Her client was Bishop Santos again, not that Thorn was really surprised. She had done a good job working for the man both in the general odd-job category and the darker… murder category. It wasn’t much of a surprise that he would go to the scarlet mercenary for less-than-legal work with the quality that she put in already. The bishop was turning out to be a cunning man, hiring outsiders to do his dirty work with the safety blanket of simply blaming them if things go wrong. The downside was that he actually believed in his religion and the idea of heretics, though he put his own power first. Not that there wasn’t heretics, Thorn heard rumors of a cult of necromancers running amok, but the Bishop believing that anyone who didn’t like his iron fist over the town was automatically branded a heretic by the power crazy zealot.

Once again, bad for the townspeople, good for mercenaries like Thorn. She considered her current job more along the lines of grunt work, but she was paid the same amount as her harder last job compared to this one so she really wasn’t complaining. What was the job? Well recently it seemed like some punks were taking down the Bishops precious flyers from the walls around town. This was obviously the work of horrible heretics so Thorn was currently on the prowl to catch them in action and in the words of her employer ‘bring holy justice down upon him.

Really, whatever floated his boat was fine with her as long as the curse mage was paid.

Peeking out from under her usual ratty black cloak, hood currently thrown over her head to hide her face, Thorn couldn’t see anybody taking down posters quiet yet. Since not many people took to the streets of Dahlia that often, let alone at night, it was rather easy to stand out in these streets. This was good for her since her prey would be easy to spot, bad since she stood out as well. To rectify this Thorn had positioned herself on the roof of a taller building that gave her a nice view of the streets below and some alleyways while using a spooky gargoyle to hide her form. She got intel from her client (well, his priests but whatever) that this was one of the only untouched areas so far and probably on the criminals to-do list. So Thorn had been staking out here for the past three days, waiting for these guys to show their faces.

Finally there was movement from the corner of her eye and Thorn quickly shifted herself over to see more clearly. Down a side street stood two cloaked figures with one beginning to tear down a flyer while the other seemed to be watching their partners back. “Gotcha.” Thorn mumbles to herself, eyes narrowing in determination. She doesn’t hesitate to move away from her spot and begins her climb down to street level, which was easier since after three days she was used to it. After landing on the cobblestone streets the hunter immediately set off after her prey, contemplating on setting off her stealth spell, before deciding against it since she didn’t know how skilled those two were at fighting. She might need all of the mana she’s got. Thorn begins to slow down as she approaches the hotspot and peeks around the corner, pleased to see that they were still there, taking down posters at the other end of the street. They also hadn’t noticed her, the perfect opportunity for a surprise attack which would end things quickly.

Unfortunately lady luck was not on her side tonight. A stupid cat had chosen to howl in an alleyway near the woman, causing the two perpetrators to whirl around and spot her before Thorn could duck back behind the corner. The boys, going by their voices, cursed before whirling around and sprinting from the area. Thorn let out a similar curse within the confines of her own head and tares after them down an alleyway.

The next few minutes were a scramble of running and turning corners. The boys weren’t bothering to be sneaky to it was surprisingly easy to follow them. It was also obvious they weren’t mages since Thorn was beginning to catch up and hadn’t run into any defence or spells slung her way. That or they were very weak mages. But Thorn was still wary of being led into a trap or ambush as she ran.

The worry was unneeded because as soon as she turned the next corner she noted that it was the boys who were trapped. Not that she really meant to, but it was sure convenient. It was a dead end, the walls of the alleyway several meters high making it impossible for non-mages to scale them. The boys themselves were clearly exhausted themselves, leaning on each other and panting, probably unable to run further anyways. With Thorns looming figure blocking the only exit, the boys were trapped and doomed.

They seemed to grimly realize this because as Thorn approached, one stepped forward and boldly said “Do you know what is scarier than the monsters who hides in the light and shows its teeth in the dark? The monster who does not hide in the light but hides its teeth behind a smile."

Thorn only says “Curse Magic: Demonic Claw” while she swings her left arm to her side, clenches her fist, then releases it opening her hand wide and causing demonic aura to come out from it and tearing the bandages covering her arm away, revealing her demonic left arm. The two put up a bit of a fight, particularly with defending the other, but soon fall in a bloody mess. The one who hadn’t spoken before was the last to fall, and with blood gushing from his deadly wound muttered an apology to his probably dead mother for not getting her vengeance.

Thorn only sticks around long enough to check to see if they were really dead before disappearing into the night.