Tomoe was in a mad dash through Magnolia itself, narrowly avoiding magic blasts of differing colors that nearly hit home time and again. A bead of sweat dripped down his face, having been at it for a bit. It was painted as clear as day in the way he ran and the expression on his face that he had been at this same song and dance for at least an hour straight. Tomoe had stopped bothering to keep count of how long, after a while, because his pursuers were so persistent. Looking back, the Joyan could indeed still see mages by the tens, blasting him with spells of varying elements. He'd dodge, and move on to another side street. “Ugh. If I could just get away from sight for a few minutes...”, Tomoe muttered, knowing that escape would be possible under the right conditions.

Tomoe turned around after gaining some distance down the new side street, taking a pot shot at the first bright and shining face that shows themselves to chase him. Some starry eyed dreamer of a boy is the first to round the corner, probably not even old enough to drink legally, and has a fourth of his head taken off by the magical flame arrow that zooms through him. There were wails of despair and cries of anger and revenge. “He was too young, you monster!”, they would say, holding up his corpse for the gods to take off to the great beyond – exactly the kind of thing that the archer was truly aiming for in that moment.

Even beyond just putting down even one less pursuer to attack Tomoe, the ultimate goal was to cause as much chaos and mayhem as possible. There was no point at which he simply walked away and gave up on all of this; Tomoe was serious about becoming an avatar of hatred, and to do that, the eradication of a youth long before their supposed 'time' on this planet was up? Something like that was child's play. Something he'd need to be able to do casually, because for the new and perfect world to be created, Tomoe would need to send many more young and talented mages off to their deaths far before their time should have properly come. He readied another arrow and fired it as he fled, but such a half-hearted follow-up blast was blocked by a defensive spell from one of the many mages chasing him.

---

Crux: 391/500 (50% reduced from Intelligence)
Vega: 0/500 (50% reduced from Intelligence)
Caelum: 0/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence)
Circinus: 0/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence)

He didn't know how he'd happened across this bow, it just simply came to him one night. His old sword was gone, and instead he was given the gift of sharpshooting. He was still learning, of course, but it felt as if he had a natural talent for such things almost. He could only think that SHE had given this privilege to him, and he would need to take full advantage of it if he wanted to honor HER legacy. He felt heat on his back as he ran, and turned around to see a fireball mere meters away from him, ready to hit home. No time to dodge. No time to block. Despite this, his bow glowed with power and a magic circle appeared in front of him. “Crux!”, Tomoe called out instinctively, not knowing himself what the spell was.

A mere blink before the fireball would hit him, a disc of light would appear in front of him. Projectile against shield, and as Tomoe took another step back into a dash to get away from the resulting explosion, he saw the magical shield successfully stop the fireball dead in its tracks. It fizzled, and the shield shattered at the same time, being pushed to its maximum durability. It wasn't a powerful shield, but it was one that could be deployed quickly and, thanks to Tomoe's magical connection to the bow, cast through the weapon without the need for additional casting motions. That being said, Tomoe was graced with the knowledge of how that spell would need to be cast if motions were required. He tended to learn his magic via instinct and blessings, as his own natural talent at it falled quite short compared to most mages.

Briefly, Tomoe would take flight, ascending from the streets to the rooftops above. Of course, his pursuers found themselves up there as well to continue the chase. He would hop from rooftop to rooftop, dodging and weaving spells shot his way while returning the favor with arrows from his bow. It was during this time when he heard HER whispers once again. “Oh, Tomoe. Sweet Tomoe. You don't need to fear them. Fight them openly, and you will see yourself rewarded.”, the womanly voice spoke, trailing on the wind as if so close and yet so infinitely far.

---

Crux: 500/500 (50% reduced from Intelligence) Trained!
Vega: 258/500 (50% reduced from Intelligence)
Caelum: 0/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence)
Circinus: 0/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence)

Tomoe skidded to a halt, turning on his heels and taking aim with his bow towards a target. There were 6 mages following him on the roof, about 20 meters back. He knew he would need to reduce those numbers to make his escape, and took aim at the closest one: the annoying fire mage who had previously tried to blast him before meeting with the Crux shield. That annoying little bug would need to get taken out sooner than later, and now was a perfect moment. Tomoe needed a bit more time to replenish his stock of arrows, but he still knew that the bow could act as a catalyst regardless. 'Stardust' wouldn't be enough – it needed to be stronger than that. Conjuring forth as much mana as his body would allow within reason, a magic circle appeared. Just as the fire mage entered a 15 meter range of the red archer, a golden sphere of light magic shot forth from the bow.

It hit the mage directly in the left leg, and from a combination of the damage and an innate curse that Tomoe's offensive spells possessed, that leg became immobile. Searing pain and gashing wounds appeared on the fire mage's leg, causing him to tumble to the ground in agony. It felt as if his flesh was bubbling, something deceptive considering the holy-looking nature of Tomoe's magic. One would never think of a magic of the light to be so cruel to those struck by it, but it was fitting. Peons like that fire mage realized after being hit that they were being hit by a god's smiting rays rather than simply being engulfed in light. It was the burning light of a desert as the holy body of the sun razed hapless travelers, rather than the comforting presence of the false god Illumin and their followers. It was a light that beat down the unworthy, and showed them the true way forward; the light known as Vega, which while not the most remarkable among all the stars, was still one of renown and worth respecting even by itself.

Unfortunately, the mage struck didn't see any way forward. Instead, he groveled on the ground, sweating and salivating all over himself like a pig rolling in their own feces. The remaining 5 mages continued on, reassuring their friend that they would return for him once all was done. “What a ridiculous thought.”, Tomoe muttered, seeing the remaining mages move closer as if under the impression that they had a chance with as few of them as there were.

---

Vega: 500/500 (50% reduced from Intelligence) Trained!
Caelum: 184/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence)
Circinus: 0/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence)

The Fairy Tail guild was nothing if not gutsy. Even seeing their comrades fall one after another, that only motivated them to charge forward rather than backwards. This entire chase had started as a result of them discovering the corpses of two of their friends, after all, and this was the natural conclusion from the start. To them, there was no point at which they lived in fear. There was no point at which they gave up and accepted their losses as what they were. They would instead charge forth brazenly like so much arrogant meat. In a way, that was respectable. Tomoe cracked a smirk, remembering that he counted himself as one among them in the past, and that he had that same attitude. Though, had he ever truly rid himself of that attitude? It was more like he'd morphed and molded it to suit a different purpose, but he couldn't hate these fairies that would fight for what they believed in no matter what. Still, that didn't make them any less annoying to fight against. 'The grass is greener', and all that.

Tomoe would hop to another rooftop and be surprised as he did so, when he was immediately confronted with a wizard flying from the streets ahead to plant himself right in front of Tomoe, throwing a punch that Tomoe parried to the side and lunged away from, taking a quick shot that the new attacker dodged away from. With 5 more Fairy Tail wizards approaching from behind still, there was no time to dawdle here. The man approached, enhanced by magic to strike more powerfully with his fists. There was no time to take aim with how fast he was closing the gap, so Tomoe would allow the power of the stars to decide his fate. “Caelum!”, he shouted, as his bow became enveloped in golden light and levitated in place where he stood - in truth, a spell that took inspiration from his previous magic. Caelum's armory was no longer with him, but that didn't mean he couldn't take ideas from it for his own uses.

Rather than back away or take aim with the risk of missing once again, Tomoe allowed his bow to float in place before rushing forward to confront the fist fighter with his own martial prowess. Tomoe had become an archer, but that didn't mean his years of close combat experience against increasingly difficult opponents was suddenly null and void.

---

Caelum: 375/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence) Trained!
Circinus: 240/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence)

He would dodge the muscular fist mage's first strike, being a right hook that due to Tomoe's smaller stature, he simply ducked under and moved to the man's right flank. After doing so, he would quickly kick at the joint of the man's knee, a sickening crack following the strike. He was caught off balance, which gave Tomoe the second he needed to follow up with another kick to the man's jugular from the side, downing him and sending him crashing to the floor. Finishing his three-part attack, Tomoe would then stomp on the man's neck while he was down and gasping for air, his foot making impact with the man hard enough to cause cracks on the ground below.

With that, the melee mage was nothing more than a dying weakling now. Even if he were to survive, he'd probably need life support for the remainder of his insignificant years in this world. Whatever dreams he had up to this point, all his years of training both body and magic to what he considered to be perfection? Crushed to dust and forgotten in a few seconds.

Tomoe dashed backwards and retrieved his bow just as the mages began to catch up once again. He was growing tired of this song and dance, and decided that he had done enough for today. He'd let his remaining pursuers live as witnesses, as truth be told, this was all a training regiment of his own making in the first place. At first he was trying to escape, but after a while in the chase, he found himself thinking it a good opportunity to learn more about his magic and about himself. At the very least, he'd definitely learned about his magic.

There were a few new spells to play with, but for now, that was that. Nearing the edge of the roof with the Fairy Tail wizards closing in after seeing another of their friends horribly massacred, Tomoe waved to them with a content expression. Then, he would jump off the roof and his bow would shine with a magic circle one last time. “Circinus!”, he would shout, blasting backwards with a golden light carrying him through the air. As the spell reached its maximum distance, Tomoe would land and make his escape. When he put his fullest effort to the task, it was an easy matter to escape just based off of his own running speed. He'd find a shady corner of Magnolia to rest up in, lay low for the rest of the day, and then set about his next plans.

He would need to finally sever his humanity. And soon enough, he would. Today was a fruitful endeavor, playing with the fairies and gauging their strength. For now he had no business with them, but soon enough, he would return...

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Circinus: 375/375 (50% reduced from Intelligence) Trained!

- EXIT -