Where There's Light... [Cass]

music
Fuji-nee no Theme 1 - Fate/Stay Night OST
words
nyah
notes
disguise. Cass' chest is bound flat though, so she doesn't have her womanly curves and looks more like a man.

It felt strange, wandering around the city of Drasil without her armour present. Rather, she was reduced to wearing nothing but hard leather underneath the prim-and-proper dress she wore. She blended in quite well as a researcher, to say the least, though rather than equipping her usual broadsword, she carried a rather plain short sword at her side. A very proper form of dress, to say the least, one befitting of a noble and, thankfully, she was able to blend in as a man rather than as a woman.

And so, Cassiondra had begun searching the streets of Drasil, no longer easily marked as the Lead General. Arguably, she was here both on Empire business and on business for the resistance; the Empire had sent her to gather information from the mages about the wherabouts of a mage who'd gone missing recently. Supposedly, it had to do with the cult group Maxwell's Revival, though how true that was Cass was not entirely sure. However, there'd also been reports of guild involvement and influence in Drasil, and while she hadn't been given official leave to investigate, with some of the members of her resistance stationed here, she was taking it upon herself to do some investigating.

Her search, however, wasn't quite as easy as she'd anticipated. While blending in was easy, coming close enough to be able to listen in on conversations between members of the Guilds proved quite difficult. It left her hiding in shadowed corners in alleways, praying that if they walked past, they'd go without noticing her. Disguise or not, she did have the tendency to stick out, though she was quite happy with the attire she'd chosen; with any luck, nobody would be able to peg her real identity, not considering the fact that she looked like a man and was forcing herself to speak like one, if only a somewhat effeminate one.

There was no doubt that in Drasil, there was definite guild involvement. She saw their insignia everywhere she went; that same seven-pointed star that tormented her day in and day out. Right now, she was busy observing a large group of them; she counted approximately ten, all of which were standing in front of an arms shop. Not only was she here to gather information as part of her resistance, but she was also on the lookout for potential recruits, as well, under the guise of a strong male leader. Most if not all of her low-ranking recruits believed it was led by a man, one who was a mage in Drasil. Only her highest-ranking superiors were privy to the knowledge of her identity, and she preferred it that way. The less people that could trace it back to her position as Lead General, the better.

She was making her way slowly along the streets, a small notebook in hand as she scribbled notes in it, appearing to look as if she were deciphering formulas. Thankfully, she'd picked up a few tricks from Darius before leaving; he'd formerly been a scholar, after all. He'd given her some of the laydown of what basic magitechnology was and how to talk... Well, tech, to say the least. She had enough knowledge that she could bluff her way through a basic conversation if she needed, as well as some of the more advanced vocabulary, but in terms of crunching the numbers, she was far from a professional. Thankfully, all she needed was the guise.

This group was quite suspicious, in Cass' opinion. She was quite far away from them, though she was watching them carefully, and noted as another emerged from the weapons shop with an armload of weapons. So Drasil was selling weapons to the Guilds after all. The Seychelles woman didn't find that a surprise in the least. There was no other possible way the Guilds would be able to keep up with the Empire other than that, and perhaps via theft. She made notes as the weapons were doled out, counting eleven of them: four women and seven men, to be more precise. The larger, taller one looked like he was their leader, although they all looked relatively tough. In fact, their leader looked quite familiar... Perhaps a face she'd seen on the battlefield once before...

And it appeared he recognized her as well. Or, at least, he didn't like the prying look she was giving him.

"Oi. What're you starin' at, boy?" A deep, gruff voice accused her as she leaned almost casually against the brick wall of a building. Thunder crackled behind them as lightning illuminated, casting a glow across the shorter blonde's face.

"I am merely delving into the apatheian formula and attempting to expand it through phyliranic methods. Is that interfering with some sort of work you are doing? I believe you were merely passing by."

"Dun' gimmie that kin'a attitude, boy. Any one 'o us with a brain 'n a half could'a told'ya ye're starin' at us specifically."

"I get the feeling he's lying through his teeth, Caius," one of the females commented, an almost sadistic grin on her face. "Perhaps you should teach him a lesson about tussling with the Hawkeye Guild." It seemed this particular girl was glimmering with a sense of sadism, clearly believing that a poor, pointless mage would be easily beat up by someone as large as Caius. If it wouldn't have blown her cover, Cass would have laughed quite heartily. Caius was approximately the same size as Darius was, and she could throw him around any day. Sure, Darius outmatched her in physical strength, but when it came down to reflex, speed, and mentality, Cass immediately gained the upper hand. She'd designed her entire sword style to revolve around outmanouevering her opponenets, after all.

music
Chance for a Big Reversal - Tales of Vesperia OST
words
nyah
notes
err, that was longer than I expected... xD

So the Guilds were making their influence known in Drasil after all. This was far from a surprise for the General, even as she was stared down by someone who appeared to be a rather high-ranking officer of the Hawkeye guild. The guild's name had come across her desk on occasion, and while it was not the most popular of guild names -- such as the Rogue, the Hunter, and the Merchant guilds -- it was one that took perhaps second place to the three largest. And it was a name that she was bound and determined to find out more about, too. If the smaller guilds were making an influence, then it was either highly likely or highly unlikely that the larger guilds were as well. There would be no middle ground in that regard.

She was quick to size up her opponent, noting each and every way he moved even as he cracked his knuckles with a smile on his face. So, he found joy in picking on people that were approximately half his size? Cass was merely lucky she was able to pass for a young man, particularly with the way she was dressed, otherwise the situation might have been different. The problem was going to be whether she blew her cover or not if she got into a confrontation with these people. She could probably take all of them at once -- they didn't look skilled, and if they were, they weren't nearly as much as she -- but it would be a difficult skirmish to say the least. She simply had to hope that her chest wouldn't come unbound and she be pegged as a woman -- or, more specifically, the Gladiolan Navy's Lead General.

"Surely you've better things to do than pick on a mere mage who's studying catalyst technology, I would think... Caius, was it?" Her voice was taunting, almost encouraging him to even attempt to come at her. She was no fool. She knew he was already riled up, and he'd already pegged her as a target. Put simply, he was running on the fact that he wanted to beat some hopeless lump to a pulp, all because it was fun. That, however, would be his downfall. His ego was bigger than his brain, that was for sure, but Cass would be the one to determine whether he had the gall or not to live up to that ego.

"Ye think ye're a comedian, do you boy? This 'ere's about to be guild territory, and ye think ye're gonna walk around without dealin' with us? Guess I better teach 'im how it's done, eh Nephrys?" He called back to the sadistic female, who chuckled and nodded. "This one 'ere is mine, ladies 'n gents. Y'all enjoy the show now," he finished with a smirk, and decided to be the first one to make a move. Cass was already ready as he charged, head on at her, looking as if he was about to grab her and throw her. She, however, was much quicker than he was, simply moving sleekly to the side as his hands grabbed mere air. A smile was on her face, albeit the faintest of ones, as another crack of lightning illuminated her face.

"Surely you can do better than that to a mere mage." She saw the anger well up in his face, the frustration he felt because he'd missed that first one. It seemed she'd been wrong; this guy was far bigger an oaf than Darius, which made her chances of beating him far higher. Darius wasn't stupid enough to charge her head-on, not in that sort of way, at least. He was aware of her speed and agility, and made every move to corner her to prevent it. And here she thought sparring with him had been almost pointless, considering she won every time. At least Darius knew how to handle a sword...

He charged at her again, this time in a way that blocked... Most, if not all avenues of escape for her. To one side was a wall, and to the other was the rest of this guy's friends, but he was still more of an idiot. She could see the bucket next to her, sitting just outside the doorway to the weapons' shop storage shed. At least, she was sure that was what it was. It had a little bit of water in it, and if she was quick enough.... As Caius came towards her, she used her foot to kick the bucket into her hands, quickly enough that she managed to shove it onto Caius' head as he came near. That blocked his line of sight, giving her enough time to duck under his arm and barely out of his reach.

She wasn't quite done there, however.

Turning, she aimed a strong kick to the back of the bucket, an impact that would certainly rattle him. The side of his head hit the building at the same time, enough to knock him out cold, or at least daze him. He slumped to the ground unconscious, the small blonde having hardly broken a sweat in the attempt.

"So. Which of you Hawkeye egos are next?" She turned to his friends, some of which had looks of shock on their face, others of which were angry. That left six of them, three females, three males. It wasn't long before each of them looked at each other, looks of anger and frustration upon their faces as each of them drew their weapons. Cass was wary, now, her own hand reaching for the very light short sword at her waist. A few of them chuckled as she did so -- she looked like no swordsman. In fact, however, wielding a short sword meant her sword strikes were so impeccably fast that keeping up with them would be difficult. Being so used to a larger broadsword that (for her at least) required two hands, the difference in weight alone was impeccable.

The females charged first, with two of the males hanging back, as both of them appeared to be wielding ranged weapons. One carried a staff, the other a bow, neither of which would be troublesome for her. The females, however, wielded close-range weapons, one holding a set of katars and the other a mace. The one with the mace used it with two hands, indicating that while her full strength would be behind it, she was not equipped to use it one-handed, leaving her defenses quite weak in comparison. Cass knew all this from experience; wielding a broadsword -- which, in all actuality, she was capable of wielding one-handed, but chose to use with with two -- she knew that this woman's defenses were weaker, considering she was unable to properly command it with one hand, and use the other for defensive purposes. Maces were also far different, in that the weight was different between the handle and head, therefore giving it a stronger swinging power, but once evaded, it was not nearly as nimble as a sword.

She ducked the first swing from the mace, moving to the side to avoid the second as the katars clearly missed her. Pitching into a side roll, she sprung up angled, with the ranged fighters in her line of sight, yet too far away to attack. The man with the bow fired at her, three times in succession, all of which she blocked easily with the speed of her sword. Surprise came across his face -- he hadn't expected her to move that quickly with a blade. It was becoming plainly obvious that her skill level far outmatched that of theirs, leaving her on a level far higher than any of them could hope to achieve. She had, after all, lived most of her life with a sword at her waist, fighting skirmishes ranging from a fight with monsters to members of the Guilds. Twenty years of that sort of lifestyle left quite the mark on a person...

The mage, however, was going to be problematic if he finished his casting. Reaching low for a rock approximately the size of a child's fist, she hurled it in an underhand motion at him, pegging him hard in the shoulder and interrupting him. Soon she was overwhelmed with katars and maces again, nimbly evading the slow, heavy mace strikes as the girl with the katars quickly worked to overwhelm her. She didn't notice the third male and female anywhere... Where had they disappeared to? Neither of them seemed to be anywhere in sight, and yet she was busy dealing with four of them... Had they bailed, perhaps?

Her question was about to be answered, however, even as she ducked a horizontal mace strike, moving in to slam the hilt of her sword into the girl's gut, causing her to cough and spatter. A harmless strike, but one that was painful and would leave her gasping for air. A quick twirling strike with the butt of the handle to the nape of her neck left her sprawled face-down in the dirt, unconscious like the first. She was soon overwhelmed by katars, parrying the girl's fast strikes as she watched both blades at once. Her eyes hardly had time to register the knives flying at her from a dark shadow...

Something which quickly changed the tide of battle, at least to some degree. As she leaned to avoid the flying projectiles, along with another arrow flying towards her, one of them managed to strike the hairband holding her hair back, leaving her long locks to flow around her face. Well, if it didn't accentuate her feminine face already, it would have been made even more obvious that she was a woman. This was not good. The closer she got to taking a strike from the girl with the katars, the more likely it was that her identity would be revealed.

"This kid's pretty good, isn't he Hawkeyes?" The girl with the sadistic look said from the shadows as she twirled a knife. Katar-girl was giving her a bit of a break as the sadistic one spoke, the most obvious of sneers on her face. She appeared to hold some sort of disdain for the supposed "mage" before her...

"Now stop pretending to play knight, boy, and just come along quietly. We can't exactly let you go considering what you've done to our leader, now can we? A little... Lesson might do you some good. You're good at that sort of thing, aren't you?" The laughter that came from her sent chills down the General's spine. She was cold-hearted and probably had murderous intentions. Best to deal with those now, while she had the chance. These were the sort of people that gave a horrible name to the Guilds, after all. The people who killed and slaughtered mercilessly, regardless of stature, age, and ability. Combatant or innocent bystander, it mattered not.