[Genteven Solo - Showdown between Rats and Dogs I]
Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 4:44 am
7th of Searing, 4623
Chases tend to be frequent in general; from what Jared recalled when living a life of crime and questionable choices, it would be apparent that scuffles between factions happened—a power struggle between many chess pieces and some holding more value than another. The Draedan was currently on the run, his pursuers a group of guards and a pair of hounds chasing right on his heels.
The question of how this all started was relatively simple; for the amber-eyed thief was merely scouting ahead in the upper districts of Genteven, which was known to hold the riches of one of the many training hubs of Daravin. Here, the thief was on the ground level, scouting for potential marks to make his heist and line his pockets with enough coin to make his living expenses reasonable. Nevertheless, the thief is skilled in erasing his tracks and minimising his presence to the degree that requires expert hunters to seek him out if they choose.
The apprentice Light-Born Magus was skirting around one of the buildings of interest. This shop generally housed many baubles and trinkets adorned with brass artworks that appealed to the thief. It didn't matter if the object caught a decent price once fenced to another scoundrel. But a lapse in his awareness caused him to get noticed as the Draedan only heard a distant bark from a distance, which caused his gaze to turn in the direction where the aggressive sound was coming.
The brief jolt of surprise was followed by the yelling of a guard approaching around bearing a torch. Everything was happening significantly past as the thief reactively fired a bolt of light at the guard, which exploded a cascading light that temporarily blinded the guard and, to a lesser extent, the hound. In that brief moment, the Draedan thief would quickly leave the scene as soon as possible. The yelling of the guard to halt while attempting to pursue Jared still dazed the radiant light that was blasted upon his form, and while the effect did sear one's flesh, the degree to which it was deadly was minor, in all honesty.
Despite this, the thief would grab his cloak and channel his divinity into making one side of his cover transparent. Creating a mobile camouflage that adapts to the surrounding environment while on the move and while it was not perfect, especially if it seemed relatively close, from a distance, it was enough to avert one's gaze or at least make a person question what they were seeing at that moment in time.
Quickly leaving the scene as best he could, it was evident that nearby alarms were raised as the shouting slowly became distant as the thief attempted to flee. As much as the thief wanted to scout more about his current location, it was paramount that he leaves the scene as best as possible. With quick steps as light as a feather or an elegant dance skipping across the stage in question, despite attempting to leave the scene as best he could, it was evident that the Draedan had some pursuers.
At first, the number of footsteps the thief could hear was only a couple, with a few barks here and there, but as the seconds passed, it was then that the thief realised that there were more people and hounds that were currently tailing him. How they manage to follow his tracks, the thief could only think of mages who were initiated to Brand, known to follow and hunt down other magus.
“Fuck, this is some deep shit you are in, Jared…. Need to get out of here fast; if you need to break a few legs to do so, then so be….”
As much as the Draedan opposed violence, the amber-eyed thief would do so without hesitation if push came to shove. Ultimately, it was his life or another, and his self-preservation was essential; Jared needed to keep his divine spark out of reach of others as he tried to cultivate its potential even further than any mortal could. After all, it was Saren who decided to awaken his spark. His duty was to foster and become something more, akin to becoming new, ushering in something that even he couldn’t understand himself.
As the thief turns around the corner, the realisation starts to settle in quickly as his luck runs dry; his amber-hued gaze soon drifts to a small group of guards running in his direction. The thief couldn’t help but look around briefly to find any sort of exit he could use to escape.
“There is the person, HALT!”
At that moment, some guards started to draw their swords, prompting the Draedan to take a defensive stance. A fight was about to start, and the only thing that Jared had to defend himself was his daggers, cloak, his divine abilities and various baubles to assist him in his matter.
As the guards started to make their approach towards the thief in a quickened step, the thief quickly started to hop backwards for a moment; despite being in a transparent cloak, parts of his body were still visible, and based on their confused looks, it would seem that this was their first encounter with someone or something capable of causing part their body to vanish temporarily.
“Careful men; bring this person alive. They seem to be a magus of great skill.”
“This is something new, and I haven’t seen any mages capable of making their bodies disappear; they aren’t Nightfallen, that is for sure.”
The thief couldn’t help but panic momentarily as the guards in question seemed to be more knowledgeable about magic. Still, the Draedan was in a nation where mages were more common. Around 15% of the population were mages to a certain degree.
Jared had to start hindering his opponents as quickly as possible. Focusing his gaze on his closest assailants, a brief surge of his divinity would soon enter his opponent's body, quickly inflicting a wave of nausea. This wave of nausea would soon be apparent by nearby guards as those afflicted start to stumble and cough rather violently; some would spew out the contents within their gut and paint the floor in their bile, while others would clench their stomachs as if they were trying to hold something in.
Spending very little time at the scene of the crime, the Light-touched Draedan would quickly fire off an intense Beacon out towards the group of guards, which upon impact, creates a disorientating blast of searing light that would temporarily blind his opponents, just enough for the thief to escape or gain some distance. Feeling his divinity starting to drain for a bit, there was little he could do but run as fast as his body could take him while still trying to evade his captors.
Quickly hurrying through the streets and taking to various shortcuts that were planned before arriving at an unknown section of Genteven, the thief couldn’t help but feel his muscles ache for a moment as his divinity was getting close to about a two-thirds of his reserves from what he could guess, he might have had more, but it was better to be on the conservative end and estimate that what the Draedan had left was little to none due to the constant feed of divinity being placed into his transparent cloak to minimise his chances of getting caught in a visual aspect.
It wasn’t wise for the Draedan to fight a small group, let alone a squad of guardsmen and women who could potentially overwhelm him, especially those potentially skilled in combat and tracking. Yet, despite all of this, a moment of thrilling adrenaline would course through the thief’s veins, a relatively new experience since the Alistian-born thief would usually attempt to avoid gaining attention as best as he could, but somehow, the limits of his abilities needed to be pushed and what better way to test them when there are variables that were outside of his control.
Jared knew he needed to fight better if he wanted to live. He needed to grow stronger not in basic skills and talent alone but experience; what is better than practising alone but experiencing the unadulterated experience of an encounter that could genuinely push one to the brink?
“Bit of close call but not out of the woods yet… Just a little bit further, and you are free; I will not deny that it was stressful but learning a lot more than planning and practising against a dummy or myself…. But I need to be careful and don’t want to draw too much attention to myself… Else, I will need to move to a new location for some time… Which would suck; I enjoy Genteven, and creating new roots takes time.”
Despite the night being young, the chase only began as the thief exited the upper district where merchants made their living, still needing to lose his hunters as best he could.