Camp Alpha, Firing Range
"Alright, some of you are vets, while others had just passed out from basic," Master Sergeant Pike gave a no-nonsense glare at the gathered Marines seated on the dirt floor next to the firing range in Camp Alpha. "Now, you all have been selected to attend this course and will be assigned as your section's automatic riflemen!"
The mixed group of elves and orcs, looked upon wonder at the boxy looking weapon displayed in front of Pike. "This is the latest weapon designed here! Straight out from the labs of Ordnance and tested thoroughly before we decided to hand it over to you shitheads!" Pike growled.
"This is the MG-1 'Magebreaker', chambered in .338 or 8.5mm, weights 10.8 kg unloaded. It can use either belted ammunition," Which Pike held up a length of chained ammunition from the table, "Or a drum magazine of 75 rounds. This baby has a tested muzzle velocity of 807.7 meters per second, and a rate of fire of roughly 500 rounds per minute. It has an effective range of up to 1,770 meters!"
Pike displayed the new weapon, which looked a bit similar to the M2 Magespitter except its body is boxier and has a longer barrel at 24" long with a flash suppressor at the end and a carrying handle. The wooden pistol grip and rifle stock were painted in matte black paint. Pike placed the weapon down and picked up a couple of loose cartridges off the table and placed them side by side for the Marines to compare.
"On the left is the old 6.5 mm round and the longer round is the new .338 or 8.5 mm round," Pike explained, "The new 8.5 mm round uses a new smokeless propellant for firing, and it is three times more powerful compared to the same amount of black powder. The bullet weights at 19.44 grams compared to 9.3 grams of the 6.5 mm bullet. It is available in Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) or also known as Ball, AP, and Tracer ammunition types."
"It also has close to 2.5 times more penetration power compared to the current 6.5 mm black powder loads," Pike grinned at the wide-eyed Marines listening intently to his description of the weapon. "That is almost three times the effective range of your standard issued Magelocks! And its current recorded maximum range is up to 5,642 meters!"
Some of the orcs were using their fingers, trying to count and gauge the distance, making Pike sigh and shake his head. "Nevermind, today this week-long course is to familiarize yourselves with MG-1! It will be your best buddy, your wife, your girlfriend, sexual fantasy or your right hand! You will be taught how to clean it, service it, fire it and repair it!"
"And if anyone of you shitheads fails to reach my expectations, I will bust you back to be an ammo runner!" Pike roared at the suddenly alert Marines, "Now is that clear?"
"YES! MASTER SERGEANT!"
-----
Falledge, New Dragon Gate Inn
Billy sat on the side of streets watching the Hero Dante and his party enter the New Dragon Gate Inn with their floating luggage. For half a day, she wandered not too closely behind, watching the party as they wandered around the town, selling loot gathered from their travels and having blacksmiths to maintain their weapons and armors.
She gnawed at her piece of hard bread, using her saliva to soften it before swallowing as she watched the party through the open doors of the Inn. Billy looked up at the darkening skies and sighed, wondering should she still tail them or should she return to the orphanage. She saw the party got led away by a server and hesitated for a while before deciding to find out at least which room they were staying at.
The streets and shops around her started to darken and lamps were lit while the Glow Moss of the street lamps cast a dull pale glow to the streets. She craned her head looking at all the windows of the three-storied Inn, hoping to see where they will be staying at, but to her dismay, as darkness came, most of the rooms' windows lit up.
Stuffing the remainder of her bread into her pockets, she timidly walked into the Inn and headed straight to the counter, "Good evening, Sir!" She greeted the manager at the counter who gave her a once over and sniffed his nose.
"What do you want, brat?" The sharp nosed manager asked, "No begging allowed here!"
"Ahh, no, I just wanna ask if the Hero Dante is staying here...?" She asked in a small voice, acting like a timid child but inside her, she was fuming at the attitude of the manager. "I'm a fan of his, and would really like to get his signature..."
"Shoo, go away," The manager waved his hand dismissively at her, "Our guests are not to be disturbed by begger kids, shoo!"
"But..." She gave her best puppy eye look at the manager, who ignored her and instead rang a bell, where two burly men appeared. "Throw that begger kid out!"
"Waa?" She was unceremoniously dumped out of the Inn and warned never to appear again or she will get beaten up. Billy rubbed her sore butt and dusted her clothes angrily and struck her tongue out at the retreating backs of the bouncers. She retreated to the side of the streets and started planning for her next move. If I can't get n from the front... then I will go back the back! She thought and headed off to the rear of the New Dragon Gate Inn.
But as she explored the rear of the Inn, she found it all fenced up with walls and a locked gate. She frowned and thought of climbing over the gate but suddenly noticed the building at the side of the Inn looked deserted and there were no walls covering it. She wandered around the building and found that the side of walls had several sculptures that give easy hand and foot holds for her to climb up.
Looking around, she found no one in the vicinity and the darkness of the night gave her plenty of covers to climb up the side of the building next to the Inn. This is gonna cost that Uncle plenty of silvers once she was done with this! She though in her mind as she expertly crawled up the side of the walls.
Giving out a final grunt, she flopped her self over to the roof of the building and laid on the sloped tiles panting from the effort of the climb. Billy laid on the roof for a while, catching her breath before she sat up and looked across the gap to the Inn opposite her. A balcony laid before her eyes within a couple of meters away and she decided to jump across. Gathering her courage, she nimbly ran along the side of the roof and leaped across the distance and hit the balcony rolling and slammed against the wall.
Groaning with pain from the land, she rubbed her elbows and knees and thanked the gods that the room's balcony she landed on was unoccupied. She leaned over the balcony and started to slowly climb over to the next balcony, as the balconies of each room were within easy climbing distance.
After peeking into the windows and curtains of several rooms, she still couldn't find where the Hero Dane and his party were staying at. She leaned out of the balcony and gauged that there were roughly another six or seven rooms she still did not check yet.
"I am really gonna charge that Uncle for more money! Not silvers but in gold royals!" She grumbled under her breath and started climbing again. This time, after the second balcony, she found the girls from the Hero's party. She peeked through the tiny crack of the curtains and saw both girls were blushing their hair and preparing to sleep.
Ignoring them, Billy quietly climbed out of the balcony and headed to the next but found the room to be dark and empty. She continued on to the next balcony were lights could be seen from the window and peered in.
To her happiness, she found the Hero Dante! He was laying on his bed with his top off, showing off his perfect muscles with his hands over his head. He appeared to be humming and he turned to the side of the room and said something which surprised Billy till a woman walked into view.
They started hugging and kissing on the bed and Billy watched with wide-eyed, blushing at the intimate act and at the same time fascinated by it. As the couple reached the climax of the act, Billy recognized the girl as the Adventurer's Guild admin girl! She covered her mouth and sniggered, thinking that this piece of information should be worth something to someone, when she heard a gagging noise from the room, loud enough to be heard despite the thick windows and stone walls.
She peeked back into the window and saw the girl who was saddling the Hero Dante, had her throat gripped by the Hero and was struggling in his grasp. The Hero Dante had a strange smile on his face as his eyes were half closed and Billy noticed with a shock that the bare skin of the girl was turning grey and wrinkled, at a pace that was mind-boggling to the young girl.
Soon in a matter of seconds, the body of the girl held by the Hero Dante, turned into a grey and dry husk, totally unrecognizable as the pretty and vibrant admin girl earlier. The Hero dropped the shriveled body on the side of the bed and stood up naked.
Billy gasped as she saw the terror sicken looked of the shriveled body and quickly covered her mouth in panic and dodged down away from the window, praying that the Hero Dante did not hear it.
-----
Dante stretched his body, feeling power and youth coursing through his veins when he heard something from the window. He tilted his head and smiled, grabbing his discarded clothes and putting them on and stepped over the dried up husk on the floor.
He yanked the balcony door open and looked out, left and right and saw nothing. "Must be a bird or something," He said and closed the door.
-----
Billy let out the breath that she held, and sighed in relief. She stood up from the next balcony which she managed to climb over just in time before the Hero opened the door and started her climb back down from the Inn when she felt a chill on her back.
She turned slowly and saw the Hero Dante standing at the balcony, giving her a charming smile but his eyes were giving off a sense of dread. Billy froze and said, "Hi, and... bye!" before quickly jumping over the side of the balcony and madly climbed down to the first level.
As her feet touched the ground floor, she barely cast a glance back up and took off as fast as her legs could. But to her dismay, she heard a heavy thud and looking back, she saw the Hero Dante landed right behind her and his face still held that cheerful smile.
"Oh heavens!" Billy panicked, her heart beating rapidly as she ran for her life, knowing that if the Hero caught her, she will be killed or turned into that dried up body!
The adventurer uncle! He must be able to save her! She thought as she ran through the small alleyways, hoping to lose the Hero.
"Run little rabbit run!" She heard soprano voice mocking her from behind and she chanced a look and regretted as she saw that smiling face behind her, keeping to her pace easily.
"I am coming to catch you~!"
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MERRY XMAS PEOPLE! Wishing you guys a good holiday ... and eat more ham! XD
Falledge, The Prancing Pony Inn
Tyrier's leg was propped up against the table as he leaned back on the creaky wooden chair as he waited patiently for Doth conversation on the radio with HQ to end. The rest of the Claymore One team have gathered at the Prancing Pony, taking over two other rooms down the hall. Now half the team was gathered at the Doth and Tavel's room as they communicated the latest piece of information back to HQ.
"Damn, I did not expect that bloody Hero to come here!" Hitsu grumbled as he sat on the edge of the bed. "That guy is crazily strong!"
"Yea," Tavel nodded as he leaned against the wall next to the window, "I heard he single handed destroyed a third of the beastman army."
"Yea, I saw him once at the border," Hitsu said, "He destroyed the border fort just by himself. Calling himself the light of justice..." Hitsu spat at the side, "Just because he found some remnants of the old gods makes him think that he is some kind of savior to the people and everyone must worship him."
"Well, we got to be careful with him, we don't know why he is here," Tyrier suddenly spoke, "He is dangerous."
"Well, I got someone to tail him for us," Hitsu said, "Hopefully, we can get some info on him and be better prepared."
"Alright, done!" Doth set down his headgear and mike, "HQ tells us to sit tight and focus on transporting the freed slaves and do not get into any trouble."
"One more night before we leave this place," Hitsu sighed, "I am starting to like this place."
"Nah, I want proper showers and toilets!" Tavel joked, "I think I have gotten soft!"
The men joked and laughed among themselves when suddenly a ground shaking rumbled was heard and felt. "What the..?"
Cries and shouts could be heard from outside the window, and Tavel quickly opened it and looked out, the muffled sounds immediately became clear as another rumbled shook the Inn and more cries and screams of panic were heard.
"What's going on?" Doth asked as he quickly put away the precious radio equipment into a leather carrier while Hitsu and Tyrier grabbed their weapons from underneath the beds.
The door suddenly banged urgently and Altied poked his head in, "Something is wrong!"
Tyrier took one look out into the night and ordered, "Load up, be prepared for anything, if its nothing to do with us, good but if it is something that might affect our mission, be ready to move at any time!"
The men nodded and Altied went to alert rest outside, while Doth and Tavel headed back to their rooms for their gear. A short while later, everyone had gathered around Tyrier's room all armed discretely and ready for action.
"Altied, Young, Doth, and Tavel, you four form one team and standby at the ground floor and secure an exit," Tyrier ordered, "Hitsu and Loke with me as the second team. Loke and Histu go up top and keep watch on the roof."
The Claymore One members split up as ordered and headed to their positions. As the disturbance keep going on, almost all the customers and even the workers in the Inn came out to the streets to stare and discuss, making Altied's team easy to access the back area of the Inn without anyone noticing them.
Loke hoisted himself up from the side of the window and hooked his feet over the roof shingles, and rolled himself up. He leaned down and grabbed his gear handed out from the window by Hitsu and set it aside before giving a helping hand to the rest to climb up.
Another rumble was heard, louder and closer this time and a cloud of smoke lit by the lamps of houses could just be seen a few streets down from the inn. "Its like getting closer!" Loke pointed out.
"See anything?" Tyrier asked as he stood on the roof, trying to see what is going on. Some of the roofs of the other buildings were also occupied as the inhabitants also climbed up to see what is going on.
"Too many buildings in the way," Loke replied as he sat with his scoped M1S, looking through the 6x scope, trying to spot what is causing the disturbance.
"Wait, I see something!" His scope spotted a small figure darting out from a side alley next to the main street where a few gawking pedestrians were staring at the commotion. He saw the small figure nearly trip but managed to keep his balance and kept running when the alleyway where the figure came out exploded. "What the hell?"
Alerted by Loke's sighting, both Tyrier and Hitsu removed a small pair of binoculars and peer to where Loke said. They too saw the walls of the alleyway exploded out, and a figure appeared from the smoke. Despite the lower zoom of the binos, Hitsu quickly recognizes the figure walking out of the smoke, "That's the Hero Dante!"
"Wait!" He tracked downwards to the running figure, "Oh shit, that's the girl who I got to tail him!"
"She must have either seen or heard something that is really bad for him or she had just pissed him off really badly," Loke said, "Orders?"
Tyrier frowned, noticing girl heading towards their Inn before the buildings across the street blocked her from his view. "I think shes headed to us."
"Damn, she must be coming to find me!" Hitsu cursed, "Now what?"
Tyrier rubbed his chin in thought before saying, "Back her up, she must have some information that is very important for him to risk killing someone in public."
"Go pick her up," Tyrier ordered Hitsu, "We head to the freed slaves location. We are pushing the mission up by one day!"
"Got it!" Hitsu swung down over the side of the roof and rapidly disappeared from view.
Tyrier next said, "Provide cover as much as you can for the girl, then pull out, don't tangle with the Hero solo!" He then followed after Hitsu down over the edge of the roof.
"Roger that!" Loke said and he made sure that all his gear is properly secured as he sat with his left knee up. He braced his left elbow against his knee and used it as a support for his rifle as he aimed at the Hero strolling down the street like nothing is happening. The dim lights barely cast enough lights to illuminate him but under the scope, Loke placed the crosshair right at the center of his body silhouette and squeezed the trigger.
The muffled puff of the suppressed shot barely could be heard over the dim of noises made by the town's inhabitants as they were speculating on what is happening. The smoke from the shot was quickly dispersed away by the night breeze and the bullet drop straight down at the Hero.
-----
Dante grinned as he watched the girl run away from him in fear. The feeling was intoxicating, different from killing monsters, especially since he had absorbed the life force of the girl in bed with him earlier.
He ignored the shouts and cries of bystanders as he punched out into the air, were three magic circles formed out. His fist impacted the magic circles and a force of compressed wind exploded out, slamming in the alleyways where the girl had run into. He gave a smile to a city guard who shouted at him and casually gave the guard a backhand slap, which blew the head of the guard away, leaving behind a headless body, squirting blood and screaming people.
As he walked out of the smokey alleyway, he saw the girl running still, and his grin grew wider, "Run little girl, run~" He laughed cheerfully, "It is a nice night for a hunt!"
Suddenly his senses warned him of danger, and he sub consciously brought up his magical defenses. Something slammed into his chest, powerful enough to knock him back a step. He looked down surprised at the attack from nowhere and saw a strange flat object stopped at a few centimeters from his chest by his flickering magical barrier.
He picked the object up and looked curiously at it, wondering what is it, for it does not look like a throwing dart, an arrowhead or even any hidden weapon he has seen before. Dante looked up and his smiling eyes narrowed, wondering who sent this to him that is strong enough to make him feel threatened and he crushed the heavy pellet in his fingers, flattening it more.
-----
Loke cursed, "Farking magic barriers! I hate magic sometimes!" He worked the bolt of his rifle and re-scope at the target but the Hero had vanished from view. "Fark!"
He keyed his micro communicator at his ear, "I lost sight of the Hero! Make ready, he's coming and he shielded!"
The rest of Claymore One returned their affirmatives and prepared themselves for a strong fight ahead while Loke took a running leap and jumped across the roof of the inn and landed on top of another building's roof across the street. The tiles cracked and shattered as he landed heavily, and pieces of tiles slid down and fell down to the streets.
"I see him!" Loke yelled into his comms, "One street down, right behind the girl next to the bakery!"
-----
"Roger!" Hitsu replied as he pushed past the crowd forming at the streets, and headed towards the bakery. He ignored the yells and cursed thrown his way as he shouldered roughly aside those in his way and he unwrapped his M2 Magespitter out, and did a quick check of his weapon and stepped out into the street where the bakery was located.
He saw the kid, Billy, her face frozen in terror as she ran blindly away from the monster behind her. Her cap had fallen off and her shoulder-length sweat-plastered hair flying wildly as she twisted her head to look behind her at the smiling Hero.
"Billy!" Hitsu yelled as he took a firing stance with his M2, aiming the sights down at the approaching Hero. "Over here!"
Billy spun her head around when she heard Hitsu's voice and her tear stained face broke into a relieved smile and she dashed with all her remaining strength towards Hitsu.
-----
Dante looked at the person dressed like an adventurer in leathers and holding something like a pole in his hands and his brow ceased slightly before he gave a shrug and raised his finger and a magic circle formed up before a bolt of light burst out and slammed into the girl's back. "Magic Missile!"
-----
"NO!" Hitsu shouted as he saw in horror the bolt of magic missile slammed into Billy's back, and she collapsed like a puppet with strings cut off. "YOU FARKER!"
He raised his weapon and fired in short bursts at the Hero standing at the end of the street while advancing step by step towards the fallen child. "FARK!"
-----
Tyrier pushed his way out of the gawking crowd and saw the girl downed by the Hero, and Hitsu advancing by fire towards the fallen girl. "Shit!"
"The girl is down!" Tyrier spoke into his comms, "Loke, overwatch now! The rest we need an exit now!" After he gave his orders he dashed forward to provide support for Hitsu.
-----
Dante face twisted as suddenly his magical barrier was barraged by dozens of attacks. Sparks and smoke exploded all over his magical shield and the impacts of the unknown spells were forcing him to step backward.
"What sorcery is this?" His normal smile disappeared and replaced with a cold glare, as he looked at the adventurer with the strange pole that was smoking and popping away with sparks at him. "Wand of magic missiles? Or a wand of lightning bolts?"
He narrowed his eyes as he felt his magic shield starting to weaken from the barrage of spells. "Sun god hear my prayers!" He started to gather his divine powers to empower himself. "Grant me the light to light up the night."
"For the light shall cast away the darkness from this land!"
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