A Woman Among Beasts [Closed]

To the outside, Cieria always seemed like a harsh, rough place filled with dangerous creatures, hardened men and honor-filled knights. Stories, entire books had been written about the types of creatures you could find in Cieria. But as in all corners of the world, the most dangerous creature in Cieria was known as 'human'. The most cruel creature of them all, for only mankind could enslave their own and break them. And this corner of Cieria was probably one of the 'darkest' of them all.

Within the shadows of an alleyway, there was a single cloaked figure. The clothing underneath, as well as the face of the man, were hidden by the brown, dirty cloth. If not for his large stature and wide shoulders, you could confuse him for yet another beggar and lowlife. But from underneath his hood, two red-orange orbs were scanning the area. Unknown to them, the worst enemy of all evil forces within Cieria had found a way into their midst... Jilocasin vi Cieria. The duke of the large Duchy of Cieria, sworn to protect the people within his borders from any harm. Normally, an undercover action such as this would be the dealings of lesser people, as it stood against his honor... But the safety of his subjects came first, and bursting into this town right away with a battalion of knights could endanger the possible slaves here. Slave-owners rarely let themselves be arrested, seeing as the mere act of owning a slave would always be punished by death. Well, at least owners would face a quicker end than actual slavers.
One of his patrols had caught a group of slavers not too long ago. From the interrogation, they knew that one of these brothels - the 'Red' - might very well be involved within the slave trade. Jilocasin hoped to find more clues to the large slaver ring keeping the entirety of Cieria in fear around here - especially so that he could send out actual missions instead of wild goose chases to all potential heroes within Cieria. A harsh land always bred a lot of heroes, or those with the potential for it, who didn't want to serve in the military directly.

Now it was time to act... Especially since he just heard a weird rumble come from the direction of the brothel. Most people probably didn't pay much attention to a slight explosion in this area, but it could mean a whole new host of problems for the dragon knight. So, without wasting any more time, the man with the glowing red eyes hidden under his cloak wandered over to the doors of the brothel. He wasn't the only one trying to go unnoticed, so he didn't stand out too much... unlike one young gentleman in front of him. It surprised the duke a bit to see such a man here - didn't seem like the usual clintel for such a dark place. Really, he'd like to just forbid prostitution, but that would put any actually good establishments that paid attention to the law out of business. Not all brothels were as shady as this one, but that was hard to remember when faced with humanity at it's worst.
The Dragon Knight followed behind the out-of-place young man. If the guards stopped him personally to search him, then his cover would be blown immedeatly - underneath the cloak, Jilocasin was wearing full-plate armor, and sword and shield were on his side and back, respectively. He knew that he was fast and skilful enough to dispatch two door-guards, but tipping off the owner of this establishment would be a bad idea... especially for the people inside... Unconciously, Jilocasin straightened up his walk a little, and while his face was still hidden in the shadows of the cloak, the red glow of his eyes would be visible.

The knight moved slowly, as to not attract too much attention. His batallion of Cierian knights was waiting out of vision range from the city, so any resulting fight would have to be fought almost entirely by him - it could take quite a bit for them to realize and storm into the city, after all. And they didn't want to hurt innocents - as low as the chance of finding any here was. His brown, dirty cloak rustled a bit as his eyes wandered over the building materials. Seemed stable enough - a simple fight shouldn't bring the roof down, unless he was forced to unleash his full arcane might. Hopefully, all of the slaves and prostitutes could escape if it came to that. As the duke, it was his duty to protect those too weak to protect themselves. He was their champion, forged within the fires of this land, to strike down evil.
Right now, it was still hard to tell if his might was even needed. The women behind the windows didn't exactly seem happy, but also didn't have the look of scared, new sex-slaves to them... But that wasn't saying too much just yet. Spirits could be broken, and no sane person would put a new, crying girl right up front as an attraction, at least no sane person that wanted to keep their operations relatively hidden.

The first door inside wasn't too much of a hurdle, besides the obvious problem of Jilocasin being a bit too tall for the door. The doorframe almost pulled off his hood as he ducked under it, but he quickly caught it - that was too close. Revealing his face and helmet right here would be the same as storming in, blade drawn, right away. Inside, a damp hallway... This didn't look good at all. How could any self-respecting human being enter this place? And by god, the smell! The knight assumed that, if he had entered as a dragon, the smell would be enough to his heightened senses to knock him right out. But he doubted that this smell was intended as an anti-dragon defense. And it only intensified the closer he got to the two men standing guard. Obvious muscles, sinister faces... Typical bouncers of the underworld of Cieria. Most people in this land had some physical prowess, so it took huge men to stand up to normal people once they started making trouble in any establishment, even those honoring the law.
Getting by them unnoticed was the harder part. With his cloak, Jilocasin didn't exactly look like the most trustworthy patron... and underneath, he had his full set of heavy armor, as well as weapon and shield. If he just kept his face hidden and acted calm, maybe he could get by them... maybe. But sadly, that didn't want to happen today.

"You there! Remove that stupid cloak, or turn around and piss off!" sneered one of the guards, before spitting out onto the ground in front of Jilocasin. Slowly, the Dragon Knight turned around, with a slight sigh. Today would be a long day, indeed. Walking back a few steps, the armored man murmured a few special words... words of power.
"Flesh to steel, weakness to power, strength of the ages, reveal from within..."
Then, he turned around, and started running. The men raised their arms up, as Jilocasin's armored hand appeared from within the cloak and opened up the band holding it together. Fluttering away behind him in the hallway, the man in red, silver and gold was revealed, even if he wasn't wearing a helmet today for once.
"I told you to st-"
More would not be said by this man today. Jilocasin crashed into him like a speeding freight train, while expanding his left arm to punch the second guard right in the face. "The strength of the..." Arcane energy started swirling through the muscles of Jilocasin right as he hit his target, catapulting the man backwards, with the feet of the armored knight planted right into his stomach.

Inside of the main room, one could suddenly hear a slight tremor coming from the entrance... before the main door was ripped out of it's frame with a loud crack. Splinters, dust and wood flying around, and pressed against the door with his bag, one of the men who stood guard in front of the brothel before - and SLIDING on top of both the man and the door, before jumping off, a man in red and golden armor with silver adornments, who was pulling a sword from his side and a shield from his back.
"DRAGON KNIGHT!"
And with that shout, which resembled a roar of a wild beast, the entirety of the room seemed to shake. And that was without a different spell that Jilocasin usually used to enhance his voice. Right now, every single muscle in his body was as powerful as the muscles within a strong ordinary dragon - a single swipe from his blade could cut through steel. The red, burning eyes of the duke raced through the room - crying, fearful women in a cage. Slimy patrons all around. An incredible stench of filfth, blood, other bodily liquids, and the fear of many women. That settled it - these people were guilty of slave trade and human trafficing. Hell, if his eyes didn't decieve him, then these people actually DARED to capture Solas Kearney, one of the few civilians brave, smart and powerful enough to stand against Cieria's underworld!

Jilocasin didn't even consider backing off after breaking right into the middle of all of these guards. Sword and shield raised, his red, glowing eyes had the fires of hate within them. The smell in here, the smell of fear, corruption and downright EVIL... it was enough to make his blood boil even without any usage of arcana to do so. But apparently, he wasn't the only one on the offensive. Someone broke in through the bloody roof, before crashing down out of his sight! Well, that was quite welcome. The more people, the better. And of course, whoever captured Solas made the huge mistake of underestimating her. This would be one explosive fight.
"Voice of the Dragon." With these whispered words, arcana directed itself through the throat of the dragon knight. Then, he raised his voice - loud enough to make the building seemingly shake in it's foundations. Dust rained down from the ceiling, even.

"Listen up! All of you who stand against me - you are found GUILTY of slave-trading! In the name of me, the duke Jilocasin vi Cieria - ALL lethal force against these vile criminals is permitted!" And as if to strengthen his words, the duke charged forward, right at one of the guards surrounding both him and Solas now. The tall man could've been a true threat, with a baton crackling with electricity, but the bright light of Solas had blinded him - he was nothing but a target. A sliver streak cut through the air, making a wonderful but cruel sound as it flew towards it's destination. The sharp metal easily cleaved right through skin, flesh and bone. The man had no chance to scream as his head got severed from the neck and flew backwards, spinning around. Blood splattering down to the ground, and a small fountain of it erupting from the neck stump, as the body slouched down - Jilocasin spun the blade in his hand, a small flick to the side, sending any blood on it away. The silver color of the blade seemed a lot more threatening right now, and the stare of the fire-red eyes pierced right into the next three men charging at him now, while another one was readying some sort of magical ranged weapon. The power of the dragon still pulsed within him - beheading this first slaver had been no more difficult than cutting through a piece of paper. This was the strength within his veins.
"I did not imagine our first meeting to be like this, Solas Kearney. Let us strike them down!"

"A fine plan, Lady Kearney! Let the den of evil be their grave!" Jilocasin raised his beautiful, red shield, and multiple bullets ricocheted off of it, one of them flying back towards another guard and hitting him square in the... well... balls. With a high-pitched scream, the man went down to the ground. That was one less to worry about. Reacting to bullets would've been actually an impressive feat with his shield, but the slaver had taken his sweet time to actively fire, obviously worried about the cramped dimensions in here to avoid just what he had accomplished anyway - hitting one of his own. Of course, this plan meant that they had to keep the majority of the slavers busy until the civilians escaped - the Dragon Knight was confident in his own ability to escape an exploding building unscathed. He was also aware of his own superior strength compared to all other combatants here - after all, he was a trained knight and experienced fighter, even without his magic.
Changing his stance slightly, he dashed forward the moment that Solas did so herself, turning into a blur of red steel with a silvery streak of metal besides him.
"To channel greatest power..." With his physical power still heightened to that of a dragon, Jilocasin bashed his shield right into the face of the man who had shot at him only moments before, crushing his nose and sending him flying backwards. That was another one down, but there were still quite a few opponents left... "Grant me the breath of..." Taking in a huge amount of air in one breath, Jilocasin focused the two men who were coming at him, one armed with a jagged sword, the other having huge metal gauntlets on his hands. "Lightning!"

With that last word, impressive magical power was unleashed. Changing his own lung into that of a lightning dragon, the air expelled from his mouth turned into bolts of electricity - and in a bright, white and blinding flash, the men in front of him were engulfed in the power of the heavens. Crackling energy broke into their bodes, set their clothes alight, boiling blood and charring flesh - with a terrifying last, dying scream, both men crashed down to the ground, charred black corpses now with some flames dancing on them. The red gaze of the dragon knight, who still had small lightning bolts dancing around his mouth, scanned for his next target to take down and punish with all the fury of a dragon inside of him. They'd come to regret opposing him in their last minutes. This was the price one had to pay when betraying the glorious Duchy of Cieria!

These slavers were at least persistent, you had to give them credit for that at the very least. Not awfully smart, or good at tactics, but cutting down a few of them and roasting a few others apparently only made them angrier instead of afraid... And Solas didn't seem like the kind of woman to be used to longer fights. Understandable - she was an investigator, not a soldier or knight. It came as no surprise when she asked for leave to check on the escape party and to leave the heavy fighting to him - this was his specialty, after all.
"Very well, Lady Kearney. Make sure to collapse the building as soon as the civilians are outside, do not hesitate. I will keep them busy until then!" giving his order, Jilocasin dashed forward in accord with her darting past the guards, right back into the frey. By now, the small fries that died like flies were done for - the rest took up the best strategy against a single enemy they could - they tried not to give him even a single ounce of breathing space. His armor made most of their weapons about as effective as throwing rocks at the scales of an elder dragon, but each time he tried to push one enemy away with his shield or hack at one of them, they eluded his attempt and two others tried to attack from his blind side. More than one gun was fired at him, although his reactions made him able to deflect them either with his shield or let them bounce harmlessly against his armor - the dents would be easier to fix than a bullet in the head. The hectic fighting made it impossible for the shooters to aim for the weakpoints at the joints of the armor, or at his head.

Twirling the silver blade in his hand, Jilocasin still managed to occasionally hit or stab someone, and his enormous magical strength made sure that those blows stung a lot, but he did not have the breathing room - literally - to unleash another blast of lightning. Still, he would keep them all busy, all focused on him and him alone - so that the civilians could get to safety. This was his duty as the Duke of Cieria.

When the rumbling of the explosions started, Jilocasin knew it was time for the glorious finale. The clanging of metal had made it impossible to actually hear the words of Solas when she came back into view for a short moment, but the sudden screams of surprise and fear solidified what was happening now. With the roar of explosions, Jilocasin had enough time to take a deep breath and fire his lightning one last time towards the ceiling, helping with the rapid collapse which would turn this brothel into a mass-grave for the slavers and their customers, or at least for the few that had failed to flee the building.

From the outside, the fiery explosion with what looked like blue lightning bolts looked quite impressive, as it caused the building to collapse in on itself. Solas' work was magnificient - a wave of ash, dust and small debris flew to the sides, but the building didn't seem to seriously damage any other buildings nearby. Not that the damage would really be noticeable - this small town was a hellhole even without this brothel, and a haven for normal crime besides the capital one of slavery.
"I see that you are all well."
As the rumbling of the explosion stopped, and the dust began to settle, a figure walked out between the remaining licking flames, casually pushing a large piece of what used to be the roof to the side. Jilocasin had gotten some dust and minor scratches onto his red armor, but besides a bit of sweat running down his face, no injury or stronger exhaustion could be seen. Leaving the rubble behind him, the dragon knight disabled his still-active spell that gave him his signature superhuman strength, as he sheathed the sword on his side and attached the shield onto his back. The slavers were all crushed behind him in the rubble, as far as he could tell.

Standing before the women and other brave souls who had come to aid them, Jilocasin actually bowed down.
"I am deeply ashamed of this. A slavery ring operating out in the open in Cieria... Such a grave offense against everything that I and this country stand for. In the name of I, Jilocasin, first of my name, will offer financial aid, treatment of body and mind, and help with regaining a normal life to all of you who wish for it. My knights stationed outside of the city will have heard the explosion and should be here soon."
Raising his head again, he looked over to Kaminari, Setsuna, Shinobu and the unconcious Solas. "For your aid in taking out these most vile of creatures, I offer all of you a substantial reward from the royal treasury, as well as the status of Cierian Nobility, if you so desire - or any other reward I may be able to give to you, should you ask for it. I'd also like to invite you to the castle for relaxation and a royal banquet that you all richly deserve.
Bowing his head to them, he said one more sentence in Cierian. "Meine Freunde, ich danke Euch von ganzem Herzen." [My friends, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.]

Only shortly after Jilocasin ended, it came as he foretold - a battalion of knights came riding down the main street, making the peasants on the streets evade them by mostly scampering into side-streets and small alleyways.