"We need to establish teams." The red-headed Prince Sebastian stared down the two groups, his own party and Emma's party. "We're all going to end up in the Undercity at around the same time, meeting up at the nearest town square before making our way to the Auction House itself. As a group, we're all breaking in through a network of tunnels that connect their way into the Auction House itself-- sewers, a more typical entrance. It's defended; they aren't dumb, but the question is whether they ever expected a group like ours to come through. After taking out the main defensive forces, we need to split up into two teams."
By this point, Emma's party and Sebastian's party have already become relatively familiar with one another, and now all of them were gathered up, just at the end of the week, just days before their heist. Sebastian's party comprised the Exemplar, Hero Kiamelel. Rogue, Viana Sarra. Champion, Caspian Rieger-- Tall right-hand man to the Prince, a Champion, human. The Elf Kineticist, Aeora Lockhart, a young lady sporting scarlet hair and a sharp, regal appearance. Eaudix Rox, Eaglekin Strix, large in stature, holding a bow even larger than himself, a leopard with flame-colored patterns sat at his side; the Ranger.
Sebastian himself was a Commander; his words struck a chord with the people, the very commands he gave being an ability in and of themselves.
And then there was Emma, the Inventor, Dahlia the Guardian, and Qicy, the Cleric. The two parties that have been set up for this meeting in particular.
"I believe the teams should be thus." The plan was simple; this was borderline a brute force operation, but there was no other way an auction like this could've been infiltrated, given all the precautions they had discovered to have been set up beforehand by the Auction's elusive head of operations, Simon Crot.
They were to break into the facility through their sewer network, eliminating the main guard in the process. From what Viana had gathered, they kept all of the Auctioned Goods in a highly secured area at the very back of the Auction, locked down by a powerful spell. There is most assuredly a Guard set up there at the Gate, but Viana wasn't able to see who it could've been from her previous scouting ventures. There are four significant guards: the Auction's Host, the one who guards the Sewer, the one who guards the Gate, and the one who watches from above the stage, as Viana herself referred to them.
From what she could tell, the strongest of them was the host, a young man with silver hair and reddish-brown eyes. They seemed to be of an Elven lineage; the others, it's a toss-up. They know that they're strong, and they need to throw as much as they can out at the forces presented to them.
Aside from that, there are more guards, but in comparison to the four major forces at this Auction, they weren't a priority.
"Teams aren't going to stay consistent with one another-- except for one inherently." Sebastian pointed at Emma's party. "You all will be sticking together. Those in my group will periodically be switching between my group and their party as we progress."
Caspian raised a hand. "How's that gonna look?"
"We're going to be handling a lot of the main forces, while they'll be moving to break in, or assist in a fight when they can. So far, from what Viana has implied, we'll need everyone for the entrance-- breaking through there to move inside. From there, we separate. My team will act as a distraction, periodically switching people from my group to theirs." He gestured to Emma. "After we've broken through the Auction Gate, Viana will be sticking with Redhead's group for the remainder of the heist."
"Emma, my name is Emma."
"Emma's group."
Caspian clicked his tongue, and before he said anything, his eyes narrowed at Emma's hair color. By now, the hair dye from before had been almost thoroughly washed out from her natural hair color; fiery red locks rolling down her shoulders. After a moment of staring, he leaned over to whisper into Sebastian's ear.
Emma sighed. "Sounds like a plan. Also, I'm to break open the Gate, right? Do we have anything for that, or is there something else? I'm pretty sure I can figure out the code and shit, but..." She scratched her head. "Regardless, I can't use magic."
Sebastian nodded. "We have something for that. It's being made at the current moment. It's just a code transmittor, it shouldn't be too big of a deal-- it's been in the works for a month now."
"So you guys have been plannin' this for a while, huh?"
Aeora raised her hand. "Why do they," She gestured to Emma's party. "Get such an important role?"
"Cause we have more people, we're familiar with each other's abilities," Sebastian responded. "It's simpler this way, I promise, plus, someone with her intelligence," He gestured to Emma, "Is great for cracking things open, no?"
Emma nodded. "I can read magical code, so..." She shrugged. "It's an inevitability when you create stuff, no? Magic is just stronger than the material; that's just how it goes. Gotta know code to enchant."
"Once we've whittled down the sewer system's forces," Sebastian continued, bringing the group back on topic. "Emma's group will scout ahead. When we regroup, we'll charge the main Gate, and after the Gate's guard is eliminated, my group will have to interrupt the Auction itself whilst Emma's group breaks into the storage area, does that make sense for you all?" Sebastian took a breath, scanning both his party and Emma's. "With that, we'll be infiltrating the auction ten minutes before the 'people's auction' starts. Does this all sound good?"
From what they could tell, this was the best plan they could have concocted given the circumstances. By all accounts, they would technically be sneaking in with a bit of brute force, spicing up this meal of a heist, but there was no feasible way to keep it quiet, not something like this.
From Viana's testimony, they had practically thought of every countermeasure possible. Sigils to dispel invisibility, pressure-based alarms, and the biggest of all, powerful Guards with observational skills that exceed mortal limits.
Viana had almost been caught a variety of different times, but had managed to escape before they could find her. Either that, or they didn't think it was worth the effort to chase after her.
They were arrogant, and they had a reason to be so.
These auctions were not only illegal but also infamous for the number of casualties resulting from dissatisfied auctioneers and shareholders, or from thieves who attempted what the party would soon attempt. They had to be prepared for what was to come, cause anything can happen.
Eventually, the day arrived.
Access to the Undercity was gained through a specialized tram system situated at the very edge of town. Emma arrived first, adjusting her clothes and armor underneath, which made her look unusually bulky. "I'm excited to see the Chameleon in action," Rider commented, waiting alongside Emma.
"Yeah, I am too."
Dahlia arrived soon after Emma said that, waving to her from afar. Emma waved back, not being able to hold back her smile.
After a few more minutes of waiting, Qicy arrived as well.
With that, the party set off into Mars' Undercity. They funneled onto the tram, and with the pull of a lever, they descended deep into the darkness below, only lit up by a single lamp set onto the roof of their carriage.
Emma looked at Qicy, who had their backpack absolutely packed to the brim with potions, water, food, and so on. "I feel like you overdid it." Emma pointed at Qicy's pack.
Qicy shook her head. "I don't think I did, actually~!" She smirked. "We got... I got a bunch of lesser healing potions, moderate healing potions, some potions of resistance-- That'll definitely come in handy for t-- Actually." She hands a couple of the potions to Emma and Dahlia. "There! Perfect!" She smiled. "It'd be better to take them just before we start the heist-- they last an hour."
Emma shook the liquid inside the bottle, watching it shine like oil against the lamplight above. "Thanks, Qicy."
Dahlia gave a polite nod to Qicy, "Thanks!"
"You're both welcome!"
Emma hooked the potion onto her own bag. "You seem awfully enthused by all of this, Qicy."
"Well... It's my first official quest with you guys-- or really... anyone? The quests I had before this were typically cut off short for me, so I'm very excited about this opportunity.
"It's good to have a healer with us at the very least."
Dahlia sighed. "I hope I can learn some spells of my own as well..."
"It's not impossible, no?"
"It isn't, I just couldn't help but think about it though."
"T-This is a bit of a grim thing to mention," Qicy spoke up, looking through a booklet she had attached to the sleeve of her armor. "I did make sure to learn a spell that allows me to preserve a body if anyone happens to die. Hopefully, if things go bad or good-- as long as the body is intact and we bring it back to the Academy, anyone who goes down for good can be revived so... that's nice, right!?"
"Uh... yeah. Hopefully no one dies though-- let's not jinx it."
"I dunno, j-just though I'd learn it since our last fight was so bad that uh... i-it genuinely looked like someone was gonna die." Qicy chuckled nervously.
The tram car shuddered, the undercity soon revealing itself. Set on the wall of an utterly massive cave system, the city loomed. From afar, crystals larger than buildings jutted out from the cave's walls along with the silhouettes of far-off cities and towns hanging from the cave's ceiling just as the Mars Undercity had been doing.
After a few more minutes of riding down on the tram, they finally reached the city itself, the tram locking itself in place at a small port leading into the city's entrance.
The party made their way to their meeting location, and as they met up with Sebastian's party, they started their way into the deepest parts of the Undercity itself. There was no time for greetings. By the time they had all arrived, only five minutes remained on the clock before their hour of violence would arrive.
For a moment, the party got a momentary view of the Auction House from afar. It was massive, looking almost like a cathedral amongst the more industrial backdrop of the city itself. Going further down, they were met with a steep drop and an opening underneath the town, an open pipe visible from the fencing that stood before their group, with a wide gap of open air greeting them.
Sebastian rummaged through his own bag, taking out a variety of Flying Potions. "Drink these, they only last a minute though."
Emma looked to Viana, sipping on her own bottle. Rider set as a pack on her back for a moment until they arrived directly into the sewer itself. "Did you have to buy a flying potion each time you broke in?"
Viana shook her head. "I grappled down."
"Eh..."
The group flew into the Auction House's sewer system, every one of them landing a good twenty or so feet away from the pipe's entrance. From there, they walked, Rider finally being placed back down to follow.
Viana stopped, taking a few steps ahead of the group. "Shit, they already found us."
Combat Begins!
From the darkness before them, as their eyes adjusted, a figure emerged, hanging from the ceiling above. Emma narrowed her gaze and clicked her tongue. "Hey! Did you fuckers know they were Vampires!?"
Viana took a step back. "Not until now..."
A young man hung upside down, eyes glazed over before locking in on the group before them, red, gleaming eyes slowly peering out from the darkness behind them. "Fuck... why can't I just have one peaceful day?" They dropped from the pipe's ceiling and then launched themselves forward at the group.
"Seems like this is the worst-case scenario. They knew we were coming."
What appeared to be the leader of this group of Vampires, just as they were about to reach the group, shot up onto the ceiling again, lingering for a moment. In those few seconds, the rest of his ilk caught up to the party, charging forward in what looked to be suits or dress shirts, looking as if they had just arrived for a funeral.
"Sana!" Qicy screamed out as a brilliant white light shot out from her body, encompassing her party and the Vampires that pursued them, causing them to recoil at the exact moment they got close, the energy of her healing burn at the skin of the nearly soulless husks they were.
In that moment of stun, "Rider, go!" Emma commanded. Rider jumped into the fray, swinging at the first Vampire he saw, which weaved out of the way, blinking hard to get out of that moment of trance.
Pop! Before it could react, a chunk of its face was taken off by a shot from Emma, a long rifle in her hands with a variety of different scopes laid out near the butt of her gun. Bits of flame could be seen, sparks flying throughout the air at the end of Emma's barrel. The Vampire, in response, sent Bat Rider out of the way, sending them flying into the wall of the pipe. They were entirely focused on Emma, who was sitting in the middle of the group. In between them and Emma was Qicy, swinging down at her as she raised her shield in defense.
Qicy, in a moment of intense concentration, shifted her weight so their fist would slip off from their shield, completely missing the girl.
"Focus on the real threat, okay?" Hero spoke into the Vampire's ear, blade in hand.
"Wh--" Before they could finish their sentence, Hero's blade cleanly sliced through the monster, leaving not a single cut as what remained of their soul was sundered from their body, their eyes going completely hollow before collapsing dead on the floor.
The hero's focus immediately shifted to keeping the frontline defended, placing himself in front of his team. Dahlia stepped in with him, swinging her axe with a hefty cleave at one of the vampires, sending them straight into the ground, the pipe shaking from the impact as blood sprayed throughout the air in a single, heavy blow. Dahlia cracked her neck, her body tensing as her mind filled with thoughts that made her angry, jealous, and the like, strengthening herself for the coming battle through her Orcish Rage.
The leader of this gaggle of Vampires, denting the ceiling of the pipe all the while, locked in on a different target than their kin. Aeora, the Elven Kineticist. Using their legs like springs, they fired out towards the woman, who responded by encasing themselves in a metal shell with various bits and layers of the pipe below her before jumping out of the way, the monster falling straight through the floor below, catching themselves at the last second.
She concentrated fire at the tips of her fingers and, to ensure they couldn't recover, fired down at the Vampire below, who, in response, swung themselves straight through another end of the pipe, avoiding her attack altogether.
Caspian ran to assist Aeora, while Sebastian unfurled something from his pack —the flag of Agnesta, held proudly. Sebastian planted a banner, "Do not let these demonic fools shake our resolve! They won't win this, we're more numerous-- stronger than they are!"
With one swing of his halberd, bolstered by his prince, an arm was cleaved off the Vampire hounding Aeora. Blood sprayed across the battlefield that was the Auction Sewers. The defense force of the auction was left reeling from the relentless retaliation of Sebastian and his cohort.
Viana stepped back from the frontline, throwing a rifle into her hands, leveled at the Vampire now lying flat on their back due to Dahlia's axe. Still, just as she was about to shoot, one other Vampire interrupted her, grabbing the barrel of her gun and pointing it up into the ceiling of the pipe, causing her to miss her shot entirely.
As that happened, that very same Vampire, not pinned by Dahlia's axe, struggled against the pressure put against its ribcage as Dahlia stood firm. In a moment of desperation, the blood in their body quickened, muscles bulging out as they threw the axe off of themselves. Dahlia, once again, stood firm though. Her axe is not pinning this Vampire down any longer, but she is unflinching and unhurt.
They reeled back their fist, winging at Dahlia, and just as they met her shield, the impact elicited a massive cracking sound across the entire tunnel. Dahlia, unmoving, unwavering, stood stock still, staring down the Vampire in front of her.
"Click, Click." And a whistle, an arrow knocked back on Eaudix's bow. He let go of the bow string, and only the whistle of his arrow followed as the Vampire, readying themselves to eliminate Viana from this fight, is flung back into the wall behind them.
"Argh!" The leader of this group pointed at Aeora. "AHH!"
"Come to me." A simple command, one that Aeora must follow, as her eyes glowed red, hypnotized by the Vampire's glowing, slitted crimson gaze.
"W-Wait..."
She approached, not being allowed to do anything else, as the beast grabbed her by the nape and greedily went to bite down. Caspian attempted to intercept, but as his halberd almost met its mark, the Vampire put Aeora in their way, teeth sinking into her supple flesh. "Very tasty," He licked his lips, letting go of her before shoving a hand into her back, digging deep into the muscle and tendon as blood poured across his hand, Aeora frozen in pain.
Qicy hopped on over to the back of their formation, a heal spell at the ready. In this moment, one of the Spawn that remained, using the wall of the pipe as a springboard, jumped straight into Emma's personal space.
"Sana!" Qicy concentrated the spell onto Aeora, a bright light encompassing her as her wounds began to close on their own. At that exact second, the Vampire that had closed in on Emma's position started their series of attacks.
Emma squared her stance, arm locked close to her stomach as she tanked a shock to her left side from the Vampire Spawn in front of her. Emma huffed, practically unfazed. All the monster could do was blink, stunned at this human's durability. "Fuckin' moron," Emma growled. Rider merged back into the group, flanking the Spawn from behind. They were attempting to exploit Sebastian's cohort by infiltrating the group while they were distracted, but instead found themselves at the end of a blade, which slid straight into Emma's palm. Both hands gripped the end, her arms reeling back as if she were batting for a baseball team.
With one cleave from her sword, the man's guts spilled onto the floor, but they were not dead yet. Rider clocked them across the head, indenting their skull-- somehow, still not dead as they collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
Emma scoffed. "I'm feelin' pretty good..."
A hiss left Hero's mouth as he switched to the composite bow on his lower back, leveling it at the Vampire that had just been, only moment ago, sent flying from an arrow that came straight from Eaudix. The arrow shot out, combusting near the Spawn's face, causing it to recoil, falling and staggering before rushing back towards the group. Hero exhaled, unsheathing his sword in one swift movement, and the Vampire's head left its body.
On Dahlia's end, she had finished off the Vampire in front of her, splitting them in two before spinning around on the balls of her feet, shield reeled back as the sputtering Vampire in front of Emma was pummeled straight into the dirt. Unfortunately, Dahlia did no damage to the half-dead creature, but now it was pinned under the weight of her massive shield and body.
"Aeora's been mind-controlled!" Caspian called out.
Sebastian took a breath. "Emma! Dahlia! Qicy! Viana! Go! We'll finish this!"
They all nod, running off to the end of the tunnel whilst they focus on the leader of these Vampire Spawn. Sebastian sighed, crossing over to the already dying Spawn that remained, putting a sword through their throat.
"Kill them!" The leader demanded, pointing Aeora at her own comrades. Her body attempted to resist, but her mind was too fragile.
Aeora raised a single hand, the metal armor casing she had made for herself previously being used as a projectile against Caspian, who raised their shield in response. The shard couldn't penetrate his defenses, however, allowing him to go on the offensive. "Alright! Let's finish this thing off!"
Emma and her group left the others, now, finally entering the Auction House itself. As they walked, Emma repaired Rider the best she could, popping her resistance potion with the rest of the group.
It was time for round 2.