Explorers Guild of Negav

Chapter one -End of Games-

Nergav. Today. Evening.

A middle-aged man was sitting in a big, darkened room, enlightened just by a couple of red, consumed candles standing firmly on a large and heavy wood desk. The dusty shelfs over the walls around him were filled with any kind of book and scrolls, many so ancient and ruined that the only thought to touch them would have turned their crispy pages into dust and paper shards.

Bottles, vials and glass containers were gleaming from the upper shelfs, reflecting the inane light of the candles below. Many of those were filled with odd and creamy-like liquids, the others with unidentified ingredients and slimy organs.
In a corner, a real collection of artifacts and staves were badly massed in a huge, ancient and dirty pot.

The hands of the man went over his face and took away a pair of old round glasses. He heavily sighed in the silence of the room.
Almost silent. From outside the heavy wooden door mechanic steps and the sound of clattering metal passed over the room.

A letter was laying on the desk, on top of a total mess of open scrolls, and unpayed bill reports.

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"To: Ladimus EhrineJahr, Explorers Guild, Negav division."

"Count me out from the crew, Lad.

" I know this ain't exactly the right moment to leave, but I must confess that something happened... when you sent me to Ascarlin mountains, to check out those rumors about a new religion rising, the anomalies in the weather over the peaks... something really changed in me the day I reached the "cause" of the anomaly.

Oh, yeah. Gulbert (or Albert... can't remember) got eaten. Earth mouths. Next time you better choose better neko assistants for our missions, all he did during the trip was lament and moan. "This is heavy..." "can we have a break..." "I'm outta here..."

Little puny coward.

Oh, sorry for this digression. Let's come back to the real problem.

I've had a mystical experience up there... I know it will sound stupid and senseless to a "science guy" like you. You see a mechanic and fix system even in magic. Not even trying to understand the will that lays behind it all.

Revelations and faith changes, you know, they happen, to us mages.
It touched me so much... that I decided to become a priestess of the cult of Qüetzàl.

I'll be busy going around from village to village, spreading the cult, I'm faithful that even some predators could become good adepts.

p.s.
The funds for the trip you have given me will surely be useful... I'm sorry for taking them with me, but it's not like I'm stealing them... Let's say it's a donation for the conversion of the poor heretics out there.
Again, I'm sorry Lad. I'll offer you a beer or something when we'll meet again.

May Qüetzàl bless you.

signed,
Trine "

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In his mind, Ladimus listed the name of Trine with those that left the guild recently
- Grimion, monk. Strong as a bull. Killed by the Delurans. -
- Tiriath, creepy lolita. She messed with shadows. Adopted near Nekomura. Maybe eaten by now. -
- Virid, mummy guy. Scarred researcher/scientist. Found a better job. -
- RonMei, Mandrago girl. Plant compenetration. ...better not remember what happened to her."
and finally:
- Trine, Neko mage. Wind related magic. ...She has gone nuts for this... Qüetzàl?

Now they were just three... Him, Soren and, if it counts something, Annie Firestar, but she couldn't be of any help till the next manteinance period of the turrets around Negav.

The wood door creaked with a graceless sound.
A gigantic shadow, gleaming with metal reflections, advanced in the room. His head was almost scraping on the roof.
Making the floor vibrate with his steps, a huge man, cloaked with an heavy armor, pierced his 8-feet tall sword in the floor. Then he revealed himself entering in the range of the candle light.

"Soren." Ladimus said, with a surprised look, filled with hope.
"How did the search go? Did you find any sponsor? Even some new members should suffice...!"

Soren was kinda old, he surely had at least 10 years more than Ladimus, but this didn't make him look less mighty. His face was wide, with spiky features. Just a few wrinkles around the eyes and his whitened mohawk haircut revealed his age.
The string of a black eyepatch was running around his bald head. He was blind from the left eye.
Growling, Soren threw a small sack of coins on the table.

Soren roared at Ladimus face "That's all I could find, Lad. The adventurer guild takes all the money lately! I bet they're sponsored by those damn Ps'isol magiocrats and Lady Lesona... We could have too, if you had not the brilliant idea of bringing that Cursed-Mandrago-Thing to their headquarters as a demostration of our... activities!!! Not to mean when that plant girl hatched again right in the midst of their hall and wounded one of the council assistants with its thorns!!!"

Ladimus stood up and wiped the saliva spit by Soren on his face with an handkerchief "We didn't have much more material that month, my impulsive friend. Should I have bringed them one of those Sandslug Abominations I found before the western desert, maybe? Oh, and Razias were too "heavy". I couldn't bring a sample here."

Soren felt a shiver down the spine "huh... not the sandslugs." "I'm still recovering from the injures and the lost blood."

"I have bad news, by the way. We lost another member." said Ladimus, turning around and taking the letter from the desk. "Trine has gone finally nuts with all that spiritual and shamanistic stuff of hers, she says she became a priestess of some non-better-defined cult."

At first surprised, Soren exploded in a heavy, loud and deep laughter. "HA! Never trust those Nekos!!! Plus, she was dressing like an odd whore! What girl, sane of mind, would wear a hood and somekind of leather bikini together?"

Ladimus sighed and crushed the letter, letting it fall and kickin' it under the table "more than Nekos, i'm starting to doubt on the reliability of mages..."
"but whatever." Regaining a serious look. "what about some other members to join us? That creepy guy with black hair I've seen wandering around with a scythe in the brothel quarters months ago was kinda interesting... I didn't understand anything he said about some "Lord Vader"... but surely he seemed skilled. He disappeared from the whole city hours later..."

"I didn't find anyone... and by the way, that punk wasn't worth even a look, trust me." said soren, takin' up the sword.
"He was hangin' out with predators, for what I heard at the Lit Ciggy Bar. And he's not the only one. Yesterday I became interested in rumors about some really skilled guy... Derek, I think the name's Derek. Then, what I found out??? That he hangs out with a friggin' Canopy Fairy?!?" He threw the sword, piercing it on the door "Predators are our damn enemy!" Then, kickin' it on the edge and making it penetrate even more in the creaking wood, "For Oth's sake, Is everybody going NUTS???"

Ladimus yelled "stop destroying my room, would ya?!?"

In that precise instant, they both heard the noise of steps and clinging armors just outside the small building that served them for so long as a home and headquarter.

Knocking.

Trouble.

It's beginning well
I loved the dialog and the story of their party members.
And great drawing in the end, I like the personnality you are slowly giving to Ladimus XP

yeah... but seriously. Looking at it right now I see just crap. I'm not even a wannabe writer.

Honestly, should I commission the episodes to someone else like in Siva Strories? At least, for the sake of quality.

Someone, anyone, answer to this question, please.

I think that if you want to improve on anything. You need Practice, Practice and more practice. It's up to you, though. It's looking good so far.

Saironthis wrote:

I think that if you want to improve on anything. You need Practice, Practice and more practice. It's up to you, though. It's looking good so far.

More than practice... I'll need english lessons and a new dictionary XD

Bah, let's see how the next chapter will turn out.

Grazie

I like it. There's some grammar issues here and there, but you described their thoughts well, and the scenery too. I rarely ever read anything where people talk about the psi'sol magiocrats, so that made me perk up when you mentioned them and lady lesona. nice way to keep things interesting ^_^

Great story going here, if you want I can be an editor for you, like Bael said, the best way to improve writing is to practice so if you want me to, just write up what you can and send it to me to fix up the grammer if you want. It was an enjoyable read so I hope to see more

Edited by Wildthing. Thanx!


Explorers Guild of Negav -End of Games- part 2

More Knocking. Each hit louder and more violent than the previous.

Ladimus ran to the closed window and partially opened it, making sure to cause no noise and reveal their presence in the building. Peeking down the small opening he saw a patrol of at least 5, almost certainly more red Steam Golems.
"Crap. This is not a good sign" he whispered, a few drops of sweat starting to run down his brow. In front of them, knocking at the door like it was all that mattered in the world was a red-haired girl with pigtails. She was wearing an expensive red and gold inlayed leather vest and shiny shoulder pads, gleaming with flame-like reflections in the gloomy evening light.

Right on the belly of the Golems, Ladimus and Soren recognized a well-known symbol for Negavian company runners.

-M-

"MALFU..." Soren put his huge hand over Ladimus’ mouth, cutting him out mid sentence and dragging him away from the window. "...rio" ended Ladimus, his voice muffled by Soren’s hand. His looked shocked and his glasses were skewed and out of place.

Soren let Ladimus go from his grasp, gesticulating to tell him to keep quiet.
"Calm down 'Lad. I really don't think we have a great need to reveal our presence"
"But, this!” he stammered, struggling to find the right words. "Steam Golems are the overly expensive bodyguards of the richest Negavians, you know that. What the hell are they doing here, in a pack?!?" said Ladimus, his eyes wide open with fear and anxiety. He pulled himself together long enough to adjust his glasses with his hand.

"If that girl is who I think she is, it’s my fault. I think..." Said Soren, vexed and sweating.


Some hours earlier, early morning.

Soren headed out of the Black Widow tavern, placed around half-way between the market and the Psi'isol headquarters. His very skin stunk of booze and his head was still spinning like a wild stallion.
He couldn't believe he’d stayed at that place all damn night, partying for the "departure" of the adventure-seeker Grem'zell from this accursed world.

It was thanks to a predator, though that should be obvious. Fairies, what other way could a man find his end out there? But Grem'zell was surely one of those guys who truly deserved it, at least in Soren's humble opinion. He was one of THEM after all. The Fuckin' Friends of Man Eating Monsters’ he called them.

Quite enough as a reason to feast all night in the good company of beer and prostitutes.

But the consequences of such glorious night feasting in the name of Oth were kind of heavy this time. Three great losses, Lucidity, Healt and Money. Two of those problems would fade away easily, at least after breathing some fresh air and resting a little. The third loss was not so easily replaceable. The reputation of the Guild was going far under toes after the Mandrago episode. And the Adventurers Guild was not helping in the slightest by their constant slandering of them. That meant they had had no work for decades, not even as the lowest mercenaries.

"Fuck the curriculum." Soren moaned, repressing the biliar acid climbing from his stomach in order to come out and say "hello" to the road. The first commoners were getting outdoors to start their duties and commissions. A couple of housewives were having a confab on the side of the road, once in a while looking at Soren with derogatory looks. Soren growled at them and they disappeared in no time, hiding inside the grocery.

He staggered along the road towards his home, or at least he hoped it was his home. His blurred vision wasn’t the most reliable thing in the world this morning. After a few minutes of the painfully slow journey, Soren collided with something fluffy.

The red-haired girl practically flew through the air from the hit, landing on all fours directly in a muddy puddle. Her clothes, which seemed to be quite expensive, were now drenched in scum and filth which dripped back onto the floor slowly. Soren barely gave her a second glance and kept moving forward blabbering something with low voice like "'ee'cuzeme..."

But just before he passed around her, the water from the puddle started swirling oddly, then bubbles started to appear above where her hands were submerged. In just a matter of seconds the water started boiling and then, with a bang, it evaporated, filling the road with a dense cloud of hot steam. Small shards of dried and burned earth flew all around. Soren turned in surprise, then sighed "Oh, great. A MAGE."

The girl slowly rose to her full height, made much less menacing by the fact that she barely touched 1.7 metres at best, if even that. She pierced Soren with moist eyes, in which reflections from the heat looked like the gates to hell, and her face was distorted in a grim expression of fury. The mud on her face was flaking, cracking and falling apart from the intense heat.

Part of her long, elegant skirt caught fire.

Everyone else in the street fled as fast as they could, hiding in the buildings around. No one wants to become "collateral damage" this early in the morning.

"HOW DARE YOU? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM?!?" The girl yelled with a shrill, shrieking voice.

Soren drew his gigantic sword from its scabbard on his back.
"I don't know. And you know what? I don't fuckin' care, lady." he said, with loud yet hoarse voice, the biliar acid striking back. His head was hurting like hell and this loud pest was only worsening things.
"You could have chosen a better day to fuck up with ME! This. Is. Not. The right one!"

The girl raised both of her hands forming a web with her fingers "hyyYYAAAAAAH!" A fireball formed and shot out of her hands at Soren, who simply drove his sword in the ground in front of him with a tremendous and ground shattering force.

The fireball crashed on the thick metal, barely heating up the sword decorations and detail. Not giving the girl time to prepare a second spell, Soren pulled out the still smoking sword out and dashed at the screaming girl, making only one, powerful swing and passing over her. Just in the exact moment of the attack, too fast to be even seen, it seemed like the sword unleashed whip-like black strings that slashed the air, disappearing back inside the blade in the blink of an eye.

The girl's skirt fell apart into shreds, revealing lacy red panties and the girl's perfect-shaped booty.

Her face went steaming red, almost as red as her hair, then, unleashing an even more shrill (and embarrassed) scream, which was surely not a pleasure for the overly sensible ears of Soren, right now. She crouched down, trying to hide her almost-nudity with what was left of her vest. "Wha...You Perv!!!..." She cried out while embarrassed tears ran down her steaming red cheeks.

"What did I say you?" said Soren, surmounting her with his abnormally huge size. "Do not fuck with ME! Not today. Ha, you ruined my perfect after booze morning; this is going to cost ya. LOTS!" Then, drawing a small dagger from his belt and grabbing the girl's arm with force: "Now I'll have to punish you in order to feel better, you know that?"

His knife slashed the air many times, careless about the girl's tears and her harmless, fearful looks.

--Slash--, --Rrriiip--

--Slash--, --Rrriiip--

--Slash--, --Rrriiip--

The clothes of the crying girl were gone completely. Shreds of thin leather and linen flew away, transported by the breeze.

Soren chuckled to himself, “What a cutie we have here. Stand up now. And walk 'till I say so."

The girl's will was practically crushed by the despair and embarrassment. She was crying like a baby, without any control. Rubbing her eyes, not even trying to hide her nudity, she started tottering forward, once in a while falling on all fours and mercilessly getting kicked in the butt by Soren's heavy boots.

Soren let out another short bark of a laugh. “Now THIS is a morning to remember! HahahahahHAHAHA!!!"


Explorers Guild of Negav Headquarters, now

While the beating at the door became even louder an incredulous Ladimus stood in the midst of the room, with eyes open wide for the shock and scorn.
"You did WHAT?" Soren became a little nervous. "Don't play like you're a Saint! And after all, I didn’t hurt her"

"But you humiliated her. You humiliated the worst person we needed as an enemy. Elena Malfurio" Ladimus whined. "She's gonna pluck our eyes, sew our mouths, torture us and burn us on the stake. All of this in public, if possible!"
"Oh, whatever. We have to get out of here, right now. I'll go down and stop them. You search in the whole house and the lab if there's something that could give us a helping hand," ordered Soren.
Ladimus wasn't even listening. He kept trembling and biting his fingernails, until a forceful slap almost knocked his head off. Soren then grabbed Ladimus head and directed it towards his face. "Stop being such a sissy, Lad! get a move, for Oth's sake!"

Ladimus stopped for a second, smelling the air. Soren mimicked him.

Smoke?

"Oh, fuck!" said Soren. "That bitch just torched the whole building."

Great addittion, adds some character depth to the two main characters. I've done the edit and PM'd it to you, see if ya like it

nice chapter ^^
Somehow it was really easy to visualize the scene, the expressions and gestures. I feel they made the kind of ennemy you regret to have afterwards here XD

Nicely done. It'll be interesting to see how they'll get out of this one..If they can that is.

Edited by Wildthing: thanx again!

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Explores Guild of Negav -CloudBreaker- part 1

Elena Malfurio advanced towards the already burning building, shooting small fireballs like crazy through various windows, ‘Just to be sure.’

One of the golems, most likely the squad captain, since its armour was far more refined than the others and was decorated with gold inlay, knelt before Elena making graceless mechanical sounds as it did. Then, he spoke with a fake, low-toned metallic voice "-hkmzzz- Malfurio. Miss. I suggest to not cause excessive amount of damage -hkmzzz- to the building. The fire could spread to other buildings with a percentage chance of 42%. I suggest to lower the rate of fire to one spell every 12.4 seconds or less."

Elena stopped firing and stared at the golem with ice cold eyes and a smirk on her face.

Raised her right leg high, careless about showing her sexy panties to the rest of the world. Again.

She started kicking the Golem repeatedly on the helm with her expensive shoe crafted out of Kensha beast leather. Every hit made the golem's eyes sparkle.
"Did you say SOMETHING, trashcan?" she said, as her cheeks flushed red from the pleasure of the bullying. "You dare tell ME what to do? I tell YOU what to do!" said Elena, starting with the eerie laughter that granted her the nickname ‘Red Hyena’ “Ha! Get inside that hellhole and make sure that nothing comes out alive from the building! Bring down the walls, the columns, whatever you find in your way! I don't care if a couple of buildings come down in the mess! My daddy can handle that."

The golem pushed a mechanical eye that popped out after the gatling kicks right back in his helm.
"-hkmzz- I obey, Miss Malfurio"
Elena kicked him one last time before letting him go.
"And don't call me that, trashcan!" she said, still laughing. "Call me Mistress!"

-Inside the guild, Upper floor-

As the smoke around them got thicker Soren and Ladimus ran out of the room, getting stuck in the door trying to pass together.

"Go first! You ugly pachyderm!" yelled Ladimus with a rough voice, coughing a lot as his throat was twitching and burning like it, not the building, was on fire. "This is going to be-” he was cut off by another bout of coughing and wheezing and had to steady himself for a moment before continuing. “-really bad for my poor asthmatic lungs!"
Soren jostled Ladimus apart with his shoulder, then turning back before going outside the room and pointing at him.
"Stop whining. If you say something useless again I'm gonna rip those lungs out of you with my own hands. Just go to the lab at once!" he instructed.

"Really kind of you -wheeze- really, I'm really suffering. You, you monster!" yelled Ladimus while tottering out ad going the opposite side of Soren, who was already going down the stairs dragging his huge sword behind him. "Geez... he's usually equipped for getting past the worst predators and panics when there's a bit of SMOKE? I'll never understand."

Ladimus, still wheezing, arrived before an old, metal rusty door. Two ruined plates: -LAB, Virid Rosenvald- and, under that one, -WORKSHOP, Annie Firestar-.
These two, before Virid found a better job as a researcher for one of the Malfurio agencies, were working on something big the last time. Ladimus recalled a scene of him passing near to that door just a few months ago, hearing strong noises. It seemed like they had unleashed a storm inside the room. Things crashing around, blasphemous words and screams echoed from the door. The very building was shaking from tip to toe. When they came out of there, they were both all messed up. Their hair, their clothes, and they kept laughing and feasting like idiots for days.

Once, Soren commented the episode like this: "Not that I want to know, but really. What kind of sex did these two have up there?" The thought of that beauty of Annie making out with that creepy mummy guy gave him the chills.

The door was heavy, and Ladimus unleashed every bit of air from his lungs with a forced hiss, for such strive. As inside, he saw immediately how there was two separate sides of the huge room. One side tidied up almost maniacally, vials, beakers and alchemic ingredients were put in perfect order on the shelves, the working desks were still without a bit of dust even after months of their absence there.
The other side on the other hand, it was best to say that Ladimus hoped that it just remained like that after that last experiment. There couldn't be possibly an order; or even some sort of pattern in that chaos of oil stains, beer cans and tools of any sort left practically everywhere. Some screwdrivers were simply placed here and there on the walls.

There were two huge objects in the midst of Annie's side. They were covered by heavy, large tarps with mimetic pattern.

"Good, Gods. -wheeze-" said Ladimus, advancing through the mess, trying not to step on anything that seemed vaguely dangerous. Anything could be there, even mines. Who knew? Ladimus almost tripped hearing from the lower floor Soren's battle cry and the unmistakable sounds of a sword fight.

Ladimus sighed with relief when he reached the tarps. "Better remember where I stepped on." he thought. wasn't much more time to waste, and he pulled the tarp away.

"What... the hell is that, in science's name?"

-Lower floor-

Soren heard the tavern door break down below, and heavy, clanging steps move inside. Hits. Wood breaking and the sound of swords slashing through the air.
"For Oth's sake, what the hell they're doing inside here? I can stand with the fact that my workplace is on fire, but vandalism?!" He placed the sword in a guard position and kept descending through even more thick twirling clouds of smoke, the fire almost reached the stairs. "When I reach the tavern, the fire will close my escape path. Guess there's no way out once down. Just the front door, if I can get there."

"I cast myself upon you, Nifleim" said Soren, caressing the sword.

Then, he jumped down all the remaining stairs and broke inside the tavern like a meteor, leaving a turbulent trail of smoke behind him. Without stopping even for a second, he dashed right at the closest Golem roaring with a feral voice "OTH! DEATH! AND VENGEANCE!!!"

Catching it by surprise, it was kinda easy. The first split crashed directly on the Golem's head launching it outside at light speed through a burning window, missing Elena by an inch and crashing right into a glassworks shop. And still, no one yelled “home run!” From the neck of the Golem, a geyser of hot steam filled that part of the room and suffocated the fires of oxygen. The other three Golems with unnatural reflexes turned that way and slashed the hot steam cloud hanging in the air with their blades, hitting only the poor decapitated Golem, wandering and buzzing
"-hkmzzz- Fatal Error! Familiar eradicated! -hkmzzz- Fatal Error!"

Up, grasped to a rafter, Soren yelled, pressing a button on the sword's edge.
"Get a taste of Nifleim's-"

The blade partially opened up, inside there were multiple reels. Each one unleashed a tempest of sharp black strings, which tied up two of the three Golems. "-special service!" finished Soren, falling down from above and pushing another one on his armour. The gems set on the steel pates on his chest started to glow and ripple, with white-blue flashes, while the air was filled with the scent of ozone. Soren pierced the sword in the ground and a terrifying amount of electricity ran through the inlays of his armour, then in his gloves and finally in the sword and strings.

The familiars used as brains for the golems were fried almost instantly. The strings got reeled up instantly, and the sword closed up again.
"This was a whole month's electrostatic charge, did you guys like it?" Taunted Soren. He then dashed out of the front door leaving the Steam Golem captain behind.

Seeing the tremendous mass of Soren emerging from the smoke and ashes like a Juggernaut aiming directly at her head caused Elena fell back on her butt, screaming in terror and luckily avoiding the first assault. Feeling her butt wet Elena thought to have fallen into the mud again. She found out, after looking down at her skirt, That she had simply peed herself in fright. She felt angry like never before, her tears of rage and shame started evaporating from her eyes but still her legs wouldn’t answering to her order to make her stand.

"Oh, crap. I fucked up." Soren did overshoot Elena and his chance to end the thing in one shot, finding himself surrounded by the remaining Golems still outside, already unsheathing their swords from their backs and saying with the usual, monotone voice, like a robotic litany "Terminate. Annihilate Target"

Soren had already discharged all the power held in the batteries of his armour, and even if he was almost sure to have some chances with a Steam Golem in one-on-one there was no way to stand against a PACK of them!

"Dead Meat. I really fucked up."

hehe nice chapter

It seems like someone need another good spanking

No problem Anothergood addition to the story, I'm looking forward to the next part

shooting small fireballs like crazy through various windows, ‘Just to be sure.’

Heh, loved that line.

Soren may have gone a little overboard with Elena after she was stripped naked by his attacks. Ladimus' reaction when he found out was great.

I think you underestimate yourself as a writer. I enjoyed the story. And the others are right, the more you practice, the better you'll become.

You did a good job with the descriptions and the characters in these chapters. Elena may be a fireball spewing brat, but I still felt sorry for her after her ordeal. I pity what's going to happen to Soren if she ever gets herself under control. He or Ladimus better have a trick up their sleeves.

You're right when you say the Adventurer's Guild takes all the money - they're the one's getting sponsorship, for sure. Plus people are sort of forced to deal with them, or be forced to accept help from rather... suspect sources.

(Why yes, this naga-destroying magic lasergun works! Of course it does! And trust me, there is tons and tons of treasure to be found in the Marshes. All we need is the down payment... oh, it's just a formality, of course we expect you to come back! Now, we need your signature... a few times... don't worry, the pen's supposed to glow like that...)

Plus, the Psi'ol Magiocrats are unfortunately probably more interested in treasure and artifacts, rather than interesting environmental and cultural information.

Alright, I'm working on the next part finally -_- wait just for a little more

Thanx to all of you for the support

Still to edit, (Wildthing, are you still alive?) in the meanwhile I'm posting the rough version


Explorers Guild of Negav, Cloudbreaker part 2

Soren had one hell of a day.
And if there was something he truly hated through all that day, it was the moment he had to face death in the early evening.
Let's say, now.

-...iiiiii...-

The Steam Golems were drawing close and his mind was stained with white and gray, as no concious thought could be even born after the shock of having absolutely no way out.
He could see the reflexes of the dying sun flow on the blades getting closer and closer.
His sword Nifleim, companion in a hundred battles, falled on ground with a disgraceful, clanging sound.

-...iiiiii...-

Elena Malfurio wiped away her boiling tears of rage and tried to stand, trying to hide (more or less) her wet skirt.
Finally the time for revenge had come. That useless, shameless warboar, the beast who humiliated her in public that same morning was about to face his fate.
No one messes up with a Malfurio. Die, dog, die. Next willcome your relatives, your friends, all that ridiculous Guild!

-...iiiiiiiiiiii...-

Soren suddenly broke up, startling the Golems for a second (low-cost circuits and lame RAM simply can't face sudden data flow)

"HEY! What the hell is up with this NOISE?!? SOMEONE IS TRYING TO DIE WITH HONOR DOWN HERE!!!"

Elena, surprised for this sudden outcome, noticed that noise turned her head around searching for the source of that noise "What... in Menissyan's name..."

The noise, similar to a overboiling pot of water, started to cripple like it had hiccups.

-...iiiii...i...i...SBRANG!-

Suddenly, a whole section of the building was rammed from the inside! A rain of bricks and rubble started to come down, leaving the party below unharmed just by miracle.
(just the headless steam golem, who finally had made it out the torched building, found himself with a couple of bricks replacing his head. He tottered forward for a few steps and then he tripped and crashed on ground.)

Something was floating in the twirling dust above, making an artificial, high-pitch sound. Heavy air currents blew from the thing sending the all the dust down, covering Soren, the Golems and Elena.
Everyone went totally blind for a few seconds!

Finally, a voice from above.

"Soren!!!" "Soren!!!" "For your God's sake, are you still alive???"

It was Ladimus! Soren rubbed his eyes and wiped away the dust, coughing heavily. "...And here cameth the chivalry! At Doornails!" He roughed out from his throat, grinning.

What soren saw was unexpected. Ladimus was riding some sort of flying vehicle, a shiny steel and crystal chassis was mounted up on a floating stone, underneath, pierced on the rock, and kept still by metallic halos, at least three orbs were twirling and trembling, unleashing a fiery wind and sparkling as they scrapped on the halos.
Electrified veins were running through all the elegant line of that "thing", shining as ripples and electric charges were flowing regularly through them, like the heartbeats of a thunder god.
"That's what was making that noise...! Oth bless you! Oth bless Annie! ...Now, come here and take me up, we gotta get the hell out of here!"

But Ladimus and his brand new iron horse didn't move an inch.


-Ladimus mind- (thoughts made in approximately 10 seconds)

"All this damn dust... oh, better now. Down, to the ground. HA! These cores sure are powerful!"
"Annie Firestar... you have gone far over my best expectations! I thought you were just an ornament (and WHAT ornament) to the guild, well, I was WRONG!
"Now, now, now... where the heck am I... OH CRAP! Isn't that Elena Malfurio?!"
"With a... water stained skirt? From where?"
"Bah wathever. I'll better call for Soren"
"..."
"Twirling, twirling, twirling dust. Oh, cool. I saw a face in the swirls. It looked like my momma ...Good gestalt capability!"
"..."
"SOREN! There he is! He heard me!"

-...chivalry! ...Nails! ...you ...Annie...-

"what the hell did he say? This thing is damn noisy. Doesn't matter, gotta get down there and pick him up..."
"WAAAIT A SEC."

Ladimus's attention were dragged just behind Soren, jumping like a party animal in his armor.
The golems detected him through the dust, three red shadows could be seen from above.

"Golems still active? Sharp blades and overhuman strenght waiting for me as I'll get down?"
"Crap! But Soren..."
"Well, -maybe- he could be replaceable..."
"No, no, I need him for the Guild to be reborn! I must not be afraid!"
"But, look at those blades... just thinking at the pain they could bear, I'm fainting"
"I got it! If I get down, both of us could die... and it would be the end of our dreams (well, mine for sure)"
"I guess there is no other solution... I... I..."

"Soren, you will be sacrificed for the sake of our Guild!"
"I'll carry your dream too, Soren, don't worry!"
"Farewell!"


-back in the real world-

Ladimus and the flying vehicle started to flow away, as the cores started to glow more intensively.
Looking at Soren with a mask of fear and pity on his face, Lad turned his head up and thrusted a lever along the side of the flyer.
In a matter of milliseconds, it sprang a hundred meters upwards at a terrific pace!

Soren, with a shocked expression and his jaw wide open, followed the movement of the vehicle with his head!
He left his arms hanging down like lifeless, his back curved and tight, the tendons popping out on his thick neck!

With a broken voice he yelled: "SON... OF A DOUBLE WHORE!!! SPURTED OUT FROM THE SEWERS OF NEGAV!!!"

A second later, he was laying flat, kept still by metal arms and an unearthly strenght.

Nice chapter ^_^
The idea of using train of thoughts like that was funny

Sorry bour the time, no computer for 4 weeks Update sent and another great addition