2: A Class of Undead

http://mgefanon.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Flodoomable/The_Adventures_of_The_Travelling_Ranger_(Link-Hub)

WARNING: Violence against mamono!

A Class of Undead

=Chapter 1: Taking in the air.=

Sitting high atop a mountain looking over a vast stretch of forests and plains Florandus Vindivicus was sharpening arrows with his dagger when a silhouette flew overhead. Beside him a harpy carrying a satchel landed and spoke to him. "Are you Vindivicus?" The ranger got up and smirked. "That I am, wat do you carry for me?"

The harpy opened the satchel with the claws at the end of her wing, took out a parchment and gave it to the ranger. She looked around the area, then at the arrows. "So, wat are you doing up here?" Florandus glanced over at her while he rolled out the message. "A village a not far from here told me that there had been elven sightings around this area, nothing except for a few dryads it seemed. one of them even had a man stuck in them, but he was already turning to bark as I arrived.

I might as well take the things he won't need anymore.." The harpy looked slightly disappointed. "You looted some poor guy stuck in a tree?" He interrupted her. "No, some guy halfway TURNING INTO a tree."

=Chapter 2: Harpy express.=

The parchment addressed to Vindivicus stated that a litch had captured a fellow ranger who managed to mess up his first assignment, he must be freed and if possible taught on how to successfully perform tasks during the sweep up of the failed mission. The target that was initially to be hindered by destroying their research was now to be taken out for discovering their assailant.

With the target being a litch, He was advised to look out for multiple enemies. "Can you fly me to this location in the southern kingdom?" he asked the harpy, showing her only the small map drawn under the contract. "It's a two day flight, you'll have to settle with a stop on the way and we will arrive by nightfall." The ranger nodded and they set off.

=Chapter 3: Inspecting the grounds.=

Finally at the destination the harpy let him down, they had landed in front of an overgrown fort in which only a few torches still burned. "I'll be going then, good luck." whispered the harpy as she took off again. Florandus crouched near the iron gate and listened carefully, he could hear wat sounded like three pairs of footsteps and a call for help. He pulled himself up the wall by placing his icepicks in worn out holes in the wall.

Reaching the top of the wall he peered over the other end and saw zombies, ghouls and skeletons scuffling along the courtyard grounds. He also witnessed a woman being shoved into a grave and get dirt thrown over her, practically getting buried alive. One of the ghouls hit her on her face making the woman go unconscious, then a heap of dirt was shove atop of her. Florandus had to bear with seeing her die, if he would help her the litch could get away and do it all over again. scouting around he looked for entrances into the main fort, he could see one grand entrance out front, a small door to the side guarded by a ghoul and a small door leading into the second floor above the grand entrance which had a strange blue torch burning next to it.

One of the skeletons was franticly grabbing at something through a grate down right to the door the ghoul was guarding. He shot an arrow into the blue torch, causing it to flare up and reveal a ghost for merely two seconds, after not seeing anyone she returned to the torch. Taking a stone he had taken from the wall and chucking it to the iron gate distracted all monsters in the courtyard but the one at the grate, taking the opertunity Florandus shot an arrow into the larynx of the guarding ghoul, making it choke in its own blood and fall down. The mamono that heard the ghoul die looked around confused, but could not see what the source was of the fatal arrow. Now the blue torch had flared again, after which the next torch far nearer to him became blue. Another chucked stone distracted them enough for the ranger to quietly climb down and quickly sneak past them while they were busy following the noise.

Looking back he could see a glimpse of the ghost, appearing where he stood before. Closing the door behind him, he entered a dimly lighted hall which had jail doors on either side. turning left and then right lead him to a set of stairs that descended a floor, behind him however the sound of an opening door could be heard and the sound of bones scratching across stone. Hurrying down he passed more jail cells when a hand stuck out from the bars of one of the cells. "Over here, is there anybody?" Florandus walked up to the cell and peered at the prisoner.

A young man practically jumped to the bars. "A ranger, thank the gods.. can you get me out, my equipment is down this hall. hurry, before that thing at the grate comes back." After taking out his sword Florandus slid it under the hingebolt and with the use of leverage lifted it out, allowing the door to come off and free the young man. "Thanks, I'm Bovic."

=Chapter 4: Target practice.=

The rangers walked over to the chest containing Bovic's equipment. Bovic reached for the chest, trying to open it up. "Now to get my things.. It's locked" Florandus took out the hingepins from earlier and gave them to Bovic. "In that case just pick the lock"

His friend fiddled with the lock, but was stopped not soon after. The torch hanging above them was also extinguished to leave their spot in the shadows. "Shush, look behind you." Bovic turned and saw a red light coming from a silhouette back at the opened cell door, it vanished as the silhouette scuffled inside. The one ranger whispered to the other. "Look.. I'm about to quickly unlock the chest, as soon as it is I want you to take your bow and aim to the right of the red light.

Skeletons have two eyes, but only one can be damaged." Bovic nodded and readied himself. meanwhile the silhouette had noticed the faint sounds and turned her head in their direction. Florandus took the pins and inserted them in the lock quickly lifting the weights inside into their correct sockets, with a dull metallic thud the lock turned and opened. The skeleton now started running out the cell and straight at them. Throwing his sword and dagger aside he took out his bow and one arrow, shooting it to the right of the red light and hitting her other soft eye. The shot penetrated her cornea, lens and struck her fovea, causing her eye's bodily fluids to spill out.

The skeleton staggered mere footsteps away, giving them time to act. Florandus pinned her to the wall after that by stabbing his dagger between her radius and ulna in-between the spaces dividing the stones in the wall. Bovic sliced her other arm clean off with his sword. "Bovic, find something to pin her down completely, she'll just regenerate if we cut her up." He responded by nailing the skeletons hands tot he wall with the hingepins. With her stuck the rangers ran up the stairs and passing the door outside, somebody had to have heard that sound through the grate. Following the corridor they came to a door.

=Chapter 5: Making way.=

upon opening it, they where met with another zombie standing with her back to the door scratching at a rotten piece of skin. Florandus aimed with is finger to his friends sword and then at the back of the zombie neck. Bovic took out his sword and with one hand shortly covering her mouth he swiftly severed her spinal cord from her brain.

Without a sound the zombie slumped down into a heap. They came to a spiral staircase, at the top of which again a blue torch burned. The trainee asked the other ranger what the blue torch was, after explaining Bovic looked at Florandus with a worried frown. "How do we get past that?" They looked at each other, at the cups, letters and barrels around them, then back at one another with a mildly content expression.

They proceeded to throw small items near the torch to draw the entity away. torch by torch they saw the red flames turn blue and red again, the one at the top, the one midway and the one at the bottom. Hugging the walls covered in shadows they waited for the blue flame to appear behind them. When it did, they practically crawled up the stairs. once above, a sense of relief came over them.

=Chapter 6: Cleaning up.=

Hearing loud noises coming from the other side, the two carefully and very slowly opened the door a tiny bit. They saw their target, a litch going up and down on a male. Her hands were glowing indicating she was using a spell on him. Florandus pulled Bovic back and closed the door. "Okay, Bovic. Do you remember what to do against magic users?" Bovic thought for a second before he took his bow out. "kill or incapacitate before they can react to you." He was answered with a nod of confirmation. "I will kill the human and you'll kill the target like you were assigned to."

A short pause fell. "Why the human too?" A hint of irritation showed. "He is enthralled by her, he's definitely hostile." The rangers left it at that and opened the door again to see the litch climax. they aimed their bows at her and her thrall. After feeling a wave of pleasure wash into her the litch looked up and froze, as to her surprise she saw the captured prisoner and another unleash their arrows upon her. That being the last she had ever seen. The now lifeless bodies fell like humps of flesh atop one another.

The rangers looked down at the blue torch as it flared up and extinguished the torch all together. They took their time searching through the fort after that. all mamono that had lived on the litches demonic energy had now taken their trip to heaven or wherever they went. "So, how was your first assignment?" Bovic chuckled as he opened the second floor door outside and pushed the dead ghoul out of the way. "Not bad, I learned a lot despite being captured.." "In that case, there are a lot more and a lot harder assignments for you in the future. Just don't get captured again." Florandus laughed.

Taking quite a few spellbooks made by the litch they left the fort and returned to the guild.

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