Chef Rescuers

It was a bit weird why Magna thought whether or not Kakuma’s opinion mattered. Probably because he hadn’t seen her around much, little did he know that Magna thought of Kakuma as the guild’s pet. Kaya was asked if she could use her sense of smell to guide them. She shook her head, she couldn’t smell any humans nearby and by scent it wouldn’t be possible to find out whether the Vulcan they sought was around. Until they found a human captive or some Vulcan attacked them, they had little data to go about. ”This is a saturated atmosphere. If she was tracking something I’m sure that would be a different scenario; however, I don’t think she can help with the given situation”, Kaya simply nodded. It made her sad as she frowned but Jin patted her head and smiled to prevent her from being discouraged.

”It has certainly gotten better thanks to the tips I got from you. The more attention I pay to it, the more rewarding the outcome”, he summarized his recent experience. It was true, he hadn’t learned as much as he had now thanks to the tips he kept getting from Magna from time to time. Cooking was all about delicacy and the thing about delicacy is that it demands ones attention and concentration. Jin was now more focused and devoted to it and thus he was improving. ”I think we should cook something together sometimes. That way I can show you how I’m doing” he said as he scratched the back of his neck. He wasn’t that sure but he still wanted Magna to see where he was at cooking.

As they continued to walk he sensed multiple hostile auras around him, he stopped and looked around and then looked at Magna. ”It appears we’re outnumbered” he said as a total of eleven foes appeared out of nowhere. Kaya jumped off of Jin’s shoulder and awaited their move, Jin took a defensive stance. There was one among them that outsized the others, probably the leader. They would have to choose their opponents, one of them would have to do crowd control and the other would have to take on the larger one. Jin’s abilities were suited for both battles since he could do crowd control along with Kaya and his summoned warriors. Also, he could take on the larger Vulcan with the help of those two so he would wait for Magna. After Magna had decided on what he wanted to do, Jin would assist him accordingly.

Magna thought for a moment considering if there was anyway he could help Kaya with finding the creatures in question or their kidnapper. "Thanks for trying anyway Kaya. Perhaps try to understand the scents that are here and see if anything smells different." he said as a suggestion. It was the only thing he could think of really. Unless they found something to give them a clue. "One of the girls might of been wearing perfume maybe."

"Well i'm glad your cooking has improved." Magna said with a smile. It was good to know that his friend had been able to improve based on the advice and tips that Magna had provided. As for cooking together. Well, that sounded like a fantastic idea to him. "Maybe we can do two things at once. Improve our cooking whilst you teach me magic." He said as an idea. He really wanted to learn Jin's magic. The ability to control heat, absorb it and redirect it sounded really useful for a chef. He mostly wanted it to be able to perfectly judge the temperature of food he was cooking and chill food for transport. However, it would likely be useful on jobs. "Maybe we can think up some combo recipes and combo techniques." He looked over at Kaya and winked. "Maybe you and Guardy can find some combos too."

Suddenly though Jin stopped and mentioned that they were surrounded. A quick cursory glance revealed 10 small creatures and one large one. The large one smelled a bit familiar. Possibly a vulcan. The others he didn't recognise. The breathing pattern sounded right for a vulcan too. "Looks like we are going to have to fight." he unwrapped the cloth from around his wrist and tied it to his brow. As he did so his eyes seemed to gain a slight red tinge. He wasn't completely serious yet, but he was getting that way. He pulled out the knife that housed Aegis and like usual it glowed brightly before forming into the tall knife.

The knight said nothing, but raised a hand to the green gem on his forehead which began to glow. Magna was surprised. It seemed Aegis wanted to bring out his new toy sooner rather than later. A few seconds later the glow faded from his brow and a large golden axe appeared in Aegis' hand. At its base was a large, sharpened, green gemstone. He did not say a word, but suddenly lunged sweeping with the axe and chopped a tree down in such a way that it fell and went towards a couple of the weaker enemies. It didn't manage to crush them, but it did startle them. The vulcan on the other hand leapt forward towards Aegis's side. The knight however suddenly struck with a palm strike that sent the vulcan flying. Aegis was quite a skilled fighter. It probably came from him being quite an ancient being.

Kaya rejoiced when Magna mentioned about her and ‘guardy’ working together. Jin turned to look at Magna when he said ‘guardy’, he wasn’t sure if Aegis would appreciate that. However, he hadn’t heard Aegis talk much so there was a good chance he wouldn’t complain. ”That would make things easier, let’s do it sometime” he said nodding. Teaching magic while using cooking would definitely be easier since Magna was comfortable with cooking. The rest was just a matter of explaining a few things while Magna practiced. It wouldn’t take him much time if he used cooking to learn Heat Magic. Though he couldn’t be sure, he hadn’t taught anyone the magic and it was a complex advanced level magic too.

With the summoning of the armored guardian, the battle between the two Black Rose mages and the monsters began. As Aegis charged at the smaller creatures, Jin assumed that he would be good enough for them. With that assumption, he looked at Kaya who nodded and increased in size turning into the frightening saber tooth that she was. With her increase of size, two warriors appeared at Jin’s side as well out of thin air. One of the warrior had a large spear and the other had a katana in his hand, both awaited Jin’s command.  The large Vulcan stared at the saber tooth and the two warriors and then Jin, what had just happened? The poor creature couldn’t understand it.

Taking advantage of the confusion Jin charged at the Vulcan along with the two warriors while Kaya joined Aegis’s side to take on the smaller monsters. She pounced on top of two of them, crushing them underneath her feet and then jumping away. Her large size made quite the ruckus and did some serious damage as well. The two warriors separated with one heading to the left the other to the right while Jin headed straight for the Vulcan. An attack from three sides with equal speed, it would be impossible to avoid. The only matter was to choose which attack to take and which to block or dodge.  The warrior with the katana attacked with a horizontal slash while the one with the spear launched a mid ranged attack and Jin got closer. As he got closer, he swung his arm downwards using his spell: Heat wave. The blade wasn’t something he could block and Jin’s attack was an invisible heat wave so he managed to block the spear but got hit by the other two attacks.

Magna meanwhile had not been yet attacked. Aegis was standing nearby using the long reach of his arms aided with the axe at its full length, almost the same as his height, to bat the small creatures away whenever they got close. Magna observed the battle. Kaya's size changing ability was always impressive and the summoning that Jin performed was always useful. Or was it summoning? It seemed like magic, yet not like magic at the same time. It was rather odd. He'd have to ask about it later because at that moment two of the small imps managed to get past Aegis' stalwart defense and charge him.

"Deutch Stil Olbeshichtung." he said and a large bottle of oil appeared above the creatures and emptied out onto them. Instantly, they were greased from head to toe and slipped over on the ground. So great was the slickness and so fast as their charge that when they fell they continue to slide. Magna stepped to the side and watched with a slight smile as they slid right out of sight. It was one of his more useful techniques even if by itself it was almost 100% non-lethal.

The battle would not last much longer. Seeing the damage so easily done to the vulcan, the sudden appearence of the axe wielding knight and the saber tooth tiger had been enough to scare the imps into a retreat. The two spirit warriors probably hadn't helped either. The vulcan itself though was not quite down for the count, but nor was it really able to fight. "Vulcan's are capable of speech right? Why don't we just ask him?" Magna suggested.

magic:

The horizontal slash of the katana cut the Vulcan’s body and Jin’s attack left quite a few burn marks to the front. The creature fell on its back having witnessed such formidable foes. Even though they were outnumbered, the mages were able to turn the tables in an instant. ”Argh!” it cried out in pain as blood began to spill from its wound. Magna proposed they should just ask the Vulcan but he wasn’t sure. Last time Jin tried talking to a Vulcan, he refused to reply just because Jin wasn’t a girl. Well, there was no harm in trying once again; what could possibly go wrong? ”Sure. So where are you hiding the females? Spill it if you don’t want to get injured anymore” he said with a touch of seriousness. Jin was a kind hearted person, not the kind who would scare others. However, since he had caused considerable damage to the Vulcan, the creature looked helplessly at him. Then it stared at Magna, Aegis, Kaya and then the two summoned spirit warriors.

”Fine, even though none of you is a woman and I don’t feel like talking to you” it said looking away rolling its eyes. Jin cracked his knuckles in reply making a scary face as the Vulcan backed away. ”Okay okay, stop. Just go straight ahead, I hid them in a large tree trunk there”, it said as a sweat droplet dropped down its face. Just to be safe, Jin sent the two summoned warriors to go ahead and find the trunk. The two went ahead and came back after a little while accompanied by the kidnapped women. ”Now listen to me Vulcan, if you do something like this again, we will find you and we will make you regret it”; he said the last part differently to give it more significance. The Vulcan nodded and walked away dragging its feet because of its injury.

The threaten tactic had worked and it seemed despite their gender the vulcan was telling the truth and indeed he had for soon the spirit warriors had returned with the kidnapped women. They varied in age, but none were over the age of 21 that was clear. It seemed the vulcan only had a taste for young women rather than the older more experienced kind. As the vulcan walked away Magna quickly ran in front of it. The vulcan looked at him.

"I told you where they were. I won't do it again." the vulcan said pitifully. Magna nodded. "What do you want from me now?" 

"I know you won't do it again. But I don't want you going away injured and ending up getting further injured for it." Magna said calmly and bid the vulcan to stand still. It was clearly scared and did what it was told, but it also seemed intently curious about what Magna was about to do. He focused and summoned up a bottle of alcohol. He tore off a bit of his top and poured the alcohol onto it. "This will sting a bit, but it will clean the wound." With that he began to dab at the wound causing the vulcan to wince at the stinging, but he was still too scared to move. Once Magna was satisfied that the wounds were cleaned he summoned up some ice and told the vulcan to place them on the wounds. "Keep your wounds clean and keep the ice on the burns. They may blister, but it should help heal them." With that Magna left to follow Jin. As he had said before he didn't like to hurt creatures he wasn't going to use for cooking and letting this one die due to its injuries just didn't sit well with him.

[END]