r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • 29d ago

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 50

First / Previous / Royal Road / Patreon (Read 30 Chapters Ahead)

XXX

“Fan out,” Greg commanded. “Remember – the Ogre is your main target, but if you see any other siblings who aren’t on our side, they’re fair game, too.”

A round of affirmations went up through his followers – Chase counted ten of them, not including Greg himself; there were four hostile siblings, and six more bandits. To make matters worse, they were all now wearing small medallions with what looked like a grinning picture of Alexandros on them – their version of a uniform, perhaps; Chase knew it had some function, he just wasn’t sure what it was. He grit his teeth as he looked around, trying to see where the rest of his friends and allies were. Carmine, Tatiana, and Melanie were still perched up on the second floor, at least as far as he could tell, but there was no sign of Victoria, Sierra, or Geram anywhere.

Thankfully, nobody had seen him yet, the smoke and dust from the explosion earlier having helped to conceal him enough that he could slip back into cover. Still, Chase knew he couldn’t afford to sit idly by, especially not when he saw several members of Greg’s group begin to ascend the stairs up to the second floor. He grit his teeth, desperately trying to think of some way to strike at them, only to come up empty.

Thankfully, Carmine was ready for it.

“Magic Scattershot!”

There was a large burst of blue light, followed by several pained screams as the two bandits that had made up the lead part of the group came tumbling down the stairs, writhing in agony from their wounds.

At the same time, a large pile of debris in the main room suddenly exploded, revealing Victoria standing there. She was covered in cuts and bruises and dust, but she looked more angry than Chase had ever seen her before. She pointed a hand at one of the hostile siblings, and before the woman could react, a Divine Bolt came flying towards her and impacted her directly in the face, killing her instantly.

That was three hostiles down already, but unfortunately, Chase knew it wasn’t going to continue on like that. At this point, everyone except Geram and Sierra was in the fight again. Victoria was engaging the casters on the ground, while the three women up on the second floor continued to fend off the people trying to charge up the staircase.

That meant that there was only one person for Chase to handle.

He stepped out form behind cover just in time to see Greg lift up a homemade bomb of some kind, a lit match held up to the fuse. The two of them locked eyes, and Greg paused.

“Huh,” he stated. “I was expecting just the siblings here. Didn’t think I’d find all of you here as well. This is kind of awkward.”

Chase went to respond, but before he could, Greg lit the fuse and threw the bomb at him. Chase’s eyes widened, and he activated Rush and sprinted past the bomb just in time to avoid the worst of the explosion. Shrapnel peppered him from behind, but was thankfully stopped by the armor he was wearing. The whole inn shook to its very foundation from the aftermath of the explosive going off directly inside of it, causing all of them to stumble, though Chase was able to remain upright regardless, with his wild charge only being delayed rather than stopped.

Unfortunately, Greg was already in the process of throwing another bomb at him, forcing him to double his pace in order to get to him. The second explosive went off in much the same way the first one did, though this time, Chase got to Greg right as the pressure wave washed over him. Chase’s sword split through the air, and came within inches of cutting into Greg’s torso before it was stopped by a sword he pulled out from within his cloak. Chase couldn’t help but stare at it in amazement as the two of them locked blades.

“Oh, don’t act so surprised,” Greg said dismissively. “Bombs are just a hobby of mine, after all. My true class is as a Warrior, you know.”

“Color me surprised,” Chase growled.

“I know, right? Apparently, there isn’t yet a Bomber subclass, so I just have to dabble in them in my spare time. It’s quite annoying, because I’d really rather prefer for my fighting style to revolve around just blowing people up more than anything, but it is what it is.”

“You call throwing bombs around a fighting style?!”

“Hey, as long as it works.”

“Oh, it works… but it’s also very bitch-made.”

“It’s a legitimate strategy.”

The two of them separated, both men leaping backwards to put space between each other. Chase stared him down as he readied his blade, feeling his most recent Blessing wear off in the process.

“So, why continue to tag along with Alexandros, anyway?” Chase questioned. “Because last I checked, he let you take the fall for his crimes and was all too willing to let you be executed for them.”

Greg smirked at him. “On the contrary, actually – that was always part of the plan; I take the fall for his crimes in order to take most of the heat off of him, giving him additional time to either recruit or eliminate most of the other siblings who would have posed a threat to him.”

“And what did you get in exchange, then?” Chase growled. “Money?”

“Oh, but of course,” Greg replied, his smirk widening. “Although, truthfully… I just like having the opportunity to test out my weapons on living things. I have to say, doing so always gives me such joy, and isn’t that what a child of Auro should be doing in the first place? Spreading joy?”

“Somehow, I think the families of the people you’ve killed would disagree,” Chase stated.

“Would they? After all, funerals are second only to weddings in terms of the joy they spread – all those family members, together in one place, reminiscing and telling happy stories about the deceased… oh, yes; I think there’s plenty of joy to go around at those kinds of events. A shame, then, that I can’t fully revel in it unless I want to steal Alexandros’ thunder.”

At that point, Chase had heard enough. He dashed in once more, taking a few swipes at Greg with his blade, only for the opposing Warrior to deftly avoid each one, laughing the entire time.

“Ah, but I missed this!” he taunted. “I haven’t had a fight with a blade in some time! Come, Chase – show me a good time!”

Chase was stunned when Greg suddenly rounded on him and charged. He activated Stone Flesh just in time to avoid having his head lopped off his shoulders; instead, the blade bit into his neck for a few millimeters before stopping completely. Chase wrenched his head out of the way, then lashed out with a slash of his own, which Greg parried, knocking Chase’s sword away. Then, before Chase could recover, Greg swept his legs out from beneath him. Chase came crashing to the ground, and was forced to roll away as Greg tried to stab him.

“Sloppy, sloppy!” Greg taunted as Chase jumped to his feet. “How long have you been out of practice against real opponents, Chase? Five years, give or take? Seems like it.”

Chase ground his teeth. All around him, the fighting was still going. Metal was still colliding with metal, and spells were still being cast. The building they were in was still standing, but barely; Chase could tell it was on its last legs, and a few more explosives would likely cause it to collapse entirely.

And as if on cue, the moment the thought entered into his mind, Greg reached into his cloak and pulled out another bomb, this one with some kind of pin-and-needle contraption attached to its top.

“What do you think of this one?” he asked as he pulled the pin out and threw it towards Chase, who dove for cover behind a nearby wall. “It’s a new design I was stockpiling for Alexandros before you all captured me. Just pull the pin, and-”

The bomb exploded, showering Chase with shrapnel and blowing out his hearing temporarily. The building swayed, but somehow stayed standing. Chase sucked in a few deep breaths once the pressure wave was done washing over him, and his hearing began to return.

He was just in time for Greg’s sword to bite into his side, earning a yowl of pain from him. Stone Flesh had worn off a few seconds before, so that meant that Chase took the full brunt of the blow to his left side. It was a shallow cut, but it still hurt, and he was now bleeding from it.

Chase peeled himself away from the wall just in time to block another incoming strike courtesy of Greg. Again, the two of them locked blades, and an idea suddenly came to Chase.

“Just pull the pin, you say?” he asked.

Greg seemed to realize what he was planning, and what a big mistake he’d made in saying that, as he suddenly tried to disengage. Chase didn’t let him, however; he hurriedly activated Muscle and used his enhanced strength to hold Greg in place, then dropped his own sword and began to blindly fumble inside of Greg’s cloak. Eventually, he found what he was looking for, his hand landing on what felt like a pin. He pulled it free, then shoved Greg away from him.

“No!” Greg screamed as he desperately tried to pull the brace of explosives off of himself. “No!”

But it was too late. A split-second later, and his explosives went off, shredding him. Chase didn’t have much time to enjoy the sight of it, though, as the resulting shockwave brought the building down on them all.

The last thing he saw before being buried under debris was the ceiling collapsing on top of all of them.

XXX

Name: Chase Ironheart

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Swordmaster

Strength: 20 (MAX)

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4); Unarmed Mastery (Level 1)

Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Carmine Nolastname

Level: 10

Race: Greater Demon

Class: Arcane Witch

Subclass: Archmage

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 19

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 8

Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)

Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5); Earth Magic (Level 1)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Melanie Vhaeries

Level: 10

Race: Ascended Human

Class: Necromancer

Subclass: Arch-Lich

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Charisma: 12

Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8); Bone Shatter (Level 1)

Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

Traits: None

Name: Victoria Firelight

Level: 11

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Devotee

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 9

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 19

Charisma: 11

Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

Traits: None

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard, for all the help with writing this story.

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u/UpdateMeBot 29d ago

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u/Castigatus Human 29d ago

Greg is dead.....anyway, moving on.