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The Mountain Hike
Chapter 1

"KEEEHEHEHEHE! This town's ours for the taking, boys!"

The barechested man in the middle of the town square squealed in joy over the hostile takeover. They met with little resistance from the villagers, and only one man stood up to them. But he was no match for the combined might of Mogrin and his boys! And what a catch, the leader of Cloak, Lance Dartel, got captured! The bandit's afro swayed as he turned around violently, facing his defeated foe. "Not even this scrawny brawler could take us on!"

"Kuh...! Even to me, the great Lance Dartel, these bandits proved too much, their numbers were too great! If only I was stronger...! I'm sorry, Angela, Jennifer...!"

"Well, too late! We own this town now, we can do what we want! KEEEEHEHEHEHE!"

As if on cue, a loud neigh was heard from the hills leading down to the village. "W-what! What was that!?" the leader yelled out, as all the bandits turned to face the sound.

A white steed rearing at the top, the sun shadowing the figure, leaving the light surrounding his head like a halo. The rider then charged down, thundering as he approached the buildings. "Stop him, boys! Show him what happens when you mess with Mogrin's Lads!"

The bandits cried out as they ran at the mysterious rider. But to no avail, as he easily bested the first four bandits that approached with his axe. Slightly discouraged, they still managed to surround him, nervous grins from emanating their faces. "Not so tough now, are ya, ya blue-haired tweed!"
Their words did little to faze him. Gracefully, he stood up on the horse's back and somersaulted over the bandit crew, who could do little but stand in awe as the soared above their heads. Mogrin, their leader, growled at their incompetence. "It's only one man! Guess I'll have to deal with it myself! HAAAAAH!"
The leader charged at the man, engaging in close combat, exchanging a few blows, before he was swiftly disarmed. The bandit had no time to react before he was struck across his abdomen. As he knelt and blood sputtered from his mouth, he looked up to the man that had beat him. "Who...are...you?" he said, life leaving his body. The blue haired man pulled his hand through his hair before answering. "I'm just a blacksmith."

The leader toppled over lifeless, and all the bandits scattered in all directions. The townspeople came up to congratulate him. The Cloak leader came up as well. "You sure saved us all, Enailios. I think you would do a better job to lead us than me. So from now on, you're the leader of Cloak!"

"And don't forget us!" two feminine voices said, as two beautiful women approached him from each side. "We are ever grateful, let us repay you..."

As the women started to take off his vestments, the blacksmith's smile widened as he was groped all over."Ohohohoho!" he chuckled naughtily. "Mmm, Enailios..." they moaned as more and more pieces of clothing was removed.

Yes...say my name.

"Oh, Enailios..."

Mm yes, just like that.

"Enailios..."

Almost...almost there!

"Enailios." A surprisingly manly voice suddenly spoke to him.

What the fu--

"Wake up, you idiot. You've dozed off."

Now wide awake, the blacksmith looked around him. He was no longer in a village surrounded by women infatuated by him. No longer was he the hero of Unnamed Village, or newly appointed leader of Cloak. He was now...

"Enailios. Come on, you're letting me do all the work. This is a two-man job."

Enailios turned to face his partner. His red, spiky hair ruffled slightly at the wind, his crimson eyes staring intently at him. The blacksmith shot back up as he grabbed Derrin around his collar. "You b*****d! What did you do to them?! Give me back my Jennifer! My Angela...!" he cried as the tears still left from his drowsy wakening lingered in his eyes.

"What the hell are you talking about?! Get away from me, you creep!"

"B-but, the bandits...!"

"Snap out of it! I don't know what the hell you dreamt, but back to the present with you! Remember where we are?"

Enailios blinked. He looked around him to take in the surroundings.

Trees.

A small stream.

Laughter of children.

"...oooooh yeah. We're on that Cloak mission where we have to watch over childr--gackt!"

The blacksmith didn't get to finish his sentence before he was flash-mobbed by several children, clinging to him and laughing as he tried to stand up. His voice became muffled as he tried yelling at them. "GRRRAAAAAGH!" he finally roared, as he threw his arms in the air, some children getting knocked away, the others running away in an instant laughing loudly as they went. "Tag! You're it!" a particularily bold boy said, before he left Enailios presence with due haste. "Oh, you're all going down!"

As the blacksmith set off to catch every child in the vicinity, Derrin sat down at the trunk that Enailios just left, and sighed as he was relieved from the mob of children. It was one thing to climb a mountain, but to then get assaulted by younglings really took a toll on you, especially if your partner fell asleep to leave you alone with them. "It's less of a mission and more like a chore. Really, is this what the life as a mercenary would be like?" Derrin turned his face skywards, observing the clouds. It was indeed a strange mission they had been given. The Sunshine Orphanage in Eyris was short on hands for the day's hiking trip, and needed a few helpers to take care of the children. They had arrived at the campsite they were going to spend the night at The children had lost their parents in all the fighting that had happened recently, and they ranged in pretty much all ages. The older children mostly sat in groups, talking about nothing in particular while they laughed and giggled (Derrin figured it was teenage stuff), while the younger kids were playing tag, or in this case, getting chased by a blacksmith, teasing him as they ran across the clearing. Aside from a pair of children that sat alone talking quietly amongst themselves, everyone were really loud. It made Derrin's head hurt.

"Hey," a female voice said. "Good work so far. Have some water."

Derrin turned to face the woman. The brown-haired, slim woman was Emma, was the headmistress of the orphanage, and also the one that hired them for the job. She was in her early thirties, with a kind face but hard eyes. Pretty, yet plain. She's no Blossom, that's for sure. Derrin rebuked himself for comparing two different women based on their looks. He nodded back to her, and she poured water up in a cup and handed it to him. "How are you finding the job?"

Derrin tried smiling politely, but since such an action was rare for him, his face must've looked funny. "Almost makes me wish I was fighting bandits." He joked as he took a sip from his cup. Emma chuckled at him. "They're not too bad...considering what they've gone through. Losing your parents is hard, no matter the circumstances." She smiled lightly, but her tone was cold. She probably had to say that a lot, or it's one of those things one just gets accustomed to when having her job. Derrin couldn't say anything back to her, and they were quiet for a few moments. By now, the kids had pulled down Enailios trousers, and he was hopping around as he chased them. Emma laughed at the sight, much to the blacksmith's discomfort. "He's pretty good with children, isn't he?"

"More like he's an idiot on their level."

She giggled, even though he wasn't trying to be funny. This annoyed him to the point that he had to ask a question that had lingered on his mind for a while now. "There's something I don't understand. None of us are really babysitters. We're not exactly the most child-friendly profession, after all...why did you hire us?"

"I thought Cloak took on any sort of job?"

"That's true, but..."

"Besides, we're in the mountains, after all. You never know if there are animals, even if the odds are low of any animal attack. Add in that after the attack on the capital, people are strained everywhere...I was lucky I could get you to help me out!"

Derrin clicked his tongue silently. It's not really that she didn't bring up a fair point, but...babysitting orphans felt like it was beneath him. Maybe not for his partner, but Derrin was a mage for crying out loud! He was more suited for electrocuting kids than taking care of them!

...not that he'd say that out loud, but still.

"DERRIN!"

The mage turned to his partner, who was panting heavily, with several children clinging to each of his limbs, completely restricting his movement, and making him look silly at that.

"...TAG OUT."

"No."

Before he could object, Enailios collapsed from the added weight, ending up in a heap on the ground together with all the children. Even Derrin had a hard time muffling a laugh at the poor blacksmith.

The laughter, however, suddenly changed into heavy silence.

The clanking of armor and weapons resounded in the area, as a troupe of heavily armed men entered the clearing. The children stared quietly at the men as they filled the glade, with the foremost ones looking the most menacing of all of them. All wearing similar, dark red clothing, they all had one key equipment featured on all of them; a small crossbow mounted at their wrists. Other than that, everyone had varying armor and weapons, and all were of various heights and build. Derrin apologized mentally to the one woman in the group for mistaking her for a man. Her dark, purple hair covered one side of her almost white, pierced face, with almost black lips contrasting with the rest. She had, in Derrin's own taste, way too much eyeshadow as well.

As the mob approached, one figure in particular stood out, as he lead his troupe of twelve or so. A tall, muscular man with his brown hair slicked backwards, with a scruffy goattee and a scarred body. He moved forward calmly, approaching the three adults. His eyes inspected the three of them.

"Um..." Enailios began, as he varily laid a hand on his axe hanging from his belt, "Who are you? Do you need help?"

The scarred man smiled awkwardly, as he raised his hand into a friendly wave. "Oh, sorry, where are my manners? Hi! My name is Alvarro. These are my two lieutenants, Calder." he started merrily, mentioning towards a somewhat petite man to his left, who had a tired expression on his face, who averted his gaze, looking into the distance. His long hair moved in the wind and left it fairly messy, but it seemed like he had his thoughts somewhere else. "And this is Ice. Just Ice. Say hello Ice."

"Hello, ******** somewhere in the back there is our Sergeant, Warner, but he's not very important now. " A hand awkwardly stretched upwards, before defeatingly lowering again. "I'm the leader of this band of mercenaries, and we call ourselves The Firm."

The man's cheery demeanour put Derrin off, who felt the air being heavy with passive hostility. He couldn't quite place why, though...

"And I should probably mention..." Alvarro started again, this time with a more serious tone. "You're all now our hostages."

Oh. Bollocks.



This here's the very first chapter starring the members of Cloak as the protagonists. There stories are written for the sake of establishing what Cloak's every day life could be like. The stories that are written will be canonized, although not in chronological order. Characters taking part these stories are my own interpretation of other people's characters, and it may or may not be what the character is like.

Now, it won't just be Cloak making appearances. Sometimes, other people might appear as well, so if you're reading this and feel like you'd like to be part of it somehow, just say what character you'd love to pop up somewhere, and I'll do my best to accomodate.

The chapters will be released as I finish them, so feel free to give feedback in any way you want. :3

"Huff...huff..."

The panting interchanged between the trio as they made their way through the woods. It was double exhausting as they had to make sure the orphans was in front of them constantly, as they couldn't keep the same pace as them. The twenty children were doing their best to run, but some of them were still too young to really run fast. Derrin looked over his shoulder, seeing their pursuers still some ways behind them, but they were catching up to them since they could move more swiftly.

"This...isn't working..."

Both Emma and Enailios looked back. "They're gaining on us...we need to do something!" Emma interjected."

"Our leader...Lance...he told us to split up in two groups, since we had reinforcements on our way. We probably have two groups coming to help us from two different directions, in a pincer move. If we split up, we can increase mobility." The blacksmith managed to get out inbetween gasps for air. Derrin nodded in approval. "I agree, our pursuers have to split up as well, so it decreases the risk for our backup once we meet up with them."

Emma turned around quickly to deflect a crossbow bolt, before rejoining Derrin and Enailios. "But how will your companions find you if we split up like this? The woods and the mountains are fairly large..."

Derrin took out his Cloak badge. The octagon-shaped, small emblem had an upwards arrow-shaped symbol carved into it. It was glowing faintly, fading and growing in intensity in small bursts. "This is how I called for backup. It sends out a signal to other Cloak members, and it can be used the other way around to find the emblem sending out the distress signal too. If we split up, Enailios and I split up with the children and one other direction seperately. That way, the groups can search for two different emblems respectively."

Emma raised an eyebrow, not fully comprehending, but she didn't voice any objection. "Okay. I'll go with one of you with Lady Adrian, and the other goes with the orphans. They're more likely to follow the smaller group, since their target is Adrian, not the orphans."

It wasn't a foolproof plan, but it was all they could go on for the moment. Derrin was still unarmed, and since they couldn't be sure about how many their pursuers were, priority should be placed on protecting Adrian, since she was the main target. The one going with the majority of the children would be more of a decoy, but would still need to be able to take care of themselves. Derrin figured Enailios would have to go alone, since he actually recovered something from his possessions, whereas Derrin could do little except provide a distraction.

Derrin and the blacksmith's eyes met, and they nodded to eachother in agreement. Emma spoke quickly to the orphans as they kept on running. "Children, I will try to lead the bad men away from you! All of you stay together, and don't run off on your own! Take care of eachother, one of these nice boys will keep you safe!" The orphans didn't bother replying, so Derrin just hoped they had compehended the information. The group ran for a few more steps, before Derrin gave the signal. "NOW!"

At his yell, everyone split up into two groups. Emma, still carrying Adrian, started running in a deviated path, followed by Derrin. And Enailios.

...wait.

It took him a few moments to realize, but Derrin's eyes widened. "WHY ARE YOU COMING THIS WAY?!" he blurted out in the blacksmith's direction.

Enailios stared in disbelief back. "I could ask the same thing!"

"I'm not even armed! Why would I go alone with the orphans, I can't protect them!"

"What?! I thought you were! I know I'm not! Besides, I'm still carrying that boy, I can't protect them!"

"WHAT?! I thought you grabbed a weapon when we escaped the clearing!"

"N-no! I didn't!"

"Then what the ******** did you grab then?!"

"I couldn't find my axe, so I just grabbed--"

Before their argument could continue, Emma interjected. "Not to be rude, but why are the two of you following me still?! It's not important who messed up where, but the rest of the children are without a guardian! Both of you, double-back to them! I'll be fine on my own!"

As usual, the wisdom of a woman being necessary to bring an argument to a halt, Derrin and Enailios both clicked their tongues as they quickly turned to the right again, doing their best to catch up to the larger group of orphans.

All the while, no one had bothered to remember in the confusion to leave a badge with Emma.



Thankfully, after that embarassing display, Emma could actually pick up her speed, now that she wasn't getting dragged down by the buffoons anymore. Were all of the Cloak agents incompetent like that?

Probably not. She had seen that lone man recover Adrian and save all of them on his own. She did wonder what sort of man he was, considering he went up alone against one of the most feared mercenary groups on the continent. It wasn't important, though. What was, however, to get her mistress out of harm's way. The problem was the orphans...but if the idiots did their job properly, then at least the children would get away, since the two of them should be able to distract their pursuers long enough for them to get out of sight, or the reinforcement arrived at first. If lucky enough, maybe she wouldn't have to pay her sellswords if they ended up biting the dust.

She took a look down at the child in her arms. She was desperately clutching her chest, breathing erratically with her eyes closed. Had she lost consciousness? "Milady, are you alright?"

"I'm...scared..."

Her reply eased her mind a little, if only that Adrian still was aware of what was going on. "Don't worry, milady, I'll protect you, I sw--"

A sudden collision to her backside made her yelp out in pain, as Emma lost her balance and toppled forward. Impossible! Someone actually chased her down!

Doing her utmost to turn in midair to protect Adrian from the fall, the little girl yelled in panic as they hit the ground, sliding across the rocks and mud before coming to a stop. Emma groaned as she let go of Adrian and stood up, drawing her sword in the same motion. She ended up face to face with the grim looking woman from earlier, whose strange haircut made her focus on her one visible eye. "W-what? How did you catch up?!" she asked in surprise. She was certain she managed to pick up the pace as she left the larger group, so if anything, she should've increased the distance between her and the pursuers. Ice merely snorted before laughing condescendingly. "It was easy, once I could ditch my 'partners'. They were dragging me down, so it was only a matter of time before I'd catch up to you. Really, splitting up, such a dumb move."

So she was essentially the same as her then. Without turning around, not letting the goth woman out of her sights, she adressed Adrian. "Milady...please keep on moving."

"But...what about...you? I can't...leave you behind!"

"I'll be fine, I'll get to you as soon as possible. But if you stay here, you'll be in danger. Please go."

Adrian reluctantly nodded, before turning around and moving beyond the trees.

"Aren't you overestimating yourself, Black Rose...?" Ice said coldly, her face devoid of any pleasant emotion.

"Hmph. You've heard the stories about me, haven't you? I think it's you..." Emma started, before lunging forward with her sword raised, "who's overestimating herself!"

Before she had the time to react to it, her opponent had drawn a large mace, larger than the woman herself, from a sheath at her back and swinging it over head, easily blocking Emma's slash. "Not bad."

"This is child's play. I hope you have more than this." Ice replied, as she kicked Emma back, creating distance between them again. True enough, her large weapon would be ineffective at close range, considering the enormous strength and width one needed for it to do any damage. "I have heard stories about you, Black Rose, but...they don't impress me."

"Is that so? And why's that?"

Ice pulled her mace back into a different stance, her mace resting against the ground with her hands firmly holding the handle. "Because the stories about me are much scarier." With a battlecry, she woman charged forward, swinging her mace from the side violently. Emma brought her sword up to parry, and the impact made her stagger to the side and almost drop her weapon. Sparks flew as the two kept on extending blows with eachother.

"What sort of stories? Should I know about them?" Emma asked, this time trying to stab forward. She was shocked as Ice stopped her attack by just grabbing the sword by the edges, cutting up her hand in the process. She merely shrugged it off, and jerked the sword out of Emma's grasp, chucking it to the side before trying to bash with her own weapon. Emma threw herself to the side, narrowly avoiding it, while picking up her sword again in the process, rolling as she stood back up. Ice started smirking disturbingly, before letting the blood from her palm drip into her mouth. "Maybe you've heard of my stage name..."

"The Blood Artist."

Emma's eyes shot open. The Blood Artist was infamous all over Estarcia. "You?! The Blood Artist is a sinister serial killer! All of the victims are women found propped up against a wall, dismembered at the knees, elbows, as well as the head, making identification difficult...not only that, but they've been raped prior to death...to think it was a woman!"

"Eugh, don't bring up the maiming part. I don't want to be related by that fact. It's so...weird."

"W-what? But you said..."

"I have no part in that sick...stuff. I only make sure the girls...enjoy themselves to the fullest, before my partner finishes them off."

Emma felt her stomach turn. "You rape them? And then let...someone else kill them?"

"Don't remind me, ew. Such a twisted man. No wonder he has no friends in our group. Painting pictures in women's blood on walls tend to make one an outcast."

Emma gritted her teeth. That meant that The Blood Artist was a two-person team...and that the other killer was in their vicinity as well. "You're just as bad as he is, you monster!"

"Monster?! I'll tell you who the real monsters are! The authority who watches as a little girl gets made into daddy's little plaything! Who watches in joy as he repeatedly defiles her in pleasure! Who joins in for the scraps! They're the real monsters...and I let them all have it! And everyone else will get to feel what it is like as well!"

Ice charged at her again, this time with more ferocious swings than before. The blood had colored her mouth, making her take on an even more sinister appearance than before. Emma persevered, regardless, and the two of them ended up with their weapons locked with eachother. "This is no longer about merely protecting my mistress! I'll take you down, and I'll take down whoever's teamed up with you!" Ice finally pushed her away with her abnormal strength, spinning her weapon around and moving in again with increased momentum. "This is why I said you shouldn't overestimate yourself, Black Rose...!" The mace was coming in with a much more increased velocity. Not good. She had to get her block up again...

Her sword snapped at the hilt as the two weapons made contact. The blade was flung away, and Emma struggled to keep her balance.

"Rock will always beat scissors." she said before swinging her weapon again.

Crack.

At first, Emma didn't even feel any pain. But after she realized what had made that threatening sound, she screamed out as her knee got crushed by the goth woman's weapon. She collapsed onto the ground, as tears started flooding out. It didn't take long for everything to go black as she drifted into unconsciousness.



Her eyes finally opened again, as she was groggily made aware of her surroundings again. She didn't know how long she was knocked out, but when she tried to move, she could feel herself unable to, as her arms and legs had been pinned up against a tree. She struggled a bit, but the pain in her knee made her gasp out in pain.

"Good, finally awake. Couldn't start until you were."

Huh?

Emma turned her head forward, facing the insane woman again. The sight was bizarre; she was standing there with a weird contraption between her hips that looked like some sort of girdle over her pants, with a slot at her groin, holding a metal rod in her one hand. "What the hell is that?!" she yelled, staring in shock.

"This? This is my...tool, you could say. Oh, don't you worry, it might hurt at first, but I'll make sure you feel real good eventually. I could care less about the kid, we can catch up to her later, she's weak and sickly after all."

"You've GOT to be kidding me! Are you seriously going to fulfill your disgusting fetish here and now?! Release me!"

Ice merely smirked, as she licked the rod side to side, moaning while doing it. "Oh, you have no idea how that reluctant attitude is just making me, mmmhm! Hotter!"

Finally, she brought it down to her groin, and inserted the rod into the slot. She closed her eyes as she moaned again in pleasure before bending down and picking up Emma's broken sword. She started cutting up Emma's trousers, making a convenient hole at her waist. "It's that reason why I don't gag girls when I do this...I like to hear them scream!"

Emma tried screaming out, but the fear finally hit her, and she couldn't manage even one sound.

"Like I said, don't you worry, I'll make sure you feel good...after a while. Now hold still...oh wait. You don't have a choice."

Emma's head went blank as she tried comprehending what was happening. She was knocked back into reality, when she heard a quiet cry. "Don't...hurt...Emma!"

Adrian, wielding a large branch, started hitting Ice over the back of her head. It was obviously not doing anything, but she still kept on bumping her. "Milady! Why did you come back!"

Adrian was still hitting Ice with her eyes closed, shaking her head furiously. "No one...hurts...my friend...you're like...my mother!"

Tears welled up in Emma's eyes, but it was soon turned to terror as Ice finally had enough. "You little brat!" she yelled as she kicked Adrian in the stomach, sending her flying. The air knocked out of her lungs, she landed in the moss, and stayed down as she whimpered in pain. "It does save me the hassle of finding you, so thanks, you little snot-nosed punk! But no one interrupts my hobby like this! NO ONE!"

Adrian tried getting up, but was met by Ice grabbing hold of her neck and throwing her down on the ground again. Emma was blinded by rage. "Don't lay one hand on Lady Adrian!"

Suddenly, a light seemed to have sprung in the psycho's head, as her smile went from ear to ear. "Actually, what a great idea! It's been a while since I had a small one!"

Emma's eyes widened as Ice moved closer to her mistress, who also seemed to have realized what was going to happen. She started crawling backwards, before her back hit a boulder. There was no more escape. Tears flowed down both Emma's and Adrian's faces as Ice stood before the girl, her hand reaching out. In desperation, the child shrieked out. "MISTER!"

Mister, one would've assumed was adressed at the man who had rescued her earlier. In a metaphorical sense, he approached fairly quickly.

A javelin flew past Ice's face, missing by a hair. Getting over the initial surprise, Ice jumped backwards, as she quickly brandished her mace again. "What the ********?! Who the hell are you?!"

A new figure approached the three of them, armor softly clanking in his movement, a white cloak flowing in the wind.

"I'm but a man with a lance." The cyan-haired lancer spoke, walking towards them with his weapon drawn.



After they had split up, Calder and Alvarro had moved together, running after the larger group. Ice was more than enough to chase down the Black Rose, after all, so the two of them could focus on more people. Idiots. Splitting up and thinking they would focus more on the smaller group. They were clearly underestimating their prowess. It annoyed him how they thought they stood a chance against them like that. But the two they were following? Fools, both of them. They probably had the least chance of all of them.

Despite his size, Alvarro was faster than Calder, but mostly because he usually didn't move much. Apart from his adventures with Ice, Calder was usually alone, mostly painting pictures loved by all. But those pictures wasn't the ones he wanted to make, oh no. The figures he made as his paintbrush bathed in the blood of their victims filled him with such pride. He would move as if possessed whenever he deep red color surrounded him. He would laugh and giggle as he proceeded with his art...

His body shuddered when he started thinking about it. He smiled to himself. So many subjects he could use for the color! All the children, the adults, all of them...!

His thoughts went interrupted, when in front of him, a white flash crashed from above, knocking Alvarro over and starting to wrestle him on the ground. Who'd be insane enough to attack a giant like Alvarro? Calder shrugged the thought away. It didn't matter.

"CALDER!" His boss screamed at him.

He raised his arm and shot a bolt from his wrist crossbow, aiming at the white mess in front of him. Whoever it was, it must've realized he had aimed, because it left Alvarro alone quickly, disappearing behind a tree before his arrow could hit. His leader staggered to his feet as he drew his battle axe. "Don't worry, boss! You keep on moving! I'll take care of this insect!"

Alvarro nodded back in agreement, as he took up the pursuit again. Calder took out his Elfire tome, readying a spell. "Come out, b***h! I've got an inferno waiting for you!"

A female laugh caught him off-guard as it echoed around them. A woman? Wrestling Alvarro? He was dealing with someone more unhinged than Ice. "Inferno, you say? Perfect. Come at me, bro."

The voice appeared from the side, as Calder quicky shot off an Elfire in the direction. He'd burn down the whole forest if he had to!

Of course, his spell never had the chance to hit anything, as it was absorbed into a dark hole. Puzzled for a moment, Calder quickly regretted not bothering to appraise his opponent. As he looked downwards, he could see a shadowy substance materializing at his feet.

Oh s**t.

He quickly jumped back, narrowly escaping a Flux spell. He quickly reloaded his crossbow as he scanned his surroundings. Except he didn't have to, as the woman slowly walked out in front of him, smirking at him. "The Blood Artist, I presume?"

He smiled weakly back at the purple-haired woman. "My reputation precedes me. Are you an admirer? Shall I tell you about my ultimate art?"

Her eyes stared back at him crazily. "I could care less about your art or your fart or whatever! I'm here for your bounty, c**t!"

Oh.

"Hah! That's funny! And how are you going to do that?" he said, as he changed his Elfire tome with a Light tome. He hadn't had as much training with Light spells, but he mostly just needed it to fight this dark user until he had worn her down enough to burn her instead! She must've been wetting herself in fear over seeing a tome that could easily trump--

"By annihilating you!"

Huh?

She charged at him, not caring a second about his new tome, as she unleashed a new Flux in his direction. He spit on the ground as he avoided it again. This might entertain him more than he thought. "Splendid! Not even a hint of doubt in you! Can I have your name, so I can rememb--"

Not letting him finish again, he once more jumped to the side to avoid the spell.

"I'm Iris, b***h, and you won't be alive long enough to remember it!"

Calder couldn't even get a monologue with her! She kept on attacking as he tried talking to her!

...what an annoying woman! Were all of the Cloak members like this?!

He had no more time to ponder the thought, as their duel continued.