In this world, Magic is Everything. All people, all races, are granted with the power to perform mystical and magical feats via grimories, mystical tomes granted to each and every child on their 15th birthday. Those blessed by the mana can have their names written down in legend.
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Post by Gillian Stroud on Oct 27, 2020 21:12:03 GMT -5
Tora actually thought that he was under the impression that she was as simple as he thought. Poor girl. Dismissing her 'compliment' with a wave of a single hand, Gillian let out a sigh. "Nah. From the moment you showed your magic back in town, I realized that you saw through that little lie. I took notice of a small discharge of mana. I'm quite sensitive to that sort of thing. It was a sort of warning, informing me you were very aware of the truth."
"The weapon you handed was to gauge if I was going to run or not. Fighting off the beast was a secondary concern. You could have handled it in that state by yourself most likely. No 'ordinary girl' could try something like that, nor could fight like you do."
Gillian let out an irritated sigh when Tora commented on his own lack of fighting potential, something he had made abundantly clear from the getgo. Was she deaf? Was that the issue? He had no idea, but whatever the case it sure as hell irritated him that she worded it so bluntly. "I don't have to worry about fighting if the enemy never sees me to begin with," he flat out said. "As long as they can't see or sense me, then there's no fight to be had. In and out, like a ghost. As for running away from it? Absolutely. Even without your assistance, I could have ran like hell. I'm quite proud of my ability to run away, thank you very much."
What an infuriating woman. Was she even a woman? She certainly had the assets of one, but she acted anything but. "Well, as I said..." Gillian mentioned as he was leading the way out of the forest--presumably with Tora nearby. "I need to report this to the Azure Deer and my superiors. Mana beasts this close to a major town is a big deal. For the time being, I guess we could alert the Coral Peacocks who are stationed in the town to this revelation--however, uh."
"...I'll do so on my own. I'd get a lot of slack if they found out I brought a civilian with me. Even if that civilian is capable of snapping a neck of a fucking mana beast."
Her head tilted just a little as she raised a brow. Odd, if he already knew she knew then why did he bother apologizing and clarifying that he'd deceived her? She didn't really raise a stink about it in any case, continuing to smile calmly as she listened to him explain his own line of deduction, not really bothered by the hint of venom in his voice. It wasn't exactly uncommon for men to be a bit vicious when their capabilities were compared to someone, particularly women. So perhaps she had been a bit unintentionally rude. Were perhaps women not really combatants in the clover kingdom? She'd have to be a bit more social if she was going to be finding out. But all the same he DID provide her with some interesting information. These....purple peacocks? It sounded like another group similar to his Azur deer. These were probably squads within the Magic Knights? How come they hadn't been dispatched to deal with this beast? Ah wait, he did mention that they were running all over the place, plus they had only expected a bear or something at worst. Maybe a boar? Were there boars around here? All the same, maybe this was a bigger deal that would draw them from whatever they were presently doing.
She glanced at the beast and tilted her head thoughtfully. She'd come from a family of capable mages, even her brother had been able to fend for himself from at least weaker beasts, or at least able to fend them off long enough to escape. But she did recall his mention of noticing something special about her.... "Is havin magic at my level really all that rare?" She murmured, begining to see that perhaps she was a bit more sheltered than she'd thought. That or maybe clover citizens were some sort of special case? She'd met others who could use magic, it only stood to reason they could do things like she could. Thoughts for later.... but in the meantime, the man made it abundantly clear that he was hesitant to receive anything remotely resembling help from her. She glanced at the downed beast. Hm. With the investigation they were gonna do, she probably wouldn't be able to carve it up for food or anything either.
"Hmmm well I suppose that makes sense. I'll have to take a look around, maybe see if I can find any more of these things... might have to find summin who can sense these kinda things like you though, what with how sneaky these things are...Hmmm. Well ah guess hangin around here probably ain't a good idea fer the time bein." She shrugged before her attention turned back to Gillian and she grinned warmly. "Guess that means ahl be seein ya around! You stay safe now." She chimed as the two of them made their way back to the port, and unless he had anything else to say, she'd promptly split off as he no doubt had a report to go turn in. And SHE had a lot of information to digest about this place.... Sure as it were she knew that hanging around here was probably not gonna be safe until those beasties were cleared as routed or not. Though that DID offer a unique opportunity. If those Purple Peacocks were going to be swarmin around, then maybe she'd be able to find a few and gather some more information on these Magic Knights types. After all, Amadeus had brought it to her attention that these squads had specializations. It might behoove her to learn about these. She might even find out a aquad that could help her..... though HOW exactly she'd get that to happen she wasn't sure. But she could worry about that later, right?
Post by Gillian Stroud on Oct 28, 2020 13:39:47 GMT -5
Gillian shook his head. "No. The magic isn't the surprising thing here," he said after she spoke. "It's your physical strength and size. I'm sure you noticed that you're at least a head taller than everyone around you. And most people still wouldn't be able to break the neck of even an injured mana beast. In most cases, they may lack mana skin, but ones of that size are more durable than a bear. We were lucky we got to take the scraps. Could have been a lot worse."
Gillian was completely taken aback that she thought of something like that as normal. That mana beast was as long as they were tall, but the neck of the damn thing was quite thick. He could make it out a lot easier than Tora, even if she had been the one to snap it. While he wouldn't have called it 'crystal clear', he had a very good idea of how large that thing was. It should have been a struggle to even wrap ones arm around it, but due to her size, she was able to do it with relative ease. How could someone be that oblivious?
The Azure Deer found it immensely relieving, however, that Tora seemed to be compliant with leaving the forest. That was cause for huge concern on his part; if she'd actually leave. She could probably find her way out of the forest by herself, but Gillian had a much easier time of it, locking onto where he could find as many mana signatures as possible. That'd lead them right out of the forest and into town. Of course, he remembered the way they came in to begin with, which only made it easier.
"Of course. Don't stick around here for too long; you'll get me in trouble, after all," he hollered as he made his exit.
Tora tilted her head a bit at that. Admittedly his words didn't really address her own internal concerns and musings. Her size? That was sortof a given, she was aware of it but at this point in her life she really paid no mind to it in the slightest. He did, however, seem to mistake what she had meant. But well that wasn't too much of a problem, she nodded along to his explanation. She had already figured the mana beast would be a bigger issue if it had been healthy, again something that was just sortof obvious. But all the same, She didn't really worry about it too much. For now she had a focus on getting out of here so that the Magic Knights could investigate. She'd leave them to that. She however, had something else to check out. Mana beasts usually didn't just pop up, not ones of that caliber at least. Usually the only real common ones that one waltzed into were slightly enchanted animals, a boar that was exposed to a bit too much magic, or a Bear that had some sort of unusual resilience. But a fulll on monstrosity like this thing? It had come here from somewhere, likely someplace adjacent to this area. Szhe'd let the magic Knights do their investigation and protection of the area. She on the other hand intended on scouting about to see if there were any likely candidates for where this thing had originated. Of course it was inevitable that the Magic Knights would probably run into her eventually, but well, at least she'd likely have some information for them once they did. But for now, they had other concerns to address and with limited Mage Knights they could spare.
She smiled and waved to the man as they parted ways and he shouted to remind her not to go hanging around. Vaguely she wondered if he simply intended to take the credit, which frankly she didn't worry herself about. She didn't have any interest in that sort of thing, all the better if the poor scraggly guy got something out of being pulled along for that wild ride and fighting a monster he probably would have just run from normally. The guy could use it better than she could, and she had no real concern for money. Once he was out of sight, that smile turned into a pleased grin as she started to head out. She'd heard a few rumors coming in around this place, so thankfully she had a few spots to check out already. The excitement was already getting to her at the prospect of what she might find. And of course, the mild impish thought in the very back of her head, that technically speaking, she was still following the Deer's reccommendation by skipping town.
No doubt he'd be annoyed the next time they ran into eachother.
