Kiroh brings his hand close to his face and takes a deep inhale. The aroma coming from his extremities is a distant, yet oddly familiar scent of peach. Or would it be coconut? He does not know, and he wouldn't know anyways since he has not even seen a coconut in years.
Eh, that does not really matter. What matters is that the peach-coconut scent is so satisfying to inhale, to smell. In fact, it's so pleasing that he's been sniffing it for the past three minutes. But then the realization hits him. In an addicting manner, he had been sniffing his hands ever since he got out of the shower.
He drops his hands onto his knees since he is sitting on the same large chair he slept in yesterday. When he looks down, he sees the new clothing he acquired earlier in the day. His cheap black pants are the closest he could get when he compared it to the feeling of his uniform pants—the same feeling can be applied to his sleeves as well.
Funny enough, the soldier already misses the feeling of his green uniform. The man had never gotten to wear it in so long and when he got it back, he only got to wear it for a couple days. He certainly wishes he can wear it again, but that's not a possibility right now. It's in the shared washer.
Sighing to himself, the man gets up and walks towards the window. Outside, he can only see a few people walking by. From the few glances he gives each passerby, he spots a few more people like Amika.
One of them, a man with his hands occupied by a large wooden crate, has a single horn on his forehead. Another, a woman walking casually with her hands in her pockets, has a set of long brown ears resembling that of a domestic dog's ears; the soldier only assumes that's just one of the other natural features.
He does not have much of a clue about what his people are called. Mirovi? That is what he heard Amika say once when the man was asking about his race.
The soldier looks back down at his hands. His naturally browned hands—much lighter than he remembers, probably a result from his skin being concealed all the time—are clean and fresh.
Not having showered for about a dozen days when he was on his planet plus the several more days in this world where he spent it in his sweat-filled uniform, the man knew he was dirty. To be fair though, he was either being shot at in his world or he was fighting the natural elements in this world.
But as of now, he is finally cleaned. Of all the grease in his hair, the grime under his nails, sweat in his pits and on his back, water proved to be more than effective in cleaning everything and finally getting rid of that scent. It's a good thing the room came with a bottle of body wash and another for shampoo.
And another good thing would be that his ally was finally finished with his shower.
"Ya already set to go?" Said ally walked out of the bathroom door, immediately heading to the bed where most of his gear is.
Kiroh turns around, focusing only on the face of his recent travelling buddy. Completely avoiding the uncovered part of the man's body—he gives his thanks to the white towel.
"Yes. Once you are done preparing, we can leave immediately. We have a lot of time."
"Jeez, it's only been what," the horned man looks at a watch on his bed, "seven minutes and yer already lookin' to leave?"
"Yeah, I don't know how your money situation is going but I need the marks."
"What for? You goin' shoppin' again?" The mirovi man smirks as he looks up from his assorted gear.
"No. When we split the money, I'll give you a portion of my half to cover some of the expenses earlier today." Kiroh walks away from the window and toward his gear resting near the chair. He begins putting on each piece of equipment.
With surprise in his voice, Amika says, "Y'know, Kiroh, I appreciate your want for payin' me back but that's alright. I ain't addin' interest if that's what yer wonderin'." A small chuckle comes afterward.
"Oh. Well I still intend to pay you back eventually. You've done a lot for me just over these few days and monetary payment seems the most doable." Kiroh dons more of his armor until finally picking up his helmet.
"Heh, alrighty then. Just bein' my travellin' partner is enough, Kiroh. Don't gotta feel obligated or anything of the sort."
An appreciative nod is given. Picking up and slinging his rifle over the shoulder, he turns to face the other man once more.
"I'll step out. Meet me in the lobby." The soldier gives his signature nod once more before walking past the mirovi man and heading to the door.
"Yep, I'll be there."
/////
Kiroh sits there, waiting patiently on a commonly used chair. His uncovered eyes studying the public room he is currently in.
All the seats near him are mostly empty but the seats across the open space are occupied by some family. Or actually, some members of the family are sitting across from him, not the whole group. Right now, only four small children are there. No older siblings watching over?
The human man looks at them with his usual expression, permanently narrowed eyes and small wrinkles not meant for someone his age.
One kid is a boy with light-blue hair and is the tallest. The second kid is a girl with brown hair, probably the second tallest. Third is a boy with dark-brown hair, maybe the youngest because he looks the smallest in his seat. And the fourth is another girl, but with a more blonde color.
He takes his eyes off them, not wanting to look like a predator of sorts. Now he can only wonder where the parents are, so he glances around the lobby. Literally no one else is there besides him, the four children, and the receptionist lady. Huh, a bit weird but okay.
Nothing too strange to see four kids just messing around with each other. Just a little strange that the older guardians are not there. But hey, this isn't even an issue so there really isn't any reason to concern himself with them.
Kiroh keeps to himself. Only moving in his seat to see if Amika was walking out or to watch the entrances—there is only one apparently. He holds his rifle carefully by the barrel, making sure that it does not fall over.
As a minute passes and Amika is still not out yet, the soldier starts to become just a tad impatient. Then a strange occurrence happens.
"Hey mister!" The small child in front of him jovially greets. It is the boy with light-blue hair.
"Hello." Is all he says.
"What's your name?"
"It's Kiroh. Yours?" The soldier is unsure why he asked for the kid's name.
"Gurch'naarn! But you can just call me Gurch."
The fuck? What kind of name is that? The name confuses the soldier but he doesn't do anything except nod to the boy. He looks away, wanting to stop the conversation subtly.
"Do you not like talking, mister?"
"Not very good at it." Kiroh punches himself mentally for nearly stuttering. He questions in his own head as to why this kid is making him feel nervous. Also questioning aggressively as to why he's even telling a random-ass kid about himself.
"Oh! That's okay, mister. I wasn't very good at talking either." Gurch adopts a proud pose. "At least, not until I made friends back there." The boy points a thumb back at the kids, who are all watching the interaction now.
"Mm." He grunts affirmatively. "That is good."
Gurch looks at the rifle being held up by the soldier's right hand. It intrigues the boy greatly.
"That's a cool-looking gun! Can I touch it?" Stars are practically in the boy's eyes.
But like hell that's going to happen.
"Can't. This is a dangerous weapon."
"I can handle it." The kid persistently says.
"I'm sure you can. But no, just look if you want." At this point, Kiroh can just imagine a miniature version of himself beating the shit out of his brain. He really has no idea why the kid is making him so swayed to answer.
"But I've handled guns before!" He points a thumb proudly to his chest. "I shot one of those hounds before. It stood no chance!"
"Really? With a heavy assault rifle?"
"Uh… no, but! I used what my dad called a, 'revolver,' I nearly fell but I stood my ground."
"That's very interesting, Gurch." The grown man struggles to find something to talk about. "Um, what about your friends? Have they done the same?"
"Hm? Oh!" Gurch turns to face his friends—who are still staring at them—and says, "Guys! Get over here!"
The process is slow at the start but it begins with the brown-haired girl, causing the other two children to follow her like small ducklings. It was even a little funny to see the youngest one hopping off his seat.
Eventually, they all stand in front of the man. Each one of them are looking at all his equipment, staring at his many pouches and gear straps. They also inspect the helmet resting idly on his lap. It seems everything about him brings intrigue.
"Why do you wear a mask? That looks weird." It is the voice of the blonde girl.
"Emily!" Scolded by the tallest girl of the group. "Don't say mean things like that."
"Why? He looks like one of those bad guys we see on TV."
"Emily! What did I just say?"
Kiroh breaks up their little dispute about his appearance by clearing his throat and leaning forward. Funny how that's just one of his many regular noises when he doesn't want to speak.
"It's alright. You're probably not the first to think that in this town." The soldier speaks with honesty. Being observative in this environment let him catch more than a few people sending suspicious glares his way.
"Great, Emi. Just great," brown-hair scolds the blondie again, "you just met the stranger and you're already makin' him feel bad!"
And they're right back to arguing once more, leaving only the two boys to be attentive to the soldier still.
The grown man of the group of five looks at the two boys in front of him. Both of their eyes travel across his gear, most likely interested in what the pockets contain and what he's holding.
Sighing quietly to himself, Kiroh prepares to speak. But of course, he is interrupted.
"Heya, Kiroh." This high-pitched voice belongs to none-other than Amika. "You got a little troupe or something while I was suitin' up?"
Being the new adult in the lobby, this gets the attention of everyone—besides the lone receptionist who continues to do paperwork.
"No," the soldier immediately answered, "they came up to me." He gets up from his seat and slings his rifle over his shoulder, unintentionally looking like a badass to the four kids. "Let's go."
"Heh, sure." Amika watches as his new friend puts on a helmet. "C'mon then, leave the little kiddies to themselves."
Kiroh doesn't respond to that. He only nods at Amika and walks past him, making his way to the entrance of the Blue Disc Inn. To the four kids, however, this looks like a scene they watched where the hero embarks on a quest.
"Woah! Kiroh is cool!" Gurch turns to Amika. "Is he cool? How'd you meet him?"
"Hmm… y'know, I guess he is." The older man gives a polite smirk to the boy. "For yer second question, I'll tell ya that later."
Gurch lets out a groan of disappointment but Amika only waves him off, walking out of the inn and getting over to Kiroh. The other three kids wave goodbye to the exiting mirovi.
/////
The human-mirovi duo walks down the faded cobblestone path. In between the stones are varied heights of grass, ranging from the short and young to the tall and old blades of grass.
Next to the path are wooden markers, or what's left of the markers. For most of the markers they have already passed, a good portion looks to be on the verge of falling over. Even the slightest wind seemed like it would be enough to knock these old placements down.
Just a few feet from the path and the markers are the borders of the dense forestry threatening to overtake the manmade walkway. Thanks to the sun still shining high in the sky, the shadows from the tall trees only seem to add to the overwhelming sense of the forest.
But the overall environment doesn't affect either of the two men as they traverse the distance to reach their suspected area of interest. Or, well, it has no effect on the horned man but rather the human.
Kiroh's face—although covered and protected by his helmet—expresses paranoia. His eyes constantly zoom around the path, checking for any movement around the two of them. The semi-permanent frown on his face only increases.
Too many experiences with ambushes must be why the man is so alert, even before they reach the contract area.
Of course, the mirovi of the two takes notice when he sees the human constantly turning his head. He decides to talk so he could maybe get his friend to relax.
"Y'know, Kiroh, all we're doin' is clearing out a nest of those imps. I'm sure you can handle yer own if anythin' ever gets out of hand."
"If we are finding and clearing out a nest of imps, the situation is high-risk with just two." Kiroh pops his neck as they walk past a large rock.
"Oh believe me, it ain't as bad as ya might think. If you actually know how to use yer magi, of course."
That's a new word. 'Magi.' Kiroh will have to learn about that.
"Magi?"
"Hm? Oh, wait.... I forgot for a second, you're human so you don't really have much of that."
Now what the hell does that mean? The soldier feels the urge to ask. "What?"
"What?" And now Amika is confused as well.
"What is magi? Why do I not have that?"
"You're askin' me that?" The mirovi ally is even more confused by the questions.
"I don't know much about magi… I was never taught that." Damn, he's really gotta stop lying because he is just digging himself an even deeper hole.
"Wait, seriously?" Amika stops walking and looks at the human in confirmation. Said human stops as well to look right back at the shorter mirovi.
A nod is given from Kiroh.
"So not only were ya taught this whole other language, but your people decided that you didn't even need to know about magi?" Disbelief is present in Amika's tone and face.
Kiroh simply shrugs and lets out an affirmative grunt, the latter being one of his common answers.
"Huh. Well, obviously I'd call that a lil' suspicious but... I'm just gonna trust ya on that." Amika scratches his cheek. "Want me to tell ya 'bout it?"
"Tell me whatever you can. I could use the information."
"Sure thing, but why ya gotta say it like that?"
"Hm?" The soldier tilts his head.
Amika clears his throat and lowers his voice. "'I could use the information.'"
Kiroh no longer tilts his head and only stares at his horned partner. The glare behind his helmet is clearly present.
"Jeezums, its feels like yer on a mission to kill somebody. Hehehe."
"That's just my regular voice, Amika. You don't have to mock it."
"Wah, hey! I ain't mockin' it. I'm just doin' a little impression of what ya sound like to everybody else."
"Mm." The response from the soldier is only a usual grunt. Except this one sounds like a low-end growl. "Just tell me about magi." He focuses back on the path, not wanting to talk back anymore.
Amika only clicks his tongue before walking forward. Kiroh follows only a few meters behind.
"Magi is like…" the mirovi does a rolling motion with his hand to jog his thoughts, "actually, let me tell you the basics first."
Once again, Kiroh nods with an affirming grunt.
"Okay, so basically… there's like several concepts you gotta understand. First is Essence, with a capital E." Amika clears his throat. "All that is.... is how well you can control yer abilities. The second is affinity, like what element are ya good at controlling. Third is ability, like what exactly you can do with that element. And mana, basically how long you're able to use your ability."
"I see." So this shit's like a game then. "Essence is your control over your ability. Affinity is the element you're associated with, like your rocks. Ability is…"
"It's like what I can do with those rocks."
"And mana," the soldier never thought he'd have to use that in an actual sentence, "is how long you can use your ability."
"Yep, that's pretty much all there is to it."
"Okay… I understand that."
From that point on, Amika and Kiroh just talk about random things with the former being the one to lead the conversation. The human of the two answers the mirovi's questions, only elaborating when asked too.
Then Amika asked where the human soldier had been. Said soldier replied with yet another lie, saying that this continent was the second one he has ever been on.
It was honestly an on-and-off conversation for the duo. With Kiroh really not being the social person at all since most of his responses came in the form of grunts or other noises mixed with few one-word answers.
All their chatter led to Amika saying, "You really just don't like talkin' do ya?"
"It's not one of my skills."
"Then what are yer skills?"
"I am very mobile, good at shooting, experienced in ambush tactics, setting traps, interrogation, following orders… typical things you could expect from a soldier.."
One of those things immediately caught the full attention of the mirovi ahead of him.
"Hold on," the mirovi stops and looks back at Kiroh, "whaddya mean, 'interrogation?'"
The action causes the soldier to stop as well.
"There have been many times that my enemy has been captured. In my case, that has occurred nineteen times." Kiroh looks between the two treelines surrounding them, casually checking for movement as he has been. "Each time, I was assigned to tortue them."
Amika is silent while Kiroh continues on without missing a breath.
"For thirteen of them, I simply had to shoot them in any non-vital areas." The human's tone shifts harshly as his hidden face grimaces. "The six other times, I have had to resort to more brutal methods. Usually, I've had to burn, cut, maim-"
"OKAY." Amika loudly clears his throat. His face shows a wavering smile, probably to hide his uncomfortableness. "Let's jus' stop talking about that."
"Sorry, my apologies for that."
"I-It's alright. C'mon, let's just keep trekin' on." The horned man said, turning and walking forward once more.
Kiroh quietly follows behind, cursing at himself for getting carried away by his hatred for the Golden Fist. Those plague-bringers that call themselves 'rebels,' had already ruined his life for years, he's not going to let them ruin him in this world. Especially since he has an ally now. A reliable one at that.
He notes to himself to constantly be wary of what he says and to keep his emotions under control when on the subject of the Golden Fist. Also, he notes to not reveal too much information and to keep that in check.
Moving on from that awkward end to the conversation, the duo now travels in silence. They keep walking for the rest of the four kilometers, ending up taking about an hour and a few minutes to complete the whole distance.
When they finally reach the objective area, Amika makes the both of them crouch behind a conveniently fallen tree that sits just in front of a large open area. In front of them, Kiroh can see that it's full of grass and a few skinny trees.
These are the only natural aspects about the opening. For the unnatural parts, there are what seems to be dozens of imps walking around fire pits or tending to their own things. Most of them are hauling around chunks of meat probably bigger than their own bodies.
Around the area, the mirovi and human spot more imp-related things. Particularly, where those imps are taking those meat chunks.
Both mercenaries watch as the imps work together to impale the meat chunks onto wooden poles already dug into the ground. They do not hear it but both of them can see the imps laughing with each other.
The image puts a bad feeling in Kiroh's stomach. He's not so sure that meat belongs to an animal's body.
"My gods… I've gotten used to seein' bodies, but this… euguh, still messes with me." The mirovi visibly cringes.
Well that just about confirms that.
"How should we go about this?" Kiroh asks, already forming methods that they could use.
Amika clears his throat and puts a smile on his face, most likely a forced expression. He gives one more glance to the impaled meat chunks before crouching low and turning to Kiroh.
"Okay, this is how we're gonna do this. I'm gonna be the distraction and the uh-tank, er, yeah, I'll act as the bigger threat. Ya said you were good at shooting, yeah?"
The human soldier dressed in black and grey nods.
"Good. Good. Then you'll hit the imps I don't get, got it?"
"Hold on," the soldier narrows his eyes under the helmet's visor, "isn't there a more… smoother way to do this? We could look for higher ground-"
"Kiroh." Amika looks directly into where Kiroh's eyes would be. "Just trust me on this, okay? You be my shooter while I waltz in there an' make a mess of what I can. We can do that."
Silence for a mere moment before Kiroh speaks again. "Okay, but can you not do what you did when you helped me against those, uh, blighters?"
"Ain't no big rocks for me to toss. But look below ya."
Kiroh sees nothing but his grey combat boots on the grassless patch of dirt. He gives the mirovi a questioning tilt of the head.
"Jus' cuz I use rocks most of the time, doesn't mean I'm jus' limited to them. I'm an earth-type so pretty much anywhere outside, I can do this." Amika flexes his fingers like he is about to grab something. The extremities have an oddly faint glow of yellow. He then thrusts it into the ground, his digits slip into the dirt like butter.
The soldier makes a noise similar to what you would hear from someone expressing surprise.
Amika then yanks a palm-sized piece of dirt out of the ground and his hand glows a faint yellow once more. But taking his attention off that is the mirovi making the chunk of dirt levitate several inches above his hand.
"Whaddya think 'bout that?" Amika gives a cocky grin.
"Mm. An even bigger advantage since you can throw with accuracy."
In response, the horned man gives him a look that says, 'Really?' After a few moments of Kiroh just staring at him in confusion, he sighs and continues.
"Besides the tactical advantage."
"Oh. Then it is impressive." The soldier means that with all honesty, even through his mainly monotone voice.
"That it?"
Kiroh's neutral glare can be felt through the visor.
"Mmm. Fun-killer."
"We should continue with the objective."
"Heh, I'm already on it, Kiroh." The mirovi doesn't say anything more, choosing to proceed with action instead of conversing with the human.
Before the human can say anything, he sees his ally pull the knife out of one of his pockets and leap over the log they were taking cover behind. The soldier's eyes widen and he tries to reach for him but he isn't able to pull Amika back, the mirovi is already charging in.
Unable to do anything, he watches as the horned man rushes forward into the opening full of those red goblin-things. One imp spots him and gets the attention of others, before abruptly being slashed across the throat by Amika.
Letting out a curse—although it sounds more like a hiss—under his breath, Kiroh props his gun on the log and jams the stock against his shoulder. He immediately takes aim at the imp closest to Amika.
The human fires a single bullet for every trigger-squeeze. And for every imp that Kiroh neutralizes, Amika kills several more. When he isn't firing at any flanking imps, he glances over to see Amika wreaking havoc amongst their ranks.
Compared to when he first witnessed the mirovi's inconceivable movement, Kiroh was in the back row when he saw the damage caused. Now, he is in the front seat with the carnage he's seeing at the moment.
As he watches, he witnesses the incredible efficiency of the man to kill these red goblin knock-offs. The man is literally carving his way through the imps; slashing one imp before moving onto another and making chunks of the ground rise and act as projectiles.
It would be a lie to say that Kiroh was a little envious of the mirovi's hand-to-hand skills since his were, well, they were not that good. As for his ally's powers? Honestly, how could he not feel envious over that as well.
But enough of that, the soldier continues his distanced backing of the charging Amika. So far, he's picked off about seven imps who thought they could flank the mirovi; and four that attempted to pile on him. And now he shoots at a twelfth, making the said imp jolt forward before collapsing.
Looking back at the more aggressive of the two, Kiroh notices the man getting further and further. Since Amika is already making himself an obstacle to avoid hitting, the soldier decides to move up to better provide support without the risk of shooting his teammate.
Kiroh swiftly replaces the magazine in his rifle with a fresh one. He hops over the log, jogging into the open and stopping just far enough from Amika to have a clearer shot on any imps making moves.
Dropping on one knee, he levels his rifle with his shoulder and looks down the sight.
He watches as Amika squares off with a group of ten or so imps. This is the perfect opportunity to lessen the workload for his ally.
The human fires at the imps he can clearly see. For the first one, the bullet struck its chest and made it spin to the side and fell. A second one clutches its stomach before falling backwards from a second shot.
Another falls and then a fourth, now a fifth. Seeing their allies getting shot and torn apart right in front of them summarily breaks the imps' morale. They begin to retreat, but in actuality, Amika won't give them even the slightest chance.
Getting off of his knee, Kiroh jogs over to Amika as he watches the mirovi do his thing.
Amika drives his knife into the back of a retreating imp and pulls upward, raising the damnable goblin knock-off into the air; he then tosses the creature into its fleeing buddies. He points at another set of imps and sends a hand-sized cloud of materials into them.
It repeats while Kiroh approaches Amika, eventually, he reaches the mirovi who at this point, has torn apart all of the opposition. And then the soldier looks down—it seems one is still breathing.
Promptly, Kiroh raises his leg and brings his boot down onto the imp's head, surprisingly caving the skull in and causing the soldier to cake his boot in black-colored blood.
He then looks around the open field they are in several times—assuredly, there is no one, no one is left but him and Amika.
"Catapult! Move!" Amika yelled in warning, simultaneously pointing at the siege instrument ahead of them.
Kiroh turns in time to see the catapult—more suitably, a hunk of mechanical shit slapped together to somehow form a siege tool—being rolled out of the tree line. Along with that is a new group of imps charging in from the greenery, brandishing spears, swords, knives, sharp items in general.
Like the dumbasses they've been, they all rush blindly to the mirovi and human. The latter simply gets into his firing stance and readies up. Amika moves to the left, probably moving to hit them head-on.
Immediately, the human begins his onslaught of firepower. One imp takes a bullet to the neck and faceplants. The second feels a shoulder shot and spins out of control, landing hard on the grass.
As the second one lands, Kiroh then reminds himself of the catapult.
"Oh fuck!" The soldier shouted out of reflex, dashing to the left of the torso-sized rock that flew past him. He doesn't look back but he does hear the rock collide into a tree or something.
He brings his rifle up to his chest and fires using his general sense of direction and aim.
A charging imp armed with a crappy spear attempts to get the jump on him. The soldier sees it and lets off a burst, tearing right through the void creature and sending it to the ground. Second to charge him is another imp, holding a large axe over its head. Kiroh simply does the same thing, firing and causing the red thing to fall hard on its back.
To his left, he sees Amika's impossible movement which makes his eyes widen. The mirovi man jumps about seven feet into the air before landing on an imp and breaking the poor thing's neck.
The soldier quickly snaps out of his amazed faze and focuses back on the fight.
In front of him, a group of imps are now charging him with more melee weapons. Spears, swords and even shovels. The show of power doesn't affect the battle-hardened human in the slightest.
Squeezing and releasing the trigger repeatedly, the man discharges several bursts of gunpowder-fueled ammunition. In the first burst, two imps go down and force several others to stumble. The second burst tears right through the head of one imp and enters into the head of another.
Fighting occurs somewhere else in the area as loud rumbles combined with shouting are heard in the vicinity. But Kiroh ignores it for now in favor of surviving this battle.
A third burst is fired, ending the life of one imp and causing the final two who had stumbled to jump over the body, they split and run to the left and right of the soldier.
Kiroh refuses to let them gain any ground on him and so he focuses on the left one. Before he fires at the red opponent, he notices in his peripheral vision, the imp on the right reeling back his spear.
He fires at the left imp, making the creature spiral to the side and collapse onto the already blood-stained grass. The man is unable to do anything to react to the imp on his right.
In the middle of turning his body, the soldier feels a heavy impact in his side. It hits his vest, thankfully—he will have to check that later.
The human man is staggered by the sheer force of the spear colliding into his bulletproof vest, sending him into a nearly vulnerable state. His opponent sees the juicy opportunity and rushes towards Kiroh to finish the job.
Unfortunately for the imp, it's just not enough. The spear was not capable of piercing all the way through the vest, but it was enough to make the soldier react accordingly.
With only one arm and greatly decreased accuracy, Kiroh fires a single burst. Two of the three bullets missing and only one meeting the target. Luckily, it digs right into the imp's thigh and sends it onto the ground just a meter or two away from the soldier.
Stepping back and switching his rifle to the left hand, he uses his right hand and whips out the pistol from his holster. A quick trigger squeeze is done and all that's left is an imp corpse with a bullet hole in the thigh and head.
"Kiroh!" Amika's voice called out.
Looking to his left, the man coincidentally sees a rock heading straight towards him. He won't be able to react in time. The rock is going to hit and probably break not only his face but also a good portion of his upper body.
Time doesn't even slow down and neither does the rock. He's only able to move slightly to the left as the projectile closes the distance rapidly. His eyes widen by the millisecond.
But before the rock is able to reorganize the entirety of Kiroh's head and torso, the solid piece of nature stops right in front of him. The incoming force of the rock does not stop, however, and he feels a strong wind push him back and nearly push him on his ass.
Now the rock just floats in front of him. Literally just resting in mid-air like some sort of illusion trick. After a second, the man lets out a sharp breath of air he hadn't even known he took in.
"Move dammit!" The focused voice of Amika brings the soldier out of the trance.
Getting right back into action, Kiroh hones in on where his partner is and sees him outstretching his hands. With his use of common sense, the man doesn't attempt to reorganize himself as it would leave him incredibly vulnerable in the open. He rushes to his ally with both of his hands occupied by weapons.
Amika helps to close the distance, simultaneously controlling the rock that was just about to collide with his friend's body.
Behind the mirovi is more trouble as a trio of imps step out of the bushes, only fifteen-or-so meters away from the both of them. Kiroh sees this. Despite wanting to reload his rifle, the human in the situation releases several pistol rounds into the red-skinned attackers.
One falls immediately, landing back into the bushes. The second one attempts to dodge by dashing left but is met with several bullets to the thorax. Coming third, the short creature tries to go for a straight charge—obviously, that's not going to work—and is sent to the ground with several rounds into the torso and neck.
The soldier brings his attention to his ally with the goal to assist him. But before that, he looks at the spear still stuck in his vest. He quickly removes it and tosses it away.
His ally seems to have no need for help at all. In fact, it seems he has his fight right in the palm of his hands. The mirovi simply points at a nearby rock and, like he has telepathy or some shit, he lifts the rock and points at the four imps operating the small catapult.
It completely bedazzles the human soldier when he sees the rock being shot towards the imps like it was a bullet. The image really makes his eyes widen to the point that they look like flashlights when he sees the rock destroying the catapult and scattering the four imps.
Kiroh decides he should stop watching and actually contribute to the battle again. He holsters his pistol and moves to reload his assault rifle. Grabbing a new magazine from his vest he stores the used one and slips in the new mag.
He looks up just in time to see Amika kick an imp, practically launching the damnable thing into the trees. Then he takes notice of the four imps charging on the mirovi's flank.
Firing at the incoming threat to his ally, the soldier only manages to take down two before the mirovi sees them.
Once the horned man landed his eyes on the red creatures, they were practically considered dead at that point. Amika raised his leg and kicked it towards one of the imps. The red monster literally breaks from the kick, then it makes contact with the grassy ground.
The human doesn't watch the rest. He continues on with the objective.
Moving forward, the soldier makes his way to the demolished catapult. Behind him, he hears more ground-shaking rumbles but with the addition of imps snarling or shouting in their language.
As he gets closer to the damaged piece of wooden and metal components, the man raises his weapon to his chest and looks around for any hostiles. Then he hears an imp screaming behind him.
"Kiroh! Behind you!"
Turning around, the soldier is met with the sight of one of those red goblins. Except it's in the air. And it seems to be flying right at him. Just like the rock that got catapulted right at him.
Fortunately, this time, Kiroh is far more reactive. He makes a small estimate of where the body would hit and side-steps way out of path. A second or so later, the body crashes into the solid ground.
It tumbles across the grass for a few feet before stopping. The result is a mess of black liquid on red skin and a plethora of exposed bones. Quite the satisfying sight for a guy like Kiroh.
After seeing the imp land away from him, the soldier looks at Amika.
The mirovi nimbly dodges a scythe from one of his red attackers. He then goes for the kill, piercing the imp's neck with the blade he bought earlier in the day. Another imp tries to impale him but Amika does a waving action with his unoccupied hand. It causes several nearby rocks to fly right into the red thing.
And just like that, another splatter is formed on the ground.
Kiroh stops watching and pays attention back to his surroundings. He scrutinizes the greenery bordering the open space. Any color of red cannot be clearly seen thanks to the sheer density of the forest but there are traces of black blood already emitting that familiar dark mist.
Very obviously, they ran when they saw their toy get flattened by a rock. But it also seems that they took some damage. Big splinters, perhaps? Something of that sort.
With his senses on the alert, Kiroh watches the forest intensely and makes sure that no attempts are made from the imps to do a sneak attack. His eyes travel rapidly, trying to spot any wannabe-killers.
Even after what felt like half a minute, still no opponent seems to show themselves. Although this is the case, the soldier still watches the greenery in hopes of spotting any. The effort is wasted though as he hears his teammate calling him.
"Hey! Kiroh!" Turning around, the human sees Amika giving him a smirk and a wave.
His call marks the third time the name has been called in this battle. The soldier makes his way to the mirovi in a cautious fashion, still wary of the possible attackers just past the treeline.
"Is there more coming?" The human man asked urgently.
"Woah woah woah, Kiroh." He rests a hand on the soldier's shoulder. "Calm down, man. We're all good fer now."
The soldier has his weapon lowered but not down, he still points it at the treeline. "What do you mean? How do you know that for certain? There could very well be-"
"Kiroh," the mirovi expresses an honest smile, "I've dealt with jobs like these before. When ya kill a whole ton of 'em, the rest'll scatter like rats reactin' to a flashlight."
Even with the blue visor covering his eyes, he can tell that the human is giving him a questioning glare.
"Jus' trust me, man. I've done this a couple times before. They ain't comin' back and they sure won't fight us again." The mirovi gestures to the plethora of imp bodies; dozens of trails of black mists have already begun to enter the air. "Especially once they see what we did to their buddies."
"Does that mean we've cleared the nest? Or is there something else we have to worry about?"
"Far as I know, we don't gotta do anythin' too taxin' to the body. All we gotta do now is get evidence and one other step."
"Pictures?" Kiroh scans the treeline again. He doesn't trust that they are completely gone just yet.
"Yep." Amika looks at all the bodies around them again. "We prolly won't get the bonus for takin' down all of them but at least the 1900 marks we're gettin' is worth it."
"I don't have a camera."
"'S alright." A small camera is pulled out of one of the pouches on his body. "Cuz I do."
Kiroh gives a single nod.
"Why don't ya go ahead and take a couple photos. I'll search the area for any stragglers still hangin' around." The mirovi hands the camera to Kiroh, the latter accepting it with his other hand.
"What about the other step you mentioned?"
"Oh," the horned man points at several wooden poles with meat impaled on them—that somehow managed to not get damaged at all, "you have to take those down. Pretty sure they bring bad fortune or somethin' like that."
Another nod.
Kiroh sets the camera down to reload his rifle and picks it back up again. Right after that, he immediately gets to work; taking pictures and destroying wooden poles with impaled meat.
/////
Both mercenaries are walking side-by-side, taking the same dilapidated road they took to get to the imps. The mercenary with horns holds a camera while the helmeted one walks slightly hunched.
"These are pretty good photos, Kiroh. If ya ignore all the gore n' stuff. You made it look like somethin' out of a documentary."
Said man only grunts in agreement, feeling tired and sore from the earlier fight. His arms feel almost like jelly and everywhere else has a dull pain.
"You feelin' alright?"
"I'm fatigued. My body is sore."
"Really? That jus' felt like a hard warm-up for me."
Once again, a grunt is the soldier's answer. While he is impressed that that is probably what the mirovi perceived it as, he's just too tired to speak at the moment.
"Well, heh, once we get back and show 'em those pics, all those marks are ours."
"Mm. Good."
"And, we knocked out two birds with one stone, findin' out what happened to the missing people."
This gets the human to glance towards his ally. "Is there another reward for that?"
Amika only looks at Kiroh with a perplexed face before saying seriously, "Kiroh. Those people had families in the town, I think it'd be best that we just tell 'em what happened."
Kiroh gets the message that his ally doesn't want to put a value on the missing people's lives. He looks back to the path and sighs. "So no reward then."
"Nope." Only a slight pause occurs. "We'll just tell 'em what happened to them. We'll give 'em the respect."
"I believe that's just wasting money we could use but… I won't deviate."
Amika gives another questioning look before deciding to show a smile. "Thanks."
"Mm."