Chapter 38: The First Boss Fight?

The party now reunited with Isla once more drop down from the rooftops into the middle of the encirclement, they turn to face the Kitsune that Isla called Alyssa. The kitsune narrows her eyes at the appearance of the party, and the part enter their now very rehearsed combat formation, Ilev casting his usual array of buffs across the other party members as the rest prepare to fight the Kitsune that’s leering at them. The tension in the air is electric as both sides wait on the other to make the first move, eventually they both get tired of waiting and attack at the same time Isla cutting clean through a spell the Kitsune fired at the now trio of frontliners. Using the dissipating spell as cover both Lexa and Aromi cast their own spells in the direction of the Kitsune, Lexa opting for her well used binding spell and Aromi for the light spell that is able to daze opponents, both mages working towards creating an opening for the frontliners to exploit. With nimble footwork and with some surprisingly high agility the Kitsune named Alyssa avoided both spells from the party mages and was able to put distance between her and the on coming frontliners, however they aren’t given much time to think as Lekly and Suieol make the ground below her landing site uneven in an attempt to stall the Kitsune from finding their bearings and launching a counter attack before the frontliners can even land their first attack. Once more Alyssa nimbly manoeuvres outside of the trap set for her, now readying a spell targeting the frontliners from their blindside. The Kitsune’s spell lands squarely on Isla, but in being distracted by the onslaught of traps set by the party the Kitsune herself gets hit by a whirlwind of blades cast by Lexa from Alyssa’s blind spot. With the opening blows exchanged a stalemate is once again reached between the two sets of combatants, as each side had inflicted similar damage to each other but neither side ready to show the full hand that they possess quite yet. With Isla recovering from the hit she took the two sides once more began the dance of anticipating when the other would make their move, this time however the frontline trio aided by Lekly and Suieol in the back launched first from three different angles and elevations making sure that even if one was hit two more would make an attack or at least keep the attention of the Kitsune away from Lexa or Aromi long enough for them to land a spell or two in retribution. Seeing the party’s strategy the Kitsune once more targeted Isla with a spell only for her to once more cut through the spell launched at her, but the Kitsune didn’t attempt to change targets instead focusing on Isla. Until one spell landed even though it looked like Isla had once again cut through the spell, it incapacitated Isla on the spot and with another flurry of quick, precise agile movements the Kitsune grabbed Isla’s limp body and made her exit breaking through the soldier’s encirclement with ease. Just as the party were about to give chase, they heard a voice from behind them demanding their attention.

“NEWLY ARRIVED PARTY A MESSAGE HAS ARRIVED FOR YOU! AN INCIDENT HAS TAKEN PLACE IN SEOLFORD AND THE CITY IS REQUESTING THAT THE PARTY ON THE GRAND QUEST RETURN TO HELP QUELL THE INCIDENT!”

A soldier now quite out of breath after all that and most likely having run from the nearest city gate to the party’s current location. Upon hearing the news the party all exchanged worried looks because not only had someone they know should be one of the Dark King’s Lieutenants has just been kidnaped by another one of the Dark King’s Lieutenants and is now making their way into the dark lands, but also the city that took them in without so much as a question of their past but only a humble request is under attack from who knows what.

“Ilev what do we do? We can’t let Alyssa get away with Isla in that state.”
“Lexa we can’t just let Seolford fall. Ilev, we have to go back.”
“Then let’s split up, like we always have in this type of situation.”
“No, we’re all going back to Seolford.”
“ILEV! What about Isla? Do you remember nothing about what the broker told us?”
“Lexa I do remember, but Isla is a strong girl. I’m sure even unconscious she’ll be just fine and will probably have some snide remark for us when we link up with her again later. But we don’t know the situation in Seolford, even with the number of adventurer’s they have there that might not be enough to deal with whatever is happening.”
“Fine! We’ll go back!”

With that Lexa floats off towards the city gate in a huff, leaving the rest of the party behind. They quickly follow behind her however they leave a small distance between them and her because right now they’d rather not get too close and feel the wrath of her spells. The party are guided to a gate where they are met with what clearly was an early prototype for a motor vehicle to move troops around in, the party had Lexa get inside the front of the vehicle while the rest hopped into the back as Lexa was not likely to cool off anytime soon over the decision that Ilev made. The motor vehicle ride back towards Seolford was a lot smoother than the coachman’s carriage and faster too, instead of the journey between the two cities taking the predicted five days by horse they made it back to Seolford in just eight hours, only just about beating the sunset. Arriving back at Seolford the party found the city gate deserted, so they decide to disembark the motor vehicle and start searching the rest of the outer city, the soldier who drove them accompanied the party in their search. However, the same desertion could be seen across most of the outer city, as there was none of the usual city bustle to be heard either. It was as if the city had become a ghost town in the matter of a mere day between the carrier message and motor vehicle ride.