James and Lupin's Quest

James hurried along with Breeze. He had to go see the king for something, and he would apparently be paired up with a new partner. He wondered what kind of person his partner was going to be, and what kind of beast he would have. He had not been a Master Knight for very long, so he didn't know everyone's face yet. As he reached the castle, he stopped and caught his breath. Then, he went inside to meet the king.

Lupin stood at King Durand's side, waiting for the new master, as the man stepped up he held out his hand calmly. "Lupin Ilano, nice to finally meet you." he gestured to his dragon. "This is Venku, my bond-beast"

"Let's get started shall we?, I want you two, to lead an assault on Bes'kar, city of iron, it has been very ruthless in it's attacks, and of course I will send you with my men to silence their boastfulness."

Lupin held his breath, knowing that he served the king didn't stop him from feeling bad about destroying a city, but none the less it was his duty.

James shook Lupin's hand. "I'm James, and this is my ice phoenix, Breeze." Breeze let out a soft song.

He heard the King's request, and nodded. "Right, let's get on with it, shall we? What's the quickest possible route we can take? We'll both be travelling by air, so I don't think it'll take long, but all the same the quicker the better."

"Here, have a map," The king said as he handed them a map with routes on it.
You two should arrive at the city just in time to replace my last generals. You see they died in a horrible painful way while fighting a Deka-Cronus, a monstrous beast that breaths fire and eats mountains. It apparently is guarding the city, it has nested their, or something along those lines.

Lupin gestured to James to go and they bowed, left, climbed on their steeds, and took off.

James asked Lupin to wait for him at the fountain at the middle of the Virtue City market. James went to the market to get some food and small snacks in case the journey had no provisions to eat. Once he was done, he went over to fountain. He took this time to recall the King's words as he walked over there, and wondered what perils would be waiting for them. When he reached the rendez-vous point, they both headed towards the city of iron.

They were off, they flew on their steeds and headed quickly to Beskar. Although on the way, they found a small hut that had men dressed darkly knocking on the door. Lupin waved at James to slow as they went down to see the commotion.

"What seems to be the-" Lupin started to the men before they swung at him and James with flaming axes. Lupin dodged, and returned his attack shoving his sword into his assailant's chest, he drew his sword back and waited for the man to fall. He simply stood and swung again, the hole in his chest sealing up.

"So they're immune to any physical injuries done to their body" James thought. "Well, let's see him try to get out of an icy coffin."

He told Breeze what he wanted to do, and Breeze sent an ice beam at the men, freezing them up. For safety precautions, Breeze also made an ice dome around the men. James waited to see what would happen next.

Lupin watched as the men shifted as the ice melted around them and their fiery weapons.
Lupin Kicked at the man's axe but it just flew back into his hand, Lupin swung at the man's head and knocked the helmet off, but under it was nothing.
"These men aren't mortal, their phantoms, controlled by a summoner, hold them off, I'll find him."
He then watched as the helmet flew back into place and he turned to see a glimmer of an invisible target running away, he chased after right when one of the phantoms swung a harsh blow at James' left arm.

CLINK. The Phantom had somehow hit an ice wall. It looked down and saw it coming from Breeze, who was under James.

"Nice try. Well, I can't kill you or freeze you, so let me try burrowing you."

James raised his palm, and the ice wall encased the phantom, pulling the phantom underground. "I've always wanted to try that" he thought aloud.

Lupin chased after the glob of moving invisibility, he jumped on him and brought him down, he then turned the man over, saw the seal of Beskar on his chest, Lupin looked into the man's hollow eyes and felt pity as he drove his sword into the man's chest, turned it, and stood up.

The phantoms vanished from sight, and the armour lay on the ground motionless and empty. Lupin turned to James and motioned to get going again.

"James got up on Breeze as Lupin got on Venku, and they continued flying. The map the King gave him was proving difficult to read, the wind kept blowing it and messing it up. After what seemed to be forever, he had enough.

"Pull over! There's a city over there, and I want to ask for directions! We'll be lucky enough if the city IS our destination. Funny too, really."

They got down, and James took a look around as he jumped off Breeze. There was an eerie feeling as they stared at the gates. In the distance, 2 men in suits of iron armor stood still. There was a moat, but no bridge. This was no ordinary moat either, the water colour was swamp green. Skeletons seemed to inhabit and swim inside. A couple of seconds passed and he swore he saw a shadow of a sea monster go by.

"Oh gee, a generic moat and generic guards outside of the city border. Right, let's go fly over there and see if the inhabitants are friendly. If not, the game plan is to distract and infiltrate. Let's go"

He jumped back on Breeze, and away they went.

Lupin hopped off of Venku, he strode up to one guard, and spoke.
"We are searching for the city of Iron, Bes-"
The guard threw him into the river.
Lupin scrambled for air as skeletons grasped at him, he blew one apart with a burst of light and snapped the other ones neck, or skull, something bony to say the least.
Venku meanwhile flew into the guards, picking them both up, one in each talon, and threw them into the water, near the snake like creature that loomed below.
"Cooper boy, this isn't the best place to stop for directions I would say."
Lupin clambered out of the water just in time to see the iron clad men fall to the ground with clangs and snaps.

"Excuse me for wanting to get instructions. If I want to ask something, i ask it. Logical, really" James told Venku as he made an ice hammer and swung hard on the gates made of wood to make a giant gap. He stepped inside, expecting a bunch of knights to surround him, and looked around. The town had a dark feeling, and he thought it might have been this town. He checked the map and showed it to Lupin.

"Lupin, is this the town we're looking for? If it is we can start immediately."

Lupin took a look at the page, and gaged that Cooper was quite the trooper.
Finding this town had removed his frown and left him feeling dark, the stark sadness of the town was compelling and seemed swelling. Lupin kept rhyming in his head, though the melody filled him with dread, and he looked all around from the sky to the ground. He saw nothing, no men at all, no short no fat no tall, he was expecting a battalion, he got mad as if a scallion had stolen his whole troop.

Rhyming aside, Lupin's mind darkened back to sanity as he recovered from the swamp water's effects.
What he saw in front of him were dozens of dead soldiers, men from his kingdom, lying dead on the ground, sitting in their own blood. He felt no fear or anger, he'd learned past that, he only saw the huge beast that approached from underground.

Breeze got in front of James and launched a powerful ice shard at the opponenet, and pushed it with an ice beam to make it go faster. It charged towards the unknown monster. "You haven't answered my question Lupin! But no time for that now, we've got yet another fight!" He hastily put away the map, and watched Breeze's attack very carefully. He decided to analyze the beast's movements and abilities before charging up close.

The Huge steel armored beast simply incinerated the ice with it's flamethrower like breath. It then grabbed chunks of debris around the city, and threw the rocks at the city wall, causing a rock slide. The explosion covered the gate and prevented their escape, Lupin, still focusing on the beast, said to James:
"I'm, going to hazard a guess at that question, and just say yes."
Lupin jumped out of the of falling debris while Venku shot a beam of focused sunlight, one of his strongest attacks, at the great monster's face. Lupin saw that the beast was going to poung James to dust with one heaving blow, so he jumped and tackled him out of the way. In that split second, he activated his shield, froze a light shield around them, and took the brunt of the blow.

James questioned how such a huge monster would end up in a city like this. However, it was not the time to investigate or question. He didn't know what to do. His mind was at a standstill. "How are we going to defeat this thing?" he questioned himself. Suddenly, he had an idea. It might fail, but it was better than nothing. He told Breeze what he was going to do, and she nodded attentively. She enlarged herself to the largest possible, then spat an ice ball followed by an ice beam. James reached out his palm, and made it coil like a rope onto the beast. The ice beam wrapped around the monster and around its neck. The ice rope created spikes and started drilling it's way through its steel armor. The ice ball attached itself to the back of the neck and did the same.

Lupin saw the plan head into action, he decided to help by freezing the light around the beast, making the armour very brittle. He looked up, and he and Venku shot as strong light beams as they could produce in unison. They targeted the Gem like heart thing at the center of the beast's body. The gem turned from blue to red, and seemed to give off a red steam, as if a way to cool it down.
"Target the gem!"

"Way ahead of you. Breeze, do an icicle spear!" James yelled. He jumped off Breeze and landed on a building, then Breeze started spinning around and formed an icicle shape. She charged towards the gem and went straight through it. The gem cracked.

"Nice job, Breeze" he told her, and stroked her feathers as she returned. "Well, is there anything else we have to do?" he asked Lupin as the beast crumpled to the ground.

Lupin saw the Metal on the beast shake and fall off as the gem died, what was left was a smaller, angrier looking beast, but it's skin was softer looking than before.

Venku picked Lupin up, both exhausted, and flew him past cloud level, charging up the most power for their next barrage. Lupin crossed his legs and remained in a meditating state.

Meanwhile the beast raged, it shot incredibly hot flames at the clouds, evaporating them twofold, it then aimed it's fire at James and Breeze, annihilating anything in it's way.

James quickly jumped onto Breeze and they take off, avoiding the hot flames. "Distract the beast Lupin! When you do, Breeze can aim another icicle spear, and we can get this thing finished once and for all! If it concentrates on you it won't notice what's going on from the other guy." Breeze circled the miniature monster, sending ice shards at it. James waited.

Lupin took his cue, he and Venku flew down to ground floor, the pair shot extra strong beams of concentrated light and the beast's eyes. This would incinerate a normal human, but to this beast it just set it completely on fire.

The beast ran around in pain at it's burns, leaving it's soft chest open for a fatal strike.

"James!.....FINISH HIM!!"

James jumped off Breeze and landed once again on a building. Breeze took the message, and spun around and charged right into the beast. It cracked open, light shot out, and an explosion took place. breeze flew out, turned herself back to normal size, and took a break on James' shoulder. He petted her, and she let out a soft song.

"Ok, without any more interruptions, I will ask again. Is there anything else we have to do?"

Lupin looked upon the ravaged town, saw the destroyed city for what it was. Not a victory, but a tragedy by far, thousands lie dead, the city of Beskar was in ruin. Lupin turned to James, and nodded slowly.
"We're done here"
The four flew back to the castle.

The journey back was a simple one. They stopped halfway to consume the snacks James brought. After a quick break, they continued heading home. They returned back to the king, with the King looking towards them. He looked hopeful and judgemental. James gave his report.
"Well?"

"Your majesty, the city was already destroyed, with the exception of 2 guards outside. Upon entering the city, we were attacked by a savage monster about 30 feet tall. We defeated it, and headed back here."

"I see... What bothers me is that there were survivors when the city was destroyed."

"Your majesty, I do not know what this means either."

"...Very well then. Lupin, James, good job. Have a good rest, and be ready for another mission when you receive another one"

"Thank you, your majesty".

As they exit the castle, James thanked Lupin. "Thanks for everything. I hope we have another oppurtunity to work again next time. See you later" He walked towards the village, having a wierd feeling. He didn't get the job done, but he still had a feeling of success. He wondered what it was as he walked towards the sunset.