67th of Ash, 4622
As the day & night continue cycles over & over, not evening halting to the plead of many. Time can be cruel as it waits for no one, not even those who need it most & in the Nightfallen magus’s case, there was very little sand left in the hourglass that ticks away against Hugo’s life.
The thief was no stranger to training; a few bruises & possibly cracked ribs were the least of his concerns, for it was paramount that he continued to train to the best of his ability. To the charcoal-haired man, all of this seemed like a game that he was unwill participate in, but with friends he had just made a while back in the season of Searing. However, the stakes were much higher, and Jared knew the cost of mistakes was higher than any other larcenist work could ever experience.
Sure it would be easy to abandon people if the situation calls for it, but Jared wasn’t that kind of guy at the core of it all. Despite being a loner for most of his life, his very soul calls for some sort of companionship, whether in the comfort of friends, distractions from his thievery or possibly even romance, despite not considering himself a romantic man by nature.
“Funny… How the lone moth is to be drawn in by a blaze… Can’t say that the flickering of wildfire is alluring though….”
The thief speaks to himself alone in an abandoned warehouse, using it as his sort of stage to train as best as he can. Of course, he could pick a few fights with various guards or even other thugs of the night, but that might do his job harder later down the line & so the thief took it upon himself to further explore what other possible skills he could develop either through the usage of his raw magic or just refining on his acrobatic prowess.
Taking a moment to cloak himself in umbralplasm to form his Obscura, Jared had now noted that his shadowy form felt lighter. When he took a moment to see himself on a reflective surface, his physique was rather wispy yet still had the general figure of your typical human.
“Huh, so this is what I look like to people on the outside… Kind of creepy, but I guess it is for the better; remaining anonymous is a thief’s way of protecting themselves, after all….”
Jared couldn’t help but chuckle for a moment as he takes a moment to feel the ether around him flutter closer to him as if it were awaiting a command by his will to make something out of nothing to the common eye.
A call from his soul echoes out as the thief reaches out to a nearby wall, placing his hand on it, but something feels very odd, as if the wall has some resistance to it, but the thief couldn’t explain it well as he decides to push forward. It was only then that the thief started to understand what his soul was calling out for; Using Trespasser, the thief takes a deep breath as he continues to add his weight onto the wall before feeling himself starting to fall through & feel somewhat constricted as his body melds into his Obscura and squeezes through the small cracks & faults that the wall had on its surface.
This sensation was rather weird & felt wrong in every way possible as it defies what is permeable for a human body to pass through and what cannot, but the mystique nature of how his mutation functions over his mark of Nightfall challenge what is possible for Jared’s case and possibly acting as a stepping stone for something more esoteric than what he has available with his mastery of darkness & shadow.
After a couple of seconds of feeling the earth constricting his form, The thief found himself outside the warehouse he was currently using to train his skills privately. The sensation alone was somewhat taxing on his psyche since it was a new experience for the thief in the first place. Dazed for a moment or two, the thief plants his back against the wall before sliding to the bottom, letting his rear meet the cold, solid ground as he tries to grasp his bearings.
Only after a few seconds did Jared take a moment to look around and notice that a pair of guys were walking up from one of the streets in a slightly sinister matter.
“Look what we have here; it seems like a guy who seems drunk on the streets.”
“Look at what the guy has, though; snobby armour but worth something at the very least & seems like the dude can’t fend for himself.”
“Lucky find for us then should last us a while~.”
The thief couldn’t help but get up, albeit weakly, as his body was still trying to recover from his first attempt at Trespassing, which meant that he was in no condition to fight head-to-head, especially in a two-on-one situation—taking a moment to conjure up some umbralplasm underneath his body, allowing it to pool and push itself onto the ground as if a sling was being drawn back for power.
As the two men drew closer towards Jared, The thief could only brace for himself as he was ready to put up a struggle. Upon reaching striking distance, the thief flicks his index & middle finger in an upward motion as the umbralplasm suddenly pushes Jared into the air with enough force that he was sent catapulting over towards the roof of a nearby building, still too weak to make any sort of adjustments during his brief flight in the air. Jared takes a moment to concentrate on his Obscura to cushion itself as if it were a large bag of cotton, which, upon landing, minimises the damage the thief would have sustained if he did not think of using his Obscura as a make-shift cushion for his landing.
Amid the confusion between the two men, the thief could only peer over the edge of the roof as his body was finally making some progress in providing some movement.
“Sorry guys; Might need to mug another hapless guy.”
With that, the thief takes a moment to duck back, breaking line of sight as he uses the time to recover & listen into the men’s rambling about what they just witnessed and how they need to keep a close eye on him if they come across paths again.
“It seems like they won’t take no for an against, but again, they are being bold to assume that they can find me, but I will need to escape first… So let's leave them a fleeting treat….”
Once again, briefly peeking over the edge; the thief noticed that the men were now attempting to hide using what available cover there was around the warehouse, such as wooden crates & barrels, but from his angle, it was easy to see what they were up to & from what listening into their brief conversation. It was time to lose his pursuers; Taking a moment to conjure a stake shape dart made of umbralplasm; The thief took this moment to launch it at the ground, and while it would be easier to throw multiple stakes of darkness at his targets.
The objective was to elude his chasers, and what better way to cause disorientation than to create your smokescreen? Moreover, this would give Jared a chance to nab something off of them, even if it is of little value.
With his mind made up, the citrine-eyed thief tosses a stake of umbralplasm into the cobblestone, which wedges itself & cracks the surrounding area with the weight that the stake has been imbued with. It was from that point that Jared took a moment to control the stake with his ether to create Gloom, thickening the surrounding area with some weight as the moonlight is enshrouded by a veil of night; quickly greying out the surroundings for in this very moment, darkness has made its presence know.
The two men panic as their vision quickly dulls to sheer shades of greys & blackness & the surrounding area feels heavier, as if additional pressure is being placed from heavier gases present. Jared takes the initiative as his body has finally recovered from its weird experience and leaps off from the roof he was using for cover & makes his pilfering attempt, darting from cover to cover as if a blur of blackness was zooming in & out of their view as if a hallucination was enrapturing their minds.
It wouldn’t be long until the amber-eyed thief closed the distance, with one of the muggers & quickly gaining the upper hand as he pulled out his blackjack & goes for a heavy swing to knock the man out before turning around & darting to the disoriented mark and lands another heavy strike & hearing a loud thud.
Taking a moment to sheath his blackjack back into his side pocket, Jared takes a moment to dust his hands, briefly smiling at his work.
“No bloodshed & something to remember by.”
With the night so young, Jared takes a moment to rummage through the unconscious bodies, taking anything of value before strolling off into the darkness as he needed to find another place to train his arcana & ways of fighting, possibly thievery as well.
