Finishing his duty [Mission]

Even though Lagi had banned slavery, Jian was still in a unique position where he knew people who was highly related to the slave markets, even if said person hadn't ever been a slave themselves. The most obvious ones would be Jahangir, Ayero or to a lesser extent himself. 

Sure, he hadn't been sold on the market like other people he knew had, but he was still forced to live as a slave just to get his parents some quick money. Then they'd thrown him away like a used tissue. You can imagine why this would ignite a fire in his blood. Not just a long-lasting hatred of the specific ones who'd done it to him but of the entire system as a whole. 

That being said, after he found out about his magical potential, he wasn't entirely sure what he was supposed to do. There were people who were angry about slavery because it took away their chance to embrace their fate, instead choosing their future for them. People were taken from their homes, from the people that loved them, and turned into money making machines, and when they broke they were simply replaced.

After breaking out of the system, so many of these "machines" were so damaged that they often didn't know what they were supposed to do. Whilst it wasn't true for Jian when he was first kicked out of his family, it was certainly true now that he knew that he should have flourished as a mage. They took him out of the mould and turned him into a walking piggy bank; He didn't know how he was supposed to react to that news, but the first thing that he wanted to do was tear the slave trade down into the ground. 

So, he had agreed to do one more mission for the constable who had asked him to help take out the slave trade the last time. Now, rather than going out and taking down a caravan or killing a part-time seller, he was going to be killing the equivalent of a celebrity in the slave-hunting world. This guy had made it rich years ago dealing in human lives, something that disgusted him to the point that the thought of sharing dinner with him was actually somewhat nauseating. 

The issue with fighting this guy wasn't just that he had more guards and was probably harder to win a fight against but more so in the fact that this guy was not a fighter. Start a ruckous and he would probably hide away in his mansion whilst sending armies of his slaves out to kill their would-be liberator. That would make this entire mission counter-productive, and there was no point in killing the slave-master if the slaves were all dead. 

So, instead of just bursting through the doors and demanding their freedom, he had to be sneakier - smarter, more intelligent, and much subtler. When he had considered how he was going to deal with this guy, he almost laughed when he came up with something that was going to work perfectly. Instead of going through the front doors, he had made sure that he was invited to the mansion. 

Working under a false alias, the name "Xie Lian", he had claimed to be making a large-scale purchase of slaves. With money liberated from illegal businesses by the local guard, he had enough to put down a down-payment on a shipment, making this look extremely legitimate. With how difficult it was to sell the slaves now that it was illegal, this was an offer that the man simply couldn't pass up.  

So, that was why he was dressed up in even smarter clothes than usual. Tonight, rather than his usual behavior of simply breaking in stealthily and taking him out in his sleep, he was going to be somewhat more mischievous. 

He was going to sit down with this guy for a dinner and to talk about the chances of a larger business deal. The man would be hesitant to bring out his big guns to avoid scaring off a business partner, so he had the best chance of anything that he'd done so far to bring this guy down. 

703/1500

As he sat in the carriage that was being driven towards his target's home, he had ample time to ponder exactly what he was going to do. It wasn't so much the fact that he was going to kill someone that bothered him; he'd be doing it for years, he'd long since quashed any fears or worries about that line of employment. Rather, it was more that he was going to be surrounded by slaves. 

There was no denying that slave ownership was a great system when it came to the people running it. Sure, it sucked for the people who were being abused and badly treated, but "nobody" cares about them, they care about you and your wonderful, dainty little societal meetings. Until recently, the slave market was a very good job for people to be in. You got a lot of money and you never had to worry about being able to keep getting money. 

Ships could sink, and buildings could burn down, but people very rarely sank. Furthermore, even if they did, you could just pick someone off the streets rather than having to build one yourself. If that wasn't enough, ships never procreated and made smaller ships. All you had to do was come up with some bullshit that assuaged your moral guilt and then you had nothing to worry about when it came to these things. 

At least, that moral thing was implying that you had any problem ruining other people's lives just to make money. Sadly, there were way too many people out there in the world willing to ruin another's life for money. Ironic that this sentiment was coming from an assassin, but at least Jian was specific when he killed people. Never an innocent, never someone who didn't deserve it, and never picking unnecessary fights. 

Nonetheless, he was going to have to try and make sure that nothing was going to go wrong today. That was why he was choosing to look and act the part of a callous, greedy fool. Foregoing his usual Kouenese dress for something a lot closer to the usual dress of this land, he attempted to fit in more with the people that this man would be used to dealing with. Though, to be honest, that wasn't the only reason why he had refused to wear his usual clothes. 

The fact that Jian was Kouenese was a large part of his identity. His culture, his personality and a lot of his morals were based off of those of Kou. He had true loyalty to his country, though admittedly not to the Emperor's regime or to the holier-than-thou army that seemed to enjoy abusing civilians. To disgrace a part of that by linking it with slave-trading scum like the man he was meeting tonight almost felt like he was degrading himself to rape. 

He wasn't entirely sure how to react to this disgusting piece of human filth. There was no doubt in Jian's mind that he was going to end the evening with this man's blood on his hands, but how should he react before that. Were he to sell the part of a callous monster a little too hard and he might draw negative attention, but were he to look soft-hearted towards the slaves then the man might try to charge even more for them. This wasn't an issue since he wasn't going to actually be buying any, but he didn't want to have to spend unnecessary time bargaining. That would make it very difficult to find an opening. 

Still, as he got out of the carriage that he had hired for this evening, the thoughts of personality tactics were dismissed as he marvelled at the place that the man lived in. The villa was huge, with giant olive fields surrounding it going on for miles. It was somewhat inevitable, he guessed, this land was great farming soil and if you were a slave-owner why be squeamish about using them yourself? It was just... unpleasant to see them in the wild. 

Wearing a white robe with a red sash, Jian managed to somehow gain a look of majesty whilst wearing these strange clothes. Sure, his features might have been distinctly Kounese in nature, he could claim that he was a descendent of an ancient Kou migrant family. That would probably make him more willing to pay than simply coming in as a man from Kou during such times of conflict. 

The years of acting allowed him to change his accent rapidly, adopting the persona of a Reim nobleman. He looked the part, sounded the part, he even smelled the part since he'd worn perfume tonight. Yet, unbeknownst to anyone here, his robe's belt was filled with knives and poisons. If he was caught with them, he could claim to be a weapons-dealer, that was a realistic enough lie, right? 

1500/1500 Mission
015/1500 Zuizhong

As he continued up the path towards the house, he bowed his head at the two guards at the front door. Bizarrely, despite being guards for the veteran's villa, they were almost dressed like city guards. 

A simple "golden" breastplate with leather trousers and helmets with nose guards. Unfortunately, considering they were armored and probably well trained, these people posed a threat. He was going to need to kill these people before he left otherwise they were going to get in the way.

 He didn't like the concept of just randomly killing two people that had done nothing to hurt him, but they worked with slavers so they didn't count as innocents. As such, he decided that, since they were the only ones who were able to see him right now, he would take them out before they could pose a serious threat later on. 

As he continued walking up to them, he considered how he was going to deal with them. He could send them away to deal with slaves, but there was no way he could orchestrate something like that so quickly. He'd left all of his tools for knocking people out back at the room because he'd had no room for them in his attire. They would have drawn too much attention. 

With no non-lethal options left to him, he decided to go with his usual method. His hand moved to the knife pocket on his belt, the one hidden on his back so that people who were looking at him face to face would have no way of seeing it. A pair of knives were selected, thumbed over to make sure that they were sharp enough, before being pulled out and hidden up his robe's sleeve. This was going to be a piece of cake. 

"Good evening, gentlemen." He began, a "pleasant" smile painted across his face as he spoke. His voice was much deeper than usual, and had a rich Reiman accent (or, more accurately, an Alexandrian accent. He'd been around enough travellers from that region to know how to fake it pretty well, and it was easier than doing one people would be used to seeing every single day).

"The name's Xie Lian. I was told that your employer is expecting me for dinner?" Employer was the right word to choose right now. They looked like servants, but he couldn't guarantee that. If they were merely mercs than referring to him as their "lord" would surely earn hostility and that would put them on guard and they would then be even harder to kill. 

The guards, to their favour, nodded in unison, matching Jian's smile with their own. They actually seemed to be relatively good people (or, you know, as good as people can be when they're willing to work in this filthy industry). Their body language was polite, and they just seemed to be doing a job that they were instructed to do. 

"Yes, sir. Our master's been talking about your dinner all day. He seems to truly be looking forward to your meeting. He's waiting in the upside dining room. Third door on the left when you go up the stairs."

That accent.. he wasn't sure he remembered any other like it. It had the usual touch of Reiman to it, but there was a peculiar... foreign-ness as well. Were he not able to see a small bit of his black hair under the helmet, he might have guessed that he was a Fanalis. 

Checking around one last time to make sure that he was in the line of sight of none of the slaves, he let his face break off into a smirk as he performed that all too familiar movement - he thrust his arm downwards, letting the knives hidden up there fall down into his waiting hand, before throwing both of them from the hip. 

He had to perform this all in a matter of seconds. take too long and they would realize that he was armed and they would raise the alarm, but do it too quickly and he would have even less chance of hitting. There was no time to aim properly, but he had gained enough experience doing this that he had a pretty good eye for it even if he didn't have time to sit there and aim with it actually in hand. 

It seemed that his opinion about his aim was being proven true as, even without having aimed properly, both knives found their place. Each one had lodged themselves in a guard's jugular vein, one of the few places not protected by their armour. Why people didn't protect that vein, he still didn't understand, but it was certainly fortuitous for him as his hands went forward, slamming over their mouths and silencing their death rattles.

"Sorry boys. Look at it this way - dying's just the same as sleeping, except you never wake up and you don't have to worry about hangovers. Also, you void your bowels, and I'm the one who's going to have to deal with that smell so why don't you try and be more considerate?"

Looking at him as if he was insane, the pair of them quickly passed from the world. Jian wondered, just for a moment, why he had added the last bit. He never would have before... but it just felt right. It was almost funny, and he was having to resist the urge to laugh. These soldiers were nothing but pathetic boys playing at knights, and he, a simple boy in borrowed clothes, had ripped them to shreds. 

He was like a god.

0951/1500 Zuizhong

Dealing with the bodies wasn't as difficult as it might otherwise have been. The carriage still hadn't vacated the premises yet, and the driver was waiting patiently for his orders. It seemed good that the man was ordered here specifically by the city guards - they had both been sent out here to eradicate this part of the slave ring. 

Killing the people here was expected and that meant that the man hadn't even blinked an eyelid when Jian slaughtered the guards without blinking an eye. In fact, there was a strange sort of neutrality about him. It wasn't just that he wasn't upset, but it actively seemed like he didn't even care. Jian probably shouldn't like that, but he kinda did. Still, he wasn't going to be able to have time to deal with the corpses himself, so he was glad that there was someone else there. 

Moving over the courtyard to the carriage, he flashed that winning smile to the carriage-driver again, before pulling a good two thousand huang out of one of his belt's pockets, before holding it out in his open palm "Would you be willing to drive those corpses away from here whilst I deal with the leader of the operation? I'm sure it'll get your seats a little messy, so here's to cover the cleaning bill." 

Much to the man's credit, or perhaps discredit considering his general attitude in relation to this entire thing, he just nodded and took the coinage before shooing Jian to go get his job done in the house proper. A less trusting man would be worried about how easily the man had agreed to such a morally questionable job, but Jian was able to read people pretty well. 

He seemed to be trustable, even if his morality wasn't the most perfectly white. Were he more skilled with the magic arts, he might have noticed that the man had a fair few black rukh, but as it was he simply thought he had a bit of a care-less side. With that in mind, he nodded with a mutter of thanks before sprinting back towards the front door, slipping through it and heading up the stairs. 

The Villa was just as grand as one might imagine. The walls were made of fine, white stone that seemed to sparkle dully when the light through the windows caught it properly. The stairs themselves were a strange sort of spiral, leading towards the upper floors. The only thing that was noticeably wood was the bannister that stopped people from falling to their death at the highest levels, though even that was almost all metal with the wood only being cosmetic. 

From what the guards outside had said before he got rid of them, the dining room was upstairs - third door to the left. The issue was, as he looked up the stair case, there were three floors. This house, as aforementioned, was huge. Which door was he supposed to go through? This might cause delays, and any delays were going to cause this to get all the more difficult. 

That being said, he would cause a delay whether he delayed too long worrying about it or whether he went through the wrong door, so he decided to bite the bullet and begin moving upstairs. Just in case there were any other guards, he refused to let himself run, instead walking with an air of superiority and an "Obvious ego", keeping a stern and unhappy expression on his face. He had to occupy the persona at all times within these walls. 

It was at that point that he noticed something that he probably should have much earlier - he could actually smell the food. He didn't have the senses of a fanalis, but he didn't need to. Human or not, that smell was something that was very hard to ignore. It smelled like cooked meat, though to be honest he wasn't sure what kind of cooked meat. Whatever it was, it smelled fantastic. 

It was at this point that he realized just how hungry he was. With how busy he'd been recently, travelling all over the country and doing odd jobs for everyone who asked, he'd barely had time to sit down when he didn't just collapse into a bed. He was famished, to the point where it actually somewhat hurt. How had he not noticed it so far? He was going to need to partake of the food before he killed his opponent. 

Following the smell like an animal's tracks, he came to the first floor where (almost anti-climactically) he found a pair of guards waiting outside. Would it really have been this simple to find the door, would he really have just had to follow where the guards were standing? That was embarrassing, he should have expected something like this. 

That being said, he apparently wasn't the only clueless one. Despite the fact that their coworkers were dead as doornails, these two gentlemen didn't seem to care less. They simply didn't know about the events that had transpired outside, so they focused on something they did know about. they were going to protect their master at all costs. That meant, just like their brothers downstairs, they were going to be new victims in the war against slavery. 

1500/1500 Zuizhong
250/250 Palm Gust
78/500 Hidden Hands

Like the ones outside, Jian knew he had to kill these two before they could make any noise. Making a quick survey of the surroundings, he saw that nobody else was here, but that didn't mean that he could just kill them without thought. For the first thing, he was so much closer to the main threat, he had a lot more to lose if something were to go wrong. 

Even if he did what he had done outside, where would he put these bodies? Instead, he had to be more intelligent with what he was doing. He had to do something that allowed him to dispose of their bodies quickly as well as make sure there was no blood spillage. There had to be no hints that anything had gone on, no evidence to prove that the master was in danger. It was a difficult job, but he was going to have to do it. 

So, despite the fact that he could feel their eyes on him, he still didn't say anything or engage them in conversation. His eyes continued darting around the floor, before he noticed something interesting. On the opposite wall, back towards the entrance, there was a gaping window with naught but wooden shutters. He could dispose of their bodies here, and judging by how high they were right now, he could just throw them out the window.

Sure, there'd be corpses on the ground below, but there was nobody down there to see them any more. Plus, if he could just throw them out there, there would be no blood around here, so as long as their master didn't randomly look out the front of the house, this would be the perfect plan. It was good to know exactly what he was going to do, now all he had to do was actually go through with it. 

Keeping that surly expression on his face, he rested his back against the bannister to cover himself going for his wand that was hidden underneath his belt. People often tried to enslave mages, and he had to make sure that, no matter how bad a situation he got into, he didn't end up being taken in by the very industry he was here to crush. 

"So, your master is inside?" he asked, perfectly pulling off the same accent as earlier. These men were dressed just as the ones before, except without helmets. These ones, like the others, were just plain humans. That was weird; Fanalis were much stronger than normal humans, they were more agile and their bodies were ungodly powerful. This had made them a prime candidate for slavery as they could do much more work than other slaves, but this veteran didn't even have a single one in his household guard. It was bizarre... 

These ones, despite their similar outfits, were nowhere near as understanding as the ones outside. No smiles, no pleasantries, no manners whatsoever. They just shot him angry glances as if he had done something rude to them. Part of him wanted to tell them to say something nice, to go out on a happy thought before he ripped them into pieces, but he decided against it. Instead, he just murmured his incantation under his breath, forming giant arms of wind around him. 

Despite the fact that these arms were invisible, it was hard not to notice that there was a sudden cold wind that had come across the room. The guards turned to the window, looking to see if something had happened that had forced it open, and that was when he struck. Jian didn't even need to pull out a weapon, he didn't have a knife or a fan, instead those arms simply pushed themselves down the back of the soldiers' uniforms and picked them off their feet. 

The speed of the arms was almost ridiculous. They picked the soldiers up and, in one swift movement before they could even scream, the window was open and they were flying out of it. By the time their brains had caught up with what their bodies were doing, they were centimeters off the ground, and falling fast. Before they could even open their mouths, they were little more than smears on the front of the house, red splotches to remind people that there had once been people here who didn't have the slightest beginning of manners. 

Dismissing those tendrils, Jian slipped his wand back in its hiding place before adjusting his robes. There shouldn't be any more guards around the place, so now all he had to worry about was the employer. Or, at least, that was what he thought. As he opened the door, he soon came to find that he was dead wrong. 

500/500 Hidden Hands
250/250 Breath of Air
120/500 Gravity Lift, Stage 1

230/250:

Opening the door slowly before stepping into the room, Jian was actually surprised to see that the veteran wasn't the only one who was sitting there. The veteran, an older gentleman resting on a large silver cane, was sitting a the head of the table, his plate as empty as the other two that were set out. 

Halfway across the table, there was a much younger man simply sitting there "patiently"; a thick ginger beard and a face that seemed to imply a little insanity behind the eyes, he had nowhere near the breeding that the master did. 

What made it worse was that he had brought weapons to the meeting, a cleaver resting on his chair's leg, clearly ready to be used should something be proven to be wrong. Jian decided that now would be a good time to be thankful that he had decided for the stealthy approach. 

"Oh, good evening Mister Lian. It's good to see you." The veteran, who from what Jian remembered was called Augustus Victa, had an accent that was noticeably upper class. He held himself as a nobleman, but there was something about the staff that made Jian feel like he was a mage. There were hundreds of people out there who required walking aid, but this guy looked fit as a fiddle (if slightly fat) so he very much doubted that he was a cripple. 

"Sorry that I'm late, Ser Victa. I didn't mean to take so long, but my carriage-driver took much longer than I was expecting. We should have been here a good five minutes ago, but either the horses were having an off day or my driver just isn't very good."

Well, technically, he had been here for five minutes already, but unless he had the miraculous ability to hear through a floor of solid rock and all the way out the front to where people were speaking in normal voices, he was almost certainly going to be fine. 

"Of course, of course. I know exactly how you feel, my workers aren't always the most efficient. That is, until I remind them of my magic." Oh, the man had just confirmed that he was definitely a mage. He was going to have to be very careful in that case. 

He almost certainly had a strong borg, given the amount of strong mages that he'd fought since he came to Reim. He couldn't just use his poison, the man's borg would get in the way of that. So, perhaps he should take out the other guy first. 

"Well, if you don't mind me asking; who's this guy? I thought this meeting was just going to be between the two of us." He tried not to make it seem like he was too worried about the fact that they were joined by someone, more irritated than anything else. 
"Yes, I'm sorry, but I thought you might like to have a meeting with the person who trains your slaves. He'll be able to help you find the best slaves for your cause."

Oh, that was even better! He flashed a slight smile towards the new man, suddenly happy that he was here. He was the slave trainer? So this was the boss and the muscle, and he was going to be able to take them both out at once. He had taken out all the household guards already, so he just had to deal with this. But, first, he was going to have to have a quick conversation... and some dinner. 

Sitting at the table, he waited for the master's slave to begin to serve the table. The man truly seemed terrified of his master, and that was not a good thing when you were in a situation like this. When the fight started, he wanted this man as far away from the action as physically possible. He didn't want anyone unnecessary to get caught in the violence that was going to result from this little incident. 

"Now, the first thing I have to ask is: where did you get these slaves from. If you abducted them from somewhere in Reim, wouldn't my work be at danger of being stopped by someone who recognized their family? I can't risk being found out as a slave owner with that fool Lagi in charge." he asked, hoping to know where to bring them back to after they had been freed. The master had no idea, simply thinking that it was a good question and answering rapidly 

"Oh, don't worry - every single one of these men were from the island nations around Balbadd. Those communities are so distant that nobody notices when you take their people, and even if they did Balbadd doesn't actually have any power over incidents within Reim's borders. 

The moment that we brought them over the border, they were severed from their families until such a time as a master frees them. Though, I take it you're not one of the bleeding hearted fools that frees their slaves on a regular basis?"

For such a disgusting man, he sure did make a lot of sense - Balbadd was one of the weaker nations in the world right now, and it had very little power in terms of world affairs. They'd never dare to make a big statement against Reim, even with the place as damaged as it was now. They knew they'd be crushed like a bug underfoot if they ever even tried. That meant these slaves had no hope other than in the form of Jian himself. How miserable an existence they must have led...

500/500 Gravity Lift, Stage 1
500/500 Projection Blast
054/1000 Hurricane Season

The dinner itself was actually a relatively pleasant affair. The food was great, and the conversation was relatively light. Despite the cruelty of the man with the cleaver, Victa seemed to actually be a relatively nice person. Or, at least, he would have seemed that way if Jian hadn't been aware of the way that he made money. 

How could someone who was so polite and seemingly kind able to just throw people away like this? Were he not the monster that Jian knew him to be, he might have actually come to like this man. It was a shame what was about to happen. 

As the dinner began to draw to a close, Jian began on a more difficult topic. One more related to his reason for being here tonight. "So, how many slaves do you have to sell, Ser Victa? We've talked about their origin and the way they're treated," at this, he shot a dark glance towards the trainer, or "warden" as he'd come to find out. 

Appearances were very rarely to be trusted, but it seemed like this guy was one of the few examples. He looked like a savage, and from what he'd heard from his master, he acted like one too. Were he to guess, the ones that were outside the room were the wardens whilst the ones outside the front were the master's. It'd explain the difference in their manners. 

All throughout the dinner, the man had told story after story about how the people Jian was "Buying" had acted up and how he'd brought them to their knees. Slavery disgusted Jian to begin with, and this man certainly didn't help to change his opinion. The warden was one he had absolutely no problem with killing. A cruel, vicious, snarling animal of a man he was, and one of the few people that Jian was going to enjoy spilling the blood of 

", but not so much their numbers. I can't imagine you have a huge amount of them, smuggling slaves must be difficult given the illegality of it. So, how many do you have to sell - a few dozen?" at this, Augustus actually started chuckling - a weirdly pleasant laugh, with a strangely musical tone to it. Whether this was part of his magic was to be seen, but he didn't know what else it could be. 

"My dear man, you underestimate the skill of my organization. No, we have more than a few dozen. We have a full hundred for you to purchase today and can have just as many in a month if you care to buy from us again."

Despite Jian's experience with the darker part of the world, his throat had just dried up and the blood began to drain from his face, leaving him white and shocked. A full hundred? No, worse than that, a hundred per month? That was ridiculous. 

How was this possible? He knew better than anyone else that just because something was illegal didn't mean that it was rampant, but this took the entire concept of rampancy to another level. It was like they were breeding rabbits; except instead of being humane they were tearing innocent people from their homes, relocating them with cruel masters who didn't even see them as human, and laughed as they raked in the cash on another's misery. He wasn't sure how this was so popular, but he knew that he was going to have to deal with this. 

"Wow, that is.. impressive." Jian said, before pulling the wand out of its position on his belt. "By the way, Ser Victa, did I ever mention that I'm a wizard just like you? As fellow wizards, I feel like I can trust your word. Honestly, it's amazingly effective... which is why I'm not going to say sorry." His words blurred together as he began casting the incantation, his deadliest incantation of all. 
"الإعصار الوادي"



As if the entire world had stopped for a moment, the room slowed down. The warden moved his hand to his cleaver, and Victa was about to cast a spell of his own, before the room turned into a gigantic cyclone, the wind shattering through the walls like an oncoming hurricane. There was no time to get out of the way, and nothing was spared from god's intervention in this disgusting business. 

The table and Jian's food before him was still whole (which he took advantage of, scarping down a good mouthful or two of food whilst he waited), but everything else had been turned into nothing but howling wind that demolished the entire second floor of the house, as well as everything above it. 

Jian knew, he simply knew, that the magician's borg would have saved the Veteran from something like this, but there was no way the borg survived it as well. After this... well, it was going to be who dares wins. 

870/1000 Hurricane Season

200/250:

After a moment, the wind began to die down in what was left of the house. The majority of the house had been blasted to pieces, leaving a fine dust surrounding everything but the two people that were still alive in the room.

 Jian, still sitting at the table, having just finished his plate full of food as if the knowledge that he had just destroyed someone else's property just wasn't registering as something to be upset about in his mind, and Augustus, standing there where he had been a moment ago, his lime green borg shattering rapidly as the spell was dispelled.

The Warden, thankfully, wasn't a magician and thus had wound up being slaughtered by the wind. It wasn't so much the technique itself that had killed him, though there were many cuts all over the man's body from being stuck in the way of the wind, but more the things that the technique had picked up. 

Lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood, the warden's skull was smashed open and the scrambled contents able to be seen without much effort. His skull had been shattered open from what Jian could only guess was a section of the wall that had been picked up by the wind before it was fully turned into dust. At that wind-speed, it was inevitable that it would kill the man on impact. A painful, but unfortunately quick end to a disgusting, sadistic bastard. 

However, this still left Victa and Jian, and as the wind died down Augustus had finally broken out of his momentary shock to look around at their surroundings. The building that he had worked on for his entire life, ripped to pieces. His underling, slaughtered without a second's mercy, and the amount of property damage would have been staggering. This was the biggest spit in the eye anyone'd ever successfully given him. 

"What... the hell... did you do?" he asked, barely able to speak through his anger and mortification. Jian had never actually explained to the man why he was acting the way that he was, all he had said was that the was going to give them a demonstration of his power. Well, there was nothing to protect the man so there was no point in still being secretive, eh? 

"Well, you see, that's a funny story," A hand moved to his back-pouch, pulling out one of his throwing knives before slipping out a crystal vial. Unlike his other techniques, this one's glass had a purplish pigment, perfectly disguising the contents of it. That being said, it was being put onto a weapon by someone who'd just destroyed Augutus' house. It was pretty obvious it wasn't going to be medicine. 

However, as he moved, he noticed that he was kicking up a little too much dust to be okay with breathing and explaining what was going on. A quick muttered incantation, and he didn't need to. He had his own little tank of oxygen, and although he couldn't take anyhting in he was able to speak through it. 

", My name's not actually Lian. It's Jian Yu." As he explained this, the Alexandrian accent died down to be replaced by his usual Kouenese one. "I was sent to get rid of you and your little friends by guards working under the orders of the new King, the fool himself. Now, he wants me to take you into custody, but I'm not so sure. See, I've met people like you my entire life, and from personal experience I can say that you never change."

Pushing the chair away, letting it fall behind him with a thunk, he walked towards the man, the dagger outstretched and the potion stashed away once more. "You're a threat to innocent people, because you refuse to see through other people's eyes. All that matters is money, profit, you getting a nice fat stash of Huang to let you enjoy your life whilst everyone else suffers and dies. Well, you don't get a cell and a warm bed after acting like that. I'm going to end this once and for all."

With one hand taken up by his wand and the other hand full of the dagger, Jian was clearly no longer fucking around with his opponent, and the man's staff rose at the same time, preparing to send some new spell against his enemy. Jian used his natural speed, running across the room, but it seemed the man was even faster, performing an incantation silently before projecting a huge sphere of sound energy around Jian. 

His entire head felt like it was shaking, like his earbuds were about to burst. This was the power of Victa? He must be a sound magic user, a green magician, and the one thing that he knew about these people were that they had terrible combat skills. Even with these waves of pain throbbing through his head, Jian's conviction to kill this man only grew and grew, running out of that sphere and stabbing the dagger at the man's throat. 

1000/1000 Hurricane Valley
657/1000 Zhaoze

190/250:

The man's quick reactions hadn't even failed him now, the man moving his arm before the vein, catching the knife all the way inside. Normally, this would have been a sensible sacrifice, it was better losing one arm than actually being killed, but it didn't actually matter what part of the man had been sliced. From the very moment that a contaminated article had sliced through him deep enough to get in contact with his blood his fate was sealed, he was going to die. 

Over the next few seconds, the flesh directly around the wound was beginning to turn black, the man's face caught in surprise, not understanding what was going on. He had seen Jian put the liquid on his blade, but what could be something that was able to corrupt his body so quickly after the first hit. But that was all this poison took - a single dose guaranteed his death, and there was nothing he could do about it. 

"How could you..." the man asked, his body's rapid deterioration clearly getting to him. By this point, the darkening of the skin had reached his elbows, and every bit of that contaminated flesh stung terribly. But, that was what the man deserved, and Jian was honestly surprised that he was acting as if killing him was so horrible when this man had been leading people to their deaths consciously and willingly for years. 

He wanted to answer cruelly, cruelly and coldly, to tell the man that anyone who was willing to kill had to be willing to be killed, but instead... there was a dark part of him that just smiled pleasantly, a hand moving up and petting him "affectionately" on the cheek, leaving the knife in the man's arm. 

"Oh, don't be so seflish, Aug. You're acting like you're the victim here, but you'll be dead in a minute. I liked you, and I'm going to have to live with your blood on my conscience. Surely I'm the one who's worse off here, no?"

The man's eyes met Jian's own, and in them there was a level of fear that Jian had almost been sure the man wasn't capable of. He knew that he was about to die, that he was poisoned, and just like almost every single human out there, he didn't want to go. 

Now pulling the blade out, twirling it around his fingers several times before placing it back in the pouch, Jian didn't even drop his gaze from the man's own. There was fear there, a sort of dark terror that you only saw in people who had finally snapped out of their greed and desire and were seeing the true consequences of their actions. 

"You see, the funny thing is? You have killed people for years, and yet you're so afraid of what comes after death. Tell me, are you scared of the hell that waits for people like you, or are you simply worried about the thousands of innocents who're waiting just to get a chance at putting you through the same thing that you put them through?"

If the man said anything, Jian didn't listen to it. Instead, he simply approached the ledge of the building, looking out over the village on the hill as it was. The Slaves on the other side of the house were simply looking up in confusion, unsure of what had happened in "the big house" but knowing that whatever it was, it couldn't be good for their "master". That, alone, was a reason to celebrate.

"Don't worry about your estate or about your slaves. You see, I was sent here by the guards themselves, and although the first platoon might think I was some sort of murderer, there will come those who understand my role in all this. The proper guards will be here in an hour or so to relocate your victims back to where they belong. After that, anything left here will become property of the crown, and will be sold to compensate your victims. 

Sorry to say it, Augustus, but nothing you've ever done will have helped people more than your death. You, like so many others, are defined by the good things that happened after you were removed.... Actually, I'm not sorry at all. This was your choice; karma's going to strike down those who treat others badly, and you've been doing it all your life."

As the man behind him started begging for some sort of antidote, a release from his unfortunate fate, Jian simply began casting the incarnation for the flight spell. As the words left his mouth, the gravity around him began to lighten, his body beginning to float off the ground as he walked out into the thin air.

Pulling a pouch from his belt, he decided to make 100% sure that none of the more loyaistic slaves would get in the way of his escape. He coulnd't see them from this position, but he didn't need to for this. 

Tossing said pouch towards the field, he just hoped it landed near some of the slaves to work. It was painless, lasted only moments and rendered them paralyzed. It was the best way to avoid any unnecessary meetings. 

"You know, Victa, you're dying. These are going to be your last minutes on this earth, so rather than begging or pleading for the help we both know you don't deserve, why don't you think happy thoughts. About the people that love you. After all, even someone like you must have someone stupid enough to love you, right?"

Before he could even finish that thought, Jian disappeared. Flying at 10 m/s over the city, he descended to somewhere more appropriate. Guards would be swarming the place any minute after they'd seen it get totalled by that "Hurricane" but the man would inevitably be dead by then. He wagered, with a polite estimate, that the poison would reach his brain in a minute and thirty seconds. Just enough time for the man to find some sort of peace in this world... if he was smart. 

This was the mercy that people like Augustus deserved. He was killed in such a way that he was given a moment to think about his sins, to think about all the wrongs he'd done in his life, and realize that there was only one fate for him. Whatever kind of hell that was out there in the afterlife, he was going to it. 

For millenia, different people had fought about exactly what came after death. Some people liked to imagine that the afterlife was a physical place, that it was populated by angels and a god figure. Other people liked to believe that they would come back as a different animal depending on hos well they'd lived. Yet, no matter what religion there was, there was always one unifying figure. They all had a form of punishment for those who had performed terrible sins. 

Maybe August would be lucky and would be reborn as a lowly slug. Or, maybe he would get what he deserved and be shown the true terror of the darkness. Maybe he'd be dragged away and torn apart by demons for all eternity, but Jian didn't care. There was nothing so extreme that men like Augustus, who stole another human's being right to freedom, didn't deserve it and more. 

1000/1000 Zhaoze

100/250: