Okay… I HAVE RETURNED! Did you miss me? No? *shrugs* Here’s my shot at part two, a few more significant characters show up, and some of the characters begin to develop in terms of one another. This one won’t be terribly fast either, though it’ll have action scenes for you. Expect things to heat up around chapters 4-6, so don’t leave me! I’m winding up for *hopefully* a good series. xD Comments would be nice. Likes are okay too, but they don’t mean anything to me unless I get frontpaged, because then I’d have more readers and that would be woot.

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Looking out at the sparkling consellations clearly visible in the skies above mountainous Perion town, Blast took in the night view. It was nice, he considered, though he doubted the warrior class took the time to appreciate it often. Always so serious with their training, he glanced at the lamp lit streets below to see a few of them scurry here and there, like ants at this distance. Taking out his communicator again, he punched up the three guild members he had robbed his new Kumbis from, they were all still at the party, a good sign, probably meaning they were all out cold from his robots’ attack, and thus not coming after him. Which, was of course why he was surprised to hear footsteps on the dusty stone behind him.

Turning away from the cliff face, and busily ant-like warriors below, his gaze set on another warrior, but she was closer, a lot closer than the ants below, and was tossing a coiled red whip from hand to hand. A metal plated skirt clinked softly as she set towards him, and let the whip uncoil to drag one end along the ground. He looked over briefly her red emblazoned plate mail and satin sleeves –he’d seen its make in the store, Jangoon armor if he didn’t miss his guess, and for (perhaps more than a moment) on a sizeable bosom, but what he was more concerned with was her eyes –she had a playful air about her, and when talking about an advancing warrior girl with a whip, that wasn’t good.
“Strange, I didn’t see you at the party, were you there?” Blast said, trying to make conversation, but all the while running over the situation in his head, a Jangoon set, that meant she was at least two levels above him, he probably couldn’t take her in open combat, that whip would make her faster than him, and his poorly scrolled snowshoes wouldn’t help much, behind him was a drop to the bottom of Perion’s mountain base, and that’d be a lucky shot, an unlucky one would find him impaled on tent poles. Jumping wasn’t an option, he decided, but how to handle this girl? She stopped walking a few steps from him, and said
“Oh, well I was out of the way, I saw YOU there though, wasn’t nice what you did to that archer really.” Blast was a little disgruntled, surely she wasn’t mad about that? But there was still that look in her eyes… and certainly she had a respectable sword, why carry that whip… unless she wanted the extra speed for a reason. Blast fumbled to appease her;
“Well… uh, it’ll teach him to be more careful I suppose, so he doesn’t lose something more valuable in the future! Yeah we’ll go with that!” She stepped forward again, and he backed up a bit.

“Er.. might I asked why you’re carrying a whip? I could point you in the direction of a respectable sword and shield shop..” the magician said, sweating a bit now. Her response caught him off guard, to say the least, he’d been hoping it wouldn’t come to this:
“Because, little mage, it’s been a long time since I’ve chased a guy.” She smirked, and was advancing on him again. Blast held a hand up defensively, and tried to reason with her;
“Well, that’s okay.. there’s plenty of guys at that party, remember?” she stepped closer, “Hey, hey, I think we’ve all had a few too many potions, lets be reasonable eh?” she cracked the whip, and a thin cut appeared on his wrist. Blast frowned, and fumbling behind his back, spoke just once more
“Okay then, don’t say I didn’t warn you… feel my POWER!” with that, he whipped out his trusty wizard’s wand (still holding onto it at level 38, because it was above average and +1) and in a flash, teleported –

Right into the warrior. He rebounded but she didn’t budge, and grabbed hold of the front of his neck before he could fall over.
“Argh! I KNEW I should’ve gotten extended range…” the warrior smiled, raising her whip, and BlastMage squirmed, “Oh no you don’t!” He teleported again, backwards… and found himself stumbling on the unstable cliff edge, he managed to right his balance after a moment, but the warrior chick was coming at him again. Within arms reach now, and he was right on the edge of a BIG fall off Manji’s perch. The aforementioned strong and silent type turned his head, ever so slightly, to see Blast tottering on the edge of a cliff, with a dashing warrior girl looking ready to shove him off. BlastMage knew him from a favor he’d done previously for a sick woman in Hensys, and hoped the man would help him now, but he made no pretense of movement. He laughed, and speaking in a dark rasp that’d seen too many battles, and enough blood to drown Victoria, he spoke;
“How ironic BlastMage, that it’d be a woman to finally… drive you over the edge.” He cackled mirthlessly over his oh-so-fitting-but-still-unhelpfully-corny pun. And Blast didn’t have time to grumble before the warrior was breathing down his neck, she looked triumphant now too, no escape it seemed. But BlastMage had something more to say.
“Sorry, hun, but I don’t know you that well, get back to me when you aren’t overdosed on white potions!” And with that he cackled, and with all the ease of a circus acrobat, backflipped off the ledge into the night.

—
Somewhat earlier that night;
CrossSlash backed up against a wall, firing off one wolbi, then another, star after star in rapid succession. It was exceptional that he could even handle Bubblings at all at his level, it was his high accuracy, but he couldn’t stand swarms! A great deal of the angry blue slime creatures bounced across the dingy floor at him, their thin tails bobbing and bouncing along behind them. They always had a plastered on smile, it was part of their face apparently, but these slimes were ANGRY. He’d been harassing their kind for close to the last hour and a half, and now they’d finally worked up the initiative to attack him in number, gathering an absolute mob. His arm was a blur, firing off a star as soon as it clicked into place in his claw, but then, he was out of wolbis, throwing the less effective, weaker subi stars he kept as backup, he knew he was running out of ammo, and Cross tried to strafe along the wall behind him to the door nearly a hundred paces to his right. Finally, his arm whipped forward and sliced through another blue slime, but no star clicked back into place. The bubblings advanced forward with glee, as the thief checked his pockets, all that remained was a pair of wispy zerostars, and those would do nothing for him now! He dove for the door, and landed on the floor a long ways away.
“Crap, get away from me you little buggers!” he exclaimed, as they piled up around him, knocking him side to side. Cross was getting pummeled, but panic was the last thing to be done, he concentrated and with a puff of smoke, was safely insubstantial, the slimes jumping right through him.

“Phew, that was close. You’ll get another try later, I’m not done with any of you yet!” he announced, and made for the door before his spell could wear out, he reappeared with a crack of startled air particles as he exited the subway. Pushing among the streams of people outside, he looked around in the cool night, the air wasn’t as clean as in some places, but if nothing else, Kerning City had a nightlife. He smiled at the flashing lights and droves of tourists, biggest city Victoria Island had to show, and he’d been there since he became a thief in the first place.

He set off to the city pharmacy nearby, stepping inside, greeted Dr. Faymus, the city’s prime potion maker and pharmacy clerk.
“Hey, how ya’ doing Faymus, my man?” he said.
“Oh please, don’t try to be ghetto Cross, it doesn’t suit you.” the clerk said in the refined voice of somebody who dealt with far too many stupid people in one day to suit him. Cross frowned and readjusted his blue thief hood, a bandanna tied in the latest fashion.
“How am I not ghetto! I’ve been here my whole life! Where can you go on Victoria island that IS more ghetto?!” Cross said indignantly. “G to the H to the ETTO! What’s the problem man?!” He was mildly flustered… but the doctor frowned, and looked at him over a behemoth white moustache.
“You’re simply terrible at it. And if anything Kerning City is rotting your mind, besides I know you came from Maple Island just like nearly every other adventurer out there.” He said, gesturing at the sliding glass door to his shop. “Do you want potions or not?”
“Nah, I’m good, just a refill.” Said Cross, tossing a pair of transparent zero stars on the counter.
“Okay, whatever you say kid.” The wrinkled old man turned and dropped the stars in a machine looking startlingly resemblant of a microwave oven, and shortly after handed two full sets of stars back to CrossSlash. “Oh, and you can have this as well,” he said, dropping a scroll on the counter. “I can’t sell these here anyway, I’d have to call my supplier, and it’s not worth it for only one, besides the mountain air might do you some good. –That scroll with teleport you to Perion.” Cross snatched up the items.
“Thanks pops, but I doubt I’ll be traveling anytime soon, I’ll look into it though.” He said, before making his way to the door.
“Oh, and Cross?” The thief turned at the sound of his name, “There’s supposed to be a party going on at the Fusion Bar tonight, I hear some rough types will be around, but you can handle yourself.”
“Oh, I hadn’t heard of this…” Cross responded. “Who’s going to be there?”
The clerk tugged at his mustaches before responding.
“The party will be run by a guild by the name of ‘XDarkStriders’, so most of their pack will be there, they’re a rowdy bunch, so I’d watch my back if I were you.”
“Okay, thanks for the tip Faymus, I’ll check it out.” Cross responded, before pushing open the door, thinking to himself; ‘Well, I’ve heard rumors about that guild, but I’ll be fun I’m sure, and it’s been too long since I was in a good bar fight.’

—
Meanwhile, in Perion, Blast watched the top of Perion, along with an attractive warrior chick with a violent disposition fall out of sight ABOVE him.
“Well, this isn’t good, to say the least.” He said aloud. Still falling, he thought over how best to survive a 100+ foot drop to hard stone.
“Hmm… well this’d be an anticlimactic way to die, at best. Let’s see what I can do.” The ground was rushing up at him at a vicious pace now, at least he was landing in the plaza, as opposed to on a tent pole.

He closed his eyes and flicked his wand slightly, summoning a pixie to help him out. It’s magic kept if floating at head level, but looking at the ground below, the little creature exclaimed;
“Wow, you’re in it deep this time Blast!”
“Yeah, just do your job and get outta here ya’ little bugger.”
“Fine fine.” Sticking it’s nose in the air, the pixie snorted at his promptness, and flicking a little wand, cast magic guard on him, and then vanished.
“Alrighty, now what..” Blast tensed, and just before hitting the ground, blasted his wand downward with all the force he could muster, in a giant magic bolt, this sizzled the air below, and did little to slow his fall, but when he contacted the ground in a crash, his magic shielded him enough to survive. The bruised magician groaned and hefted himself off the cold stone. Passerby stopped to stare as he lifted his head to the skies to cackle madly;
“Hah! You won’t catch BlastMage tonight you nut! Better luck next-” Blast was cut off as the warrior landed not ten feet away, slamming into the ground, rumbling the earth and falling into a graceful crouch.

“Oh…” he said, and then sprinted off between the tents, the warrior not far behind him.
“She’s freaking insane, help me!” He shouted, running between the bite-sized dwellings as fast as he could, but those who bothered to peek out between the tent flaps only laughed and went about their lives, just another warrior that had it in for another mage. Blast was running full sprint when he hit the wall. The same cliff he’d jumped off in the first place. Except now he couldn’t jump away.

“Crap. This is.. bad.” His back pressed to the wall, he turned around, as the warrior, not at all far behind, and nowhere near as winded as himself, skidded to a stop behind him, she smirked, and walked towards him at a considerably greater pace than before, she didn’t intend to let him get away this time. He tried to teleport this time, certainly she was close enough now that he could get behind her and run, but as he raised his wand, she knocked it away with a flick of the whip, it bounced and rolled several steps to the side, leaving him with a cut on his hand, and completely defenseless. She snapped her whip again, but this time Blast reacted, catching it between his fingers, but before he could get a good hold on it, and try to get it out of her grip, she moved closer and coiled it around his arm. Abandoning the attempt, he tried to dodge off to the side, but she was there in a flash, the thick metal fingers of an iron knuckle slammed against his neck, leaving him coughing for air.
“Eh.. hehe.. nice glove?” He said, squirming to get free.
“Indeed.” She replied, leaning in close to him. He could smell her scent now, thick with crushed flowers and a slight tinge of the sweat she’d worked up chasing him down.
“It was a good chase, as well.” She laughed, and casually pinned his arms against the wall. Blast frowned, and tried to pull out of the way, but he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Hey, can I at least ask who you are?” He frowned, and looking into her eyes, he was reminded of a child dangling a spider by its leg. She KNEW he was helpless.
“I’m Riella, if you must know.” She replied, and pressed against him laughing softly.

—
Cross strode into the Fuzion Bar Jazz, the evening was young and he was sober. Life was good, and he had much yet to do before he turned in for the night. It was dark, the dance music thumping, and the party lights running up numbers in the club’s electric bill. He waved to the ladies, and observed a good deal of maplers lounging around, they flashed a tag, XDarkStriders. He sat down on a cushy bar stool and shouted to the waiter for red potions. One was slid down the counter to him, and he sipped it casually, eyeing a cute female rouge across the room. She winked at him as he gulped down the potion and ordered another. Drinking casually, he made his way across the room to sit down beside her casually, leaning against the wall, and looking across the party.
“I’m CrossSlash, may I ask what your name is?” he said, as swave as he could manage. She opened her mouth to respond, but before she got the chance, a disgruntled rouge got between them and in his face.
“It’s none of your business pretty boy.” He growled, “She’s with me.” Cross smirked, an easy reason to pick a fight. As the man was speaking, Cross had slipped on his claw, and now, he stabbed it into the arm of the man leaning over him.

“Aaaah! Little b****** stabbed me!” Suddenly the room was a flurry of motion, some one grabbed Cross and tossed him in the middle of the room before he could react. He skidded on the tiled dance floor, as the crowd moved back and a ring of angry guild members formed a ring around him. They varied in level, some still in their thieve hoods, feather hats, and helms, ranging all the way up to more powerful members that could be picked out by muscled arms and a cocky stance. There were no mages among them, but Cross thought those would probably be too withdrawn for the crowded event anyhow, there doubtlessly was mages in the guild, but thankfully none were there to beat him down before he could react. A magic claw was incrementally harder to doge than a punch, he reasoned.

On that note Cross jumped back as two such attackers lunged at him, warriors, carrying broadswords by the look of it, and he got out of the way in time for them to crack skull with one another, instead of them running him through. Several others threw stars, and he deflected them with the leather wrist guard of his claw. Another swordsman lunged at him, and he was just fast enough to raise a fist and tangle the blade in his claw’s spikes. The two with broadswords rushed at him, and he managed to get free of the blade in his claw and roll past them, arrows passing through where he had just been. Coming to his feet, Cross was a blur of throws and stars, clanking off armor and knocking down attackers, he broke his attack to dive from several more arrows and stars, which went on to hit additional guild members instead. Seeing their target too fast for projectiles, the archers drew back and the thieves moved in, slashing with claws, alongside swords and fists. Cross blocked and dodged, they were fast, and many… he could handle that, but a lot of them were stronger than him as well, he could only make them hit one another for so long. Finally, as multiple swords and claws descended on him, he disappeared in a puff of smoke and ran for the door, laughing.
“The name’s CrossSlash gentlemen, good fight, but things only stay fun until you get stabbed. Remember my name!” The thief made for the door and ran off into the night.

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On an additional note, the series stays PG… argh I can see your dirty minds working already. >.<;;;