“Woah!” was all the young man said. That is how it started for her. Loren was working on her personal vineyard, trying to create micro environments for each row of grapes. This would allow her to release several versions of her famous ice wine in the same year, instead of a 3 or 4 year cycle. The magic was more complex than she thought at first, and she had been working away at the problem for weeks now.
“If only these weaves didn’t intersect here….” she mumbled, still oblivious to the man who was now beside her. He stared up in rapt attention, attuned enough to see the outlines of the spells she was constructing.
“I need to check my notes,” she said, making a twisting motion with her one hand that corresponded to a complex series of knotting and tying off of the weaves she had bee
Shinra felt the weaves surrounding him at exactly the same time the voice came from the darkness.He was still in the dark room, surrounded by books scattered in every direction, as if a library had been hit by an earthquake.'Damn it, I was sure this window had no guards on it, how did they hear me?' He stopped moving. 'How did they see me? I must be invisible to normal eyes, and yet they restrained me in the dark…' He knew that he would have to talk his way out of this. At least, out of the restraints, so he could kill them and get on with his assassination.'No witnesses.' The restraining weaves were remarkable in a way, they didn't hurt at all, but he couldn't move his arms or legs at all.'Did I walk into a Sheriff's apartment? This is better than the weaves I've seen Wintersbane use on suspects!'"This is just a misunderstanding. I mean you no harm," Shinra said, adopting a calm voice in a deeper tone than he usually spoke in. He figured he should disguise his voice. 'Da
Dave was not having a great night. He had thought to drown his sorrows from the disappointment of Shinra being promoted, by asking Hannah to go with him to a members only club that his family had acquired access to for him. Things didn't go as planned.She had said, "maybe". He had tried to explain that the club was private and she wouldn't be able to get in without him, and she just smiled blandly and replied, "We'll see. I might show up later".It turns out, faint hope is worse than a no. Dave drank himself into a stupor. Alone. The private club, The Red Disk, arranged an escort home for him. It wouldn't have been good for them to have a client spend the entire night.You would think that Dave would have fallen deeply asleep as soon as he made it to his small but comfortable apartment, but the night air had aroused him enough for him to again feel the shame of being stood up by Hannah, his disappointment and not being promoted and his anger at that little shit zombie. He banged a
[Assassination of Dave Complete][3 Stars]Shinra held his breath, afraid to say anything. 'How did I get my best evaluation yet? There is a witness, a huge mess, and, arguably, I didn't really kill him.'He was still crouching down, and hopped back up to avoid the spreading blood. 'Even though the heart isn't pumping, gravity will drive the blood from his core out of that giant hole.' Shinra looked at Loren, expecting to see horror and fear in her eyes. He didn't. If anything, she looked angrier.The system displayed over his vision again.[Evaluation Criteria:Stealth 2.5Technique 5Witnesses &nb
"It is with a heavy heart that we tell you that one of your own, Deputy Dave, of the Shadeleaf family, has died," Captain Spars said. He looked at everyone in the Deputy Bullpen before continuing."I won't downplay this, it is bad. Dave was murdered." The room was filled with sharp intakes of breath and a few gasps. No one expected this when they arrived at work today. Well, no one except Shinra, who also made a short gasp sound to blend in.'I guess someone was sent to check on him after he was a no show at work yesterday,' he thought."We are about to have a general assembly with all the Sheriffs under my command, but I wanted to tell you all first, as he was your comrade."A few hands were raised up, and Captain Spars nodded towards Hannah, who looked calm, though her raised arm trembled slightly."Captain. Will you share the details of the crime with us, and will we be participating in the investigation?" She asked."Deputy Hannah. I will share more details in the general a
'Shit,' Shinra thought. This is not a good situation. Not only were they outmanned three to one by mages, but Shinra couldn't use his skills in front of the newbie without killing him afterwards. 'Probably not the best way to keep suspicion of me right after Dave's death.'Truthfully, Shinra's skills were amazing at killing people who were unaware, but he still couldn't win one to one against a prepared mage. The power difference was just too great."Okay newbie, stay calm and give them whatever money you have. They clearly don't realise that they have just accosted two sheriff's deputies, and will cause themselves a world of trouble if anything actually happened to us." Shinra said."Hahahah, deputies eh? You look like two little girls. Which is interesting because we were told one Noble little girl would be heading this way, and that we should treat her to a little party."'Fuck
Shinra didn't have much time to think, but knew he wasn't going to have much luck against 3 mages slinging spells.He grabbed Sardi's shoulder and spun him around as he ran towards the emerald knight. The mage's emerald sword swung through the air, missing Sardi by a few inches. Shinra's push was well timed. Shinra dove forward as the green sword rose for another attack.'His armour, and the protection spells seem to have him well covered. I know from my earlier attack that those weaves can stop my knife cold,' Shinra thought as he rolled up from his dive and swung his knife in an upward arc, aiming at the man's inner thigh."Clang!"'Damn! I aimed for the gap between the jewel plates, but he shifted his stance. This guy isn't pretending to fight with weapons.' Shinra was surprised. Most of the mages he'd known were like the snake guy, and the ones fighting Sardi now. 'Maybe Sardi and Wintersbane aren't the
"Laryal? Moeal? What the…'' the last goon standing said. Blood had splashed onto his face from his friend in the middle of their triangle.The goon raised his hands towards Shinra, a vibrant purple pulsing along his fingertips. "Die you motherless dog," he yelled.A pulsing disc of black and purple spread between the man's hands. It grew to the size of a pumpkin, and looked deadly."Arrggh!" The man screamed, and motioned to shove the disc at Shinra.Then his left hand was lopped off midway up the forearm. Instead of falling to the ground, it remained attached to the black and purple disc, distorting the shape of the disc to look more like a squash. The hand flopped at the end, dribbling blood. All three men stared at it.The goon drew in a big breath, probably to scream Shinra thought, but the swinging hand unbalanced the squash shaped dark magic and caused it to touch the man's intact forearm."Shluuurp.". It was a horre
Shinra was having difficulty concentrating. The entire run to the precinct, he wanted to initiate the upgrade to level 7 and see if he was noticeably stronger. The fight in the alley showed him two things: that he was much stronger and deadlier than he used to be, and it still wasn't enough because his enemies would always be mages.'Those guys were classified as mid level Assassins, so does that mean they were my seniors in a way?'He couldn't do the upgrade on the move though, since it might make him pass out. He was worried about outlier goons ready to catch them on the way.It didn't matter though, as they reached the Sheriff's precinct in record time. 'Damn, that kid can really run… I guess I can too.'"Sardi, you run in and tell the desk Sergeant. I'll do a sweep out here to see if we were followed.""Ok Zomb… Deputy Shinra," the young man said as he ran into the squat, ugly building.&