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The orc was cut cleanly in half, falling seemingly lifeless on the floor behind Ryugi, where he would a minute or so from now stand again and rush toward the center of the ship. But well before that Ryugi would be gone from his effective range. You see...

He was alive.

His right hand clung to his green stained sword, while his left hand covered his left eye. He was trying his best to defend himself against the horde, but without depth perception and with his grip slipping due to the massive growing amount of red seeping between his fingertips and down his face, he was beginning to lose consciousness.

He was alive, but at this rate, he wouldnt be for much longer.

Ryugi's trip wouldnt be as easy as he might like. Orcs were big clumsy creatures. Compared to them, in stature though not in strength, Ryugi was small. If he was going to reach him, he would have to do it strong, and fast!

Ryugi gushed through the orcs, and as hard as he pushed, the harder they seemed to resist him. Not because they were stronger, or faster, but just because they were bigger. And when he pushed one, it fell on the one in front of him, forcing him to push through two, and three, and four.

For a weaker man the endeavor as a whole might have seemed hopeless. But through sweet, smell, and green flesh Ryugi persevered. Getting ever closer and closer.

You'll never take me a--kak!

Smack! A giant orcish fist smashed into the side of his face, knocking him back a few steps. Up came his sword to deflect sword strike from the right, only to take a club to his back from behind him. There was an audible crack, as his body whipped forward and his right hand moved to let the MAN catch himself using his sword like a cane.

The dragon would finally taste fresh air, breaking free from a horrid mess of orc, and breaking into the air. His white clothes stained with the innards and outers of his fallen and bypassed foes.

Hehehe...

The swashbucklers left and right hand shook on the hilt of the rapier holding the MAN up in a slouched position. Globs of blood covering the left side of his face from a scar rising way up through his hat from the cleft in his skull. By nothing more than sheer luck had he managed to stay alive. And he was settling in for his last moments when Ryugi came soaring in, bowling into him over him and under him through the cabin door.

He came at what had to be the very last second, as a myriad of axe chops just struck the floor in his wake, barely missing his feet by a mere inch.

Much to his surprise he would find that the door, was more of a flap of dirty stained cloth and so the brunt of his force was instead put on the stairs, crushing a whole through then, and down another floor to the cabin level below. As orcs are not good on construction, the stairs were out, and the green foes were slowed by their inability to figure out how to get down without their weight ruining the ship. Ryugi would find his fall broken by a set of large "bed". The "bed" in this case being a stink filled pile of unwashed, animal skins simply ripped from carcasses and tossed in a pile. And across from the bed, across the length of the ship was a single orc. The orc was a single chest, with bluish green arcana spilling from it staining the wood around it.

The chest itself almost seemed alive, bubbling with life, jumping in all directions and spitting off magic like a gushing faucet.

T-take it...kid...

The swashbuckler said, a raspy scratch to his heroic voice, working his way to his feet just barely, placing all his weight on his sword turned cane. Someone had to take the treasure. Ryugi earned it.

He lifted, his hand as if he was about to say something. When something or someone cut him off.

GRAAG SMAAAAASH!

The sound of a brilliant orc diving off the broken stairs with his giant battle axe held over head and careening down. Without a pause the MAN dove forward, rolling feet over head until he was just about beside Ryugi, and shuffling to his feet as the orc crashed into the bed and clean through and well...right out of the bottom of the ship!

As the orc went downwards he vanished, and up came a powerful geyser of water. The ship as a whole shook, and almost immediately the water rose to knee level and the chest was set sailing toward the hole to be gone...perhaps just as the orcs had vanished.

The dark clad swashbuckler reached for it, three pops escaping his back as he fell into the water missing his mark entirely, catching himself again on his rapier, and shouting at the top of his lungs.

Grab the treasure kid!

The voice echoed into the darkness. Ryugi was waist deep in water. His voice echoed into the darkness of the night. The boat was gone. The chest was gone. Though the stink and stains over his clothes still remained, the rest was gone like it was never there.

If he stood up and looked ahead of himself he would see the dock wasnt even destroyed. Was it all in his head? Was it all a dream? Just when confusion threatened to overtake him, an all too familiar voice filled the air cackling in a most elderly fashion.

Hehehhehehahaa...

Behind Ryugi, standing on top of the water stood an all too familiar old man. His long white hair tossed forward around his face, his hat in his hands revealing the long scar that fell from the top of his head past his face and through his left eye. And at this angle Ryugi would be able to see the slit in his hat where it had been shoddily repaired with some thread.

The old man was wearing the same clothes as earlier, a dark coat, a black shirt, leather boots...and a cane where a rapier once was.

Fifty derned years...

He said, with an aged smile from his perch atop the water.

Fifty derned years I've had to relive that dawgonned night. Always wif the same cuts, bruises. And I don' never got that treasure.

He plopped his hat back atop his head.

But I godit now.

He cackled out loud.

...I godit now. And now I'm free.

He his left hand dug around in his pocket for a moment pulling out a small coin a pair of dice engraved in white on its surface, and a effigy of a face on the other side. And with his arthritic thumb he flicked it to the waterlogged Ryugi.

Take it kid...ya did good.

He reached his cane down, patting it against Ryugi's arms.

I gess yer a real man after all...good luck!

And he cackled as he turned around to walk off, his visage fading and finally vanishing, leaving only the sheet of paper floating in the water marked "Watch Duty", floating in the sea water one could see the date on the bottom marked at exactly 50 years ago with a side tab. "In fond memory of Captain Azak - A Real Man." There was no way that text was there before...was there?


[Watch Duty - Complete!]

((A few days after the incident at the docks...))

Ryugi Kazamaru was once more walking along around the section of Latent with the message board. It had been a few days since his last mission, and as the restless adventurer he was, he found it hard to simply stay inside and sit. He visited the message board once again, and this time picked up another job inside Latent.

The Strange Creature
Apparently there is some strange creature plaguing the fisherman of the town, eliminate the problem in any way possible...(Latent Docks)

This mission would probably prove to be a little more frustrating that his last, but at least he was out and about. He made his way down to the Latent Docks once more, and then moved towards the area where the fishermen liked to congregate.

Ryugi came upon them and listened to them chat for a bit, before speaking up himself.

Either way, it sounds like you guys have something causing a disturbance out here. Has anyone seen it?

Ryugi blinked and stepped back a few steps after the explosion of "information" from the men.

Um...thank you gentlemen. I'll come back around nightfall...

Ryugi then went off to wait someplace until dusk. It sure seemed like alot of these requests went on at night.

Fate it seems, would have it that the two adventurer's arrived in cue with each other. Wether they're searches of the dock lead to discovery of each other was entirely in their hands, though it was safe to say that in the dead of night no one else was here on these shakey planks of wood looking for monsterous creatures.

There were no real sights to be seen for either of the adventurer's. The dock was just that, a dock, with creaky boards, smelly waters and raggedy nets haphazardly tosses across ships and boxes. The area smelled vaguely of booze and strongly of fishy matter.

Both the Dragon Knight and the young lady would be able to bear undeniable witness to nothing.

The search would feel as though it had come up empty. Until the sound. It was what you might hear if a flock of thousands birds attempted to chirp deep water. It had a melody to it, and yet it was both mixed and drowned out by a wet gargling. Needless to say it was not the sort of noise one would be accustomed to hearing, and likely came from a "mysterious creature" of some sort. And by the sound of things, a creature at the farthest end of the dock, beneath the planks.

If the two adventurers hadnt met yet, they surely would now.