Falledge, The Prancing Pony Inn

Tyrier's leg was propped up against the table as he leaned back on the creaky wooden chair as he waited patiently for Doth conversation on the radio with HQ to end. The rest of the Claymore One team have gathered at the Prancing Pony, taking over two other rooms down the hall. Now half the team was gathered at the Doth and Tavel's room as they communicated the latest piece of information back to HQ.

"Damn, I did not expect that bloody Hero to come here!" Hitsu grumbled as he sat on the edge of the bed. "That guy is crazily strong!"

"Yea," Tavel nodded as he leaned against the wall next to the window, "I heard he single handed destroyed a third of the beastman army."

"Yea, I saw him once at the border," Hitsu said, "He destroyed the border fort just by himself. Calling himself the light of justice..." Hitsu spat at the side, "Just because he found some remnants of the old gods makes him think that he is some kind of savior to the people and everyone must worship him."

"Well, we got to be careful with him, we don't know why he is here," Tyrier suddenly spoke, "He is dangerous."

"Well, I got someone to tail him for us," Hitsu said, "Hopefully, we can get some info on him and be better prepared."

"Alright, done!" Doth set down his headgear and mike, "HQ tells us to sit tight and focus on transporting the freed slaves and do not get into any trouble."

"One more night before we leave this place," Hitsu sighed, "I am starting to like this place."

"Nah, I want proper showers and toilets!" Tavel joked, "I think I have gotten soft!"

The men joked and laughed among themselves when suddenly a ground shaking rumbled was heard and felt. "What the..?"

Cries and shouts could be heard from outside the window, and Tavel quickly opened it and looked out, the muffled sounds immediately became clear as another rumbled shook the Inn and more cries and screams of panic were heard.

"What's going on?" Doth asked as he quickly put away the precious radio equipment into a leather carrier while Hitsu and Tyrier grabbed their weapons from underneath the beds.

The door suddenly banged urgently and Altied poked his head in, "Something is wrong!"

Tyrier took one look out into the night and ordered, "Load up, be prepared for anything, if its nothing to do with us, good but if it is something that might affect our mission, be ready to move at any time!"

The men nodded and Altied went to alert rest outside, while Doth and Tavel headed back to their rooms for their gear. A short while later, everyone had gathered around Tyrier's room all armed discretely and ready for action.

"Altied, Young, Doth, and Tavel, you four form one team and standby at the ground floor and secure an exit," Tyrier ordered, "Hitsu and Loke with me as the second team. Loke and Histu go up top and keep watch on the roof."

The Claymore One members split up as ordered and headed to their positions. As the disturbance keep going on, almost all the customers and even the workers in the Inn came out to the streets to stare and discuss, making Altied's team easy to access the back area of the Inn without anyone noticing them.

Loke hoisted himself up from the side of the window and hooked his feet over the roof shingles, and rolled himself up. He leaned down and grabbed his gear handed out from the window by Hitsu and set it aside before giving a helping hand to the rest to climb up.

Another rumble was heard, louder and closer this time and a cloud of smoke lit by the lamps of houses could just be seen a few streets down from the inn. "Its like getting closer!" Loke pointed out.

"See anything?" Tyrier asked as he stood on the roof, trying to see what is going on. Some of the roofs of the other buildings were also occupied as the inhabitants also climbed up to see what is going on.

"Too many buildings in the way," Loke replied as he sat with his scoped M1S, looking through the 6x scope, trying to spot what is causing the disturbance.

"Wait, I see something!" His scope spotted a small figure darting out from a side alley next to the main street where a few gawking pedestrians were staring at the commotion. He saw the small figure nearly trip but managed to keep his balance and kept running when the alleyway where the figure came out exploded. "What the hell?"

Alerted by Loke's sighting, both Tyrier and Hitsu removed a small pair of binoculars and peer to where Loke said. They too saw the walls of the alleyway exploded out, and a figure appeared from the smoke. Despite the lower zoom of the binos, Hitsu quickly recognizes the figure walking out of the smoke, "That's the Hero Dante!"

"Wait!" He tracked downwards to the running figure, "Oh shit, that's the girl who I got to tail him!"

"She must have either seen or heard something that is really bad for him or she had just pissed him off really badly," Loke said, "Orders?"

Tyrier frowned, noticing girl heading towards their Inn before the buildings across the street blocked her from his view. "I think shes headed to us."

"Damn, she must be coming to find me!" Hitsu cursed, "Now what?"

Tyrier rubbed his chin in thought before saying, "Back her up, she must have some information that is very important for him to risk killing someone in public."

"Go pick her up," Tyrier ordered Hitsu, "We head to the freed slaves location. We are pushing the mission up by one day!"

"Got it!" Hitsu swung down over the side of the roof and rapidly disappeared from view.

Tyrier next said, "Provide cover as much as you can for the girl, then pull out, don't tangle with the Hero solo!" He then followed after Hitsu down over the edge of the roof.

"Roger that!" Loke said and he made sure that all his gear is properly secured as he sat with his left knee up. He braced his left elbow against his knee and used it as a support for his rifle as he aimed at the Hero strolling down the street like nothing is happening. The dim lights barely cast enough lights to illuminate him but under the scope, Loke placed the crosshair right at the center of his body silhouette and squeezed the trigger.

The muffled puff of the suppressed shot barely could be heard over the dim of noises made by the town's inhabitants as they were speculating on what is happening. The smoke from the shot was quickly dispersed away by the night breeze and the bullet drop straight down at the Hero.

-----

Dante grinned as he watched the girl run away from him in fear. The feeling was intoxicating, different from killing monsters, especially since he had absorbed the life force of the girl in bed with him earlier.

He ignored the shouts and cries of bystanders as he punched out into the air, were three magic circles formed out. His fist impacted the magic circles and a force of compressed wind exploded out, slamming in the alleyways where the girl had run into. He gave a smile to a city guard who shouted at him and casually gave the guard a backhand slap, which blew the head of the guard away, leaving behind a headless body, squirting blood and screaming people.

As he walked out of the smokey alleyway, he saw the girl running still, and his grin grew wider, "Run little girl, run~" He laughed cheerfully, "It is a nice night for a hunt!"

Suddenly his senses warned him of danger, and he sub consciously brought up his magical defenses. Something slammed into his chest, powerful enough to knock him back a step. He looked down surprised at the attack from nowhere and saw a strange flat object stopped at a few centimeters from his chest by his flickering magical barrier.

He picked the object up and looked curiously at it, wondering what is it, for it does not look like a throwing dart, an arrowhead or even any hidden weapon he has seen before. Dante looked up and his smiling eyes narrowed, wondering who sent this to him that is strong enough to make him feel threatened and he crushed the heavy pellet in his fingers, flattening it more.

-----

Loke cursed, "Farking magic barriers! I hate magic sometimes!" He worked the bolt of his rifle and re-scope at the target but the Hero had vanished from view. "Fark!"

He keyed his micro communicator at his ear, "I lost sight of the Hero! Make ready, he's coming and he shielded!"

The rest of Claymore One returned their affirmatives and prepared themselves for a strong fight ahead while Loke took a running leap and jumped across the roof of the inn and landed on top of another building's roof across the street. The tiles cracked and shattered as he landed heavily, and pieces of tiles slid down and fell down to the streets.

"I see him!" Loke yelled into his comms, "One street down, right behind the girl next to the bakery!"

-----

"Roger!" Hitsu replied as he pushed past the crowd forming at the streets, and headed towards the bakery. He ignored the yells and cursed thrown his way as he shouldered roughly aside those in his way and he unwrapped his M2 Magespitter out, and did a quick check of his weapon and stepped out into the street where the bakery was located.

He saw the kid, Billy, her face frozen in terror as she ran blindly away from the monster behind her. Her cap had fallen off and her shoulder-length sweat-plastered hair flying wildly as she twisted her head to look behind her at the smiling Hero.

"Billy!" Hitsu yelled as he took a firing stance with his M2, aiming the sights down at the approaching Hero. "Over here!"

Billy spun her head around when she heard Hitsu's voice and her tear stained face broke into a relieved smile and she dashed with all her remaining strength towards Hitsu.

-----

Dante looked at the person dressed like an adventurer in leathers and holding something like a pole in his hands and his brow ceased slightly before he gave a shrug and raised his finger and a magic circle formed up before a bolt of light burst out and slammed into the girl's back. "Magic Missile!"

-----

"NO!" Hitsu shouted as he saw in horror the bolt of magic missile slammed into Billy's back, and she collapsed like a puppet with strings cut off. "YOU FARKER!"

He raised his weapon and fired in short bursts at the Hero standing at the end of the street while advancing step by step towards the fallen child. "FARK!"

-----

Tyrier pushed his way out of the gawking crowd and saw the girl downed by the Hero, and Hitsu advancing by fire towards the fallen girl. "Shit!"

"The girl is down!" Tyrier spoke into his comms, "Loke, overwatch now! The rest we need an exit now!" After he gave his orders he dashed forward to provide support for Hitsu.

-----

Dante face twisted as suddenly his magical barrier was barraged by dozens of attacks. Sparks and smoke exploded all over his magical shield and the impacts of the unknown spells were forcing him to step backward.

"What sorcery is this?" His normal smile disappeared and replaced with a cold glare, as he looked at the adventurer with the strange pole that was smoking and popping away with sparks at him. "Wand of magic missiles? Or a wand of lightning bolts?"

He narrowed his eyes as he felt his magic shield starting to weaken from the barrage of spells. "Sun god hear my prayers!" He started to gather his divine powers to empower himself. "Grant me the light to light up the night."

"For the light shall cast away the darkness from this land!"