Not a Problem anymore [B rank mission]

[Nines]

“So your telling me, there actually is a Wyvern?” Nines asked the woman. It was obvious she wasn't lying, however Nines wanted to make absolutely sure the request was accurate. Melissa nodded her head rapidly. “Yes, its big, its also a dark violet in color. Can breathe fire, and lives out in the woods. From time to time it comes and it causes a ruckus.” Nines nodded at that. It made sense really, a creature big enough to just roam this area and eat whatever it pleased would quickly go glutton. Eventually it would run out of big enough food and bother the nearest settlement to try and get food from there. Since the nearest settlement was here, and it was causing a ruckus in the nearby woods. Eventually it would move on to attacking the town for food, before it would leave to find new grounds. This kind of request was normal for him however, he remembered when Wyverns ran rampant Nine years ago.

If they were this rare now, that meant Von Argon cleaned Fiore up quite well. It was kind of a mess when Nines ran off after his brother. He wondered how he would deal with this, first was the challenge of finding the monster. That was probably going to be easy depending on the tie of day, he was certain if he hunted it long enough he could figure out a easy record of its eating habits according to the noises it made. “It lives in a cave, off to the east surrounded by dead foliage.” The woman commented off to the side. That certainly made things easier, Nines thought to himself as he placed his hands in his pockets.

Currently he was under the guise of a free Mage. Tori had some things she had to do in the city, so he let her do that while he came here to deal with this wyvern problem. It was something simple he hoped, like the small ones that occasionally attacked the outskirts of magnolia or other cities. Naturally though he was wrong, that was becoming surprisingly often actually. “Right I’ll deal with it.” Nines commented with a nod. It was becoming more and more often that he was wearing plain clothes. After being allowed to freely wear his uniform day after day, he felt odd, and uncomfortable without it being on him now.

He was starting to get extremely displeased with the shit the Loyalists were not doing. This was supposed to be a civil war, not some battle of sit on your ass and stare at your enemies as they did your job for you. He valued the fact that they were being cautious, but there was such a thing as being too safe. He was going to have to fix that, and he would do it over the next few weeks with his current battle plan.

Step one, build a name for himself and make himself a target. A target for the peoples affection, and a target for the crusaders displeasure.

This was war, a war between a stagnant old council, with Nines on its side, and a younger more productive council. With Mordekai Kingslayer on it. Nines wouldn't lie to himself, he didn't care about the younger paladin commander, nor did he enjoy the power play he himself was going to make soon. A man couldn't save anything if he had no power, Nines needed to step up. He started to make his move when his discussion with Charlotte took place, he placed his faith in his niece, he gave her a message she needed. She needed to step up as well, and lead the magic council that they cared about to where it belonged. Not where it was now, but to where it was before the war.

Nines had a plan, and it was going to all come together, even if he had to bleed for it. He brought his magic around him. If the people wouldn't listen to their words, he was going to have to be louder than that. His armor formed around him. The purest white a metal could be, flashed against his skin and reflected the sunlight. The Magic council emblems brazing against it, proudly wearing the symbol of his job, but not the colors. An offense amongst the Crusaders, that should get at least some recognition.

Nines knew that the loyalists had remained hidden in the eyes of both the townsfolk and the Crusaders, he did that on purpose. During the chaos he had written a note displaying the need for secrecy, and “Accidently” left it in the filing tent. They took it as an order from a superior not a man who simply had a need for the council to seem like they were hiding with their tail between their legs after suffering a wound. Not everyone did this, but the majority did.

As Nines marched towards the eastern side of town he got many strange and outwardly surprised looks. He just simply continued to smile, they needed to see the council wasnt going to take being defeated by just sitting down and taking it. No Nines needed to make a message, so when the four crusaders tried to arrest him at the town gate that only made his smile wider.

It was a common thing about bullies, psychology one oh one really. The bully will always feel like they’ve won after you act like a coward the first time your abused. So when you come back for more they feel offended, and treat you like garbage. Thats when they’re the easiest to break.

Two of the crusaders drew their weapons. Nines looked up and down them, the spear wielder had a Lacrima in the back of the hilt, holder mage. The other man had his Lacrima on his armor, holder mages were surprisingly common nowadays. Nines wondered if that was because the war had ended with alot of the more common magics dead. The othertwo approached Nines one holding a pair of handcuffs, the other bearing the marks of a paladin. Good Nines would be glad to show this man a good time.

“You sir are under arrest, of corruption, treason, and the attempted Coup of the Magic council.” The paladin said to him, “Cuff hi-”

“ATTEMPTED?” Nines said with an actual laugh. “THATS GOLD, Attempted” Nines raised his right hand up a rifle manifesting to land on his shoulder he hooked his left gauntlet wrist around the barrel of the firearm. “pretty sure you lost about 5000 good men, and then suddenly villagers disappeared too...Lemme guess you have no idea where we are, and you have orders to arrest us and interrogate us on sight right?”

Nines looked the two over, the man's “Sidekick”was obviously his student, he looked absolutely livid with the amount of respect Nines was not giving them. Tori would have just dealt with it, or voiced her concern, not just glared daggers at the offending party. “You people have no souls” Nines sighed, “Which is more evil, doing what's wrong for the right reasons? Or protecting what's right for the wrong reasons?” Nines asked, completely calm. He was about to do ALOT of the former.

“Put the weapon down an-” The Paladin didn't finish before the butt of the rifle hit him in the jaw, sending him turning with the force of the weapon. Before either he or his apprentice could react Nines had already shoved the barrel of the gun in between the handcuff loops, and threw them in the air with the force of his gun yanking upwards. The young paladin was promptly tripped, ending up on his ass, Nines spun around still prone from his sweep kick and sweeped the Paladin himself off his feet as well. Nines let go of the rifle as it whipped back around smacking the Paladin in the back of the head rendering him face first in the dirt, and summoned his shield with the twist’s momentum he threw it.

The guard with the spear wasn’t really expecting a shield to come at him from waist height, Nines didn't expect him to expect it at all, until it hit the man right in the crotch, goal accomplished he guessed as the man went down like a sack full of potatoes dropped from a great height. Nines rolled forward under the last mans sword, reached out plucked the handcuffs from the air, cuffed the man with one loop, then swung the other loop down over the still confused JR. Paladins ankle. He then grabbed the junior paladin by the hem of his coat and started pulling, dragging the two of them forwards. With a few more clicks he had the entireity of the four man guard until handcuffed to each other in a knot, standing precariously off the side of their guard house, one wrong move and they would all be dangling. Connected by nothing but that knot, and the poor man on the flagpole until it gave way.

“When you guys get out of that, I suggest you go through training again. Tell them to re-open the Arena, it really did work.” Nines said his gear already back in his possession and returned to where it came from. His rifle on his shoulder. “Because this military training shit, it sucks in comparison to an experienced individual who fought against people with this kind of Training.” Nines smiled at them. “Anyway, heres enough food for a few days” Nines said holding up a backpack and dropping it into the commanders hand, the weight throwing them off balance and rendering them in a dangle, the man whose groin had yet to fully recover once again being crushed under his own weight as he ended up on being pole guy. Nines flinched, then raised a hand with a sigh “Anyway later” he turned and walked away, ignoring their requests and pleads.

He had no time to help them, he had to go hunt a wyvern. “I should mention that inside this letter” Nines said to a man as he walked by him, as he was staring at the spectacle of treason in front of him, “That you will find letters confirming blackmail, and fraud. Feel free to turn them into their superiors, they deserve to be dishonorably discharged, and thrown in prison really for the things they did.” Nines handed him not really an envelope, but a folder about the size of the mans head. “Later” He said continueing out the gate he just hung four people off of.

East, surrounded by dead foliage. It wasn’t the hardest part of Nines’ plan to deal with this wyvern. The hard part was the part he had already done. It was nighfall, he made it out of the town eight hours ago. He sighed, digging pits was starting to become hard work on his body. He could always fix that but…

He looked at his left hand.

The cost….

He shook that thought out of his head, he didn’t believe those thoughts were his anyway. He raised his firearm in the air and fired off three rounds. Then waited, as the sound of foot steps started. He raised an eyebrown as the “Wyvern” made itself known to him with its “Annoying” wail, and it’s semi-skin, bones and scaled body. It was like if a vulture, decided to have a child with a chicken, and then a dragon had a kid with that. Nines shivered at that mental image.

Then the wyvern saw him, and he aimed his gun at it and pulled the trigger. The small rune encarved shell was hit by the dark magic fired from the Lacrima in the firearm, sending it flying forwards, hitting the Wyvern right in the eye. There was a really loud screech but Nines didn't even bother, he was already running away. Naturally the beast pursued. Not too bright.

When it activated the pit trap Nines sighed with relief, it fell inside of the pit with ease, then thrashed about the walls for a few moments before appearntly realizing it had wings. Stupid thing wasnt it? Nines thought as he activated the secound part of his trap, and probably the most wasteful. The net shot across the vast of the pit and when the wyvern tried to fly up, it tangled itself, causing it to land back on the ground and thrash and buck. Trying to break free. It was clearly distressed and confused. Nines sighed as he pushed the log holding the other logs in place out of the way, causing them to roll down the hill, and straight ontop of the wyvern. It was enough logs to build a few cabins, and they rained down on the wyvern until it made a gasping noise and could no longer struggle under the weight and lack of space.

Nines kicked a canister of liquid over, the drum of clear substance pouring into the log filled pit. Soon Nines could no longer hear the breathing of the monster over the coughed gurgles of it bubbling for air, and the struggles it made against the logs. When that drum ran dry Nines kicked another one over, until after the third one, the pit was full of logs and this liquid. He was pretty sure the wyvern had drowned by now.

However he learned a long time ago, if you are going to put a problem down. You make sure you put the problem ten feet under the ground, in a stone coffin sealed with magic to prevent its opening.

With that thought Nines pulled out a spark Lacrima, and a rock. Hitting the Lacrima against the rock caused a spark, which set the liquid inside the pit ablaze, also igniting the trees. Nines looked at the bucket of water he prepared for this, and looked at the forest around him.

He knew he had miscalculated something in his haste to build this kind of trap.

It took the rest of the day for Nines to fill the trap with dirt and put the fire out before it burnt down the forest it took place in. The last thing he needed to do was cause an unnatural forest fire, which could ruin a possible logging industry, or set a town on fire.

with the wyvern taken care of, he returned to town. Claimed the reward for it, and left.

”Mission Details”: