Skaia

Sibyl let out a small whistle as the door in front of her was smashed in response to her question. Behind was a blonde woman, holding yet another strange looking gun and seemed poised to fight. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" The girl's smile grew wider as the shadows around her arms started to thicker. The blonde woman, however, rather than fight instead fired something else from her gun. What appeared to be a block of force that expanded to fit the hallway they were in. The woman then took off, going past a corner and making her way out of sight of Sibyl. The demon villain girl, upon seeing this force wall, brought her shadowed arm up and slammed it against the wall, cracking the translucent force. "Sturdy huh? Then how about," the girl brought her other arm back and punched the wall yet again, it continuing to shudder and crack more under the pressure of her attacks. Bringing her hands back and clasping them together, Sibyl went for one more swing with the both of them, smashing the wall and returning it to nothingness as her arms whipped through it. Satisfied with results, the girl called out, "that was a nice wall you had there! Real tough!" Turning the corner the girl saw the woman still running, likely attempting to turn the left where this hall now ended in as well, and whipped out her arm, extending it towards her. "But wanna try something a little more direct now?" Though she had been running away, Dee had still been facing where Sibyl had come from and was able to dive out of the way of the attack. "Not really a direct sort of person, sorry. But I do have a few tricks if you want." The woman brought her hand to her glasses, doing something before one of the various doors in the hall was burst open. A robot, keeping in line with the retro sci-fi theme the owners had so far, walked out. The shadows started to grow across Sibyl, covering more of her body, as she said, "fine by me!" Simple as she could be still, Sibyl brought her arm back, before extending it forward to punch the face of the robot.

As the group continued to talk about their various childhood experiences with popular Japanese games, they would find that they were soon approaching the spire. The large structure itself was atop a hill and so they were able to see even further ahead. Which was to say, more of the same in terms of grass and hills. However, now from this vantage point they could see what appeared to be a stone structure not too far away from where they were. It seemed to be a small stone door and wall built into a, not particularly tall, hill. The road seemed to stop directly in front of it as well. Beyond that the group would start to be able to see on the horizon was the sea. Though, it wasn't particularly impressive, being a dull gray and blue to match the sky, at least from what they could see from as far away as they stood. Though they could now see their end goal, a little distant though it was, there seemed to be something in their path. Namely what appeared to be an enormous bear with gray fur and silver stripes running through its fur, fighting off what appeared to be a group of seven or so Drengr trying to kill it. As one of them approached it, the bear simply roared, which caused visible distortion in the air and seemed to knock back one of them. The others seemed to approach with trepidation, but the bear seemed to be a stranger to mercy as it then flung itself towards the Drengr. Though the path was blocked, and currently there was some form of scuffle going on, the group would be able to walk around if they so desired, though going off the path would also be likely to put them in the company of more wild animals, as they had seen before.

Fen blinked in confusion as the world around her had disappeared, only to return back to the pod that she had originally stepped into before the fight. Taking a look at her body, she noticed that she wasn't injured in the slightest nor did she feel injured either. Or exhausted for that matter. She hadn't ever used her magic at such a rapid speed before, and though adrenaline had made her not think about it during the fight, she thought she would've felt much more fatigued from the endeavor. She didn't really know what kind of magic was at play here, but she did know that it was something incredible. Looking up, she reached out to grab Kelsey's hand as she was pulled out of the pod, getting back on her feet. "I think I might've gotten a bit carried away too...I'm not normally, uh, that...combative, I suppose? And it was really dicey for me too so..." Then giving a bow she said, "oh but um, I think I was only able to because you pushed me like that. So, uh, well, I learned a lot from this, so thank you." Getting back up, rubbing the back of her head she said, "though, uh, sorry for copying your armor thing." Fen had always heard that imitation was a form of flattery, yet she couldn't help but feel a bit awkward about spontaneously imitating her opponent in the midst of combat. Fen turned her attention to the screens, looking at Melissa fighting the girl named Rei. She focused, seeing the strange flaming creature form around Melissa she had realized that she had only ever fought alongside Melissa once, and didn't even really pay much attention to her during that singular fight. As a result, she hadn't the faintest idea what she - or Morgan for that matter - were even capable of. And this was a sight she could only see, once again, because of the speed her senior forced her to take part in. With a smile on her face as she looked between the monitors she said more quietly, "thank you, again, Kelsey." Then switching gears, trying to analyze the fights more she asked, "so what kind of fighters are the other two?"

Smashing her axe into the thing's skull, Lana was ready to continue hammering away at it until she looked to see everyone running past and towards the exit of the floor. Frustrated and wanting to take out more of her fury against the large skeletal dog monster, Lana settled for just shouting, "yeah, take that!" And did a cross between running and hobbling down the stairs, avoiding the pack of dogs that were coming to attack her. Once in their transit, Lana took the time to take a breather and get patched up by their now once more active healer. The girl had her face feeling good as new, the blood now no longer dripping from her nose and her head feeling in much less pain. And though her foot was certainly better, walking was still a bit of a pain to her, feeling like it hadn't fully closed up and was still a bother. All the same, it was certainly an improvement over what had happened before. "Ew gross." The next floor, however, had no such improvement. The fog was still present here, a weather condition Lana was steadily growing to hate more and more, and the enemies that she could see were of a different kind then what they had been fighting before. Sure, there were no skeletons, but she was starting to think that she would much rather take a collection of bones over walking rotting flesh any day. And while it was certainly an upside that there were no skeletal dogs, the floating eyeball she thought was significantly far more disgusting. The girl shivered at the thought of what would happen if she brought her axe down on one of them, but decided to try to put that off as future Lana's problem. Lana nodded at Chris's assessment, moving in the direction saying, "yeah. I don't want to get strangled by those things," the girl grimaced, remembering her difficulties on the floor. "I'll take the lead, and uh, just make sure I don't get ganged up on or something." The girl gripped her axe tightly, walking forward slowly and getting ready for the attention of the creature's to turn to her at any moment.

The journey to the warehouse had been filled with a short burst of, "oooh," "whooa," and "whoa ho ho," from Sibyl as they darted from one point in space to another. The sensation was something that was fairly indescribable to Sibyl, given that she hadn't ever had an experience quite like it before. Touching down on the ground after their journey had completed, tapping the ground with her feet to center herself after that jarring flight, the girl then gave a whistle as the door came to them, something she had much more experience with albeit it usually looked less abrupt, and slapped Adler on the back. "Man old timer, you've got some pretty rad tricks." With some pep in her step, and a smile on her face really starting to get amped as Vi charged forward to destroy the door in front of them, Sibyl made her way to it. Beyond the door, or rather the newely created hole in the wall, was a hallway that ran perpendicular to where they were entering from. A man, someone who seemed to look remarkably average, was dashing down this hallway in a hurry, spewing a string of profanities. "Shit. Shit. Shit. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." "Hoohoo, guess it's my go now." The girl ran after the man, shadows covering her arm and turning her fingers into more pointed claws. Reaching out, the shadows extended off the arm and grabbed the man's arm. "Hey there! Where you off to?" The man had already made it to another door, banging on it and shouting, "Dee! Babs!" After his arm got pulled back, the man quickly pulled out what appeared to be a toy gun - like some kind of small laser blaster type thing that'd be in an old sci-fi show. Pointing the gun at her, the man shouted, "let go of me!" Her already jovial expression started to bear a wide grin on it as she said, "ooh, nice toy you got there!" The girl certainly did think it was neat, retro even, and couldn't help but start to feel more excited from the man's clear aggression. Yet, while she thought the blaster thing was cool, she preferred her fights to be more "personal." "Well, if you're asking, then," and the girl let go of him. Almost immediately after, her shadow hand flicked itself towards his gun, slapping it out of his hands before shadows covered Sibyl's other arm. Closing her hand into a fist, the girl stretched the shadow arm forward and slammed it into the man's face. Shouting at the door she gleefully asked, "anyone else wanna come out?"

Fen barely had time to process that her maneuver had worked. In fact she barely had time to process that she had done it at all. Instead, her body was attempting to already move, to get into position for the next strike, to figure out what to shape next. Of course, Kelsey was still right next to her and Fen still could not move her body fast enough to keep up with her own thoughts. And to add all the more to that, she felt her train of thought suddenly screech to a halt as she looked up to see Kelsey's face. It wasn't as though she could see through it, but the smile and enthusiasm was clear on her face as the girl recited something of a mantra, all the while smashing her metallic fist against Fen's head. The young ice mage's head jerked down in response to this, though she continued listening even as another fist had struck her gut. Fen often hesitated, had trouble expressing herself to others and had never been confident in many of her skills. She had always been watching from the back. She had always been in awe of others. And even after she worked towards becoming the girl she was today, now with all of these new people in front of her she had realized just how lacking she was yet again. But she continued to try to keep up regardless. The girl stumbled back after the fist struck her. “I don’t know if I could live like that…" Fen was too weak and too slow to win. "But even so…” She was not Kelsey. Speed and brute force were not something she could rely on as her winning tool. Thus, in order to win she needed to reach a new ideal self. One that took from others, that meshed them together with her current self. That was how it had been in the past and that was how she would continue now. Neither Fen nor Kelsey, but something new altogether. Speed. Instinct. Versatility. Patience. Decisiveness. "Even so, I'll do my best!" Fen's expression focused in again, her eyes darting around Kelsey's body before seeing the weapon attached to her shoulders began to start up. Rapidly attempting to think of an approach, her thoughts started to become more simplistic as she tried to come up with a solution. "Block? No. Weapons? Too close? Close? Cover." She brought up her arm, the hand growing as it extended at the way to the shoulder back. "And I'll win!" The explosive launched, exploding point blank and shattering the arm on top of them while causing both her and Kelsey to reel back from the attack. However, the other shoulder had managed to launch a series of explosives without issue, now arcing and moving towards Fen. "Retreat? No. Forward!" The girl's body followed her simple chain of thought, pushing off the ground and beginning to move full sprint towards Kelsey with the missile's flying towards the ground behind her. Creating a blade of ice in her hand, the girl then thrust it forward as Kelsey had launched off the ground and into the weapon. Her blade shattered and her body was knocked back as the girl's metallic armor slammed into her. "Let's see if you have enough left in you!" Kelsey brought her fist up and began to swing it towards Fen. "Block. Counter." Fen's magic flowed through her hand and formed into a large spiked ball of ice over it. As the fist came towards her, Fen swung her new weapon to meet it dead on, forcing both her and her opponent back yet again as the weapon shattered. "Alright then, how bout this!" Kelsey recovered and dashed around Fen, grabbing the by the arm. Spinning her around, she then tossed Fen away from her. The girl recognized right away that the spot she was being tossed to had a mine on it. Without even thinking an ice knife appeared in her hand and she tossed it towards the spot causing it to detonate before she was actually in the blast radius. Twisting her body, the girl landed on both of her feet and skidded backward, now with some distance between her and her opponent. With this distance Fen's thoughts started to become more coherent and she tried to reason through this situation. She couldn't fight from a range, because if Kelsey got her weapons back it would be over for her. In a straight fight she would almost certainly lose. And trying to use her ice weapon's ability to extend likely wouldn't work both due to the girl's mobility and the amount of times she had done it already. As she sifted through all of these, Fen figured there was only one thing to do. Letting the magic flow through her arm once more, the ice armor that had formed around it started to grow into a much larger fist. Letting out a loud shout, practically challenging her the girl yelled, "here I come!" And sprinted towards her opponent. Kelsey responded in kind, rocketing off the ground and towards Fen, fist ready. The both of them closed the distance between each other rapidly, winding back their fists getting ready to punch each other. And as the distance between each other reached striking distance, Kelsey brought her fist forward. Fen, however, stopped and ducked. Her magic flowing once again, a blade of ice appeared out of the side of her arm. Twisting her body as she swung her fist forward, Kelsey's fist swung wide over Fen's head as the ice mage's blade struck her opponent torso.

With Lana having managed to get rid of the skeleton in her path, there was only two things left in their path. One, the skeleton that was engaged with Chris. Two, an even bigger skeletal dog that had barred their way into the door. As Chris continued to fight the skeleton, the girl felt a wave of adrenaline push through her as the he managed to fell the skeleton and made his emotions loud and clear for everyone to hear. "That's right! I'm not gonna let you stupid dogs sink your teeth into anyone else!" The girl was ready to charge head first into battle, but stopped as a blast of fire hit in front of her immediately. Looking towards Robin, who had conjured up another fireball, the girl gripped her axe tighter as the second was lobbed and Robin issued the command to go. "Got it!" The girl ran forward as fast as her legs would take her. Gritting her teeth, feeling the loud protests of her foot as the holes in it continued to impede her movement. Yet she still pressed forward as fast as she could, raising her axe up overhead. Moving to intercept the large skeleton dog after it had side hopped the girl let out a shout as she brought her axe down towards its skull.

Once the group had figured out what to do with their sleeping arrangements and familiarized themselves with the surrounding area more the sky had darkened, indicating in some way that it was night time. The group would experience several things over the course of the night. Firstly, the sky darkened as if to indicate that the sun had gone down, yet it blackened even further not shortly after. First it was only droplets that fell, steadily building up to becoming full fledged rain as the thunder grew in both intensity and frequency. The reasoning for Luca's warning about the rain had become all too evident, as lightning could be seen arcing across the cloud and striking down outside of the town, steadily moving closer as if on some kind of warpath. While the houses they were in seemed like they would offer little protection, as the storm came over top the village lightning was instead guided towards the spires, striking the structures over and over again. Despite the continual barrage of lightning they received, the spires had stood tall against the storm, seeming to harmlessly disperse any and all lightning that hit it. Secondarily, though Drake had wished to get food it would occur to everyone that they hadn't actually been hungry. They had still been able to eat just fine - both in terms of taste and the general satisfaction that came from enjoying a meal - yet there was never any hunger nor feeling of being full. And finally, while the day had come to its conclusion, the group of Exalted would learn that they were still not tired. If they so desired, they could fall asleep with the ambience of the storm overhead. But if they decided that they didn't want to sleep, then so too could they stay up through the night to see the storm to its conclusion. And when morning came, they would all notice that the village was no worse for the wear and the sky retained its omnipresent overcast. With the gang doing whatever they wished to with their morning, they had decided for one reason or another it was time to get moving on to explore the first location of interest. The Shrine of Ocean and Storm. Before leaving Rumian gave the group a map so as to help them navigate and informed them that there was a road that they could follow, but to watch out for Drengr and other wildlife, one of which he gave specific warning about. "Be very cautious of the Lupardis. They are perhaps the most dangerous beast that you will find out there, as they have the closest connection to Storm. They're most defined by their extremely long necks, and if you get within ones do your best to get out of them as they are incredibly aggressive." With that the group was off on their way. The land stretching across the dirt road - now closer to mud then it was dirt as a result of last night's storm - was stretched up and over several hills. During the walk they would also find parts of the ground that were charred, in addition to the corpses of some unlucky Drengr that had been caught in the storm as well. Though the corpses, or what was left of them, were now engaged with several beasts that looked to be what appeared to be hyenas, though far bulkier then any Lion King watcher would assume a real hyena to look like, happily eating away at their corpses. They seemed to not mind the Exalted, so long as they didn't get particularly close to them. Though many animals were very familiar to them that they saw, such as Gazelles, bulls, and the lions hunting them, they were all significantly larger and bulkier then in the real world. Most of them were far enough away from the path so as to not cause an issue in the first leg of the journey and just add to the scenery. Curiously, though, no matter where they looked they could neither see nor hear anything in the way of bird life. To add to the scenery as well, they could see North East up on the path they were walking up ahead one of the same spires that were erected in the town. Meanwhile to the direct north they would see the horizon completely cut off into a wall of gray, not too dissimilar to that of the clouds up above. But for now, their path was unbarred and though their was thunder as always, there seemed to be nothing threatening about the weather.

"It could use some work," the young, horned girl mused. The villain was outside, early in the morning - far earlier then most would be with all that had happened last night - looking at the side of a building. On it was what looked to be rather large spray painted letters with the word "DEMON" on it, the letters black with a surrounded by a bright red. The letters themselves, though, looked roughly written and like someone had completely misjudged how big it was supposed to be, with red around it bleeding too much into the letters as well. Last night had been a rather busy time for Sibyl. With her being able to walk around the streets without any fear of law enforcement, or rather because the rest of the people around her didn't have to worry about it, she had been approached by several people who had been wanting to meet with her. While not entirely uncommon for her, the frequency with which it had happened was certainly to a much higher degree. And she never really minded giving autographs or taking pictures with everyone, though eventually her patience had started to wear on it. It was only when someone approached her wanting to learn about street art did her enthusiasm to keep interacting with them keep up. And so, giving very rudimentary lessons, this was the fruits of their apparent student's labors. Sibyl was unable to actually tell the young street artist her thoughts on it, with the news that the world was ending causing mass confusion and panic, and interrupting her fun last night. The girl's neutral expression broke into a smile, recounting what happened, saying to herself, "not much time left so you're gonna have to put more into it. But not a bad first step." As Sibyl began to walk away from the picture to go find something to do with her day, she was suddenly stopped by a notification from her phone. Looking at the message, the girl grimaced, then raised an eyebrow in confusion before asking, "why can't they just write like normal." Clearly they wanted something from her, but Sibyl was never actually good at understanding their various ciphers or codes, and so as she continued to squint at the phone, as if that would somehow make the words move into a way that made sense to her, her frustration began to grow. The girl was tempted to just close her phone and walk away, but she had already done that in the past month and that had been such an incredibly obnoxious ordeal for her afterwards that she thought her life would be much easier not repeating that. Still, with no idea what the message was stating, Sibyl let out a frustrated growl before resignation crossed her face. "I'll just go ask them in person. Maybe it'll be fun, who knows." Sibyl had arrived there, two other people who were not the triplets being in attendance as well, to see that the three bosses were all decked out in their newest attire. Sibyl had to say that the look was definitely an improvement over their previous one, though couldn't help but feel there was still more to be done about it. "Interesting is right," Sibyl parroted Vi's earlier comment, only to then ignore whatever discussion on music the two of them were having entirely. "I dig the new outfits you guys got. But," she looked at their blindfolds, then to the room, then back to them. "I don't think it's really vibing with everything else you got, you know?" Clotho stuck her tongue out at Sibyl. "Well, look at Miss 'I can stand to wear the same thing every day,'" she said. Her face turned into a playful sort of smile, though. "It's a work in progress. Big changes are coming." "Might even extend to the whole clan, in the end," Atropos added. "Oooh, exciting," Sibyl smiled, wondering just what kind of plans they had in store here. The girl walked over to the table with fruit, not minding her manners in the slightest and having no sense of moderation as she proceeded to scarf down the food as the trio gave the mission debriefing. Then, after they finished their explanations, summarizing it with her mouth full of food Sibyl said, "just gotta smash up the joint, yeah, sounds good to me." Swallowing, she then looked back around the room, and then back to the trio again. "Oh, and when we're done wrecking the place," the girl pulled out two cans of spray paint from her side, shaking them saying, "I could add some color to the room to match your dresses. Maybe a little splash to those blindfolds too." "Oh, that's an interesting thought," Lachesis said. "The blindfolds probably gotta come through Rajawongse, don't think they can get paint on them, but yeah if you want to wreck this room too a bit that's cool." Grinning ear to ear, excitement clear on her face and seemingly more motivated she looked to the other two saying, "alright let's go tear a place up!"

While Fen had managed to strike Kelsey with her sword, she was surprised by the girl's next maneuver. In a blinding light she had gone from just summoning different armaments to being clad in a full suit of armor. As she rocketed forward, Fen could only brace herself as the now fully armored girl rammed into her and pushed her off her feet. Tumbling, Fen got herself back up, only to see Kelsey already on her flank ready to shoot. Trying to face the girl she was confused yet again as an explosion appeared underneath Kelsey, causing a laugh to come from her opponent as she tried to figure out if this was one of Kelsey's other armaments. Though from her comments it sounded more a part of the area they were in then anything else. Seeing the girl then put her gun back up after recovering from the explosion, Fen put her hands up to swiftly make yet another ice wall. Expecting Kelsey to immediately blow it up after it had blocked her initial barrage, Fen hopped backwards only to be met with a similar explosion to what had just happened moments before. Wincing from the impact, though clearly with no actual injury on her, the girl watched as the gauge in her peripheral depleted again. "What a dangerous place," the girl muttered. Looking to the wall, the girl had to think fairly quickly as to how to keep fighting her opponent. She had already revealed that she could extend her weapons length, a trick she didn't even knew she had coming into this fight and one she didn't think would work if she just attempted it in the same each time. Then there was the problem that she also needed to deal with Kelsey's onslaught of attacks, one that had come out in much faster speeds then what Fen was able to keep up with currently and could tear through her defenses. In addition to being able to fight from a range as well. She was outmatched in power, speed, versatility and aggression. She was lacking in every capacity against her opponent and couldn't see a path to victory as things stood. She needed to be faster. She needed to more flexible. She needed to something. As Fen saw the explosives from Kelsey's armor streak past her wall, now on course towards her Fen had to think. A shield or wall would block them but then she'd just be on the defensive again, and poorly at that. She could conjure weapons to block them but there was no weapon in her arsenal that would be able to deal with all of them at once. "Weapon..." The girl's eyes widened as magic started flowing through her hands yet again. Her magic was not to create and shape weapons made of ice. It was to create and shape ice. There was no reason they had to be weapons. There was no reason they had to finely detailed. There was no reason they had to be solid through the whole way through. At a much more rapid speed then was possible earlier, Fen created objects without any real shape in mind that were hollow on the inside yet much bigger than anything she would've been able to make normally. With these objects in hand, she tossed them towards the missiles. They were ill suited to act as weapons, but they were more then up to the task to block an attack. Shattering as the explosions struck the ice, Fen looked towards her wall, seeing it still up and believing Kelsey to be on the other side of it. Running forward, Fen put her hand on the wall and pulsed magic through it. The ice was already there, so all she needed to do was reshape it. A spike launched from the wall on the other side, and though Fen couldn't see it, she heard a hollow sounding "oof," from Kelsey. Smiling as her attack was a success, the girl then thought about it some more. She could reshape anything she was touching with her hands, so perhaps if she was always touching the ice then her options would increase even more. The girl clapped her hands together, ice forming into armor across her arms before the wall in front of her shattered. Her armored opponent had her weapons at the ready and charged towards the girl, firing yet barrage from her weapons. Seeing this, Fen's hand pulse with magic, and out from her armored arm a shield former. Blocking the attacks, Fen knew that if she just backed away from her opponent then there would be no way to return fire and so she matched her opponent's aggression. Running forward, the girl held up her shield, blocking most of the shots from Kelsey before angling her shield and producing a spike of ice that shot forward towards Kelsey's shoulder weapon. The girl leaped back in a zig zag formation, directly behind where Fen had started. "Close! Looks like you're getting into it, really feeling the heat!" Only to then fire another volley of missiles at Fen. Smiling herself Fen responded, “I won’t win just waiting for you to shatter me after all!” Quickly summoning knives, Fen tossed them to intercept a few of the missiles before tossing her shield at Kelsey. The remaining missiles struck Fen as the shield thunked against Kelsey, yet Fen didn't seem to mind the damage. Instead, feeling the adrenaline fully pump through her, the girl began to charge Kelsey, this time with the armored girl being the one to hang back. Brining her ice armored up, Fen reformed the hand of it into a blade, extending it forward and striking one of the rifles out of her opponent's hand before suddenly hearing another click underneath her feet. With an explosion striking her yet again, Fen's focus briefly broke as she realized that she had been too focused on the enemy in front of her instead of trying to spot the environmental hazards. As the smoke cleared she felt Kelsey's second rifle pressed against her head, clearly ready to fire. With the distance they were at and her focus being interrupted with the explosion there was no way she could move her head away from the attack in time. Similarly, there was no way she could move her hands to get it away, even if she had a weapon. Yet, with her arms armored up she was never without a weapon and had no need to move her hands anymore. With a pulse of magic surging through her armor, a blade of ice extended out from the arm towards Kelsey's rifle.

Lana was glad to have finally been done with the pack of dogs that had try to maim the group. As such, she was very not glad to suddenly hear the scratching sounds of more approaching from beyond the fog wall. Lana didn’t know how many there were really, just that it was a lot and far far more then she wanted to deal with - which was zero anyway but that was besides the point - and so she was all to willing to follow Chris as he called for the group to start running. Lana brought up the rear of the group, not because she wanted to make sure someone was covered in case of sudden skeleton attack from behind but because she physically could not move faster than anyone else in the party with her gnawed foot. Pain was clear across her face with each step that she took and her ever present frustration certainly didn’t subside with the final patrol of skeletons getting in their way. Chris, being in the front, had come to blows with them first and managed to hold it off well enough. With the two on either side of it, Lana moved to the one that Ziun had fended off and brought her axe up. With a loud cry she cleaved through half of the skeletons head, before swinging her axe upward in an attempt to finish off the rest of it.

Demoniac

As the others of her group spoke about him, Ryia started to figure that it made sense that the person here was the one they were after. Given where they were, if nothing else the elven boy in front of them was at least someone of high standing. Either that or they knew just how to talk to ghosts to calm them down, which Ryia couldn't help but think would be an equally invaluable find. So, speaking up just to make sure they were on the right track the girl said, “so uh, just to uh be sure…you’re the um, elf Lords son right?” "I, uh, I don't know what you're talking about. Lord's what now?" he said unconvincingly. “Uh, okay then…” Ryia was unconvinced. However, she given that he seemed to be intent on keeping his identity a secret, the girl didn't really know how to get him to confirm it. Not that it really mattered much either, since they were there to ensure they got him back and now that they knew where he was that made their job easier, in addition to giving her some degree of peace of mind. What did not, however, was the idea that there was some kind of barrier that trapped all of them in here. Going to confirm yet another thing the girl asked, “so uh, are we also all um, trapped. In this shrine?” "What? Why would you be trapped here?" “Because of the uh, barrier, thing?” "What would a barrier around the forest have to do with this place?" “Oh uh, my mistake. I just, well, um…” the girl's train of thought stopped, realizing that she had mistook his meaning earlier. Thinking back, it wasn't as if anything was different from what she said earlier, they had just walked into the forest. But did this mean that they were also just trapped in the forest now? Perhaps they needed permission to leave, which made it all the better, she supposed, that they were helping likely the people that put it up. Though, something about this whole thing seemed off. If there were people looking for this boy and he wasn't actually trapped in the building itself, why was he still here? And for that matter, what did he need to get outside of the forest for if he were being kidnapped? The whole thing seemed to be suspicious to the girl, but given how he had denied confirming his identity earlier and Ryia's lack of social pressuring skills, she had decided to let that sleeping dog lie as well. Besides, there was a second part to their job as well. “Um, well, we still have something to find here. So is there uh, anything else like the ghosts we should be afraid of?” Suddenly he grew suspicious. "Wait, you never did say who you are or what you're doing here....are you some sort of...grave robbers?" “Eh?" The girl stopped in her tracks, realizing how suspicious she must've sounded. This was a shrine and tomb after all. "Oh uh, no. No nothing like that we’re just uh…” the girl fumbled around for a bit trying to find some kind of excuse and failing to think of any. Perhaps it was a pointless endeavor as well, as this was as official as official business got in this forest, she figured, and it wasn't like he'd think they were lying to him anymore then if she told him an actual lie. Recollecting herself she said. “well we we’re just here on a mission from the elves to find something stolen. We’re uh, the Chosen.” He looked at Ryia, blankly, frowning. "That sounds like it's something I should know. Chosen, Chosen...." he seemed to grow distracted as he tried to remember and begun to pace. “Uh,” the girl seemed taken aback by this. After all, she figured that most people knew what the "chosen" were, whether they believed she was one or not. The other elves as well already seemed to know, so being the Lord's son she figured that it'd be equally as common knowledge to him. Though since he was confused, the girl attempted to explain as concisely as she could. “We uh, have spirits and um, are supposed to destroy the demon gates.” The boy did not seem to notice her speak, clearly lost in his own thoughts. "Uhhh..." Unsure how to approach the situation now, the girl looked to the others once again.

Fen, seeing that Kelsey had conjured yet another weapon to fire the small projectiles at her quickly and released her shield from her arm. Then, pressing both of her hands into the ice shield she quickly expanded it into an ice wall. Though the weapons smashed against the wall, chipping it and sending ice shared flying, due to Fen's constant channeling of magic into it the wall held firm. Glad that her defense was able to hold still, the girl's ears perked up as she heard the footsteps of her opponent rushing around to the side. Taking her hand off the wall, Fen conjured an ice dagger and, as soon as Kelsey had appeared her view, tossed the weapon at the girl. "Haha!" The thrusters on the blonde girl's legs ignited as she jumped launching her up into the air and over Fen's dagger. "Too slow!" "Eh?" Fen was caught off guard, yet again, seeing the vertical movement that the leg implements provided. Figuring that another flurry of projectiles was coming from the girl's weapons Fen quickly summoned a shield to her arm and put it up to guard. "You really like to play defense don't you? Sucks for you I'm made to rip and tear!" Around her shoulders bulky metal objects formed. An opening appeared and out of it streaked several oval-shaped objects. When they struck Fen's shield they exploded on impact. Her shield shattering from the impact, Fen was blown back by the force of the attack and tumbled across the ground. Quickly picking herself up though, she looked at the girl's shoulder weapon saying in amazement, "wow! You are full of surprises Kelsey." "You're dang right I am, why don't you give me some of your own?" She said as she landed and right before she dashed forward. "Ah well, uh..." Fen knew her own limits fairly well at present and knew that she had very little in way of surprises. Her abilities were as they appeared - creating constructs of ice - and the best she could do was form different weapon shapes. And though they could take on the form of any weapons, be it swords, axes, bows, spears, ultimately they were just physical constructs that had nothing unique to them minus their chill. And thus far, every simple weapon she could think of had been thwarted by the weapons that Kelsey had managed to conjure as well. As such, Fen was sure that no simple weapon she could make would actually manage to hit her opponent. Then, as she tried to figure out what to shape she was reminded of the ice box that she made for Aduain and the hat rack she made in front of Julian. "Oh!" The girl exclaimed, as she focused on Kelsey now running towards her. She knew that no normal attack would work still, and if she were to take her by surprise she would have to add some more pressure to it. And so, she conjured a longsword in one hand and two daggers in the other. Swinging her arm up, she lobbed one of the daggers into the air, the weapon spinning in an arc towards Kelsey. Then, immediately she tossed the second one in a direct line towards the girl before readying her sword and swinging. Kelsey shot down one dagger and winced as the other came down on her. "Don't bring a knife to a gun fight!" As Kelsey readied her guns at Fen the girl shouted back, "well uh, what about a sword!" Kelsey was too far for the sword to reach normally. However as the blade was swung, a pulse of magic came from Fen's hand and coursed through the blade, rapidly extending the end of it. Kelsey had already begun firing towards Fen and hadn't seen the attack coming, and as such, when she had tried to do a quick dash back the blade managed to bite into the heavy weapons girl. Fen still winced, as the projectiles of Kelsey managed to still pierce her and she grew a bit more concerned as she saw the strange bar continue to lower. Yet still, she didn't pay too much mind to it as she had managed to mount a proper offensive comeback against the girl, having a bit of smile on her face as she managed such a thing.

I am here and I am interested

With their shopping done the group made their way to the arena for the training session. Fen stood at attention as the older man of the group, which had gotten there before their own squad, chided them for being late. The girl mumbled out an, "um, sorry," feeling like the man had a natural sense of authority to him. As he stepped back the other members, three girls, had come up to introduce themselves. The one Fen was to fight, Kelsey, greeted her with a great deal of enthusiasm and curiosity at Fen's own capabilities. Fen herself was curious about Kelsey as well, eyes going towards the girl's metallic arm, but not really sure the proper way to respond the girl simply deferred to giving a polite greeting. With a small bow she said, "oh uh, nice to meet you. I'm Fen and um, I hope for a good fight too." As Grigory went on to explain how things would be going from here, a sense of relief came over Fen as they were told that they wouldn't actually be dealing lasting damage to each other and were still able to fight as they pleased. Though she had doubted such a training exercise was meant to be lethal, she still had been feeling apprehensive about actually fighting those who shared their occupation with deadly force. All the same, with everything cleared up, the groups all split up and were sent to their respective areas. At first glance Fen appeared to have been suddenly transported into a steppe. A large area covered in dry grass. The land was largely flat, with some hills now and then, except for a large rocky crag off towards the east. With the sun just barely cresting over it. However the more she looked the more she’d see it wasn’t quite all there was to it. She could see just from where she stood several craters that broke up the mostly even terrain. A second look would show that it seemed to have been caused by some sort of small explosion. The girl's eyes were wide with awe as she looked around and marveled at just where they were now. It bore no similarity to where they had been previously. "Oh, wow. This is - what incredible magic." She had heard of magic that could transport people before yet had never actually experienced taking a trip like this. As such, the girl was curious about just went into those machines - oh they were machines so perhaps it wasn't magic? - that allowed them to come here. Though, another thought crossed her mind as she looked around for an apparatus to return with, seeing nothing. Eventually, as the sun rose further in the craggy steppe, Fen's eyes looked a ways back to see Kelsey standing with her fists on her hip, a confident expression worn on her face, in contrast to Fen's own shock and awe. Calling out to the girl asked, "have we transported somewhere else? And how do we get back?" "We're still in the arena actually!" Kelsey shouted. "I dunno how it works really but its just a thing this place has. We had something like it back at school but most of the training was in the real deal. Actually this place is modeled after that, though its smaller." "Ooooooh, I see!" Fen will shout back. The girl then mumbled, "what a fascinating world you come from." Clearing her throat, she shouted back, "so do we just um, fight now!?" "That's the idea! I'm aiming to be the first one to finish so soon as you're ready come at me!" "Okay! Then, um, I'm ready to start!" Given her enthusiasm, confidence and a need for speed Fen couldn't help but be reminded of some of the more hot headed people that had been from her guild. As a result, both with her personality, wording and metallic arm Fen figured that the girl probably excelled at fighting close range. Fen, being more of an all rounder, didn't want to get into her enemies area of expertise, and so she instead conjured a bow of ice. There was a brief pause between her forming an arrow and firing it, feeling a bit awkward for responding to the girl with such an attack in addition to just feeling odd still about fighting another person in general. "Oh so that's how it's gonna go down, got it!" Responding to her attack Kelsey began to form a long metallic object in her more fleshy hand, one that Fen hadn't ever seen before. A loud sound emitted from the object and a flash appears in front of it, and what Fen could barely tell were projectiles seemed to be launched from the weapon, shattering her arrow mid flight. With the attack cancelled, Kelsey began to rush towards Fen, who in turn retreated and fired yet another volley of arrows towards the girl. Shattering them with just as much as ease as she previously had, Kelsey then called back, "Ah come on, don't just run away!" "Alright then..." Fen stopped in her tracks. Figuring that she had no means of dealing with that ranged weapon in the current situation, she instead opted to see how things would play out close up. Tossing her bow, which was shot down before hitting its target, the girl conjured a shield and glaive, taking up a defensive stance. Once Kelsey had closed the distance, Fen took a swing at the weapon. However, her opponent simply flashed her a grin as metallic plating was conjured around her legs, shooting out fire from them and propelling Kelsey to the side faster than Fen could have expected. Taken by surprise, Fen could only barely turn to face to see the grin of her opponent close up, before she fired her weapon once more at Fen. Feeling the projectiles pass into her, Fen winced in pain, then looked in surprise again before saying, "oh, that...that didn't hurt as much as I thought it would."

Lana continued to struggle against her skeletal foe, being unable to free herself from its grasp on her throat. Pulling against the arm, the girl tried to step forward to throw the skeleton off, similar to no avail as every other attempt she had made. Continuing to thrash about more and more, the girl had the sudden realization that while her situation was not improving the skeleton had seemed to be moving in accordance to her thrashing. Lana didn't particularly know what this meant, but she figured it meant she had some control in the grapple and that she could move the skeleton even if it was the one currently digging its claws into her neck with no consideration for her ability to breathe. And so, desperate for a way to get the creature off of her, Lana decided to throw her whole weight and the skeleton's to the ground. Jumping up and backwards, Lana both heard and felt the cracking and splintering of bones underneath her as she brought her foe back down to the earth. Coughing, Lana attempted to get her breath back as she groaned in pain. She had thought being punched in the face was bad enough, she had thought that having a good part of her foot bit into was worse, but being strangled certainly seemed to give that a run for its money. Especially having interrupted her moment of triumph so rudely. It was only the second floor, but Lana was already starting to feel her daily allotment of tolerance being whittled away at. She was in a great deal of pain and more than anything else this annoyed her. And with the sheer frequency it had happened, Lana found a need to relieve her stress. Violently. The girl moved her hands across the ground, finding her weapon under the fog once more. Slowly, the girl picked herself back up, her expression clearly ragged and filled with frustration as she looked over to the others. Ziun had seemed to be in a grapple of his own and Chris, helping Estelle, had been fighting his hound before it vanished back into the fog. Lana did not want to kill Ziun with her axe but she was feeling awfully in the mood to smash something as hard as she could. And so, breathing heavily and slowly, Lana quickly limped forward, wincing with every step she took. And when she got close enough back to Chris the hound reared its skeletal head. Letting out a guttural grunt as she hefted her axe up, the girl once again brought the blade in arc down onto the skeletal hound's spine. With its body broken, it fell to the ground harmlessly though with the sound of its teeth still gnashing underneath the fog. Letting out an annoyed sigh at this, the girl brought her axe down into the fog, with the sound of chattering being silenced by the shattering of bones. Looking back at Chris, with how bad this day had been so far very evident in her eyes, the girl said, "it's dead."

The girl continued scrambling around for her axe, finally finding it only to see that the situation behind her was rapidly devolving with three more dogs being on top of them. The girl stood up, wincing in pain as she put pressure on her foot, and tried to figure out what to do. The hounds were already attacking, and much as she wanted to help Estelle she didn't feel confident a swinging her axe with the girl so close and didn't feel confident in her ability to run at all right now. But there were also three more skeletons slowly converging on them. As her mind raced to find a solution, she blinked in confusion as suddenly Chris reappeared in her field of view and was already on top of the hound that was on Estelle. Confused at the blinding speed with which he moved, not thinking much more on it, the girl figured that Ziun already had a handle on the one he was engaged with and Robin had guns, which had to count for something. Turning to face the three skeletons Lana declared, "I'll handle them." Slowly, wincing with each step she took the girl made her way to meet the skeletons halfway. While in a normal situation Lana might have been liable to just charge in, with her current injuries she didn't really feel like moving all that hurriedly. So instead, she paused and started to think, waiting for the skeletons to approach her. The one closest seemed to be missing a head, and from her experience all she would need is one more solid hit on it. With it just blindly moving towards her, Lana raised her axe and in one motion swung it, smashing the spine of the creature and causing the bones to scatter. With one down, the other two started to converge onto her from either side. Slowly backing up, Lana tried to think of what next was going to happen and back to her training with Joan. When Lana had blindly charged at the woman, she had managed to parry her axe with not much trouble and then went for a swing into her stomach. In that situation Lana was "dead," so she liked to believe that the very same would hold true if it was applied to this skeleton. It didn't have a weapon, from what she knew it was likely to either punch or grab at her, which meant the arm was still the best bet. But if she swung at the arm normally, her axe was too weighty and movements to clumsy to actually be able to get a decisive blow against it. That and it had two arms so it was likely to punch her - and always for the face - if she had any delay between her swings. "Right, so last time I..." The girl muttered to herself, moving her grip up the haft of the weapon, reducing her effective range on her axe. When the skeleton finally made its way towards her though, the girl took a quick swing, managing to instantly lop off one of its arms. The skeleton didn't have much of a reaction, instead moving with its other arm towards her. Knowing the attack was coming ahead of time, Lana swiftly ducked under the hand and then, with her axe not nearly having the lag between swings it normally did, she swiftly brought it into the spine of the skeleton, shattering it once again. A surge of pride and joy washed over her as she muttered, "whoa...that was awesome..." She had been able to see everything that was going to happen and reacted accordingly. She managed to fell it without it ever touching her. Which must've meant that - "Gah!" The girl let out a surprised noise as a skeleton had come up from behind her. Having been completely focused on the one, she completely neglected the third skeleton of the group, and had no real preparation for its grapple. The girl elbowed back into its rib cage, though it naturally didn't phase the skeleton at all, in a desperate attempt to shake it off. However, the skeleton still held firm in its grip and started to move its hand to her neck, now squeezing on that. Letting go of her axe, again, Lana pulled out her hand axe, again, and started to thrust the head of the axe backward into its ribs, cracking a few. Using her free hand she tried to pry the skeletal hand off of her neck, though this proved to be impossible as the skeleton's unnatural strength far surpassed her own. "I can't handle them!" The girl called out in a strained voice.

Ryia could do nothing but continue to step back and try to fend off the ghosts. The situation was utterly hopeless. Her attacks did nothing to stop them. Even when they were physical the weapon still passed through them and all that seemed to happen was that they were pushed back. But it was all Ryia could do to defend against two of them at once, let alone attack them to push them back. And to that end there were simply too many of them that even retreat wasn't looking like an option. As the girl backed up, trying to keep her wits about her and everyone else's position in check, her nerves grew more and more and more until finally...they stopped? The tension in the girl's body suddenly dropped as both relief and confusion at what was happening suddenly washed over her. An elven boy had come in, telling the ghosts to stop and...they did. The boy then started to ask questions about the group, but taken aback by everything that had just happened Ryia wasn't able to properly think through or articulate a response. "Uh, we - uh, we're...what just- er, um...who are you?" "Uhh, my name...wait, no that doesn't seem right. Why are a bunch of humans here? How'd you even get here?" Feeling still flustered by the whole ordeal she said, "oh, um right. We're uh, we're looking for someone, or something? We just, well, we just walked here? Through the forest and yeah." Looking back at the black door she then looked back to the boy, clearing her throat before saying, "um, sorry if we're...intruding?" "Well...this is sort of a shrine, but I guess it doesn't matter since its not being used. But, er, what about the barrier?" "Hm? Barrier?" The girl cocked her head in confusion. "We just...walked in here?" The boy looked distracted, suddenly ignoring Ryia. "So maybe it only works one way...But why would he do that? It doesn't make any sense..." He then looked up again but not at Ryia. Instead at the spirit who was still floating aimlessly. "What happened to him?" He began to walk towards the spirit without any sort of fear. Confused still, the girl said, "I uh, don't know. We were fighting the um, ghosts and it's not like we could really hurt them or, well, anything." After a moment of looking around, the girl then remembered what happened seconds ago saying, "but uh, I think he shrieked when the flower there was um, well, cut." "Of course you couldn't hurt them...they're ghosts." He looked at the flower and frowned. "Well that's rude." He sighed. "I suppose I'll have to plant a new one, what a pain..." A bit caught off guard by his nonchalance combined with slight annoyance at having to deal with the ghosts, the girl stammered out an, "um...sorry?" Clearly unsure what to say next to the boy.

With the questions having been answered, both Rumian and Luca being confused by Abby's last question, decided to move on. Clearing his throat, Rumian spoke up saying, "right well, I should also mention something else. Beryn, the Accursed, where he's located. Which is, well, here." The boy pointed to the circle at the south end of the map again. "Legends state that he resides in the throne room of the old castle ruins. Fitting, I suppose." After making his off hand comment he added, "though, uh, it would probably still be best to go to Storm and Ocean's shrine first." He pointed back to the square eastward. "I can't say what lies there but Beryn was known to be quite powerful himself, so, well every little bit helps." Rumian trailed off a bit awkwardly, uncertainty seeming to be in his expression, though this pause barely lasted in the face of Luca's exuberance. "Now that you're all done with questions, I can go show you guys around! Well, at least where you'll be sleeping." The girl bounded out the door as she waited for everyone to follow after her. Rumian, opting to stay behind said, "I'll be here if you have anything more to ask. I have some things to look through and a whole slew of notes to record with, well, all of you here now." Once outside the girl would lead them not too far from the building they had just been in before stopping at a house that seemed no different then any of the others in the area. Similarly, the inside of the small one floor wooden building had been almost identical to Luca's house. Two bed rooms, a common living room area and a small kitchen to the side of that. The only difference was that the living room was lacking the bookcases that Luca's house had as well seeming smaller, if only slightly. After showing them inside the girl said, "make yourselves at home! Oh, but there's a lot of you so," the girl exited the house before pointing to the one adjacent to it saying, "feel free to use that one too!" Were they to check inside they would find it identical to the one they had just looked at. With that done Luca to everyone and said, "you've all done a lot of heroing for today so feel free to rest up! Oh, but I know you have important Exalted things to do too. So you can start doing those things too!" A disappointed expression crossed her face as she said, "I wish I could stay longer but I have chief things to do, especially with those stupid lousy no good Drenger attacking us." Brightening up she said, "but I can't wait to learn more all about you guys!" The girl looked ready to leave, before looking to the east horizon and suddenly remembering something adding on, "oh and be careful when it rains!" OOC

After her rant and going to pick out some fresh produce to use for any common place meal, Fen swiftly followed along after the others as they entered deeper into the store. She continued to be in awe, having never seen such a variety of foods already packed in colorful boxes and crinkling bags. As the question came to what kind of cheese puffs that Percy would like, having now found them in this store, the girl still hadn't the faintest idea. She had thought them to be some kind of pastry but they felt surprisingly solid in the bag for something she knew was called a "puff." Add to that she wasn't exactly sure what Percy's preferences with cheese even were to begin with, not that most of these labels made her think of cheese to begin with at all. Seeing Melissa take one bag after the other and putting it in the girl said, "that uh, probably works best." After walking a bit further into the store, the girl's eyes went wide as they entered a section that was much colder then the rest of the store. Though the actual look of it was a bit different, Fen figured that these were the same kinds of contraptions that was in their own kitchen only much larger and wide scale. The devices themselves weren't what had the girl astonished, though, so much as what was inside of them. Looking at all of the packaging and the labels on them it seemed to imply that there was a large supply of ready made meals stocked on the shelves. Fen had been no stranger to using her power to store food for the sake on longevity, but that was normally directed towards ingredients. She had never actually froze and store a whole meal before. "I still have a lot to learn about this world's cuisine," the girl muttered to herself. As Melissa was directed towards the Ice Cream, Fen nodded along with Morgan as she suggested getting some ice cream from a shop. "We'll uh probably be out for awhile already, and it'd be bad if it melted on us before we got back, right?" Thinking on it a bit more the girl added, "oh and uh, if we wait until later, like after training, it could be a nice way to end our day." Not least to mention that there were so many different unique flavors here that Fen would simply have too hard a time picking just one to settle on for now. Looking at the potatoes the girl was, again, met with cuisine she had never seen before, looking at the various forms of frozen potatoes arranged into varying shapes and seemingly all prepared in different ways. The girl pulled out a package of hash browns, and with it calling itself a great addition to any breakfast Fen decided to take it at face value. "Um, this should work." Looking back, the girl couldn't help but still be curious about the "Fries" and "tater tots," simple though they might have seemed. As she put the package away, she then thought about what was in their cart more and what Melissa had also said earlier. "Hm...I think I'll go back to the produce to get some more potatoes there too. You, uh, you were talking about stew right? Well, our cart is full of a lot of stuff that could be used to make it. All we need left is the meat." Usually chicken or beef made for good stew, though Fen was a bit hesitant to say anything on that matter. It wasn't as though she had anything against using common ingredients - she made dishes like that all the time in fact - but being in a foreign land with so many foreign ingredients made her feel like it would be a waste to just stick to those. Though there was still the matter of getting used to the cooking appliances, and her own teammates preferences at that, so she didn't want to just dive straight into the deep end, especially with this being a standard supply run. "That uh, that should probably be everything we need - food wise. Then we can get whatever else we need and head straight back. Does that uh, work for everyone?"

Running forward through the fog covered room, the girl's attention was suddenly turned by the familiar sounds of skeletal paws against the ground. Looking to the side to see, out from the fog wall, another skeletal hound leap from it towards her. With a bit of a panic at this sudden appearance and it already now close upon her, the girl raised her foot in an attempt to kick the dog away. Unfortunately for her, the dog seemed to have already been coming for her legs and immediately sunk its teeth into her foot as she tried to push it away. Letting out a yelp of pain Lana brought down her foot, only causing her to yelp in pain again as she could feel the teeth sink in more, the girl grit her teeth in frustration. "I have had enough of all of you!" Bringing down her axe onto the spine of the hound, causing it to crack a little, the hound only responded by tightening its grip on her foot. "Get off!" With another swing, this time she shattered the part of the spine she had struck earlier and in doing so caused the hound to be missing its back half. Unfortunately, its front half still seemed to be very alive - or unalive? - and still looked like it was having a grand old time enjoying her snack of a foot. Not wanting to swing her axe down on her own foot by accident, the girl dropped her weapon and started to attempt to pry it off with her bare hands. Then, hearing the call of one of her teammates the girl shouted, "Chris! It's eating my foot!" Rushing over, the roguish boy assessed the situation and pulled out his dagger. Getting close to the hound's face, Chris went to assist in prying open the creature's mouth saying, "okay, uh, I dunno if this'll hurt or not so it probably will." Though Lana felt very not reassured from this, the two of them managed to pull the hound off her foot and managed to not get it stabbed by a dagger. With an almost growl of frustration, Lana pulled out her hand axe and swung the weapon down on the skull of the skeleton. Letting out a sigh, the girl decided to go pick up her weapon she had previously discarded. However, looking down and seeing the wall of mist on the ground, she swore under her breath. Crouching down, the girl let out some annoyed, "ows," as she crawled along the floor, pawing for her weapon.

Ryia had been dreading exactly what had happened with Lindow as soon as she was aware her opponent was ghosts. Though having something of a meek personality, Ryia had never been particularly shy when it came to combat. After all, when it came to conversation there was so little she knew. She was clumsy, she wasn't good at articulating her thoughts and she had had little confidence in her general intelligence, and so she always was afraid that she'd embarrass herself or say something wrong. Combat, however, was a different matter altogether. She knew she was strong and she knew that, generally, if you hit something enough it would eventually die. Ghosts, however, were the exception to this rule. If her weapon couldn't pierce through the specter then there was no way she could defeat it. And if she couldn't defeat it like so then there was no way she could protect herself or the others from their attacks. This was made only worse by the sheer quantity of them that were still around, slowly encroaching on her and who were already on top of Lindow. With the ghosts forming a horse shoe formation around her, the only thing Ryia could think to do was make a quick retreat. Running backward through the only opening that was there, she saw that there were two ghosts closing in on her sides, spears at the ready. The Earth Chosen had heard from Keres, and saw to an effect, that they were physical when they attacked, which made her wonder if that meant their spears needed to pass through her armor first when they attacked. And so, with two of them on either side of her, the girl changed from running straight to a diagonal towards one of the ghosts, who raised its spear to thrust at her. Bringing her shield up, a look of great relief passed over her face as the polearm bounced off her shield like any other weapon would. With some form of confidence growing at the prospect of being able to actually affect these ghosts, Ryia turned back to face the one she just parried. Gulping as she saw the wave of specters making their way towards her en masse the girl called out, "uh, K-Keres, cover my sides. Please." And readied her shield. With the ghost in front of her stabbing, Ryia once again parried the attack away with her shield and swung her sword into its ghostly form. The blade was met with some resistance as she swung it and the ghost was pushed back from the attack. Though her brief moment of triumph was replaced with fear as it seemed to be entirely no worse for the wear and resumed its forward advance. As one on her side made for a stab it was met with water striking it, causing its attention to be directed towards the mage. Looking back, half of the ghosts that were originally after her also seemed to be moving closer towards both Madelyn and Lindow as well. "Um, Madelyn, Keres! They're uh, coming towards you!" The girl gave something of an obvious warning to the two as she tried to hurriedly figure out what to do about this. There was no way that she could stop all eight of them at once, to say nothing of the four that were still on Lindow. And so doing all that she could, she tried to focus on the three that were still near her. In an attempt to keep their attention on her the girl swung her sword into the ghost, harmlessly passing through the phantom but causing it to turn towards her. With spear raised, the ghost struck at Ryia only for her to parry it once again. Turning to face the others still coming at her, the girl made a rather pathetic attempt at taunting, "uh, c-come at me you...ghosts..."

Lana continued to stand on edge, awaiting the hound's attack from the fog and it seemed her alertness had paid off. Though, not in any way that would show a level headed patience, as she frantically smashed her axe down on the first thing that had jumped out. Thankfully this was a skeletal hound and she managed to smash its head in before it actually could bite her. The sense of victory that was accompanied by this attack lasted for less than a second as she realized the body had already been mid leap and was moving towards her. Quite like what she experienced with the skeleton's punching her, the force from the bony body smashing into her chest was much larger then its appearance would suggest. Being knocked off her feet and slamming her butt into the ground, she stammered out an, "ow ow ow -" wincing a bit from the pain as she tried to pull herself up. The girl's pained expression was replaced with one of irritability as the girl saw that the now headless hound was still upright and moving towards her. "Oh come on!" With its claws reaching out towards her and no room to get a good swing off Lana let go of her axe, letting out an "oof" as the haft landed on her thighs, before grabbing at the headless skeleton's neck. As its claws scratched into the side of her body she winced in pain, she shoved the skeletal hound away from her. As the hound scrambled to its feet the girl quickly pulled out her hand axe and smashed the blade into its rib cage. Being knocked off balance yet again, the hound wobbled away from Lana as the girl swung into its spine, shattering the creature into its second death. Sheathing her axe as it fell, the girl looked over in surprise as quick shouted out to her saying, "oh right - wait - wait up!" The girl grabbed her great axe, scrambling to her feet as she rushed after Chris.

Rumian put a hand to his chin thinking about what Gene had said before saying, "I have never personally been there but I do believe it'd be a good first stop for you all. You were all brought here by Ocean's power so it stands to reason that there is something related to that at a shrine that has been blessed by her as well." As Drake went on to ask his own question, this time both Luca and Rumian seemed confused by the question. "What's a currency?" The girl asked, only to be met with a similarly confused look from Rumian. "I don't know what you mean by all that stuff, but I can tell you all about the food! We've got stuff like bread, and maize and millets and gazelles - oh there was this one time an elephant came too close to the town so we had to get rid of it. It was really tasty too, but I don't think we have any. Sometimes we also get berries when we go hunting and supply collecting." "If you want some food we'll be happy to get some for you." "Yeah!" Luca nodded excitedly. "I don't know how it works where you're from, but here whenever you finish a task for the day you get your food provided to you. And you guys are the Exalted, which means you're job is to be heroes, and you've already done heroing today!" Rumian thought more before saying, "oh, we should also probably get them a home to stay at for the time being. It shouldn't be too hard finding you a place right now so, we can go look now. But," he looked to the others that had been silent thus far. "Any other questions?"