Battle for Vincilos Part 1

Vincilos. Regarded as the hottest yet peaceful cities. The place is shaped like a cone—at least, that’s what half of it. The other half is the open field where adventures set out and hunt. In between, there's a wall between the city and the wild, acting as a border protecting the city.

The city is divided into three different districts—three separate halves. The first layer is the Housing District located on the top half of the city. It was a place where residential homes like private houses, apartment complexes, and inns are located.

The second layer is the Shopping District, which is located in the middle area of the city. It is the heart of Vincilos where most people shop for goods such as food, clothing, furniture, and also weapons, and also locations such as restaurants. Some stores also act as living quarters for owners who don't want to leave the store.

Lastly, the third layer located in the lower level of the city is the Docking District. It is used to dock ships and uses the warehouses to ship goods or store them until another ship arrives to transport them to another country.

It’s also known for its good fishing spot. Fishermen are free to fish from the docks or use rental boats to fish in the ocean. However, since the Blue Sharks took over the Docking District, a lot of fishermen weren’t able to fish ever since.

If they could beat the leader of the Blue Sharks, then the Docking District would be free for the people to fish once more.

※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

Shouya and Gin arrived at the city square, where the center of the chaos was happening. Fires scorching and spreading from one building to another. Blue Shark members were persecuting people; dragging them from their homes and into the street, or casting fire magic or throwing molotov cocktails at their homes, burning them alive inside.

The cries and screams of people that are being tortured by these horrific events that Shouya felt terrified and uneased by these hellish scenes.

This is what he was describing in his mind: Hell.

This is horrible. So much destruction. So many killings. Why would anyone do such a thing? It’s just like—

“Hey, watch out!”

“—!!”

“Huaaa!”

Without a moment to think, a man with a sword in hand ran towards Shouya. He was so distracted by the uncomfortable situation that this doesn’t give him enough time to react. Before he could take Shouya’s life, Gin quickly deflected the man’s sword and, with his sheer strength, made a wide cut through his torso with his large greatsword, splitting him in two.

“You’re alright?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“Don’t let your guard down for a second! They’re going to attack you, so be prepared! C’mon!”

“Right!”

Shouya and Gin made haste through the fiery streets. One might suggest, even Shouya in his mind at one point, that they would’ve used the alley to get to their destination safely. While that may be a safe option, the only downside is that it would only slow them down to the point that they don't have enough time to save the city before the Inquisitor arrives.

The city is huge; there’s just so many paths to take that you could easily get lost and take the wrong path if you don’t know the location. Not to mention that some paths are too narrow to get through, you could easily get jumped by an enemy at any time, and also, Gin is at a huge disadvantage because his sword was too big to even swing it, he’ll be left himself wide open. If they were to engage in combat, they would have very limited space to fight in.

While traversing through the alley is a safe option, it’s too risky to take that idea. The only quick way to get to the warehouse as fast as possible was to take the dangerous route, and they went along with it.

“These people… Isn’t there anything we can do to help them?”

“As much I want to sympathise with you, but we don’t have enough time to help them. They’ll pay for the pain they’ve caused.”

Gin grounded his fangs as he felt the frustration within him. All of the chaos in front of them happened preemptively. They couldn't have known that this was going to happen. They couldn’t do anything to prevent this.

“Look alive boys! We got fresh meat!”

Before they could continue, they were stopped by a group of Blue Shark members—a total of twelve men—were blocking the street in front of them. They were holding various weapons such as swords, axes, spears, and maces and machetes, too. Even some of them are going to fight barehanded.

Their menacing looks and intimidating bodies gave Shouya a little fright, but Gin, however, was not fazed by it. Instead, he was annoyed.

“Tch! I don’t have time for you goons! Move out of our way so we can give your boss a piece of my mind.”

“You? Going to face our boss?”

After they had heard Gin that he and Shouya were going to take down Vikov, the members of the Blue Sharks laughed at them, not taking them seriously.

“W-We do not want to cause any more trouble, but it would be grateful if you all not to destroy the city. If you guys stop and surrender peacefully, we won’t have to fight each other.”

Their laughs subsided when Shouya stepped in and tried to negotiate with them. Shouya wants to be a pacifist and not want to start a needless combat. But to them, they don’t care.

After hearing his negotiation, their faces turned sour as they didn't like the idea.

“Look at this smartass! Are you suggesting that we’re gonna give in and do what they say like their personal servants?”

“That’s not what I—”

“You don’t understand how much suffering we had to put through. The Blue Sharks are gonna change the socility and no one's gonna stop us!”

“But—”

“Don’t worry. I’ll understand once I’ll get to your boss and give him a piece of my mind after I’ll cut him down.”

“Damn you!”

Agitated by Gin’s words, the man ram towards them with a weapon in hand. The others followed suit after.

“Stand back, kid. I’m gonna show you how you fight.”

Gin walked forward with his giant sword while Shouya stayed behind. It’s a group of twelve beastmen versus one man. If it’s a battle against odds, Gin was very outmatched. He would have no chance facing all twelve of them by himself. However, Gin’s smile didn’t fade as he had something up on his sleeves.

The group surrounds him in a circle, covering his surroundings. Then, he aims his large sword at the group.

“Now c’mon, who’s gonna face me first?”

Intimidated by his taunt, one of the men from the group charged at him from the left side. He came charging with an axe in hand and swung at him. Gin blocked the attack, but another man charged next to him with a large machete in hand and tried to attack him, but he pushed the man who was blocking the axe in front of him and deflected the attacking man’s machete with the same large sword before decapitating him with a single slash.

One after another, members of the Blue Sharks charge on him one by one with their weapons; metal clashing, sparks flying, and blood painting on the battlefield. It seemed like it would be an impossible fight, but to Gin, it was not a problem to him as he kept on blocking and dodging for every attack he saw as he counterattacks.

Gin landed a hit at the Blue Shark member with his sword and the man’s body collapsed to the ground, falling victim to the wolf-man’s blade. Other members charge towards Gin as they try to avenge their fallen comrades. But alas, they suffered the same fate as the giant sword struck their body.

Half of the group was annihilated by the wrath of the large lavender wolf and they couldn’t get a single scratch off of him.

“C’mon, I still got energy left in me to take you all down!”

As Gin exclaims to the remaining members, the two men look at each other with a grin on their face and charges at Gin simultaneously. One member attacks him with his axe and Gin blocks the upcoming attack, blades locking into each other.

“—!”

However, the other member passed through Gin as he ran towards Shouya with a machete in hand, becoming the target.

“Quick, defend yourself!”

“Eek!”

In response to Gin’s warning, without a moment too soon, Shouya quickly raised his sword and guarded the member’s attack. The boy managed to keep on defending for a while until the man smacked his sword from his hands with his machete, leaving Shouya nothing to defend himself.

“Die!”

“Aaah!”

Shouya closed his eyes as the man raised his machete in the air to kill him. Shouya’s means of defending himself was stripped away from him; he doesn’t have anything to defend himself. All he can do now is to accept his fate.

“…Kaaa!”

Before his fate can be bet, Shouya looked up and saw the tip of Gin’s blade pierced through the man’s chest. It was something that was unexpected that even both the Blue Shark members and Shouya couldn’t believe their eyes.

What struck the grunt was a long iron chain that connects from the tip of the blade to the mid-section of Gin’s greatsword. It was long enough to reach from where he’s standing to where Shouya was.

He yanked the man from Shouya and threw the body at one of the grunts before the chains retracting the tip back to the sword.

“Damn it! There’s no way we could take this guy out. Let’s attack all at once!”

Only five of them are left standing, but only four of the members charged towards Gin simultaneously with full force. As the group was about to approach him, Gin snorted.

“So that’s how it is, huh? Very well!”

Gin puts two of his hands on the hilt of his giant sword. Then, something unordinary happens. His sword was suddenly split into two, turning from one sword into two swords.

“Haa!”

As the grunts were coming to them, Gin rapidly slashes the oncoming men in front of him, tearing them from limb to limb. Not only that he changed his sword, but his fighting style was changed as well. When his sword was one, his movement was slow and he could only take out one at a time. This time, when his sword became two, his attacks and movement were fast and he could take out more than one enemy.

That was the power that Shoya couldn’t comprehend and was out of his league.

After turning them to mincemeat, there was only one remaining member left in front of him. But after seeing his friends get killed by the large wolf-man, the grunt fearfully surrendered and dropped his weapon.

“I-I surrender! I didn’t know I was fighting the Wolf of the Grey Moon. I was doing what I was told. P-Please, spa—guk!”

Before the thug could continue, Gin grabbed him by the neck with his giant hand and lifted him in front of him. Comparing both the hand and the man’s neck, it’s like he could choke him out—or even break the man’s neck—with only just one hand.

“If you knew who I am, then you shouldn’t have started the fight in the first place, otherwise I would let you and your friends live.”

Gin raises his blade behind him as he was going to stab the remaining grunt. If he does that, he would eliminate the obstacles that were in their way from the warehouse.

However…

“…Gin, wait! Don’t kill him!”

“Huh?!”

Before he could kill the last thug, Shouya intervenes, halting Gin’s execution. What was his purpose for stopping Gin from attempting to kill the thug? After what the Blue Sharks had done, it would’ve been ideal to get them back for the destruction that they’ve caused.

But to Shouya, however, that isn’t the case.

“What do you mean don’t kill him? Don’t you see what they’ve been doing?”

“I know that, but he chose to surrender. At least spare someone who is unarmed.”

“Even so, they’re the cause of this destruction. You gotta know the circumstances.”

“Gin, please…”

“…”

Gin looked at the worried Shouya, pleading to spare the thug’s life. Despite that they are the enemies and what they’re doing to the city right now, Shouya doesn’t want another person to be killed, even if someone gave up the will to fight.

“…Fine.”

He gave a deep sigh and let go of the thug and the man fell to the ground bum first. After he was released, the thug cowardly ran from the scene with his life spared. Gin turns to Shouya with a mild expression on his face.

“I can see that you have a good heart. I can commend that.”

“T-Thank yo—”

“But…”

Gin flicked Shouya’s forehead and he yelped out “ow”. Even though it was a harmless flick, it felt as if he got hit by a baseball.

“Even if you tried to be nice, the same outcome won’t work again. I mean, I can see what you’re trying to do, but you gotta learn that not all people are gonna feel the same way.”

“—”

“But you’re not a bad kid. You’ve got good intentions, and I can’t blame ya. I just don’t want to see another person die in front of me. That includes you. You get what am I saying, right?”

“Y-Yeah…”

Hearing what Gin had said made Shouya feel a little warm inside. Even though what he said was true, his compliment and his safety for Shouya rings into his ear, and he couldn’t help but to acknowledge what he said.

“Anyways, let’s get going. We don’t want to keep Jakki waiting.”

“Right!”

That being said, both Shouya and Gin continue towards the Warehouse and save Jakki.

                                                                    ※ ※ ※ ※ ※ ※

“Here they come!”

As they ventured down the fiery path of the burning city of Vincilos, Gin was the first one to shout out as members of the Blue Sharks ambushed them from the fire and fought them head on.

“Hyaa!”

Gin, with his brute strength, cuts through three men at the same time with just one slash. With a strength like that, he could defeat an army of a hundred with no problem.

“Gnn!”

Shouya, on the other hand, was merely blocking every attack coming right at him. He doesn’t have any real experience of fighting—or even the thought of killing someone—first hand, so he just defends anyway he can. It makes sense for him to be the shield while Gin, a veteran who has more experience in combat than Shouya, is the sword.

As the thug was about to attack Gin from the back, Shouya immediately defended him before the thug could get a chance, and Gin followed up with a slice.

“Thanks, kid! But it looks like we’re ain’t done yet.”

“They just keep coming.”

They looked around and saw more members of the Blue Sharks approaching. Even though they had defeated as much as they could, more spawned in their place. They were outnumbered, but Gin could beat them all at once in a split second. But Shouya, on the other hand, barely has any strength left to fight. They had been running and fighting the thugs for ten minutes and he doesn’t have much stamina left to stand, like his legs might give out at any minute.

Four of the thugs run towards Gin while one charges towards Shouya, who was defending the great wolf-man’s back. The steel blades touched and Shouya guards the attack that was coming towards him. Despite being on the defensive, he can withhold a sword strike with all his might.

“Haaaa!”

He pushed back the man with his sword with little strength he had, and as he pushed back, he disarmed the man’s sword and the thug tripped and fell to the ground with nothing to defend himself.

I…I did it! Yes! I finally did it! I’ve finally defended myself. But…

Before Shouya could celebrate his achievement, he looked down at the man on the hard pavement. There was no weapon in sight where the thug can defend himself with. He was wide open.

I…need to kill him. I need to survive! I want to survive!

“Haaa!”

Without a moment to think, Shouya charges towards the downed thug, with blade in hand. Shouya’s will to live was unfazed that he doesn’t give second thoughts about his actions. It was a blind act of survival of the fittest.

“Kid, wa—”

Before Gin could warn him, he blocks the upcoming attack from the Blue Shark member. But it was already too late.

“—!”

As Shouya was about to end him, the thug pulled out a short dagger behind his back and stabbed Shouya in the side of his gut. He felt a sharp pain coursing in him; the feeling of cold iron piercing through his skin.

“Aaahhh!!”

Shouya collapsed to the ground, squirming in pain, as he held on the bleeding wound for his dear life. It was reckless, it was irrational, he was too focused on surviving the fight that he didn’t think straight. It was another huge mistake that he made. He didn't expect nor was he prepared for this to happen.

All of these things were happening to him, and only him, because he was unlucky.

“How does it feel to be the one in pain? Well this is what you get!”

The thug who stabbed him sat on his body and raised his knife above him, attempting to take Shouya’s life. Gin would’ve wanted to save him, but he caught himself in a tangle as he was still fighting multiple members of the Blue Sharks around him, so it wouldn’t be possible to even save him in time.

“Now die!”

“I don’t think so! Huah!”

Before Shouya could meet his end, a loud voice bellowed and something struck the gang member’s head, causing it to fly far away from where his body should’ve been as a geyser of blood erupts from the decapitated neck.

“—! Gunther?”

Shouya sees a familiar friend in front of him as he carries a giant hammer on him. It’s not just an ordinary hammer, it’s a warhammer. The size of it is as big as his body as the head of the hammer is a size of a vending machine—at least close to that.

Compared to Gin’s sword, Gunther’s warhammer was the second largest weapon that he had ever seen. If there was a competition of who has the biggest weapon, the clear winner would be Gin, and that’s no exaggeration.

“Hey kid, stay with me! Alisa, help me here!”

“I’m coming! Ah! Sho!”

Alisa desperately rushed towards the wounded Shouya, who had been stabbed by the Blue Shark member as blood continued to gush out from him.

“Alisa, you know what to do.”

“Right!”

As Gunther commanded her, she took out two colored crystals from her bag. It was the Magi-gems, but instead of the blue and green Magi-gems that they’ve shown to him before, it’s green and yellow. She rubbed the two crystals with each other over the stab wound and a sprinkle of small lights fell from the crystals and on to the bloody wound. A small glow casted from the wound and it started to close itself.

This is the power of Magi-gems of what they’re capable of. But it didn’t last long as the crystals started to lose their color after using it once.

After closing Shouya’s wound, he stood up normally with no problem.

“W-Wow. It actually worked. Than— ah!”

Out of nowhere, she hugged him, worried that he might die in front of her. Thankfully she had saved him in the last minute.

“Thank goodness! I almost thought I hadn’t saved you.”

“Yeah, thanks. And thanks, Gunther. If you hadn't been here, I would’ve been a goner.”

“Heh. No problem! And you should thank these bad boys. Speaking of which, how much do we have left Alisa?”

“Sadly, we’re out of it.”

As she searched thoroughly in her bag, she couldn’t find any more of the green and yellow Magi-gems. All that are left in there were all the Magi-gems that are greyed out.

“Wait, I thought you said they have limited uses. What happened?”

“Well, it depends on how they were used. But combining these two in particular takes up the whole thing.”

“So you can only use them once?”

“Exactly. We used them to treat the wounded all the way here. So that’s why you can see that they have no color in them.”

“Oh, I see…”

Would’ve been great if we could use them multiple times. But I guess that’s not possible if you can use them only one time, huh.

Shouya had learned that he can’t rely on the Magi-gems too much, otherwise they would grey out very quickly and they would be a waste. Shouya still has the Magi-gems that he got from Gunther back at the inn, but he has to use them carefully for now on.

“—Ah! What about Gin?”

“Right here. Had to ruff up those guys while I had to defend you all.”

As Shouya tries to figure out where he was, worried what might’ve happened to him, Gin calls from behind him with his blood-covered sword on his shoulder. It seemed like Gin had defeated them all by himself without any help and survived without a scratch. Even though he’s in fine condition, Shouya blames himself for leaving Gin’s side.

“I’m sorry for leaving your side. I should’ve—”

“You don’t have to say anything. Right now, we don’t have time to waste.”

“Oh, right.”

“Time? What does he mean by that?”

Oh, right. I forgot they weren't there.

Alisa and Gunther were confused about what Gin was talking about until Shouya had realized that until now. He explained to them what happened in the events up until now: the battle against Darmac, Jakki’s capture, and the time limit until the Inquisitor arrives. They were shocked when they heard all of that, and not only that, their expressions are filled with worry.

“So the Inquisitor is coming here. Never thought I would hear about him again.”

“Huh? You know about him Gunther?”

“We had a…rough relationship back then.”

“Huh? What do you mean?

“He was the most awkward yet boring person I had ever met. He didn’t even crack a smile or even take a joke. But the one thing that’s been bothering me that I can’t stand about him is that he’s a cold and heartless savage, and no matter who’s with him or what’s his view of the world, friend or foe, he didn’t care for anyone. He’ll attack anyone who stands in his way to achieve their goal. That’s one of the reasons I quit the unit.”

Everything that Gunther had said sends shivers down Shouya’s spine. He had never heard someone that was ruthless before, so ruthless that he doesn’t care if the world turns on him. Even Gin buried his fangs and both he and Alisa turned their face away from the history that Gunther told.

That is why the Inquisitor was not only the most powerful person in the world, but the most infamous person alive.

“While I don’t mean to brag, but we don’t have time to stand still. We can still save the city if we defeat the leader.”

While Shouya was left in silence, Gin snapped him out as he had almost forgotten what was his original task: save Jakki, defeat the leader of the Blue Sharks, and halt the members to regain dominance of Vincilos.

“That's right! With your smarts, that’s the only way to grab his attention. The Inquisitor couldn’t initiate the destruction without proof.”

“So we’re going to help you two out!”

“Alisa, Gunther…”

Both Alisa and Gunther have decided to help out to carry out their plan. This brings joy to Shouya as they'll need the back-up they can.

“Thank you.”

"Daww, there’s no need to thank us. C’mon, let’s get moving! Alisa, you evacuate the citizens in this city and to the gate. I'm gonna go with the boys."

"Alight! And Sho..."

"Yeah?"

"Please take care of yourself."

"Right."

Those last words brings a little hope to his heart as she left to evacuate everyone from the city. With the plan in motion, Shouya, Gin, and Gunther begin their mission and heads down the road to save Vincilos. One hour and thirty minutes left until the destruction of Vincilos.