[1.25] Heisty Type (Part 3)

Frits! The moment Angelica had the tiara in her hand and she lifted it off its ornate display, an alarm blared. “Master, I have the tiara. Cast Return please!” A moment passed and nothing happened. “Master, Return please. Lustre, get me the hell out of here!” All pleasantries were gone. She needed to evacuate immediately.

Gelic glanced back over to the guard in the corner and found his eyes staring back at her. Assuming he was just looking at the vacant display, she jumped down, but his eyes followed. Frits! He can see me?! That was bad. The guard had Magical Proficiency—a Summoner? Well, instead of sicking another Demon on her, he instead pulled out a gun that had been hiding from her point of view behind his body, and a big gun at that, looking more like an antique blunderbuss, likely to better match the museum’s chic.

Scuff it! Return! She wasn’t asking for one this time, no Angelica was making her own call as a Summoner herself. So what if she ended up in her country thousands of miles away? She’d rather make the long ass journey back to Migrore than get shot full of holes. It would be Order Obligation’s problem to make her fulfill it at that point, or Lustre could stop being an absolute dungspawn and use the damn spell if she got impatient.

And yet, nothing happened. The shot rang out from the long rifle, but she went nowhere. Well, she went somewhere, bouncing forward once to try and save herself. A sharp pain surged through her back. One of her nubby wings had been clipped by the shot, and when she looked back grungy ichor was leaking onto the floor. “Friiiiiiiiiiitttttssss!”

Gelic bounced forward again, completely dodging the next shot. There were no more pauses after that. Bound after bound, she hopped her way out the room, but the firing pursued her. The guard was out for blood, or whatever she had inside of her body since it certainly wasn’t the usual vibrant red. Each movement pained her, but it eased up faster than she expected.

She tried to clear her mind. What should she do, just keep bolting toward the exit? Maybe she should try to find somewhere to hide? While her Demon body wasn’t exactly small enough to hide behind any crevice, certainly there’d be a good spot, somewhere, right? Trying to find one might be a bit problematic since the guard was hot on her teeny tiny tail.

Oh, maybe she should turn into a human? If Angelica could just shake him for a moment, she could activate Transfiguration, don the same guard’s uniform, and then act like she had heard the alarm and was also checking things out? That sounded pretty risky. Dammit, no, she’d still have the tiara in hand, and no Demon corpse that she could claim to have pried the piece from.

That raised a point—the Quillaced Tiara was the problem. If she chucked it, maybe she’d stopped being pursued. At the very least, it would give her a moment to get some distance. To hell with Lustre and her stupid Order! Gelic turned to the guard and attempted to pelt the treasure right at him. But it went nowhere, not leaving her grasp in the slightest. Since she had it in hand, the Contract wouldn’t let her just throw it away, because it was a completely unsound decision, according to the will of her master.

This made the Imp panic once more, getting a bit more erratic in her bounces. That actually worked well, allowing her to build up more momentum. She managed to round a corner and into the maze-like gallery without being fully watched. It gave her a moment to hide, choosing to wiggle herself by the butt of a statue that was sitting on a rock just about her size, squeezing between it and the wall.

Angelica didn’t know how long that hiding spot would be good for, so she quickly pulled up Scrying eye. A quick glance at her Skills showed that only Stab had any remote usefulness in this situation. But even if she could get something to attack with, she wasn’t about to bring a stabbing utensil to a gun fight. So she quickly shifted over to the Skill Weave. Surely there had to be something there that could help her.

Of the Skills she knew about, there was Toxic Imbuement. That could actually work really well, poison the guard to death or disablement, assuming she could get close enough. Since the man wasn’t her master, she’d feel worse about taking such measures. However, he was trying to kill her without remorse, so there’s no reason she should have any either. But it cost 3 GP, so it was no good.

New to the Weave, connected to Poison Eater now that she’d unlocked it, was Poison Kiss. Gelic didn’t really want to time reading all the Skill details, so she nixed the idea from the name alone. It sounded like a worse version of Toxic Imbuement, limited to kissing. Plus, it was 2 GP, so worthless for her right now. That, and why would she want to kiss the man trying to hunt her down?!

Angelica mentally backed out of the Pestilence Attunement section entirely and diverted to the next closest gap she saw in the clouds. Apparently that was Famine Attunement, her eyes landing on Hunger Resistance. It also had two branching skill cards, but one cost 4 GP, which she was now checking first, so she didn’t even bother reading the name. But the other was 1 GP! Yet… Second Stomach? That was a weird name, indeed. Again, she didn’t want to waste time reading what it did, and didn’t see how any sort of stomach or eating skill could help her right now. Maybe she’d come back to it if there was nothing else.

Ah, here we go! Branching from Stab in Destruction Attunement were two 1 GP skills. Except… they were disappointing. Her options were Bash and Swipe, basically the blunt and slashy alternatives to Stab. All close-range, all useless. There was actually a third card connected, that cost a whopping 6 GP. Despite the urgency of her situation, Gelic couldn’t help but take a peak, curious what sort of Skill would cost so much.

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[Hybrid Skill: Seeking Projectile | Unlock: 6 GP | Projectiles will automatically seek a target until they hit]

There was a bit more to the description, a lot more, actually, but the thief didn’t have the time to spare. A damn shame, though, because it would be an ideal skill for this situation. All around, there were multiple things she could throw at the guard, including many ancient-looking weapons, but anything would work, really, just enough to knock the guard down so she could get away. Alas, maybe in the future, assuming she could get out of this alive. She’d lost a decent dent of Health from her wing wound, not enough to be life threatening, but it made her fear what a more critical injury could do.

Hang on… this could work! Angelica felt a washing anxiousness and anticipation when she moved over to Glacial Attunement. There was only one skill tethered to Cold Resistance, but it met the cost requirement.

[Active Skill: Frost Touch | Unlock: 1 GP | Any objects touched are coated in a layer of frost. Cost: MP Drain. Frost intensity and application rate scale with Skill Level and Glacial Attunement. Growth scales with Might and Creativity.]