Hunter's Truce

Mary walked out of the Train Station, having decided to return after having given the soldier, Clarice, a lift out of the world for the latter to obtain her own Gummi ship. The ninja looked around, dressed in her more casual clothes to fit in and not get attention, more than usual. As she walked through Market Street, she looked around at the people walking around, soon reaching the crossroad, one leading to the Tram Commons, the other leading into the alley that leads to the Sandlot and what she knew was the hideout of the Twilight Trio. The ninja made to walk towards the Tram Commons when something got her attention and she quickly turned her head to see a figure head towards the alley.

Mary knew the Heartless would rarely appear in public places, yet the fact that she was getting a bad feeling of that figure made her decision. She ran into the alley, just in time to see something enter the subway tunnels to the left and chased after the figure. Once inside the tunnels, she quickly unsheathed her tanto, which she kept hidden under her shirt, remembering that the Heartless and Nobodies loved to ambush anyone who entered here, out of sight from the public view. The ninja slowed her sprinting, realizing the dim lights meant she couldn't find who or what she was chasing easily. And yet, her instincts were telling here that the figure was nearby and ringing alarm bells in her head. She kept her guard up, this time moving more cautiously.

(After Interval 1. Greg and me only.)

(Takes place after "Arising Light" in The Land of Dragons.)

Isaac's time since his job on that mountain had been relatively quiet. Sure, he had kept up his training, as well as worked on finding way to make more equipment to fight various creatures, but by and large, he had not found many others of high potential that could actually communicate with him. Sure, there was a lot of work he could get, but from his brother, who he knew was alive, to any other options, he had yet to find anyone of note.

He had heard of there being some odder creatures around this town, including something of a ways outside of its borders on a train, but beyond that, nothing much had come up. That said, the subway tunnels seemed a good enough route, one they had called the "Underground Conduit" up above. There seemed to be more kids than usual in this world, so less people for him to get jobs from, but some options did seem to be opening up lately. Albeit, those options were mostly for getting ingredients for food, but work was work, even if it was from an unusually well-dressed duck.

As he walked, he heard someone behind him, and ducked into an alcove. She walked by him, bright red eyes, an outfit that did not stick out too much... but with that knife in hand, he knew he was dealing with some kind of fighter. A bounty huntress? She looked attentive, though perhaps not very much so. Judging from that stance... yes, it would probably do him well to try to get her to stop following him.

His eyes filled with blood as he invoked one of his curses, a motion of a hand being enough. This one, the Curse of Binding, would cause her, unless she was physically strong enough, to be unable to move forward or away, freezing the blood in her body and, if her magic used internal flows such as chi, preventing her from using her magic at all for several seconds, or from making physical reactions to what he would do.

As he invoked this curse, tiring as it could be to hold it in place indefinitely without more training, he started trying to move down the tunnel, simply giving a curt, sarcastic wave behind him, possibly visible to her as he kept moving.

Mary kept her guard up, the dim lighting making her focus more on the figure she had been chasing. One that suddenly disappeared in the shadows, causing her to stop. This made the ninja more wary, as it meant she had been discovered and was now being watched. She started to move to edge closer to where the figure disappeared when her body suddenly seized up and stopped moving. To Mary, it felt like her blood just stopped cold as her target appeared and she could see him a bit more clearly, at least finding out the stranger was a male. If she could move her face, her expression would be of sheer annoyance which would've added a glare after seeing the sarcastic wave he gave before walking off and leaving her paralyzed and defenseless.

The ninja tried using her magic to see if she could stop the stranger, or at least distract him while she tried shaking whatever he did off. But her own sorcery was not responding at all and this was making her more frustrated. Mary then tried closing her eyes, and while she couldn't, she still imagined doing so, focusing her own growing anger at breaking her paralysis. She saw the stranger was already out of view due to the dim lighting but believed she could catch up as a slight spasm of her right arm suddenly happened. The ninja capitalized on this sign, continuing to shake off the paralysis and even making her magic flow, without casting to get herself free. After another minute of focusing, she managed to move her leg a step, and a few seconds later her other leg moved.

By the time a minute passed, Mary was starting to move, slowly though as her body got reused to being under her control. She still had to catch up though, the stranger already having a lead in evading her but she was hoping he was overconfident enough that he wasn't moving fast. The ninja still had to move slowly so she wouldn't create sound from her movements, especially her footsteps.

Isaac smirked as he kept walking, a fair bit away from his pursuer. He had a feeling she would come after him, but in that case there was no reason to care. He was getting bored of easy hunts, anyway, though they had allowed him to rake in a fairly large amount of funds thus far.

As he did, he saw the Woods up ahead, an exit from this tunnel. Some of the stranger events seemed to be focused beyond, though a few "Wonders," those that were not the mistakes of youths, did seem to have their bases back in the main neighborhood.

Perhaps he could find more if he knew what to look for, but currently that did not seem particularly viable. With the woman blocking the way back, it seemed better to just try to follow her, to see what she could do. She did seem fiendish to some degree, but watching her in action felt a better call.

As such, as he exited through the wooden doors to the wooded area beyond, the hunter ducked behind a nearby tree, proceeding to keep himself focused, waiting for either some form of target or the woman to come into focus.

There was only so much he could do to keep himself occupied, after all.