Chapter 5: the Lokiri
|two days later|
Garret, Talon and Xu are on the wall, sparring with Talon and Garret armed with their swords while Xu's getting used to using gauntlets to fight again.
"I have to say I'm surprised the both of you asked me to spar with you. I mean I was trained by the Orders finest." Garret tells them with Talon facing him and Xu doing pullups on a cross bar in the walkway, since 1v1 are the only option due to the small area they use.
"Oh really, fancy." She replies while Garret takes off his shirt.
"You know there are only a handful of men alive with my level of training." He says, readying himself.
"How about women?" She asks smirking mischievously and crosses swords with him, each parrying blow by blow but Talon has the upper hand when she kicks him in his chest after parrying one of his strikes.
"That stance is old neugerian. Is that where you trained?" He asks Talon who is in a sideway stance with her knees bend and her sword resting on one arm.
"Keep guessing." She tells him and he moves to attack.
Talon blocks the first swing and steps to the side, blocking the second one, after that she dodges the next couple of swings by ducking under Garret's blade or stepping aside until Garret manages to force her against a railing their swords clashed against each other with both trying to overpower the other. Talon steps to the side, making Garret lose balance and she raises her sword in a backhand grip to his throat.
"Ohh, nice move. Though very unorthodox." Garret compliments her.
"Alright someone switch with me, or the both of you can face me simultaneously, afterall I'm using double the amount of weapons." Xu tells them, dropping down from the beam and crackling his hands while putting on his new gloves.
"Getting cocky aren't we?" Garret asks him with a smirk.
"Why not?" Xu only replies grinning back.
"Alright you're on. I still have yet to see how you fight big guy." She agrees.
"Come at me then." Xu tells them, getting in a wide stance with his knees bend.
Garret is the first to charge at Xu and tries to slash downwards at him, only for Xu to grab the offending weapon with one hand, holding it in place for a second, giving the captain a victorious smirk when he turns the weapon so Garret's holding it sideways and gives it a strong tug, making Garret lose grip on his weapon.
"Again." Xu tells him, holding out the weapon for him.
This time Talon and Garret both start to attack him, Garret still attacking at high angles while Talon aims for his legs and midsection. Xu blocks the captains swings with the back of his hands and barely manages to dodge the first two strikes from Talon by backing up a bit.
Garret and Talon stop to look at one another and nod their heads, signaling that they'll attack simultaneously, and they charge at Xu, who crouches down a bit, readying himself. When Talon is almost face to face with him and the captain is standing next to her, still attacking at the same level as before Xu jumps up, right at Garret, grabbing the captains face and pulling it to the ground behind him, stopping halfway down though since he doesn't want to hurt him and simply releases his hold on his head, making the captain fall on his back with a cough.
"Impressive, try to catch me though." Talon tells him, getting low again since Xu's height gives him a disadvantage for this.
"Come on then." Xu nods at her.
Talon takes two steps while crouched and slashes at his leg, Xu steps back with the leg and Talon uses her momentum to jump up, against the railing and jumping at Xu from that point, hitting him in his chest with a knee.
"Very good." Xu says, readying himself again.
Talon again tries to attack him low and Xu this time steps into the attack, pushing against the sword holding arm with his foot, pushing it away from him and then leans forward, puhsing her down with his right forearm over her neck and his left leg still pinning the sword arm to the floor.
Talon grunts at the impact and tries to use her legs to choke him, raising them around his neck from behind, but Xu only smirks at her and uses his free hand to push down on her feet, causing her legs to lose their hold on his neck.
She frowns at her defeat and fakes a whimper, pretending to be hurt, making Xu release his hold on her immediately, sitting up beside her to check her for injuries, only for Talon to kick out his legs and roll herself on top of him, sitting down on his upper chest with her legs wrapping around his arms to keep them in place.
"You shouldn't believe every reaction in a fight." She tells him, grinning down at him victoriously.
"I thought this was only a spar." He replies with a grin of his own.
"I still won." She says triumphantly.
"Are you sure about that?" He asks and simply sits up, his arms still pinned at his sides with Talon hanging from his neck, sliding down his arms a bit and now is wrapped around his ribs instead while trying to push the man back down with her hands, only for him to get on his knees and lean forward, trying to fall as slowly as possible since Talon will take most of the impact and he manages to hold his hands out so he's basically in a knee-pushup position with his hands very far back and Talon wrapped around his torso.
"Last chance to yield." He tells her, their faces only millimeters apart.
"Never she says determined and he is about to pull his hands away and slam her into the floor with his weight on her when Garret clears his throat, saying "Gwynn."
The two, having forgotten that they're not alone during the heat of battle, look up to their other sparring partner, who's holding his back which is reddening from his fall.
They then follow his line of sight and see Lady Calcusar looking at them with poorly hidden mirth.
Xu gets up with some difficulty and Talon releases her hold on him, dropping down to the floor and standing pressed against him.
"A draw?" She offers.
"Sure why not." He agrees, slightly uncomfortable at being so close to her with an audience.
"Gwyn uhm we were just sparring." Garret tells the blonde who makes her way over to the three.
"Oh, Talon I've been looking for you all over." Gwynn tells Talon, simply running her hand over Garrets wordlessly as she walks past him to Talon and Xu.
"And who are you?" Gwynn asks Xu, not having been formally introduced to the man towering over them.
"I'm Xu. You must be Lady Calcusar. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." He says formally, bowing his head slightly.
"Oh please, call me Gwynn, any friend of Talons is a friend of mine." She says and Xu looks at Talon with interest to see if she'll deny that they're friends yet again, but she keeps quiet.
"Well anyways I'm bored, how about we get into some trouble." Gwynn tells Talon and pulls her away from the two guardsmen.
On the way to the nightshade inn Gwynn says, "Just so you know Garret isn't easily distracted by women, other than me of course. I'm just telling you so you won't mistake his occupational interest in you as anything else."
"Gwynn if you think I'm after Garret let me assure you it's nothing like that. Men just won't believe that I can fight and want to test me." Talon tells her.
"Of course and from what I've seen you have a man of your own already anyways right? Or what's the deal with that Xu?" Gwynn asks her, grinning playfully.
"There is no deal." Talon tells her, continuing on their path.
"Really? From what I've seen the fire between the two of you could've burned down the forest around the outpost." Gwynn tells her with a smirk on her face.
"You must be mistaken." Talon replies.
"I don't think I am, I have a very good sense for these things." Gwynn says.
"Well your sense must be broken, because he and I are barely friends. We're more aquaiteances by necessity." Talon explains.
"A shame, he seems like a good match for you, afterall isn't is exciting to have such a strong man caring for you?" She asks.
"I won't say it isn't. I just don't have any intention of becoming someone's woman simply because they're strong and available." Talon tells her.
After entering the bar Gwynn pays off the bar's owner for a day off for Talon and the two girls start to play octagon against a few strangers. When one of their opponents threatens them with a knife Talon easily takes care of him even in her drunken state.
After she chased away the guy Talon and Gwynn go to Talon's room where they fall asleep instantaneously on her bed. While this is going on across town the marshal is asking Gwynn's former teacher about the girl and hears that Gwynn's room is very private, giving him the idea that he has to look through it. In the prison the Worm is getting tortured by Manny in order to find out who the colipsum supplier is.
|next morning|
"Morning Marshal." Talon grumbles, waking in her bed with Talon's feet in her face which she puts away and sits up afterwards.
"A good morning." Marshal replies.
"No, not really." She grumbles groggily.
"And you Lady Calcusar, my men have been on the lookout for you for quiet some time." The marshal tells her, waking up the blonde in the process.
"Would you care to explain?" Garret asks accusingly, arriving on scene with Xu.
"Explain what?" The two girls ask.
"You ditched your escort and disappeared. I feared you were dead." Garret tells them sternly.
"We had too much to drink, we came here and passed out. Is there something wrong with that?" Talon questions.
"Everything is wrong with that, she could've been attacked and killed." Garret scolds them.
"I was never in any danger, I was with Talon the whole time and apparently she can even best you in a fight, so she's the better protection anyways." Gwynn tells him with both Wythers and Xu snickering quietly.
"Gwynn, come with me! Now!" Garret orders her and she follows him grumpily.
"From now on you stay away from her." Garret tells Talon a final time before leaving with the blonde, leaving a frowning Talon, Wythers with a loaded crossbow and Xu behind.
"You know I was thinking, I could just shoot you now and be done with it." Wythers tells her, focusing his attention on Talon with Xu leaning in the doorframe.
"Why are you even here?" She asks.
"It's a beautiful morning, why don't you open the window and take a look outside." The Marshal tells her.
"Go on act surprised, good luck explaining this one." The marshal tells her while she looks outside with Xu also taking a look, standing beside her.
"Who was he?" Talon asks bitterly, looking at a dead man impaled onto a wagon's handle.
"A poultry farmer from the old end of town, that's also where he died, I assume since that is where most of his blood was found. Afterwards he was dragged across town and nailed to your window like a love letter. If I didn't see him on guard tonight myself, I could've sworn that he did it." The marshal tells her, pointing at Xu.
"It wasn't me. I was with Gwynn." Talon defends herself.
"It doesn't matter to me, you see the Gatekeeper, which is me. Decides who gets to stay and who doesn't and no one, even the commander can't interfere with that, so I'm ordering you to get out of my Outpost and never come back." He orders.
"I can't do that." She tells him.
"Oh, you will do that, you will! You have until sundown before I throw you out." He warns her.
"And when the killing continues even after I'm gone?" She asks.
"I'm willing to wager that whatever you brought will leave with you. Now you've got until sundown, I'll be waiting at the gate." The commander tells her and takes his leave.
"So, care to explains what the fuck is going on? We agreed on complete honesty." Xu reminds her, closing the window and door after the marshal left.
"You're right. But it won't matter anyways if I'm being kicked out tonight, I only have this last chance to catch it." Talon says.
"Catch what?" Xu asks more firmly this time. Standing directly in front of Talon.
"A demon. I summoned a demon and only I can banish him. That is what the smith told me at least." Talon explains angrily.
"A demon? How does that happen?" He asks shocked.
"I didn't know I was summoning a demon, I only read some words the smith gave me and poof there is a foul, scary demon standing in my sleeping quarters." Talon tells him.
"Great, let's say I believe you and I'm trying, what's the plan here? How do we catch it and what do we do then?" Xu asks her.
"According to the smith I can banish it to where it came from, but I haven't seen it since I summoned it." Talon informs him, looking at her hands feeling lost.
"Why does the smith seem to have all the answers?" Xu asks wondering what role he plays.
"Because he does but he doesn't share them with anyone." Talon tells him, annoyed at the smith's riddles herself.
"Great, what now then?" Xu asks her.
"First I need to look around and see if I can find any trail of it." Talon says, getting up and the two head to the market, which is in the middle of the outpost to start looking around from there.
"About time you helped out a little bit." Janzo tells Talon, seeing her arrive with Xu.
"Not right now." Talon says, watching her surroundings focused.
"Last night you left me high and dry it's the least you can do." Janzo tells her, struggling with unloading a barrel.
"Here, let me." Xu says, leaning his axe against the cart and easily picks up the barrel, putting it next to the ones already set on the table.
"Any luck finding that bones tattoo?" Janzo asks her, pulling her aside while Xu unloads his cart.
"It feels like I've checked half the outpost." Talon tells him.
"Same here, either he's already left the outpost, or he keeps his arms covered." Janzo says.
"So you and Lady Calcusar made quite the scene last night." Janzo says.
"Gwynn, yeah we had fun." Talon says with a small smile.
"Captain Garret seemed pretty mad." Janzo says.
"He was." She agrees.
"You know, don't tell anyone but she is madly in love with him." Janzo whispers to her, while Xu is unloading the last barrel.
"Well I'm sure they are perfect for each other." Talon says.
"Who?" Xu asks, joining them and retrieving his axe.
"Gwynn and Garret." Janzo answers.
"Well that'd be great, maybe then he'd shut up about her, granted I think he wanted to convince me to become her personal guard but still it feels like I know more about her than my own mother now." Xu says annoyed.
"He talks about her a lot huh?" Talon asks curious about him.
"Yeah, look you have two fine men here interested in you. So do us a favor and don't ask us of all people about him if you're interested in him. I mean I'll still help you but I'm gonna be in a real sour mood." Xu tells her, giving her a stern look at hearing the girls interest in the matter.
"Two?" Janzo asks, mentally catching up to what is going on.
"Yeah I mean you do like Talon don't you?" Xu asks him.
"Yes…" Janzo says, sounding unsure.
"There you have it, now let's go Talon if we want to stop you from getting thrown out of the castle, we don't have much time." Xu tells her and drags her after him for a change with her looking back at Janzo with a sly smirk, grinning since Xu addressed that both men like her.
"I think you broke Janzo." She tells him, retrieving her arm from Xu and falling in step next to him.
For the rest of the day the two look for clues around town until they finally find something at the entrance to the tunnel network. Meanwhile The captain brings Janzo another corpse and Janzo investigates his lead on the worm's supplier, having noticed the bird excrement on the man's jacket and figures out that he's using pidgeons to communicate with the supplier which results in his mother beheading the crook.
That night Talon and Xu make their way to the tunnel system while the marshal orders his men to start looking for her after she doesn't show up at sundown.
"Where are we going from here?" Xu asks Talon after they both jumped down into the tunnels.
"I don't know yet." She tells him, shining her torch around, with him doing the same in the other direction, armed with his new gauntlets, since his axe is useless down there.
Talon wordlessly starts to lead them down through the tunnels with Xu watching their rear.
When they get to a wide area where multiple tunnels spread from, meaning it must be some sort of central point Talon motions for Xu to stand ready.
"I know you're there. You can't kill anyone else. I won't let you." Talon says into the empty room.
"That's right, hide. You know what I am." Talon says hanging her torch onto a wall and going into a tunnel branch. When she is in the tunnel the demon suddenly drops down behind her, having been on the ceiling.
"Talon!" Xu shouts, alerting her to the threat and the demon slashes at her with it's one long claw, making her bleed from her neck just a tiny bit.
"I command you, return to your world!" She says breathing heavily, fearing the creature almost twice as tall as her.
The Lokiri however simply hits her with the back of its hand and throws her into another tunnel branch. Upon seeing this Xu immediately storms to her side, helping the girl up who looks at the Lokiri with fear. Xu then looks towards the demon himself, unsettled by the height of his opponent, this being the first time in a decade that he is fighting against someone taller than him, save for the few greyskins the other day. But he still faces it head on, clanking his fists together twice.
"Stop, it will kill you." Talon warns him.
"If you didn't bring me to fight then you shouldn't have brought me at all, there is no way I can stand and watch from the sidelines while the woman I care about is facing her death." Xu tells her sharply, moving so he's directly in front of her and the Lokiri shifts his focus from Talon to him.
"That's right big guy, you're not the only one taller than everyone else." Xu says, grinning nervously.
The Lokiri rears its arm back wide, intending to slice him apart with its long claw but Xu raises both his arms to the side, blocking the swing without flinching.
The Lokiri lets out an annoyed growl and adds his other arm, making Xu block that attack, removing one arm from the other claw and stand in between the two claws.
He takes a deep breath and pushes back against the claws with all his might, throwing them off him and he crouches low, kicking at the demons leg with a sweep, knocking the big beast over.
"What are you doing? Run!" Talon tells Xu, watching him fight the demon head on like a madman.
"I'm just getting started." Xu tells her, intending to attack the demon now that it's on the ground but instead gets kicked in the chest by the being with enough force to dent his chest armor and send him tumbling back a few steps.
"Fuck." He curses, coughing a few times during which the demon gets back up and approaches him, intend on ending his life but Talon gets in front of Xu, hitting him In the head with the butt of her sword to knock him out.
"Leave!" She yells, glaring at the demon who stares her down unfazed and simply pierces her stomach with one of its long claws before taking its leave while Talon collapses next to Xu losing consciousness once the Lokiri is gone.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone