>>13683280

"What did I TELL you?!" the man snapped. His foot lashed, striking the other in the ribs. The victim let out such a cry that I immediately realized it was a young woman - another kick sent her rolling down the steps to the dirt, her blond hair twirling. "Huh?! What did I TELL you?"

The young woman, parts of her body overlapped with the same black armor, coughed pitifully. The man who attacked her walked down the steps, and filling the space behind him was a small phalanx of soldiers, brandished in leather and wielding spears and clubs. Once again, the brute's foot shot out and struck her, causing her to howl in pain.

At that point, I could not simply stand by any longer. "Excuse me!" I shouted, rushing over to the scene.

"Eh?" the brute said, looking up at me with a lazy gaze. His hair was white, cropped short like the devil's haircut. "Who the hell is this?"

I stood my ground as the brute's soldiers filed around him, protecting his flanks. "Sir, that is no way to treat a young lady. Whatever crime she is guilty of, there are far better ways to settle the issue than attacking someone who is defenseless."

The brute just reared back and exploded in some very rude laughter.

"Should we be laughing too?" one soldier asked another.

The other produced a small book of paper from his pocket, flipping briefly through its pages. "I think so," the other said. "We covered intimidation tactics last week, didn't we?"

"I was out that week."

"Yeah, we did. All right, everybody start laughing at the same time." And so all the soldiers laughed with the brute, until the brute settled down.

>>13683295

"What's your name?" the brute asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Now, I must admit that Reginald Goldensteel, while a perfectly admirable name, was not my true name. The reasons for that are many, and are not, ah, worth delving into at this time. Even so, I wagered that since I was clearly outnumbered, it would be wise to give this savage and his group another false name, lest they get any strange ideas and try to use it against me. "My name is Morgan Rootwall."

"You must be new around here, Morgan, so let me give you the rundown." The brute spread his arms, as if to enwrap the whole of Dorod. "This is my town now. Whatever I say, goes. Whatever I do, it's none of your business." He pointed at the poor girl crumpled at my feet, who now pushed her face up from the earth, wiping blood from her marble skin. "And if you don't want to end up like her, you'll never, ever say anything about my SHOULDERS."

And his shoulders were indeed wide and freakishly large, like he was smuggling a longbow under his armor.

But that did not concern me. "Those are acceptable terms," I said, "but even so, I must insist that you cease striking this woman."

"Oh yeah?" The brute swaggered up to me, stepping over the girl and making a very obnoxious point to stick his face close to mine, where I could see all the nasty pores in his sun-scorched skin, smell his surprisingly refreshing breath. "And what're you gonna do if I don't?"

But a gentleman never backed away from such a confrontation, and I said, "If you refuse...I'll have no choice but to politely ask you AGAIN."

"He asked POLITELY?!" one of the soldiers cried out. "We don't have any notes about that, Sacim! What're we supposed to do?!"

>>13683313

Sacim sighed, providing another gust of his nice breath, and turned around. "You're the worst henchmen I've ever trained! Just ignore him like everything else, and keep doing what I tell you to do!" All the soldiers murmured in agreement, writing down this new information inside their little paper books. "Now get outta here and practice your beating! Your last exam was TERRIBLE."

As all the soldiers scampered away to find innocent villagers to assault, Sacim turned back around to confront me once more. "As for you...stay out of my way and I won't have to get...unpleasant, if you get what I mean."

"I do."

"Get up," Sacim told the girl at his feet. "Make sure dinner's ready before sunset and I might remember to feed you this time."

The young woman rose, shaking. She ventured a glance at me before turning away - laying behind the length of hair obscuring her features were two eyes colored like warm ice, trembling with fear and sadness. I could only capture a glimpse of those eyes before she turned away from me with a grunt, cradling her waist as she slunk away, back towards Dorod's town hall. An unbelievably satisfied look of smugness crossed Sacim's face before he moved to follow, stalking her like a looming shadow.

And that, you understand, is why I had to make sure he was deceased.

***

"I think this is a bad idea," Lady Menoli said. "We should leave this matter to the order."

>>13683329

"I asked around Dorod and so far The Order of the Guiding Star has not responsed to any messages requesting for aid," I said, as I carefully arranged my vials of, er, scandalous contents. I was using the last moments of the day to prepare for my mission in my inn room, as well as give Jibjabber and Klik their instructions. "At least, none that the villagers can foresee. The only sign of help they've received is some mysterious figure wandering about town and dispatching Sacim's henchmen, but even that is not enough. I cannot remain here knowing that brute is crushing Dorod under his fist."

"But you'll be in danger! How are you planning to defeat Sacim while he's guarded by all of those soldiers?"

Having selected the perfect vials for the mission, I began threading them into my secure leather belt for later use. "Do not worry, my lady. I've planned this all in advance." I looked over to Lady Menoli, sitting politely on the bed. "Although, if you were to use your gift and show me any potential dangers that may arise, I would appreciate it very much."

Lady Menoli's gaze fell to her lap. "I'm afraid that, beyond immediate visions into the future, I can't use my gift to help you. The gods won't allow it. Besides...you'd be surprised how the future can change, if you try hard enough to change it."

She said that last sentence with such a solemn tone that perhaps Lady Menoli had undergone some personal trauma that I was not aware of. Of course, I decided not to pry, for insisting she share her past with me at this moment was very inappropriate. In time, if she ever chose to, she would willingly share it with me. Still, I must admit that I have a tendency to mull these puzzles over in my mind, and I pushed it aside as much as I could - I needed total concentration for what I was about to do.

>>13683334

I waited until nightfall. Having spent the bare essential time required to study the guards protecting the hall in which Sacim lived, I knew that Sacim left one side of the hall woefully unprotected compared to the others. While I admittedly had no idea where Sacim slept, I assumed that someone as arrogant as he would take a room to himself, one unfortunately away from the windows. It was a small problem, in the long run - I could easily sneak around the hall and find the room in time. While Sacim had many guards protecting him, they were all...uneducated, to phrase it lightly.

When the late hour came, I snuck out of the inn through the window and moved carefully through the dark alleyways between buildings. While I took a winding path unseen by villagers, Jibjabber and Klik would take a normal one and keep watch on the town hall from a seperate vantage point. Their job was to immediately interfere if something went awry or I did not return by a certain time. As long as I kept silent and worked quickly, Dorod could be freed of the dastardly Sacim within a mere half-hour, at most.

Soon I reached the town hall, and as the guards turned around corners and left the wall alone, I stalked towards one of the windows. Peering inside, I could see it lead to a seperate reading room, disheveled by Sacim and his henchmen, books tossed everywhere as if they were searching for some secret whiskey fairy hiding in the shelves. Inside, I could also see one of Sacim's henchmen laid slack against a chair, snoring loudly with a book he probably couldn't read draped across his legs.

>>13683344

I reached into the satchel hanging around my shoulder and produced my circular glass cutting tool, designed to trim a wide hole in a pane of glass with minimal noise and effort. I pressed it against the window, cutting a hole that I caught with my other hand before it could drop to the floor. I then snaked my arm through the hole, catching the latch and unlocking the window, allowing me to carefully push it open. With that finished, I arced over the windowsill and closed the window behind me.

As I mentioned before, working quickly was key. Yes, I doubted the intelligence of Sacim's henchmen, but even a fool could notice a large hole in a window. And although I am skilled in, ah, unpleasantness, against a crowd of trained warriors, I was definitely outmatched. Once Sacim was taken care of, his henchmen would be a simple matter if dealt with from the shadows.

I looked down at the snoring soldier before me, arms hanging limp. And while I was here...best to ensure this one wouldn't disrupt my mission. With that, I reached for one of the smaller knives at my belt, a knife that had been lanced with a paralyzing agent. At the very least, I could -

"Hey, who are you?" a voice suddenly shouted from across the hall. "You can't come in here!" The same voice then cried out, followed by an unexpected, resounding crash.

>>13683348

The snoring soldier sputtered, eyes batting open. "What the - what's going...!" And, well, I must admit that I panicked a little and drove the knife into his throat, because he startled me, you see.

I plucked out the knife as the ruckus grew louder and chaotic outside. What in the bloody hell was transpiring out there? It couldn't have been my companions - Jibjabber was a goblin, yes, but even she agreed to stay put if I requested it. No, something else was happening, something that threw a wrench into my otherwise simple plan.

I rushed up to the door, flattened my back against a shelf's flank, my other hand falling to my larger knife handle as I listened. Someone was shouting "Intruders!", and I could hear doors banging open - I guessed that one of the henchmen was trying to alert the others from their slumber. This was immediately proven right when the door to the room I was in swung wide with one of the henchman from this morning shouting at what he soon discovered was an unpleasant corpse. And, well, I must admit that I panicked again and stabbed the man's throat and ribs until he joined his friend in corpse escapades.

Immediately I knew I had to take advantage of the confusion. With order shattered, I could easily take advantage of Sacim's potential confusion and defeat him for good. I chanced a glance out into the hallway, saw that no one was rushing towards me, and began slinking away from the sound of the carnage. The melee was probably occuring in the large meeting room, and while I was curious as to who began the brawl, my goal lay elsewhere in these back rooms.

>>13683356

I did not have to go far, for as I turned the corner I spotted my target - Sacim, wearing little but undergarments and a shocked expression on his face. He must've been rushing to the front to dispel with the intruder, judging by the longsword in his hand. Of course, he made sure that the girl he had been victimizing earlier stood in front of him - unlike Sacim, she hadn't taken her armor off from when I last saw her. She also wielded a sword in her hand, though nowhere near as confidently as her master.

"You!" Sacim shouted. "You pulled this stunt, didn't you?"

"I assure you the ruckus is not my doing," I said, brandishing my knives, "but I did come here to end your life and free this town from your grip. I will apologize in advance for attacking you while you are de-trousered."

"I don't have time for this," Sacim said. He gestured forward. "Go on, Lica, kill him already!"

Lica shouted a battle cry and rushed at me, swiping clumsily with her sword, which I easily avoided. Now I had encountered some difficulty - Lica was an innocent, and did not deserve to be harmed, but I dared not attempt to attack Sacim while there was a possibility of injuring her. At least, not at this range, not in this narrow corridor. But if I had more room...

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Sacim shouted as I leapt away from Lica's wide, unwieldy slashes. "You can hit scarecrows just fine, how come you have such a hard time against a moving target?"

>>13683372

I kept backing away, around the corner, blocking or swerving from Lica's attacks, stabbing at points where I knew her armor could deflect my blades. Finally, when we were close to the doors seperating the hallways from the meeting room, I bolted for them and knocked them open with a rushing tackle. In the aisle between the rows of seats pointed towards the elegant podium where the now-disposed mayor once held order, Jibjabber and Klik clashed with Sacim's henchmen. Fighting alongside them was a strange creature, with the torso of a beautiful woman and the lower body of a crimson snake, seizing attackers by their arms and dispensing them with a variety of throws.

"Reginald!" Jibjabber shouted, after dispensing an electric shock to a henchman who had just rose from the ground. "Snake lady screw up whole plan!"

"Jibjabber, I'm afraid now is not the time!" I said, rushing into the room proper. I turned back around as Lica ran in as well, followed by an angry Sacim.

"Get outta my way!" Sacim shouted, shoving aside Lica with enough direction to throw her into the podium. "You're the worst apprentice I've ever had! And as soon as I'm done with these fools, I'll do what I should've done a long time ago!" His free hand suddenly became awash in darkness, and as he swept his fingers over his chest, his body suddenly bulked with muscle and power. "Bull's Strength!"

"You will never harm another innocent again!" I shouted. "Not as long as I draw breath!" I leapt towards him, knives swinging, but Sacim was far more efficent in direct combat than I, and was able to deflect my strikes.

>>13683378

"You think you're not the first to say that?" Sacim said. He swung so hard that, as I ducked, I could almost hear the wind swish. "Every cocky bit of scum in every town said they'd defeat me, and they died trying! Hell, the village where I got my waste of an apprentice from couldn't cut it, and I was fresh off the boat then!"

His boot swung out and caught me in my side - I never was very good at fighting with other people's feet - and forced me to stumble. With another kick he knocked me hard into the front booth of seats, and I could feel my knives escape my hands. Still, I wasn't out yet - I glanced up at Sacim as he reared back, about to strike.

"Maybe I'll do here what I did to that place," Sacim said, splitting a grin. "Burn it down, maybe get a new apprentice who doesn't keep blubbering about it. Someone who can actually fight for a change. That'd be a change of pace - an idiot I don't have to teach!"

"You burned down that poor girl's village and kidnapped her just so you could force her to fight and kill for you?" I said. "You, sir, are indeed scum of the highest order. But I suppose you only act that way to compensate for your hideous shoulders."

"...what did you say?" Sacim asked.

"Did you not hear me?" I said. "I was only mentioning how freakishly ugly your shoulders are. Did you know it looks like you're smuggling a longbow under your skin?"

>>13683394

The brute's eyes flew wild. "Oh, you are so dead." And he swung down.

But when you were expecting that like I was, and when you rolled forward like I did, drawing the hidden knife in your boot like I did, and slashing up into Sacim's bare stomach I did, well...you can see how things would turn out.

And, of course, after that I had to make sure the job was done, which meant knocking him down, using the knife over and over again on any hint of flesh I could see, and, well, that's just disgusting to think about, so let's just skip ahead to a less unpleasant part, if you don't mind.

***

After Sacim's, er, parting from this world, I quickly settled affairs with the newly established leaders of Dorod. They promised more aggressive security measures, an adoptive home for Lica, and for the henchmen who quickly renounced Sacim after his defeat, a new job in, ah, corpse disposal management.

"Thank you," Lica had told me. Tears slicked her eyes when she spoke. "I...I didn't know if I ever would be free of that man. I think he used to feed his dog more than he fed me."

"I could not stand by and allow such a brute to harm a lady," I had said. "It is unfortunate I cannot stay in Dorod any longer, but are you sure you will be all right until you receive aid from the order?"

>>13683405

Lica nodded. "I'm not a very good fighter, but I do know how. At the very least, I can train the men of this village...hopefully make sure this never happens again."

"Then I wish you luck, Lica. And on my word as a gentleman, I will approach the order and make sure they send Dorod the help it needs."

When I had left the newly secured, if still bloody town hall, I saw my companions waiting on the steps before me. Next to them was the snake woman from earlier - now that I had a chance to study her face, I realized it was covered by some kind of strange, patchwork leather mask, from which her eyes shone with confidence.

I coughed. "Well...even though I would have preferred your cooperation ahead of time, good lady, I appreciate your assistance in freeing Dorod of Sacim's menace."

The snake woman smiled. "Think nothing of it, my good man!" she declared, extending a hand. "Delivering justice to that villain was its own reward."

"Are you the figure the townspeople spoke about?" Klik asked. "The one that attacked Sacim's henchmen in secret?"

>>13683421

The snake woman rested her fists on her snake-ly hips. "Yes, that was I. At first I was trying to scare the henchmen away, but when that failed, I decided to take my assault to the villain's headquarters itself. And now that he has been defeated, I must continue on my journey and find more evil to rout from the lands. Farewell!"

She had barely slithered off when Jibjabber called out. "Hey! What snake lady's name anyway?"

"You won't like it," Lady Menoli said.

The snake woman swirled around. "My name is one that shall ring across the land! I am the champion of justice borne from the sands of the east!" She threw out her arms as if she was about to grapple the air. I am LA SERPIENTE, lamia luchadore!"

"Snake lady's name is dumb," said Jibjabber.

And another prophecy from Lady Menoli had come to pass.

***

And there we have it. This chapter references another story I've seen on /tg/, that of the blackguard who tears down that village and forces one of the girls to become his apprentice. Sacim is barely hinted to be a blackguard, but he's just a low-level one, if levels play any real part in this universe. I still take info from D&D, though, which is why he knew Bull's Strength.

I didn't intend for this to be a mostly-Reginald adventure, but I guess that's how it unfolded. Over the coming chapters, I'll probably spend more time on the other party members and give them their own chances to shine. In any case, I hope you enjoyed it.

Fuck yeah storytime.

Having said that, these stories are rather enjoyable. I'm going to be looking forward to the next one. Which will be when?

>>13683720

When I write it, I just finished this one today. I'm not sure what'll happen next, but since these stories are episodic, I've got some ideas to play around with. I want to focus on Klik next time, if I can.

Well, you have my approval.

Parting bump.

Yay, further adventures of Reginald Goldensteel! Interesting to see some other /tg/ characters showing up as well, especially since they're fairly recent ones (Lily subtly re-skinned & La Serpiente). I foresee these stories becoming true /tg/ classics.

And people say there isn't enough original content on /tg/ these days.

Yes, I know some don't class storytime/writefaggotry as oc, but still...

>>13683795

I'm surprised you remembered La Serpiente, I don't think anyone read the thing she was in.

I just realized that Lica sounds close to Lily. I was coming up for a name for her and my thought process was all "Don't use a similar name, don't use a similar name" and I guess I just messed up. Apologies!

And this won't be the only time I reference /tg/. This story is basically going to be fueled by /tg/ threads and characters I've seen. I've already got some major ideas for upcoming chapters based off of this, and I'm looking forward to putting my own twist to them.

Another bump for the night crew. Hopefully Shy Guardsman is on to catch this.

One last bump for the night. Thanks for reading, /tg/.