Walking the Beat[Solo/Job]

There was something very off about Remano, the capital of Reim, in Liber's personal opinion. He'd confirmed earlier that the city had indeed been victim of a Zou invasion and that the foreign country to the far east had staked its claim upon the lands after installing a man from the El Nagi clan onto the throne. That had happened about a week ago and yet there was no sign of Zou presence in the streets, no lingering signs of battle, no troops in Zou livery to be found anywhere. It just didn't add up. Little did he know that the "invasion" was actually a well planned effort by a relatively small force. But Liber was unable to obtain this information considering how few people there were that actually witnessed the elite group of Zou troops and their prisoner fodder. The mercenaries who locked down the streets made sure of this.

The young fanalis man knew from his experience as an assassin that just because you couldn't see things on the surface, it didn't mean there was nothing there. So despite the lack of obvious information, he took to the streets and began the most simple and straightforward investigation possible. He walked around and listened. Diligent feet, a keen ear, and a good days effort could yield many tidbits of information here and there. Even if they weren't related to Zou, surely some of what he picked up would serve him later down the road and it was always good to learn the lay out of the city you were in.

Liber strolled down streets at a casual pace giving the appearance of a man simply enjoying the brisk fall weather and bright sunny day. As he traversed the veins of Reim's transportation avenues the fanalis took note to listen in on conversations of citizens whom he past. Whenever something of interest seemed to catch his ear, Liber would stop to stretch or sit down in a nonchalant manner looking away from the speaker so as to eavesdrop inconspicuously. Through this method, Liber found himself privy to all sorts of unrelated information that had nothing to do with Zou. The neighbor is cheating on so and so, such and such was hard to get lately with the recent freak blizzard wrecking a field of crops to the east. The gossip hardly seemed of any use to Liber but he knew from the start that he was looking for a needle in a haystack. Undeterred by lack of progress, the youth strove onwards without pause save for those required to listen in.

The capital was large and it was impossible for Liber to move throughout the entire thing in a single day. After spending an entire day on the task he realized that this was a good way to run out of funds. For the next week he would spend most of his days working some job or another to keep himself and his coinpurse sustained but even so Liber dedicated at least 4 hours towards sneaking about silently and blending into crowds and backgrounds whilst listening in for information.

~500+/500 Word Count~

Job Name: The black market
Job Rank: C
Job Location: Reim
Job Rewards: 100 XP and 7,000 Huang |Knowledge of Remano's streets|
Job Overview:
Your investigations on the Zou presence in Reim has provided you no leads so far, though you have been investigating it for some time. A gut feeling says that there is more to the takeover than a simple raid of elite Zou soldiers, and your diligence leads you to the black market. Unfortunately, there are no outstanding clues located there, either. On your way away from the black market, you are accosted by a man. Having nothing to do with Zou, and everything to do with your wallet, he attacks you.


Enemy Name: Cutthroat
Rank: B
Needed damage to take down: A
Abilities:
The Cutthroat moves at 9m/s.
The Cutthroat uses 2 knives that deal B tier damage.
Gutting cut: Moving at 20m/s, the Cutthroat attempts to slice open your anatomy with a horizontal cut, dealing B-Tier damage.
Stopping power: The Cutthroat throws one of his knives at you at 15 m/s, dealing C-Tier damage.
Unrestrained Parry: The Cutthroat redirects up to C-Tier damage from a single attack at 10m/s.

After spending a few days walking the beat, Liber found himself becoming very familiar with the layout of Reim's streets. The country was nothing if not efficient and this translated into a very uniform styled stretch of avenues and  roads. Much was similar even in completely opposite sides of the city but not to such a point that one would get lost because of it. The repeating patterns of roads were subtle enough that they simply had the effect of letting you always know where you were and which way led to the center of the city. The consistency was rather refreshing over the maze-like slums of Balbadd or the sporadic design of Heliohapt's capital city.

After becoming familiar with the normal roads, Liber took to the alley ways looking for slightly more shady conversations to listen in on. His feet would carry him into the shadowed underbelly of Reim's transit networks into places where guards rarely roamed lest the were taking shortcuts. These back streets were less organized, less likely to follow a frequent and repeating pattern. It was clear that some were made well after the original lay out of the city was established and some even appeared to be carved out of what were once partitions between buildings.

The words exchanged in these dark side paths were also much different from those spoken by the common citizen in the light of day on a public road. Instead of idle gossip, Liber's ears found themselves witness to a plethora of dirty secrets that most would not want dragged from the closet. He heard men being shaken down for money owed which they could not repay and the quick to follow thud of club on flesh when this fact was admitted. Liber heard the whispered exchanges between men who refused to give up on the slave trade and other trafficking of human lives. He bore witness to the broken sobs of a victim to a recent rape or mugging, hard to tell which between all the bruises and shadows. His heart wept for each of these injustices and a burning fury boiled in his blood as a strong desire to do something about it filled him. However the assassin always took a deep breath and cooled his mind as he kept his mission in mind.

Causing a scene would draw attention to himself and right now he didn't want anyone knowing of his snooping. In addition, he also knew the cruel truth that there was nothing he could really do to save these people. How could you give a victim their peace of mind back when you can't take back the violation that had been inflicted upon them? How do you save slaves when their masters hadn't mentioned where they were being kept? How does one rescue an indebted gambler when you had hardly any money yourself and no way to ensure he wouldn't just rack up another outstanding tab?

No, the people in these alleys were beyond Liber's power to help. So he bit his tongue and soldiered on with his search until finally something promising touched his senses. Liber managed to catch the word "Zou" as he walked past a pair of men and crouched low in the shadows to creep closer and listen in on what they had to say.

~554/1000 Word Count~

"-the boat just got in a few days ago. I've got our lovely friends safely hidden away for the big meet up tonight. If we don't blow this then they'll earn us a pretty penny."

It seemed like perhaps some people from Zou had secreted themselves into Remano and were working with these men in some way. Thinking much like the pair of thugish men, Liber assumed he'd hit his own version of a jackpot.

"Sounds good, you go get them and I'll head to the meet. It should be starting soon."

The men then split up. Not actually looking at those he was eavesdropping on backfired on Liber as he say kneeling behind a crate. He didn't know which of the men to follow but he could hear the footsteps of one heading in his direction. The fanalis held his breath and let the man pass before stealthily following behind him careful not to approach to close lest he be heard or noticed. The stranger led Liber on a bit of a crazy trail making it clear that the individual wasn't a fool from the way his route made him hard to follow. But Liber had ways of stalking men unaware and implemented every trick he had to stay close enough not to lose the target. Creeping through shadows, walking on the edges of his feet, synchronizing his steps and breaths with that of his preys, all the techniques he'd learned in the past years were serving him well now. How ironic that tools he'd polished for the sake of taking lives were now being used with the ultimate goal of saving them.

Eventually the man led Liber into a large crowded lot nestled away in what seemed to be the very heart of Reim's network of backroads. It was surrounded on all sides by buildings and large enough to hold a rather large number of people, which it certainly did. Liber could barely keep track of his mark as the man slowly moved through the crowd but managed to do so well enough that he tracked the thug to a stand of sorts. Taking a look around he realized this was a black market. There were many stands selling illegal goods from drugs to a few slaves. The man his stalked prey had been talking to before was already at the stand and what they were selling made Liber realize his mistake. It was Zou uniforms and rare silks, but no people from Zou were in sight. It was a misunderstanding on Liber's part and also a failure. Perhaps it wasn't a waste of time as he now knew the location of a black market, but the fanalis couldn't help but shake the feeling of defeat.

With a sigh, Liber left the market and returned to the grimy alleys looking to head back to his inn for a nights rest. As he got a block or two away from the black market, a Cutthroat emerged from around the corner and grinned as he flashed a pair of daggers and pointed them in Liber's direction."Hand over all you've got on you and I won't slice your tendons up and sell you to the slavers back at the market."


~1000+/1000 Word Count~

As Liber faced down the thread before him he thought back to his master's words, "Never think during a conflict! Empty your mind and react with instinct you fool of a stude-" No, not those words. "No matter the threat you face, always remain calm and hide your intentions behind a smile." Yes, that tidbit of wisdom. Taking his master's teachings to heart, or at least some of them, Liber's eyes softened and he smiled smoothly in response to the cutthroat's threats. This antagonized the man to lose his cool and he lunged forwards for Liber, a terrible mistake in the face of a skilled assassin. Using a Graceful Sway Liber side stepped the lunge and performed a rising knee for the man's gut only for it to be deflected by an Unrestrained Parry from his target.

With his knee pushed to the outside, Liber rolled and dove past his attacker throwing a Pressure Prick into the back of his leg. The Mugger winced at the slight pain as he turned around and tried to perform a Gutting Cut but as he stepped forward to perform the technique, he found that his second step would fail him. With his leg paralyzed and his ability slowed, the man tumbled forward cutting nothing but the ground. Liber sprung to his feet and rushed the mugger as he rose to one knee just in time for the fanalis to perform a spinning kick to the side of the man's head. The cutthroat rose an arm to block to blow and grunted from the pain of his wrist fracturing as it absorbed the force of Liber's blow. The assassin performed another kick with the same leg, this time a dropping axe kick from above, but it too was blocked with the same injured arm and the sound of bone breaking was Liber's reward.

The Cutthroat wasn't finished yet though and he threw one of his daggers giving it Stopping Power which would halt Liber's gambit. He jumped backwards in an attempt to react but it was a poor choice. The dagger stabbed into Liber's left shoulder and hit him with enough force to make him stumble backwards. Using the momentum, Liber let himself fall onto his back smoothly rolling into a position with both feet on the ground before launching towards his opponent. As Liber charged towards the man he jumped onto the alley wall and kicked off of it to launch himself at the cutthroat from an unnatural and unexpected angle. He rammed his fist into the mugger's face then back handed him for good measure rendering the man unconscious.

Looking around, Liber saw no one around to witness the little brawl, but he couldn't very well let this mugger live after seeing Liber's assassination needle skills. Without remorse, the Fanalis used the man's own dagger to slit his throat before standing from his soon to be corpse. The needle was retrieved from the mugger's leg along with some gold coin's from his pocket which had undoubtedly been looted unfairly. With the dirty deed done and his prize in hand, Liber disappeared into the night to return to his inn room and get some rest.

90/120 Stamina

Abilities Used: