Quest - Dark Harvest: A Hefty Brew | Page 3

Naturally, thanks to keeping eye on the barrels of stinky ale people seemed to love so much, Sylpha did not have much resources left to divide to the surveillance of the environment around their dray. That was the job of Verity, who eventually appeared to have found something suspicious.

Since there was very little chance they were going to complete the trip unmolested, Sylpha could not say she did not see it coming... Well, metaphorically, of course. If one counted the fact all she could see was wooden barrels, then she really did not see it coming.

While she may not understand the real value of the alcoholic product, she did have a single job and did not intend to fail at it. Verity had already hatched a plan: Solaria worked the horses as fast as she could, Sylpha used her magic to keep the barrels stable. Basically, what they had been doing before, except faster and bracing for a rougher ride.

"Alright." She replied, selecting the spell from her spell menu as she gave a nod towards the man who was drawing his sword. The system took over control of the azure haired Arcanist's finger, and she began to write the incantation for a telekinetic spell to apply to the barrels.

Those guys in Luebec better pay up real good for a job like this.

 

@Verity's agreement with her words was both a minor surprise and dismal thing. She'd rather hoped her worries were in vain- a simple quest wasn't a bad one, after all. As she was told to stop, she commanded the horses with caution, managing to slow them into a stall and letting out a soft sigh. They had quite a bit to do to get this brew home, it seemed.

With the horses at a standstill, the elf stood from her spot at the reins and turned to take a glance at Verity. Since he was still in charge of keeping them safe, she used a spell in hopes to help him as his sword was drawn, a small smile on her face. "May fate take wing on your blade!"

Fate Channelling

Sending light into his sword, she turned to sit back down, though kept her sword at the ready in case she might need it. She'd wait silently until it was time to outrun them, but she couldn't be sure that alone would be enough. Though caution wasn't her strong suit, she wasn't too bad at keeping to the more powerful strategist's wills, or at least, she worked hard at it. It let her laze, after all, didn't it? Still, she and @Sylpha Astarte had to put all their faith on him...Was that fair?

"Sylpha, you hanging in okay?" She figured it was best to keep an eye on her teammates while she could. After all, when Verity gave the signal, they'd be flying down the road.

 

Staring at the rustling leaves, he can tell that there was not only one of them but two or three bandits waiting at other directions. From what he can guess, they must let the first one try to divert them by purposely catch themselves in his eyes. If he let himself tricked like this, then the others ambushed them off-guard before they can grab the brew. In any case, he needed to find a way to counter this. Once he saw both girls prepared under his instructions, Verity knew it was time to act before they can do anything. Raising his arm, he concentrated on his palm as electricity began to gather to it. "Praemium est in fulgur!"

Thunder Burst

Shouting this incantation, the gathered electricity exploded as several bolts of them quickly burst into the bushes direction, which he can hear a scream of pain underneath it. "@Solaria! To your left! @Sylpha Astarte, to your right!" Despite he didn't see what was behind him, two bandits quickly jumped onto the carriage from the trees, hoping to grab the girls before they can take care of the Alchemist. Though if the girls managed to follow his orders, several more bandits are charging in with their horses. However, Verity quickly acted as he already recited another spell as a gust of wind blew behind the carriage, causing both bandits to fall out of it empty-handed. "Go, go, go, go!"

Breeze Shroud

 

The Yladian arcanist just finished writing the spell and bracing herself for a sudden increase in speed. With her magical tool out she waved her hand down as she applied a magical force onto the barrels to keep them locked to the horse pulled carriage. As she did so, she replied to her fellow Yladian's inquiry:

"I'm ready! Don't hold back!"

So long as Sylpha herself did not get thrown out of the carriage, everything should work out well. Or so she thought. She heard the sound of approaching horses, then a call from their human companion in charge of defence that a bandit was approaching from her right. Instead of spending energy to attempt a counterattack, she kept the forces holding the barrels of brew down and dived down to hug a barrel herself, coiling a leg in case someone would manage to board so that she could kick them off. As for Solaria's safety, Sylpha did not have the capacity to do anything for her. However, seeing how the green haired Yladian had once handled herself in the face of a mighty Forest Troll, Sylpha had faith that she could, at the very least, defend herself from something much weaker like a single bandit.

Thanks to Verity's spell, that situation would not come to pass. However, even if the first two bandits were taken care of, they still had more coming at them. Depending on how persistant they were, it might be better to slow down later and just shoot all of them down.

For now, though, it was better to follow the idea of trying to shake them off. Verity was already shouting at Solaria to get going. Sylpha did not join his shouts, opting to focus her attention on the spell locking the barrels in place.

 

Hearing the screams of pain from their enemies, it took only a second for Solaria to pick up on @Verity's command to start their escape. It took only a flick of the wrists to get the horses going, her focus slowly adjusting to the road ahead as she got the horses to speed up more than before, wanting to get as far from their bad encounter as possible.

@Sylpha couldn't do anything in regards of protecting her, but Solaria didn't feel a need for protection. What Sylpha was doing was exactly what she needed to- protect the goods since neither the Yladian 'at the wheel' nor Verity could take care of it. Each of them had a role to play, and for once, Solaria was stuck in one where she couldn't actually protect anyone.

No, I can protect them. As long as I keep as far ahead of the enemy as possible, I'll be protecting them just the same. Learning to use her complex to her advantage, she sped them up just a bit more. The road got bumpier, but not to the point it would cause danger. "We shouldn't be too far now, right?! Hang on tight, you guys."

 

With @Solaria picking up the speed, Verity held on to the carriage as continued to fire several more Thunder Burst bolts to the closing bandits. He would have berated her on her driving skill, but since she did it to lose their chasers and @Sylpha Astarte still using her magic to stabilize the shipments, he quickly used this as an advantage. This was shown as one of the bandits managed to jump on but was unable to move around due to the shaking carriage.This allowed him to incapacitate him by smack the hilt of his sword to his head before he tossed him out.

Once he heard that they were close to their destination, he knew it was time to finish this senseless fight. Taking out a black bottle from this inventory, he tossed it in front of the bandits, which it released a black smoke as he broke, causing them to go blind and losing the carriage's trail. And just in case, he cast another Breeze Shroud spell to extend its effects. As he saw that the bandits stopped chasing them, Verity sighed in relief as he slumped down on the carriage. "Looks like we lost them. How are you holding back there?"

 

With the most limited vision of the environment due to being curled up in the carriage, Sylpha just braced herself against a barrel, watched her energy deplete and let Verity do the work of protecting them while Solaria (which Sylpha couldn't see from her position) drove them forward. As long as she kept the telekinesis spell going, she was doing her job correctly.

Slowly, she heard the noises of fighting die down. Verity seemed to have successfully driven them off, as he turned around and said so. They were already nearing the village and bandits would not follow anyone into the village without being prepared to raid the village itself. Which they were not, thankfully.

Slowly propping herself into an upright position using the barrel she was hugging as support, she glanced over to Verity who inquired about how well Solaria was doing. "I'm okay over here, though both of us should probably shoot them down together if something like this ever happens again." She said, despite knowing the question was meant for the Yladian with green hair, not the one with the blue hair. Still, Sylpha had abilities with the Arcane, so she could easily shoot from a longer range than Verity who was reportedly not very practiced in ranged combat.

Counting the barrels of brew with a finger, she noted that none of them were missing. "Do we get extra for a full shipment?" A fair question, but not one that could be answered by anyone on the carriage at the moment. Actually, Sylpha had originally been meaning to ask 'Are we there yet?', but if they were, then Solaria would definitely react, because it was going to be the first village they saw on this path. Thus, making the question redundant.

 

When @Verity called to ask the girls if they were doing alright, she was relieved to hear @Sylpha Astarte respond that she was doing okay. Having been worried for both of them while focused on her driving, it was a lot easier to focus when the fear was dissipated. "I'm alright, and the horses are too! Now we just gotta keep going 'til we reach the end!"

It felt long, but it really wasn't. Time just seemed to stand still when all you did was hold reins you barely had to use, listening to the pitter-patter of horse feet galloping on an open 'road'. It was weirdly calming as a sound, much like a white noise machine might be- but it was also insanely boring. Seeing the town was more than just a relief from the worries of before- it was a relief of her boredom, as she began to adjust their positioning to get past people and buildings.

"We're at the village entrance, guys! We've finally hit the target!"

 

When he heard the girls' replies, Verity was relieved to hear that as he spent the whole ride resting. In his honesty, he thought this task would be difficult to complete with the dangers in this route. But with the roles they carefully planned out, the crisis was averted. At least he can able to sleep peacefully tonight.

As he spent a few hours resting, he heard @Solaria declared that they arrived, which he slowly got up as he got down from the carriage as it stopped. "At least we were able to reach here with no scratches despite the detour," he said as he stretched his arms as he approached @Sylpha Astarte to check on the barrels. "I don't know. But we may find out once we deliver this to our destination."

 

Apparently, they weren't at the village just yet. Since they were out of danger, Sylpha could finally release the spell and rest. Without much left to do, she just rested up like Verity for the remainder of the journey, unwilling to spend more energy casting spells. The road seemed stable enough, anyway.

Eventually they would finally reach the village, only knowing because Solaria told them so because Sylpha had been sitting in the cart with @Verity. Standing up, she did indeed see the houses and signs of civilization that meant they had finally reached Lu...beck? Village. As if on cue, a male villager saw the dray with their own village's name engraved on the side, rushed forward and approached @Solaria to direct the dray into a stable so that they could unload the beer.

Counting the number of barrels and finding out it had been more than they had ordered (which was natural, since most would expect to lose one or two in transit thanks to the work of the thieves), the villager's face lit up and handed over payment with an extra three faire vouchers to the green haired Yladian. Apparently, racism doesn't come into play if you're this desperate for beer.

With the beer finally delivered, they were able to part ways. However, Sylpha wasn't going to let the two off without her own personal token of thanks. Reaching into her inventory she pulled out two loaves of dark colored bread: pumpernickel, the dense, slightly sweet bread she had been bribing villagers earlier with. She pushed one loaf onto each of them. "Take this as my token of gratitude, I baked it myself." She would say before bidding farewell and parting ways.

 

The moment they arrived, a tune rang in her ears that fit the situation just perfectly. 'A courting's a pleasure, a parting's a grief' was it? It was some old classic her mother used to sing. Maybe she'd visit home later and sing it for Frankie. Surely the boy would like to hear the song their mother loved, right? Even if Solaria was known to make ears bleed from it, at times.

Happily off the horses, she pet them to thank them for their service, stretching with a sigh of relief. "It always feels good when a job's done, don't you think, guys? Wait...huh?" To her surprise, @Sylpha Astarte had taken out bread to offer both herself and @Verity. It was a dark loaf with a gentle aroma, one she couldn't quite place.

"What's this for, Sylpha? I came because I wanted to help, you know? It's fun to help friends. I don't need any sort of reward." Though she said that, she took hold of the bread and scanned it curiously. She'd never had one like it. "I don't even know what's meant to go on this kind...We just use plain whole grain bread at home..." Still, looking a gift-horse in the mouth was a bad idea. Thanking the woman shortly after, she turned to Verity and gave a proper farewell to the both. "Let's do this again soon. It's been fun. I'll see you later, guys."

 

With the villager gave vouchers to @Solaria, he was relieved that the job was done. It was a rough work for him with the brewing and the deliveries, but he knew that their hard work was paid off. Though, as he looked at the voucher in his hand, he wondered if he should try visiting the Dark Harvest sometime. At any case, this might be a good time to log off for a night.

But before he did, he was surprised when @Sylpha Astarte gave him and Solaria loaves of dark-colored bread. It didn't look much, but the aroma from the loaf made him want to taste it before he can log off. "I can tell you managed to bake this with perfection, Sylpha. I'll make sure to try it as soon as I can." He had to admit, the blue-haired Yladian impressed him once more after the brewing session. "O-Okay. Sure. Just be careful on your way home." He hated to admit this, but after this, he was slowly gaining his trust to either of the girls. If he did meet them again, then maybe, he might able to give himself a chance just to open his heart to them, especially to Solaria.