Chapter 1:
The Sword Saints' Crush is a Bounty Hunter in Another World
It didn't take long for the Galleon-adorned War Elephant to come into view in the hazy, sandy horizon.
The broom's engine heaved, billowing out a faint purple smog as it sped through the dunes at full speed, regardless of the concerning amount of sand shooting right into 'The Wizard's boots. He turned and pushed the handles of his broom forward, the haze in his vision dissipating as the animal and its abominable pirate galleon shell came into closer view. While the evenness of the desert basin's surface made it easy to ride through, it meant the beast could also maintain it's unnatural speed, barreling through the sand in a rapid escape.
The broom revs again, the purple fumes thinning as it whistled out of the engine at greater speed, and soon after, the 15-story giant was as close as it can be. As it's hind legs marched forward, kicking all manner of rock in The Wizard's direction. It's more shapely details came clearer into view; a typical grey 6-tusked elephant holding on it's back half a galleon, it's bottom broken off to fit right on to its back like a shell. The black galleon had no sails, what with the masts unevenly broken off as if a giant baby had played with it prior. As per usual with these shell-ships, it was put on backwards; the bow and it's bowsprit pointed at its behind as if to make up for it's hidden tail, and the captain's quarters were up front, sitting right on top of its head like headgear. Though, given he's close enough to give the details much thought, he suspects those on board had already noticed that--
WHOOSH!
An arrow whizzes right past his ear.
The broom pushed faster, exhausting more purple gas through it's bristles, weaving its way through the volley of arrows now and arriving right next to the beast's hind leg. It kicked sand of differing shapes and sizes with every stomp of it's massive pillar-like legs, now halfway through the large desert basin. He leans to the right slowly to take a peek at the galleon's deck and stares a pale-skinned demon right in the eye, arrow nocked and ready to end the chase.
Thanks to the absurdly large horns adorned on every one of them, he weaves under the elephant before he could even catch the rest of its face and slides to its left side. With his speed now matching the elephant's, he slowly leaned upward, and quickly plants his two feet right on the seat. The vehicle wiggles, ready to throw The Wizard right off until he finds his balance, surfing with unease through the dunes on an engine-powered broom. Before the demons could loose a couple more arrows, he immediately throws his arm out from under his cloak pointed towards the galleon's right hull and shoots a long steel grapple from his gauntlet, biting right into the wood. He ascends quickly, swinging left and right through the arrows until he grabbed on to the open gun ports and immediately opening the trapdoor for defense. He turns back to the ground, watching dunes passing by in rapid speed as the empty broom bike pulls back and tumbles over, suddenly far back in the distance. Hopefully, he thought, it didn't get too roughed up, as he watched the vehicle violently roll through the dunes harder than he thought it would. The speed of this monster was no joke.
More archers manning the deck rush to the galleon's right bulwark, aiming down where The Wizard hung and fire with inhuman dexterity. He'd never gotten used to how fast they'd barrage him, even though nowadays he'd get at most a scrape. It was nevertheless annoying to deal with.
He grunts and pulls upward, pulling the grapple out from its anchor point and shooting it straight at a demon's horns. It wraps around its obsidian antlers and he reels back the mechanism, forcing the pale-skinned monster to fall into the dunes with a scream. As the line snatches onto the trapdoor, creating a pulley between himself and his first victim, The Wizard pushes himself off the hull and the line pulls his body upward with the weight and momentum to make his entrance.
"Aloha!" The Wizard enters the fray.
The two archers by the hull aren't able to react quickly enough as their foreheads are suddenly embedded with steel throwing knives as The Wizard rolls onto the ship's deck. He quickly scans his surroundings and finds four.. five... no, seven demons, all clad in broken mismatched armor and armed with a variety of stolen weaponry. Three archers stood adjacent to him on the other end of the deck with no vantage point, two gripped spears while one held an axe, and the last one particularly huge four-horned ogre held on his shoulder an gigantic steel sword. Right out of Final Fantasy, he thought.
"My, quite the party you boys are packing here" They all glared at him. There was a sense of desperation, and exhaustion in their eyes, like bloodthirsty animals who haven't had their fill in days. Despite their worn-out state, it wasn't going to be easy pickings, but the pay would let him take an extra day off this weekend.
The demons don't wait as two enraged spearman charge right at him. "GRAAAHHHH!!!!"
The Wizard pulls out another thinner wire from a small opening in his gauntlet under his palm and flings it at one of the spear's tip. It wraps around tight enough for him to yank it towards him and hug the polearm under his arm. He delivers a swift kick to the chest, disarming the demon and throwing him to the ground with a thud. Before the second spearman could reach him, he spins the stolen spear forward and pushes the wire with a spring, swiftly plunging the tip deep into the attacker's neck.
Arrows whizz past, and he begins to shuffle laterally across the deck towards the archers standing across from him. A light hits The Wizard's left eye as he spots the glint of an axe swinging down from above. He quickly grinds his foot down to a halt, and spins around the interceptor, barely missing the weapon's cleave, and continuing his stride with unbroken momentum. The axe-armed demon trips as his weapon hits the thick oak floor where his victim should have been standing and is thrown off, hitting the broken mast face-first, his horns latching onto it.
His steps get wider as he closes in on the archers, when the demon furthest to the left quickly leaps to the side onto the floorboard, shoulder first.
The other two are not so quick to react.
To the one on his left, the wired spear is pulled, crashing the tip right through their chest. To the one on his right, he ducks beneath with ease and drives a concealed dagger beneath the jawline. The remaining fallen archer nocks and fires but The Wizard pulls up his fresh kill's corpse as a shield, stopping the arrow, and drops his ally's lifeless weight on him. Crushed by the mass, he's unable to regain a sense for what had just happened before a spear is skewers through both their bodies.
The Wizard heaves, taking a quick breath, but is grabbed from behind by the first disarmed spearman, putting his neck on an armlock. "Ghhk! You wuss!" He holds onto the arm, struggling against his inhuman strength to no avail and the demon pulls them both down to the ground on their backs. The larger ogre-like demon charges in, comically large sword held on both arms over his head, bellowing a deafening war-cry. Showing no hesitation whatsoever to cut his own ally in half, The Wizard taps his boot on the ground and the soles glow a distinct purple. They glow brighter to a crescendo and both he and the demon locked on his neck launch down the deck, barely missing the ogre's swing and crashing them both onto the wall of the captain's quarters, the demon hitting it back-first. His grip loosens from the sudden shock and The WIzard pulls himself away. He rolls to the ground and, before the demon could regain its footing, draws his bronze pistol and smacks the hammer, popping the monster's head in a bloody explosion. "Dammit..." He laments, checking the barrel. "There goes another expense"
He isn't given the time to calculate the cost of needing to make another clip as the ogre's stomps grew closer and closer.
"WHOAH!" The Wizard doesn't turn to look as he pushes himself up and narrowly dodges the ogre's swing. The angry giant glares at The Wizard, snarling as he readies his blade again for another attack. He looks quickly shoots a glance down the deck, seeing the axe-armed demon loosening himself from the mast and begins his charge towards them.
"Rock n' Roll, baby"
The Wizard releases another wire from his gauntlet, hooking right onto the ogre's horns and pulls on it tight. Surprised by the sudden cling to its antlers, the ogre panics and yanks its head to the side. It only takes that much force to yank the grappler towards the ogre, forcing him into the air. The Wizard pulls on his cloak, activating its hardening spell, as the giant frantically swings its blade. The flat hits the hardened cloak with a ding, forcing a sudden crushing pain to pulse up The Wizard's arm. Despite the immense discomfort, the sudden knock on his momentum gave him the hangtime to grab onto one of the giant's horns. He pulls himself in and plants a boot firmly onto its head. It panics more, swinging frantically with one arm and using its free hand to grab at its pilot. The axe-armed demon stops his charge, and stares at the chaos.
The Wizard, holding onto the horns for dear life, looks the axe-armed demon in the eye and gives him a wink. The demon's face goes pale and he drops his axe, watching as the pilot above the ogre's head pulls its horns with all his weight, forcing the frantic, swinging giant towards his direction. He runs, but doesn't make it far before he's cut clean in half by the panicking giant.
"Whoo! Thanks for the help, big guy!" The Wizard yanks at the horns again, attempting to keep it on its feet.
"Now, tell you what! How about a present-" He pulls out a small box full of buttons and wires that hung on his belt, and clicks on a button, starting a beeping noise that gets quicker with each 'beep'. "-from me to you!"
"GRAHHHH!!" The ogre yells, ramping up his frantic swings. The Wizard slams the box on the its nape, activating the box's adhesive, and latching it on tight. He jumps off its head, the gauntlet's wire still clung to its horns and swings down towards the space between the legs of the beast. He releases the wire and slides through on his knees.And as the beeps ramp up, the giant turns and before it could even decide to attack, everything from the waist up explodes in a violent firework of blood and guts. The Wizard, sliding right through the deck, throws both his hands up in horn signs and screams. "WOOOO!"- never has there been a more beautiful ode to rock n' roll in this world.
The door of the captain's quarters slams open and The Wizard finds himself eye-to-eye with a single tall demon, fully clad in dark armor, a helmet with six horns over the plate of a skull mask. Despite the lack of a visible face, he didn't need to see to know they were fully seething. The labored breathing, the hunched back and the way he immediately brandished and held his jet black longsword told him everything he needed to know- this is the one he's after.
"Finally go to you, huh?" The Wizard spoke. "Easy way or hard way, buddy. Which is it?"
"Waste-worm! You would so dare attempt to put an end to my campaign!?" The masked demon bellowed, gripping his blade tight on both hands. "I'll gut you like the common fish you are, knave!"
"Hard way it is"
The demon steps forward and swings his blade, cutting through the air with surgical precision, barely scraping The Wizard's cheek as he steps back. His side was still feeling immense pressure, but he held on and dodged the next swing, stepping to the east end of the room.
He unravels his cloak and grabs onto the device clung to his belt beneath his back- a blade hilt attacked to a foot-long cylindrical machine. He twists it until it clicks twice, causing the cylinder to produce an engine-like noise, trembling like a shivering animal. He steps back, hand still clinging to the hilt, dodging the next swing. Despite narrowly keeping up with the demon, its posture never wavered, seemingly solidifying with each successive swing. This one was a trained killer, The Wizard surmised, trained to kill the best of the best. His advantage, however, was this one was really exhausted. Had it been otherwise, that might have been the end of this particular hunter's story.
But not today.
The cylindrical machine chimes with the ding of a toaster and The Wizard pulls out the hilt and from it brandishes an arming sword made from brass, too long to have possibly fit its sheath. The demon immediately sees the blade and steps back, stopping the hunter's swing with his dark blade. The Wizard drags his weapon's flat through to the tip of the demon's blade and thrusts. But again, the demon blocks and pushes his blade back with force, pushing The Wizard back and almost losing balance. The demon sees the opportunity and charges, but not before the hunter activates his cloak again, hardening right as the dark blade touched it. Sparks flew, but as the demon overshot, he uses his elbow to knock The Wizard back. But as he steps back, he yanks his arm, having clung his wire to the dark blade as he'd scraped against him. The demon is throttled forward, and as he loses balance, The Wizard swings down at his arm.
But as soon as it makes contact, the brass blade shatters, leaving only the hilt. Shit, not brass then, The Wizard thought. He feels the demon smile beneath his mask and pushes the hunter away, grabbing the wire and snapping it clean off his blade.
"Oh come on, man" The Wizard mumbled.
He clicks on his hilt, releasing any residue left from the brass blade and inserts the hit back to the metallic cylindrical sheath and twists it thrice, activating it again with another rattle. Okay, maybe tin?, he thought.
The demon grips his blade once more and thrusts. The Wizard narrowly dodges, watching for how he steps back to keep the pain on his side from aching while gripping onto the hilt. As he steps back, his leg finds a large oak table at the center of the room. He quickly tumbles over it right as the dark blade bit into the oak and kicks the table from his end, smacking it right into its waist forcing the demon to lurch over the table. The cylinder dings again, and The Wizard brandishes another blade, made from a reddish tin, driving it down the gap of its helmet. Once more, the blade shatters as it makes contact with the nape.
"Fuck me, man!" The Wizard exclaims.
"Hah! I cannot be cut down by your trinkets, hunter!" The demon grips the table and pushes it back, forcing The Wizard to lose balance. His back hits the wall, causing the pain on his side to pulsate. "Ugh!" He groaned, clicking the hilt again to release the tin's residue. But before he has time to feel the pain, however, the demon kicks the table with an excess of force towards him. He yanks his body out of the way as the table hits the wall with an explosive smash.
The Wizard finds his footing again and loads the hilt back into the cylinder. There's no way it's steel, right?, he thought. Steel was the only type of weapon inside this ship, but the hunter couldn't possible help but wonder... 'what if?'.
He twists the hilt again, 5 times this time and the machine revs.
The hunter evades another flurry of slashes. Even as the pain on his side made it difficult to completely get away from the dark blade's fury, he only got away with minor slashes on either his clothes or minor cuts on the surface of his skin. The Wizard suddenly firmly plants his boot to the ground, feeling the machine rattle to a crescendo as he gripped the hilt. And just as the demon pulled back his blade for another swing, the machine dings and The Wizard taps his foot to the ground. The boots' soles glow a distinct purple and with a burst of wind, they propel him towards the demon with immense speed. It doesn't have time to react as The Wizard tackles the demon with his hardened cloak. And as it loses balance, The Wizard steps to its side and unsheathes from the sheath a steel longsword, longer than his two previous blades. He swings down at the gap of its gauntlet and instead of shattering, the sword cuts into its skin and cuts the demon's arm clean off.
Yep, steel!
The masked demon yells in shock, but that doesn't stop The Wizard's subsequent flurry, cutting its other arm and spinning downward to take its right knee too before it had the chance to react or change its stance.
"Groahhh..!" The demon lands on its remaining knee, heaving and groaning. It turns to the stubs of its arms with trembling unease. "How... How did you..."
"So... you chose to be weak to steel... and surrounded yourself with steel..." The Hunter sighs, holding his side and heaving too from exhaustion. "It's a good idea, don't get me wrong. A classic, even. Could've worked on implementation, though, given all your guys were armed and also angry but hey, I respect the trust"
"Silence...! You fool..." The demon groaned. "Listen well, hunter... I fight against the same forces that plunged our world to war... The damnable royalists would persecute me!"
Ah, one of those.
"Well then, Master Freedom-Fighter" The Wizard says, stretching his back. "When you get back to hell, you could tell your ex-bosses and the, according to your bounty, 400 people you and your posse killed, you tell em' The Wizard sent you, yeah?"
"YOU--" The Wizard doesn't hesitate. With a swift swing of his steel blade, the masked demon's head is flung clean off its shoulders, hitting the ground with a thud. Not wanting to pick it up just yet, The Wizard leans on the wall, feeling only the stomps of the elephant vibrating the walls.
"Right... how do I stop this thing?"
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