Creepers in Shadows [Job:Nightmare Lilith] (Akeya Kuusai/Solo)

Job Description:

Akeya ran a scaled hand through her raven hair as she read the message delivered to her. She did realize that after having been given the title of Rising Star she would get some personal requests from the Magic Council, but hadn't realized that this would be one of the first. As a Rising Star the Magic Council believed that she was worthy of keeping an eye on not as a threat but as a valuable asset, although one who had yet to fulfil her potential. Which she agreed with the Magic Council about: she had yet to come close to what she actually was capable of. She was the human who was closest to the mighty dragons in who knows how long. In fact at this point she was more dragon than human, which meant she couldn't consider herself limited by what humans were capable of either. Regardless, one of the things the Magic Council expected of the Rising Stars was that they would help deal with certain problems which either required a bit more skill and finesse than the usual jobs or could only be given to trustworthy mages. Akeya was pretty sure that the Magic Council would only contact her for the former: she had already explained that she would refrain from doing anything which might anger the Magic Council because having them get on her case would be bothersome with no real benefits. However that still sounded more like 'I'm doing this because I have to' than 'I am happy to help'. The Magic Council recognized her skill and potential, and that she would not go against them because she in return recognized the fact that it was a lot easier to cooperate than to oppose them. However that wasn't exactly the same as trust.

Well, she could understand why they might want somebody known for their skill for this particular job. The message explained how there was a seven year old child who somehow had enough magic power and ability to equal an experienced mage, enough that if she joined a guild she would most likely immediately be given A-Rank. This wouldn't be a problem except that she was using all that magic power to slaughter people with apparent lack of discrimination. Well, there was some hints that she was actually trying to hunt dark mages but pretty much anybody who happened to come across her was in real danger of being killed. The Magic Council of course wasn't happy with the idea of such a powerful mage walking around, especially since as a child she had no idea of discretion or subtlety. Unless she was quickly brought in and educated by better mages she would be naught but a walking disaster, as she was already giving plenty of example of. The Magic Council wanted her taken in so they could both punish her for her transgressions and also help her learn how to better control her powers and know when and how to use them. However with the power that the child possessed taking her down without killing her, and then bringing her all the way back to the Magic Council would take a lot of effort, effort applied in a skilful enough a manner that this nightmare child wasn't turned into a corpse by accident. Which was why they had asked Akeya whether she could do it. After all as an assassin she was used to being precise and careful. Of course normally her task was to ensure that somebody was no longer an issue by killing them, but she should also be able to disable her latest target but leave her alive. After all, as powerful as this child was she was still a child, and looking at her behaviour she wasn't that smart either. Akeya was on principle offended at the idea that she might have to be afraid of somebody of inferior intelligence.

Regardless of whether she should be afraid of this child or not, however, Akeya did realize that this wouldn't be an easy task. For one thing, even if the child didn't appear to be very smart she still had much more raw power available than the half dragon, something which she acknowledged even though it irked her to realize that even as a half dragon she was still in some ways being surpassed by some untrained human child who had been lucky enough to be born with a lot more magic power than what was usual. Honestly humans could be such strange creatures. Most of the time they were just weak. They weren't magical creatures by nature. They were more like more mundane animals that had happened to develop a lot of intelligence and which somehow had managed to learn how to use magic. When compared to actual creatures of magic such as dragons and their lesser kin they had very little real power or talent. However sometimes a human would without any real explanation be born with an immense power or a talent for developing power and skill, enough to even threaten the more naturally powerful creatures. It didn't seem to make sense, it was as if the world itself supported humans and sometimes helped the human species give birth to 'heroes' and 'legends' that would allow them to survive in the harsh world they lived in, instead of being suppressed and overwhelmed by the more powerful entities out there. Akeya herself was somewhat of an example of this (in her own mind, at least), although in her case it wasn't that she was that spectacular as a human but because she had been born as a human who had the ability to inherit the power of the legendary dragons. Still, the result was that she was a lot stronger than what normal humans could hope to accomplish. Yet at the same time there was this completely human (so far as she knew) child who still possessed more raw power at a much younger age, even if she didn't have as much self-control and intelligence. It was strange indeed.

The other issue was that honestly capturing the target alive and bringing them back to the Magic Council without them dying, escaping or killing her in the process would be a lot more difficult than just killing them. Killing was, all things considered, relatively easy. Most living beings had the interesting trait of being both incredibly sturdy and ridiculously frail. The desire to live could be somewhat seen as an explanation for it, but the amount of punishment that most animals and other living things could endure seemed to surpass what the materials they were made of should be capable of, as if their actual existence as a living being sustained their material form. But at the same time, even if they had that strange resilience, they could also be killed very easily if you just used the right approach. The right approach being, for example, slitting their throat so they would quickly lose all their blood. Which wasn't even that hard. The throat was one of the most vulnerable spots on the human body, since it was rather thin and didn't have a lot to protect it other than skin and flesh, both of which could be easily cut if you had a sharp knife. And underneath that skin lay the thick veins which carried blood to the brain, which if cut open would quickly act as a drain for all that blood until there was none left inside the body. And that was but one of many ways that you could kill a human being. There were many others, and for other living creatures there were plenty of ways as well. Honestly the most sturdy of living beings were most likely the trees, who so far as Akeya knew just were simple enough that they didn't have any easily exploited vulnerable spots. If you wanted to kill a tree (a strange idea) you would have to cut it in half horizontally, to separate the roots from the leafs and thus denying both parts of the tree access to all the required resources needed for survival. Which was a whole lot more work than just sneaking up on someone and dragging a sharp knife across their soft throat.

Killing was just a very easy thing to do once you knew how. Slit the throat, slit the wrist, cut open their stomach so their intestines fall out, poison them, make them fall from a great height, stab them through the eye until you reach their brains, cut the heart open, pierce their lungs, make them drown... Killing a human being (and most other animals) was honestly exceedingly easy once you knew the how. For most people the bigger problem was on a psychological level, because for an animal to kill another one of its kind always had some mental repercussions. After all, the biggest objective of all living things is to survive and to help the species as a whole survive, so to directly go against that by killing your own kind got you punished by your own mind. And Akeya lacked that specific trait, which meant that for her killing was no trouble at all.

Capturing someone alive, however... That was always a challenge. For one thing, if you had to keep the target alive that meant you couldn't use any techniques which might turn out to be fatal, so if you were aiming to incapacitate rather than kill you would always be weaker than if you were aiming to kill, because you would always have to hold back. Furthermore even if while holding back you managed to take them down the chances of being injured yourself were also higher. And then you would have to make sure that they would remain in a state where they couldn't try to escape or harm you without endangering their life either. It was difficult, complex, and honestly just a hassle. Akeya was pretty sure if it wasn't for the psychological damage most people received from killing one of their own kind humans would be a lot more willing to solve problems through elimination. Her current target sounded a lot like killing her would also solve the problem, but the Magic Council had decided otherwise. As much of a hassle as it might become to take her down and bring her back to the Magic Council alive she didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

Well, she would have to make sure she was prepared for this trip. As usual she would have to take some rations and water with her so she would be able to move without feeling hurried at a lack of provisions. She could hunt nearby wildlife and drink water from nearby water sources, but having rations and bottled water as a fallback option was only sensible. The only downside was that she had to convince Korikami not to devour it all himself as she stored it inside him. To keep him from disobeying her and taking all the provisions for himself she would also have to get the usual amount of meat. That and make it clear that if he disobeyed her she would make sure he regretted it. The shadow fox would never be completely subdued and obedient, but at least he was smart enough to realize that the half dragon who had become his master was not someone he could cross without any form of risk.

Outside of provisions she had to consider getting herself some more situational equipment. From what she could tell of the message from the Magic Council her target had a tendency to move about in a certain area. She might be hunting dark guilds and exterminating them, but apparently she didn't feel quite confident enough to move too far away. Or maybe there was something in that location which was just too important for her too leave behind, and impossible to take with her. Either way, reports said that she would most certainly be in the vicinity of the human settlement which had been given the nickname Haunted Village. In a world like this Akeya couldn't say that ghosts didn't exist, but she was somewhat suspicious about the idea that there would be a village in Fiore which would be consistently haunted by evil spirits without any of the legal guilds or the Magic Council themselves doing something about it. The half dragon hadn't done a lot of research into the area before, so maybe she could be wrong about this, although if they had tried the haunting spirits must be very strong indeed to still remain. That or rumours just tended to linger, with as third option that the place simply attracted new spirits all the time and that there was nothing to be done about it other than search for another place to live. The half dragon frowned as she considered this. Even if she was suspicious about the idea of that place constantly being haunted for years on end, going there without some kind of safeguard against spirits might end up a foolish move...

Shaking her head Akeya left her room, turning into a shadow as she speedily made her way through the guild, out of the living quarters and into the library. One of the grandest libraries in Fiore, she should be able to find some information on the Haunted Village and how to be prepared for it. Once inside the library Akeya returned back to her physical form, looking around at the towering walls of scrolls and books which she had already found herself amongst countless of times. As a searcher of knowledge one of her favourite parts of Blue Pegasus was this library, especially since it was a place where she could spend hours on end working her way through countless scrolls without having to worry about being disturbed. As a member of the guild, and one of reasonable position and respect, she could spend day and night in here without anybody getting on her case about it. Folding her arms the half dragon walked over to where a massive slab of marble had been set in the wall. This marble slate was covered in words, carved into the stone and detailing which part of the grand library contained which subject. Personally Akeya thought that using marble for something like this was somewhat excessive, but she had long ago become used to the fact that Blue Pegasus was not a guild which focused on modesty and minimalism. She herself would most likely have used wood, but this guild took pride in being the guild for heroes and legends who inspired the people of Fiore. For them to use something like wood, easily replaced and cheap, would contradict what they stood for. At least Akeya could agree that it certainly looked very stately.

Once she had located the right section the half dragon walked deeper into the library, passing walls and walls of recorded knowledge and history. Personally Akeya had been more hopeful about the sections which focused on magic theory and recorded forms of magic, including their limitations and restrictions. Unfortunately it looked like while this library contained plenty of scrolls about magic its main focus was on history, which meant that sometimes Akeya would have to travel to Era, the home of the Magic Council and also home of a library more dedicated to the mysteries of the energies that allowed mages to shape the world around them. She remembered how she had managed to partially find, partially recreate the magic tattoos that had been carved into her body. The library of Era had been of great help there. Still, its knowledge had not been complete (otherwise Akeya would not have had to finish the tattoos herself), which meant that even the library which proclaimed to contain the most information regarding magic still didn't know everything Akeya wanted to know...

Well, that wasn't important right now. She could feel sad about the ignorance of herself and the nation she lived in another time. She had reached the section where she should be able to find the information she needed for dealing with the Haunted Village. Moving down the walls of text she narrowed her eyes as she read the labels which helped narrow down her search. Cities, towns, villages... Haunted Village. The half dragon stayed silent for a moment, somewhat stunned when she finally reached the scrolls which contained information about that dreaded place. There were more scrolls for her to read through than she had expected. She had thought that such a place would be mostly a mystery, because after all if people knew so much about it why would it still be dreaded and avoided? Mages could deal with spirits. However if there were this many scrolls about the subject she should be able to gather substantial knowledge, so maybe she should just be pleasantly surprised and get on with it.

Unfortunately she quickly learned a rather irritating truth about those scrolls: yes, many things had been written down about the Haunted Village and the area surrounding it. However a lot of what had been written down was useless because it was either just very rough guesswork or it was people spreading rumours and myths and trying to pass them off as facts. Akeya had made the mistake that assuming that just because a lot had been written about the place it meant that there was actually substantial knowledge spread about it. Instead she worked her way through stories of ghosts, spirits which came down from the temple in the mountains to steal away children in the night, werewolves which would come out during the full moon and eat over half the population before disappearing again, supposedly doing this every full moon (which would make the fact that the place still had inhabitants a true miracle), vampires which would never be noticed until somebody disappeared and their body was found drained of all its blood... Honestly if even half of these stories were true the Haunted Village was just a portal to hell, and the only inhabitants left were those who had received the very curious curse of immortality, forcing them to endure all the ridiculous nonsense that kept happening over and over. The half dragon actually snorted in disgust as she read yet another scroll filled with nothing but fancy tales about how horrible the place was. She knew that she shouldn't just dismiss stories because they could contain a grain of truth. She knew that being unable to believe something outrageous was a good way to get yourself killed. But she had trouble imagining that this extended to believing that all these tales were true, because in that case the Haunted Village was a place where reality itself had been warped and twisted to be able to accommodate pretty much every kind of monster and horrific scenario anybody had ever been able to think of. With quite a lot of the stories directly contradicting each other. One story claimed that all the inhabitants had their souls stolen by demons, which was why they could be tortured infinitely and then still come back to life. Another said that the inhabitants were the demons, and the sources of all the horrors that happened. Those demons would only pretend to suffer in that hell to make it easier for wayward travellers to be trapped. The half dragon idly wondered what it would be like if both of those stories were true at the same time.

Still, she kept reading until she had already gone through all the scrolls, which didn't take as long as one might expect. Akeya had long ago learned that being able to acquire information at a rapid pace was vital for success, at least if your jobs included objectives which had to be achieved quickly, maybe even in rapid succession. Which is why she had bought the strongest wind reading glasses she had been able to get her hands on as soon as she had enough money to spend without it risking her budget. The pair she had allowed her to read sixty-four times as fast as she would otherwise have been able to. It had been quite expensive, but to this day she still thought of it as a very worthwhile purchase. Actually she had been wondering about getting a pair infused with wind magic, which supposedly could perform at twice the speed as her current glasses if not even faster, however it seemed those could only be pre-ordered, and were expensive enough that even Akeya, a hard-working and capable mage, would have to dedicate a frightening amount of time and fortune into being able to afford such glasses. While not impossible she had decided that her current glasses were already plenty powerful enough. After all, reading sixty-four times as fast meant that a book which would otherwise have taken two hours would now take less than two minutes. With that kind of speed she could already gather information and knowledge fast enough to excel at any task she put her mind to. Unless of course the competition possessed some of those wind-infused glasses.

Having finished her reading Akeya rolled up the last scroll and put it back where it belonged before walking out of the library, looking thoughtful. Even if she took away all the hyperbole and rumours it still sounded like the Haunted Village deserved its name. Preparing for every single contingency would slow her down too much, but even if she was sceptic about most of the stories it wouldn't hurt to at least keep up her guard to some extend. These preparations would require her to generalize and take equipment with her which should help her with everything but the most specialized of issues. Werewolves were a simple task to prepare for: if she couldn't find a silver dagger or sword in BP, the guild of heroes, she could buy one after having finished being astonished at the massive oversight. Demons were a bit trickier, however a cold iron weapon would at least allow her to harm them, and beyond that maybe she could find an idol infused with holy magic. If that failed there were always simple talismans, which could at least warn her and ward off basic evil. As for ghosts... If there were ghosts it would become a lot more tricky. Not because ghosts were particularly powerful, but because they didn't behave anything like organic creatures. Even demons were more like animals than ghosts. Talismans should be of some use there, but beyond that ghosts tended to either require an actual exorcist, which Akeya wasn't and couldn't just carry along, or something very specific which she couldn't prepare for.

On the other hand, the only thing she needed for vampires was a handful of garlic, a stake and for her to not be so utterly retarded as to arrive in the village at night. Which was somewhat irritating, since Akeya herself was also stronger during the night, however she didn't actually become weaker or frailer during the day, whereas vampires would be unable to expose themselves to the sun at all. Granted, she would also have to keep in mind to arrive on a cloudless day so the sun wouldn't be hidden, although at least one of those scrolls had mentioned how the place was always overcast, which might make that a bit trickier to achieve.

Beyond demons, werewolves, ghosts and vampires there were still countless other potential dangers, but those were either very unlikely or could only be dealt with using methods which were too complicated, too expensive, or simply too specific for Akeya to bother with them all. A silver weapon would allow her to deal with werewolves, a cold iron weapon would allow her to deal with demons, ghosts and demons could to some extent be affected by a holy idol and talismans, and vampires couldn't do anything as long as the sun was present, and if that wasn't possible some garlic should keep them at bay. That, and vampires would probably have little reason to attack Akeya anyway. The stories weren't always as clear on the subject, but overall the idea was that vampires for some reason specifically wanted human blood. Well, even those stories which were very clear on their preference for human blood implied that blood from other animals could work in a pinch, but overall the half dragon thought it unlikely that any vampire would target her unless it was starved and just needed any kind of blood. And even then only the desperate vampire would try their luck with a half dragon. For humans Akeya's kind might have become nothing but fairy tales due to it having been a long time since half dragons walked the land in any respectable amount, but that didn't mean that Akeya was the only half dragon, and beyond that vampires tended to have much longer memories than humans. Their lifespan ranged from hundreds of years to literal infinity unless killed (and even then), and from what she had read vampires were strongly inclined towards being traditionalists and historians. They put a great amount of value in bloodlines and past events, most likely because even though they showed traits similar to the living they were still a kind of undead, which meant that for them that which had already happened carried more importance than what lies in the future (with some exceptions). Which meant they still knew about half dragons, and that they usually were better left alone. A full-blood dragon was, of course, still the bigger threat, however that's like saying that a wolf can't be considered dangerous because bears are even stronger.

Heading towards the armoury (since of course the Blue Pegasus guild hall would have an armoury. Any large self-respecting guild would have a place to store weapons just in case they turned out to be necessary) Akeya began to search for a silver and a cold iron dagger. Blue Pegasus was a guild based on the theme of heroes and legends... and myths. Fairy Tail was the guild you joined if you wanted to have a family, Sabertooth was the guild for if you just wanted to serve the people, Infinity Hydra if your primary objective was to hunt down evil, and Blue Pegasus if you just wanted to use the fact that you had the talent for magic to become a hero and a legend (which, Akeya remarked mentally, basically made Blue Pegasus the legal guild for self-centred people who wanted to feel good about themselves). Akeya herself had joined for different reasons entirely (the library and the fact that the strongest mage of Fiore and the White Dragon Slayer had been the guild master at the time. The best way to avoid getting into real trouble with him was to be part of his own guild and just do as he asked), but that didn't remove the true nature of the guild. And if there was any place where you had to be prepared for trouble with special weapons, it was in myths and legends. The legendary Medusa needed a mirror, and that had been only one of many stories where one specific thing had been needed for victory.

As Akeya expected, some searching revealed to her both a silver dagger and one made of cold iron. It looked like someone else had heard about demons and werewolves in the past and had decided that having some way to deal with them at the ready was a good idea. Whoever it was, the half dragon was thankful. Especially since she wouldn't have to pay for borrowing these for as long as the job lasted. Next was the idol, which wasn't very difficult either. Blue Pegasus was a large guild with plenty of history and some very strong ties to celestial and holy forces (there's a reason why the White Dragon Slayer of all people became the guild master and kept that position for so long. Besides, the legendary Pegasus was also known for being a divine creature), so the fact that there were several holy symbols lying around for Akeya to make use of wasn't too much of a surprise. She settled on one which was basically a miniature Pegasus forged with silver, Akeya's enhanced eyes allowing her to see the traces of power that still surrounded it. It wasn't the most powerful of symbols, but it was small and easy to carry, and besides she was mainly planning to use it to keep anything unholy busy. She was confident that she could kill anything she came across as long as she could keep it busy for long enough, especially since silver and cold iron should cover pretty much any monster except for the really strange ones... like ghosts. Akeya still wasn't looking forward to dealing with ghosts. Although she would be able to test whether silver allowed you to harm the ethereal...

Cold iron dagger, silver dagger and an idol. Next she would have to get her hands on some talismans, fresh garlic and a stake. For talismans she would have to visit one of the buildings of faith in Clover Town (no surprise, there were several), and if she couldn't get any there she had read enough about religion that she was pretty confident she could make some makeshift talismans herself. After all, as long as she knew what to write down on the papers it should have some effect, right? Garlic was easy since that just meant she had to visit the grocery store, and a stake was literally a piece of wood with a sharp end, so she could make that while on her way to the Haunted Village.

Akeya climbed on top of one of the many towers that decorated the skyline of Clover Town, looking out over the lake that surrounded the island. It was the usual Clover day, which basically meant that there were few clouds and the sun was shining down brightly. It was another one of the disadvantages of being a part of Blue Pegasus, although Akeya had managed to get used to this one without too much trouble. True, there was a lot of light, but once she had gotten her hands on various tricks to at least protect her eyes it wasn't too bad, especially since Clover Town was large and complex enough a city that there were plenty of shadows cast by that bright sun. That and even though Akeya was basically a half shadow dragon at this point that didn't mean that the sun was actually painful or significantly uncomfortable. She preferred the night and the moon, but even so the sun wasn't a big problem now that her eyes were protected.

She stretched her wings and crouched, preparing to launch herself off of the tower and into the sky, from which she would make her way to the Haunted Village. It would take a while to get there, since she wasn't planning to hurry and it was all the way in the South-West whereas Clover Town was in the far East of Fiore. Fortunately it was also close to the Phoenix Mountains so Akeya would have little trouble finding it. Kicking herself off Akeya abandoned the firmness of the tower and began to flap her wings, after the initial phase of stabilizing her flight flying out, quickly leaving Clover Town behind her as the blue expanse of water spread out behind her. Korikami was hidden inside the shadows of her wings, having put all the things Akeya believed she'd need for this mission inside the shadow realm he had access to. He wouldn't fight, being way too much of a sneaky person to actually join combat if it could be avoided, but at least he helped by putting Akeya's equipment somewhere where she didn't have to worry about losing any of it or having to deal with its weight (which was always something to consider when you were flying).

After she crossed the lake she found herself a stream of warm air to help keep her aloft as she continued on her way, already planning ahead on what she should do next. Well, aside from just flying the rest of the way. She'd have to get down to the ground a bit before actually reaching the village, since flight, useful as it may be, also made you stand out and made you an easier target unless you were actively doing your best to be as difficult to hit as you could manage. She'd also have to check the weather when she arrived, and possibly wait a couple of days to see if it would brighten up if it turned out to be as dark and gloomy as most stories said it was. Akeya was only going to play along with the weather being ominous if she had no other option left, and she was pretty sure she could afford to not rush headlong into danger. Even the Magic Council wouldn't get on her case for that. She hoped. If they did she'd have to think of a way to explain it to them in a way that would make it harder for them to object. 'Considering the way that the target has been rampaging all the civilians would already have evacuated the area so there wouldn't be more casualties while I waited for more favourable circumstances, and seeing how so far the target has given no indication of attempting to hide their tracks finding them should not pose a problem even if she already had moved to another location.' She guessed something like that would be enough.

If not, she'd... well, things might get more troublesome at that point. She couldn't really go against the Magic Council because if she did they might start treating her with more suspicion, but at the same time she'd rather not be punished for something as sensible as not rushing into unfavourable conditions when the option for more favourable conditions hadn't been lost yet.

At least for now the weather was still favourable, and Akeya would make good use of that for as long as it lasted. With the warm air rising up from the land below she could glide quite a bit, something the half dragon eagerly made use of. As she looked below her she saw the railroad which crossed the lake she herself had just passed, running from Clover Town all the way to Hargeon Town, with several other towns including Magnolia attached to the rails as well. Seeing those rails made her frown, displeasure obvious on her face: she'd had to use those trains before in the past, and she could say with absolute certainty that she'd never do so again if she could help it. She was sure they were quite good and comfortable for most people, but she only remembered feeling like she might vomit at any given moment. Which she wasn't really a fan of, since she neither was used to being ill nor welcomed the unusual experience.

She altered her course to make some distance between herself and the railroad, and the towns to which it was connected. Unfortunately they were in the same direction as the Haunted Village, and Akeya didn't feel like constantly being so close to a source of discomfort for herself. That and there was always the chance that there was someone who didn't recognize her as a legal mage, presumed she was some kind of monster, and would cause a ruckus and try to shoot her out of the sky. Not worth the trouble of taking the shortest route straight above the towns no matter how the half dragon looked at it.

Most of the trip wasn't really worth mentioning. Since Akeya could fly and had enough stamina to keep that up for hours before taking a break to prevent exhaustion she avoided most troubles she might otherwise have encountered. Although from what she saw there wasn't a lot on the ground which would have made the journey more interesting. After she got past the railroad she was going cross-country, with few to no signs of civilization. Fiore was a pretty tame country, the humans with their magic having managed to take control of it pretty well with few real threats outside of some secluded areas (like the one Akeya was heading to), but even then most humans still preferred to stick to the cities, villages and the organized pathways connecting the settlements. With no humans to make life more interesting for the place Akeya mostly saw plains and forests, which could provide some form of entertainment but couldn't match the real intrigue of places that could be found outside of Fiore.

The weather also wasn't anything worth writing about. At first it was sunny with a refreshing breeze, the kind of weather which made you want to sit outside and relax without doing anything. After that it got cloudy, the sky grey and threatening. However even so it never actually began to rain, and after having turned the world darker and more gloomy the clouds moved on, leaving Akeya to once again fly underneath the blue sky and the bright sun. No real winds hindering her flight, no rain, snow or hail to make flying unwise... The half dragon had to admit that the trip was both relaxing and rather tedious. It was a good thing that she could look forward to having to deal with a place which was haunted and supposedly filled with all kinds of dreadful things. It really helped to keep her cheerful and focused.

However when she got closer to the haunted village things started to get strange. For one things the clouds were coming back, something which annoyed Akeya to no end since that meant she would have to wait to see if they would disappear before she could actually enter the village and look for the target. For the other, her prediction that there was no-one left in the area (who would stick around in a place where some child with too much magic power was wreaking havoc?) turned out to be wrong. Down below she saw several people heading away from the Haunted Village, which was sensible, but they should already have left long ago. Maybe that was something worth investigating. If there was a reason why they had waited so long before leaving... The half dragon entered a dive, aiming to land on a spot outside of the view of these humans. Fortunately it looked like the group was more focused on getting away from the Haunted Village and looking at the road ahead of them than checking whether some half dragon was dropping out of the sky nearby, so Akeya touched ground without being spotted. Looking at herself she concentrated, letting her magic flow through the tattoo on her back before letting it flow back into the rest of her body, at which point her draconic traits disappeared, the half dragon now looking just like she had before she began to step away from humanity. Stepping out of her hiding place Akeya walked up to the group, who at first looked rather alarmed before relaxing, seeing that while the woman approaching them was clothed rather oddly she didn't appear to be some kind of monster.

"Greetings. What are you all fleeing from?"

The group looked at one another. It was a small group, half a dozen, with four guys and two women. They all looked tired albeit healthy. Eventually the one walking at the front answered as he turned back to Akeya, out of all of them looking like he was in the best shape although he was also the dirtiest. Most likely he had been doing most of the work.

"We managed to escape the little witch and are trying to get as far away from her as we can. If you're smart you'll turn around and leave as well."

Akeya frowned, looking beyond the group at the land beyond.

"The little witch?"

The man nodded, although some of the group behind him looked surprised at the question.

"Some little girl suddenly awoke their magic talent and immediately went on a rampage. She already killed many and turned others into dolls. Most of us had been turned into dolls, but apparently the witch's magic weakened as she left because Hirald managed to free us." The man indicated one of the others, a rather short and spry looking guy. "We don't want to take chances though, so before the little witch realizes that we're gone we're going to get as far away as possible. With some luck she'll be too busy hunting dark mages to notice it until we're already safe."

Akeya folded her arms as she listened to the man. So not only was the target killing dark mages, but she was also turning people into dolls. Which meant that there could actually be a lot of hostages and civilians left which could be harmed or killed. Which meant... She frowned. It looked like she wouldn't be able to get away with waiting until the clouds dispersed. This realization did not make her any happier.

"I see. Well, I wish you good luck. I'll go there and see if I can do anything about the little witch."

The group all blinked, but by the time that the one in front got around to warning her Akeya had already walked past them, straight towards the Haunted Village. After some hesitation the rest of the group motioned to leave the suicidal girl alone, and the humans resumed their search for safety while the half dragon moved forward to face the danger head on.

Of course, facing danger head on wasn't really Akeya's preference or strongest suit. If it were up to her she'd sneak in using the shadows and snoop around to see what was really going on before actually endangering herself. It was an approach which still allowed for a lot of variety and flexibility and which had served her well so far. The fact that in this situation she couldn't use it because the shadows might already be taken by something else did genuinely annoy her. The half dragon began to shed her disguise, black scales creeping up her limbs and covering her back and sides, followed by a long tail and wings growing from her back. Several seconds later and Akeya was back to her usual self, frowning as she looked up at the dark clouds covering the skies. This mission was getting on her nerves in how it made her feel cautious about things that would usually be to her advantage. The sudden switch wasn't working out well for her, but she didn't have much of a say in the matter. If she had been given a say she would have made sure that everyone else involved would have got an earful.

Well, regardless of whether she liked it or not, she did have a mission to fulfil. Now that there was the possibility of there still being civilians about she couldn't afford to wait, so she walked straight into the Haunted Village, looking around warily as her tail swayed from side to side behind her. The place was supposed to be haunted, and while Akeya had no trouble with that name right now she felt that the term Abandoned would have been more accurate. According to those people that she had just encountered on the road the target had turned people into toys, but there was no indication of there being anything left alive here. The streets were all empty and the houses all looked like they had been left alone for years. The half dragon frowned at this, since the reports had been about a rather recent development. Even if the target had been quick about capturing civilians and those that hadn't been caught had fled immediately, the place shouldn't look as abandoned as this. What had been happening around here? If there were living people here that already crossed off quite a lot of possibilities about this place, but there was still the option of this all being haunted... Akeya couldn't tell. She could see magic, but unfortunately spirits and ghosts tended to be more spiritual than magical, so she didn't pick up on anything.

Other than the fact that the magic here felt warped. The half dragon was advancing cautiously, which meant she had plenty of time to study the magic of this place. Magic existed everywhere in the background, easy to ignore even if you could sense it. But here the magic was fairly thick in the air, and it didn't feel neutral. It felt gloomy, threatening, ominous. Fitting for a Haunted Village, but for Akeya it only spelled trouble. Her fin-like ears widened as she tried to pick up on any sounds, but she didn't hear anything but her own footsteps, silent as they were. There really didn't seem to be anything there, even though at the same time Akeya was very certain that she wasn't alone. She looked over at the shadows cast by one of the buildings, although the dark clouds covering the skies the only distinction between that shadow and the area around it was the outlining. She could sense anything in the shadows either, which was something of a relief. She highly doubted that she would be unable to sense it if there was anything hiding in the shadows around her, so at least she was safe in that aspect. Still not safe enough for her to start using the shadows unless she felt the need, but better than nothing.

Walking further into the Haunted Village didn't really tell the half dragon much more. The weather was unusually downcast, the magic in the air just made the entire place feel ominous and gloomy, and she couldn't pick up on any sign of there being anyone else there even though there was no way that she was alone here. And the town which looked like it had been abandoned for years. The target couldn't have done that: she could turn people into dolls, but other than that her magic was too offensive for it to be based on something like affecting the looks of the surroundings (if her record of wiping out entire dark guilds by herself were worth listening to). But on the other hand... Akeya suppressed the urge to mutter to voice her discontent, instead just frowning as she tapped against her leg and signalled for Korikami to get her weapons at the ready. A stake, some fresh garlic, a silver dagger, some talismans... the shadow fox wasn't too happy carrying some of these things around, but he didn't have much of a say in the matter, just like how Akeya didn't have a say in the weather and what kind of opponents she would be dealing with.

As the half dragon stepped closer to the centre of the village she narrowed her eyes as she finally found a clue for what she was searching for. Footsteps in the sand next to the road. For them to still be there they would have to be fresh. Moving closer Akeya studied the footsteps. They looked like they belonged to a male adult, and they were aiming... the direction that Akeya came from. Not surprising, seeing how it was a path that would lead the owner of the footsteps out of this cursed place if he had actually managed to keep going. From the way that the footsteps abruptly ended he had either developed the ability of flight or something had caught him. Although for there to be no other tracks in the ground...

The member 'Akeya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

Akeya's gaze travelled across the ground, searching for other tracks. These tracks came to a halt as if the owner had disappeared into thin air. Which was not a good sign, to say the least. The mission didn't include warnings of people disappearing, but in this Haunted Village there was a myth or legend for basically every single unpleasant thing one could think of. Actually Akeya was pretty sure that the moment that someone thought of something unpleasant they found a way to connect it to the Haunted Village. Whatever it was that had given the place a bad name by now it probably just served as a place where people could gather all their unpleasant ideas. Unfortunately just because there was a high chance that most of the stories were made up (most importantly those that directly contradicted one another) that didn't mean that the place was harmless. The half dragon wasn't superstitious or easily scared, but she did put a lot of effort into sharpening her senses, and she could tell that this place wasn't normal. And not in a good way either.

Still, so far she didn't feel like it was too dangerous for her to go any further (for a large part because as a half dragon she didn't believe there was a lot of things which could be too dangerous for her. A very strange combination of arrogance and wariness), so she slowly made her way deeper into the village, still looking around for clues. Even if there was no-one left out in the open the story of the refuges that she had encountered on the way here had made it clear that there were still people here, even if by now pretty much every single one of them had already been captured by the target. The only upside to that was that it was unlikely that the target would kill them at random. After all, no matter how strong the target was she was still a child biologically and mentally, so she wouldn't randomly destroy the dolls she created even if she threw a tantrum. Although according to what the refuges had said it was also quite likely that the target wasn't here right now... or might be coming back.

Akeya was still pondering about this when she finally encountered her first 'opponent', as it were: from the front came a blade, dancing through the air as if held by an invisible opponent, slowly making its way towards the half dragon. The half dragon in question immediately took a more defensive stance, slowly stepping backwards even as the sword approached. The strange thing was, she couldn't see any sign of how the sword was kept aloft even with her enhanced eyes. A floating sword, but one whose magic Akeya couldn't see... And more importantly, no sign of there actually being an invisible opponent. An advanced form of invisibility? Akeya studied the sword's movements, continuing to move backwards as it approach. When she thought that she had a good idea of how it would move she suddenly turned into a shadow and dashed forwards, appearing right next to the sword and swinging her fist in an attempt to knock it to the side, which if it hit should still bring the invisible target off balance.

Only for her scaled hand to go straight through the sword without any resistance. Akeya nearly stumbled, managing to regain her balance after the lack of resistance threw her off. Jumping backwards the half dragon looked at her hand, which seemed to be in fine condition, and then at the sword, which gave no indication whatsoever of having been affected by what had just transpired. As she tried to figure something out Akeya decided to hold out her arm towards the sword, ready to pull it back the moment she felt her scales and skin being damaged... but as the sword got close enough it simply went straight through her, leaving no mark on either arm nor sword. An illusion, albeit a good one if her magic sight hadn't managed to reveal the truth to her. However even if it was a good illusion now that she had figured out that it was fake the half dragon no longer had any reason to pay any attention to it. Trying her best to ignore the sword now dancing around her the half dragon moved further forwards, glaring when she saw a second one of these phantom blades show up. Although when she heard the giggling of a child that was considered a bit more worrisome. Akeya looked around, but found no trace of anyone, either physical or magical. But the giggling continued. Akeya cam to a halt, listening to the giggling, her glare worsening when another voice showed up, this one instead of giggling tell her how stupid it was to be chased by a couple of weapons that didn't actually exist.

Another look around, and still no clue towards where the person who had been creating the swords was, or where the voices were coming from. The half dragon was getting somewhat annoyed, standing still in the middle of the village and taking a deep breath to regain control over herself. The fact that she was encountering these unnerving apparitions, both visually and audially, at least made it clear that something was there and that it felt like messing with her. Or trying to drive her out, although it wasn't doing a very good job of that. Yet her enhanced sight wasn't giving her any hints towards finding whoever it was, be they the target or another entity who didn't want the half dragon in the Haunted Village. They were using evasive tactics, not even bothering to harm Akeya as she moved into the village, instead making her face problems which weren't even dangerous, just threatening and unnerving if one was the kindto be easily affected by that kind of thing. She'd have to find a way to force the target out into the open. If it was her.

The whispers, annoying as they were, disappeared nearly as quickly as they had shown up in the first place, once again leaving Akeya alone in the deserted village. Alone, except for those illusionary blades which seemed to only exist to get on her nerves. The half dragon snorted. Evasive targets were both a blessing and a burden. The blessing was that she could take her time hunting them, since they tended to not really do much in retaliation other than throw some traps up in the hope of slowing down or disabling their hunters. The burden was that they tended to be harder to actually find than the kind of prey which stood its ground and fought. Akeya had experience with both, but she had to admit that when you involved magic into the equation the ones that tried to avoid conflict could be a lot more of a pain. At least the ones that fought at least tended to share certain traits on how their tricks worked, whereas evasive magic could come in so many different forms. Quite vexing.

Regardless, she had to drive the target out of their hiding hole. The swords and the whispers made it clear that the target was around, which was a relief. Now to figure out where she was. Akeya still wasn't sure whether she could safely make use of the shadows in this village which supposedly was a nucleus for trouble and bad omens. However the shadows were supposed to be her element, and without them catching an illusionist would take ages. Looking around and carefully inspecting the shadows surrounding her Akeya tried to find any traces of anything else inhabiting or using those shadows, her emerald eyes travelling from darkness to darkness. However no matter how much she glared she couldn't find any sign of those shadows being unavailable to her. And she wasn't really keen on the idea of being stuck inside this Haunted Village for hours trying to dig out this little brat who didn't realize that power needed to be controlled and trained rather than unleashed in what was basically one big tantrum.

Stepping into a shadow Akeya vanished, travelling from one shadow to another until she was standing in the other end of the village, folding her arms and looking around. As she suspected, the illusions of blades were already heading in her direction, but they had to actually move towards her. That meant that the target was somewhere near her when she had been walking about, and didn't have the entire village under her control... yet. She still was limited by her body and its location. Akeya would have to make sure to make use of that.

The follow up question to the realization that her target was still limited to her physical form was to think of how best to make use of that. If there was still such a limit on the range of her magic that she couldn't cross the entirety of the village with it that meant the target still had human levels of magic. Which meant Akeya could simply decide to keep moving around, drawing the target's attention, forcing the target to keep following her in the hope of catching her... and using that method drain the target's stamina until she was an easy target. It was one of the most basic techniques of hunting, except turned about. Usually the predator would run the prey down until the prey could no longer run. In this case that wouldn't work because the prey was simply stronger than the predator if it came down to a straightforward fight.

Akeya was pretty confident about the idea of draining the target's stamina though. She had pretty good mana capacity herself, being a half dragon, and combined with that was the fact that she was quite good at maintaining her stamina even in the midst of combat. Of course the target might also have methods to keep themselves from becoming too weak to stand, but it was better than simply charging straight in when the target was that strong. It was fortunate that the target was a child: children were easy to manipulate and deceive, even if they themselves also had a penchant for deception and trickery. The target wasn't showing themselves just yet, but maybe if Akeya kept running around for long enough she would get tired of only chasing the half dragon from a distance and try to get up close and personal.

Nodding to herself the half dragon shadow stepped again, now to the northern edge of the village. Now that she knew that there wasn't actually anything in the shadows that would try to attack her while she was using the shadows to travel about her job became a lot easier as well. Again she saw the swords heading in her direction, the half dragon waiting until the swords were almost in front of her before suddenly shadow stepping further away... further into the village.

Like that a little game begun, with Akeya leading the swords throughout the village and letting them get closer and closer just a little bit every time, only to then suddenly disappear again. She wanted to make the child impatient, make the child angry that the half dragon was actually relaxed enough to not worry about the swords coming towards her before stepping away as if it was the easiest thing in the world. This child thought it was fully in control, could do what it wanted, so having Akeya act as if she didn't have a care in the world beyond just getting out of the child's range should work on its nerves. And as long as it was angry Akeya would have an easier time taking it down.

The member 'Akeya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

It seemed the tactic was working, because as Akeya kept patiently waiting for the blades to come close only for her to suddenly disappear she suddenly became aware of new whispering. However this whispering didn't sound amused or condescending. Instead it sounded angry, calling her weak for running away and asking her why she would be afraid of facing a couple of floating swords. Akeya actually smirked as she listened to these whispers, once again standing there with folded arms as the swords came closer and closer. She already knew that they were illusions because she had gone straight through them when she tried to deflect them, and someone like her who had a lot of mental discipline wasn't going to be unnerved by some whispers or some illusionary blades. And the whispers didn't sound like they belonged to some skilled manipulator who was guiding their prey into the right position. They sounded like the whining of a child who wasn't getting her way and who wanted the adult to stop jerking her chain already. This target might have been born with immense magic power, but one couldn't just assume that raw power was everything, even if she already had enough skill to craft such convincing illusions with her power. In this case the target was going to end up losing this little competition not as a matter of skill, but because Akeya had learned patience throughout the years, and patience wasn't something you could just be born with. Sure, some people might have an easier time with it, but in the end to learn patience one had to experience situations where patience was important. A child who threw a tantrum like this just because she happened to be powerful wasn't going to be good at waiting.

Still, impatient or not it looked like the child wasn't ready yet to come out and engage Akeya, so the dragoness had no choice but to continue their game. It wasn't the most interesting game, since it was very repetitive, but while playing it she could at least try to get some clues about how to catch her target. If the child would come out it would be good, but she shouldn't grow lax just because there was a simple solution based on abusing the target's childish nature. Her enchanted eyes weren't picking up on where the child could be, and while the frustrated and angry whispers were chasing her even faster than the invisible blades she couldn't actually hear any sound other than that in this abandoned village, other than maybe the wind blowing through the streets and whistling through open doors and broken windows. This place really was a Haunted Village, giving the impression that the only people living here would be the dead. Akeya had to wonder why the target had decided to make a mess here. She knew that people usually lived her (for some reason, since you'd expect people to prefer getting away from a place like this) but even so it was a strange location. It had already been called Haunted before the target arrived, so that couldn't be it either. Maybe she just happened to live here? But the reports said that she had been wandering about slaughtering small-time dark guilds on her own. Did she return home? Why? Did she simply happen to stumble across this place? An odd coincidence, and stranger that she would stick around here.

Akeya found herself confused by the situation, but she had the feeling that if she could figure out what the target was doing in the Haunted Village it might help with actually capturing the target.

The member 'Akeya' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Monster Dice' :

The swords and whispers continued, but while Akeya was still trying her best to keep an eye and ear out for clues to where her target might actually be hiding she wasn't paying as much attention to the trickery and illusions any longer as she instead looked around at the village the two of them were playing in. It looked like a deserted village, one where something had done quite a bit of damage if the broken windows were to go by. Except... There wasn't a lot of structural damage. There was quite a lot of rubbish and trash lying about, but all in all the buildings were intact except for some superficial damage like the broken windows. If the issue with the tantrum throwing kid was resolved people would probably be able to come back and get back to their lives without much trouble. Except of course that a good portion of them were turned into toys so that would have to be reverted first, and even then they'd probably keep some trauma because Akeya couldn't imagine that being turned into a toy was good for your mental health.

Approaching one of the abandoned houses she turned into a shadow and slipped inside, re-materializing and looking around. The inside gave the same impression as the outside: something had caused a lot of surface level damage without actually damaging the structure itself and afterwards everyone who might have lived here left. Looking at the floor Akeya confirmed that the destruction happened before people left: there were signs that someone had tried to clean up the mess a bit, which wouldn't have been the case if the destruction happened afterwards. Except if there were multiple parties involved, but Akeya was pretty sure the parties involved in this case were the inhabitants and the child who decided to make a mess of an entire town. She didn't have too much proof of that other than a lack of another presence, but in general it was safe to assume that if there was not indicating or implying the presence of something you didn't anticipate it probably wasn't there, and there didn't need to be another group present for the target to have done this to the town... unless Akeya found reason to believe that she wouldn't actually do this unless something pushed her into doing it. Which was something worth considering... The dragoness frowned as she searched through the house, trying to find anything which might be of use in figuring out what she should be doing here.

Some searching later and Akeya had to conclude that there was nothing here that she could really use. There were no toys and no real magic presence worth noting: for all intents and purposes this was an abandoned house as a result of the target going wild in the town. Although for some reason the whispers and the illusions weren't following her into the building, which was strange. Didn't the target know where she had gone? She seemed to have done a good job of finding Akeya wherever she went in the town so far, so if she didn't know where Akeya was right now... The dragoness considered this as she stayed inside for now, eating some of the shadows to make sure she was topped off so far as energy and stamina was concerned.

Akeya had already been walking through the town for a bit before the target began to target her, which either meant that the target had been watching her at first or had taken some time to find her. Either option worked, although the fact that the target was a child made a theory which didn't involve patience more likely (but not certain). Whenever Akeya used the shadows to move to another location the target found her quite quickly, which indicated a method for finding Akeya... and she hadn't used anything else to get into the house than what she had been using to move about town. Which meant there were two main theories: either the target had a method of tracking her which was reliant on her being out in the open, or this house contained something that the target didn't want to intrude on. There wasn't anything living in the house and nothing magical either, so maybe there was something which had a psychological value to the child? The shadow dragoness once again wandered through the house, even as outside some deranged child was making illusory blades dance.