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In this chapter Russo finally sets off on his trip to Yash in order to acquire urgently needed help for a demon problem he has, while Jem explains to Dax why typical RPG heroes are looked down upon.
Welp it’s been a long enough break between this chapter and the last. That and if Brackish is gonna bad mouth me then fuck yes I will take up that challenge. Next chapter about Russo traveling to Yash and Jem reminiscing on unpleasant experiences with typical RPG heroes incoming in 3… 2… 1…
Note: Icon is © to Radku
FIRST , PREVIOUS , NEXT
IT IS SUGGESTED THAT YOU READ THIS SUPER ADDITION BY
V_D_O FIRST THOUGH PRIOR TO THIS PARTICULAR CHAPTER. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6337017/
Chapter 19
Lying motionless in his bed, Russo struggled to lift his heavy eyelids. A dull gray light filtered through the window and provided little to no incentive for the human to get up and greet the dull and dreary day. He yawned loudly as he slowly disentangled himself from his bed sheets and slunk out of bed. His dirty clothes splayed across the floor were kicked out of his way as he shuffled over to his dresser. He methodically adorned a heavy cotton undershirt, a clean tunic on top of that and a vest over that. Cotton leggings, pants over those, and wool socks came to adorn the lower half of his body. Russo grabbed his cloak off of the floor and tossed it on before slowly fitting into his boots and pulling their laces tight. The human groaned to himself as he slowly meandered out of his home and locked the door behind him. Chilled air and a mean wind nipped the human’s ears and nose to congratulate him for getting out of bed. Russo pulled the hood of his cloak down tight as he made his way towards the guild.
As Russo entered he found it quiet and practically deserted. His best guess was that everyone was either sleeping off a nasty hangover or hibernating from the insane amount of food all ingested at the festival yesterday. Smirking to himself as he climbed the stairs up to the master’s office, he realized that this meant there was little to no chance of Dax bothering him today, which would make preparing for his trip to Yash all the easier. He knocked lightly on the door to the master’s office.
The door was quickly opened from the other side and the master greeted him with a smile. “Figured that’d be you. Come on in, Russo,” the old man said as he ushered Russo inside.
Russo leaned against the doorframe as the master went back to his desk and retrieved the letter he had shown off yesterday, as well as a map. He promptly handed both to the waiting human. “I did you a kindness and already marked the best path to take for reaching Yash, inns and towns to spend the night, all of that.”
Russo smiled as he shoved the letter into a secure pocket in his vest and quickly glanced over the map. “What prompted this?” He asked waving the map around.
“Eh, I was in a good mood yesterday. You haven’t caused any irreparable damage lately, the festival went off without a hitch, and…” the master stifled a laugh, “… that tale of yours just had me laughing to myself all day yesterday.”
Russo grumbled as he folded up the map and shoved it into an inner pocket on his cloak. “I wish you safe travels Russo,” the master said in earnest as the human departed down the stairs. Russo waved back to the old man as he descended and exited out the guild hall. He made his way back home and quickly flipped open his chest and fetched out a large sack. Russo proceeded to toss as many clothes as he was able into it without making it too bulky or unwieldy. Nestled deep inside the cotton and cloth cocoon was Umbra’s shattered demon horn, safely packed and tucked away for the trip. He pulled the drawstrings on it tight and then put an arm through each one and carried the sack on his back, kind of like a rudimentary backpack. A backsack if you will.
…Yeah there’s probably a reason that name never caught on.
Russo shrugged at the author’s note and exited out of his home once more, locking the door behind him. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the people of Tedrah, the locals were kind and trustworthy enough, it was just that… you could never tell when a band of wandering heroes would pass through. “Klepto assholes…” Russo bitterly complained to himself as he headed out of town. He briefly considered going over to Jem’s and saying his goodbyes but he decided against it. “Ehh, I’ll let him sleep in for the day. Besides it’s not like I’ll be gone for that long.”
A couple of hours later……….
“Okay yeah I probably should have at dropped by Jem’s for a quick goodbye,” Russo mentally noted as he actually took the time to pore over the map the master had handed him. He held the map tight with both hands as he stood in the center of a country dirt road. The wind whistled through the trees along the path, shaking them to and fro, doing its damnedest to shake off the colorful leaves from their branches. If he was any judge of distances conveyed on a piece of paper, the trip to Yash would take at least four days, maybe five.
He sighed as he folded the map back up and put it back into a pocket on his person. “Really should have looked at it more in depth before I ran off…” His grumbling stomach called attention to another oversight he had made that morning. “And I REALLY should have had some breakfast before heading out,” His stomach rumbled again to make it’s disapproval of his haste known. Russo moaned as he felt his shoulders droop. “Today is going to be a long day…” A chill wind whipped up and nipped at the human’s exposed flesh. He pulled down his hood tight once more and continued walking ever forward, doing his best to ignore the blustery and bitter weather.
Back in Tedrah…
Jem looked about the guild unhappily, disheartened to see that his favorite human had set off without so much as a word. “Would’ve been nice if he had at least said goodbye. Or asked if I wanted any vest in particular given some dark magic resistance.” The rough collie harrumphed to himself as he sat down at a table and rest his head against the smooth wood. He rubbed a hand over his still noticeable belly bulge from last night’s gorging.
“Don’t get too upset Jem. I did give him a little extra incentive to get out to Yash, so it is understandable that he would be in a hurry to get there,” The master reassured the collie as he walked by his table and gave him a pat on the back.
“Still though…” The collie said with disappointment as he felt his ears droop down.
The master’s expression softened. “I know he can be rather callous and thoughtless, but you know Russo wouldn’t purposefully shirk you off or ignore you. He may not think he shows it but it’s fairly clear he treasures your company.”
Jem snorted and smirked as dozens of examples of Russo’s loyalty and friendship sprung to mind. “Yeah, yeah, I know you’re right…”
“In all seriousness though, I do still need you to debrief me on what was the cause of those disappearances. I didn’t want to bog you down any more than I did yesterday, what with it being the harvest festival and all, but I really would like to hear just exactly what it was you found out there.”
Jem grimaced to himself as he let his thoughts drift back to his fight with the husky. “Will do master…” Jem said with reluctance as he pulled himself up from the table and followed the old man up the stairs to his office.
(Hmm… hell I’m gonna go ahead and give Dax a stomach ache. Currently he is lying in a guest bed at the guild rubbing his aching stomach. Why? Because I want all three main characters to be miserable right now for no particular reason, that’s why.)
Russo let out a tired sigh as he stumbled into his room at the inn and tossed his sack onto the floor. He trudged over to his bed and collapsed face first onto it and grumbled into the comforter. The human’s mind rattled trying to find any sort of silver lining to his first miserable day of travel. “Well… at least this is just a one way trip. Might take a long ass time to walk there but at least I can just teleport right back.” Russo drew a blank for any other positives to his day. He sighed loudly into the comforter again. “God I suck at being optimistic. Well hopefully tomorrow is a little better.” He hesitatingly rolled off his bed and undressed for sleep. After sliding under the warm covers he quickly dozed off.
The next day….
Dax meandered about town happily, relaying requests from the guild cook for various foodstuffs to the few farmers who were still hanging about in the open markets, and to the bakers and butchers located about town. On his way back to the guild he came upon a strange sight. A group of furs, with some crazy ass fur patterns and colors and tattoos were walking down one of the main streets. Some of them had red or green hair that looked to be dangerously spiky and sharp, others had blue or orange fur and weird glowing tattoos. Frankly Dax had no idea what to think since he didn’t even think such fur and hair colors were possible. Oh Lord and their weapons?! Huge fat thick swords nearly as long as they were tall were hefted across their backs, preposterously large bows and arrows, eerily glowing tomes, it was all a little much to process. Chatting happily amongst themselves, seemingly oblivious to the multitude of dirty looks they were garnering from all the locals, they walked and talked about dark lords, ancient prophecies, and… drop rates from monsters??? Whatever the hell that meant.
They walked by Dax without so much as acknowledging him as he continued to stare at them dumbfounded. The wolf tilted his head as he turned back to look at them as they walked past. “…The heck?”
The strange sight weighed heavily on the plump wolf’s mind as he walked into the guild hall, ready to report back to the chef. Dax spotted Jem slurping some soup at a table though, and sought to satisfy his curiosity instead. “Hey Jem!” The wolf cheerfully said as he walked over towards the collie.
“Hey there yourself Dax. How’s your day been?”
“Pretty good so far, I’ve just been running some errands for the cook. Though I was kind of hoping to ask you a question about something weird I saw earlier.”
“Go ahead, shoot.”
“I don’t know if you’ll believe this but I saw some really strange looking furs on my way back to the guild. They had super spiky hair and weird fur colors and super big weapons.”
Jem let out a frustrated sigh and closed his eyes. “Ugghhh… and everyone was giving them dirty looks?”
“Yeah! How’d you know?”
“Those would be your typical wandering heroes Dax. They’re kind of a necessary evil,” he replied before bringing a spoonful of steaming liquid up to his lips.
The wolf looked at the collie confused. “But… they’re heroes. How can heroes be a bad thing?”
Jem groaned as he looked to Dax, swirling his soup as he struggled to think of an adequate explanation. “Truth be told it’d really be best if Russo were here to explain this to you since he’s dealt with them a lot more than I have. But basically what it boils down to is that while they do perform great acts of heroism and oftentimes save entire provinces and countries from… I don’t know, it’s always so hard to keep track. Evil gods, evil lords, … evil kings, whatever, just toss evil up in front of something’s name and you can expect some heroes to show up shortly to destroy it. Want a forest cleared? Start calling it an evil forest. Within a week it’ll be razed to the ground by some overzealous heroes.”
“I still don’t get why people don’t like them though.”
Jem grit his teeth together as he looked at the wolf uneasily. “Really wish Russo was here to explain this. Basically Dax, the reason why people don’t like them, even considering all the good they do, is because they are in general, unpleasant people.”
A lynx mage happened to be walking by their table overheard the conversation. “Wandering heroes huh? I can’t stand those bums.”
Jem nodded in affirmation. “Yep, my friend here saw some around town earlier and I’m trying to-“
“OH GOD DAMMIT ARE YOU SERIOUS?! “ The lynx yelled as his eyes went wide. He dropped whatever he was doing and bolted out the doors of the guild.
Dax looked on perplexed as his eyes lingered on the front doors slowly swinging back and forth. “Where’s he running off to?”
Jem shrugged as he looked towards the door with a look of pity on his face. “Probably back to his home to make sure all the doors are locked.”
“Why would he be doing that?”
“I’ll explain later…” Jem said as he motioned for Dax to ignore what all had just transpired. “Anyway, like I was saying they aren’t the most pleasant of people you could come across.”
“How so? I mean I did notice that they paid no attention to me or anyone else when they were walking around, so… maybe I could see how people might think they’re rude…”
Jem shook his head. “I’m just go ahead and quote Russo on this since I can’t say it any better than he can,” Jem cleared his thought before he continued speaking. “They’re truculent self-entitled jackasses that steal anything that isn’t bolted down or safely locked away. And if you’re stupid enough to confront them about it they’ll beat the hell out of you.”
“Wait wait wait they beat up and rob the people they save?”
“Pretty much…”
“W-why?! That doesn’t sound heroic at all!”
“As far as I can tell, they rationalize being arrogant jackasses. Basically I imagine that this is what runs through their heads when they walk into a town:”
‘I’m a gonna save the motherfucking world! Saving the world sure is hard work though and so I’m gonna need your gold/weapons/life saving medicine a hell of a lot more than you will. SO GIMME GIMME GIMME.’
Jem grunted contemptuously as he looked away from Dax. “…There is no polite way to pussyfoot around the issue, they really are colossal jackasses. If the doors aren’t locked they’ll barge into people’s houses, barns, stores, you name it, and they’ll proceed to take anything of value. It’s a real kick in the teeth when they proceed to sell the stolen goods to stores in the town they just burgled.”
“T-that’s not right! Why doesn’t somebody try to stop them!?”
Jem uneasily rubbed the back of his neck and broke eye contact with the wolf. “Problem is Dax, if you actually do proceed to mete out some justice in the form of good ol’ fashioned violence, that leaves no one available to uh… save the world or province or what have you. So it’s ill-advised to take that route in order to recover what they stole. Trying to reason with them isn’t very fruitful either since oftentimes they’ll just ignore you or treat like you’re part of the scenery. Ughh, more pressing though is the fact that those wandering heroes tend to be preposterously strong and more often than not if you pick a fight with them you’re going to get your ass handed to you. Russo picked a fight with some of them once and it didn’t end very well.” Jem rubbed his forehead with his right hand as began to recall his and Russo’s first real experience with those damnable bastards.
“AAAAAAAHHHH!!!” The human screamed as he was hurtled through the air and smashed into an empty stand at the open market. The stand crumbled from the impact and Russo found himself buried under the wreckage. He groaned in pain and struggled to push planks and boards of wood off of himself and rise to his feet.
“Russo!” Jem yelled worriedly as he rushed to his friend’s aid and tossed aside the debris covering him. “I appreciate the sentiment, I really do, but it’s not the end of the world. I can just live at the guild for a while until I earn back the gold they took, it’s not a big-“
“BITCHES AND WHORES,” Russo angrily screamed at the androgynously dressed brown fox that stood before him as the human stumbled to his feet and ignored the collie’s pleas. The fox’s shoulder length spiky brown hair swayed gently in the wind as he stood his ground. He held a massive magical scythe with one hand, the bottom of its handle firmly planted on the ground. “Return the gold you stole RIGHT NOW dammit!” Russo angrily demanded as a red aura surrounded both of his hands. “You do not break into someone’s home and steal their fucking life’s savings!” He extended his right hand and a flurry of fireballs erupted forth from his palm.
The fox said nothing as a light purple aura surrounded the blade of his scythe. He swung and sliced through the air in the blink of an eye. A violent gust of wind extinguished the incoming fiery orbs. Russo grunted and extended his left hand and let loose another flurry of fire. Once again the fox’s scythe took on a light purple glow as he sliced at the air effortlessly. Russo’s second onslaught of flames disappeared and blades of wind tore at his cloak and nicked his exposed skin. A multitude of tiny streams of blood ran down Russo’s arms and hands.
“God dammit!” Russo angrily said to himself as he stumbled back while the fox remained planted firmly in place. “Fine. If you won’t give Jem’s gold back, then I’ll just take it back!” In a flash of blue light Russo reappeared behind the fox. The human ran at him head on, his arm extended, reaching for the pouches on the fox’s belt with the intent to steal back what had been stolen.
The fox nonchalantly turned and faced the human as he whapped Russo on top of the head with the handle of his scythe. Russo tripped up and fell to the ground, holding his throbbing head between his hands. Looking down at Russo, holding his scythe with both hands the fox finally spoke up for the first time during the one sided battle. “Confuse,’ he uttered as his scythe took on a green aura. He clubbed Russo upside the head with the blunt end of his scythe and sent the human sliding across the ground.
Russo shook his head and struggled to his feet. “You… you uppity little…” he muttered as he pointed a shaking accusatory finger at the fox and promptly fell back onto the ground.
ANGSTY ANDROGYNOUS FOX IS VICTORIOUS!
COMMENCE PLAYING CELEBRATORY CHIPTUNE MUSIC
EXPERIENCE GAINED: +2200
GOLD GAI- OH WOULD YOU JUST FUCK RIGHT OFF YOU SNOOTY RPG WANNABE, GET OUT OF MY STORY. SHOO, BEGONE.
With the battle won, the fox turned his back on the defeated human and joined back up with his other party members to continue their world saving quest. That or finish burgling the town.
“Russo! Russo are you hurt?” Jem asked in a panic as he pulled the human back up on his feet. The human uneasily wobbled until Jem took one of Russo’s arms and slung it around his furred neck. He propped Russo up and helped him steady himself.
“I-I think I’m okay. S-sorry about that Jem…”
“Don’t apologize for standing up for me, you did nothing wrong.” Jem said gently as he slowly led Russo over to a bench next to a fruit stand and gently eased him down onto it. “Rest here for a while, I’m going to clean up the mess that fox made.”
“…Thanks Jem.”
Russo slumped down on the bench, his body and his pride having taken a serious beating. He heaved a heavy sigh as he rubbed his head, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his skull and the stinging feeling of shame.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself fella,” The cat running the fruit stand adjacent to the bench said in a reassuring manner. “Most people that try to hold those bums accountable tend to get their asses handed to them like you did. Putting up with their bullshit is just one of those inconveniences of life you learn to live with.”
Russo remained silent as his eyes settled on his feet. “Come on guy, cheer up. The fact that you even stood up to them in the first place is damned impressive. Not many people would be willing to go through what you did to stand up for a friend. Here have a fresh apple, my treat.” The cat gently lobbed an apple at the human, who caught it without saying a word. Russo’s eyes lingered on the apple’s shiny waxy surface for a while before quietly responding. “…Thank you.” He slowly brought the apple up his mouth, about to take a bite out of the juicy succulent fruit before his attention was drawn away by frantic screaming.
“Give me back my baby!” A feminine voice shrilled out.
“…What?” Russo asked dumbfounded as he blinked a couple of times, having been completely thrown for a loop.
“Give me back my baby you monster!”
Brows furrowed as he scratched his head, Russo turned to look back at the fruit stand, where he could’ve sworn the screaming originated from. “You uh… did you say anything?” He hesitatingly asked the cat.
“No. Why do you ask?”
“N-no reason. No reason.” Russo blurted out. An apple that was shaking to and fro of its own volition amongst the dozens of other fruit on the stand immediately commanded Russo’s attention.
“Give me back my son you fiend!” The apple screamed at him as it shook to and fro.
Russo blinked a couple of times while he stared at the apple. “…Dammit that’s right. That fox cast Confuse on me didn’t he?” He sighed as turned back away from the stand. The crazy sights and sounds induced by the spell would wear off in a bit, best just to ignore them for now.
The apple’s constant screaming was incredibly difficult to ignore Russo quickly found out. Every time he raised the apple to his mouth the screaming just got louder and more frantic and all the more aggravating.
“It’s all in my head, it’s all in my head, just ignore it.” Russo continued to tell himself as the cat running the fruit stand looked on quizzically as the human repeatedly brought the apple up to his mouth and hesitated to eat it. Russo sighed again for the umpteenth time as the juicy red apple hovered in front of his lips, all the while accompanied by a raucous screaming only he could hear. “It’s just my imagination, it’s just my imagination, it’s just OH FUCK MY IMAGINATION. IMAGINATION IF YOU WANT A FIGHT THEN BY GOD I’LL GIVE YOU ONE. NO WAY IN HELL I’M GOING 0 AND 2 TODAY.”
Russo whipped his head around and glared at the apples piled on the fruit stand. He pointed at the wobbling apple, “Like hell I’m giving you back your baby! In fact…” he yelled at the apple mother as he brought her apple son up to his mouth and took a huge bite out of it/him???
The cat manning the stand looked on worriedly at the human who had appeared to have inexplicably gone stark raving mad.
“My baby! You’re eating my baby!”
“I’ll quit eating your son as soon as he stops being delicious!” Russo angrily replied as he took a couple more bites of the apple and waved what little remained in front of the wobbling apple mother.
“Murderer!” She shrieked.
“Oh screw you.” He contemptuously replied as he grabbed the mother apple and took a couple of bites out of her while she screamed bloody murder all the while. He tossed the core onto the ground after he was finished eating it and the damn thing finally shut up. Russo wore a smug grin afterward, failing to notice the cat slinking away, desperate to grab Jem’s attention and have him haul the human away. His smug satisfaction quickly faded as he heard hushed whispers coming from every other fruit on the stand, all of which had begun to gently wobble back and forth.
“Oh, oh is that how it’s gonna be imagination? BRING IT!” He irrationally thought to himself as he stood up and faced towards the stand, pointing an accusatory finger at all the fruit. “WITNESSES! YOU’ RE ALL WITNESSES! RRAARRUAAGGH!” Imbued with the reckless physical strength typically ascribed to the mentally disturbed, Russo flipped the stand and proceed to stomp and set fire to the fruit who had witnessed his chilling and delicious double murder in an effort to silence them.
“Wait so he started screaming at your produce?” Jem asked incredulously as the proprietor of the stand frantically dragged the collie by the arm back to the crime scene… er fruit stand. Dumbfounded he looked on as his friend shouted increasingly bizarre threats to the apples, oranges, and pears rolling around on the ground. Every so often he would stomp upon or set fire to what remained of the stand. “…Oh no that’s right. That fox cast Confuse on him didn’t he?” The rough collie clenched his eyes shut in frustration. “Give me a second, I’ll take care of this.” Motioning for the cat to remain quiet Jem quietly approached the ruined stand when Russo had his back turned, gingerly picked up a large plank of wood, and proceeded to swing it down with enough force to break it over the top of Russo’s head. The human wobbled back and forth on his feet before collapsing face first onto the ground with a thud.
“We’ll uh… we’ll uh replace all this soon enough, don’t worry.” Jem said with some embarrassment in his voice as he hefted the unconscious human onto his back and trotted off towards the guild, leaving a very confused cat to sort through the flaming wreckage of his stand.
“…Thinking back on it that probably wasn’t the best way to eliminate Russo’s confusion, but he’s been through worse,” Jem uneasily chuckled to himself as he recalled how he attributed all of Russo’s injuries to the wandering heroes when the master asked what on Earth had happened to him.
Dax frowned after being told the tale. “Hmmph, I don’t even see why people call them heroes at all. They all sound like a bunch of big jerks.”
Jem shrugged as he took one last slurp of his soup to empty his bowl. “That’s just how life is unfortunately.”
“Hmm, well I bet Russo has a lot more to say about them than you do though huh?” Dax said as he tried to stifle a smile.
Chuckling, Jem responded, “Oh you better believe it. He has a passionate hatred for them after what he’s been through. Still, considering that you can never tell when they’ll pass through here, it’s a good idea to keep your personal belongings and gold locked up safely somewhere. Heck, Russo and I always lock the doors to our homes whenever we head out for any amount of time just in case.”
“I don’t really think I have anything worth taking yet though so I guess I don’t have too much to worry about yet…” Dax said with a tone of relief.
“You never know. You did get a high quality hand me down cloak from Russo after all…”
Dax whined as he wrapped his blue cloak tightly around his soft frame.
“Oh relax, they won’t steal your clothes right off of you. If you do take off your cloak though and leave it around in one of the guest rooms they very well might walk right in and take it.”
Dax continued whining as he clung tightly to his cloak. “How long do you think Russo will be gone?”
Staring wistfully at his bowl, Jem replied, “I’m not sure. He’s heading pretty far out west, so I could easily see him being gone for a week or two at the least.”
“Aww man… I was hoping for some more magic lessons soon,” Dax fussed as he spread his arms onto the table and pouted.
“Hmmph, you really are dead set on becoming a mage of sorts aren’t you?” Jem noted, with the slightest inkling of disappointment present in his voice.
“Yep!” The wolf quickly and eagerly replied, failing to notice Jem’s subtle disapproval. He whined impatiently, “I really hope Russo comes back soon…”
“He’ll get here when he gets here, have some patience.” The collie plainly stated as he got up from the table and carried his dishes back to kitchen, leaving Dax to mope on his own.
A few days later…
“Yash can’t be too much farther can it?” Russo woefully asked himself as he trudged along the lonely winding dirt path.
“Hold fair traveller!” A short hooded figure called out as he stepped out from behind a tree along the path.
“Hey…” Russo hesitantly greeted the figure as it walked towards him.
“I can’t help but see you’re journeying along this fine, well-kept road…”
Russo glanced down at the ground and back up at the figure, eyebrows raised in disbelief. The road was a dumpy and poorly maintained piece of crap.
“…But you must realize that it takes money to keep a road looking so fine, don’t you?”
“Can you just skip to the part where you say you’re going to extort me please?”
“Blast it all, nobody ever lets me finish my monologues,” The hooded figure complained out loud. He shook his shoulders and regained his composure. “My good man, my name is Velexus, and unless you’d like to end up as a meaty pulp pounded into the Earth…” He withdrew a palm-sized disc from within the sleeve of his robe and flicked it into the air as he spoke. The disc began to rotate and spin rapidly in the air, drawing towards it grains of dirt, chunks of soil, grass, and tree limbs like a magnet. The debris collected and condensed around the disc and in short time the mass of debris took on a humanoid shape. Russo looked on blankly as a faceless golem finished forming and silently loomed over him at an imposing eight feet tall.
“…I’d suggest you hand over all of your gold to me. Now.”
Russo thoughtfully considered Velexus’ gentlemanly offer for a moment before responding. “No thanks, I’ll pass.” With that, Russo disappeared in a flash of blue light. He reappeared about thirty feet or so behind Velexus and his inanimate servant, further up along the road. Velexus whirled around and saw Russo continuing to walk along the path, completely ignoring the man who had just tried to extort him.
“Excuse me, but that is not how this works!” Velexus angrily yelled out.
Russo responded to Velexus’s complaints by flipping him the bird, his back to him all the while.
“Golem: Give chase!” Velexus immediately demanded of his silent follower as he was hoisted onto the golem’s shoulder. The earthen humanoid lumbered along the path towards the human, who responded by teleporting even further up along the path.
“Ugghh… this is gonna be a long day,” Russo moaned out loud as he picked up his pace to a jog and tried to maintain distance between himself and Velexus.
FIRST , PREVIOUS , NEXT
Welp it’s been a long enough break between this chapter and the last. That and if Brackish is gonna bad mouth me then fuck yes I will take up that challenge. Next chapter about Russo traveling to Yash and Jem reminiscing on unpleasant experiences with typical RPG heroes incoming in 3… 2… 1…
Note: Icon is © to Radku
FIRST , PREVIOUS , NEXT
IT IS SUGGESTED THAT YOU READ THIS SUPER ADDITION BY
V_D_O FIRST THOUGH PRIOR TO THIS PARTICULAR CHAPTER. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6337017/Chapter 19
Lying motionless in his bed, Russo struggled to lift his heavy eyelids. A dull gray light filtered through the window and provided little to no incentive for the human to get up and greet the dull and dreary day. He yawned loudly as he slowly disentangled himself from his bed sheets and slunk out of bed. His dirty clothes splayed across the floor were kicked out of his way as he shuffled over to his dresser. He methodically adorned a heavy cotton undershirt, a clean tunic on top of that and a vest over that. Cotton leggings, pants over those, and wool socks came to adorn the lower half of his body. Russo grabbed his cloak off of the floor and tossed it on before slowly fitting into his boots and pulling their laces tight. The human groaned to himself as he slowly meandered out of his home and locked the door behind him. Chilled air and a mean wind nipped the human’s ears and nose to congratulate him for getting out of bed. Russo pulled the hood of his cloak down tight as he made his way towards the guild.
As Russo entered he found it quiet and practically deserted. His best guess was that everyone was either sleeping off a nasty hangover or hibernating from the insane amount of food all ingested at the festival yesterday. Smirking to himself as he climbed the stairs up to the master’s office, he realized that this meant there was little to no chance of Dax bothering him today, which would make preparing for his trip to Yash all the easier. He knocked lightly on the door to the master’s office.
The door was quickly opened from the other side and the master greeted him with a smile. “Figured that’d be you. Come on in, Russo,” the old man said as he ushered Russo inside.
Russo leaned against the doorframe as the master went back to his desk and retrieved the letter he had shown off yesterday, as well as a map. He promptly handed both to the waiting human. “I did you a kindness and already marked the best path to take for reaching Yash, inns and towns to spend the night, all of that.”
Russo smiled as he shoved the letter into a secure pocket in his vest and quickly glanced over the map. “What prompted this?” He asked waving the map around.
“Eh, I was in a good mood yesterday. You haven’t caused any irreparable damage lately, the festival went off without a hitch, and…” the master stifled a laugh, “… that tale of yours just had me laughing to myself all day yesterday.”
Russo grumbled as he folded up the map and shoved it into an inner pocket on his cloak. “I wish you safe travels Russo,” the master said in earnest as the human departed down the stairs. Russo waved back to the old man as he descended and exited out the guild hall. He made his way back home and quickly flipped open his chest and fetched out a large sack. Russo proceeded to toss as many clothes as he was able into it without making it too bulky or unwieldy. Nestled deep inside the cotton and cloth cocoon was Umbra’s shattered demon horn, safely packed and tucked away for the trip. He pulled the drawstrings on it tight and then put an arm through each one and carried the sack on his back, kind of like a rudimentary backpack. A backsack if you will.
…Yeah there’s probably a reason that name never caught on.
Russo shrugged at the author’s note and exited out of his home once more, locking the door behind him. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the people of Tedrah, the locals were kind and trustworthy enough, it was just that… you could never tell when a band of wandering heroes would pass through. “Klepto assholes…” Russo bitterly complained to himself as he headed out of town. He briefly considered going over to Jem’s and saying his goodbyes but he decided against it. “Ehh, I’ll let him sleep in for the day. Besides it’s not like I’ll be gone for that long.”
A couple of hours later……….
“Okay yeah I probably should have at dropped by Jem’s for a quick goodbye,” Russo mentally noted as he actually took the time to pore over the map the master had handed him. He held the map tight with both hands as he stood in the center of a country dirt road. The wind whistled through the trees along the path, shaking them to and fro, doing its damnedest to shake off the colorful leaves from their branches. If he was any judge of distances conveyed on a piece of paper, the trip to Yash would take at least four days, maybe five.
He sighed as he folded the map back up and put it back into a pocket on his person. “Really should have looked at it more in depth before I ran off…” His grumbling stomach called attention to another oversight he had made that morning. “And I REALLY should have had some breakfast before heading out,” His stomach rumbled again to make it’s disapproval of his haste known. Russo moaned as he felt his shoulders droop. “Today is going to be a long day…” A chill wind whipped up and nipped at the human’s exposed flesh. He pulled down his hood tight once more and continued walking ever forward, doing his best to ignore the blustery and bitter weather.
Back in Tedrah…
Jem looked about the guild unhappily, disheartened to see that his favorite human had set off without so much as a word. “Would’ve been nice if he had at least said goodbye. Or asked if I wanted any vest in particular given some dark magic resistance.” The rough collie harrumphed to himself as he sat down at a table and rest his head against the smooth wood. He rubbed a hand over his still noticeable belly bulge from last night’s gorging.
“Don’t get too upset Jem. I did give him a little extra incentive to get out to Yash, so it is understandable that he would be in a hurry to get there,” The master reassured the collie as he walked by his table and gave him a pat on the back.
“Still though…” The collie said with disappointment as he felt his ears droop down.
The master’s expression softened. “I know he can be rather callous and thoughtless, but you know Russo wouldn’t purposefully shirk you off or ignore you. He may not think he shows it but it’s fairly clear he treasures your company.”
Jem snorted and smirked as dozens of examples of Russo’s loyalty and friendship sprung to mind. “Yeah, yeah, I know you’re right…”
“In all seriousness though, I do still need you to debrief me on what was the cause of those disappearances. I didn’t want to bog you down any more than I did yesterday, what with it being the harvest festival and all, but I really would like to hear just exactly what it was you found out there.”
Jem grimaced to himself as he let his thoughts drift back to his fight with the husky. “Will do master…” Jem said with reluctance as he pulled himself up from the table and followed the old man up the stairs to his office.
(Hmm… hell I’m gonna go ahead and give Dax a stomach ache. Currently he is lying in a guest bed at the guild rubbing his aching stomach. Why? Because I want all three main characters to be miserable right now for no particular reason, that’s why.)
Russo let out a tired sigh as he stumbled into his room at the inn and tossed his sack onto the floor. He trudged over to his bed and collapsed face first onto it and grumbled into the comforter. The human’s mind rattled trying to find any sort of silver lining to his first miserable day of travel. “Well… at least this is just a one way trip. Might take a long ass time to walk there but at least I can just teleport right back.” Russo drew a blank for any other positives to his day. He sighed loudly into the comforter again. “God I suck at being optimistic. Well hopefully tomorrow is a little better.” He hesitatingly rolled off his bed and undressed for sleep. After sliding under the warm covers he quickly dozed off.
The next day….
Dax meandered about town happily, relaying requests from the guild cook for various foodstuffs to the few farmers who were still hanging about in the open markets, and to the bakers and butchers located about town. On his way back to the guild he came upon a strange sight. A group of furs, with some crazy ass fur patterns and colors and tattoos were walking down one of the main streets. Some of them had red or green hair that looked to be dangerously spiky and sharp, others had blue or orange fur and weird glowing tattoos. Frankly Dax had no idea what to think since he didn’t even think such fur and hair colors were possible. Oh Lord and their weapons?! Huge fat thick swords nearly as long as they were tall were hefted across their backs, preposterously large bows and arrows, eerily glowing tomes, it was all a little much to process. Chatting happily amongst themselves, seemingly oblivious to the multitude of dirty looks they were garnering from all the locals, they walked and talked about dark lords, ancient prophecies, and… drop rates from monsters??? Whatever the hell that meant.
They walked by Dax without so much as acknowledging him as he continued to stare at them dumbfounded. The wolf tilted his head as he turned back to look at them as they walked past. “…The heck?”
The strange sight weighed heavily on the plump wolf’s mind as he walked into the guild hall, ready to report back to the chef. Dax spotted Jem slurping some soup at a table though, and sought to satisfy his curiosity instead. “Hey Jem!” The wolf cheerfully said as he walked over towards the collie.
“Hey there yourself Dax. How’s your day been?”
“Pretty good so far, I’ve just been running some errands for the cook. Though I was kind of hoping to ask you a question about something weird I saw earlier.”
“Go ahead, shoot.”
“I don’t know if you’ll believe this but I saw some really strange looking furs on my way back to the guild. They had super spiky hair and weird fur colors and super big weapons.”
Jem let out a frustrated sigh and closed his eyes. “Ugghhh… and everyone was giving them dirty looks?”
“Yeah! How’d you know?”
“Those would be your typical wandering heroes Dax. They’re kind of a necessary evil,” he replied before bringing a spoonful of steaming liquid up to his lips.
The wolf looked at the collie confused. “But… they’re heroes. How can heroes be a bad thing?”
Jem groaned as he looked to Dax, swirling his soup as he struggled to think of an adequate explanation. “Truth be told it’d really be best if Russo were here to explain this to you since he’s dealt with them a lot more than I have. But basically what it boils down to is that while they do perform great acts of heroism and oftentimes save entire provinces and countries from… I don’t know, it’s always so hard to keep track. Evil gods, evil lords, … evil kings, whatever, just toss evil up in front of something’s name and you can expect some heroes to show up shortly to destroy it. Want a forest cleared? Start calling it an evil forest. Within a week it’ll be razed to the ground by some overzealous heroes.”
“I still don’t get why people don’t like them though.”
Jem grit his teeth together as he looked at the wolf uneasily. “Really wish Russo was here to explain this. Basically Dax, the reason why people don’t like them, even considering all the good they do, is because they are in general, unpleasant people.”
A lynx mage happened to be walking by their table overheard the conversation. “Wandering heroes huh? I can’t stand those bums.”
Jem nodded in affirmation. “Yep, my friend here saw some around town earlier and I’m trying to-“
“OH GOD DAMMIT ARE YOU SERIOUS?! “ The lynx yelled as his eyes went wide. He dropped whatever he was doing and bolted out the doors of the guild.
Dax looked on perplexed as his eyes lingered on the front doors slowly swinging back and forth. “Where’s he running off to?”
Jem shrugged as he looked towards the door with a look of pity on his face. “Probably back to his home to make sure all the doors are locked.”
“Why would he be doing that?”
“I’ll explain later…” Jem said as he motioned for Dax to ignore what all had just transpired. “Anyway, like I was saying they aren’t the most pleasant of people you could come across.”
“How so? I mean I did notice that they paid no attention to me or anyone else when they were walking around, so… maybe I could see how people might think they’re rude…”
Jem shook his head. “I’m just go ahead and quote Russo on this since I can’t say it any better than he can,” Jem cleared his thought before he continued speaking. “They’re truculent self-entitled jackasses that steal anything that isn’t bolted down or safely locked away. And if you’re stupid enough to confront them about it they’ll beat the hell out of you.”
“Wait wait wait they beat up and rob the people they save?”
“Pretty much…”
“W-why?! That doesn’t sound heroic at all!”
“As far as I can tell, they rationalize being arrogant jackasses. Basically I imagine that this is what runs through their heads when they walk into a town:”
‘I’m a gonna save the motherfucking world! Saving the world sure is hard work though and so I’m gonna need your gold/weapons/life saving medicine a hell of a lot more than you will. SO GIMME GIMME GIMME.’
Jem grunted contemptuously as he looked away from Dax. “…There is no polite way to pussyfoot around the issue, they really are colossal jackasses. If the doors aren’t locked they’ll barge into people’s houses, barns, stores, you name it, and they’ll proceed to take anything of value. It’s a real kick in the teeth when they proceed to sell the stolen goods to stores in the town they just burgled.”
“T-that’s not right! Why doesn’t somebody try to stop them!?”
Jem uneasily rubbed the back of his neck and broke eye contact with the wolf. “Problem is Dax, if you actually do proceed to mete out some justice in the form of good ol’ fashioned violence, that leaves no one available to uh… save the world or province or what have you. So it’s ill-advised to take that route in order to recover what they stole. Trying to reason with them isn’t very fruitful either since oftentimes they’ll just ignore you or treat like you’re part of the scenery. Ughh, more pressing though is the fact that those wandering heroes tend to be preposterously strong and more often than not if you pick a fight with them you’re going to get your ass handed to you. Russo picked a fight with some of them once and it didn’t end very well.” Jem rubbed his forehead with his right hand as began to recall his and Russo’s first real experience with those damnable bastards.
“AAAAAAAHHHH!!!” The human screamed as he was hurtled through the air and smashed into an empty stand at the open market. The stand crumbled from the impact and Russo found himself buried under the wreckage. He groaned in pain and struggled to push planks and boards of wood off of himself and rise to his feet.
“Russo!” Jem yelled worriedly as he rushed to his friend’s aid and tossed aside the debris covering him. “I appreciate the sentiment, I really do, but it’s not the end of the world. I can just live at the guild for a while until I earn back the gold they took, it’s not a big-“
“BITCHES AND WHORES,” Russo angrily screamed at the androgynously dressed brown fox that stood before him as the human stumbled to his feet and ignored the collie’s pleas. The fox’s shoulder length spiky brown hair swayed gently in the wind as he stood his ground. He held a massive magical scythe with one hand, the bottom of its handle firmly planted on the ground. “Return the gold you stole RIGHT NOW dammit!” Russo angrily demanded as a red aura surrounded both of his hands. “You do not break into someone’s home and steal their fucking life’s savings!” He extended his right hand and a flurry of fireballs erupted forth from his palm.
The fox said nothing as a light purple aura surrounded the blade of his scythe. He swung and sliced through the air in the blink of an eye. A violent gust of wind extinguished the incoming fiery orbs. Russo grunted and extended his left hand and let loose another flurry of fire. Once again the fox’s scythe took on a light purple glow as he sliced at the air effortlessly. Russo’s second onslaught of flames disappeared and blades of wind tore at his cloak and nicked his exposed skin. A multitude of tiny streams of blood ran down Russo’s arms and hands.
“God dammit!” Russo angrily said to himself as he stumbled back while the fox remained planted firmly in place. “Fine. If you won’t give Jem’s gold back, then I’ll just take it back!” In a flash of blue light Russo reappeared behind the fox. The human ran at him head on, his arm extended, reaching for the pouches on the fox’s belt with the intent to steal back what had been stolen.
The fox nonchalantly turned and faced the human as he whapped Russo on top of the head with the handle of his scythe. Russo tripped up and fell to the ground, holding his throbbing head between his hands. Looking down at Russo, holding his scythe with both hands the fox finally spoke up for the first time during the one sided battle. “Confuse,’ he uttered as his scythe took on a green aura. He clubbed Russo upside the head with the blunt end of his scythe and sent the human sliding across the ground.
Russo shook his head and struggled to his feet. “You… you uppity little…” he muttered as he pointed a shaking accusatory finger at the fox and promptly fell back onto the ground.
ANGSTY ANDROGYNOUS FOX IS VICTORIOUS!
COMMENCE PLAYING CELEBRATORY CHIPTUNE MUSIC
EXPERIENCE GAINED: +2200
GOLD GAI- OH WOULD YOU JUST FUCK RIGHT OFF YOU SNOOTY RPG WANNABE, GET OUT OF MY STORY. SHOO, BEGONE.
With the battle won, the fox turned his back on the defeated human and joined back up with his other party members to continue their world saving quest. That or finish burgling the town.
“Russo! Russo are you hurt?” Jem asked in a panic as he pulled the human back up on his feet. The human uneasily wobbled until Jem took one of Russo’s arms and slung it around his furred neck. He propped Russo up and helped him steady himself.
“I-I think I’m okay. S-sorry about that Jem…”
“Don’t apologize for standing up for me, you did nothing wrong.” Jem said gently as he slowly led Russo over to a bench next to a fruit stand and gently eased him down onto it. “Rest here for a while, I’m going to clean up the mess that fox made.”
“…Thanks Jem.”
Russo slumped down on the bench, his body and his pride having taken a serious beating. He heaved a heavy sigh as he rubbed his head, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his skull and the stinging feeling of shame.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself fella,” The cat running the fruit stand adjacent to the bench said in a reassuring manner. “Most people that try to hold those bums accountable tend to get their asses handed to them like you did. Putting up with their bullshit is just one of those inconveniences of life you learn to live with.”
Russo remained silent as his eyes settled on his feet. “Come on guy, cheer up. The fact that you even stood up to them in the first place is damned impressive. Not many people would be willing to go through what you did to stand up for a friend. Here have a fresh apple, my treat.” The cat gently lobbed an apple at the human, who caught it without saying a word. Russo’s eyes lingered on the apple’s shiny waxy surface for a while before quietly responding. “…Thank you.” He slowly brought the apple up his mouth, about to take a bite out of the juicy succulent fruit before his attention was drawn away by frantic screaming.
“Give me back my baby!” A feminine voice shrilled out.
“…What?” Russo asked dumbfounded as he blinked a couple of times, having been completely thrown for a loop.
“Give me back my baby you monster!”
Brows furrowed as he scratched his head, Russo turned to look back at the fruit stand, where he could’ve sworn the screaming originated from. “You uh… did you say anything?” He hesitatingly asked the cat.
“No. Why do you ask?”
“N-no reason. No reason.” Russo blurted out. An apple that was shaking to and fro of its own volition amongst the dozens of other fruit on the stand immediately commanded Russo’s attention.
“Give me back my son you fiend!” The apple screamed at him as it shook to and fro.
Russo blinked a couple of times while he stared at the apple. “…Dammit that’s right. That fox cast Confuse on me didn’t he?” He sighed as turned back away from the stand. The crazy sights and sounds induced by the spell would wear off in a bit, best just to ignore them for now.
The apple’s constant screaming was incredibly difficult to ignore Russo quickly found out. Every time he raised the apple to his mouth the screaming just got louder and more frantic and all the more aggravating.
“It’s all in my head, it’s all in my head, just ignore it.” Russo continued to tell himself as the cat running the fruit stand looked on quizzically as the human repeatedly brought the apple up to his mouth and hesitated to eat it. Russo sighed again for the umpteenth time as the juicy red apple hovered in front of his lips, all the while accompanied by a raucous screaming only he could hear. “It’s just my imagination, it’s just my imagination, it’s just OH FUCK MY IMAGINATION. IMAGINATION IF YOU WANT A FIGHT THEN BY GOD I’LL GIVE YOU ONE. NO WAY IN HELL I’M GOING 0 AND 2 TODAY.”
Russo whipped his head around and glared at the apples piled on the fruit stand. He pointed at the wobbling apple, “Like hell I’m giving you back your baby! In fact…” he yelled at the apple mother as he brought her apple son up to his mouth and took a huge bite out of it/him???
The cat manning the stand looked on worriedly at the human who had appeared to have inexplicably gone stark raving mad.
“My baby! You’re eating my baby!”
“I’ll quit eating your son as soon as he stops being delicious!” Russo angrily replied as he took a couple more bites of the apple and waved what little remained in front of the wobbling apple mother.
“Murderer!” She shrieked.
“Oh screw you.” He contemptuously replied as he grabbed the mother apple and took a couple of bites out of her while she screamed bloody murder all the while. He tossed the core onto the ground after he was finished eating it and the damn thing finally shut up. Russo wore a smug grin afterward, failing to notice the cat slinking away, desperate to grab Jem’s attention and have him haul the human away. His smug satisfaction quickly faded as he heard hushed whispers coming from every other fruit on the stand, all of which had begun to gently wobble back and forth.
“Oh, oh is that how it’s gonna be imagination? BRING IT!” He irrationally thought to himself as he stood up and faced towards the stand, pointing an accusatory finger at all the fruit. “WITNESSES! YOU’ RE ALL WITNESSES! RRAARRUAAGGH!” Imbued with the reckless physical strength typically ascribed to the mentally disturbed, Russo flipped the stand and proceed to stomp and set fire to the fruit who had witnessed his chilling and delicious double murder in an effort to silence them.
“Wait so he started screaming at your produce?” Jem asked incredulously as the proprietor of the stand frantically dragged the collie by the arm back to the crime scene… er fruit stand. Dumbfounded he looked on as his friend shouted increasingly bizarre threats to the apples, oranges, and pears rolling around on the ground. Every so often he would stomp upon or set fire to what remained of the stand. “…Oh no that’s right. That fox cast Confuse on him didn’t he?” The rough collie clenched his eyes shut in frustration. “Give me a second, I’ll take care of this.” Motioning for the cat to remain quiet Jem quietly approached the ruined stand when Russo had his back turned, gingerly picked up a large plank of wood, and proceeded to swing it down with enough force to break it over the top of Russo’s head. The human wobbled back and forth on his feet before collapsing face first onto the ground with a thud.
“We’ll uh… we’ll uh replace all this soon enough, don’t worry.” Jem said with some embarrassment in his voice as he hefted the unconscious human onto his back and trotted off towards the guild, leaving a very confused cat to sort through the flaming wreckage of his stand.
“…Thinking back on it that probably wasn’t the best way to eliminate Russo’s confusion, but he’s been through worse,” Jem uneasily chuckled to himself as he recalled how he attributed all of Russo’s injuries to the wandering heroes when the master asked what on Earth had happened to him.
Dax frowned after being told the tale. “Hmmph, I don’t even see why people call them heroes at all. They all sound like a bunch of big jerks.”
Jem shrugged as he took one last slurp of his soup to empty his bowl. “That’s just how life is unfortunately.”
“Hmm, well I bet Russo has a lot more to say about them than you do though huh?” Dax said as he tried to stifle a smile.
Chuckling, Jem responded, “Oh you better believe it. He has a passionate hatred for them after what he’s been through. Still, considering that you can never tell when they’ll pass through here, it’s a good idea to keep your personal belongings and gold locked up safely somewhere. Heck, Russo and I always lock the doors to our homes whenever we head out for any amount of time just in case.”
“I don’t really think I have anything worth taking yet though so I guess I don’t have too much to worry about yet…” Dax said with a tone of relief.
“You never know. You did get a high quality hand me down cloak from Russo after all…”
Dax whined as he wrapped his blue cloak tightly around his soft frame.
“Oh relax, they won’t steal your clothes right off of you. If you do take off your cloak though and leave it around in one of the guest rooms they very well might walk right in and take it.”
Dax continued whining as he clung tightly to his cloak. “How long do you think Russo will be gone?”
Staring wistfully at his bowl, Jem replied, “I’m not sure. He’s heading pretty far out west, so I could easily see him being gone for a week or two at the least.”
“Aww man… I was hoping for some more magic lessons soon,” Dax fussed as he spread his arms onto the table and pouted.
“Hmmph, you really are dead set on becoming a mage of sorts aren’t you?” Jem noted, with the slightest inkling of disappointment present in his voice.
“Yep!” The wolf quickly and eagerly replied, failing to notice Jem’s subtle disapproval. He whined impatiently, “I really hope Russo comes back soon…”
“He’ll get here when he gets here, have some patience.” The collie plainly stated as he got up from the table and carried his dishes back to kitchen, leaving Dax to mope on his own.
A few days later…
“Yash can’t be too much farther can it?” Russo woefully asked himself as he trudged along the lonely winding dirt path.
“Hold fair traveller!” A short hooded figure called out as he stepped out from behind a tree along the path.
“Hey…” Russo hesitantly greeted the figure as it walked towards him.
“I can’t help but see you’re journeying along this fine, well-kept road…”
Russo glanced down at the ground and back up at the figure, eyebrows raised in disbelief. The road was a dumpy and poorly maintained piece of crap.
“…But you must realize that it takes money to keep a road looking so fine, don’t you?”
“Can you just skip to the part where you say you’re going to extort me please?”
“Blast it all, nobody ever lets me finish my monologues,” The hooded figure complained out loud. He shook his shoulders and regained his composure. “My good man, my name is Velexus, and unless you’d like to end up as a meaty pulp pounded into the Earth…” He withdrew a palm-sized disc from within the sleeve of his robe and flicked it into the air as he spoke. The disc began to rotate and spin rapidly in the air, drawing towards it grains of dirt, chunks of soil, grass, and tree limbs like a magnet. The debris collected and condensed around the disc and in short time the mass of debris took on a humanoid shape. Russo looked on blankly as a faceless golem finished forming and silently loomed over him at an imposing eight feet tall.
“…I’d suggest you hand over all of your gold to me. Now.”
Russo thoughtfully considered Velexus’ gentlemanly offer for a moment before responding. “No thanks, I’ll pass.” With that, Russo disappeared in a flash of blue light. He reappeared about thirty feet or so behind Velexus and his inanimate servant, further up along the road. Velexus whirled around and saw Russo continuing to walk along the path, completely ignoring the man who had just tried to extort him.
“Excuse me, but that is not how this works!” Velexus angrily yelled out.
Russo responded to Velexus’s complaints by flipping him the bird, his back to him all the while.
“Golem: Give chase!” Velexus immediately demanded of his silent follower as he was hoisted onto the golem’s shoulder. The earthen humanoid lumbered along the path towards the human, who responded by teleporting even further up along the path.
“Ugghh… this is gonna be a long day,” Russo moaned out loud as he picked up his pace to a jog and tried to maintain distance between himself and Velexus.
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