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Beginnings; The Old Paladin - Medium Quest
Topic Started: Jun 12 2015, 10:31 AM (231 Views)
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The Old Paladin

Difficulty: Medium

Description:

Ury was once one of the best Paladins in all of Avalon. But with age he has grown weaker than he once was. He recently went into the Cougon Plains to dispatch some brigands threatening a local town. He was marked as MIA. A young Paladin by the name of Maris has hired you to go find Ury as he is too busy with his duties to search for the old man himself. Find out what happened to the old hero and if still alive, bring him back.

Reward: +500 zeni, +5 DP, +40 all stats, +5 Rp Credits

Bonus: +100 zeni, +10 all stats and the item: Paladin's Signet - Worn by the legendary Paladin's of Avalon. Grants you access into their elite order.

Requirements: The Dojo Slayer quest completed

Endless thudding filled the ears of the researchers and engineers who stood by and analyzed Kahran as he pummeled away at training dummies and punching bags. It had been approximately a week since the High Commander and his personal team demoed the first prototype of his specialized gauntlet and since then, many of the initial kinks had been worked out. Mainly, Kahran wasn’t passing out in one punch. In addition to the minor upgrades on the rate of energy absorption, a second gauntlet had been created; both of which still required battery backup but not nearly to the extent they did before.

The original demonstration was overwhelmingly positive among the majority of those in attendance, with the exception of Ury, an old Paladin and former mentor of Kahran’s. While he may have been impressed by the display, he was still unsure of whether this technology would be the future the Paladins were looking for. However, as stated by Kahran, this was the path he was following even if he had to walk it alone. Both of them were stubborn in their own right.

Kahran was clearly walloping the training dummies, as seen in the way they shook and recoiled with every enormous punch he was dealing into them. Each dummy was equipped with sensors that registered the strength of Kahran’s blows which was linked in to the main system that was monitoring Kahran and his energy expenditure with each executed attack. The analysis may have been crude and not completely fleshed out yet but judging by the data, there was a 100% increase in the force of his regular punches while wearing the gauntlets.

And for the high-powered energy punches? That was something else entirely.

At the tail end of his trial, Kahran pulled his fist back and held it upright for a moment. During that moment, a mental command was issued to the gauntlet through an interfacing device wrapped about the circumference of his head, which increased the draw of power from his body. His face visibly contorted as he was sapped but the end result was worth it, that raised fist started to illuminate with a low glow.

Kahran quickly threw the energized fist into the dummy’s midsection and watched as its head and appendages exploded into all different directions.

Immediately afterward, he was breathing heavily and perspiring from just about every sweat gland in his body. These exercises were proving to be exceedingly taxing still, even after days and days of fine tuning. There was always the option to rely more heavily on the battery backup rather than expending one’s own energy but that would defeat the purpose in the long run. Kahran was looking to be as well off as any of the warriors he would come across in the Universe and he wouldn’t be able to do that while lugging around an enormous battery.

A quick glance at his inner forearm, where a small diagnostics readout was present, showed the remaining battery life of his pack to be somewhere just shy of 50%.

“What was the draw on that one? That was mostly my energy, right?” Kahran questioned in between deep breaths.

Balthasar, who was lounging rather comfortably in a chair behind a set of computers, shook his head disappointingly. The glare of the computer monitors before him reflected brightly in his eyes as he scanned over the information presented on them.

“Unfortunately not, sir. I’m seeing about a 38% draw on your side. That’s our highest yet but—that’s not anywhere where we need to be.” Balthasar was a loyal man but also honest. He had been one of the first men hand selected by the High Commander when he was chosen to lead the Shevat region. Balthasar’s work was rather questionable and out of the box but that was the kind of scientist Kahran needed on his team.

“At this point, I think we need to revisit our data. We might have missed something in our original analysis. Also, we’ll contemplate alternative methods of power that won’t require the use of battery packs.”

Kahran, after wiping the excessive sweat from his brow with his bicep, gave Balthasar a long, hard stare.

“You didn’t miss anything, Balthasar. What are you not telling me?”

Balthasar reciprocated the same stare Kahran had shot his way. After but a moment of the quick engagement, the scientist quickly snatched his glasses off of his face and threw them down onto the illuminated keyboard displayed upon the surface of his desk. His fingers vigorously rubbed at the corners of his eyes momentarily as he contemplated the best approach to presenting the information—not that he wanted to do it at all. He knew from the moment Kahran had suspected he was holding something back, that he had better start prepping for what he was about to reveal.

“Okay, come here and take a look at this,” Balthasar said as he picked up his glasses and fixed them back on the bridge of his nose while simultaneously spinning around one of his many monitors to face in Kahran’s direction. The High Commander moved to sit down in an empty seat within viewing distance of the turned display.

On the glowing screen was the illustration of a body similar to Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man; the only exceptions being the nodes depicted at several locations on the body. The nodes, of which there were many, could be found at the lower spine, the solar plexus, the back of the neck, as well as several other locations. The screen was littered with random other data and drawings of pathways that Kahran couldn’t fit to their dilemma but certainly Balthasar could explain.

“The basis of this information is founded in Earthling mysticism. These areas,” Balthasar said as he pointed out to the different nodes, “are believed to be the centers of energy in the body. They are referred to as Chakras and the ley lines in the body in which the energy travels are referred to as meridians.”

Balthasar paused and let the picture unfold with the information he provided.

“Here’s the thing—the Earthlings, with their many gifts, are not the brightest photon in the Protectorate. However, whether it was blind luck or something else, they weren’t that far off.” Balthasar quickly switched screens to a second illustration with a different set of nodes on the silhouette of a body. Some of the nodes overlapped with their locations on the previous example.

“These are the true energy centers of the body. The energy may come from bioelectrical sources similar to the transmission of commands from the brain stem, generated by the labor of the musculature system, or by the body’s natural breakdown of foreign elements but it is made. The issue we are facing with our current prototype is the diffusion of energy through the electrodes attached to your skin—it’s simply not enough. The rate of transfer is, well, pitiful. We believe if—“

“If you can tap into these specific locations on my body, the energy throughput would be much more substantial.” Kahran quickly interrupted.

“Yes, sir.. but it’s risky. As well versed in technology and the medical proficiency it would require to make such a thing happen, there is no guarantee it would work. In fact, we could end up sabotaging the entire energy network of your body. You could end up a living corpse.” Balthasar paused.

“Granted, you would be giving me a patient to study that could lead to success in other projects but—it does little good for you, High Commander.”

A little smile had perched itself on Balthasar’s lips. That was obviously his attempt at humor. It wasn’t very successful judging by the expression on Kahran’s own face. It was as cold and unmoving as a lone stone on a frigid, desert night.

“Like I said though, we’re still looking for alternatives. I’m sure there is something that we have miss—“

“Make the arrangements, Balthasar. I have plans currently in motion and I can’t afford to delay them while we seek out this alternative. If you believe there is a chance for success, I have faith that you’ll make it so. There’s a reason you are among my closest advisors and this is why—no one else in their right mind would ever think of approaching something as grandiose, or dangerous, as this.”

Balthasar nodded solemnly but said nothing in response to the praise. It wasn’t ideal to be labeled as a maniac scientist with a Frankenstein complex but it seemed fitting.

“Send for me when you’ve prepared. I’ll be waiting.” Kahran disengaged the gauntlets and slipped his arms free of the weapons while nearby assistants helped him shed the weight of the battery backpack and other monitoring equipment attached to him. No more than a minute later and he was riding the elevator back up to his personal quarters.

He had a feeling he would need the rest in preparation of what was to come.

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Rest did not come easily to Kahran. He barely remembered what it was like to sleep soundly through the night. He hadn’t had a peaceful night’s sleep since he was a boy. There was always work to be done, plans to be made, or matters to attend to and even when there wasn’t, there was the nightmares. Yes, it was difficult to sleep when your own mind worked against you.

Kahran opted for an advanced medicine of Avalanian design that mimicked the restful invigoration gained after a solid sleep cycle without the hassle of catching a sound eight hours. The medicine, a mixture of chemicals in aerosol form, is dispensed while the user stands within a body shaped chamber. The nebulized particles are then inhaled into body through regular respiratory functions while the other agents in the chemicals cling to the flesh, which are later catalyzed through a specialized method of photosynthesis to supply the body with energy. This practice requires about thirty minutes of time from start to finish but due to the quick nature of the process, leaves the user extremely hunger.

Not many knew how dependent their High Commander was of this drug. It was originally designed for exhausted soldiers who desperately needed rest but couldn’t afford the time away from a battle to secure it. It was never intended for long term use. It was never meant to be used regularly for more than a couple of months. Kahran had been using it for thirteen years.

The chamber hissed as excess chemicals were condensed into an oxygen-based vapor and exhausted through ports out the back. A minute later, the hatch depressurized and unlatched, allowing Kahran to press forth and exit the machine. Once out, Kahran filled his lungs with a deep breath and slowly exhaled to a count of ten.

He felt as right as rain.

Kahran dressed into his regulation clothing before stepping over to his desk. Out of habit, he reached out and grabbed his Paladin’s Signet from the desktop and moved to slide it onto his right hand. He paused before doing so. He glanced at it between his fingers; looking it over with those golden honey eyes as if it were the first time he had ever seen it. Truth be told, it wasn’t Kahran’s ring. Just like the sword securely locked away within his quarters—the ring was her’s.

[align=center]Avalon City
Thirteen years ago
- - - -[/align]

Kahran had been training with the Paladins for a little less than a year when he was tasked with the mission to locating an old Paladin by the name of Ury. He wasn’t quite a Paladin yet but was well on his way to becoming one. He was exceptional in sword fighting and well versed in the educational lessons that all recruits were required to undertake. The Paladins were more than righteous thugs with swords, after all. The Commander of Avalon City had taken note of sharpness of the then sixteen year old Kahran, who seemed all too entirely sober and focused for a boy of his age.

As relayed to him by one of his trainers, a youthful Paladin by the name of Maris, Ury had been dispatched into the Cougon Plains to deal with ruffians harassing a small town. The Plains were filled with bandits and other questionable characters of the same ilk so Ury’s mission was pretty commonplace among all Paladins. News traveled back to Headquarters that the old Paladin had successfully dealt with the disturbances; however, he never made it back to base that night. It was only after a full day of being missing that Command sent Kahran into the Plains to find the old man.

His first stop within the Plains was the village where Ury had dealt with the bandit problem. They remembered him quite clearly and how efficiently he dispatched the thugs. Several accounts witnessed the old Paladin traveling eastward after he left the town. Avalon City was in the west. There was nothing in the east with the exception of a couple small establishments, the Lahan Mountains and beyond them, the small city of Shevat.

And the place where she died—where he almost died.

Kahran traveled east, like the old Paladin had. Each outpost he came across, he inquired about Ury. It seemed that the Paladin hopeful was on the right track. At the second to last village on the road to the mountains, a small place called Fatima, he learned that “an elderly man wearing Paladin garb” had passed through just an hour or two before.

“Did he say where he was going?” Kahran asked.

Most of those he talked to didn’t seem to know but there was one woman who seemed to know more than the others. Gemma, a woman old enough to be Kahran’s mother, was the proprietor of the local watering hole and bearer of all gossip between Avalon City and Shevat.

“Didn’t say much. Jus’ said he was going ta visit family,” Gemma said while wiping down an oddly shaped mug with a dirty rag.

Kahran suspended his disbelief for a moment.

“No offense, ma’am, but there isn’t anything out here. The only place between here and the Lahans is Ignas in the east,” Kahran said, looking at his mug of wild berry juice questionably. At least now he could account for the funny taste he had been getting from the drink.

“Didn’t head east. Said he was headin’ south,” Gemma countered.

Kahran’s face sobered considerably, almost as quickly as the blood that drained from it. Slowly, his hands lowered his mug to the bar counter and firmly set it down. Despite holding tightly to his mug, he couldn’t calm his hands as they started to tremble. For a long, silent moment, he stared at the woman behind the bar. His chest ached with a phantom pain so intense he thought he was going to double over.

“Was what he said, tha’s all. W’as the matter, handsome?”

“There’s nothing in the south,” Kahran assertively stated. His voice was void of all emotion. With time, the quaking in his hands lessened and he was able to compose himself. The very brims of his eyes glistened with the hints of tears but none ever came.

“Tha’s nah true. ‘Bout a year ago, had some big trouble out there. A couple’a Pallies died or sumthin’. You probably heard ‘bout it, cutie, bein’ with the Pala’s and all but I dun know what family he's gonna find around them parts. Mebbe he's got hermits for kin.” Gemma was beaming from ear to ear with a mangy smile. It was quite apparent by her speech that she was an offworlder. Those born of Avalon were well-educated and fluent in proper language.

Kahran barely heard the words she had said. In his head, only “why.. why.. why..” repeated. Suddenly, the young recruit stood up from his stool and promptly exited the dilapidated business despite the pleas of Gemma regarding the payment of his drink. Just another minute later and Kahran was on his steed, a Model B-class Wyvern propulsion-based hover bike, recklessly heading south out of town at a dangerous speed he was too preoccupied to worry about.

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He knew. He could feel it in the pit of his stomach. Kahran knew where he was going to find the Old Paladin but why? Why would he be there? What business did anyone, Paladin or not, have with visiting her final place of rest? The closer he was to his destination, the more overwhelmed with anger he became.

Kahran saw Ury’s bike long before he ever made it to the mountainous trail that scaled to the high cliff. The Paladin hopeful was off of his ride and climbing the path in a matter of seconds after arriving. It didn’t seem nearly as treacherous as it had before or perhaps it was his reckless mentality but he was scaling it quite a bit faster than he had almost a year ago. Also, he was stronger now—better trained and more familiar with the capabilities of his body.

If only he was then, as he was now, he wouldn’t be making this climb.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Kahran roared as he ascended the final lip of the cliff and hurdled to his feet. There was a cloaked figure a few yards before him, kneeling before a makeshift monument of cobbled together stones. He couldn’t see the face of the man but judging by the forest green cloak and the armband wrapped to his bicep, this was the Paladin he sought.

He was already crossing the distance to engage the man. His right arm stretched over to his opposite hip to grab ahold of the handle belonging to his longsword before brandishing it with a howling shriek of metal on metal.

Just as quickly as Kahran was able to draw his sword, the Old Paladin rose to his feet and drew out his own weapon. In the blink of an eye, the elder, much more skilled swordsman disarmed Kahran, who was left gaping as his weapon was cast away out of his reach.

“Begone, boy!” the old man shouted. “Leave me! You won’t stop me from what I’ve committed to do!”

Kahran was confused. He didn’t quite understand what the man meant but judging the words he used, it didn’t sound like he was here with good intentions. Although his sword had been removed from his command and his opponent was clearly more skilled, the foolish boy wouldn’t let down. Logic wasn’t with him in that moment—only that pure, blinding white hot rage.

His fists clenched and he howled.

“You don’t belong here! I don’t care who you think you are, you have no business here! This isn’t some festival attraction meant to draw in visitors—this is sacred ground! This is where someone very dear to me rests and if you even thinking about desecrating the sanctity of this place, I will put you down!”

Ury stood before Kahran, staring at him from behind a furrowed brow. Slowly, he began to lower the raised edge of his sword to point toward the ground.

Kahran, the fool, mistook the sign as something else entirely and rushed the old man at full speed. Ury quickly stepped to the side as the boy neared and clubbed him in the back of the head with the butt of his sword hilt. The blow knocked Kahran unconscious as soon as it connected.

- - - -

The boy awoke some time later with a massive headache and a swollen lump on the back of his head. His vision was blurred when he first opened eyes yet he was clearly able to make out the flailing life of a fire’s flames. Kahran shot up into a sit, half expecting the mountain to be on fire despite the idea being ridiculous to anyone coherent enough to contemplate it. He found himself sitting next to a regular camp fire at the base of the cliff, staring through the blaze at the Old Paladin fixed opposite of him.

“You’re awake,” said the old man, his voice gruff with weariness.

Kahran said nothing in return. Instead, he rubbed the back of his neck and the sore lump protruding from his skull. He winced when he touched the tender wound.

“You’re the boy who was with Miang when she..” A pause. “..passed on.”

He had Kahran’s attention now. While it was common knowledge of what happened around here among Paladins, most people didn’t remember the name of any of the seven fledgling recruits who were coldly executed by the Changeling menace.

“Who are you?” Kahran asked, not completely sure who he was dealing with any more.

“You know who I am, boy. It’s clear you were sent out here to find me. I’m Ury. What you don’t know is, Miang was my… granddaughter.” Ury took a deep breath. His gaze no longer held Kahran’s but locked onto the wavering flames between them instead.

“I’m the reason she died.”

Kahran was pretty sure he remembered what happened on top of the cliff, even though his head was currently pounding with the beat of a heavy drum. He didn’t remember this old man being the one who disemboweled his closest friend right before his eyes.

He was about to speak up when the elder Paladin’s voice interrupted.

“It’s because of me that she enlisted in the Paladins to begin with. She was mesmerized with the tales of Grandpa, the Great Paladin. She wanted nothing more than to be a Paladin like me—and I pushed her to do so, even though her parents objected.”

Ury sighed long and deep. When Kahran took another look at him, suddenly the man looked different. The lay of his face seemed to be one found on a man burdened by an unbearable guilt.

“You came here to kill yourself.” Kahran found his words and with them, a newfound anger.

Ury looked at Kahran once again. The wrinkles in his face were darkened by the wavering light cast upon his features.

“…Yes.”

“You’re an idiot.” Kahran stated and before Ury could respond, he continued on. “You’re an even bigger idiot than I am. What would Miang think about you, the person she idolized most, ending your life because of her? You are pathetic.”

He was standing now, his fists clenched until his fingernails bit into the flesh of his palms. His voice rose from a venomous spit to a screaming cry. If there were any wildlife in the nearby area, they were probably fleeing in fear by now.

“You didn’t have to watch her die! You didn’t have to sit there, helpless, as she was gutted before your eyes! I did! I—“ His teeth gnashed against each other as he tried to hold back his words but the smoldering rage inside of him wouldn’t let him. “I loved her! Do you know what I did?! Do you know what I did after I watched the life leave her body?! I made that filthy Changeling taste her blade as I ran it through his godforsaken throat!”

Kahran fell to his knees before the crackling fire and pounded his fists against the barren earth until the skin of his knuckles broke against the rocky surface. Once again, tears welled in his eyes but this time, they flowed freely. They fell from his cheeks and wet the thirsty ground already sucking up his blood.

Eventually, he calmed down after thoroughly thrashing out all the boiling anger pent up inside him. He reeled back to rest upon his haunches as he stared into the fire with dead, reddened eyes.

“She’s gone but the memory of her last moments will always haunt me. I vowed to take that pain—all of it—and squeeze it for all its worth. I let that pain fuel the anger inside of me and I will use it to make sure that nothing like that even happens again.”

Ury nodded and for the rest of the night, neither one of them said anything, simply residing to staring wordlessly into the fire until it was rendered to hot coals.

- - - -

At the first sign of Helios cresting over the Lahan Mountains in the east, they packed up their belongings and began the trip back to Avalon City. Not a word of conversation passed between them until they reached the steps of Paladin Headquarters, where Ury reached out and took ahold of Kahran by the shoulder. When Kahran turned around, the old Paladin shoved his hand into his and forced him to take a small, hard object clearly composed of metal.

“This was her’s—or it was meant to be. It was to be given to her upon her impending acceptance into the Paladin Order.” Kahran knew she was only a week away from escaping the Recruit title and becoming a full-fledged Paladin when the Changeling invaded. “She would want you to have this.”

Ury nodded a few times, sullenly, before pushing Kahran’s hand back to him. He turned his back to the boy and started slowly ascending the stairs.

“I’ll see to it that you’re guaranteed into our ranks. Come see me when you’re ready for real training—I’ll make sure you have the skills necessary to protect this world, boy.” Ury said with his back still turned, just before he vanished into the depths of the Avalon City Headquarters.

Kahran nodded in acknowledgement before he looked away from the elder Paladin and to his still closed fist. Slowly, his fingers unfurled until they were stretched wide and revealed the token held inside—a Paladin Signet ring, one bestowed new Paladins at their graduation ceremony. It was a symbol of their status, more than anything but to Kahran, this one was so much more.

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