RP:The Start of a War

Remains of a Castle

Blut sat on one of the shattered spires as he looked on at the evening plesentries that were about to go down. The sun was about to set under the crystal blue waters of the ocean as members of the haut monde gang started to set up the ring for their slave fights. Sick nobles of Cenril approached with slaves of various kinds from wealthy Fish Mongers who's supported by the gang to whatever remains of the council slaves arrived in drones as they were forced into the barricks of the abandoned castle. Torches were set alight illuminateing the ring with its flickering orange glow. Guards wandered the premise ready to gut anyone not on the list as members of the gang collected money and slaves from the nobles. Blut stalked around in the darkness takeing notes of this gang and its various activitys as he lept down from the spire before he could be illuminated remaining hidden in the shadows. The flames scared off most people thinking it was a tribe of Vakmaths belivers preforming rituals and the guards would rob and remove and civillian unlucky enough to get too close .

Go for a pleasant evening walk along the beach, she had though. What can go wrong, she had thought. If only she had turned north and headed up shore to the cove beneath the cliff instead of southwards to the wharf. Skylei should have known that something was amiss when she realised that the usual babbling crowd of the wharf had dissipated into nothing more than a few nobles – in a city like Cenril quiet and space is an instant indicator that something isn’t right. As she steps onto the final planks of the wharf, with the castle looming to her right, the half-elf quickly realises that there is more than something wrong with this picture. The broken building, forced into darkness by its long abandonment, is a lit and filled with noise. Skylei’s lived in South Cenril for long enough to know that that in itself is a terrible sign. Gangs? Lunatics? Cultists? All three? Skylei has no desire to find out and keeps her distance.

Blut watched on as the final few nobles pay their fairs handing their slaves over to members to the gang. "Thats all of them begin the patrols" the bouncers spilt into pairs as they began patroling the area covering huge areas whilst looking like local civilians to the untrained eye. Each guard was strong enough to be a city guard each equiped with a short blade be it a dagger or a scimitar they all had ways to kill. The guards waste no time in their patrols disposeing of civillians as they got too close their cries of distress silenced by steel. Any attempts to flee would be stopped by two hidden guards at the start of the peir the gang did not want any rumours. A patrol wondered round carrying torches as they walked towards the area Skylei was occupieing which was luckly out of range of the other patrols. Blut quitely stalked the pair his night black cloak made him blend perfectly into shadows of this moonless night.

Nope, nope, nope; this just keeps getting worse. The guards might be able to muffle screams as they go about their business, but Skylei’s elven hearing is attuned to hear more than the average man. As a former vigilante and current ranger, the half-elf recognises the sound of steel being unsheathed, of blades against bones and of the fall of broken bodies to the floor; she knows all three sounds well. Now, Skylei isn’t thrilled by ‘witnessing’ murders of those she assumes are innocent. Would she like to right that wrong? Sure. But is she willing to risk her life on it? Hell nah. As those torches break into her eyesight, Skylei breaks into a light jog. She casts her eyes over her shoulder, once, twice, heck every few seconds, keen to ascertain whether she’s being pursued. Skylei would prefer flight to fight tonight, but she won’t be caught off guard.

Blut swiftly approaches the pair of guards that he was stalking as they notice movement in the shadows "Hey stop right there" they yell rapidly giveing persuit "We got a runner clif side running south." The guards at the entrance of the peir get up as they tip the guards to stay quite as they draw their weapons. Blut breaks into a sprint as he catches up with the pair easily catching up swiftly snapping the neck of the first guard as he drops to the ground life leaveing his eyes as his torch goes out. The second guard swiftly turned around before yelling "JACK" but the moment he saw Blut he froze with fear for just a moment but that moment was long enough for Blut to draw his dagger and swiftly slash him across his throat as he gurgled with blood in his mouth as Blut kicked him off the cliff. Blut noticed the figure of someone in the darkness as he left the range of the torch once again dissapearing into the night as he sprinted to catch up with Skylei "Hold up I'm not here to hurt you." Blut whispered to the panicked elf. Blut readys his hands to catch any weapon that may come flying towards him from the elf.

Behind her, Skylei hears the sounds of death. That alone is enough to persuade the half-breed not to stop running. Eventually, Blut catches up to her and whispers that he is not out to kill her; at least not tonight. The elf must be out of shape if she’s been caught on foot because Skylei is anything but slow. Skylei is also a smart chick and, over the years, she had learnt a couple of lessons. At the top of this list lies the lesson that she draws on right now: strangers are not periodically kind, and when someone says that they’re not going to hurt you, they’re probably lying. Skylei stops running, turns and eyes the individual for less than a second. Almost all that’s visible against the rapidly fading light is that jet black cloak and, as anyone worth their salt knows: black cloak = trouble - again, especially when you’re a South Cenrilian. She feigns acceptance of his statement, hoping to entice him into lowering that readied hand “Okay, thank you. I was so scared.” Then promptly aims a square fist at his nose, if he’s dropped his hand, or a knee to the groin if he hadn’t, and carries on running away.

Blut thought fast as the gang members cried out "Jack Kaminski status" Blut copied Kaminskis voice "Area secure strangler put up a fight but she's swimming with the fishes now returning for new tourchs." Blut turned back to Skylei as he lowers his guard earning him a punch in his iron mask as she ran off again. Blut managed to keep pace due to all the chaseing he does for his job. He'd be pretty bad at his job if he couldn't keep up with his targets. "Damn it stop there are guards at the exit noone leaves until the event is over now you want to stop and let me lead you to a safe spot or let yourself be captured." Blut whisped as a final warning Blut created two orbs of orange light as they flickered mimicking torches as they circled the area mimicking the dead guards patrol.

Motherf---“ Skylei grimaces through the pain of having punched iron with a bare fist. As she runs on, the half-elf attempts to shake the pain out of her hand but the likelihood is that she’s broken at least a finger or two – not an ideal situation for an archer. Still, you’d think after being punched in the face/mask, Blut would be willing to leave the half-blood in peace/to her doom. Still, no, he insists on helping her. Unfortunately, Skylei is a Lucindio and thus inherently stubborn, proud and foolhardy to boot. There are few things that the half-elf likes less than being treated as though she’s a damsel in distress. Screw this guy. How dare he assume that she can’t protect herself! Voice dripping with sarcasm, the half-elf rounds on Blut, ignoring the fact that he has likely saved her life multiple times in the preceding minutes, “Right, because I asked for your help, didn’t I? Leave me alone.” The half-blood lets out a haughty sigh of disgust, “Men.”

Blut brings out a cross bow as he loads it loud enough for the elf to hear. "Now listen up I've got a pretty big mission rideing on this if your discovered beating on guards they are going to cancel the fights I'm not asking you to thank me hell I would prefer it if you don't just don't be selfish and ruin this mission for me. Can you do that much." Blut asked quitely a chill ran through his voice his finger on the trigger. "So new question you gonna be quite or am I going to have to silence you."

This guy is a jackass. Skylei knows the type, or at least she thinks she does. They’re rife in South Cenril. Tough guys who think they’re the toughest, more important, hardest men in the city. That said, Skylei doesn’t want to find herself on the wrong end of a knife tonight and her bow is still on her back and unloaded. With a clearly fake smile and her voice still tinged with sarcasm, Sky concedes. Kind of. “Fine. You go to your little ‘mission’ and I’ll stay here. Nice and quiet. Out of your way.”

Blut clicked his finger as a faint red light eminated from it drawing various runes under his cloak as it created a runic circle expanding to incompass the pair as with a swift distortion effect the pair vanished. Blut panted as he expended alot of mana createing the circle takeing a compartment off his mask so he could chew on a tree root as it slowly worked at returning his lost mana. Blut clicked his finger as a small ball of light illuminated the pair and threw a dagger at her feet. "Here's some light if someone gets in the circle kill him and keep him in here nothing can see in and as long as you stay in here nothing gets out." Empasiseing Bluts point two guards walked past the circle with no clue there were two warriors right next to them. Blut looked back at Skylei one last time "and I'm pretty sure I can guess what your thinking if we meet again I can tell you what but for now try not to confuse me from the trash here in Cenril." Waited for the guards to pass as he ran out of the circle no sound was made as he ran due to him traveling light and by evadeing the torches he stayed practically invisible as he made his way back to the castle.

22:03:34You does as she’s told, but not for any of the reasons Blut might like. Runes are kind of Skylei’s thing and, if she’s going to be stuck somewhere it might as well be in a runic construct that she can study. That said, she’s certainly not happy about it. “I don’t need your sodding light.” Skylei mutters at the man as he leaves. Petty in her need to be better than everyone else, she busies herself creating two semi-spheres of fire and manoeuvres them to sit around Blut’s illuminated sphere fundamentally replacing his magic with her own – or, at the least, blocking it out. Then she waits.

Blut watches the guards as they patrol stealing the face of a noble as he avoided guards and simply sneaking out of sight of the guards silently climbing the spires as he looks around makeing makeing a mental note of the positions of each of the rooftop guards as he waits. Blut loads his crossbow as the main announcer reveals the first slave and match causeing the crowd to go wild some guards stop focusing on their dutys and spend more time paying attention to the match. Blut loads his crossbow as he aims at the guard nearest to where they were holding the slaves. The bolt flys with deadly precision simply flying past the mans head slightly sliceing it but the shock of the bolt caused him to stubble backwards as he slipped and fell to his death on the broken rocks down below even if he was discovered people would simply think he fell. Blut dropped down to the roof of the barricks as he peered into the cracks big enough for humans to get through. The guards superviseing the slaves walked benith Blut kicking a slave in the stomach furthering their fear of death. Blut leaped down instantly smashing the skull of one of the guards whilest stabbing the second through the throat. Blut looked around before explaining his plan to get them out of there. Meanwhile on Skylei's side a drunken guard strayed from his path takeing far too many drinks ready to topple over at anytime whilst his partner who wasn't as drunk as him followed. The drunktard entered the circle passing out in it completly disapearing from his friends sight. "Wait Gerald where did you-" the second guard asked in a drunken slur as he tried to follow his friend into the invisible portal.

Up in close quarters is definitely not Skylei’s favoured fighting style – indeed, it’s absolutely her least favourite but at least she possesses a small element of surprise. After all who would expect to stumble into a runically enclosed patch of light, complete with half-elf? She’s also engaging with two drunks, which makes this fight comparatively easier than the norm. Poor, drunk Gerald is met with something simple, a low leg sweep knocking him flat on his back followed by the stomp of a boot to the head. Not hard enough to crack his skull, but definitely hard enough to knock him out for a significant amount of time. The other guard is less drunk, has more time to react and has faster reflexes. He takes a knife and reaches out to slice the half-breed’s throat, though with his impaired aim, instead nicks through her battered leather armour making contact with her shoulder. Skylei for her part, reaches out and grips the man with both hands. One holds the dagger wielding arm away from her and the other clutches his neck. Both hands are then lit with a searing heat that would penetrate leather, armour or flesh, burning and melting in a hideous fashion. The guard howls in agony. Skylei winces. The searing heat is enough to make anyone lose consciousness and the man collapses to ground. thus, Skylei ends up with two unconscious guards sharing her circle of light. Extinguishing her hands, the half-blood then gets to work examining her shoulder wound for poisonous residue. It would be a disappointment to die after all of this.

Blut hides the bodys in ancient urns that would have been used to store fruit and veg dureing prolonged battles where soldiers would switch on and off the battlefield rapidly. Blut finishes unlocking the cuffs of the slaves but leaveing them closed on the slaves. Blut looks at the slave master as he steals his face and clothes bringing out the next pair of slaves. Blut smiled as he left the gates unlocked the gang decided to use animals to make the fights more intresting. When Blut left the ring he returned to the rooftops by gaze into the eyes of the animals he trapped thim in illusions which would make them ignore the slaves as he returned to his sniper perch and watched the match unfold. Guards started migrateing to Skylei's area Blut saw the opertunity as his crossbow started to crackle with chaos energy as he took aim and shoot off the locks of the cages causeing the animals to roam free. The slave gates flew open as they escaped with various other animals which attacked the nobels and guard members. The slaves escaped through the main gates bargeing and punching nobels as they left. The ringmaster and one of the leaders of Haut Monde tried to run only for Blut to silently slice his neck and take the guests notebook detailing all the nobels that attended. Blut took the leaders ring finger as he lead the slaves through the chaos towards his runic circle. Blut looked down as he stumbled on a corpse and looked at the bleeding elf. "Looks like you've seen better days since you've been such a good girl you can be the hero of the day." Bluts eyes narrowed on the cut throwing her a vial and dropping the book infront of her. "The book details every rotten nobel that came here you can claim the goods for exposeing their corruption and in the vial is the antidote for the eal venom on their blades would be a real shame if you died here." Blut told Skylei in her own voice wearing the same sarcastic tone she gave him. Blut clicked his fingers shattering the runic circle and causeing him to expload into a flock of crows as they flew off.

Better days? Hell, if a flesh wound left Blut decrying her, he should try hanging out in the D’Artes dungeons for a month or six. Then he would understand the true meaning of ‘better days’. She scoffs She refuses both of his gifts; the vial is thrown back and the book is just ignored. “I don’t trust strangers with healing.” Then she gestures to the book “And you’re clearly not from round here.” Any Cenrili worth their salt knows you don’t mess with the gangs; not unless you’re another, stronger gang. Skylei’s not stupid and she has no desire to bring the wrath of Cenril’s underbelly AND noble classmen down on herself and thus that notebook isn’t coming anywhere near her. She’d gesture down to Gerald and his friend instead. Her sarcasm has not been tamed. “They’re not dead, just so you know. I don’t care what you do with them - I’d just rather not be involved. I’m leaving.”

Blut smiled as a disembodied voice spoke Bluts true voice "very well then" a crossbow bolt flew from seemingly nowhere killing the goons "then know this we will meet again perhaps on better grounds." The book disappeard when Blut picked it up as he walked away. The slaves on the other hand ran towards Skylei asking for various favours from seeing their family or thanking her for freeing them assumeing it was Skylei who saved them.

Skylei truly hopes that she will not see Blut again, but knowing her luck, that’s unlikely. As for the slaves? Skylei does her best to ignore or bat them off. When that doesn’t work, she informs them that their best hope for survival is to get away from this place and disappear into the city; and fast. That works somewhat better and slowly but surely, they dissipate. Skylei, too, heads back into the city. She needs a pint and the Whalers’ will suffice.