The Nature of The Hunt

We've Wandered into the Shadows
A massive man, broad as he is tall, has been walking down the road he was on longer than he could remember anymore...not that he usually bothered with remembering much anyways. Ahead he could see a sign, or what was left of a sign, that said Lexio Town was ahead, but nothing else remained on the sign.

"Hey, Zo, what do you know about Lexio Town?" the man asked the young woman following behind him.

"Besides the fact that it is one of the worst places to go in all of Fiore? Not much, Sterk." she replied, sounding a little bored and worried at the same time. The man ahead of her, Sterk, just smiled like a child learning of a new game.

"Sounds promising."

As they continued towards Lexio Town, the scenery around them continued to deteriorate until they were on the outskirts of the dark, messy and overall disgusting town. Just looking at the place made Bijou feel like she needed a shower.

"Are we really going in there?"

"Yes. Don't you sense that magic? Someone powerful is in there." Sterk answered as he continued into the evil town.

They wandered pretty aimlessly inside the town, or at least to an outsider it seemed aimless, Sterk was completely focused on hunting down and finding the source of the magic he felt on the outskirts. Left, right, down this alley and past that alley, they continued on for several minutes. The closer they got to it, the faster Sterk's pace got until they were all but running towards the magic source. Finally they stopped, outside of a worn out warehouse. The magic source was definitally coming from in there.

"Wait, just a moment." Bijou said to the large man as he reached for the massive warehouse doors. "Activate Nature of Genius."

A glowing eye appeared on Bijou's forehead. Her magic didn't increase noticeably, but Sterk already knew that the kind of power that she just granted herself couldn't be measured by magical output. She knodded briefly to him and he forced open the doors.

Inside the warehouse were three figures standing in the middle of the warehouse, two of them were obviously there and the third seemed to be a hologram from a Communication Lacrima. They seemed to have been in the middle of some sort of trade and everything inside the warehouse completely froze. After several tense moments there was a curse from one of the figures who turned to run. They were immediately stopped by the other figure, who was clearly wearing some sort of large blade, and the third figure barked some order that was muffled by the small scuffle and argument between the other two.

A fourth figure appeared infront of Bijou and Sterk, the glint of multiple blades in both of his hands, and intense magical power washed over them. Sterk's grin widened as he was hoping for a fight, however Bijou stopped him.

"We can't take them, not here." she said, almost screaming and panicking. "We need to run."

Sterk sighed in agitation but knew better than to argue with Bijou about something like this. They turned on their heels and fled with the sound of pursuit close behind them.