Chapter 73: It's hopeless

Dragon Village

Hotel Hawk Lobby

Milly

David, Megan and Gregory steps forward after placing their weapons on the table behind them.

A dense crimson aura envelops them, as they put their helmets on. They lock it in place with a twist, then a snap. They turn and start walking toward Ryu's Imposter.

They walk right past the gatekeepers. In the next moment the laughter dies down. The Imposters attack swinging their swords wildly.

They hit David and Megan first, but they just keep on walking, like nothing's happening.

Then someone jumps onto the table with a warhammer as big as my waist. He jumps from above aiming it at Gregory.

Gregory Grabs the hammer's head with one hand, mid swing, he stops it in place then shakes off the wielder, with little to no effort.

The fake Ryu starts panicking at this scene, realizing he's trapped.

He scampers away to the corner leaving the sword on the table.

The 3 keep closing in shrugging off strike after strike.

There's little to no damage.

Finally exhausted, part of the the group gives up.

The gatekeepers signal for the rest to stand down.

When David's team surrounds him, he panics and removes his helmet, revealing his face.

"Please don't kill me!"

He's yelling like a damsel in distress.

"I-I just found this armor and sword and --"

His words are cut short from David lifting him off the ground while gripping his face.

"Take it off!"

His voice is really low and threatening.

David lets go. he melts to the floor.

Gregory turns around.

"That goes for the rest of you too."

"Strip."

Megan chimes in.

They are all stunned.

*snap

Felmina literally snaps them out of it using her fingers.

We all rise from our seats as one once more.

They flinch as they all start dropping their weapons and stripping their clothes off as if it was on fire.

We take everything they have, leaving each and every one of them naked from head to toe. We look over the men and women, stark naked as the day they where born, making sure we didn't miss anyone.

I take the chest and head outside after the rest of the bears.

The old man from before is standing outside.

I walk over to him. And hand him the chest full of gold coins.

He gestures toward the ground using his cane.

I put the chest down.

I stand up, turn to him and smile.

"My name is Milly, that man in there was not the real demon general. Here's the money he must have extorted from your town."

I kick open the chest, revealing all the gold coins inside.

I look at his stunned expression.

I take a knee looking him in the eye.

"I'd like to ask a favour, if you don't mind"

He focuses on me.

"I'd like to meet the big man, maybe shake his hand".

He nods. Then turns and yells.

"Wilson!"

...

A man comes walking up to us taking a knee.

"Yes, Chief."

"Take this, and summon my granddaughter." He gestures towards the chest with his cane.

"Right away chief!"

As we wait, the impostors start pouring out of the hotel using newspapers to cover themselves.

The village chief smiles at the sight.

...

...

"Grandpa. Grandpa!"

A little girl comes running over

"Cherry!"

She comes running into his arms.

She barely looks up to him, he's only a head taller than her.

"What is it Grandpa?"

He smiles at her gently, then pats her head.

"Go and get the big man, this lady wants to shake his hand."

He looks at me, so does she.

"Okay Grandpa"

She nods, then takes off.

...

Soon after she comes walking up, leading the wild man by the hand.

Felmina walks over as she sees them approach me.

"Milly, what are you doing?"

"I need to check something."

The odd pair arrive in front of me.

"Now, just shake this lady's hand"

She's pointing at me, looking up at him.

The big man pats her head gently then turns as he reaches out his hand. He's towering over me.

I take his hand.

...

Nothing.

...

I use appraise on him

In dark grey where his name is supposed to be.

All his bars are filled followed only by ???? For each amount.

His level shows

He lets go.

...

"So?"

Roka asks

I shake my head.

"I can't read him... That can't be Ryu either."

Felmina nods as she adds.

"That guy's as big as Shirley."

"Who?"

The big man picks the little girl up and puts her on his shoulders as he walks off.

"You wouldn't know him Milly."

Roka adds.

My shoulders droop

"Will we ever find him?"

Felmina puts her hand on my shoulder.

"We found his armor, so he must be close"

I perk up.

"You're right, should we search the closest village next?"

They both nod.

...

We spend the night at the hotel for free, thanks to the chief.

...

The next morning we are woken up by alarm bells.

When we rush downstairs, we find the chief outside.

"What's going on?"

The chief points at the sky using his cane.

I see a dot... no wait, 2 dots on the horizon.

They are getting bigger.

...

Suddenly

"Dragon attack!

Dragon attack!"

I look at the chief, he's as calm as can be.

"Don't worry, just head back to the hotel. It's enchanted. This isn't our first time dealing with this...

Now go!"

I run towards the hotel, the chief joins us at a leisurely pace.

His granddaughter's already inside. Just before the door closes she slips out of the automatically closing doors.

We all start to panic. The chief yells

"Open these doors right now!"

...

As they finally open I put my hand on his shoulder as I say.

"Chief leave this to us, we'll go get her back for you, please stay here."

...

It's me, Roka, Felmina, David, Gregory and Megan. As we head out, the doors close behind us.

"Split up and whistle if you spot her."

Felmina barks out orders.

...

I head off in my own direction.

*whistle

I turn then head in the direction I heard.

When I get there, Felmina's dragging her toward the hotel kicking and screaming.

"No stop! He's all alone, I have to help him, let me go you ugly witch."

Felmina gets annoyed, but just then cherry manages to break free using her foot for leverage against Felmina's grip. Cherry starts running off in the direction of the park.

We chase after her while whistling.

Pretty soon we all assemble, then chase her together.

She's really fast despite us having the suits set to low gravity. Just as we start closing the distance, she keeps turning down streets as she runs. We barely manage to keep sight of her.

When we finally reach her, we're met with a snake type flying dragon bearing down on us. We try to reach the stunned Cherry, but we'll never make it in time.

Just then a sudden brown flash appears in front of her.

It's the big man.

He hugs her, covering her using his body.

The dragon comes charging right at them. The 6 of us pump the brakes as we realize, there's no saving them. Before we manage to turn around, the dragon turns it's head sideways and bites down as if to swallow them whole.

I hear a dull loud crack as it chomps down, then the dragon's body gains altitude missing us.

On reflex we look up.

Something feels very wrong here.

While amazed, I look at the huge body flying a few meters over our heads. I notice a lot of red underneath, on It's belly.

The next moment all 6 of us are covered by a rain of guts and blood.

The dragon comes crashing down just past us.

...

What the fuck? I look arournd me to see if we're all okay. I see Felmina pointing at something. When I look over I can't believe my eyes.

It's them, they survived...

But how?

I see the big man come rushing over, holding the now unconscious cherry in his arms.

Both of them covered in blood and guts from head to toe.

I can tell from her rising and falling chest.

With a few grunts he's desperately gesturing for us to take her and run.

He even gives us a shove as soon as we take her.

We turn around and start running.

I look back at him. I see the other dragon closing in on him.

Felmina yells

"Look out!"

Suddenly the dragon unleashes a fire breath right down the path.

We all dive to the sides. The flames barely miss us.

Oh no! the big man.

I get up as fast as I can manage and look at the scene unfolding in front of my very eyes.

The flying dragon is circling back around. Charging in, using the same direction as before.

The big man's holding his ground facing the dragon. It's bearing down on him. He looks like he's burnt to a crisp, he has pitch black flakes falling off his skin.

His hair seems a bit sticky, but fine, it's blowing in the wind.

When the dragon comes flying in mouth open, the big man stretches his arms wide.

The dragon reaches him.

In an instant he snaps the jaws shut in front of him and starts skidding as the dragon's full brunt smashes into him. After about 5 meters he comes to a complete stop holding the dragon by it's mouth. The dragon struggles as it whips it's body against the buildings around it.

I step into the road again, heading toward them.

Roka and Felmina join me.

When we get about 3 meters from them, we see the dragon squirming to get free by trying to pull its mouth backwards, but to no avail.

The scene unfolding in front of me is simply impossible.

The next instant the big man lets go of his right hand, and the dragon's head is bashed in. The big man's fist makes contact with the ground beneath, cracking the pavement and sending blood splattering everywhere.

As he's standing up, the last strand keeping the animal skin over his back breaks. Revealing his bare back to us.

A gust of wind blows his hair out of the way, revealing 3 names.

'Roka.

Felmina.

Milinda'