Job: Wanted: Jacob Goodnight (Xana Shikyo, Asgeirr Frostwarft)

A normal recruit would normally be excited to have their first mission as an official Rune Knight. They'd be skipping around town with a wide smile on their face and foolish eagerness in their hearts. Asgeirr is no ordinary recruit. In fact Asgeirr sneered at the term. How could a hardened warrior who survived 2 years in the northern frigid wild be labeled a recruit? It was - in his eyes - ridiculous.

Though one could not see through the long sweat-soaked hair, he was evidently displeased. His heavy, sluggish steps shook the ground around him. It was too hot for a Northman, the Rune Knight uniform was at least two sizes too small, and the cloak itched unbearably - he missed his old armor. It was at times like these that he wished he had stayed home; many, many miles away from this desolate heat. However he swore an oath and he must abide by the customs of his people.

The giant of a recruit glanced at the paper he was given: a wanted poster of a rather fearsome looking man. Might this man be able to pose a challenge for the prince of the Frost? Might he be able to give Asgeirr the brawl he so desired? These questions ran through his head over and over again as he tread over the cobbled road, only to come to a halt after walking against something rather small. And as he looked down he saw a young girl. Several minutes of intent staring followed without a single word to be uttered. Something was off about this girl, but his current state of mind struggled to grasp what the problem exactly was.

It was rather strange to her. This was a job, a mission, given to her by the people whom she usually disliked the most. Law enforcement was interested in having her assisting one of their rookies in getting a mission done. Therefore, she now found herself travelling to Hargeon. Well, rather, she was given very specific directions to get there, and now, she found herself at her destination. With the paper in hand, she was looking it over, twisting and turning it a couple of times, suddenly she found a pair of eyes looking at her...

Looking up, she saw him towering above her like a mountain, holding a paper similar to hers. Turning it around, she pointed at the paper she was holding, before pointing to the paper he was holding, attempting to get the consensus that they were there for the same thing across. The girl was wearing a long white dress, with deep purple flowers scattered across the surface. The girls skin was delicate, white, pale. The eyes were scarlet, deep, and her hair was purple, falling over her shoulders, as a delicate white flower was sitting above her ear. The expression on her face was that of absolute stilness, calm. It seemed like she really didn't care where she were, or what she was doing...

...For now though, she was meant to work together with this here individual, and she had no real way of getting information across to him, aside from gestures. So, sticking her hand forwards, her greeting was essentially her attempting to shake his hand. In the most awkward way possible.

All Asgeirr could muster was a blank gaze at the girls attempts to communicate. The heat was more taxing on both mind and body than he had originally anticipated. In all honesty he could barely make sense of the many colors he began to see…that only agitated him more. As his eyes flared up with magic power the temperature around the two began to drop as all energy was absorbed by the Everfrost crystal on the ring of his right index finger. Asgeirr’s mind finally cleared and he could think in peace as his anger slowly subsided.

“Why are you gesturing my dear?  Have you no voice to greet another?” spoke he with a deep yet soothing voice “Might you be the one I was instructed to carry out this deed with? If so, I apologize for these conditions. We Northman need cold temperatures to feel at ease and function properly. I meant you no offense by staring so awkwardly...my mind tends to strain itself completing the simplest of tasks when overheated.”

Aware that these “southern “people were not used to the frigid cold, the frost soldier draped the signature cape of the Rune Knights he had worn around the girl. "Here. If you are to accompany me, i recommend some warmer clothes than that thin piece of silk you are wearing." As gently as was possible he shook the girl’s seemingly frail tiny hand. “My name is Asgeirr Frostwardt. Son to the northern king and new recruit to the Rune Knights. What might your name be young miss?”

The reaction was immediate, as the temperature began to drop. The breath in front of her was leaving small moisture clouds in the air. Goosebumps were starting to spread over her skin, and she was visibly shivering. Even so, not a single squeak left her lips, as she pointed to them with a finger, moving her jaw as if she was talking, before making an obvious no gesture by shaking her head and holding her hands in a moving cross. However, that soon came to an end, as she grabbed around her own torso, tugging herself tightly, as she was clearly getting colder. That is perhaps the only reason she wasn't alarmed when he moved closer to place the garments of the Rune Knights around her. As he took her hand, she almost immediately pulled back, placing the hand against her mouth before blowing warm air inbetween her fingers. There was noone who had told Xana that she needed to bring an extra thick set of clothes to go on this mission. The white pale skin of hers now almost had a lightblue hue to it... and in her discomfort, she took a few steps away from him to regain some heat...

...At his question, the girl once again held up the mission-slip that she had been granted. Issued to Miss. Xana Shikyo, on behalf of the Rune Knights. Now that the formalities were out of the way, she dug into a small bag that was hanging loosely by her hip. Taking out a pair of black gloves, it was clear that she was trying to take measures to maintain heat. After that, she pointed to Asgeirr and shrugged, almost as if to say what now?

“So you’re a mute…“ he said with a slight hint of sadness “I’m sure your voice would have been beautiful.“ As he continued to observe the girl it became ever so clear to him that his magic was starting to tax the girl’s frail body as she struggled to keep warm. The blue hue of her skin were the most worrying part about her. Immediately he began to restrict the area of the cold’s influence by forming it into parts of Everfrost armor. Almost sapphire blue ice began to form around Asgeirrs body, taking the on the shapes and contours of his armor.

“Ah! Your name is Xana Shikyo” stated the man in frozen armor as he read the small piece of parchment “It is delightful to have made our acquaintance.” Asgeirr was taken slightly by surprise when Xana raised her finger towards him and shrugged. Not knowing what to make of it, the knight attempted to take her arm to gently push it back down beside her hip; completely forgetting in that instant the absolute cold of his Everfrost gauntlets. But the girl did not change her expression and so he did not think anything else was amiss. “Apparently we are to find this man here” he raised the wanted poster he had been given “Have you come by an-“ Asgeirr cut himself short as he remembered that the girl was mute. After fumbling around in his frozen pockets a while he produced a pencil and a small notepad, handing them both to Xana. “Have you come by any leads?”

As the other attempted to grab at her arm, Xana immediately leapt a few steps backwards, holding up a hand in front of herself with the palm clearly stretched out towards him. It was the exact same way a Rune Knight would signal for someone to stop. To her, this was threathening behaviour, and she knew far too well what could happen to someone as small and fragile as her if someone his size took the liberty to take hold. Accepting the pen and paper, she understood his question fully. There was only one problem. The girl wasn't capable at writing properly either. It was something that she was attempting to learn, but so far it was still limited to her name. So rather than actually writing anything for him, the girl started a drawing. Though it was crude and rather unprofessional, what she had drawn appeared to be a ship, alongside some piers. It was likely that the girl wanted them to head to the docks. Tearing off the note, she handed it over to him, before she pocketed the noteblock and the pen for later usage, giving him a distressed look before once again shrugging...

... However, the girl was exceptional at tracking down people. Those eyes of hers never seemed to miss any minute detail, so it shouldn't realistically take too long. Then again, Hargeon wasn't exactly the smallest of cities either. The best lead that they had, was down by the docks where the other murders had taken place. Everything considered, he was the kind of scum to repeat his success until trouble came and found him. It just so happened, that trouble was finally on the way. Tugging the Rune Knight apparel around herself, she was finally starting to feel a little warmer. So, without much else in the way, she started heading for the docks.

Asgeirr stared at the crude drawing Xana had left him with. Not only could she not speak, but was illiterate as well. Between that and her obvious dislike of being touched it didn’t take a genius to see that something was broken inside her. In the northern nation ravaged by war, one learns to tell the whole from the broken. Memories of the Veterans refuge of his city came to him in a flash. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes. Before he knew it Xana had turned and walked away towards the sea.

A quick jog later he had caught up with the girl he could still not comprehend. As they walked side by side he continued to wonder what her story might be. This thought process was interrupted, however, by a pair of that came flying out of a tavern. To their dismay, Asgeirr was in the midst of crossing their flight path...and was sent flying against a wall alongside them. Now if the people of Hargeon had never known of a Northman's short temper, they most certainly did now. Asgeirr let out a deep, growl-like grumble as he arose from the rubble that was once the wall, towering himself over the two men. As the two men looked up, they immediately began to tremble ind fear of the beast - its fury emanating from its body like an intense pressure. Soon the men were not only shivering out of fear, but a deathly cold as well.

In one movement Asgeirr lifted his left leg to kick the man on the left, whilst grasping the other around the neck with his right arm. Needless to say the kicked man was sent flying...back into the tavern he once came flying out of, against its back wall breaking through the tavern door. Trembling with anger, the ice covered Rune knight lifted the other man so that they could see eye to eye. In a deep rumbling voice he said "You have two choices right now..." he tightened his grip around the poor mans neck, forcing him to gasp for air "Give me useful information on Jacob Goodnight, or end up worse than your friend over there..." Asgeir glanced at the broken tavern door.

Arriving onto the docks in short notice, the girl started looking around curiously, trying to figure out where everything was and get a mental picture of their little battleground. It was important for an assassin to know how her future options would look like if things started going south. When two bodies, who were supposedly still alive, came flying out the tavern the girl simply ducked down underneath them, hearing a crash behind her. Slowly brushing herself off, one of the two individuals that had come flying out, was sent flying back inside, with a loud bang as he crashed against the door of the tavern. Asgeirr was clearly furious with having been knocked over by two nobodies, yet his approach of beating up completely random strangers, who just happened to be in a bar-fight, was probably considered misconduct amonst the Rune Knights. Not that Xana actually cared. It wasn't her place to care.

However, when she heard yelling from inside the tavern that the Rune Knights were outside, probably due to the cape that Asgeirr had wrapped around her tiny frame, things started to advance. It was highly probable that their target was hiding within the inn, and now he had been warned. Taking off immediately, the girl quickly scaled the wall of the tavern, getting up on top, just in time to see a figure running off through the backdoor. With her eyes so keen and sharp, she had no problems identifying him as their target. Setting off, she was moving quite a bit faster than the average mage of equal rank. It'd be hard for Asgeirr to catch up, if he did not have similar speedboosts. The girl was hunting their target, and she'd bring him down as need be.

Before he knew it the man in his hand had suffocated without uttering a word. After letting go of the cold, limp corpse he looked to the side…only to find a vacant spot where his partner once stood. Whilst frantically turning left and right to find her he barely caught a glimpse of her dress disappearing over a wall. In his panicked stupor Asgeirr ran towards the wall, intending to ram through it…only to be stopped by said wall and leaving a nice impression of himself on it. He staggered back a few steps, recovered shortly after and decided to run through the tavern instead of a brick wall. Northman were men of many talents, but non-combat improvisation was not one of them. He combed the tavern only to find no sign of Xana, so instead of relying on his brains he turned to is brawns. In short: a barkeep and 4 broken ribs later he was told that she rushed after a man through the back alley.

Asgeirr rushed through the back door into the alley. But he was too late. No sign of either the man nor Xana. Slumping his shoulders he trotted randomly through the city blocks, disappointed in his own incapability.

In the meantime, the girl had caught up to their target. Getting in front of him, Jacob Goodnight ended up with nowhere to run. The garments of the Rune Knights were graciously moved by the wind. Although the girl didn't belong with the Rune Knights, there she was, representing them as a means of justice. Not that she had any thoughts on that matter, she was just there to bring a target to his knees, so that she could earn herself some jewels. See, she had learned that she needed jewels to do what she'd want to do, and she had not hesitated when the chance had presented itself.

Jacob wasn't a complete pushover, though. There had been very little in the reports about how this man was capable of murder. However, with Asgeirr catching up any moment, surely they would have Jacob down on the ground begging for mercy. Any moment now. It quickly turned out however, that Asgeirr didn't have Xana's refined senses, so she was on her own. Jacob placed both hands behind his back, as he retrieved two items from his belongings. Then, without much warning, he drew a pistol and a knife. A loud bang went off, surely loud enough to catch Asgeirr's attention. A stinging pain went through the body of the girl, as she hadn't managed to move completely out of the way. The projectile had pierced through the left side of her abdomen, ripping all the way through her.

The girl, knowing that staying at this range would get her shot again, moved forwards. The blood from the wound was coloring Asgeirr's garments red. Several more shots went out, but as she was in closer range now, she was capable of dodging despite the overwhelming pain. Now that she was in melee range, Jacob resorted to attacking with his knife. The pressure against her was intense. The girl had not expected a pistol.

Ageirr shot to attention at the sound of a loud bang. It was beyond a doubt the sound of a firearm…and it was nearby. He ran in the direction the sound had come from before a faint and far too familiar scent reached his nose. Though he may not possess a heightened sense of smell, his nose was sensitive to the smell of blood. As he followed the scent he reached a wall and without a moment’s hesitation Asgeirr cast his spell, initiating the Charge of the Brigadier. The smell was just beyond that wall. As power coursed through his body, towards his legs he formed a shield of Everfrost and held it before him. With great force he pushed himself off the ground against the obstacle of brick. The wall gave way and through the dust and rubble he could not see a thing.
Coming to a grinding halt the mage waited for the dust to settle. Standing a few meters away him was the wanted criminal with a knife in one hand and a sword in another. And behind him was Xana, injured and charging towards her assailant. Instinctively he formed a javelin of ice and threw it at the man whilst summoning three Spirits of Shieldman. On his unspoken command they rushed forward before instantaneously dashing to Xanas protection, raising their shield at her sides to protect her from the criminals sword.

Spells Used:

When Asgeirr finally arrived onto the scene, the girl and the murderer had exchanged quite a few blows. The first hit that she had landed onto him was against his chin, rattling his head rather badly as she had triggered her magic to make his vision blurry and his balance dizzy. Then she had struck at his stomach, causing the man to stagger backwards as he was flinging wildly with his knife, trying desperately to hit the girl. The girl herself had recieved several smaller cuts from his wild flinging. It was mostly her arms that had recieved the deep lashes as she had used them to guard her more vulnerable spots, effectively using her own flesh as a shield to keep herself alive...

Jacob staggered backwards, drawing the pistol again. The shots were fired, just as Ageirr made it through the wall. What he found, was Xana lying on the ground, completely covered in her own blood, whimpering and gasping for air, tugging onto her own frame. Jacob was firing wildly into every which direction, almost blinded from the magic that she had applied to him. That is why the spear of ice connected cleanly with Jacob, knocking him over on the ground as he struggled from the pain. The girl wasn't getting up from the ground. Just lying there, gasping, panting, it was obvious that she was deeply wounded.

Spoiler:

The Shieldman stood by Xana’s side, shields still raised. If the killer had any accomplices, Xana was definitely not a viable target anymore. His armor remained unscratched even after several bullets bounced of it. The spear that pierced Jacob Goodnight stuck out through his shoulder, leaving him gasping in pain as the Everfrost absorbed all energy from his body. The criminal could no longer move, nor would he be able to in the foreseeable future.

Asgeirr approached the wounded girl, and knelt down beside her as the Shieldgurads made enough space for him. She looked terrible. He proceeded to inspect Xana's body to ascertain her condition, though it did not look promising. Then he realized something terrible: that he himself felt well...which wasn't good for anyone around him. It meant that temperatures around him were low enough for him to feel at home. With haste he dissipated all the Everfrost he wore and dragged Xana away from the spear which pierce her assailant.

Asgeirr would find the girl on the ground, tugging the robe of the Rune Knights that he had given her tightly to her body. Using that, she was applying pressure to her wounds to stop the bleeding as much as she could. Yet, he had been absolutely correct. The girl was an utter and absolute mess. There were fifteen gashes into her arms, a vast majority placed from her elbows and towards her hands. They weren't all deep, most of them surface scratches, as she had been warding her attacker off with her limbs. More critically was two large red circles of bloodstained cloth. One was at the girls right shoulder, where a bullet had lodged itself in underneath her collarbone. Removing it was going to be extremely difficult. The other, was from her abdomen, where a bullet had pierced straight through her. Despite the mass amount of wounds on her, she had somehow managed to avoid getting hit in critical spots, and with the cloth pressed against her wounds, she was unlikely to bleed out anytime soon. Point en case, she looked a lot worse than she was...

...So he had to make a choice. Deal with the bandit first and let the girl hand in there for a little longer, or attempt treating the girl and risking Jacob running off. As he was right now, they had a good chance of capturing him without killing him. Perhaps that would help pay for her medical expenses.

At closer inspection of the wounds Asgeirr let out a sigh of relief. Nothing life threatening...at least not immediately. He glanced over his shoulder at the murderer. What was he to do? Having only just arrived in Fiore, this was the first time he set foot in Hargeon Town. He hadn't a bloody clue as to where either hospital or guard posts were. Finding either would take time; time that he believe Xana may not have...after all he was a killer, not a doctor. Altough there was the option of killing the killer, he preferred not to, simply because of the fact that he was flat out broke. "What to do...what to do..." the mage mumbled as he tore a piece of cloth from the cloak and tied it tightly around Xana's abdominal injury.

His pride as a Northman did not allow him to act on selfish needs such as money, nor did his personal honor. So to compromise Asgeirr formed two more javelins, one in each hand, and rammed them through the criminal's knees. After taking Xana into his arms, he preyed to the old gods that they would find a hospital quickly...and that the target would neither escape nor bleed out.

The girl was veritably soaked in blood. Hugging herself tightly, she was feeling strangely cold. Likely because she was losing blood and because his strange magic was draining the heat of all his surroundings. The moment he picked her up, that sensation was taken to the extreme, at least until he noticed. Those scarlet red eyes of hers were blinking a couple of times, tryiing to hold focus. Even if she was this wounded, she didn't seem troubled by her condition at all. Perhaps she had been on the brink of death multiple times, or she simply found her own existance to be pointless and useless. Whatever the case, she soon closed her eyes. The tension in her muscles soon released, as the girl slipped away into unconciousness...

...Hargeon hospital was nearer to the centre of the city. It would take him a while to get there, and carrying around a bloodied up body wearing the drapes of the Rune Knights was likely going to be taken awkwardly. Even so, the spears of ice through Jacob's kneecaps would likely do the trick. Unless someone else decided to help him or otherwise claim the bounty on his face.

It took a lot longer than he had hoped for to find the hospital. For one he started off in the complete opposite direction. Only after asking an old lady near the edge of the city was he told that the hospital was at the center of town. That was roughly when Xana went limp and Asgeirr doubled his pace. As he continued on toward the hospital, he could feel part of his strength slipping away. He wondered if he had somehow been poisoned, but dismissed the thought immediately as he hadn't a single scratch on him. Also, the unconscious girl took priority in his mind. After finally arriving at the hospital he quickly handed Xana over to the nurses before rushing back to his prize.

Asgeirr returned to a crawling Jacob Goodnight, a trail of blood marked his path. He admired the criminal's persistence...but he admired his monetary worth slightly more. The mage hoisted the bloody criminal onto one shoulder and left to collect his prize from the city guard.

It was almost dusk when he returned to the hospital. A nurse guided him to Xana's room. The sight of her bandaged up neatly relieved him. Not wanting to wake her, he left part of the reward on the bedside table and wanted to leave a note. Mid text it dawned upon him that she was illiterate and so he instructed a nurse to deliver his message. "Tell that Asgeirr Frostwardt invites her to join the Rune Knights. A girl like that shouldn't do these jobs by herself. Tell her that if she joins, a man will be waiting to welcome her...and that she will finally be taught how to read and write...so she won't have to rely on odd gestures and pictographs any longer."

The girl was, perhaps unlike what Asgeirr would've expected, recovering incredibly fast. Though it had been merely thirty or so minutes between her arriving at the hospital, when he returned she seemed to be in a much better place. The wounds were mostly healed at that point, and she seemed to be rather well off. The rate at which she was recovering was astounding, to say the least. The reaosn why he had been feeling so sick in her pressence, was because her very pressence was a chaotic one. Being close to her could sap others of their life energies, making their cells rot away slowly. Coming into contact with her blood directly would contaminate the subjects. The girl might've had a rather rough mission here, but it was mostly because the mission had been on Asgeirr's terms. If she had been alone, she would've approached it differently, and likely come out on top. The fact that she had relied on him arriving together with her, only to find out that he had gotten lost.. It had sold her on the spot...

...Regardless of how much she had recovered in short time, the girl was still asleep. The bed was simply too comfortable to not get a nice cozy rest in.