Skaia

Nine laid down on the ground for a moment, trying to catch his breath after Giratina's last attack had knocked the wind right out of him. Slowly but surely, the Houndoom attempted to get back to a standing position, though only managing to get to a crouch as he watched the others unleash their attacks. As Nine watched Lok and Kayla maneuver around Giratina, who still seemed to have the edge on them despite their speed and trickery, the Chaser took the moment to get a little respite before hurling himself right back in the danger. Clenching his hand into a fist, Nine steadied and slowed his breathing as things started to seem dire for the others in their battle against the legend. He still wasn't strong enough. Not to slow down the legend, let alone match it. Though he could feel it. Just as he had against Jabari. Just as he had against Nikora. He was able to feel himself approaching the apex of his strength once more. Standing up slowly, Nine focused inward on his aura once more, and as he did the darkness that had pulsed through was practically seeping out of his body. With his own aura at its sharpest and most amplified now, Nine looked towards Giratina as he was fully righted. As the legend was starting to wind up its breath attack yet again, Nine shouted, "over here!" Lifting up one hand and charging it with energy, Nine fired a dark pulse right towards Giratina. At the alert, without moving the rest of its body, Giratina's neck swiveled to face Nine before letting loose the breath attacks towards the pulse. As the two attacks clashed, Giratina had managed to power through the attacks but its breath seemed to fizzle out after doing so. Looking annoyed with Nine, without moving the creature merely melted into shadow once again, prompting Nine to be on the defensive again. As he awaited the attacked from the legend, he heard the tell tale shriek of it appearing once more, and as he ducked and turned to face the legend, he realized that Giratina was not in fact right with melee range of him. Being a sizable distance away, the creature whipped its shadowed claw in arc towards him. Sending a pulse upward, Nine suddenly saw the arm whip further down and strike the ground, avoiding the attack entirely. Then, without actually pausing, as the arm struck the ground it bent again at an upward angle and rocketed towards Nine, uppercutting him and forcing him back to his feet. Wincing in pain, Nine stumbled back only to look back and see Giratina suddenly right next to him. But its other arm where it was not a moment ago. As the arm that was hyper extended back grew shadowy claws, the arm rocketed forward towards Nine as it tried to slash into him. Seeing this coming this time, Nine brought up an arm and channeled the dark foul play aura through it, as he matched blows with Giratina. Wincing in pain from the attack, the legend had suddenly been a foot further away from him having brought up one leg. Without the distance between them closing, the legend kicked forward, and in an instant Nine was struck in the gut and stumbled back. Gritting his teeth, still managing to keep his footing, Nine was glad to see that the will-o-wisp of Lok's had worked, making the full force of the last attacks much less painful then before. However, not relenting, Giratina reeled its head back as it started to gather the twisted dark aura it had struck him with each time before. Nine knew there was no escape from the attack, and being struck by it again would probably spell his end. The first time he had taken it head on. The second time he seriously hurt his arm to stop it. This time, however... Taking a deep breath, Nine shouted, "Kayla! I'm gonna need some fire!" Igniting his arm, Nine took a readied stance for the attack. Taking the signal, Kayla preempted and copied Nine's own attack, letting loose a flamethrower at him. As the flames hit him, those that were already on him exploded into an even more ferocious flame, the black aura around Nine now being mixed with a glowing orange and red. As Giratina fired off the Aura Sphere towards Nine, the Houndoom in turn launched his flamethrower at the orb, meeting it head on. The two attacks clashed and, after a moment of pause, they both had managed to cancel the other out. With nothing but the remnants of fire and aura in the air, Nine continued to look defiantly towards Giratina.

Ryia steadied her breathing as the fight had seemed to finally be over, punctuated by both Geoff's declaration of victory and the appearance of the roc's soul. The girl closed her eyes as the power of the soul flowed through her, and she took yet another deep breath as the feeling subsided. Looking at the scimitar in her hand, the girl seemed to suddenly be more aware of something off about it. Slowly swinging it around, the girl slightly adjusted her grip as she did so, feeling as though the blade was now more comfortable in her hand then it was before. After the brief moment had passed, the girl sheathed her blade and went to go pick back up her mace. Waiting for the others to finish scaling the structure and show the findings to the rest of the group. Ryia frowned a bit as they found the pendant. She had hoped that they would be able to save him, if anyone really. But, at the end of the day all they could take solace in was preventing that no one else would be hunted by the beast. Looking up towards where the nest was, Ryia couldn't help but wonder what had suddenly caused it to attack the settlement, but the only conclusion she came to was needing to find a way to stop the demon gate. With the idea of their being a giant bird snapping people away, Ryia couldn't help but share Keres's worries, but simply said, "well, they were resting so...I'm sure they'd be able to handle uh, any trouble that came their way. Yeah." Feeling the need to get a move on back to where they were and calm her own worries, the girl began to make her way towards the grass and shouted out, "um, Mule. Klo...kah? You uh, you can come out now." After going to check up on them, and confirming that they were in fact still fine, the girl motioned for everyone else to follow on their long trek back.

I'll think for a moment and say, "well, he could either be part of the casino or some like, fish selling tycoon." Thinking more I'll joke, "or maybe he's just really lucky and won it big and is showing off."

As Rus's fire hit, the Lepash looked fiercely towards the Tyrogue despite the opposition seeming much more timid about the fight. Jacklyn, seeing the Tyrogue go in for a tackle shouted, "come on Rus! Go and dodge!" In spite of Rus not really paying attention to his trainer's, rather vague, commands the Lepash still managed to hop out of the way from the Tyrogue's awkward tackle. Letting loose yet another few balls of flame towards the small fighting type. Jacklyn, meanwhile just shouted saying, "good job but come on wait for me to say something!" After being hit by the fire, the Tyrogue still seemed to be somewhat skittish about fighting but with Dinah's orders still managed to power through and go in for a swift punch towards Rus. The speed of the punch caught Rus off guard, and so being hit by the fist Rus was knocked back slightly. Still, now barely any distance between the two, the Tyrogue would see that Rus was not only fierce in expression but also somewhat angry. Jacklyn, seeing the opportunity shouted, "alright Rus, now go in for a tack-" Rus instead went for a point blank Ember.

"Here I thought pizza was an end of the season kind of thing." The group would hear an unfamiliar voice, slight teasing evident in her tone, as the main door to the gym opened up. "But I'll settle for whatever you kids are having." In spite of her words, the woman that walked through the door didn't seem that much older than Avi and Charlie. Looking around the room, the woman seemed to be rather unimpressed and oddly annoyed by the room that they were in. "So, we're stuck in here huh?" Then, she looked towards the small gathering of people, looking at each of them impassively, before saying, "I see." The girl put a finger to her chin and thought for a moment, before shrugging saying, "well, sorry for being late. Haven't been here in...well, it took a bit to find." Looking at the students, without waiting she just said, "so you were all in the middle of tryouts or something right? Go on, keep at it."

Though they were slowly getting pressed in, Leon could feel that just as the Falcon's ranks were starting to waver so too were the ranks of the sky knights. Slowly but surely they were managing to push the sky knight's back, and though their situation was dire and their own formation was starting to crumble underneath the pressure, Leon was not one to give up just yet. And so, gripping his blade tighter, Leon slashed again, knocking the cavalier's blade aside. With opponent now wide open, Leon did a slight upward to slash his sword through the side of the cavalier, dropping the man off of his horse and causing the creature to scatter. With their being a slight opening in the wall of cavaliers now, the pegasus knight terrorizing the back line of enemies, Yue having just shot down another cavalier and their two Jouran front liners still not having fallen, the commander of the sky knights took stock of the situation. With a grunt, he then shouted out, "men, fall back!" The remaining sky knights looked surprised by this command, but as they looked over and noticed the all too serious expression of their commander they slowly backed away from their quarries. "In the interest of those who remains lives, I permit you to keep your own today, traitors and villains though you are." Leon felt uncomfortable by the whole situation, both in continuing to fight and also it ending with the sky knights just retreating. Yet, as he locked eyes with the commander and the cold intensity that seemed to be behind his gaze, Leon knew that this was for the best for now. He couldn't allow everyone to stay in such a precarious situation nor was he sure he could actually match the enemy commander if he had actually joined the fight. So, putting his hand up and ushering everyone back, he said, "Falcons. Stand down and move back."

Quite like every year before it, the day after kick off had followed the same process. Jun had been sleeping both soundly and peacefully in her bed, fatigued from an eventful night and her general staying up a bit later than was recommended for a school night. She would be content with where she was, until her phone had decided that she had slept for too long. With an obnoxious buzzing noise at her bed side, Jun awoke with a groan as she started to flail one of arms around to cease the racket. As she eventually grabbed her phone, the girl slowly opened her tired eyes with annoyance clear on them. Looking at the time, the girl let out a groan as she shut the alarm off and contemplated simply going back to sleep. Though this had been a pattern she had repeated every year, it was in fact no different than the process she would go through every school day after a weekend. Rising up out of bed slowly, stretching and yawning as she sat up, the girl looked around to see that her roommate had already got ready for classes today. Jun was likely to get up eventually anyway, thinking it more a pain to deal with skipping classes than it was to just halfheartedly sit through them, but figured that her roommate leaving was as good a motivator as any. After all, this was Kyouko's last year. And Jun being Kyouko's senior, (in almost no regard,) had to set a good example for the shark girl. Nodding to herself at this, Jun jokingly muttered to herself, "I really am too selfless." Giggling for a bit at this, the girl took a deep breath before finally getting out of bed and getting ready for the day ahead of her. Walking towards class, Jun was adorned in her usual school attire that, to any faculty that had cared for the dress code were certainly sick of at this point. Naturally, Jun had on her signature hat, a part of her wardrobe that went with every outfit. Beyond that, though, the girl did in fact have her school uniform on. And while she was wearing an appropriately sized skirt, the top was what seemed to be odd. Every time an order for school uniforms went out Jun had always ordered the same thing. A female bottom for someone of her size, and then a men's top that was generally one size too large for the girl. As such, the shirt was big, bulky and had sleeves that very clearly extended past her hands. Truly, it was the perfect fit for Jun. Though it did make writing more complicated than it had to be. Nevertheless, Jun had continued on her path towards morning classes to get her reluctant start on to the day.

Walking with the group and following the two guides along, Kiyoko was curious how they were going to bring them to Dread Knight, though didn't really say much on the matter. As such, the girl simply stood by as the duo started to talk about their plan, and simply watched as they went to go apprehend the criminals. As the situation seemed to escalate and both parties pulled out firearms, yet still Kiyoko stood there with her arms crossed. Having nothing short of the utmost in confidence that the two knew what they were doing, Kiyoko watched patiently and expectantly as things looked to turn into a fire fight. Her expression only broke as the fog started to roll in, looking around curiously as everything started to become more and more obscured, only to then focus on the criminals with a glare on her face as they seemed ready to make their way towards her. And then it happened. It was a slash like lightning. A blade swung to fell the criminals. Being lightning, it was invisible to the human eye. Kiyoko looked at the figure who had come to their aid, clear awe on her face as the masked man's blade exploded into fog. Kiyoko let out an amazed, "whoa," as she gawked a bit at the overall theatrics of the scene, but cleared her throat as she was addressed by the man they had been looking for. "Ahem, Mr. Dreadknight. We wish to seek your cooperation in finding a group of suspicious individuals or, suspicious activities." The girl then looked over to the bodies on the floor. "More suspicious then them. Something that is called a 'blood ritual.'" The girl didn't really know what specifically such a ritual was, but nevertheless she spoke bluntly and to the point with the man before her.

Though Lana had finished her business and made her way out of the church and to the tavern, it still took her some time to get there. Though Lana had been quite hyped to get a start on with her adventuring day, the girl was still new to the city. Getting around was certainly difficult, both because Lana had a very poor idea of where the Drooling Dragon actually was and because every so often she would be distracted by something new. However, after some wandering around, the girl eventually found herself right at the group's meet up place. Not only was the sign out front a good indication of this, but so too were the two members of her party that were standing outside of it. Giving a wave to them, she said, "hey guys." Walking over to the two, the girl a bit more uncomfortable now that she was actually next to them just said, "so uh, ready for a day of dungeon adventuring and princess saving?" Stopping for a moment, the girl then waved her hand saying, "nevermind that last part."

Getting up slowly from the ground, the girl watched on as Reinaan had jumped on top of it and had his tussle with the beast. The draken had continued to brutally assault the beast, literally, head on with his flaming claws as the beast seemed to thrash about to get him off. The girl slowly approached it as it charged away from her, and into the pillar in an attempt to get Reinaan off. As Reinaan was now recovering and the bird was dazed, Ryia saw it as her best chance to move in and finish the creature off for good. So, rushing around it, the bird didn't seem to mind her presence much as it was attempting to get its bearings back once more. Running over to the neck of the beast, scimitar drawn, Ryia slashed downward at it and had her blade cut deep into the neck of the beast. Letting out a pain, if not exhausted screech, the bird seemed to fully register that Ryia was there and was none too pleased about this. Swinging its head towards her, trying to bowl the girl over, Ryia ducked under the head. Now on the opposite side of the creature, the other part of its neck was exposed and so Ryia took the initiative to slash her blade deep into it once again. Now bleeding out from both sides of its neck, the creature simply reeled its head back. In one last desperate attempt to fell its attackers, the creature thrust it forward to bowl Ryia over. Though, as it was heavily weakened by this point, the attack was slow enough for Ryia to step to the side fast enough before its head came down. As it did, the girl brought her blade up and swung in time with the thrust of the head. As she pulled the blade through, using the birds own momentum to help, she cut a massive gash through the head and neck of the Roc before finally swinging her blade out of it. There was a brief moment of stillness as the bird just stood motionless, before finally collapsing in front of the girl, slightly worrying Ryia that she was about to be slammed, but just stopping short of her. Letting out a sigh of relief, the girl flicked the blood off of her blade, as she seemed to have dealt the fatal blow to the Roc.

After finagling around with the strange wall box thing that was over top of her, the girl looked let out a small, "oooh," as she looked outside of it. Slowly climbing out from the whole, the girl was taken aback by the sudden shift in grandeur between the hole they were just in and the chapel they had found themselves in now. Looking up at the glass, and then looking back to the statue, Tsetseg seemed a bit wary about the whole thing. It wasn't as though she actually felt anything off from it, but just the shape and form of it was enough to put her on edge. As such, the girl gave a brief shifty eyed glance to Citron, then back to the dragon and watched as Penelope went to go examine it more, more so being on edge to see if anything would happen to the girl. Alois, meanwhile, simply looked around the building and gave a whistle. "Glad to see you kept proper care of your clubhouse, at least." After making his off comment to the mayor, the boy began to walk around and marvel at the strange sight. There was something strange about the whole set up to Alois. Less so that such a thing existed at all, and more the extravagance yet bizarre secrecy to which the mayor had put into this whole operation. Not to mention all of the other adults who seemed to also just go along with it. Naturally, as with every other discovery he had made about this village, his expression only became more and more annoyed. Though, at least in this case it was probably relevant to what they needed to find anyway. As Cora made her comment, Alois said, "I'll be on my best behavior and be sure not to break anything." He then pointed towards one of the side doors and said, "unless they're locked. Then all bets are off." With a joking smile, the boy left the princess to her devices on the dragon statue and walked over to one of the two side door, attempting to open it.

Though Cherry was pretty haggard, neither she nor Jacklyn were all that bothered by the second pokemon being sent out. "Alright Cherry, just like before!" Jacklyn emphatically pointed at the Tyrouge, to which Cherry pumped her ears in the air to get ready to fight. Unfortunately for both Jacklyn and Cherry, they weren't entirely aware of what they were getting into when the new opponent came out. As such, Cherry was caught unaware as the Tyrogue sped forward and slammed its fist into Cherry. The exhausted Buneary had the wind knocked out of it as the punch hit them in the gut and was simply sent backwards by the impact. Jacklyn took a second to register what just happened, and looking at the ground she was momentarily stunned. Seeing the knocked out form of Cherry she was left speechless for a moment before saying, "well, uh, you did your best. And all. Uh," returning the defeated pokemon to her pokeball, Jacklyn cleared her throat before pointing at Dinah yet again. "But don't think I'm done just yet!" Reaching back, she called out, "c'mon out Rus!" As the Lepash was sent out, letting out a puff of smoke from its mouth as it seemed ready to brawl, it looked over to Jacklyn briefly with a rather annoyed expression. Jacklyn, in turn, returned an equally sour expression, coupled with an "ehh? You got a problem?" As the two glared at each other, proverbial lightning being exchanged in the process, before turning away from each other in a huff. Rus turned back to Tyrogue, clearly ready to start fighting and Jacklyn simply said, "whatever. Rus, use Emb- " before she even began speaking the Lepash had already launched a series of small fire balls towards the Tyrogue. Annoyed, Jacklyn said, "okay, yes. But at least wait for me!" Rus merely let out a puff of smoke at this.

Running past Ada and to Rona's side, Leon went to cover the wyvern rider's flank as he slashed forward at the pegasus knight once again. With his blade plunging into the chest of the rider, Leon pulled back as the rider fell from his pegasus and the mount, in a panic, flew away. With the space being clear, Ada went to go back up Raynor, who had just been successful in killing his own target, and pulled out her shade tome. Firing a blast of dark magic twice at the steel sword wielding Cavalier, each one managed to impact into the side armor of the man and sent him flying off of the horse, lying dead on the ground. The troops of Rastarn were now fully on top of the Iron Falcons, with only one squad being unable to close the distance. Firstly their was the cavaliers attack Rona. Wielding a lance, the cavalier to her west was not keen on continuing to slowly chip away the wyvern rider. Especially as the group had a some strange Jouran mage nearby as well as the pegasus knight that had rejoined the main group. Moving past Rona, the cavalier looked between the two Falcons. On the one hand, the man was here more to capture and kill the Jourans then anything else, and she was certainly a priority target from what he had seen her do. However, he would be lying if he wasn't a little spooked by how ridiculously durable the other two Jourans they had been attacking were thus far. And so, opting to take what he felt would be the more productive route, charged Alexis and stabbed his lance into her side. While he was met with great relief that she didn't seem to be half as hard to kill as the wyvern rider, he was met with a great deal of pain as Alexis skewered her lance into his gut. The man wasn't dead yet, though he certainly didn't look all that lively. The cavalier to Rona's side, meanwhile, kept to his post and kept to keeping the wyvern rider boxed in. Even if a sudden arrow from into his side was causing a great deal of pain to him, he had his job and was going to stick to it. Getting his sword ready, the cavalier slashed at Rona again, though this time the girl was not slow enough to make a follow up strike nor was she unsuspecting of his attack. Bringing her axe up, the girl struck at the cavalier. Unfortunately for her, he was ready for this and ducked under the swing of the axe, causing it to swing wide and against air. To add to Rona's troubles further, the man with the steel sword had charged forward, swinging at her and causing a significant deal more of pain as the sword cut across her. Thankfully for Rona, Leon was now at her side and so from where she was they could not simply box her in again. Unfortunately for Leon, this meant he was well in the path of attack yet again. With sword in hand, the cavalier charged Leon and struck the boy's shield, forcing it down, and then bringing his sword back up to smack Leon in the face with the flat of the blade. Though stunned, Leon was ready for the cavalier, and slashed across the cavaliers stomach. Ada, as well, was not safe from combat as one wielding a lance merely charged forward and skewered it into her. Ada, as well, was prepared for this attack and with one hand on her tome and one hand conjuring a dark sphere of magic, launching it at and stirking the cavalier with it as well. It didn't take long for someone to come and check Raynor once again. With the two mercenaries nearby, they both charged the man with their blades at the ready. Jumping up, the two of them in perfect synchronization struck with a cross slash combination attack which, while impressive, didn't amount to much more than what the cavaliers had done. However, while Raynor was dealing with these antics, the mage nearby thought he had finally had his chance to shine come up. Seeing Raynor's injured body from the repeated attacks, the Mage walked forward and opened his Elfire tome. As the tome glowed, the man conjured a rather large fire ball and hurled it at the draytter. With the flame orb exploding against Raynor, he would feel a great deal of searing pain and the mage had felt a surge of pride as he had managed to take down one of the menace's front liners. Unfortunately for him, Raynor, while very close to it, was not down and in fact still standing with his lance ready.

Stella rolled her eyes at Kelsey's comment, but similarly couldn't help but smile as the girl winked at her. Her expression became a bit more somber as Kelsey mentioned crime also being present in this city as well. It seemed obvious to Stella at first that cities weren't the safest of places to be in, though only now did she realized this had remained true across planets and perhaps systems. While the girl was wondering why crime was plentiful here - and her own world for that matter - her train of thought was interrupted by Kelsey's next comment. Not being able to help but giggle at the thought of Kelsey running around punching thugs in a costume and making heroic speeches. "I'm sure the streets would be much safer with your fists on patrol, Kelz." Still a bit of jokingness in her voice she said, "though, my old granny hands could probably sew something up."

I'll look at assassin and jokingly say, "we'll steer clear of strays, I promise." Internally, I will think to her, "oh that is so bad. Wow, this is yikes. Holy - Alright, well, just keeping acting natural and don't look at them. Though, if you can tell anything more about them that'd be good. But we should remain inconspicuous first and foremost."

Nine felt the pressure and unnatural weight of the legend's hand press against his head. Grunting as he tired to push up from the ground, he could tell that this was a fight he wasn't going to win against as the legend was simply overpowering him at this point. As he continued to push, he felt the hand suddenly jerk away as the legend seemed to have its attention suddenly taken by something else. Trying to catch his breath, the legend moving away from him came with a sudden alleviation of the sheer pressure. On the one hand, continuing to be attacked by a being so extraordinarily more powerful than himself, as well something with a power that he didn't fully understand, was nothing short of daunting. Yet, on the other, it gave him the same kind of feeling that he had had while fighting Raphael. Something about the challenge before him only served to get his blood pumping, but gave him the strength to keep going on. After all, as a Chaser, Nine couldn't simply back down and cower in the face of a challenge whether it be godslayer, disciple or god itself. And he couldn't afford to simply die here, as there was still someone he needed to talk to after this. As a dark aura pulsed through his body, amplifying his aura once more, Nine took a deep breath as he got back to his feet. He needed to focus and figure out just how he was going to deal with this legend. They were strong and certainly seemed fast. They had powers that seemed to defy common sense. But, so had everything else he had fought so far. And so, as he watched the legend fight, he realized that there was something about their speed and how they got to Lok so quickly. It wasn't as though they were blisteringly fast, though they certainly weren't slow. But thinking more on it, everything else about the legend's movements and attacks before hand had been bizarre in some way if they weren't straight forward. As he looked around the room, and thought more about the attacks that had been dealt so far, Nine came to a simple conclusion as to how Giratina's powers worked and how simplistic they really were. And how powerful the thing he was fighting actually was. Nevertheless, Giratina had proven to be more beast than person, and likely didn't think much of the group beyond Shaymin. And so even with as ridiculous as power as it had, Nine figured he would be able to find some sort of opening. With Giratina being struck by Shaymin's explosion of earth energy, it seemed ready to strike at the legend once again. Interrupting it, Nine sent yet another pulse of darkness towards the legend, and wincing from the attack Giratina rotated fully, passing Shaymin and looking back at Nine. Letting out a low hiss, the claws of the creature seemed to take on a ghostly energy, and the beast bounded towards Nine once more. As it began to close the distance it brought back its arm, beginning to whip it forward. Under normal circumstances the creature would be too far away to actually reach him with its claw from where it was. However, these weren't normal circumstances. Circumstance would always be in favor of Giratina, as it simply altered how everything around it worked and such was it power. And so knowing this, Nine stood his ground and waited. Waited for the only moment in which there would be a lapse in the legend's circumstance. As the claw whipped forward, Nine took a single step back. True to what he believed the claw had come, and having been a moment too late, it still managed to nick his face. All the same even though he had managed to avoid the attack mostly, Giratina hadn't relented and instead stomped on the ground forcing a large rock out of the earth. The distance between both Nine and Giratina was unusually large, but he knew that simply trying to avoid the attack based on that wouldn't work. As Giratina flung the boulder at him, Nine fired off yet another dark pulse almost immediately, striking the rock and instead destroying it into a flurry of other rocks. Side pivoting towards where he had struck the boulder, Nine managed to avoid the vast majority of the attack, instead getting hit by small chunks instead of one massive rock. Looking past the rocks, wincing in pain, Nine noticed that Giratina had vanished yet again. He didn't know where Giratina was going to be when they appeared once more, but he already knew the attacks tell as well as knew where Giratina was going to be. Closing his eyes, Nine waited for a moment, hearing the tell tale screech of the legend and hitting the floor almost immediately as he heard it.The ghostly claw of the legend sailed overheard of him and turned to face where Giratina was, striking them with yet another empowered dark pulse. Screeching in pain from the attack, Nine looked to see the beast begin to charge a sphere of energy in its mouth. Recognizing it as the same attack from before, Nine ignited his arms, letting loose a flamethrower as the beast fired its aura sphere towards him. Though his amplified aura had certainly helped in reducing the impact, the legend's attack was still clearly stronger and managed to force its way through his flames and struck into Nine's flame spewing arm. Grunting in pain as his arm was forced away from the sheer power of the attack, Giratina didn't relent as it whipped its arm at Nine's leg and grabbed it. The legend then lifted Nine up, with such ease he may as well have been weightless, whipping him behind themselves before whipping him back forward and tossing him through the air. With a ghostly claw appearing on its other, Giratina swung its arm forward and without moving from its spot and coming from an impossible angle, hit Nine in the stomach and spiked him back into the ground.

As Lana went about to aid the priest, moving and setting up the candle holders around. The girl eventually walked over to the pew as the priest asked her to, moving to the opposite side of him and taking in a deep breath as she began to start lifting it. As the man then spoke up, the girl tensed up a bit at his request. Anna was not exactly Lana's first choice in friends she would make as the girl was a bit...scary. But thinking more on it, Lana didn't really know what the kind of person she would be friends with was. Most of Lana's life had been spent either at home or then going into town and taking on odd jobs there. As a result, she was definitely more friendly with the adults in her town then she was other girls her age. Not to mention the only people she hung out with now were more work associates then friends. And they were certainly not girls her age. It also wasn't like Anna was a mean person or anything - probably - and they would be talking to each other more - well, it was likely that Lana would have to be the one doing the talking - in the future anyway. So, after some deliberation, Lana said, "sure. Yeah. She already likes to seem adventurers so we'll be great friends." Probably. Thinking more on it, not only did Lana not really know how she was going to hang out with others in general but she had a feeling this would only be further worsened with Anna. But, that was a problem for future Lana. Once that and all of her other tasks were over and done with, Lana put on her gear before looking back to the priest. With a wave she said, "well, I'm heading out now. See you two later." With that, Lana made her way out of the church and towards the Drooling Dragon tavern.

As Cherry slammed into the Ponyta's chin, the Buneary landed back on their feet, hopping around for a bit and a bit off balance as the fires of the ember came over towards her. Getting struck by a few of the flames, the Ponyta then began to charge at her. Seeing this, Jacklyn shouted, "alright Cherry, go on the defensive and brace yourself!" Cherry looked over to Jacklyn and gave her trainer a nod, defensively curling into a ball as the Ponyta crashed into her. Rolling back a bit, Cherry hopped back up seemingly having taken less damage from the attack then before. "Now show them what you got!" With an emphatic "bu!" Cherry leaped forward and struck her foot into the recovering Ponyta's nose yet again. Dinah, none too perturbed by this, smirked and called out, "how about this then, Tail Whip, and then Tackle again!" Shaking its head for to reorient itself, the Ponyta let out a neigh before flicking its tail and then charging at Cherry again. "Cherry! Evasive maneuvers!" Cherry hopped around a bit, hopping to the side to avoid the Ponyta as it ran towards her. "Now once more with gusto!" The buneary hopped back towards the Ponyta, kicking her foot into the horse pokemon's side. With the ponyta stumbling to the side, Dinah responded with yet another tackle. Matching in turn, Jacklyn ordered Cherry to go forward and pound yet again, this time the two pokemon colliding as Cherry's foot slammed into the Ponyta's head, causing them both to recoil back from the hit. With the distance having opened between the two the Ponyta went for an ember and at Jacklyn's behest, the Buneary curled up yet again to give itself a defensive boost. This didn't do anything against the fire, but as the Ponyta went for a countering tail whip, Jacklyn simply shouted, "pound again!" Leaping forward, Cherry struck the Ponyta in the middle of its tail whip and, not one to lose herself, Dinah commanded her Ponyta to tackle once more. With the two pokemon right next to each other, Cherry leaped over the ponyta again to avoid it, before leaping back and went in for one last pound. Striking true, the ponyta seemed to have been bested, and Cherry exhausted as a result. Still the Buneary triumphantly pumped her ear into the air and Jacklyn let out a, "whooooooa! Way to go Cherry!" With a smile on her face, Jacklyn pointed towards Dinah saying, "how about that!?"

Ryia winced in pain as the bird let out an ear piercing shriek next to her, and looked up to see that the bird was beginning to strike at her with its beak. As she was already close enough to the creature, the girl began to ran forward and went under the bird as it moved, hitting its leg with her mace as she did. The hit seemed as solid as the last, and similarly the bird's foot leg was still as solid as it had been, though now the bird's balance seemed to be off. In fact as Ryia looked at the unsteady creature, her eyes went a bit wide as she realized that it wasn't quite standing on two legs anymore and was coming towards her at an increasingly fast rate. Moving as fast as she could, Ryia dove out of the way and tumbled across the ground, avoiding being crushed by the massive bird's weight. Getting back on to her hands and knees as she was bringing herself up, the bird as well had the same idea as it stood back up, letting out yet another shriek as it went to grab at her with its beak. Not in any real position to move, the girl knew that the monstrous bird would probably rip through her armor if it bit down on her and there wasn't much way she could get out of its grip once it grabbed onto her. So, trying to think of what she could possibly do, the girl looked down to see the mace in her hand before looking at the bird. Winding her arm back, the girl chucked her mace at the Roc's face, striking the bird dead on and causing it to stumble back, dazed by the sudden ranged bludgeon. Now able to stand back up fully, Ryia drew her scimitar. Not confident in her speed to charge it and having no ranged options, sans throwing her only other melee weapon, Ryia awaited the bird's next move. Unsurprisingly, its next move had been similar to its previous ones. Charging the girl with its beak open to clamp down on her, Ryia suddenly had a thought. Even if she saw it coming, she was still not confident in being able to outmaneuver the creature. Wide eyed, the girl opted to go back to where she had just been, falling backwards and avoiding the beak as the Roc thrust it forward. With her blade in hand, and now under the creature's head, Ryia suddenly saw an opportunity present itself. Stabbing upward with her sword, the creature let out a screech as her blade cut deep into its beak, causing the bird to recoil back and away from Ryia if only momentarily.

Alois couldn't help but smirk a bit at Penelope's praise towards him as he managed to unlock the door. Even if it did have a bit of a sarcastic edge to it, the boy still felt some pride in it all the same and said, "of course. You'll find there's no door or box I can't figure out how to open." As the two then proceeded to wait downstairs for the others, the group seemed poised and ready to go through the door and see what was beyond. Alois, smirking more now from the other princess's praise of his ability said, "well, it was pretty simple. Once I found out the mayor was a bit of a stargazer and just paid attention to the letters he scratched around the place, it all came together. You can read the note and book I gave Penelope if you're more curious." With that brief explanation out of the way, Alois continued to walk down the tunnel. Though it was certainly strange, the further they walked through it, the more annoyed Alois got at the mayor, again, apparently going out of his way to build and dig this thing out. All the same, once they got to the end, Alois looked up to see yet another thing that they had to do. Looking at the panel, then up at the ladder, Alois looked to the badger after Penelope had. "Well, glad to see you got some good exercise in at least when you built this whole escape route of yours." Tsetseg meanwhile had been trailing behind the rest of the group the whole time. The girl didn't really make her way downstairs quickly, and add to that she didn't want to be near the Isaurian in the tunnel. Naturally, at Cora's behest, Tsetseg went in before her and didn't seem to mind it either as she marveled at the underground tunnel. She briefly wondered if when she went back home she could try building a secret tunnel underneath her own home, though realized it probably wouldn't work as her family moved around constantly. And that would be rude to the animals to just keep leaving them huge ditches. Unless she made the hole also portable! The girl's train of thought came to an end as the group had reached the next segment of the tunnel. The girl didn't really get what was going on with the wooden panel, but she did recognize the letters "A" and "K," and so didn't pay attention to it. Instead, she looked at the ladder. Then at the panel at the top. The girl thought about it for a few more moments before thinking of something else. Going to the ladder, the girl simply began climbing up it, before getting to the top and pushing at the panel that blocked progress forward.

Kisaragi Chihaya (Idolmaster) Takagaki Kaede (Idolmaster Cinderella Girls) Nanao Yuriko (Idolmaster Million Live) Morino Rinze (Idolmaster Shiny Colors) Nishikino Maki (Love Live! School Idol Project) Sakarauchi Riko (Love Live! Sunshine) Tsushima Yoshiko (Love Live! Sunshine) Minamoto Sakura (Zombieland Saga) Kasukabe Haru (Tokyo 7th Sisters) Nanasaki Nicole (Tokyo 7th Sisters) Kiriya Aoi (Aikatsu) Kurosawa Rin (Aikatsu)

With Rona managing to break through some of the lines and Alexis and Yue managing the sides, Leon moved back to help keep their formation stable. Though he wasn't quite strong enough to fell the cavalier in one strike, his slash had managed to wound the rider enough that Raynor was able to finish him off. As Leon then felt some of the pain radiating across his body fade, the boy looked back and said, "thanks Layne." Ada, meanwhile, didn't feel comfortable advancing forward and was already wounded herself. So, playing it safe, the girl simply healed what wound she got, waiting to see what would happen with the rest of the enemy formation. The cavaliers, now all having assembled and with infantry support on the way all seemed primed and ready to strike. With a wave of the Paladins hand, he simply called out, "everyone. Charge!" With that, the group had begun to move into formation and constrict around the mercenary company. The two pegasus knights that were facing down Rona kept to their tactics and roll and decided that fighting the incredibly bulky wyvern rider was not the wise course of action. Though the boy with the staff was clearly in their range, the two seemed hesitant to strike, before deciding against it. And so, the two split off and went to attack both Leon and Ada. With Ada being pierced by a Steel Lance, the girl grimaced, before bringing up her Dusk Tome and firing a blast from her Dusk tome into the face of the rider. The rider seemed to tank it well enough, though was still clearly hurt by the attack. Leon, meanwhile, was also struck by the iron lance before responding with a strike from his sword as well. The mercenary and the pegasus knight had seemed to have a clean exchange of blows, and though Leon was injured he seemed to be coming out ahead in the duel. The two cavaliers already on top of the group had continued to strike at Raynor, converging on him from two different sides. While each of them had managed to get a good slash into him with their swords, Raynor was still not in immediate peril from the cavaliers. As a result, Raynor was also able to strike back at the cavalier with the iron sword, plunging his lance into the side of the rider, causing the man to gasp in pain before looking ready to continue his attack against the draytter. Rona, meanwhile, was starting to have much less success. Though she and Cormag were naturally bulky, Rona would start to feel the weight of the axe she was using slow her down. With two cavaliers making their way towards her, the first of them was a lance wielder, stabbing once at her with success and then once more. The stinging pain from each attack was then only doubled up on by the next cavalier wielding a sword, slashing twice into the girl. Though none of the four attacks did much damage on their own, Rona would start to feel the damage from the wounds rack up. Edda looked with fright clearly on her face as the Aeoran troops continued to strike at them, unsure of what their odds and shaking as a result. She was caught off guard as a cavalier made its way towards her, and with his steel sword struck at her. The girl winced in pain as the attack struck her, but the sword didn't seem to harm her all that much. The cavalier seemed to be on edge as he looked at all the people they were fighting, wondering just what these Jourans were made of.

Though Ryia had managed to keep the attention of the Roc momentarily, she watched as Keres moved to divert the attention herself. Ryia couldn't do much but watch at the spectacle, as she had no way of intercepting the large flying creature as it dove towards her. That didn't stop her from moving towards it though, running as fast as she could to attempt to catch up with the bird. What did stop her, however, was the spectacle that followed. What had happened once now had happened twice. With Reinaan, claws ablaze, diving from the top of the rock formation and grabbing onto the creature as it attempted to make its way towards the water chosen. Forcing the Roc to veer off course, Ryia could only watch as the beast made its different aerial maneuvers before finally the duel between the two was over. She looked a bit shocked at Reinaan as he fell off the beast, worried if he was alright though assured that he wasn't in immediate peril as he still seemed to be moving around. All that left for her was to defeat the Roc in front of her. It was still a large creature and she wasn't entirely confident in her ability to defeat it on her own. But it was grounded now and certainly wounded, so there was on better time for her to engage the creature then now. Moving to the north of it, Ryia wasn't exactly the stealthiest of people, but she was not actively antagonizing it as she made her way up in an effort to keep herself out of its sights while it recovered. Adding to that, Ackrin trotted over to the south of it, pelting the creature with rocks to act as a diversion. Once she made her way up to the creature and was in striking distance, provided it hadn't moved away yet, the girl went in to strike at its leg with her mace.

Cherry was knocked aside by the oncoming tackle, rolling backwards a few time from the momentum of the hit. Laying flat on her back, Cherry rolled a bit before springing up and back to her feet, seeming ready to go to take on the Ponyta some more. Jacklyn looked at her foe, clearly a bit annoyed that it had managed to dodge and counter itself. And, while it was likely not the best idea to go in for the same attack yet again, Jacklyn was faced with two problems. One, Cherry knew nothing to fight with other than Pound. Secondly, Jacklyn was not one to back down from a challenge, and this was most certainly a challenge within a challenge that she had to accept. As such, the girl shouted, "alright Cherry, go in for round two! Pound again! But with uh, more gusto this time!" Cherry had no idea what that meant, but that didn't really seem to matter as she nodded and seemed let out a "bu!" Hopping in place for a bit, Cherry began to hop forward and make her way towards the Ponyta. This time, as she got close enough to pound she decided to do it with more gusto! Which is to say, rather than just immediately hop at the fire type, she staggered her timing and unintentionally feinted, getting close and charging up her jump before leaping into a pound.

Stella just stood there with a somewhat humoring yet speechless smile as Vivian went on to describe how it was that she managed to get away from her pursuers. She was certainly not expecting the photographer from the jungle planet to also have some manner of martial arts under her belt, though since arriving at the academy the expression about books and covers never seemed to be more true than now. All the same, it had seemed that she had been in some form of danger and had managed to get out of it both unscathed and un-stolen from which had been a relief in its own. "Well, good job fending them off, and glad to see you're fine. Though, do be more mindful of your surroundings and where you have what you have." They were in a city after all. The part about them disappearing was a cause for concern as well, though, Stella was fine to not really poke at that beast of a topic either. Stella couldn't help but chuckle, though, as Kelsey seemed raring to fight her roommate now that she knew that they had some kind of combat training. While Stella of course did not really condone it, she couldn't but find her friend's excitement at the prospect both endearing and relieving in a way. As Kelsey then brought up their own adventures, Stella couldn't help but give a slight chuckle, though her expression seemed to still be one of disbelief as she said, "yeah, I learned that...there's still many things I need to learn today. And yeah, we should probably head back about now, right?"