Dragonboy:  Well, I did it again.  I promised a fic would be out by a 
certain deadline, and we missed it.  My most sincere apologies to our 
faithful waiting public.

Stiel:  All seven of you, if we're going by the reviewers. ;)

Dragonboy:  And while we have every intention of committing seppuku for our 
crimes of misleading and decieving you all, we'll just work on finishing the 
fic first, as that would be the most honorable thing to do.  But no more 
promised deadlines from now on, because we can't be trusted with them.

Stiel:  We're like children with an unlocked cupboard under the sink.

Dragonboy:  But on a high note, it's a slightly longer piece than the rest 
this time around.  So with that being said, on to the fic.


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


--
Standard Disclaimer:  The setting and characters of Rune Soldier are the 
property of Ryo Mizuno, ADV Films, and anyone else who might have somehow 
gained ownership over it at some point.  They are used without permission 
and without prospect of making money.  Please enjoy!
--


Chapter 6:  When A Plan Comes Together...Mostly


Not far from the Magician's Guild, news of the state of the Guild had spread 
like wildfire throughout the city of Ohfun.  While a large portion of its 
citizens were more than willing to pack up and make a swift exit, there were 
a certain few who had other intentions.
-----

At the Temple of Mylee...

"Demons in Ohfun?  Are you certain?"

The three teenage girls before her all nodded together.  "We're certain of 
it, Miss Isabel." Anna answered.  "We were passing through the town and we 
saw Miss Melissa with her adventure friends and heard them talking about 
it."

"And then they all went off in the direction of the Magician's Guild," Joan 
continued.  "That's where the demons are."

"But Miss Melissa didn't look like she wanted to go, so we think that maybe 
that stupid hero of hers forced her to do it," Gannet finished.

"You'll help her, won't you, Miss Isabel?" they all asked together.

Isabel let the information sink in before assuring the young disciples that 
everything would be fine and dismissed them.

'So Melissa, you think you're going to get all of the glory by going there 
without me, huh?' she thought to herself.  'I can't believe you would be so 
selfish as to put yourself into mortal danger like this just to try to 
one-up me and my champion, who's a hundred times braver, smarter, and more 
heroic than yours, I might add!  You've got some nerve!  You-'

"Miss Isabel?"

The priestess snapped out of her mental tirade and turned to the voice.  
"Yes, Mr. Lenard?"

The young unknown prince-turned-adventuring Champion scratched his head.  
"Don't you think it would be in everyone's best interest if we went to aid 
Melissa and her team?  I'll admit that I've never actually fought a demon 
before, but it would be ignoble of us to simple let the situation remain 
like this, right?"

Isabel beamed at her champion.  "That's just what I was about to suggest 
myself, Mr. Lenard!  You're so thoughtful, always putting other people's 
lives before your own, even in the face of such danger."

Lenard grinned modestly.  "Well, it's what any real champion would do, isn't 
it?  Of course, I'd hate for you to be put in a situation-"

"Think no further of it, Mr. Lenard," she assured him.  "We're a team, and 
as your follower I shall follow you anywhere."

"Well, if you're sure..."  He turned to the other two members of his team.  
"What do you two think?"

"While I applaud your valor, Master, I must also point out just how big a 
risk we will be taking in going," Jakinson informed him.

"It's not like we'll just be going to rescue an old man from a cave like 
last time," Lily agreed in her soft, stoic voice.

Lenard nodded.  "That may be true, but think about it; If we do nothing, 
those demons could start making their way into the rest of the city at any 
time.  It would be much better to attack them when they're all in one place 
like this, wouldn't it?"

Both were silent for a second before the old swordsman nodded resignedly.  
"Yes, Master, I suppose it would."  Lily remained silent but didn't look to 
object in any way.

"Then it's settled," Isabel stated.  "Let's be off, team!"

'Now, Melissa, I'll show you who has the better champion.  Just you wait!  
...Oh, and you'd better stay alive, too.  You need to be here so I can rub 
your face in my success.'
-----

In a random pub...

"WHAAAAT?"

The trembling young man didn't have a chance to run before he was lifted off 
the ground by a blonde-haired man in full knight's armor, who proceeded to 
shake him violently.

"Are you telling me that bonehead Louie is at the Magician's Guild?" he 
roared.  "The very same Magician's Guild that you say is currently overrun 
by thousands of demons?  That would mean Melissa is there with him!  Is that 
what you're saying!?"

The victim of his rage could do nothing but allow his body to flail around 
like a rag doll, but the knight correctly took his rolling head as a nod and 
dropped him to the floor.

"Curse you, Louie!" he fumed, eyes blazing and fist shaking in righteous 
fury. "How dare you put my darling fianc� in such a dangerous predicament 
for your own selfish gains!  Well fear not, my dear Melissa, for I, Conrad, 
the mighty, handsome and debonair champion of Ramliearth, shall save you!  
Hold on for me, my love!"  And with that, he ran swiftly out the door, 
leaving an uncomfortable silence in his absence.
-----

>From the window, and still under the safely of the fairy's cape, Merrill let 
out a sharp breath that she had unknowingly been holding since she first 
noticed the demons that were approaching her.  It seemed she actually owed 
Louie her thanks for getting them away.  And even better, he'd managed to 
get rid of those two money-grubbing associates of hers at the same time.  
She'd have to do something nice for him later...

Of course, it _was_ his fault that she was up here in the first place, so 
she reckoned she could rightfully call them even now instead.

Once she could no longer see the fleeing thieves from her vantage point, 
Merrill pulled the cape from her head, leaving her body from the neck down 
still hidden, and looked behind her into the Guild.  It was quite a long way 
down from the window, almost as far as it was from the outside.  She'd just 
have to wait where she was for the others.  She turned back to the trees, 
where the rest of her party had been hidden, only they weren't hiding 
anymore.  The three adventurers and one magical item collector were now 
making a mad dash toward the rope that she had lowered moments ago.

She glanced around nervously.  So far they were in the clear. No other 
demons seemed to have noticed the disturbance from before, but her friends 
still had a lot of ground to cover, and anything could happen in that short 
period.

Seconds seemed to pass as minutes as Genie was the first to reach the rope 
and, using her powerful body, began hauling herself up without even pausing. 
  Within seconds, the warrior reached the window sill, and just as Merrill 
was about to let out another sigh of relief, they both happened to look up.

"Oh shit!" they cursed as one, as at that very moment four large humanoid 
bird creatures made an appearance from behind the others, diving out of the 
sky directly toward their backs.  They frantically turned back to the 
ground, where Ila was just beginning her climb up the rope.  Louie or 
Melissa both seemed to have their focus on the ground level for demons and 
had yet to notice the danger from above.

"We are so dead," Merrill whimpered.

Genie held a little more composure than her smaller partner.  The harpy 
demons were headed for Louie and the other two and didn't seem to have 
acknowledged her or Merrill yet.  She had to get Louie's attention without 
attracting the demons, because if they came after her and Merrill, there 
wouldn't be any way for her to defend against them from her position in the 
small window.

Her plight was solved on its own when Melissa spotted their shadows on the 
ground and looked up.  Her terrified shriek caused Louie to look up as well, 
who immediately began to panic.

"Ila, kick it in the ass!" he called up to her.

Ila, who unlike the others, was not used to such strenuous activity and was 
only a little less than three-quarters of the way up the rope when she heard 
Louie shout at her.

"Stop rushing me, Louie," she yelled as she turned to glare down at him.  
"I'm going as fast as-" She stopped when she noticed he was pointing at 
something above them.  She looked up in the direction he was pointing-

And fainted.

"OH MY GOD!!" four different voices screamed in unison.  Somehow, despite 
being out cold, Ila had managed to keep one hand firmly gripped on the rope, 
and was now dangling several meters above the ground.

Louie was the first to react.  His staff was out in a flash and glowing at 
the tip before he'd even raised it.

"Melissa, I need some cover!"

Melissa had recovered by that point and began chanting a spell of her own.

"Merrill, daggers!" Genie commanded, holding out her hand.  Merrill nodded, 
fished out half a dozen daggers and handed them to the warrior, then pulled 
out several more for herself.

Just as Ila completely lost her grip on the rope, Louie finished his spell.

"LEVITATE!"

The staff grew brighter, and Ila froze in midair.  Louie let out a grunt of 
exertion.  "Damn...heavy."

A split second later, Melissa fired off a beam of light at the harpies, 
catching one of them dead-on.  The other three screeched in anger and pulled 
back as the fourth dropped to the ground.

The temporary distraction was enough for Genie and Merrill, who let fly 
close to two dozen daggers towards the remaining three.  One of harpies took 
the majority of the hits and joined its brethren lifelessly on the ground.  
The other two were stunned, but not enough to fall like the other.  Both 
veered off in a different direction and prepared to come in again for 
another strike.

"We need more daggers, Merrill," Genie said.

"I've only got a couple left," Merrill informed her.

"Genie!  For God's sake, grab her!"

Genie blinked and looked down, having forgotten that Ila was still hovering 
a couple feet below her.  On the ground, Louie was sweating, trembling and 
turning  purple in the face from the amount of mental effort he was putting 
in to keeping Ila from falling.  She carefully knelt down on the ledge and 
just barely managed to grab the hem of Ila's shirt.

"I've got her, Louie!" she called down.  Before she even finished saying it, 
Ila's weight returned and Louie collapsed to the ground.

"Hurry Genie!  One of them is coming back!" Merrill said urgently.

Genie glanced up, spotting the returning harpy.  She quickly judged that by 
the angle it was descending that it was targeting Ila this time.  She looked 
back down at the unconscious girl hanging from her hand, then grinned.

"Genie, what are you waiting for?  Pull her up!  It's almost here!" Merrill 
continued, growing more frantic with each sentence.

The winged demon was twenty feet away and still Genie didn't budge.  Then 
fifteen.  Twelve.  Ten.

"GENIE!"

With the harpy only five feet away, Genie pulled Ila up as hard as she 
could.  Ila's prone body landed firmly on the sill of the window as the 
harpy continued forward, slamming with a sickening crack face first into the 
stone wall.  Merrill quickly helped Genie stable herself as the unconscious 
demon fell to the ground next to Melissa, who was busy helping Louie back to 
his feet.

"Louie, are you okay?  We need to hurry, more demons could show up any 
second now!"

Louie dragged himself back to his feet, looking only slightly wobbly.  "No 
sw...sweat, Merrill.  Jus' a little...dizzy's all," he slurred.

Melissa grabbed the front of his shirt and began shaking violently.  "Pull 
yourself together Louie!  We're still in danger here in case you've 
forgotten.  Against my will, Louie!  Do you hear me?  Completely and utterly 
against my will!"

"Okay, okay Melissa!  I'm better now, stop the shaking!"

The priestess and her champion looked up, watching Genie and Merrill 
signaling that they needed to hurry up.

"Your turn, I guess," Louie stated.

Melissa sighed.  "Great, I've always hated climbing like this."

Louie glanced at her for a moment, then up to the window, then back again.  
"Hey Melissa?"

"What, Louie?"

"Do you trust me?"

"Honestly no, not really.  Why ask me that now?"

He moved behind her and placed his hands on her hips.  "Because you're gonna 
have to," he whispered.

"Wha-?"

"HEY GENIE!"

"Louie, what are you-?"

"CATCH!"

Melissa's eyes widened.  "Don't your dare, Loui-EEEEEE!!"

With a heavy heave, Louie lifted Melissa and hurled her as high as he could 
toward the window and his waiting teammates.

"YOU MORON!" Genie shouted as she bent down and reached out to grab the 
rapidly ascending Melissa.  She easily grabbed her arm just as Melissa was 
beginning to fall back down, leaving them in the same position that Genie 
had been in with Ila a few moments ago.

"Merrill," Genie grunted.  "Brace me, I'm slipping!"

Merrill complied by wrapping her arms around the warrior's waist and pulling 
back.  "Dumb dumb dumb...dumbass!" she muttered.

>From the ground, Louie smiled.  "Well that worked well enough."  Then 
something else caught his eye.  "Uh-oh."

Genie gave one last grunt as she and Merrill succeeded in hoisting Melissa 
up into the sill with them and Ila, who was just beginning to regain 
consciousness.

"Wha' happened?" she mumbled.

"We just have to wait for Louie now," Genie stated.

"And when he gets here I might just knock him back down, the reckless, 
stupid...gah, there's just not even a proper word for him!" Merrill growled.

Melissa was too busy trying to slow her racing heart to add her own 
comments.  But as she looked back out she let out a loud shriek.  The others 
turned to see the last of the harpies approaching them once again.

"Damnit!" Genie cursed.  With all four of them now in the small space of the 
window, there was no was of moving to defend anyone.  Not even enough room 
for Merrill to use her knives.  There was nothing they could do but watch on 
as the large bird demon dove down upon them, screeching its angry cry...

Only to explode and fall to the ground a lifeless, fiery heap seconds before 
it reached its prey.

The girls all stared in shock at the spot where the harpy had been a mere 
moment before, then they all looked down at the ground, where Louie stood, 
wand raised and a wide grin etched across his face.

"BULLS-EYE!" he shouted triumphantly as he did a small celebratory dance.  
He stopped and pointed accusingly up at Merrill.  "That's two of my spells 
that you made fun of that have come in handy today, Merrill!  I'll expect an 
apology later, and don't think I'll forget, either!"

Merrill began fuming while Genie just shook her head.  "Gloat later, 
Greenhorn!  Get up here now so we can keep moving!"

Louie, who was now laughing like a maniac, didn't seem to hear her.  He did, 
however, hear the howls and roars of a pack of approaching demons, though.  
He let out a low 'eep!' and scrambled up the rope.  The second he reached 
the window, Merrill quickly cut the rope, keeping any demons from trying to 
follow them up it.

Louie glanced back down at the swarming mass of demons below and breathed a 
sigh of relief.  "Well, hard part's over, huh?" he said to the others.

Genie just shook her head again, while Merrill and Melissa both looked ready 
to knock him out of the window.  Fortunately for him, Ila was giving him a 
rather impressed gaze.

"That was great, Louie," she told him.  "I knew fire magic would be perfect 
for you."

Louie positively glowed at the praise.  "Hell yeah it was!  And you should 
have seen the way I levitated you when you passed out!"

Her eyes widened.  "You performed levitation?  That's amazing!  Levitation 
is a pretty high level spell."

"Yeah, but I have to admit it was pretty hard.  You're a lot heavier than 
the rocks and sticks that I've been using it on."

Now he had three women looking like they wanted to knock him out the window.

"What do you say we get out of here?" Genie suggested.  "We have to keep 
going."

So saying, Louie, Genie and Merrill jumped into the Guild.  Melissa and Ila 
jumped after them, being caught by Genie and Louie, respectively.

"So we're in.  What do we do now?" Merrill asked.

"We need to go to my room so I can get my Mage Staff," Ila instructed.  "I 
need it to unlock the basement that the students should be in."

"You can't just use Louie's staff?" Melissa asked.

Ila shook her head.  "I'm afraid Mage Staffs work only for their owner.  And 
since Louie doesn't know the spell and I don't have time to try to teach it 
to him, we'll need mine."

"All right then," Genie said, unsheathing her giant sword.  "Then we make 
our way to Ila's room, get the staff, then head to the main chamber.  We get 
the students and find a way out of the Guild until more help comes."

As they were making their way to the door of the room they were in, Louie 
chimed in.  "Is it just me, or is there something really important that 
we're forgetting?"  He pulled open the door, and was greeted to the sight of 
a hundred pairs of eyes staring back at him from the corridor beyond.  
Everyone paled.

"Oh, that's right," he said in a far-too-calm voice.  "There's still over 
one thousand demons in this place."

Slowly, the Rune Soldier shut the door again and turned the lock on the 
knob.

One second later, the door was ripped off its hinges by a particularly large 
yellow-skinned troll.

Louie and the girls pressed themselves against the wall as demons began 
pushing into the room.

"Well, I'm open to any more suggestions you girls might have."

End Part 6
--

Well, hope it was worth the wait.  As always and of course, thanks much to 
all of our reviewers, and sorry if we didn't respond to you personally.  
Next part will be out soon, and we hope you continue to enjoy it. ^_^


--
Dragon-Stiel Inc.

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