The Task:

And here he was, waiting. Blink was waiting for his other partner in crime to arrive, so they could get on with the mission. He was currently residing in a small meadow near the mansion. They had received a contract to kill a noble or something, honestly, Blink wasn't paying that much attention, he left the details to Eldritch, he was the smarter of the two of them after all. He could deal with all of the details about the contracts, the reason that the dwarf was here was mostly to let off some steam, which these assassination contracts allowed him to do. He cared little about the details around why and where he was killing someone, just that it got done.

He remembered Eldritch saying something about how they needed to be slightly discreet at least, so Big John decided that he could always scope out the mansion's perimeter while he waited, that wouldn't be too hard after all, given his small size.

He scoped out the perimeter, it seemed that there was a constant supply of guards, one on each corner of the fence surround the mansion, and it didn't look like they regularly changed. There was also the 5 constantly on guard, walking around the mansion, looking like they were on lookout. So that was at least 9 on the outside, but there would probably be more on the inside knowing these nobles and their constant desire for protection. The small dwarf briefly considered doing some recon on the inside, and seeing what it was like on the inside, but he decided that would be too great of a risk, especially since Eldritch wasn't here yet, and it wouldn't do to get caught and make a giant scene before his partner even arrived. Even if his size could most likely comfortably hide him.

He headed back through the tall grass surrounding the mansion allowing for his his perfect escape without arousing suspicion. He then made his way back to the meet up point to meet with Eldritch, and tell him what he found, about the layout of the mansion and the outer guards. He made sure to size on a large rock so Mr.Delano would actually find him, and not have to search through the ground to locate him.

Not too much time had passed since Blink and Eldritch's last contract before they had already thrown themselves into work on another one. This time the contract was one that took place on the island of Baterilla, today's assassination featuring a Noble that enough people hated to warrant himself a bounty. Like always, darkness was beginning to descend on the island of Baterilla; the perfect time to make their move on the mansion in which this Noble resided in. However, before Eldritch made his way to the spot in which he'd be meeting up with his partner, he decided to take a look around the marketplace. This had been the first time he'd ever set foot on this island, and even though their wares didn't seem that impressive he couldn't exactly give up the oppurtunity to at least check out whatever equipment they might have. Needless to say, he found himself disappointed but at least the distraction allowed him to cut through some of the time leading up to the start of their contract. 

Soon enough, Eldritch found himself making his way through the forest that led to the mansion. There was a particular spot in which Eldritch and Blink had designated that they'd meet up before the start of the contract in order to go over a few mission parameters. The young man began to regret the decision he'd made to check out the marketplace instead of scouting out the area, but he could only hope that Blink had taken it upon himself to do this. If he hadn't, they still had a bit of time in order to do this and create a plan. Within a minute or so, Eldritch had finally reached the location in which their meeting was supposed to take place. Blink was a bit harder to place than normal, but he finally managed to make out his figure standing atop a large rock in front of him.

"So, you see anything interesting up there?"


Eldritch decided to simply ask Blink if he'd managed to scout the area surrounding the mansion in a way that alluded to the fact that he SHOULD have scouted it. This was merely a way of Eldritch shifting blame in the occurrence that something went wrong due to them not being prepared. If things went to shit, he could simply say it was Blink's fault for not scouting.  

Words: 409

Equipment:

When Eldritch entered the scene, Blink briefly considered to signal his position, but he decided not to, if only for the brief amusement that seeing a confused Eldritch wandering around gave him. Finally, Eldritch located him, and asked him if his scouting mission had borne fruit. Briefly, Blink wondered how Eldritch knew that he had gone on his own little reconnaissance mission, but then realized that this was more of an expectation of the Delano than a prediction, it being posed as a question after all.

Well, as it happened, since he had done some recon, he didn't have to bear bad news to his fellow assassin.

"As o' matter a'fact lad, ah did 'appen t'see somethin' o' interest." His dwarven accent thick lacing his words, since he felt like his human companion would most likely not be able to fully comprehend his accented speech, he decided to instead draw a diagram on the stone with two of his fingers, carving into it. He took no shame in taking every chance he could to boast his natural dwarven strength. Although he didn't shatter the stone with his strength as he would've liked to, he was able to at least make a skimming of the stone, drawing what he needed to with his fingers. In the stone that he was previously standing on, he drew a diagram of the mansion, indicating the fence with the guards looking out at each corner, and the patrol around the perimeter of the mansion itself. He marked the mansion with a question mark, to reveal that he had decided against scoping out the inside of the mansion.

"Meself I vote fer the direct approach, and dithcard the cloak n' dagger scheme in favour o' simply gettin' the job done. But i'suppose there's a detail in the job forbidding that ain't dere?" Anyways, his plan was less of a proposition and more just him saying what he wanted, even though he knew the complications.

"I could prolly dash through the zone before any'n the guard knew what'd hit 'em, and sneak in, or cause a distraction and lure teh marines out'n bout, allowing for you tah get in n' do yer thing." Although he knew that Eldritch had many plans of his own in that giant human head of his, he also didn't see an issue with simply stating his take on the matter, after all, for all he knew Eldritch had the same idea he did.

Total WC: 1192

Eldritch found himself surprised as the Leprechaun began spouting that he'd actually done some scouting. He hadn't actually expected that anyone would have done so without being told to, but it appeared his Dwarven companion was taking this mission a bit more seriously than Eldritch currently had been - even going so far as to draw an outline of the mission area on a nearby stone in order to fully explain a plan he'd come up with.

In all, Blink proposed two separate plans; one in which he made his way into the area and found the target, or the other in which a distraction was caused by him which would allow Eldritch to make his way onto the property unnoticed. Though they were both good plans, Eldritch liked the idea of combining elements of both of them in order to get the job done.

"You're smaller than me...a lot smaller than me, you'd be better suited to go in there and take out the target than I would be. With the Nagi I can silence you completely, so that you'll have both your size, speed, and the fact that they won't be able to hear you on your side. Since you haven't scouted out the mansion, we have no idea if they have any additional weapons they might use against us should we attack and they feel compromised. Once you get inside, I'll create a distraction by picking off a few guards from behind the fence, that way while they're focused on taking me out you'll be able to move within the mansion with a smaller amount of resistance. Once the target is dead, just make your way towards my location and let me know. After that, it's all about making our escape....sound good?"


Words: 308

Total Wordcount: 717

Eldritch seemed pleased and surprised that Blink had scouted out the area, Blink wasn't totally sure why, but he was always happy to be a surprise.

Eldritch added onto his plan, as Big John was hoping he would. After all, he wasn't too secure in his combat strategy just yet, even if it hadn't failed him so far. He was more of a heat of the moment kind of guy anyways. Anyways, Eldritch added on that he could cause a distraction giving him more room to shake his tail, figuratively and literally (get it? because it's funny?)

When (or if) he was silenced with Nagi as Eldritch suggested, he would mask his presence, he would get on with the plan. He snuck again to the tall grass that allowed him to see the mansion without arousing suspicion. As one of the corner guard's eyes slightly shifted to the other direction in a patrolling manner looking out, and when there was a guard turning the corner away from the door, and a guard just getting onto the doorside of the house, and these two actions happened simultaneously, Blink would make his move. Hard to see because of his tiny size, and hard to hear thanks to Eldritch, Blink would run through the courtyard. Now here was the tricky part, since no matter the size, one couldn't simply open the door without arousing suspicion, or destroy a piece of the wall without a head or two being turned, he had to let his back hit the ground, and slide under the door (thanks to his small size,) then he was in.

After taking in his surroundings, he heard the footsteps of some people who were likely marines, so he sped behind some books on a bookshelf (creative I know). He would then hide in there, until a distraction was created by Eldritch, and he could sneak in and off the corrupt official.

Total WC: 1114

Blink seemed to agree with the addition to the plan that Eldritch had provided. Not wanting to hold up their assignment anymore, the young man quickly made use of his devil fruit's ability in order to silence Blink completely before the Dwarf ran off into the tall grass and towards the mission objective. With Blink making such an effort so quickly, Eldritch knew he couldn't afford to waste time standing around - otherwise, Blink would end up in trouble if the guards managed to notice him.

Moving quickly, Eldritch began to run towards the edge of the forest. Once he reached a distance of about 150 meters away from the gates of the Mansion, Eldritch began to climb up one of the nearby trees in order to give him a better view of the area. He made sure to silence himself before doing this in order to make sure he didn't create any noise that would alert the guards to a disturbance in the woods - something that would likely put them on edge even if they didn't see anyone. Once perched atop one of the branches, Eldritch raised a palm up towards his mouth and began to scream as loud as he could, yet, no sound from the scream spread throughout the forest or alerting the guards. This was because within his palm he'd created a small sphere which held all the sound from the scream within. With this sphere in hand, Eldritch quickly threw it forward, the sphere landing about 10 meters in front of his current position in the clearing between the edge of the forest and the gates of the mansion.

The instant the sphere hit the ground, the scream was released from its' prison and emanated throughout the entire area. Immediately, Eldritch could see that the guards behind the gate were put on high alert and began rushing towards the gate in the direction in which the scream had been heard from. As they began to get closer to the gate, Eldritch lifted Sorrow up and began to aim in their direction, the iron sights helping him line up a few potential shots. Though he wouldn't shoot quite yet, he at least knew they'd be distracted for a bit before he'd need to.

Words: 384
Total Wordcount: 1101

327/350:

So here he was, hiding in a bookshelf. He didn't really have to worry about his breathing or about his presence, simply because in low risk situations like this, he would just have to rely on his size which was an advantage in situations like this that required small amounts of stealth. He heard footsteps creaking through the building, and didn't want to tangle with an entire base of marines, at least, he didn't wanna tangle with more than 10, which there most definitely sounded like there were right now. It made him angry that he had to stand by here, almost helpless, but he knew that sooner rather than later, Eldritch would think up something in that great big head of his, and draw most if not all of the marines out. Useful guy to have around.

Sure enough, he heard this large burst of noise, probably courtesy of his partner in crime's fruit of the devil. He heard a large squabble of marines run out of the door, probably about 17 or so, signalling that he was most likely in the clear for the interior, he would most likely only have to deal with some support for the noble directly. As far as he knew, this noble wasn't terribly major, so he probably couldn't afford to send a small militia of soldiers out, and then have a small militia to keep guarding him, so the dwarf decided that he could probably go scouting for the noble. He quickly tiptoed around the establishment, looking for rooms that seemed important. Finally, he saw a room with 4 marines standing guard on it, probably meant to be there at all times, even when the rest had left. Blink made sure to hide behind a potted plant, and look through the leaves, waiting for an opportune moment. He hoped that the Delano laddie was getting along well with the distraction.

WC: 1438

As Eldritch waited in his perched position on the branch of the tree, more and more armed Marine guards began to rush out of the Mansion as well as from guarding the perimeter in order to see what exactly the source of the scream was. It didn't appear that they were assuming that the scream was malicious, but quite the opposite. Many of them appeared to have a worried expression on their faces, as if they were concerned for whoever could have been the source of the scream. Eldritch could see one of the Marines giving orders to a group of four marines and pointing in his direction - the source of the scream and the edge of the wooded area. The group nodded in the direction of the Marine that appeared to be in charge, and began to walk towards the source of the scream at a slow pace with their weapons drawn.

With his rifle still up and ready to be fired, Eldritch began to train the barrel of his rifle in their direction - aiming intently as the four Marines began to walk through the gate of the compound and move through the clearing between the compound and the edge of the forest. Once the group cleared a distance of about 10 meters the trigger of Sorrow was lightly pulled back before a silent bullet made its' way through the air. The time between the pulling of the trigger and the bullet impacting the area between the eyes of the Marine appeared to be almost instant - as was the death of the Marine in question. The body of the deceased Marine hit the crowd quickly, and the other three marines within the group assumed he'd merely passed out, until they inspected him and realized what the real cause had been.

"HE'S BEEN SHOT! RED ALERT! RED ALERT!"

Words: 311
Total Wordcount: 1412

319/350:

As he was waiting behind the potted plant, he heard some commotions within the marines, one screaming in horror loud enough for even him in the mansion to hear something about red alert. The marines seemed disgruntled, so obviously, it was time for him to make his move. The marines were looking around, starting to nervously pace around the room, obviously thinking that they were under a heavy attack, not looking at a potted plant.

He ran from outside of the potted plant, fast enough that he would escape their notice from the down and low ground. Then, running, he would burst through the wooden door, leaving a tiny wooden 4 inch high hole. Of course, luckily he was soundless, for the fact that he was obscured by Eldritch's devil fruit. The guards would soon notice the small hole in the doorway, but not anytime soon thanks to the size of it, and the fact their attention had been turned to nervousness, and standing guard for a large force, not a tiny hole in the wall.

Then there he was, the target, the noble was pacing around his room, biting his nails, waiting for someone to come and save him. Blink wasted no time, he bursted through the room, and before the noble knew it, he heels had been punched through, and his legs had given way, as he fell to the ground, still processing the pain of what happened to him, Blink punched him in the back of the skull, the weakest part, bursting through, and having his brain explode everywhere. This would all be silent, thanks to his nagi boost. From here, he would burst through the glass window, onto a window sill, and slide down one of the pipes, thankfully still not making any noises.

All of the marines had their attention glued to Eldritch, so Blink was able to run away, hitching the fence, and meeting back with Eldritch for the meeting point. When they met up with each other, Blink would congratulate Eldritch for a job well done, and travel with him to collect their reward, unless he was dead, in that case he would not congratulate him, and instead just go collect the reward.

{EXIT}

WC: Enough

As the soldier yelled out to the others about the situation at hand, a multitude of Marines began to rush towards the gate and the direction of the assailant's bullet. It seemed that they'd abandoned their stations in order to deal with the threat, whatever it was, head on and in force. The fact that they hadn't heard any gunshot was something that also appeared to be spooking them, as they were unsure of exactly how this could have been the case. The total number of Marines that Eldritch and Blink had been informed about numbered at thirty, and with the subtraction of one this left them at a force of twenty-nine marines. As Eldritch's eyes scanned through the crowds he counted exactly twenty Marines, yet, once he strained his eyesight he finally had all twenty-nine Marines within his field of vision. This crowd of enemies was moving forward at a quick pace, but they were still over 100 meters away from Eldritch's perched position with the tree. If these Marines managed to get even closer he knew he'd be in trouble given the fact that he didn't have enough ammo to contend with them all.

The only thing that Eldritch could currently think of to do was attempt to scare them off. With his rifle still trained on the crowd in front of him, Eldritch fired off a shot that immediately impacted the throat of a Marine that was running in the middle of the group. He felt that this would be the best target to go after, that way the Marines behind the target could alert those in front, making them stop momentarily in order to see what happened. This lapse in action would give the Dwarf known as Blink enough time to make his escape through the window before rushing through the grass of the open field towards their meeting spot. 

With Blink making his way towards him, Eldritch quickly slung his rifle back over his shoulder before leaping down to the forest floor. Landing without a sound, Eldritch nodded in Blink's direction before the two of them left the area in order to receive their payment before the Marines caught scent of them. 

-Exit-


Words: 377
Total Wordcount: 1789

296/350: