Legends of the Sword

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In a world covered by endless water...

It was just another day on board the airship Starian. SwordMan was splayed out on the sofa, flipping through channels on the TV, while Iris was trying to find something for them to eat. Unfortunately for them, there was a problem with that.

"We're out of food," she said from the door to the shared living space.

"What?!" SwordMan cried out in disbelief. "That can't be true! There must be something on the ship we can eat!"

"Depends," said Iris. "How do you feel about half-filled ice cube trays and boxes of baking soda?"

"Together?"

"We need to go shopping," Iris said with a sigh. She went over to the compartment where they kept their Zenny, and as she opened it, a fly flew out. "And to pick up some fly paper," she added, before noticing something else. "Where's all of our Zenny?"

SwordMan whistled nervously, as he slid a fancy Reaverbot chassis he picked up for a "steal" a town or two back out of view. "Oh, uh, you know, it comes and it goes. That's the economy for ya'. But hey, we have our own airship and the freedom of the skies! What do we need Zenny for, anyway?"

"Money can be exchanged for goods and services," she replied. "And fancy Reaverbot parts, apparently. Right, Egbert Parkman?"

Uh-oh. She used his real name.

Realizing he'd stepped in it but good this time, SwordMan smiled and laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. "Hey, no problem! Zenny practically grows on trees! We'll just hit up the nearest ruin, bust a few Reaverbots, and we'll be as good as gold!" A little quieter, he added, "...and please don't call me that."

Iris sighed. "I guess we'll have to." She pulled up a map, and after a moment of looking around, said, "Hm, we should be passing by the island of 'Trimsachs Penster' soon. That looks promising."

"Great! I'll grab my stuff!" SwordMan said, as he sprang off the sofa and into his room to get armored up... and give Iris some space.

***

Inside the Trimsachs Penster ruin, SwordMan stepped off the elevator.

"SwordMan, can you hear me?" Iris said through his communicator.

"Good," he thought to himself. "At least she's not calling me 'Egbert' anymore."

"Loud and clear," he replied.

"It looks like there's a long hallway in front of you, and it turns left at a corner. Be on the lookout for any traps."

"You got it," SwordMan said, as he prepared his primary weapon: an arm blade made from an ancient sword he'd found in another ruin some time ago. It was a heavy blade, but fortunately, he was no lightweight himself. Moreover, some hydraulics and other mechanical enhancements built into his armor provided their fair share of help, too.

As he neared the corner, his communicator went off again. "I'm picking up three Reaverbot signals," Iris told him. "They're small, but be careful."

Though she wouldn't see it, SwordMan gave a mock two-fingered salute, then jumped out into the opening where the two passages met, hoping to take the Reaverbots by surprise.

"Horokkos!" he exclaimed, once he saw what he was dealing with. As his blade lit up with the glow of flaming energy, he said, "Man, I knew you guys were going to be small fries, but I was hoping for something interesting." With that, he slashed the first Horokko horizontally as it charged at him, and the two halves slid apart before exploding, and he handled the second with a vertical slash, causing its remains to fall away from each other, with another small explosion. That just left the third.

This Horokko dropped to its back, and fired a bomb at SwordMan from out of a launcher placed on its underside, of all places. The Digger smirked as the flying orb approached.

With a deft smack of his blade, he was able to stop the bomb's flight, and proceeded to bounce the bomb up and down a few times with the flat of his blade. "Love-15," he said. "My serve!" He bounced the bomb up higher into the air, and as it proceeded to fall back down, he swung his sword arm like one would a tennis racket, and returned the bomb to its sender, blowing it to pieces in the process.

"SwordMan!" Iris shouted through her communicator admonishingly. "You shouldn't goof around with the Reaverbots so much! They can be dangerous!"

"Aww, c'mon, Iris!" he replied. "There's nothing to worry about down here! This is pure B-Class stuff!" He then gave a look around at the lack of reward for his troubles. "Complete with a Z-Class payoff. Hopefully they keep all the good stuff in a chest packed full of Zenny."

As SwordMan continued down the hallway, he caught something out of the corner of his eye. Something shiny, inside one of the holes in the ruin's walls. "Hmm, what's this?" he asked himself as he reached into the gap. "Oh..." he said, before tucking the item away for later.

He proceeded on to the end of the hallway, investigating a few side rooms that didn't lead to much of interest along the way. There, he found a large door.

"You should be seeing a large door," Iris told him. "I can't quite get a solid read on the signals past it, though, so be careful!"

With that in mind, SwordMan cracked a few knuckles, as well as a crick in his neck for good measure, clenched his teeth, and opened the door. Inside, he looked around. At the far end of the room, he spotted a treasure chest sitting atop an elevated ledge with stairs leading up to it. "Jackpot," he said to himself.

As he approached the stairs, he felt something in the air. Something seemed amiss.

He quickly turned and ducked aside as a Reaverbot that hadn't been there before dashed past him, bladed arm leading.

"Ooh! A Sharukurusu!" he shouted excitedly as he brandished his sword-arm. "Awesome!"

The Sharukurusu turned and made another move on SwordMan, who parried the blow. Blades flashed furiously as each combatant tried to score a decisive blow on the other, and sparks flew from their respective weapons as they clashed. The two locked blades, neither one giving the other any quarter until they broke away, each leaping back a short distance, preparing to engage again.

SwordMan was the first to strike this time, as he thrusted his sword towards the Sharukurusu's midsection. But the Reaverbot was able to block the maneuver, effectively "grabbing" it between the prongs of its claw-like blades. SwordMan smirked.

"Oh, you think you've got me right where you want me, do you?" he said. "But are you prepared for... this?"

As the words left his mouth, SwordMan activated a special feature built into his sword arm, one that sent the blade flying forth like a rocket from its place at the end of his armored gauntlet. The force was enough to push the Sharukurusu back, pinning it up against the wall. The self-satisfied SwordMan began to approach the Reaverbot, hands – or rather, one hand, and one wrist – at his hips.

Before he could gloat, however, another Sharukurusu decloaked behind SwordMan, and tapped him on the shoulder. The Digger turned around to see it.

"Oh... wow. Another Sharukurusu!"

It nodded in response, followed by an awkward pause.

"Uh, I guess you're not really impressed that I knew that, huh?"

The Reaverbot gave what looked sort of like a shrug, as if to say it wasn't not impressed.

"Well, alright then, let's do this!" he said, holding up his sword arm... minus the sword. He looks over his shoulder back at the Reaverbot pinned to the wall by his sword, still struggling to get free. "Oh, right... that."

Using his other hand, he pointed over his shoulder and asked "I don't suppose you're going to let me go get that, are you?"

The Reaverbot shook its head, then took a swing at SwordMan, which he ducks with a yelp, then tries a lower swipe, which the Digger jumped over before taking off. "Hoo! Hah!" he shouted, as he ducked and weaved to avoid the Sharukurusu's blades. "And away we go!" he said, zipping off before the Reaverbot could follow up its lethal combo.

It gave chase, and as the Reaverbot ran after the disarmed SwordMan, Iris was observing from up on the Starian. From her point of view, the two signals were going all over the place erratically.

"SwordMan," she said through his communicator. "Are you goofing around playing with the Reaverbots again? I've told you not to do that!"

"That sounds like good advice!" SwordMan replied, as he skidded up to a corner and kept up his mad dash along the next wall, his pursuer right behind. "I will be sure to take it under advisement!"

Iris just sighed, frustrated, as she closed the comm channel.

As SwordMan rounded the large room, he began to come up on the first Sharukurusu as it pulled the large blade from the wall and freed itself. "I'll take that, thank you!" SwordMan said as he slid underneath the Reaverbot, nabbing his sword in the process. Before it could do anything, the other Sharukurusu made a lunging stab for where SwordMan had been only a second ago, and wound up shanking its partner instead.

From behind the exploding Reaverbot, SwordMan rebounded, bringing his own blade down on the Sharukurusu's arm, severing it at the elbow. Before it could retaliate, the Digger brought his sword down one side of its body, separating it from one arm and leg pairing, then up the other, before kicking the torso away, where it exploded.

"Sweet!" SwordMan replied, as he picked up the fairly-intact limb he'd cleaved off moments ago. "I bet I could make something good out of this!"

After stowing the Sharukurusu arm away for later, he finally walked up the stairs to the chest, where he opened it and basked in the glow of the treasure inside.

"Jackpot!"

***

Back up on the Starian, SwordMan called out in a sing-songy voice upon entering, "Oh, Ms. Laufey! Ms. Laufey, I'm home!"

"Finally!" Iris said as she approached, hands at her chest. "Were you able to find anything down there?"

"Oh, just a little of this 'n that," he said, putting the bag of Zenny and the Reaverbot arm down. "Nothing I couldn't hand-le." Iris rolled her eyes, more to disguise her wanting to laugh at the awful pun than anything. "Oh, and I found this," he said, pulling out the item he'd found in the wall earlier.

It was a pink and green jeweled butterfly decoration. "Ooh," she said, as it sparkled in the light. "That's so pretty!"

"Yeah? It's yours, if you want it," SwordMan said, kind of sheepishly.

"Yes! I lo– I'd like that," she replied, tempering her enthusiasm as she looked away, slightly embarrassed.

"So!" SwordMan said, ready to change the subject. "We've got enough for groceries, but that worked up an appetite. Whaddya say we go grab something to eat first?"

"Yeah, that sounds good," Iris said, as she went to set the ship's course. "It's Tuesday. Want to go for tacos?"

"Sounds great!" SwordMan said, as he plopped down on the sofa with his new prize, ready to figure out how to work it into his arsenal.

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