Stealing from the thieves

Raven was sitting on the train to Forgotten deserts. A few days back, she was back at her guild doing nothing interesting when she noticed a specific mission on the request board which promised her some action as well as entertainment. She remembered instantly snatching the request out from the hand of a fellow member that was looking at it and then setting out immediately. According to the mission, some people have stolen a gigantic shipment of Lacrima and are hiding somewhere in Forgotten Forests. Apparently, whoever stole the whole shipment also seems to be pretty powerful mages. Now, she was supposed to meet up with two other mages and help them with this mission.

Raven walked out of the train and in the direction that the map showed. Wasn’t she supposed to bump into someone around here? She wondered, scratching the back of her head in irritation. There weren’t many people around for her to ask for directions either. “Now where on earth are those mages?” she asked out loud, turning her head here and there to see if she could find someone. She crossed her arms and stood there for a moment, remembering that she would be meeting up with a Lamia Scale member and a guildless mage. Hmm…

Zack had been on the same train as Raven, but his definition of riding on a train was quite different from most people. He was literally riding atop the train in a fashion known as train surfing. As the train came to a halt he jumped off the train grabbed hold of a post and spun about it, flipping himself into the air and landed atop the pole in a handstand. He grinned to himself and leapt off the pole landing next to Raven on her left. He didn't know that Raven was the mage he was supposed to meet it was just a lucky coincidence. He stretched out his arms and yawned.

"Well that was a fun trip. Now where are those mages i'm meant to be meeting?" he said out loud. Loud enough that Raven would hear if she was paying even the slightest bit of attention to the guy who had just thudded down next to her. Zack was wearing his typical black leather jacket with the silver and white embroiders with black jeans. Beneath the jacket he was wearing a simple t-shirt that was white in colour. Over his right eye was his trademark black eyepatch and around his brow, holding his messy red hair up, was his green headband. However, it was getting a bit hot so he unzipped the jacket and then slung it over his left shoulder. This revealed the black Lamia Scale tattoo on his right upper arm. Of course, technically Lamia Scale didn't exist anymore, but he hadn't yet got around to removing the tattoo and he had no real reason to as he didn't belong to a new guild yet.

A small green orb floated down next to him and sat on his right shoulder further illuminating the tattoo. This green orb was actually a demon fairy, his companion, but it was hard to tell this due to the bright green light that shone out in her smaller form. The fairy didn't say anything at the moment. She had nothing to say though if Zack had paid attention he would of noticed the grin on her face as she looked at Raven, one of the only other magical individuals nearby. Of course, Zack would of known she was a mage if he'd focused even slightly, but he didn't try.

Xander was standing up leaning on the wall, one foot backed to the wall and the other on the ground for support, when the train had pulled up in front of him. As such people started unloading from the train. One by one the people got off, two in particularly had to be the one he was waiting on. All of a sudden one person leaped out from atop the train, and made a grand entrance. Xander smirked at the sight. A little too showy for his taste but it was good enough for him to realize this had to be one of the mages he was waiting on. As he pushed off the wall softly to walk towards the person, he saw a green orb land on his shoulder and his tattoo from his guild illuminate. Lamia Scale he thought to himself, now he was sure this was one of the people he was waiting on. He strolled towards the guy and kept an eye out for another person he was supposed to meet but didn't exactly find them.

He peered out looking for the mysterious person but with the other people who left the train he wasn't sure if they were even among the crowd. Still he knew one so he walked up to the person slowly with his hands in his pockets. When he finally arrived within two feet of the guy he raised his voice towards him. "Yo Lamia, the name is Xander, did you come with another person?" Xander was anxious to meet both of his team members and get this mission started.

Raven felt a silent breeze blow over the area making her silver hair flow along with it. Tucking some strands of hair back, Raven turned when she felt a fairly powerful presence beside her. She looked just in time to see a guy jump off from top of the train and land near her. A voice from the back of her mind told her that he was the person she was looking for...well one of them anyway.

A green light caused her to change her attention from the man to the green orb sitting on his shoulder. Her raven like crimson orbs narrowed at the light as if trying to find something within that entire glow. Closing her eyes for a second and reopening them with a big grin on her face, she was about to shout out her hello when she saw another man coming towards them. ‘hmm looks like I just found both of them’

Deciding not to shout out a hello, she put both of her hands behind her head, completely relaxing before walking towards them. “I’m right here,” she said answering Xander “and no I didn’t come with him but it seems like he was riding the same train as mine”. Taking her hands away from the back of her head and letting them rest beside her, she introduced herself,” Name’s Raven. Nice to meet you two.”

It seemed that the two people had been near him the entire time. One had noticed his tattoo and used that to identify him and the words from that one had allowed the other to realize it was him. Quite useful. Now there wouldn't be any pointless searching. They could just get on with the job without hanging about. "I'm Zack and this is Devon." he said indicating the green orb. The glow faded briefly to reveal a small female figure with green translucent bug-like wings who waved in greeting before the glow returned. "Nice to meet you two." He was teamed up with two low level mages again. That wasn't an issue for him. It just meant the mission was more of a challenge. He might have to protect them too, which would certainly add a bit of spice to this low level mission. Or so he felt.

"Shouldn't be too hard a mission, just a bunch of enemies to kick the butt of. Closer we get to them without being seen the easier it will be." That was about as far as he was going to go with planning. He didn't care about being spotted himself. If they saw him coming then they'd be more prepared and thus a bigger challenge. If it had just been him on this mission he probably would of run straight at them in plain sight just to see how they'd react. Now that would be interesting.

"So shall we get going?" Zack wasn't impatient, though he often came across as such. No, he was just a speedy guy who didn't like to stay still for long. It just wasn't in his nature. He just wanted to get this done as quickly as possible because speed was part of who he was.

Xander looked at the other two mages, and hoped they'd be strong enough to get the task done. He'd never seen them before and was a little worried that they couldn't make up for his own weakness. Still something about them seemed like this would be an energetic team from the get go. He could see Zack's readiness was far beyond his own, and that Zack was totally gung ho for this mission, he wondered if Zack and Raven could see how terribly un-strong he was. So, he'd have to be ready for everything and anything when traveling into the unknown with the unknown. He turned to Raven, and threw a shallow unemotional smirk at her. "He seems ready enough...are you?" Xander spoke as he was rubbing the top of his left arm, after which he crossed his hand from his left to his right arm raising it to the sky and let out a strong yawn. "I'm just about ready myself" he said. He wiped his eye as if he had just woke up, and acte as if it was a dull moment. Just what he needed a footstep into the world of missions. Money and power was only a grasp away.

Rave looked from Zack to Xander and back to Zack again. She could sense their power levels. While she and Xander had a pretty low power level, Zack had a very high one. It seems that they were with a mage that knew what he was doing and thus, Raven just smiled, feeling that this mission won’t be too hard. “Hi there!” She greeted the green fairy on Zack’s shoulder as she found it quite interesting. She was wondering when Kuroe would get there as well. Last time she checked, he said he would be with her when she got here.

When Xander asked her if she is ready, she just grinned at him, a sign saying that she is ready for whatever awaits them. “ I’m ready, alright. I’m pretty good at tracking. So, if you want, I can find where their hideout is.” She said, watching as a crow flew down and sat on her shoulder. “I would like this to get this done soon too, if you ask me. I don’t like the weather,” she said before letting her raven fly ahead of them.  She followed after the raven knowing that it wouldn’t take it long to see where the headquarters is. “Let’s go. Looks like we found the HQ already.”

The headquarters of course wasn't too far away and if he'd been soloing this mission he likely would of been there and fighting by now. However, he didn't want to get too ahead of his allies lest they get lost or get killed whilst he wasn't present. He was generally a loner with the exception of Devon, but on the rare occasions he was teamed up with someone he refused to let them die whilst he was present. It just wasn't in his nature. The greatest joy was life itself. For someone to have that taken away was unforgivable. That was why he normally only used his swords true strength on truly dangerous opponents or giant beasts. He didn't like to kill unless he had to.

The headquarters were in the distance. He had noticed them slightly before Raven had spoken of them for the simple reason that his eyesight was near superhuman. There were plenty of cartel members patrolling it. They were obvious from the distance, but then again so were the three mages walking towards the headquarters. There was no way the group would pass for people interested in buying the stolen goods therefore there was only one way forward. "Devon stay hidden for this one I want to have some fun and see what these teammates of mine are capable of." he whispered to the fairy who nodded and dove into his jacket pocket. He then raised his voice. "We've been spotted already, the guards on the wall are pointing towards us. We won't pass for buyers so we have no choice but to attack. Be ready, they will likely attack us first from hiding." That was about as strategic as he was going to get. He didn't want to kill so he wouldn't use his swords and he felt his staff and halberd wouldn't be overly useful either. He mostly used the staff to propel himself about and in this particular situation that was impossible as it was sand they were standing on not solid ground.

As if to demonstrate this five men wielding bo-staffs. Each one of them felt about as powerful as a C rank mage though they all had a familiar tinge to their magic. They all possessed wind magic. "They know we're mages too, my power was probably a giveaway so they've sent in the big guns straight off." Zack commented with a grin assuming a fighting stance.  The wind magic would be easy for him to deal with, but their aura suggested other magics as well. He couldn't quite identify it yet. Wind in a desert would be interesting as it gave the potential for dust storms and other sand related wind disasters. He wondered what other magic they possessed and if they were holders or casters. Perhaps one of their magics was caster and the other holder. That would be possible considering the ornateness of their steel bo-staffs. Likely the wind magic came from that as the feathers were a symbol of the air. Or maybe they were just a symbol of the cartel. He couldn't be sure yet. Not that he cared. He wasn't going to disarm them to remove a magic. No he was going to beat them to a pulp.

Enemies remaining:

Cartel Wizard Description:

The member 'Torturess Naraku' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Xander saw the enemy wizards and panicked. Knowing he couldn't handle any of their attacks on his own, he had to trust in Zack and Raven to help him out of this jam. Xander was not a wizard of combat, more of tactical evasion. Quickly Xander, had to make a small doorway for him to get free from their attacks. He looked at his allies and wondered how he could use them to his advantage, As the three enemy mages were walking towards them, he realized that Zack is a stronger mage, and seemed very confident in his own power. That was his solution use Zack as a shield. However, Zack was very jumpy, and would most likely move if Xander hid behind him. Xander had to do something. This particular fight was not a fight for someone as weak as him. As the 3 mages neared towards them, xander let out his brain pulse spell. A spell that on these powerful mages, wouldn't work as well, but could give him some time to run behind Zack. Soon after he let out the pulse he ran behind Zack, and kept backing the opposite way slowly. If any mages attacked or ran towards them, he felt it was tactical to let Zack handle it.

Raven stretched, noticing that they have already gotten to a point of no return. She felt as much as Zack did that the enemy had already seen them. She turned to look straight up at the sky as if expecting for something to just pop out of the sky any moment. Something dark flying towards them made her wave her hands at it, signaling that the silver haired crow woman was standing right there.

Kuroe landed right in front of her, giving her a nod. Raven nodded back before turning towards her partners and continuing with their mission. “Why are you late again, Kuroe?” she asked him, glancing at him from the corner of her eyes. “Traffic” he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes, causing Raven to roll her eyes along with the comment.

She made no further comments on it though and kept up behind the two men. Raven nodded at Zack’s strategy, a small smile forming on her lips from the absurdity of it. She didn’t mind though. She was just as reckless as him at times although something told her that she had to be careful this time. She couldn’t just let her guard down because she had someone like Zack in the group and something told her that Xander was not going to fight which was okay for her too.

As the five men approached, Raven turned to Xander and then signaled towards Kuroe. Kuroe, who got the hint, flew towards Xander. “Get on” he said, crouching down a little bit so that Xander could get on top of him. “I’ll keep you up in air and away from them,” Kuroe continued, flapping his black wings to prove his point.  

Raven turned towards her opponents and caught up with Zack to stand beside him. She took a deep breath, clenching and unclenching her fist as adrenaline pumped through her veins.

Zack quickly held out his hand and blew on it focusing the wind till it first formed a sphere and then eventually a fuuma shruiken made of wind. This took three seconds, but the distraction provided "Shooting Star: Blade" he said and threw the shuriken at the lead mage. This was a B rank attack and quite a powerful one at that. If it was successful it would really take the wind out of them. The enemy was clever and managed to avoid the initial shuriken attack. However, he had angled it slightly downwards for a reason. As it hit the ground it caused an explosion with a 10ft radius. All five of them were caught in this explosion due to being grouped close together. Two of them were hit with the full brunt of the blow whilst the other three managed to throw up barriers of wind to protect themselves from some of the damage. However, even with the protection their barriers were not strong enough to protect them from all of the damage. It was enough to distract them for a brief moment at least.

Yet not long enough all five mages once recovered from the initial shock and the damage let fly with a powerful barrage of spells. It seemed that two had been injured quite badly as the balls of fire they launched missed him entirely. The other three made a big mistake in their attacks launching off balls of wind. They must not know who he was. As the magic came hurtling towards him he inhaled deeply and sucked in the three balls of wind. He licked his lips. "Thanks for the meal."

"Don't use wind magic on that one. He's a sky slayer." one of the cartel mage's said. He was one of the ones that had thrown a fireball. He'd been smart enough to realise that wind magic was ill advised against a wind mage unless you were confident you were stronger than him. Zack grinned broadly. Three C ranked wind spells were enough to replenish the magic he'd used in his attack. They likely wouldn't use wind again and those fire spells could be lethal if he used the wrong spell. Still, it did not matter. He had plenty of other spells that could destroy these.

dice:

enemies remaining:

magic:

The member 'Torturess Naraku' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

#1 'Damage Dice' :


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#2 'Block Dice' :


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#3 'Damage Dice' :


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#4 'Block Dice' :