Chapter 8: Arc 1, - 8: The Hunt Begins!
Posters were being plucked like apples from the board by adventurers for paid commissions—a telephone with a rotary dial ringed next to the clerk.
The three of them saw the adventurers, waiting for the clerk to post up more commissions. All of them were taken except a few which the members seemed to avoid. Jotou took one of the avoided posters and scanned it over.
"There has been a sighting of a velatos near the western port of Kria. Investigation and information will be rewarded with two platinum and the defeat of a velatos will be rewarded with one armite upon confirmation of the kill," Jotou read out.
Fumeko surveyed the other posters, "Looks like they’re all suspected or known velatos locations that haven’t been handled by the law yet."
"The guild’s gained a lot more trust over any governmental organization ever since its launch decades ago. Any new information comes here before it reaches the authorities," Hotaru informed.
The other adventures gave subtle glances over to the three women, who looked severely under-geared compared to them.
Seeing the wolf-girl their glances turned to glares, which turned to placing bets in their minds as to whether they would take such a difficult commission and live to tell the tale.
’I need to know why the velatos didn’t hurt me. Am I a velatos? This quest may help give some insight.’ "Do you know how to get the western port?" Jotou asked Hotaru.
Hotaru’s eyes widened as she nodded, "I didn’t expect us to go so early, but we’ll reach there by sunset I’d bet."
_
Sea breeze entered their lungs, the orange-purple sky signed off the day, when the velatos were known to strike. Wood creaked to their footsteps nearing the shallow end of the sea’s edge.
The water splashed against the rocks and beams of sturdy wood under the paths of buildings, which were closed for the night.
The fishermen had either shut down their shops in worry of the recent news or to go out into sea for fish that surfaced at dark.
Jotou took one step over the other, like a toddler learning to walk; they were the only pair of shoes the guild had to offer for her size—a bit too tight for comfort. She held a sword with rusts still on its sides and a few stains across the blade.
"I’m sure barely any armour and an old sword will keep us much safer Jotou," Fumeko poked Jotou’s leather corset whilst peering to her leather knee braces and a leather shoulder-pad she wore over a yellow dress.
"Says the rat who’ll run away with one dagger," Jotou poked Fumeko’s little dagger-sheath which held it.
"Hey! You told me to run! Besides, I’m more like a bunny," she proclaimed with a hand on her chest.
"Oh, you mean the velatos that bit that kid’s toes off?" Jotou remarked as Fumeko growled back to Jotou.
"Is this what you two have been doing since you’ve met?" Hotaru queried with a small smirk.
"We met yesterday," Jotou clarified, "But, the answer’s pretty much yes."
"Though, the way Jotou put it, we’re ’very’ close because we took a bath in a public bathroom," Fumeko grinned.
"I’m used to privacy! This world is a bit different, okay?"
"I always bathe in private, it’s not something special about this world," Hotaru budded in with a squint. "Fairly sure it’s mainly just the Adventurers Guild that has that."
Jotou looked to Hotaru and then to Fumeko with a glare to which she gave a nervous smile, "I always shower in private too... Hehe... I just wanted to experience something new and it’s not like we had the choice of complete privacy... ...You said armour’s expensive. Where did you get yours?" Fumeko looked over to Hotaru.
"This?" she flaunted the sleeves by her wrists, "I saved up to buy this for years and got it a few years back.
It’s barely armour though, it was made to be enchanted; this right now’s a basic set. I’d need to pay more before it becomes proper armour."
Jotou narrowed her gaze to the redhead, "If that took you years to get... don’t tell me you’re broke."
She gave a faltering grin, "I can still feed myself and have a roof over my head and now I don’t have to pay rent anymore." Jotou still glared at her answer.
"Hey, not a lot of people want a part-human lawyer, alright? That’s why I wanted to be an adventurer; nobody needs me, I just choose my work and get paid a lot," she justified.
Jotou sighed... and then chuckled to herself, thinking of her old life making art online, "Fair enough-"
"Rumble... " "Crack..." Their conversation came to an abrupt end as their muscles tensed to whatever disrupted the night and the waves.
"Where-"
"Shh..." Fumeko shushed Jotou before she got low. The other two followed her example. She peered around, identifying the source of the noise from one of the closed shops.
The brunette pointed to the wooden shack that smelled of rotting fish. They approached like cats stalking prey, watching their step on the mossed and rickety planks.
Three heads popped up the shop’s window. Something darker than the dim room—shifting. Barely, they could make out the image warping in shadow.
The body long and plump as two limbs stabbed into crates at the back. "Crack!" It ate through inventory.
They simply observed, waiting for it to- It snapped around; like two glowsticks, ruby red eyes stared back as they stared into it. They, "AH!" scrammed away only to hear the splintering of wood behind them.
Each running in their own direction, they turned as their hearts began to race louder than the wood that they clacked on. "CRASH!" The shop came apart; one section of the roof fell into the sea below.
Rivalling the size of the shop itself, two crab-like pincers and eyes—the head of a centipede and a few too many legs to support it.
"SCREECH!!!!" Sounding like the growls of high-pitched zombies, it gave out its battle cry. The crustaceous, insectoid figure moved around, making squishy noises alongside the cracking of joints across its long body.
"Well, we found it," Fumeko turned to the two further away.
The velatos-crab-thing, scuttled forward in haste, getting close to Hotaru. "SMASH!" It launched its pincer into the wood, leaving a wide-eyed Hotaru who had stepped back... just in time...
Hotaru looked it in the eyes; her face grew paler by the second, but the sound of footsteps running away caught its attention—it swivelled its head to a sprinting brunette.
It turned to begin going after Fumeko who panted and rushed for cover behind one of the many crates.
With one swipe, the crates turned to splinters as a ducked down Fumeko was revealed. She once again ran away as the creature—"CRSHH!"—broke another hole into the floor where she was.
"JOTOU!!! KILL IT!!! SEND IT TO THE DEPTHS OF HELL!!!" Fumeko yelled at the top of her lungs, as the velatos chased her.
Jotou who stood furthest away, observed with a wrinkled nose and a winced eye, "I don’t wanna touch that thing!" shouted over.
"JOTOU!" both of them yelled at her as the velatos chased Fumeko around.
"Okay! Okay!" Jotou took her surroundings in quickly and climbed atop of a stack of large crates, "Hey! Over here you mutated seafood!" but the creature paid no mind.
"Tk!" Running in circles, it was only a matter of time before the brunette’s foot would catch something—like a dent in the wood, "Gah!"
She fell and rolled over. She used her elbows to move back, looking up with a squeak as the velatos raised its claw about to-
"Hey!" Hotaru threw a fish from the broken shop at its form. They eyes rotated around... before the velatos left Fumeko.
"Hang on!" Jotou jumped down, rushing towards the velatos which seemed to ignore her and had its eyes for Hotaru who threw the fish.
"Fine, die then!" Tired of trying to get its attention, Jotou swung her sword with both hands to its shell. "CRACK!" ...The blade broke by the rusted part and bounced off into the sea below...
’I hate this world.’
The velatos twisted—the ruby eyes locked onto Jotou, "Oh, now you want to-" her words were cut short as she leapt back and dodged to the side. "SMASH!" It launched a pincer into the wood.
Jotou glanced up as the creature scuttled forward. The ruby eyes glowed brighter as it began walking faster and- "WOOSH!" The claw that slashed past, felt like mere wind as it slashed across Jotou’s face, going through her head with no harm done.
She was never getting used to that; like a sneeze that would never occur—embracing for a pain that never hit. ’Why did it change it’s attack all of a sudden!? Whatever! It can’t hit me! Theory complete!’
The velatos’ eyes looked to its pincers, then looked around before staring back at Jotou... and then struck downwards again but Jotou ran out of the way, strafing to its right. Her breath erratically flowed.
With another oncoming slash from the creature, Jotou strafed once more to the left, wait... Did something catch her? No, her shoe got caught on the now busted open floor...
She tried to free herself, but before she could, another plunge of its claw came down!
"THUD!"
Jotou fell on her back as the boards around her began to splinter apart and crack. Not even caring, the velatos hammered down with its pincer onto Jotou.
She flinched her knees apart, leaving the edge of the claw to pierce in between her legs and miss, creating a rip in the clothing.
"...crackk...!" As the pincer was drawn back, the floor beneath broke wide open to the waves below.
’I swear to hell!’ Jotou’s elbows scraped; her legs already felt nothing below as the cracked planks no longer held her weight and she—"JOTOU!"—plummeted...