Enjoy!
Chapter 3: Beautiful Fighters, Vanquished (Part 1)
The story thus far...
Having defeated Tomoe in a Queen’s Blade match, Elina made her way for the shrine maiden’s homeland of Hinomoto in search of clues that might lead towards the unknown land of Maramaks, where her sister, Leina, was supposed to be heading. After granting Tomoe’s wish thanks to the boy Michel’s powers, Elina, seemingly done with her group’s adventures within the foreign land and finding no clues for their journey, heads back to Hinomoto’s port with the intent of making her way back to the Continent.
Echidna Makes Her Move
It was a mysterious room, one adorned with windows all around.
From each, varying locations and even times of day could be glimpsed; one displaying a port city at dawn, another a silvery mountain range dyed orange in the sunset and so on.
“The devil’s flute, capable of curing any and all ailments...”
The dark skinned wild elf sported an absent minded gaze as she tossed folder after folder from her hands to the nearby desk. She was known as Echidna, and as her title in the Queen’s Blade implied--The Veteran Mercenary--, she offered all sorts of highly sought after services to VIPs across the land. Her reputation for being undefeated was often guarantee enough for most.
“I want it... a gem like that is much too valuable to leave in the hands of that li’l princess anyhow.”
Each document was a report and on them was information gathered from several spies within her network.
Gathering, analyzing and dealing in as much knowledge as she did for the Continent’s elite, it should come as a surprise to no one that oftentimes more... juicy... information related to treasures of all kinds also had a tendency to fall in her lap.
“Irma? You there, Irma?”
Raising her voluptuous hips from the comfort of her seat, Echidna called out to one of the windows.
That window opened, and in it, a beautiful short-haired girl appeared.
The Assassin of the Fang, Irma. Echidna’s disciple, often sent out to the four corners of the Continent and beyond for intelligence and other less savory tasks.
“Here.”
“Pack your bags, you’re going on a mission.”
“What a surprise.”
Frankly, the girl needed little else to know what Echidna was after or what was to be expected of her. A few short words from her teacher often said plenty. That said, that didn’t mean Irma had to be nice about it.
“The Earl’s youngest daughter, we’ll be taking that treasure she’s been holding on to.”
“So it’s that strange flute this time, is it?”
The assassin’s sigh clashed against the smile painted on the elf’s lips.
That flute was a rare prize, a work of fine art crafted with painstaking precision. That in itself would have likely been more than enough to stir her teacher’s desires really, but...
Well, there were two types of items Echidna loved to collect above all else: either they were incredibly hard to obtain, things no one could ever realistically find a second copy of, often old goods that had long outlived their creator’s lifespans or... they were magical.
And the flute? It met both criteria.
“So Irma, where’s our little princess now?”
“In Hinomoto’s port town.”
Irma answered succinctly, she’d submitted the latest report involving the flute after all.
She’d also been keeping a close eye on the group ever since.
“Ooh. You just keep outdoing my expectations. Great job.”
Echidna nodded, looking through some additional notes found within Irma’s report: How the group sought out information related to Maramaks by asking around Hinomoto, what they’d done while in the country... it even summarized the group’s farewells to the Warrior Priestess and every individual member’s routines and actions during their stay.
“I mean, I know you’re my student and all, but really, this is some impressive stuff.”
Irma’s expression tightened at the honest praise. Echidna rarely, if ever, praised her students.
“P-Praising me won’t get you anywhere, Teacher.”
“I want things ready before they have a chance to hit the Continent. Considering their location, hire...”
“The Kouma Ninja Corps.”
Echidna nodded.
“Good answer. And when you do, ask for Sagiri and Nagare. Those two have some useful abilities.”
Irma was well aware. She’d already taken the liberty of informing herself as to what the Kouma Ninja were capable of. It was where her teacher had first begun her ascent into legend after all.
Sagiri of the Thick Fog, able to freely manipulate fog and mist. An ability that could potentially give one supremacy over any battlefield.
And Nagare of the Shadows. One who lived for the dark, they had the interesting ability to melt themselves into shadows to immobilize targets.
While the Kouma Corps were known to have ninjas with all sorts of abilities, Echidna often favored those two.
“Beyond that, I think I’ll bring one of these out to play too. It’s been a while.”
Echidna punctuated her words by revealing a silver sphere to Irma.
“That’s...”
“Nufufu, an all time favorite of yours, isn’t it, Irma?”
“I-I can’t stand it when you get this way, Teacher.”
Blushing, the short haired girl turned away.
“We do have a daughter of the Vance family to worry about after all. Mustn't hurt the merchandise.”
Echidna tucked away the sphere, her secret weapon to defeating Elina without ever really harming her, somewhere between her breasts.
[Rare and magical, but what can you do? Can’t be stingy when it counts.]
With this, Echidna knew victory was as good as hers.
“Now then, time for a strategy meeting.”
The elf’s words, with their subtle implication that she wanted Irma’s opinion, managed to make the assassin smile, if only a little.
No comments:
Post a Comment