Ravenous Rapids

jobberino:

Minerva was infuriated.

No, that was an understatement. Minerva was possessed by a degree of anger she lacked the vocabulary to describe, quite an accomplishment considering the expansive nature of the ex-librarian's speech. Her teeth grit together, grinding across one another in a slow, furious movement that displayed how aggravated she truly was with the current situation. There were things she could sit by and tolerate, provided those that were subjected to them were treated fairly and well. Servitude was one of these things, poverty another, but senseless violence and murder was far beyond the line of acceptability that Minerva had drawn for herself.

Her eyes fell upon the grieving family. Children deprived of their father. A wife deprived of her husband. Parents deprived of their son. Their limbs stained with the crimson force of life that coursed through his veins, Minerva watched in silence as the man gave his spirit into the rukh, the small bird seeming to flutter from the man's head. She choked back the urge to spit as the elders offered their condolences of "it was fated to happen," or "it was what was planned for his life." Minerva detested those words now. She held no respect for the invisible entity that brought tragedy upon others, or that locked others behind the bars of their birth.
She cursed herself in frustration. She cursed the soldiers. She cursed the vagrants. She cursed fate.

---

It was midday when Leshrech heard the ear piercing shriek that sundered the air around the market. It was a slow process, movement. The aging mans bones could only bend so quickly, but despite his apparent handicap, his weathered body carried him swiftly across the sandy floor of the city, his walking stick pushing others out of the way as he aimed for the front of the crowd.

"Let this be a warning to you," A woman, tall, with eyes like a serpent and the sneer of a jackal, gazed over the crowd. "We don't take lightly to peasantry trying to circumnavigate our rules. You can either pay the price of the water in gold, or you can pay for it with your blood." The woman flourishes her blade, the slightly curved surface shedding blood across the faces of the crowd, eliciting screams from some of the children. "Take this as your only warning. Next time there will be no heed, and the blood will be spilled immediately." The woman loosed a ball of spit and mucous, the disgusting mass defiling the murdered man's forehead.

Something must be done. I must find Minerva.

---

Minerva sat, staring over the roofs of the cityscape from her vantage point. The night sky always seemed to calm her down. The heavens were the only thing that she viewed to be remotely constant. Faces changed, reasons changed, feelings and in an hour this community would be changed forever. Be it for better or for worse, she knew not, but she was willing to stake her life against an atrocity such as this.

Ala'ara came behind her, robing the woman in a shawl of deep red with a chuckle. "Little condolence, but if they manage to cut you, at least with the shawl no one will see the bleeding. Hehe."

Minerva's lips curled into a smirk. With the way she intended to decide this conflict, she doubted bloodshed would even be part of the offer. Charred flesh, however, was a promise she could not make.

---

The serpentine woman glared at the silverette that had decided to defy her. "Have you imbeciles learned nothing? I've already made an example out of one of you buffoons and I see no reason why I should be forced to make an example of two. Horus, Albus, Take care of this woman for me."

Two men stepped from the woman's sides, appearing in equal strength to both the woman and each other. Minerva wasn't entirely sure if she should take the liberty of disposing of them quickly, or deluding them into thinking they had a chance. The men advanced towards her position, 5 feet apart at a leisurely stroll, almost too confident in themselves.

Minerva's staff crackles with anticipation the anger she felt swarming in the black mass around her ethereally blue arcana. "Hah! The wench thinks a simple spell is going to scare us off! What a pathetic display, eh Horus?" The two men burst into laughter, their eyes closed in the single last mistake they would make, Minerva showed no hesitation, releasing her Shock Bolt directly at the ground between the two thugs, the burst from the assault rendering them grievously injured, and moderately crisped.

Her gaze turned to the serpentine woman who's eyes widened as she began to back pedal. "I swear we will end you another day, woman!" Her back hits the wall of the empty square, her frame trembling as she comes to realize precisely what was in store for her.

"Ironic that despite being equal in power, you were the one in charge." Minerva stayed a respectable 10m from the woman, her staff still surging with energy. "Did you bribe them into subservience with your body?" She glowers. "You disgust me. Thievery, murder, extortion. People of your caliber have no idea of what it means to live within your means, and no respect for the lives of others. You ungrateful heathens think only of what is important to you, and not what could be important to others."

"Enough! You know nothing about surviving on your own, runt!" The serpentine woman glares. "I've been supporting myself since I was a child, and you've probably rotted away in some palace. Where do you get off despising me!? I'm gonna gut you wide open like a fish, and hang you by the well as a true warning! I'm going to get my money if even if you chose to stand in my way!" The woman suddenly swings her sword forward, moving to lunge at Minerva. Before the woman could even touch the sorceress, a single Laguna Blade flew from the tip of her staff, colliding with the woman's skull, the electrical impulses coursing through her body stopping her heart as her brain was overloaded.

"Shame you said you were always alone, darling. Now I know I didn't leave anyone to mourn for you."

---

Lesrech was aware of the lengths Minerva had had to extend herself too, but to see the two men at her beck and call was something he had not expected. "Minerva, what of the woman? Where has she gone." With a somber expression, the young sorceress simply uttered, "It's better if you didn't know." She turned her attention back to the goons. "Horus, Albus! That well isn't going to repair itself!" The men nodded, bandages around their arms to conceal their injuries. "We'll finish it by night fall!"

Minerva smiled to herself. Perhaps her time here would provide more service than she anticipated.

---

[WC 1000+/1000
Magoi 150/200

Spells Used:

OOC Note: It is important to note that while Laguna Blades is not in my vault, it is indeed trained. My vault is currently archived and the spell therefore cannot be added in. Here is a link to the approval thread for proof.

https://magiworld.forumotion.com/t3808-lagoona-blaze-it