Where we find out a bit more about our wizard and warrior mercenaries, and how dangerous the Empire's roads can be.
Leaving the City of War, Adam watched the Forbidden City's massive dome looming from behind it.
"We will be arriving at Artifice shortly." The carriage driver announced through the window into the carriage's inside.
"We'll be getting the resources we need from there. Food, water, so on and so forth. Don't worry, I'm sure we can find a few good swords for you too, better than that weird curved one you got. Artifice has everything this side of Zensuon, literally." Ezra broke the long silence, looking away from his spellbook to address the silent man on the opposite side of the carriage.
Adam glanced slowly towards the mage, "I don't need a new sword unless it's a new katana." The warrior spoke in a booming voice.
"Ka-Ta-Na?" Ezra perked up at that new bit of information, "Never heard of it, is that a new fighter trend?" The mage sneered.
Adam didn't respond, instead, he shifted closer to the window, watching the oncoming City of Artifice. Out of the three fortified cities, he liked that one the best. It was more open, with the blue colours complementing the endless sand of this land.
"Uh, whatever, I didn't want to know anyway," Ezra muttered and looked back to the spellbook.
"Who is Tayon?" Adam suddenly asked.
Ezra perked up again.
"You don't know who Tayon is?" Ezra sounded like he was on the verge of rolling into mocking laughter.
"I'm new." The stern man said with a stern glance at the mage. Erza did not flinch in the slightest.
"Really new. I mean, you have to at least pass by Break City to get into Zensuon, right? Don't tell me you're not only silent but deaf?" The mage smirked.
"I never visited Break City," Adam claimed.
"You nev- Wait." Ezra glared at him for a long while, "That's impossible, then how did you get through the Death Mountains?" Ezra closed his books, this was really interesting.
"I never went through the Death Mountains," Adam claiming another claim that he hadn't claimed before.
"You never went through the- What?!" Ezra was standing now, when the carriage suddenly stopped, causing him to topple forward with a WHACK.
Outside, the carriage rider panicked, surrounded. Shaking with dread as the insectoids erupted from the sand just moments before. Creatures like ants, beetles and all manner of bugs that walk on two or four of their many legs, each between the size of a child to the size of an orc, and each carrying spears. He counted six in number, but who knows how many more were hidden. This close to Artifice? What is the council doing?
"I don't have anything on me! I'm not carrying goods, just transporting people." The carriage rider proclaimed. He stood up on the front seat, looking around with his hands raised.
The insectoids glared at him, then glanced at each other. The largest one, a beetle of green-blue colour and a large curved horn, stepped forward and began to speak:
"-"
It started, before a blaze of fire as big as the carriage itself exploded from the front of the vehicle, flinging wood and a single man everywhere. The rider was sent around fifteen feet forward and head first into the sand, only his legs left to dangle awkwardly in the sun. With it, the leashes and binds of the horses were gone. The stallions fled off in fear, leaving the carriage on its own.
All the insectoids took a half step back and drew forth their spears. They examined the now missing front.
"He'll be fine," Ezra said as he stepped out into the scorched edge of the carriage. Looking around at the insectoids. "I just gave him a head wound, like the fucker gave me."
The insectoids glanced confused between each other. The largest one once more moved to speak.
"You. Give. All. Food. All. Gold. All. Crystal." The insectoid spoke in its half-muted Thraskian. The sound of mandibles and chittering pausing each word.
"Oh? Give? And what do I get in return?" Ezra leaned onto the side of the now open carriage, taking his fingertips onto the burnt edges and scattering some of the remaining ash between thumb and finger.
"Your. Life." The beetle expanded in size as if in a weird act of puffing its chest. A loud, cacophonic buzzing began. The insectoids began to march slowly forward.
"What do you say, new guy, our stuff or our lives?" The mage shouted over the encroaching noise of the six bugs coming at them.
BAM The front door went. Breaking the crashed carriage further. The door flung outwards with force, as something big, armoured and bladed launched out of it at an amazing speed. The leading beetle had only a few seconds to contemplate the black-yellow bolt that just blocked out the sun above it, only to find out that it shouldn't have chosen contemplation. In the time that it had, its opponent had already chosen stabbing.
Thus, when the green-blue creature looked down at its exoskeleton, it saw a curved blade go through it all the way from its belly to its carapace. So it looked up, to see the face of its opponents stare down at it, sneering.
"I'm going to gut you-" Ssshhhinnkkk the blade of the curved sword raised upward (and through the beetle) in a smooth, powerful motion. The blade reached up to the heavens and gave out a glare toward the other insectoids. The parts of it not smeared in green blood reflected off of the sun.
"-, like a fish."
A TRrruffFf was sound as the creature, or rather the two pieces it was split into, crashed into the sand.
The five remaining insectoids began to chitter incessantly and charged.
"Like a fish, really?" Ezra asked.
Erza stretched his hands wide to his sides. The space around them began to ripple. Flames began to erupt out of the palms of his hands. Engulfing them up to elbow in a large, sprawling fire. He turned to three of them batched together, and raised his hands toward them.
"Die." He stated. In a great wave of flame, the three insectoids were washed away. Their cinders combined with the sand and became a shiny, new sheen of glass across the side of the carriage.
"Perfect." Ezra wiped his hands clean, and looked down to his arms, "Damnit, why do you idiots always make me do this? I'm going to need new sleeves again. You're going to pay for thi- Oh, right, already dead."
"Are you done yet?" asked the mage, turning around to the sound of slaughter as insectile limbs and pieces of shell were oozing from Adam's katana.
After cleaning the blade, Adam slowly sheathed it back to his scabbard.
Click.
The two remaining critters broke into perfectly sliced pieces, unceremoniously falling on the hot sand.
"Can we go?" Ezra asked, impatient.
"You broke the carriage, and scared the horses." Adam calmly announced, glancing at the mage.
"Yes, well, Artifice isn't that far, we can walk." Ezra slowly got off of the broken carriage and began walking toward the visible cityscape in the distance.
Adam followed.
"Grgrh" The legs stuck in the sand grunted.
"Did you really have to kick him?" Adam asked.
"I just wanted to make sure he's alive," Ezra claimed.
YOU ARE READING
Zensuon: Crystal Age
FantasyIn a world where money can buy you literal power. A young halfling is out on the run for a crime he (probably) didn't commit. Joined by what seems to be a dim-witted orc, the duo has to brave various forces craving a powerful artifact known as the '...
