[IRP] The First of Many

[WyvernSlayer]

“Agents of the Empire! You guys, kill them!”

“What?!” Satsume dropped his hand back to his side and spun around, incredulous. A trio of cutthroats had moved in front of Glass and were slowly working their way towards him. Satsume immediately went for the short metal rod hanging by his left side. He unlooped it and gripped it tight. To the layman, it looked like a lance that a midget would wield. And Satsume hoped that he was dealing with laymen.

“Now hold on a minute-” Satsume started again, but the three men were having none of it. One of them was carrying a large, wide-bladed sword. He looked the more dangerous of the group, so Satsume focused on him. Slowly, his left thumb settled across the hardly distinguishable nub on the side of the rod.

“Whatcha got there, punk? Some kind of toy?!” The first brigand snickered and moved in front of his comrades.

“Listen,” Satsume replied, and he shifted his feet into a defensive stance. “I don’t want any trouble.”

“I’m sure you don’t, imperial scum. Now die!” The sword-wielding brigand lashed out with an arching, vertical slash.

Ka-SHUNK!

Satsume was sprayed with blood almost instantly. The brigand’s eyes grew wide as dinner plates, and he froze mid-swing. Maybe he was shocked at the fact that, in touching the button on his spear, Satsume had sprung it to its full length and reached out to hit him. Maybe he was too busy coming to grips with the hole in his neck to notice.

Satsume pulled his spear back, letting his gurgling foe collapse to the ground, and glared at the second attacker. The axe-wielding brute’s mouth gaped open, much like his companion’s as he was impaled. The third seemed similarly awestruck. Satsume shifted his stance and pointed his spear at them. His face pried itself into a smirk.

“Wah… aaaaaaaaa!” The other men took two steps back, then took to their heels in the opposite direction. Clearly, they wanted no part of Satsume and the weapon he held, the greatest culmination of his father’s many years in smithing weapons.

“That’s right! Get outta here!” Satsume shouted after them. He turned back towards the crowd, where the scene had quickly devolved into chaos.

The red-haired girl had her hands tied with the man from earlier. A couple men from the crowd had drawn weapons and were engaging brigands of their own. And off a ways, Satsume could make out three or four other men chasing after… was that a pegasus? Where did THAT come from?

His first instinct was to help the red-haired girl, if only because she was the most familiar to him. But she seemed to be doing alright. One of the men from the crowd had already moved to her side. Seeing this, Satsume turned back and headed for the pegasus. As he did so, the men who had previously been chasing her were making their way back to the crowd. The stopped when they reached Satsume.

“Hey! No mystical sword on this guy! He’s mine!” one of the men cried, and charged headlong, axe bared.

Satsume sighed and got into his stance again. No surprises here; he’d have to beat this one the old-fashioned way.