Rabbit Hunting (Chase Thread)

[Deleted]

Diamond slightly curse when it seemed that Claire had desided to run like a rabbit. The predatory feelings went flowing into him as his Muramasa blade wanted to have its fill. As the weapon had been unsheathed and it had not tasted the blood of a sod in a long time. And today it seemed it would be its day. Diamond ran off the roof the roof and jumped down to the ground. As he landed on to the ground the people stepped away as they could feel the Muramasa's aura of dread as it was extremely potent. Diamond's eyes had the look of a wolf seeing its prey. He then charged forward with his blade low "You could have avoided a lot of pain if you had surrendered to me peacefully. But now you had to run like a rabbit, so we shall hunt you down like the animal that you are. THERE IS NO WHERE TO HIDE" he yelled to the woman as he was catching up fast as people started to move away from him. The former sellsword knew that the archmage would be following shortly and hoped the man could get ahead of him to try and cut off. As he ran he spotted a few of his Rose Court soldiers "You there cut off access to the second district now! I am in pursuit of an assassin that tried to kill the king" he barked out while keeping pace.

Diamond did hope that they could things shut down and prevent this woman from escaping. But none the less he kept up after Claire and with his free hand now reaches into his crystal pouch and pulled out three slices of agate. He started to reform them into kunai daggers in his left hand as his right was wielding his katana. With each step he was taking Diamond was closing in and as soon as he was in a few feet. He threw the three daggers right at the back of Claire trying to stun her or disable her for a second or two. So that he could catch up with her and stop her.

[Claire]

Claire had picked the wrong outfit to get into a scuffle in. In her common woman’s skirt and boots with her cloak, she could run but could easily get caught on anything. She had few options as she ran- she could lose the cloak and run faster, but she would lose her plausible deniability in the crowd. As she ran she took inventory of what she had on her- she could fight hand to hand, her short sword thumped against her hip as she ran, there was a knife hidden in her boot if things got heated further, and four potions. Enough to make a break for it, if she was careful.

There were always places to hide. Though she had not been here as long as some others, her situation had given her the opportunity to find them. Her gods would not raise her to this place only to let her die once her mission was complete. There was still so much to do and she had to discover that. Hopefully Jeon had gotten away safely, she prayed. The poor young man had done nothing wrong but be friendly.

Claire vaulted over a stationary cart as she ran, bracing her hand against the wooden frame and pushing herself up and over. Behind her she could hear yelling- why was he insisting on yelling? She should be grateful she supposed as she landed on the other side of the cart, starting to pick up speed again. At least it kept her aware of where he was. Then suddenly she was very aware.

The first knife whizzed past her, clanging against the stone wall of the building beside her. The second tore a clean hole right through her cloak near her side. The third hit it’s mark, slicing through the cloak and nicking her side before it clanged to the ground. Claire hissed, her steps faltering as she continued to run, turning sharply around the corner to try a wider street with more room to dodge.

[Selkiris]

Selkiris normally didn't decide to go into go into the city often. But he had gotten word of a trial be held or a former captain and he couldn't miss that. However when he had got there he was surprised at the talk of an attempted assassination. He knew however, that this may have been even better. He heard the yelling of what seemed to be the leader of the Rose Court. Diamond Corsica he believed it was. What was such an important man like that doing out here during such a crisis? Selkiris's question was quickly answered as he overheard something about an assasin trying to kill the king. He smirked, finally he was getting something interesting. Selkiris could easily find out who it was too, as he quickly noticed a strange woman who seemed to be running away from Diamond. Well an assasin eh? Well I could use as many allies as I can and someone as ballsy as her could be a rather good one.

Selkiris quickly walked, trying to keep the woman and Diamond in sight. He didn't want to attract much attention to him or the soldiers just might think he was assisting her in escape. In truth he may have to but he would only watch for now and not engage unless it was nessacary. Selkiris's mind swam with thoughts, what could he even do against the soldiers and captain of the rose court if he did intervene anyway? His melee skills certainly weren't bad but he didn't think he could even stand a chance against someone who likely tests their skill every day. If worst came to worst he could summon a shadow beast. It was certainly going to lose a fight against someone like Diamond but it would at least distract him for hopefully a fair amount of time. Only one way to find out I guess.

[Deleted]

Adrain had known that Diamond would be actively pursuing Claire. It was something of a miracle that she could even escape the ice enclosure, and he had lost a few precious moments having to dispel the barrier. In this sense, Diamond would be the foxhound running the fox out into the open. He could strongly sense where Diamond was, the assassin was harder to track since there was a much lessened mana presence. To use the sight would require more time than he could spare.

Leaping from shadow to shadow, he teleported through the darkness to an area well ahead of Diamond, predicting his movements and shouting. He had to carefully think on how to proceed from here: being too disruptive with magic would reflect poorly on him and mages in general, it would be not the hardest task in the world to raise stone walls in every direction but there would be some sort of frustrated backlash.

Instead, he opted for now a different approach.

He stands atop a building looking over the area where Diamond seemed to be pursuing Claire into. Holding his hand in the air, the mana bent to his will as frost and wind begin to fly about as a snowstorm and flurry would erupt, coating a very large area in large amounts of snow and cold. It would take a time to fully realize the intended effect, but this seemed the less disruptive potential plan he could come up with on short notice.

[Deleted]

Diamond had kept his pace quickly with Claire and had jumped over the cart with ease and kept the momentum going. He was silent as one kunai missed, the second one was closer, and the third one had hit his mark. With that slight staggering moment he was able to get the gap closed. And it seemed that his help had arrived shortly as he could feel a very cold wind and then snow was all over the place. He reached into his gem pouch and pulled out a lapis lazuli stone. Normally he would not use his sword in a situation since he had drawn it. But he was not going to take a gifthorse in the mouth. As he ran though Diamond started to channel the mana energy and the crystal he had in his hand. "This is the end for you" as Diamond skidded to a stop and stabbed his sword into the ground. "May these malious spirits of the blade take form of ice and trap this fiend" he called out and five blocks of ice looking like a mirrors rose up from the ice. All of them a semi circle in front of Claire, intending to cut off her path.

As soon as Claire would enter there range of the five mirrors several arms shot out each one. All of them with cruel looking clawed hands wanting to either catch her in there grasp. Or slash her to pieces with there claws in an effort to stop her. It would hopefully push or force her back his way. Diamond would be rather focused on Claire and would not be paying to close attention behind him or be alert if someone was behind him. As Selkiris was not a threat or even knew that he was behind him as the hunt of his prey had Diamond rather focused on this task.

[Claire]

Don’t stop running.

It was cold. How could it have gotten so cold again all of a sudden? She thought she had seen snow whip in front of her face, a blast of cold air sparking across her cheek and nose.

Don’t stop running.

Cold air was lancing through her legs. Her skirts had left her legs free to freeze due to the sudden change of elements, the cold air further biting the scrape at her side. She could hear Diamond talking again- this man talked so much, in such dramatic tones. Perhaps she could use that.

“Fiend, huh?” She shouted back. “You don’t meet many girls, do you- whoa!” Claire skidded to a halt, scrambling back as the mirrors and reaching hands emerged from the cobbled streets.

Claire turned on her heel, head whipping back to look at Diamond. He would still be expecting her to run. There was a way out on either side. But- but instead, she could run straight for him. She’d faced more terrifying foes. And she had options. By the Mother she had options. So Claire moved again. Right to Diamond.

Her fingers dipped to her belt and tugged without thinking on one of the delicate potion bottles- any would do, really- uncorking the fragile bottle and skidding to a stop before him, hopefully before he could withdraw his sword. Claire jerked her arm forward, noticing the bottle in her fingers was a lovely pink color, and splashed the sweet and floral pink liquid right at Diamond’s face.



(If this potion hits it’s a Lunar me Biscuit, a love potion with the time limit of an hour of effectiveness)

[Selkiris]

Selkiris tried as hard as he could to keep up without being spotted. They were definitely fast. Then Selkiris began to feel the cold in the air and then saw the sudden snow. Luckily Selkiris's robes were rather thick so the cold couldn't do nearly as much damage as it should have done. He looked back to the woman being chased, just as the mirrors had appeared. Selkiris stood there, watching. He normally would have already summoned a shadow beast but this time he felt like the woman could handle herself. If she had gotten this far without being caught she could surely escape this. Now what is she going to do now I wonder?

Selkiris laughed as he saw the woman try to splash the potion on Diamond. Now this had gotten a little more interesting he thought. He wondered what the potion's effect was supposed to be anyway. He shurgged and kept watching, as that was the only way he could find out.

[Deleted]

Adrain has been watching the scene unfold as he could track Diamond. He stood atop a building near to where Claire had paused and Diamond had worked some of his own magic to try to catch her. His quarry became locked in his sights as he watched, hoping that Diamond's effort would end this chase without further incident. He could tell the guardsmen were scurrying about and trying to block off the exits at the edge. It was foolish of her to think she could get away in the first district after taking a shot at the king. Maybe the second or third, but in the first, no chance.

Adrain while looking at Claire had a vision occur to him, one that made him wince a little for a moment while Diamond's spell was taking place. In this moment, he abstained from intervening further. A town far away...invaded by Novian ships, attacked, slaughtered. Children cut from head to toe by overly eager soldiers or blown up by warmages. Women, elders, all caught for enslavement or worse. People confused at what was happening, people who had similar skin tones as the outlaw.  Fire, destruction, blood...it was oh so brief but it left an impression none the less causing his eyes to narrow as he came out of the trance.

When he focused, he could see Claire running at Diamond, reaching for a pink fluid filled container which made him narrow his eyes. There were a few things it could be, he had a hunch based on his own damn personal experience with a certain love potion, but either way it would be against Diamond's benefit in some shape or form whether it was that, poison, or acid. Quickly, he snapped his hand as a violent gale blew against Claire and her direction which would potentially knock either off their feet but most likely spray the potion on Claire herself.

At this, it was time to end things.

He leapt through the shadows to a cart's shadow close to Claire and held his hands up. The snow on her body would begin to freeze and expand as ice began to encase her joints. The deep breaths of running would have inhaled some flakes inadvertently, as a tightening of breath would be felt as fluid began to expand inside her. Cold would envelop her body as the bloodied opening allowed frost to come in, slowly lowering the temperature of her blood. Glyphs would spin around his hands constantly as the effect grew, his eyes radiant with power as he stood a distance away from Claire, keeping his mind open to other presences that may approach or be around in case she had accomplices. Once he was content that the situation was under control, he spoke, his voice echoing from power and a touch of air magic for added intimidation.

"Outlaw. I don't know what you were thinking by attempting to attack the King or someone else, but it is a grievous mistake. Diamond here will take you in and if you cooperate, then you may have a chance to live your life in a cell. If you try to resist, I will cause ice to erupt from your chest and kill you where you stand, do not test me on this. I will not hesitate when it gets to this point." he says, an ice and cruelty that Diamond might not have ever heard in Adrain's normally friendly and pacifistic tone previously.

"You must think of your actions, how they may not impact just you. I can tell you are not of the Novian region by your skin tone and other elements of your character. I would have to investigate to figure out where, but the point is this: if the King feels threatened, then he must act accordingly. If he thinks a nation conspires against him with one agent acting against him repeatedly, he is obligated and has a duty to show his strength and crush them otherwise the people will think him a weak king and that he won't protect them. And while the King thus far has generally not sought out such a situation to this point with his interests being more...home oriented of late, this act could put him over the edge. I don't know the full story yet, but if there is one innocent life in the place where you come from, I will not let your actions damn them all to the blade of my King, even if I might not wish for such a tragedy to happen that is the way of the world." he states, staring at Claire intently.

"Think carefully...either you die now or in a cell. Either way, I will do what must be done." he says, turning to silence and waiting as the spells continue their work, checking his surroundings with his mind's eye constantly.