “Swoosh.”
A sharp and piercing bullet impaled one of the mages in the group, but surprising Hans, the mage didn’t flinch. So, he couldn’t help but shout, “What are these?”
“Damn it,” Rudolf cursed and alerted his side, “This is a death squad, they feel no pain. Don’t relax until you kill them completely.” However, what troubled Hans was who sent them. “Is Samwell gone crazy? He sent this many after me.” he uttered, but Rudolf denied it, “These are not from Grimgar.”
“And, which birdie told you,” Hans retorted, but instead of his grandpa, Sierra answered, “Because he is no fool.” She paused, scanning the still opponents and added, “Six mages, all of the seventh circle and four knights, of grade seventy. This is troubling.” Unlike Rudolf Sierra had her own thinking, she turned to her disciple and asked, “Take Hans back —”
“No, Grandma, I can fight —”
“Shut up Hans." Sierra interrupted in all her seriousness, "The most powerful thing you can do is VoidZone, but it will affect us too. You are a liability here.”
“No, I’m not,” Hans shouted, standing his ground, and debuted his new spell.
With a puff sound, Hans and everyone got surrounded by smoke, heavy and grey, and he vanished. The smoke created by SmokeSeed was no ordinary thing either, it distorted everyone’s ManaVision, disabling anyone tracking him. “Deli, find him,” Sierra pressed on, and Delimira ran towards Hans’s most possible location, a perfect sniping point. And on any normal occasion, her guess would have been right, but Hans wanted to confront these people head-on. He was running around, jumping and climbing, weaving the mana path for his projectiles. “I know they are Samwell’s goons. Gramps is wrong. After all, the only one I pissed off recently is that idiotic king.”
Masking his presence, He reached the backs of the uninvited guests, but his crying seed couldn’t find the time to show up since many of the County’s knights were engaged in the battle. From the front of them, Rudolf, Sierra and Aldrich are confronting them, and from the back, Hans was aiming at his target, “Let's see how you handle things in my territory.”
The ground shook, alerting everyone. It was a huge movement, and everyone could feel something big slithering underground. And, in no time, they all saw a forest encasing the Manor. It was Hans’s biggest spell yet, and gasping, he said, “Now there is no escape for you idiots. My traps will take care of you if you come here, Haa!.” he took a long breath and continued, “It's hunting time —.”
“Found you”
“So, did the master find it?” one mage asked another. They were overturning a very dangerous place in search of their master’s artefact. “I’d have played sick if we were not so understaffed,” the first mage continued, but his partner in crime was too busy scouring the Count’s bedroom. They just turned over his study and couldn’t find what their master wanted. “Damn it, just where does he keep it.” The second one finally responded in annoyance, “Returning after attacking the Alastor is already a stretch and if we failed our objective. It would be really bad for us.”
“Hmm, you're right,” The first one agreed, “but do you think they can identify us?”
“It doesn’t matter since King Grimgar has our backs.”
“Yes, it's just that, he doesn’t know it himself,” the first one laughed as he went to Hans’s room.
“Found You.” These words ran a shiver down Hans’s spine. He was sure that no one could follow him. “Even Gramps could not track me, how?” he mumbled, and the knight made his appearance, responding to those words, “I’m just the one extra sensitive here. I’m a tracker after all.”
“Then you came alone, right?” Hans responded with a smirk, but it couldn’t stretch to his ears, and the knight’s punch straight to his guts welcomed him. A full-fledged strike from a grade seventy who wasn’t holding back could shatter anything. And a tender boy was not something that could survive. However, even when Hans was tired, his senses rang a dangerous bell in his ears, and he encased himself with turtle vines just before the punch got connected. It reduced the impact, and several vines sprouted, making spiderwebs, grabbing him and slowing down his trajectory.
“Pfaa…”With a bloody mouth, Hans shouted back, “I’m in control here, cough, cough,” he coughed again and asked, “Who sent you?”
“Where is the artefact?” the man asked only one thing but nothing else.
“Now, what’s this shit? What artefact?” Hans responded in frustration. He really did not know what these people wanted. The only thing he had in the name of the artefact was Mother’s embrace, and its sole function was to warm the surrounding in winter and to create this much chaos for that, it doesn’t seem plausible. “Well, I’m glad for one thing, they did not come here for the book,” he thought as he felt his book tied behind his waist. However, the knight responded oddly, “I like that you are not answering quickly. You see, I travelled a long way to beat you." the knight stepped forward, clenching his fist for another punch, "I won't be disappointed with this…” With a poof sound, he appeared before Hans again, “Time for the second stri—”
“Right back at you,”
With twice the speed of the incoming knight, the steel-sharpened bamboos erupted, impaling one of his legs. “Aagh, should I cry like this?" the knight mocked showing off that this was nothing, but there was one thing that confused him, "How can a mere trap hurt me?” startled, he asked himself. But Hans was not one to wait, “And this is for punching me, bastard,” he shouted as he put his every ounce of power into a punch and connected it to the knight’s guts. Returning the favour, however, It didn’t send him flying, but the damage was significant since the knight almost coughed up some blood.
Wiping his mouth, the knight said, “So I should take you seriously, that’s what you are telling me, right?” His words left his mouth, and channelling his aura, he covered his body with it. “You won’t be leaving here alive, brat.”
“You are the one walking right into my trap —”
“Oh! Is that so?” the knight interrupted as he crushed the SharpDeath’s bamboo with his foot. “You can’t hurt a grade seventy with these tricks,” he said.
“Tsk,” Hans clicked his tongue, but he also knew that SharpDeath was not on the level of doing anything against a grade seventy. It worked before because this knight treated Hans as a kid and let his guard down, but now the very knight was marking him as an opponent. Hans started moving his mind gears in full swing, his opponent was too close to use Crying Seed. However, his trump card was something else in this fight. “Let's see, how my hard work bears fruits," he said as he spread his control over the surroundings."It's Time for the second coming."
Announcement
NEXT : THE DYNAMIC DUO (1)
ACT IV
RESTLESS HOLDIAYS
“So, what are you up to now?”
“What does this thing do?”
“Won’t it be dangerous?”
“Hey, squeaky, watch for the explosion.”
“Gramps,” Hans shouted back, “just stay still for a minute. I’m trying not to blow this up.”
“But —”
“Jeez, don’t you have something else to do, gramps?”
Hans sighed, since that unfortunate day, Rudolf was following Hans like a little girl stalking her crush, and it was getting annoying on so many levels for Hans. Rudolf interfered in every little thing he was doing. So, frustrated, Hans pushed him with all his might, “Just give me some space, Grandpa. I’m begging you.” However, even with Hans’s full force, Rudolf couldn’t budge a bit, “No way, Squeaky,” he responded, “My ears still hurt from your grandma’s nagging. I’m not taking chances here. Just one more week, and you’ll be back in Concordia. Aah, it feels working there was more of a vacation than returning home —” “Boom,” “Ah! My head. What now?” Rudolf asked, almost fuming, but Hans innocently pointed at the Manor’s front, “It's not me this time.”
“Which bastards grew balls that big to attack my place,” Rudolf said as he jumped to the entrance in one leap. “ Show off,” Hans commented and followed him on foot. He needed to run through the Manor since they were in the backyard at the moment. He ran straight, passing through the anxious servants " I should've gone around the Manor. I thought this was a shortcut." He kept his pace, evading them.
‘Go downstairs, underground, hurry up.’
‘What's happening.’
‘Just evacuate fast, don’t dilly dally here.’
‘Yes, we’ll be just a burden here.’
Hans found Hodges in his most active form yet, escorting the servants hastily. He looked past him, no one was following them, and it confused him, but the old butler’s experience told him that they would soon see blood. They both crossed paths, and Hodges grabbed his hand, stopping him he said,. “Young Lord, come with us.” he pleaded, but Hans shrugged him off, “Don’t worry, I’ll run if I can’t fight,” and disappeared from Hodges's sight, making him more worried.
“You finally caught on, slowpoke,” Rudolf remarked without even turning back. “There are ten people, all very strong. Be on guard,” he added. However, his words surprised Hans, “What? That's something, I thought you would send me to hide.” he remarked, and he was right, but Rudolf knew this was bound to happen sooner or later, so he deemed, it was better for Hans to experience his first fight under his eyes. “These are not the beasts, they can think and improvise. Don’t drop your guard even after killing them.” He cautioned him, but Hans remained playful, “Wow, you are asking a ten, no Eleven-year-old child to kill someone —”
“Squeaky, stop joking, this is serious,” Rudolf shouted in seriousness. However, Hans replied, turning to his enemies while keeping his laidback attitude, “One of my favourite characters once said this,’ It's your funeral fuckers',” Then he raised his right hand, “Swoosh.”
A sharp and piercing bullet impaled one of the mages in the group, but surprising Hans, the mage didn’t flinch. So, he couldn’t help but shout, “What are these?”
“Damn it,” Rudolf cursed and alerted his side, “This is a death squad, they feel no pain. Don’t relax until you kill them completely.” However, what troubled Hans was who sent them. “Is Samwell gone crazy? He sent this many after me.” he uttered, but Rudolf denied it, “These are not from Grimgar.”
“And, which birdie told you,” Hans retorted, but instead of his grandpa, Sierra answered, “Because he is no fool.” She paused, scanning the still opponents and added, “Six mages, all of the seventh circle and four knights, of grade seventy. This is troubling.” Unlike Rudolf Sierra had her own thinking, she turned to her disciple and asked, “Take Hans back —”
“No, Grandma, I can fight —”
“Shut up Hans." Sierra interrupted in all her seriousness, "The most powerful thing you can do is VoidZone, but it will affect us too. You are a liability here.”
“No, I’m not,” Hans shouted, standing his ground, and debuted his new spell.
With a puff sound, Hans and everyone got surrounded by smoke, heavy and grey, and he vanished. The smoke created by SmokeSeed was no ordinary thing either, it distorted everyone’s ManaVision, disabling anyone tracking him. “Deli, find him,” Sierra pressed on, and Delimira ran towards Hans’s most possible location, a perfect sniping point. And on any normal occasion, her guess would have been right, but Hans wanted to confront these people head-on. He was running around, jumping and climbing, weaving the mana path for his projectiles. “I know they are Samwell’s goons. Gramps is wrong. After all, the only one I pissed off recently is that idiotic king.”
Masking his presence, He reached the backs of the uninvited guests, but his crying seed couldn’t find the time to show up since many of the County’s knights were engaged in the battle. From the front of them, Rudolf, Sierra and Aldrich are confronting them, and from the back, Hans was aiming at his target, “Let's see how you handle things in my territory.”
The ground shook, alerting everyone. It was a huge movement, and everyone could feel something big slithering underground. And, in no time, they all saw a forest encasing the Manor. It was Hans’s biggest spell yet, and gasping, he said, “Now there is no escape for you idiots. My traps will take care of you if you come here, Haa!.” he took a long breath and continued, “It's hunting time —.”
“Found you”
“So, did the master find it?” one mage asked another. They were overturning a very dangerous place in search of their master’s artefact. “I’d have played sick if we were not so understaffed,” the first mage continued, but his partner in crime was too busy scouring the Count’s bedroom. They just turned over his study and couldn’t find what their master wanted. “Damn it, just where does he keep it.” The second one finally responded in annoyance, “Returning after attacking the Alastor is already a stretch and if we failed our objective. It would be really bad for us.”
“Hmm, you're right,” The first one agreed, “but do you think they can identify us?”
“It doesn’t matter since King Grimgar has our backs.”
“Yes, it's just that, he doesn’t know it himself,” the first one laughed as he went to Hans’s room.
“Found You.” These words ran a shiver down Hans’s spine. He was sure that no one could follow him. “Even Gramps could not track me, how?” he mumbled, and the knight made his appearance, responding to those words, “I’m just the one extra sensitive here. I’m a tracker after all.”
“Then you came alone, right?” Hans responded with a smirk, but it couldn’t stretch to his ears, and the knight’s punch straight to his guts welcomed him. A full-fledged strike from a grade seventy who wasn’t holding back could shatter anything. And a tender boy was not something that could survive. However, even when Hans was tired, his senses rang a dangerous bell in his ears, and he encased himself with turtle vines just before the punch got connected. It reduced the impact, and several vines sprouted, making spiderwebs, grabbing him and slowing down his trajectory.
“Pfaa…”With a bloody mouth, Hans shouted back, “I’m in control here, cough, cough,” he coughed again and asked, “Who sent you?”
“Where is the artefact?” the man asked only one thing but nothing else.
“Now, what’s this shit? What artefact?” Hans responded in frustration. He really did not know what these people wanted. The only thing he had in the name of the artefact was Mother’s embrace, and its sole function was to warm the surrounding in winter and to create this much chaos for that, it doesn’t seem plausible. “Well, I’m glad for one thing, they did not come here for the book,” he thought as he felt his book tied behind his waist. However, the knight responded oddly, “I like that you are not answering quickly. You see, I travelled a long way to beat you." the knight stepped forward, clenching his fist for another punch, "I won't be disappointed with this…” With a poof sound, he appeared before Hans again, “Time for the second stri—”
“Right back at you,”
With twice the speed of the incoming knight, the steel-sharpened bamboos erupted, impaling one of his legs. “Aagh, should I cry like this?" the knight mocked showing off that this was nothing, but there was one thing that confused him, "How can a mere trap hurt me?” startled, he asked himself. But Hans was not one to wait, “And this is for punching me, bastard,” he shouted as he put his every ounce of power into a punch and connected it to the knight’s guts. Returning the favour, however, It didn’t send him flying, but the damage was significant since the knight almost coughed up some blood.
Wiping his mouth, the knight said, “So I should take you seriously, that’s what you are telling me, right?” His words left his mouth, and channelling his aura, he covered his body with it. “You won’t be leaving here alive, brat.”
“You are the one walking right into my trap —”
“Oh! Is that so?” the knight interrupted as he crushed the SharpDeath’s bamboo with his foot. “You can’t hurt a grade seventy with these tricks,” he said.
“Tsk,” Hans clicked his tongue, but he also knew that SharpDeath was not on the level of doing anything against a grade seventy. It worked before because this knight treated Hans as a kid and let his guard down, but now the very knight was marking him as an opponent. Hans started moving his mind gears in full swing, his opponent was too close to use Crying Seed. However, his trump card was something else in this fight. “Let's see, how my hard work bears fruits," he said as he spread his control over the surroundings."It's Time for the second coming."
Announcement
NEXT : THE DYNAMIC DUO (1)
