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The Gambit of the Slayer (Closed) (Story) - Inessa Hara - 03-10-2015
((This is the encounter between the dreaded assassin of Ul'dah and Inessa, where they finally clash.))
Ul'dah
Midday
Weather: Cloudy
Inessa was ready for the assassin who had taken so many lives in the recent weeks. For weeks, she had to think, prepare and plan for where to confront the assassin. Most of the women he was preying on were under Sworn or Brass protection but it would only be a matter of time before he moved on to different prey. This was her only chance to catch the murderer.
She had asked one of the young, red-haired maidens to serve as the bait to lure the assassin out. While there was nothing that indicated he would take the bait, Inessa had a gut feeling that it would work all the same. The girl agreed, though she was scared to death and very reluctant, but placed her trust in Inessa due to her reputation top protecting others no matter what.
The girl in question took up her position down in the market below, in the Saphire Avenue Exchange while Inessa took her place up on the rooftop. Hidden. The idea would be that she would act as if she was shopping and then the Assassin would notice and attempt to snipe her from the rooftop's. Inessa would be on the rooftop to spot the assassin and take him by surprise if the opportunity presented itself.
Inessa was fairly good at infiltration and hiding so she would likely easily avoid the assassin spotting her.
Meanwhile, down in the Street's of the Market. . .
The red haired maiden was browsing through the general items of the stalls. Her name was Marian.
The Bazaar was quite bustling. Merchants left and right were broadcasting their wares to the passing city folk. One merchant was broadcasting an Elixer which would make skin smoother and younger. Another was marketing armor forged in the foundry's of Limsa and one more was broadcasting Gridanian leathers and pottery. Marian was having a good time browsing the wares, despite the chance she was going to be a victim.
A bell and a half later. . .
The woman continued to browse the wares in the market below. Inessa was still on one of the rooftop's, observing closely. She had begun to fear that the assassin would never show till she began to see the movement of shadows. Inessa clung close to the shadows to remain unseen while observing closely the shadows. After a few moments, a black cloaked individual emerged from the shadows. A bow in one hand and a quiver on his back.Â
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(Fight Mewsic)
He would approach the rooftop edge and scan the market below. When he spotted the maiden, he would use his empty hand to reach for an arrow in his quiver but before he could, he would here the rushing of footstep's behind him. He turns to face the person rushing him. It was Inessa, with one of her sword's drawn. She let's out a loud battlecry as she rushes forward, raising her sword as she got closer in an attempt to strike the assailant down. Quickly, the assassin takes an arrow and draws it back on his bow quickly, letting an arrow loose before Inessa could get any closer.
Inessa had to halt her attack. She stopped her charge and leaned left, barely dodging the arrow as it skidded right by Inessa's chest. As she leaned though, the assassin removed his robe and threw it at Inessa so even though she dodged the arrow, she would be covered by his cloak. Under the cloak was a Red Legion bandit. His red armor with a golden eagle insignia made that quickly apparent.
As Inessa was caught up in his cloak, he reached for a dagger that was attached to a sheath on his chest armor and draws it. Rushing Inessa who was blind, he attempts to stick the dagger in her chest. Luckily, Inessa did not have to rely on her eye's to fight and before the assassin could stick her in the chest, she raised her leg and attempted a drop kick and her attack connected successfully.
The bandit was sent flying backwards, off the edge of the rooftop. As luck would have it, there was a rope that extended across the bazaar right behind him. As he fell off the roof, he grabbed for the rope and managed to grab hold before he could fall to his death. At the same time, Inessa managed to break free from the bandit's cloak that was tossed on her.
As the bandit managed to climb on the tightrope, Inessa would chase after the bandit and walk on the tightrope. As she began to walk across it and the bandit managed to get on the rope, they both found that neither would be able to get down short of one falling down. They were both struggling to stay on the rope as it bounced around and they tried to balance their weight on it.
By this point, the Ul'dahn citizens below were onlooking at the conflict as the Paladin and the bandit were fighting each other and on the tightrope.
For a moment after the rope balanced and the two gained their balance on the rope, they began a short dialog between each other.
"You. . . you are Red Legion. Why is a Red Legion bandit attacking the innocent people? They have done nothing wrong!"
"By order of Lord Caesar, he desire's the death of all red haired women in Ul'dah! If you stand in my way, I will kill you, whore of Ul'dah!"
"But what does Caesar have against them?! They have done nothing wrong!"
"I do not question the will of our great leader! All of Ul'dah shall burn under his fire's of purgatory!"
The man was clearly deranged and brainwashed with loyalty for his leader. How could someone be so compelled to fight for a mass murderer? There was more to this than meet's the eye Inessa thought.
"Enough! Time to die whore!" The man said, moving forward on the rope as if to Initiate close quarters combat with Inessa. With his knife in his hand, he begins swinging it left and right at Inessa's midsection in the hopes of cutting her. Inessa was dexterous though and manages to lean backwards, left and right in order to avoid the slashes without falling off.
Inessa then counters with a wide slash with her sword aimed at the bandit's chest. The bandit manages to dodge by leaning backwards, taking several steps back on the tightrope. The swing however distabilized the rope and it begins to shake under them. They both struggle to maintain their balance.
The assassin takes advantage of this and throws the knife aimed at Inessa's hilt, hoping to knock the sword out of her hand. The attack land successfully, however, the attack wasn't enough to dislodge to sword out of Inessa's hand. however, she let go of it and dropped it in order to get rid of the weight and maintain her balance. Both of the weapons plummet to the street below. The knife falling into a merchants tent and the sword landing into the street, bladed edge first. Lodging it in place when it landed.
The two struggle but manage to regain their balance. They again move forward to face each other in battle on the tightrope. Unarmed. They resort to melee combat with their hand's. Inessa strikes first with a straight left. The bandit blocks and counters with a right hook. Inessa ducks and counters with an uppercut. The bandit dodges by leaning backwards then counters by leaning forward and attempts to drop kick Inessa off the rope. Inessa leans right and dodges the drop kick. However, this kick distabalizes the rope causing them both to fall off. However, they manage to grab the tightrope with their hands before they could plummet.
They proceed to start responding with kicking attacks. Inessa is again, the first one to attack, sending a side kick straight towards the middle torso of the bandit. The attack lands, however the bandit counters with a right hook and hits Inessa on the face.
Inessa shakes off the attack however and draws the secondary sword on her back and begins swinging, hope to cut the bandit on his Torso. however, the bandit was quick and had managed to move back a few paces and avoid the slash. Still holding onto the rope, they began to exchange kicks while hanging on for their lives.
Inessa eventually tires of this exchange of pointless attacks after a few given and received blows and uses one of her hands to hang on while drawing the sword off her back.
Inessa then shouts to the bandit. "Last chance bandit! Surrender or die!" She barked at the Red Legion bandit.
"Never!" He barked at Inessa.
Inessa grit's her teeth as she raises her blade. "May your passage be swift! Ateria style technique, Blue Streak!" And almost in moments, all that could be seen was a blue blur streak across the bandits chest and then a second streak across his arm. Almsot moments later, blood came gushing out of his chest, cut wide open and sprinkling all over Inessa. His arm slowly began to sever itself from the body and the man had let go from the pain and began plummeting to the street.
As the man fell, he screamed "Glory to Lord Caesar!!! Long live the Legion!!!"
It would only take a few seconds before the man hit the ground. The loud crack could be heard through the entire area and the nearby city districts. As Inessa look down, the Market below was showered with blood as well as the street. The man had cracked the back of his head open when he hit the ground as blood was pouring out of the back of his head from below.
'Poor sod must have cracked his head open on the ground. . ." Inessa thought to herself. He was probably dead. And if the fall did not kill him, the head Trauma would have.
The people down below screamed as the blood rained down from above and the body hit the street. Inessa thought to herself 'Dammit. Tonberry is going to have a field day with this. Now it beg's to question if they will paint me as a butcher or a hero? Who knows. . ."
Inessa sheathed her sword and began moving over to the edge of the building in front of her and climb up on it. As she did so, she moved a few steps from the edge of the building and layed on her back, breathing a deep sigh of relief that she was still alive.
'Dammit. What is Lord Caesar trying to do? I prevented the assassination and brought a end to them, but that leaves alot of unanswered questions. Why red haired women? There were plenty of other people he could have targeted, like Sultansworn or the Sultana or even the syndicate. . . ' She thought to herself. The issue was bothering her alot.
"God dammit! I should have taken him alive!" Inessa shouts out in frustration, but then sighs deeply and sits back up. "Dammit. . . nothing to do about it now other than clean up the mess. . . shit. I guess I should get to the dead man before the Brass do. No telling if they will do something stupid and tamper with evidence." She says, rubbing the back of her head and getting up, eventually proceeding to the closest stairway a few building down.
A few minutes later, down on the main street of the Saphire Avenue Exchange . .
Inessa luckily arrived at the scene of the crime first, before the Brass managed to get there. She began searching the dead man's pockets for clues. After about a minute of searching, she pulls out a slip of paper from the mans shirt under his armor. She unfolded the paper and it read. . .
'Legionare, for the Glory of Lord Caesar, you are to assassinate the woman know as Paladin Coatleque Crofte as dictated by the will of Lord Caesar. You must find the woman on your own and we cannot support you save to provide supplies to aid your assassinations. Glory to Lord Caesar!         -Written by Blade of the Right.'
Inessa stares at the letter. Her face shows an alarmed expression. "Shit. . . Crofte will not like to hear this. . . I wonder if it is right to tell her. . ." Inessa mumbled to herself. However, her concentration is broken by the Brass Blades approaching from behind. She gets up to meet them. She is covered in the bandit's blood, which causes the Brass Blades to reach for their blades for a moment before they realize that she is wearing a Sworn color's. They begin to calm down. One of them aproaches her and asks.  "Paladin, what happened here?"
Inessa shakes her head. "I was tracking the assassin who was murdering women around Ul'dah. I managed to catch him, but I had to kill him in the process."
"God's dammit." The blade mutters. "You left quite the mess. This is going to suck Thal's Ball's just to clean this mess up. . ."
Inessa bows to the Brass.  "I am sorry for causing this mess. However, I am Inessa Hara, Sworn initiate and private investigator. Could you overlook this and clean up the mess for me?"
The Brass Blade scoffs then sighs deeply.  "Fine. Get yer bloody ass out of here though. Or at least talk to the civilians. They seem rather startled by what you did."
Inessa nods. "I will. Thank you for overlooking this."
"Your welcome, now git." The brass blade says as he moves pass to exam the corpse. he then reaches for the Quiver and hand's it to Inessa.  "hey, take this and keep a hand on it for evidence. I read the article now. Said the arrow's were poisoned you did so you will need to keep that for evidence."
Inessa accepts the Quiver.  "Thank you." She responds to the Brass Blade before walking over to the disturbed civilians, who are jumpy at Inessa's sight. However, the one red haired girl, Inessa used as bait to help her, Marian, rushed up to her and hugged her, crying on her.  "Thank you so much. . . I thought I was going to die. . . Thank you, thank you, thank you. . ." Inessa is taken aback by the hug but slowly hugs the girl to comfort her. "There, there. Everything will be fine now." She says to the young women before moving her off of Inessa's person. Inessa then approaches the group of worried citizen's and begins to speak.  "Citizen's of Ul'dah. . . Rest easy tonight! The maiden slayer has been slain! You need not fear to walk the street's so long as I can do something about it! I swear to all of you now, I will try to prevent any more assassinations so long as I can do something about it! So rest easy. . ."
Not many of the people knew what to make of that speech, but Inessa glew with an aura. One of hope, signifying that even if the odd's are stacked against her, she would stand up to face the odd's and fight back, no matter how bleak the situation might be. This seemed to calm the Civilian's down and instead of giving her look's of fear and horror, they gazed upon her with respect and acceptance.