Mercenaries(Naraku)

This task, was one that would be tricky even for someone as powerful and versatile as the Hell Queen. Yes, very tricky indeed. She had met with the client in secret earlier that day and was now following her husband around by climbing on various rafters and standing in shadows. Why was she doing this? Because her task was to protect this man without being seen. The reason she had accepted such a mission was to test her own stealth skills. Naraku was a woman who stealth was not second nature too. She had built in stealth abilities like her shadow camouflague, but protecting someone without being seen would be difficult. Yes, truly difficult.

Still, she had to admit she was quite impressed this man had lasted this long. He was a middle aged man, wearing a suit, and he had a long moustache. He walked with an air of pride that Naraku could virtually taste. No wonder this had to be secret. A man like this wouldn't want bodyguards. How foolish. Perhaps though he could defend himself to some extent. It would be interesting to see. He didn't look like a fighter, but neither did a lot of people she met and many of them were.

"Let's see how good you are Mr. Strauss." Naraku thought to herself as she dropped down silently into his shadow. The man turned his head, but saw nothing. That was how good her shadow camouflague was. You'd need exceptional skill to be able to see through it now. A skill he didn't possess. Dissapointing, but then again reassuring. If her skill was getting that rusty that she couldn't tell a potential threat then she would need to work a lot harder. But for now she was fine.

So far nothing had occured. No attacks at all and by scent or sound or sight Naraku could not detect any assassins. That was about to change. A sudden scent caught her attention and she leapt up into the rafters using her choker's flight passive to get her up there. As soon as she did she saw the four men leaping across the rafters heading towards Strauss. The thing was, she saw them and they didn't see her. What's more they had chosen to leap through a place of darkness and shadows. That was a big mistake. In the darkness Naraku was no Hell Queen, she was a demonic goddess. With a wicked grin she inserted a needle of shadow into her cleavage and from it erupted five tendrils. These were each C rank in power and what's more the opponents wouldn't be able to see them coming and so they would be unable to block. There only chance at survival was luck.

However, it seemed luck was not on their side as all four of them were stabbed by one of the tendrils. Either through the stomach or the head. Naraku did not have time for messing around. Nor did she have the luxury of fighting however she wanted. She had disposed of these as quickly as possible and retracted her tendrils. There was no need for them whilst no more foes were present, but they would be ready incase she needed them. The corpses she left in the rafters for now, hidden from view. She would tell the client of them later so they could be removed. Fortunately, they had picked an area in the rafters to wait which was like a small room so no blood would drip down for a while.

Satisfied with her work she leapt through the rafters back after Strauss. Four assassins had died, but she doubted they would be the last.


Damage dice x 5: Hell's torture
Hell torture duration: 2 out of 3 posts

The member 'Torturess Naraku' has done the following action : Dices roll

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It seemed though that the four assasins she had rather quickly dispatched were just the first wave for whilst she leapt through the rafters she saw another group of them. Fortunately, due to her shadow camouflague they hadn't spotted her and so she aimed to take them out as quickly as the last. This time there were eight of them and they looked ready to jump down and quickly slaughter Strauss in a flurry of blades. She only had a few seconds to react so rather than do anything elaborate she quickly sent out the tendrils. Three were grabbed round the neck and had their necks snapped, but the other two tendrils missed. She tsked and sent out Stabber. her wrist mounted blade, to try and end the lives of the others. Two more of them fell to that, but it seemed they were smarter than the others and had gone on the defensive so the other four strikes missed. The remaining three assasins all turned on her seeing her as a threat and lunged. One managed to get a lucky strike with his knife, but other than that she was too skillfull to be bothered.

Seeing this they immediately began to leap across the rafters obviously planning to try and take out the target so their deaths wouldn't be in vain. She couldn't allow that and leapt after them preparing to send out her tendrils once more. She had to end them before they got near Strauss again. It would be kind of humiliating to fail a c rank mission.

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The member 'Torturess Naraku' has done the following action : Dices roll

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Time was of the essence. With three opponents, now all aware of her presence, and all going after Strauss she had to go as all out as she  could without being detected. Fortunately, most of her spells were silent, but deadly. The tendrils which she launched out were enough to kill two of them, but the third dodged the three tendrils and then they faded into non-existence. She really had to work on the duration of those tendrils. In desperation she threw out her spike storm technique launching 50 needles at him. However, because she had not taken time to aim thirty of these fifty needles missed him entirely and whilst the other twenty hit he succeeded in blocking them. The force pushed him against a wall and he was pinned, fortunately stopping him from any attacks on Strauss. At least for a few seconds.

The needles quickly faded though and he began to run through the rafters again after Strauss who, oblivious to the battle going on, had continued on his merry way. Naraku was beginning to feel a bit of lag from the use of two high-class B rank spells, but not enough to slow her down. She had to end this assassin and then try to find any others before they took down Strauss. This mission was proving to be an amazingly big pain. If she didn't have to remain hidden she'd have slaughtered all of them instantly with one of her bigger attacks, but she did have to remain hidden and so her hands were tied.

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The member 'Torturess Naraku' has done the following action : Dices roll

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Knowing now that he would die very soon the man dove from the rafter straight at the man giving Naraku very little time to react. There was only one way to deal with this and it was filled with risk. She threw herself from the rafter and used the flight ability of her choker to get underneath him and thrust upwards with her. Fortunately, she managed to get in front of him quick enough so his attack would have to go through her to get to the target. Instead his dagger hit her in palm as she thrust her hand upwards. It hurt like hell, but it wasn't enough. The man managed to twist his way out of the way of one of her attacks from stabber, but the second hit him through the heart. Now came the tricky bit. As she fell to the ground she activated her shadow step ability and fell through her own shadow.

"Hmmm...is someone there?" Strauss asked turning and looking around. Fortunately, he didn't see the blood strains on the floor or look up to see where Naraku was laying on a banister with the dead assassin on top of her. She held her breath. Would he see her? "Must be the wind." he said and then continued walking allowing her to exhale. She returned the body to the rafters and leapt through the rafters. It seemed luck was on her side as she arrived just in time to see another group of the assassins. Four of them. Just how many of these guys were there?

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The member 'Torturess Naraku' has done the following action : Dices roll

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As Naraku knew she could only shadow step a limited amount of times she sunk into her shadow and erupted in the middle of the group of assassins, pulling a scythe from her haori, startling them greatly enough that they all lashed out at her. Two of them managed to be quick enough to get a strike on her, but the rest she blocked with ease. A couple of knife wounds were nothing to her, not anymore.

The dark being known as Naraku lashed out with her scythe. The enemies managed to block all of her strikes, but it did not matter. Her strength was now so great, and her scythe so sharp, that the weapons shattered under the force and the scythe just kept going. In a matter of a few seconds she had disposed of all four.

Below she heard the voice of Strauss muttering to himself and was forced to suppress a giggle. "Sounds like rats...I hate rats. Nasty crawling things always wanting to bite."

Naraku glanced at the dead men and then quickly grabbed their bodies and stored them with the rest. She then used her speed to return to where she had been before moving them so as to keep up with Strauss. It shouldn't be long before he went into his meeting now. That would be where it got tricky.

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The member 'Torturess Naraku' has done the following action : Dices roll

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As she arrived back above the person she was trying to protect she could neither see nor smell nor otherwise sense any more assassins. It was possible that she had managed to take them all out, which was good because it would give her magic power a chance to recover and also give some of her spells the chance to get out of cooldown. Of course, there were no guarantees that no assassins were present. Perhaps, like her, they would good at hiding their presence, but if they were up here in the shadows she would know. The shadows were her domain and if anyone was in darkness touching her or her shadow she would know it instantly. That was just one of the perks of being the Hell Demon Slayer.

She still had her scythe out, but there was no need for it now and so she returned it to the pocket dimension of her haori. There was no need for it at the moment and carrying something like that might reveal her with little noises. She could only be lucky a few times before she was caught. She could not rely on it. She had to rely on skill. Eventually Strauss entered through two big double doors and thus was out of her protection range. At least for the moment. She placed her hand on the floor in front of her and activated the cyclops eye ability, allowing her to see out of any shadow within 500ft of herself. There wasn't many places to hide in the room, nor could she see any assassins so perhaps they would not attack in their for fear of hurting others who they weren't assigned to kill, or maybe who assigned them to kill. She considered this point briefly and then sunk into her shadow and emerged in Strauss' shadow almost invisible once more. This was risky, but it was the only way she could keep him safe now.

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The meeting itself was rather boring for the most part. However, after a while her ears perked up. They were discussing something she had been trying to find out about. The mystic tower. Many people had disappeared trying to get in there and its exterior was near impervious to magic so even the jupiter cannon or the sattellite square wouldn't scratch it. Plus reports said the rooms were small on the inside so no large force could march in. The wizard saints had been suggested to go in, but they saw no need to believing that the mystic tower would be fine if left alone.

"We've all heard the reports. Some powerful magic is in there...a stable magical power." one of the men said. Naraku recognised him as a member of one of the lesser magic guilds, the ones that never gained much prominence. She knew most of the guild master's faces, it was useful information. "Our sensor mages believe it is a portal of some kind, closed, but still...if it was somehow opened who knows what could come through."

What indeed. Naraku thought. This conversation helped reinforce some speculation she'd got from Frederik's deciphering of some scrolls stolen from the guildmaster's lodge in clover town.

The meeting ended shortly after and Strauss left the room walking down the halls back the way he had came. As soon as she was outside the room and knew no-one was looking at her she leapt back into the rafters and continued to follow. Soon the man would be back at his quarters and she wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.

Spell durations:

It seemed to her that word had somehow spread that the man called Strauss was under some sort of protection because there didn't appear to be any assassins anywhere. In fact, other than herself and Strauss there didn't seem to be many people at all, which in itself was strange. What was stranger was that when she got to one of the places she'd hidden the bodies all she found was a small pool of congealed blood and a note nailed to the wall.

"Well done whoever you are. You have saved Strauss for now, but we will get him soon. Signed Seventh Shadow of the Shadow Blades." she read under her breath. So, the assassins were part of this group called the Shadow Sickles and this Seventh Shadow had found the bodies, probably whilst preparing to assassinate Strauss and had been scared off. She turned the paper over and saw an intricate seal that she recognised from the assassin's clothing. An interesting group to say the least. Not that it mattered to her, though it did in one way. It might mean future employment guarding Strauss. Plus the Shadow Blades intrigued her. It was a group she hadn't heard of. None of the assassins seemed capable of magic, but they were capable fighters. Perhaps from one of the other type of guilds, like the treasure hunters though she doubted they were treasure hunters.

Soon the mission would be over. Strauss was leaving the building and heading back to his home, which was a short coach ride away. All she had to do was get into or onto the coach, preferably inside, and his safety would be guaranteed.

Naraku succeeded in getting onto the coach roof just as it was about to move away with Strauss. She grinned as she sat on top and then lowered her head to the roof so she could try and hear if anything was going on inside. So far it was quiet apart from Strauss mumbling to himself about the bumpy roads and how politicians were treated. If only he knew the sort of person guarding him. Naraku was far above this sort of work, but she was bored and so she'd done it. There was no other reasoning behind it. Well, except a small amount of money. Money always helped get her attention. She liked pretty things and money helped by those pretty things. Of course, most people would class the stuff she called pretty as overly gothic or even morbid, but each to their own. Naraku liked skulls and so she bought skulls, in pretty shades of red and purple and black.

Eventually Strauss left the coach and walked into his home. He was greeted by his wife who was in the garden and then he headed inside. She grinned once more and leapt down landing near the woman and handed her the note. She read it and looked at her. "Thank you Miss." she said and handed her the note and some jewels. "I'll call on you again soon probably to try and deal with these Shadow Blades." With that Naraku nodded and left heading towards the train station. Now she was heading off to her home. The mission was done.

As she sat atop the train, Naraku rarely rode inside a train it cost too much, she thought about the mission. These Shadow Blades had impressive numbers. They might prove an interesting challenge in the future if their leaders were any good.

[end]