Kaldalis flung himself bodily forward. Even reacting as fast as possible, he didn’t have time to do anything more refined than shoving Garyung out of the way. It meant the staff strike still hit Garyung, but struck his shoulder instead of his head. Garyung cried out in pain and crashed down to the ground, but he wasn’t cracked like an egg. It was victory enough for now.

The assassin was very skilled with the staff, and despite striking Garyung with enough force to throw the Bhogad to the ground, the weapon still whirled with enough momentum to sweep Kaldalis’s legs out from under him. Kaldalis hit the ground with a grunt and a curse, and he quickly scrambled to try to regain his feet.

For a brief moment, the assassin looked back and forth between the two of them. Garyung was clutching his shoulder and groaning, momentarily disabled, but Kaldalis was doing what he did best. He was being too annoying to ignore. If the assassin wanted to try and strike down Garyung, he would have to get Kaldalis out of the way first.

The assassin recognized that. And the staff whipped down at Kaldalis’s head, a blow that would take him out of the fight - if not permanently, then at least long enough for Garyung to be dealt with.

Kaldalis did the only thing that made sense.

He Flickered.

The world was suddenly replaced by the Paths Between Paths. Kaldalis suddenly felt a pang of regret that he hadn’t taken more time to experiment with Flicker before, because there was a sense of something different here, and he couldn’t quite figure it out. Did flickering from a geographically distant location do something to the ability? It certainly seemed to work outside of the archipelago, but there was just a sense of strangeness. It took him almost the entire time floating in the airless void to figure it out.

The two white shapes floating in the distance. One of them seemed slightly larger than the other now. Spatial reasoning dictated that they hadn’t actually changed, though. They were just at a slightly different angle now. Kaldalis didn’t have time to wonder if it was because they’d moved since the last time he’d used Kaia’s Flicker, or if it was because he was using the ability from a new location.

He felt like they weren’t something he could ignore for much longer. Those giant white shapes were clearly not a skybox. They were actual objects floating in this space. What were they? Was it possible to get closer to them? Did he have the tools to investigate them?

For now, though, he didn’t have the time. And he had larger concerns when he got back to the real world.

He snapped back to reality to find that the assassin was making a run for it. In the brief split-second he’d been gone, an alarm started to sound, though it was just the tinny rattling of bells and not a real siren.

The assassin was swarming up the side of a nearby building like a lizard, and if an alarm was finally sounding, Kaldalis didn’t want to let him get away. He cast his shield back into his inventory and re-equipped his spear - his usual spear, not the War Weapon - but the delay let the cloaked figure get to the rooftops.

“I’ll get him,” Kaldalis said to Garyung.

“Wait, wh-” Garyung began.

Kaldalis didn’t have time for a conversation. Garyung was probably afraid of a subsequent attack if Kaldalis left him alone, but it sounded like guards were on the way now. He would be fine. But if the assassin escaped, they were going to lose their best lead. Kaldalis couldn’t let that happen.

The Jump ability got Kaldalis to the rooftops in a flash. The assassin audibly cursed as soon as Kaldalis hit the roof, and he could guess why. If this guy was a professional, then he probably dealt with a lot of rooftop chases. There was no easy way to outrun a spear-user over open terrain. The Jump ability was overtuned when it came to overland travel. If Kaldalis wanted a physical altercation, he could drop down on top of the man in the next few seconds.

The assassin had other plans. As soon as he reached the far end of the building, he dropped straight down again, into the alleyway behind. Kaldalis reached the lip of the roof in a single bound, peering down to see the assassin fleeing towards the waterfront. Kaldalis jumped after, keeping to the rooftops, but intent on not letting them escape.

With his jump ability he was able to stay right on top of the fleeing assassin, directly above him on the rooftops. He couldn’t drop down into the alleyway without losing the advantage the Jump cooldown offered, but he knew he was going to have to jump down before the duration ran out unless he wanted to eat a ton of fall damage.

The assassin set a zig-zagging course through the alleyways. They were in a downtown-ish area, and so there was a relatively dense web of alleys behind the buildings, but as long as the Jump cooldown was running, the assassin couldn’t escape. Kaldalis also had the benefit of a bird’s-eye view of the alleys ahead. It meant that he could see when the Assassin made a mistake, taking a turn that led to a crooked alley that was blocked off around a blind corner.

Kaldalis dropped down behind the assassin right before the corner. He still had a few seconds of Jump left, but was ready to activate his second charge if the Assassin had another trick up his sleeve.

“Surrender,” Kaldalis demanded. “Tell me who sent you, and I might even let you escape.”

“Fucking hell,” the assassin snarled, his voice low and gravelly. “I don’t get paid enough to deal with fucking sorcerers.”

“If you don’t want to deal with me, just tell me who paid you,” Kaldalis said. He started to step towards the assassin, and the flutelike staff swept up in a warding position, whistling faintly. “Just give me a name, and I won’t hit you with any… Evil magic!” Kaldalis raised one hand and waggled his fingers.

“Fuck, shit,” the assassin cursed. The war weapon staff swept back and forth through the air, as if trying to swat invisible projectiles away. “Knock that the fuck off! I’ve killed for less than this!”

“I bet you haven’t died for less than this,” Kaldalis said, taking another step forward. “Who sent you? I won’t ask again!”

“I’d rather just fucking kill you,” the assassin said, lunging. The sinister staff wailed through the air at Kaldalis.

The blow was lightning-fast, but Kaldalis managed to duck under it as it screamed right over his horns. As soon as it went by, he lunged forward himself, driving his elbow into the assassin’s gut. It was hard to get in under his guard, but landing the blow crumpled the assassin, doubling him over and sending him staggering to the side.

This bit of alleyway was mostly empty, and strangely clean, so there were no obstacles to stop the reeling vathon until he crashed into the wooden wall on the left side of the narrow passage. Kaldalis heard the distant sound of rattling bells growing louder now, and assumed that guards were catching up. All he had to do was stop the assassin from escaping before they arrived. He couldn’t let his foe get his bearings, or the War Weapon might be his end.

Kaldalis dove across the alleyway, putting his spear away and raising his fists. He briefly considered going for Onirioago’s sinister spear, but he knew that such a thing was a dangerous toy. In Baimer, there was no doubt acres and acres of paperwork to get the permit to fill out the form to apply to be considered for an interview to check for suitability to take a test to be allowed to pay the fee to get onto the waiting list for the license for such a murderous weapon. The last thing he wanted was for the guards to arrive and haul him off to jail as well.

The assassin recovered from the blow to the gut right as Kaldalis reached him, and looked up just in time to get sucker-punched right in the face. He couldn’t aim for the nose proper, due to the shadowy obfuscation of the cloak, but he still felt a sickening crackling under his knuckles. Whatever he’d hit was hurting now.

The staff whirled up at Kaldalis’s face, but instead of ducking or dodging, he raised his arm, blocking the blow. It hurt his forearm to accept the strike, but it was a rushed attack, and didn’t have the bone-breaking force Kaldalis had feared. Blocking the blow meant that Kaldalis was still right up in the assassin’s face, and was able to bring his left hand down in a haymaker punch. His enemy rolled with the blow to avoid being knocked solidly by it, but it still connected, earning a grunt of pain and sending the assassin down to one knee.

“Halt!” a gruff voice called from the open end of the alley. “Drop your weapons!”

Kaldalis stepped back quickly away from the assassin, raising his hands to show they were empty. Behind him, five guards arrived, one of them holding a tall stick that appeared to have a windchime on the top of it - the source of the ringing sound that he’d been hearing. The other four held weapons that had a familiar sinister aura around them. These weren’t just standard guards like what he’d seen around. This was a squad that was ready for real violence.

“That’s the guy,” Kaldalis said, nodding towards the downed assassin. “We just need to know who sent him, and-”

“Don’t try your tricks,” the lead guard snapped, lowering his sinister-looking gladius towards Kaldalis. “We know who we’re here for.”