*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*
The sound of he crowd gathering outside by the ship became louder for a brief moment within Ray's office, meaning that someone had opened the door and entered after knocking.
-"Hey there, chief."- called out Nate as he saluted with a simple wave of his hand.
"What is it?" Ray said, practically sighing the words as they left his mouth. He wasn't interested in talking to anyone at the moment. Between this morning, the beholder test, and everything in between, he was fed up with everything on the other side of his swinging office doors.
Nate approached the headmaster's table and grabbed a chair before sitting down, reclining backwards as he placed both boots on top of Ray's desk.
-"How have you been?"-
"Let's skip past the small talk, I'm very busy, and I can't answer the phone and talk to you at the same time."
After pausing, he realized Nate was still staring blankly at him.
"I'm fine, I'll get over this."
Nate smiled a carefree smile as Ray said this.
-"My, would you look at the busy man in action. Makes me wonder if that chair of yours is not a toilet as well, you know, so you don't have to stand up to the bathroom..."- Nate stated before reaching for one of the adornments Ray kept on his desk and spinning it around on the tip of his finger.
Ray smiled, but the smile vanished quickly as he folded his hands together in front of his face. "Nate, do tell me why you’re here."
-"Why? Well I'm here to kidnap you from this stressful dungeon of course!"- replied Nate as he straightened up on his chair and placed both arms where his boots used to be.
"Nate, I pay you and all the other teachers to better our future, not to cheer me up the seldom times I'm blue."
Ray still wasn't smiling. In fact, he seemed annoyed.
"The stress is out there with Vega, Storm Crow, and Divagro, not in my quiet quarters where I take care of the guild. If you'd like to make things easier for me, then you can go and kill those demons for me."
Nate chuckled slightly.
-"Ray, I can't believe you bring up my salary to justify your phobia for fun. If I was here in the guild just for money, me and the teachers would've gone on strike a long time ago."- he remarked playfully.
Now Ray wasn't even looking at Nate as he continued to type out invoices on a computer. "Phobia for fun? We're in a crisis, I suppose that's not exactly something you can understand. I would love to just get up and spar with you, or go get an ice tea and have a talk about the good ol' times, but being the boss is always very tough, and my free time is very limited compared to yours."
Nate scratched his head with his index finger.
-"Chief, I believe that if you were really so concerned over the threat that those three represent, you'd be riding the Dutchman along with the volunteers. Somehow, I think you're trying to find as much excuses as you can to stay here, hiding away from something."-
"Were done here, Nate, thanks for the chat." Ray didn't look away from the glow of the monitor.
-"Heh..."- chuckled Nate as he slowly stood up and approached a stand with swords hanging from Ray's wall. He then caressed and slid his finger along the edge of a finely crafted claymore.
-"You welcome."- he said before drawing the blade from its place and swinging it vertically down at Ray's head.
The blade struck a telekinetic barrier. Afterwards, the barrier wrapped around the sword’s blade and shoved the hilt into the face of the attacker. The vampire jumped over the desk, holding his own claymore. "What is this?"
The hilt struck Nate's face as he backflipped skillfully, landing on his feet while catching his claymore one again and kicking the chair towards Ray before following up with another swing of his blade, this time engulfed in an aura of light to overcome the telekinetic defense.
-"This, is fun, Ray!"-
The vampire caught the chair and carefully placed it behind himself. He then defended from Nate's attack and with his sword’s own aura, repelled the light as a secondary edge formed onto his blade, making it bigger.
-"Whoa!"- exclaimed Nate as he then pulled out his own sword from under his coat, fending off Ray's weapon with as he now wielded two blades -"Age hasn't slowed you down one bit, old man."-
"You think that's awesome, watch this!"
Rising his hand, the entire sword rack came to life. Like invisible swordsmen, they slashed and hacked as if they were Ray's personal guard.
Nate stared at the floating arms as he then smiled and laughed faintly.
-"Very well then..."-
He then dropped the claymore he'd stolen from Ray's stack., just in case it could be used against him.
-"Keter...Chesed...release."-
At the order, Nate was engulfed by a holy white aura as his eyes turned a very light silver color. His blade, a customized broadsword, rested upon his shoulders.
-"How about I make your offcie match up with the rest of the wreckage left by the beholders. After all, I've already decorated the training yard!"- joked Nate before rushing at Ray with more speed and strength than before, lunging his sword straight for the vampire’s throat.
Ray stepped out of the way and allowed his "sword henchmen" to step in and continue the fight. While that taxing duel was going on, Ray slid back behind his desk and continued to write out invoices on his computer.
"Just tell me when you’re tired."
Nate smirked as Ray did this.
-"Tipheret, Yesod, release!"-
The teacher's hair had now turned completely white as a faint halo appeared over his head.
-"I'm gonna go as far to say..."- began Nate as his halo expanded and lowered to the level of his waist -"...that you understimate me, Ray."-
*ZWOOOOOOM*
There was an immense flash of light even the people outside Ray's office were able to see. By the time it dissipated, Nate was huffing a bit exhaustedly as he cleansed some sweat from his forehead. Ray's floating claymores had been pushed aside like pieces of a fragmented grenade and nailed into the walls of the office all the way to the hilts.
Ray grinned, not at Nate of course; he had just finished one of his buisnesses and backed up all his files to a secure location.
"So, is this all about who's more powerful? Well, why didn't you say so? There's a fool proof way to tell, you know? Without making such a mess."
Nate kept smiling at Ray.
-"Heh, are you kidding? You're taking me to the limit while you sit there comfortably! No Ray, I didn't do this to prove something we both already know..."-
The holy aura slowly disappeared from Nate's presence as the broadsword also began to decrease in size, eventually becoming nothing but a small black die with white spots that represented all six numbers on each face.
-"I did this, because you've apparently lost your way; knowing what being a true Silvermyth means. You, who bears the name of what we take so much pride in being part of."-
For the first time, Nate's smile disappeared as he continued.
-"It's not about the money, the adventure, the rush of battle, or the glory, Ray..."-
Nate took the chair he’d kicked earlier off Ray's desk and deposited it slowly on its correct place before heading off for the exit, where he gave a brief glance at a small portrait of Ray's wife hanging on one of the walls.
-"...and by sitting here, waiting for things to turn out for the best as you manage a couple of transactions and numbers, you won't honor the reason why you rose these very walls with your own hands."-
Ray continued his progress on the computer after Nate left. His words stuck with the vampire, but did little to get him out of his office.
“It’s not your fight, it’s not your guild, and if you don’t like it, go make your own place.”
Why wasn’t Nate on the ship?
“He’s a coward…”
Then what gives him the right to tell you what to do?
“He has no right.”
They’ll be ok without you anyway right?
“Yea…”
The vampire’s claymore floated over to the corner of the room and leaned itself against the wall. Once again, the doors to Ray’s office swung open. They were getting quite a workout today. The slender figure that accessed grabbed the doors and closed them quietly behind herself before addressing the vampire.
“What did Nate and you do in here?”
Ray looked up at the woman; he knew that deep feminine voice could only belong to Nayo. She had mocha-colored skin, black hair, thin glasses, and a purple suit. She wore a brown vest and shorts over it, and had winged leggings and armlets that were white. She was an illusionist.
“So, what brings ‘another’ Silvermyth into my domain?”
“Mainly the bright flash, but I also would like to check on you from time to time.”
She looked at Ray over the top of her glasses. Much like Nate, Nayo was always smiling, and had a fantastic attitude.
“I’m just going to save you a lot of trouble and assume you and Nate didn’t agree on something.”
“That is a very good assumption.”
“Well you mind telling me what it is?”
The illusionist was now elbowing Ray playfully. He didn’t mind her odd behavior, but he would still prefer she never entered the room.
“In short, we had a disagreement on what was best for the guild.”
“Oh really?”
Nayo didn’t seem satisfied with the answer. She looked over at his computer monitor, crossing her arms over his chest.
“Ah, it all becomes clear now, you’re the only one that can use Quick Books! Let me try my hand at it.”
The illusionist pushed Ray off to the side and started typing away.
“Hey, what’s the big idea?”
“You only got 1 business done?”
Nayo’s smile only grew as she continued to mash away at the paperwork.
“Uh! You can’t record invoices like that!”
“Relax, look, I already got another one done for you.”
The vampire looked at his paperwork and then at the computer screen.
“…You do seem to have a talent for this…”
“No, it’s easy really, I’m just wondering why you’ve been in here all morning and you only got 1 done.”
Ray sighed, causing Nayo to chuckle.
“Well, I guess we need the great vampire to take on the evils in the office. Hey, if you’re feeling down, or just get tired of this, call me ok?”
The illusionist continued to walk towards the door, still looking at Ray.
“Of course…I’ll remember that. Thanks for the…”
*Click *
Hmm, the door closed shut. Ray really did feel happier after she had come in. He might have to take her offer sometime.
-"Well well well! The grand Ray Silvermyth appears to have a girlfriend!"- spoke a voice that came from underneath Ray's desk, right in between his legs and in front of his sit.
-“How romantic! BLEH!!!”-
Wheeling away slowly, Ray looked under his desk. "Excuse me, but who are you, and how did you get in here?"
Once he backed away to look at what was there, he saw the face of the snake man Killrock had spotted earlier, smirking right up at him from in between his thighs. By then the stranger’s legs had been substituted by a centipede-like tail below the waist. He slithered out of the small orifice under tha table and sat on this last's surface, his tail becoming human extremities once more.
-"You break my heart, Ray, sweetie. After all these years, I thought you'd be happy to see me!"- the stranger spoke with a cute smile as he then crossed his legs 'sensually'.
"Uh, what the hell are you anyway?"
Ray wasn't taking any chances, he snatched up his claymore, the emerald eyes glowing as the handle met his fingers.
With a speed that surpassed anything Ray had seen before, the half gorgon had already moved beside Ray as he held the sword down in place easily; his face coming uncomfortably close to Ray's before whispering into his ear.
-"Worry not, cutie, we'll have plenty of time to play one of these days. You, me, and our ol' pal Divagrus. One big happy reunion!"-
The individual then licked the vampire's cheek and was gone in less than the blink of an eye, as if he'd never been there in the first place.
Ray touched his own face.
"Just...who the hell was that?"
How am I supposed to know?
"What should I do?"
You don't like my suggestions anyway...
"Can you kill it?"
Can you?
Ray placed the claymore against the wall again, the eyes on the skull located at the hilt stopped glowing. That "thing" could be in the very room with him right in that instant...
~Gone to the furthest reaches of the Earth to look for answers~