To A Thief - Chapter 20: Ambush!

The two thieves jump into battle together once again! But now, a much bigger threat approaches..

"There it is again.." Moku muttered to himself as he watched the Pulse Attack in action for the second time. 

"What the hell is that?" Flint cocked his gun upward and rose a brow as he watched Stiff fly through the air with the strange light pulsing around his dagger. 

Claire caught glimpse of the ability as well, looking as clearly as it did back in Qufim. "It's his Pulse Attack.. you might want to step back." 

"So.. this is his Pulse Attack." Vincent said as he turned his attention to look, keeping his blade thrusted down against an orc's stomach to stop it from getting back up.

"MY TURN!"" Stiff plunged his dagger right into a big orc as he landed in the middle of the crowd, the light letting out a quick sudden pulse before bursting into an explosion just as before that sent a few of the orcs flying upwards and others falling on their backs. 

It was as if he was some kind of bomb that had fallen from the sky. 

"Whoa!" Flint jumped back as an orc came crashing down on the roof of the outpost where he was standing, just barely missing him. "Watch it, Stiff!" 

"Target acquired." Kyrie said to herself silently as she watched from amongst the tree leaves. 

"Just a little longer.." Gazo grinned. 

"..That attack of his is downright nasty.. Would be a bother to get hit by that.." Daan licked his lips, cracking his knuckles as he peered over the side of a tree. "..Not that he could touch me with it.." 

"What.. was that?" Draven pulled back in surprise, his eyebrows twitching at the immense power of that attack. "When did Stiff learn such an ability..?"

"I didn't know thieves were capable of attacks like those.." Annie muttered, taking down another orc with a swift strike. 

"They aren't. Albeit formidable, even a thief's Sneak Attack doesn't come anywhere near as close to that kind of impact. This is definitely something else." Mel stated. 

"It's a Stiffy-Only attack!" Okina called out playfully, holding up her finger to the heavens as she sat atop an orc's shoulders. She briefly forced herself forward and front-flipped the orc onto its back using her legs, breaking its neck with the twist of her body once on the ground. 

"Why so surprised? I'm in the Brigade, aren't I? Seems like I've been underestimated!" Stiff grinned wide as he stood there in the center of the crater that his attack had formed on the earth. Readying his weapon, he called out to his enemy. "Bring it on, orcs!" 

Veronaut squinted his eyes replaying the attack in his head, holding an orc against the ground with his foot. "That maggot has been hiding an ability like that all this time..?" He grumbled before shortly bringing his great axe down and cleaving the orc's head clean off. 

"Heh.. it seems he's finally learned to harness that ability's power." Moku thought aloud as he went over to Vincent's side. He remembered seeing Stiff use that ability for the first time over a month ago during the fight with Warchief Vatgit. The attack had defeated the massive orc, but it had also sent Stiff tumbling away like a ragdoll and knocking him unconscious. 

"That Pulse Attack.." Vincent began with a look of remembrance in his eyes before being interrupted by the sound of the loud horn coming from the orcish horde. "Hm?"

The orcs suddenly stopped crowding around and began falling back a bit. But rather than retreating, they seemed to be making room for something that was now approaching. They all appeared to have shifted their attention towards Stiff. 

"What's going on?" Curilla asked as she joined the others with her rejuvinated Temple Knights.

"They're acting quite strange.." Avondale noted as he observed the enemy. 

"Hey Flint, what do you see?" Mel called over to Flint who was scanning the area from the roof. He seemed to have noticed something.

Bear's baby wyvern stood on the galka's large knuckles, clicking his tongue at it before he promptly pushed his hand upward and sent the wyvern into the air flapping its wings. The baby wyvern observed from there.

".. One BIG A*S orc! Here he comes!" Flint replied, aiming his gun and closing one eye. Despite how far the orc was at the moment, he took no longer than a second to lock onto his target. Pulling the trigger, he began firing at the beast from afar.

The ground began to tremble with each step the supposed orc took, still hidden within the division of orcs to those who were on ground level.

"Hm..?" Draven rose a brow as he heard the sound of Flint's bullets hitting steel and not flesh. He walked over to Stiff, putting that ability he just saw aside for now. "Doesn't sound like he got him.."

"!" Flint blinked in surprise. 

"What happened?" Annie asked him as she noticed his expression change. 

"Um.. my bullets won't even dent his armor.. yet these babies can tear through a steel wall like papyrus." He furrowed his brows. "Hmph.. guess I'll have to go with this, then!" He exclaimed, loading one of his special multi-rounds and pressing down on the secondary trigger of his decorative rifle. It began to charge up like before, gathering energy from Flint himself this time as well as the special round until a glowing sphere of light spun rapidly at the barrel. The energy forming at the barrel began turning a shade of gold, then black; all of it fusing together until it resembled something like a black and gold eye. 

As the massive orc finally came into view and stepped out from amongst the rest of the horde, everyone was surprised by its size. It was considerably larger than Warchief Vatgit, and had similar armor to the fallen warchief; only more decorated in orcish trophies and the like. The helmet was much different as well. Its mouth was exposed, but the rest of the helmet covered the rest of its head. On the top of the helmet spanned what looked like two wide wings, most likely a signifying its rank in the division. 

"Damn.. and I thought Vatgit was huge." Stiff uttered as he blinked in surprise. 

"I got a bad feeling about this.." Draven said as he readied his sword. "If Flint's bullets couldn't pierce his armor, then we have no hope of doing so with our weapons." 

"Tch.. so much for my upgraded dagger." Stiff frowned.

"Alright, here we go..! Eat this, you ugly b*****d!" Flint shouted as he released the black and gold shot, sending it zipping towards the massive orc. The shot had let out a strange, high-pitched sound that could almost pass off as an eagle's cry. 

Bringing its armored arm up, the massive orc suddenly swung its hand over as the projectile came into contact with its palm; spinning once on its feet and sending it flying right back towards the outpost. 

Flint hardly had a moment to react. To his utter surprise, the attack had been sent right back to him. It struck the outpost walls with a loud crash, exploding upon impact into an array of energy that sent the ranger twirling out of the roof top and onto the floor below. The entire little outpost was practically destroyed. 

"Flint!" Nanaa called in surprise as she witnessed the explosion, activating her Flee ability and dashing at rapidly towards the falling ranger. She got there just in time to catch him before he hit the ground, grunting a bit under his weight. 

"Urghh.. god.. damn!" Flint choked out a bit of blood as he clutched his side, groaning in pain and attempting to sit up. "That hurts!" 

"Stay down, silly.. looks like you brrroke a rrrib from the explosion." Nanaa frowned as she set him down, motioning a white mage over. 

"It deflected Flint's Eagle Eye Shot..?" Bear asked in amazement. "Not only that, but it pulled off its maneuver as if it knew exactly what to do." 

"It knew damn well to avoid an attack like that." Claire narrowed her eyes. "That was a surprisingly smart maneuver on its part." 

Moku and Vincent remained at their previous spots, simply observing the actions of the Brigadiers. They didn't seem phased at all with whatever was going on, but they had their weapons in hand. 

"Wreckers.. Warchief.. Vatgit!" The massive orc called out as it motioned the end of its golden greatsword at Stiff and Draven. "Kill.. Warlord Jagodek's brother.. Now Jagodek.. kill Wreckers!" It called out. 

"Warlord Jagodek? Brother..?" Stiff rose a brow. 

"He's pissed off that we killed his brother." Draven put it bluntly for the slow thief. "He seems to want us for himself." 

"Pfft.. well bring it on, big guy! We're right here!" Stiff beckoned it as he spun his dagger in his hands. He could feel a slight sense of deja vu coming from this orc supposedly named Warlord Jagodek as he confronted it with Draven.

"Raaarrgh!" Warlord Jagodek howled as it held out its sword and began to charge for the thieves. 

"Tch, I'll take you down myself!" Veronaut growled as he sprinted towards the overlord, leaping up into the air with his axe over his own head before shortly bringing it down hard on Jagodek's chest.

Didn't even make a dent. 

Veronaut's shoulders tensed as he felt the shock of the impact bring his arms to a sudden halt. Jagodek simply swatted the elvaan away with a hefty swing of its arm, sending him tumbling a few feet away. 

"What the f**k..?" Veronaut whispered as he quickly jumped back onto his feet. "How could I have not even left a scratch?" 

No one in the linkshell had strength that matched Veronaut's, so it was quite surprising to him that he couldn't even so much as dent the damn beast's armor. 

"How strange.." Annie muttered as she examined the armor from afar. "Weapons don't seem to harm it at all. Time for a different approach.. Mel, you know what to do." She said, glancing at her friend and comrade as she motioned to the warlord. 

"Right." Mel acknowledged, striking the end of her staff against the ground hard enough so that it stood there on its own. As she held her palms together, she closed her eyes and began to release an aura of magic that surrounded her. Countless elements orbited around her in little spheres, glowing in their respectively-colored auras. Holding her arms out towards the staff, the spheres then moved over to the end of it, where a smooth, round gem stood socketed. As they orbited around the weapon, she yanked it out of the ground and held it towards Jagodek with a sharp swing that sent the elemental orbs shooting towards the orc, leaving trails of aura behind themselves. The way they spiraled in midair made it basically impossible to dodge, especially considering they were made to home in on a specific target. 

As the orbs come into contact with the warlord, they unleashed an array of elemental bursts that shook the earth in the surrounding area. It made it hard to see Jagodek within the catastrophe, but as they stopped.. there remained Warlord Jagodek, unscathed. 

"Impossible.." Mel furrowed her brows in confusion. "Magic can't hurt it either? And to think he could even survive that spell.." 

"That was an amazing spell.." Moku thought to himself as he watched. "Mel's strides in magic have certainly leaped since the time I took her under my wing. Regrettably, it doesn't seem like magic alone will be enough to stop the beast. Hm, I wonder.."

"Okay, now I'm worried." Stiff muttered as he watched the failed attempts of his comrades at damaging the orc. "Here it comes!" 

Draven's eyes were narrowed suspiciously towards the warlord as it made its move towards them. He recalled just now seeing the armor letting out a slight glimmer of a transparent aura the moment both Veronaut's and Mel's attacks made contact.  

As the other Brigadiers attempted to intervene, Jagodek signaled its arm upwards, suddenly causing all of the other orcs in his division to charge after them. It wanted to make sure it had Stiff and Draven to itself. 

"Looks like we're on our own.." Stiff thought aloud.

"Now would be as good a time as ever." Kyrie said to the other two as she jumped down from the tree and joined Gazo and Daan. "The rest of the Brigade is kept busy for now."

"Just a moment longer." Gazo smirked as he watched the warlord's confrontation of the two thieves. "I'm actually quite curious to see how they will handle Jagodek."

"..Yes.." Daan nodded as he looked on, speaking in those stifled pauses of his. "..If Stiff relies on his emptiness for this fight.. We might not have to make much of a move to begin with.." 

Kyrie simply sighed and pressed her back against the tree. She didn't like being out in the open for so long, especially around a battalion of people. "Five minutes." Was all she muttered.

Stiff and Draven were caught by surprise as Jagodek hurled its great golden sword after them. Just barely able to roll under it, Stiff felt it cleave a few strands of his hair as it flew past their heads. 

"That was too close!" He called out, landing on his back and watching the sword cut through a large tree before sticking into another. 

As if the sudden attack wasn't hard to dodge itself, the warlord himself was already charging at them, leaning forward and attempting to trust its massive helmet into them. 

"Oh crap- Draven!" Stiff exclaimed. 

"Yeah." Draven hastily replied.

The two activated their flee abilities and jumped into the air, pushing themselves off each other's own feet and sending each other diving into opposite directions. Had they simply dived, they would not have avoided such a speedy charge. 

As Jagodek continued charging towards his sword without a care for them avoiding his charge, the two thieves turned their bodies while in midair and had their feet meet the bark of a tree on their respective sides. Briefly using their feet to push off the side of the trees with all their might, they flew back towards each other high into the air thanks to their flee abilities still active. 

"Now!" Stiff shouted in midair, activating another Pulse Attack just as the two came into contact. 

With quick and accurate movements, Draven took a hold of Stiff's wrist and spun himself around while holding onto the other thief to gain momentum, hurling his friend at the orc with another burst of speed thanks to the strength in his throw.

Stiff gritted his teeth in anticipation as he flew fast towards Jagodek's back, bringing his attack forward and nailing the warlord there and then. 

Draven landed swiftly on his feet after the throw, activing a Sneak Attack and sprinting towards the orc to take the opportunity he saw earlier. 

To Stiff's surprise, his Pulse Attack had failed. Despite the direct attack, enhanced even by the force of Draven's throw, he only managed to make Jagodek stumble for a split second. It was the first time he had ever witnessed his ability fail to damage an enemy. Every other target he had used it on had simply been blown out of proportion. 

"Even my Pulse Attack can't get through it..!?" Stiff stood there in shook as the lingering energy cleared away. His eyes widened as he saw the incoming tail of the warlord strike his abdomen hard, sending him flying towards a smaller tree that split under the impact of the young thief. Not only did it feel like the warlord's blow had smashed his guts to a pulp, but the impact of the tree itself nearly broke his back. Had it not been smaller and broke under his impact, it probably would have. 

Nonetheless, he was sent into a spinning daze and now struggled to catch his bearings, left to wonder why he was always the one who got thrown around like this. 

Upon seeing his opening, Draven approached Jagodek's back and activated another ability over his Sneak Attack; combining the two. As his glowing sword made contact with the warlord's back, he felt it go through that invisible aura that protected the orc's armor and pierce through the steel. Within that split second, he continued running up the orc's tail and along its back, eviscerating it as his glowing sword followed along while stuck into its back. Leaping off its head and a few feet into the air, Draven flipped his body over so that he now faced the front of the warlord and cleaved his sword straight down from its head and to its body, feeling the force of the Sneak Attack and his weapon skill; Splice, creating a force that shot through the blade of his sword and onto the orc. The cutting trail his sword had left along the orc's body had a dim glow to it, causing the orc to bleed out more than it should with those wounds. 

The burning coursing through its body for a moment got the orc more so irritated than in pain. Angry at the thief for having penetrated its invisible shield, it attempted to nab him and crush him in his hands. 

Jumping backwards out of its reach, Draven skidded across the moist grass towards Stiff and remained crouched facing the warlord, giving a defiant smirk at the angry orc. "As I thought. Weapon Skills cut clean through the invisible shield around its body."

Moku smiled in content to himself as he witnessed his pupils' teamwork and maneuvers. "Those two sure have made an impression of the term 'teamwork'. Not only that, but Draven continues to excel in his sense of judgement. Now that he's found out its weakness, the opening is made for the rest of the Brigade. Now, let's see how well they can launch Weapon Skills simultaneously." He thought to himself, crossing his arms in front of his chest and calling out, "That's right. One way or another, everybody and everything has a weakness! Remember that." 

"Those two are doing better than I expected." Vincent assessed as he looked on, sheathing his dark sword onto his back. "Everyone seems to be on their toes. It doesn't look like we'll be stepping in this time." He said, suddenly turning his gaze towards Okina, who looked back at him expectantly. "You know what to do, Okina." 

Okina nodded to him with a wide smile, jumping from orc head to orc head and making her way to the opening where the frenzied Warlord Jagodek now faced Draven and Stiff once more. "I'll do my best, my best!"

As the warlord signaled its arm up in the air once again, all of the other orcs in his division changed their motive. Now, they all began going completely out of their way to keep their warlord behind offensive lines. 

"It knows it's in trouble.." Draven snorted. "All it takes is a few weapon skills." 

"Weapon Skills, huh..?" Stiff groaned as he sat up, rubbing his abdomen. "I don't think Moku covered that part in training for me.." 

"You can't be trained to learn a Weapon Skill." Draven muttered as he watched Jagodek through the crowding orcs. "That's something you develop and learn from your own skill and experience. Think of it as a signature move.. much like your Pulse Attack, only learned from your weapon and made for your weapon by you." 

"Damn.. I guess that leaves me out." Stiff frowned, looking down at his dagger. "I haven't learned such a thing yet.. I guess I just never took the time." 

"It'll come to you eventually." Draven stated, getting up and readying his sword. "Now that we know what to do, you should help clear out the remaining orcs while the rest of us focus on Jagodek." He said, making his way back into the battlefield. 

Stiff sat there for a moment, watching his friend run off while catching his bearings. He had no clue what these so called Weapon Skills were up until now. 

"Well, that sucks.." He sighed, pushing himself back up onto his feet with the help of the tree next to him. "Guess I better deal with the small fry." 

Just as he was about to join everyone else, he felt someone grab him and force him back behind the large tree by the collar. 

"!!!"

By the time he was out of sight, he was already pinned down on the ground by Gazo's large hand. The Galkan samurai in dark armor looked down at the pitiful thief with that malicious smirk of his. "Not so fast, catalyst." He said. 

"You again!?" Stiff growled as he clutched Gazo's hand. "What the hell do you want!?" 

Daan and Kyrie stood beside Gazo, looking down at the captured catalyst. Behind the large tree, it was impossible to tell they were even here. Not only that, but their voices were masked by the loud sounds of clashing steel and war cries in the distance. 

"..What do we want?.." Daan grinned, cracking his knuckles. "..We just want to play a little game with you.. And perhaps give you a little test.." He said as he crouched down and removed the dark crystal pendant from his neck. He thrust it hard into the ground above Stiff's head and stepped back as a large pool of what appeared to be pure darkness began to form under the struggling thief. 

"Alright, ninja girl.. you're up." Gazo chuckled, purposely masking Kyrie's name so as to keep her identity secret. 

"Alright." She nodded, making her way over to Stiff and crouching down beside him. 

"Let me go, d****t!" Stiff continued to squirm, but to no avail. "Fight me like a man!" By the time Gazo let him go, he felt himself bound to the darkness that now began to absorb him. Actually, it felt as though he himself was sinking into the pool of darkness.. and the more he sunk, the less he was able to move. 

Kyrie pressed her hand to his chest and made some sort of symbol with the use of her fingers. "Henshin: Ichi." She spoke in a firm voice, closing her eyes as her and Stiff were suddenly enveloped in a colorful hue of transparent mirrors. After a brief flash, the mirrors dispersed and what Stiff saw shocked him. 

He was now looking up at what first appeared to be his own reflection.. but upon seeing this other Stiff, he saw him in the same position that the ninja girl had just been in. As she; or 'he', removed his hand from Stiff's chest, he looked down at him with the same expressionless eyes that the ninja girl bore. 

She transformed herself.. into me!? How is that even possible?

"How do I look?" The transformed Kyrie in Stiff's appearance spoke. Everything was exactly the same; right down to the clothes, weapon, face, and even the voice. You couldn't tell them apart.

"Like an idiot." Gazo snickered. 

"Perfect." The fake Stiff spoke, giving an empty smile. 

"Why you.." Stiff growled, gritting his teeth as he felt himself sink into this darkness completely. It now fell over his entire body, the last glimpse he saw before it fell over his eyes was the fake image of himself staring back down at him with that emotionless face. 

"I'm gonna kill you all..!" Was all he could muster before he succumbed to the abyss. 

"..I suggest you get a move on before they suspect he's gone.." Daan turned to the transformed Kyrie as he removed the dark crystal from the ground; the pool of darkness dispersing. "..Don't want the extra attention.. We'll take it from here.." 

"Alright then. I'll regroup with you two later." The fake Stiff spoke, running off and quickly regrouping with the rest of the Brigade.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Where has the real Stiff been sent off to? 

The Brigade has been compromised by an impostor! 

Find out what happens next in Chapter 21: The Emptiness

Author's Note

I've made an important update! I have removed Chapter 19 and the character 'Sandira' entirely from the story. In turn, I had to debunk the current chapters down by one to number them properly. Other than that, nothing much has changed. Sorry about that!