Skaia

Stella smiled as Kelsey answered her question and was glad to see that there was nothing in way of actual work to do next. She was fond of school but Stella felt like given the hectic nature of all of the classes so far she would need some time to adjust. Of course, as soon as Stella thought this she was immediately brought on edge for what could come next. Even if it was a break period, there was a good chance something could happen. With everyone making their way into the cafeteria, Stella looked suspiciously around seeing that everything was normal so far. Relaxing a bit the girl walked closer to the table and looked at what was available. As Kelsey asked about what she wanted the girl said, "hmm, I'm not sure. But- " before she could finish her attention was taken aback to the huge crowd that had formed in front of her. It had seemed that even lunch would be a battle she would have to persevere through. Steeling herself to go through the crowd before her, Stella said, "well, we'll just see what we get and go with that." Knowing that the crowd wouldn't die down any time soon Stella simply pushed her way into it and went along with the current. Grabbing something randomly, she managed to free herself from the mob before finding a table to go sit at. Sitting down, the girl waited for Kelsey to return as well, before presenting what she had gotten. "Sushi and garlic bread? Weird." Stella looked at the raw fish that she had gotten nervously. She had never actually tried it, though had seen some places where they used to live sell it. And while she was curious about the taste she couldn't help but be overly cautious about it. Picking one of them up, the girl looked at Kelsey saying, "want to try one?"

It had seemed that the groups best efforts tensions were still rising. Now it seemed like it had more to do with the job that Madelyn had been hired for and the terms between her and the other minotaurs. Ryia couldn't help but be impressed by how confidently and defiantly the mage stood against the minotaur, though she was also certain that the girl was in a very perilous situation. As the leader of the minotaur seemed ready to get more forceful, Ryia cleared her throat to try and interject. Of course, as she did, the attention would now obviously be on her and she didn't exactly feel confident in her ability to talk down a large beast man twice her size. Though this was the situation she found herself in and her nerves about it were very clear. "U-um...excuse me, sorry. But um, maybe we could uh...work something out...together? Maybe?" "Work what out? We don't have stuff for trade." "Well, see um." The girl looked nervously between the two for a bit before saying, "we uh, also like finding magical ruins. And stuff. Old places and uh, I - I think that Madelyn would be uh, really helpful. For finding them. Uh, yeah." The minotaur narrowed his eyes. "You're trying to steal what we're searching for." He then said some things in his racial language and the other two minotaur started closing in closer to him. "Oh, no, no, no." Ryia waved her hands as if to show she meant no ill will. "We would never - I um, I don't even know what you're searching for. No um, I was just trying to suggest we uh, we search for it together. And I guess uh, pay for Madelyn's fee for the next ruins." She didn't dare to look at the others as she said this, feeling quite guilty about just solely coming to the conclusion to use the group's money like this. But she couldn't really think of any other way to dissolve the tension. "I keep telling you." Madelyn said, staring at Ryia, "there isn't a next ruins. Spirits above why can none of you get that. I hoped for better from you." Ryia stared blankly at Madelyn for a moment, a noticeable pause in the conversation. It should've been apparent to Ryia already that the girl didn't seem to have any perception of the danger she was in, either because she was actually that strong that no such danger existed or she was simply that unaware. Ryia felt like it would be bad to assume the first though the second seemed pretty insulting in its own way. All the same, the girl tried to back pedal to continue diffusing the situation. "Okay, okay, well um, not ruins. Other - other magical places. Where there's uh, likely to be other...magic things." The minotaur looked among themselves and spoke a bit. "We could bring you to chief. Tied up. Without your weapons." The lead minotaur said. Ryia said, "oh well, um, that - huh?" The girl stopped herself from saying anything more as she fully processed what the minotaur had said. While she felt like she had made some progress the latter of half of the deal certainly sounded very unappealing to her. As such, the girl simply let out an, "uhhhh," as she looked to the others for assistance.

Leila nodded in agreement with Hana, parroting, "stealing is bad," as if trying to internalize the lesson herself. As Peter and Makoto looked at her, questioning if she walked all the way over here, the girl thought about it for a moment. Looking up, trying to recall how she got here Leila said, "I don't remember doing anything other than walking to get here. So I think I walked all the way here." Looking to Makoto her defeated look returned again as she said, "I...get lost. A lot." Looking back to Peter's phone, the girl firstly seemed to be amazed at the map she was being shown. However, her expression seemed more confused and saddened as she realized she didn't recognize any of the surrounding names. "Maps are confusing," the girl stated. After not getting anywhere just looking at it, the girl stepped back and thought about it more. Then, after remembering something she just said, "stealing is bad. So, I should finish shopping first." The girl nodded to herself as if she had found the answer to her troubles, temporary though they may be.

As Chris and Lana had managed to execute an impromptu cross cut against the mushroom creature, Lana's face wretched in disgust as the creature was felled from their blades. Even in death it was still pretty creepy. All the same, she was glad that was one less enemy they had to deal with. As she thought this, though, the two that had been getting closer to them had spores explode out of their caps arrows struck them. While Lana was glad that they had been slowed some, the girl winced in pain as the spores had made their way over to them. While it didn't directly deter her from doing anything, she noticed after a bit that her fingers were starting to get a weird tingly feeling. Thinking that this was decidedly bad and she wanted no more of dealing with these mushrooms Lana ran along with Estellise and Chris towards the exit of the room, hoping that Sergei would manage to be able to get out of his tough spot.

The girl watched as the small aquatic bear pokemon had made its way out of the shelter. Feeling like they had gotten a job well done, Jacklyn smiled proudly as Belle made her way over to her and questioned what they would be doing next With a hand to her chin, seeing that the pokemon was stilled scared the girl declared, "well, we can't just leave this cute little guy here. So, we'll just have to take them out of the desert. Which is uh..." The girl paused for a moment as she tried to get her bearings, looking around. In one direction there was sand. In another more sand. There sure was a lot of sand here. Trying to trace through the steps she had taken to get here, the girl tried to reorient herself before pointing in a direction. "That way!" It was unclear if it was actually the correct direction or not, but Jacklyn didn't dwell on that for long as the Bearble seemed to look over towards Ivan. As Belle as well seemed curious by this, Jacklyn looked towards Ivan. "Maybe they like your jacket?" Looking at his now tattered jacket, the girl raised an eyebrow saying, "are you trying to change your image up and go for the whole, "rough and tattered punk," look?"

As Rus and the Vullaby stared each other down, the small vulture pokemon began to flap its wings as it tried to take to the skies once again. However, with one of its wings having been clipped by fire it couldn't keep air time as well and started to float down to the ground. Taking advantage of this, Jacklyn shouted, "Rus, go in and tackle!" As the bird was getting ready to counter with its own attack, the Lepash had proven to be too fast for the injured Vullaby and was slammed into. As the Vullaby tumbled across the ground and made it clear it wasn't getting back up any time soon, Jacklyn and Rus both cheered. Giving a thumbs up to her pokemon she shouted, "way to go Ru - ack - Rus!" Looking around and seeing that everyone else as well had managed to defeat their foes, the girl gave a thumbs up to them as well. Rus, meanwhile looked to the Bearble and called out to it, as if telling it the coast was clear now.

Lana was thoroughly creeped out by the strange mushroom creatures and how menacingly they still continued their pursuit of the group despite missing some chunks of themselves. As such, Lana kept running away from the horde as fast as she could trailing behind Chris as she did so. As they continued running she then heard Sergei's voice which made her realize that he wasn't actually clumped up with the lot of them at all. Lana was thus torn as to what to do next. She didn't want to have to fight these weird creepy mushroom people for any longer then she had to. She also didn't want to leave Sergei in the middle of all of them to be stabbed at a bunch. Worse yet, even if he got to them, there was still these three creepy mushroom creatures chasing after them and so he'd just have to kill them anyway. As the girl continued to run, she saw Sergei attempting to break for it in a straight line anyway and seemingly trying to do something Chris as well had gone to attack one of the mushroom. Lana figured he was just trying to kill them to make it easier to get to the exit and that was something she could definitely get behind. Bringing up her axe, the girl gave it a mighty swing towards the mushroom, following up on the same one that Chris had struck.

As Ankou fell to the ground it didn't seem like she was able to continue the fight for any longer. With the field growing dimmer and a teleporter lighting up, it had seemed that the group had come out victorious. Looking to the peaceful form of the Gardevoir sleeping in the field of flowers, Nine jokingly said, "be sure to enjoy your rest now, Ankou." The boy didn't quite know what had driven her to this nor could he figure out what she meant by being unable to die, but all the same it had seemed things had worked out. After all, he figured that in spite of her manic behavior this was what she had been hoping for all along, and Nine as well was relieved to have defeated yet another godslayer. Letting out a sigh of relief, the Houndoom looked to Easter giving a thumbs up to the Sylveon. "Another day another godslayer down. Way to go out there partner." Looking at the teleporter in front of them, Nine said, "and looks like they're not going to take the loss lying down. If memory serves, I know that there are at least three other godslayers of the group. Maybe four. But of course, I've never met Ankou before so who knows how many more there are holed up down here." After taking a moment of rest and recollecting himself, the Houndoom said, "ready to go on when you are."

"Well, it's not like a little danger is any reason to not get involved. Don't get me wrong, I'm in no hurry to get me or Asha killed, but nothing gained without a little risk right? Anyway, we're looking for the warehouse bomb guy, yeah. I don't know how much looking into the explosion itself will help, but we're trying to find out anything we can about them. The only other thing we've figured out so far is that on the same night a bank was robbed around the same time. Though, it was already closed so I doubt there were much of any witnesses. Even still, the two are more than likely connected. So, with that out of the way, would you be willing to help us?"

Nine was still on guard as the woman seemed able to keep fighting. Though she was certainly slowing down, her teleports themselves becoming much easier to track, she was still a godslayer. Nine had learned that they would fight until their very last breath, and underestimating no matter what point of the fight they were in would be deadly. This was only further reinforced as the woman shot two more thunderbolts at both her and Easter. Igniting his arms, Nine let loose a wave of fire towards the lightning, moving to the side as he did. The electric attack still manage to beat out his flames, but they had slowed enough to give Nine time enough to dodge. As the woman had seemed frustrated with their refusal to go down, Nine simply retorted, "I can't afford to die yet. I've still got way too much to do after dealing with you. How about you? Why aren't you dead yet?" "You can't afford to die but I can't be killed. No one has been able to. Though they've tried. You won't be able to either." Nine grimly looked at the woman, remembering how she spoke earlier and at what she had said now. "Do you wish to die?" "Oh, I don't know." She said dreamily. "I can't imagine its all too restful where I'd go." She began to laugh manically. Grinning, Nine looked to the woman saying, "well good. I'm not much in the killing business, but if all you want to do is rest." Nine ignited his arms with flames once again. "Well, even if it's only temporary, I'll put you to sleep. Prepare yourself for the best rest of your life, Ankou." "Don't threaten me with a good time." She growled. Nine simply smirked as the woman brought her arms back up again. Charging both of her hands with elecrticity, she fired off yet another thunderbolt at Nine to which the Houndoom had responded to it in the same manner as last time. Bringing up his arms, Nine let loose a stream of flame to block the attack and began running forward and to the side to avoid the electricity. As he did so, Nine continued to rush forward, awaiting the woman's next attack. Ankou's movements were beginning to lack the grace they had had before, and she seemed to be struggling sending out attack after attack due to the on-setting fatigue. As such, Nine was able to predict how she was going to attack, and thus countering it as he had done so before wasn't that big of a deal. The distance between them beginning to close, Nine's pace steadily slowed as he knew she would teleport if he got too close and if he simply dodged another attack she was likely to take evasive maneuvers as well. As such, Nine charged both of his arms with darkness as he continued to charge forward. As Ankou fired off yet another bolt at him, Nine brought one of his hands using the dark pulse to soften the blow as his hand took the brunt of it. However, as he had done he had also let loose a dark pulse towards Ankou, catching the woman off guard. As the pulse hit the woman, she staggered back and though Nine's arm was searing in pain and locked in place, he didn't stop charging. Finally closing the gap between the two, Nine leaped towards the woman and with his body infused with darkness, kneed the Gardevoir in the gut. Having the wind knocked out of her, the woman stumbled even further back. Charging with green energy, there seemed to be some sort of start up delay before the woman finally managed to teleport away from the Houndoom. However, her reappearance was telegraphed and slow, making it quite easy for someone to follow up.

Ryia was surprised at the sight of a human girl being among these minotaurs, and even more so that she seemed to be doing business with them. She didn't have much to say to their being here being suspicious. She as well didn't have much to say to the accusations of the minotaurs, both the one that Damien had translated for them as well as the one that seemed to be very angry with Reinaan. All the same, it was clear that things were going south and Ryia wasn't quite sure how to get away from this predicament, both because she had no idea what was going on with this new human as well as not able to actually speak with most of the minotaur. So, she tried to do the only thing she could think of. Looking at the human girl and the minotaurs, she asked, "um, excuse me. But uh, what's uh, going on?" The minotaur in front of her grunted. The common-speaking one ignored her but the girl responded. "Nothing to worry about. I was just showing them around to the various ruins around here. It's one of my many specialties." "Ruins?" Ryia looked at the tower, noting it's very crumbling and unsteady appearance. Looking back to the girl again she asked, "what uh, what kind of ruins are around here?" The girl laughed and shook her head. "Oh ye of little knowledge. There were whole cities long ago that have been abandoned or destroyed." She started walking around the minotaur but he stopped her with a raised hand and a grunt. The girl gave a nervous laugh, both at the girl's comment and the dismissive minotaur. "Yeah, I'm not - not particularly knowledgeable on history. Or well, a lot of things." Thinking back to the formations she saw earlier, the girl said, "but do uh, do places around here frequently fall prey...to monsters, that is." "No less than any other place I'd imagine." She said with a shrug. "Who are you people, anyway? You don't look like treasure hunters." She glanced around and saw Keres. Her gaze lingered a bit before passing her by. Giving another nervous laugh Ryia answered, "we're...adventurers. We're not really looking for treasure, really - but well, we still uh, look for ruins. Sort of." Seeming to realize she was forgetting something the girl said, "right, um, I'm Ryia. Nice - nice to meet you." The girl placed one hand on her chest and extended the other, "and I am Madelyn, master of magic and expert on many subjects. Well, adventurer, what sort of ruins are you looking for, because..." The minotaur grunted again and said "Speak no more of this." The girl backed off a bit saying, "uh, right. Well, a pleasure to meet you still, Madelyn."

Alois couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose as the nobleman would not stop talking. It was one thing that he was nothing short of insufferable and that Alois had to continually think through his words to make sure he actually knew what he was trying to say. But that he was making a habit of talking down to his mother, Alois couldn't help but get more and more annoyed. As Penelope focused on Hanikap and why he had been at the town hall, Alois thought back on the man a bit more. Looking at the man's face, he tapped a finger to his chin before he remembered what happened before they got into the building. With a mischievous smirk on his face Alois just commented, "yeah, it'd be real shame if you were harboring a rat." As everyone else seemed to be yet again in agreement of not staying with the nobleman, Alois looked to the man in question now. "Well, there you have it. Again. We'll be making our way now, but I'm sure all of your other guests and visitors and friends will love all of those fancy concoctions and elixirs that you have at your house. So until next time, to your health Mister Pylauses." With that, Alois began to walk away in the direction of his house calling back to Gunther saying, "this way." Tsetseg brightened up as the girl introduced herself and then asked for one in turn. "Right! Nice to meet you Phai! My name is Tsetseg Altansarnai. But everyone calls me Tsetseg." The archer then figured that the name of Phai's cousin sounded familiar but couldn't quite place it nor was that exactly the top priority in her mind. "Fish! Sure thing! Fish are great but I never get to hunt them. They aren't always around and other people always take charge in getting them." The girl then huffed and crossed her arms saying, "people say that I'm not the right kind of person to fish, but I can hunt other things plenty good already." Her expression brightened again as she said, "but you got these fish yourself, right? That's awesome! I can't wait to have some."