Casino Busting
Yam yawned as he walked. He was sent to investigate a casino that had recruited a dangerous mercenary known as "McShade." ‘Dangerous and unstable individual that uses a hunk of iron as a weapon.’
While dangerous mercenaries were not out of place, one with a name as blatant as McShade was particularly out of place.
He ransacked stores and threatened people with great amounts of violence, and was known for badly maiming anyone that opposed him.
Suddenly Yam had walked into something—the boy retreats, slightly dizzy as a shadow looms over him. “Are you alright?”
A tall man asked Yam with a deep and husky voice. Yam looks up to see a figure clad in shadowy clothes, his eyes hidden by his hat and his mouth obscured by cloth.
“Yeah. Just a little lost.” Yam admitted it with a wavy voice. He couldn't read the signs and directions on this land and the locals refused to give him directions. He knew he had to find a casino, but it was easier said than done.
The man murmured something as he shook his head. “I have free time, anyway.” He grumbled, scratching his neck.
Yam saw a weapon with the man—some type of anchor. ‘Can he be McShade?’
The man’s weapon was clearly an anchor, not a hunk of iron. “Where do you want to go? I can guide you there before going my way.” The tall man offered to guide Yam with a raspy voice.
“Do you know where a casino is in this area? I’m searching for a dangerous individual there.”
The tall man laughed. “What a coincidence! I, too, am going to a casino. If it is the same, then I guess we are quite lucky.” His words felt as if there would be more after his laugh.
Yam flinched at the mention of luck. ‘He is going to a casino. If he is that mercenary, oh my luck.’ He hated how his luck was so spoiled sometimes.
The tall man walked forward without an additional word. Yam stopped to stare at his back. ‘Aren’t you going to say anything else?’ Yam expected the man to say something else, but he started walking.
“Eeh, I am Yam. Nice to meet you, sir.” Yam tried to have small talk and get more information about the man to see if he was truly the one he needed to defeat.
“Luciano.” He answered immediately. Yam nodded.
Now was the time for the truth. “So, sir Luciano, why are you going to a casino?”
“A friend asked me for help, and I’m going to help her. Also, I want to play.” Yam groaned inside. That answer was vague as hell. How could he get information about that person?
‘Helping a friend and playing are categories so broad that he could be anything!’ A guy wanting to genuinely play at the casino and help a friend, or a guy wanting to work as a bouncer or muscle for the casino's criminal activities.
Both were possible.
(near the casino)
A man was thrown out of the casino by a bouncer. The door of the casino was locked, and two guards stood on each side of the entrance.
“Here it is. May I ask why you want to enter this place?” Luciano asked Yam, and his gaze shifted to the boy, even though his eyes were obscured. Yam felt some concerned worry in the man’s voice, although it was a faint feeling.
“I... my guild had a mission, B-Rank, I believe, to take down a mercenary named McShade. He is working for the Thorny Matron casino. This is the place, right?”
Luciano nodded. “This is the place.” The tall man cleared his throat. “McShade is a tall freak with red eyes and a hunk of iron; he uses simple fire magic to enhance his attacks.”
Yam nodded. He was not expecting a sudden tip about the man he was going to fight, even if that information was something he already knew.
Yam blinks as Luciano disappears. “Hey, you can’t enter here with a weapon!”
Luciano lifted the guards by their collars and threw them in. “Don’t worry. There won’t be “here” after I am done.”
(in the casino)
The doors busted open with the two guards lying on top of them. A menacing, shadowy figure loomed over them and the entrance. “Everyone, get out. Now.”
Yam stared, baffled, at the boldness shown by Luciano. He blinks for a few seconds before sprinting to the entrance. “I’m sorry! Sorry for the inconvenience!”
He apologized to the people who stopped playing their games. Everyone ran away in panic as guards came from upstairs, flooding the room. The last man to enter the “stage” was a tall and burly man.
His hair was white and badly shaved, and his eyes were red as blood. He had a large metal club held firmly in his hand. “What is happening here?” The large man snorted, staring at Luciano.
"What do you think you're doing to Madam Thorn’s casino, you trash?” Lucius spoke with a heavy voice, filled with violence and ill-intention, licking his lips at the chance of messing up a troublemaker.
“Here, Yam. This is your guy. I have some business to deal with upstairs. Good luck.”
“As if I will let you!” The larger man growled as he swung his metal club against Luciano immediately.
Luciano patiently adjusted his hat as a greatsword came swinging against the club. The attack stopped dead in its tracks as Yam joined the fray.
Yam looked at where Luciano stood. Only a faint flame trail was on the ground. Strangely, the guards that had come with Lucius disappeared.
Lucius grunted in fury as he pushed his club forward—it threw Yam’s sword out of his hand and high up into the air. Yam let himself be repelled at the same time and used his wings to keep himself in the air; shimmer and glitter were released from his wings.
“You little rat! I will deal with you and then get the other guy!”
“Nu-uh!”
“Element Make: Flaming bat!” Lucius’ club was set on fire, and then it was swung against Yam again.
Yam moved higher in the air and spun. His sword came back flying at ludicrous speeds, falling right into his hand with great momentum.
Weapons collided as flames sparked and the ground broke because of Yam’s momentum.
“Element Make—”
“Luck Devil—”
Two magical circles appeared before their weapons. The flames on the flaming club got hotter, but Yam’s sword slipped by the club, its blade aimed at Lucius.
The pressure of the attack sent Lucius back, causing a cut across his chest. Lucius stared at his chest. He foamed at the mouth. “You little shit! Element Make: Incinerate!”
Lucius dropped his club and held his hands together. A spray of flames came out like a wave; it burned the ground and melted nearby machines into molten slag.
From the flames, Yam emerged, undeterred by the attack. “Haaa!” Yam smacked Lucius’ head with the flat of his sword, knocking the mercenary out and stopping his magic as the large man fell to the ground.
Yam returned to the ground, letting out a relieved sigh. ”Well, that was easy. Wait. Where did everyone go?”
Explosions came from upstairs. “Oh. I think Luciano went there.”
(in the upstairs)
“Is nothing you want? Money, fame, women?” The woman tried to buy time.
“Cut it short. I don’t want anything from you.” The woman clicked her tongue as Luciano got closer. He dragged his not-anchor across the floor, letting a painful cacophony rise.
The woman backed up against a wall. “Don’t come closer! Or I will activate my magic and trigger a virus lacrima! This whole casino will be blown to bits! My virus magic will make everyone in this town sick!” The woman.
Luciano didn’t stop. “Virus, you say? That cuts it; you are with the Hag Hex, are you not?” His voice was raspy, but it lacked any sort of concern or worry about her threat.
The woman gritted her teeth as Luciano closed the distance between them. “I don’t think that using such magic is a good thing. Tell me: Is your virus magic really “yours”?”
A magical circle appeared before her hand. Lucius grabbed her by the arm and raised her. “Are you immune to your "own" virus magic?”
Yam rushed through the upper floor. A woman screaming caught his attention. “Don’t come closer! Or I will activate my magic and trigger a virus lacrima! This whole casino will be blown to bits! My virus magic will make everyone in this town sick!”
Yam widened his eyes as he made his way to that room. He saw Luciano holding the woman by her arm. Her magical circle shone even brighter. He connected one and two. “Wait! Mister, let her go! if she—”
Luciano glanced at Yam. His red eyes met his. The boy realized something about the man. He had red eyes and wielded an anchor as a weapon. Something close to a heap of raw iron.
“Wait, mister… Are you... Lucius?” The woman, possibly Madame Thorn, widened her eyes in surprise. She connected the dots about the man before her.
Lucius, the true one, sighed. “I will explain myself later. For now, let’s deal with this problem first.” He headbutted the woman, knocking her out and dispersing the magical circle.
(Scene Break)
Both Madam Thorn and her goons were tightened by ropes. They were at the reception of their casino, a “gift” for the policemen alongside proof of their crimes and association with the dark guild Hags Hex.
Yam crossed his arms and put a smile on his face as he stared at Lucius. “So, when were you planning to tell me you were the guy I had to capture?”
“After I handed this woman to the police officers,” Lucius spoke in a deadpan matter-of-fact tone. It caught Yam out of guard.
“Seriously?” Yam asked as he resisted the urge to blush at Lucius’s bluntness.
“I have no reason to lie. You were probably sent for that copycat. My magics are quite simple to replicate by those types, so they can fake being me.” Lucius answered without a care in the world.
Suddenly, he stepped out of the casino. Yam was startled but followed Lucius. “Hey, where do you think you are going? I still have to arrest you!”
While Yam shouldn’t be so casual with the evil-doer, something told him that Lucius was not a threat. That he hadn't meant to do anyone harm. “You still almost got this thrown infected with a virus!”
“I didn’t. She was not immune to the lacrima, so she would get caught in the aftermath. Those types, the selfish and "ugly,” save their skin first. It was a bluff. If she wasn’t bluffing, I wouldn’t be so lenient in her treatment.”
Yam opened his mouth to rebuke Lucius, but he had a point. He was “casual” about how he dealt with Thorn and her goons.
‘It must have been you who bound those guys...’ The goons that came with the fake Lucius were already bound at the entrance. Yam had no proof that Lucius did it, but only he could’ve done it. There was no one else with them.
“Why did you attack the casino? Aren’t you a mercenary?” Attacking a casino controlled by a dark guild was not a smart choice, especially for a sellsword.
“A client paid me to do so.” Lucius picked something from his coat’s inner pockets.
A few crooked coins and a badly made drawing of Lucius. Yam crooked his head, confused. Lucius sighed. “A girl came to me, thinking of me as McShade because of the color of my eyes and weapon. She was right.”
A heavy clench infiltrated Lucius' words for a moment, but it disappeared just as quickly as it appeared. “She wanted the meanest guy to trash the place. Her father was a gambler, but one day he didn’t come home. My best guess is that a loan shark or the casino dealt with him.”
Lucius stored away the drawing and the coins. Yam bit his lip, understanding the hidden message in Lucius' message. “Still, you are a mercenary. You couldn’t buy a single loaf of pride with that.”
It didn’t make any sense with the fame Lucius had; that was not how an ordinary mercenary acted. “It doesn’t matter. She paid me with everything she had. I did the job. Now I will tell my client the mission was fulfilled.”
‘And besides, no child should live with the weight of vengeance on their shoulders.’ No one should throw their lives away for the sake of retribution…