Skaia

While she was still conscious, Ryia could barely do anything in her current state. She knew that the other chosen around her were still fighting the worg and they had seemed strong enough to handle it themselves. All the same, Ryia so long as the girl could move her body and so long as the beast was still around, Ryia couldn't afford to simply lie down and stop. However, this was much easier said than done, as the Earth Chosen's breath was running ragged and her balance was only still intact due to being both on her knees and having one hand to the ground. Her second arm wasn't going to be any help in lifting her up at the moment, and in fact was making balancing more of a struggle then anything else, and her legs didn't really have the strength to lift herself up either. All the same, Ryia did her best to pivot around slowly. Though it seemed to take a great deal of effort for her to do, she still managed to face the now retreating worg. With fatigue present on her face, and her eyes still only seeming half opened, the girl still stared down the worg silently as it backed away.

Untrue to Alois's word, he did not end up letting Adelaide do the honors. As the woman just seemed to be transfixed on figuring out how to open the crate without his axe, the boy just raised his axe over the lid of the crate. With the same amount of force he had used on the crate downstairs, Alois broke open the lid of the box with his axe. Looking in, the boy saw yet another series of papers resting at the to bottom. Though, unlike the papers downstairs these seemed to be much less neatly organized, the yellow parchment being wrinkled. "Well, let's see what secrets you're hiding this time old timer," and so the boy bent down to pick the papers up, beginning to read through them.

As the girl laid on the ground, she could barely make sense of the world around her. She was barely able to make out anything in her field of view, her vision was filled with nothing but splotches of black and random colors. She knew that her whole body was firmly resting on the ground, but only through sheer reasoning as she couldn't actually feel anything other than the pain that was radiating through her body. Though despite all of this, there was thing that seemed to be working better, clearer than all other senses. She was able to hear the words of the Lucario as he departed. He had made it clear there would not be another chance for them, were they to cross paths again. That he would continue his battles against the legends. And he was leaving. In spite of the pain that she was feeling, in spite of the injuries she and everyone else had suffered, in spite of that they could barely touch him, Marie knew two things. She had spoken about wanting to get stronger, strong enough to match Heatran and now this Lucario. She had wanted to get strong enough so that they wouldn't have to be lonely, they wouldn't have to hurt others and she would be able to keep everyone safe. However, there was still a long road ahead of her, in fact it was so unbelievably so that she couldn't even pretend to see the end from where she was standing. The girl wanted to get stronger, but she had no idea how to get to where she could be on par with Heatran, let alone the Lucario. The girl picked herself up, taking in a slow breath at a time as she tried to make sense of her surroundings once again. As she did, she looked to where she had last seen the Lucario, staring at the spot for the moment. As she did, she looked over to the legends that had been downed as well. Then back to her friends, who were similarly roughed up to her. The girl let out a deep sigh of relief as all of them still seemed to be awake, and trying to rise themselves. Looking over to the legends again, the girl slowly and weakly began to hobble towards them asking, "are- are you alright?" In the face of this fight, there were two things Marie knew. And the second was... Nine continued to stay firmly planted where he was as his attack was countered by the disciple. As it was, there wasn't many options for Nine to take against this foe. Getting close of his own volition was entirely out of the question, between the hands that could grab at him as well as the sheer prowess in close range that Raphael had with his claws. Attacking from a far, as well, didn't seem particularly doable as the man's power in that regards still far exceeded Nine's. As such, the Houndoom could only stew as he continued to try to fight and get revenge against the disciple for all that he had done. However, before he could figure out what to do next, the Chaser then saw a small orb of confusion hit the disciple. Nine still didn't move as he saw some new form of madness take over the disciple. Having lost any sort of reason or grace within his fighting style, Nine simply got ready to strike at the man as he seemed to be making his way towards Lok. With flames at the ready, Nine then realized that the foe wasn't quite as mindless as he had seemed, suddenly moving to attack the Houndoom instead of Lok. As he was now, Nine figured that if the claws reached him, the disciple was likely not to stop and toy with him. Of course, his options to avoid were significantly limited, and so he had to simply work with what he had best now. As Raphael pounced at him, Nine attempted to jump to the side, shooting a flamethrower towards the man's claws to try and push them away.

Stella put a hand to her chin as Vivian explained to her what the status of her planet was. "I see." Stella must have thought that it was pretty rough to live where Vivian had been from. It wasn't as though Stella disliked the rain, and unless she was hanging out with Kelsey it only served to be background noise for her. That being said, she thought it could get a bit tiresome if it went on for the majority of the year. "Well, it certainly sounds rough where you come from, but we don't have many forests where we're from and the weather's normal enough right?" Stella, immediately upon saying this, had no real frame of reference for what a "normal" world's weather was, having only been to one, but didn't backpedal to correct herself. As the girl walked around grabbing a few folders for each of them, as well as a few other miscellaneous supplies, she began to think aloud. "I wonder what the weather here is like?" After a bit more walking around, Stella continued to grab more and more objects, ranting about their glory and necessity for a successful school career, taking up Kelsey on her offer to carry things and absentmindedly shoving more and more onto her to lift. With a smile on her face, the girl let out a sigh to signify the end of their shopping escapade saying, "well, I think that should about cover- " Stella turned around to see her encumbered friend saying, "uhh...oops."

Jun smiled as the two girls talked about setting up their duel, slightly amused at Gabby's reaction to the proposition. As Gabby then turned back to face Jun, the girl couldn't help but chuckle at the girl's declaration and confidence. "Oh? Well, I look forward to seeing you climb up." Putting a hand to her chin, the girl briefly smiled again saying, "oh, if you get better than me, then you can probably be the captain instead. And then..." Jun briefly thought about what life would be like with a smile on her face, being freed from her responsibilities as both vice captain and captain, being able to sit around freely and simply show up to duel on the team. As the duel progressed, Jun let out an "ooh," with the rest of the crowd as Yushiro brought out his new ace monster. Looking to Melissa, answering her previous question, the girl said, "this duel's been fun so far. Shiro is certainly making it more interesting than I was expecting." Then looking towards Gabby, as she made her comment she simply said, "hmm, seems so. He used a few chance cards when I played him, but, it tends to look like luck is on his side anyway, so I guess it's a kind of skill?" Jun didn't really sound too convinced as she said that last part, but all the same, she didn't really have much of an opinion on the boy's cards herself.

As Tsetseg had simply resigned to her fate of becoming part net, the rest of the group seemed to start trying a new way of lifting it and, with some effort they managed to pull it up. Seeing her way of freedom open up, the girl quickly began to scurry out from under the net and, once free, bounded back up to her feet. Stretching her arms to her side, the girl brightly shouted, "I'm freeeee! Woooohoooo!" Looking to each and everyone of the people around her, the girl went to hug all of them before saying, "thaaaanks guys! Man, I thought I was going to be stuck under there forever." Nodding to herself, the girl seemed to have completely gotten over her experience as she simply stepped over the net and continued onward to where she was going before hand. Looking to see the ants, now scattering about, they still seemed to be going towards one area. Looking at the place where they were going, the girl pressed herself against the ground. Seeing that the ants were moving down a slit in the ground, the girl noticed that it seemed to be more perfectly straight than anything else. Curious, the girl pressed her fingers against it, only to notice that it was actually more three straight lines in almost a square shape. "Hmmmmmmmm..." The looked at it and thought that it seemed to remind her of a box and quite like she had been adept at opening doors, the girl also thought she was adept at opening boxes. So, taking out her small knife, the girl pressed it into the line, the blade sliding in smoothly. Pushing her knife up, the girl let out a, "oh!" The stone block had moved up a bit. Pressing her hand against the stone block, she started to push up against it harder, clearly straining as the stone seemed to be heavy. However, after keeping at it once more, she managed to eventually life the stone block up and back. Taking a deep breath, the girl looked down, noticing something. "Hey, hey, hey guys. Come look." The girl pointed to a hole where the stone used to be, not being able to really seen down it as it was entirely dark with nothing but a wooden ladder leading down it.

Jacklyn started to twirl her fork in the flaming kelp, still cautious of the fire on it, as she listened to Belle's comment about going outside. Frowning a bit, the girl couldn't quite understand why she wanted to stay inside and do nothing but play games all day. Jacklyn knew what it was like to watch all of one's adventures on a screen. She knew what playing video games was like, even if she also had a habit of playing them outside. And she knew that they were fun, especially compared to some alternatives. But even if they enjoyable or she were alone, to simply keep to that and never do anything herself just sounded too boring of a way to live. Looking down, the girl took a deep breath as she looked at the newest trial of her not so boring adventure. With a face of steely resolve, the girl pulled the kelp to her mouth and in one swift bite ate the food, fire and all. She was very noticeably sweating, as the heat from the food was quite intense, but still chewed quickly and swallowed the piece down. Letting out a deep breath, steaming rising from her mouth, the girl tried to collect herself before looking to her food again. It wasn't particularly good, but the girl felt as though she had accepted some kind of challenge and wasn't going to back down just yet. And so, she continued to eat at it, bite after bite. Eventually, Jacklyn had finished the meal, and though she had been victorious she certainly didn't look it. Face red, sweat covering as steam billowed out of her mouth, the girl bent her head back over the chair she was in as she let out a stream of pained groans. Looking over to the table nearby, in her stupor, she saw two friends also eating their own kelp themed dishes. As they talked she merely heard one say, "thanks again for covering for me." "It's fine, it's fine. But I - " "Yeah, yeah. 'You told me so.' You just never think it's going to be you, you know? Honestly, I thought I got rid of all that hoodlum gang stuff when I moved here." "Well, you know. Being part of some themed gang is all the rage these days. Trying to be fashionable or something. Well, just pay better attention and you shouldn't be bothered by them." As Jacklyn was recovering, part of the conversation stuck out to her. The girl's eyes looked back upwards as she said, "I wonder how much this costs?" Eventually the waiter came back and cleared their table and once everything was taken care of wished them a good night. Looking to the rest of the group, still clearly recovering from her dish, the girl slammed her hands on the table saying, "alllllllriiiiiiiiiight gang! Where to next?"

Xia vs Cyan Part 2 Cyan grinned wildly, slowly walking towards her. He twisted his wrist, causing the flamethrower to roar, increasing how much flame was coming out of his sword. “Burn… BURN!” He barked, not noticing what the girl was doing. The only thing he could see was flame and smoke. Continuing to hold her stance, the girl simply smiled as she said, “sorry! But I don’t burn really easy!” As she said this, the girl finished charging her fist, and with a simple punch, fire a blast of both pure magic and magical water hurtling straight through the fire and towards the demon. Cyan, blind sided by the attack, was sent flying backwards by the blast, his sword flying through the air. He slammed onto the ground, letting out a cough. “Tch...” He said, picking himself up. “Not bad...” He glared at the girl, snapping his fingers. “...I hope that isn’t all you’ve got!” With another eruption of flames, his sword came back to his hand. He then disappeared into a puff of smoke, appearing charging towards the girl ready to slash at her. Getting herself ready, the girl shouted, “sorry but it kind of is!” All the same, she was about to start making her way towards the demon when a cannon was fired yet again. Looking to the side, and seeing the cannon dodgeball come towards her, the girl simply stuck out her arm and, with little difficulty, caught the ball in her hand. The attack had still damaged her, but she now had a dodgeball in her hand, which had to count for something. As she looked to Cyan, who was swiftly closing in on her, the girl tossed the ball with all of her might at him, before running forward and going to intercept him with yet another punch of hers, not really paying any mind to avoiding any attack he had. Cyan faded to smoke once again, blinking out of the ball’s way. However, he was still rushing forward, and had blinked a bit too close to Xia as he saw her ready an attack. He didn’t have enough time to slash with his blade before getting hit, so instead he let out a roar, shooting a fireball right at the dragon’s face. As he launched his attack, she struck him right in the face, sending him flying backwards once again. This time, he tumbled to the ground a couple times before landing on his feet, sliding as he let out a grunt of pain. “I’m so glad this damage ain’t permanent...” He said, placing his hand on his face. “Wahoo!” Pumping her fist into the air as her attack was successful, the girl looked over to Cyan. Putting up both of her hands, taking a stance and still ready to fight, the girl simply held her ground. This time, rather than charging forward, she had begun to charge her fist with energy once again. “Oh, you're not the only one that can charge things!” Cyan shouted, pointing his sword to the air. As he did, a fireball appeared on the tip of it, with a small stream of flames below it. He let out a cackle as the small stream quickly became a jet of flames going right into the ball, increase the size of it. “We’ll see how fireproof you really are!” Finishing the charge on her arm, the girl kept her hand clenched in a fist as she looked in awe at the fire ball. “Whooooa! Well, I do need to get better at being fireproof, so thanks for giving me something even better to test it out!” Rather than punching again, however, the girl simply began to run towards Cyan with reckless abandon. As he saw Xia start charging towards him, he knew it was time. He flung the fireball towards her, his blade pointed towards her and the ball. “DIE, INSECT!” He shouted, twisting his wrist once again as the jet of flames increased - so much so that the entire sword caught on fire. He grit his teeth as the fireball seemed to grow as it was propelled towards her. As the girl got close enough to Cyan, she planted her feet, bringing up one arm to defend herself against the fire, the girl was soon engulfed entirely in fire. As the flames roared around her, the girl eventually powered through it, her entire face lit up by fire around her as she seemed laser focused on Cyan. Reeling back her fist, the girl went to punch at Cyan yet again, letting loose her charged magical force alongside her punch at the same time. As his blade finished shooting jets of fire, he barely had enough time to bring his arms up in an attempt to brace for impact. He grit his teeth as the fist slamming on his arms, the shock wave of the impact blowing what little flames were left around them. His arms slammed into his chest. His gaze became intense as he scowled right at the girl. He couldn’t even give her a snarky retort. Xia slowly brought her fist back, as her attack seemed to be successful. Her intensely focused expression gave way back to her usual cheery disposition as she looked at herself. Seeing that there was no burn marks on her the girl said, “woo! I seem plenty fireproof right?” The girl flashed a genuine smile at the demon. As she did, however, the ceiling opened up yet again and the exploding sports balls rained from the sky once more. He let out a grunt of pain as his arms dropped. His face, however, was a wild grin. “Now THIS is a fight!” He said, giving Xia a wild expression as he lifted his arms back up. They hurt like hell, and for once the system was playing in his favor, as he wasn’t sure if he’d still have arms. He turned back to the girl, noticing that she did, in fact, have no burn marks on her. “You sure as fuck are!” He cackled, pointing his sword back at her. “But ya ain’t sword proof!” As he was ready to lung, however, he noticed the ceiling had opened up once again. With a wild cackle, he blinked backwards in the air with a puff of smoke, slashing at a pair of dodgeballs, knocking them towards Xia. As the balls started to fall from the sky, Xia began to charge forward and past the balls exploding behind her. Bracing herself yet again, the girl put up both of her arms to defend against the explosive sports balls, being pushed back by them. Crouching down, the girl sought to close the distance yet again by jumping forward at Cyan yet again to punch at him. He landed on the ground, blocking one of the exploding balls with his arm before blinking backwards in another puff of smoke. He grinned as he saw Xia being pelted by the balls, before seeing her jump towards him to strike once again. “Doing this again?” He said, vanishing in another puff of smoke and appearing behind the girl. “Strong, but predictable.” He slashed at her back, chuckling as he did so. Looking behind her, the girl seemed to expect Cyan to teleport away and so she simply said, “sorry. I don’t really have much else to do. But!” As the girl was slashed in the back by the sword, she merely raised her tail up and slapped it backwards at the demon man. He seemed the most shocked he had ever been as he got slapped by the dragon’s tail. “...” He stood there momentarily, placing his hand on his face. “...since when do you have a tail?” He asked, before shaking his head. “W-Whatever, it doesn’t matter!” He said, aiming his sword at the girl. “I’m ending this now!” He lunged at the dragon, aiming to stab her in the rib. Flicking her tail to the side, Xia turned to face Cyan with a smile on her face. ”Allllrrriiiiight!” Cracking her knuckles, Xia stood her ground as Cyan made his way over to her. As Cyan went to stab at her ribs, the girl used one hand to swat at and grab the sword of her opponent, only to then go for a swing with her fist at the man once more. He let go of his sword as he saw the girl reach for it and, as the punch went towards him, he disappeared into a puff of smoke once again. This time, however, he appeared directly above the girl, delivering a swift hammer kick aimed at her head, his foot erupting in flames one it made contact with whatever it hit. Stumbling forward as the kick hit the back of her head, Xia planted her feet into the ground before fully falling over. Tightening her grip on the sword that she had just grabbed, Xia then turned and swung it at Cyan’s side, striking at him with the hilt of the sword. Cyan was struck with his own sword and, while it had just been the hilt side, the sheer force of it was enough to send him staggering as he stumbled a bit away. Angrily, he snapped his fingers once more, causing the sword to disappear in an eruption of flame before returning to his hand in a similar fashion. “I’d prefer if...” He said, cocking his head back. “...you stopped grabbing my sword!” He shouted and, as he did, he let out a jet of flames out of his mouth directed at the girl. “Well, stop stabbing at me.” Xia looked at the smoke in her hand, where the sword used to be, before waving it away. Seeing the flames coming at her, the girl attempted to run straight through them once again, very unaware of the damage she was actually taking. All the same, the girl ran up to Cyan and went to, rather than punch him this time just grab at his head to keep him from breathing fire. “Mpph!” He shouted as Xia put her hand on his face, blocking the stream of flames as they spilled all over him and her palm. “MMPPHH!” He shouted, trying to say something but it was hard with the girl on him like this. Instead of fading away, however, he instead elected to grab onto the girl’s shoulder, pulling himself closer to her. And then he lit his entire body on fire, making sure to not let the girl break free easily. Muffled cackling could be heard echoing the stadium. With her hand over the man’s face, the girl simply started laughing as he did, not really sure what he was laughing at but feeling like joining in on it. Then grabbing onto his body, the girl hoisted him into the air as the fire surrounded her. Bending down, the girl then jumped into the air and began to bring him towards the ground. Or, she would have, had the two not frozen in the air at the apex of her jump. The two were just stuck there as the scenery faded away and the score was displayed above them. Xia: 0 HP, Cyan: 180 HP. Winner: Cyan via HP Loss

Level Ups: Everyone leveled up to 11, which is to say, twice.

The Phantom Hound stood its ground as the falcons all dog piled onto it to kill it. Though each of them alone had managed to deal a significant blow to the beast, the creature continued to snarl at them, its fangs continuing to crackle with energy as it looked between those that had struck. As such, as if going almost completely unnoticed by him, Layne was able to make his way over to the Phantom Hound without it attempting to stop him in any way. And as he brought his staff up, the phantom was almost entirely blind sided by the attack. Letting out an almost pathetically dog like whimper, the beast's legs gave way as it fell to the ground. Once prone, less than a second passed until the darkness that seemed to make up its being exploded. After the initial burst, the darkness simply floated in the air around the group until it seemed to disperse and fade away. As it did, the zombies that were encroaching on the strike party's location suddenly stopped. Going slack jawed and dropping the weapons in their hands, the zombies not soon after collapsed onto the ground, motionless. Inching closer, as if still wary of the creatures coming back, Edda looked to the others saying, "it- it's over?"

With the gnoll leader taking up the majority of her focus, the girl was slow to realize that there was a loud noise coming from behind her. Turning around the girl was barely able to see the rushing worg strike at her from behind. As the fangs of the warg sank into her shoulder, the girl let out a yell of pain. Feeling her legs buckle as the tremendous pain began to course through her body, the girl was barely able to keep herself standing. Looking back, seeing water start to push against the jaws of the creature, the girl tighten the grip on her mace as she looked back to the warg. Bringing her arm up, the girl smashed her mace into its face with a loud grunt of pain. The creature's grip on her shoulder loosened and he let go as the creature backed away. With the warg no longer help prop her up, though, Ryia felt her balance waver and the girl collapsed onto the ground. With her shield arm beginning to feel dumb as blood continued to flow out of her wound, the arm hanging at her side the girl struggled to keep herself upright. To that end, she dropped her mace and used her good hand to keep herself from falling over completely. Though she was injured and barely able to keep going, her breath ragged and vision blurring a bit, the girl continued to look around between the gnoll and the warg, still trying to keep mindful of them.

Marie was still on her hands and knees after Nani had left, at surprising speeds. All the same, the girl wasn't entirely sure what Nani was expecting her to do or not do. Especially as the Lucario had continued to fight and defeat each and everyone of her friends. All at once, the girl felt a surge of conflicting emotions pass through her. She had felt guilt for involving everyone in this fight, having them be pummeled for her interference. She had felt resolute knowing that in order to help the others here, she couldn't possibly give up. And there was something else. As she watched the Lucario fight and speak, she couldn't help but feel something else. Something almost close to pity. Standing up, the girl coughed out a, "st-stop," as she watched the man floor Randy. The girl continued to stand her ground as the Lucario took notice of her. Looking at him, both resolute yet somewhat concerned, the girl asked again, "are...are you lonely?" The Lucario didn't say anything as he continued to make his way over to her. "You're..." The girl paused before shaking her head. "I...I will get strong. Strong enough...to fight you...so you don't have to...and so you won't..." "You won't have the time to get stronger. It's too late. The end has come." With that, Lucario grabbed Marie and raised her off her feet. In one swift motion, he then slammed the girl back down onto the ground. As his attack finished, Marie let out a gasp yet again as the wind was knocked out of her. Coughing, the girl lied there, barely conscious but still looking up at the godslayer. Nine grimaced as the hands from underneath the ground grabbed at him. Struggling against them as they pulled at him, the Houndoom could only watch as the disciple began to strike back, both parrying the attacks as well bringing down Kayla. Eyes going wide, Nine's anger towards the disciple continued to rise as he continued to struggle against the hands pulling down. With flames coating his arm, the chaser looked over to see flames coming from Gwen and towards his legs. Striking with his own flamethrower, Nine managed to break free of the grasp, as he backed away. The chaser looked at Raphael trying to figure out what he was supposed to do against the man. However, he was finding it harder and harder to focus on that task. Both because his own anger was making it harder for him to think clearly, as well the constant pain that was radiating through his body. He could feel his legs starting to ache more and more as time had gone on and knew that it was only a matter of time before he actually lost. So, wanting to end this fast for more reasons that one, Nine followed up Lok's confuse ray with a dark pulse of his own at the disciple.

Kiyoko had stood by in the morning, as silent and unflinching as always at the news that had come. Both of their companion having had to leave as well as the start of their missions coming up. As it turned out, the group of signers was being split up, with each half of them taking on a different city. Kiyoko did not really have much of a preference in which city it was she was going to. In fact, she didn't even really know anything about the cities to begin with. As such, a small frown crossed her face, hearing that the place she was going to investigate was as crime ridden as it was. Though, she couldn't really think much about that as the doubts of one of her companions was voiced aloud to them. Looking to Octavia Kiyoko, matter of factly, stated, "it's simple. We don't fail. Our task is simple and necessary, and that we are being asked to do this means that there is no one else who could have already. So, we simply have to keep in mind that we cannot fail and we won't." Kiyoko nodded to herself as she made this declaration. "While the Dread Knight might be a problem, if we must cooperate with him and he is unwilling then," Kiyoko gestured to Shannon, echoing her sentiment in saying, "we will simply convince him with both our goal and might. And if he still refuses, then he is merely help, not a necessity."

As the group had managed to clear out all of the hounds around them, the Phantom Hound had seemed to still be ready to fight back. Snarling at the group as they seemed to group up, the hound merely prepared itself for whatever it was the ground was going to do. Meanwhile, Edda looked around, her usual uncomfortable expression having a wave of nervousness added into it. "Uh, guys..." The girl looked over to the swarm of skeletons that had seemed to start making their way over to the group, clearly seeming ready to collapse on them if things weren't taken care of. The lance wielding zombie simply held his ground as the arrow lodged itself into the creature's shoulder. It was certainly hurt by the attack, and looked like it could barely take another of those while keeping itself together. All the same, it didn't seem to mind as it awkwardly shuffled out the deep and thick thicket, with lance in hand as it moved towards the group. With Yue being the closest thing to him, the zombie didn't go very far as it reeled back its lance. With one thrust the zombie struck the frail archer in the abdomen with its spear, twisting it a bit before pulling the weapon back and leaving a large wound in Yue. "Yue!" Tightening the grip on his blade, Leon moved forward and slashed at the lance wielding zombie. As the blade got into the zombie's ribs, the boy merely continued forward and upward with his blade, severing the arm, shoulder and head of the zombie all in one slash. As the zombie fell to the strike, Leon made his way over to Yue looking at the girl saying, "don't worry. Just patch yourself up and rest for now, I'll make sure to cover you." Leon looked around to see that the zombies weren't coming after them anymore, but he knew this was a momentary respite at best. He wasn't entirely sure how he was going to cover for both Yue and Raynor but there was no way he could simply leave them. As such, all he had to do was place his faith in the others of his team and hope that they could defeat the phantom.

Stella could look on with more shock and confusion then anything else as the girl as the crazy paper girl passed out in front of them. Not sure what to do, the girl stepped back a bit as the paper girl was eventually carted away by another of the employees. Still seeming stunned by the whole, apparently frequent, display the girl simply nodded as Kelsey made her first comment. As she made her second, the girl looked away, clearly embarassed by the remark saying, "well, you know...paper's cool...and stuff..." Looking back over to Vivian as Kelsey stated that she was from a tree planet the girl asked, "oh right, yeah. Your planet sounds like it'd be the perfect staging ground for paper production." Thinking on it for a bit more the girl said, "though, I suppose does your planet have a thing against clearing out the forests?"

As the girl continued to thrash about in the trap that she had stumbled into, Tsetseg was glad to see the others begin to her help. One by one, from Sienna, to Shiro to then Edrick, and then finally Penelope all coming in to offer varying levels of assistance. Yet still, Tsetseg continued to be trapped under the net in spite of their best efforts. Thrashing around wildly, the girl didn't seem to be making much headway herself as she looked to Edrick and Sienna in response to their questions. "Well, see, see. I was just walking in here and then I opened the door - I've been very good at opening doors - and then I went in here to explore some more. But then - then! I stepped in here and there was a clicky noise and then this fell on me and now I can't get ooooouuuuuuuuuttttt!" Giving up for a moment, the girl simply sighed saying, "I'm a net now." "Yeah...hopefully." Alois waved off Gunther's last comment, less focused on the knight and more to his thoughts. He wasn't sure why the name Gunther had said sounded familiar, though that it was provided no end of bother to the boy. As Alois walked away from the bed and to the sword lying around, the boy looked at the weapon. It too seemed to have the same name on it. Bothered still, Alois then began to wonder why exactly he told Gunther of the boy he had known so long ago. There was a clear logic to his thoughts, and a natural conclusion that would explain the connection between the two vague memories. However, he couldn't help but feel it strange that no one would mention either of these things to him or each other for his whole time in the village. Of course, if he had learned anything so far, it was that the Mayor wasn't entirely keen on explaining anything to Alois. All the same, the boy simply put the sword back down on the table he found it from and walked over Adelaide. Pulling one of his axes from its sheath, he presented it to the woman saying, "here, I'll let you do the honors. Be gentle though, these lids aren't that strong, and wouldn't do to split our evidence in half right?"

"Oho? Well, you have a long way to climb to reach his throne, o'princess of darkness." This would be the thing that both Gabby and Melissa would hear coming from behind them, as a the smiling cheery face of Jun had seemed to interject itself between the two. Leaning between the two, giving a small wave with a, "hi hi," the girl then pulled back and sat back upright in her seat. As it had turned out, the girl had been sitting behind them since the duel had started, though elected to silently watch both them and the match. The duel had been going, for the most part, as expected. That Yushiro was able to bust out some new tricks, as well as that his confidence didn't seem entirely rattled yet was certainly a plus in his favor. Of course, she figured it was a moot point given his opponent. Especially given how he was at the moment. As such, the girl was, at present, much more interested in her two newest friends that were sitting in front of her. "Oh, but I'd love to see the two of you show off in a duel." Both to judge them and, "after all, nothing says true friendship like a friendly duel between friends. Friendly." The girl then gave two thumbs up, albeit covered by her sleeves and a bright smile to the two of them.

With the draken boy coming in to aid her, Ryia watched as the boys halberd was brought down to strike at the gnoll leader. As the dexterous beast managed to avoid the attack Ryia got herself ready to raise her shield as he went to attack at both of them with both of his weapons. Thankfully, gnoll's body seemed to jerk away from her, causing its attack to miss, as she saw that Reinaan had grabbed onto its arm. Taking the chance to move to strike at him herself, the girl moved around, to the creature's back, swinging her mace at it. With her hit landing solidly the creature was far from giving up. Despite all of the pain it had been feeling, the grip on its arm and the fire in its face it still went to strike at Reinaan with his spear. Ryia was in no position to actually absorb the blow for the boy, nor did she have any tricks up her sleeve to stop the attack soundly. However, as the gnoll began to move his arm to strike, the girl knew that from her position there was only one thing she could do to prevent him from being struck. Raising her mace, the girl struck the shoulder of the gnoll solidly, causing the creature to let out a whine of pain as it dropped its weapon. With the creature seemingly at its wits end of options, the gnoll spoke out saying, "stop. I'll leave the food." Ryia's eyes grew wide as the creature spoke towards her. The grip on her mace tightened and wordlessly she pulled her weapon back. That it was bargaining for its life, now that it was nearly dead and all of those under it were already slain. Now that it had harmed all of her companions, nearly killing one of them. And that it had probably been on the winning side of this battle before, thinking that all that mattered was the food they had stumbled upon was what was important here, the girl couldn't help but feel a swell of anger go through her. Smashing her mace into the creature's back yet again, the gnoll let out yet another yelp of pain as it fell to its knees, still conscious and propped up by Reinaan's grip on his arm.

With Alexis moving to take on the hounds, yet another of the beasts began to charge forward and snap at her. Though she was nimble, the hounds were still able to keep up with the pegasus knight's movements and leapt forward, snapping its jaws onto the rider and digging its claws into the horse. As it let go, it was struck, just as most of its other comrades had been, by a lance by the flying horse rider in retaliation. Backing off, the creature continued to crouch into the thicket, awaiting the pegasus knight's next move. Edda didn't answer Rona's question and simply looked away from the girl as she dealt a killing blow against the hound. Instead, she watched as Ada had come up, patching herself up only for another hound to come running forward. Waiting for the moment that Ada had been healing herself to strike, the creature sprinted forward and jumped at Ada, snapping its jaws down at the girl and biting into her side, doing away with most of the work she had done with her vulnerary. However, the hound didn't stay latched onto her side for long, as the blast of dark magic came from Ada in retaliation and forced the jaws off of her. Leon, meanwhile, had stood back and watched as the lance wielding zombie before him was struck in the head by an arrow. As the creature crumpled onto the ground, dead, Leon looked back to Yue. Seeing that there was nothing around them, the boy said, "let's press forward." Beginning to move forward, Leon prepared himself for the coming attacks of the lance wielding zombie.

As Nine and Raphael continued to exchange blows, Nine looked to the disciple ready to see what else would come at him. However, his attention was momentarily snapped away from him as he looked to the side, seeing Lok speak with Gwen. The Houndoom's eyes went wide as he saw the hollow looking figure of Gwen simply floating there, not responding to anything that Lok had said. As he did, he suddenly felt a flood of emotions start to rush through him. It was hard to tell what exactly he was feeling, his mind in such a whir at the sight that he couldn't parse exactly what it was. However, as his eyes drifted back to Raphael there was one thing he tell clearly. One thought he knew exactly what the meaning was. Glaring at the disciple, that thought echoed within his mind. How dare you. The hostility clear in his eyes, even as Gwen seemed to recollect her senses, the boy simply charged his hand with dark energy. Firing his dark pulse at the shadow ball, Nine's glare did not seem to go unnoticed by the disciple. "Well, it doesn't really matter if he helped make the world. After all, everyone makes the world right? But," with a mock half bow, he'll say, "to hear that I'm a mistake from a hollow fake like you is the highest of compliments." Raphael's smile widening , the disciple cackled at the Houndoom."Yes, yes, that's it, that's the way of it." He stretched his arms out and declared, "come then, take your shot, you really want to don't you?" With a flash of darkness pulsing around Nine, his aura sharpening itself as he looked towards the Banette he simply said. "Ah, well, that should be obvious right? But more than that. Well, I want you to realize how pitiful and meaningless you really are." Though Nine had kept a smile on his face, and bright as it seemed, it as well had changed from something playful to one that seemed far more hollow. "Oh scary, scary." "Scary? Oh no, no. It's more comical than anything than else. You your self said that it was so funny, right? Here you are, the disciple of Giratina, mighty, powerful and so so scary yourself. But all you could do is pace around your master's cave, twiddling your spiked thumbs. Funny, right?" "Oh, but I did get to do so so much! These last few centuries have been oh so much fun!" He swayed back and forth. "But if you won't come to me..." Raphael jumped forward with incredible force, extending his claws. "Ah, I have no doubt you've killed so much. But..." Charging forward, Nine charged himself with darkness once more as he made his way over to meet Raphael halfway. As the man seemed ready to end his leap, Nine went to duck under his attack before countering with an uppercut of his own. The ghost type, in turn, bent himself back and away from Nine's attack, avoiding the punch. He sprung back upwards with a manic smile on his face. "Before you finish, maybe you should play more attention." It was then that Nine realized that there was something now tugging at his feet, looking at the ground below to see that there were skeletal arms reaching up and attempting to drag him down.

The waifu class is full of waifu

I appear to be late to the after party

You still haven’t given me a saber

Marie looked onward as the Lucario began to take his stance to attack. The girl didn't quite know what to do to stop him. Every part of her being told her that trying to converse any more with this man was futile. And trying to fight him was nothing short of impossible. Yet still, Marie knew that just letting him kill the legends was wrong. As Randy gave her a look, one that told her to back off as well, for once she had felt inclined to agree. As both the Lucario and Randy began to exchange words with each other, the girl tensed up even more, rooted into place as the man confirmed that he was a godslayer. A man obsessed with fighting. Fighting to prove his strength. Fighting to kill whatever he deemed worthy. Marie knew more and more that this was all just wrong. Yet still, Randy of all people seemed paralyzed in fear of the man. Keanu seemed ready to bolt, relieved they didn't have to fight them. And Nani, echoing that it was none of their business, was also ready to leave. As the girl stood there, she could feel herself start to go with the flow. However, as she thought of leaving, more popped into her head. The bloodied club of Allie, along the bloodied body of Moltress. Blake attacking and terrorizing others. Yveltal bringing him to his ultimate end. Alola, her home island, being besieged and destroyed by unknown monsters. She didn't want to see anymore of it. It was pointless and terrifying and she couldn't bring herself to stand idly by as those were strong just hurt those around her. "Please stop!" As Marie shouted these words, a burst of pink energy fired out from her mouth, striking the Lucario dead on. Marie's hands were fists, knuckles turning white from how tightly they were clenched. Every part of her body seemed to be trembling and the fear was clear in her eyes. Yet still, she stood in place saying, "I-it's never been our business...each and every time...but I still - I don't want you to hurt these people any more." The Lucario seemed to pause for a moment, before lowering his arm. "You have forty-five seconds. Go now." A wave of terror that instinctually made the young Brionne want to flee went through her as he said this. This was followed by an almost sense of relief that, despite her attack, she still had a chance to escape. Yet still, saving Moltres had never been any of their business. Stopping Blake had never been any of their business. And so, whether this was her business or not, Marie simply couldn't stand by and let this happen. Marie began to walk forward, past everyone and past Lucario. Standing in the direction that he was facing, the girl, still shaking and terrified, stood her ground against the impossible foe. "I - I - I won't let you hurt these people. So, please, stop." "Ten." The girl's heart was pounding, her hands were soaked in sweat and her breathing was rapidly increasing. Yet still, she didn't move. Looking at the powerful foe before her though, the girl couldn't help but think something. "Are...are you...lonely?" "No....three." Not paying heed to his warning Marie continued. "I met someone who was strong....But no one ever fought him and so....they never had anyone to..." As Marie was trying to stammer out her thoughts, the Lucario moved forward. While the girl could see his movements, the speed at which he moved was still far greater than anything she had ever seen, by a wide margin at that. As the distance between the two was closed in almost an instant, Marie could see the Lucario lift his leg, and she knew that it had hit her in the side. While she knew these things, though, she didn't feel any pain from the attack. Her breath was knocked out of her almost immediately. Her body felt as though it had gone limp. And there was brief period of weightlessness as her eyes went wide. The next thing Marie knew, she was hurtling through the air, being launched several dozen feet before smashing back into the ground. The girl lied there, motionless for a moment, before she suddenly could feel again. A throbbing unlike any she had ever felt before was now coursing through her gut, then entire rest of her body spasming as she regained her senses. Going into a huge coughing fit, trying to regather her breath, Marie had trouble moving any part of her body as she was trying to recover from the attack. Eventually, she managed to get one hand to hold her bruised gut as the other started to claw against the ground and turn the girl over onto her stomach. Her feet pushing against the ground, attempting to but currently failing to get her back upright, she looked back to the Lucario. Though she had just been able to witness his power first hand, and the difference between them could not be any more obvious, the young Brionne's head was currently in a whirl. She could hardly make sense of anything that she was feeling, other than pain. Yet, there still seemed to be a resolved look in her eyes as she said, "i-it was...sad...So I...-" The girl stopped as she had another coughing fit before saying, "so I told him....I'd get strong...."