Moratorium [Silv/Lilac - Closed]

This time the magic user shrieked as her hand was twisted. Her one bell clattered to the ground, and when she found a weapon at her head, she dropped the other one.

"P-please," she stammered. "If I don't get those items back now, she'll corrupt! McCrae, you've got to believe me!"

The woman then froze and her eyes widened in fear as if she had said something wrong or let something slip.

A bright light would come from the other side of the alley followed by a scream, a figure flying and tumbling against the ground, and blood dripping from a nose.

"McCrae!" Claes barked.

The officer was on the hard asphalt ground and was trying to push herself off the ground. Part of her uniform had been torn on her arm and there were slashes on her side and leg. Her pin neat bun was now in frays. From the darkness at the other end of the alley that formed a turn, a tall shadow cast itself on a wall. It bobbed as its owner started jogging towards them.

"Goddammit," Claes muttered under her breath.

The figure turned out to be a lanky man in a completely black suit and coat. He wore a strange white fox mask. Something metal screeched the ground as he slowed down. He was dragging something long and metal in his left hand. No...something long and metal was attached to arm. Goibniu would see a long metal sharp blade had somehow fused with the man's body. There were no screws or connections. There were no joints or ends. It was literally a part of him.

For the first time since their mission, Goibniu would notice Claes' eyes wide with fear. The man stopped in place. He examined Goibniu and his prisoner. Claes bit her lip. Her own pair of pisolts pointed at him, but they trembled in her hands.

"Stand down!" she said loudly. "Stay right where you are or I'll shoot! We already have your friend. Surrender!"

The man thought about this for a moment. The fox face stared at the two and then started running at them.

Two shots fired.

The man didn't stop. Instead he continued to run. More shots. More running. Claes tried to run, but failed. A silver gleam flashed as he moved past Claes and left a spray of blood coming from her side as she fell on her knees. This time, the man was heading towards Goibniu and the mage.

As the Walpurgis stuttered and tried to talk to him, something in her dialogue peaked Goibniu's attention. 'McCrae'? "How do you my last name?" He asked, confused. Could this stray have heard Claes address him earlier? Then again, her voice was still being strangelly familiar, and he couldn't shake off the feeling that he knew her.

...

... She couldn't be-

"Officer?" Her voice caught his attention, as he turned to see that Claes was untidy and in pain from someone that was approaching at them! The figure itself was now in clear view, and the first thing he noticed was the blade that... Seemed to be part of this person's body. And despite her warning and opening fire, it didn't stop at nothing. "Officer, watch out!" He called out, as he seeminly ran past her, and confronted him and the stray.

"No sudden moves!" He said, as he pointed at the figure. If he needed to, he'd add extra firepower to his weapon.

The figure stopped, but not because Goibniu told him to. He pointed at the cloaked mage.

"Her. Let her go, and I spare you," a raspy, distorted voice said. It sounded like static. "Don't let her go, and I won't spare you."

Claes was still on one knee and holding her wound. Her hand glowed white as she was trying to heal the gash. Meanwhile, the mage who had been held up by Goibniu stood there trembling.

"Do what he says," she whispered. "Please, for your own good do what he says."

Goibniu looked at the figure defiantly. Could this be perhaps the Incantus the stray formed a contract with? Nevertheless, it made an offer he couldn't accept. "I'm afraid I can't allow that. We have been looking for her, and it'd be erroneous for us to let her go." He said, shooting a defiant look at the figure.

And then he re-aimed his firearm, this time, towards the figure. "Any hasty moves and I'll be forced to open fire."

The man pondered on this.

"If you think I'm afraid of bullets, you really underestimate me," the man said. "Listen. I want the girl, you want the girl, can we not make a deal to tear in half and share?"

The girl herself stiffened at the notion. Her body trembled and the eyes behind her mask were trapped open in fright. The man sighed.

"If you're going to be that way, then I have no choice but to surrender," he said with a shrug.

His bladed arm lowered down ever so slightly before jolting back up and lunging towards Goibniu, its form thinning and narrowing with a pointed tip. Of course, this gave Goibniu the chance to shoot him in his own quick reflex.

"I'm afraid this is non-negotiable." Goibniu simply said, refusing the offer the man did. A deal would be a good peaceful resolution, but he and Claes were Expiate, and they have a duty to uphold!

As he saw that the man surrended, Goibniu relaxed his muscles, but then he tensed up again as he tried to attack him and the stray. Quickly, he fired his gun aiming at the man's shoulder, in an attempt to weaken his offensive capabilities, before moving a side with the Walpurgis in hand. He needs to be careful if they are going to keep fighting in a narrow alleyway.

The man grunted as his elbow got hit, but it merely made him flinch. Claes, around this time, had fortunately recovered and was now charging at him, yelling from behind as her cutlass attempted to slash him from behind. The man slammed his foot on the ground, causing a pentacle to appear, before a small pillar of earth shot from it and hit Claes upward under her chin.

Meanwhile, the mage turned to Goibniu.

"McCrae! Let me go!" she said. "Let me help you! I promise I won't run away!"

"Stop talking, mouse," the man said before turning back to them and stomping his foot again. This time the ground shook and several pieces of ground rose to the air and shot towards Goibniu and Liseran, quickly turning sharp and pointed as they did.

The bullet managed to hit him, but it seemingly didn't hurt him a lot. Thankfully it gave Claes enough time to launch an assault of her own, but the stranger was able to see it coming and prevented it with pillar of earth smacking her in the face.

"Alfson!" Goibniu called out, when suddenly the man turned to him again. The stray was making promises of help, and the fact that she knew him was not helping him feel less exasperated. "How do you even know me??" He asked, when suddenly the figure caused pieced of earth to shot at them. He had no option but to cover himself with his arms, and so he did, letting go off the Walpurgis in the process.

Free from captive, the girl dodged in the opposite direction, picking up her bells and raising one as she channeled her energy into forming a large Cartic glyph in front of her. Ice shards shot from it and attacked the man from behind. He winced, but nothing seemed to penetrate.

"Enough of this," the man growled.

Claes was still pretty much knocked down on the ground. The man's silver blade shot out again towards Goibniu and the girl, but this time the girl cast several almost transparent white marks. The marks shot towards the man in bright white lines towards his blade and his hand, trying to keep them up in the air.

"Get your friend! I can't hold him long!" she said. "There's no point fighting him, we have to leave now."

Despite the Walpurgis' best efforts, the man was just unstoppable. Goibniu couldn't believe how resilient he was, was he an actual Incantus? Regardless of what he was, the stray managed to hold him in place with enough time  for Goibniu to abscond. Moving towards Claes, he held his arms to help her get up on her feet.

"Officer, what do we do? This man isn't going down with anything!" He said, wondering what sort of measures they'll have to take to subdue him.