Life Level

"Come on. Relax. You have more tension in your muscles from your anger at him then from killing the monster," Leandra says massaging him.

Trial huffs. "I don't give a fuck. He is going to report us and that's liable for anger. Thinking back, I should have just killed him."

"And what that give? A large hunt for us both," Leandra argues.

"He already wants us dead or have you forgotten he framed us for massacring that town he had erased for supporting his brother?" Trial asks.

Leandra sighs as she keeps massaging and looks to Sentire who was sharpening her scythe. "Like we say. He's the one you want to watch out for."

"He is evil. Plain and simple," Sentire says.

"Hah! She's learning. Ow! My shoulder," Trial complains as he freezes up.

"So you used your wires. It must have seemed like some sort of magic to them," Leandra says.

"They were hidden enough," Trial says proudly.

"Wires?" Sentire asks surprised.

"I won't say anything else. I am a professional after all," Trial informs.

"At being my lacky," Leandra teases.

"I believe the boss put me in charge of this team," Trial reminds.

"And I believe I recruited you because you were down in the dumps," Leandra says.

"No. You scammed me out of all my money then later abducted me and force me to join your assassination unit," Trial reminds.

"Oh yeah. That was a good spending day," Leandra says grinning.

"So what is your relationship?" Sentire asks.

"Partners/Lovers," They both say and Trial glares to Leandra who is grinning and sticking her tongue out at him.

"No comment," Trial says, not denying it.

"Do you offer yourself often?" Sentire suddenly asks.

"We are professionals but we aren't looking for foals yet," Leandra informs.

"So you don't? Which means you are not lovers at all," Sentire concludes.

"We sleep with each other and that is what makes us lovers," Leandra informs.

"Is that what is needed?" Sentire asks and they realize she is clueless about being in love.

"Leandra, don't try and teach her about that," Trial requests.

"Aw. Why not? She will never be in love if she never learns about it," Leandra says dramatically.

"We are paid to help her and escort. Besides, you are not the best role model. Even you admitted that." Trial says.

Leandra frowns and turns to him. "Why do you have to hurt my pride?"

"I thought you liked it when I am on top," Trial teases.

Leandra slaps him across the head.

"You feel better?" Trial asks.

Leandra sighs and says, "Yeah. But where is she going to head to now? We already explored this land and we know what awaits us."

"The client calls the shots here," Trial reminds.

"Yes. But where would she go? In fact, why is she here?" Leandra asks looking to Sentire as she looks over the scythe.

"You could always ask her," Trial points out as she pops a few muscles.

"Hey? Where are we going or doing?" Leandra asks.

Sentire throws the sharpening stone behind her and the dog snaps it up. "We are going to take care of creatures and artifacts. And make sure the gods and spirits are doing their part."

"Since when do gods give a damn about anything?" Trial says dismissively.

"Since they sent me," Sentire says tossing her scythe behind her and the dog eats that too.

"Look. No amount of vision or prophecy will convince me that they do give a damn," Trial says.

Sentire hums before turning to the dog and whispers into its ear before it nods and jumps into her shadow.

"Tch. All the same," Trial says now laying down onto the flat rock.

"Don't take it personally. Trial has a very cynical view of gods or anything that portrays itself as one and not many can fault him for it. When their temples are deserted and nothing bad happens, it makes us question if they even exist," Leandra informs.

"Oh. That's because they can't interfere or at times too oblivious to even notice such things," Sentire informs.

"If either is the case, why even bother acknowledging them?" Trial adds.

"For mortals that don't have enough knowledge to latch onto things they can't explain at times," Sentire says tapping her chin.

"Then we are outgrowing them," Trial says with venom, making Sentire nearly flinch.

"Also, it gives mortals a place to connect. Not just stay alone like even they describe me as, but I seem to be a special case," Sentire says looking up a bit.

"Um…Sentire, best to change the subject now," Leandra advises.

Sentire hums. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Extra! Extra! Read all about it. Locust swarm destroys western fields and heading east. Grain prices through the roof," A newspaper colt calls waving a paper in Canterlot.

"Well…that's unfortunate," Solaris says sipping his tea as he watches from a window.

"We both know why that happened prince. You must make amends with that goddess. She has been tormenting us for over a thousand years," A minister says, surprising Artemis.

"What goddess brother?" Prince Artemis asks.

"It is nothing," Solaris says harshly, looking at the minister.

"It is something brother. That tone is when you don't want to admit something," Artemis says calmly.

Solaris shakes his head. "And I am telling you, this is not a matter for you to trouble yourself with. Only when I am dead and gone can it become your problem and that is not happening anytime soon."

"It is my problem for it is affecting our citizens or is your ego? What is important?" Artemis says taking Solaris aback.

"What do you wish of me, brother?" Solaris asks relenting a bit.

"What is this about?" Artemis asks again.

"I honestly don't know. I even tried to get in contact and ask, but she won't even reply and twenty of my royal guards died from arrows after I tried," Solaris admits.

"Arrows? Gods have no use for our kind of weapons. Who was she?" Artemis asks raising an eyebrow.

"I can't even tell that. She is either a goddess of war or the hunt, though," Solaris admits.

Artemis frowns. "I see."

"It starte…" Solaris stops when a letter appeared before him. Solaris hums as he takes it and opens it up. "Seems Dusk is telling that the situation I gave him is over with but…oh boy," he says reading the many things that Trial has said to Dusk. "Excuse me," he says rolling up the parchment and walking away.

"Brother, sit down and tell me what it said," Artemis says leaving no room for an argument.

Solaris frowns and turns to him. "This is a long tale."

"Then you better start," Artemis says, gesturing back to the seat.

Solaris sighs and moves back to his seat before starting, "You see, not a decade after I imprisoned you in the moon, I got word of a rebellion taking form."

"I assume this was my old faction?" Artemis asks raising an eyebrow.

"Yes and no. The ones who started this were disgruntled nobles that thought they should rule and manipulated a lot of your former followers into rebelling. They labeled me the betraying king," Solaris starts.

"Not a surprise seeing as how you handled me," Artemis a bit bitterly.

"Well to avoid an open war I went out and hired a few assassins to go about and start killing the ring leaders and supporters," Solaris admits.

"And it went well, but you needed to hide it," Artemis says, knowing how his assassin groups worked.

"Well yes…" Solaris says trailing off.

"What did you do?" Artemis inquires, nearly growling.

Solaris sighs as he looks away. "I may have sent out a kill order on their heads after ordering them to massacre an entire village."

Artemis frowns heavily. "They went through with this?"

"Most did, yes. After they finished, my royal guards showed up to execute all of them in the village and burn it and kill any they missed. Some escaped and the rumors of it spread. I crushed it harshly and the torture chamber never saw so much use," Solaris admits.

"You did all this, just to make yourself look good and gain more power?" Artemis accuses.

"I did it for stability. The realm was already shaken. If a war broke out, it would have been a mass slaughter," Solaris tries to defend, but Artemis could tell the one he was trying to convince most was himself.

"Your answer to a fire is another fire. Except, you caused a bigger one that lasted all these years and the embers still remain," Artemis says harshly.

"There is no way else. That is why the goddess has a grudge against us. The griffons and dogs have done worse and yet they are not cursed," Solaris defends.

"Then maybe someone you killed has a special relationship with the goddess," Artemis says, freezing Solaris.

"I…never thought of that," Solaris admits.

"You never think of relationships. Only holding the land together," Artemis accuses.

"That is not true. I have taken many ma…shutting up now," Solaris says, making Artemis smirk, temporarily forgetting his anger.

"Many mares huh? I guess then I'm allowed to match your numbers," Artemis says grinning.

Solaris gains a horrified expression.

"I think I see a settlement ahead," Trial says flying above the trees.

"About time. I'm starving," Leandra says patting her stomach.

"Yeah. We haven't come across anything for food since that manticore five days ago," Trial says coming down.

Said manticore is now bones and the dog is chewing on one following behind them.

"Strange. I don't remember this one," Trial says seeing straw roof cottages and a large crystal castle on a tree that is like crystal.

"Must have been made when we left," Leandra says walking out of the forest and gets on the trail.

"That was a month ago and none of it looks fairly new," Trial informs as they kept walking.

Sentire hums as she walks ahead of them toward the crystal structure.

"You think we would have missed that?" Trial asks.

"Most seem to," Leandra points out to the many ponies who were walking around and not gawking at the sight of the crystal castle.

"Obviously they are used to…hello," Trial says mildly surprised when Rainbow's head came in his field of vision upside down.

They turn to look at where he is looking and sees the mare they met hovering above him on a small cloud. "Hey loser," she says crossing her arms.

"Great and I thought I got away from that pompous stuck up prince," Trial mutters.

Rainbow scoffs. "Unbelievable. If you want to stay away from him, why are you here?"

"I walked away from him is why. Should have known something that gaudy belonged to royalty. From the looks of it, he loves rubbing in his position," Trial says, making a few mutter about something.

"Hey, buddy. Dusk lost his old house. It was blown up and he got this from…box…magic…I don't know. The egghead does maybe," Rainbow defends.

"So basically his old place blew up and decided, hey, time for an upgrade and created this with his magic in the middle of a village," Trial says letting Rainbow know she gave him the wrong impression.

Rainbow huffs as she lands before him and pokes his chest, "Listen, buddy. Dusk is never like that. It was either live in this place, which he didn't want to at first either or go live in the rubble of his old tree library and all those memories. You got a problem, bring it on."

"Backup. Who builds a library in a tree?" Trial asks and Rainbow was about to answer but stop to think about it.

"Actually, we never really got that. But it worked!" Rainbow says trying to defend.

"Was the tree dead? If not, how was it still alive with so much of it cut out? In fact, how did it not collapse in on itself? You cut out a huge part of the support," Trial points out.

Rainbow yells out clutching her head, "Ahhhh! This is why I leave the thinking to egghead! It's so confusing."

"A wizard did it," Leandra chimed in.

"And protective wards," Sentire says leaning over.

"That makes no freakin sense. I was raised by a carpenter who built houses and that isn't possible," Trial says.

"Oh my gosh! New ponies!" a male voice calls.

"Oh no!" Rainbow yells taking off.

"Stay Rainbow," a pink stallion says, his hoof on her tail.

"Get off my tail Berry! Just because I let you hold me at that sleepover doesn't mean you can grab it when you want," Rainbow orders to him.

"You know them. Introduce the…mercenary," Berry says.

"I don't know his name. I didn't bother to ask because a big animal with a big mouth was coming at us. At least I gave it a one-two punch," Rainbow says taking quick jabs in front of her.

"You mean that annoyance, the Bulette," Trial says dismissively.

"Shut up. My story," Rainbow shots back as she recounts her tale of what happened.

"Well, we will be going. Don't bother to tell his royal highness, a protege of the genocide king, we were here," Trial informs, starting to walk away.

Sentire looks to the castle a bit worried before following him as Leandra sighs and follows as well.

"Ungrateful louts," Trial grumbles. "I don't know why we came here if we knew he was here. This is horrible on many levels."

"Job listing," Leandra pipes up, looking at a board.

"Not so bad now," Trial says sliding back with her and looks at the post. "Simply killing the pest. Easy."

"Oh, a Razor boar. This should be fun," Leandra says punching her fists together.

"Hey, rainbow mane," Trial calls.

Rainbow frowns to them. "It's Rainbow Dash," She corrects, crossing her arms.

"Where was this boar sighted last?" Trial asks making her pale.

"Why do you ask?" Rainbow asks.

"Because we will get paid for taking it out," Trial informs as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

Rainbow blanches. "Are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't we be risking our lives? It is how we get paid and how we get to eat," Trial says.

"You can work a job," Rainbow points out.

"Not really. This is all we know how to do," Trial says, taking her aback a bit.

"This is all you know. You really haven't been going out, have you?" Rainbow tries to counter.

"Oh yeah. That is why I can handle myself miss frozen," Trial counters.

Rainbow growls. "You know, you have been a jerk ever since you met us. Why not give some care once in a while?"

"Because you have had it easy," Trial informs, not caring anymore as the pink stallion showed them a map and pointed to a location.

"The creature?" Sentire asks pulling the map down a bit.

"Yeppers," he says.

Sentire hums before reaching over and pinches his arm a bit.

"Oh. You pinch me, I pinch you," he says happily before pinching her.

Sentire smiles and giggles before trying to pinch him again.

"Got nothing to say?" Trial asks.

Rainbow just stayed frowning as she tried to come up with something.

"If not, then we are off," Trial says grabbing Sentire.

"Hey! He's a good candidate," Sentire tries to argue as she was dragged off.

"We have work to do," Trial informed.

"I'll come back to make sure," Sentire calls as she is now being dragged by Leandra.

"Yeah. Definitely a Razor Boar," Trial says looking over the landscape.

Leandra hums as she scratches her cheek. "What do you think Trial? Hide and trap or make it come to us and fight or the other way around?" she lists off.

"This thing is to use to traps and those trying to ambush I bet. Let's go to it," Trial says smirking under his scarf.

"All right…got anything in that dog of yours for heavy strikes?" Leandra asks looking to Sentire.

"Heavy?" Sentire asks as Trial brings out his wire.

Leandra nods. "We are attacking this thing head first. Got anything for it?"

Sentire hums before reaching into the dog and digs around. "Let's go," Leandra whispers quickly to Trial and jumps away with Trial following.

"Now where are you?" Trial asks flying as he looked around.

Leandra hums as she keeps tapping her claw against some of the rocks loudly. "Here piggy, piggy, piggy," she calls.

"You really hunting this thing?" a mare's voice asks.

Trial groans and stops flying and turns to her. "Would you leave me alone."

"You ponies are crazy," Rainbow comments.

"Not regular ponies," Leandra says proudly walking under them. "Nice panties," she says looking up to Rainbow.

"Leandra, do that and watch for the Razor boar," Trial says.

"Yeah, yeah. Talk with your marefriend," Leandra says dismissively.

"Unless you are going to help, please leave. We have work to do," Trial instructs.

"Nopony tells me what to do. Besides, I'm bored," Rainbow says crossing her arms as she stays hovering there.

"Then it could cost you your life," Trial warns as Leandra punches a tree down.

Rainbow huffs. "I've been through worse."

"Here it comes!" Leandra calls.

Trial immediately heads towards her the trees ahead part away, letting them how close it's coming as a rumbling feeling reaches them before the last bit of trees part and shows a large black boar with many scars charging towards them with its large ivory horns, ready to skewer them.

"We are keeping those. They will fetch a good price," Leandra says smirking.

"Agreed. You cave in its head. I will bring it to a stop," Trial says raising up his hands.

Leandra grins as she brings her hands and puts them together before waiting as the boar kept charging before she jumps out of the way and Trial spreads his hands and the boar trips over itself, sliding in front of Leandra who quickly brings down her fists and smashes it into its head and jumps away, just in case it's still alive.

"Am I late?" Sentire asks running up.

"Yeah. We killed it and…" Leandra stops her proud speech as the boar starts to rumble before strips of flesh starts to fall off and steam. "The fuck?!" she yells backing off.

Sentire frowns as the dog pad up to her as Trial and Leandra backs off together. "So that's how it was eating," Sentire says looking to the large rock she has in her arms and throws it away behind her, making it land between Trial and Leandra, making them sidestep away. She then reaches into the dog and pulls out her scythe and quickly slices off the back and opens a hole to which a large amount of dark smoke came out of it and forms a small cloud over the body. Sentire huffs as the dog growl as the cloud starts to form into a shape and look like the boar itself before she whistles and the dog barks, jumping at the cloud and takes a bite at it, catching it and dragging it with him as a thin line of smoke was connected to the boar. Sentire narrows her eyes before carefully swinging her scythe and cuts the connection, causing a scream to come out sharply, caught Rainbow, Trial, and Leandra to cover their ears.

After the scream subsided, Trial moved his hands and the tusks fell from the corpse. "We are done here," Trial says walking over to the tusks.

Sentire blocks his way with the scythe, making him look at her before she points with her blade to the dog still with the cloud of smoke in its jaws. She sighs as she walks over and digs into the dog and takes out a bottle, to which the dog stuffs the cloud into it with his mouth and Sentire seals it with a cork. "Now you can."

"Hey dog, if you carry these back for me and don't chew on them, I will buy you a steak," Trial offers, making the dog raise its head.

The dog pants happily and Trial tosses the tusks to him and he catches it and starts to hold them without chewing.

"Come on," Trial says leaving Leandra to skin it.

The dog barks behind the tusks as it follows with Sentire leaving to stare at the cloud in the jar.

"The fuck…?" Rainbow tries to compute.