Another day, another job

Esmeralda taps her fingers along to the song’s beat in her headphones while riding the bus. Positively humming from this morning. More than likely, the other passengers think she’s a little more weird than usual as she’s swinging her hair as she hums along. She didn’t care though, she’s been learned to be herself. It kind of came with the territory of being a Human girl that loved Lycan culture more than her own.

There were plenty that got into the Anime and Manga, but she was all in. Majored in Bushido in college, with a minor in Advanced Lycan language courses. While most of her friends went into something a little more expected of them, like early childhood education, but that wasn’t for her.

Although her Papi and Mama would rather she follow that path, well, not exactly. They actually wanted her to go into Social services. Still, she couldn’t ignore her warrior’s call. While her Papi had learned to accept that she was a warrior, he at least wanted her to follow Human style, but it didn’t feel right to her. It had been her Papi that always told her to follow her heart.

So that was settled, especially when she had to pay half of her college expenses. Mama getting into an accident also seemed to oppose her going to college for Bushido. That was why she had to work harder than most to make a lot of money for her familia. No matter how much she felt like a Lycan at heart, Familia is still very important.

The Bus Driver called for the end of the line, and that was her queue.Esmeralda always waited for all the civilians to get off the bus first. Her Armor made it awkward to move around them. However, she still remembered to high-five the Bus Driver on the way out. He was one of the few strangers that never gave her problems.

“What’s the job today, Ezzy?” His warm smile asks as she gets off the bus.

“Goblins again,” She gives him a face that says that she’s over it.

“That’s like the third time this week!”

“Yeah, a lot of them seem to be migrating towards this cave off the coast. Hopefully, we can find the cause of it.”

“Well, be safe and tell me about it later.”

“You got it.” She says with a smile making a heart over her chest. He returns a thumbs up to her, and then he closes the door to start his break.

It wasn’t a long walk to the cave. Esmeralda is actually surprised that there isn’t any security around this area. Goblins may be weak monsters, but they can still do a lot of damage to an ordinary civilian. Maybe they just figured her and the other bounty hunters would keep it under control. Well, that is what she is there for.

Approaching the spot marked on her map, she hears a whirlwind of testosterone going back and forth. By the Moon! Not this again.

“I am the Tank! Look at me! I’m a Paladin. A Barbarian doesn’t have the skills to do what I do.” A human kid says, waving around what has to be his parent’s money. There is no way a b-class bounty hunter could afford that kind of armor. The Elf kid to the opposite of him spits on his boots and growls.

“That’s why I’m the Tank! You can support me and help the healer keep us healed. You don’t have the strength to do what I can.” The Elf kid says, looking like every other frat boy she met. To his credit, he was extremely muscular and wearing what looks like an armor he could have made himself, made of basilisk hide.

While the two of them throw temper tantrums, Esmeralda walks over to the Vampire ranger and the Drow cleric and join them at checking their social media while waiting for the mission to start.

“How long have they been at this?” Esmeralda asks.

“Longer than I would like to admit… Les Dieu!” The Vampire says as her eyes go from her phone to Esmeralda. “You’re Yasuhiro’s apprentice. Esmeralda Reyna, the Human Bushido warrior? I’m a huge fan.” The eyes of the Vampire got huge, and Esmeralda didn’t know what to do. She was used to this happening to her Senpai, but not to her.

“Yes, I am, or at least last I checked,” Esmeralda wants to die at that lame joke, but it was all she could think of.

“Is it true that you and Yasuhiro stopped a group of Orcish assassins in the Orcish invasion by yourselves? And that Yasuhiro got hurt, and you had to fend off the leader with multiple injuries?” The Vampire’s voice and eyes were just like a kid’s. I guess Esmeralda didn’t think about it that way. When she and her Senpai took that mission, all she wanted to do was protect him like he had done for her so many times. During the fight, Yasuhiro got hurt trying to protect her from an attack she couldn’t even see. Without his sacrifice to save her, she wouldn’t be here today.

“Yes, I guess that’s true.” Esmeralda answers, and the Vampire squeals.

“I knew it was true. You’re part of the reason why I got serious about my skills and became a bounty hunter.”

“I’m glad I could help.” The Vampire calls her owl over and starts to introduce her to her pet. Knowing that rangers can talk to animals, Esmeralda is almost sure that the owl is also a fan of hers.

“A humble Human, quite a rare sight.” The Drow finally speaks up.

“So is a Drow cleric on the surface. I’m honored to be in your presence.” Esmeralda bows.

“Please, there is no need for that, but I do appreciate it. Not enough people respect the clergy anymore with the Gods dead. But I guess I should expect nothing less from Yasuhiro’s apprentice.” He says, placing his blessing on Esmeralda. This had to be the blessing of power. Esmeralda could feel her muscles strengthen. And while her Armor isn’t super heavy, it now makes it feel like paper in terms of weight. Esmeralda bows to him, and he once again waves off her gratitude.

“Don’t worry, Luv, it’s more or less why I’m here,” he smiles.

“Why don’t we let Esmeralda be the tank?” The Vampire says, and the two children with big weapons turn to her. Their eyes burn with anger, and finally, they can agree on something.

“Not happening!” They both shout. Before the Vampire could protest, Esmeralda speaks up.

“I’m not a Tank,” She says, then equips herself with her Orcish bow and takes a shot. The two toddlers dodge the arrow and realize that she didn’t aim at them at all. Sniping a goblin, they watch her complete accuracy as she draws, nocks, and fires again. “This place is filled with goblins. We don’t really need a tank. Senpai and I used to clear this place out once a month. The Vampire, overjoyed with seeing Esmeralda use her bow, pulls hers out and joins her. Sending the owl out to attack and draw out enemies, they begin getting to work. The Human puts on his helmet and rushes into the thick of it, followed closely by the Elf with his dual swords. With everyone doing so well, the Drow takes a few goblins himself, taking shots with his pistol whenever he can.

Pretty soon, everyone but Esmeralda realized why the job posting asked for five hunters. A massive wave of goblins and wolves comes from the cave in full force. It wasn’t the strength of the goblins, it was the sheer number of them, and seeing that the ‘Tanks’ froze up, Esmeralda puts her bow away and runs to the front line. Drawing on her power, she uses a sword draw technique and fires a power slash projectile. It glides through the goblins like a master carver’s blade through tender meat. The other hunters are in awe when she does it again and again.

Snapping from his fear, the Barbarian leaps past Esmeralda and does a power stomp. The shock wave is enough to knock many of them to the ground, and he goes forward with executing all the ones around him in a vortex swing. Not one to be outdone, the Paladin calls down divine energy to reduce a few of them to ash. The Paladin sees that not only does Esmeralda give him a thumbs up of approval, but he gets a nod of respect from the Barbarian.

With the bulk of them gone, they clear out any remaining goblins. Once they realize that they can do this and have fun with it, everything starts to go a lot faster.

“So you are as good as they say,” The Drow says while passing the spirits along to the dead. The last thing they need is the spirits manifesting into ghosts and haunting the nearby towns.

“I don’t know about that. Maybe I just had a really good teacher.”

“You can say that again. Yasuhiro is a legend on three different continents. My teacher was just some drunk Human with good enough luck to complete enough jobs to be an A-class bounty hunter.”

“Everyone’s teacher isn’t S-class?” Esmeralda asks, most of her friends being S-class or some high ranking member of an army. And one being a Prince.

“By the Queen, no. Not all of us are as lucky as you, Luv. There are not enough S-classes to go around for everyone. Well, maybe there are, but not enough in our field.”

“What do you mean?” Esmeralda asks, dragging more bodies to the pile to be passed along.

“We could learn to do bounties in the inner city, but the teachers they have for that are terrifying.” Esmeralda thinks of Kira and Xiao. She guesses that she knows them in a different light. She could see how they could cause fear… There was a loud roar and then a scream. Esmeralda was pretty sure that it was the Human’s scream. She and the Drow turn to where the sound was coming from. Now Esmeralda was locked in fear.

A giant cyclops had the Human in his hand and was now throwing him to the ground. The Cyclops is in motion to steep on the Human – Esmeralda quickly fires off another slash that causes the Cyclops to step back instead. Using her power, she dashes to the Human’s side and moves him out of harm’s way. The Drow signals that he will heal him.

Esmeralda gets in her battle stance and calls over to the Elf.

“I guess that makes you the tank.”