Chapter 17: Clearing the Casino

August 6

The group goes to explore the basement floor. There’s nothing in the storage, but when the group goes toward the arena and end up in the arena seating they hear Saul shouting at someone not very kindly, “You idiot, why did you let it loose in there, now you can’t get in there, idiot, control your creature, idiot.”

Kieron goes into hiding and steps to the arena railing and hears some pig grunting from below. Neiia puts out her light, so Ra draws his illuminated sword. Kieron and Neiia sneak around the opening, while Ra puts away his sword and starts sneaking down the stairs with Jaysek following.

Kieron and Neiia follow the others but split up in the corridor; Kieron follows the others, Neiia starts flying down through the arena. At the bottom of the stairs, Ra comes around the corner behind Saul’s back and sees in front of him, in addition to Saul, one big boar and his bodyguard. Since Saul hasn’t even noticed Ra yet, Ra strikes Saul in the back a couple of times. Saul doesn’t manage to dodge but spins around and tries to strike Ra in turn. At the same time, Saul’s bodyguard shouts to the boar, “Attack,” and points toward Saul and Ra. Next, the bodyguard jumps away himself and also shouts a warning to Saul, who also jumps out of the way when the boar attacks Ra. Ra dodges, and the boar hits the wall (or more precisely, the door) with great force.

Ra strikes the somewhat dazed boar, which nevertheless strikes back immediately. Ra dodges the counter-attack but stumbles while stepping backward and falls at Kieron’s feet. Kieron strikes the boar in the middle of it’s chest with her sword, and after that, the boar starts to flee. Kieron goes after the boar and gets sight of the bodyguard, who is fighting with Neiia.

Ra shouts to the others, “Watch out, Saul is there ahead, and he seems to be aggressive.” Neiia strikes the guard, and he starts to flee. Neiia then steps directly into Kieron’s sword but blocks the sword with her own sword, dropping a light coin from her other fist to the ground. At this point, Neiia notices that Saul has just escaped through a floor hatch in the middle of the arena. Neiia tells this to the others, and Ra runs to the middle of the room, Kieron following. Kieron doesn’t notice the hatch, so she remains standing on top of it. The bodyguard runs to the scene but sees Ra and Kieron in front of him, so he returns and while fleeing gets too close to the boar, which attacks him.

Neiia arrives, and when Kieron moves away from the hatch, Neiia opens it. Ra, who was waiting for this, steps forward and falls into the hole. The hole is 20 feet deep, and after falling sbout 12 feet, he hits Saul, who is climbing down, sword first, hitting him twice before they collide with each other. Saul doesn’t stay on the ladder when Ra falls on top, and both end up at the bottom of the shaft.

Upstairs, the bodyguard gets annoyed with the boar and strikes it so that it falls dead to the ground. Neiia moves behind the bodyguard and stabs him so that the man screams, “Don’t hit, it hurts, it hurts.”

At the bottom of the pit, Ra strikes Saul dead and then says, “Surrender or die.” Ra and Kieron begin to examine Saul’s body. Upstairs, Jaysek and Neiia talk the bodyguard into surrendering, and after that, they begin to give him first aid.

Kieron and Ra find some bottles and additionally a reasonably good sword. Since this sword would become Kieron’s new main weapon, as it would be better than her old weapon, she’s about to take it, whereupon Ra starts arguing against it and announces that he wants it for himself because he wants to practice using two swords. Kieron doesn’t believe this explanation, and when Neiia and Jaysek arrive and participate in the discussion, Ra absolutely wants to fight for the sword so that whoever is last standing gets the sword. Neiia succeeds in talking Ra around so that they fight only to first blood.