A Lowly Wretch

The Pale Hand

There was little else to say about it. She had come to recieve his consent on the matter. While it was true such a mission was going to be harrowing for any new individual given the scarce intel on the target there was no way he was going to back away from this operation. He was never going to be prepared to do combat with hell's forces if he never received first hand experience in such a task.

Simply touching the pieces of paper to review the entirety of the forms and the details within he applied his signature where required without needing so much as a single motion, the letters filling into the blank spaces where necessary.

"You have my consent." He stated simply. As it seemed the matter had come to a close, he now knew what was required of him. With that he stood up from his seat and calmly proceeded into the kitchen. Taking the empty kettle he proceeded to fill it up at the tap with hot water before setting on the stove. It was only after a couple moments left to his thoughts that he remembered he left his guest in the living room unattended.

"Ah! Sorry about disappearing like that. I-ah, you're welcome to stay as long as you care to. I was just preparing some tea in the meanwhile." He was leaning in from the archway leading into the kitchen, hands fidgeting nervously behind his back due to his embarrassment from this mistake in etiquette.

Razelia: The Kingdom Of Magic (FINISHED)

I've not much plans for anymore characters of my own aside from Thessir.

Speaking of Thessir, this round it's time for some good 'ole fashioned throat stabbin'.

Razelia: The Kingdom Of Magic (FINISHED)

Thessir

"Ow."

That was pretty much the most reaction she got out him from that.

The bop to the nose did effect him As his head rolled back, slapping against the back of his coat before rocking back up like a weeble-wobble. Now the halberd was back in her hand and she was yelling some gibberish again. He couldn't even hear it but it didn't shake him like the first time so it had to be something else. He hadn't delivered any new injuries so she wasn't recovering herself either it seemed.

Standing up as she faffed about he got back on his two feet in time to see her brace her polearm and... charge at him point first.

Wait, really? He quirked an eyebrow with the realization this was her next plan of attack. Either she's dumber than I thought or there's some magic trick up hir sleeve.
Either which way it's foolish to believe I'd simply lit her hit me.

As she approached he struck a stance not unlike a fencer. His main foot forward he led with his dominant hand, the left, which clutched a dagger aimed point first towards his target. As she neared him he feinted a stab along the right channel of attack and watched her body language closely to see if she fell for it or not. Right at the moment her weapon was to meet with his inky semi-flesh a couple actions occurred simultaneously.

_
The first of two concurrent events was that firstly he opened up his body at the point the halberd was about to pierce. The hole expanded instantly, leaving his body in a large O shape with the head of the halberd smack dab in the middle of it. Her weapon passed through without touching a single millimeter of his strange mass, perforating naught but the backside of his jet black coat.

The second action taken was a deadly stab of his own. Coming directly in from the left channel of attack he thrust his dagger with a forward lunge, countering her own aggression with his own as he drove straight for her throat. This strike was predicated on the idea that she'd be so consumed with finishing him with her blow so close to fruition that she'd forsake any measure of defense against his counter attack. He didn't have to worry about suffering mortal injury since her blade wasn't even going to touch him so he had all the freedom to claim this blow with impunity. Even the advantage of reach that her weapon afforded her meant little since he extended his arm, borrowing mass from his free arm, to close the extra distance between his dagger and her neck.

Since she loved to cry all the time he planned to take her very voice away, deprive her of the means to her magic. As the dagger neared her sweat moistened skin his plan neared it's fruition.

The Pale Hand

When Eine presented the folder he patiently waited until she was finished relaying details before placing his hand upon the folder. His power to read the contents of paper with little more than a touch allowed him to observe the entirety of the envelopes contents without opening the envelope itself. As the documents were fairly light reading material it caused him very little discomfort to absorb all that info at once. He had to be more careful with content rich writings, limiting himself to only absorbing parts at a time with breaks in between each scanning.

"Depending on the nature of these cultists combat might not be avoidable. We may need to try and circumvent the main body of their congregation. May I ask which exorcist is supervising my mission?" Rick projected his read on the nature of the mission as well as putting forward a couple questions as well.
"Also, if the purpose of the accompanying exorcist is to review my performance does that mean I'll be dictating the means of approaching this situation?"

It was quite a shame the Russians seemed so lax with letting other branches of the WDL come and resolve their occurrences for them. It was nice that he'd have staff implemented nearby to keep in contact and provide support when capable though. Overall there was still a strong degree of unknown factors to what was going to be his very first official mission as an exorcist of the WDL. He had quite a few questions but he decided to reserve a majority of them for his supervisor since whoever it was would be accompanying him and thus able to act upon the available knowledge given. That was not to say that Eine didn't have valuable answers in store for him, only that a fair many of his questions largely regard the role the supervisor will be playing in this mission of his.

Razelia: The Kingdom Of Magic (FINISHED)

Thessir

Worked like a charm

The scream let him know that he had struck true although she let loose yet another war cry. It had a much less disruptive effect this time around, something he could work around. He noted that while before the cry she required the halberd for support just to stand but after it she was able to turn around and reach for him with less than ideal hindrance.

Nothing too disruptive. What drew his interest more was that she let go of her halberd to try and reach down to grab him. He was quick to come to a decision as to what he wanted to do. Sparing little time his upper body quickly bent away from her hands and around her foremost leg, winding past her leg like some sort of large serpent. His body and arms began to stretch, growing longer and thinner as he reached for the halberd. People in the crowd could see his sleeves starting to reach farther and farther away from his hands while his ink-black torso slowly became visible past the edges of his coat tail.

As he went he brought his legs around her front leg, kicking one of his feet out to try and buckle her back leg out from under her with a well placed swing of his boot. Once out from between her legs he swung his legs back behind him like they were part of a large tail at the end of his body. Using the turning motion he scooped up the halberd she had released from her grip with his long ropey arms and swung the pole-arm in a wide arc roughly knee height off the floor.

_
He was swinging to try and remove her legs with a larger, heftier blade than those sported by his daggers. While he might not of possessed her sheer physical might he certainly possessed considerable speed and reach given this improvement he's made on his natural form. Despite lacking a skeleton in the parts of his body effected by the spell he was no less capable of exerting his physical strength through these portions of himself, even if he lacked the firmness and stability such bones could bring to the table. He was no slouch either. Climbing built him to be fairly muscular despite his relatively diminutive size. As it stood the blade of her halberd was racing towards her knees with both considerable speed and a decent amount of strength backing it.

All the while two small tendrils had slithered their way up past his collar. They inserted their noodly little ends into each of his ears, breaking the ends off and retreating back into the safety of his coat. The little ends of these tendrils wriggled into his ears until they were firmly set. He now found that he could hear very little with the darkness plugging his ears which was the intent. Given the volume of the cry she used to stun him he hoped to circumvent this by blocking out the sound of her voice or at least dampening it to a reasonable level. It was careless enough to be caught out with such a trick the first time, he was definitely not keen on getting caught by that same trick at a more crucial moment.

The Pale Hand

For a while he scarcely acted, more than happy to be the audience rather than the speaker. He allowed Eine to dab away at him freely since it was to be expected. She was required to monitor his health yes but it definitely did appear that she cared for him in a genuine sense. As one of the few people he wasn't forced to speak hypocritical lies to it was definitely of great comfort that they were able to get along.

As she entered the room he gently shut the door behind her. The room was by and large sparse. The center of the room was open save for a rather basic table and two chairs. In the corners of the room were large stacks of paper gathered in groups to keep them tidy. They filled up the corners of the room but left plenty of space to walk otherwise. His desk on the other hand was basically a fortress, a large wall of paper stacked high enough that anyone sitting behind it could go completely unseen. The top of the desk itself held the work he was previously engaged in, scrolls neatly piled to one side and arcane inks & pens piled to the other. While ink with special ingredients weren't specifically required for scroll imbuement they allowed him to strengthen aspects of the spell bound in it.

"Have you been drinking enough water? If you push yourself too hard, you'll pass out or run out of Mana. Take hourly breaks between attempts, as I've told you before."

"Oh, of course. I have made sure to schedule regular intervals between sessions of scroll authorship." He spoke no falsehood regarding that. Then again the things he included as break time included study, meal times and meditation practice. The last thing in the world he'd want is to cut his career in magic short by misusing his arcane abilities. He took the reclamation of mana as one of his many priorities, definitely not one to be neglected either.

"You don't need to force yourself, Rick. I know you better than most, so you're free to be as you are while in my company. With that said, I'm sure you've already realised that my trip here is rather important business."

He quickly nodded in affirmation. Trying to conduct himself by her words of wisdom he tried to shake off the awkwardness that plagued him only moments ago. It wasn't easy but he kept it in the back of his mind. Turning his focus to the topic of her purpose here helped.

"Oh, ah, guten tag, Rick. Forgive my lack of manners. Please, take a seat. Our chat will be long, I believe. I have been asked to brief you about something rather important."

It was always a bit strange for him. This little bit of familiarity her german accent held for him stood before the backdrop of being trained in the heart of Italy. It was a constant note of familiarity in a place quite far from his own back in the days of youth long past. It was also a constant reminder of what happened that brought him here. It was no fault of her own but there was no day that didn't feel the same as that very day after that tragedy took place. There was little that could ever shake that very memory from his mind.

_
Silently he took his seat at the table in the center of the room and awaited further debriefing from Eine.

"As you've turned 18, the Principal feels that you are capable of being sent on your first ever official Exorcism mission."

With solemn expression as he looked down he considered her words, a flood of thoughts filing into the forefront of his mind.

"An official Exorcism mission..." He had heard much about these, having trained all these years for the very purpose of conducting these missions. In some ways it was rather exciting, the possibility of putting all his learned skills and spells to the ultimate test stood as a potential validation of everything he had prepared for. On the other hand it was also rather frightening. Single target take-downs and assisted missions were fairly straightforward, simple. There was some peace of mind to be had in such simplicity even if there was very real danger involved. Conducting his own mission however meant having to consider a truly dizzying number of factors, managing every aspect with the very real risk of death should any particular facet go unaccounted for.

"Apologies if I'm being somewhat forward but is this the briefing for the mission or is that scheduled for later?" He asked after letting the silence stand until it was clear he wasn't cutting her off. His voice was as soft as ever, requiring a conscious effort to remain above a whisper. He had returned his focus to Eine herself as he awaited more information.

Razelia: The Kingdom Of Magic (FINISHED)

Got my post up. In this one we get just a small window into Thessir's style of combat: Up much too close and noodle-y.

Razelia: The Kingdom Of Magic (FINISHED)

Thessir

Ordinarily being struck with the broadside of a halberd would be rough for most people to receive. Thessir wasn't most people.

As the weapon hit him the homogeneous jelly that was now his body was thoroughly wobbled but that was about it. He flew and impacted the barrier that contained their antics, his soft back padding the impact. The worst he had suffered in that attack was a bit of a bump on his still solid head from the impact against the barrier.

He had correctly expected there to be something keeping their attacks from spilling into the audience. There was little need to ponder what was proven true. What he did ponder was the state that attack had left his alchemical concoctions in. He swore he heard something crunch when he hit the barrier but nothing had burned a hole through his coat yet so he figured it must of not been too important. He suddenly wondered if there was something else calling for his attention?

Oh yes, the woman bearing down on him with a halberd.

Rather than pull out any of his more elaborate tricks he decided against being showy this battle and decided to stick to that notion. Acting quick he dove for her feet in an attempt to clear the blade at the end of her handle. Thanks to his slick coat as he landed he slid right between her feet. Taking this as an opportunity to counterattack he reared his amorphous torso up, pulling two daggers from his coat pockets at the same time. Twisting his body right around with ease he used the motion to slash at the back of her knees with both daggers, aiming to slice the tendons that supported her legs there.

And all the while his hat managed to stay atop his head, a most impressive feat given the circumstances.

The Pale Hand

There he sat, a young man hunched over his papers. With his pen tight in hand he painstakingly drew the curve along the outer circle of the design. Each motion had to be precise to an exacting degree. His mind had to remained focused not only on the specifications of the symbol but on the spell itself in order for this to work.

There was a knock at the door, three to be precise. It came as a distraction at the most delicate phase of the scroll's development. He tried with much effort to block out the disturbance but the concern as to who it might be slowly overcame him, causing his mind to falter. As it burrowed into his mind he relented for it was too late. The process had failed and this scroll was now devoid of any magic. With a sigh of defeat he slumped down on the table, sweat dripping from his brow. With a wave of his hand the paper upon which he was inscribing runes was now perfectly blank, erasing his work entirely.

_
Rising from his desk young Rick turned to the door. His ruffled white hair was a mess and there were deep bags under his pale blue eyes. Scroll imbuement was an exhausting process, especially in bulk. It wouldn't normally be quite so time consuming but he never felt adequately prepared. Spellcasting took time, time which in combat was precious because each second was a moment he needed to act. With scrolls he could eschew all that time wasted when he needs it by spending it imbuing the spells into sheets of paper ahead of time.

Alas, between both study and combat practice the imbuement of scrolls wound up eating most of his free time and often bled into his nighttime as well. Needless to say he was quite tired and interruptions like this were quite unwelcome. Wordlessly he trudged on over to the unadorned apartment and peered through the peephole in the door. It appeared his visitor was none other than his personal doctor, both for medical and psychological matters, Dr. Eine Minerva. While he did enjoy her company as she was quite knowledgeable and made for enlightening discussion he suspected her visit was on matters of business, namely the business of exorcism. He couldn't of known what it was she had come to discuss considering all he had known were but a few contained skirmishes with isolated demon encounters but he suspected her visit carried a fair degree of importance.

_
He took a moment to straighten up his posture so he wasn't hunched over like he was when he was inking down arcane symbols and then proceeded to unlock the door.

"Ah, Hello Dr. Minerva. Good to see you again. Um-" Standing within the doorway in his standard WDL student uniform he looked down for but a moment, a bit unsure of how to proceed in the greeting.

"Oh, do come in... O-or don't, whichever your preference." He stepped aside just in case she had the intent of coming in. Now this was getting a bit awkward. He needed to cinch this up quick or it may come across as off-putting which was not his intent.

"My apologies for the delay by the way, I hadn't been informed that I was receiving guests so I was a tad engaged. Nothing that couldn't be set aside mind you just, um..." Clearly there was only so long he could maintain the pretense to polite chatter and he well crossed that about three to four sentences in. At this point where he to be slain it would be a mercy killing, sparing him this awkwardness.

The Pale Hand

The only certainty is that nothing is ever truly certain.