[center][h2]Thomas Gardner [/h2][/center]

Gathering information; it was a simple idea, but in practise something that many people lacked the delicacy or subtlety to do properly. Any bumbling idiot could find information by looking in enough places or asking enough people, but what was the point if you alerted everyone to your intentions in the process? The trick, of course, was to acquire the information you wanted without letting anyone know that you had it or indeed what you were looking for in the first place. When asking questions you often gave away as much intel as you gained after all; an adage that was as true in war as it was in the backrooms of society or the halls of the Order.

Thomas knew all this, he was adept at it, but given the situation he believed that keeping himself and his intentions hidden and discrete was going to be… tricky. An old English gentleman such as himself didn’t exactly fit in this small Japanese rural town, without even getting into how eye-catching his bodyguard was. Illusions, unfortunately, were not his forte, so unless he wanted to remain locked away in his workshop there was no choice but to expose themselves;.

Upon leaving his workshop Thomas had chosen to stick to the outskirts of the town, so as to avoid as many sets of eyes as possible. His destination was a shrine that lay near to the town itself, at least according to what sources he could find. With no other leads to go on his only recourse was to head to locations where he suspected the other Master’s might visit; the local shrine being the most obvious choice. The sound that may or may not have been a gunshot just now was also an obvious choice, but getting too close to whatever had caused that was something he’d rather avoid for now.

[@Gummi Bunnies]

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[center][h2]Saber Bokuden[/h2][/center]

“Woah” As Archer’s first arrow flew his way Saber twisted his body in mid-air in order to dodge the projectile, narrowly avoiding it. If any more had come his way he would have been hard pressed to avoid taking damage in that moment, but luckily Archer seemed content just to reposition and prepare another arrow instead of pressing him advantage.

Okay, so he couldn’t outspeed his opponent, despite what his Master might have said. Removing his footing wasn’t going to work if he could reposition faster than Saber could cut the poles out from under him. Taking to the air wouldn’t work either, lest he make himself a sitting duck with nowhere to go. What were his options here…

[i]“Keep him occupied, right.”[/i] If all he had to do was chase his opponent around and play tag for a while then that was fine, but he might as well try and push his opponent a little bit while he was at it.

The Archer was faster than him, but he was probably thinking that he wanted to keep the high-ground as much as possible right now; he’d started the duel on a pole and as soon as it was cut down he jumped to another one. Odds were, he’d do the same again and if Saver couldn’t catch Archer where he was then maybe he could catch him where he was going to be. Charge in like he was going to cut the pole he was standing on, then change directions when Archer jumped and cut down the pole he was heading for instead. Saber might not be as fast but once Archer committed to the jump he was likely stuck and since Saber didn’t need to move with as much precision he might be able to get their first.

The weird illusory effect that suddenly appeared around Archer that made it seem like there were multiple versions of his opponent laid over each other would make things a little trickier, but his overall strategy didn’t change. Bokuden dashed towards the pole Arche stood on with sword in hand, ready to abruptly change direction as soon as Archer made a move.

[@Anza][@KoL][@Crusader Lord]