Rob X Punzel ~ Twenty-Nine!

Knowing there was nothing she could do for him, Goldie let out a strangled scream of loss and launched herself upward. Her hair gripped onto the ceiling, and a moment later, she was on the other side.

“Lu-caa!” Her scream shattered the silence of the night, and she saw her team shoot into a standing position. She was already running, but not toward them. “They got Chay! Assume they know everything about us! Forget the loot, forget the plan, run!”

A sharp pang on her arm informed Goldie that her magical signature immunity had just increased to level six, Considerable, and she acknowledged it in an abstract way as her feet pounded across the roof of the building. “I'm faster than the others when I get to the thieves' road… if the people after me hear that I’m going this way, it might give the others a chance to escape.”

Seeing the Alchemist in action, manipulating the contents of his potion from hundreds of paces away to accurately melt through her hair had driven home how completely out of their depth the crew was. “I've never even heard of a Combat Alchemist, but that has to be what he is. If he had splashed that acid onto my face…” 

The thief shuddered as she realized exactly how close to death she had come, and pushed that terrified energy into her legs as she leaped off the roof, only to land, tuck, and roll as she touched down on the next building over. Goldie barely allowed herself to regain her footing before lurching forward once again, eyes darting around wildly as she took in the uneven shingles and sloped roofs as she tried to choose the best path of escape. An explosion of noise sounded out behind her as mercenaries poured out of the warehouse and kicked up a massive fuss.

All this did was make Goldie push harder, legs already burning with exertion, chest heaving as she tried to fuel her rapidly tiring muscles. She winced and sucked in a sharp breath as the bizarrely clear, calm voice rolled over her with a sing-song quality. “Up on the roof top, don’t you pause! Go, jump, pull out metal claws! Search every chimney for my lost toys. Especially the little ones, don't get fooled, my boys.”

Mercenaries boiled up to her level, immediately spotting her in the distance and pounding across the rooftops with easy strides. They coordinated far too well to be anything other than a highly disciplined, cohesive unit. Code words rang out, sending some men back to street level, some after her, and others simply racing for vantage points so they could spot her no matter where she went.

“Just great… they couldn't have just been some hired thugs? Why would I think an Alchemist of this caliber would have anything other than professionals in his employ?” A man popped up on her right, and she shifted hard to her left and continued running—pausing for a split second as her hair began collapsing in on itself with soft *bangs*. The tiny detonations startled her out of her flight mentality, and her eyes went wide. “They're not chasing me, they’re herding me!”

She quickly scanned the rooftops in front of her and immediately decided to abandon her current path. Running flat out, she let her hair extend to the side, wrapping around a gargoyle statue and flinging her in a wide arc. When her feet touch the ground, she managed to maintain most of her momentum, sprinting back the direction she had come. A mercenary who’d been chasing after her dropped down, rolling onto the roof just in front of Goldie, and she sprang over the startled man, her hair giving her a bit of extra power by coiling and pushing alongside her efforts. 

As the sloped surface she landed on was far higher than the one she had left, an unenhanced person would be fully unable to make that leap. It was a small benefit, but when the wrong movement meant death or capture, each second added up quickly. Now that she was thinking instead of just fleeing, she began to murmur her thoughts aloud. “Doesn't matter if I'm visible or not, they won't risk lethal ranged attacks on me while they think I might drop the potions. Need to find a way to absolutely vanish in plain sight…!”

Getting back into more familiar territory, she leaped across an opening, letting her hair drag out like an open sheet, and the loaded-down tresses arrested her momentum. Instead of landing atop the building, she impacted the street, popped to her feet, and began strolling away casually. Moments later, a half-dozen men sailed overhead, continuing along the path she’d been taking. “Iron gate, high wall… dead-end alley, don't go there…”

A sharp whistle sent her back to sprinting, knowing someone had caught sight of her once more. She ducked into a side street, sprinting through the artisan district before finding a stack of plywood indicating an easy ascent. Then Goldie went up to the peak of a roof once more, launching herself over and climbing up the towering wall before falling into the citizens’ district. 

More than anything else, the illegal movement between districts gained her time and distance, as her pursuers weren’t able to easily replicate the jump. Half an hour later, just as she was starting to relax, a soft scuff of boots against tile caused her to jerk her head to the side and glance behind her. 

A trio of mercenaries were frozen in place barely a handful of paces away. Seeing they’d been noticed, they threw themselves at her—but the thief had chosen this spot for a specific reason. She launched herself off the edge of the roof, and they followed without hesitation.

They should’ve hesitated.

Instead of falling to the ground as they did, she swung up and around like a gymnast as her hair held onto a gutter pipe and turned her leap into a loop. The mercenaries dropped directly into a courtyard around a grand estate, one with very high, smooth walls… and extremely aggressive guard dogs. Goldie pulled herself back onto the roof, ignoring the sounds of shouting, snarling, and barking behind her as she ran.

“How did they find me?” Though she voiced the question, Goldie already knew the answer to it. “Come on, immunity. Rank up again. Eventually it's got to get high enough that they won't be able to find me, right?”

She knew how difficult it was to increase ranks after a certain point; usually, only the first few ranks in any skill leveled quickly. Still, with the treasury’s worth of magical goods stored away on her person, the thief was certain she was continuously closing in on the next rank. At that moment, Goldie decided being out and alone wasn't helping her, so she shifted her path toward an area she knew would have people no matter what time of the day it was—the gambling houses in the citizen’s district.

Fights occurred at every hour of the day, especially since some people's skills worked better in daylight or under the moon. By the time she was three-fourths of the way to her destination, dozens of men were chasing along behind her. Goldie put on a burst of speed, erupting into a busy, broad road absolutely stuffed with… only men. 

“Oh, abyss, I completely forgot that every young woman practically paraded out of the district over the last day.” Her panic transformed into an idea, and she heaved in a deep breath, before shouting at the top of her lungs, “Help!”

Her high-pitched voice brought the entire street to a standstill, all eyes shifting to stare at the golden-haired beauty in their midst. She continued running toward the densest group, pointing behind her just as dozens of mercenaries flung themselves into view. “They just won't take no for an answer! I don’t want to marry them; they’re not strong or brave enough for me!”

The oddly morose yet celebratory attitude in the area transformed into a dark, seething intensity. Hundreds of weapons were unsheathed between one heartbeat and the next, and a swarm of muscled, frustrated men charged at the surprised mercenaries. Goldie dropped her hands to her knees, breathing heavily as sweat trickled down her forehead. 

Only allowing herself a few moments to recover, she pushed herself up and began moving once more while softly murmuring, “Too close, Goldie. Too close.”

Considerable → Proficient-rank Magical Signature Emission immunity gained!

She grunted as the immunity increased in potency, pleased that it was still on the rise, even if its timing was suspect. “Let's go as quick as we can, hair. Suck up that magic and keep every bit of it bottled up for me, okie-dokie?”

One foot kept coming down in front of the other as Goldie hurried through the district. She knew there would be others searching for her and any actions she could complete to increase her odds of escape needed to be taken. There was even a brief moment where she considered dumping the potions and magical items and running, but the knowledge that the Alchemist had already seen her face kept her from getting rid of them.

Even if he was able to reclaim his goods, she was certain he would be hunting for her—so she might as well build up her immunities and eventually turn the potions into coins. “I can't let all of this be for nothing. Chay… he’s gone. Captured or dead, for no good reason. No, I can’t just dump this. If there has to be a deeper meaning, then losing him has to have been for profit. I know for sure that’s what he would’ve wanted, or at least what he would’ve done.”

She pushed through the thickest portion of the crowd, the noise and confusion giving her a thin cover. Already her eyes, trained to pick out details, saw searching faces among the crowd, people just a little too well-dressed, armed and armored, to have come here casually. At every turn, there they were. She knew each time they saw her as well, as a piercing whistle would ring out, and their eyes would follow her movements.

Most frustrating was when she saw them looking another direction, only for one of them to pull out a strange sort of dowsing rod and swing around. He followed the direction the rod was pointing with his eyes, taking in her shining hair and feminine appearance for a split second before lifting a whistle to his lips. Goldie turned and ran. “Abyss blast it, they have tools to sense the magic!”

Now it made sense how so many mercenaries, who almost certainly had a wide variety of classes and skills, were still able to find her, even if she were in a well-hidden space. She sprinted through the crowd, cartwheeling over a cart and landing heavily, though managing to keep her speed. “Just need time… a little more time, then my hair will make it practically impossible for them to find me!” 

Whistles rang out ahead of her, and she shifted direction, running down a narrow back road… only to find herself at a dead end, with the barrier wall between the citizens’ and the merchant district ahead of her. The sound of pounding feet closing in on her echoed off the hard surfaces around her, but Goldie was prepared. Just before the first mercenary rounded the corner, the thief pressed herself against the wall… appearing on the other side a split second before she had left.

Gasping for breath, she collapsed to the ground, muscles trembling and nearly refusing to move after the intense exertions of the day. Goldie pushed herself to her feet, and managed a single staggering step before her legs faltered once more. Sinking to the ground, her mind spun in circles while looking for an answer to her dilemma. Reaching into her hair, she tremblingly pulled out one of the potions she’d stolen, holding it close and inspecting the bright green liquid inside of it.

“I don't know what you do… but anything is going to be better than getting caught right now.” She pulled the small vial close, gripping the crystal cork holding it closed, and… paused. A small frown on her face, she squinted and looked through the liquid, her jaw dropping in a combination of elation and annoyance as she saw a word on the inside of the bottle, magnified by the liquid and curvature of the glass. “They are labeled!”

A chuckle bubbled up out of her as she read over the tiny words, then she stored the potion and tried again. “I was wrong, being dropped into a dreamless sleep for the next ten hours might be worse than a little muscle fatigue.”

She checked over each of the other bottles while lying in the open no-man’s-land, finding that only two of the containers were filled with healing potions, though both were labeled as Master grade. Not something to waste casually, if she didn't have to do so. With each vial she removed from her hair, Goldie felt a surge of magical energy charge the air, so she made sure to stow them again as soon as she knew what they did. 

Even after she found a potion labeled ‘Full Rest’, with a minimal description stating it restored stamina and reduced inflammation, she decided to power through with checking the rest of the bottles. Finally, the only potion she hadn't managed to get an understanding of was the tiny bottle which blazed with light, stored in the stone rectangle. Preparing herself for the dazzling display by wrapping hair over her eyes to act as a blindfold, Goldie popped the container open and lifted the bottle out of its stone casing.

Unlike the others, this one didn’t have a label on the side she could check by looking through it. Instead, cut into the stone container itself were two words for the name, and a four-word description.

Liquid Sunshine.

Panacea. Cures all ailments.

Mouthing the description, Goldie was startled from her thoughts as a piercing whistle sounded out far too close for comfort. Without thinking, she shoved the open container into her hair, stiffening as her arm immediately began to itch. 

Proficient → Extensive-rank Magical Signature Emission immunity gained!

She pulled the liquid sunshine out, sealing it back into its stone encasing once more. “Let's go ahead and wrap this one back up. Yeah… that’s a little too potent not to be twice hidden.”

Footfalls sounded out, so she quickly grabbed the light blue ‘Full Rest’, popped the cork out, and downed the glowing liquid in one swift pull. Goldie gasped a lungful of minty-fresh air, which burned all the way down as though the temperature had just dropped far below the temperature of ice. Heat exploded in her stomach and began racing through her body in time with her heartbeat. 

One second passed, two, and the strange energy shot up her neck and into her head. Goldie's eyes went wide, then narrow, and she hopped to her feet and started sprinting down the alley. Shadows elongated from the first hint of dawn's light shifting across the end of the corridor, so she shifted her angle, running at the wall at an oblique angle, then jumping up, pushing off of it and trusting that her hair would reach out and do so on the other side. 

From there, Goldie simply turned and walked up the side of the building—her hair extended out parallel to the ground to push against the far wall, providing her with the traction she needed to ascend vertically.

Mercenaries poured into the mouth of the alley, but she was already ten feet up. Strangely enough, none of them glanced upward, instead intensely focused on the dowsing rod attuned to the signature of the magical goods she had stolen. 

“Well? Well?” One of them barked at the man holding the searching implement. 

“I don't know, alright?” He snarled in response, smacking the tool. It glowed softly for a moment, beginning to shift upward. Then the light faded, and it returned to being nothing more than a lifeless metal rod. “It just… stopped!”

“This is the last place it was pointing to?” After the first speaker got an affirmative nod, he began shouting orders. “There must be a shop around here that has its own vault cutting off the tracking spells! I want a full blockade set up, no one in or out until every inch of this space has been searched! Someone get a hammer; we're checking under the road to see if there's a hidden passageway. Move!”

Goldie took his advice, slipping over the building and moving as fast as she possibly could.