On Day Fifty Five, Corvayne marched with The Raven's troops into position, clad in black bandits gear over his real armor. Spears had promised fog on the plains as The Raven finally got his troops marching to their camp, and somehow delivered even with a small breeze. Corvayne could smell a hint of the sea in the rolling clouds. From where he was positioned, the source was a dark gray smudge, and the black crystal tower was just barely visible ahead. He was probably a five minute walk to where his camp site had been.

He had spent the last two weeks slipping into The Raven's camp, using the cover he had set up by insisting they left one survivor to every ambush, except of course when he was the lone survivor. He used the time to covertly take a few photos of the Raven, and made a trip both out and back in to report what he had seen and make some small adjustments. Now he had positioned himself into the assault group that camped near the cart at the front. It gave him the best view of the camp, and he was sure the leader would fire from the fore. He had been watching this Raven character on and off for a good two weeks now. The Raven himself looked like someone had just changed a bunch of colors on Nyx's outfit to black and given him a slightly different face. Instead of Nyx's standard arrogance, The Raven shifted between amused, bored, impish, or coldly angry about something.

On his person he had a high powered shield belt which he always kept on in mid-range or short range with a low threshold for both action and constricting, probably military grade like the one that Nyx had before Argyle destroyed it. Certain black sheen objects on him and the color of his blades suggested he was using mono edged or folded carbon weapons with similar armor under his clothes. He had some sort of personal network device, and on his shoulder was a sort of black box, likely a smart-gun mount, given the comment about snapping his fingers to kill. He always kept 'The Glass Dick' on him or near him. No storage ring... or the device couldn't be put away. He also had a cooler, notable for the way he payed attention to the object in tandem with the giant penile weapon of mass destruction. That told Corvayne that was where the ammo was kept. Was it something temperature sensitive?

In addition to a few potions, he kept a number of dental objects on his person. Multiple tooth brushes, two tubes of paste, floss, picks, a scraper, and whitening rubs too.

The Raven used them when he looked upset, or sometimes just bored. Corvayne's plan with the camp had got him on a trickery bent, and asked Mosh on his last trip back to camp to make something special for The Raven. Corvayne considered both requests a sort of back-up plan if he didn't have a good window to just take the man out.

The last point about his powers seemed obvious that given his oral fixation, and the woman missing an ear... Corvayne would have to be prepared for this guy to try to bite him, eat him, or use some sort of mouth based power.

He had several officers and minions around him. A few captive and non captive women. Captives included an elf (possibly half, she looked more like what he imagined an elf looked like than Hari did) in chains, a High Plains woman acting as the bartender, and the woman who's ear he had eaten. His officers seemed to be a man who dressed like a general that Corvayne marked as a professional soldier in how organized his personal camp was, the assassins including the one who had actually gotten a decent hit on his neck (whom Grunt had asked him NOT to kill a month ago), and a priestess of some sex goddess (or the saint of loudly overacting), and the head of the symbiotic fliers; Sky-Knights as they were called. The few adventurers he had seen seemed to speak through a mage when they needed to address The Raven, but given that his friends had defeated almost every Osterian adventurer trying to sneak onto the plains or into the mountain passes, that wasn't very often.

He wasn't sure if the older man who attended to The Raven was a servant, butler, slave, or adventurer mage. He knew [Understand Languages] but was also treated poorly, and he certainly didn't look happy.

He spotted a few other people from advanced societies. The engineer corp all had dress that betrayed a post industrial origin and reminded him a little of Gary. There were also a few spooks, men with electronic equipment who had camo gear and were looking for something in the camp. Likely these military types had set up the trap that killed the prince... some of them sometimes were walking around with really lousy blurring that even a child would spot. He set his own cape to low and wide recording fuzz, and did his best to be in groups. The hood of shadows, even when not fully up, seemed to help him avoid notice. The Raven's men, besides those obvious modern spies, were tired, hungry, and spent a lot of time clumped around fires. Corvayne just had to act nervous about the dark and nobody asked him anything.

The moment of truth was coming up. Corvayne had picked a spot just off to the side of the sky knights. He tried to look eager, to help sell he wanted a good seat for what was about to happen. He was mostly just covering how nervous he was. What if he saw through the trick? One wrong flick of his wrist with the beam and his friends were dead.

As he was standing there he felt attention on him and forced himself to keep squinting at the source and his friends distant camp. Likely someone in camp assessing him. He had a layer of a spell that would fudge his stats under [Investigate], assuming no high level investigators were casting it. At least, Undine had said that at the moment he had 'Warrior 5' over his real stats.

Once he felt the attention pass, he turned and ended up catching the eye of The Raven's old servant. The old man was looking at him, in a weird searching manner that instantly set Corvayne to sweating. If he was suddenly exposed in this late moment, the entire plan could fall apart and he'd end up getting blasted by a beam of light.

Corvayne was about to look away when the man broke into a smile, and gave him a nod and a wink, then went back to studiously ignoring Corvayne and looking forward, a little bit of joy in how he bobbed forward and back.

The Raven had felt like a speech and was chattering about glory and the riches they were owed and how southerner woman had never had good large northerner cock before so they'd be squealing once the boys showed them what they were missing. From the half-hearted cheers, Corvayne guessed the camp of hungry men would be far more interested in having a square meal. Which was the point.

Corvayne used the speech as an chance to watch The Raven and keep watching as he started to set up the weapon. Ah. He was opening the cooler. He reached in and pulled out a package. Corvayne saw him unwrap it, and tried to control his sweat. The old man was certainly looking at him look at The Raven, even sort of giving him a head gesture to 'do something' from what Corvayne guessed, and he was nervous that The Raven would aim correctly rather than fall for the dumb trick he had set up, and he was really risking his friends because what if he couldn't take down the shield?

He didn't have to. The man took a bite of a slab of raw meat, attacking the piece he got with gusto, clearly savoring it as red covered his pale face. Then, eyes alight in confidence, he wrapped the leftovers up and set it back in the cooler, dabbing his mouth with a cloth, then brought his crystal weapon to bear. The fog had started to drift, almost a tunnel pointed to the black crystal spire the truck and tents. He could see people hustling between the truck and a tent. Corvayne felt a small measure of relief. Even with his incredible eye sight AND knowing what he was looking for, it was very subtle. Spears had said they had practiced, and it showed.

That is, as long as The Raven didn't sweep the beam through the giant crystal porcupine. He had to focus on the opening he'd have. The cooler was his target. The Raven kept going, crystal weapon starting to glow white with rainbow energy as The Raven started wooping, “Behold! We are going to put on a fireworks snow!”

When the light fired, Corvayne would go. The Sky-Knights were between him and the edge of the cart, about four feet above ground and thirty feet away.

With his new control over shadows, Corvayne carefully started moving a hand through the dark patches along the dirt and snaking up the side of the cart, aiming to do one thing.... test if he could move through the shield. It seemed that whatever effect the meat had, it took a moment to kick in as the man aimed and the light changed colors. Corvayne felt a shadow limb first brush up against, then pass through the barrier.

The old man looked at him nervously, and Corvayne just shook his head and forced himself to smile, then it clicked that he was sure the man knew he was an enemy, and with a shrug Corvayne tossed him a small tube of blasting paste and a red electric enchanted toothbrush. The man looked at them and muttered an [Investigate]. For a moment he looked confused, then his eyes widened and he flashed Corvayne a genuine smile before he went back to looking at the camp ahead.

The Raven stepped back, and aimed, and fired RIGHT at the truck and tents and Corvayne grinned as it held steady, blowing a hole in the faint fog, then looking away before the main beam swept through. It was his turn. The Raven had seen the obvious truck and tents and people moving, and not the faint edge of the giant mirror Mosh had made. Smoke and Mirrors, literally.

He stepped back, then used [Flow-Like-Water] and slid around the Sky-Knights between him and the cart. He rolled onto the wood, then slid his shadow hands into the shield and activated his storage ring, taking the cooler, making a small exchange behind the throne as well, then rolling off the back while everyone else was blinded.

The man had enough juice for two shots, so they were not out of the woods yet. He knew what was happening around him as he switched to [Strength], readying [Storm Thrust] then slamming it into The Raven as he was turning. The shields seemed to even absorb a little magic, but he was aiming for the weapon itself.

The man, to his credit, was only surprised for maybe two seconds as the giant glass cannon he was holding flung itself from his hands. Corvayne didn't waste time, using Gravity to leap over the shield and letting his shadow hands seep down to attack through the shield as a rain of spears. A few connected but Corvayne didn't have time to follow up, adjusting to [Speed] to roll as he landed to grab the crystal weapon. Of course, the clouds remaining in the path of the beam seared him like plunging his hands into boiling water, and even though it was only a moment before it went into storage he could feel the weapon itself burn his hands with a crazy itching feeling.

He then felt a bullet enter his shoulder and pass out the front of his arm, so he threw himself off the cart and in front of one of the Wyvern riders, a pair of insect mandibles jutting out to grab him. He used [Juxtapose] then [Cross Skill: Backstab], killing the rider and causing the beast to start wailing and jerking back and forth before The Raven's next shot blew it's head off. Already people were turning, but he pushed his capes disruption to full then activated his new power on the riders who were lined up perfectly. A black limb shot out, and like a bolt of black lightning the hand snapped out, feeling less like a limb and more like something hungry, dancing through the lined up monsters and their riders and snapping something inside them as it hit nearly twenty of them.

He then dashed under the front of the truck as the line of monsters died, and as the next wave screeched and started to lift off he used another shadow hand that bounced between three of them, killing them in a moment, then another slamming through four more, dropping them from the sky. Corvayne was a little tired and used [Vitality] to help his arm mend as used [Juxtapose] to slide into the circle of bandits who had decided to stop watching and start fleeing.

There was a sharp crack and he saw a small lance of light blast the ground near him, and Corvayne spun and saw that The Raven had a fistful of meat, and was chewing it as he aimed with one hand a smaller crystal penis.

“Yough-” Munch, “Fuckerfh!”

As he lined up another shot Corvayne quickly used [Juxtapose] on a Sky-Knight trying to lance him, applying gravity to fling himself upwards and forward over a ray of searing white death. While leaping he could see the beam lancing through The Raven's own men, who had started to flee in every direction.

The Raven pointed upwards at him as he fell, and Corvayne almost laughed to see his smart gun totally unable to track him through his cloaks effect.

Corvayne hit the ground and switched to [Speed] as he used [Flow-Like-Water] to jet forward and try to force The Raven to turn, eat, and fire at the same time. To his credit, he almost hit Corvayne with the next shot, a sweeping three foot wide beam that seared the bandits behind him, leaving bleached white piles of gore in it's wake.

Corvayne countered by sending out shadow hands to prod through the shield, one eye on The Raven and the other waiting for bandits to start organizing when they realized he was alone, though it seemed that there was some sort of mutiny going on with assassins turning on their former allies. There were lots of black forms running around with nobody daring to step close aside from one guy who Corvayne used his spear butt to fling back with a sharp crack.

He switched the direction he had been sidestepping and the Raven tried to overcompensate, and using [Storm Thrust] Corvayne sent a fist-shaped gust of wind into the man's solar plexus, cracking some of the carbon armor and causing him to start retching up the belly full of meat.

“No! This is MY world! MY TOY! My... PREY!!!”

The Raven tried to fire the gun again and the device simply sputtered, puffing out a rainbow cloud. Tossing it away, The Raven drew his blades and Corvayne saw his smart-gun pop a few poorly aimed shots off at random. Someone probably should have practiced hitting things that the gun couldn't track.

“No matter, I shall beat you on your own terms then!”

Corvayne parried the first swipe and used the moment that The Raven was pushed off balance to weave blows into the power shield, watching through flashes of green energy for the man to try to lunge and bite him or trigger the smart gun to manually start tracking his eyes.

Instead, the first thing that happened was Corvayne accidentally sundering a blade with a parry. Then another....

It was almost twenty seconds and in that time the would be dictator went through six broken carbon-blades. Corvayne could see the shield starting to shrink with his barrage of attacks, and so could The Raven. The man drew two longer heavier weapons and tried to lock blades. Corvayne used his cleaver to parry the other sword, then waited a half beat for The Raven to lower his shield and go in for a bit.

Seeing the smile right before The Raven started leaning forward, Corvayne couldn't help but mutter “About time.” as he used [Juxtapose] then [Cross Skill: Backstab], sending the would-be dictator rolling through the dirt with a huge red hole in his back. He was about to finish the job when two of the sky knights opened fire on him with machine guns from above, and Corvayne rolled under the wagon, trailing strawberry meteors and bits of blood from where he had been shot. He wasn't sure he had killed The Raven, but he could hear sounds of the battle being joined by his friends, and there was a retort as a shielded Sky-Knight got hit with a rocket, bouncing it into the ground and rolling into a shattered pulp inside it's shield.

He pulled the bullets out and watched as Grunt landed with a crater of spikes blasting out, then started plowing through smaller men, with Nyx floating behind him, sweeping the toxic whip across fleeing groups of bandits.

Corvayne couldn't see The Raven, but he did peek his head up onto the cart and saw the cooler. Good enough. He stored it then slipped away from the rapidly deteriorating camp.

He returned as the sun started to set to find Wick waiting for him, clutching a photo of The Raven he had taken.

She looked upset, eyes red as if she had been crying. “Did you kill him?”

“Not sure, I had to book it.” He felt like it was a victory. “I got his ammo and his main weapon though.”

Wick gestured for him to follow her to a hover-bike. “He might have more parts somewhere, and more weapons. We must finish this. Tonight.”

“Wick, I need to-”

“We can talk while we ride. We must find him!”

Hearing desperate panic and feeling his own desperate desire to have her speaking with him after nearly two months, Corvayne nodded.

“He won't get far.”