Meeting a Pretty Cool Guy - Acacius
1384 Words
“Alright,” said Nero, “a lot of the violence and victims have been around this area, we are bound to find him eventually.”
Nicolas was walking calmly with his hands behind his head, “We’ve been looking around all day, shouldn’t we take a break and get some rest?”
Acacius added. “The murderer isn’t going to appear during the day, if anything this would be prime time. A lot of the guards are switching their shifts.”
Nero looked at Acacius, “How would you know?”
Acacius shrugged, “I’ve heard a thing or two from a person here and there.”
Suddenly they heard a scream coming from an alley, along with a couple of clanging sounds and a grunt. The three boys looked at each other and quickly ran to the alley, They saw a shorter blond girl and a larger man at the end. The man was bleeding from his shoulder as they faced a tall thin man under a hood. The creepy tall man was cackling to himself and slowly walked towards the pair.
Nero spoke quickly and quietly, “You two are the ones who need practice and this is the guy we are looking for. I will take care of those two people and you guys go for Knives.”
The two boys nodded their heads and ran in front of the two victims.
“Wait!” shouted the man, “You boys shouldn’t be getting involved at all.”
Nicolas looked back at him and said blithely, “Hey man, we’ve got this. There is no more need for you to worry.”
Nicolas then drew his vampiric sword and faced the cloaked man. Acacius drew his sword too, as he got Nicolas’s old sword.
Nero stayed right behind the other two and observed ready to act in case anything went wrong.
The cloaked man laughed hysterically and continued tossing knives. They seemed to appear right in his hand as he threw them.
Nicolas only blocked the knives aiming towards his head, while the other knives bounced off of his armor. Acacius tried his best to block, but was stabbed in the arm.
He shouted out in pain and pulled out the knife. A faint light came from the wound, and the injury disappeared.
The larger man raised his eyebrows with surprise.
Nicolas charged the man and grabbed his rod, willing it to transform into a spear. The cloaked man quickly moved back and dodged the spear. He was no longer laughing as he threw several more daggers.
The daggers were badly thrown and only hit the ground and walls beside the two boys. Acacius moved forward as Nicolas charged the man’s other side.
The man observed both and suddenly lunged towards Nicolas, aiming for his heart., But the knife did not pierce.
The man looked shocked. Nicolas then stabbed out with his sword and pierced the man’s chest. The man slumped over his arm and was still.
Nicolas and Acacius were both breathing heavily as the clash was quick and exhausting.
Nero clicked his mouth in disdain, “You both are extremely sloppy. Acacius, you have no skill with a sword at all and your abilities are weak. Nicolas, you are relying upon that magical armor way too much. It makes you too reckless.
“You both have a lot to work on as we chase those two immense power users down.”
The man behind them said, “thank you all for coming to our aid. My name is Alphonsus, and this is Susan. May I ask exactly who you are chasing down?”
Nero looked at the pair warily, and Acacius wasn’t sure what he should and shouldn’t say. Nicolas had no hesitation, however. “Hello miss and sir. My name is Nicolas and these are my friends Acacius and Nero. We are chasing down some unique people with strange abilities, much like this guy.” He kicked the hand of the guy lying on the ground. “This guy wasn’t very tough but he was a good start.”
Susan was looking at the three boys strangely, especially the one called Nero, she got a dark and menacing feeling from him. She tugged on the back of Alphonsus’s clothes trying to give the message that she wanted to thank them and go, but Alphonsus continued looking at the boys with curiosity.
“Thank you for answering my question.” He said, “I would very much like to repay you, gentlemen, back. How about I treat you all to dinner tomorrow night?”
Acacius, feeling left out of the conversation, responded, “We would love that! Thank you very much!”
“Great!” said Alphonsus, “meet me in the center of the city by the benches around sundown tomorrow night, and Susan and I will take you somewhere to eat.”
“Thank you” responded Acacius and Nicolas.
Once they said their goodbyes, Nero turned to the two boys. “You idiots, we shouldn’t be telling anybody about what we are doing. You never know who is working for who, or whether someone will stab you in the back.”
Acacius looked down in embarrassment but Nicolas looked back into Nero’s gaze, “I’m not sure, I thought he was a pretty cool guy to offer to take us out to eat.”
Nero looked angry and shook his head, “whatever, let’s just drag this guy to the bounty office and collect our reward. We will deal with whatever happens tomorrow.”
The three boys headed back out into the darkening city.
Ch 15: Trying To Forge - Mary
Mary wiped the sweat off her brow. She wore overalls and looked very tomboyish.
She stood by a hot forge trying to fold steel over itself. She was slightly nervous as Risus was standing over her shoulder watching her every move, ready to critique her on any little bit done wrong.
She pulled the sword out of the forge and dunked it in a barrel of water. She pulled it out but the metal was cracked. She sighed and laid the metal down on a table.
Risus made a tsk sound and said, “You are making progress, but you still have a bit of work to do.”
Mary sighed, looking at a case with a black steel weapon inside of it. The weapon was radiating a power that even Mary could feel.
“Can you show me how you make magic weapons?” she asked.
Risus smiled, “Sure! However, it is not so much a skill you learn as it is an ability you are born with. I was born with the ability to forge magic weapons, which is very rare, so it makes the weapons all the more powerful, wanted...and expensive.
“I can grant magic to any weapon; the weapon only needs to be forged already.” He grabbed a sharp dagger and pulled out a hammer from his belt. He held onto the hammer and his hand began to glow white and black.
He raised his hand up and slammed down on the dagger with the hammer, but it caused no damage to the weapon., Instead, it caused the weapon to have a faint grey aura around it. He smiled and explained to Mary, “I can give specific abilities to weapons if I choose to do so, however, the powers aren’t that strong if I do that.
“The way to give it a strong power is luck and praying...as well as including pieces of magical animals or artifacts. My ability to make magic weapons also gives me the ability to tell what a magic weapon or armor can do.
“I gave this dagger a specific ability I call skill. Whoever wields it becomes a master at using the weapon.”
Risus picked up the dagger and gave it to Mary. “Use this dagger to protect yourself for now. If you ever want powerful equipment, see if you can forge magic equipment yourself. Buy all the materials yourself too.”
Risus face lit up and he chuckled to himself, “My own teacher told me that as well, and that’s exactly what I had to do”
He pointed to a set of dark steel armor and a menacing looking horned helm. The armor and helm were propped up next to the black steel blade in the case.
Mary looked very excited and was thinking to herself that she should forge something for Brutus first. Risus patiently re-explained the process of folding steel and Mary continued to try again and again.
- Writer
