Standard Mission: The Extortionists' Fee

- Bastion -

Bastion had been hoping his first mission wouldn't come along quite so soon. He'd been hoping to peruse the Vanguard's records now that he had access, but he couldn't really complain. After all, the sudden mission gave him an excuse to escape from Amira. He hadn't quite shaken off the shock of that surprise awakening.

Or the hangover. As he trudged along with the rest of the group - Samael, Zephyr, and Gad - his head throbbed with every stomp of his feet. It was a shame he hadn't gotten paired up with Vayu, who seemed to be the only one he'd connected with on some level so far, but he wasn't exactly eager for talking at this point.

He glanced around at the others. Still, for what it was worth, Samael had rescued him during the exam and seemed pleasant enough. Zephyr was bit... difficult for him, but they had managed to work together competely. Gad... he was hard to get a read on so far. Maybe that would change with this mission.

"Oh." Bastion stopped and pointed to the others. Up ahead on the ridge, he could make out what appeared to be a large bridge.

"What's our approach?" he asked, stroking his chin. Unfortunately, the area wasn't exactly full of heavy cover for sneaking up close. They'd need to be careful to avoid being spotted, especially without knowing what kind of demons occupied the area.

Gad

Gad studied his surrounding, it was obvious that scouting ahead was not possible and it’s not a good idea to just charge forward without any information. Perhaps they could do something else then just walking? Then Gad looked at his party members again. They had one edgemaster, and three thaumaturges. A team lacking in support. Then again, he remembered some of them used weird spells during exam.

“Maybe we could send a scouting party ?” Gad asked, “I remember one of you could change sizes.” Gad looked at the guy who had his pixie on his shoulder. There was no way a pixie could change its own size, he was sure it was that frenzy edgemaster’s doing. Then Gad thought for a moment, What was his name?

Gad gave a silent sigh, then he looked at Sam-, Gad couldn’t recall the name of other Thaumaturge  “And you?” He asked by looking at him directly so that  the guy would not get the wrong idea who Gad was trying to talk. “What can you do? I have seen you summoning something to ride, other than that I had not seen anything else.” Then he looked at the bridge once more, “If we could send a party that is small and that could be discreet, I think we could get needed information.”

Then Gad shrugged, “Well that’s the idea I have. Not so sure it would work, but its better then charging into enemies territory blindly.” He looked at others if they had understood what he was saying and wait for them to suggest other ideas if they had any.

Zephyr Arc

Zephyr had been kicked out of bed early by Cherry, who was nagging incomprehensibly about some mission. Of course, that was probably his hangover talking. After about a minute of yelling, Cherry seemed to have gotten an inkling of this, as she whizzed off. Next thin he knew, a bucket of cold water had been thrown over his head. He jumped upright half in shock, but that woke him up.

He got up reluctantly and listened as she told him he'd been given a mission by Chaldea, in his new capacity as a Vanguard. He took a proper cold shower, then had breakfast with a glass of lime juice as he listened, then grabbed a book as he headed out. He needed to completely clear his head, and a good book usually did the trick.

He arrived at the designated location, book in hand and Pixie on his shoulder. He found Bastion and two others waiting. He remembered one of them, who had been talking to Vayu that night. Samasomething? The other he couldn't remember for the life of him. Seeing as no one was making conversation, he withdrew into his book and read as he walked, leaving 'steering' to Cherry.

Eventually, it seemed they'd arrived close enough to their destination that things were starting to get serious. He put his book away as the one he couldn't remember addressed them. With his state of mind at the moment, he didn't come off as jolly as he usually did. He was also more than sane at the moment, so he probably sounded much more serious and not-crazy for once. "Size shifting won't be a problem, but that alone won't make for good scouting. Unless any of you can fly, it would make certain things more difficult, not to mention they'd be traveling much more slowly once shrunk. That aside, anyone have any stealth-related abilities? As long as we have some synergistic spells, shrinking is still a viable option."

Cherry actually gawked for a good second. She hand't seen Zephyr this sane in a good while.

Samael

Here we are, his first mission, his first step to becoming a vanguard.  And thankfully, no one seemed to be acting strange around him, which means his transformation spell didn't give out while he was drinking... good.

Samael then shifted his attention to the bridge, it seemed pretty normal and there weren't any obvious demons in sight.  However, that would probably change the closer they got thankfully blending in was his area of expertise, but transforming everyone would take a good portion of his maga...

"I can manipulate noise and create illusions involving someone's appearance, as well I can cause paranoia and mistrust in those around me." Samael stated, as he slowly raised his chin from his hand looking directly in Gad's eyes with a tint of aggravation.  'You?', if he didn't know his name he could at the very least ask.

Though, he did have a point, size alteration was an asset here.  He could certainly make use of that with his illusions.

"You can enlarge as well right, Zephyr?  Enlarge your pixie and then I'll make the two of you appear smaller and then silence the noise you two make.  Then you should move fast enough while staying stealthy." Samael commanded as he took a few steps backwards so he could see the rest of the group, and continued to state "Is everyone else okay with this plan?"

Right Zephyr... he acted strange around him during their party last night. When this is all over he'll have to pull him aside and apologize, he didn't want to cause too much suspicion involving his origins.

- Bastion -

“Maybe we could send a scouting party ?” Gad suggested, “If we could send a party that is small and that could be discreet, I think we could get needed information. Well that’s the idea I have. Not so sure it would work, but its better then charging into enemies territory blindly.”

Bastion bit back the automatic retort that Gad's suggestion was so blatantly obvious it hardly needed saying, but that wasn't exactly in the spirit of team unity right now. The size shifting was an interesting idea, however, but Zephyr pointed out the limitations of a stealth approach that way.

"I can manipulate noise and create illusions involving someone's appearance, as well I can cause paranoia and mistrust in those around me." Samael offered. "You can enlarge as well right, Zephyr?  Enlarge your pixie and then I'll make the two of you appear smaller and then silence the noise you two make.  Then you should move fast enough while staying stealthy." Samael then paused to ask the group, "Is everyone else okay with this plan?"

Bastion mulled this over. If there were enemies up ahead, Zephyr was the last person he wanted to send in alone. Who knew when he might lose his head and charge in recklessly. Hopefully, Cherry could keep him in check.

"That's fine for an initial scouting," he said. "But if Zephyr does find enemies within a vantage point, then the rest of us will need to find a way up there without notice. How many of us can you disguise at once?"

Bastion turned to look up at the bridge, brow furrowed.

"If I had to guess, the main force of demons won't be on the bridge. They'll probably have scouts to notify them of caravans and travelers so the rest can come out to intercept them. That means we'll need to take out any demons on the bridge before they can signal the rest to come to their aid."

Gad

It was an obvious thought process many would agree, and they did. Gad wanted to see some ideas firing here and there, and hope to learn their abilities so he went with a general idea.

He was surprised that no one tried to think of other than just putting more fats to that obvious idea of his. He thought at least one of them would say something like That's given! Idiot! like Tyler would say. Then again, not being able to remember their names was a huge gap that he had to overcome. Alas, the guy who had his name start with 'B'... Something that sounded like 'Bass' revealed the frenzy guy's name. Ah, so his name is Zephyr... Then Gad looked at Sam- guy. He was trying to figure his name, but it was really hard.

If you can't remember their names, just try to pronounce their front letters. I heard it will become some kind of nicknames. Just like how I call you, Gad.

He remembered his old pal's advice that was supposed to be taken as a joke. Perhaps he should use it. It may prove useful after all.

"Before we do that, Zeph, you got long range weapon with you?" then Gad looked at the Sam- guy. "What about you, Sam? With your magic, it seems you can silently approach the target and kill some scouts without too much noise."

Then Gad looked at the bridge, trying to spot any place that might be good for scouts. "I think we should not let it slide the possibility of flying demon as a scout. If it is so, whoever scouts ahead of us, must take care of it immediately. After all, demons know about the existence of Vanguard just as we know the existence of demons who wants to destroy every human life. My magic is too loud for scouting so I leave it up to you three." He shrugged.

Zephyr Arc

"Hmmm, can you make us transparent, Sama- err, what was your name?" He asked Samael. Unlike Gad, he wasn't embarrassed about nor trying to hide that he forgot peoples names. "Enlarging won't be too difficult either, but invisibility is always better than just looking smaller."

He was unphased by Gad suddenly using nicknames. In reply to his question about long range weapons, he had the mechanical bow attached to his arm unfold. "I've got this guy. Effective at a pretty good range, and fires three-bolt volleys. It's actually set up for two modes, but I haven't been able to fix the single-fire mode just yet." He'd found it in an old ruin. The master had said it was a pretty archaic design, and therefore was probably made sometime after the fall of the old world, or perhaps long before. Either way, Zephyr tinkered with it and managed to get it back in working condition.

"I'm confident in my aim, but on the off-chance any scouts manage to avoid my shot, do any of you have a quiet long-range spell I can borrow?" He didn't elaborate on how he'd 'borrow' a spell, but was fully prepared to do so if someone should ask. He was more than sure Bastion knew what he meant, though.

Samael

"I can disguise us all, but my combat abilities will become limited for a while due to the maga I used for crafting it... but sustaining it will be your job." Samael stated, as he began to wave his hands in front cherry and Zephyr, "Transform, Transform"

Suddenly, both cherry and Zephyr began to shrink in size and become translucent. Visually nothing should seem different on Zephyr's end besides seeing his head bellow what should be his legs which would be strange for anyone.

"It's Samael and there, that should work well... just relax for a bit the difference in visuals and movement can make someone sick at first." Samael stated with a deep breath, as he turned to the rest of the group.

"It doesn't matter if it's loud Gad, I can manipulate noise... if he misses I'll silence your spell." Samael stated a bit annoyed that Gad misses that bit of his spells when he was the one that asked him.

"Though...." Samael muttered quietly and looked towards Bastion for a few seconds, "If it leaves damage or pushes up a bunch of debris then that will still arouse suspicion..... Anyways, I'll get to disguising the rest of you"

Samael gestured with his pointer finger for Bastion to come towards him, as he began to get ready to cast another spell.

Gad

“So you can do that even if you are pretty far away? Well, if that’s the case.” Said Gad, looking at Zephyr, “I can lend you mine, it will be enough to finish a small fry if its aimed well.” Gad was grinning inside that he had figured out all of their names. However, as he had called them with some what abbreviated names, Gad decided to stick with it.

“Come on then, take out your weapon. I am going to fire at it so that you can absorb it easily.” Gad waited for Zephyr to take out his spell absorbing weapon. As he did it so, Gad fired his Force Bolts. With Gad’s aim, all of it should be absorbed without troubles.

Then Gad looked at Samael, “Don’t spend your maga too much, we don’t know what kind of demon we are against, so everyone needs some maga to protect their own lives. Let the scout handle the rest of it.”

Then he waved his hand, “If scout do his job right, we may not need you to cast transform on us.” Said Gad, then looked at Zephyr. “We are counting on you.” He gave a half smile, “Make sure use the gauntlet to tell us what you have found.” Said Gad.

Zephyr Arc

Zephyr cast Shift on Cherry as Samael used his illusion spell on him, causing her to stumble from the two-pronged changes. Zephyr grabbed her by the shoulder to steady her, seemingly unphased by the illusion messing with his vision. "Thanks, this'll do, Samael."

Cherry wondered how long Zephyr would remain 'normal' as Gad fired his bolts, to which Zephyr only lightly swept his spear, absorbing the spell with little effort. "Let's go."

With that, Cherry grabbed him from behind and they lifted off. "I'll report back on everything I see in real-time. I'm sure Bastion can manage the incoming info more than well." He said as he left.

- Bastion -

Bastion folded his arms and nodded. "Gad's right. It's best to wait for Zephyr's report before needlessly expending maga."

Zephyr absorbed Gad's force bolts and flew off. Bastion watched him go, his scanning the bridge up on the crest of the hill. If anything went wrong, they'd need to move quickly. He began to calculate the approximate distance and the average speed between them when some squawking voices began trickling down the ridge. Surely, Zephyr couldn't have started a confrontation already, could he?

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- Zephyr -

As Zephyr approached the bridge, he caught sight of two demons loitering at the front of the bridge while several more dozen off toward the back. It seemed likely that all of them were meant to be on patrol, but they'd gotten lazy and decided to take shifts. Zephyr recognized the squat, ugly little creatures as Lesser Oni.

Spoiler:

Drawing closer, Zephyr could make out their discussion.

"No caravans today," the one said, scratching at his distended stomach. "Ugh... I'm so hungry. Let's sneak off and find some food."

"Idiot." The other one whacked him in the stomach with his bone club. "If we wander off and miss a caravan, Boss Ryoko will have our heads."

The first grunted dismissively. "Ryoko... I don't know why she gets to call the shots around here anyway. She's not one of us. She's just a half-"

The other one whacked him again, this time on the head. "Idiot! You really are trying to lose your head! If someone heard..." He glanced back toward the sleeping group of other Lesser Oni. "You remember the last time someone dared to mention she's...you know..."

The first one thumped him back, knocking him to the ground. "I'm not afraid," he declared, though he paused to glance back at the group long enough for his companion to whack him a third time in the shin.

There wasn't any conversation after that. No conversation without long trails of curses and swears, that is.

Zephyr Arc

As promised, Zephyr relayed back all information he saw as he saw it, including the conversation he'd overheard. Deciding an attack would be ill-advised as engaging the two on watch would risk waking the rest, he instwad opted for a tactical retreat. Though... he had some idea what could be done.

"If anyone's brave enough to masquerade as one of them, we might be able to lure the watchers out. We might be able to end the others in their sleep if it works." He spoke through his gauntlet once he was far enough away to not be heard. He then headed back to the group and touched down.

Gad

“You mean to look like a lesser Oni?” Gad rubbed his beardless chin, contemplating the best course of an action. “I think that might just raise suspicions. I think one of us should act like scared traveler and have them chase him.” Said Gad. Then he looked at others, “What do you think, Bass, Sam? I could play the bait if we are going to bring them to us.” Gad suggested, confident in his ability fool lesser Oni.

Samael

That's true it's better to converse maga, and if things go to hell then they'll need a quick escape route and his steeds would be the fastest way out of here... if he disguised all them now he might not be able to transport everyone.

"What about this Ryoko character?" Samael stated with interest, as he glanced around the bridge leaning around excepting to see something, "It seems like these demons won't stop coming and taking over the bridge until we take care of them."

Samael pointed his finger at Gad and nodded, as if agreeing with his idea and continued to say "If we can make a seemingly valuable target, then it might draw the higher-ups to the area to get their cut, then we can intercept this Ryoko and take her form to disband the group."

Though, considering how much these lesser oni feared this character they might not be able to fight her in a direct confrontation, they can't afford to lose the element of surprise otherwise the whole mission might be botched.

"But... are you sure you can fool them?"  Samael uttered in a voice that showed his lack of faith as his eyes scanned Gad up and down with them squinting particular at the attire he wore, "I can handle the disguise, but acting doesn't seem like... your strong suite."

Gad

Gad shrugged, “If you feel that way, I don’t mind giving up the role to you.” Said Gad, smiling. “Of course, I am assuming you are very good at it.”

Then he looked at the bridge. “Even we know the their head, drawing it out first should never be our objective. We take out the scouts, the patrol units and then attack their head. In order to do that we probably need more information.”

Gad looked at the team, “I know we shouldn’t lose the element of surprise, but I doubt a traveler with wealth is enough to draw their boss out. We fool lesser Onis, find their weakness and their hide out, take care of them. Then we surprise the boss. I doubt their boss is like ‘acting out’ boss. I got this feeling their boss is more barking orders type.”

- Bastion -

Bastion contemplated Zephyr's report, eyes closed and brow furrowed in concentration. They all brought up good points - and some flawed ones. But in the end, he was able to navigate through on what he believed was the best solution.

"Samael should approach the bridge in disguise," he said. "I believe he'd be best suited to the task, as he understands his own spell better than any of us and likely has more experience with disguising and acting."

Samael was right... Gad didn't seem like the acting type, and Bastion himself wasn't forceful enough for what he had in mind. Zephyr could probably handle it temporarily, but who knew if he might go off the rails.

"A traveler disguise would likely prove problematic, however," he went on. "If their purpose is to scout for bands, it's possible they'd alert the rest of the watchmen - or worse, the bulk of their forces, wherever they might be." He glanced at Samael. "Personally, I don't like our odds with drawing their leader into a fight where we don't know their strengths or weaknesses."

He stroked his chin, glancing around the area. If the oni on the bridge were meant to alert the main group, it would have to be relatively close by, or else anyone sufficiently strong enough to dispatch the Lesser Oni would make it past before their reinforcements could reach the bridge.

"I suggest Samael disguise himself as a Greater Oni. We don't know enough of this Ryoko person to use her as a front, but I suspect they Lesser Oni probably don't take orders from her directly. From what I've researched, Lesser Oni almost always follow Greater Oni. Taking that position of authority would give Samael an advantage in being able to order those oni around... at least long enough for us to get the drop on them."

Bastion nodded at Zephyr. "You said one of the oni was talking disparagingly about this Ryoko, right? Can you provide some kind of distinguishing features? We'll want to capture at least one of them for information, and if one of them isn't happy about their current circumstances, they might be willing to help us with the promise of freedom after we've finished."

Zephyr Arc

Zephyr listened quietly. Samael indeed seemed to be the best choice for espionage. He wasn't sure he trusted the other guy to not give himself away, and Samael would have more control since they were his own spells anyway.

"He was mostly like the rest, but he said he was hungry. He should also have bruises on his head, gut and shin from where the other lesser Oni hit in in their scuffle." He replied to Bastion's query. "Oh, and he was swearing like a sailor when I left."

Gad

"It is decided then, Sam is going to lure those two awake lesser oni and bring them here. I could bind them with my spell and it should give us enough time to ask questions and analyze them enough to strike others," said Gad summarizing what had become of their plan.

Gad looked over the bridge, "That said, how are we going to take care of unexpected variables..." Gad commented referring to other lesser oni that may wake up during their interrogation. Then he shrugged, "Well, guess we have to hope it won't come to that." Then he looked at Samael. "All the best," He smiled at the fellow vanguard.

Bridge (Samael)

"Transform..." Samael stated with a solemn nod, as his figure shifted into that of a tall red oni that towered over the rest of the group.  He began to walk towards the bridge getting as close as he could without the two of them noticing him while shifting between any cover he could find... They were saying dangerous things after all and the rest were slacking, it would be able if he caught them off guard for effect...

"Noise Manipulation..." Samael muttered, as he flicked his risk, as a light temporary sound was made like a bit of debris falling off the bridge that would hopefully cause the two oni to shift their gaze away from him as he worked him way behind them, as he bolted in a terrifying run towards the bridge that looked like a ferocious bull barreling towards the two oni.

"Noise manipulation" Samael quickly whispered again, as he cast it around him and the oni he was about to grab so that the noise they made could only be heard by them and would be stopped by the spell once it hit the edge of the zone, as he would very firmly place his hands on the shoulders of the two lesser oni that would make it feel like they shoulders were about to break if he could sneak up on them.

"WHAT'S GOING ON?! YOU TWO. COME. NOW!" Samael demonically roared in a a fit of fury his voice warping to a deep terrifying pitch, as he planned to drag the two with all his might down towards the others but in view of the illusion it would just look like he was effortless dragging them away with his 'oni' strength.

- Bastion -

The two oni stopped their squabbling when a faint noise sounded over the bridge. They waddled over to the edge and peered over, trying to make out what the source was.

"An animal?" the one suggested.

"It's not an animal, stupid," the other retorted. "It's... uh... boss!"

The first blinked and turned to see what the other was staring at. Then he too squealed in shock and horror as a greater oni barreled down on them and grabbed them by the shoulders. In fright, they threw up their hands, the one sending his club sailing over his shoulder.

"We didn't do anything!" the one cried.

"We're sorry!" the other shouted as they were hauled away.

"They forced us to let them nap! It wasn't our fault!"

"We did our job! We kept watch! Punish them instead!"

"If you'd done your job, you would've seen us coming."

They blinked up in surprise at the sight of Bastion staring down at them, as well as Gad and Zephyr beside him.

--------------------------------------------------

On the bridge, the discarded club clattered to the stone ground, rolling its way down to where the pile of oni slept. It rolled until it bumped against the head of an oni, who sat up and stared at it.

"Hmm?"

He looked around and saw a greater oni dragging two of his companions away. Oh no, they'd better be up and alert if he came back...

Gad

As they were in further away from the sight and after Samael bringing them successfully to them, Gad smirked. "Good job." Said Gad then he casted his spell. "Burden of Guilt" now the two lesser oni should feel the gravity pulling them to the ground, making hard for them to move at all.

"I think the stage is set," Said Gad, to his team. "Do whatever you could do to get the information out of them, Bass." Concentrating his maga so that only two onis are going to be affected by the spell.

Bastion -

The onis squawked louder than ever as Gad’s spell forced them to the ground.

“What do you want from us?” the one cried, his voice quivering.

Bastion pondered them, deciding weighing the order of importance for all the information they needed.

“Let’s start off with how many of you there are,” Bastion said. “We estimate ten of you lesser oni on the bridge, and presumably more in your hideout.”

The oni exchanged looks, and the first cleared his throat. “Well, beside us lookouts, there’s probably a dozen more lesser oni, and seven greater oni in our spot. And there’s Ryoko-“

“Idiot!” the other snapped. “Don’t tell them that!”

Yes, Ryoko. They’d get to her in a minute. First, they needed the location of the hideout.

“And where is your spot?” Bastion asked, kneeling to stare into the oni’s beady eyes.

“Uh... well...” he glanced back toward the ravine, licking his lips with his long tongue. “That’s-“

“What’s the point of knowing that?” the other asked, also looking around. “You won’t live long enough to find it.”

Bastion straightened up. “How do you suppose that?”

“Get them!” the oni screeched.

From behind cover, the lesser oni from the bridge charged out, their weapons raised. Bastion and the others readied their weapons.

“Form up!” he called. “Keep the prisoners secure. Take out the rest!”

Gad

Gad clicked his tongue, annoyed that his magic made unwanted noise. Gad hoped that it did not cause... Before he could even think about the followed consequences, it really happened.

The lesser Onis made their way here and they were going to charge towards Gad and others. "Force Bolts!" Gad fired at the charging lesser Onis so that it would halt their charging and disorient their forces. "I am going to hold these two tight, and support you guys from the range." Said Gad, then Gad looked at Gauntlet. It would be a good choice to use his demon, but...

Gad quickly shook his head, then looked at the lesser onis. 'I can do this, I am sure!' Gad thought himself.

Samael

Samael watched the lesser oni in a stern but frightening manner, hovering over Bastion in his towering figure with his arms crossed.  His face looking sterner by the second as they refused to give out more information, him slowly beginning to raise his club and placing it in his hands for the two oni to see, his face moving slowly closer until...

Suddenly, a bunch of lesser oni jumped out of cover, Samael simply turned his heads towards the lesser oni his face contorting with rage as he ran forward slamming his weapon into the ground, as a show of force.

"Traitor's Domain..." Samael muttered as suddenly a feeling of dread washed over all the oni's around him, the force bolts whizzing past Samael as he casted the spell.

"WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING!" Samael growled at the lesser oni his arms trembling in rage, as charged the nearest attacking oni like a barreling monster bringing down his weapon on him that would give off a loud resounding slam when hit, "RYOKO ASKED ME TO LURE THESE VANGUARDS, AND HERE YOU ALL ARE SCARING THEM OFF!"