Welcome back to Arezo. (ILuvZelda)

OOC: Here's the RP I promised you. It's called Welcome back to Arezo, because an RP I started a while ago died. The RP was focused on the strange town of Arezo, so I decided to carry the town over to this RP.

BIC: A tubby man sat in his velvet armchair. His name was Thorm, and he was definitely in a pickle at the moment. His town had lost the last game, and that was a definite embarrassment for him. This was especially true, as he was the one who brought the opponents for the last one.

The game was rather simple really. Three or four people would be kidnapped and brought to a deserted island. Fit with magically explosive collars, they would be hunted by the townsfolk. Unfortunately, the last hunt didn’t go so well.

It was Thorm’s turn yet again to choose the opponents for the game, and he was strictly told to choose only two people this time. He sat in his chair watching the flames dance in the fireplace. This was one of his favorite pastimes.

“The next two people to come through that door,” Thorm said to himself, motioning towards the door to his inn. “Will be the targets for the game. I definitely will need help from Heiro for this.”

The large man peeled himself off of his cozy chair. After sitting in the same chair many times a day for several years, his rear end had left an indentation on the furniture. Thorm toddled over to the stairs and called Heiro’s name.

The girl was down the stairs in a flash, reaching Thorm before he even closed his mouth. She was a strange girl indeed. Specializing with poison darts, she was the one who captured most of the contestants for the game. Thorm instantly explained what he wanted for the game this time.

“The last one didn’t go so well, so try not to get a male demon. In fact, a female demon would be good. Get a human while you’re at it. Not too weak of a human though, we want the game to be exciting.”

Heiro nodded and went out the front door without a word. It surprised Thorm that she rarely spoke.

-------

Flamel stared at the welcome sign for the town. Arezo, as it was called, seemed to be a rather small town. It was too bad that Creed didn’t know of the fact that the villagers were preparing for the game. He was completely oblivious to the fact that he was going to be a contender.

A young girl watched the explosives master from a nearby rooftop as he made his way towards the inn. Being the largest building in town, the inn was where almost all travelers made their way to upon their arrival. Heiro loaded her blowdarts and prepared for just the right moment.

Flamel looked up at the massive building before him. The door was finely crafted from an elegant oak design, and the doorknob itself was made of a polished crystal. It surprised him that nobody had torn off and stolen the doorknob.

Creed reached for the elegant knob, deciding that the inside of the inn was probably just as fine. He would wait to blow it up until much, much later. Unfortunately for him, the last thing he felt before blacking out was the prick of a dart in the back of his neck.

OoC: Aight. The RPG is here! Yay! Anyway I'm using Celia as you know.....

BiC:

As Celia entered this pitiful town called Arenzo she could tell it was crawling with humans for her to dispose of. Still she was going to approach cautiously so as to not cause too much of a stir. She could feel as though she was being followed and tried to shrug the feeling off.

Suddenly she saw a young female that seemed to be human following her as though to learn more about her.

“My first victim...” she whispered to herself softly.

To her surprise the young girl walked up to her. Celia stood there examining the girls every movement. The girl quickly asked, “Are you a demon?”

That startled Celia, but she didn’t show it to this girl. “Perhaps. Why would you care?” Celia said placing her words as cautiously as she could.

“Oh…… Well…. Perhaps is good enough for me!” The girl said as she whipped out darts.

Stunned, Celia had no time to react as the girl threw them with a great amount of force at her.

“Ha! That was easier than I thought” she heard the girl say as she inspected Celia. Celia was on the brink of blacking out when the girl whispered “Time for a little game demon girl.” All around Celia the world became dark and started to fade and a thought came to her head as she drifted into the dark abyss, “A game. How fun.”

Flamel’s eyes fluttered open. For a moment he forgot where he was and what was going on. Of course, it all came flooding back to him when he noticed his new surroundings.

Creed was sitting in a caravan of sorts, his hands and legs chained so that he couldn’t escape. He could also feel something on his neck, although he was too lazy to bring his hands up to feel for what it was. The explosive master turned slightly and raised his eyebrow.

“So, I’m not the only one in here eh?” he asked out loud. Sitting across the cramped caravan from him was a surprisingly beautiful woman. Something about her told Flamel that she wasn’t a normal person.

Leaning over, Flamel patted her on the cheek to see if she were awake. The woman began to stir slightly, but Creed needed answers now. He smacked her across the face with the back of his hand to speed up the awakening process.

“Yo, wake up baby face!” Flamel hollered. He smiled to himself when Celia awoke, taking the first second after waking up to try and hit Creed. The madman leaned back and laughed as Celia came to her senses and noticed where she was.

“Who are you and where are we?” she asked. The last place she remembered being was in Arezo, speaking with a strange young girl.

“The name’s Flamel, Flamel Creed,” Flamel said, outstretching his hand for a handshake. When Celia didn’t take his hand, he decided to simply continue. “As for where we are, I honestly don’t know. The last thing I remember was a prick on the back of my neck.”

Celia nodded to herself, remembering that the darts had felt like pricks. This meant that Flamel had been taken for the same “game” that she had been taken for. She looked at the strange man sitting across from her.

He was definitely a human, but held a strange air about him that very few humans had. He was leaning back, staring as Celia with half open eyes. He obviously had no more of an idea of what was going on than she did, but he also seemed to want to keep up a conversation.

“So,” Flamel began. “You’re kind of pretty…”

The female demon’s face instantly held a shocked look. The fact that he had said that at all, let alone before he even knew her name, was quite strange. She forced herself to put on a more formal face, although she couldn’t hide the fact that she was a bit surprised.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Where are my manners? I forgot to ask you your name,” the madman finished.

He was trying to keep up the small talk. Although he did find that the girl was rather pretty, he was also trying to think of a way to escape. He couldn’t just blow the caravan up, as that definitely wouldn’t be good for himself and the girl.

Celia was about to answer when the caravan was suddenly flooded with light. A large man with a finely combed mustache and the girl that Celia had been talking to were standing at the exit. The large man instantly boomed with deep-throated laughter.

“So Heiro, these are the contenders? I see you have nice taste. The human is a wanted man, and the woman is indeed a female demon. How did you know?” The strange girl, whom Flamel and Celia both now knew was known as Heiro, shrugged.

“Actually, I had no idea. The female dropped a big clue, but I didn’t know the male was wanted. How did you know Thorm?”

The large man chuckled another deep-throated laugh. As he explained to Heiro something about the mind’s eye and crap like that, Flamel took the chance to get a better look at the female demon.

Celia was wearing a strange collar on her neck, probably the same thing that was on his. The collar looked to have been made of a strange wood, and was engraved with runic symbols. Creed decided that he would chop off her collar first, and reached for his shortsword.

Thorm noticed what Flamel was doing and quickly pulled a red stone from his pocket. He squeezed the stone, glaring at the madman. Creed brought his hands to his throat as he found himself unable to breathe.

“I think you’ll find that your weapon is gone Flamel. I know of your… ability, and the collar takes care of that. Of course,” Thorm turned towards Celia. “I took her staff as well.”

Heiro snapped her fingers and the chains that bound Flamel and Celia instantly fell to the floor. Before the chains even fell to the ground Flamel was on Thorm. The madman leapt from the caravan and knocked the man down, wrestling with him on the ground.

Celia was about to do the same with Heiro when Thorm squeezed the red stone again. This time, Flamel was sent sprawling to the ground. Celia felt herself choking as Thorm squeezed the stone.

After a few seconds the large man lessened his grip on the stone, allowing his captives to breathe.

“Now then,” the large man said, panting between words. “You two are here for the greatest of honors. My village is filled with powerful warriors and animal tamers, so we eventually got bored of hunting animals. That’s why we switched to sentient creatures.”

Heiro interrupted Thorm, preferring to get straight to the point. “The game is rather simple. You two must survive one week on this island,” Flamel raised his eyebrow at this, and turned to face the caravan. Much to his surprise, the caravan was really a ship.

“The collars on your necks keep you from using any of your powers, as well as keeping you from leaving the island. The red stone that Thorm uses,” she motioned towards Thorm at this. “Keeps you from doing anything before the game has fully begun.”

Heiro smiled as she saw that Celia had a look that showed a mix of annoyance and anger. Flamel however, had a mischievous sneer on his face. He was going to have fun with this.

Heiro and Thorm climbed onto the boat and prepared to set off. The other villagers were already in random areas across the island, and it wasn’t the villagers alone. They had certain pets to accommodate them.

Just before the boat set off, Thorm turned around for one last word of advice. “Oh, and don’t try to take the collars off. It won’t be very pretty if you do…”

“These collars…. Their magical properties are unique…..” Celia said softly.

She looked over at Flamel and saw that he was deep in his own thoughts. “The thoughts of a madman”, she whispered so that he couldn’t hear her.

She decided it wasn’t time to kill him yet and sat down to focus and clear her mind.

She sat there as the minutes on the boat seemed like hours and the hours like days. She tried to remain calm and keep cool. She was trying to ignore Flamel who occasionally had the nerve to speak to her. She replied one word answers and shrugged him off.

After a long time of sitting there collecting her thoughts she heard a creak from behind her. She spun around crouching. There stood the girl named Heiro.

“What do you want?” Celia replied with much distain.

“Calm down demon girl I’m just here to say we’ve nearly reached the island.” Heiro said with a snicker.

Flamel seemed to be excited about this arrival, but Celia paid him no mind. “When shall we get there?” Celia asked in a demanding tone.

“All in good time…… Be patient and good things will come. Well, not in your case, but it’s a good life lesson if-“ Heiro half stated.

“Shut up.” Celia said to interrupt her.

“We’re there so you can stop getting all touchy demon girl.” Heiro said.
“Stop calling me that you insolent brat.” Celia said letting her emotions get the best of her.

As they disembarked off the boat Celia could sense the Flamel was up to something. What he was up to she didn’t know.

“Welcome to the island.” Heiro said as they took their first steps on the land that would be their home for a week.

Flamel smiled with his hands jammed in his pockets, enjoying the sight of the sandy beach. Celia, Creed noticed, didn’t seem to be enjoying this as much as he was. Nonetheless, Flamel decided to ask her a question.

“So, like fish?”

It was obvious that fish would be one type of food on the island. Even as they were standing on the beach Flamel could see dark figures darting about in the water. He was instantly glad that he had talked Thorm into letting him have a knife.

Celia gave Flamel a quick glare before returning her gaze to the island. They were on a rather cliché beach actually. There were some palm trees and golden sands, with a crab visible here and there scurrying about.

Heiro and the tubby man boarded the boat, leaving Flamel and Celia for the time being. It was fairly obvious that they would be back eventually. Something about the air itself seemed to describe the fact that each group had a person who hated their opposite on the other side.

While it was fairly obvious that Celia hated Heiro, it was a little less obvious that Thorm intended to be the one to kill Flamel. He had talked the tubby man into giving him a single knife to start the week with, something that had never happened before.

To tell the truth, Thorm didn’t even remember why he gave the knife to Creed. That alone was enough to make Thorm want to wring his throat. The large man glared at Flamel as the boat drifted off, leaving Celia and Creed alone on the beach.

“Well,” said Flamel, thinking out loud. “There’s no doubt that some of those villagers are stationed about the island, that’s a given. Hopefully we’ll be able to catch some food before they come after us.”

Without warning, Creed pulled a knife from his pocket. The silver blade gleamed in the sunlight, reflecting the image of Celia’s face for a brief moment before Flamel threw it at her. The female demon ducked to avoid the weapon and dove at the madman’s legs.

Startled, Creed took a step back. Celia nonetheless caught his legs, tripping him. Now Celia and Flamel were both on the ground, the female demon on top of him, attempting to choke the madman.

Much to Celia’s surprise, Flamel was laughing.

“Well, isn’t this a comfortable position?” he said. Celia blushed and noticed that Flamel was gazing behind her. The female demon turned to find that the knife had pierced a three-foot snake’s head. The snake’s fangs had been barred, ready to bite.

Celia quietly got off of Flamel, rather embarrassed that she had mistaken his attempt to save her life as an attempt to take it. Creed remained lying on the ground, now with his hands behind his head and a casual smile on his face.

“Hungry?” Flamel asked, tipping his head in the direction of the dead snake. Celia looked a little hungry to him. He wasn’t very hungry to tell the truth, and was actually more interested in two things.

“Who is she? She’s obviously a demon, but aren’t demons supposed to kill humans at first sight? And the villagers, where could they be hiding?”

“I’m not hungry.” Celia said still fazed by the snake fiasco. She started to walk away when Flamel stopped her.

“Where are you going?” He asked. Celia felt his stare on her back.

“I’m going to get as far away from you wretched humans as possible.” Celia said spinning around. “Even if this is a deserted island in the middle of no where. But if you’re afraid to be by yourself I shall sit here and protect you she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Celia sat down abruptly and closed her eyes to think more in depth. As she did so she heard the noises of the waves and the wisp of the wind. She sighed heavily and felt the brightness of the sun warm her back. To most this was a paradise of light. Yet to her light was the enemy. This place was draining her powers of darkness slowly. She would have to wait until nightfall for her powers to be fully effective.

She turned her head to a creak she heard and sure enough Heiro was walking toward her.

“Listen up demon girl I’m only gonna say this once: You. Better. Not. Die. Get it?” Heiro said slowly.

“I have a brain unlike you. I understand how dire the situation is.” Celia said quite annoyed of being treated like a child.

“You know that’s what’s funny about you. You THINK you know what’s going on, but really truly you don’t.” Heiro said patting Celia’s head roughly. “You’ll experience new things out here demon girl. New wondrous things. Hope you have fun.”
With that Heiro walked off and left her sitting there dumbfounded. She brushed the encounter off and stood up ran up to Heiro and spun her around. She slapped her hard on the face and glared at her. It wasn’t in Celia’s nature to slap people, but seeing as she had no weapon she used her hands as the next best choice.

Heiro kept her head down and seemed to be crying, but when she lifted her head she was chuckling and holding her stomach. “You’re a riot.” She managed to say between deep laughs. She then walked off more swiftly and Celia assumed so as to not get another slap. Celia composed herself and started to walk away from the boat that bought her and Flamel there.

“Once this week is over you’ll all pay.” She told herself as she walked.

Flamel smiled as the whole slapping confrontation happened. He was puzzled as to why Heiro and Thorm kept showing up, even though their ship should have left a while ago.

“We’d probably be safer a little farther in the island. It would be too easy for a villager to notice us here.” Creed thought to himself. He plucked the knife from the snake’s skull, quickly placing it in his pocket and striding towards Celia from behind.

He snaked his arms around her in a hug of sorts, surprising the female demon. Surprising her was something that he was beginning to enjoy.

“You know,” he whispered in her ear. “You are incredibly cute, I mean it. Have I said that before? Oh well, I’ll say it again. You are really pretty.”

Celia elbowed Flamel in the gut, forcing him to let go and clutch his stomach. She spun around to face the madman. For a moment she contemplated slapping him just as she had slapped Heiro.

“Don’t do that again,” she said. Flamel laughed, looking Celia right in the eye. Something about her eyes was incredibly beautiful, although it wasn’t the eyes alone that made her pretty.

“If we move towards the center of the island, it’ll be harder for the villagers to find us.” Creed said. Without another word, he began on his way towards what he assumed was the center of the island. At first he heard nothing, but was gratified a few seconds later when he heard Celia’s pursuing footsteps.

He smiled and continued to walk, admiring the tropical forest of sorts that they entered. Trees of various kinds, although mostly palm trees, greeted the eye in every direction. In the distance a large mountain rested in the middle of a large mass of trees.

Thinking that the mountain would be as good a place as any to rest, Flamel began to walk in that direction. Time seemed to fly as the two of them walked, although the boat may have dropped them off near night anyway. Whatever the case, night fell long before the two of them reached the mountain.

Creed dropped the knife, preferring not to accidentally roll over it in his sleep. The madman sat down and leaned against a palm tree. He’d head for the mountain the next day.

Flamel looked up and was met by Celia’s eyes. They seemed to be even more noticeable during the nighttime, and they had an almost hypnotic effect. Creed was a tiny bit worried about what they were looking at though.

Celia was staring at the knife Flamel had dropped, something that was never a good sign. Then again, Creed didn’t think the female demon would try to kill him.

“Go ahead,” he said. “If you want to kill me in my sleep then be my guest.”

Flamel was asleep before Celia even answered him, his soft and rythmatic breathing being the only noise coming from him. Although the female demon seemed to be slightly cold, Creed was perfectly comfortable.

OOC: Sorry for the quality of this post. I had a much better version of this, but accidentally deleted it.

Ooc: 'Tis fine. ^^ I mean I'm doing quite horribly.

Bic: As Celia sat there in the dank forest at night alone with a mad man she began to think about how this could get any worse. She had never received any luck and now it seemed she wasn’t going to get any soon. Then as she thought that it did get worse as it usually does. Rain poured down and the forest wasn’t thick enough to stop almost any of the rain drops from falling on her head.

She looked over to Flamel and he was sound asleep still and dry as a desert. It seemed that the tree above him had large leaves to protect him from the hard rain. As she sat there soaked she knew that this would not be an easy week. She leaned against the nearest tree and listened to the patter of the rain drops as they fell.

“Wake up sleepy head.” Celia heard a voice above her head and muttered the word, “Nemo?”

“Nemo? The name is Flamel Creed.” Flamel said staring down at her.

Celia got up abruptly and brushed herself off of leaves. She could feel that her clothes were still moist from the down pour of last night. She sighed and stared at Flamel. “I am well aware of your name so disregard that comment. We’d best be going now.”

She started to walk and didn’t wait for Flamel to follow. He caught up to her moments later and as Celia expected wanted some small talk. Just as he opened his mouth to speak she spoke first.

“You must be wondering why you aren’t dead yet.” She started. Flamel closed his mouth as Celia continued. “Normally you’d be dead by now, but seeing as I don’t have my staff and I don’t want to be left alone on this god forsaken island so it’s not wise for me to kill you as of yet. Then again, why do I need company?”

He opened his mouth to answer when she started to talk again, “It was a rhetorical question. Anyway, don’t be surprised if one day you wake up to find that you are dead. That is all I have to say for now.” Celia closed her mouth and stared straight at their goal being the center of the island.

OOC: lol, I have no clue why, but I'm starting to invision Celia as having a British accent. I honestly don't know why. ^_^

BIC:

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island…

Several villagers brandished primitive spears, preferring to keep to the wooden kind rather than using metal. Five cages, one for each villager, were spaced out around the campsite. Growling and scratching could be heard coming from the metal holding cells.

One villager smiled, staring at the cages. Inside were beasts that had supposedly been dead for a long time…

Back at Celia and Flamel’s whereabouts…

“So who’s Nemo?” asked Creed. The name sounded really strange, almost fishlike. Celia continued to walk, not even bothering to turn and face Flamel. After a few seconds however, she did answer his question.

“My brother.”

Flamel and Celia continued to walk wordlessly for several minutes. It had been a quick question, quick answer. The mention of the word “brother” however, was having a strange effect on Creed.

Flamel gripped the rope lightly, watching as the children went about their tug of war. His brother was a bit more enthusiastic about the game however, gripping the rope and pretending to pull with all of his might. Overall, there were about twenty-six children.

Thirteen children on either side, with Flamel and Kang on opposite sides. Creed smiled, although he was actually quite bored. Inside his head he imagined the rope blowing up and sending smoke into everybody’s faces. Unfortunately, the rope did explode.

Flamel instinctively let go of the rope just before the explosion, and was thus spared. The children and his brother though, weren’t so lucky. The ground was stained with blood in a matter of seconds…

“Flamel?”

Creed opened his eyes, realizing that he had been walking at an angle. He quickly switched directions and fell into step with Celia. After a moment of walking, he decided to speak.

“I used to have a brother too,” he said. Without turning his head, Flamel could tell that Celia had picked up on the sadness in his voice. She remained silent for a moment before she spoke.

“What do you mean ‘used to’?”

Creed looked up at the sky, noting the fact that storm clouds could be seen far off in the distance. By the looks of them, they were moving away. It had likely rained the last night.

“I accidentally blew his hands off,” Flamel replied. After nearly a second he added, “Along with twenty-six children’s hands as well…”

Celia stared at Creed. Rather than his usual smirk, Flamel had a perfectly straight face. His eyes showed a hint of sadness at what he had done. This was incredibly strange considering the fact that he considered blowing up houses to be a game.

Before either of them could utter another word, the ground began to shake. A nearby puddle vibrated with each quake. Something big was coming, and neither of them wanted to be in the way.

Celia quickly ran to the nearest tree, happily finding that the roots were poking out in a way that allowed her to hide under it. Flamel ran behind a smaller tree, completely unaware that a small tree wouldn’t be a good hiding spot from these.

Five monstrous beasts, supposedly extinct, stomped into the clearing. They walked on two legs, with jaws large enough to swallow a man whole. Flamel couldn’t help but gasp when he realized what the beasts were, and what was riding on them.

The beasts were Tyrannosaurus Rex’s, and villagers were riding them as if they were horses. Creed continued to stare up at them with awe until he felt somebody grab and yank him from behind. Flamel closed his eyes, half expecting to be torn to pieces.

After a few seconds he warily opened them, seeing Celia’s face. She seemed to be quite annoyed. Flamel turned slightly, realizing that the female demon had yanked him into her hiding spot. Surprisingly, it was actually quite comfy.

The gaint lizards weren’t gone though. Quite the contrary, as they were sniffing around the clearing…

OoC: British? O.o Hahahah! That would be pretty cool actually. Maybe she does have one.... I mean you never know.

BiC: As Celia sat there thinking about what their predicament was she heard and felt the large lizards’ footsteps getting closer. If she had her staff she knew that she could take them. Yet now all she had was a lunatic and a small knife that would most likely do nothing against the dinosaurs’ rough skin.

“Think Celia think.” She whispered softly.

If she couldn’t get past these dinosaurs she wouldn’t survive the week on this demented island.

“Listen to me you madman. The only way to get out of this situation is to surrender.” Celia began to say. “Now I know it isn’t the bravest thing to do, but it is the smartest thing to do. We can’t get past these tremendous creatures or scathe them at all in our current predicament.”

Celia walked out of the hiding spot calmly and raised her hands in the air to signify that she had given up. The villagers seemed almost disappointed at this, but still called of their dinosaurs and took Celia by her arms. They tied her up, put a gag on her mouth, and to Celia’s surprise didn’t bother finding Flamel. They just took her and hopped back on their rides.

Despite the fact it seemed that her predicament had worsened, Celia knew what she was doing. Yet even she didn’t know where she was being taken. Still soon she would find out.
*soon after being taken*

“What should we do with the chick?” A villager asked another.

“Oh how about we skin her alive! That might entertain us for a moment.” A second villager said.

“Stop being idiots you two. We are to take her to the volcano. THAT is where we will be told what to do with her.” A third and final villager proclaimed.

“Can we at least put her to sleep? She is trying to bite through the gag we put on her.” The second villager asked?

“Fine. She’s bugging me too….” The third villager replied giving Celia a look to show how disgusted he was by her. Celia gave a muffled grunt in protest to the idea, but the villagers ignored her and gave her something before she could see and she found herself drifting into a familiar sleep.

“Not this again……..” she thought as she lost all consciousness.

OOC: Thanks again for the drawing of Flamel. I'm so sorry that it's taken so long for me to post, but my writer's block is finally starting to back off. YAY!!!

BIC:

Flamel stood paralyzed as the villagers took Celia away. He of all people knew that madmen and psychos didn’t show much mercy, if any at all. The Master of Explosives let out a relieved sigh when the villagers left without even searching for him.

“I am invincible!” he shouted once he was sure they were out of hearing range. He knew of course that it wasn’t true, but it was kind of a spur of the moment thing. Even though nobody was nearby to hear it, he still blushed with embarrassment.

“Now then,” he thought, taking out the knife and twirling it between his middle and index fingers. “Should I try to rescue her, or not even bother? She would probably kill me if she could afford to, but she really is a pretty one…”

Creed bit into his bottom lip with his sharp upper teeth in frustration. He just couldn’t decide what to do. If he tried to rescue her he could end up dead, but he’d probably go mad if he went the entire week without anybody to talk to.

“Don’t worry demon girl, Flamel Creed’s coming.”

~

Thorm and Heiro…

“What? The villagers already caught one of them? That was a short hunt…” said the large man. His enormous girth shook with each booming word, and he didn’t even seem to notice that he was covering Heiro’s face with specks of spittle.

“It was the demon girl. You know, the one that slapped me?” Heiro pulled a handkerchief from her pocket, wiping the wet dots off of her face. She truly hated it when Thorm was angry or excited about something, as that always meant that her face would be rather wet.

Thorm turned in his massive chair, taking in this information. While the large man thought, Heiro observed the inside of the hut. She had never been in this one before, which is why it interested her.

A fire pit sat in the middle with some still hot embers. The walls were adorned with spears and swords of various sizes, some of which were so large that Heiro doubted even Thorm could wield. Speaking of the large man, he was sitting on a wooden chair made of sturdy oak.

In front of Thorm was a table, the kind of which most people would eat on. Rather than eating on it, Thorm used it to display his trophies. The shrunken heads of various warriors adorned it, as well as a lock of white hair that had been torn from the head of the only one to ever defeat Thorm in single combat.

“Let out a dozen or so targets. It’ll make it more interesting,” said Thorm, stroking his mustache with one of his gigantic hands. “As for the girl, where are they taking her?”

Heiro raised a blonde eyebrow. “Targets?” She was still relatively new to the games, even though she currently held the highest rank among the hunters. She’d never heard of targets in the games before.

“Ahh,” her boss said. Thorm leaned back and lifted a pipe to his mouth. After filling it with tobacco and subsequently lighting it via torch, he continued. “Many times we have caught humans that just weren’t good enough for the games. These humans are kept like animals, and deployed to add spice to the hunt.”

Thorm paused for a moment to blow a ring of smoke into the air before finishing. “The targets can be hunted, although their main purpose is to make the hunt harder for the initial prey. The initial prey is sometimes hindered, sometimes helped by the targets. You never know.”

Heiro yawned, cutting Thorm off. “What do you think they’ll do with the girl at the volcano? I’m guessing Flamel will be heading there.” She hated how Celia had been caught. Heiro wanted to be the one who caught and killed the demon girl.

“I don’t know,” replied the large man. “It depends on what Ghorn wants to do with her. You know that the volcano is his domain, so that means he has authority over everything that goes on over there. He likes to have fun with female prey