Anya Xha-Long's Story

Anya was inside one of her favorite clubs that was open all day, every week. The music in the club always played some type of rock track and the drinks weren't to shabby. But there was one problem about the bar, and that was the bar bar was owned by a local gang lord and she was always un-welcomed since she wasn't part of the gang.

She sat on a stool, next to the counter while drinking a non-alcoholic beverage. This was her tenth time in the club and the gang members were quite frankly fed up with telling her the same thing. As she relaxed and enjoyed the rock music playing, she felt a hand grab her shoulder very roughly followed by two guys with bats appearing by her side. "So is this your guys way on hitting on some girl?" She asked turning around with a big smile. A man that was probaly two feet taller than her and was quite muscular was staring her down, and he was clearly angry. "Listen you blonde bimbo! We told you ten times to never come back!" She spat at her but she remained unfazed "But you guys have really good drinks and music, like this grape juice." She motioned to her drink sitting on the counter behind her. The man clearly unamused began to crack his knuckles. "Looks like we need to teach you a lesson!"

The man threw his fist at her, but he gasped as the woman who looked clearly weaker than him was holding his fist at bay. "Thanks for trying to hit me first, now if I get in trouble with the police I can claim self defense." She spoke clearly happy before she flung the man over her shoulder into one of the guys holding a bat. The other armed thug raised his bat over his head to hit her, but he was met by a flurry of punches directed to his face and was knocked out cold.

All the thugs now in the club grabbed their weapons such as bats, knifes, brass knuckles, and some even drew pistols. She smiled and activated her bracers which transformed into a gauntlet. The ammo was already loaded in and today she decided to use rubber bullets so she didint kill anyone. As the men with melee weapons rushed her, she punched backwards causing her gauntlet to fire its round and the force allowed her to propel her forward followed by her punching the closest man, unloading a single rubber shell in him and causing him to fly backwards into a group of men and sent them all flying like bowling pins. "Strike!" She called out.

With all of the thugs with melee weapons knocked out cold, two thugs with guns began to shoot at her with the intention to kill. Their aim was pretty bad and instead of taking cover, she instead charged at one of the thugs using her inner aura to stop some of the bullets from penetrating her. When she was close the thug, she delivered a upercut to his chin causing her gauntlet to go off, afterwards she punched him in the gut with the same shotgun sound before grabbing the guy and throwing him across the room to hit the other guy.

With every thug now knocked out cold, she began to walk to the exit all the while waving behind her. "Thanks for the dance boys, I'll see you all tommorow!" With that she left the club.

Zula and Teddy both explained themselves perfectly, though the latter of the two seemed more ridiculous than the other for how they went about their explanations. The antlered feline now upon the roof of one of the buildings now simply found itself perched upon the edge of the building only to look comfortably down upon the two mice.

"A sword can only do so much for something you cannot see." The mysterious woman's voice cued at them once more only to laugh slightly allowing the sound to echo in their ears as if she was standing next to them. The Voice seemed to clearly speak towards the swordswoman only to change the subject to another. "And your senses will do you no good here brave knight. Your magics are nothing more than a bothersome trick. I imagine if my sense of smell is better than yours then I would suggest that the true source of what aids you is somewhere upon your person." The woman's voice once again called out from the breeze all the while the feline upon the roof above that rested so intently continued to watch with its eldritch emerald eyes.

As for the blond bimbo who caused such a ruckus within such a wretched establishment there was a presence of darkness that seemed to keep its distance from her. The young girl seemed dangerous, especially after her little show, and there was no need to engage her just yet. That is of course if all things turned out well and according to the grand design of things.

"Have you found out anything yet?" Zula asked Teddy.

"Yes," Teddy answered, sniffing the air to make sure, "A wood elf."

Zula was genuinely astonished, what was a wood elf, a creature of forests and nature, doing in the city? Things didn't add up to her on this encounter.

"I know you're a wood elf," Teddy called out, "So you have more intimate knowledge of what we call, the Old Ways. We humans collectively have only scratched the surface of these arts, most have even forsaken them for what you see around you. We know that if we didn't take special precautions, you could defeat us easily in a battle using our respective skills. You have shown mastery of the unseen. I know you're just toying with us, if you had malicious intent, you would have killed us out right. We were led here to meet, weren't we?"

After leaving the club, Anya entered an alleyway connecting to the club and began to talk out loud. "Well that was fun, I'm surprised they told me ten times before they started a fight. I had them pegged as the type of guys who would have attacked me the second time I entered. But what should I do---" Her ranting soon came to a stop after her gut began to rumble. "Well food it is then, and I am in the mood for a old fashioned burger. I think I know a shop not to far from here that sells burgers, but I think I can get there faster if a go through a park." Deactivating her gauntlets, they returned back to their bracer form, then she began to jog out of the alleyway. But she had a very small feeling that something was watching her, but she just shook it off either as some sort of rat in the garbage can, or a thug that was hiding from her rampage making sure she left.

The feline continued to sit and watch for a time as the man bellow began to spout off what he knew. It was almost to enjoyable to hear such a stunning selection of knowledge being spewed forth like any of it truly mattered at all.

"My how perceptive." The mystery woman's voice once again chimed in as the antlered feline jumped down from its perch and landed unnaturally silent upon the ground. "I am impressed by how much you have already determined about what is watching you. But sadly our meeting was not fated and if I truly wished to show any kind of malice I know of a many different ways other than outright murder." The Antlered feline gracefully made its way over to the bench only to hop up upon the wooden seat and meow rather loudly at the two. It tilted its head slightly only keeping its eldritch gaze upon the two still as if ready to pounce at any given second.

As for the blond brawler her senses of something dark around each corner she took but nothing would be seen or heard. Her trip to that burger joint might go swimmingly but there was a chance, a small one at that, she might stumble upon the scene of a swordswoman, a man dressed in strange knightly attire, and an even odder looking cat with eldritch emerald eyes.

Zula instinctively turned, but was halted by Teddy, who turned a little slower. "So that's your disguise, eh?" He asked, his senses pegged this unnatural cat as the wood elf, "I'm not too surprised that it's an antlered cat." Zula decided it best to let Teddy do the talking.

"My name is Sir Theodore "Teddy" Ursa," He introduces himself, "It would be rude if you didn't introduce yourself."

After leaving the alleyway, Anya jogged past some passing pedestrians being careful not to crash into anyone. She soon arrived at a large park and hopped over the fence instead of using the entrance. There were some people at the park but as she continued her jog two figures caught her attention. A man dressed in a knightly attire, a woman armed with a sword, and a odd looking cat caught her attention. "Some type of fair going on? Or are they actually serious? Meh, it doesn't concern me. I'm here taking a shortcut to a burger joint and that's that." She spoke quietly to herself while continuing her jog.

And what manners would I need Sir Theodore." The Elvish woman's voice trailed off from the breeze once more. "Regardless I grow tired of these games the three of us tend to play." Her words once again traversed the breeze but in an instant the feline was gone from the bench. It only seemed like seconds would pass and upon the left shoulder of Zula there would be the pale elvish hand of the witch.

"Some have called me by many names. But the both of you should know me as the Seer. My name might be to hard to say in such a common tongue." The Elvish witch began to smile and withdrew her hand from the young swordswoman's shoulder only to slowly walk around the two warriors as if to size them up like they both cattle ready for the slaughter.

"But fear not." The Seer spoke once more. "For your friend here was not wrong on if I was to bring malicious intent. I have none and yet I will offer you what I have seen with my own eyes." Her words seemed to drip like venom now as ancient power thrummed behind every word. "A curse that runs so deep that anyone who has seen the things I have would surely weep or laugh for your mortal souls."

Zula had froze when the elf's hand had grasped her shoulder, she was only slightly relieved when the elf let go. Zula was astonished by her mentioning their curse, "Yes," she replied in a slightly shaken tone, "The time loop, do you know anything about it?"

"You're right," Teddy replied, he didn't seem surprised, "We're being affected by an isolated time loop. To make things worse, I'm sure you know of the wound in the Mana Streams known as Darkella? She's hunting us right now, planning to feed off of my life force and render me into the beast sleeping within my soul."

Anya was almost at the other side of the park when something caught her attention. On the other side of the park were two black trucks as a group of men standing near them, at first glance they seemed to be nothing important but what caught her attention was that they all had the same tattoo of a crushed skull on their arm. She thought she had seen that tattoo before and thinking back to when she was in the club, she remembered that the men in the club had the same tattoos. Her guess was that tyey revived a call and were out looking for her.

She looked around and noticed a couple of pedestriants wandering around, sure there was a chance some bystander could get injured, but she was hungry and clobbering a few thugs would liven things up again. "You boys sure work fast, I mean I trashed the guys in the club five...ten minutes ago." She called out to the thugs and caught their attention. "That's the blonde girl that beat our men! After her!" A man that seemed to be the big cheese yelled to his men. She waved at them and ran back into the park with a bunch of angry men on her tail.

"Of course I am right and it may be possible for me to help the both of you. Of course this would only occur once the proper exchange has been met in full." The Seer simply stopped before the two and crossed her arms. Wickedly grinning she simply waited to see what to do next. "Surely there must be something the two of you have not tried...."

The Elven Witch began to ponder as to how she could use the two of these fine warriors only to tilt her head back at the blonde and her oncoming problems. "Typical of most to fight odds greater than them." Altholos commented to herself only to grow wide eyed at the immense size of a large man who stepped out from one of the vans that this woman was beginning to assault.

Victor Bespalov stepped out of one of the large vans. He was a battle hardened warrior with scars that told stories and a icy stare that could make even the dead wail in agony.

"Someone stop that wretched bitch!" Victor called out to the obvious henchman of some low-ranking criminal syndicate. Victor did not care for the small boss who gave the orders. The Artic Thunder took the man by the shoulder only to bring his entire strength against the little man, crushing his clavicle and shoulder blade, leaving him in excruciating pain.

"Little men should stay out of the way of Titans." Victor offered the small ring leader no sympathies as he spoke but instead kicked the man which sent him flying into the side of their van toppling it over.

Zula knew what the Seer had said indicated a contract. Teddy had told her and the other apprentices at the Order to avoid contracts from unknown or known-to-be-hostile magic users like they were the bane of existence. Teddy had personal experience himself, once you're in a magic contract, the spellcaster always gets their due, even if it meant ensnaring one's soul by the simple signing of a paper. This was exactly how Zula's master lost so many apprentices to the dark side.

"No deal," Teddy replied, "I don't make contracts with mages I don't know. As a darkness user, I know very clearly of the consequences."

"But, Teddy," Zula began, "What other choices do we have?"

"We find out for ourselves, it's better than potentially having to sell our souls to her."

Anya notice the giant man get out from one of the vans and ordered the gang members to do the same task that the big cheese told his men. The Titan of a man then proceded to crush the poor man before kicking him into one of the vans causing it to topple over. "I must have really pissed off another organization for them to send that behemoth...More fun for me!" She spoke excitedly to herself before yelling at her new opponent while taking up a fighting position, ready to fight the thugs. "If you want to stop me, then you have to beat me first!"

The thugs didint even dare to think of fighting the Titan of a man that just crushed their boss, and kicked him into their van, both creating a crater in it and toppling it over. They had some resemblance of a brain in their head, and they also had the same goal which was fighting the blonde that wrecked their club.

The Elvish Witch smiled and shook her head. "Souls are such weighty things but I have no need for them." Altholos took a deep breath and turned her attention to the fighting that was about to take place nearby. "The both of you are so young and yet you do not see how foolish your actions are. Pity, truly, but I cannot force you to take my hand and walk a path of pure bliss." The Seer began to sigh and turn herself more towards the thugs and the large titan of a man who seemed to all gun towards the blond haired woman.

The gang members all rushed towards the blond haired woman but Victor was at the front with nothing more than a wicked grin upon his face and a mind full of rage at his disposal.

Teddy is actually more amazed at the Seer's response, "Perhaps you are sincere in your word," Teddy returned, looking at the rising conflict as well, he has a hand on Thumbnail's Poke Ball just in case. He continues, "I can take any price, I just didn't want to give up one of the only things holding my darkness back."

Zula also begins to ready her sword, just in case Teddy gave the order to intervene.

Anya stood her ground as she watched the horde of people rush at her. She was actually smiling in a situation that looked very grim for anybody, but what made her make the first move was the wicked grin the man was giving, almost like he wanted to fight right now and she was happy to oblige. "Let's not keep you boys waiting." She called out before cracking her knuckles and activating her bracers.

That's when she made the first move, she began to charge the group head on. When she got close enough, she jumped and propelled herself forward by using the force of both of her gauntlets. She then readied her fist to punch anyone (un)lucky enough to take the blow.

The Witch looked over a t Teddy only to shake her head at the naivety that the young man displayed. "Sincerity has nothing to do with what I offer." Her words seemed sharper somehow as if she was rebuking a child for doing something that it was told countless times not to do again. "If you can't take the worst price there is then what could you willingly give in order to save yourself before it is too late."

As for Victor and the flunkies who began to rush the blond woman there would be little anyone can do once things got started. Several of the men came up short as they fell to one knee and produced semiautomatic pistols which they began to open fire with while others clenched onto baseball bats and axes. As the first henchman drew close enough he would be the unlucky sacrifice for the rest as every man decided to try their best. Victor however leaped forward with unnatural ease as his strength gave him boons of athletic might allowing him to close the gap easily. The Titan wanted to get right in on the fight and there was something about crushing another poor sods bones that brought a vindictive smile to his face.