Skaia

Alois didn't meet his mother's gaze as she began to narrow her eyes at him, having something of an obviously guilty yet innocent expression on his face. Thankfully Penelope had managed to keep that situation from getting any sourer by souring the conversation in a different way. As the topic of his and the mayor's history came up, Alois's expression changed to an annoyed frown as he thought back on his time here in Phar. As his mother seemed to state the situation between him and his hoity toity lord of Phar the boy grimaced. "Yeah, well, that's the long and short of it. I've never been one much for stupid rules and he's never been one for reason, so this is just how things ended up between us. I couldn't tell you really when it all started. If anything, you could just say it's one of the town's charms its had for the past decade," the boy wryly joked. Though he had a sarcastic smile on his face it quickly broke away back to a somber look. He hadn't been certain of when all this started or what was the cause of it. But he had a good idea of why it happened, and how he was going to end all of this. "Well, I'm sure he has something to say himself," the boy added, before swiftly switching topics. "But I've had enough of that badger for one day already. So, how about you princess?" The boy smiled as he asked, "anyone you couldn't help but butt heads with back home?" Tsetseg had still stayed behind Gunther as Rocky had continued to explain himself. Given her current attitude, she gave an oddly understanding nod as he had mentioned not using dark magic but then felt bewildered by his next comment. It was true that it was stone and Tsetseg had never known stone to fly - at least in the literal sense. So it didn't make any sense to think that the stone statue was actually flying. But she had seen it with her own eyes and it was most certainly flying. Which is where the strange, presumably dark, magic had come in to play. Reorienting her thoughts, she nodded to herself, proud for not getting too confused by the Isaurian's double talk. She was snapped out of this kind of circular thinking, though, as the scaly terror of the skies had come down and looked at them. "Ah! Another another one!" The girl yelped out in surprise as, in addition to the third Isaurian, this had been the second - third? - wyvern that she had seen in one day. Her shocked expression gave one into wary annoyance as the wyvern growled at her and the others. And so Tsetseg growled back at them. Locked in a staring contest with the wyvern, Tsetseg stated, "it's a good thing you're not a goat Timmy, yup yup." She nodded to herself. Goats weren't that far off from horses after all.

As if on cue, her complaints were answered by the arrival of Chris. As the boy asked who, she waved her hand to shoo off the comment saying, "Leo? No no, he's a real gentleman you know? He definitely wouldn't have just acted like he owned the place and then berate me with questions." The girl frowned as she remembered the experience, before saying, "no they were more like - " the girl stopped as she looked more closely at Chris. She narrowed her eyes, as if examining his head more closely before asking, "how often do you wash your hair?" Lana's train of thought was broken as Chris sat down and Estelle talked about some kind of permission that she had gotten for him. Curious at the secrecy of whatever it was they were talking about, the girl leaned in closer to listen before immediately scooching back in her seat as Estelle moved suddenly. "Eh?!" As Estelle then went on to explain what she had remembered, Lana's eyes lit up, "a new member!?" The girl exclaimed. Things had been a bit rough for her since Sergei had left, being the primary one to have to rush at enemies, be stabbed, be eaten and tossed around like a toy doll. So having another person to help take the fury of the attacks sounded like only good news to her. Plus it was Estelle recommending them so Lana could only imagine that they were as reliable as they came. Curious and excited, the girl asked, "so what are they like, and when should they be here?"

Pending interest.

Lana had awoken the next morning feeling sore, groaning in bed as the sun shined through and woke her up. She had absolutely zero desire to get out of bed and go through whatever adventures today had, let alone just stand up at all. So, she continued to lie there in bed, shifting around every which way until she had come to the conclusion that she simply could not get back to sleep. Sighing, the girl the continued to lie there in bed, trying to get the mental resolve to get up on her feet before she finally tossed the covers off and stood up. Stretching herself out, though still present, the soreness lessened as the girl went to get her belongings. She had no idea what, if anything, the group had been planning to do today, but it was never a bad idea to just touch base with them. Especially if that touching base involved food. As she began to leave though, she also realized she had no idea when or where they were going to meet up either. Well she figured the tavern they had met at last time was probably a safe bet. As she tried to remember the name the girl muttered aloud, "the Gibbering Giraffe...no..." Realizing how entirely wrong that name was, Lana had no idea why she even thought of it in the first place before deciding to go to the Drooling Dragon. Lana stood at the entrance to the tavern, slight dissatisfaction on her face as she had realized it was locked. She had no idea when it was going to open up again, and she had barely eaten anything up to this point in the day anyway. There was no reason she had to eat here, but at the same time going into a tavern to not eat later certainly struck the girl as odd. Besides their food had been good. As she ruminated on what to do, eventually she saw a familiar face come into view. Surprised at this, in spite of being one of the people that she had come to meet, Lana smiled as she waved over shouting, "heeey Estelle. I guess we were supposed to meet up here today? Or were you just hungry too?" It didn't take much longer after that, though, for the doors to open. As Hector welcomed them in, the girl walked in and marveled at how empty such normally busy place was. Then turning to Hector she said, "thanks for letting us in, also I'll take some eggs." And with that went to a table. Once she was seated she just said, "guess all that's left is to wait for Chris..." As people and music started to fill the tavern, Lana's instinctual need to complain flared up as she said, "oh right, I had to deal with some real jerks yesterday thanks to him."

Tsetseg continued to eye the Isaurian boy cautiously, even despite the dogs seeming to have gone over to him as if to assure the group that he was fine. Tsetseg was not usually one to argue on the authority of something so fluffy, unless they could also turn into humans, but even still her fears hadn't let up. As Rocky and Timmy continued to exchange pleasantries with each other, Tsetseg took a startled step back and let out a yelp as the boy called out, "Phasia." Though it seemed to be something to help Timmy get out of the hole, she had no idea what it actually was that Rocky was doing, Tsetseg was still frightened that it had been some kind of strange dark magic word that the boy had been casting. Looking up to the sky, and then from the side to, then behind her, she determined that nothing had actually happened...yet. Still concerned, Tsetseg appeared as if she had some kind of twitch as she kept looking in a different direction then Rocky every few seconds. As Gunther had gone to ask him about his goings on here, the girl swiftly nodded along with it. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you do any like weird dark magicy magic stuff? Like making a a biiig flying rocky wyvern - " the girl gasped and cut herself off. Muttering to herself, "rock, Rocky, wyvern," the girl hid behind Gunther again as she continued to stare the Isaurian down. Alois shrugged as Edrick made his comment about the stone dragons, only for him to point at Citron and say, "see, both got lizard stuff in our hometown. They might be more common then you think." As Edrick and Ciela both started to make their way out of the room, Alois's mother had come back in. Frowning a bit as she chastised him, slightly embarrassed by it the boy quickly recovered his usual demeanor saying, "come on, Mom, me? Tease him? I never. I haven't teased Eddy once our whole journey, not a once." Then doing nothing to assuage their concerns about him, as Citron seemed to have similar concerns about Edrick's state he simply waved the concerns off. "I'm sure he just needs to walk it off, really. There's not a stab wound out there that could keep him down for long. And for all of her many, many..." the boy stopped himself for a moment before finishing, "eccentricities, that girl is one heck of a uh, doctor, we'll say. So even if anything bad happens I'm sure...he'll be fine..." The boy's words trailed off at the end as he could only imagine what kind of trouble they would actually get into. Flashing a smile to Citron and his mother he said, "there's nothing to worry about."

Fen was surprised that Melissa seemed to be incredibly familiar not just with what the strange yet familiar creature was, but also its natural habitat. Or at least where it didn't live to begin with. She also wondered for a brief moment what she meant by "catching it," thinking that perhaps such animals were common pets where the young girl was from. If that were the case then perhaps her tension wasn't all that warranted to begin with and they had something of an expert on their side, or at the very least someone who knew anything about the "Pokemon." It was then that Melissa mentioned the "lint roller" again and after setting the creature on the green table, left to go order something. She was certain that that was the direction of her room though, so perhaps she just needed to get something first before going out? Fen didn't follow after Melissa and instead looked at the creature on the table. It didn't seem all that keen on, well, moving and simply laid splayed out all over the table. She wondered if the creature was sleeping or just incredibly comfortable, and given that its eyes were still open she didn't think it was the former. Though the extent to which it was comfortable made her wonder if it had a long day prior to this and was extremely warn out which is why it didn't seem make much in way of motion. For that matter, she wondered where it had come from. Though Melissa seemed to be comfortable and familiar with the "Pokemon" she didn't seem like its original owner. As examined the furry creature, boggled by the ever increasing mysteries, more came to show themselves as Melissa had appeared with a large box. Blinking for a moment, she wondered where Melissa had gotten it, or if she just had brought a big box from home with her. Maybe it was a gift from whoever it was they saved on their mission earlier? Looking at the creature, then back to the box, as Melissa asked her question Fen answered, "it looks like he'd be fine just about anywhere. But well, yeah. Looks like a good uh, container? Bed? Box, uh, for him. I can't uh, make any lining or anything because well," the girl conjured an ice dagger and presented it before adding, "yeah. Oh, but I can cut the holes in it." Her tone was matter of fact. "Maybe we can just put it in a corner where it won't bother anyone and uh, so nobody accidentally just hits the box or something." Looking back to the table she placed her hand on the surface saying, "we could try finding more of whatever this cloth is. And then put that in the box."

Having followed the hunting dog, Tsetseg marveled at the big hole in the ground simply letting out an, "ooooooooh, big." The girl nodded to herself. Then, as the boy called out to them and told them about his situation her train of thought briefly hit a screeching halt as she definitely heard something off about Timmy's friend, but quickly went right off of it as Phai mentioned a story about her pet rock. "Oh, oh, I had a pet horse and a pet dog back in my tribe! They were really fun to play with and help take care of, yeah - oh but now I also have a horse here too!" Tsetseg owned no such animals, but they belonged to members of her tribe and she had thus reasoned that they were a part of her family as well. As Gunther then started to talk about what to do next, the girl put her hand to her chin and started to think. "Hmmmmmm, well, well, I'm really good at moving and finding stuff so like, I could probably go find Rocky, yeah. Or! Or, we could all go down into the hole together and then like," as if playing leap frog with the air, the girl pushed her hands down and jumped saying, "we all get on each others shoulders and then pull out. Oh, oh maybe instead if we had a big stick then - " the girl's stream of suggestions was cut off, as another boy came over. As Tsetseg looked over to him, she let out a sudden gasp as she jumped and pointed at him. "Ah! Another one!" The girl's declaration was one of confusion and concern, trying to figure out if the group had ended up in some meeting place for Isaurians as she moved back and hid behind the others of the group. Sitting down in his house, Alois couldn't help but feel his levels of discomfort rising by the minute. First, he was back home, at all. Not his first choice of place to take a rest in - really he found the abandoned church that was assailed by a horde of the living dead to be much more cozy than his village. Second, his house was small and was certainly not fit for accommodating the growing mob in here. Third, he couldn't help but feel a looming sense of dread that was only going to get worse once his mother got back in here. "Wonderful," the boy muttered as the princess answered the walking typhoon's questions about where everyone was and what was going on. "We're packed to capacity here already so once you're done you can go and join Cat or something. As for my home town, well, the mayor managed to piss off some kind of super mage but that's all taken care of now." As Citron then recounted her life story to them, Alois let out an impressed whistle. "Nice, I like your style Farm Girl. Anyone willing to shove back like that is fine by me. So, your home town full of a bunch of loons and flying stone dragons in secret town council meetings?"

It took until the walk back to the church for Lana to realize how rough a day she had had. Though her wounds from the exploration in the dungeon had been healed, it wasn't as though her fatigue from the endeavor had disappeared. Add to that, though it was of her own doing, she had gotten thoroughly thrashed by Joan in an effort to grow stronger. And she had just let her excitement get the better of her. Bruised, dirtied and with her eyes struggling to stay open, the girl hobbled back to the church. It was there, though, that she had learned that her day's trials were not over just yet. As two people had been there questioning the priest, they seemed to be unsatisfied with his answers and moved their questions to her. With them seeming quite annoyed Lana's already short patience was driven shorter as her tired expression gave way to a far more annoyed one, both because of being questioned and the source of this questioning being about one of her own teammates. The girl, however, didn't seem to put much thought into what to say at all and it wasn't as though she ever really knew where he was to begin with. "Ugh, I don't know. Have you tried taverns or something?" "Well, no, not yet..." one said, before the other interrupted him. "We're asking the questions here. Do you know the boy or not? Looking at you I imagine you must have some adventurer friends, are you hiding the thief?" Lana's eye twitched, her frustration growing both because of their rude behavior as well as their implication that she was actually lying to them. "Huuuh? I'm not hiding anything, I just told you where to look!" "So you do know them! Which tavern are they at, tell us now and we'll be on our way." Lana scratched her head as she tried to figure out the answer. Not putting much thought into it, she couldn't remember the name of the tavern that they had met up earlier today - something to do with slobbering? - and she truthfully didn't care if she answered correctly either. So, putting the thinking to someone else, she asked, "Father what's the closest tavern to here?" "The Gibbering Giraffe." "That one. Try that one." "We shall, and you best hope you're not lying to us. Come, we have him now..." The girl looked over her shoulder as the two of them left, muttering, "jerks." Then, letting out a sigh of relief as there were no more obstructions to her rest, the girl said, "finally," before lying down on the nearest pew.

As the group had finished their breakfast and recounting the night's happenings, it had been time for them to move on. With the destination of the elven city in mind, the group packed up their camp and started to trek through the forest. Ryia was on alert, the noises of the forest around them putting her ill at ease, unsure of what kind of beast could jump out at them after both their day and night spent here. As a result, she was almost looking forward to the elven city, hoping that their entry wouldn't be barred and it would be a place they could find actual respite in. However, once the noises began to quiet and Ryia's nerves began to settle, she looked over to Damien as he spoke up. The girl had visible concern on her face as Damien told them they'd be parting ways. The forest was no safe place and she couldn't help but admit that she was also curious as to why Damien wasn't allowed near there to begin with. Though it didn't seem like he was just trying to push the task more onto them and this also seemed to be different then other times the man seemed less than enthused to go somewhere. So she wasn't about to pry, not yet at least. Besides, she had other concerns she wanted to address with him first, and now wasn't the time for that either. "Well, um, stay safe, uh, out there." She knew she was stating the obvious and she knew how capable he was out there, yet she couldn't help but gesture to the way they came from and say, "there's uh, a lot of dangerous things...We'll uh, be back." The girl's serious expression broke a little as she gave an awkward nod before looking to everyone else, ready to proceed. As the group continued to walk through the forest Ryia couldn't help but feel like there was something watching them. She wasn't quite sure how to describe the feeling, since she had been somewhat paranoid since getting in the forest in the first place, but she could swear that there was something hiding in the trees just out of sight. However, as she started to grow more curious and actually consciously look around for it, she noticed that the feeling had gone. Or at least the immediate one, as she was still on edge, wondering what it could've possibly been. This curiosity didn't have time to last for long, though, as the group then ran into a large wall of wood, roots and thorny vines. Examining the wall, Ryia took a step closer only to back away as a trio of elves emerged from the top of the wall, bows drawn and pointed at them. "Do not take one step closer, outsiders." As they called out to them, Ryia couldn't help but do more than let out an, "uh," and look to the others to hopefully work on this first impression.

Fen put a hand to her chin as Aduain had explained his situation to them, thinking how unfortunate it must've been to have to constantly focus on your magic just to keep alive. Yet, still, he seemed no worse for wear at present so she didn't dwell on it that much. Instead, as Aduain had mentioned both wheels and a spike the girl continued to have a pensive expression on her face. She didn't want to just leave the boy at the top of this incredibly high building and either wait for him to get better in an ice bath or wait for someone else to foist him down. So instead she said, "well, I wouldn't just want to...so..." The girl placed her hand on the box, channeling her magic through it again and now causing handles to appear at either end and small legs on the corners to help prop the box up. And also spikes on the other faces of the box. "It might take a bit but, well, we should be able to lift you down. Slowly." Looking at Trevor, the girl grabbed one side of the box getting ready to lift it before saying, "oh uh, sorry if it's, you know, cold." The group had managed to return in one piece to their homestead, only to see Melissa in the foyer there first. As it had appeared, their group seemed to have dealt with whatever problem they had as well. As Fen gave a wave, greeting the girl, she instantly took a backstep and recoiled at the sight of the visitor that Melissa showed them. "Oh, that, uh..." The girl stammered out as she looked at the small lazy creature. She had never seen it before but she couldn't help but feel something hauntingly familiar about it. "It's...cute...What is it?" The girl said as she seemed to have gotten over her initial shock at seeing it, before recollecting herself. "I don't think I have anything like that," the girl answered Melissa's question. "And I uh, can't make anything like that either. But, well, if it needs a place to go or something uh..." The girl looked over to Aduain. "I could make a box for it?"

As Lana was hoisted back to her feet, she looked over to the woman as she gave her some final pieces of advice. Realizing that her sparring session was actually just using the woman as a trainer, Lana muttered, "right...free..." Obviously, getting such a lesson for free was a great deal for her and she would happily get them again. But she doubted she would be so lucky to keep lucking out on free things, as after all she knew just how important money was to getting nice things. The girl wondered if maybe once she got the unlimited money from The Spark she would get the best training known to man and become the strongest woman in the lands...but if she had The Spark was there any actual point to getting a personal trainer at that point? Confusing herself with this conundrum the girl shook her head before saying, "oh yeah. Thanks for everything you did for me today Ms. Sword...Lady." The woman gave a stiff nod. At first it seemed she wasn't going to say anything but then a look of realization crossed her face. "My name is Joan." "Joan," she repeated. Then realizing the pause coming she pointed to herself. "I'm Lana." Then, after a moment she said, "well, I'll try to get more experience and if you're in the area again, wanna spar again?" "Depends how I feel at the time. I make no promises." "Well, then uh, I'll ask again later." Nodding to the woman as she left, Lana spoke to herself, "man she's so cool." With that done, the girl looked over to the trees shouting, "you should also go home now! It's late!" With her civic duty done, Lana took a step forward, nearly collapsing to the ground as she suddenly realized just how exhausted she was. The combination of having gone through the dungeon and then going through an intense sparring match had drained Lana greatly, and so using her practice weapon for support, the girl hobbled out to reclaim her weapon. And with that done, decided it was probably good to go back to the church for the night.

Fen took a step backward as the ice prison she had made had started to shake and crack. Getting ready to step forward and try apply more ice to it, the girl instead left it to Trevor as he put on the finishing ice to the sculpture. After it shook a few times and stopped, Fen looked over to the versatile mage saying, "oh, well. Good catch," she complimented. As she was getting ready to depart, though unsure what to do about the giant ice cage on the top of the enormous building. And given they were all exhausted she didn't know what to do about the sloth monsters that would be on the lower floors too. As she thought more about it, the girl then looked to see Aduain suddenly collapse. "Eh?" She hadn't known that he was actually only able to breathe on land as a function of the magic that he used, though since he was a fish she didn't know why she didn't think more about this originally. But what she didn't know before wasn't important. What was that her friend was drowning on dry land. "Eh? Uhhhh..." Fen muttered aloud as she didn't know what to do. They were on top of an enormous building with no way to quickly get down. And if he was suffocating then that meant he didn't have much time to get down. Her own powers were generally useless here, after all you couldn't breathe ice..."Wait..."As the girl's mind was racing for solutions she had figured something out. Acting fast, the girl pressed her hand against the ground as her ice started to form into a small box. Looking over to Aduain she said, "um, sorry that this is going to be a bit cold but uh well. Yeah." The girl looked towards Trevor saying, "so like, I don't know if you have water magic but I've still got power to spare and all. So like, if you could make fire then I can keep making ice and we can, well, fill that." She pointed to the box. "And put him in there. We can uh, figure out the rest after."

Pichu, Chingling, Happiny

As the large ape beast started to charge some sort of energy in its mouth, Fen knew that there was nothing good waiting for her if it had finished and fired it off. With its attention focused on her she was unlikely able to dodge, and with the magnitude of power being gathered a simple wall of ice would do nothing either. So, her last and only option was to call out, "uhhhh, guys?" Thankfully, not long after did a burst of water, in the form of what was practically a waterfall, crashed down on and continued to engulf the beast. Relief washing over her face as she was no longer in prime laser range, Fen shouted, "thank you!" With the water now imprisoning the beast, Fen took a deep breath as she started to focus. Under normal circumstances it would be impossible for Fen to freeze a creature of this size and strength, and even if it were just wet it would still require a considerable deal of effort on her part; too much to be considered practical. But, with the amount of water that was around him, the water was now her target rather than the beast itself. "Alright, my time." Conjuring a lance in her hand, the girl charged towards the pillar of water, spearing into it as she got close enough to. With magic flowing from her hand into the lance, the water around the spear point started to crystalize and freeze. As she continued to push the spear deeper in, the ice spread further and further until her palm was resting against the frozen part of the pillar. With a pulse of magic flowing through it, the ice began to expand even faster as the girl started to run around the edge of the pillar, her palm dragging across it as the ice continued to spread faster and faster. And once she had made a full circle, the girl took a step back before conjuring a bow. Channeling ice into the arrow, she fired it high into the air, before it arced downward and stabbed into the top of the water pillar. With one last pulse of magic from the arrow as it struck, the ice completed forming around the water and the ape beast had been completely frozen over. Wiping her brow and dismissing her bow, the girl looked to the other two and smiled. Pointing to the pillar she said, "well, it's frozen. So uh, now what?"

Ryia gulped as Lindow had mentioned it being a ghost, sincerely not wanting to have to deal with some kind of being like that. Lindow as well seemed to think the ghost itself was a trap, which Ryia had almost always thought ghosts weren't something you wanted to chase after anyway. But, continuing this line of logic, he seemed eager to fight whatever it was that might've been conjuring the ghostly creature. Made more on edge as he continued to egg the darkness on, Ryia wanted to try to calm him but felt that saying anything was more than likely to get him only more riled and getting louder. So she kept to herself and just let it run its course. And thankfully, no other incident had happened. And there were no more ghosts. In spite of the fright in the woods last night, Ryia had been able to sleep well enough through the night. And, with the daylight revealing more of the forest to them, the girl let out a sigh of relief. Sitting around as Keres had gone off to work on food, the spirit of water began speaking to them talking about their night and pondering something about its own abilities. Curious about this as well, Ryia looked over at nothing saying, "is uh, that true Ackrin?" "I do not know," The goat spirit replied, "I have never tried." "Oh, well, I uh, I see." The girl muttered out. Sitting there in silence, true to form Ackrin had neither mused nor continued further on the train of thought and Ryia didn't feel like pressing any further either. Instead she just shrugged towards the water spirit. Eventually as the food was presented to them all, the girl gave a bow, smile and "thank you," towards Keres. With Damien coming out as well, asking about their night, the girl said, "ah well, um, nothing really happened much on our watch. No uh, no problems or anything. But there was a uh, a woman? I think? She didn't say anything...was just walking and uh...she was just there and left...yeah..." The girl trailed off as she gave a brief summary of last night's events.

With the wooden axe in hand, Lana took a deep breath as she stared down her opponent. She knew this woman was strong, strong enough to beat a whole bunch of knights by herself. Which meant that if Lana herself were going to get any stronger, she would just need to fight and beat this woman in a fight. And, as her brute tactics had rarely failed her thus far she leaned into just that. Going for a full frontal charge, Lana let out a loud cry as she brought her axe up and swung it at the woman. Unimpressed, without moving from her spot, the woman used her wooden sword to effortlessly knock away Lana's weapon. Feeling the sudden shift in weight and break in momentum, Lana stumbled to the side only to then feel a stinging pain as the woman's wooden blade smacked into her side. The wind being knocked out of her briefly, Lana still remained standing in spite of her shaky balance, gripping her axe again and going for another swing. The woman knocked the weapon aside and frowned. "You do realize that had this been a real fight you'd be dead about now right?" “Would I?” Lana thought back to her previous experiences saying, “well maybe stabbed, but I’m still made of some pretty tough stuff. Besides it’s worked well enough so far.” The girl frowned for a second, remembering her last encounter before going back to her previously curious expression. "Has it? So what have you fought like this that makes you so confident?" She tapped the spot Lana was struck with the wooden weapon. "Had this been real steel dealing that blow, you'd have been cut from here," she dragged the weapon across to her belly button. "To about here. What do you think that would do to a body?" Thinking about her own fights with monsters and what she had done to them, the girl shuddered at the thought. “O-okay yeah, I’d probably be dead.” She nodded, "I'm surprised you aren't already with that attitude." she sighed then carried on, "If you want to attack like that you better be sure you're going to kill them in that strike. This can work sometimes. A ready opponent directly in front of you is not one of those times." She stepped back and moved back to her original spot, taking the same stance, and said "Try something else." Lana took a step back trying to think of what else to do. Usually, when one of her weapons was knocked away she'd just start using another one or her bare hands. That was probably not what she meant though. Unfortunately for Lana, she couldn't really think of much else to do different outside of her approach. Not wanting to just get whacked again this time, rather than charge head first in, Lana walked slower towards the woman before going for the exact same swing that she had before. The elven woman had still managed to parry it with similar ease, though this time rather than her whole body being jerked along with her axe, Lana only felt her arms shift to the side. Feeling that she had more time to react, Lana went for a swing yet again but was met again with a hard slash from the wooden blade, the woman clearly having won the initiative in the offensive. Stumbling back for a moment, Lana tried to get her footing back, before going for yet another approach and swing. No matter how many times she struck at the woman, her swing was always easily parried away and her retaliation was always immediately countered. As Lana went in for another swing, getting parried yet again, the girl thought about her problem for a moment. No matter what, her axe head would never get close enough to the woman to actually hit her or her weapon. So maybe she just needed a shorter weapon? Having this in mind, Lana shifted her grip on the weapon and rather than going for an offensive swing at the woman she pushed the haft of her weapon forward, intercepting the attack directly. Though there was still a sting in her fingers, she had managed to successfully parry one of the woman's attacks. A look of pride and glee surged across her face as she looked over towards Joan, looking for some recognition at her achievement. "Good, you're putting thought in it. But don't lose focus." "R-right!" Lana swiftly readjusted her grip only to once more go for an axe swing. Lying face first on the ground, battered from all the wooden sword hits Lana groaned out, "man...you really are strong."

After going through and learning all of the rules of the training ground, the girl walked into the training ground with a smile on her face and an axe in her hand. As she looked towards, letting out a sigh as she was sure that she could see Wallace in the distance, her eyes eventually went over to the knights and elven women that she had seen before getting in here. Gawking at the sight of the knights sprawled out on the floor, the girl attempted to let out an impressed whistle (more just spitting instead) the girl said, "whoa...that's awesome." The woman looked over to her and responded "No, it means that the knights here need much more training if they're meant to protect this city." Freezing in place as she realized she was speaking audibly, the girl will then clear her throat. "Ah, uh, I guess so yeah." Pausing for a moment, asking what felt like an obvious question the girl said, "are you not a knight then?" She gave one look over the group she had beaten, then lifted her wooden sword and resting it on her shoulder, before moving over towards Lana. "No, not at all. But they wanted help with practice." she sighed. "More than I realized..." "I see..." The girl looked past her to the unconscious bodies of the knights. Curious again about the woman she said, "so, are you a dungeon explorer then?" "I am not, nor do I intend to be." she said. "So if you're about to ask, no, I won't join a group." The girl waved her hands as if to dismiss it saying, "oh, no no. I was just wondering like, well, you seem really strong. So I was just wondering how you did that." She gave Lana a closer look, seemingly more interested now, then said "I fought. A lot." "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense." The girl said flatly, understanding how obvious an answer this was. She then started to mull on this a little more. The woman was definitely strong and she could handle several enemies at once without getting bloodied, something that Lana had a great deal of trouble with. Similarly she knew that there were people both stronger and farther along in the dungeon then her, and so if she just kept to this pace then she'd end up losing the race to The Spark. The only way to keep that from happening was to get stronger. As strong as the woman in front of her to start with. And so there was only one way for her to get there. "Then I just gotta keep fighting even more!" Clearly getting swept up in the moment, forgetting her earlier fatigue, the girl asked, "so uh, would you want to spar with me?" Her eyes went to the actual axe that Lana is holding, then she looked back at her face and raised an eyebrow without replying. Following the woman's eyes, surprised, she quickly stowed the weapon saying, “oh uh, right. Practice weapons, I’d get one of those too.” "Mm." The woman thought it over, then said "Well, it's not good to overdo it, but I suppose just for a little while." With her expression brightening up, the girl said, "alright! Well uh, I'll go get one then." With that, Lana went to go get a practice weapon to begin her sparring.

Fen had gotten back in time to see Trevor almost get turned into floor paste by the large monster leaping at him. As the man had managed to call out his plan to her, Fen looked to Aduain who had, for his part, started charging up an attack. Fen wasn't entirely sure how possible it would be to lock down the beast, and even once they did what came after it, but her only other idea was something far more extreme and so she decided to go along with the plan for now. However, she wasn't so skilled an ice mage that she could simply apply so much of it to the beast at once without set up and so she would wait for Aduain's burst of magic to soak it first. Which left her on distraction duty. Fen walked to the side opposite of Aduain and called out, "uh, hey! There! Big monster, thing!" Though disgruntled the beast turned to face Fen, it's attention now focus on her. She didn't want to do much to disrupt Aduain's focus and so far every time she had attacked it had attacked her back. And with the amount of damage each attack done to the surroundings around them, she wanted to keep the fighting to a minimum now. Trying to think of what to do next, she had noticed when she came back as well the eyes of the beast continually darting back to its resting spot. It had seemed rather bored and annoyed with everything it had to deal with so far, so maybe it just wanted to rest? "So uh, let's just uh stop for a bit! And uh, we can just uh, take a break! Yeah." The girl pointed to his spot and pantomimed sleeping at it, a smile on her face as she nodded. The beast snorted as it reached to the floor. Fen's expression dropped as yet another chunk of floor at her. Rolling to the side the girl shouted, "that's fair!" before conjuring a bow into her hand again. Thinking such damage was inevitable now, the girl simply fired a few arrows at the beast's head yet again.

After getting past her brief period of being lost, Lana had managed to find her way to the front entrance of the training grounds. When she got in there she saw someone that, for the second time today, had a kind of bizarrely familiar feeling about them. Furrowing her brow as she went deep in thought, she connected the two feelings together, her face then lighting up in realization as she figured it out. She had seen the man with Cleo and...someone else? a day or two ago. As she gave herself a mental pat on the back for figuring this out, she then paused as she looked back up and met eyes with the man. The girl, upon doing so, gulped nervously as she couldn't help but feel like he was upset with her for some reason. She normally would take much greater offense to someone giving her a look like that, especially as he seemed to recognize her, but she was more confused and definitely found it harder to get annoyed with the man's noble visage. So, instead trying to get some answers directly she nervously let out a, "uhhh, high there?" "Hello." He says abruptly. "Excuse me." "Uhh, right." Just as quickly as he spoke so too did he begin to leave and Lana, being swept up in his force of personality, simply stepped to the side. Of course, Lana's curiosity was still unsated and realizing that he was just about to be gone the girl blurted out the only thing she could think to keep the conversation going. "Is uh, Cleo also here?" His eyes narrowed a bit as he asked "Why are you asking about her?" The girl could start to feel sweat form on her brow as she couldn't help but feel like she had messed up somehow. Instinctually trying to show no harm the girl added, "Well, you're like a party with her right? We met earlier today and all and was just wondering. Since I think she also comes here a lot - I guess she directed me here so it'd be weird if she was also already here. But yeah, uhhh...." Lana's words trailed off at the man's stare, realizing she was just rambling. "I see." he seemed to relax a bit. "No, she's not here. As you said it would be strange if she were." He hesitated then "do you need something from her?" Lana let out an internal sigh of relief, thinking the situation had calmed down. Really, she didn't need anything from Cleo but she would've preferred it if the girl was here for her first foray into the knight training ground. "Oh, not really. No. I just figured I'd say hi if she were, and maybe show off - er well, ask for pointers on fighting and stuff. She seems like, really strong and I think I'm pretty strong too but can never learn too much right?" "Right...Yes, she's quite strong." He paused a moment and then said "You went into the dungeon, correct?" The earlier awkwardness having completely disappeared, Lana smiled and nodded, saying, "you bet I did. Got through ten whole floors already." The girl nodded to herself assuredly, before stopping and looking slightly embarrassed once she remembered what group she was talking to. He nodded as well, seemed to think a bit, debating something with himself and then, "perhaps I could watch in her stea...no, apologies, nevermind that." Cocking her head to the side, curious, the girl said, "hm?" Then shrugging she said, "well, it was nice to meet you. I'm Lana, by the way." "...Edgar. Pleased to meet you." Though he didn't sound particularly pleased. He gave a short bow before briskly walking out. "Uh, bye. Later." The girl gave a wave to him as he left before turning her attention forward. "Well, he seemed nice," in spite of it all the girl smiled to herself seemingly pleased with the talk before going forward to enter the training area.

The girl was a bit surprised by the sudden turn in conversation, less towards Damien's past and more so towards Lindow's fascination towards his sword. She definitely thought the weapon was unique, to say the least, but hadn't given it much thought before now. Though even now she wasn't all that interested in it. Being unable to stop herself from letting out a nervous chuckle as Lindow pivoted to seeing if she could get information about the elves from Damien. "I uh, hadn't thought about that, actually." She also hadn't known that his sword was elven in make to begin with. "I'll uh - I'll see if I can. Get any info, and stuff." As she agreed to this, the girl briefly wondered why he was asking this of her specifically thinking that she was the least likely to get a straight answer from the man and didn't even know how to go about asking in the first place. But, before she could continue this train of thought, it was interrupted by Lindow tossing a rock into the darkness, Looking in that direction, the girl noticed some rustling in the bushes as well. Squinting towards the area, she eventually saw what appeared to be a woman in a hood with a faint glow around her walking in the forest. The girl gulped at the sight, wondering what another person could possibly be doing out and about at this time, here. If it was an elf then it probably would be best to talk to them and get information from them and try to explain themselves, hoping it wouldn't lead to any hostilities between them. If it was another traveler then it was probably very dangerous for them to just be traveling by themselves at this time of night. And if it weren't those two things then it was probably...Ryia shivered at the thought but tried to stay optimistic. "U-um, h-hello?" The girl called out to the figure. The figure stopped, without responding. Instead, it turned to look at Ryia's direction, causing the girl to gulp once again as it started to wander deeper into the woods. While the girl was certainly curious about what this figure was doing and where it was going, she was firmly rooted in place, terrified of actually following it. Instead, she tried to speak with it again saying, "a-are uh...are you lost?" The figure stopped moving, and after a bit it seemed to vanish completely from sight. Breathless for a moment, unsure of how to feel, the girl let out a deep sigh before asking aloud, "what do you uh, think that was?"

"Oh no," Fen uttered as she saw the Slaking firing a burst of pure energy towards her. As the girl tried to think of a way to dodge this surprising assault by the beast she suddenly felt a rush of water shoot from beneath her feet. As the attack ended up missing her, the briefly confused girl looked around to see that Aduain had managed to rejoin with them. Smiling as the fish had joked about finding their mark, the girl's expression became more serious and nodded along with Aduain before he rushed off. Standing on water was a unique experience for the girl, and she was sure that it would make it much more difficult to get an actually stable shot off onto the Slaking. And so, channeling her magic through her feet now, the girl froze the water beneath her, turning it into a crystalline pillar of ice. Though ice wasn't usually regarded as a particularly stable surface to stand on, Fen was far more at home with it, and so she conjured her bow of ice and took aim once more. Letting loose a few more arrows at the enormous sloth gorilla in tandem with Aduain's speeding assault, the attacks all seemed to strike true. In fact, they seemed to have actually bothered the Slaking as it let out a bellowing, angered roar. Fen winced as the beast roared, noticing that it was so loud that her pillar beneath her was starting to crack. Taking quick evasive actions, the girl dove off the pillar before it completely shattered, wincing again as she landed onto the ground with a tumble. Still not missing a beat, the girl transitioned from her tumble to a standing position seamlessly, conjuring a lance of ice this time. Seeing Aduain being swatted at by the large monster, the girl figured it would be best to get in close to divert some of the attention away from her fishy friend. Charging in, the girl tossed her spear into the ankle of the creature, causing irritation to form on its face as the ice weapon burried itself into the leg. It's arm began to glow with an awesome power, before it swung it down like a hammer towards Fen. Not wanting to be crushed by the beast's attack, like before she leaped and rolled forward, towards its leg, to avoid the swing. And though she managed to avoid being crushed, the girl was unable to regain her footing after her dodge as there was nothing left to stand on. The arm had impacted the ground hard enough to break it apart, causing fissures to appear on the rest of the floor and underneath Fen. Landing on to the floor below, Fen was briefly winded by the surprise express method down the building. Catching her breath, she picked herself up before looking back up. "This is a problem," the girl mulled to herself, thinking about her next course of action. The Slaking thus far had proven to be both incredibly durable and ridiculously strong, with little tricks up its sleeve outside of that one attack it did, meaning that it would be a difficult opponent to overcome with just conventional attacks. Unfortunately, Fen's magic and specialization was only conventional attacks, and against such an opponent that so vastly overpowered her sticking to her usual tactics wouldn't work. As the girl thought to herself, she looked up at the hole in the ceiling before getting an idea. "I really hope they don't care about this building," the girl thought aloud. She sighed at her own train of thought, figuring it was something her more hotblooded and head strong guild members would have thought of, before making her way to a staircase to make it back and rejoin the fight.

Lana had eventually managed to find her way to the training camp, but hadn't been so lucky in actually getting in. Looking at the wooden wall before her, the girl briefly thought about climbing and hopping the fence to get over though the more she thought about it the less pleasant it seemed. She didn't want to accidentally be stabbed, especially when not in the dungeon. Also there were knights on the other side of this wall and she wasn't sure if this was considered trespassing. Thinking it was for the best that she just find a different way in, the girl backed away from the wall, briefly looking in to see the knights and a familiar elven girl fighting amongst each other. Marveling as the woman seemed to be taking on the group against her by herself, she then heard a bit of a rustling nearby as she saw someone else here. As she looked at the boy it had seemed that he didn't notice her at all and was entirely absorbed in whatever was happening inside. Lana, though, wanted to grab his attention as she had no idea how to get in there from where they were. And so, clearing her throat, the girl asked, "are you looking for the entrance too?" His head snapped over to Lana, eyes wide like a frightened rabbit, and he stands up suddenly as though about to bolt. "U-um, no, not at all...I was...just...watching, I-I'll leave don't get mad!" "Huh?" The girl was as surprised as he was, though more so because of his intense fright. Confused, the girl cocked her head to the side wondering aloud, "why would I be mad?" After a second, she shrugged and added, "anyway uh...I don't really care that you're watching. But well, they are cool so I guess I can understand it." The girl put a hand to her chin as she nodded to herself. He relaxed a bit and nodded. Still silent but curious he doesn't run off. "Yeah...they are, aren't they? I wish I could be like that....er, um, you said you were going inside? Are...you a knight?" "Well, I was looking to. But I got a bit lost." The girl gestured to the wall. "And no, I'm not a knight. I just heard I could practice with my weapons there and I got this new axe and I want to give it a good practice swing." The girl presented her hand axe before getting lost in thought for a moment,. Maybe she could see if she could find a job as knight as a side gig to the whole dungeoneering thing. It would certainly be a good source of secondary income and more money was always good. Though, the more she thought about it the less she knew how well knights were actually paid. Were they also even allowed in the dungeon? And her whole goal with finding the spark was to work as little as possible, so really it just didn't seem like the life for her. After shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she asked, "you don't really seem like the knight or weapon type though, so do you just like...watch here?" He flinched a bit as Lana said that. "I....yeah." His gaze lowered and he said "I'm kind of, well...weak and...swinging a weapon is hard." he sounded bitter about it. "Eh, it is?" Shrugging she asked, "so like, can you not watch from inside then?" He blushed instantly, face turning impressively red, and mumbled "It's embarrassing..." After thinking a moment Lana agreed, "hmmm, yeah, I guess that would be." Then shrugging she said, "but well, I'd probably want to go into a noble house if I had the chance, so this is probably like, the same thing? Well, anyway, do you know how to get to there. From here. Again, kind of lost." He seemed to be shocked at her words but gave a simple nod. "Yeah, um, it's...just follow the fence until you find the building and ask in there..." "Got it, thanks uh, pal." "It's...Wallace." "Thanks, Wallace." As Lana began to walk away, she stopped and looked back for a moment before asking, "do you like, want to come with or?" He hesitated a moment then shook his head, "N-no I'm fine." Shrugging she said, "suit yourself. See you later, Wallace - well you'll probably see me soon. It's Lana, by the way." And with a wave she made her way over to the entrance of the knight training ground.

After a bit of wandering the girl eventually found her way to a nearby weapons shop. With someone else having been there before her, the girl stood near the door, just waiting for them to finish their business and began to walk forward once it seemed done with. However as the other girl finished she then seemed to stop after seeing Lana. As she greeted her, Lana cocked her head to the side, trying to think about her question. "Now that you mention it, you seem familiar too..." The girl furrowed her brow as she tried to recall before she eventually shrugged and just said, "well, whatever. The name's Lana." The girl extended out a hand to shake. The girl, holding the broken blade in both hands, hesitated as she tried to figure out what to do before tucking the two pieces under her shoulder and shaking Lana's hand with a strong grip. "Cleo. You're here for a weapon too?" Lana was taken off guard for a second by the girl's strength, but had it break way back to her friendly face before nodding. "Yeah. One of my axes was eaten by these giant bug things - well, I guess it like, super rusted my weapon? I dunno, they were gross though. So I need to get a new one." The girl seemed taken aback and then said "Oh, you must have gone into the dungeon then. At least, I don't think this city has monsters like that roaming about." though she furrowed her brow in concern at the thought. "Oh uh, yeah. No, I would hate that. That would be - I don't want to think about one of those skittering around here." After thinking for a second, she off handedly said, "well, I think one of my teammates ran into a monster earlier but it probably wasn't as bad as that." Then looking back up, a clearly more positive expression on her face the girl said, "but yeah, just got back from an expedition today. Do you uh, do you expediti- , er, explore the dungeon too?" Cleo frowned slightly "Wait did you say...ran into a monster? Where...no, never mind, I suppose it's not my place...a-ah, sorry! Yes, me and my...allies recently finished going through 20 floors. We were taking a break when..." she looked at the broken blade. "Whoa." Clearly impressed, this then broke way into a bit of bashfulness as she added, "we uh, we just finished with ten." Then, as if trying to save face in the face of another adventurer, Lana doubled back saying, "but well, we just started a few days ago and uh...yeah...but wow that's awesome and, uh, right." The girl looked at the sword saying, "that also sounds impressive." "We also...w-well, milord, er, my ally is very talented I wouldn't feel bad um..." she suddenly looked awkward as she shifted back and forth. When Lana brought up the sword she blushed "N-no, it was just an accident...is all." Nodding the girl said, "I see, I see." Then perking back up she said, "well, anyway, it's fun to meet a fellow dungeon diver. And I'd love to talk about that stuff with you more, later. And uh, I hope things work out with that weapon of yours." "Oh! Um...thank you...." she seemed to look uncertain if that was the proper response then said "Perhaps I will see you around, Lana....er, good luck with your new weapon." she paused and then said "Maybe make sure to test it out in the knight's training ground. Just in case. They let people use them as long as they register." "Eh?" Surprised by this suggestion, such a thing clearly never having entered Lana's head, she nodded. "A real knight's training ground..." The girl's thoughts trailed off some more before she nodded, seemingly more excited before saying, "thanks for the advice! I'll be sure to stop by there later." After having split from Cleo, Lana finally walked forward to do her business that she came here for. After procuring a new handaxe of relatively similar quality to the one she had before, the girl had decided to go and take the other girl's advice to heart and decide on her next destination. Leaving the store she said, "alright, now if I were a knight training ground where would I be?" Realizing that she probably should've asked to make doubly sure she knew where she was going, the girl shrugged and decided to sally forth on her next adventure.

As the group had managed to power through the swarm of sloth monsters they were awarded a brief moment of respite before being able to ascend the staircase ahead of them. As the group made their way upward, arriving on a roof that had definitely seen better days, they were greeted with the sight of the beast that had cause all of this havoc to start with. Or, well, its back. All the same, it was clear to them that the creature was utterly massive and not something to be trifled with even if, as Trevor had observed, it seemed to not be paying them any mind. When asked for her thoughts, Fen thought for a moment. The sloth monsters hadn't dared to chase them any higher up and seemed to have some degree of fear in their expressions after the group had crossed a certain threshold in the building. Furthermore, this beast was several magnitudes larger than them and had been able to tear off parts of the building with relative easy. And now here it was, seemingly taking a nap after throwing the whole area into chaos. "It's probably just used to being the strongest, and this is its territory. So, since nothing poses a threat to it it probably doesn't have to feel on guard. Or something like that. It also might just be tired from its rampage," the girl added as an afterthought. "Well, regardless, this thing poses a threat and we should try to take it out as quick as possible while it's not looking at us. Though..." The girl frowned as she looked at the size of the beast again, unsure how big of an advantage they would actually be able to get against it even with a surprise strike. As a precaution, Fen decided to distance herself from Trevor before beginning her own strike. Conjuring a bow of ice, the girl took a wide stance as the bow started to grow larger and larger. Becoming something more akin to a small ballista, the hunter conjured a bolt fit for the weapon as she began to pull back on the heavy weapon. And then, letting go, the bolt soared through the sky before striking true into the back of the creature's neck. The head of the creature lurched forward as it let out a loud grunt. Then, reaching back it grabbed and yanked the arrow out of its neck, causing Fen to be momentarily stunned by the sight. As it had seemed that, while the arrow had struck, her attack had done mostly superficial damage to it the girl let out a, "uh oh." As the giant ape like beast turned around, looking at the group, it let out a loud roar before reaching for a nearby table. As it winded its arm back, Fen discarded her large weapon and rolled to the side as the table was flung straight through her ballista. Rolling on her hand and pushing herself back upward, conjuring a new normal sized bow in the process, Fen quickly shot two arrows at the beast's chest. The arrow's seemed fairly ineffective as, during her firing of them, the beasts began to charge straight at her using its sheer mass to break through them. As Fen landed back on her feet it became evident that the beast had just leaped using its own, flinging its whole body down to crush Fen. Reacting quick as she could, Fen this time ran forward and dove between the creature's legs, rolling past it and to relative safety as it louded solidly against the floor. Cracks started to form on the point of impact, showcasing just one other danger they had to be mindful of. As the girl took stock of the situation she simply uttered, "this is very not good," as she tried to think of her next attack against the monster.