[Mania] - Dance with the Devil

[Mania De Witt]

Bounty Details

SPOILER: Click to show

Bounty type: Small Assassination/Capture
Weather: Rain

Raining (Snowing if in mountains): +25% water/ice damage, -25% fire damage

Mania strolled down the forest, humming happily to herself. She took a bounty for the sake of practicing her skills, bettering herself to one day become a Reaper. She might as well start her tallies early, especially those with their deaths way overdue. 

Beginning with baddies was always a plus. Left the world in a better place and upped her kill count. Mania grabbed onto braces that rested on her biceps, shifting them into swords and she got close to the supposed base of this one uprising troublemaker. She crouched behind cover outside their base and flipped open the note to skim over the details once more before making a move.

[[???] - Bahamut]

The base was nothing really impressive. It was built into the body of an ancient tree that had long since died, its petrified remains looking out over the rest of the forest. Wooden spikes surrounded the base of the tree and several windows and arrow slits had been carved out. This was mainly to give the impression that there were more people in this base but really Archyra had been staying here pretty much alone for a long while.

She had been trying to recruit others but it wasn't really working, she wasn't well known enough and really... No one wanted to join someone that almost exclusively targeted kids, they all knew that was a gateway to getting hunted and killed by The Feral. Thus Archyra was alone today, sitting in her little tree fort, reading a book under a blanket to try and keep warm with the chill rain outside.

[Mania De Witt]

"Hmm.... Wonder if there's anything more in there other than the child slayer.", Mania mumbled to herself. She pocketed the note and kept low, scanning around for a route to sneak in. Unless the woman was paranoid or something, her chances of getting in unseen were pretty high unless Archyra had some kind of sensory going about.

Mania made it to the front door, but took a lap around the tree to see if there was any alternate entrance or traps around the door. She dared not peek through the windows and stayed below the windowsill to keep out of sight.

"Breaking and entering it is." Mania slipped a skull mask onto her face and rattled the doorknob, seeing if the door was unlocked.

[[???] - Bahamut]

Archyra really hadn't expected to be found, she thought this was a great place for a fort but maybe someone had sent some info away? Maybe one of those no good new bandits she'd tried to coerce earlier in the week. She was tipped off when she heard the doorknob rattling. Of course she had locked the door, she didn't really use it after all, she mainly left through the roof or a window.

Of course this meant that the door was trapped. A soft click sounded and the door suddenly exploded into splinters aimed at Mania as the detonation runes on the doorframe erupted and sent shards of newer wood directly at Mania. Archyra hopped to her feet, lightning crackling around her fingers as she slid against the wall to see if her trap had worked.

SPOILER: Click to show

Spell name: Explosion Rune(Minor)
Spell Main Element: Arcane
-Spell Sub Elements: Lightning
Affinity Strength: 2
Function: Taking a small amount of time, the user is capable of drawing a rune into a solid object, be it a wall, a door or even a book. When the rune is jostled or fully exposed, the trigger condition being set when the rune is made, it will explode, usually destroying things around it. The range of this rune is dependent on the user's final Arcane Affinity.

Affinity - Range of Rune(ft)
2 - 2
4 - 6
6 - 10
8 - 15
10 - 20
Availability: Open

[Mania De Witt]

Mania jumped back as the explosion happened, still taking a few shards and scrambling to hide somewhere. Her vision was extended to reveal souls and she watched as only one within the tree was nearing the door. She hid below a lifted root not too far, quietly watching the door. She held her swords out to the side, stance ready to dash at the mage at any moment.

SPOILER: Click to show

Spell name: Detect Life
Spell Main Element: Life
-Spell Sub Elements: Death
Affinity Strength: 1
Function: The user casts a spell that sends a soft energy around them, marking all sources of life around them.
Availability: Open

[[???] - Bahamut]

It was a few minutes before the Archyra showed herself. She didn't hear anything after the explosion or anything like that. She folded her fingers down until only her index fingers were pointing out and her thumbs were up. Lightning sparked around her digits and she slowly slid along the wall before poking her head out. Splinters had spattered the ground and the rain pattered on the ground. There wasn't anyone there though and she couldn't really see any blood, maybe they'd gone off accidentally?

She stepped out of the tree, grimacing slightly, she hated the rain. Her eyes scanned around and her hands were up, aiming around. Hopefully if there was someone, they'd make a mistake... Maybe it had just been an animal though.

[Mania De Witt]

A lightning mage? Mania didn't recall that in the bounty details, but the details were already fairly vague outside her crimes. What, did she fry the kids to death? Probably.

Mania flipped her blades back and focused on Archyra's body and soul. She started to enforce the feeling of death on Archyra, forcing magic on to decay her body. It was slow progress though. It was a warning that death was going to strike her down where she stood.

SPOILER: Click to show

Spell name: Decay
Spell Main Element: Death
-Spell Sub Elements: None
Affinity Strength: 1
Function:An already dead object decays further. Can decay small plants. Starts to inflict necrosis in still living people/animals very slowly.
Availability: Everyone

[[???] - Bahamut]

The feeling of your body starting to rot was unfortunately quite obvious. Luckily for Mania, Archyra didn't know where the magic was coming from and couldn't sense such. She hissed out a breath in anger and then spread one hand out, throwing it in an arc. Lightning flew from her fingertips and danced along the ground like a wave of playful sprites. If anyone was hiding from her then the lightning would get them. Her other hand was still waiting, aimed like a gun, ready to pop a bolt of lightning at anyone that popped up after getting hit with her lightning wave.

SPOILER: Click to show

Spell name: Storm Wave
Spell Main Element: Lightning
-Spell Sub Elements: N/A
Affinity Strength: 3
Function: The user unleashes a wave of lightning from their hand that launches across the ground and over low cover. It cannot penetrate full walls but anything that isn't over five feet will be skipped over. Anyone struck by this wave will have their body stiffen involuntarily for a short period of time unless they are able to heal the burning and electrical damage or can steel their nerves against damage. The range this leaps out fully is dependent on the user's affinity, this wave launches out in a ninety degree cone.

Affinity - Range(ft)
3 - 30
5 - 40
7 - 50
9 - 60
Availability: Lightning Mages

[Mania De Witt]

Mania bared her teeth to take the hit of the waves. She wasn't capable of jumping super high up to avoid it and waited for her body to loosen. Drat, she's got me good. Mania knew full well that person was already charged for another attack and she had to be quick about it. Thankfully, she didn't take a hard hit from the first wave of lightning, but the larger concern was the blats that Archyra was charging up.

Mania stayed where she was, scanning around for any other orb of life she could use for a distraction. Aha! A rabbit! Mania grabbed onto its soul, tugging it gently and startling it to leap out of the bush to catch Archyra off guard. Afterwards, Mania burst out of the bushes, running as fast as she could to her target and thrusting a blade forwards backed by a magic energy that would hit Archyra in the soul and the internal area of her body hard enough to shatter some ribs and tickle her organs.

As for the rabbit, she'd make use of its body. No point wasting a sacrificial vessel, that would have been a personal sin on Mania's part.

SPOILER: Click to show

Spell name: Soul Tug
Spell Main Element: Death
-Spell Sub Elements: Life
Affinity Strength: 1 at base
Function: The caster reaches out and grasps onto another's soul, tugging on it. Mages with a higher affinity can actually pull the souls, forcing the bodies to fly towards the caster. In special cases, high affinity death mages can pull the soul out of the body, making the body fly past with the soul in the caster's hand.

Affinity - Tug feel
1 - Light tugging
4 - Pull forcing walk
7 - Flying towards caster
10 - Soul partially out of body
Availability: Open

Spell name: Soul Punch
Spell Main Element: Death
-Spell Sub Elements: Life
Affinity Strength: 3
Function: A mage within the domains of life or death is able to tamper with souls within reason. The caster throws a punch towards the target. Although the punch itself may not seem like it does anything at first, but the effects show up afterwards, scaling up with the affinity of the mage.

Affinity - Punch Effect
3 - Internal damage fracturing ribs
6 - Organs disrupted
9 - Torso destroyed
10 - Soul almost out of body
Availability: Open

[[???] - Bahamut]

Sure enough, the rabbit startled the ever-loving shit out of Archyra and she immediately blasted it with a bolt of lightning from her finger, blowing it into bloody chunks. This distracted her enough that she only spotted Mania out of the corner of her eye and she didn't have time to attack, throwing herself to the side as best she could. The strike slammed into her right side though, splintering her ribs and sending her crashing backwards into the ground. She screamed in pain and rolled onto her back, clutching her side and writhing around on the ground.

She clenched her teeth together and spat up a gobbet of phlegm and blood, she'd need to pay for a healer after this, she didn't have enough money for that, hopefully this bitch was worth something. She went to rise to her feet before howling in pain and dropping down again, rolling onto her uninjured side and closing one eye, her entire body tense. "Motherfucker... Come finish me off, bitch..." She growled, spitting up a bit more blood.

SPOILER: Click to show

Spell name: Spark Strike
Spell Main Element: Lightning
-Spell Sub Elements: N/A
Affinity Strength: 3
Function: A simple Lightning spell, the user launches a bolt of lightning from the tip of their finger or their palm, firing it forwards to strike a target. This usually requires intense accuracy and can be easy to dodge if the opponent isn't fast enough but causes quite intense damage that only goes higher as the user's affinity increases, easily punching holes in people or evaporating smaller targets due to the electrical power that surges through the bolt.
Availability: Open

[Mania De Witt]

The grin on Mania's face showed she was more than happy the rabbit allowed her to strike, but her grin was dark with only her teeth showing from under the fangs of the skull mask she wore. She'd taken a bit of damage, and there wasn't much way for her to avoid taking another hit at close range. Another thing going for Mania, she had immobilised her target, so now she was only betting that Archyra'd movement stayed limited even at close range.

She gripped her swords a little tighter, concentrating more mana into her hands again. With the other blade, her arm raised and she threw it straight at Archyra, aiming for her chest or side. If she could pin this target a little more, that would just make her life so much easier. Right after throwing it, Mania darted towards Archyra, leaping around her and bracing for a hit while swinging her blade down to cleave through her body and simultaneously trying to land an arcing punch to her soul again.

[[???] - Bahamut]

This weird girl was too damned clever. Archyra tried to force herself to push aside as the blade was hurled at her but damaged as she was, she only stopped it from being lethal straight away. It rammed into her stomach, spraying blood on the undergrowth. She screamed again and dropped down. In the time it took her to reach up and grab the blade, a glint of steel flashed in her eye and another sword struck her. Her body slumped and blood pooled around her. With a flash, her soul left her form and was whisked away back into the cycle. Mania had defeated her first bounty and with only minimal damage.

[Mania De Witt]

Mania straightened herself up and looked at the body. The soul punch was a good definite finisher in case a sword wasn't enough. She plucked her swords out and swung them to the sides, flinging the blood off and splashing the grass and a tree trunk and mixing it with the rain. She'd give these lovely fangs a proper cleaning after she'd got that bounty claimed. Mania lifted the skull mask, showing pair of bright gold eyes that held a dangerous glint in her eyes accompanied with a smile that could only be deemed as twisted.

The aspiring reaper knelt down, digging around the body and plucking out a pouch of some gold, and a scroll of lightning. She took both of Archyra's daggers, they were a decent quality and she could sharpen them and throw them or just sell them off. Shame she had to shatter that mage's ribcage, it could make for some decent wind chimes. Whatever, she moved to look for that rabbit she sacrificed. Poor thing was fried hard. Mania would spend a bit of time burying both bodies, leaving a cut branch in both dirt mounds and proceeded to take her leave after everything she wanted to do was done.