Mission
Shiori had only narrowly escaped the Maw, she was pushed out of the way by an unseen force. Everyone had survived, but the explosion made one thing dreadfully clear: the Cabal was willing to make good on their threat. Before now she honestly did not fully consider the ramifications of breaking out of the village to find Sousuke. She simply told herself that it would not matter: these lives meant nothing to her as long as she got what she wanted. It was a childish attitude in a woman far too old to be considering such juvenile notions. She had a paper crumpled in her pocket, it was one of several she had claimed from the fortified bunker. She could not read it, she had never learned not that it would do her any good, the lights had long fallen dark.
She made her way to the foundation, a series of structures that served as one of the last safe havens besides Olgav's bakery. She was announcing the presence of a place with food, wares and fortified walls, a place that was not here. People needed to combine their efforts, find haven and fight back before they ran out of supplies or likely a more immediate threat, the members of the Cabal themselves. She was doing her civic duty, or that was what she could tell herself but in reality she was more concerned with what she could find with nobody looking. Uri, that candy-munching stranger she met in the hole said that there would be another way out. He was going to show her the way, or so he said but something in her gut was telling her that he was a bad-man despite his saccharine cravings. She was going to the scroll locker on purpose, while the choice might seem peculiar to some, it was exactly the place she needed to be: she needed to figure out where a structure would exist that was already near the surface.
A blind woman in a library, or rather a collection of the oldest manuscripts and tomes. None of which she could read. It was a fool's errand, but she had to try. The scroll locker was a large space, filled with cubby holes slogged with scrolls and massive shelves filled with various tomes. The runic text, a book Sousuke stumbled on several months ago was transported here she had heard. She overheard a lot, from the gurgle of their gastric juices to the click of thousands of vessels to the rattle of mucus in the back of a throat. Sounds she was hearing right now.
"Hello?" Shiori called into what should have been an abandoned space. "There's a place... a safe haven for civilians,"</B><i></i> Shiori announced when she heard no response besides the thump of a heart. The heart was strange, it worked in cadence with a a gentle mechanical tick. thumpclick...thumpclick... thumpclick... THUMP.click... They were not one in the same, rather two distinct entities in close proximity. A curiosity. As she approached the heart hastened ever so slight, something only her keen sense would even pick up on as she tracked the sound to the center of the room. The center of the scroll room, a single massive pillar that served as not only the focal point of the room but... Stone should not tick.
Shiori knocked on the side of the pillar, the pillar was solid but the wall was uneven on one side. A lump,like hardened clay extended a portion of the pillar almost a foot. While Shiori was inspecting this anomaly, she was oblivious to a second peril that had fell from her awareness as she inspected this strange ticking lump. There was no dramatic announcement but there was a dynamic entrance, she was kicked in the face and sent wheeling across the room. She could not see what he was doing or see the marks creeping across his exposed bare arms. He followed up with a punch to the gut that sent Shiori crashing into a bookshelf. The wind left her with that second strike, she sucked in air with a series of frenzied wheezes. He was fast, way too fast. Shiori's hands ran through a series of handseals and a gust of wind pushed the mute assailant back several feet, long enough for Shiori to pull herself onto her feet before he retorted with a right hook that narrowly missed her and broke a hole in a wall. Ducked beneath the punch, Shiori tried to uppercut him in the family jewels. How an A-Ranked wind attack could do less than a student attack was beyond her as he was momentarily doubled over and he let out a grunt.
Shiori scurried between the legs of the assailant, chucking a book at him as she made her way to the pillar. "Calm down, I am looking for ACK!" Shiori ducked again, covering her head with her arms as the man punched the pillar in front of which she stood. Fine chunks of clay rained down on her, revealing a device hidden inside. A mangled device due to the meaty fist of the silent madman. <B>"Crap!" <i></i>Sparks rained from the face of the damaged device as Shiori booked for the door. He was fast. Like really-really fast. He blocked her exit with his form. Shiori considered breaking to the left or breaking to the right, but neither seemed to be a fair option. He was attacking again and she would probably not be able to slip under his attack again without meeting his knee with her face. She ducked beneath and just as she assumed his knee came up and cracked her in the jaw. She could hear the snap as it was temporarily displaced but she grabbed onto his leg with both arms and wrapped her legs around his.
A malevolent seal might slow him down enough to get out, but what she did not know was that he had already had a seal on for too long. The dire consequence of keeping a seal on was that it was like burning a candle at both ends. He was already about to drop, once the seal was burned into his thigh Shiori leaned hard to the side to topple over the guard. She rushed to her feet and tried to hit him with a punch infused with all that is holy, sadly the dramatic kinds of attacks take too long and he grabbed her by the back of the head and smashed her face into a table breaking the table down the center before she could get her attack off. The world was tinted red, not from rage but rather from the river of blood running down her face by the time his old seal had given out and is new seal started to rot away what he had left. Shinobi attacks would have been more effective but she was out of energy, most of it was used healing her wounds when she escaped the maw. She grabbed the back of a chair and raised it over her head to serve as a club as she bludgeoned the man several times with over-headed swings until he moved no more.
That heart was still beating and the tick had been reduced to a seizing buzz in her mind. She frowned as she tried to pick between the buzzing mystery of the big hunk of bloody meat sleeping on the floor. It was going to be a bother picking up both, but she could not leave the buzzy rock nor could she leave whoever it was that was guarding the noisy rock. She ripped the lump of mechanical clay off the wall and stuffed it down her shirt, she looked like a pregnant woman in her 13th month or 5th trimester. She then slung the man over her shoulder and grunted under his weight expecting it to be greater than it was. Despite the force and is alleged size, her was lighter than she expected. With a sigh she departed the Scroll Locker, but she would soon return to finish what she came for.
WC: 1354
Shiori had only narrowly escaped the Maw, she was pushed out of the way by an unseen force. Everyone had survived, but the explosion made one thing dreadfully clear: the Cabal was willing to make good on their threat. Before now she honestly did not fully consider the ramifications of breaking out of the village to find Sousuke. She simply told herself that it would not matter: these lives meant nothing to her as long as she got what she wanted. It was a childish attitude in a woman far too old to be considering such juvenile notions. She had a paper crumpled in her pocket, it was one of several she had claimed from the fortified bunker. She could not read it, she had never learned not that it would do her any good, the lights had long fallen dark.
She made her way to the foundation, a series of structures that served as one of the last safe havens besides Olgav's bakery. She was announcing the presence of a place with food, wares and fortified walls, a place that was not here. People needed to combine their efforts, find haven and fight back before they ran out of supplies or likely a more immediate threat, the members of the Cabal themselves. She was doing her civic duty, or that was what she could tell herself but in reality she was more concerned with what she could find with nobody looking. Uri, that candy-munching stranger she met in the hole said that there would be another way out. He was going to show her the way, or so he said but something in her gut was telling her that he was a bad-man despite his saccharine cravings. She was going to the scroll locker on purpose, while the choice might seem peculiar to some, it was exactly the place she needed to be: she needed to figure out where a structure would exist that was already near the surface.A blind woman in a library, or rather a collection of the oldest manuscripts and tomes. None of which she could read. It was a fool's errand, but she had to try. The scroll locker was a large space, filled with cubby holes slogged with scrolls and massive shelves filled with various tomes. The runic text, a book Sousuke stumbled on several months ago was transported here she had heard. She overheard a lot, from the gurgle of their gastric juices to the click of thousands of vessels to the rattle of mucus in the back of a throat. Sounds she was hearing right now.
"Hello?" Shiori called into what should have been an abandoned space. "There's a place... a safe haven for civilians,"</B><i></i> Shiori announced when she heard no response besides the thump of a heart. The heart was strange, it worked in cadence with a a gentle mechanical tick. thumpclick...thumpclick... thumpclick... THUMP.click... They were not one in the same, rather two distinct entities in close proximity. A curiosity. As she approached the heart hastened ever so slight, something only her keen sense would even pick up on as she tracked the sound to the center of the room. The center of the scroll room, a single massive pillar that served as not only the focal point of the room but... Stone should not tick.
Shiori knocked on the side of the pillar, the pillar was solid but the wall was uneven on one side. A lump,like hardened clay extended a portion of the pillar almost a foot. While Shiori was inspecting this anomaly, she was oblivious to a second peril that had fell from her awareness as she inspected this strange ticking lump. There was no dramatic announcement but there was a dynamic entrance, she was kicked in the face and sent wheeling across the room. She could not see what he was doing or see the marks creeping across his exposed bare arms. He followed up with a punch to the gut that sent Shiori crashing into a bookshelf. The wind left her with that second strike, she sucked in air with a series of frenzied wheezes. He was fast, way too fast. Shiori's hands ran through a series of handseals and a gust of wind pushed the mute assailant back several feet, long enough for Shiori to pull herself onto her feet before he retorted with a right hook that narrowly missed her and broke a hole in a wall. Ducked beneath the punch, Shiori tried to uppercut him in the family jewels. How an A-Ranked wind attack could do less than a student attack was beyond her as he was momentarily doubled over and he let out a grunt.
Shiori scurried between the legs of the assailant, chucking a book at him as she made her way to the pillar. "Calm down, I am looking for ACK!" Shiori ducked again, covering her head with her arms as the man punched the pillar in front of which she stood. Fine chunks of clay rained down on her, revealing a device hidden inside. A mangled device due to the meaty fist of the silent madman. <B>"Crap!" <i></i>Sparks rained from the face of the damaged device as Shiori booked for the door. He was fast. Like really-really fast. He blocked her exit with his form. Shiori considered breaking to the left or breaking to the right, but neither seemed to be a fair option. He was attacking again and she would probably not be able to slip under his attack again without meeting his knee with her face. She ducked beneath and just as she assumed his knee came up and cracked her in the jaw. She could hear the snap as it was temporarily displaced but she grabbed onto his leg with both arms and wrapped her legs around his.
A malevolent seal might slow him down enough to get out, but what she did not know was that he had already had a seal on for too long. The dire consequence of keeping a seal on was that it was like burning a candle at both ends. He was already about to drop, once the seal was burned into his thigh Shiori leaned hard to the side to topple over the guard. She rushed to her feet and tried to hit him with a punch infused with all that is holy, sadly the dramatic kinds of attacks take too long and he grabbed her by the back of the head and smashed her face into a table breaking the table down the center before she could get her attack off. The world was tinted red, not from rage but rather from the river of blood running down her face by the time his old seal had given out and is new seal started to rot away what he had left. Shinobi attacks would have been more effective but she was out of energy, most of it was used healing her wounds when she escaped the maw. She grabbed the back of a chair and raised it over her head to serve as a club as she bludgeoned the man several times with over-headed swings until he moved no more.
That heart was still beating and the tick had been reduced to a seizing buzz in her mind. She frowned as she tried to pick between the buzzing mystery of the big hunk of bloody meat sleeping on the floor. It was going to be a bother picking up both, but she could not leave the buzzy rock nor could she leave whoever it was that was guarding the noisy rock. She ripped the lump of mechanical clay off the wall and stuffed it down her shirt, she looked like a pregnant woman in her 13th month or 5th trimester. She then slung the man over her shoulder and grunted under his weight expecting it to be greater than it was. Despite the force and is alleged size, her was lighter than she expected. With a sigh she departed the Scroll Locker, but she would soon return to finish what she came for.
[Topic Left]
WC: 1354