Skaia

Ryia looked a bit shocked as Lindow made his way over to the wall of blackness saying, "don't you think we should uh - " but stopped there as the man walked through the darkness. Of course the dagger he used seemed to have been entirely unharmed in its journey and they also needed to proceed forward, yet she couldn't help but feel apprehensive about walking into a strange wall of inky blackness. Keres, seeming to think it was fine, put her nerves at rest a little though, and she followed after Madelyn quickly thereafter. The room they had found themselves in afterwards was certainly no less natural feeling, with the unnatural amount of lighting in it as well. Looking at the markers and flowers as Madelyn had seemed to have an idea of what they represented Ryia thought about it for a moment. She didn't know much about burials, or even shrines and tombs for that matter, but she could tell that the soldiers being here had some kind of significance. Soldiers were often used to fight, though in the context of a leader they could also be some kind of guard. Which, by Madelyn's own statement, seemed to make sense. The girl then thought back to what had happened the other night, and then was reminded of just how magical and bizarre this shrine they were in was. Muttering, "please no ghosts," the girl then took a deep breath before looking ahead. The girl was about to step forward towards the next darkness, before looking around and noticing that they were still missing some of their members. Looking to Madelyn and Lindow the girl said, "I'm uh, gonna go and check on them. And tell them that we're uh, we're all fine. Still." The girl passed through the darkness that she had come from. The strange sticky sensation washed over her as she passed through, now coating her in something of a sweet smell as well. The girl shook her head trying to get the weirdness of the feeling off of her, before looking back and seeing the darkness was as impenetrably dark as it was before. Still not what sure to make of the magic involved in that, she looked back to her group. "Um, it's safe to uh," the girl paused, still feeling a bit off from the feeling of passing through the wall added, "well, it seems safe. There's just a uh, a bunch of flowers and plaques for, soldiers...or something. And another wall, but uh yeah, I just thought that I'd...yeah." Keres had been staring at the wall and examining it when Ryia came in. "Oh. You can come through. That's good." "Oh...yeah. I didn't think about..." The girl had a concerned look on her face as she looked back at the wall of darkness. "But uh, yeah. I'll go check what's further ahead...well, further further past the other black wall." "Um." Keres was silent for a moment. "If...there's anyone on the other side...they might...know we're here. Maybe we should...all go?" "Oh, that's true. I didn't really uh, think about what to do if someone was there." After a pause the girl said, "but well, um, I just wanted to make sure you were with us...anyway. So..." The two stood in awkward silence for a moment, before Keres started making her way forward and Ryia walked back through the darkness. Now with everyone back together, the girl said "well, um, if there's anything or anyone down there...we should uh, find out. As a group. So I'll uh, go ahead. But not too ahead." Awkwardly, realizing how weird that must've sounded to the other two, she started to shuffle forward. Then, as she made her way forward, she stopped as she heard a noise - a faint whisper on a breeze. She looked around, seeing that there was no place such a breeze could've come from, yet she still felt it and the berries around her seemed to rustle in the same breeze. Then form the flowers emerged...something. At first, it was simply a faint, transparent figure. Then after a few moments more, their form became more elven, wearing regal looking armored and carrying leaf-bladed spears. The girl stood, frozen for a bit as she said, "oh no..." and started to back up as the phantom elves brandished their weapons.

Nanao Yuriko and Mochizuki Ana (Idolm@ster Million Live) Bronya Zaychik and Seele Vollerei (Honkai Impact 3rd)

True to both Drake and Percy's assumptions the Exalted were neither debilitated by their wounds nor were their wounds completely gone to begin with. Thankfully, with the doctor's healing all those injured had seemed to make a full recovery, outside of Sabrina. Though she had been punched several times by the lion, and though she hadn't been healed by Percy, even she would start to feel her wounds lessen as the heat of combat died down. Rumian, for his part, was still in awe by the explanation that Percy had started giving about the firearm though still didn't quite understand what it was. Similarly he was awed yet again at the man's display of healing magic. Luca, still smiling, nodded saying, "oh I'm sure of it! Twenty of these brutes couldn't even close to beating you! Oooh we're gonna get a Calm soon, I just know it!" The girl's excitement was practically overflowing as she added, "oh, right! I gotta show you guys my place still! This way!" As she began to lead the way for the group, a group of other half animal half human people had made their way over. All of them seemed on edge with weapons already drawn, shouting, "we heard there was an attack! Where do you need us chief- uh." The group slowed down, looking confused at the pile of Drengr corpses along with the humans who notably lacked any animalistic features to them. Relaxing their grip and letting their shoulders slack a bit, the one in the front looked to Luca saying, "what...happened here?" Raising a stern finger and wagging the guards she said, "you were too slow. The Drengr already broke in and would've killed a lot of people. But thankfully," the girl's stern expression broke into yet another smile as she gestured to everyone. "We had the Exalted to help us!" Luca explained everything that had happened, in a rather dramatic fashion, to the town guards. When all was said and done the guards thanked the group for their work and Luca told them to take care of the bodies before guiding everyone through the village. Being the middle of the day, curiously, it had seemed as though there weren't that many people out and about, at least not on the roads they traveled. Every now and then they had passed by a new person who seemed happy to greet Luca and stare curiously at the Outlanders. Luca would explain that they were Exalted and this was met with either jubilance and thanks, or simply more curiosity and skepticism. All the same, they seemed like they had places to be at the moment and didn't linger for very long. Soon enough, the group reached Luca's house. The house itself was as flat topped and short as every other house in the village they had seen. In fact, it looked almost identical with its only two distinguishing features being that it looked to be a room larger and that it had a sign that said "Chief" on the front. As the group walked in Luca turned and smiled saying, "welcome to my home! Oh man, I can't believe I have the Exalted in my house!" The inside of the house seemed to be rather modest. As they walked through the door they would notice it open up immediately into a rather large common room. It was hard to call it a living room, as its main features were that of a large wooden table with wooden seats surrounding it, as well as various bookcases across the walls and a barrel that had a variety of large rolled up papers in it. It then broke into what appeared to be some kind of kitchen area, though that wasn't separated by any wall and only had a small counter to work with there, and there seemed to be two rooms that off-shot from this one large room. "Have a seat, have a seat!" The girl gestured to the table. "This is where we usually hold town meetings and stuff but to think I can have a super special meeting like this today! Rumian! Get the map!" "Right." The boy walked over to the barrel and pulled out one such map before laying it down on the table for everyone to see. "I don't know how much you guys know about Aerstroff, since you're outlanders and all, so if you have any questions ask away!" Rumian looked towards Percy for a moment before looking back to Luca, considerably less enthused as he remembered everything before the fight that had just taken place. "I am unsure how much you know about well, anything in regards to this world. So, ask any of those as well and I'll do what I can to answer."

Still catching her breath, Lana looked ahead to see that there was no enemies immediately threatening them, making her more alert of the sudden wet sensation going down her face from her nose. Bringing her hand up and wiping it off, she let out a small, "bleh," seeing her own blood now on the back of her hand before trying to just shake it off. Looking to the others as Ziun had his skeleton taken care of, the girl thought about his comment for a moment. "That'd be really nice," then, thinking on it more she imagined a mighty gust of wind blowing through the area. A displeased look crossed her face as she said, "but I don't want more fog everywhere else." Lana then shot back to attention as Chris had shouted to keep moving. "Right!" She hadn't any idea where the exit was, in fact she had barely made out the shifting shapes that weren't that far ahead of them. But she presumed that Chris had a keener eye and better instincts than she in these regards and found herself following his lead. With her axe in hand she followed after the boy, hefting it up as she saw that he was getting ready to engage in combat himself. She didn't know exactly where any of the enemies were, yet he moved with such confidence that she was certain that something was going to burst out of the fog any second. And so she prepared herself to swing at the first thing that emerged out of the fog near her.

Shinonome Ena and Akiyama Mizuki (Project Sekai) Amami Haruka and Chihaya Kisaragi (Idolm@ster) Enomoto Takane and Kokonose Haruka (Kagerou Project) Akane Shinjou and Takarada Rikka (SSSS. Gridman) Mihono Bourbon and Rice Shower (Umamusume)

As Percy explained excitedly about how things were different here, Fen nodded. "It is all a bit overwhelming but now that I've had some of my teammates help me out I think I'm finally understanding how it works. Like, did you know about the stove?" As Percival's attention was then taken by his watch, telling them they had a fight to go to, Fen said, "well, I wish you both well on your fight. And I can't wait to catch up more with you later Percival." Her attention was then turned towards Melissa as Percy looked at her, the girl looking at her as well feeling a bit embarrassed that moments after nominating herself as leader she had somehow missed one of her teammates falling on the ground. The girl couldn't help but feel that, in general, she had been generally getting more distracted more easily since coming to this world and in the time that she was thinking about this her embarrassment at this only grew as Melissa had picked herself up as Fen did nothing to actually aid her. Nonetheless, the group had managed to wade their way through the crowds and get into the store proper. Fen had been to many a market place in her life, and she knew just how hectic they could get. Most were generally outside and the ones that weren't were in fairly large and open buildings instead. While this one was by no means small, the amount of actual stalls in it were relatively low. Similarly the marketplace was filled with walls and shelves everywhere and food seemed to be more openly on display and up for the taking. The girl didn't quite know how such an operation went by without people just stealing the food, and the experience of being in the building wasn't particularly comfortable itself, feeling somewhat congested both due to its layout and the actual crowd of people that occupied it. All in all it was a bit of a sensory overload for the girl and might've taken her a while to not just stand there frozen trying to process everything were she not with company. Thankfully, Melissa seemed to be rather familiar with these things - or was just much better at adjusting to foreign situations then she may have given her credit for - and already started heading towards the produce in the store. Fen nodded at Melissa's comment about Percy, mentally refocusing herself as she nodded. "I'm sure he'd appreciate it." The girl briefly imagined the boy receiving the gift and returning with one of his poems in appreciation, bringing a smile to her face before breaking way to curiosity. "Though, I can't say I've ever heard of a "cheese puff."" The girl tried thinking about it for a moment and figured it was probably some kind of cheese stuffed pastry before moving on to Melissa's next comment. Putting a finger to her chin she thought aloud, "well most basic things like bread, butter, salt and pepper are already taken care of for us so we don't have to worry about that. But, as far as actual essentials go we are heavily lacking in vegetables. We might have lettuce on hand but diversifying what kind of leaves we have to pick from would be good. Not to mention an utter lack of broccoli, carrots, onions. And then we're missing out on fruit too which wouldn't be good to neglect. Lemons in particular are good for flavoring too. I'm also not sure what our stock of meat is like either, but Chicken is always a good place to start. But just eating chicken for a long time might get boring for some so we could also look for different kinds of red meats, fish, other poultry - " As Fen rambled about this she started to trail off even more saying, "oh but wait I wonder if we even have the same kind of meats between worlds. I never saw that rainbow fish before in my own world, so it stands to reason the market here would be pretty unique too. Which means at the very least we can find something unique and new to try out. I wonder if they've brought any familiar monster from my own world too? But people treated eating monsters over livestock as pretty exotic though if they aren't wild monsters here would they just be considered another part of the local cuisine? But even if we got all those we're lacking in too many things to make proper seasonings or sauces and I wouldn't just want to serve plain manticore with salt and pepper to a customer and call it a day. I might as well just be telling them I don't work in an actual restaurant at that point. So if that's the case then -" The girl paused in the middle of her stream of consciousness, looking back over to Melissa, a flush of embarrassment crossing her face as she realized she had been speaking aloud. Clearing her throat, the girl said, "well, um, that is to say. Uh...Produce, is a good starting point."

Marshall had pinned the creature with her lance, continuing to force the Hyena into the ground. It attempted to claw and grab at the lance but found that in its currently dazed state with one arm being locked in place it had little success. Then, staggered as the lance was pulled out of it, Marshall went for a final strike as she brought her lance down onto the creature's head, hearing the crack of the skull and seeing the gush of blood as she managed to finally kill the creature. Having nimbly evaded his assailant once more, Gene found himself able to capitalize on his stumbling opponent. His Quick Slash had swung into the creature's neck, critically injuring it as the blade cut through the side. With blood starting to gush out from it, the already wounded creature found it much harder to keep strength in its legs and was robbed of any form of defensive capability as it stumbled forward only to then be attacked by an assault of slashes from Gene. None of his cuts by themselves were particularly strong nor did they cut particularly deep. However, each slash formed a new exit for blood to flow from, and with it already heavily wounded each drop brought it closer to its end until it finally fell forward, limp on the ground and unable to move any longer. Having grabbed the axe and swung it at the creature's neck, Drake would find that the weapon that this Hyena used was as effective against it as it was him. The blade sunk into the creature's neck and it attempted to pull the weapon out. However, as it had already been in a rough situation and was now fatally injured, it found itself losing the monstrous strength it once had. And so, it struggled in vain to pull the blade out before finally keeling over and dying. Luca let out a small grunt as the thing that she had latched onto suddenly fell forward, an audible thud being produced as the lion hit the ground. With blood gushing from its neck, the creature still facing Sabrina, she would see that it hadn't fully died yet. Weakly, it continued to claw at the ground and tried to pull itself back up, though wasn't particularly able to lift its head out from the ground as it did so. Standing up on the body, Luca looked down with annoyance on her face at the creature. With a swift strike of her claw into the creature's neck, it finally stopped moving as she got back up. Looking back to see that everyone else had managed to deal with their foes, the girl's previously beaming expression returned. "Whoa! I knew the Exalted were supposed to be great heroes but you guys were like, super strong! You all summoned those weapons and used magic that was so cool!" "Right, I can't say that I've ever seen a weapon like that before either." Rumian mentioned, looking at Percy's weapon with fascination. While Luca was excitedly talking about the fight, Sabrina would notice what looked like a small red stone floating out from the now corpse of the lion. And, after a few seconds it would zip towards the girl at alarming speed. However, the stone would swerve towards the Dragon Sign on her hand and as it got close enough a small tendril of water would whip out from it, grapping the stone and pulling it into the mark. As it entered the tattoo all of the Exalted would hear a noise. With equal clarity and as if echoing through space, they would hear the sound of water droplet striking a pond reverberating around them. In addition to that, those who were wounded with visible wounds would notice something very odd. Though the slash Drake took to his leg and the bite that Jocelyn took to her side had broken their skin, what appeared to be a miniscule amount of blood had flowed out from them but didn't seem to be continuously bleeding. Luca would look back to Sabrina, a very exuberant and thankful look on her face as she ran back to her. "But you were amazing! You're like, one of the bravest people I've ever seen and you fought against their leader so well. I would've been in a whole lot of trouble without your help. Thanks so much for helping my village!" The girl smiled, clapping her hands together with blood still fresh on her claws.

Having decided on a course of action, the group had made their way over to the shrine. The girl looked over to Damien as he had elected to not go in with them, some concern on her face. The more and more they traveled together the more it was clear that there was something up with him and that he was hiding something from them. She wasn't one to pry, however, and she didn't feel like now was the best time to do so, yet if his repeated leaving had been anything to go by there was some kind of history between him and the elves. So much so that he didn't feel comfortable entering what was likely a long since abandoned building. The girl simply said, "um well, uh, stay safe." Before entering the building herself. The inside of the building definitely seemed like what one would expect from something long abandoned to nature. With how much vegetation that was spreading around and how serene it was, it was clear that the inside hadn't been tended to in a while. And yet there seemed something almost unnatural about how natural it was in here. That and, as she looked at the covered windows, realized how bizarrely bright it was in here. The girl had no idea what to make of it, though given the swirl of colors in the lake they had just visited she figured "magic" was a good thing to chock up anything unnatural to, and left it at that. The thing that had interested Ryia the most was the pond in the center of the room, and so she opted to make her way towards it. Cautiously she stepped, wary that some kind of shelled clawed creature would burst out of it again, but found that the water remarkably clear. Glistening from the light that was reflecting off of it and giving a crisp scent, the pond seemed to only further enhance the serene ambiance of the room. It also seemed to be free of any monsters, and even had it been filled with them, it seemed to only be some three feet deep so she wouldn't have much problem if she fell in it. Curious, the girl looked to the island in the center of the room and looked more intently at the sprout that was growing there. Curiously, it looked freshly sprouted and very green. While she was intrigued about it, it would require her to cross the water to get to it and while she could easily wade through the water Ryia was not in the mood to get her armor completely soaked. And so, she moved further ahead into the room. Going to the archway at the end, the girl looked to see that there was nothing to see. It certainly seemed to extend past what where they were but it was just black as far as she could observe, like some kind of pitch dark tunnel. The girl didn't feel confident exploring that any further without the rest of the group so she stayed still. "It's uh, well, dark..." She mused aloud so that everyone could hear. Then, an idea came to her. "Oh. Um, Madelyn could you uh, help me see what's in here?" Remembering what happened earlier at the lake she added, "oh uh, please." "Very well, let's see what we've got here," she said and walked over. She used her magic to try and illuminate the other room. However all that happened is the room they're in suddenly got too bright to see anything for a moment. Though Ryia would see a shimmering at the entryway for a moment as if the darkness was reflecting the light. Blinking, trying to readjust her vision after the room had flared with light she simply said, "uh, well...hmmm..." The girl was now only more curious, and wary, about the darkness that was ahead of her though didn't know what much else to make of it. Her only explanation she could think of was again, simply, "magic."

As Lana saw the skeletons approach her in a single file fashion the girl gripped onto her axe tighter, being surprised briefly as two blasts of fire went into the crowd and dealt some damage to them. Though it was enough to take down one of them, there were still two remaining that marched over to her. The first of them in front of her had its fists balled up and brought its arm back, as if ready to punch her. Lana, however, grit her teeth and decided to stand her ground. She didn't want to retreat back into the fog wall and she figured this was as good a time to attack as any, so hefting her great axe into the air the girl brought it down in an arc. The skeletons' arm stopped as the girl's axe blade smashed into the head of the creature, going even further as it bisected the monster in its entirety. The blade clanged against the ground as she completely slashed through the skeleton, taking a moment to let out a deep breath. There wasn't much of a rest period, however, as the second skeleton had made its way over to her. Taking in a deep breath, with her blade already on the ground, Lana turned her body to face the skeleton and brought the axe up in a diagonal arc. The blade, without much direction to it, smashed against the hip of the skeleton and caused it to stumble, if only a little. Still having closed the distance between it and her, this one managed to reel back its fist and with unnatural strength for its muscleless body walloped Lana in the face as she was pulling her blade from its bony body. Letting out a grunt the girl stumbled back a bit with spots in her vision as she, shaking her head and trying to get her senses back in order. Gritting her teeth, now frustrated, Lana hefted her blade up and swung it in an arc towards the creature's neck. In a display that had seemed uncommon to every other skeleton she had killed thus far, this one had brought up its arm to block against the girl's swing. The blade, having been enchanted, still managed to break the arm of the skeleton but the attack had been parried and its core skeletal parts were still intact. Annoyed that it had managed to actually prevent its own death, the girl grumbled more and swung her axe in the opposite direction she just had. The skeleton had forgone defense this time, instead punching her in the face yet again though leaving itself open for an axe to now occupy its shoulder. Blinking rapidly as blood started to flow from her nose, the girl let out a, "grrr...you!" Before bringing her axe back and swinging, severing the neck of the bony assailant. Now without a head, the creature crumbled to the ground. Panting, looking back to the group with her face a bloody mess she said, "front's clear."

Luca snarled at the Lion Drengr as she continued to sink her claws into its back. Pulling back and continuing to stab them in one blow after the other, the Lion was growing frustrated by this, and though it was still kneeling from the pain of its neck wound it did not wish to suffer the wrath of the wolf girl any longer. Reaching back, swatting at the girl, Luca seemed keen on keeping her claws sunk deep into its flesh despite the attacks. Seeing Sabrina run towards it, the lion looked towards her with pure fury in its eyes as it took in a deep breath before looking as if it were to roar. However, as it attempted to, what was likely to be a mighty bellow was instead replaced with a cough, spitting blood out as it did so. Moving its arm away from Luca, still using one to prop itself up, it seemed ready to reel back its fist to punch Sabinra. But there was a pause. Electricity coursed through its body, if only briefly, causing the arm to jolt to a halt. And though it attempted to try and attack the scythe wielding Exalted, it was clear that she was already far too close enough for it to do anything about the girl. The Hyena, already confused by Gene suddenly having a weapon, was only further confused as a wall of water blocked his sword. This Hyena knew water. He saw it every day. He interacted with every day, in fact. And water did not form sword blocking walls no, the pond most certainly never blocked his swings. So both with his astonishment and the young swordsman's speed had all concluded in it getting slashed in the leg. Though Gene was by no means a strong person, that it was not expecting the attack certainly allowed him to cut through the muscle of the creature's leg easier. It winced in pain, turning around to face Gene the creature snarled and went to lunge forward at the boy. Only, rather than fully lunging it stumbled forward awkwardly as it hadn't realized its leg had been cut and went for a much less forceful vertical slash at Gene's chest. With Drake having caused an incredibly unpleasant experience for the Hyena it was kneeling down in pain, trying to reclaim its strength only for a shield to come flying towards it. The Hyena was hunched over and as such it neck wasn't particularly exposed. This instead lent itself to the Hyena just having shield chucked into its face, perhaps not the intended location but still causing the Hyena to be briefly stunned by the hit. Similarly, though Drake felt more combat able then he would have in life, the maneuver he attempted had none of the instinctual backing that his use of magic or shield bashing had. As a result, after the shield hit the Hyena in the face it fell to the ground and Drake missed the shield entirely. He did not, however, miss the double over Hyena and had ended up pushing his two feet into the creature's gut. Drake would feel the mass of muscle that made up the creature's midsection take the brunt of the hit, but throwing the full weight of his body into the attack he managed to knock the creature backward. The Drengr landed on its back, dropping the axe as it fell but started to claw at the ground as it tried to scramble from its prone position. Having just thrown himself at the creature as well, Drake as well would find himself in a near identical position to the Hyena, though less injured and impaired. Slowly but surely, the Hyena went from its back to its knees. Seemingly unwilling to stand and a bit dazed the creature, left unimpeded, would just wildly fling itself at Drake, regardless of if he had gotten back up or not. Jocelyn, whether from shock of the Hyena's tenacity or her own newfound martial prowess or some other third thing, did not have the reaction time to dodge the lunging Hyena. As a result the Hyena had managed to sink its teeth into the girl's side causing tremendous pain and profuse bleeding. The Hyena continued to attempt to sink its teeth further into her and pull, attempting to tear part of the girls flesh off with its bite. Marshall and Abby would notice that the hyenas that they killed were still in fact dead.

Fen giggled a little as Aduain had asked if Percival was a pirate, but couldn't correct him before the boy introduced himself properly. Smiling, the girl stood up as she looked towards Trevor. "Like he said, we're both from the same guild, and I guess by that'd also mean we're from the same 'world'. Well, he's very enthusiastic a lot of the times but also very reliable. So, I'm sure you'll both get along with him well." Turning back to Percival she said, "so, uh Percy, how have - or well, how long have you been here? Did you just get here?" "Nay, I've been here for quite some time and have fought many a legendary battle in this strange world." Fen will pause, blinking a bit in surprise. "Some time? But I'm sure you were..." Fen trailed off for a bit, before snapping back. Smiling she said, "well, uh, I just got here myself. It's been something of a shock and getting used to but, well, it's interesting. How, uh, have you been adjusting - or I guess adjusted?" "A great hero must never falter even in the face of the unknown, I would never let something like this get the better of me!" The girl giggled saying, "well, I'm glad to see you're still as confident as ever. " Thinking about it more she said, "you know, when we were in Cherry Heart I was there before you were but well, I guess I'm the newcomer this time. So I look forward to - " the girl lurched forward as the crowd surged ahead, stumbling but keeping her balance saying, "look forward to learning from you." He seemed excited at the prospect and nodded, "Yeah! Er, I mean...." "Teaching my allies Using knowledge for others That too is 'hero'"

With the plan decided on Lana decided to walk towards where she presumed the wall to be given the room. As she walked up to it and put her hand on it to start sidling across it better, she found her hand pass completely through the fog. Now made curious about the lack of physical wall, the girl couldn't help herself before stepping into the fog proper only to find herself completely submerged in, well, fog. Walking a bit forward, this didn't change for the few paces she took and the inability to see any thing, save for what was directly in front of her, was starting to unnerve her more than she would've liked. As she was starting to move away from the fog this sort of nervousness proved to be with warrant. Out from the veil of the fog a skeletal hound made its presence known as it came out and leaped at the girl. To add to the creepy nature of the creature it made no sounds that the girl would expect from a dog, instead the only noise it really made was that of its footsteps against the ground. Coming out from nowhere and surprising the girl, Lana no time to properly swing at the creature and instead, in a panic, let out an, "aahhhh," and shoved the butt of her weapon at the creature's face. This attack did nothing to halt the hound's advance, instead acting as something for it to bite down on instead of her shoulder. As it bit down, seemingly chewing on the haft of her weapon, the girl's panic gave way, now awkwardly jabbing the spine from the inside with the butt of her axe while saying, "g-get off, get off of it!" It seemed to have little interest in ending this game of fetch. Frustrated, the girl let go with one of her hands and brought up her hand axe. Not wanting to accidentally cleave her own weapon, the girl spun the hand axe around before saying again, "get off!" and smashed its snout with the back of the head of her axe. The skull cracked and the dog let go of the weapon finally, only to then disappear back into the mist. Her hairs now standing on end and her nerves on full alert that she could no longer see the dog the girl said, "uh, alright. I'm getting out of this fog." As she began to walk back towards the entrance of the fog wall, looking every which way as she moved slowly. Her vigilance was rewarded as well, as she saw the dog reemerge from the fog, ready to bite at her again. This time, prepared, the girl let out a wide swing towards the rib cage of the creature, splintering a few bones and knock the dog to the side though doing nothing to prevent its charge as it continued to move forward. With the creature so close Lana had no time to actually wind back and go for another proper swing before the creature would bite at her, though there was something familiar about this thought process. The girl didn't have much time to think, so she just went to what her vague memory was telling her to do. If a full swing wasn't an option due to time, then just make the swing shorter. Readjusting the grip on her axe to be closer to the head, the girl swung again at the dog. This time, though, with how close it was the girl managed to bludgeon it with the haft of her weapon rather than the head. All the same, the bludgeoning force of her attack had knocked the creature away, breaking its skull further and causing it to slump on the ground. After a few moments of staring at the skeleton she felt relieved as it was no longer moving. Looking away, a smile on her face for a job well done, the girl's expression dropped. "Ugh, there's more coming," the girl saw the closest patrolling trio of skeletons turn to start moving towards them.

With their respite having finished it the group had moved back onto their pressing matters. It was true that they couldn't sit still for long, as the longer they waited the more time it gave the thief and kidnapper more time to accomplish whatever it was they were trying to achieve. Ryia sat thinking about what they had learned here. At the very least they had made a pitstop here but that alone didn't seem to offer them any clues as to the location of their culprit. So, she instead thought about their two other places they could go explore to see which would be the better option. Some place that was easily defensible but still able to have some freedom of movement. As she thought of the two remaining locations the shrine sounded like the more easily defensible and "fortress" like, being an actual building. Then there was the graveyard, which likely had more freedom of areas to run to, not unlike the lake, were things to take a turn for the worse. Though, the more she thought about the worse the dinosaur graveyard seemed to be a place to hide. After all it would have shared similar problems to the lake, save that they could use the corpses as cover, but such enormous bodies would also likely prove to hinder the escapee in question, especially if they were hauling an artifact and person. Of course she had no idea what the shrine actually looked like so she couldn't accurately judge how proper of a place to both hole up in and run away from was, but deciding that it seemed like probably the more preferable of the two choices she merely voiced her thoughts so. "Then um, I guess we should try the uh, building - er, shrine next?"

As Alois had prompted Edrick to break down the next door, his own destructive urges were piqued yet again as he heard scraping from behind the room that he was looking to. "What the...?" The boy walked past the other two in the room and looked at the door. The sound of gasps and grunts could be heard accompanying the scrapes, and Alois couldn't help but wonder if their missing person was indeed behind the final door. "Cat, is that you?" The boy asked the door and was only greeted with more scraping. Curiously, though, it didn't sound as if it were scraping against the door or anything, just against something in general in the room. Raising an eyebrow at this, he looked back to the others saying, "surprise of surprises their seems to be something weird, strange even, going on behind that door. So, just leave it to the lockpicking master here." With that, Alois kicked the door as he had the previous one. Finding it to be roughly as sturdy as the door he had previously smashed off its hinges. Pulling his foot back, he nodded knowingly saying, "yep, I think I've got this lock all figured out. You just want to shift the weight a little in the metal part and then, just like that," Alois then went to charge the door, again breaking open the door. Rolling his shoulder, his arm a little sore from having just be used as an impromptu battering ram, he announced, "we're in." With the door now no longer obstructing his vision, Alois could clearly see that the interior of this room was not so much different then the last. The bed was certainly smaller but the decor around it and the sheets that lined it didn't seem any less garish. Nor did the rest of the room for that matter, similarly having paintings and lavishly decorated walls any which way one turned. And as Alois did turn, out the window in the room he saw something of a flash of maroon pass by it. "Alright, anyone want to check what that was?" Tsetseg smiled and nodded at Nara as she asked, "yup yup, everyone in this village is alll part of your tribe!" As Acantha had responded to their calls, Tsetseg beamed up, excited to have another member of the town patrol ready to help them out. Giving a wave to the littler girls as they were dismissed back to their home, Tsetseg looked to Acantha as she was awaiting an explanation. The archer opened up her mouth, yet ready once more to explain the current situation but Cora had seemed to get in the topic first. Tsetseg didn't seem to understand what Acantha had meant by calling them suspicious in the first place, considering herself to be one of the most trustworthy people she knew, and thus was only confused by Cora trying to cover for her. All the same, the girl smiled and nodded saying, "yeah, yeah! So there's bad people here that need stopping! Mhm."

Though her face was filled with ferocity not moments ago, awe was all that filled Luca's expression now. Watching the Exalted summon weapons, seeing them use some long forgotten magic and throwing themselves at the Drengr to fight them almost immediately. Her eyes sparkled and she seemed to forget about her own duties as chief for a moment as she watched the group engage each of the enemies in their own series of one on ones. "Wow, you see that Rumian, they're real! Really real!" The girl practically was jumping up and down, however, seeing Sabrina stumble past the Lion the girl's sense of urgency snapped back. With renewed focus, the girl sprinted into the battle, bounding in the gap between Marshall and Abby's hyena opponents and making a beeline for the boss of the group. The Lion was well and truly frustrated with the girl, Sabrina, who had sought to fight him. Everything from her use of magic, her weapon appearing and even her strange choice of weapon seemed to only enrage the beast as it brought its mace up to go for another swing at her. However, before it did it felt a sharp pain go into the other side of its body. Looking back to see Luca with one of her claws driving into its side, the beast sent and elbow back before swinging its mace in a horizontal arc towards Sabrina. Luca, rather than dig her claws deeper, raked it across the side and freed her hand from the creature before and taking the elbow in her side rather than her face. Though she was knocked back a bit, the girl seemed to get back to her feet swiftly enough, ready to continue engaging the foe. The Hyena that was squaring off with Gene, while initially confused by this sudden appearance of a weapon from all the strange outlanders, was only emboldened by winning its previous clash with the boy. And so, tightening its grip on its machete in one hand and putting the other to the ground, it snarled at Gene before propelling itself forward and going for a wild swing with its weapon at the boy. The Hyena that Jocelyn had struck with its foot had staggered from the attack, wincing as the pain radiated all throughout its skull. It continued to snarl shaking its head as the girl landed on her feet before digging both of its claws into the ground and throwing itself forward at the girl, jaws open to bite down at side. The shield bash from Drake had struck true into the Hyena's chest, causing it to stumble back and cough as the mighty bludgeoning blow was brought against it. Yet it seemed undeterred as it righted itself after the attack. Inches from each other, having not moved very far from the tackle, it swung its axe in a horizontal arc towards Drake's unshielded side. As Marshall had pulled her lance back and stepped away from the creature it fell to one knees, blood oozing from the whole she had created with her strike. Though it seemed to be in a bad condition it still roared with bestial rage, doing its best to ignore the injury as it ran towards the woman. Rather than the other Hyenas who had continued to do more of the same, this one had been rather frustrated with the weapon that had attacked it, and moved to pounce, grab and pull at the lance. With Abby having successfully struck the creature in the back, it stumbled forward. Very frustrated, both from having having been hit by a large object twice now as well as just the notion of such a tiny creature wielding such a large object and putting up such a fight. And so it, with no surprise moved to claw Abby's face. Such was the intention though the attack was moving more towards the side from a combination of back pain and being struck in the head.

Chester had taken to sticking to the back, making sure that no danger was going to come to Cross from any of the pokemon here or any that may be coming from above. And while everyone had managed to handle the situation last time without much intervention from himself, this time there more pokemon to deal with. Not only that but to add to things he saw Z. suddenly collapse from something the Cleffa did, filling Chest with more worry then before. However superficial it might've been from where they were Chester did take his duty to maintain peace and, in a sense, the safety of his fellow forum goers quite seriously. Which only served to amplify itself now that he could see them in real life with physical danger. Though he had no doubt that Hector was a capable individual from his own long time as a mod, he was also currently outnumbered - or was he? It was six to two though he wasn't quite sure how the whole collective individual thing worked to begin with - which only spurred Chester to further action. Of course, he didn't want to just leave Cross by himself when the boy seemed very fearful of combat, but from his position back here he could do nothing. So he looked back saying, "Cross, I'm going up to help them but if anything should happen be certain to yell or scream and I'll do my utmost to help you." With that, the Chespin ran forward towards the Cleffa. He again, didn't have the faintest idea what moves he knew and was rather unfamiliar with Chespin's - especially at an early level - moveset. Yet it was a starter pokemon, so it had to know something basic. Scratch was out of the question as he didn't have claws which left either pound or tackle. Tackle would involve throwing his whole body at the opponent but he figured that his head was so large he was more likely to headbutt them before actually tackling. Which left pound...He couldn't help but wonder what pound actually was, but figured it had something to do with a body part and Chespin had arms. So a punch was the most likely solution. Bringing his arm back the mod shouted, "stay back from them! Hiyah!" Before going to punch the Cleffa.

Ryia let out a nervous laugh as Madelyn had chided her again. "Right - right. I'll do my best." As the light mage walked away, Ryia looked to the others as they all went about their business and then to the lake in front of her. With her body now partially healed, the girl rolled her shoulder and stretched out her arm, wincing a bit in pain as she could feel the lingering bruises and soreness in it. It was certainly better than before but exerting herself still left her with some degree of pain. The girl sighed, resting her arm back on the ground, wondering about the fight and what she could have done differently. On the one hand, she felt as though she should've been happy that her plan had actually worked and helped bring about the defeat of the crab. On the other hand, it had been rather rash of her, basically incapacitated her and made the others worry about her. Add to that, she didn't feel like she contributed much of anything aside from that during the fight. She wasn't quite sure where it was she could work to make up for what she was lacking. Be it magic, skill, strength, speed or versatility she found herself lacking when compared to every other member of her group. The only thing she thought she could do better than anyone else was take a hit, a function more of her gear then her own talent or training, and even then she had only really been hit once in this fight before having to sit out. She knew there was a lot to work on, and that unlike everyone else martial skill was about all she had to offer to the party. So she had to get better to keep pulling her weight. Letting out a sigh, the girl figured there was naught to do about it this moment and that she would simply have to do better next time. Though, hoping that things would work out better wouldn't be worth much when the time came. She needed to be better to begin with. She needed to get more skilled, smarter, learn more about how to fight in order to actually properly fight. She didn't want to spoil everyone's respite with talk of combat though, so she simply kept her thoughts to herself for the time being and enjoyed the meal that was prepared.

With the skeletons in front having been dispatched, Lana awed by Robin's theatrics in particular, the path to the next floor had been cleared. Swiftly following behind the ground of mages they had made it to their first set of stairs in this journey down the dungeon. Lana thought back to all her altercations with the skeletons, and specifically back to how she had been injured. All that really happened was her getting whacked in the arm, which she could definitely feel the soreness in it now that her adrenaline was settling a little, and the clawing at her face, which she could only hope didn't leave a lasting mark. With only those things taken into consideration she figured that so far her training with Joan had certainly been paying off. Though, she couldn't help but feel like she hadn't done anything particularly different then in any other fight. Maybe she had just gotten that much better? Lana didn't think too hard on it, especially as they were now on a new floor that only seemed to be thick with even more fog. Lana's distaste for this was clearly evident on her face as she let out an annoyed sigh. The room seemed to be more of the same as last time, with more skeletons walking about, and the girl could've sworn she saw something shifting under the fog though with how brief it was it might've just been the fog moving itself. As Chris brought up his plan Lana nodded, "I don't want to have to run from wall to wall of the room again either. Also maybe we should pick a side of the wall and stick to it? I can't see the door but there's no point in tearing through all of these skeletons if they're just gonna come back right?"

As the two girls seemed to recognize Tsetseg and declare that she was both an archer and hit Phai while they were an animal, the girl had a prideful look on her face and puffed out her chest. "Yep yep, that was me!" Tsetseg seemed to think that she was being praised for her skill and as a result seemed totally oblivious to how bad it sounded. After a short exchange between Phai and the two girls, Mara and Nara, they moved on to ask her questions at a rapid pace. Putting a hand to her chin the girl thought about it for a moment before saying, "see, see, a tribe it's like a big group of people that all live together! And we all move around and help each other and hunt and play games together and it's great. Oh, oh, it's like a family only bigger! Way bigger!" As the two declared that Phai was no fun, Tsetseg shook her head. "Phai is tons of fun. I've had lots and loads and tons of fun walking around the town with her and now we're having even more fun doing patrol stuff! Oh! That's a great idea Cora!" The girl's attention seemed about as focused as the young girls as she looked over to Cora and then looked past her. "Acaaaaannntthaaaaa, are you theeeerreeee?!"

Getting up the stairs Alois looked around the room that they had found themselves in. It had seemed that this was where the trail of stairs had finally ended, presumably the only place to go up from here being the roof. Unless in some manner to flex how much of a "noble" he was the man of the house had somehow made it more impossibly bigger on the inside then its outside. Alois figured that, since it sounded impossible, it was likely not something one could buy with money but he had seen enough bizarre things to not entirely discredit the possibility. That being said all it was was an, more than likely, impossibility and had nothing to do with the actual sight the boy was seeing. "Well, great, another dead end." As Citron brought up this room with high room with beds being the place where guests presumably stayed, Alois lifted a finger ready to make comment on her question before she had realized the obviousness of it. Grinning at her last comment he said, "I'd never do something so boorish," the boy's mocking of Gasotn in his tone was very evident before he started walking downstairs. "Hey Eddy, you know you might be on to something here. Maybe we should check the rooms down here first." As he said that, Alois walked over to the door at the east end of the hall. Looking it up and down he said, "let's see if I've got a key for this thing." Lightly kicking the door, it didn't budge much from it though it didn't feel like it was particularly sturdy either. "No, that one didn't work. How about," using his other foot Alois slammed the door harder then before, and the door bent in an gave a little. Yet still it stood. An annoyed expression on his face, Alois let out a sigh. "Well, looks like this door isn't budging any time soon. Guess we should just -" The boy threw the full weight of his body at the door, smashing through it and forcing the door open. Wiping the arm that he had used to tackle it with, the boy looked back and said, "hey what do you know, it's open. And what have we - " the boy looked into the room. "Wow. As frugal as ever I see." Inside was what Alois presumed to be the bedroom of the lord of the house himself. The walls were ornate, with candelabras and portraits decorating it. The bed in the center, pushed against the wall, was far larger then any one man had any right sleeping in. Add to that the several chairs and small tables in the room and Alois wondered if this was actually even a bedroom at all. Of course, both the cushions of the seat and the covers and sheets on the bed were violet and of a fabric that Alois had never actually seen before but could only assume was more expensive then it was worth. The bed was made nicely and it hadn't looked like anyone had been in here recently, though it was more than likely someone had made the bed this morning. Sighing, the boy said, "another dead end, great. Hey Eddy you want to try seeing what's behind the other mystery door?" The boy pointed to the other door on the north side of the hall. "It's locked but I'm sure a little friendly persuasion will get it open in no time."

With the group now on their way to the grocery store, it had seemed that their path into the store was barred by an increasingly large crowd of people. As it turned out, there was something to do with a raffle of what Fen could only assume was a rather big name celebrity. Or group, as it were. As the girl looked around trying to figure out where to find a breach in the crowd to actually enter the store, her eyes spotted something familiar. Looking to a boy in the crowd who had an incredibly unique way of speaking, the girl's eyes then darted towards the dog that was with him. As they ran towards her, Fen was a bit stunned in pure surprise at the sight of the dog and couldn't react before Melissa shoved her out of the way and interposed herself between her and the dog. Fen stumbled a bit, the sudden shove and her totally absorbed focus contributing to knocking her almost entirely off balance, before getting her footing back to normal. As Melissa then greeted someone, Fen noticed that the dog also had a passenger. Stepping ahead she said, "ah, thanks for the save Melissa, but..." the girl looked the dog up and down, noting that it could only be one dog. "Snow?" The girl walked over to it, bending down to pet it before it jumped at her excitedly, slobbering and licking her face as she did. Letting out a laugh she said, "it's - it's good to see you too." Petting the dog some more the girl smiled and said, "it's been - well, I suppose it's only actually been a few days since the last time I saw you. But this is the last place I expected to see you! Oh, and that must mean then," the girl looked past the dog, giving a smile and a wave to the boy with the eyepatch. "Hello Percival!" She looked back to the others saying, "oh, right, yes, these are people from my guild back where I'm from." Fen then looked onto Snow's back, seeing someone else resting on there - presumably Dora as Melissa had called her - saying, "oh, but I don't think I know you."

Chester could only let out groan after groan of frustration dealing with the entirely too familiar feeling of an uncooperative forum user base. All the same, he wasn't one to let such individuals deter him from his course and since everyone else was always advancing towards the stairs, as a group, he felt it prudent to do so too. Walking up the stairs gave him the same strange experience as the last time he moved up there, coupled with the strange sight of everyone all being lined up at the top of the stairs. He wasn't quite sure how it was possible given the penchant for wandering off that some of the people had displayed thus far but at the very least they were back together as a group. For however long that was going to last. Unfortunately they were not the only ones grouped here. A group of the same kind of pokemon, and then some, that they had encountered on the previous floor were there with them here yet again. The strange disembodied voice also alerted them to this danger, apparent as it was, and the Chespin got into a fighting stance ready to tussle with the pokemon here yet again. Well, tussle was probably not the most accurate word to use as Chester had yet to figure out how to do any actual move. And so, while he was going through his thoughts on what to test out against these enemy pokemon, he was interrupted by Hector calling out to him. "Huh? Oh, uh, absolutely! No harm will come to him if I can help it." That too was part of his duty, to make sure that no one came to any unnecessary harm. After all, while he was strangely alright with throwing himself head first into danger for reasons he could not place, it was foolish of him to assume that everyone else was as well. Looking back to see Cross in the back corner of the room, Chester saw that he wasn't in any immediate danger but he couldn't discount anything in these strange circumstances. Looking over to the Cleffa that had mimicked Hector's barrier he shouted, "you hear that! You won't be harming any one here. So stop." Letting loose yet another cease and desist order towards the pokemon, Chester ran over to Cross and took up a defensive stance.

With her fangs bared and claws drawn, though she was heavily outnumbered by enemies far larger than her, Luca was ready to pounce on these attackers. Her fury briefly gave way to joy and relief as the Exalted, one by one, appeared next to her. Smiling with wonder, the girl looked over to Marshall specifically as she gave her declaration. "So it is a kind of a hero..." The girl muttered, before looking over to the others as they all got ready to fight. Rumian for his part had trailed behind with Percy, and at the man's first question he quickly shook his head. "Oh, no no, I am in no way a fighter. Not at all." As Percy began to rapid fire off questions once more, Rumian looked to him wide eyed as he felt very on the spot, trying to sort through his thoughts in his panic. "Oh uh, um, those - they - they're the Drengr. Well, officially, at least, lots of people like to call them savages, cannibals, or feral people or - well, Drengr is about it." By the time he had answered Percy's first question, his mind had already skipped over to the last saying, "and well technically they're Stormblooded, like we are, but they - " Rumian's history lesson was cut short by the lion one's roar as he hastily shouted out, "uh, the neck! Try that!" The Drengr for their part had stopped at the sight of the Exalted. They seemed more curious then anything else at the sight of the clearly out of place outlanders. The lion indeed took a step forward, narrowing his gaze before he let out a menacing roar. Though they lacked words to their communication, the Exalted would be able to tell that these beastmen meant to kill them. And so with the Lion lumbering behind the rest of his pack, the group of hyenas charged forth at their foes, crude weapons and claws poised to slaughter them. One of the hyenas, with prey coming towards them, began to sprint even faster then the others, outstretching its clawed hand before swiping it at the girl. With next to no combat expertise among almost any of them and no weapons to speak of it had becoming increasingly clear to everyone that wasn't Luca that that this was a very much losing fight. However, those who had the determination to stand - or charge - and fight felt something deep within stir. A sensation from the back of their hand, from inside their hand; a pulse like a heartbeat. A soft white glow emanated from the Dragon Sign itself as they could feel the thing attempting to be freed from there. Though they had no idea what exactly this was, they would not feel it threatening nor dangerous. Though they had never had a sensation like this in their life they knew how to release it; to simply reach out with their mind and pull it free. And in doing so, make their will manifest.

Lana was glad to see that Chris was on top of the skeleton that was on top of Ziun. Which is to say, she was glad to see the problem was taken care of. Naturally, she was one to charge straight at an enemy and strike them down with brute force. But she was fairly certain that trying that with either of her weapons would spell for a much messier end on Ziun. So with that and the one near Robin taken care of, Lana was glad to finally be rid of this room. However, her expression and relief dropped as Robin and Estelle pointed out the gathering of mist at the top of the room. "Are you kidding me? That doesn't seem fair," the girl huffed before following suit with the others and running to the exit. As they got near the end of the room, their path to the door was blocked as a trio of skeletons had emerged from the mist, each armed with a very odd looking spear. The girl grit her teeth in frustration at this unexpected, but unsurprising, obstruction. As Estelle gave her her enchantment, Lana nodded saying, "I'll break it no issue!" The girl then began to charge at the one who had emerged on the left side. With axe at the ready she ran headlong at it, ready to smash the weapon down at a moment's notice. As she did her reckless charge towards the creature she couldn't help but feel an odd sense of deja vu about this whole situation, and that there was something important about it she was forgetting. Of course the time it took for her to charge would not allow her to think on such familiarity, and instead simply confused her as she realized she was approaching the skeleton a whole lot faster than she normally would've been able to. Being as fleet of foot as she was now, Lana had closed the distance between herself and the skeleton at a surprising rate. So surprising that by the time she realized something was off, with no active effort on the skeleton's part really, she had almost run chest first into its lance. Twisting her body, the girl used the haft of her great axe to shove the weapon to the side, stumbling as she ran past her target after her near-skewered experience. The increased speed only served to further enhance her stumbling as well, very nearly smashing into the wall behind the undead before finally getting her feet still again. With the enemy's back now to her, though, Lana had a clear shot at it as she ran at the creature, bringing the heft of her axe down onto its spine. The skeleton stumbled and wobbled as its back had splintered from the attack, leaving it open for Lana's follow up. Bringing her axe back again the girl gave one more swing its spine, smashing it pieces as the shards of bone and smoke scattered. "All clear over here!" The girl shouted, getting ready to book it for the door.

Ampharos Appletun Marshadow Galvantula Kommo-o Houndoom Popplio Sawsbuck