[Flashback] Arrogance of the Rich (Nira'lia)

[Eridanus]

Day 55, Winter of 506 AV
Evening
The Kelp Bar

Eridanus strode in, his celestial form in full glory as he pushed open the door. He was clothed simply in robes that denoted him as a student of the magic department in the University. It was not a uniform of sorts, but it was associated to such students because of the popularity of these robes within the student population due to its many pockets and comfortable wear. Furthermore, it was winter and the protection the robes provided against the cold was a welcome addition.

"Want some kelp beer prettyboy? It's on the house!" The bartender shouted out, recognizing the ethaefal. There were only so many Fallen Children in Zeltiva, anyway, and thus he was easily recognized. Not to mention that he was highly favoured by the establishment due to the extra business his presence brings from the many fawning girls.

"I'll pass," Eridanus replied, inwardly cringing as he remembered his first taste of the alcoholic drink. In his opinion it was a horrible excuse of a beverage and the inventor should be kicked down a pit, but to others he would laugh it off and say that he had not acquired the taste for it yet.

---

In another part of the city, a young man sat in his room, surrounded by many muscular but sorry-looking men who were trying their best to look contrite despite their fierce expressions.

"How hard is it to find a damn Konti? That bitch dared to hit me? I'm going to give her what she deserves," He said, smiling to himself as perverse thoughts flooded his mind. "Oh yes, I'm going to give it to her. Hard."

The door to his richly decorated house creaked open, and a scrawny looking ruffian poked his head in uncertainly.

"Come in!" The princeling commanded.

"The report sir. We found her near the docks. Last time we saw her, girl's walking along the beach for some reason."

The princeling brightened up considerably, twirling his hands around and gestured towards a large shelf nearby. It was adorned with various weapons, and he spread his hands out wide, "Borrow a weapon here, boys. We're gonna show that slut who's the real boss around here."

With that, he led the gang of thugs out of his house, led by the scrawny ruffian towards the Docks.

[Nira'lia]

Before Nira'lia had left her home, her mother had asked her where she was heading. "Nowhere in particular," was her reply. She just wanted to go out and have some time for herself. Nira'lia heard her mother say something about just wanting to go to the University again, but Nira'lia didn’t pay attention to where it would lead because she soon retreated out of the door. Today had been an exhausting day for her. That morning, a neighbour with a bad cold had come to see her mother, and Nira’lia had been asked to prepare the medicine – which she had done wrongly. She was scolded for that one mistake and for a lot more afterwards. Today just wasn’t a good day for her, and she needed a rest. For a moment, Nira'lia did think about going to the University. While the library seemed like a good choice, she had no idea if and what time they shut its doors, and she didn’t want to take the risk. Other than that, she also heard that some students had planned another party on campus for that night, and she wanted a quiet and desolate place. For this reason, she decided to walk towards the direction of the beach. The beach seemed like a good place to go. While the docks could also be found there and was usually rowdy during the day, at this time of the night, the sailors and traders seemed to be in their beds... or the kelp bar. Nira’lia always liked the peacefulness of the beach at night. She took her time in walking towards the beach. When she finally arrived at her destination, she smiled at the sea. The moon's reflection cascaded over the water and shimmered beautifully. The sound of the waves crashing against the shore calmed her, and the cold winter air felt pleasant as well. All in all, it was a good place to be at, and it wasn’t only because she was a daughter of the sea. Looking to the side, she could see the ships moored at the docks and faint sounds of rowdy noise coming from the kelp bar. The konti started to walk down the beach, kicking at the waves softly. The water was cool on her feet. She spent the minutes away walking down the beach and daydreaming. Her mind was blank and absent, and she had no idea about what was to come, nor that her peaceful night was about to be ruined.

[Eridanus]

The door to the Kelp Bar slammed open, and a youngster entered, his breath ragged.

"Dammit Jonas! You're just three months shy of the legal age. Stop getting your ass in here or your mom will whack mine," The bartender glowered as he scolded the teenager.

"No... no... it's just... Matt is on the march again!" The teenager said, panting as he recovered his breath.

Those who recognized the bar stopped their own respective conversations, turning their head to look interestedly at the teenager.

"Who's that?" Eridanus asked the bartender.

"Matthew Steinford IV," The bartender replied, keeping his eyes on the teenager. "He's the guy you chased after about twenty days ago."

He's that mafia wannabe kid!

"What does that Jonas mean by 'on the march'?" Eridanus asked casually, though inwardly he had a sour feeling that something was going to go wrong fast.

"Probably found someone that incurs his wrath, that young punk," The bartender said, shaking his head. "Smart move too, since most of the available Guardians in the city are off protecting a certain Merchants' Bash being thrown by that punk's dad too."

The bad feeling intensified, and Eridanus took out a single gold coin, flipping it in the air as his act gained the teenager's attention.

"Show me where Matthew is heading to," He commanded, and threw the coin to the kid. Jonas caught it, smiled, and beckoned, and the two of them began running towards the Docks.

---

The scrawny ruffian finally led Matthew and his gang to the beach. The Docks were unusually quiet at this time, for the sailors were also involved in the Merchants' Bash being thrown by his father. That only made things easier for him - no Guardians, no witnesses.

He was going to have an excellent time tonight.

He was holding a rapier himself. His arms gripped it relaxedly in a practised manner, for he had trained in it since young. It was a gentleman's weapon, after all. Light, portable and elegant. It even had a golden hilt with gems encrusted in it.

His entourage had the same eight men that were following him earlier, though this time they all carried a variety of weapons ranging from a mace, an axe, swords and flails. One of them even had a spear. Though all of them had one thing in common - they held their weapons in an awkward manner, and treated the weapons even more carefully because of their expensive nature.

"Ahead to the beach!" Matthew Steinford IV exclaimed happily, and finally they chanced upon a lone figure. The lone figure that he had been lusting over in a mixture of anger and revenge for the past twenty days.

"Well well well. If it isn't Miss Whore over here," The princeling smirked aloud, gesturing at his thugs to surround her. "You and I, little slut, are going to have a real fine date tonight."

[Nira'lia]

Nira'lia felt something loom -- a terrible presence that said the night was about to go badly. Her mind was too far off to realize that there was a group approaching the beach, but when she finally noticed the sounds of their boots against the sand, she turned around quickly. Her reaction was too late, for the princeling was already ordering his thugs to surround her. She didn't hide the expression of disgust that she had for his words. Nira'lia recognized him immediately. It was the man who had caused trouble weeks ago. It happened quickly. The thugs surrounded her. Nira'lia's face went white as she attempted to look for an escape route, but to no avail. "What do you want?" she asked their leader, trying her best to act courageous. What possible reason could he have for looking for her? They had weapons in her hands, and Nira'lia had no idea how she should deal with the situation. "I want you to pay for what you did," replied the princeling, Matthew. He looked furious, but also proud that he had found her. "You have no way out now. There's no prettyboy around to save you. Get a hold of her!" Two of them suddenly came at her and roughly took hold of her arms, twisting them against her back. As soon as they touched her skin, visions flooded before her eyes. She shook them away as quickly as she could, focusing on the present. Nira'lia restrained herself from shrieking in pain, and she felt the strain in her arms. They were strong and she had no strength to fight with. The princeling smirked and moved towards her, reaching for her. Out of instinct, and since only her legs were currently free, she kicked him right in the stomach. She put her strength in it and sent him staggering backwards, coughing. When he finally regained his composure, all he did was laugh. All color had drained out of her face as she looked around frantically, hoping that someone would come soon. Anybody would be fine, even if they just ran off to get help. She prayed to the gods and looked back at the princeling with a terrified expression.

[Eridanus]

Eridanus and the teenager reached the beach soon, but judging from the large mob surrounding a lone figure he knew that they were too late. He narrowed his eyes as he took in the faces and figures of the gang, and he realized that he recognized all of them. They were the same eight thugs that were with Matthew Steinford IV that day. He could not see who they were surrounding, for Matthew was blocking his view, though he could recognize that kid's back view any day.

"Shyke's hit the fan," The ethaefal muttered, to which the teenager nodded fervently. "You know what kid? I'll give you another gold coin, distract them as long as you can, but run away the minute they chase for you. Understand?"

The kid looked at him as if he was insane, and he took out one of the pieces of rags he carried around. "Cover your face if you need to. Get their attention but keep your ass safe. Now go!" The kid nodded gratefully and covered his face with the rag, prancing out of the cover while shouting in a shrill falsetto so that the gang could not identify his voice.

NoteFeel free to further describe the various distractions by the kid, reactions from the gang, and Nira's responses at this part.

While the kid's job was underway, the ethaefal kept himself hidden. The men wielded weapons, and he sure as hell knew that if they had weapons in the previous encounter he would get cut up bad. He only had his dagger with him, but it seemed weak compared to the large weapons they were carrying. Instead, he would use magic to give himself an advantage.

First he extracted djed from his body, pooling out a sufficient amount to coat his entire body. Rubbing and spreading the djed around his body as if it was like sun-tan lotion, he distributed the substance fully, making sure it covered every single part of his body, leaving no place uncovered.

Next, he weaved the djed threads, using the region in front of his chest as a central programming area. The first pattern was to absorb djed, to ensure the shield's longevity and to synchronize well with the second. He had a variety of choices for the second, but he knew that he needed to protect against the most important.

Bladed weapons.

Weaving the pattern of his shield, he created a pattern of steel hard fortitude, of resolute might, of pure strength rivalling that of the strongest platemail. The secondary tasking to protect against bladed objects.

He was not done, for there was the possible chance that somehow the thugs were capable enough to destroy his shields from overwhelming strength. Using the unused djed threads, he weaved glyphs around his shield while maintaining the current instructions. He placed several glyphs around the shield that would shift the shields elsewhere and focus on an area if need be, while expending any reserve energies for current strength.

In essence, if an attack that struck the shield was strong enough to let it break, the glyphs would cause the rest of the shields to gather at that point and take the hit, keeping him unharmed. In exchange, the shield would shatter, having exchanged the future for that single instance.

Eridanus peeked out, and the thugs were shouting back by now, one of them taking a threatening step forward. The kid looked at him frantically, but the ethaefal gestured for him to go on; he needed a few moments more.

The kid continued taunting in that annoying shrill falsetto.

Eridanus continued pooling out more djed, creating eight separate shields that he placed over his fists, elbows, feet and kneecap. He did not have time to create another full body shield, so he only chose the important parts for this one.

He quickly weaved the first instruction as per normal - to absorb djed. However, the second was to absorb impact so that he would not hurt himself unnecessarily should he augment his strength with flux. The kid was running away by now, and he quickly added more glyphs to strengthen and enhance his shields, all 8 separate ones. The large one he added a bit of enhancement in the form of empowerment sigils from the little space he had left from the free djed threads that were still unused.

He peeked out again, analyzing the current situation and deciding how he should approach.

[Nira'lia]

The men were sniggering, and Nira'lia didn't want to know in the least what was going on through their minds. However, before they could actually do something to her, a loud and high-pitched shriek rang through the air. "What the...?" muttered Matthew as he glanced at the kid. "A kid," said one of the men, stating the obvious. Nira'lia looked puzzled as well. A kid with a rag hiding his face was waving at them and jumping up and down. The princeling spat on the ground, irritated. The child continued to jump up and down, taunting the thugs. "Over here, you!" he seemed to be yelling in a high voice. Matthew didn't like being treated as a fool. He started to yell at the boy, daring him to come closer. He pushed one of the men forward violently, urging him to go after the kid. Nira'lia saw the panic in the boy's actions as he saw the man make a move to come towards him. It was only for a split-second, but the boy seemed to glance at someone. The boy was at a distance and Nira’lia couldn’t see anyone else. Looking at the thugs around her, Nira'lia realized that she was the only one who had noticed that the boy seemed to be looking at something... or someone. While the men were distracted with the child, Nira'lia decided to tap into the boy’s chavi. She didn't need to search much, she just needed to see the face of whoever he was with... and why. The child's chavi was not vast, and she only needed to see minutes, even seconds, past the present. It wasn't difficult and all she needed was a face, and she was startled when she found what she was looking for. 'Eridanus...' realized Nira'lia as she shook her head to return to the present. What was he even doing here? Whatever it was, he seemed to be asking the boy to distract the thugs. "Ow!" hissed Nira'lia as she felt a sharp tug on her arms. It was still twisted behind her by strong hands, and every time the ones who held her moved, she felt the pain. The kid was running away now, probably frightened by the fact that one of the men made a move to chase after him. This thug cursed at the child and ran at him, blade in hand. Nira'lia stared, eyes wide, scared at what they might do to the child. "Leave him alone!" she screamed at them as she struggled to break free, to no avail. She attempted to kick the leader again, but her legs couldn't reach him, and all it resulted to was loud laughter. Unexpectedly, Matthew gave her a sharp punch to the stomach. She would have doubled over from the pain if it weren't for the hands holding her back. "That should keep her quiet for a while!" the princeling barked. Nira'lia regained her composure and glared at him, trying her best to ignore the pain. They would pay soon... she knew that much.

[Eridanus]

From extensive experience with humans, Eridanus only needed one glance to tell that Matthew and his gang had no intention of retreating peacefully. The lust on the youngster's face evident - both to sate his desires for the beautiful konti and to fulfil his need for revenge on her.

That meant that it would work best in his favour if he proceeded with a blitzkrieg. It was a Denvali concept, derived from the commando shock troopers of the Suvan military, that espoused a fast and efficient shock-and-awe strategy that destroyed an opponent before he could react.

Opening his fingers, he modelled his right palm into a claw like gesture, pushing out djed from himself and converting it into res. Gradually, he gathered enough to form a sphere, and this sphere of res crackled with energy. It seemed unstable with its crackling of energy, yet stable with its sometimes-serene surface and the pure glowing white that resembled the moon.

He mentally prodded the sphere of res, creating a mental map of the djed threads within the ball in his mind as he utilized his willpower to shift the djed threads. It was not transmutation, but instead a mentally-directed form of glyphing not unlike the way he used the very essence of his shields to create sigils. As his res was still unstable, the glyphs served to stabilize the res, as well as to make it more receptive to his commands later on.

Standing up, he put his right arm with the floating energy sphere behind him, waving his left hand to attract the men's attention.

"Parlay?" He suggested hopefully, gesturing towards the konti. It was then when he was finally able to see the victim's face, and he stopped a gasp.

Nira'lia!

It seemed that fate was somehow tying them together. Zeltiva was by no means a small place, but somehow they kept knocking into each other in far-fetched circumstances at a regular pace. It seemed that her mother's prediction turned out to be quite true - their futures were indeed quite tangled. In fact, this was one of those instances already.

"You!" Matthew Steinford IV roared, shaking his finger at the ethaefal. The privileged kid had recognized the man responsible for taking out his gang in the alley twenty days ago, and somewhere in him he shuddered at having to fight him again.

However, his pride helped to maintain his confidence, and knowing that he and his gang all held weapons while the ethaefal held none was an even greater confidence booster.

"Riv! Jok! Bon! Cut that little shyke to ribbons!" He commanded, urging three longsword wielding lackeys towards the ethaefal.

Eridanus grinned as they approached, and he approached them firmly as well, his body partially tensed to respond to their attacks. Fortunately for him, longswords were his speciality, and he not only knew how to use them but also how to fight against them in any form, angle, or direction.

He crouched, ready to pounce, and the man on the right could sense the tension in his body, the thug subconsciously preparing himself as well. However, that was a con, for he quickly commanded his ball of res in his right arm to transmute, the pure white sphere blasting into flames. Simultaneously, he flung his right arm from behind his back, throwing out there partially transmuted fireball at the one most on the right.

The fireball slammed into the thug's body, singeing the front part of his clothes and flinging him several feet back as he stumbled and fell onto the ground. Before they rest could react, the ethaefal sprung forward, pummelling the stumbling man down and ensuring his collapse with a well-placed knee lunge.

Scrambling on the ground with the man's longsword, he frantically raised it above his head as he backed away, finding that the inevitable attack did not came, for the other two men were too still recovering from their disorientation.

The blitzkrieg has begun.

[Nira'lia]

The princeling was shouting and cursing. He was waving his hands frantically and pointing at the ethaefal, his face red with stress. The fright in his face was apparent, and Nira'lia recognized it as the same expression he made weeks ago. Even the princeling knew he had no way out. The ethaefal evidently knew what he was doing. Everyone knew that he was adept at what he did. He moved in a flurry of movements and magical attacks that nobody else there could produce. The men were larger in number and had their weapons, but at this rate, they would be brought down one by one. If they didn’t realize the major flaws in how they attacked, then being beaten would not be a surprise. Nira'lia's lips couldn't help but move to a smile. Her eyes brightened as she watched Eridanus, joyful that for some reason, he had been in the area. "Are you smiling, you bitch?" hissed Matthew. He grabbed hold of Nira'lia's jaw and held it tightly, causing Nira'lia to wince. "You think this is funny, huh!?" He suddenly pulled her forward and dragged her out of the grasp of his men, throwing her at the ground. With a shriek, Nira'lia felt the front of her body collide with the ground. She sputtered and felt the blood rush back to her arms. The konti felt someone come to her side -- one of the thugs who attempted to subdue her once more. Instinctively, she brought up her fist and punched him. It was a lucky strike that hit him in the face. He yelled in pain and fell to his knees, clutching his bleeding nose. Nira'lia made a move to get to her feet and run, but the leader had approached her before she get away. The princeling kneeled down beside her fallen figure. His hand suddenly held her tightly by the head, forcing her to look at him. He leered at her, his face full of menacing intentions. The konti found herself putting all her strength to her leg and kicking him away. All it did was loosen his grip on her, but before he could react further, she brought her leg up again and kicked him right in the face. It caused him to lose his hold on her completely. The leader spat blood. His thugs made a move to help him, but he pushed them away roughly. He continued to curse at her. Matthew grabbed at a blade and swung it to her. Shrieking, she ducked and avoided it by just a hair strand. Frantically, she looked back at the princeling and saw that he wasn't done and was getting ready for another swing. Matthew's swing was blinded with fury, causing it to be ill-aimed. Nira'lia scrambled to her feet to get away and felt a sharp pain in the side as the blade sliced through her skin. If he was actually of sound mind, the damage would probably have been worse. Nira'lia clutched her side and felt the blood seeping to her clothes and to her hands. It hurt to even move, and the pain caused her to ignore her surroundings momentarily. An arm snaked around her shoulders and she was once again subdued by one of them. No visions appeared before her, so she assumed it was the same person from before. The konti didn't have any knowledge when it came to combat, and her strikes so far had been lucky ones. She had no strength to fight back again, and judging from her wound, it just wasn't a smart decision. Feeling helpless and worthless, she looked back at the ethaefal.

[Eridanus]

Before the nearest man could react, Eridanus was already channelling flux to his legs, granting him to rapidly dash towards his next opponent. Already, the unstable energy was spiking up into his arms as he took a lightning quick swing with unnatural force, smashing the man's sword to the ground.

The third opponent swung wildly at him, and he easily parried that attack. The flux streams flowed down to his legs as he lashed out a powerful kick at the second opponent. The shields that protected his limbs from unnecessary impact shimmered as they absorbed the force of his kick, and his second opponent flew a good distance away, landing on his back while he squirmed in pain, clutching at his stomach.

The raw energy sprung back up to his arms as he took another quick swing, disarming his third opponent. Some of the flux were already in his legs as he reappeared at an inhuman speed right in front of the man, bringing the hilt of the weapon up and smashing it into his head, knocking him unconscious.

It all happened in the span of a few blinks, and even the other thugs behind seemed surprise at this sudden turn of events. The remaining five began to titter apprehensively even as the leader seemed to be holding the girl hostage.

"Get-get him!" Matthew screamed in rage, pushing two of his thugs onwards.

They cautiously approached Eridanus, while he picked up the second long sword on the floor, shifting his grip as he tested and processed the individual weights of the blades.

Seems about right.

Taking a deep breath, he resumed his attention on the primal force raging within him, directing it to his legs as he crouched slightly, preparing to jump. When they were within range, he leaped in an explosive burst of energy, his body flying towards his surprised opponents suddenly.

They raised their weapons to strike at him, but already flux was jumping to both his hands, and he swung both swords in such powerful arc that they were forced to release their weapons or risk their hands getting twisted along with their deflected weapons. Landing in a tumble, he recovered quickly and the flux flowed to his legs, allowing him to stand without hassle.

Both blades were now pointed against his two opponents' throats.

Motioning with his blades, he gently prodded the thugs as he hastily retreated back to the leaders' side.

Sticking one sword onto the sand in front of him, he began summoning res from his body again. Putting one hand in front of him so that it would be visible to the princeling and his thugs, he began gathering a shining sphere of moonlight, a noticeable glowing ball hovering above his palm.

With a single thought, he transmuted the outer layer of the ball, the gaseous sphere bursting into flames. With what little control he had, he mentally directed its angle, before physically throwing his hand forward as he flung the fireball towards the leader, landing only a few inches away from his feet. The flames died out in the sand, but it left a noticeable scorch mark.

"M-m-mage!" One of the thugs yelled gutturally, and he began scrambling away. That one single action was enough to spur the rest of his comrades on, and they began to scramble away, dropping their weapons. Eridanus allowed them to carry their unconscious friends away as they did so, stabbing his remaining sword into the sand so that he was now unarmed.

"Where are you going? Come back, come back!" Matthew shrieked at his underlings as they hastily retreated. "D-don't come any closer, y-you demon!" The kid yelled hysterically as Eridanus approached, his eyes bright with terror as he clutched at his hostage's neck desperately.

Eridanus smiled, his otherworldly glamour granting his visage a terrible and dark beauty, just like the wild and feral beast that was Leth before he was tempered by Syna. He walked towards Matthew and Nira'lia slowly, deliberately. Each step in the sand was punctuated by a thud followed by a poignant pause.

His arms were outstretched, his palms wide open, and two separate spheres of res were beginning to form above both palms. Energy sparkled and spat as they were released from his body, and swirled into a tiny maelstroms of power bursting with life.

"Release her," Eridanus said simply, not transmuting the res yet, allowing Matthew to observe the glowing spheres of pure white floating above both outstretched palms. "Release her, or burn."

[Nira'lia]

The thugs were scrambling away, even bringing the unconscious ones with them. The fight would finally have been over if the stubborn princeling had decided to retreat with his underlings. Instead though, he kept his ground in a choice of utter foolishness, and decided to take his chances by using the konti as leverage. Nira'lia felt the leader's grip around her neck tighten. He was trembling even as he attempted to still act as if he had a chance. It resulted in a pathetic, stammering man. However, in the end, he still had the konti hostage. Even Nira'lia had no idea how she would survive this, since the man holding her hostage didn’t seem to want to recede control over her. "I will not release her! Y-you just try getting closer and I'll slice this girl's throat!" he sputtered. He held one of his blades up to Nira'lia's neck. Nira'lia looked frightened, and she did all she could not to scream out. With his every move, she felt a painful string course through her. "Go ahead! Burn me, and she goes with m-me!" Nira'lia's face was white but she kept her composure. The konti said nothing as she bit her lip and stared intently at the ethaefal. At the same time, the wound on her side was painful and she could feel her body going cold. Because of this, she was actually putting all her energy into not passing out. Her mind was racing with thoughts, something which she couldn't actually handle, even if it wasn’t evident in the exterior. How was she going to get out of this now? Surely, Eridanus wasn't actually going to burn her with this man? OOCJust making it hard for Eri. Feel free to finish the fight if you want. Plz don’t burn her. ;p