Side Quest 1 : Nat 1 at Gilt Coffer, part 2

Approaching voices and echoing footsteps cut our nerves—panic nipped at resolve as we rushed to hide Lyra or melt into shadows. Our escape slipped away, the archive walls pressing tighter.

"I don't have a diviner subclass, but I foresee imminent chaos," Lisian remarked, sinking to the floor with uncharacteristic weariness.

"Here we go again," Edna muttered in frustration, sighing and dragging his hand down over his face until it covered his eyes.

"Ah! What do we do?" the paladin cried, curling into a ball, head in both hands, panicked.

"We're going to die, that's what's going to happen." Caneky, usually resilient, faltered under guilt and Itzamune's panic.

"Calm down!" Everyone shushed me at once. "Calm down," I repeated, whispering now. "We need control. Lizard-boy, review the escape plan. Edna, block the door. Lisian, start the concealment ritual for Lyra. Lyra, stay still for the ritual. Itzamune, keep Lyra focused."

Lyra glared, then lowered her weapon in disappointment as she moved next to Lisian. Edna immediately melted the lock with acid. Caneky unfolded the map, tracing his finger over escape routes. Lisian whispered the incantation over Lyra, motioning for her to stay still. Meanwhile, I hummed to keep everyone focused, pacing in a tight circle.

Itzamune stayed out of position, rigid, cracking his thumbs. The armored shark whimpered. Lyra noticed and hugged the paladin to calm him.

“How’s the mist going?” Lisian asked Caneky, while waving her staff over both giants to cover them with the spell.

“Almost ready,” he replied curtly, without looking at her, fully focused on the illusion spell, which he was sealing inside a vial to be released outside the room.

Edna wrestled with Quetza, who slapped him away whenever he tried to grab the scales. Suddenly, we heard employees twisting the handle of the sealed door from outside.

"Time’s almost up," Edna whispered from the keyhole. "They’re trying the other side now."

"Good, that gives us a few more minutes." Caneky finally sealed the storm into his vial. "So, when the door opens, Edna stuns them, and Ronin knocks them out. No, Lyra, we’re still not killing anyone."

The barbarian huffed, cheeks puffed, shoulders heaving as she let out a fierce, wounded hoot—longing for action in her eyes.

"After the uniforms, sneak to the treasury and guard it until all betting money is collected. Quetza goes with you to—" Caneky began, cut off by my laughter.

"Sorry, but I still find it hilarious he named his winged worm." My laughter ended with a dagger painfully buried in my butt. "Ouch!"

“Stop clowning around and shut up.” Edna, deadpan as ever, sheathed his dagger as his necrotic potion pulsed near my tail. “Lisian, please heal this fool’s butt before the poison wipes out his brain.”

“Spredna, shhh! Manners!” The flower-druid scolded while I felt the comforting sensation of healing magic.

“You’re as glorious as the noonday sun.” Tears of relief welled in my eyes as the rotting pain faded.

At the sound of the door, we all hid quickly: Itzamune donned a suit helmet and crouched behind shelves, Caneky ducked behind a stack of boxes, Edna and I pressed ourselves flat against either side of the door, Lyra slid under a blanket near the center of the room, and Lisian crouched behind Lyra, her magic at the ready.

The door opened slightly. The employees chatted casually as they entered, but before Edna and I could spring from our positions, the sound of the doorknob triggered Lyra’s Rage. She shot out from under the blanket, charged at the door, and slammed it shut on the workers trying to get in.

She looked at us, her feathers bristling and her grin widening.

"All done! No casualties. Everything’s going according to plan!" Lyra lifted her axe, doing thrusters with it above her crown of feathers.

Itzamune checked the employees for injuries, and the rest of us sighed in relief, then gave ourselves synchronized forehead smacks.

“OK, guys! Let’s do this!” Our tank didn’t look at any of us, charging up her ultimate attack. “Lyyyyra Jankiiiiiins!” she screamed, waving her battle axe like a cheerleader, destroying everything in her path.

That phrase alone destroyed our plan. We stood frozen as our backup crumbled; hollow dread warned that this was the beginning of the end.

“Has no one told her that phrase is ancient?” Our warlock prepped an invisibility spell for himself.

“I don’t have the heart to do it.” Itzamune grabbed his trident from the archive room.

“I—” Edna started, but Lisian covered his mouth with a wave of petals, making him cough and halting his run.

"Don't you dare finish that phrase or you'll be dealing with me, heartless wretch," our druid said as she exited the building. She was followed by Caneky and his familiar, whose form began to fade into the air.

“Honestly, I wouldn’t dare cross her.” The paladin removed his battered helmet and sighed as Lyra’s joyful roars echoed. “Ah, that’s my cue. See you outside.” He ran after the group.

The artificer and I looked at each other, exchanged a glance, then both shrugged, silently agreeing to get on with our tasks.

"I bet I'll get more money off the nobles than you will from the treasury," I said, challenging Edna as I played resonant strums on my lute.

“Bet accepted.” Edna pulled some potions from his belt. “Whoever wins, pays the other their weight in gold.”

“Oh no. I’m not falling for that.” I knocked my knuckles on the wood of my instrument. “Your weight in gold? If I win, I lose.”

“Deal!” Edna gave a mischievous grin and ran down the rubble-filled hallway toward the treasury room.

Edna dashed off, not noticing his belt was now lighter. When luck's on his side, he misses everything else.

To ensure no coin escaped me, I blocked the nobles’ exits. Using the tiny explosive pellets I had taken from Edna’s belt, I sealed every exit but the central gate, where I waited to greet the panicked rich folks.

At the main gate, aristocrats piled up as Caneky watched Lyra. Her sudden reveal ruined the concealment spell, prompting her to chase employees across the field. Quetza flapped and growled in frustration at the chaos, but Caneky pressed on, hoping the bottled mist would fare better than the spell.

I also saw Itzamune struggling to control most of the low-level beasts. His gentle demeanor didn’t help; the lower-level creatures fled in fear, while the higher-ranked ones turned to face him. He already had around twenty Nightspawns ranging from E to B rank under control, but the A-rank Nocturnes were beginning to break free from Lisian’s petal storm that had been helping to subdue them.

When Caneky pulled the cork from the vial, the mist spread over the racetrack, but quickly turned into a thick cloud that formed a giant tornado. It tore through the field, sowing chaos among the spectators and staff as the captured dark beasts rained down into the stands.

The arena’s security staff intervened immediately to subdue the anomaly, but their lack of experience and knowledge only made them easy targets for the B-rank Nullshades. Caneky had assumed at least half the guards would specialize in light magic to pacify the beasts and that someone would recognize the spell as an illusion. Apparently, that wasn’t the case, as everyone began claiming it was an SS-level Hostile Manifestation. Odd and curiously convenient, but it was a golden opportunity to wrap up our mission quickly and avoid penalties.

Edna returned, cursing and yelling that I was a thieving cat—he wasn’t wrong. But his path was blocked by weeping nobles. Some, not yet robbed, emptied their pockets, begging us to open the gates.

Not that I’d admit to anything, but hearing the clinking of gold hitting polished stone, I quickly snatched one of Edna’s bombs from his belt and hurled it at the door, blowing it sky-high. The ridiculous aristocrats fled the disaster we’d unleashed behind us. My companion, weighed down by heavy vault bags, dropped them with a thud and then sprinted toward me as I leapt up to the roof.

“You won’t believe this, but I found this vial after you left and thought of your ever-kind heart and our unbreakable bond of friendship.” I shook the vial slightly.

“Stop! You’re going to blow us up. Hand it over, and all is forgiven. We’re good.” Edna looked alarmed.

“Oh… Not even a thank-you kiss?” I dropped down from the rafters, my tail protecting the vial from impact.

“No, I’m allergic.” He secured the vial onto his belt.

“To cats?” I swept coins off the floor with my tail.

“No, to idiocy.”

“STOP FLIRTING AND GET OUT ALREADY!” Caneky’s voice, usually scolding, now sounded like a desperate plea.

After placing the bags next to my loot pile for us to recover later, we quickly collected our gear. With the central gate now clear, we rushed through it and out onto the open field, where the stormy wind had finally calmed. Once outside, a new threat greeted us: a strange beast was attacking our companions beyond the bleachers.

We climbed up the bleachers and saw at a glance that someone was missing from our group. Caneky lay collapsed, and Lisian knelt beside him, channeling healing magic into his wounds. Itzamune was planted firmly between the bizarre creature and their fallen ally, wielding his trident and fending off the beast with fierce resolve.

“Where’s Lyra?” Edna asked as I strummed a tune to raise my companions’ morale.

“THAT!” Caneky pointed at the roaring beast. “That’s Lyra!”