Tracking 101: Nicholas tracks Gargoyles (28-02-2403)

The young prospective Rogue had been given very little information on his target, knowing little more than the fact that it was one of the creatures referred to as Gargoyles and that it had been last spotted in the Feld Tundra.  Despite this however, Nicholas had done all that he could to gain more information on the creatures, checking the information provided by the networks as well as a number of other reports of the creatures, before even attempting to gain information from the locals of the area.  This included the Benraevi tribes as well as the wandering Oyans that occasionally set up shop in the Feld Tundra of the Frostmore domain.

Unfortunately for Nicholas, the Benraevi in the area did not take kindly to humans, especially those who were not of the Erworne clan, invading their borders.  In his search for one of the local clans, Nicholas would be intercepted by a small scouting team.  Nicholas would sense them from some distance away, but not before they could pick up his ethereal scent, causing the creatures to instantly become aggressive as they powered up their fiery auras and focused their gaze on the man that now approached them.  As he got within range of the creatures, a strong psychic warning would bombard the Scion, warning him that he was trespassing and stating that he should go back before he was faced with a direct confrontation.

“What?” Nicholas exclaimed audably now.  “All I want is some information...”  He continued, but to no avail as the three boss tier ursines began to power their energies up to full, spewing flames from their defensive auras.

Nicholas would just sigh as he made his way off; it would seem that he would have to do this without the Benraevi’s help.  With that plan shot down, Nicholas turned to his next targets, the wandering clans of the Tundra who traded with outsiders.  Unfortunately, they would be little help as well, though for a completely different reason.  Unlike the Benraevi, these Oyan born channelers were earger to help the young Scion, the simply did not have much useful information to offer.  Unlike the Benraevi who constantly patrolled their territorial borders, these merchants would only catch glimpses of the ‘gargoyles’ on their travels through the Tundra.  Nicholas sighed; it would be plan ‘b’ it seemed.

After coming to that conclusion, Nicholas went to one of the areas which the merchants had claimed to have seen one of the bests and set up camp, before he whipped out the bait for the creature and waited for it to come to him.... or at least that was what he hoped it would do.  Within minutes the smell of warm roast filled the air, drawing the attentions of more than just Nicholas’ target.  For this reason, Nicholas’ M-Gather booby trap would be tripped only a few minutes after he set it up.  Only energy however, he would soon realise that the feedback that he was getting from the trap vanished.  Nicholas was quite puzzled now, could it be the gargoyle’s stealth that had caused him to lose the signal?  There was only one way to find out.  It would only take a moment for him to power up his Shadow Step and vanish, appearing at the site where the signal vanished.  Nicholas would look around as he tried to get a long on the entity, but it seemed to be to no avail.  Suddenly, something would impact his form, causing him to stagger as his energy gushed from his form now.  Oddly enough, Nicholas didn’t even seem to register the high damage attack however, allowing his attacker to get in another hit before Nicholas was snapped out of the psychic trap.

“Holy shit!” Came the exclamation from the drunkard as he Ether Shifted instinctually to dodge another follow up, summoning his Reckless’ World a massive black hole, to stop the creature from moving.  This was particularly effective against the creature, which he now realised to be a Coldrake.

With his target unable to move, his Quickshot would be his first option as he tried to disorient the massive drake, stunning him temporarily before he unleashed a round from his Crucific cannon to blast the creature so that he could teleport away.  Nicholas cursed under his breath now, this location was clearly compromised, he could not afford to stay there and risk another ambush from the psychic creature.  Knowing this, he would quickly pick down his makeshift camp and move to another area, where he hoped that he would be more lucky.

Unfortunately for the channeler called Reckless, the drake had gotten a taste of his blood, and it was not going to give up easily.  As Nicholas set up his second camp, he sat with himself and cursed lightly as his wounds now started to take on the features associated with frost bite, paining the Scion greatly as his low deflection attempted to take care of the status ailment.

Once again, he would sense something being affected by his M-Gather, and he would once again teleport to its location.  This time he was in luck, from the physical appearance of it, he was sure that it was a gargoyle.  Nicholas wasted no time whipping out his guns and unleashing on the creature with his Quick Shot now, actually stunning the somewhat puzzled creature as the attacks impacted, doing their job to disorient the stealth based oddity while Nicholas closed the distance.  A quick shadow slide would be enough to get him within melee range and allow him to score a quick Gun Kata combo before the last hit launched his opponent a few metres away.  Nicholas smirked, this might be easier than he thought.  His smirk would vanish however as his opponent vanished, forcing him to focus as he attempted to track the beast.  Luckily, his M-Gather would be able to track it, building up matter onto its form as it moved through his area of influence.  Nicholas would dode the counter strike from the entity easily, powering up another Gun Kata strike and launching it now.  Oddly enough the creature would be quick enough to dodge as Nicholas committed to the attack and launched a counter strike of its own, charging its claws with an odd phasic energy and slashing Nicholas across the chest to severely disorient him.  With the Scion disoriented, this allowed the gargoyle to charge another attack, dashing forward with a double claw strike before planting is weight and pressing both of its palms into his chest, blasting him away now.

Nicholas coughed as his form came to a stop, leaking even more energy in the form of blood from his form due to the odd attack.  His ether shift would save him from a phasic projectile attack before he could once again shadow slide to a safer position on the battlefield and summon his Crucifix Arms, Overdriving and Omega Driving his form.  It was now or never he thought, the creature’s attacks had taken him down to critical health, it would only take one more attack to revert him, so he would need to make his shot count.  Shadow sliding to his opponent, he would Ether Shift the obvious attack, getting behind the creature and turning to release a charged Omega Blitz from his cannon.  Nicholas smirked as the energy streaked forth from his cannon, with the creature barely having enough time to turn with the deer in head lights look, broadening the grin on Nicholas’ face.  Unfortunately, his grin would disappear as the creature seemed to Omega Shield the attack, something that Nicholas knew should be impossible for a non-human, since this skill was only taught by Terran humans to registered channelers.

“The fu-“ Nicholas started as he Ether Shifted again to avoid the counter attack before teleporting backwards to dodge the rest of the creature’s super powered combo.  Unfortunately, he would teleport right back into the trap of the Coldrake that had been hunting him ever since their first encounter.  All Nicholas would remember would be an odd state of confusion before the creature’s freezing bite impacted his form to take the last of his health and revert him.

What he would not see however was that it would be his target, the gargoyle that would snap him from the jaws of death and fend off his snake-like predator, dragging Nicholas to the safety of a nearby Benraevi settlement before it stealthed and vanished once more.

Nicholas: 290 Exp (reverted)