Vendetta (2)

  “Amaris, are you the one responsible for this mess?”

  Calling out to the young girl across from us, Vreena imbued her usually indifferent voice with the chilling essence of authority. Yet, despite the ominous undertone of the elder’s words the girl merely smiled.

  “You don’t have to be so weary of us you know, I mean, they’re the ones who started it.”

  “They?” Vreena pressed, wrath lurking in her tone

  “That’s right, that guy over there. He and some other idiot was trying to start a fight with us the moment we got here.”

  “Hold on a second Amaris, I’m the one who requested aid from your party, but Ulric never mentioned anything about you arriving today. How did you even get here in the first place? I’m just coming back into the city after spending some time out by the bridge, I’m sure I wouldn’t have missed your group if you were passing by, so how exactly did you….” Owen’s plea was abruptly cut short.

  “So you really went through with it huh Owen?”

  “I’m sorry elder, it’s just a precaution but I don’t want things to get out of hand again.”

  “Tch - fine have it your way then, but look where that’s already gotten us, I told you we didn’t need Brünnhilde’s help.”

  Even in the midst of her displeasure, Vreena hadn’t taken her eyes off Amaris even once.

  “Heheheh, so that's what we’re doing huh? Well, no matter, how we got here is a trade secret so I’m afraid I can’t say old man.”

  “Amaris enough of this, where’s Ulric!?” Seemingly fed up with her charade, Vreena blurted out that question impudently. Her eyes narrowed to the point where Amaris was practically the only thing left in her field of vision.

  “My brother should be back here soon; he’s just gone to fetch another one of these worthless defects, if you don’t believe me just ask one of your little followers.” she said, pointing a finger at the onlooking crowd.

  The cowering civilians almost shrieked from that simple gesture, and the unintentional display of authority coincidentally managed to put a smile on Amaris' face. The two men standing on opposite sides of her mirrored her expression, no doubt taking pleasure in the fearful looks being directed towards them.

  “Should we go get Ulric?” The man standing on her left ask, judging by his metallic attire and the sword neatly affixed to his hip, he was something more in the way of a bodyguard than a raider.

  “No, it’s fine Lucas, I’m getting a lot of nasty looks right now so I would rather you not wander off just yet, I’m sure my brother will be back soon enough. In the meanti-”

  ....DUM....DUM....DUM....

  That dull, rhythmic sound lingered in the air each time the ground below me shook in the wake of those fading tremors. The atmosphere swiftly fell into a state of dead calm, nobody moved, but I could easily tell that all the people who’d gathered here had wanted to do nothing more than run away.

  The reason they hadn’t done so, was because of the piercing gaze being directed at us in distance . What made the situation all the more daunting was the fact that we weren’t even meeting that murderous gaze at eye level – No, the beast was looking down on us.

  “Oh my, speak of the devil.” Gleefully uttering that remark, Amaris smiled cheerfully at the sight that left the other humans here terrified. Coated in a thick layer of pristine white fur, piercing yellow slit pupil eyes that inspired nothing but fear in the heart of its prey, and canine fangs oozing with a lust for blood. It was the gigantic wolf I’d seen forcing its way through the civilian crowds a few days ago, the same could be said for the blue haired young man now riding atop it, these were all familiar faces.

  Without a doubt, they were the members of that dreaded party – Brunhilde.

  The houses and buildings inside Zale weren’t abnormally large or tall, so this monster could easily tower over us seeing as it was taller than four of these small houses stacked on top of each other when walking on all fours.

  The blue haired young man who I could only assume to be Ulric, was sitting at the base of its neck, tightly gipping the chain fastened to the monster's metallic collar in his hands. Behind him was another man around his age wearing a white sleeveless shirt with a leather armor plate strapped to his chest. After sizing us up for a few seconds, the large beast began weaving its way through the paved brick streets that now seemed much smaller, leaving a devastating imprint on the city itself in the form of its canine paws.

  Stopping just short of the fountain, the two men leaped off the towering creature, landing near Amaris with a dull thud. Still, that bland stunt wasn’t getting much attention from the onlookers, their attention was still fixed on the large predator. It wasn’t being done out of a sense of awe, nor was it because of fear either, this time, what managed to vehemently capture their attention was the human dangling by the arm that was stuck between the beasts' teeth.

  “O-Oi....isn’t that Roy?”

  “Roy!”

  Immediately after the initial terror had settled, countless cries of sympathy called out to Roy. His only reaction to them was in the form of brief spasms and wince. His entire body seemed to be battered and bruised so the current state of his arm must have only been half the reason why he wasn’t conscious.

  Still, he wasn’t in much better shape than his friend lying over by the fountain, Julia’s quick treatment seems to have quelled his agony, if nothing else.

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  “Took you long enough, things were getting pretty heated around here you know.” Amaris muttered her complaints, still completely indifferent to the horrific sight of what her brother had just returned with.

  “Well this guy was really good at running away, and besides its not exactly easy for tyrant to move around in this cramped place, without Gavin’s help he might’ve gotten away for good.”

  “Thats why I told you to finish him off from earlier.”

  “Well, I was there to help him catch the guy so it's no big deal, right?” The man wearing the sleeveless armor gleefully interrupted them, undoubtedly pleased by whatever degree of punishment they inflicted upon Roy before coming here.

  “Hey you three.”

  Julia immediately ended their conversation with a sudden call, but this time her voice wasn’t carrying the pleasant intonation I’d grown so used to. Instead it gave off a chilling feeling that made the three of them instinctually freeze in place.

  “Just what did these two do for you to harm them this badly?” Even while kneeling beside the amputated man from earlier, she effortlessly maintained her healing spell but even with half of her focus devoted to saving a life, the other half of her concentration was being used to suppress the immense anger she was feeling.

  Her green eyes locked onto the parading party with a dangerous gleam emanating from them.

  Ulric stared at her for a moment, before swallowing his angst and equipping his confidence.

  “That symbol on your forehead...you’re a druid, aren’t you? Heh - yeah, I think this guy did mention something about there being a druid that could heal him being here. Julia, was it?”

  “That’s right, Julia Rocco. I’m temporarily acting as a healer for the people of this town.”

  Hearing those words, Ulric gave an extravagant bow -

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is Ulric Meyer. I’m the leader of the Brunhilde party that this town is requesting assistance from. As for your question, these two men here had some sort of vendetta against me, saying I killed some close relative of theirs a while back. I have no recollection of ever doing such a thing, so when they ganged up on us, I couldn’t help but defend myself you see, they even managed to get blood on my sister’s dress after I painstakingly saved up the money to buy it for her the other day. I’m only trying to teach them a very simple lesson - ‘You nulls are inferior to us mages’ and to that end, all I’m asking for is an arm; a fair deal wouldn’t you say?”

  “No, I don’t agree at all, you beat these men half to death for something so trivial!?”

  Ulric stared blankly at Julia, then everyone else here before shaking his head in admission.

  “I suppose we just don’t see eye to eye on this then, I was planning to have his friend there watch as I make Tyrant rip his arm off, but it looks like that might cause some problems.”

  SLAM

  Vreena jammed her staffed to the ground so hard it crumbled from the impact.

  “Enough of this Uric! You don’t have the authority to dish out punishment to anyone here on a whim. You damn brat, after what happened with Lennon, I thought you might have changed your ways, but it doesn’t look like that going to happen anytime soon.”

  “Vreena, you're still alive huh? You weren’t happy to see me the other day either, but it's fine, I’ve gotten used to your tendencies by now. As for these two, I’d say their actions warrant a little punishment, I’m sure you don’t want scum like this running around your town.”

  Ulric glanced up at Roy, the sight of his arm stuck between the monster's teeth once again filled the man with a sense of joy.

  “She’s right Ulric, there won’t be much point in you coming back here if this is how you’re going to start things off.” Owen said, approaching the haughty young man with clenched fists.

  “So that’s how it's going to be, huh captain?”

  “That’s right, you either stop this on your own or I force you to stop.”

  Ulric chuckled playfully.

  “Try me.”

  SNAP

  Drawing the monster’s attention with that gesture, he proceeded to give a merciless command.

  “Tyrant, bite his arm off.”

  Immediately after those words left Ulric’s lips, the giant wolf began grinding its teeth and causing spurts of crimson droplets to gush out from the gaps in its canines.

  “AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

  Not long after, Roy was suddenly jolted back to reality by the searing pain of having his entire arm slowly gnawed off by the wolf holding him captive.

  I was standing a good distance away from Roy, and yet I could still hear an odd crackling sound, it was oddly reminiscent of a tree falling down after being hacked away at by an axe, except this time it wasn’t a tree that was creaking, but the mans bones.

  “A-AHHH – It hurts! It’s gonna tear my arm off !!”

  “That’s the idea.” Ulric sarcastically retorted.

  Roy screamed in agony, his blood splattering across the ground as his comrades watched helplessly, paralyzed by the horror of seeing him devoured before their very eyes. Amidst the chaos and the despair thickening in the air, a dignified voice cut through, commanding the attention of everyone present.

  “Oi.”

  Surprisingly, the one who commanded Brunhilde’s attention was none other than Oliver.

  “Let him go.” Those three words were enough to send a wave of pressure through the atmosphere.

  Ulric instinctually took a step back, before abruptly composing himself and resolving to hold his ground.

  “O-Oh, it looks like we’ve got another tough guy here hu-”

  Just then, a glimmering flash of light whipped past Ulric’s face, colliding with the fountain behind him and immediately evaporating the entirety of its contents. A thick veil of vapor erupted from where the extravagant fountain once stood, but despite the fact, Ulric had yet to move.

  Standing firmly in place, his legs wobbled like ancient pillars, seeming as if he had yet to register what just happened. The same went for just about all the Brunhilde members gathered before us. A black smear was inscribed on Ulric’s right cheek, giving off a sizzling sound as soon as smoke began wafting from it.

  The attack Oliver launched without warning left the haughty man paralyzed by fear, he wasn’t even registering the pain from the scorching wound on his cheek.

  Turning around, I saw Oliver adjust his glasses with a finger. He took a few steps forward, his demeanor calm yet charged with an unspoken intensity. As he reached Owen's side, he exhaled deeply, releasing all the tension that had built up within him. With a voice steady and measured, he spoke, his words cutting through the silence like a knife -

  “I said, let him go.”