Happenstance and Misfortune [Vyra!] [M]

[DaGlobster]

Herrick dodged the shurikens much better than the last time around, since he had time to prepare a defense. When Kira disappeared, he shuffled towards the center of the room, eyes and ears open.

[Vyraena]

When Kira reappeared, there was not one, but three of her. While she was in the shadow realm, she had conjured up two clones. They all struck at the same time, from three different angles.

[DaGlobster]

"As if a guy couldn't get any luckier..." Herrick said, his characteristic smile still on his face. As the three clones closed in, he reached up to one of the many rings around his fingers, and twisted the gemstone.

This time, Herrick was the one to disappear, clean off the face of the material world. He reappeared in the rafters above them, fingers lined with throwing knives as he let loose on the bunched up clones.

[Vyraena]

Kira pushed back and blocked the throwing knives with her twin blades. The throwing knives that had been headed for the clones passed through them, and the clones dispersed back into the shadows.

She was just about to ready another attack when she heard footsteps down the hall and the clattering armor of the guards running down to the room. The sounds of their fighting must have drawn their attention. Shit. She thought as she glanced over towards the door, only to realize that this room didn't have one, but instead just had an opening into the hallway. The guards should easily be able to see them from where they were.

[DaGlobster]

Herrick dropped down from the rafters, rapier drawn and prepared for more, when the sounds of footsteps caught his hear. He looked at Kira, and saw that she was quite visibly tensed at the sound of their footsteps. "Wait, you're no--"

thwang!

A crossbow bolt whizzed by Herrick, embedding itself into the wall past him.

"Shit!"

He went to dive out of the view of the doorway, but another bolt came flying in, and struck him in the shoulder, sticking out plainly from his pauldron as a trickle of blood came flowing out.

[Vyraena]

Kira gathered the shurikens that she had already thrown off the ground and tossed them at the guards. Some made contact, and the guards they hit fell to the ground. Others bounced off crossbow bolts, deflecting them so that she wouldn't be hit. Unlike this other man whose armor would provide him with at least some protection, a hit from one of those bolts could quite easily be fatal for her.

She gathered all the shurikens she could, as the enchanted metal they were made out of was very expensive, and began to run towards the balcony.

[DaGlobster]

Herrick didn't bother to try to turn around and fight these guys, he just ran in the only direction he knew. It was no coincidence that it also happened to be the balcony. As he ran, Herrick drew his pistol, loading some kind of cartridge in it, he wasn't really paying attention. Since he didn't have any shurikens to gather, he was at the balcony before Kira, and by the time she'd arrive, he was already climbing down.

[Vyraena]

Rather than climbing down, Kira jumped off the balcony and faded into the shadows. She reappeared on the ground around the same time as Herrick. It was no coincidence that they were headed the same direction, as they were both trying to escape from the estate, and there was really only one way to go. She took off for the exit, paying no mind to the man running beside her, which she had been in combat with only a few moments earlier.

[DaGlobster]

More crossbow bolts hit the well maintained grass around them, and Herrick raised his pistol back at the manor, hoping whatever he had loaded in his panic was good enough. Firing his pistol, a great gout of flame heralded a bullet wrapped in a roiling fireball. It crashed through one of the first floor windows, and in what was most likely an extremely unfortunate and catastrophic event, the entire house just...went up.

He had always heard tapestries were a terrible fire hazard.

"Oh...Fuck!" He yelled, stopping for a brief moment before he resumed running alongside Kira.

[Vyraena]

As they came to the gate at the front of the estate, Kira took one of her blades and sliced clean through the lock, pushing the gate open with her foot. She didn't have time to scale the wall, and this was just as easy as using her magic to phase through it.

She kept running until she got a good way down the road, then stopped under a tree to catch her breath. Only then did she acknowledge the man who had been running beside her this whole time. "Yeah, nice going back there. I'm sure having the whole house go up in flames was the best option. Well done." She said with as much sarcasm as she could possibly put in her voice.

[DaGlobster]

"In my defense, I had to load my gun while sprinting for the balcony. And it was dark. That was...an accident..." He panted, doubling over before straightening back up and leaning against the tree.

"So, pretty tidy coincidence we've found ourselves in, huh?"

[Vyraena]

"Yeah, it's lovely." Kira replied. "Some random man appears, assumes I'm an enemy without surveying the situation, and causes both of us to leave without what we went there for. Everything's going great."

[DaGlobster]

Herrick frowned slightly, and looked her over. "You look like an assassin sort of person. Maybe if you're lucky, your mark's going to go up in flames. Besides, I was sneaking in there to steal things, I had to assume everyone in the house was hostile. I could only assume you would've done the same in your position."

[Vyraena]

"It doesn't matter if my mark goes up in flames! My mark was my mark, no one else in the house should have had to die!" Kira snapped at him. "Besides, I'm not typically in those situations. I like to keep to the shadows and avoid as many people as possible."

[DaGlobster]

"Yeah, well welcome to the world of freak accidents..." He muttered.

"You think I haven't lost anything from this? That's my livelihood, up in flames over there. If you were half as good at sticking to the shadows as you say you are, this whole thing would've never happened. Besides, everyone in that building was either Krioss or some prettied-up hired scumbag. Have you seen where Krioss gets his guys? Good riddance, the lot of them."

[Vyraena]

"Listen. When you get a mark as an assassin, your mission is to take out your mark, and your mark only." Kira sighed. "Anyway, I wouldn't expect you to understand. You're just some thief trying to make some quick loot."

[DaGlobster]

"And when you make your mark as a thief, you're supposed to go in, steal what you came for and what you came for only, not burn the place down."

He mimicked Kira's voice as he said that.

"At least you're getting your job done. Those fire rounds are not cheap."

[Vyraena]

"Mock me all you want, all you did with that statement was point out your own folly." Kira replied. "Anyway, I spent a lot of time planning that out, and since you ruined it, you're gonna make it up to me. I'm gonna be missing out on a lot of money because of this!"

[DaGlobster]

"I spent weeks planning that gig! Do you know how much of a nightmare it is to get into Connlaoth, what with the war and everything? I had to climb over plenty of walls to get here. You should be making it up to me!" Herrick said, lightly jabbing her in the shoulder with a finger.

[Vyraena]

"I'm sorry, which one of us put the house up in flames again? If it weren't for you, both of us could have waited this shit out and went back to finish our missions! But no, you just had to burn the whole fucking house down!" Kira snapped at him. "If you want to somehow throw this on me, at least make it a valid reason, and not some bullshit so you feel better about yourself!"