08-27-2016, 11:27 AM
Goku’s fist punched deep into the earth, and when he dragged it back out of the ground, it was seized around a chunk of bright indigo material. The light spilling forth from the star piece was almost blinding at first, but the longer he held it the more manageable the glow became.
Just holding the celestial shard, it was impossible not to feel the radiant energy surging from it. The power of the Star Piece was incredible. Goku straightened, and a smile spread across his features. All at once, he understood why it was his companions had been so desperate to find this artefact. With the kind of power he could feel pouring from it, it could probably be used for all manner of evil purposes.
The rest of his companions gathered around him, and Goku lowered his hand, letting them see the shard nestled in the palm of his hand. The material felt warm to the touch, energy still visibly glowing from the Piece. Gabriel smiled, and shook his head in admiration.
“You know, I wasn’t sure we would actually manage it, for a minute there.”
Justin was even more overcome! Actual tears in his eyes as he looked upon the undeniable evidence that his theory was correct – the indigo shard of the Star had been recovered, from the deepest depths of the Pale Moors. At last, he could return to the safety of Dalaran and report back to his superiors.
“This is, incredible!” The Astronomer exclaimed, “To be emitting so much energy that it is given off in the visible spectrum at such a radiant level, it must be an item of awesome potency! Does it… does it feel safe?”
Goku frowned at the question, and held the shard up to his eyes, caught between two fingers, “I guess?” He said, “It feels kind of … tingly!”
The bodyguards and the Astronomer all shared an astounded look.
“T-Tingly?” Justin asked, “What do you mean, tingly?!”
Goku scratched behind the back of his head with his free hand. “Well, I mean it… tingles. I don’t really know how to explain it.” He shrugged his shoulders, and tossed the piece into the air, snatching out again with a swift movement, which caused his companions to flinch.
“Anyway! Do you want it?”
The saiyan warrior held out his hand towards Justin, and the Astronomer cocked his head to the side.
“You’d really give it up to me that easily? Don’t you at least want some sort of payment? We never would have gotten this far if you hadn’t been with us, you know. Most Primes would demand that they get to keep the artefact, or trade it … we never really talked about what you were hoping to get out of all this.”
Goku’s hand remained stretched out, and the saiyan chuckled, shaking his head. “I didn’t ask for anything because I didn’t need anything! I helped you because you guys looked like you needed the help! Go on, this is what you came here for, isn’t it?”
Justin looked to Gabriel, and the Captain gave a nearly-imperceptible nod. The Astronomer raised his hand, and placed it over Goku’s, before lowering the saiyan’s back down.
“In extraordinary circumstances.” Justin said, “We are … authorised, to give custodianship of items of power like this to individuals who we believe will protect and not misuse that power.”
Goku cocked his head to the side, as though he really did not understand what his friend was driving at. Justin continued with a sigh.
“You, Goku, we’d like to ask that you take this Star Piece and look after it. Do you understand?”
“Well that be very touching!” Boomed a voice at the lip of the crater, “But I’m afraid we’ll be taking that little magical doodad ourselves! Just place it on the ground and back away!”
The Golden Flame were gathered at last, and the treasure they wanted was right in their sights! Kunain stood towering over the bedraggled group from Dalaran, his armour once again polished to a bright and gleaming gold. Next to him, Rosie in her flame-haired glory had her palm outstretched towards them, ready to bake them all to cinders at his command, and Omion held his bow at the ready, an arrow pointed directly at the spiky-haired warrior’s head – he was the one holding the star piece after all.
Acwulf stood on the far side of the crater, features still shrouded in shadow. To the surprise of the gathered interlopers, though, the people in the crater didn’t look scared – more… tired.
“Hey, I’m really sorry.” The spiky-haired one said, looking right up at Kunain. “But, I’m reaaaaaaaally exhausted. Would you mind coming back later? I’d love to fight you guys tomorrow!”
Kunain spluttered, the proud dwarf huffing and puffing in indignation. “No I won’t come back later!” He shouted, “Give me what we came here for, or I’ll kill all of you right now!”
“No, you won’t.”
Acwulf’s voice was soft, and he let his cloak fall back to reveal the gleaming scimitars beneath – shining brilliant and eager for blood.
Kunain turned crimson, and for a moment it looked like his eyes might actually bulge from his skull. “What the hell do you think you are doing, Acwulf?! You are the youngest member of this party, you do NOT tell us what—“
“Shut up.”
By this point, Goku had tucked the star piece away inside his gi, and was now – along with the rest of his companions – watching the meltdown of the apparent ambushers with great interest.
“I didn’t come here to help you kill these people when they are too weak to defend themselves.” Acwulf said, “Besides. Every monster, bounty hunter and thief in the Pale Moors will be looking to gut whoever has that thing and take it to Dracula. I can’t allow that, either.”
Kunain raised his hammer, and Acwulf drew his scimitars in response.
“What’re you going to do, tough guy? Kill ME?” The dwarf roared, “I’ll mount your head above my wall!”
“If I have to.” The mysterious wanderer replied, calm as though he had not just been threatened by his erstwhile employer. “But I was thinking of a more sensible arrangement. We help these people get back to Darkshire, then we can fight for the shard.”
Gabriel’s eyebrow rose, “Travel with people who want to kill us? Why do you believe we’d allow that?”
“You don’t have a choice.” Acwulf said, bluntly. “Consider how many of your group have died to get you this far. Do you think it will be easier now that you’ve got what you came for?”
Goku laughed, “I guess he’s got us there!”
Goku was about the only person in either group who seemed cheerful in spite of the new arrangement. Going back the way they had come, it was indeed a brutal and tiring journey, one where they were often (grudgingly) grateful for the ‘assistance’ rendered by their would-be assailants. It seemed much quicker without the agents of the Drow harrying their footsteps, but even so, there were undead horrors a’plenty and they all had reason to be thankful for another four competent warriors to watch their backs – just as the Golden Flame relied on the Dalaran party to keep them safe through some of the more testing conflicts themselves.
When they did make it back to the comparative safety of Darkshire, however, things took a more serious turn.
Whatever camaraderie they had gained on the journey melted away in an instant. Justin found himself surrounded by his bodyguards again, and it was Acwulf – not Kunain – who stepped forward to block their path towards the gate.
“Do you really have to do this?” Justin asked, “You must realise that the safest place for the star piece is with us, anyone else would seek to abuse it.”
“I don’t care about that.” Acwulf replied, “I agreed to this mission because I heard about the warriors strong enough to take on the Drow and Dracula and come out in one piece. When I take your heads, I’ll be able to name my price.”
“Aye, and we don’t care about safety neither!” Kunain bellowed, “With the price we can fetch for that thing, we’ll live like kings! Rosie! Do it now!”
Of course, in the weeks of travel, the Dalaran party had plenty of time to prepare their own initiative in response, which is why when Kunain shouted Rosie’s name, Juliet hurled a flask of oil right at her. The woman had impressive command over heat and flames, they’d all seen that – she summoned it up in an instant, intending to incinerate her opponents…
… instead, the fireball engulfed the flask, which burst directly in front of her and the night was lit up with an agonised scream as flames licked into the air.
Acwulf moved swiftly to try and get the drop on Gabriel, but the Captain had his own target in mind – rushing towards Kunain, the dwarf’s mighty hammer clashed against his shield, and Goku came in from above to cut off the scimitar-wielding warrior’s advance. The scarred human twirled his weapons around one another.
“I know why you really decided not to ambush us.”
“Oh?” Asked the assassin, “Is that so?”
“Yup!” Goku declared, cheerful as ever. “You didn’t want to make it too easy! You wanted a clean fight, so you’d know if you really were better than us. I can understand that.”
“You’re half right.” Acwulf admitted, “I did want to fight you properly. But now I’ve seen your moves in action, there’s nothing left for you to surprise me with. This is already over.”
Goku smirked in response, and fell into his combat stance – crouched with both arms raised, eyes sparkling with amusement. “Don’t be so certain!”
Acwulf snarled with frustration and surged forwards, scimitars gleaming brilliantly as he advanced on the overconfident saiyan. What followed was an impressive ballet of death, Goku forced onto the defensive thanks to the increased reach and wickedly-curved steel with which he was assaulted. It was all he could do to twist and turn through the blades, his attempts to hit back turned aside with contemptuous ease.
The others were having markedly more success taking on their opponents. No sooner had Juliet’s crossbow trained on the half-elf Omion than the ranger had decided – having seen Rosie baked to a crisp – that discretion was the better part of valour, turned tail, and fled back towards Darkshire proper.
Kunain was hammering over and over at Gabriel, but the Guard Captain’s defence was proving more stubborn than steel, refusing to so much as bend or buckle in the face of the dwarf’s furious rage. By the same token, Juliet couldn’t find a clear shot as Gabriel allowed Kunain to tire himself out against his guard, but Kunain was failing to gain any ground.
A sudden, twisting pirouette caught Goku by surprise, and the saiyan stumbled back with a light scratch drawn across his chest. Blood blossomed to stain his gi, and the warrior cracked his neck.
“I know you’re holding back.” Kunain murmured, “Will you take me seriously, now?”
Goku shrugged his shoulders, “Well… okay, I guess!”
Leaping into the air, he was instantly taken out of arm’s reach of his opponent. It didn’t seem particularly fair, but, the scimitar-wielding warrior had been insistent! Bright white light exploded all around him as he called up his inner strength, a loud shout on his lips.
“HRRRRRRRRAAAAAGH!”
The light was dazzling, and Goku suddenly thrust both hands down towards Acwulf. The rain of bright yellow orbs was sudden, and explosive. The Kamehameha was far too focused for such a quick opponent, and the sword-wielding warrior was quick to respond – leaping upwards into the torrent of surging ki energy, his steel flashed out to deflect the attacks back at Goku – which was precisely what the martial artist had expected.
Three energy bullets whizzed in towards him, and three more shot from his palms to meet them. The resulting explosion filled the air with light and heat, and when it cleared, Acwulf was lunging through the air to try and slash those weapons right at neck height… where Goku had been, a split second earlier.
Both arms wrapped around the weaponmaster’s elbows, and Acwulf grunted as he found himself being bent backwards, arms wrenched painfully in Goku’s grip.
“You’re really good!” Goku explained, “But… you’re predictable. If you always go for the killing blow, I’m going to know where you’re coming from, and then…”
Suddenly, Goku and his quarry were rocketing back towards the ground. Acwulf had enough time to let out a shout, before he impacted painfully with the earth and the air was driven from his lungs. Both hands lost their grip on his weapons, and he rolled over, choking and coughing for breath.
Goku bent down, picked up the swords, and simply hurled them towards the horizon.
“Okay! I think we’re done here—oh wait, right.”
Kunain was having difficulty believing that any human could weather his assault as well as this one had. The idiot Rosie had burned herself alive, Omion had fled like the coward he was – showing his elvish ancestry in full force – but, how could he, Kunain Heldenhammer, be having anywhere near this much trouble with one man?!
“Kaioken.”
Ignoring the strange word from behind him, the dwarf resettled his grip, the dwarf shouted out loud and swung it up and around with all his might, only to find that the head of the hammer refused to budge as though it were stuck in deep earth.
“What in the devil?!”
Turning around, the spiky-haired warrior was wreathed in blood red fire, his eyes burning ferociously, and his hand settled easily on the head of his hammer. Try as he might, Kunain couldn’t bring it to budge even one inch!
“Let go this instant!” The dwarf raged, “I’ll break your skull for this, you—“
That was the moment that the pommel of Gabriel’s sword smashed right across his jaw, and darkness rushed up to swallow Kunain’s consciousness.
On the far side of the gate, Goku once again found himself in the strange, blank whiteness of the Nexus. He and his friends gathered together for one last time.
“Do you know where you’ll go next?” Justin asked.
Goku smiled easily, and shook his head. “Nope! No idea at all!” He said, cheerfully, “I’m willing to bet there’s a lot of places out there that could use my help. I figure I’ll just… find the next one.”
Gabriel shook the martial artist’s hand, and chuckled to himself. “Well, if you ever find yourself in Camelot, my friend, come and pay me a visit. I know that we’d be happy to have you.”
Goku nodded his head in turn, “I’ll be sure to do that!” He said, and his hand raised to touch the Star Piece where it rested comfortably inside his gi. “And if you ever need this back… well, you only have to ask!”
Rising up into the air, Goku took off at speed, leaving the Dalaran party behind.
“Do you think he even understands the importance of what he’s done?” Juliet murmured as she watched him go.
“Probably not.” Gabriel said, “Heroes rarely do.”
Just holding the celestial shard, it was impossible not to feel the radiant energy surging from it. The power of the Star Piece was incredible. Goku straightened, and a smile spread across his features. All at once, he understood why it was his companions had been so desperate to find this artefact. With the kind of power he could feel pouring from it, it could probably be used for all manner of evil purposes.
The rest of his companions gathered around him, and Goku lowered his hand, letting them see the shard nestled in the palm of his hand. The material felt warm to the touch, energy still visibly glowing from the Piece. Gabriel smiled, and shook his head in admiration.
“You know, I wasn’t sure we would actually manage it, for a minute there.”
Justin was even more overcome! Actual tears in his eyes as he looked upon the undeniable evidence that his theory was correct – the indigo shard of the Star had been recovered, from the deepest depths of the Pale Moors. At last, he could return to the safety of Dalaran and report back to his superiors.
“This is, incredible!” The Astronomer exclaimed, “To be emitting so much energy that it is given off in the visible spectrum at such a radiant level, it must be an item of awesome potency! Does it… does it feel safe?”
Goku frowned at the question, and held the shard up to his eyes, caught between two fingers, “I guess?” He said, “It feels kind of … tingly!”
The bodyguards and the Astronomer all shared an astounded look.
“T-Tingly?” Justin asked, “What do you mean, tingly?!”
Goku scratched behind the back of his head with his free hand. “Well, I mean it… tingles. I don’t really know how to explain it.” He shrugged his shoulders, and tossed the piece into the air, snatching out again with a swift movement, which caused his companions to flinch.
“Anyway! Do you want it?”
The saiyan warrior held out his hand towards Justin, and the Astronomer cocked his head to the side.
“You’d really give it up to me that easily? Don’t you at least want some sort of payment? We never would have gotten this far if you hadn’t been with us, you know. Most Primes would demand that they get to keep the artefact, or trade it … we never really talked about what you were hoping to get out of all this.”
Goku’s hand remained stretched out, and the saiyan chuckled, shaking his head. “I didn’t ask for anything because I didn’t need anything! I helped you because you guys looked like you needed the help! Go on, this is what you came here for, isn’t it?”
Justin looked to Gabriel, and the Captain gave a nearly-imperceptible nod. The Astronomer raised his hand, and placed it over Goku’s, before lowering the saiyan’s back down.
“In extraordinary circumstances.” Justin said, “We are … authorised, to give custodianship of items of power like this to individuals who we believe will protect and not misuse that power.”
Goku cocked his head to the side, as though he really did not understand what his friend was driving at. Justin continued with a sigh.
“You, Goku, we’d like to ask that you take this Star Piece and look after it. Do you understand?”
“Well that be very touching!” Boomed a voice at the lip of the crater, “But I’m afraid we’ll be taking that little magical doodad ourselves! Just place it on the ground and back away!”
The Golden Flame were gathered at last, and the treasure they wanted was right in their sights! Kunain stood towering over the bedraggled group from Dalaran, his armour once again polished to a bright and gleaming gold. Next to him, Rosie in her flame-haired glory had her palm outstretched towards them, ready to bake them all to cinders at his command, and Omion held his bow at the ready, an arrow pointed directly at the spiky-haired warrior’s head – he was the one holding the star piece after all.
Acwulf stood on the far side of the crater, features still shrouded in shadow. To the surprise of the gathered interlopers, though, the people in the crater didn’t look scared – more… tired.
“Hey, I’m really sorry.” The spiky-haired one said, looking right up at Kunain. “But, I’m reaaaaaaaally exhausted. Would you mind coming back later? I’d love to fight you guys tomorrow!”
Kunain spluttered, the proud dwarf huffing and puffing in indignation. “No I won’t come back later!” He shouted, “Give me what we came here for, or I’ll kill all of you right now!”
“No, you won’t.”
Acwulf’s voice was soft, and he let his cloak fall back to reveal the gleaming scimitars beneath – shining brilliant and eager for blood.
Kunain turned crimson, and for a moment it looked like his eyes might actually bulge from his skull. “What the hell do you think you are doing, Acwulf?! You are the youngest member of this party, you do NOT tell us what—“
“Shut up.”
By this point, Goku had tucked the star piece away inside his gi, and was now – along with the rest of his companions – watching the meltdown of the apparent ambushers with great interest.
“I didn’t come here to help you kill these people when they are too weak to defend themselves.” Acwulf said, “Besides. Every monster, bounty hunter and thief in the Pale Moors will be looking to gut whoever has that thing and take it to Dracula. I can’t allow that, either.”
Kunain raised his hammer, and Acwulf drew his scimitars in response.
“What’re you going to do, tough guy? Kill ME?” The dwarf roared, “I’ll mount your head above my wall!”
“If I have to.” The mysterious wanderer replied, calm as though he had not just been threatened by his erstwhile employer. “But I was thinking of a more sensible arrangement. We help these people get back to Darkshire, then we can fight for the shard.”
Gabriel’s eyebrow rose, “Travel with people who want to kill us? Why do you believe we’d allow that?”
“You don’t have a choice.” Acwulf said, bluntly. “Consider how many of your group have died to get you this far. Do you think it will be easier now that you’ve got what you came for?”
Goku laughed, “I guess he’s got us there!”
Goku was about the only person in either group who seemed cheerful in spite of the new arrangement. Going back the way they had come, it was indeed a brutal and tiring journey, one where they were often (grudgingly) grateful for the ‘assistance’ rendered by their would-be assailants. It seemed much quicker without the agents of the Drow harrying their footsteps, but even so, there were undead horrors a’plenty and they all had reason to be thankful for another four competent warriors to watch their backs – just as the Golden Flame relied on the Dalaran party to keep them safe through some of the more testing conflicts themselves.
When they did make it back to the comparative safety of Darkshire, however, things took a more serious turn.
Whatever camaraderie they had gained on the journey melted away in an instant. Justin found himself surrounded by his bodyguards again, and it was Acwulf – not Kunain – who stepped forward to block their path towards the gate.
“Do you really have to do this?” Justin asked, “You must realise that the safest place for the star piece is with us, anyone else would seek to abuse it.”
“I don’t care about that.” Acwulf replied, “I agreed to this mission because I heard about the warriors strong enough to take on the Drow and Dracula and come out in one piece. When I take your heads, I’ll be able to name my price.”
“Aye, and we don’t care about safety neither!” Kunain bellowed, “With the price we can fetch for that thing, we’ll live like kings! Rosie! Do it now!”
Of course, in the weeks of travel, the Dalaran party had plenty of time to prepare their own initiative in response, which is why when Kunain shouted Rosie’s name, Juliet hurled a flask of oil right at her. The woman had impressive command over heat and flames, they’d all seen that – she summoned it up in an instant, intending to incinerate her opponents…
… instead, the fireball engulfed the flask, which burst directly in front of her and the night was lit up with an agonised scream as flames licked into the air.
Acwulf moved swiftly to try and get the drop on Gabriel, but the Captain had his own target in mind – rushing towards Kunain, the dwarf’s mighty hammer clashed against his shield, and Goku came in from above to cut off the scimitar-wielding warrior’s advance. The scarred human twirled his weapons around one another.
“I know why you really decided not to ambush us.”
“Oh?” Asked the assassin, “Is that so?”
“Yup!” Goku declared, cheerful as ever. “You didn’t want to make it too easy! You wanted a clean fight, so you’d know if you really were better than us. I can understand that.”
“You’re half right.” Acwulf admitted, “I did want to fight you properly. But now I’ve seen your moves in action, there’s nothing left for you to surprise me with. This is already over.”
Goku smirked in response, and fell into his combat stance – crouched with both arms raised, eyes sparkling with amusement. “Don’t be so certain!”
Acwulf snarled with frustration and surged forwards, scimitars gleaming brilliantly as he advanced on the overconfident saiyan. What followed was an impressive ballet of death, Goku forced onto the defensive thanks to the increased reach and wickedly-curved steel with which he was assaulted. It was all he could do to twist and turn through the blades, his attempts to hit back turned aside with contemptuous ease.
The others were having markedly more success taking on their opponents. No sooner had Juliet’s crossbow trained on the half-elf Omion than the ranger had decided – having seen Rosie baked to a crisp – that discretion was the better part of valour, turned tail, and fled back towards Darkshire proper.
Kunain was hammering over and over at Gabriel, but the Guard Captain’s defence was proving more stubborn than steel, refusing to so much as bend or buckle in the face of the dwarf’s furious rage. By the same token, Juliet couldn’t find a clear shot as Gabriel allowed Kunain to tire himself out against his guard, but Kunain was failing to gain any ground.
A sudden, twisting pirouette caught Goku by surprise, and the saiyan stumbled back with a light scratch drawn across his chest. Blood blossomed to stain his gi, and the warrior cracked his neck.
“I know you’re holding back.” Kunain murmured, “Will you take me seriously, now?”
Goku shrugged his shoulders, “Well… okay, I guess!”
Leaping into the air, he was instantly taken out of arm’s reach of his opponent. It didn’t seem particularly fair, but, the scimitar-wielding warrior had been insistent! Bright white light exploded all around him as he called up his inner strength, a loud shout on his lips.
“HRRRRRRRRAAAAAGH!”
The light was dazzling, and Goku suddenly thrust both hands down towards Acwulf. The rain of bright yellow orbs was sudden, and explosive. The Kamehameha was far too focused for such a quick opponent, and the sword-wielding warrior was quick to respond – leaping upwards into the torrent of surging ki energy, his steel flashed out to deflect the attacks back at Goku – which was precisely what the martial artist had expected.
Three energy bullets whizzed in towards him, and three more shot from his palms to meet them. The resulting explosion filled the air with light and heat, and when it cleared, Acwulf was lunging through the air to try and slash those weapons right at neck height… where Goku had been, a split second earlier.
Both arms wrapped around the weaponmaster’s elbows, and Acwulf grunted as he found himself being bent backwards, arms wrenched painfully in Goku’s grip.
“You’re really good!” Goku explained, “But… you’re predictable. If you always go for the killing blow, I’m going to know where you’re coming from, and then…”
Suddenly, Goku and his quarry were rocketing back towards the ground. Acwulf had enough time to let out a shout, before he impacted painfully with the earth and the air was driven from his lungs. Both hands lost their grip on his weapons, and he rolled over, choking and coughing for breath.
Goku bent down, picked up the swords, and simply hurled them towards the horizon.
“Okay! I think we’re done here—oh wait, right.”
Kunain was having difficulty believing that any human could weather his assault as well as this one had. The idiot Rosie had burned herself alive, Omion had fled like the coward he was – showing his elvish ancestry in full force – but, how could he, Kunain Heldenhammer, be having anywhere near this much trouble with one man?!
“Kaioken.”
Ignoring the strange word from behind him, the dwarf resettled his grip, the dwarf shouted out loud and swung it up and around with all his might, only to find that the head of the hammer refused to budge as though it were stuck in deep earth.
“What in the devil?!”
Turning around, the spiky-haired warrior was wreathed in blood red fire, his eyes burning ferociously, and his hand settled easily on the head of his hammer. Try as he might, Kunain couldn’t bring it to budge even one inch!
“Let go this instant!” The dwarf raged, “I’ll break your skull for this, you—“
That was the moment that the pommel of Gabriel’s sword smashed right across his jaw, and darkness rushed up to swallow Kunain’s consciousness.
On the far side of the gate, Goku once again found himself in the strange, blank whiteness of the Nexus. He and his friends gathered together for one last time.
“Do you know where you’ll go next?” Justin asked.
Goku smiled easily, and shook his head. “Nope! No idea at all!” He said, cheerfully, “I’m willing to bet there’s a lot of places out there that could use my help. I figure I’ll just… find the next one.”
Gabriel shook the martial artist’s hand, and chuckled to himself. “Well, if you ever find yourself in Camelot, my friend, come and pay me a visit. I know that we’d be happy to have you.”
Goku nodded his head in turn, “I’ll be sure to do that!” He said, and his hand raised to touch the Star Piece where it rested comfortably inside his gi. “And if you ever need this back… well, you only have to ask!”
Rising up into the air, Goku took off at speed, leaving the Dalaran party behind.
“Do you think he even understands the importance of what he’s done?” Juliet murmured as she watched him go.
“Probably not.” Gabriel said, “Heroes rarely do.”
![[Image: x1oIYhu.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/x1oIYhu.jpg)