Finally, another quest! Both Kenshin and Alphard were absolutely ecstatic over the whole idea. They were in full agreement on the fact that one can only burn off so much steam on hunting without questing. Floor 26 of Ancraid was quite a beautiful place, modeled after a medieval castle town and surrounded by a primordial forest of epic proportions, but even such a magnificent city as Tarbinal could get constraining after a while. But then, to everyone’s surprise, Nero had come forward with a proposal for a quest. This quest would be different than nearly all of the others that the team had ever run before, mostly because of who they would be missing. Yari, the heart of the team. And Fitch, it’s muscle. Without these two, it was pretty unsure if they could actually function as a team. Hopefully, though, this mission would bring them closer together again. 

And what a mission it was! According to Nero, the quest was titled <<Rescue the Damsel>> and was posted by an NPC found at the south gate of the city. Apparently, this young man by the name of Tsubu was out gathering food in the forest with his sister when seven huge knights in black armor emblazoned with the outline of a snarling dragon had attacked them and kidnapped the sister. Oh, and the knights had huge, twisting horns sprouting from their heads. Tsubu posted the quest as a plea for assistance from any strong team of four members or more. The team was offered any loot gathered from the knights themselves, and the likely cache at their hideout. It was obvious from the quest title and from the knights’ armor and visage that there would be a dragon involved at some point, so the possibility of even larger and more impressive rewards was great. The danger level of the quest would also increase dramatically with the addition of a dragon, but Kenshin, Suto, Luna, Nero, and Alphard were reasonably sure that they could take a dragon between them. Nero, especially was exceedingly excited about the chances of looting a dragon’s nest. Kenshin and Alphard had decided, with input from the others, that they ought to accept the quest [i]now[/i] as it was unique and could only be done once.

So here they were, five heavily armored and armed warriors, carrying all manner of weapons and striding purposefully towards the south gate. When they arrived, however, there was already a young man at the gates and seemingly about to take on the quest. The man was short and lanky with long red hair tied back with a black cloth bearing gold lettering and an eyepatch over his right eye. The man wore a crisp white shirt under a black overcoat, grey dress trousers, and high black boots. Additionally, he wore four rings, a silver amulet, and a bejeweled silver armband on his left arm. All in all, it was a rather high-grade set of light armor with multiple stat-boosting accoutrements. The man sat on the pedestal of a statue depicting a knight riding a huge destrider, fiddling with a massive war hammer all the while. 

“Shit! This guy’s jumping in and taking our quest,” Kenshin yelled. He and Alphard rushed forward to show the intruder the error of his ways. As they got closer, the stranger’s display came into focus. “What the hell? What kind of name is Icefang336? Is this dude an absolute idiot or something?” 

Alphard shook her head in wonderment and skidded to a halt before the stranger. “Oi jerkwad, this here’s our quest, so bug off. We’ve been scoping out this quest for a while and we can’t have you simply waltzing in and taking it. Plus, you have to have your whole team here when you take the quest so they can all sign up.” As she thought about it, Alphard realized that there wasn’t anyone else waiting here with ‘Icefang336’. Was he planning on doing the quest alone? No way could he be that high-ranked!

Icefang336 blushed slightly and quickly stood up to address the now-gathered combat team. “Whoa there, lady! You can call me Jason. I’m not looking for trouble and I’m not part of a party taking this quest. I’m more of a loner looking to temporarily join a team just to take this quest.”

Kenshin scoffed. “Sure [i]Jason[/i], you just can’t handle this quest on your own so you’re gonna jump in with us so that you can get the reward!”

“No, no, that’s not it at all! I’m just doing this to help poor man, Tsubu! His sister was attacked and kidnapped, you know.”

Kenshin was completely taken aback. “What d’you mean it’s just to help Tsubu? He’s a kriffin’ NPC! He’s not even real. Some nerdy guy back in the real world decided it would be cool if there was a Middle Ages world and figured someone had to get kidnapped. It’s all just code! The NPC, his sister, and the guys who kidnapped her too!”

“NO!” Jason’s eyes flashed with sudden rage at Kenshin’s comment. “Here ‘NPCs’ as real as you or me! I can have a conversation with them, I can see them, I can reach out and touch them. Hell, I could even kill one if I so desired. This one wants help, and I’ve been raised to help anyone in need. It’s my code: A knight is sworn to valor; His heart knows only virtue; His blade defends the helpless; His might upholds the weak; His word speaks only truth; His wrath undoes the wicked. It was good enough for the knights of old and it’s good enough for me. If I need to go it alone and try to rescue the girl all by myself, so be it!”

Despite themselves, Kenshin and Alphard were moved. After some deliberation amongst the team, it was decided that Jason could join the team, if only for this one mission. The now-larger group accepted the <<Rescue the Damsel>> quest and set forth with Tsubu in tow. Some distance into the forest surrounding the castle town, Tsubu suddenly yelped in surprise and ducked behind a boulder. The seven knights warned of in the quest description appeared from behind some trees, drew steel and leapt forward in attack. Jason responded first by springing forth with far greater speed than any heavy-type ought to rightly develop. He slid spryly around the first knight and activated a Sword Art, snapping the enemy’s spine in three places with a single strike before spinning and decapitating it with one fell sweep of that massive hammer. He then sprang back before the attacking warriors could return the favor. Kenshin and Alphard worked together to methodically reduce the next warrior to miniscule glowing chunks. They called for the others to join the battle and held position until they complied.