A Frosty Rescue

Julius was downright tickled pink at how easy it was, falsifying a guildless mage identity. Doubly so thanks to his newfound second magic....frightful as the obtaining of said magic had been. He could look like anyone he could conceive, no matter if they were a different gender or even if they were horribly disfigured. No longer did he require keeping contacts on his person to hide his all too recognizable eyes. Nor did he need to wear gloves to hide his guild mark on his left hand. An effort of will, and perhaps a smidgen of pain for the more extreme transformations, and his appearance was entirely unrecognizable.

Today he had managed to use his new identity to be brought on for a rescue operation. As one of the "Mount Hakobe locals", they valued his experience in navigating the oft treacherous terrain. Doubly so as his magic, or at least the only one he allowed to be known with this alias, was incredibly useful for traversal, storage, and a variety of other utility uses. Considering they were to rescue the relative of a Magic Councilman they needed a host of advantages. Thus did "James Riley" as he was to go by, and the several other Mount Hakobe born guildless mages, sit in wait for the assigned Rune Knights' team who they were to work alongside.

If his informant from Era was correct, the leader of the team on their way here was none other than Alicia Sinclair. Lovely daughter of a wealthy mining tycoon, and younger sister to the widely known Serilda Sinclair. At the behest of his queen, Julius was to try and form a trust of one kind or another with Alicia, while....thinning out...the number of lawful types in the world along the way. He made no effort to hide his smirk, his alias being an ever jovial type anyhow, as he thought on how he had already begun to set such a thing in motion. As he glanced about at a number of the Mount Hakobe mages along for the mission, he wondered how many of them he would be consigning to death by the end of the day.

WC: 362/362
TWC: 362

@Ryuusei

The mission was simple: meet with the locals at the designated rendezvous point, navigate through a discreet pathway through Mount Hakobe. The mission was planned to be a quick infiltration mission and an even quicker extract of the VIP. The target was a family member who was spending their vacation at the snow capped mountains. Originally the VIP had only planned to spend a month or so at their families snowy retreat, however there were complications… The territory around portions of Mount Hakobe was under control of a Dark Guild known as Errings Rising. Not much was known about said dark guild, however it was known that they were dangerous and had quite a few powerful mages within their ranks. In order to avoid a large scale conflict, it was decided a covert team of operatives from the spec ops branch of the Rune Knights. The team was composed of five rune knights, one rune knight specialized in healing magic, another specialized in communications, one was proficient in ice magic, and the other was well versed in support magic. The fifth knight was none other than Alicia, her magic was classified as a requip variant, however calling it requip was a way of classifying her magic in the most simplest way…

Alicia and her comrades wore casual attire, all of which dressed in white camo in order to blend into the arctic terrain. Alicia had a small backpack with rations and other supplies stored inside. She had chosen to arm herself with a bolt action rifle that very closely resembled a kar98k. The rifle was equipped with a large suppressor enchanted with a few enchantments that allowed the suppressor to double as a compensator. The rifle was finely tuned and a perfect choice for the large openings the mountains presented. With the help of a few more enchantments the rifle shots were nearly silent, and perfect for the set parameters of the mission. The rifle equipped by Alicia was not the only weapon in her arsenal, she had many more tricks up her sleeve. The cold air pricked Alicia’s nose, her warm breath left her lips forming puffs of clouds.

“Approaching Bravo… keep your eyes peeled… Sinclair got any visuals on Bravo?” inquired one rune knight specializing in ice magic. Alicia peered down her scope, a small magical sigil formed in the scope enhancing her vision even further than what the normal scope would allow. Sure enough a group of people, all of which met the descriptions of all the guildless mages the team was supposed to work with. Alicia scanned the area meticulously to keep an eye out for any ambushes or potential threats. To her relief there seemed to none at the moment.

“10-4 sir, no other threats present… I believe we are clear to approach Bravo sir…” Alicia lowered her rifle and awaited instructions from her commanding officer Ryan Creed, the ice mage who was the real commanding officer of the mission. In order to keep their moves classified, the Rune Knights had given some degree of false information. Alicia was to act as the dummy leader of the team, while the real commanding officer posed as one of the lower ranked knights under Alicia’s command.

“Sinclair, remember the mission… upon making contact with Bravo you are to be referred to as the leader of this team… this is a friendly reminder to all of you knights…” Ryan spoke in a cold and professional tone. Everyone nodded unanimously, replied back with a nod and looked to Alicia to see what the next move was.

“Alright… move out…” Alicia signaled everyone, the team moved quietly towards the designated meeting area. After half an hour or so they arrived at the designated point. Alicia approached the guildless mages and introduced herself, but before she did so she stored her rifle away in it’s designated pocket dimension.

“Hello… fine weather we’re having huh?” Alicia smiled sweetly as she approached the strangers. Granted, Alicia was aware of the mages’ names and faces, but she knew nothing more except what was provided to her during the briefing she received along with her team. She looked around, keeping her eyes peeled for any suspicious movements.


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WC: 703
TWC: 1,065

Calm, confident, powerful, and gorgeous? Yes, Julius was going to like attempting to get close to Alicia Sinclair just fine by his mark. Julius watched the group approach from afar, one hand jammed into his snow proof pants. The other scratched insistently at the mild amount of facial hair growing on his chin in this form. While it was not much, he himself grew none naturally so he was unused to the itch. Thankfully it looked like it had been recently shaved, so the itching would not raise any suspicion. Not that he worried much about being outed while using this face. Literally nothing on his person could be used to identify him as Julius of Errings Rising. The transformation went down fingerprints and beyond as well. Such a useful magic, it was no surprise he had almost been driven insane to obtain it. He extended one burly arm, the weight still surprising him even after all the practice using this body, and waved to the approaching squad of Rune Knights.

A broad, toothy grin reminiscent of a jovial wolf spread from cheek to cheek as Alicia stepped forward to greet their ragtag mountain mage group. There were four other local mages aside from Julius, making them equal in number to the Knights. Ten seemed a tad too many for Julius' taste, but he supposed even among the Knights a mage capable of getting in and extracting a person under the radar would be difficult. Though he was perhaps a bit biased as his particular magic made it sound laughably easy. Regardless, ten it was, and the other local mages had come to trust "James" in the time Julius had worked on establishing said alias. He was big, burly, had a reliable magic, and pleasant attitude regardless of the work load. That was all it took for most of the locals. As such him taking the lead met no resistance.

With a small shift of his jaw and a working of his tongue "James" spoke in a basso drawl. "Howdy there, ma'am! It is a mighty fine day indeed! Hope y'all city folk are as ready for a winter storm as yer like ta get out here! Though I reckon yer outfits say ya are, I s'pose. Name's James Riley. I'll be leadin' these stubborn lot for ya on this mission." A low round of chuckles went around the Mount Hakobe mages side at his remark. "Fancy rifle ya got yerself there. I figure you must have all kindsa fancy guns givin yer leadin a Rune Knight squad and all. Reckon I could catch yer name, ma'am? They don't much care for tellin us country folk the details until the 'time is right' and such." A second round of chuckles, heartier than the first, spread through the mountain folk again.

WC: 470/832
TWC: 1,535

@Ryuusei