The Hunt Continues (The Slayer Project job w/ Ardere)

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

   It seemed as though Ardere had caught a bit of the man’s scent, so Haretsa followed close to her guild master as he lead the way down one of the many halls. As the two Slayer’s ran down the hall, Haretsa was beginning to feel some serious deja vu the further into the facility they went. The rooms that they passed had windows peering in, revealing some to be merely offices while others had several different medical instruments set up amongst them. This place was beginning to look more and more like the facility that she had been taken too all those years ago. Had Haretsa really stumbled upon another lab for producing Dragon Slayer’s? If that were true, then she feared for the kidnapped families safety. Her and Emilia were the only ones who survived the experiments done to them in that lab, so if this place really was run by those same bastards…

    Distracted by her thoughts, Haretsa ended up bumping straight into the back of Ardere as he slowed down his pace. GAH! S-sorry, I kinda got lost in my own thoughts for a bit there…” Haretsa apologized, her ears perking up as she heard footsteps off in the distance. It was difficult to really tell, but it seemed there were quite a few people heading in the direction of the two Slayer’s at a rather moderate pace. It also seemed as though the footsteps were coming from directly in front of them, which meant it was most likely security heading out to deal with the loud noise they heard from Haretsa’s roar. ”Hmmm, how to greet our company…” Haretsa thought aloud, the gears of her mind beginning to spin as she came up with an attack plan. ”Alright, the hallway is narrow enough to the point where one big surprise attack should hit them all. Only problem is we don’t know if what’s coming is an entire group of enemies or some guards transporting some of the kidnapped people…. Uhhh ok! I’ll scout ahead in the shadows, if you feel me move up and down then you’re good to attack, if I move side to side then that’ll mean no. Then I can move around them and sandwich em all if it is the enemy. Keep your senses on me!” Haretsa whispered as she delved into the Void.

    Proceeding through the shadows of the hallway, Haretsa made it to the group and froze in place to analyze them. The group consisted of four scientists that were accompanied by three armed guards. One of them possessed a shotgun with a pistol holstered at his side, another carried a variety of different throwing knives, and the last guard carried a collection of different types of grenades. "This is absurd. Just because Mathias was followed doesn't mean we can't fend off these intruders ourselves. We're more than just mere scientists!" one of the scientists complained, causing one guard to sigh. "We get that, but you're all too important to the success of this project. We can't have you fighting with intruders on your own; especially when it threatens our paycheck." the guard explained as they continued down the hallway. Haretsa then began to move rapidly up and down, giving her guild master the ok to commence the surprise attack.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

    The sight that played out before Haretsa’s eyes was rather difficult for the young Dragon Slayer to comprehend. She had only managed to blink once and in that instant all five of the men were being burnt by the all too familiar black flames as well as being smacked upside the head with the flatside of Ardere’s blade. Haretsa had honestly not seen such a display of power and speed before and it was honestly rather absurd. ”Jeez… leave some fun for me next time, will ya?” Haretsa commented, hopping out of the shadows and continuing down the hallway with her guild master. The two Slayer’s passed by a number of empty labs with several voices filled with fear could be heard faintly echoing throughout the halls of the facility. What really got Haretsa’s attention were the strange scratch marks along the walls and windows of the empty labs. These scratches were incredibly deep into metal and glass, so they were from something much more than merely fingernails…

    Entering into one of the labs to get to the next section of hallway, Haretsa’s nose picked up on a scent she hadn’t smelled in years. The scent was coming from a rack of test tubes that were filled with a mysterious liquid of various different colors. Seeing these liquids, inhaling their scent, and looking around to see more of the marks along the walls put the final nail in the coffin of Haretsa’s fear of what this place really was. The Dragon Slayer’s mind became flooded with the flashbacks from her time in that dreaded laboratory ten years ago. The intense amount of pain her body had gone through and the fits of outrage she would have due to it all; leaving deep claw marks of a dragon along the walls as well as melting through some of the metal. There was no mistaking what this place was now. ”A-Ardvark…” she stuttered, gripping her head in pain with widened hazel eyes. ”I… I know what this place is… It’s another… facility… for making Dragon Slayers… like me… I can’t ever forget the rancid smell of that… stuff.” she spoke, pointing to the liquids that were in the test tubes. ”Emi and I were the only ones who survived the tests in that place… S-So, the people who were kidnapped… m-might be...be…” Haretsa paused, choking up on her own memories of meeting so many different people in that place and watching them not come back the very next day.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

   The cream haired young girl let out a heavy sigh as she felt her guild master’s hand upon her shoulder. She knew that his words were true and that together the two Slayer’s would save as many of these people as they could. If the events that transpired in Talonia against the Priory had taught her anything, it was that it was impossible to be able to save everyone like she wanted. While this was difficult for Haretsa to accept, it was simply a sad fact of life that she had no choice but to accept. There was no way for her to be able to protect everyone in Fiore, but that wasn’t about to stop her from protecting as many people as she possibly could.

   After Ardere had given the girl some time to gather her thoughts, the two mages quickly made their way down a new hallway. Haretsa’s ears quickly picked up on a group of voices that only grew louder the further down the hallway they went. One group of voices sounded collectively distressed while the other group shared a tone of calm authority. Watching as Ardere drew the bastard sword from his back, Haretsa quickly pressed the jewel at the center of the bracelet adorning her left wrist; causing her armor to activate and surround her entire body with a burnt orange glow. She then threw her arms down to both sides, watching as the gauntlets she upgraded Blamo into unfolded into their full combat forms as Ardere mentioned to keep the people being held captive in mind. ”Right. I’ll handle the guards if there are any, you deal with the scientists and see if you can interrogate one of them to find out where their leaders hiding. It’s probably best if you do that since… I don’t know how well I’ll hold back. Haretsa mentioned, slipping into the Void and creeping her way into the room through the shadows.

     Once inside the room, Haretsa identified three guards standing on alert with two scientists overlooking a crowd of about twenty scared individuals. She also noted that several of these people were heavily experimented on, some of them having scales running down their arms, some with horns growing out of their heads, while others even had dragon like wings and tails All these things were extremely familiar to the young Dragon Slayer, as she could recall her body going through all of those different mutations and the pain she went through trying to suppress them into the body of a child. Seeing these people like this simply served to fan the flames of Haretsa’s anger as she dropped down from the ceiling and landed with a loud thud against the steel floor. She glared up at the three guards as her eyes flashed over to a crimson red before a steady stream of flames blasted out of her back and propelled her towards the armed men. Pulling back her right arm, the Dragon Slayer delivered a swift punch to the face of one of the guards; causing a powerful blast to rocket out of the barrel on her gauntlets and send the man careening through the window out into the hallway. Grabbing the closest guard to her, Haretsa quickly tossed the man out the window as well. The remaining guard had enough time to draw his knife and thrust it straight into Haretsa’s back, but this merely caused the blade to bend and break against the protective glow that enveloped her body. Without a word Haretsa swiftly grabbed the man by the throat and drove him straight through the door of the room; bringing her fight out into the hallway and leaving the scientists as well as the citizens stunned and confused for a few moments as to what was happening.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

    Looking upon her prey sprawled out on their backs with a rather menacing look painted upon her features, the cream haired Dragon Slayer cracked her knuckles aggressively as she began to walk forward towards the three men. The man she had dragged through the door quickly sprang to his feet and simply looked at Haretsa for but a moment. He knew all too well that his knives were completely ineffective due to the glowing aura that surrounded the girl, so he immediately began to run full speed down the hallway away from Haretsa. ”Where the hell do you think you’re going?!” one of the other guards called out to him, struggling to get back to his feet after being blasted through the window so forcefully. ”THIS IS WAY BEYOND MY PAYGRADE, I’M GETTIN THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!” he shouted back, which only caused Haretsa’s menacing grin to grow. ”It’s always more fun when they try to run…” she murmured before unleashing another steady stream of flames out of her back; propelling herself down the hallway at alarming speeds and straight for the man who was trying to flee. Once she was near to the man’s position, Haretsa stretched out her right arm and grasped the man by the back of the neck before forcefully driving his face down into the floor. The force of this blow easily broke the man’s nose and rendering the poor fool completely unconscious.

    Haretsa slowly pulled the man back up and turned to face the other two, holding their unconscious friend towards them as she slowly proceeded forward down the dimly lit hallway. ”Oh, don’t worry about him. You should be much more concerned about what I’m going to do to you!” she exclaimed, hurling the unconscious body towards the other two as they were standing up before rushing them down. As the body hit the guard on the far left, the remaining one slung his assault rifle off his shoulder and began to unload the magazine down the hall. The bullets were simply standard cartridges, so all they managed to do was bounce harmlessly off of Haretsa’s glowing armor as she closed the distance. Immediately throwing an uppercut with her right arm, Haretsa planted her fist square into the man’s chin; forcing him upward and causing him to drop his weapon to the floor. On his way up, Haretsa quickly grabbed his leg with her right hand and swung the man around; driving him face first into a nearby wall. Quickly switching her hands to keep the fool in place, Haretsa then brought her right foot leg up and slammed her thigh into the back of the man’s neck; causing the wall in that area to crack a bit.

   Watching the man’s body slink down to the ground, Haretsa punted his halpless body away as she heard a familiar clanking at her feet. Looking down, her crimson orbs spotted seven grenades at her feet that were ready to blow. The sudden explosion was rather large and shook much of the surrounding area; the remaining guard’s laugh echoing throughout at the site of the glorious fireball. ”How do you like that, ya little witch!?” the man laughed, though his expression changed from joy to one of fear. The fireball quickly began to swirl around as if it were being sucked into a vacuum; revealing Haretsa to be standing there completely unharmed and sucking in the flames with several pieces of shrapnel stuck into her armor. With the flames gone, the young girl let out a rather large belch before turning her attention to the last remaining guard. ”Thank you ma’am, may I have another?” she asked, pressing the jewel in the center of her left bracelet to deactivate the armor and cause all the shrapnel to fall before activating it once more. ”Y-Y-You’re not human… Yo-You’re a bloody demon!!”[/color] the man shouted in fear as Haretsa blasted her way over to the man, wrapping her left hand firmly about his neck before slamming him up against a wall. ”Correction, I’m a dragon.” Haretsa spoke, another menacing smile growing upon her face as she tightened her grip even more; causing the man to struggle for air. ”Yes, watch the life drain from his eyes before you burn their bodies to ashes!” a familiar voice laughed inside of the girls mind, causing her eyes to widen as she blinked somewhat confused. ”W-what? No, they don’t need to die… they’re just hired goons…” Haretsa managed to stutter out. She immediately loosened her grip on the man’s throat and grabbed onto her left arm in pain as a light blue light began to dimly glow from underneath her hand wrap. ”They’re involved with these people you hate, aren’t they? Then of course they deserve to be destroyed!! That’s what your magic is good for. That’s why that guild master of yours gave you the title of Destruction. As my daughter, you were born to destroy, so let loose and do it!!” the voice commanded, ringing loudly throughout Haretsa’s mind as the remaining guard took this opportunity to flee for his life. The light underneath her hand wrap began to glow even brighter, causing Haretsa to slam her left arm defiantly in anger against the wall next to the lab where Ardere and the captive people worth. ”STOP CALLING ME YOUR DAUGHTER!!” she shouted angrily, gripping her left arm even more as the light blue light was now shining rather brightly. It wasn’t exactly intentional, but due to her hatred of the people who worked here and what they had done to her and countless other people; Haretsa knew she was going to have to finally explain to someone about the blood that flowed through her veins. ”I’m gonna have to tell Ardvark about this… it’s too dangerous for me to be here with innocent people around. I don’t wanna end up hurting the people we’re trying to save…” she thought, beginning to tear up at the thought before quickly shaking her head to regain some composure.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

    ”I...Y-yeah, I’ll be fine… Let’s go.” Haretsa responded quietly with a rather shaky nod, following her guild master as he proceeded to dash down the narrow hall leading deeper into the facility. Haretsa looked down at her left arm, the light underneath her hand wrap and gauntlets still shining brightly as the two mages continued onward. ”Am... I the only one who can see this damn light? He didn’t seem to notice it at all… Great, he’d just think I’m crazy if I told him now…” Haretsa thought to herself, seemingly oblivious to the sounds of footsteps headed in her and Ardere’s direction from afar off. She had wanted to warn her Guild Master of the beast that plagued her mind for the sake of the civilian’s safety, but now she wasn’t sure if he would even believe her story. Haretsa had been researching the topic heavily since she had joined Infinity Hydra and the entire concept of Acnologia having any kind of child with someone seemed to be nothing more than a mere fairy tale; one that Haretsa was living out every day of her life. She’d most likely be laughed at if she claimed to be of Acnologia’s bloodline. People’s opinions of her never really bothered Haretsa before, but it seemed to bother her now that it pertained to something that made her a threat to everyone around her.

    Being so lost in her own thoughts as her body seemed to move forward on auto pilot, Haretsa didn’t even notice Ardere becoming a blur of black flames as he charged down the hallway at an even faster rate than before. At this point the approaching forces had entered the same long hallway as the two Hydra’s; one of the six men turning into lightning and arcing over the blur of black flames that charged onward. The man reformed behind Ardere, staring at the blur in confusion as he flicked up the hood of his robe. ”Is that one of those freaking intruders?! The hell is with this damn heat?! Ah well, now’s my chance to str-” was all the man managed to blurt out before Haretsa ended up colliding with him; sending them both down to the floor. ”Ow!! Watch where you’re going, ya freakin idiot!” the man exclaimed, as Haretsa pushed herself up off of him. ”S-sorry Ardvark… I was just… lost in thought I guess.” Haretsa quickly apologized, not fully registering just who it was she was talking to.

    ”Who the hell is Ardvark?” the man asked rather puzzled, standing up and turning to face the woman that had knocked him to the ground. His eyes widened as soon as he saw Haretsa. ”Hazel eyes… cream white hair… Y-You! You’re the one who burnt down our lab in the forest far east of Magnolia ten years ago!!” the man shouted, causing Haretsa to snap back to her full senses. ”We lost a lot of progress thanks to you! It’s taken us nine of those ten years to get back to where we were in terms of research! Now I’m gonna pay you back for what you did to valuable Dragon Riot property you little witch!” he exclaimed, his hands sparking with lightning as Haretsa turned towards the robed male. ”Dragon Riot? Wha-”” was all she could say before she was cut off by a large bolt of lightning in the shape of a dragon’s head gripping her in its maw and slammed Haretsa into the nearby wall before exploding with a violent surge. Thankfully Flect had absorbed most of the damage from the spell, but it still managed to break through a bit of her armor and hurt Haretsa herself. ”Ow… I was asking a question... fucking rude…” Haretsa grunted out, standing to her feet and readying herself. She wasn’t in the best mental shape right now, but she knew she needed to fight; especially since this man knew about what happened to her ten years ago. Her search for this group had been rather fruitless, so she needed to make sure she kept this bastard alive to get whatever information she could out of him.

"Behold, the intricate and subtle weaving of my cunning arcane . . . ah, screw it. Burn a lot!"

- Haretsa

   Haretsa had little time to think to herself as the robed mage charged towards her; lightning crackling down the hallway as he approached with his fist ready to strike. ”Damn he’s fast!” she thought, forced to use her flames to propel her hands up to catch the incoming strike. As the man’s fist met with Haretsa’s palms, flames erupted from the girls back just to keep herself from being driven back from the force of the speed assisted strike. The intense amount of lightning magic coursing around the man’s fist began to overload Haretsa’s armor and surge a bit through her body. Before the man's magic could completely break her armor, Haretsa quickly pulled her knee up to strike him square in the chest. He was too quick however, transforming his whole body into a bolt of lightning to dodge her attack. ”Hah! You’re too damn slow!!” he taunted, dancing around Haretsa as a lightning bolt.

     ”Turning his body into lightning itself… can normal lightning mages do that or is he a Slayer like me…?” Haretsa thought to herself, her flaming red orbs darting around the room to try and keep an eye on her opponent. He came flying at her from behind with a kick, requiring more flames from Haretsa’s body in order to keep up with the speed and block the attack. ”He’s fast, but his strikes or no where near the strength they should be if he was a Dragon Slayer…” Haretsa surmised as the kick collided with her held up arms. She had sparred with plenty of different Slayer’s to be able to tell the difference in their strength compared to a normal mages. Quickly grabbing onto the man’s leg, Haretsa began to pull the man over her head in order to slam him down to the floor. However, this was met yet again with the man changing himself into a bolt of lightning and getting away. This ability of his was beginning to irritate the cream haired mage quite a bit. If she wasn’t able to counter attack, then she’d just have to land a hit before he could.

   Flames began dripping like molten lava from the young Dragon Slayer’s mouth as her eyes followed the darting bolt of lightning around the narrow hallway. The man darted towards her once again for another punch; giving Haretsa her opportunity to strike. ”FIRE DRAGON’S ROAR!!” her voice echoed out followed by a dragon’s violent roar; the tattoo on her back burning red as a violent plume of flames rocketed their way down the narrow hallway. ”OH SHIT!!” the man exclaimed, realizing there was nowhere for him to go as the flames took up the entire hallway. The raging fire blasted into the man on its way down the hall before it erupted violently. Once the explosion had cleared, it was clear to see that the walls of the hallway were severely warped and scorched from Haretsa’s attacks; the man lying on the ground not much different. There were several burn marks on his robes and light burns across parts of his skin; his robes having to have been magical to protect him from worse damage. ”Ow… forget this bitch was a Dragon Slay-” was all the man could utter out before Haretsa rocketed her way towards him, bringing down her leg hard across the man’s neck. Her Roar had hit the man good and she needed to take every opportunity she could to attack him while she could before he ended up turning into lightning once again.