The crystal assailant flicked the scroll open, a purple glow enveloping his body, becoming streaks of light as he swiftly disappeared. Alliana, finally staggering to her feet, mostly healed by now, grimaced and cussed under her breath. Multi-use scrolls were exceedingly rare to come by, and Mare did their best to track who owned which scrolls, which nations had them, and which didn’t. That meant that either someone was missing their scroll, or this one wasn’t accounted for.

Whatever the case was, it was a big problem.

Teleportation, and spatial magic in general, was one of the most difficult and lethal schools with the worst consequences for mistakes. It was an arduous thing, and only a select few had the level of mastery of both spatial magic and enchanting to create a reusable scroll of teleportation. Only a true master of the craft would be able to move a platoon’s worth of fully armed militia, and the resources required to create a multi-use version of such a thing would be prohibitively expensive. Almost no one short of a king’s budget could afford such a thing. How did a damned assassin acquire it?!

“No you don’t!” Alister yelled, dropping to his knees and slamming his hands into the ground as he tracked the teleport. “Flow of time, web of space, heed my will, hands of fate!” As he chanted, a glowing silver line appeared from where his hands met the earth. It moved in complex patterns, creating whorls and runes and shapes.

As the line finished connecting, it changed from silver to a deep purple. From the middle of the mass of swirls and lines came what could only be described as a rip in the universe. It was as if someone tore open a sheet, with the space on either side of it looking completely normal. Through the tear, though, one could see… somewhere else. Something else. A peek into a place that didn’t make sense and didn’t operate under the same laws of reality. Thankfully, one’s stay in this place was brief, depending on the distance one needed to travel. Every step carried one a mile, metaphorically speaking.

Teleporting was terribly painful, not to mention horrendously irresponsible, for him to do at his current core level. It was too costly, too complex, too dangerous… he could temporarily cripple himself.

The jaunt through the portal was shockingly long, as far away as the mountain pass between Mare and Dusao. This was hazardous. Every moment in this place was another roll of the dice that you would encounter something dangerous, or worse, incomprehensible.

It took nearly fifteen minutes of walking to find where he went.

From the warm, flat cityscape of the capital, he emerged on the other side. Suddenly he was in the brisk, rainy mountains, the rough, rocky dirt a stark contrast to the flagstones of the capital streets. It was a busy street, packed to the brim with people despite the weather. Many stopped to stare at the boy who shortly after appearing fell to his knees, briefly blacking out from the pain of his core cracking wide open… only for another kid and a naga to appear right on his heels. The naga held Alister up in his lower two arms as he came to again.

"Fuck… what….? Neth?!" He exclaimed, stepping back from the seven foot snake boy, "What are you doing here?! That was dangerous!" He shouted, before he felt someone grab his ear and pull sharply.

"It sure was, you idiot! What the hell are you thinking going after a trained assassin, nevermind alone! We're so out of our league here it's not even funny!!" Wisteria said loudly, nearly pulling him off his feet.

"Owowow stop it!" Alister demanded, swatting her hand away.

"Then stop doing stupid shit!" She screamed, before huffing, "You could have seriously hurt yourself! You probably did! You did, didn't you?!"

The crowd began to amass, watching the quarreling children. One of the adults stepped forward, getting ready to intervene in the situation, but Neth moved in front of them. "It's okay, I'm taking care of them," he said calmly, using his substantial height to make them believe he was an adult.

"Then take care of them, mister," said the green-haired elf, who wore a deep scowl. "Don't you know teleporting is dangerous? What are you doing putting kids through that?" She berated, stepping up to him.

He shrunk back a bit in response, turning to the others. "She's right, we should go, kids," he said nervously, stepping between the two.

They both huffed and glared at each other, but nodded. "Yes, Neth," they both said at the same time, before Alister spoke again. "I need to go, he's getting away!" He said insistently, but his upper arm was grabbed before he could chase after anyone.

Wisteria scowled, putting her hands on her hips. "No way. We're not chasing an assassin," she said firmly, if quietly. But she met a gaze filled with such fury and determination he didn't have to say a word: he was going after this guy.

Neth released the boy. "You are the reason I am no longer a slave. I'm coming with you," he said firmly, all arms crossing.

Wisteria stepped forward as well, irritation clear but her jaw set stubbornly, "Me too. You're not doing this alone."

He looked between the two, exasperated, "Why? This is incredibly dangerous-"

"That's the point, you brat! You're making it back to Auntie, one way or another!"

"Fine! But I'm not responsible if you get hurt!" He growled defensively, before he closed his eyes and winced, pain shooting through him while he tracked the energy of the scroll.

He kept losing it for a few minutes, with the others shivering and staring impatiently. “Can we speed this up? The cold makes me hungry,” Neth complained, hugging himself and coiling up.

He didn’t respond until he finally felt his tracking spell stick, and he broke out into a sprint in that direction, the crowd dispersed by now. The other two followed, brought to a shadier part of town. It was mostly warehouses. Nothing appeared out of sorts, but when they approached a particular one it was clear that something was wrong here. They soon found a couple of guys approaching from the other side of the street.

“Hey, kids. You don’t need to be here,” they said. One was a tall ox beastkin, the other was a skinny-looking human who practically seemed to be a child themselves. Unfortunately for them, that didn’t make a difference to Alister, who didn’t hesitate to strike out with a bolt of energy. Wisteria reached out, her arm disappearing into a pocket space to pull out the rifle she was given. At the same time, Neth struck the ground with a pair of fists, a blunt spike of earth shooting out of the ground to ram the chin of the ox man, while the bolt was striking the young human right in the forehead.

This bought Wisteria time to load her rifle, and when the two recovered, they saw the barrel of a gun pointing their direction. They froze, staring wide eyed. “What… what the fuck are you…?” the younger one began to ask, before Alister glared them into silence.

“You. Big one. Knock them out,” he demanded, using the threat of Wisteria’s gun to make them cooperate. It only took one solid hit, and the kid was down… just in time for Wisterira to fire into his face. The bullet bounced off, having been enchanted with the attributes of rubber, but it was enough to knock him out cold. Neth trapped them in a cocoon of earth, leaving only enough space for air to get in. They would no longer be an issue.

Entering the warehouse the two emerged from, Alister looked around the dim interior. There was no one else here, at least in this room. But that changed shortly, the assassin entering the room from a hidden door. He froze as he saw the three kids, jaw dropping open.

“What the actual fuck?! How did you…?!” He asked, completely caught off guard that he was followed. “Well, son of a bitch. This IS a problem…” he said as he clicked his tongue, a slow grin starting to form on his face, “What to do now… I don’t usually kill kids, but you have gone and taken all my choice away!”

“But you can’t kill the white one,” he said, talking to himself as his face flashed to frustration.

“But it followed me here! What else am I supposed to do? It’s hardly a safehouse if anyone knows about it!”

Once more, roles seemed to switch, acting with a calm annoyance where a moment ago he was angry, “Fine, kill the snake and girl, but take the white one hostage… maybe master will have a use for him, and if not we can just ransom him back.”

Alister stared in confusion. Was he mad?

He didn't have long to wonder, however. The lunatic set his mind on the plan he'd made, and in the intervening time a silent message passed in glances the three shared; a basic plan, at least.

The Naga held his bottom two hands out and the earth rose to meet them, four stone katars appearing from the earth. They were jagged and crude, the weapons rough triangular blades mounted atop an H-shaped handle, but they would work for now. Wisteria, meanwhile, set diligently to work loading her gun, muttering prayers mixed with blessings. She pushed as much holy energy into the bullet as she could, which drew the attention of the mad assassin.

He started to walk over over to her, but found the end of four katars sticking through his torso. Using them as leverage, he was picked up off his feet and thrown across the room. The ground rose to meet him in the form of a spike, ramming through his chest to the sound of shattering crystal, suspending him in the air. "I'm going to be your opponent," Neth said confidently, taking a defensive posture with the katars. It was relatively easy to cover his openings with four arms to work with.

The crystal-infused abomination let out a loud groan and struck the earthen spike, and a crack went through it. A second strike let him shatter it and fall to the ground, landing on his feet and reaching behind him to pull out the remaining spike. "Then tell your playmates to fuck off!" He shouted with a scowl, forming his crystal hand into an axe head. He struck wildly at the snake, but his defense held. Not with ease, though; the attacks were quick, random, and heavy. Even one getting through would mean trouble.

As this happened, Alister was muttering to himself, struggling to stay awake through the pain as he prepared a multi-layered curse. It wouldn't stick forever, but it should help for a time.

It was a complex spell, designed to inflict dreadful amounts of vertigo. The second effect was a slowing curse, and the third was meant to cause violent, uncontrollable seizures. It was clear that curses laid upon his flesh, not the crystal, could still work. After all, though he had regenerated somewhat, there were still cracks visible within the arm. Considering that curse was meant to stop ALL regenerating, he inferred that the crystal was slowly absorbing and purging it.

But whatever he could do to stop the man, he would.

He focused the curse into a blunderbuss blast of sharp quills. They shredded his back, sinking in deep and laying the curses into him.

The effect was immediate, with the man's human hands locking up as he fell to his knees, only to be met by a fierce double right hook sinking the blades deep into his neck and chest.

"When will you learn?" He asked through his clenched jaw as the flesh slowly closed shut with crystal forming over the wounds like a scab.