Hide and Seek (closed)

[Nightstalker]

Nightstalker awoke on a cot in the middle of an unfamiliar room. There was little light, but he could make out the paper walls five feet away. No furniture beyond his cot adorned the room, the bamboo floor remained uncovered. His sole comfort in this room was his sneaking outfit, and his weapons. These of course were already outfitted on him.

He tried hard to remember how he got here, but all he could remember was Master Hokkaido telling him it was time for a test of his skills. The white tea was soothing and delicious, so very delicious. Then, nothing. This was a dream, obviously. Nightstalker rolled over and the point of a shuriken poked him in the ribs. No dream, this was reality. So what had happened then? Realization dawned on Nightstalker suddenly.

He had been drugged. The tea, it was the only explanation. But where was he now? What place was this that would test him? In what fashion would he be tested? The room looked similar to Hokkaido's pagoda in the comb mountains, perhaps he was in a secret room. The Ninja got up and silently padded to a sliding door, opened it, and closed it behind him.

Moving from room to room, he quickly realized he was in a giant maze of rooms. This meant he was either under the pagoda, or somewhere else. Looking up, the walls stretched into infinity, disappearing into an inky blackness far above. He had to be somewhere other than the pagoda. Such an occurrence was unnatural.

He couldn't be outside, stars would be shining overhead, and moons. Instead the only light came from paper lanterns hung sporadically throughout the maze. Shadows everywhere, but not a person to be seen. This place was magically constructed then. Nightstalker still didn't know where he was, until he moved to a large throne room.

This room had ornate jade pillars scattered throughout it, carefully sculpted tigers and dragons kept them company. On the floor was a massive gold seal, and Nightstalker knew precisely where he was, for it was the seal of The Citadel.

“Alright Monks, let me out. I don't want to fight.” Nightstalker said.

Silence greeted his voice. Nightstalker sighed in frustration, not knowing what to do next. The sound of a great stone door opening somewhere came to his ears. Seconds later it closed.

“This is a game children play, scaled to an adult level. Which one of you can find and assassinate the other first? Both of you walk this path, one of you is more experienced than the other. Neither of you will be free until you slay the other.” a disembodied voice belonging to an unknown monk said.

Nightstalker knew what his test was now. He was to be tested against a master Ninja. The monk had said so, he said one was more experienced than the other. Certainly Nightstalker couldn't be better than anyone else. For one brief moment, Nightstalker was terrified out of his wits. Then he remembered he was in the citadel, and even though he knew he was going to lose, he would still live to tell the tale of how he was thoroughly outclassed by someone better than him.

Well, he wasn't going to make it easy, that much Nightstalker knew for certain. He would do everything in his power to beat his undiscovered opponent, and provide the master with as much of a challenge as the young ninja could put up.

[Fayne]

“…”

A chiming bell opened Fayne’s eyes. She woke in a place that looked exactly like the one Nightstalker had been, but she hadn't been drugged, bound by ropes instead. Remembering her fury, realizing this was the place that monks much stronger than she was had taken her, she tries move her arms around. She seethed angrily seeing it was no good. Fayne tried to kill the monks, but no matter how close she came to cutting them, they danced around her blows and she felt like a child again.

The corners of her eyes sharpened considerably, denying that feeling of helplessness as she struggled against the ropes with a look of bloody rage on her face, but she couldn’t break free. Stopping to pant and try focus again she noticed the glint of a knife nearby, left close by as if it was put there on purpose. Fayne wiggled and inched her body towards it to bite onto the handle. Taking the knife in her mouth, she eventually cut herself free. Strangely, she noticed, her bow and quiver remained strapped to her back and someone left her weapon belt near the way out.

Fayne approached it, giving her sword a gentle touch. She longed to feel its familiar grip again, having thought it was gone forever. Strapping the belt around her waist , her anger suppressed itself. She was able to get her revenge now, it was all that mattered. No one bested her twice.
She splays a hand and rips through the paper walls with her nails, gripping the hilt of her sword with her usual calm expression and steps out the room. One of her eyes widened as the bamboo flooring squeaked a little. Making a soft, unimpressed sigh, she undoes her sandals and slips out of them. It was rare she ever fought barefooted but if her enemies were going to play hide and seek with her, she wasn’t going to make it easy on them.

Shifting soundlessly across the room, her eyes narrowed trying to take in the place she found herself in. There were a lot of shadows, but also spaces filled with light. Warily entering more rooms, she began to wonder if she was in a maze of sorts but heard the voice of monks, the ones Nightstalker was speaking to. Their voices soon quieted, but she felt they were not far. Tiptoeing into one dark shadow closest to the next room, she perks up to listen for the slightest step, her body tensing and preparing to react. She wondered how many of the monks hunted for her and wondered if she was captured for the sole purpose of training novices. But Fayne had a feeling they were smarter than that.

[Nightstalker]

Nightstalker needed a way to orient himself and gain a sense of direction. He figured there probably weren't too many rooms like the large one he was in. The gold seal held the Akashiman Kanji symbol for death. It was repeated throughout the arena, at least as far as Nightstalker could see.

The symbol was comprised of three parts. On the bottom left was what looked like a lowercase h in the common alphabet, only it was tilted to the right a little, with the left leg short and the right leg longer. Some people put a little bridge between the two legs, and some didn't. Really it was all a matter of propriety. To the right of the h was what looked like a lowercase y, only the tail went right instead of left. Above them both, connecting them together was a bar that went from the farthest point on the left of the h, to the farthest point right on the y.

A simple symbol, and Nightstalker decided that the top of the symbol was north. Briefly he considered scratching this into the ground, but decided against it. First, it would waste time, and second, it would give him away. Yet if he gave his position away, he could set up a trap for his opponent.

There were ten doors to this room, one in each of the four cardinal directions, and one exactly half way in between each of them. The north and the south however bore two doors, side by side. There was enough shadow in this room, and his stealth suit was black enough, that he could hide in here pretty well.

The ninja walked over, not trying to conceal the sound his steps made, opened the door to the north-east, then closed it without entering. It was at that point he began moving silently, his steps becoming muffled through his chi. Skipping a board that would obviously give him away, Nightstalker hid behind a dragon that had one claw raised in an attack posture.

His plan was simple enough, the sound of the door opening and closing would tell a listening opponent that he was moving to another room. Coming this way with the intent of surprising Nightstalker for an easy victory, his opponent would reveal themselves sooner or later. That would be when Nightstalker would turn the tables, and take them from behind instead, scoring a quick easy victory.

Of course, he was certain that his opponent was a master, so his victory would not be easy.

[Fayne]

Fayne was in the northern part of the maze, carefully crossing each room, closing each door behind her of course, to go south where the voices been. Before entering a new place, she took her sword and soundlessly made a small incision into each surrounding paper wall, widening the cut to see if no one was there.

The swordfighter despised the slow progress she was making. Worst of all, whenever she took a look into each room, the dark spots were impenetrable so finding anyone hiding within that way wasn’t reliable.
Despite that, every precaution was necessary. Given that sound travelled well in the arena, Fayne knew there would be no loud armoured foes to be found. This was a place for training silent killers and she knew she was being hunted. The bell couldn’t have woken her without reason.

Continuing, her body tensed and on the defensive, she looked over her shoulder to make sure the doors behind her remained shut. The whole place seemed dead. Footsteps suddenly told her otherwise. Just two rooms away she heard them, and a door sliding.

Someone might be coming. But there were so many ways leading to her! She figured to soundlessly go through the next room to get closer to the foe she thought would be near and quickly backs herself into a dark corner. Belting her sword, Fayne draws her bow and prepares an arrow. If someone came through either entrance, she would see her enemy and have a shot. At the same time though, there was that chance her foe might take a path not leading to her, but rather to the room east or west. As reckless as Fayne was sometimes, this arena was not the place for it. She waits and pays attention to the light behind the walls. Whoever her foe was, he didn’t seem to be entering her room and she heard no further sound. Was he waiting for her right in the room where the door was heard opening? She shook her head. Walking in to possibly be ambushed wasn’t an option.

The swordfighter would wait a few moments for any sign of life near her area before executing her plan..