“What do you mean the entire valley is in danger?” Ryder asks.

“Perhaps it's best if she explains,” Remi says pointing at Gunva.

“I suppose I should start with what those lion masked lunatics we’re forcing me to do prior to my rescue,” Gunva begins as she scratches her chin.

“To put it bluntly, those Lion guys were trying to find a way to mix in demon blood with alcohol without changing its appearance. They would have snuck in that alcohol into the exports all over the nation. Bad things, very bad things happen when people ingest demon blood.”

“Like what?” Nazuko questions.

“The way I see it, three outcomes are most likely to occur. Number one you die from not being able to handle the effects of demon blood, two a potential psychological and physiological change occurs in the body giving someone demonic-like qualities. The third is a drastic increase in one’s fighting ability, often enhancing someone’s violent and negative tendencies.”

“I just witnessed number two no less than 15 minutes ago,” Nazuko states.

“It’s a good thing we just trashed their warehouse then,” Nerva asserted.

“This place wasn’t their main base and they’ve already produced a bit of the demonic alcohol and hauled it there.There’s also a bit of bottles they’ve sold to the wineries around the valley. It’s still more than enough to cause disaster all over the country,” Gunva tells them.

“We can’t let them ship that stuff out, I won’t let them ruin alcohol for me!” Remi strongly expressed.

“Spoken like a true alcoholic,” Nazuko comments.

“But that’s not all, what’s most threatening to the valley is their other plan. Urbossa’s valley provides water throughout the vineyard mainly through an underground spring. They’re planning to poison the water with demon blood which would turn all the plants in the area into monsters.”

“Fuck, I don’t wanna deal with any more of those shitty plants,” Nerva complains.

“This entire valley would become uninhabitable if that were to happen,” Ryder says.

Nazuko could only think that an entire army would be necessary to wipe this place out.

“We need to come up with a plan to deal with both of these threats. Beating up the bad guys before they poison the water supply is the simple solution to the second problem. But how do we deal with bottles of demon alcohol they’ve already made and distributed within the city?” Nazuko asks.

Gunva ponders this for a moment before pulling out a black crystal.

“When they forced me to make the mixture I found it wasn’t perfect, the demon blood wouldn’t get completely dissolved in alcohol, there were always remnants that would sink below the water. I used this crystal to test how well each batch came out and it lit up in response to the mixture. It had a particular smell to it, so it can be identified by smell as well.”

“So we have two ways of detecting it, smells and the crystal,” Ryder laid out.

“We can easily take advantage of those two methods,” Remi says.

“Right, your wolf can detect even the faintest traces of smells, and then we can use the crystal to determine which specific bottles are bad,” Ryder states.

“Alright then how about this. Remi and I can quickly acquire those bottles while the rest of you can stop those lion guys from poisoning the water supply. Remi how do you feel about a little highway robbery?” Nazuko questions.

“Ugh I don’t want to stoop to stealing things, but right now we have no choice. Gunva, when are those bottles supposed to get shipped out?”

“In their plans I overheard them say they would start tomorrow morning.”

“Then we have all night to do it,” Remi sums up.

They immediately split into two groups, each best suited to their current objective. Group one consisted of Nazuko and Remi who set out to retrieve all the bottles of alcohol that were mixed with demon blood. Group Two consisted of Ryder, Nerva and Gunva whose objective was preventing the poisoning of the valley’s water supply.

Remi and Nazuko set off throughout the city determined to track down every bit of volatile liquid, guided by Remi’s wolf. They would first start off by visiting every distillery and wine seller they could find. A common operation the two would employ would be to have Remi distract the residents with various means while Nazuko would sneak in through the back and use the crystal Gunva gave her to examine each individual bottle of wine. It was painstakingly meticulous work, but two girls got into a routine.

“Damn, I feel like one of those annoying door to door salesmen that try to get you to buy their products,” Remi sighed.

“I wouldn’t know what that’s like, nobody ever tries to sell me anything in Colonus,” Nazuko replies.

“Most likely because they think you’d rob them first before even thinking about paying.”

“True, also what do we do with all these bottles of crap?” Nazuko asks as she holds all the demonic alcohol.

The mere scent of the stuff made Nazuko want to puke, it's hard to believe anyone would drink it even if it did get shipped out.

“Just store it somewhere where no one will find it. It’s best if we could get Ryder to blow it all up later,” Remi answered.

“Speaking of Ryder, do you think they’re gonna be alright with just the three of them? They’ll be facing off against who knows how many guys and Ryder can’t use his full power if they’re underground for fear of causing a cave in,” Nazuko states.

“I wouldn’t worry about any of them, they’re the type who only has one answer to the kind of problems they encounter. Also from what I investigated of the alchemist I bet she’s the same way. What would Ryder do if a few bombs isn’t enough to solve a problem?” Remi questions.

“He would use more bombs.”

“He would use more bombs.”

***

“WE NEED MORE BOMBS!”

“AND MORE FIRE!”

“AND MORE DESTRUCTIVE POTIONS!”

A few miles away from the city, three people are responsible for a symphony of destruction which could be mistaken as a force of nature. The ground and ceiling shook so furiously it was a miracle that the entire thing did not collapse in on itself.

Led by Gunva, Ryder and Nerva eventually came across the Lion group’s underground base outside the city. Barrels of demonic wine which could be counted in the dozens filled the entire cavern. The three did not waste any time destroying every last bit of poison in sight. The dwarven alchemist, while not one for extreme violence, still had a vendetta against the marauders who kidnapped her and forced her to experiment with such a nasty substance. At her core she wasn’t a fighter, not someone who was blessed to be in one of the seven warclasses. However that did not mean alchemy was without the means to resist its enemies. Alchemical mixtures rained down upon those of the lion masked people, with an intensity that would cause those very same masks to melt upon their faces, painfully sticking to their skin. It was not a pleasant sight to behold.

“Damn dwarf lady you’re kinda hardcore. I like it,” Nerva compliments the alchemist.

“It's like what my dwarven grandpappy always said: ‘If someone punches you in the face, ya get back up and greet em with an axe to the face’. I gotta settle the score with these lion bastards,” Gunva recalled.

Ryder couldn’t help but notice how all the short people he now knew had a tendency for swearing. However he did only know three short people, but two out of three right?

The ones that remained after the initial assault fled further into the cave, abandoning their comrades for fear of their lives.

“Damn some of them got away,” Gunva sighs as she places a cork upon the bottle of acid in her hand.

“Then we’ll chase them down, we can’t let those fuckers get away,” Nerva cursed.

“Wait, destroying these substances comes first, one of you should stay and help me dispose of this stuff,” Gunva decided.

“I call dibs on chasing them down!” Both Ryder and Nerva say at once.

Noticing this dilemma the two adventurers stare at each other in a moment of silence before Ryder speaks.

“Nerva, you know there’s only one way to settle this.”

“Yeah, alright. Let’s do this!”

The two of them take a step back before facing each other. Gunva looks on curiously as she wonders what is about to happen. They both take in a deep breath before yelling.

“ROCK PAPER SWORDS DRAGON BOMBS!” The two yelled in unison.

Ryder had his hands positioned in a way that resembled an explosion, with tiny sparks visibly emanating from his hands. This is the sign of a bomb.

Nerva on the other hand had her hand positioned as the standard rock as she firmly held out her fist.

“GAH, damn! I knew I should have thrown out dragon,” Nerva lamented.

“Heh, that means I win fair and square,” Ryder claims.

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t kick their asses too fast and leave some for me. Once me and the cool dwarf lady finish taking out the trash we’ll head right over,” Nerva tells him.

“Gotcha,” Ryder says before running off further into the cave to chase remnants of the lion masked people.

“Is he gonna be okay?” Gunva questions.

“I wouldn’t worry about him, I’d worry about him bringing down the whole cave on us when he gets serious. But I’ll just blast our way out if that happens so no big deal,” Nerva reassures her.

The two short statured people quickly get to work igniting the rest of the demonic alcohol and barrels of demon blood populating the cave.

***

Ryder pushed on into the cave chasing after the remaining lion masked people. As the cave started to darken, Ryder focused his aura into his eyes in order to take in the little bit of light that reflected off the walls and the rocks. He had a bit of good premonition to leave a trail of sparklers behind him for Nerva and Gunva to follow. It seemed the cave split up into two routes, a classic fork in the road. Ryder had difficulty telling which direction the remaining men had gone, the noise of their footsteps should have led him in the right direction, but it was overtaken by some kind of clicking noise. He didn’t have any other leads and thought this could be a trap, but still decided to investigate the clicking noise coming from the left path. Another sparkler was dropped at his feet as he traversed forward.

The clicking noise was only getting stronger now, what was it, Ryder could only guess. Could it be the sound of water drops hitting the floor? No, water droplets wouldn’t make that kind of sound. The sound felt like it was coming from some kind of creature, that’s when it hit him, literally. Ryder felt some small creature collide with his back knocking him over. The sound of wings fluttering immediately gave Ryder the information on this threat. Using his limited sight, Ryder could see the outline of what seemed to be a transparent bat hanging upside down from the ceiling.

“Ke, Ke, Ke, it seems I’ve come across the source of what’s been plaguing my men recently. I suppose you must have been responsible for the destruction of our warehouse as well. You’re gonna have to be punished for that transgression,” a creepy voice vocalized.

Ryder takes out his flintlock and fires in the direction of the voice. The sound of a stalactite hitting the floor reverberates through the cave.

“Come now, what are you even aiming at?” the voice taunts.

“Too afraid to fight me like a man are you? Couldn’t get anymore cowardly,” Ryder replies in hopes of taunting his opponent so they reveal themselves.

“I wouldn’t call what I’m doing cowardly, I’m just taking advantage of the environment. I would say I’m more of a tactician,” the voice answers.

“Your name doesn’t happen to be Adam does it? Because if it was, that would explain everything,” Ryder states.

“I feel like I’m missing some context here, but for the record the name’s Cassius. Remember it, for it will be the last name you hear,” Cassius threatened.

Another series of clicks occurs before the spirit bat returns and bites Ryder in the shoulder. Ryder responds by shooting at the bat, with the bullet nearly clipping its wings as it flees. This time Ryder could make out the creature clearly, the grey transparent bat that was a foot wide and half a foot tall. This told him all he needed to know, his opponent was a Tamer, these types of opponents were notorious for blending in with their environment to hide while their spirit did all the work. The easiest way to deal with a tamer is to locate and defeat the user. However that would be difficult in a near pitch black cave like this. Luckily Ryder was capable of creating an artificial light source.

Ryder manifests about a dozen sparklers and spreads them out in his vicinity to light up the cave. He quickly scans the cave to find his opponent, before spotting an odd figure in his peripheral vision. His vision is directed upwards as he spots a person wearing a lion mask hanging from the top of a stalactite. With his quick reflexes Ryder fires a shot from his flintlock that shatters the mask of his opponent. The mask splits in half revealing a man with gray hair. His eyes were sunken in and his wrinkles were visibly present on his face. His face turns to worry as his position gets revealed to Ryder.

“It seems like you're in a bit of trouble now,” Ryder claims.

“Oh it seems that way, my friend. However you’re the one who’s underestimating me. When did I say I only had one bat at my disposal,” Cassius says as a flock of half a dozen bats appears from behind him and swarms Ryder.

The bats quickly pick up the sparklers and fly off into the cave, extinguishing the light. Ryder fired off a cannon shot that temporarily dispersed the bats giving him time to flee. Ryder quickly goes on the run to avoid the swarm of bats chasing him, all the while hearing that clicking noise again. What even was that, he thought. It was nearly impossible to see in that pitch black cave, and with the sparklers he generated he could only see a few feet in front of him. Then how was his opponent capable of finding him? Then it clicked, Cassius was finding him through the use of echolocation. Those clicking noises were bouncing sound waves off the walls and floor giving Cassius all the information he needed to know.

“I see in that case...”

Ryder ceased running from his opponent and generated one of his favorite items in his hands.

“Oh have you decided that running is futile and that you’ve accepted your death? Don’t feel bad, I have the absolute advantage in this terrain,” Cassius remarks.

Cassius orders his bats to finish off the red haired man as he tosses up a small item. A second later the item explodes with a large flash making a loud noise that is only made louder as it echoes throughout the cave. Cassius falls to the floor as he gets completely disoriented by Ryder’s flashbang.

“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH MY EYES! MY EARS!” Cassius wailed.

“You see a misleading belief about bats is that people say they are blind, but in fact it's the opposite. They have excellent eyesight and hearing contrary to popular belief. You must be feeling that exceptionally harshly if you have increased eyesight and hearing with your connection to your bats, oh but I guess you can’t hear me can you?” Ryder comments.

Ryder aims his cannon at the old man rolling around on the floor and blows him away with a powerful explosion. The force of the blast causes the cave to rumble as more stalactites fall to the floor. He had to be a bit cautious as a few more blasts could cause the entire cave to collapse in on itself. Ryder himself wasn’t quite sure his opponent was completely finished off despite the solid hit, but he turned around to pursue the rest of the goons from earlier.

As he was about to leave the sound of footsteps splashing in the small puddles on the floor was clearly audible. Cassius emerged from the darkness, his body was covered in wounds and the burn marks looked rather unsightly. It seemed like if someone were to simply tap the old man he would fall over.

Fight!

“Sorry, but this old man’s not ready to fall over quite yet. You’re going to have to try a little bit harder than that,” Cassius remarks.

Cassius quickly brings his hands together as he channels the rest of the aura inside his body. The flock of bats behind him began to converge as they fused into one large bat. This spirit felt remarkably more powerful than the others, it was as big as a beast.

“Give me a break and fall over already,” Ryder groaned.

He begins firing his flintlock at the large bat, but to no avail, this fused spirit bat was more durable than the rest. The large flying beast made its way for Ryder, forcing the latter to retreat. Ryder always hated these kinds of situations, enclosed spaces made it dangerous to fire off explosions, placing a limit on his power. The issue wasn’t that he’d get caught in the explosion, no, he’d been caught in his own explosions several times and developed a particular kind of resistance against blasts. He reckoned he could easily blow away this bat given a bit more effort, but it would cause the collapse of the cave system he was in.

“Run, run, run, is that all you can do? You know a lion tends to outrun its prey,” Cassius says menacingly.

This old man was annoying, he’d like nothing more than to send the man flying sky high. The large bat chasing him was big enough to smash through the stalagmites on the floor as well the stalactites on the ceiling. Ryder took advantage of this fact by imbuing the rocks he passed with fire magic, essentially turning them into landmines. He followed that up by dropping plenty of grenades behind him. If they were intent on chasing him, he’d make it as difficult for them as possible.

“How do you like some of these? Today I’m giving plenty of bombs away, you’ll even get a senior discount,” Ryder mocked.

“Why you?!” Cassius grumbled.

The ensuing sound of explosions were painful on Cassius’s ears as he couldn’t turn off the ability he gained from summoning his spirit bats. The red head he was chasing was beginning to not be worth the effort, but this man posed an enormous threat. Despite the pain he kept moving forward as he believed in the cause.

Eventually Ryder came to the end of the path, all that lay before him was a stone wall made of granite that reflected his opponent behind him. Damn, he knew he should have taken the other path from the beginning. Looking back on it now, Cassius lured him down this path with those clicking noises.

“Nowhere left to run, the lion has finally caught up to its prey,” Cassius wheezed.

Despite having the advantage this battle was taking a toll on the old man, his already apparent injuries were not helping that fact.

“This is the least intimidating lion I have ever witnessed,” Ryder bluntly states.

“Oh would you shut up! Just because I’m getting a little old everyone just goes on about how I don’t have it anymore. ‘That old man Cassius just don’t got it anymore.’ or ‘Why hasn’t Cassius moved into a senior home already!’ Do you know what a pain it is to deal with that? I’ve survived this long for a reason and now you’re about to find out why!” Cassius ranted.

“...”

Ryder couldn’t help but notice just how awkward this situation was, but pulled out his cannon for a last resort.

“Oh I wouldn’t do that if I were you, those past bombs were already cutting it, but anything more would bring down this cave on both of us. You would have to be insane to try that. Face it, your little bombs are worthless here,” Cassius claims.

Ryder had enough. He was a man with great tolerance, he even tolerated when someone (Azura) beat him up because of destructive habits. He didn’t even mind being berated or occasionally outcast due to them. However the one thing he couldn’t tolerate was when someone insulted his explosions.

“ALRIGHT THAT’S ENOUGH! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM! I AM RYDER, THE BOMBARDIER!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

Ryder aimed his cannon at the bat and the man behind him. Normally the power of his bombs released the most force from the center of the explosion, but this time it would be different. He’d been working delivering more precise damage with his power, he could now control the direction of the force of his blasts. He charged up half of his aura and prepared an explosive within his cannon. Cassius, sensing the ensuing power Ryder built up, took a step back as he saw a bright white light coming from the man’s cannon.

“Feel the power of my LASER!”

The force of Ryder’s explosion was directed in one straight beam, vaporizing everything in its path. A concentrated attack that created a large tunnel from the cave system all the way to the surface was formed. This attack was unlike anything he’s ever produced before, the heat coming off of his cannon was strong enough that it lit Ryder on fire. He could even see the sunlight coming from the surface as it lit up the cave he was in.

“Heh, how do you like that old man? No one insults my blasts and gets away with it,” Ryder stated before dropping to one knee to catch his breath.

As for Cassius, he was blown away by the intense blast and continued to be sent into the atmosphere still attached to the large energy attack. A passerby would describe seeing this as a comet returning to space.

***

As Nazuko and Remi headed for the entrance of the underground spring they felt the ground shake before witnessing a large blast rip apart the earth before going into the sky.

“What the hell was that?” Remi gawked as she stared at the white beam of energy.

“Who do you think?” Nazuko asks as if it were obvious.

“But… that can’t be Ryder can it? He fires off explosions, not lasers,” Remi argued.

“Heh, I forgot he could do that. You see Remi, this is what happens when you skip out on our group training sessions, you miss the development of awesome stuff like that,” Nazuko boasted.

Remi simply stood there flabbergasted, unable to believe what she just saw. She only returned to reality when Nazuko jumped up and smacked her in the back of the head.

“Come on, let's meet up with them using that tunnel Ryder just created. If they're still in a fight, they might need our help,” Nazuko directed.

The two girls rushed through Ryder’s new makeshift tunnel to find the red headed man kneeling down looking a bit exhausted. The left side of Ryder’s leather armor had burned away and Ryder himself still had embers on him.

“HIYAH, reinforcements have arrived!” Nazuko proclaimed as she jumped in front of Ryder.

“Ryder, are you okay?” Remi asks as she witnesses his condition.

“I’m a little tired, but mostly unharmed,” He answered.

“Then take this healing potion, it's not as good as having an Azura on demand, but it’ll do,” Remi says as she takes out the bottle from her bag.

Ryder drinks it and the burn marks on his left arm start to slowly fade.

“Thanks.”

“No problem, but was that huge laser really yours?” Remi questions.

“You like it, I invented that technique during one of our group training sessions.”

“That you weren’t there for,” Nazuko adds.

“Look I was busy, enjoying my life, not training. Not everyone was there for those group training sessions, Will wasn’t there,” Remi states.

“Will was in the hospital. He was in no condition to participate in that,” Nazuko fired back, clearly unaware that Will was in perfect condition at the time.

“Anyways, that attack I used wasn’t perfect and it took its toll on me. I can’t use my cannon for a bit since I have to let it cooldown,” Ryder interjected.

There was a bit of steam coming from Ryder’s cannon and the mouth of the cannon looked slightly warped from the heat.

“Where’s Nerva and the alchemist?” Nazuko queried.

“I was chasing after a few goons while they were destroying the containers of demon blood. They should probably be heading after me by now. Although there was a fork in the road and I got misled by the guy I just lasered. Chances are we meet on the way back if they went left or not if they decide to go right. Either way let's get back, we still have some unfinished business to attend to,” Ryder announced.

***

Two short people stood at the center of a fork in the road, unsure of which way was the way forward.

“Alright which way do we go, despite that large blast we heard earlier, I still can’t tell where it came from,” Gunva stated.

“Dunno, just choose one already, we’ve been standing here for 2 minutes already,” Nerva said.

“Ugh, fine let’s just flip a coin, heads is left and tails for right.”

Gunva tosses a small gold coin into the air before catching it in the palm of her hand.

“What is it?” Nerva asked.

“Tails.”