With a heavy sigh, Konstantin rose from his rented bed slowly rubbing his temples remembering the jobs he had completed over the last couple of days. Today was different however as he had been tasked with slaying a giant rat along with Selena, a fellow Rune knight and team member of the watch dogs. he was fairly eager to do the mission as he would be capable to turning it into a spell afterwards. However In his current state he was nowhere near ready to do anything. So he popped into the bath and soaked in the tub, as he did so he poured himself a glass of whiskey from a nearby flask and enjoyed it’s rich flavour. Eventually leaving the bath and donning his regular attire including his white and red robe as the weather had improved since yesterday.


Konstantin walked over to the window and looked out just as he had done yesterday and  several days beforehand revealing the now crowded streets busy with people catching up on their shopping. The sun shone down upon them with the large puddles from last nights rain causing Konstantin to accidentally blinding himself on the glare. Just outside underneath the inn’s roof, tied up to a bar with some food and water, Sparky was waiting for him. Normally he would be off duty today, but because of the type of mission they had been tasked with he decided to complete it in today. Reaching the area where he had first met Luciel, he began to question her as he waited for Selena to get there as well. “So Luciel I understand you’d like a rat taken care of, I’m interested in why you’ve asked us to take care of it instead of just just setting some traps and waiting for a bit.” Looking less-than-enthused by his comment, she revealed that the rat wasn’t like normal rats, but had mutated into something far more dangerous and needed to be killed after she failed to capture it. Sighing at the circumstances of the request, Kon was forced to wait until they could begin their search for the rat by asking around the town.

Total Word Count: 360/1800

Selena awoke to the familiar sound of tapping by her window pane. With a depressed sigh she rose from the warmth and comfort of her bed to see what was making the tapping noise. The last time there was one such noise it had been because she was being summoned by Lee. As she pulled the curtains of her window, Selena shut her eyes hastily again as the tapping continued. It was a bright day, too bright. The sun was glaring far too much for her own liking. Using her arm to shield herself from the incoming rays of sun Selena seen that it was indeed another bird. Although this one seemed to be tapping for the sole reason of doing so. The bird had no note attached to it's leg nor did it bear the emblem of the Rune Knights. It was just plane shit luck. Selena opened the window shouting "Shoo, Shoo, you daft beast." Selena glanced at her clock, Six thirty am. With a heavy Sigh he collapsed onto her bed again. Meh I have enough time for a little more sleep... She thought her mind beginning to drift to sleep and before she knew it. Poof. She was asleep once more. When the next time came for Selena to open her eyes, a mood of panic fell upon her. Jerking her body up suddenly to look at the clock caused her to wince in pain. The sudden jolt had made her crick her neck. The sensation of pain caused Selena to shout loudly as well as place her hand to her wound. Selena moved her head more slowly this time to read the clock. It was 9 am. Shit. Having no time to shower or even eat properly, Selena threw on her regular on duty Rune Knight attire which consisted of a Black training top and pants with some fabric here and there to make it look pretty, before bolting out the door to meet Konstantin.

Selena ran around Crocus trying to remember where their client Luciel lived. Selena weaved through the ever growing crowds of crocus. She did not even care that she was running through puddles or the fact that she was becoming increasingly saturated, all in a days work for a Rune Knight and water mage. Speaking of which she could easily get rid of the dampness with her magic. Her mind trailed from her wet clothes and now to the job at hand. Konstantins unmistakable odor came into contact with Selena. She knew she was close now. Spending a few more precious minutes running around with no real sense of direction she eventually caught the trail of Kon being able to run towards it to meet him. "Sorry I'm so late, slept in." Selena explained as she walked with Kon to Luciel. Kon then went to speak to Luciel who said that there was a far bigger rat than either of them thought. It was clear that the two knights needed more information about such a beast. "Well, let's go ask some people have they seen such a thing. Oh yeah who's this little guy?" Selena said heading out then seeing the little zebra like creature who smelt of electricity, oddly enough.

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With Selena rushing into the conversation, both Luciel and Kon looked at her with disinterest and disappointment respectively. Disinterest from Luciel's view due to her lack of caring about almost anything and Kon's disappointment as he expected better from his superior. Nonetheless Konstantin made no comments on Selena's delay, merely pardoning her. "It's fine, Selena." Having gained all the valuable information from Luciel that he could, he left with Selena who seemed to have only just arrived. As the pair left their client, she questioned him about his new companion, Sparky. Not wanting to reveal too much about him before they fought the rat, kon simply replied. "Sparky here is a Blitzle, a native lightning based creature, I found him in the forest a few weeks ago or so and since then he's become very attached to me." As he mentioned his companion's name, he pet him receiving a gentle bob of the head in return. Smiling with a slight amount of sadness, Konstantin decided that they had spent enough time dealing with small talk. Wanting to both complete the task and hopefully acquire the rat for later use, Konstantin motioned to Selena and replied to her comment concerning asking around the town about the rat. "Right, We'll do this in pairs, after all we don't want to get jumped by a rat and be the laughing stock of the Rune Knights and in turn the rest of the magical community."

Assuming she did agree with his suggestion, he would also recommend that they would look around for the rat in a pattern that would give Selena the most likely chance of her being able to sniff it out. Because of this recommendation, they would be first going into the warehouse and marketing regions of Crocus, then later the residential and commerce. On the way to the various places they would stop individuals separately in order to save time but on the whole they would be in the same block as one another.

Total Word Count: 701/1800

As she made her way to Kon and Luciel, Selena noticed just how disappointed kon looked, although the client Luciel didn't seem to care. A sharp pain jerked at her stomach. Idiot you are his superior, act like it. There is no excuse! Selena thought, mentally scolding herself for her tardiness. Quickly fixing her hair and making sure she did not look too tired, Kon said it was fine and they got their orders. Selena made a mental note to herself. Kon seemed more serious now than she had seen him prior. Their first encounter it was the complete opposite, she was the somewhat prepared one while he was the blithering imbecile. Looks like the tables had turned for today. Next time she would make sure she would be more prepared for a job with Kon since he seemed to care more now. Selena really did not want to put herself in this position again. As the small pain in her stomach subsided the two knights went on their way to slay the rat.

When Selena asked bout Konstantin's companion the explanation he gave was a little vague and kind of weird. He said that the animal in question was a blitzle and that his it's name was sparky. He also said it was a naive lightning based creature. "Ahh so that's why it smelt of power cables..." Selena mumbled to herself. "But wow, he just, started to follow you around?" She asked looking at the animal with some confusion. "You must be a pretty loyal fellow eh?" Selena said affectionately to the animal. Selena wasn not to keen on petting it as kon had for fear of the worst. The animal could accidentally shock her which would be painful to say the least. Especially since Selena was a water mage. Secondly the animal could be only used to Kon and purposely shock her to prove a point. All in all Selena felt it best to keep her distance form it for now.

"Hmmm, where to look for people with information. I think we should choose our words carefully. Asking about a giant mutant rat could send the wrong message..." Selena asked out loud. She was not sure on who to ask or even waht exactly to ask, but hopefully kon did.

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Puzzled by Selena's statement of Sparky's 'scent' he was about to question what she meant but held his tongue when he remembered something about dragon slayers having an extremely good sense of smell. Allowing her to continue she continued seemingly interested in his companions loyalty, which he too was surprised by though he merely shrugged it off as if it were nothing serious. With Selena taking up Kon on his suggestion, she reminded him of the delicate nature of the requests with the news of a huge mutant rat bound to cause a stir within the public. Figuring out a more appropriate thing to say than just have you seen a giant mutant rat, Kon replied. "Hmm, I agree this is a sensitive thing to ask about, however, it is something that can be done without too many issues, for instance, we could ask the more burlier of men whom might have seen something, look for tracks or we could rely on your sense of smell if you wanted..."

If Selena agreed, Kon would start asking some of the men that were working nearby who seemed to be taking a break. Knowing that telling the wrong person the wrong thing would cause a stir he instead chose to ask them a fairly open-ended question. "Morning Gentlemen, I was wondering if you could help me answer a few questions, I'm a member of the Rune Knights and there have been some rumours regarding a beast of some kind that appeared recently and I don't mean this guy here." Finishing with a chuckle looking at his companion with a smile.

The pair stared at each other for a second and then looked at him before the tallest man deeply, almost rumbling spoke interrupting the shortest. "Oh the rumours true, it is, The beast is said to come out at night and eat up all the pets." Wanting to waste as little time as possible talking with them, realising that they probably were referring to the mutant rat, Kon asked them one more question. "Where does it live?" This time the shortest of the men replied in a tone almost as deep as the tallest. "It's rumoured to live in an old abandoned house in the outskirts of the west side of the city." Recognising that this was likely the Rat, Konstantin would look at Selena and quickly speak to her, "Lets go for a walk, I guess?" before briskly walking towards to the house.



Total Word Count: 1134/1800

Konstantin agreed that the issue of the mutant rat was a sensitive one which needed to be handled delicately. Kon suggested asking the burlier men for the obvious reasons that they would be more manly and less scared. "You should not really judge a book by it's cover , Kon." Selena commented as he let him continue. He then said that they could use her sense of smell. Selena furrowed a brow. She really did not like other commenting on her sense for smell or asking her to just go sniff stuff out like some tracker god. Besides it didn't even work like that, she needed to memorize the smell before being able to detect it and even so it would be incredibly hard to exactly pinpoint it. "Sadly my sense of smell doesn't work as well as that. I need to memorize the smell before being able to recognize it as different and secondly even if I did have that mutant rat's stench memorized it would still be hard to find for a number of reason." Selena said with a slightly annoyed tone. She was not sure weather or not kon just presumed her abilities of enhanced sense of smell or he read up on them, but his version gave her far more credit than was due.

As they walked Kon seemed to eye two burly men on break and automatically went to interrogate."You go ask them some stuff then, I'll ask these guys." Selena said pointing to two boys near an alleyway. She had noticed them only as Kon began to walk towards the burly men on break. Selena figured that people who hung around alley's would most certainly have seen some form of a rat and would be beneficial either way. As she walked up the two boys began to puff out their chests and stand straighter to try and seem more formidable and intimidating. Selena painted a faint smile on her face. Clearly these two did somethings that could be considered "illegal" to certain knights but at this moment in time Selena did not care. The two boys, although varying in colour and co-ordination wore exactly the same clothes. A large sweatshirt and puffy sweat pants that hung barely over their waist that tucked into the socks. Their shoes were trainers crossed with platform shoes which gave them an extra few inches to help tower over any person who wanted to speak with them. The only way to tell them apart was that the boy on the right was wearing blue, and the one on the left was wearing black. The two were tall standing in around six foot, including the boost from their shoes. Feeling their eyes on her tatoo Selena smiled at the boys sweetly. "Excuse me guys. Would- But before she could say anything more the boy wearing red interjected. "Oi. Listen what ever we did, we didn't do!" He said with gumption, his firend in black backing him up. "Yeah wut he said." He said standing beside him. Selena rolled her eyes. Okay being nice was not going to do it. "Okay I'm not here for you. I just want info. Have you seen any larger than usual rats around? You two seem like you'd hear something like that?" Selena asked, pre judging the two, but they were as stereotypical as they came. "Oi bruv, wasn't that the thing that nicked your new trainers the last day?" The one that had backed up his friend had said. His friend looked back in disgust. "Bruv shut up!" He demanded. "So what if we did? What's in it for us?" The boy in red asked. Selena again rolled her eyes, slightly whispering for the lord above to give her some strength. Most people like this wanted something in return. Selena grabbed the boys elbow, pushing hard into his pressure points. "You'll get your arm back now answer me!" Selena demanded pushing harder getting the boy to verbally cry out in pain. The friend looked at what had happened and ran away. At least he was somewhat smart. "Okay, okay , okay please! That thing comes around here at night but in the day it lives int hat abandoned house in the west. I Chased it there after it nicked my trainers but got caught for trespaa- OWOWOW." As the sentence began to loose meaning Selena tightened her grip. "Oaky thanks, now get out of her." She said pushing her arm, throwing the boy to the ground. He quickly got up and ran for it. Selena walked back to Kon who just happened to be walking back too. "House in the west? Same info?" Selena asked and when Kon answered and asked to go walk she would nod in agreement. "Let's go."

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Selena commented on his prejudgement towards the men however regarding how the person's exterior didn't match the individuals interior, whilst it was true for the most part it was he ignored her advice. Her comments on her sense of smell were perhaps more revealing giving him information on the fact that she had to know the smell beforehand, had he known this he could have suggested they gotten something from Luciel however it could have led them back to their client.

Agreeing with his suggestion, though, Selena allowed him to question the two men who revealed the location of the rat, whilst she questioned two boys near an alleyway. To be honest, Kon didn't expect too much from relying on information from those two however after some encouragement from Selena's part she got similar information that he had, with her asking him. "House in the west? Same info?" Leaving him to answer with a simple. "Yes." Whilst he was a man of many words in multiple languages, in fact, Kon felt no need to extend their discussion in going to the house.

Whether the house was the location of where the rat was or not, it would resolve any issues that the citizens were having around that area. So with his companion, Sparky and his fellow Rune Knight walking with him, they made their way to the west of Crocus Town. It was a far rougher side of town, Rune Knight patrols in the area were few and far in between, houses were on their last breathes with some full collapsed into themselves. It was an experience he could never really become accustomed to, his skin crawled from the overall vibe he got from being here.

Unfortunately, as this was the location of the abandoned house he had no choice but to continue to it. Eventually, though he managed to reach the entrance of the building, the closest word he could describe it was would be direlect. All the windows were smashed in, front door off its hinges, large cracks ran through all of its walls and worse of all the entire side of the roof had caved into itself leaving it open to the environment.

Reluctant to go in directly with Sparky equally apprehensive, Kon would suggest an alternative to Selena. "Selena, do you think we could get the rat to come out of the house if we tried setting up some form of bait maybe a piece of meat or instance?" If Selena agreed to his suggestion, they or by himself would acquire a piece of meat and use it as bait to attract the rat alternatively if she didn't agree he would go into the house, wielding his staff with both hands and his companion extremely close to his right side and walk into the living room.


Total Word Count: 1609/1800

Konstantin replied with a simple yes when Selena asked if he had received the same information. Selena smiled as they walked along the dirt path leading to the west house where the rat was currently ruling with an iron fist. Selena wondered how a rat could instill such fear into people. She then remembered it was a mutant rat, a far bigger one than any of it's kind. One that had easily bested some burly men and athletic boys. Selena rethought he strategy. Clearly this would be no easy mission. As the two approached the house, the smell of decay and waste hit Selena like a brick wall. The sudden exposure to such stick caused her to cough for a moment. "Yeah we're gettin close." She said trying not to breath through her nose.

The house came into view and Konstantin suggested to maybe lure it out with some bait. Selena noticed some movement from a broken window to the right. "Good idea." Selena said to kon. Selena then clicked her fingers, as if she had come up with an idea, but in fact she had casted a spell. One could guess that it was for both since an idea did make it's way into Selena's head. Selena quickly hit the back of kon's knees with a swift kick to get him to fall to the ground. After that unsuspecting attack Selena would grab Kon by the collar and side and throw him at the front door. Selena dashed to Kon instantly. She seen the eyes she had seen before glint and jump at him. The figure was large and was about to hit kon, but before it could Selena managed to run up and kick it on it's rather large head. The rat lunged with surprising speed at Selena stabbing it's long teeth into her tender ankle. "Bastard!" Selena made a motion with her hand and a surge of water followed knocking the rat off her leg. Selena made another motion with her two hands creating covers over her arms. With them she whipped the beat hard, knocking it back against the wall. The beast again lunged for Selena but knowing it's movement Selena shouted "Jet!" to carry herself out of the way of the rat and to allow her to kick it to the ground. Selena then made a clockwise motion with her finger to trap the creature within a mass moving whirlpool of water. She then proceeded to wail on it for a while. "I'll let you finish it off Kon." Selena said dusting herself off.

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Spells + damage:

Though agreeing with Kon regarding using a bait of some time he wasn't prepared for what had just transpired the stupid bitch was using him as the bait, "what the fuck was she thinking? Throwing me into that house especially with my companion here does she want her arse to get zapped to oblivion." Protesting loudly at Selena calling out profanites he was unable to stop her as she threw him into the building following directly after him. Unfortunately for him what they had been looking for, the rat was in fact in this very building and was now staring down at him. Just as the monster was about to pounce on him, Selena kicked it with it responding in a swigt bite in the ankle. Despite his awful position he still managed a small "ha" at her pain, just as a revenge for almost get his face ripped to shredded fortunately she had managed to keep the rat busy enough for him to recovery get back his staff and for his companion to return to his side.

Watching from the side-lines as Selena fought the rat it was almost comically. Though knowing that he would have to take over and fight the rat once she got tired, he readied himself and Sparky whispering in his ear to target the rat using all of his spells he knew but to leave the last blow to him. Bobbing his head in understand, Sparky prepared himself just as Selena called out to him to finish it off. Charging into the rat he smashed it with a Buzz Charge. Now stuck between a wall and his companion all Konstantin had to do was walk up to the rat and smash it on the head with his staff causing bits of brain matter to go everywhere especially on Selena but somehow avoiding him.

Meanwhile as per usual after any kill the soul of the being began to enter Konstantin, empowering him and filling him with pride. If Selena asked what was happening he'd tell her that he would have to talk about it later. In the meantime however the two would have to bury the rat to avoid the chemicals being consumed by anything else.

So scooping up all the remains of the rat and putting them in a sack that he convinently found in the same room, he told Selena that he would take it to the forest and bury it deep, deep under the dirt near the tree that always bloomed blue flowers. If she chose to come with him then he wouldn't tell her or if she had another location he would follow her with the sack of remains.


Total Word Count: 2061/1800

Spells/Items/Companions used::

Konstantin had finished of the rat along with his little zebra like creature. Nice. Selena was surprised about how much power the little tyke had, and the blitzle as well. konstantin said he was going off to bury the remains of the beast. Selena was confused, but she did not not bother asking any questions. "Sure I'll join you then we can go get paid." Selena said. She would accompany Kon to a field covered in blue flowers which she found very very beautiful. Selena waited for kon to bury the rat and then proceed with him back to Luciel where they would be rewarded for their efforts. Selena would congratulate Kon on a job well done before heading back to her hotel room.]

exit

Interestingly, Selena decided to join him but it made sense considering they were partners in the job. He was a tad annoyed that she didn't at least apologise for throwing him into the house without telling him but as the rat was dead and buried he didn't care anymore. Despite being his superior her behaviour had been warranted for him to inform at least Hikaru or Lee-ann however he would have to do it at a more suitable time. Fortunately, the burial went quickly and no-one was around to notice him digging and placing the sack which he would later recover. Filling in the hole, Kon put the shovel he had acquired to first dig the whole hidden in the scrub nearby so he could get it later. Having completed their job, Kon and Selena returned to Luciel to receive their reward, before the two parted ways.

[Exit]