Wanted Man (Nikola Eisenstein and Jade Nettle)

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It had been a while since Nikola's latest adventure, and this had involved him going to a locale called the “Mountain Village” to attend to a client’s request to build a cottage without the use of magic and this adventure had also brought him into contact with a man named “Mephistopheles” who had been his partner for this adventure’s task. Since then, during the period of respite that followed, Nikola had once again gotten back to attending to his duties towards his family and the associated business group as well as the associated multinational business conglomerate. These included things like attending business meetings, meeting other high society families and getting acquainted with their heir(s) and heiresses, overseeing and signing off on the developmental processes for new product lines, and so on. Additionally, he had also gotten back to his usual ongoing and ever-burgeoning mad science research efforts during this time as well and in these endeavors and in the handling of his daily life routine, he was assisted as always by his trusted and exclusively personal, 6-unit strong, maid squad made up of monster girls of all sorts, this squad also being his personal bodyguards in any combat situations too.

So, in this manner, time marched on for him till present wherein he was relaxing in the company of said maid squad, with all of them currently lounging in recreation room section of his mansion in Crocus, the capital of Fiore which was his home base of operations. In terms of arrangement, one maid was present on each side of his person, while two more were currently lounging while carefully balancing atop the backrest of the large and comfy plush-cushion-equipped couch they were all sitting upon at present, again with one maid on each side of his person. Lastly, the remaining two members of his personal maid squad were sitting on the ground on each side of his person like the rest of their comrades of said squad. Currently, all of them were keeping him company while watching a recently released popularly acclaimed movie on his HD-resolution magitek audiovisual lacrima system and conversing with him occasionally about various topics in addition to the movie.

However, this peaceful setup of Nikola's and consequently his pleasure-filled mood was abruptly interrupted by the arrival of his mansion's head butler as noted by his head personal maid, Jeanne

"Master Eisenstein, it would seem that our merrymaking is to be put on hold for a while...for it would seem you have your next job in your magus work..."

To that, Nikola grimaced as he remarked, his voice clearly demonstrating his now disgruntled mindset

"Indeed...how truly irksome this is..."

After that, he watched his head butler enter the recreation room and then head over to him swiftly. Said butler came to find him since there was apparently a job request flyer which came for Nikola by post and thus required his attention, a fact that was much to his chagrin and the dismay of his maids as well. That said, it was not something he could ignore since he could always use more money than he already had, and thus he had no choice but to leave the pleasurable company being offered to him by his maids to attend to this. So, he took the flyer offered to him by his butler who, along with his maid squad, was also one of his bodyguards in combat situations and after reading over it, penned his reply regarding his acceptance of this job on a separate piece of parchment and instructed his butler to mail it back to the client

"Here, Alfred, please send this off to the client in question to alert them that I shall be arriving in short order."

After that, Nikola gently disengaged himself from his maids and then left for his bedchambers, wherein upon arrival, he quickly set about getting ready in his usual work attire, aka that of a mad scientist magus, and then headed off for the destination mentioned in the job request, which was Hargeon, the port town of Fiore. It did not take him too long to arrive there thanks to the upgrades he had made to his personal transport, a fully custom-order, vintage limo and once he did, he parked it somewhere safe and out of sight from the regular public. After that, he made the rounds in the town quickly, gathering the relevant data about the culprit for the murders and then headed to meet up with the town guard so that he could begin this job. However, it seemed that there was another quest taker there as well and this one seemed to be miffed with the young guard for some reason. So, Nikola chose to make his entrance at this point while having his usual confident smirk playing on his thin lips and remarking to the town guard as he came to stand alongside the woman

“You know, the ancients used to have a saying ‘hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned.’ So, it would not be wise to upset any of them for any reason, lest you unleash what can only be called a veritable force of nature in human form…that aside, my name is Nikola Eisenstein, and I have come here in response to your summons regarding the takedown of this murderer.”

With that said, Nikola fell silent and awaited whatever would happen next in this current situation.

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Nikola listened carefully to what the guard said in response to both him and the woman next to him who was presumably also there to take on the same job. He was about to inquire further, but then the guard scuttled away as fast as his legs could carry him which made Nikola sigh briefly. However, since the woman turned her attention to him next, he instantly refocused his attention on her and listened to what she had to say after which he responded by taking her extended right hand and giving her a handshake according to and in the usual customary way

“Indeed I am, Ms. Jade…or would you prefer I call you Ms. Nettle instead? My name is Nikola Eisenstein, and you call me Mr. Eisenstein or simply as Nikola depending on your preference. ‘Tis a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well. Here is to us completing this job together successfully.”

Nikola remarked to Jade in his naturally rich, baritone and melodious voice while letting his hand drop back to his side after the handshake and with his usual well-practiced and natural-seeming cordial businessman’s smile on his face. Then, he paused briefly to collect his thoughts and to task his brain to collate and compile all the data he had collected from the townsfolk earlier regarding the murders and the culprit after which he answered her

“You have a spell to put him to sleep and potentially an immobilizing spell as well, eh? That just might work…and you mentioned you are not good in CQC too…in that case, I believe I can step in there to act as our vanguard since I have been trained in various CQC styles. So, you can stay at range and act as our rearguard if that pleases you to do so…as for my other skills, I have some healing magic so I can tend to our wounds if we get any and I can also summon a magic handgun to blast the target with if ever we need to fall back and fight from range.”

Nikola paused there briefly to ensure that Jade was following his narrative and then resumed said narrative

“Now then, about the target for this job of ours…from what data I could glean off the townsfolk I interviewed before arriving here to report to the guard, he is a miner by trade whose father was a butcher by trade…hance the butcher’s tools as murder weapons, I suppose…the few victims I spoke to who were somehow fortunate enough to escape alive albeit with severe injuries over their bodies all reported an interesting fact…that this miner did not ever use magic in his hunt…so either he is a mage who is simply concealing his magic capacity to use as a trump card of sorts or else he really does not possess any magical affinity whatsoever…so while I believe we have little cause to worry about any sort of magical retribution, interference, or trickery from him, it would be wise to still keep our guards up throughout this whole affair.”

Then, Nikola fell silent and waited to see what Jade would say and/or do in response to his suggestion and about the info he revealed to her.

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Nikola nodded in response to Jade as he heard her comments about their mutual target and then remarked in response

“Indeed…or it could be a sequence of one leading to the next…his successful evasion of the town guard and whoever else has come to hunt him down till now causing him to slowly succumb to hubris…which in turn has brought to his doorstep his nemesis and crisis in the form of too many victims to cover up properly…which finally has come to this story’s climax with us taking him out…”

After that, Nikola went on to ponder her suggestion about using a ruse to draw out their target briefly and then remarked in response as he walked along with Jade to enter the murderous miner’s hunting grounds

“A ruse, eh? Yes, that could work quite effectively…since if we go in with both our magic signatures at full burst…that may tip him off to the fact that we are mages and thus put him on his guard, making him that much more difficult to take down…however, if we were to suppress our magic signatures to the point that we both appear to be nothing more than a couple of overly curious laypeople just looking around his hunting grounds with seemingly no knowledge of his existence…we can certainly catch him off-guard.”

Nikola paused there to ponder the issue a bit more and to check whether Jade was following his train of thought and then resumed his narrative

“As to your other query, it would be wise to work off the presumption that he will show himself regardless of our methodology…since the multispectral hardlight 3D scan I just did of the area shows a near-dizzying series of interconnected mine shafts, false entry and exit points, and so on in this specimen’s territory that we are going to enter now…and I do believe I have possibly found our target’s potential location as well...”

Saying thus, Nikola extended his palm outward and out of it a 3-D hardlight construct appeared, hovering in the air before them with points of strategic interest highlighted and a massive heat signature being displayed in the very depths of the construct. Then, he fell silent and waited to Jade to peruse the details in the construct he just made and stood on alert for any new developments in the situation.

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Nikola listened to Jade’s suggestion that it would be wiser to lure the miner to the surface rather than chase him down into the bowels of his territory and then remarked, nodding

“Indeed, I too was just about to suggest such a course of action…and I do have a magitek device that could work to lure him out as you suggested, but once he does come out, it is imperative that you hit him with that soporific spell of yours so that we can gain the initiative against him.”

With that, Nikola focused his attention on constructing the hologram projector device that Jade wanted of him. It did not take him too long as he merely had to compile the data comprising the schematics for the device in question and then 3D-print it from his hand using his power of datakinesis. Once that was done, he realized it would be more realistic to add a mobility feature to it in the form of 8 multi-jointed legs as well to make the illusion of the guard running through the tunnels more convincing and so, he quickly adjusted it for the finishing touch. After that, he set it on the ground and activated it after which he watched as it skittered off into the mine. It took a while afterwards, but eventually the thunderous sounds of someone crashing their way up from the depths of the mine could be heard clearly. So, Nikola looked to Jade and remarked

“It would be best if you had that spell of yours at the ready now, for I do believe that our hapless friend the murderous miner will be accosting us shortly.”

With that, Nikola fell silent and waited for Jade to finish her preparations as well.

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In due course, Nikola saw Jade finish her preparations and then began to wait quietly and patiently besides her in the position atop a nearby roof which they had taken up as per their plan.

This should be entertaining at the very least…I wonder how this lab rat will react to the stimulus which I have so generously provided him in this situation…

Nikola mused silently as he watched the mine entrance carefully while he waited and before long, the thudding footsteps of some large target could be heard and shortly after that, Nikola saw the owner of those footsteps, aka miner himself, come rushing out whilst chasing the crab-like mobile holographic projector which he had thrown together with his 3D-printing capability earlier and which he had sent into the mine to fool said miner with an illusion of a panicked town guard. Nikola did not think that this new lab rat of his would fall for such a simplistic deception and chuckled inwardly while musing silently further

Oh my, now this is a surprise…but it certainly does facilitate the takedown greatly…so phase 1 is complete…and now for phase 2…

Nikola thought silently with his ever-present smug smirk on his face as he watched Jade conjure her soporific magic arrow and then onwards as she launched it at the miner below them and then hit her mark successfully before preparing another such arrow for a follow-up strike. Then, it was his turn at bat and so, while the miner fumbled and shuffled about clumsily in a magically induced stupor, Nikola quickly came up with a battle subroutine in his mind

Now then, this would be a very nice opportunity to test one of the new combat suits I designed for my exclusive use a while back…hmm, yes…Schneider is the correct choice in this situation…and as for the procedure itself…Heavenly Stride first followed up by Swallow Cutter…

Musing thus, he arose to a kneeling position and then gathered his mana within his cyborg body (not that this nature of his body was outwardly visible due to the artificial skin that was covering it) and then flooded it throughout its entirety in preparation for his assault. Then, he activated his 3D-printing ability via his Requip magic to conjure the combat suit he had chosen for this occasion swiftly as well as smoothly as a shell over his body from head to toe.



Then, once the conjuration process was complete and the suit came fully online, Nikola did not waste a millisecond more in beginning his attack on the miner. As per his plan, he stretched his right arm to the side and after generating the suit’s energy saber from his right forearm’s gauntlet, he then went into the required battle stance and activated the two abilities of the suit in the order he had already determined beforehand. To that end, he first activated his “Datakinetic Art – Photonic Step: Heavenly Stride” which allowed him to flash forth in a blur of blinding speed from the rooftop where he and Jade were located and then swoop down onto the miner in the blink of an eye.

Then, when he was within range, he activated his “Datakinetic Art – Swallow Cutter: Six Flashes” ability to quickly attack the miner with a high-velocity slash that he made with his combat suit’s energy saber in a top-down manner. Naturally, due to the miner’s currently sleep-addled state, Nikola was able to land his attack on him successfully as well causing said target to cry out in anguish and collapse after. Once that was done, Nikola leapt back some feet away from the miner and went into a defensive stance.

Now then, how will you respond to this, I wonder, my little unsuspecting lab rat?

Nikola mused silently as he watched the heavily injured miner who was currently laying on the ground and raised his sword up and brought it down, pointing it at the miner as silent signal to Jade who was waiting atop the roof nearby to let loose her second arrow at the miner in a follow-up strike.

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Nikola watched in silent amusement with his usual inscrutable countenance firmly in place as the now even more enraged miner was shot by another arrow fired by his job partner Jade moments after his silent signal to her from earlier. Naturally, due to this arrow having the same effect as its predecessor, Nikola had the good fortune of having this battle turn even more in his favor than it already was prior to this, namely due to the murderous miner becoming even more sleep-addled than he already was before this point.

Now then, it is about time that I bring this hunt to its inevitable climax…

With that thought in mind, Nikola went into his attack stance and then charged at the miner once more and when he was within range, he attacked said miner with his “Datakinetic Art – Swallow Cutter: Six Flashes” once more. Due to this follow-up assault and with one last dying, anguished howl of agony, the miner was finally forced to face his rather untimely demise upon the edge of Nikola’s razor-sharp energy sword, specifically being decapitated swiftly in one clean blow from said blade weapon. With that done and with the miner’s head as proof of job completion securely in his hands and said enemy’s now definitely dead body lying immobile at his feet, Nikola scanned the area for any more enemies or other such potentially hazardous incoming situational elements but did not find any despite the highly comprehensive nature of his scan. So, he turned around to Jade and lifted the miner’s head up to signal her to come down to meet him while calling out

“We have officially finished this job. So, let us now be on our way back to the guard’s office so we can present the evidence of this completion and collect our well-deserved reward!”

Naturally, due to the distance between them, Nikola had to amplify his voice by some degree, and after he had finished saying his piece, he fell silent and waited for Jade to come down from the rooftop so that they both could head over to the guardhouse to finally bring this job to a close.

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(NIKOLA'S EXIT)

REWARDS REQUESTED: 50 XP and 5000 J

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