Ry walked into Happy's Bakery, which was never part of his plan though. He already had his breakfast and just happened to be passing by when his nose was assaulted by sweet smelling aroma wafting from the bakery. Once he had a whiff of that his stomach felt empty once more and he just had to go in.
He stood by the counter, observing the various goods displayed till a voice startled him.
"What can I get you lad?"
Arsalay walked in from the back room, small towel draped over his shoulder.
"That looks good," Ry pointed at the strawberry shortcake.
"Sure I'll have that out for you. Would you like something to drink as well?"
"Yeah, coffee's good." Ry said.
"Have seat then. I'll bring them to you," Ry thanked the grey haired human, turning around to go find himself a seat when his eyes met Tara's. Tara looked away quick, hoping he didn't notice.
"Weirdo," Ry muttered under his breath, taking a seat as far from her as he could. Soon enough his order was before him and his first bite of that cake was enough to send him to heaven. It was so good, he took his time chewing so he could savor the flavor.
'Looks like I just found myself a new spot,' Ry thought as placed another bite of the cake in his mouth. He would've kept on reeling on the highs of having such a delicasy if his arm didn't lightly throb with pain. He looked at his wrapped up wound thinking back to last night when he got cut by that Guardian girl.
'B*tch,' he cursed inwardly as he prodded around the wound lightly with his finger.
'Wait a second,' it just hit him. He slowly turned towards Tara and once more their eyes met but this time they both turned away quick.
'It's her, that's definitely her,' Ry tried taking another peak but Tara was still looking at him, more specifically, his wrapped up arm which was exposed by his short sleeved shirt.
'Sh*t, did she notice? Whatever, let's just finish this quick and get out of her,'
Ry wolfed down the remainder of his meal, scuffing down his coffee pretty fast before dropping a few silvers on the table and getting the hell out of there. Tara didn't miss any of that though.
'He's definitely acting strange,' she finished up hers as well and left her pay with tip before exiting the bakery to follow Ry.
The two made their way down four whole city blocks, went through Halberg's recreational park before taking a turn into Halberg's business district. Ry did all that but Tara still wasn't budging. Ry had noticed her following him all the way from the bakery making him take an extra long route just to try and shake her off.
'Damn this woman! If she won't leave me alone then I'll just have to take her down, though some place I won't be seen.'
That made Ry take a turn west towards the city outskirts, heading towards the woodlots which should provide enough cover for him to make his move. They passed by a milling house as Ry went straight for the part into the woods while Tara was still trying to act all sneaky. However that turn into the woods made her realize he already knew and was planning to settle this away from prying eyes. She stopped bothering hiding behind things and followed right behind him till they were in the thick of the woods. Going around the city like that had taken them a better part of the day, the afternoon sun high up in the sky. It was a long walk and both of them were tired from it.
Tara found Ry waiting for her in a small clearing, stumps of chopped down trees littering the ground around them.
"You know I didn't sign up for a stalker, if you wanted to talk just come to me and talk and not make me have to cross half the city," Ry spoke.
"I wasn't stalking you!" Tara retorted, slightly embarrassed at realizing what she did might have just counted as stalking.
"Then what do you want from me?" Ry was content playing the fool if she wasn't really sure about it being him in their previous confrontation.
'I was wearing a mask, she couldn't know that easily just from my arm,' Ry thought.
"I just have some questions for you," Tara decided to use a more direct approach, "What are you planning to do with the Sarphin Soul?" Accusing him directly would put more pressure on him.
The question did catch Ry by surprise. He didn't think she'd outright accuse him.
"What do you mean?"
Looked like Tara had to push a little more.
"You and that partner of yours, why did you take the Sarphin Soul, what are you going to do with it or who did you give it to?"
Ry just stared at her, not willing to talk though she thought he was just confused.
'Maybe I've got the wrong guy? No, he definitely acted weird back at the bakery like he recognized me. I have to push on.'
"I suggest you cooperate with me or you'll face harsher penalties in the future. Just tell me where the gem is and maybe I can help you out," Tara tried her best.
'Help me out? As if,' Ry could sort of tell she was just trying to bait him, but what if she actually knew, and was just trying to see if he'd lead her back to their hideout or something when she followed him.
Just then his wound throbbed in pain, he instinctively clutched at it.
"You should get that looked at, what happened to you," Tara stepped closer, intending to take a look at the wound.
Ry wouldn't show her though, if she took a look at it she'd definitely know it was him, and if her bolted she'd also know it was him so he was back to square one, knock her the f*ck out and run like hell.
He attack first, launching a high kick straight to her head. She raised her hand to block making Ry switch back to his other foot trying to knock her down with a round house kick. Tara stepped back, avoiding the kick. She then surged forward into a flurry of her own kicks and punches. They were all smooth and flowed naturally giving Ry no chance to attack. He was stuck on defending against her, being pushed back towards a stump where he nearly tripped over but jumped on top of it at the last second.
"Ice wall,"
Tara raised her hands as a wall of ice quickly rise around the stump Ry was on to trap him. Lucky for him he got of the stump quick enough before she made a popsicle of him. If she was going to resort to magic it would really make him regret no bringing his kunai along.
"Once more, I suggest you give up. I don't want to hurt you anymore than necessary," Tara warned him.
"Jail's also not much of an option for me so sorry to disappoint I don't intend to give up," Ry dashed at her, closing the distance so that any use of magic would be difficult.
Tara launched a few ice shards at him forcing Ry to move to the side and circle around her. But she wasn't going to give him the space as she chanted up a stream of flames that followed him round forcing him to take cover behind a tree. Tara slowly approached the tree, a ball of fire at the ready. However by the time she looked behind it Ry was no longer there and she tensed up hearing footsteps coming up behind her as she turned and released the flames at Ry who was planning on ambushing her from the back.
Ry rolled underneath the flames, swiping Tara's hands to the side with kick , the stream of flames being angled away from him so that he grabbed Tara into a hold and flipped her it a back suplex and slammed her into the ground and rolled up to try and get a choke hold on her. Before he could wrap his arms around her neck Tara summoned up a strong gust of wind that blew Ry up high. She followed up with by shooting a jet of water at him that froze into ice as it raised to meet Ry who was on his way back down.
The ice would have pierced through his torso if he didn't do a little spin to angle himself away from it in time, escaping with a little graze to his back. He landed on the ground on his back rolling up to his feet to meet another gust of wind that knocked him back down. Before he could gather himself again more ice shards blasted their way to him. He could only save himself from most of them with one sticking into his shoulder and anothet into his thigh.
"Damn you," Ry winced in pain shuffling back to his feet.
"I already told you to surrender, I don't take joy in this bloody mess of a fight. I'd rather just have you submit quietly but you're proving very stubborn," Tara stepped forward cautiously, more spells at the ready in case Ry tried anything.
"Yeah, yeah I get it, but it's not going to change a thing though," Ry wore a smirk that unnerved Tara.
Raising his hand up he took a deep breath in, "Pierce."
Multiple shadow blades formed all around them. They hovered in place, awaiting Ry's decision to release them and riddle Tara with them.
"I also don't want to resort to this so if you'd please just withdraw quietly we can put this behind us," Ry warned.
"Do your worst," Tara scoffed, getting ready for the attack. The multiple shadow blades raced at her which she urgently blocked by raising a wall of ice around her. When she withdrew the wall Ry was no where to be seen.
'Could he really have gotten away in such a short time?' Tara sighed.
She was about to start hunting him down when her comm band beeped and flashed a blue light. It was Aya calling her. She tapped on the band to receive the call.
"What is it Aya, I was in the middle of something important," Tara said in frustration.
"Whatever it is you're doing doesn't matter now. I've received a mission from liutenant, get over here now," Aya spoke.
"What kind of mission, we're supposed to be off duty till evening."
"It is evening dummy, don't tell me you're still stuffing your face over at that bakery. There's this guy, Alloway Corey, the liutenant wants us to look into him. Get your ass back here so we can go over the plan," Aya ended the call, forcing Tara to abandon any thought of going after Ry at the moment.
As she left the area she was unfortunate enough not to look up above her to see Ry just barely hanging on to a tree branch.
'Corey eh, that's going to be a problem,' he thought right before he plopped down to the ground...