The potion began to wear off and Vector was fuming as he stood naked over the man. He blinded him with Ice across his eyes and drove spikes into the man's hands, pinning him to the ground. When he screamed in pain, he started to talk.
"Why are you here! If I could have gotten away with at least one other person, I could have survived.. why won't you KILL ME!!!" The Blue Armored Human struggled at the very end and tore his hands further.
"Why did you attack me in the first place, I was fucking smiling, you asshole. Answer me." Vector shifted the ice spikes and the man yelled out in pain again. As more blood crept out of the half-frozen wound, the biting cold was rushing up the human's arms and the nerve damage from the crushed portions of his hands was going to send him into shock soon.
Coughing blood, the Leader in blue was barely able to speak. "The Sunset Empire will never submit.."
"I'm not asking you to submit you deaf piece of shit. I'm asking why you attacked me." Vector kicked the man in the balls and watched as the man passed out.
'Che' Vector wasn't amused, he looked for his ring.
Pulling out a slave collar, healing potion and some rope for good measure, the man was tied up. Vector put the slave collar around his neck and poured the potion down the man's throat. "Bastard, you better be able to process this. Its one of my last." Feeling the loss from a single healing potion was something that Vector was not use to, he had always been a pack rat but he really wanted answers.
Potions made from the materials he found in Ultinia were harder to make, he was forced to do basic brewing and stout teas made up the bulk of his 'applicable' alchemy skills and potions. Vector wasn't a moron, he could tell what herbs did things but alchemy was a different matter altogether. If he tried to process them into a pill or condense their essence into one, he was sure to meet with failure.
When the man woke up, Vector was already fully dressed and pissed off. He kicked the man in the balls first thing. "You asshole. You cost me a perfectly good set of clothes." Tossing the spirit stones that were once the comrades of the Blue Armored Man, thought about punching the man.. "Tell me why you attacked me or I'll kick you in the balls till you pass out, and then do this all over again when you wake up."
Vector wanted to gulp after saying as much, the guard noticed he was unable to move.
He had been bound with rope in a coil, it covered his whole body, there was no struggling to break free. The Blue Armored Human was also tied to a tree but he didn't know that. "Any beast that comes within our territory, much less one that roosts in our path. You've defeated me and you have your answer! Kill me and let me be done with this already!" The Man couldn't see anything, he felt like he was being toyed with and he was right.
Vector had no intent on releasing the man without more answers, if he was going to answer one question, he would answer them all. "You shouldn't have attacked, I could have been an ally. For that, I'm going to kick.." Vector was about to speak but laughter stopped him.
The Blue armored man was laughing histerically. "You.." 'Pfft' "Hardly, you'd never be considered an ally, pathetic half-ling, you wouldn't even have the right to speak much less walk freely in my Kingdom. We kill you kind for target practice and have driven you all from our lands long ago. Don't think you can confuse me with lies, all your kind ever did was take, take take." He spit outward, he wasn't sure that he would hit Vector but there was always the hope of attacking his enemy one more time.
"Oh? There are more of 'my kind.'" Vector made air quotes but realized that it was just him that could see.
"Your kind, you're not even a tenth of their size.. you think you can measure up." The blue armored man kept goading at Vector, wanting a quick death.
"Why do you keep trying to get a rise out of me? You asked me to kill you earlier, Why!?" Vector kicked him in the balls.
After the man stop gagging and wanting to vomit blood, he reluctantly answered, anything to end this embarrassing method of capture and interrogation. "If.. I .. Come.. home.. without.. another..they will.. treat me li...like a.. deserter.. and.. execute me.." 'hu -hu'aughh...' He was on the verge of passing out again and his eyes looked like they would roll out of the back of his head.
Vector slapped the man conscious. "Wake up."
Once the man had opened his eyes again, Vector put his hand on the man's chest and probed his body. Inside, he found traces of several treasures and probed deeper.
"What are you doing to me?" the Man spoke, he sounded weaker than before.
"You have some interesting things in your body. Why don't you tell me how to get them out, perhaps i'll consider letting you go."
"N-No! Just Kill me! KILL ME ALREADY!!" He struggled but even the robes barely budged. "LET GO!! KILL ME YOU FUCKING LIZARD!"
"Is this how all the people in this place act? Or is it just you who lacks a spine." Vector slapped the man until he couldn't speak any further. He walked away and entered the Temple, it was almost dawn and the others were still inside.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Wu Hai was inches from the locked up light, it pulsed the closer he came.
Noyuki saw from a distance and closed in quickly. She caught his hand before he could made contact.
"WAKE UP!" Noyuki used her free hand to slap Wu Hai and wrapped her legs around his arm, twisting and throwing him to the floor.
'huh?' Wu Hai woke from his stupor and saw the glow again, he almost relapsed but shook his head and took a step back. "Uh.. Thanks." Rubbing his face, he could tell she didn't hold back very much.
There were many reasons he should have known better, for instance, the green orb that had turned all the people who came to steal it in the Undead Cavern of the Eastern Plains. The Orb of Ferris was a similar type of energy but something about the energy that was locked away was resonating with Both Wu Hai and Noyuki, still, she pulled them both further away. "We found some herbs, some pick herbs."
"I think its more important that we find a way to take this with us." Wu Hai stared at the light. "We can't leave it here." It was at that exact moment that the entire underground space began to quake. It was shaking and the spikes that littered the ceiling were beginning to fall intermittently.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
On the first floor of the Fire Temple, Vector found himself alone. It was cold in comparison to before, save for a single room. When he entered, he scanned it with his perception and was astonished at the Egg that was giving off radiant and tremendous energy. "Wow, a Dragon Egg." Vector picked it up out of interest but there was a reaction he wasn't expecting.
The Egg being lifted from the Altar was like a hot potato in his hands, Vector was forced to pull out the fire crystal bed and put it down, then he carried it outside but, as soon as he exited the temple, the entire place began to shake. 'You've gotta be fucking kidding me!' Vector turned around in indignation, worried that he had just endangered his friends.
He tapped his shoulder and transmitted his voice to Wu Hai.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Wu Hai heard the message but it was already too late, spikes were coming down rapidly. Noyuki flew to Mursayade and Vira, Kuzunoha was already making her way to the exit. Wu Hai followed as fast as he could go but he wanted to turn around.
He stopped. "I'm not leaving with out it." Wu Hai turned around and flew back to the strange encapsulated energy.
Whipping out the Crusher, he destroyed the short totems and when the energy was about to escape he reached for it. The crusher came into contact with it first, it hit the handle and a blinding light enveloped him, exploding into the space around him.
Kuzunoha, Vira and Mursayade made it to the first floor and found the exit, when they were waiting for Wu Hai to come out, he was taking a long time. Then, there was a massive white explosion.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
In a white place, in the deep recesses of Wu Hai's mind, a self-image of himself was sitting patiently and a white robed figure fluttered down out of nowhere to greet him.
["You've come to touch what once was yours but it was not earned. Come back when you are finally ready, until then, it will remain within the vessel. Since you have come to this point, even I would find it annoying to come back empty handed, a Gift.."] A line of light streamed across the space and beamed between Wu Hai's eyebrows.
His figure leaned backward and flushed with red, an image of the Crusher came out and into his mind. It twisted and flexed at the handle, a pattern showed up. Then, the crusher changed shape, taking the form of a Longsword without a hilt.
"What did you do?" Wu Hai grasped at the handle and felt its weight, it was very light in comparison,
["I'm sure you'll figure out much from just this little, do not be impatient, it breeds nothing but disappointment."] The figure in white got brighter until it blinded Wu Hai, waking him from his dream.
The Spikes were still falling around him but the space above had been destroyed and he could see the sky above him, the Fire Temple was on the verge of collapse. Wu Hai took one more look around and searched for anything worth taking but the ceiling was coming down so fast that the dust cloud beneath and molten rock soon overtook a lot of what was originally visible. When a large chunk crushed the statue of the dragon into a thousand fragments, Wu Hai flew up and out.
'Three sentences, that's all he could say..' Wu Hai did his best to recall the sequence that he had just witnessed. When the others saw him flying up out of the pit, they were relieved.
"What the hell were you thinking?" Kuzunoha, Vira and Noyuki began to smack Wu Hai with their clothes, they were trying to get dressed.
Vector saw everything and then saw Mursayade, he laughed at the mud smeared across her body but realized that he had earned a place in the dog house.
Everyone noticed the tree, more specifically, everyone noticed the man that was tied up and bound to the tree's trunk. "Who's that?" Mursayade asked while she put on a light summer dress. It looked good on her but putting on the armor took too long, she wasn't very worried, especially after seeing someone tied up.
"Just some fly that wanted to attack me, he totally ruined my clothes." Blaming the attack for his change of dress, Vector looked annoyed.
"Some Fly huh?" Mursayade walked up and cleared the Ice from the man's eyes. "Hey, You.. Asshole. Why did you attack my Husband?" She kicked the ropes right over his genitals and leaned in.
"What is with you people, Just kill me!" He vomited some blood, the ropes were already covered with discharge.
Vira saw from a distance, "What an eyesore, does he have any useful information? I can give it a shot." She offered up her services but Vector waved it off.
"He's said there is an Empire nearby, apparently they hunt other sentient species for sport or so he boasts. He could have just been trying to get me to kill him, he's been begging for death since the end of the fight." Vector played with the Fire Spear in his hand, it looked more like a trident but it was definitely a spear, three blades sat affixed at one end but they weren't forked.
"Cool Spear." Mursayade was eyeballing it. "If you're not going to use it, I can."
Vector passed it over, "I also found this inside."