A lithe woman walks along a dank alley in Pravwell, she is exactly the prey that Per had been hoping for, after the utter failure a few weeks ago with the other woman and her cat like friend he was in the boss’s bad graces, he needed a win to make sure things went the way they should with his rank in the organisation.

“Come on boys, don’t want a repeat of the last time, make sure you check the roofs and such!” Per hissed to his fellow crew members, he was barely holding the men together after his loss of face with the boss.

“Yeah, listen to the pipsqueak, he won’t steer us wrong.” One of the larger of his group sneered at him and proceeded to just walk up to the woman in question, Per had to admit she was quite beautiful and if he hadn’t suffered a devastating loss so recently he would have jumped her. But something about her carefree attitude in one of the worst parts of a hard city said this one had something up her sleeves.

“Don’t…” then he stopped himself as the larger man started threatening the woman.

“I am just walking through here and if you know what is good for you, you will walk away now. I do not talk to trash, I just sweep it up.” The large man blustered at her dismissive tone.

“I will make you swallow those words! You can’t talk to me like that!” Then he raised his fist threateningly, it didn’t have the desired effect though the man had to be three times larger than the woman with a fist close to the size of her head. In a world where people were different sizes this guy was a cut above most. He was not blustering without cause. Per would never admit it to the crew but he doubted he could best that idiot in a fight. Still it was more than brawn that he put him at the head of this crew.

“Enough!” The woman suddenly said. She did not raise her voice or whisper, a simple word spoken calmly if sharply. The effect was immediate though. Instantly all the people around Per froze, the ape of a man in front of her straining against some unseen force that held them all in place.

A couple of seconds passed with the man struggling before there was the tinkling of breaking glass and the huge man broke free, Per saw surprise on the woman’s face for a moment but it didn’t last long.

The skinny man had dared to hope that he had been wrong about the feeling in the pit of his stomach but now it came back with a vengeance. Still, he hoped with one of their number free he was wrong. He gritted his teeth and silently egged the man on. Hoping he would save them from harm. He couldn’t turn his head but felt the resolve of the men around him firm as one of their number broke free.

“What do you intend to do now?” The woman asked. Was there a slight tremor in her voice? Or is that wishful thinking on my part? Per couldn’t tell but either way the rude, gruff man was they only way out as he saw it.

“Heh, wouldn’t you like to know?” With that he suddenly lunged at the woman, she side stepped his explosive punch but wasn’t quick enough and Per saw the large man grin as he felt his fist connect with a loud wet thud. Per saw a few drops of blood fly from the point on contact and felt his hope surge. If he could remember the man’s name he might have yelled to him but he was still trapped. Unfortunately the man’s attack had not released them.

The woman gritted her teeth and Per saw blood on them but then he heard the large man grunt and saw blood gripping from a gash in his fist. Either she had bit him or her skin had made him bleed. Time would tell which.

The woman then moved her hands in what Per thought was a pacifying motion but then recognised as Earth Magic. She said some words he couldn’t hear and then pushed at the large man. A wall of Stone formed from the ground and slammed straight into him, the man put his hands up to ward off the attack but it was relentless, then it toppled and fell onto him. He had his arms up and that likely was the only thing that saved him. The wall had to weigh several tonnes at that thickness and size so Per was expecting nothing but a meat paste left of the man underneath but surprisingly a few moments later to the shock of everyone around him a fist crashed through the wall followed by several more as he literally punched his way out from under the stone slab.

“You will pay for that!” The woman seemed to be getting irritated if anything, not angry or scared and that probably spelt bad news for the man in front of her. Her expression that looked she was wading through crap served only to infuriate the guy in front of her further.

He recklessly dashed forward, all skill and finesse gone from his movements. He wanted to destroy this woman that had no respect for his power. He would beat it into her with his fists and feet. Per could see it all in the set of his jaw and in his movements. He would likely die for his recklessness. If Per had been the religious type he might have said a prayer for him but anyone that believed in the four Elementals was either a lunatic or fanatic so he would stay well away.

The large man started to gather power in his right fist, Per could see the flow of Stamina as he built toward a skill. Meanwhile the woman was not waiting and faster than the man could trigger his skill she had Earth lifted out of the ground in the form of stone pellets. She sharpened the side pointing at Per’s subordinate and then let loose, more than a hundred of those tiny missiles flew at the man with such speed as to be a blur in Per’s vision and each hit the man with a boom that reverberated through the alley and streets nearby. Each one pierced the man and his lost control of his skill the energy dissipating as his howled in agony. The stone was now in his skin embedded there and not moving. But it had not gone through much more than his hard skin.

Wow, this guy is really something, Per thought. He couldn’t help but wonder how well he would have fared against a similar attack. He was decidedly…softer than this man.

The man stopped his howled and was now panting trying desperately to get his breathing under control. It must have been excruciating to be punctured in that many places at once so it was a testament to his resilience that he wasn’t still screaming. He gritted his teeth and made to step forward towards the woman again.

But he couldn’t, he was stuck. Not by the same thing that held Per in place but no less effective. It was only when heard the wet splat of flesh ripping that he realised what held him. The woman was using the stones embedded in his skin to control his movements. Not only that but she used then to burrow further into his already damaged body. Per had a hard time keeping in his food then, nausea racking him at the gruesome sight. It seemed someone else felt the same way as he heard someone behind him vomit, not been able to move meant he was sick all over himself.

The woman grinned her bloody grin again and then with a single swipe of her hand made all the stone rip through her opponent before turning and walking away from his lifeless body.

Per could stop a gasp from escaping when she was far enough for her Spell to fade and allow him to move again. They all stared at the unseeing eyes of the man before them, he was barely even recognisable as a human being so badly was he mutilated.

“We need to report this, come on.” Per said trying his best to stop the shaking in his voice. Who could blame him?

*************************************************

Master, this is a waste of my time, meeting nothing but low-lives here is not getting me closer to achieving my goal. Is there anything else your incredible mind can think of that I have not been able to with my inferior thoughts? Garva called out to the Terratrite, she did not always get an answer but it was always worth checking with the supreme one, he might know things she did not.

You are doing well, calling attention of the more powerful in this city will yield the results we require. Continue your good work. The thoughts came within a minute and Garva shuddered at the ecstasy and agony of those words on her mind. She would continue her Godling’s work. Ursa would be proud.