Skaia

Like most days since her adventuring career had started, Lana was not currently having a good day. The zombie had grabbed onto her and, quite the skeletons before it, had something of a powerful grip to its decaying fleshy hands. Unlike the skeletons, that seemed more keen on punching and clawing out her face, this one seemed more poised to just try and eat her. The girl's eyes went wide as it opened its mouth wide and was ready to go bite into where Lana assumed would be her throat; unlike her foot, a very vital part to her continued living. Lana, unable to draw her axe in a timely manner to hack the creature's face off and resorted to a more hands on approach. 

Using both of her hands, the girl grabbed and pushed against the creature's face keeping it at bay and away from her neck though clearly in a losing contest of strength. Needing something more, the girl tried to think of what to do, before she had remembered how she had beaten the skeleton that had put her in a similar situation. The girl brought up her knee and started pushing it the side of the zombie, and through a stroke of luck this also happened to be right into the axe wound she had put into it earlier. Lana's face a mix of disgust and panic, not particularly enjoying the feeling of rotten flesh in her hands or the fact that her knee was going deeper than the surface of the zombie. This mixture then gave way to shock as, through her ridiculously now poor balance she lost her footing and with that basically threw her entire weight against the zombie, shoving it away from her. 

Falling to the ground, hands first, the girl let out a sigh of relief before realizing that she, and her neck, were still in mortal peril. Reaching quickly for her hand axe, the girl awkwardly stood up just in time for the zombie to be back on top of her. Bringing her axe up, the girl pushed with the head of the axe against the creature's face, trying to act as a stop gap between its teeth and her skin. As she continued to struggle against this, she barely noticed a few streaks of light coming in, caving in the zombies skull from the back and making a grotesque popping sound and the barely intact head slid off her axe blade and on to the ground. 

Estelle, after having shot her arrow at the eyeball, had taken note of her surroundings and saw that Lana had been struggling with the undead creature. Not wanting to shoot an arrow into a melee like that, the mage had opted to go into a more reliable approach. Letting loose three missile of force, unerring in their accuracy, the small blasts had found their mark and slayed the zombie. Lana looked over and saw the mage with her hand outstretched, putting two and two together that she had been saved by her noble friend's magic. Letting out a true sigh of relief the girl said, "th-thanks!" Only for this relief to be replaced with more and more dread as she saw that the room was still filled with more zombies and floating eyes. Sheathing her hand axe, the girl walked over and picked up her two handed weapon before getting ready to keep fighting the undead off. 

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As Kelsey had explained to her what it was that the two of her squad could do, Fen looked between the two fights. Grigory had certainly seemed to fit the profile of "bear" as he seemed to unflinchingly take whatever attack the duo had sent his way. Add to that she could tell just by looking at the way he fought it wasn't as though he was simply a reckless brute, but that there was definitely a degree of skill and intuition used in his actions. Looking at the same fight she also couldn't help but be a bit disconcerted by the macabre way in which Morgan fought. Looking to the other monitor, the girl couldn't help let out an, "eh?" Kelsey had said that the girl, Rei, didn't show off much but the absolute carnage that she and Melissa seemed to be wreaking upon the forest seemed to tell her a bit of a different story. 

The two other fights seemed to be down to the wire, quite like hers, which she found more impressive given that one of them was two against one. Yet, in the end, the fight of Rei and Melissa's ended with Rei as the victor. Fen looked over to see the pods opening that they had gone into, being a bit surprised by the sudden noise of them despite it being obvious that such a thing would happen. Looking over to the two fighters Fen gave a wave and called out to them saying, "oh uh, welcome back Melissa, and you too Rei." The girl looked back to the screen displaying the other fight saying, "hm, it uh, looks like they're just about to finish up too." Thinking about what she and the others of her squad had talked about earlier in the day, she looked back to Kelsey and asked, "when they're uh, all done, we were planning on getting ice cream. Would uh, you and Rei want to come along? Oh! And Fiona, too."  

Abby was no mage and the form of healing was in its most simple form. As a result, only a small wound seemed to close on the bear's flank and it was impossible to tell at the moment if it had actually known that it was healed at all. It certainly seemed to be far more focused on the Drengr in front of it, their number seeming to dwindle as it continued to fight them. One of the three that was still engaged with it moved forward and stabbed the shoulder of the creature with its spear, though the bear seemed to press on despite the injury moving towards the stabber and driving the spear deeper into its shoulder as a result. This was hardly a victory for the Drengr, however, as it soon found part of its neck and shoulder in the bear's mouth, the jaws clamping down on it before whipping it to the side and tossing the now corpse away. The two left engaged with it didn't really think they had much of a chance but things were too far gone that their fight or flight instincts had picked the former, causing them to go into a frenzy and madly rush the bear, injuring the beast more and starting to show that the creature was nearing a critical amount of wounds. 

As a result of all of this there was no one to help the other set of Drengr with the Exalted. One of them had been killed and the other on the ground, bleeding out and struggling to get back up. And the one that had split off from Gene, thinking him an easier mark then the bear, had found himself impaled. The Drengr dropped its weapon from the sheer shock of Marshal's attack impaling its side, and seemed to take a moment to process what was going on before finally looking to the person who stabbed him and start swinging its claws wildly at them. 

As Sibyl's hand deflected off a forcefield the girl said, "another wall huh? Well, I'll just have to put it up to another stress test." The girl extended out both of her arms to the side of the walls, smashing them against the wall and leaving her midsection undefended. As the robot shot out an electrified hand towards her, a third arm of shadow appeared out from the girl's waist, catching the fist mid-flight. The electricity tried to arc across it but found the mysterious dark substance that the arm was made of incredibly non-conductive. "Ho ho, so you're not just a wall on legs?" The girl seemed to be enjoying taunting the creature, the grin on her face still present. As she heard the shout of Vi from the down the hall, Sibyl noticed that the walls were in fact starting to heal. Yet that did little to dampen her mood. 

"What does it matter? Our job is to break shit and if it fixes itself then we just have more to break!" She shouted back, entirely uncaring about what could even be causing it in the first place. "Now back to you," The girl swung both of her hands at either side of the robot's head, the first one smashing against yet another shield and the second one managing to hit the metallic head. The robot stumbled from the attack, though seemed to be somewhat durable and still capable of offense, as in tandem with her attack it had fired off another fist towards her. Sibyl, with her third arm, swung it and the arm it was holding towards the robot's attack, knocking the metallic hand off course but still managing to let out a pulse of force that struck Sibyl's side, causing the demon girl to be knocked down. 

Letting out a small chuckle the girl said, "now you're getting into it." The girl swung one arm into the wall, digging her claws into it, before herself up and off the ground, practically flinging herself towards the robot. With both of her other hands still free, she clenched them into fists and swung at the robot, the mechanical adversary projecting yet another wall that was smashed under the force of the two arms and being struck. The robot stumbled backwards, going towards Alder and the woman with Sibyl shouting, "heads up old timer!" Giggling a little in glee as she did. 

Having shot the eyeball already, and it still standing, Estelle had opted to fire yet another arrow at the eyeball creature. The monster, however, was both quite aware of its assailant as well as quite nimble. As the arrow was let loose, the eyeball floated to the side, avoiding the arrow and putting itself behind one of the zombies, using that creature as cover. As the distraction from Ziun started, though, that zombie and the other in the mist seemed to turn their attention towards it. 

Lana's faced scrunched up in disgust as she felt the axe sink into the soft flesh of the zombies head. Splitting heads wasn't something she found an enjoyable feeling in general, but feeling like she had just slashed through an overripe watermelon only added to the grossness of the action and creature that she was fighting against. Pulling her axe out of its head, the girl saw that another zombie was moving towards her, starting to go from its little shamble into a lunge. Lana quickly choked up her axe and recklessly swung at the creature, digging her blade into the side of the zombie but not deterring its advance at all. Letting go of her weapon, the zombie clearly now getting in range, the girl reached for her hand axe but was unable to pull it out in time. Raising her free hand up, the girl grabbed onto the zombie face to try to push it away as it had grabbed her. "Get off, get off, get off!" The girl was so busy with the zombie trying to maul her that she barely registered the sudden song playing, left more confused then anything by it. 

As Sabrina had gotten the first blood against the Drengr and could see that the bear up close now, she would notice that it was already injured. Though it seemed large and muscular, and thus the wounds it had accrued thus far hadn't been too serious, it did seem like it was having trouble dealing with the seven Drengr. Though, some of the Drengr that were still facing the bear were already wounded, with all of them armed they seemed to still pose a definite threat to the creature. Notably, now that she was closer she could see that there was no clear leader of the pack, all of them seeming to be equally sized and equally involved in the fight.

In spite of this they were still very on edge as the bear roared yet again, itself seeming wary and more wild at the presence of yet another living creature with a weapon near it, and charged at one of them. The silver stripes on the bear's body began to glow and a dull hum would be able to be heard as it charged forward, thrusting its claw rather than swiping it at one of the nearby Drengr. The others had jumped back away from it, clearly afraid of being run over by the massive creature, with the unlucky one that was targeted being pierced by the claws. The body of the Drengr, now impaled, began to vibrate violently. The bear tossed it to the ground, the previously impaled Drengr clearly now dead, and seemed to triumphant for a moment only for the other to charge it and strike at it with their various weapons. 

The one that Sabrina had attacked was not one of the ones already injured, but he certainly was now. A giant gash now on its chest, dropping its spear the creature snarled but backed away from the attack. However the one next to him, now shouting to at both Sabrina and the other Drengr, seemed far more ready to attack the girl. Though it didn't seem to be speaking a coherent language, she could definitely tell it was swearing at both her and them and was very unhappy. The Drengr, wielding a handaxe, rushed towards the girl and went to swing its axe at her shoulder. 

As Lana made her way forward, the undead naturally noticed the girl and started to make their way towards her. The girl had figured this would be the case, and got herself ready for their advance only to look towards the incredibly disgusting floating eyeball in the room. It, as well, was looking at her. And then its stare turned into a beam of dark energy, causing Lana to yelp and leap southward to avoid. "These guys can also do magic?" The girl questioned, with the implication that she found this to be unfair in her tone. Though thinking more on it she didn't really know how a giant eye would fight otherwise. 

As Ziun went to work his magic, the girl saw that the zombies were still advancing. And still moving towards her. "Alright, that didn't seem to work." The girl kept her stance ready, then hearing Chris's plan as it seemed that he and the rest were in fact hidden. She continued not have a good understanding of how magic worked, or why it didn't work on her, but she just nodded along figuring that things would work out last time. "I'll scream too if something goes wrong." Then, continuing to move along with the rest of the group, the girl readied her axe in order to follow up with a swing to the creature's head when Chris tripped it. 

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."