It has been three weeks since the clan’s meeting with Gallan. In that time, the clan had recovered from the encounter, and rebuilt with the help of more of Gallan’s subordinates. The clan had been fixed up, and Gallan promised to deliver more “gifts” to them soon. Meanwhile, everyone is still thinking about that fateful night.
Zachary was in his office, reading up on the World News. He found an article about an attack on Dawn Island led by bandits. It seemed that they were using some powerful weapons, but one of them was caught. Nothing about interrogating them however. The sound of these powerful weapons made him think about Gallan. Could these bandits have been connected to him? Just the thought of Gallan made him enraged. Just then, he heard a knock on the door.
“Enter.” He called out. Nick Grey walked in.
“Hello Guild Master…” Nick said, seemingly irritated.
Zachary sighed. “I think I know what you are here for.”
“May I speak about it anyways?”
“You may.”
“Thank you.” Nick took a deep breath. “Are we seriously about to go through with this?! That bastard is just gonna use us to do his dirty work and all we can do is accept it?!”
“Yes Nick. We have no other choice.”
“But we can’t! That’s not what this clan is for! We aren’t petty criminals, we take in dark wizards cast aside by the world so that we may rehabilitate them-”
“And with the technology provided to us, it’ll become that much easier.”
Nick walked up to Zachary’s desk. “But the person who’s providing it to us is a scummy crime lord trying to take over the rest of the world! How could we support that?!”
Zachary clenched his fist. “It’s not that we are. It’s just that with the situation we’re in we can’t just reject him. Nick, you aren’t thinking straight.”
“I’m thinking VERY straight. I don’t care what he’ll do to us, I won’t have our clan be defiled by his wickedness, and you shouldn’t either! Is this what Daniel would’ve wanted-”
Zachary slammed his fist onto the desk. “Don’t you DARE bring him into this!” His scream startled Nick for a second. “I know he wouldn’t want this! But we don’t have a choice in the matter! Or did you forget what happened when he first arrived?! How he decimated through everyone?! What do you think would’ve happened had I rejected him?!”
Nick didn’t say anything. He gritted his teeth and looked down. “… I just can’t bear it… I can’t bear that we have to take this operation that he gave his life for, and squander it by putting ourselves underneath this bastard… it feels like we’re throwing dirt on his legacy…”
Zachary sighed, got up from his desk, and walked towards Nick. He put his hand on his shoulder. “I know how you feel. But I can assure you. It won’t be like that for long… I’ll get us out of this, trust me…”
“Yes Guild Master…”
While this was happening, Acelina and Magnus were outside on the shore, skipping rocks on the water.
“5 skips! Beat that.” Magnus said. Acelina didn’t respond, but she threw a rock out. Skip, skip, splash. Only two. Magnus was about to throw another one, but Acelina grabbed another rock, and tossed it. Skip, splash.
“Uh Ace, maybe-” Before Magnus could say anymore, Acelina grabbed another rock. It didn’t skip, it just sunk in. Magnus could see Acelina growing more and more frustrated. “Ace, are you o-”
“SHUT UP!” Finally, Acelina let out a scream as she picked up a bigger rock, spun around, and threw it into the air. “THIS IS PISSING ME OFF! HOW THE HELL DID WE GET OURSELVES HERE?!”
“Calm down Ace…”
“NO I WON’T! HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN! WE’RE WORKING FOR A DAMN CRIME BOSS?!”
Magnus was about to say something, but he knew she was right. The situation they were in… they shouldn’t have been in it. Acelina sat back down on the ground.
“And he was so damn strong too… he took all of us on single-handedly and beat us without breaking a sweat! Even the Guild Master… How strong could he have been?!”
Magnus turned to the water. “Yeah I know. And did you see his left arm? He shattered Ray’s sword like glass…”
“Damn that bastard. Just wait. Soon I’m gonna-” Acelina punched the ground, then felt a feeling of dread. She began sweating. “Magnus… do you feel that…?” She turned to Magnus, who was shaking a bit.
“Yeah… that same powerful magic… is he back…?”
“Seems like it.”
The tremendous magic energy closed in on the clan. Closer, closer. More of the members were alarmed by it. Closer, closer. Zachary ran out of his office, leaving the building to see the one emitting such force. And then, it revealed himself. Gallan, on top of a boat heading for the shore, a large bag with him, and someone else wearing a white cape and hood.
“Hello Valcrest. I hope you’re having a good day.” Gallan said, jumping out of the boat. Zachary walked up to him.
“Hello… Gallan…” Zachary replied.
Gallan put his hand on his chin. “You know, if you’re going to be working for me, I feel it would be appropriate to bow to me…”
“So you want me to bow to you?” Zachary gritted his teeth hearing this man talk.
“Well… it would be welcome. It may even help your chances with me.” Gallan grinned at him. The malice given off was all too similar to that day… Zachary clenched his fist, then bowed his head, trying to cover up the frustration seeping on his face.
“Excellent. Now, let us get to business.” Gallan grabs the large bag and drops it onto the shore. “Here I have some tools for you all. Firstly, to make up for the cutlass I destroyed, I shall provide you with a new one.” Gallan went into a bag and picked up a sheathed cutlass, showing it to Zachary. “Beautiful design isn’t it? Much better than that metal stick that poison wizard was swinging around.”
Acelina and Magnus ran to where Zachary was at, and immediately saw Gallan. The sight of him had enraged Acelina. And Magnus saw it happening.
“Ace, don’t. I know how bad you want to, but don’t-” Magnus tried to grab Acelina, but she was too quick for him. She dashed forward, letting out a rageful cry towards Gallan. Gallan and Zachary immediately turned to her charge. Zachary was shocked, but Gallan’s face hadn’t changed from its smug expression.
“Here’s payback you asshole!” Acelina created magic circles on her feet. “Dazzling Gemstone Leap!” She blasted off the circles and flew into the air, above the two. Gallan then turned to the one who accompanied him. WIthout a word, he created a magic circle of his own underneath him. He then bursted into the air with flames underneath him to chase Acelina, who created a magic circle on her finger. Acelina was about to fire the beam, but the mysterious character grabbed her by the wrist, twisting it, and causing the beam to fire off into the water.
“Stop it you idiot.” Said the person, as he slammed her down to the ground by her wrist, pinning her down. Magnus ran towards the two of them as Acelina struggled underneath him.
“Ace! Are you ok?!” Magnus yelled. “Hey you! Get off of her!” Magnus grabbed the wizard holding him down and pulled him off of her.
“Everyone, stop!” Zachary said as he was about to intervene, but Gallan put his left arm on his shoulder to stop him. It felt chilling. Gallan then walked towards the three as Magnus finally got him off of Acelina.
“This is another one of my gifts for you all.” Gallan put his right hand on the wizard, who twitched upon being touched by him. “His name is Erik Silver. He is one of my recruited wizards. I’m sure you all will get along. Now introduce yourself Erik.”
“I am Erik Silver… I use fire magic, and I am a new member of the Ashes of Valcrest.”
Acelina got up and dusted her cloak off. “Another fire wizard? Why do we need that?”
“Oh pay no mind to that. Just know that he’s going to be your new ally.” Gallan said with a smile, then turning back to the boat. “Anyways, inside that bag contained more of my magic binding chains. There isn’t much left I need to showcase to you, and I also remembered I have something to do right now, so I should take care of it.”
“W-wait!” Zachary called out to Gallan as he got onto the boat. “You just brought someone here for our clan? We don’t know who this is! How do we know he’ll be a helpful member?!”
“You saw what he did to your crystal wizard. Now stop questioning me.” Gallan raised the sail, and drifted off, leaving Zachary with a new recruit he barely knows anything about. He turned back to Acelina, Magnus, and Erik.
“Alright, let’s go inside now.” Zachary led them all into the clan, dragging the bag with them. Acelina gave Erik a look to watch himself, but Erik disregarded it. Acelina and Magnus went their separate ways, but Zachary took Erik to his office to talk to him more.
“So, Erik Silver was it?” Zachary said.
“Yes.”
“So, I know you use fire magic.”
“Yes. I do.”
“Is there anything else you would like to tell me about yourself?”
“Well… not particularly.”
Zachary raised his eyebrow. “Really? There must be something. When someone wants to be part of this guild they tell us more about their background, their motives for joining…”
“Well, the reason I’m joining is because Gallan is making me. He called for me and told me that I’m to be working with you all… I’m not exactly sure why.”
“Well, maybe you can talk to me about how you even got to meet Gallan?”
“I…” Erik looked away from Zachary. “I don’t want to talk about that… it’s not something I like thinking about.”
“I can understand that… I guess I just have to roll with this.” Zachary got up from his desk, and walked to Erik. “Welcome to the Ashes of Valcrest. I believe we have a vacant room next to Jared’s. I’ll take you to it.”
“Thank you.” Erik got up, and the two left the office.
Some time later, a gang of bandits had just returned to their camp. They all gathered around, carrying bags.
“Alright gang, let’s see how much we pulled in.” Said the bandit wielding an axe. Two bandits dumped out their bags onto the ground.
“Alright, we got a good amount of gems, some amulets, and about…” The axe-wielding bandit picked up the galleons they had and began counting. “300 galleons. I’d say this went well.”
“Think it’ll be enough to make the boss happy?” Asked a dagger wielding bandit as she began looking at the gems they picked up.
“I sure as hell hope so. We mugged a ton of wizards to get all this stuff from them.”
“Oh is that so?” Said a voice.
“Yeah, I hope-” The bandit began talking, but then he realized who was speaking, and he immediately became nervous. He and the bandits turned behind them, and saw Gallan, walking to the camp. “B-Boss! Y-You’re here e-early!” The bandits immediately began to take a knee for Gallan. Gallan looked around the bandit camp.
“Hmhmhm, still the humble little dump I remember it to be…” Said Gallan with a smirk, then looking down on the bandits. “How has business been?”
“It was great sir! We robbed a bunch of people!” Said the bandit on the far left, frantically.
“Well then? Show me the spoils. I believe it is time you gave me my due.”
WIthout missing a beat, the bandits dispersed, revealing the pile of items they had stolen. Gallan walked up to them and inspected what the bandits brought.
“I see… 300 Galleons, and quite a number of amulets…” The bandits became a bit relieved hearing Gallan say that. “…not that these would be worth much…” They grew fearful once more. Gallan then turned to the bandits. “However, these may suffice for now…” The bandits were relieved once again.
“Thank you boss! Happy to be of use to you!” Said the axe wielding bandit.
“I’m sure you are…” Gallan turned to the female bandit. “You. Put them all in a bag for me so that I can carry them out.”
“YES SIR!” She scurried to find a bag, and gather everything for Gallan. Meanwhile, he spoke to the rest.
“I do have an issue I must discuss with you all however…” The bandits sweated a bit upon hearing that. Gallan pulled out a sheet of paper. A copy of the World News. He began reading it out loud. “This morning there was an attack on Dawn Island. A group of bandits had raided the island, attacking wizards and civilians alike with specially crafted weapons. The swords and axes they used were able to go through stone walls in a strike, and they were used to destroy homes to many of the residents on the island. However, the Grand Navy was able to successfully capture one of them.” Gallan stopped reading the paper and looked up. “Do you see the problem?” The bandits didn’t speak. They were too scared to say anything. “I believe I asked you all a question.” Gallan walked up to the axe wielding bandit. Just then, he threw a punch right at his jaw. The bandit fell on his back, grasping his jaw. It had broken in one punch. The other two next to him ran over to him. The bandit collecting items for Gallan was working even faster, hoping that maybe her filling the bag with everything they had could get them out of whatever punishment would come for them.
“I-It was just one guy, I’m sure it wouldn’t-” One of the bandits tried to speak, but he got kicked by Gallan and fell back.
“No. Don’t try to make an excuse. I had given you powerful weapons to carry out these robberies of yours. And yet, you’re still falling to the Grand Navy? I believe I’ve put too much faith in you all. If you managed to lose one member today, then who knows what will happen tomorrow?” Gallan pointed at the female bandit, who finished collecting everything. “Maybe she’ll be arrested next. Then these two fools on the ground wallowing in pain.” Gallan kicked the axe-wielding bandit in the waist. “And if you all were to end up arrested, and my equipment confiscated… who knows what they’ll be able to do with it? They may be able to reverse engineer it. Use my technology against me. And my plans will be threatened.” Gallan began to walk away, picking up the bag of items. “And I can’t have that.” Once he got outside of the camp, he stretched his arm out.
“B-boss? Boss wait!” Said the final bandit. But Gallan didn’t listen. He began creating a magic circle underneath them, making it wider and wider, to cover up the whole camp. The final bandit saw this, and he began trying to run outside. But he was too slow.
“Consider this being fired.” Said Gallan, smirking. He snapped his fingers, and the magic circle detonated. A large flaming explosion appeared, swallowing up the entire camp, and everyone inside of it. The flame slowly began to spread away from the camp, but Gallan paid no mind to it. He simply grabbed the bag, and walked away.
A day later, Erik had sorted out his room, and began to grow more comfortable around the clan. He began taking a stroll around the island, taking in the scenery of the ocean. Just then, he heard noise. It felt peaceful for him. Then, out of the blue, he heard loud noises. Like two people were fighting each other with magic. The sounds made him jump, his heart skipping a few beats. He immediately ran to see what was going on, only to find Jared and Acelina training together. Jared flinging multiple fire blasts at Acelina, who dodged them and retaliated with crystal beams. Eventually, they stopped their training and noticed Erik was there.
“Oh, you’re the new guy. Erik was it?” Jared said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Acelina didn’t say anything to him. She just turned her head away and sucked her teeth.
“Yes, I’m Erik. And you are?”
“I’m Jared. The guy whose room is next to yours.” Jared walked over to Erik. “I hear you’re a fire magic user too. Something we got in common. You mind showing me what you got?”
“No, not now. I’m not up to it.”
“Well, ok. But I’d like to know, how did you meet Gallan anyway? You didn’t say anything about that to the Guild Master did you?”
“Well…”
“Don’t even bother with him Jared.” Acelina taunted. “Leave that kiss-up alone. “Let’s get back to training.”
“Kiss up?!” Erik yelled, pushing Jared aside. “What did you just call me?!”
“I remember how you stopped me from attacking Gallan.”
Jared turned to Acelina. “You tried attacking Gallan?! Don’t you remember what he did last time we fought?!”
“Screw that, I wasn’t just gonna not attack him!”
“You’re an idiot! If I didn’t intervene something much worse would’ve happened to you!” Erik walked up to Acelina, getting in her face. “You think I saved Gallan? I saved you!”
“Ok ok everyone calm down.” Jared got in between Acelina.
“Hmph, whatever.” Acelina walked away from the two of them and headed inside the clan hall.
“Sorry about her. She can be a little feisty, but Ace is nice when you get to know her.”
“It’s alright…” Erik turned back. “Sorry for the outburst.”
“Hey, the fact that you don’t like Gallan anymore than we do makes me relieved. It’s gonna be nice having you around.”
Erik was silent for a moment, then continued to walk away.
“Wait up!” Jared called out as he followed Erik, and the two of them ended up in the dining hall. Inside they met Ray, examining the new cutlass he got.
“Oh Ray. Didn’t think you’d be in here.” Jared said as he took a seat. “Is that your new cutlass?”
“Yeah. I hate to admit it but it looks great.” Ray raised it up. “So what’s up?”
Erik looked at Ray’s sword for a minute. “You fought against Gallan, right?”
“Well it wasn’t much of a fight… more like him asserting his dominance against all of us…” Ray began to think about the incident. “He was so powerful… How was he so strong?! And he could use two different types of magic to boot.”
Jared began to join Ray. “And he took our magic attacks like they were nothing… damnit, how are we supposed to beat him?”
“Wait, you guys still want to try and beat him?”
“Obviously.” Ray replied.
“But he’s way more powerful than all of you. You honestly think it’s a good idea to resist him?”
“Well… we can’t do anything to him now… but maybe, eventually we can find a weakness, then we can turn on him.”
“I see…” Erik said, then thought a bit. Jared and Ray just looked at him, then at each other, then at him.
“See what?” Jared asked, scratching his head.
“… Well… if you’re really determined to bring him down… then I’d like to ask for your help in doing just that.”
“For real? Hell yeah we will!” Jared said, excited. Ray nodded his head in agreement.
“That sounds good. Although, I want to see just how strong you both are if this is going to work.”
“Really? What do you have in mind?” Ray asked. Erik then got up from his seat.
“Follow me you two.” He signalled with his hand for them to follow him. Jared and Ray got up, and followed him until they were outside again.
Erik turned back to Jared and Ray. “One of you’s going to fight me. Then I’ll figure out how good you guys are to help you. What do you say?”
“A fight huh?” Ray stroked his chin. “Alright, sure. Which of us will face you first?”
Erik looked at Jared, then Ray, then Jared again. “I’ll start with Ray.”
“Alright, sounds good to me.” Ray said, cracking his knuckles, while Jared walked to the side. “Just know I’m not gonna go easy on you.”
“I was about to say the same thing.” Erik said as he squatted down, creating fire circles underneath his feet. He detonated them and used them to launch himself into the air, getting right about Ray. Ray put his arms about his head to block whatever Erik was about to do, but he ended up behind him. He kicked in right in the back, causing Ray to fall forward. Ray quickly got up, and charged up a magic circle in his hands, aiming it at Erik.
“Poison Snare!” Ray yelled as he fired a poison beam from the circle. Erik spun towards the left, the beam barely grazing his coat sleeve. He immediately began running to Ray, jumping into the air once more. He drew two daggers and began swinging them at Ray.
“Woah wait I didn’t think we’d be using weapons!” Jared shouted as Ray evaded each dagger, getting nervous as each blade got closer to his face. Ray tried to jump back to gain distance between them, but Erik jumped right back at him, applying the pressure.
“In a real fight you’ll just have to deal with it!” Erik thrusted his left dagger at Ray, but he pivoted on his heel, grabbed Erik’s wrist, and swung him away from him. As Erik was rebalancing himself, he tossed the daggers at Ray, who immediately ducked under them. However, they caught a bit of his hair as they flew near Ray.
“Really, what if those daggers took his eye-”
“Less whining! This is a fight!” Erik shouted, growing annoyed. He formed two magic circles on his hands and began running at Ray.
“Two fire blasts?” Ray thought to himself. “Is he trying to use them at close range?! I need to guard.” Ray took out his cutlass, still sheathed. He used it to defend himself as Erik got closer. But then, Erik threw the circles down, and the explosion sent him flying into the air, over Ray once again. As he was in the air, Erik created another magic circle, one bigger than the ones he formed before. Ray barely had time to turn around to see Erik do it.
“Great Flare.” Erik said calmly. He launched a giant fireball from the circle that flew towards Ray. What resulted was a flaming explosion that Ray was caught in the middle of. Jared covered his face with his arms to block the light from the flames, while Erik finally landed on the ground with his arms, before flipping back to land on his feet, looking at the smoke.
“It’s like they say: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Erik said, walking towards the flames. “If you’d seen it coming after the first time I did that tactic, maybe you wouldn’t have taken a direct hit.” As Erik got closer and closer to where the blast hit, he noticed something through the smoke. He looked closer, then, almost immediately, he moved to the right. The sheath for the cutlass came flying out, right at Erik, brushing past his cheek. As Erik turned back, he saw Ray running towards him, clothes burnt a bit, his fist in the air. He threw a punch at Erik, who was able to block it. But before long, he found himself on the defensive as Ray threw a barrage of attacks at him.
“He was able to withstand that blast? He’s tougher than I thought…” Erik thought to himself as he tried desperately to dodge and block each punch coming at him. Just then, he was able to catch one of Ray’s punches, feeling relieved for a small moment. He then kicked Ray in the stomach. As Ray knelt down a bit in pain, he threw a roundhouse kick at Ray’s face, causing him to stumble back. “I’m gonna end it with this.” Erik told himself as he made two more magic circles. “Fiery Ascent!” He threw the circles down and blasted off into the sky one more time. He made two more circles as he was in the air. “Twin Suns!” Erik created two fire blasts, and threw each of them. Ray looked up as it happened, and jumped away from one of them. As he got on his feet, he looked up and saw the second one speeding towards him. He sidestepped away from the second, and watched as it blew up close to him. He was relieved to dodge them, but then he heard another explosion, coming from the air. He turned back and saw Erik speeding towards him, small embers coming from his hands, presumably from a second fiery ascent. Erik raised his right hand, preparing for a punch, but as he got closer, Ray noticed something on his left hand. It looked like another circle. Ray was able to dodge the punch as Erik dived down, but the moment Erik got down, he made the magic circle in his left hand bigger. He felt as though he heard an explosive sound as he landed, but he disregarded everything as he tried to end the fight. He turned around, and fired it without a second thought, shouting “Great Flare!!” as it fired. Jared, keeping his eyes focused on the fight, saw that the blast was going to hit the clan building.
“Oh crap!” He shouted, turning away from the fight as he made a magic circle promptly, firing off a beam at the fireball. He was able to intercept it, and the beam pushed it away from the building, into the sea. After Erik fired it, he was shocked to find that Ray wasn’t in the blasts path, despite knowing that Ray would’ve moved in that spot after dodging.
“Shocked aren’t you?” Erik heard a voice behind him. He turned around, and saw a cutlass pointing to his face, being held by Ray.
“What?! But how?! I’m sure I caught you just now!”
Sure that the clan was safe now, Jared turned back to the fight, his eyes widening. He saw Ray, pointing his cutlass at Erik’s head. Erik had looked defeated. “Woah woah woah, WHAT?! What happened?! What did I miss just now?!” Jared shouted, confused.
“It was simple really.” Ray said with a smile. “Once I saw Erik charging down at me, I noticed something was forming on his left hand. I had figured that he was going to try to bait me to dodge so that he could follow up with another powerful attack. Thanks for deflecting it from the clan by the way.”
“No problem. I’m just glad nobody got hurt. But you!” Jared pointed at Erik. “Don’t do that again. We already had someone damage this place and I don’t want that happening again. Alright?”
Erik turned to Jared. “… alright.”
“So, I’m sure I won this fight right?” Ray asked.
“Yes. You have.”
“Great!” Ray cheered to himself. “Jared, can you pass me the sheath for this thing?”
“Got it.” Jared ran to grab the sheath for Ray’s sword, but then, he had finally noticed that Zachary was outside, watching the two of them fight. “OH SHOOT, GUILD MASTER!” Jared yelled, before bowing. “Did you… see all of that?”
“Yes, I did Jared.”
Jared began to sweat a bit. “Don’t put Erik in trouble for almost blasting the clan, he just got carried away a bit, plus I was here to stop it so it doesn’t matter, right?”
“Nobody’s in trouble Jared. I’m just coming here to see Erik fight. I’ve been curious about how he handles in battle. And I must say…” Zachary walked over to Erik, who just got up. “You fought pretty well. You held your own amazingly against Ray of all people. He didn’t even land a hit on you throughout the fight.”
“Yeah, he’s gonna be a big help.” Ray said. Though he was happy to have won the fight, he was a little frustrated by his performance. Erik then began to recharge his energy.
“So, now that that’s done, you want to face me next Erik?” Jared asked.
“… no. I think I can trust your strength enough if you were able to stop my attack just now.”
“Trust his strength for what?” Zachary chimed in.
“We’re going to take Gallan down.” Erik’s tone became more serious as he said that. Zachary’s eyes widened.
“Take him down? How?”
“We aren’t sure as yet, but we’ll figure out something. And when we do, Gallan will be done.”
“Let me just tell you all this now. Don’t try anything you’re about to do.”
“What?” Erik, Jared, and Ray said that all in unison.
“Any attempt to defeat Gallan will be handled by me. I don’t want any of you trying anything and having it backfire. It’s too risky.”
“But Guild Mas-” Jared tried to speak.
“No but’s. Gallan is far too powerful for any of us. If whatever you do fails–and there’s a good chance of that happening–who knows what consequences will come? Just leave it to me.” Zachary said, turning away before the trio could answer back. “Now, I need to give missions out to the other clan members.”
Jared, Erik, and Ray were left outside, Erik and Ray finishing up with charging their energy back.
“So, are you guys going to just accept that?” Erik asked.
“It’s not like I want to, but…” Ray began speaking.
“I don’t care what your ‘Guild Master’ says.” Erik air quoted guild master. “I’m not going to back down.”
Jared looked at Erik weirdly. “Why did you airquote Guild Master…?”
“Because this is a clan, not a guild. But not the point. I’m leaving Gallan’s demise up to my hands and my hands alone.”
“But we can’t just disobey him.” Ray argued. “If you’re going to be part of the guild, you gotta learn to follow some orders.”
“I’m not going to follow these orders. I thought you wanted to help me.”
“We do, it’s just-”
“You’re either helping me out with this or not. Make up your mind.” Erik said as he began to walk away, leaving Jared and Ray by themselves.
Ray turned to Jared. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know. On one hand I don’t want to disobey the Guild Master, but on the other hand…” Jared looked on as Erik left. “… I don’t want to leave Erik hanging. And if we don’t help him he’ll just look for someone else who will. And if no one else will, he’ll just go about this himself. And who knows how that would go…”
“You’re right there…” Ray held his chin with his hand, contemplating. “… I might go for it…”
“Well I most likely am too.” Jared said as he ran after Erik. “Hey Erik wait up!”
Ray looked on as the two spoke, and finally came to his decision. “Guess we’re doing this…” he said quietly.