A Personal Favor III: Crossing Off The List [solo/job]

Job Name: Shaking Off Shackles: Part I
Job Rank: B
Job Location: Reim
Job Rewards: 15,000 Huang & 200xp
Job Overview: The first target among the list of five slave trade rings is the Black Tower, a group named for the large dark stone tower from which they operate. The group is officially recognized by Reim's government so they have some legitimate soldiers protecting their headquarters. Some statesmen in Reim's governing nobility have spoken out against them over the past few days however and local guards have orders to look the other way if anyone gives the group trouble. Now is the opportune time to strike.

Enemies:

---

A field of lavender flowers under a grey moon. Two tall trees with gnarled limbs that contorted into twisted shapes, extending into sharp points, towered over the landscape twenty meters apart. Between the two silver barked trees, shadows pooled in a quivering mass. A shadowy form of a small boy emerged from the writhing darkness, stopping in front of the Zouen.

"Who are you?" The sight of the shadow boy sent goosebumps down Azix's skin.

The obsidian boy blinked at Azix, "I am dead." The boy's voice was distorted, an otherworldly sound.

Out of the shadowy mass, four large tendrils burst forth towards Azix. Before he had a chance to react, they pierced into both of his legs and arms. The tendrils began pulsating, pumping shadows through his limbs, traveling up his chest and neck into his head. His body was inflamed in pain and he scream as memories flashed through his mind.

A woman deceived into thinking her fiance had betrayed her love sitting in a chair. She screamed at the sight of her lover's burnt corpse. A flash of rage and harsh words sent her to the afterlife. Flickers of Azix's glee as he used the shadows to torture several men. A sadistic hunger flashed through him as he watched their bodies pierced. The look of fear on a woman's eyes after Azix had dispatched her assailant.

---

Azix awoke drenched in sweat, panting and checked his arms. Realizing it was a dream, he took a deep breath to calm himself. A disturbing sensation still lingered on his skin as he recalled the dream. What did they boy mean that he was dead?

With effort, Azix shook the dream from his mind and took a look around the room. He was at the safehouse shared with Carmen and her cell, in his room on the second floor. Outside, the sun was already descending over the horizon. He must have slept most of the day away, time that could have been spent finding Sophie. Azix had needed the rest after the past day and a half of events.

Azix slipped into a clean pair of loose black clothing. A leather belt with several loops and pockets hung at his waist. He slid his Staff of Refractions in one of the loops on his left and clipped his Deviant onto his right. He checked to make sure the blade was clear, sliding it out a fraction of the way. It clicked back into place as he released the grip on his hilt and grabbed a cloth to cover his face. He adjusted it so he could see between the folds before strapping an eye-patch over his left eye. Azix also grabbed the documents that Serene had provided with her list of targets.

With a last look in the mirror, he draped a cloak around himself and went downstairs. As he descended the stairs he heard Carmen and several others conversing in the meeting room. Not wanting to disturb anyone, Azix used the dining room to pour over the notes. On his way by the table used for communications, Azix found a missive for him waiting for him.

Taking a seat, he opened it up to see that it was a communication from Serene. She provided information that the Black Tower organization had upset a few of Reim's nobles and that it had temporarily lost the protection of the city guard. Interested, Azix combed through the documents looking for the information she had provided on them.

The documents revealed that the Black Tower specialized in the training and selling of slaves for combat. They used brutal methods to enforce obedience and strict training to create a band of fighters. The Black Tower used the best fighters to loan out as mercenaries and would sell the rest. Azix wondered if the slaves would prove a hindrance to his goal, nothing that as a possibility as he planned. He hoped that Sophie hadn't been sold to them, but thought it would be nice if she was at the first place he hit. He didn't let too much time slip by, the longer it took, the farther away she could get. Azix focused back to the mission, it was the perfect time to strike the Black Tower.

Gathering the documents, he took them to his room and hid them under the mattress. He checked his sword again making sure it was clear and departed from the safe-house. He slipped the hood of his cloak over his head as the final portions of sunlight disappeared under the horizon. Azix was in his element, under the cover of darkness.

[543/1500 wordcount]

The Black Tower estate feature a massive black tower that rose one hundred meters into the sky. Carefully tended gardens stretched between the tower and a thirty meter tall wall that wrapped around the perimeter. There was a single entrance to the estate, a gate on the north side guarded by two hired guards. Azix had imagined that there would have been a greater number of guards, the statesmen must have been highly influential in order to removed the Black Towers' protection.

The two men guarding the gate looked like the average hired muscle, wielding spears with short swords sheathed at their hip. Azix emerged from his vantage point within a shadowy alley across the street from the entrance. His intent approach sent the guards into action, shouting at him to stand down. Azix ignored them, instead choosing to remove his staff from the loop on his belt. He began readying a spell, walking straight towards them with murderous intent. The guards were an obstacle in his path that needed to be disposed of.

Seeing that he silently refused to back down, the men took the magician as a threat, they spun their spears in a fluid motion before leaping towards him. The guards were quick, closing in on him in a second, taking a position on each side of him, thrusting their spears towards his ribs. Azix was taken by surprise, but his Borg hadn't been. The harmful intent triggered the film of magoi to block both of the attacks, but the damage caused the Borg to shatter. It provided him enough time to recover, releasing his Makihige spell that he had been preparing. Magoi swirled around him, two seven meter long shadow tendrils unraveled in their wake. They each thrust outwards towards a different guard, piercing into their legs as they tried to move away. The men's footing was lost as the tendrils pierced through tissue and muscle, striking bone.

Azix directed the tendrils to pull out of the wounds and approached the fallen guard on his right. The shadowy tendrils writhed around Azix as he looked over the man, leaning down to see if the man still had fight within him. The shadow magician had his answer when the Guard gripped his spear and delivered a strong Poke to Azix's foot. The point of the spear pierced through his foot and into the ground, pinning it to the ground.

[947/1500 wordcount]
[220/250 magoi]

Spoiler:

"A toe strike?" Azix muttered, annoyed that they would employ such a cheap tactic. Then again, they had all suffered wounds to their legs now. Azix directed one of Makihige's tendrils to pierce the man's side, into the kidney. A strike on the kidney, when performed correctly could inflict such pain that it would prevent the victim from crying out or so he had heard. When the man contorted in pain but no sound escaped his lips, Azix knew it to be true. He grinned as he turned his attention to the last guard.

His eye caught the man getting up on one knee with his free hand gripping the hilt of his sheathed short sword. He had the briefest moment to notice the muscles in the man's arm tense before he drew his sword. Azix reacted quickly by flicking his staff to send Makihige's second tendril to block the Slash. Using the momentum of the slash, the point of the tendril whipped forward, slashing the man's throat, tearing through skin and arteries. Azix suppressed a curse as a jolt of pain flared through his foot where it was impaled into the ground. With a grimace on his face, he gripped the spear and removed it from his foot.

The tendrils pooled at his feet as he opened the gate and moved the corpses into some bushes in the garden. When he was done, he closed the gate and traversed the rest of the way to the base of the Black Tower. It took longer than normal, the wound in his foot caused him to limp and wince in pain with every other step. Suffering a wound after losing his Borg, Azix regretted his hubris, the guards had gotten to close to him. Even after training in close quarters, Azix still relied on his magic rather than his sword. He made a mental note to correct that in the future. Not knowing what he would be facing inside the tower, he would need to take extra care from now on. With a whispered command, Azix conjured his Vanish spell, rendering himself invisible before entering the tower.

Inside, the ground floor was a lobby with a staircase that wrapped around one side up to the next level. The lobby was empty of people and Azix saw a platform at the back of the room with chains along the wall around it. It seemed that was where slaves were auctioned off or where they would fight other slaves to impress potential buyers. Proceeding up the tower, the next several levels held living quarters, bathrooms, an elaborate 'training' room that held more torture devices than training apparatus. These floors were locked for the evening, the slaves contained to their rooms but Azix did not see any guards. The tower was eerily dead for a slave ring.

The top floor four floors were lavishly decorated and were maintained to a higher degree. The fourth floor held offices and a large meeting hall, obviously to entertain guests of honor. In one of the offices, Azix found information that filled in part of the picture. The Black Tower had offered to loan the statesmen some of the elite slaves to assassinate a rival party, but had sold information of their interest to the rival party. When the rivals paid double for the Black Tower to not sell the slaves, the statesmen had learned of this and bribed the city guard away. Politics at its finest.

Azix looked up when he heard whispers, shortly before the door to the office opened up and three men slid in. Thankful he was invisible, Azix noticed the Black Towers emblem against a red sun on their chest. These were three of the slave masters that he had read about in Serene's documents. He noticed them looking at something on the ground and followed their eyes to see a trail of blood. Azix looked at his foot and saw that it had been bleeding the whole time. He had accidentally led them right to him with a novice mistake.

[1500+/1500 word count]
[175/250 magoi]

Spoiler:

With his free hand, Azix ripped a strip of cloth from his face wrap and tied it around his foot, watching the Black Tower Operatives search the room. The three operatives sensed something amiss and withdrew small daggers, glancing around as they moved. Azix pressed back into a corner, his Vanish spell kept him invisible, but they would still feel him if they bumped into him. With a flick of his staff, Makihige's tendrils that pooled at his feet emerged from the mass of shadows and pierced into two of the operatives. The third stared in astonishment as an invisible force struck two of his colleagues, dropping them to the floor.

Azix crept forward, silently unsheathing Deviant from the scabbard with his free hand. When he was within range, he lunged forward, thrusting his sword into the operatives' stomach. The man clutched his wound, confused and let out a cry. Azix pulled the sword free and moved into the hallway. Down one end, three more Black Operatives were climbing up the stairs and on the other end, four were walking down the stairs.

Azix raised his staff towards the four coming down the stairs, they were closer and greater in number. With a rush of whispered commands, Rukh shimmered orange around Azix as a ten meter diameter beam of light formed in front of his outstretched staff. The Bright Beam of yellow light surged forward, blinding those who looked directly at it and burning those in its path. Azix turned away, shielding his eyes by looking at the group behind him. The three operatives saw the beam form out of thin air and strike their allies. With a shout they readied for battle, unsure of their target.

When the beam passed, Azix turned to see that he had gotten the group of four as they clumped together down the stairs. The second degree burns they had received left the incapacitated on the ground. His focus turned back to the others behind him. They were moving forward in a formation with space between them, learning from their fallen operatives' mistake. Their daggers were held in tight grips as their eyes searched around.

[125/250 magoi]

Spoiler:

Azix started to back up to avoid one of the operatives bumping into him, but his wounded foot slipped, causing him to cry out in pain. The operatives were on alert and leaped towards the source of the sound, instinctively striking out. Azix flicked his staff, sending Makihige's tendrils towards two of the Operatives before they could injure him. The two operatives were taken out, but the last seized the opening to stab Azix in his staff arm. The stabbing pain caused Azix to lose his grip on the Staff of Refractions, a lucky shot that caused Azix's spell to dissolve around him.

The operative looked down at Azix as the magician seemed to form out of thin air, the invisibility no longer hiding him. Azix snarled as he stabbed his sword towards the operative who moved back enough to dodge the strike, before moving forward to stab Azix again. The dagger pierced Azix's staff arm, but the magician allowed the hit to strike at the operative's limb while it was in range. Before the man could pull his arm back from the attack, Azix slashed at the man's arm, cutting into tendons. Following up with the attack, he stabbed into the man's stomach and twisted the blade.

The Black Tower Operatives disposed of, Azix took a few moments to recover his breath and assess the damage to himself. Sheathing his blade, he retrieved his staff and searched the men for keys. Finding a ring of keys, Azix descended to the lower levels, he went floor by floor unlocking the cages and directing them to the lobby. The mass of slaves hesitantly left their cells, worried of a trap, but seeing that he meant them no harm they complied. When they were all gathered in the lobby Azix noted that Sophie was not among them before addressing the group.

"You have been held against your will, tortured, abused, and regarded as sub-human. No longer will that be the case, I grant you freedom. The bonds that the masters held to your wrists are gone, I have removed them. I do not wish your gratitude or something in return, your lives are your own. Make your own choices and bare the fruits of those decisions with joy, you have been returned your right to exist as an individual."

With the words spoken, Azix descended from the platform towards the door. The crowd of slaves parted for him, their faces reflecting confusion with some asking questions. Azix ignored them, leaving the tower behind him, tired and hurt from the fight. He had given them freedom, now they had to prove to themselves they were worthy of it. Azix hoped they would, every man had a right to live, but not every man enforced that right, instead choosing to become a slave.

[95/250 magoi]
[exit]

Spoiler: