Path of a Hunter

[CalamityMei]

Everything was happening so quickly, from being pulled behind the Mordecai to Thomas having a dagger thrown into his back. She needed to think, and quickly for every second that elapsed meant this ordeal could end with more than one person dead. She frantically scrambled her mind, trying to find anything that could ease the situation, stop people noticing her, as passerbys looked on.

Then it clicked.

She screamed then, appearing frightened and terrified, mumbling scared words of a vulnerable woman. She tried her hardest to gain watery eyes and pulled off a very realistic tremble as her lip quivered in mock hysteria. So she bolted, down the alley to whence she had seen the easily scalable wall. Everyone was fixated upon the scenario going down with the trio, and now that Jote had broken away, making it seem like a sincere terrified woman had ran from the scene, she worked quickly in climbing the wall.

With practised ease she found herself soon to reach a balcony, which to her relief, had an open window. Although there was every chance someone had seen her from below, she risked everything now, after all, she never liked coming back empty handed.

[Rhindeer]

The man spoke, and that confirmed it. That was Thomas! Which didn't explain his appearance now, except that one or the other was obviously a disguise. There was no time to ponder that, however, because the man chasing him had stuck him with a dagger, and Jea was screaming like she'd been murdered.

This was spiraling out of control.

Liam sucked in a breath, half expecting the man to drop down dead--but instead he pulled it out and kept running, which meant by some stroke of luck and God's mercy, it had missed his spine and his vitals. Liam grabbed the man's arm as soon as he was close enough and moved to stand in front of him. He had no idea what the hell was happening, but he wasn't about to let a man get cut down on his watch.

"Go with the lady!" he barked to Thomas as he crossed his sword in front of him and turned to face the boulder of a man. "She went down the alley. I'll deal with him."

Attention now fully on Gerard, he barked out, "Halt!"

[Zack]

Eri was breathing heavily, the rush of adrenaline currently flowing through his body stunting the pain he knew was sure to come back full force before long. Regardless of the pain, he knew if he kept losing blood he wasn't going to be around to feel pain much longer, and so he trudged on despite his body gradually weakening. As the rivers of life coursed through his fingers and made his side sticky with the red stuff, he had an overwhelming desire to give in. To let nature take its' course, to find comfort in death's sweet embrace...

Jea's scream, however, pierced through the dimness that blood loss had brought on, and threw him back into the reality of the situation. Running as best he could, which at best was a hobbled imitation of his earlier sprinting, he eagerly accepted the hand of the Mordecai and crouched behind him, pressing both of his hands hard into his side to try and quell the flow the dagger had opened.

Seeing that Gerard was still a little ways away, he listened to what the Mordecai had to say about following the young miss, coughing in agony a couple times before speaking himself. "Be careful, good Sir. He's a lot faster than he looks, and will likely use that axe to crush you rather than cut you." He looked up at the other man, who had already turned around to face Gerard, before getting up and beginning to limp away. "I'm truly sorry to have dragged you into this. I'll tell you everything as soon as this is over." Giving a small, humorless smile, he added, "Granted I survive, that is."

Taking his halberd from off his back, he used it as a makeshift cane to help himself across the street and into the alley the Mordecai had indicated. In his head, he measured out the distance between the mage-hunter and himself, and breathed a sigh of relief. It was just far enough to escape the nullification. Not enough to escape detection entirely, but beggars couldn't be choosers.

Sitting down in a doorway, Eri brought the blade of his weapon to bare. He waved his hands over it, whispering lightly, as he casted a simple and hopefully unnoticed spell. At first only heat waves rippled off of the metal, but within a few seconds the blade was glowing red-hot. Eri ripped a piece of cloth off of his shirt and bunched it up, put it between his teeth, braced himself, and then placed the glowing hot metal to the wound in his back.

The pain alone made his head swim, black and white dots permeating his vision as the blade seared his flesh with an audible sizzle. Though he gratefully thanked any gods that may be listening for the gift of consciousness despite such mind-breaking agony, he certainly didn't thank them for the smell that came afterwards. Knowing that he was on a time limit, and already hearing the sound of clashing coming from the street he just left, Eri fought the urge to vomit and looked around for any signs of the girl.

It didn't take much looking for him to spot a wall that looked fairly easy to scale, especially for somebody of Jea's lithe build. There. Stumbling out of his sitting position, he allowed himself a couple moments to stretch before putting his halberd back on his back and climbing up the wall gingerly, being sure not to bump his still-fresh wound and re-open it.

"I hope I'm not too late." he muttered audibly, the scaling taking great time and effort due to the wound.

[CalamityMei]

Her heart beat hammered in her ears, the pulsating rhythm louder than anything else and she feared it would give her away. Everything she had worked for, up until this moment, was all for a job. She pulled the blade from her garter, slightly bigger than a dagger, but no where near the size of a sword, she gripped it with experienced ease.

Leaping over the balcony top, a couple of guards patrolled the top, yawning and pacing back and forth. They were easier than easy, beginners play. She gripped the blade so that she didn't have to use the bladed end...yet. Staying out of site, she crept along, waiting for the moment one of the guards would turn their back on her. Seconds felt like minutes and as she held her breath in anticipation she swore she could hear the scrambling of feet against brick.

Bingo. She lunged forward with unanticipated speed, bringing the end of the blade down with a crack to the guards temple, knocking him immediately unconscious. She briskly went to the other before he turned and noticed his friend was down and did the same to him, with the same result. Taking one of their swords, she stepped through a pair of glass doors, a sword in one hand, and an oversized dagger in the other.

[Rhindeer]

Thomas didn't look good, and though Liam had told him to go with Jea, it was less for Jea's sake and more for Thomas's. He needed treatment, and badly from the looks of him, and whatever his motives here, Liam wasn't going to just stand by and let a man die. But first, he had to take care of this lumbering brute.

Hopefully Thomas wouldn't bleed out in the meantime.

"You'll survive, just get going!" he barked to Thomas as he faced Gerard, all steely calm and confidence. He swept his eyes over the much larger man, making a snappy assessment, gauging how he carried himself, the way he moved, the way he seemed to favor one leg over the other--an old injury, no doubt. Instantly, Liam filed him under "thug". Big, mean, nasty, and likely able to cleave him in two--but these sorts always thought strength was the answer.

They lacked finesse.

But as the big man drew closer, his axe at the ready, he suddenly stopped and blinked. "Ey, you're Tom's Mordecai, ain't ya?" he said with a grin, palm slapping the handle of his axe. "The one I was supposed to 'delay'."

Liam's eyebrows rose. It took a fair amount to surprise him, but that made him double-take. "Excuse me?"

The man let out a hearty belly chuckle. "That's right, you're defending the weasel now, but not twenty minutes ago he asked me to delay ya. Now he's playing you, too! Gotta give the lad credit, he's clever!"

What? Liam's eyes narrowed, his jaw tightening. "Is that so."

"Ain't got no reason to lie, lad!" Gerard said with a nasty smile. "Now move aside, lily, and let me handle the rat."

"No," Liam said, his reply automatic. Oh, no. He definitely wasn't letting Thomas go now! Something was going on, something bigger than he realized, and bad, and Thomas had a hell of a lot of explaining to do. That, and Liam needed to punch him in the face once he was sure he wasn't going to bleed out.

...Wait.

Aw, shit.

Jea!

"Put down your weapon and leave," Liam said. "That's your only warning."

"Naw, I don't think I want to."

True to Thomas's word, Gerard was fast--but he was stupid. He came at Liam in a charge, axe swinging, and maybe he'd managed to take out other low class thugs this way, but a disciplined soldier? He was nothing. His movements were erratic, and that's what made him dangerous, but Liam skirted easily around him--and for a while, he didn't even bother to counterattack. He dodged and parried, letting the man work himself up to exhaustion--no one could keep swinging a heavy axe like that forever!--and when he could slip in close enough, he cracked the pommel of his sword against the man's thick skull and sent him crumpling to the ground.

That should keep him out for a while.

With a scowl, Liam sheathed his sword and took off toward the alley at a run--

Only to find it empty.

"Dammit," Liam growled, and had been about to search elsewhere when a pebble struck his shoulder and drew his attention up.

And there he saw him.

None other than Thomas, scaling the wall, already almost to the top.

"You!" God-fucking-dammit! "What do you think you're doing?!"

[Zack]

Eri gritted his teeth to bite back the scream he wanted to issue. Having almost scaled the wall, a poor choice of footing caused him to swing wide and bash his side against the stone, causing his vision to blur and his body to seize up in pain. He couldn't let this stop him despite the overwhelming desire to run as far away as possible from this whole scenario, and after a little struggling he found purchase for his next move upward.

Hearing the unmistakable sounds of a scuffle above, he was just about to swing his leg over the rail of the balcony when he lost his grip, nearly falling and causing a few loose pebbles to tumble down below.

That was when he heard the Mordecai's voice booming from under him, loud and close enough to almost startle him off the wall. More than a little hurt, sweaty, and irritated at this point, he swung his leg up and over the railing of the small balcony and finally crested it, heaving a large sigh of relief before deciding to address the mage-hunter. Peeking his head over the balcony, and trying poorly not to sound insolent, he yelled back "What does it look like I'm doing?! Taking a god-damned stroll?! The girl climbed up here..."

Eri paused, then took a look behind him. He hadn't been absolutely sure she had gone this way, and was afraid that he'd jumped the gun assuming she meant ill to the lecherous lord, but... the room definitely smelled like her, and he doubted that the guards around here were concerned about smelling as flowery as this lingering scent. Poking his head back out, he continued. "She's already been through here, I believe she means to take out Lernghant! Hold just a moment, I'll help you up."

Unstrapping his halberd, Eri went to lower it down to the other man when he noticed that the Mordecai looked none too happy. Having assumed the redness in his face was from the exertion of the fight, he now could see that the authority figure was clearly very upset about something. Dealing with a pissed off and experienced soldier was pretty high on Eri's list of things never to do, and so instead of helping the other man up, he backed up from the window and began to walk away. "On second thought, I'm going to follow her this way. If you want in, try swinging some of that authority of yours around. I'm sure they'll let you in the front if you ask real nicely."

Feeling a bit bad for egging the man on, but also lightly amused, Eri turned and tried to follow the perfumed woman. Though hating to rely on something as insubstantial as scent, it wasn't long before he stumbled across the bodies of two unconscious guards. Putting his halberd away due to the close quarters of the building, he pried a short sword out of the grip of one of the men and hefted it lightly as he looked for where next to go. Not far ahead of him were a few sets of doors, but an especially nice set of glass doors had been left ajar, however slightly. He set off towards the doors at a jog, wincing a couple times from his side as the rapid movement threatened to re-open the hole in his back.

[CalamityMei]

Her assassin kicked in and she was as silent as a ghost. Her footsteps were mere feather drops upon the floor, having now made it inside Lernghant's establishment. The only problem was finding him. Sticking to the walls and using her keen ears for any sign of enemies coming close to her, she traversed her way through the halls, one after another before she delved into a room.

It seemed to be a bedroom, certainly not one belonging to the noble, but perhaps a guest room. She was about to leave and continue her search when the sound of running footsteps caught her attention, slowly getting closer, and closer. Before she knew it, she was clambering into a nearby cupboard as the door handle turned and a heavily armored guard entered the room. In that split second, she was hiding discretely in the darkness of the cupboard, making her breathing slow, and her eyes peer through the smallest of gaps, she watched the guard do a once over of the room, seemingly searching for something.

"I can't see anyone!" He shouted, obviously to another guard nearby who threw back a 'keep looking'. She was grateful he didn't think to check the cupboard for whatever reason, and soon exited the room just as quick as he had entered it, the footsteps fading in the distance. Finally it was safe and she came out from the cover of the cupboard, cursing herself for the wasted time, she was meant to be in and out with no problem, but now this.

Leaving the room, she had grown careless, not listening to the wooden door to check for any signs of enemies, and it was then she smashed into someone, hard. Steadying herself from toppling over she readied herself, sword and dagger in each hand before she turned her eyes on a recognisable face, someone from only a few moments ago.

"Thomas." Shit.

[Rhindeer]

The girl climbed up there?!

Liam's jaw dropped.

Oh, bloody hell! Pretty women sent to entertain lords did not do so by scaling walls--they did it with the proper papers, proof of their invite, and went in through the front gates. Abruptly, Liam realized he wasn't dealing with an innocent courtesan--oh, sure, she had a meeting with the lord, all right.

But now he was certain that a lovely pair of legs weren't the only things her skirts hid.

Whatever he thought about Lord Lernghant, he could not turn a blind eye to this. Maybe he'd been wrong to think so poorly of Thomas, if the man had suspected something and was only acting in the interest of protecting his employer--

...Except that was when Thomas retracted his halberd and proved he was, indeed, an ass worthy of the broken nose Liam was going to give him.

"Thomas!" he hissed, and threw his hands up in aggravation, fingers making a throttling motion. "Goddammit, you stupid bastard!"

But the man was right.

He could walk in through the front.

Turning, he bolted out of the alley and saw that Gerard was still out. Good! He ran past him and wheeled around to the front of the building, jogging quickly up to the gates, where two soldiers stood watch. They bristled when they saw him, their hands going to their weapons out of reflex, considering he was running toward them, but they relaxed when they noted his tabard, and their expressions turned alarmed rather than hostile.

Before they could get a word out, Liam spoke. "There's intruders on the premises!" he panted. "A woman, dressed as a courtesan, and a man, said to work for Lord Lernghant. The woman claims she was invited, but considering she scaled the wall to get in, I suspect the Lord's in danger. Let me in!"

He didn't have to ask twice. The soldiers ushers him inside, one running off to sound the alarm. All around him came the sounds of boots drumming the ground as Tyon's men sprang into action, and Liam took off, heading up the stairs in the direction Thomas had vanished.

Hopefully he wasn't too late.

[Zack]

After blowing through the entrance, Eri decided it might be time to take things a little more slowly. He wouldn't be in any shape to defend himself if pain was all he could think about. Using an old technique his magic instructor had taught him to focus, he regulated his breathing until it was deep and slow and let his mind wander, almost as if setting it free. It wasn't as effective a meditation as it would've been had he time to relax, but he could feel his mind clearing enough for him to dismiss the injury as more of an itch than an epicenter of discomfort. He closed his eyes and counted back from ten before opening them and continuing through the building.

Moving forward, Eri stuck to the walls as best he could without letting his halberd bump against the tight quarters of the interior. He almost wished he had left it at home, But judging how the day had been going, he thought to himself, I'm glad I brought it. Absentmindedly rounding a corner, he dove back into the previous hallway when he saw four or five heavily armored men clustered together in a foyer of sorts.

Eri remarked to himself that the room was quite beautiful before returning to the task at hand. The foyer was rather large for a building of this size, likely taking up at least a quarter of the space, and was resplendent in gold and white all around. Being on the second floor, he got a good view of the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, a pretty thing of crystal and stone that illogically balanced its' likely tremendous weight on a series of thin metal hangers. The level that he and the guards were on was little more than a balcony, though there was an opening that led down a long, spiral staircase onto a tiled floor on the first level. Eri thought he might like a room like this someday, if financial situation allows.

Sticking his head out ever so slightly, he could tell they were discussing something between each other, but unfortunately Eri caught none of the short exchange before they parted. He was able to confirm there were six men rather than four or five, and two of them that Eri recognized paired up and went down a hallway adjacent to the foyer. He watched the other four men carefully, and when he was certain there was nobody left in the room, he quickly went to tail them.

They hadn't gotten far, and he almost had to dive back again as he saw them checking rooms. Already looking for her? Eri grimaced to himself as he remembered his predicament. Well, for us.There's no way the Mordecai got word to the guards that quickly. What are they looking for...

That's when the man outside the room called "Keep looking!" to his mate, whom Eri assumed was in the room. Eri glanced over his shoulder nervously several times, hidden from view of the guards but completely exposed to whoever might enter the foyer by staircase or by hall. The other guard didn't share his friends' patience, and soon exited the room and complained about a 'wild goose chase' before heading off down a bend in the corridor with his mate in tow.

While tiptoeing through the corridor to catch up with them, he was suddenly smashed into. Thankfully, it was on the side that hadn't been stabbed, so he was able to regain his composure quickly and brandish his sword in the direction of the assailant.

It was Jea.

Mouth agape, Eri almost didn't hear her as she muttered his name, whether to him or herself he didn't know. He quickly put his hands up in a sign of subjugation, not wanting conflict with the woman who could likely handle herself better in tight quarters than he could. Keeping his voice low so as not to alert the guards who had vacated, he said "Whoa, whoa, whoa just wait a moment. Wait. Just wait." He bent down slowly so as not to scare her off and put his sword down. "I'm not here to hurt you, okay? And hopefully you're not here to hurt me. Let's just talk for a second."

That was when the main entrance in the foyer burst open, heavy footsteps thundering through the hallway. Looking over the balcony to the first level, Eri's heart sank as he saw the Mordecai running in with a compliment of guards at his back.

Turning to Jea, he said as much as he could, the words practically spilling from his mouth. "My name isn't Thomas, it's Eripiam. I'm a mage, and I've been working under Lernghant with an assumed identity so I could steal something I need from him when I got close enough. No hard feelings, but your little... whatever you're doing is really screwing things up for me. So here's the deal; I'll help you, but we need to find a way to either get that Mordecai to help you again or ditch him. I'm basically at half effectiveness between no magic and a bleeding hole in my back, and I'm sure you don't want him to apprehend you now either, Jea."

The Mordecai had begun running up the stairs, and it was then that Eri turned to Jea with urgency, grabbing at the sword he had dropped. "You need to make a decision NOW. He's not going to fall for sweet talk from either of us again, I'm afraid."

[CalamityMei]

If Eripiam hadn't put his weapon down when he did, his head would be rolling down the corridor. She was poised to swipe at the slightest movement, and with adrenaline pulsing through her, it was like Jote was a whole other person. Her arms throbbed with anticipation as her eyes darted from each opening, planning a route of an improvised diversion.

This was bad, her identity had been revealed to what, someone who was trying to steal something. She didn't know why she listened to him and she wasn't sure why she was waiting for him to finish. The sound of heavy, metal footsteps deafened her ears as enemies approached and her brow dripped with sweat from the choice she now had. "You have no idea, you will be nothing more than a liability to me, I should just kill you now." Her grip tightened on the hilt of the sword in her right hand, her jaw locked and she had mere seconds to decide between being merciless or merciful.

She closed her eyes tightly before running at Eripiam, grabbing his arm tightly before he could apprehend his sword. "Show me to Lernghants quarters and I may spare you." She practically dragged him along with her, down a corridor out of sight. She wasn't an impulsive killer, that was why she had not chopped his head from his shoulders, she was paid to kill one person only. Although she had the problem with him know her features, she'd be gone before he could go to authorities.

They trudged down the carpeted corridors, a maze of an establishment as she tried to visualize the interior, planning an escape route after the deed was done. Shouts from soldiers could be heard in the distance and even though Eripiam was slowing Jote down, she needed him to get where she wanted to be. "Lets hope that Mordecai isn't as dangerous as he looks." She found herself chuckling, even in these type of circumstances.