"The Basilisk preys a Hydra"

It was an unpleasantly brisk and cold winter's night; dark, mystifying, the half-moon had been blanketed almost completely by the heavy and looming black clouds. The mountainous peeks which encased the village reached skyward into the dark atmosphere like spires. People said the high rising hills made them feel safe, like the peaks kept all threats outside…  But what if a threat had come to slither in, threatening that security those took for granted here.

Inhale. Exhale. And with the actions a small plume of the mages breath could be seen wafting out in the form of frosted air front of her. Even in the cold This girls body didn’t tremble or shiver… She had survived the harsh lands of Mt. Hakobe where the snow never stopped and the temperatures never loomed out of negatives outside the fort of a guildhall Basilisk Fang resided.

Marking clad arms folded with impatience, as almost invisible footfall shifted. Confident that  these evening cast shadows shielded her from any civilian suspicion Famine stalked too the mouth of the idle alleyway. She’d found this spot between two petty structures on the very outskirts of the village and waited around till dark, glaring out in search of another mage… A Mage from the local guild here Infinity Hydra.

Azure irises stooped out from beneath her hood, glaring out hostily though unnoticed. The gaze followed as the next little pair of late-nighters passed on the opposite end of the street. They’d showed not even a breath of enchanted air; more non-magicians. A icy sigh steamed from between Famines lips, oxygen once again exposed by the biting cold. “Ghost.” She whispered, subtly grinning at the familiar taste of the name in her mouth. With the beckon a little hiss echoed behind her, a white shape coiling against her ankle and slinking up her abdomen. Scales curled about her neck in a non-hostile gesture. The small python curled up against at her throat rather in an attempt to keep her warm like a shawl.  

“Scout.” She spit the order dulcetly and the reptile unsheathed its split tongue to his back, ruby pools glimmering as the snake slipped from her vicinity, escaping up a rain gutter too scale across the rooftops ahead. If a Hydra mage wouldn’t show up they’d have to start looking a little harder wouldn’t they. She’d utilize ghost for the task… He got around efficiently, quietly, and unseen better than herself. There was his telepathy too which made him an asset for looking around and reporting back. This Baslilisk had been sent all this way not only to obtain seeked the information for her Guild Master but a being who could supply said facts. She couldn’t return to her home without making a capture.

As expected, Famine’s tiny serpent had come through and it only took Ghost a matter of minutes slithering around the gutters to find a magic resonating target just north of their location. Better yet according to the snake… they had trekked all the way to the outskirts of the mountain village by themselves, poor girl.

With a flicker of sharp whites the hooded mage pointed an index finger to the alley wall, coaxing her wrist upwards in a quick flick a black line opened against the surface, outstretching into the walls of a space less portal. There was no uncertainty as she leaned her weight forward and was left falling into the space, gateway mouth closing behind her. That same eerie portal urged open on a rooftop in Natsu’s vicinity though out of her direct line of sight… Famine would remain unnoticed till she urged the spotlight onto herself the next slow little moment she clambered out of the shadow like wormhole, crouching ever so sinisterly against the shingled ceiling like the black cat one would be so unlucky too cross ways with.

“Isn’t it a little late for a stroll?”  The sly tone pricked the science, surely splitting the Hydra’s ears like a beam of darkness in an otherwise secured white room, a bang in the middle of a quietly peaceful field of wheat. As for the voice’s silhouette, it would only be found when the lone target pivoted her gaze too the rooftop behind her. To accompany a devilish little smile tendrils of black threads zapped from this stranger’s maw like raven bolts of static, volting with the hostility of a cobra bearing their tongue.

With Natsuzora’s attention hopefully snagged by the call Famine’s companion closed in from behind. Ghost slithered the road towards the God Slayer's heels, darting up her back with an almost invisibly and ghostly feeling that could have been mistaken for a shiver rattling up her spine. The viper never truly revealed himself till he raced down the victims arm, twirling to rip the finger-less glove off in one graceful motion.

From the rooftop Icy orbs dilated with a certain amusement and pleasantness. The red insignia against the girls now bare palm stuck out too Famine like a rainbow against its storm ravaged sky. She’d inhale, pressing out a sigh of bliss from her lungs, the coo causing the corners of her lips too pull up.

“You should of know better than too be out after dark like this little Hydra…~”
That tone seemed to echo through the shadow cast and abandoned streets, the reptile which had twined the girls arm unsheathed fangs soundlessly, lurching in to sink teeth into the soft white of her underarm. The sooner the venom twirled into this girl’s veins the better.

"Me? I’ve only done my job.” These words Famine gave in reply were sympathy-less for the girl facing the nightmares in her head on the street below. Sapphire hues only glared downward with that morbid luminosity as she struggled to swallow the recollection of sights, senses…sounds teasing her mind, weakening her body to Famine’s liking and when the Hydra could barely circle around on her feet anymore the Basilisk would take her aim.

“Shadoumekku” She hummed under her breath, voice quiet enough only to meet Natsu’s hears as a mere hiss in the wave of voices swirling behind her eyes. A violet arcane burst in front of the shadow mage, swirling with the same sinisterness one circled their prey with before the great pounce and what else could her target do but stumble around in confusion as Famine locked in.

“Netto hasai”

The words leapt from her tongue, crisp like the volts of black electricity sparking at her maw that minute before. There was a twinge in the casting circle in front of her like something pushing against It an attempt to escape the seal there came a ripping noise, a whipping of makeshift rope. Striking through the atmosphere towards the unlucky God Slayer was a mass of black ropes.

As predicted the trap ensnared her in a single bite, pouncing the girls frame with enough force to knock an already disoriented self-off her feet. There would be little too nothing Natsuzora could do once snagged, for the binds would only squeeze and infirm themselves around her body.

---And satisfied the hooded huntress leapt from the gable above with the gracefulness of that black cat, which again, Natsu had been so unfortunate to run into tonight. Famine had even landed on all of her fours, spine arched and the next moment she curled back onto her back heels, creeping in her game’s direction.

Whether the Hydra girl was still awake and squirming against the binds: fighting the poison in her veins or our like light Famine would be the first to crouch to the prey’s level;  the ground where the net had knocked her on her bum. “Looks like you’re coming home with me.” The dark mage cooed in that little alluring hum, lip curling back to accompany the taunt with her devilish smirk. In a somewhat lithe motion the brunette husked Natsuzora’s weak and bonded frame around her shoulders.

With tattoo clad arms full trying to cradle the woman Famine pointed her heel into the ground, dragging a bare foot towards and underneath her to awaken another one of those bottomless worm holes into the world. This one stretched into a black abyss beneath the summoned in no time at all, swallowing up her and the legal mage’s form, and the only thing left behind at the crime… was that single finger-less glove still fluttering to touch down against the pavement just as its wearer vanished into the night victumized.