All in a day's work

Dianthaa sat crossed legged on the floor adding the final stitches and making the last adjustments to her bracers. The thin metal plates she'd inserted wouldn't do much against the cleave of a heavy axe, but they'd be enough to parry a dagger with. The unwilling provider of the plate sheets still lay gurgling on her floor, she'd have to get the cleaners in again. She had a very lucrative arrangement with a quirky forsaken who was happy to take any unwanted corpses off her hands, no matter how bad the shape they were in. For a few extra coins he'd even clean the blood away, though clean floors never seemed to last long with her.

She fastened the bracers on and pulled up her gloves, the Thorn symbol painted on them in the blood of her victims. She'd have to reapply that before it faded away. She liked to add little personal touches to her leatherworking. Smiling as she eyed herself in the mirror, she pulled the tabard over head, tightened her pigtails and tied the red leather mask back behind her head. She gave the dying alliance a mocking salute as she walked out into the sunlight.

It was still cold winter's day but the sun felt warm on her skin as she looked to the skies deciding which way to go. She whistled for her wyvern, dripping a few drops of poison from the vials around her belt onto her daggers as she waited for the powerful beast to grace her with his presence.

"You do like to keep me waiting" she said when he landed with a thud close to her, his powerful claws inches from her feet as if to make a point. "Smart-ass" she added, giving him a scratch behind his ears. If she didn't know better she could have sworn he was grinning. She hopped on and pointed southwards, holding on tightly as she felt the rush of taking to the air. She had to remember not to look down too often.

"Good boy Bob!" she whispered in his ear as she saw the prey he'd begun circling. A lone rider! Her favorite. As they flew in closer to the ground she was able to tell he was a human soldier on patrol. With him out on the road and the sun high in the sky, there wasn't much chance of using the shadows to sneak up on him, so Dia opted for a more direct approached. "I'll take the man, you take the horse" she muttered as elf and wyvern began plummeting to the ground. She jumped off the winged beast and onto the horse's back, scaring the ground mount into a desperate gallop. Before the soldier had time to spin towards her she grabbed him by the shoulders and pushed hard off the horse, sending them both to the earth, Dianthaa landed softly with a roll, the human cluttering to the ground like a pile of cans. Not far off she briefly glimpsed Bob enjoying a nice fresh lunch.

To his credit the human quickly got to his feet and into attack stance, it still amazed Dianthaa how some of them could move that quickly in such heavy armor. Of course, that was nothing compared to her speed. She looked him in the eyes and bowed before winking and gracefully somersaulting above him, gently landing behind his back. She tapped him on the shoulder as she hit the ground, sticking her fingers in his eyes when he turned. She was grateful he'd removed his helm to enjoy the weather, unlucky sod. She laughed out loud, taking the opportunity to move a few steps back, into the tree line as the soldier stumbled around blindly, wildly swaying his sword from side to side. In the few seconds it took him to recover Dia was already hidden in the shadow of a large tree, her light footsteps not making a sound. The human followed her, they always did. He'd be able to spot her once he was out of the sunlight so she didn't give him the chance, stepping up behind him and jabbing one of her small throwing daggers between the folds of his armor just under his armpit. She did know she was meant to throw those, but she so preferred to get up close and personal.

Well enraged by this point the soldier spun, his blade firmly held in both hands, cutting through clean air as Dianthaa dodged to the side. She aimed a powerful kick at the flat of the sword, propelling herself more to the side so that she may come around the soldier again. This time he anticipated her move and spun round to meet her there, steel scraping against steel as she crossed her daggers to parry. "Good" she said in heavily accented common "I was worried this would be an easy fight". The human merely growled and aimed a blow at her neck, refusing to be distracted by her taunt. She ducked just in time and kicked out at the human's knees making him loose his balance. She rolled away and stood up a few feet further, grinning behind her mask. This seemed to anger the human even more as he charged at her with all his speed and force. His blade cut through the Dianthaa's light cloak and her shape crumbled to the ground. Faster than should have been possible Dianthaa had unfastened her cloak and muttered a few quick words under her breath. The soldier's sword had cut through the cloak which had, with the aid of a simple magic trick, retained its owner's form, while Dia had once again sprinted to the safety of the trees. She was endlessly grateful for this new trick she'd learned.

As the human picked up the cloak with the tip of his sword she ran up behind him, aiming her dagger for his exposed neck. It was her turn to strike at air as the human had spun around, grinning himself. Their steel clashed together, his force greatly outmatching Dia, but her small form and speed making it possible for her to quickly dodge the blows. The fight was taking longer than she'd expected though, and Dianthaa was feeling her energy starting to drop. They'd both scored some blows but none of them did much damage, mere scratches, not even deep enough for enough of her poisons to enter his bloodstream. Her movements had begun to slow and he was taking advantage of that, pressing her ever harder. In a fair fight his stamina would let him outlast her, there was no question about that. Time to end this, she though to herself. She reached into a pouch and blew a handful of ground pepper into his face, simple but effective. A couple of seconds of confusion was all she needed to jump behind his back again. She thrust a dagger deep into his side using all strength and used the extra time that bought her to grab him by the hair. She pulled back his head and swiped a shard blade against his neck, spraying blood on the grass in front on them. She kicked the corpse to the ground and signaled for Bob to come over as bent down to rummage through its pockets.