Dragon-Stiel Inc. Presents:
A True Champion Is...
A Rune Soldier fic


Standard Disclaimer:  Rune Soldier belongs to the creative mind of Ryo 
Mizuno and ADV Films.  We are currently 'borrowing' it from them without 
proper knowledge or acceptance on their parts.  We do this in hopes that 
Mizuno-san will one day read our little story and become reinspired to 
finish the Rune Soldier manga rather than leaving us hanging at volume 4.  
...Not that we're bitter or anything.  Enjoy please! ^_^



Part 5--Louie's Plan of Attack...Or, A Very Scary Thought


Louie glanced around; rather perturbed at the lack of reaction he had 
received for his announcement.

"Guys," he said a little louder.  "I said I have a plan!"

"We heard you the first time, Louie," Merrill told him.  "It wasn't funny 
then and it's not funny now."

"I'm serious!" he shouted while waving his arms above his head.  "I know how 
we can get inside!"

"Louie," Genie muttered.  "You're basically known for two things:  breaking 
hard things and lifting heavy things.  Notice how neither of those require a 
whole lot of brain power?"

"Guys, we really don't have any other choice," Ila reminded them.  "Louie's 
the only one with any sort of idea right now."

"Thank you, Ila," Louie said, happy that at least one person had some faith 
in him.

"No matter how bad it might be, we should still hear him out," she added.

Louie facefalted.

"All right, let's hear it then," Merrill sighed.

Louie straightened out and pointed toward the large windows.  "Well, since 
all of the doors are being guarded, our only real hope of getting inside is 
through there."

Genie shook her head.  "Even if there are no demons standing in front of the 
windows, there's still no chance of us reaching them without being seen."

"I know," he told  her as he opened his large pack and began digging through 
it.  "And that's why we'll just have to use..."  He pulled a long purple 
cloak from the pack and held it out for them to see.  "This!"

The four girls and two thieves stared at the cloak in wonder until Ila 
snapped her finger.  "Hey, that's the Fairy Cape that I gave you when you 
went to the Tartious Forest!"

"That's right!" he beamed.

"You still have that thing?" Genie asked incredulously.  "It doesn't even 
fit you, remember?"

"I realize that," he assured her.  "That's why it's gonna have to be someone 
else who uses it."

Three sets of eyes narrowed at him.

"And...who might that 'someone' be, Louie?" Melissa growled.

Unaware or unconcerned about the impending danger to his well-being, Louie 
smiled and stroked his chin.  "Well, it's obviously gonna have to be someone 
a lot smaller than me, as well as someone who is agile and fast enough to 
climb into that window without being noticed.  And among our group, who's 
the only person that meets all of those requirements?"

"Small..." Genie muttered.

"Fast..." Melissa added.

"And agile?" Ila finished.

Everyone slowly turned and stared at Merrill.

"What?" the female thief asked.

Louie walked forward and placed the cape over her shoulder.  "Go make us 
proud, Merrill."

"Me?  Why the hell should I have to do it?" she demanded as she flung the 
cape back in his face.

"Well, because you're the most qualified for it, of course," he told her.  
"It'll be simple, Merrill.  All you have to do is put the cape on, climb 
into the window, and then throw a rope down for the rest of us.  Once you 
do, we'll all run to it, Genie will go up first, then Ila, then Melissa, and 
finally me.  That way me and Melissa will have time to drive off any demons 
that might spot us with our magic and give everyone else more time.  Once 
we're all inside, we just gotta make our way to the hidden room, and get all 
the students safely away until my old man and the others get back."

Genie rubbed her temples.  "Well as long as we're keeping things simple."

"This is without a doubt one of the most reckless courses of action you've 
ever thought up, Louie!" Melissa shouted.  "How could you even think of 
putting Merrill in a situation like that?"

Louie looked a little hurt at the accusation.  "Hey, if there was any other 
way, I'd go for it.  And if there was any way that I could be the one to do 
it instead, I would.  But let's face it, Merrill's the fastest of us all, 
she's the only one that could climb that wall on her own, and she's the only 
one who can fit under the cape so she won't be seen."

"Even so, it's still asking too much for her to do alone," Genie stated.

"That's right!"  Merrill shook her head furiously.  "And there is nothing 
that you can say or do that will get me to do this, Louie!  Nothing!"

"I'll give you my share of the reward."

"...Give me the stupid cape."

"Awesome!  Thanks, Merrill!  You won't regret doing this!"

"Eheheh.  Oh, but YOU might, Louie," she snarled.

Genie and Melissa shared a look, both wanting to interject, but realizing 
that there really wasn't any other alternative.  That didn't mean that they 
had to be happy about it, though, and each silently vowed to kill the Rune 
Soldier in their own slow and painful fashion if anything happened to their 
friend.

Merrill took the cape back and pulled it over her head, vanishing instantly.

"This just might work," Ila commented.

"Of course it will!" Louie said confidently.  "And even if a demon does 
somehow notice her, I'll be here to offer backup support with my new and 
improved magic!"

"Wonderful, now I feel less safe," said Merrill.

"Oh, and make sure you give us some sort of signal once you reach the 
window, that way we'll be prepared to go as soon as you lower the rope."

"Fine Louie, I got it.  Any other helpful suggestions?"

"Nope, just get out there and break a leg, okay?"

Louie's eyes suddenly bulged as he crumbled to the ground, groaning and 
clutching his groin in agony.

"Merrill, what did you do?" Melissa asked quizzically.

"Nothing," she answered innocently.  "Well, see you at the top, guys."  A 
soft rustling was the only indication that Merrill had left.

Everyone was silent for several minutes, aside from the soft mutterings of  
'Against my will, against my will...' from Melissa.  Everyone carefully 
scanned the grounds in all directions for approaching demons.

"How close do you think she is?  It's impossible to tell with that cloak 
on," Ila whispered.

"Don't worry," Louie assured her.  "Merrill's hard enough to keep track of 
when she's NOT invisible.  Those demons don't have a chance of finding her 
this way."

Genie shook her head.  "You're wrong.  Don't forget that there are many 
types of demons with above average senses of smell or hearing.  Just because 
they can't see her doesn't mean she's unnoticeable."

The white-haired thief, who had been sitting off to the side with his 
partner during the entire previous exchange, just smirked.  "I have to agree 
with Mr. Rune Soldier here.  If there's anyone who can pull something like 
this off, Merrill'd be the one."  His partner nodded in agreement.

The words of confidence didn't settle the three women's minds much.

Louie began stroking his chin again.  "I wonder...what do you think she'll 
do for a signal?  She can't exactly wave her arms or yell at us or-"

>From the window, a glint of something metal was sighted shooting towards the 
group's hiding spot.  Louie gave a cry of shock and just managed to close 
his teeth around the flat sides of the dagger that Merrill had thrown before 
it made contact with the inside of his mouth.  The sudden shock caused him 
to fall over and begin twitching on the ground.

"Looks like that's the signal," Genie said casually, as though her teammate 
hadn't almost just been impaled.  "Let's get ready to make a break for it."

The four adventurers lined up at the edge of the clearing.

"Alright girls, on my mark."

The others nodded.

"Ready?"

Melissa tightened her grip on her staff.

"Set..."

Genie narrowed her eyes and flexed her leg muscles.

"WAIT!"

Louie fell on his face.

"ILAAA!  You messed me-mmph!"

"Quiet, Louie!" she whispered with her hand tightly over his mouth.  "Look 
over there."

Louie looked, and managed to drag himself safely back in the bushes as five 
large demons; two dog-like creatures sniffing along the ground with three 
red-skinned goblins in between them came into view.  It took only a few 
seconds before the dog-demons led them over to the window where a thin rope 
was now hanging.

"Not good," Genie cursed.

"Against my will," Melissa catch-phrased.

"What's the problem?" Louie asked.  "We can take those things easily."

Genie glared at him.  "Idiot!  If we run out there and attack them all we'll 
accomplish is attracting more demons our way!"

"Ah, good point."  He closed his eyes and hummed softly.  A second later he 
grinned.  "Well in that case, we just need a distraction!"

"What are you thinking now?" Ila asked cautiously.

Before answering, the Rune Soldier grabbed the two thieves that were 
standing next to them.

"You guys are thieves, right?"

The blonde blinked in surprise at him.  "Yeah."

"So you're both pretty fast, right?"

The white-haired one glanced at his partner in confusion.  "Well, sure, I 
guess you could say-."

"Great!  Then on my signal, start running as fast as you can!"

"Hey wait, what are you-?"  They didn't get to finish wondering what was in 
store for them before Louie hurled them both out of the clearing toward the 
demons.

"HEY LOOK!  HUMANS!" he proceeded to shout loud enough to catch the 
attention of the passing demons, then ducked back into the brush.  The 
demon-dogs gave a short howl before chasing after the thieves, who were 
already running faster than they'd ever attempted before in their lives, 
with the three slower goblins trailing right behind.

"DAMN YOU LOUIE!" they shouted before vanishing in a cloud of dust.

Once they were all out of sight, Louie turned back to the others.  "Looks 
like it worked," he said while striking a 'V for Victory' pose.  "Now's our 
chance, guys!  Let's get in there and show those demons what we're made of!  
...What's with the looks?"

Genie just sighed.  "I suppose by now I should be used to it, but your 
idiocy still manages to catch me off guard sometimes."

Melissa looked like she was choking on something, and couldn't seem to form 
the words that her mouth was trying to say.

"Let's worry about them later," Ila suggested.  "Right now, we have to get 
inside."

"All right!" Louie shouted.  "Let's go for it!"

End Part 5


Dragonboy:  Well, we didn't get to much of the action that we'd hoped we 
would, but on a positive note, this is still the longest chapter yet, and we 
actually managed to set a deadline for ourselves and actually met it!  Yay 
for us!

Stiel:  Also, thanks go out to Tannim Murphy, Robin Stout, David Johnston, 
Kevin Wible, and Dragonbard for all the positive feedback.  If we forgot 
someone, it probably means D-boy accidentally deleted your message when he 
was removing all the other messages that he thought we didn't need anymore.  
If so, many profound apologies.

Dragonboy:  And an extra-special thanks to Tannim from the inspiration for 
additional scenes that we have every intention of using in the next chapter 
or two.  So, aside from all that, thanks for reading, enjoy the rest, and 
expect the next part sometime this weekend at the latest. *knock on wood*

--
Dragon-Stiel Inc.

_________________________________________________________________
Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee� 
Security. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963


             .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List----.
             | Administrators - ffml-admins@anifics.com |
             | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@anifics.com |
             |     Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject     |
             `---- http://ffml.anifics.com/faq.txt -----'