Doggo

Outside Team Bartleby's home away from home came the excited flopping sound of fins slapping the pavement. Unusual perhaps but not a first for these parts though it had been some time. The door to the apartment building burst open revealing Aduain, freshly returned from the oceanside city, to all of nobody in the entrance way. That wasn't super unusual. Everyone had a room, it was morning. Sleep or food were believable enough distractions. The fish boy took in a deep breath through the gills at his sides before letting it out and looking the place over. No immediate changes. It had only been a day so that was to be expected. But given the way they could customize rooms for some of their pay he had been hoping someone on the team had bought something silly. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeey! Team?" Aduain happily shouted into the room trying to guage where people were. The only thing he had on his person was his familiar weapon though right now it was conspicuously across his shoulder with a large bag tied to the end of it. After shouting he set the whole improvised backpack affair onto the nearby table. The watch's notifications about potential skeletons seemed exciting but it wasn't quite enough to distract him from opening the bag to ready the souvenirs he'd gotten for everyone. A large apple-looking type fruit that was a shade of green the fish had never seen before, a bizarre trading card from a game he had little knowledge of, a book or two, and several simple wooden boxes of traditional Prana seaside cuisine were soon unpacked. The apple was for Bartleby though seeing the creature asleep he decided it better to wait for it to wake to present the gift. The rest he hadn't entirely settled on. "Hopefully everyone likes the food. They got some weird fish out there. Tasty, but weird. If someone knows what the card's from that's easy. Maybe I shoulda actually read these books before gettin' em." The boy casually narrated his thought process while looking over his bounty. One book was thicker and without title. Only upon opening it did Aduain realize the people had gifted him a copy of some of their holy texts. "Ohhhhh that makes a lot of sense." Aduain's epiphany came quickly. The town he'd been sent to was a lot more simple in its construction than the city they currently resided in. And the people had reflected that simplicity, many of them content to work their jobs and worship an ancient Dragon deity of some kind. The most prominent structure in the town had been a shrine to said Dragon. Aduain had even gifted his hat (pair of shorts) from Mauvache as a tribute and while those attending to the shrine had seemed confused they had thanked him for his generosity and had gifted this book in return. This brought Aduain's attention to the second book. It was much smaller and paperback and opening it revealed it to be some sort of comic book. That was exciting enough and the fish began flipping through it casually to see if he could judge whose tastes it might fit. Pausing somewhere in the middle his eyes widened and he shut the book quickly before wrapping it back up in the bag he'd held everything in. "Heh, maybe that one just goes upstairs with me." he said nervously. This was a very naughty book and probably didnt make for a great gift. But that was okay there was still the food to go around. All kinds of sushi preparations that even now tempted his rumbling stomach. But it would be better to eat a shared meal for sure so he was willing to ignore it for now. The goods secured it was time to find his teammates for real this time. Shouting could only get one so far after all.

Relief was all Estelle could feel as the battered team hobbled over the finish line for this leg of the dungeon. In the next room waited their reward and their ticket out which they would certainly need. With respite afforded them the mage looked over Ziun for any injuries in need of immediate attention. Their escape would provide them means of healing anyway but it wouldn't help much should any of them bleed out prior to walking through the portal. Her patchwork healing satisfied she turned to the group's reward for surviving this wave of floors. The Fereis' eyes landed immediately on the wand which the others had passed up. Magecraft theory abounded and eyes darted back and forth excitedly as she took in its structure and composition while attempting to divine it's function. Ultimately it was a project for a much more fresh Estellise but one she was eager to undertake. "I should like to examine this with my father. He has a brilliant mind for these sorts of things. Once we have ascertained its nature I shall present it to the group to propose ownership." Estelle decided on the magical objects short term fate. As with previous ventures she took next to no gold and left a greater share for her comrades who did not have one of the town's major family's financial backing. With the loot decided and divided the group took to exiting through the portal. For a moment it felt natural that it should be night time. Yet only as Chris addressed her did she manage to take notice of the oddity herself. So long as she herself welcomed Chris at the front gate to the estate she didn't foresee difficulties with their agreed upon meeting but she did worry what her mother would say at her coming home this late from the Dungeon. That lecture might well take until well past Chris' arrival and it wouldn't do to be unkempt herself for their appointment. She had the walk home to strategize on how best to avoid her mother's ire at least. "Yes of course Chris." she said with a well practiced curtsy. "I shall greet you personally to avoid the previous complications. Do take your time, the library should not be going anywhere." Estelle joked and couldn't help but giggle to herself about the idea of the books dancing away from their grasp. A harmless trick to play one day with her cousin should he ever find the free time. Once all farewells were accounted for Estelle began her walk to the Fereis estate, thinking of how best to duck into her room without attracting too much attention.

In her desire to not blow the impaired Ziun up with the ghoul clawing it at, Estelle had found her improvised attack only good for getting the beast to scrap with her instead. The bard was out of its grasps and that was good. But the Fereis was not good at these down and dirty kind of engagements and so raised her hands to channel magic about the only thing she could do in the situation. The ghoul, perhaps because of the simplicity of its task, knew much more readily what to do to the mage and lodged a claw in her side after swiping at her. The pain that shot through her waist quickly subsided as the paralyzing numbness effect struck her for the first time. How her companions had fought as long as they did under these effects was a question for later. She returned a blast of light into the thing's face which stunned it off of her for a moment but did not kill it as readily as when she had time to aim and prepare the spells. Still, Estelle wouldn't waste time. Before the the ghoul's blight spread to any of her limbs she needed to get Ziun through to the staircase. She provided another quick improvised blast to the ghoul's face, not enough to kill it but it would have to do. "I have got you, do your best to move!" The mage hurriedly assured Ziun as she lifted one of his arms up and over her shoulders. While not in the best physical shape for this sort of task she had bought the pair enough time to make it closer to the stairs before the ghoul continued in pursuit of them. What's more the bodak was now concentrating on the pair and Estelle only barely managed to escape its gaze as its attention darted to her from Chris. With a bit more of an idea to her magic this time she called back the orb of light she had sent out into the room, it's glow all but extinguished from her lack of attention. It flew between the escaping party and the undead and began glowing in brighter intensity than before while shrinking in size as magical power again flowed into it. "Eyes forward, into the stairs!" came Estelle's warning to Ziun if he had his eyes open at all and to Chris if he was still waiting for them to make it through to go down himself. Not a moment sooner the orb erupted into a powerful burst of light, forcing the bodak's curse-laiden eyes shut and the already partially dazed ghoul to pause and cower from it while the Fereis finished dragging Ziun to their goal. The flash lasted only a few moments, just barely enough to ensure the entire group's escape.

Faster than he could have anticipated any man of the Lycan's frame, Reinaan felt a sturdy blow to his chest that knocked him to the ground. He could keep up with Lindow's swift movements in all but the most chaotic encounters but this he didn't register and it would have been concerning if he had the breath and time on hand to think about that. To add insult to injury he heard the boss wolf's mocking tone more clearly than his words as he struggled back to his feet. With a snort and a cough the young draken readied himself again, staring daggers at his opponent. He focused all his senses on the man as if he were caught up in the midst of a vital hunt. He couldn't afford to be taken by surprise like that again. "You'll regret not killing me there." the boy snarled more than he spoke. Being understood was not relevant at the moment. Reinaan began his approach by running at the lycan though not at as fast as he could. From a single exchange he knew there was no way to keep up with the wolfman's speed. Instead he needed to be ready to stop and intercept another blow. Yet the lycan made no repeat performance, allowing the draken to approach as he crouched and prepared to grab his assailant. The fire chosen swung his right hand out, looking to discourage the maneuver and disfigure the wolf's pretty face. To Reinaan's alarm, rather than flaying flesh he found his wrist grabbed. "Come here." the wolfman said with a smile as he pulled Reinaan in by the wrist and readied his other hand to punch the boy in the face. The draken barely managed to throw his fist up to intercept it only to immediately realize speed wasn't the only advantage his opponent had on him. The force of the punch jammed every joint in his arm as it began to push back under the pressure. The lycan reared his head back as if he intended to headbutt. There was no straightforward way out of the grapple so the young hunter leaned into the pull, relieving the pressure of the punch and allowing him a makeshift attempt at a flank. It was nothing sophisticated. Both arms were occuppied so the boy kicked into the man's kneecap as hard as he could muster. The lycan took it with a grunt before trying to throw Reinaan off to his side. The boy used this motion as well and pivoted his hip to slam the whole of his tail into the mans chest. Another grunt as the blow landed. "That's right, keep trying. I actually felt something!" The boss laughed as the two had a brief repose; still in close range but out of the grapple. Reinaan lowered himself and charged in leading with his head to grab the wolfman by the waist. The lycan made no effort to stop the move but instead grabbed Reinaan in return and actually began lifting the Draken up and off the ground. Panic set in and Reinaan did what he could. Chomp! The boy's teeth dug in as deeply as he could manage as he bit into the lycan's side. This elicited a snarl of pain from the man but Reinaan had no time to register it. A strong elbow crashed down onto the top of the boy's head causing him to black out for a moment. The darkness held no dream, no nightmare, only silence as the boy's brain scrambled to settle itself. When light returned to his eyes Reinaan found his bite grip lost and his whole body well above the ground in his opponents arms. Another instinct, Reinaan unleashed a stream of fire in the wolf's face. As the flames licked him he snarled and slammed Reinaan to the ground with a powerful thud. Between this and the blow to the head the Fire Chosen stayed in place, motionless for an uncomfortably long time. His tail shot up first breaking the tension of if he was even still alive but all he could manage yet a fist to the ground to look up back to his opponent.

The bodak didn't keep Estelle waiting long. She'd wanted to know where it was hiding and it soon made itself known in spite of the light. As did some other undead, a ghoul most particularly attention grabbing for the mage as it was coming right at her. With a bit of luck the bodak's gaze did not seem to be on her as she couldn't help but look its way once or twice instinctually to make sure it wasn't looking at her. The paradoxical nature of that line of thinking would have to be parsed out later as she returned her attention to the advancing ghoul. Making use of the time it would take the creature to close the gap the mage aimed carefully to blast an arrow into the things head. The magic sailed not a moment too soon, striking the creature down. This seemed enough to stop it unlike some of the zombies taking damage to their heads. Useful information maybe but again something for another time. From the sounds around her the mage could take stock of Ziun being in immediate distress and Lana having perhaps experienced some of the bodak's powers for herself. The latter was at least not immediately grappling her foe so despite her concerns the mage moved to help the entangled bard. "Hold on!" Estelle called as she took off running toward Ziun. Given she was as likely to hit Ziun as the ghoul from this range it seemed only right to attack the thing directly. What would normally be one of her arrows condensed into a rough approximation of a dagger in her hand ready to slash the beast off her ally. That seemed a bit less likely to accidentally hurt him at least.

Upon even the glimpse of a figure moving in the edge of the light her prior sphere was still casting Estelle instinctually averted her gaze to avoid a repeat of her earlier encounter. Thankfully Lana seemed to have her opponent well in hand because this shift in focus drew the mage's attention to the new assailants coming from the other direction she'd turned Ziun's attention to. Said bard was engaging a zombie while another of the ghouls was making a mad dash to Chris who was still devoting himself to lock picking. Estelle turned about to better aim and attack the monster, quickly shifting from the exploding fireball strategy back to a more common approach for the Fereis. A lance made of light sailed through the air piercing the ghoul through the chest before lodging itself into the wall of the building. The thing's movement was stopped just a hair shy of being able to reach Chris which gave Estelle a moment to pin down the figure she had spotted. "Where are you hiding?" she muttered as she shifted the orb of light's direction of travel upward through the room. If she really had seen the bodak it was trying to get closer to them without coming into view. There was no sign of anything except the outlines of head stones marking graves along the ground. That was until the orb stopped at its new intended destination. Again another figure hiding in the edges of the light, just out of view. And again Estellise jerked her head away for fear of seeing her own death. Thankfully all she saw was the ongoing struggle to keep Chris protected so they could leave this undead nightmare of a floor. She returned to the ghoul still trying its hardest to tear Chris apart. Her spear wouldn't last long so the mage aimed and shot several more arrows of light into the thing's head. It died fairly quickly and just in time as the lance spell faded, letting the now corpse slide down the wall.

While the others engaged the much more human than he was expecting lycan, Reinaan tried to get his best estimate of the pack surrounding them. They were clearly more on the man side of things than beast as they wouldn't simply walk into whatever traps he'd set. It wasn't like they'd have stopped full on wolves anyway but it still irritated the boy that he'd set about working on the things, failed to teach the others how to help him, and wasn't seeing results for it. He couldn't get a read on just how many others were surrounding them either as his attention split between the conversation at hand. First Lindow explained what they wanted and offered to help the pack since the group had no particular loyalty to the elven city. The leader seemed fairly confident the demon gate was no where in the woods, at least so far as his territory covered. Ryia next tried to simply talk and exchange information, learning the woods were dying. Reinaan for his part was softly snarling at the idea of any of the animals being eaten as he rested his halberd over his shoulder. Even if he didn't like all the things the wolfman was saying, there was a certain simplicity to it the hunter respected. "Sure took a while to find anyone talking sense in this forest." Reinaan spoke, inserting himself into the talks as his more wild self had been mentioned. "Humans and Elves sure like making things complicated. But I get guys like you. Hope you'll get me when I say you're not getting a bite out of anything here." The Draken said defensively. If the hunter did understand this man like he thought he did, displays of confidence would go a long way. But in the end it would come down to raw power. "Oh? I'm not so sure that's up to you, you know." The leader of the pack responded calmly. It was difficult to deny that most of them there would take a bite or two if the entire pack rushed them at once. Reinaan still felt confident they could win the fight but wasn't huge on endangering Kloqah or the Mule like that, let alone Sparky. The boy puffed his chest a bit as he often naturally did in these sorts of situations. A hold over from needing to look bigger than he was prior to his growth spurt on the quest. "I'll make it up to me. I already challenged your territory." Reinaan began smugly. "Let's you and I fight that out then talk who's eating who." He concluded, issuing a formal challenge to a one on one fight. If the man took him up on this it would be a lot cleaner than an all out brawl and he could keep everyone safe. "Ahahaha, bold of you. I dont really have any reason to accept. After all me and my pack could close in and finish you all off in moments. But..." That was the hesitation Reinaan had been waiting for as the man glanced back over the animals and Ryia before smirking. "I guess it'll make it easier to keep from losing the good bits. I'll fight you, dragon-child, and once I've crushed your skull between my fingers we can deal with the rest." He said with a far more natural confidence than Reinaan was feeling in the moment. Still, being called a dragon-child was doing wonders for the boy's ego as he set his weapon down and readied his claws for true animalistic clash with the man. "Knew you'd have some honor. Figures the elves can't deal with you themselves." The draken said as he stepped closer to meet the challenge he'd put forth. "It's not about honor, kid, I just know this isn't going to take long."

For her part Estelle wasn't entirely sure how best to heed Lana's advice. They needed to be on guard for further surprises, but when a look from one of them could cause you to writhe in pain and hallucinate it put a damper on wanting to keep a proper look out. It was no surprise then that Lana was first to catch on to their next assailants, especially when they attacked her first while she investigated the locked door. With Chris' help Lana was in a position to at least fight the ghoul on fair terms while the former took to picking the lock. Estelle for her part readied her magic, uncertain of how best to intervene with the immediate threat. She was as liable to hit Lana from this angle as she was the monster and her brain hadn't as yet thought to move, perhaps fearing the risk of being out of sight of the others due to the fog. "Lana, are you-" the Fereis tried to assess her friend's situation. But it was then the unfortunate silhouette of the sword wielding skeleton came into view for her. The mage gasped and nearly squeaked in fear that the bodak had returned to the fight. Less than eager to see her death again, at once her aim was on the skeleton. The magic in her hand erupted into a fireball rather than her usual fair of elegant light constructs. The spell sailed away from her hands at alarming speed and exploded on impact with the skeleton's ribcage and spine. It was a messy but effective separation of its legs from its torso. The sound of shattering bones after the explosion's reverberation through the cavern confirmed the skeleton to be all but unable to move but Estelle couldn't see it clearly enough through the fog to tell. It was enough to know the larger threat still loomed in the fog somewhere though which didn't help her nerves. "Ziun, I advise we split our watch." She called out to the bard behind her knowing she wouldn't be able to react in time if something came from that direction. "I shall attend Lana from our front, you alert us of anything from behind and keep it off Chris." Estelle said trying to employ a simple plan to keep Chris covered from all sides. She readied another fireball, taking her time with this one as she looked for a clean spot to intervene in Lana's confrontation.

Being in the back half of the teleportation move Jirachi had performed, Noibat came closer to the Mist than she had ever wanted. It moved in an unnatural way, almost malicious in her anxiety ridden mind, like it wanted to attack her personally. But the light from the small wish-granter whisked her away in time to avoid contact with the force that sought to end the entire pokemon world. Before she had a moment to adjust to the various sensations involved they were already done and arrived at their destination. The center of the island as Jirachi put it. So they had a bit more time before the Mist came for them again but if they did nothing it would just be a repeat of the previous scene. Having seen it first hand now it was something she hoped to avoid and they were granted an opportunity. Albeit one Noibat had to do everything she could to try and not scoff at. "A wish? Based on happiness and hope..." Noibat thought and moped to herself though unknowingly the sentiment would echo into the other's minds via the telepathy she still didnt know she had if they weren't overly involved in their own thoughts. That was a tall order given what she remembered. All she could remember was the forums. And while that gave her a lot of memories to work with, a lot of that was centered around the 2010 era. Not exactly a happy time in hindsight. A dumb teenaged Noi- well Fleur at this point there was no need to hide her username from her own thoughts. A dumb teenaged Fleur was hyperactive in the clubs section of the forum and in various associated circles as a result. A lot of it was pointless drama cooked up by other dumb teens not thinking twice about the hurtful things they were saying to each other anonymously on the internet. Fleur wanted to remember happier things. More recent things. She had a weird feeling she was actually pretty happy as of late. But her forum activity had dropped off by a lot, taken away to other sites and apps she couldn't now remember. There were only pieces to work with in the last couple years, a birthday, a hype game release, and a girlfriend she had to be living with. It was a year old status update, her last one she'd made. Something about living with her. The thought terrified Fleur as she continued to search for some scrap of happiness to work with the wish. There was someone in the human world wondering where she had gone, and she couldn't remember their name or face. This was too much for her. Well all of this was but if she kept dwelling on that sentiment with everything that happened the Mist would already be here. So back to the early 2010s she went, digging through the mire of mixed up memories. She thought of her own club she ran for a while, Shooting Sonic. It was Yu-Gi-Oh! themed as 5Ds was all the rage at the time. But calling any club themed was a bit misleading. Shooting Sonic was constantly off topic and devolving into nonsense, a lot of which Fleur enjoyed or started herself. But several times they and other clubs of the like had been reminded by the ever nosy moderators to get back to their main topics. It was always an invasion of privacy having a non-member just post in the thread like that. But it was a public forum and mods had to do their jobs as best they thought. It seemed like Shooting Sonic should have been the answer. She had made one of her long time best friends there after all. But the more Fleur thought of it the more she thought about connections long since faded or broken. Many of those members hadn't been around in years, let alone made the switch to the new forum. It was then she thought about some of the other clubs and this pushed her mind back to just a bit before making Shooting Sonic. The Club Wars. The height of YCM insanity. A Final Fantasy themed club and a Pokemon themed club had declared war on each other and decided to make it into a full blown RP over in the RP section. But because most of these clubs had a great intersection of members, several others got dragged into the mess. Among them was a Naruto themed club and a Club dedicated to roleplaying proper. Everyone was making characters that were in effect just their forum selves but with a suitable set of super powers or what have you to do battle with each other. It was a remarkably light hearted affair showing just how innocent the initial declaration of war had been. Fleur had been part of at least two of these warring clubs at the time. And while she had never really roleplayed on YCM before she did have some experience as a cringy twelve year old Sonic OC roleplayer in other sites under her belt. (A fact she only remembered for having talked about it when joining the club wars.) There was one user in particular at the time that seemed to be on everyone's radar. One Light_Zero had annoyed several people in several different places and had given himself quite the loaded kit to fight in the war with. Fleur at the time had decided to join the Club Wars purely to get a shot at him and knock him down a peg or two. There was a unique sense of comradery as she expressed her intensions to join and designed a silly character of herself. All her clubmates were hyping each other up and were eager to see her join. And sure enough she eventually got her fight with Zero and got to hit him squarely in the gut. A smile crept in on Noibat's face. Was that it? Would something as stupid as a group of kids essentially turning themselves into action figures and smashing them at each other in longform writing really work for whatever it was Jirachi thought they could do? She'd hate to be the one dragging the process down if it wasn't up to snuff. Noibat removed the badge from her ear and looked it over in her hands. More than anything she wanted her small speck of stupid happiness to be enough to the join others probably way better memories. With the triumphant joy of beating up a forum menace in an explosively chaotic RP she held up the badge and WISHED.

Estelle found herself still trying to regain her composure, the monster's visions occupying her mind despite the thing itself receding into the fog surrounding the area. Chris was already trying to take stock of the others. Certainly the group could better defeat it together but the idea of anyone having to bear those visions while the others engaged the undead monstrosity was more than she dare ask of any of them. It was a matter for the group to decide on and so the mage followed behind to rejoin the others. There was some small measure of comfort of having the four of them back in one place but that still left an unknowable amount of undead in the room with them. But there were more important matters first. "Is anyone injured?" She asked but didn't wait for an answer. It was hard enough to examine anything in the fog so she took to passing a small bit of healing magic onto each member, taking particular note of the recent stab wound ZIun had received to his side. "There remains a frightening beast outside our view. Chris and I were not able to slay it. While hard to describe it looks and acts differently than the zombies and skeletons we have thus encountered. Its powers seem to work by making eye contact and from first hand experience they are not pleasant." Estellise explained as she went about the healing work of quick patches to get Lana and Ziun up to speed. "I do not intend to remain helpless and await its next move however." She asserted while ceasing her healing magic. Now it was time for light, a sphere in particular to light the way as she had done at other points in their dungeon excursions. How well it would function in the fog remained to be seen and she had wanted to avoid drawing attention. But this particular monster needed tracking. The Fereis did her best to approximate the direction the bodak had vanished away into from where the group now stood. Once the orb let fly in that direction it began glowing brighter and did bring some measure of visibility to its surroundings. A ways off a figure could be seen to the right of the orb but the detail was insufficient to identify it as the creature and Estelle herself dare not look too long at it at a time lest she catch its gaze again. "Well there is something." She spoke the obvious turning to the group to agree on a path through the rest of the room.

Noibat took some time mostly to herself to try and calm down over the fact the world she'd been dropped into was ending and she might know a move that might give her a few more minutes to live but had no idea how to do it. Thinking like that wasn't helping but a bit more food eventually was helpful for calming her nerves somewhat. Maybe she'd been low on blood sugar. Now felt like a weird time to try and remember if she was diabetic but she would have probably talked about it on the forums at some point she concluded. The fact she didn't recall that much seemed to point to no. Still all bets were off on how Pokemon biology worked. Eventually the group was reconvening and Noibat had cycled through enough meaningless mental tangents that she didn't feel like she was going to die prior to the fog getting here. Jirachi explained a bit more to the group about the world and how he had summoned them there. At least he was pretty sure that's how it had worked. Noibat didn't feel pressed to question the little ball of sunshine on things given his answers thus far. Eventually the little wish-maker gifted to each of them a badge and explained some of the powers they held. The fact they stuck to flesh with apparent magnetism was a concerning thought but Noibat found herself soon playing with it first sticking it to her chest and testing how far away it would clip onto her or not. Not wanting to look too childish though she eventually held it in one hand and thought about where best to place it. Her wings were out, impeding her only real way of getting around seemed like a bad idea. The others all seemed to have different takes on the idea too. Ultimately she stuck it on the bottom of her right ear, like an earring but without the piercing bit. Something about that felt natural once she made sure it was only the outer ring of her ear and not obscuring the ear canal, or were those her speakers another thought for another time. "Alright" she started in an effort to try and regain some composure from the whole first few hours of existing here. It was time to act like she was competent and dependable that seemed most relevant to the situation. A stray squeak from her ears not unlike a voice crack on the alright didn't aid the effort but she pushed through. "I'm ready to uh... wing this?" There went the confidence. Bad first step. This was going to go poorly.

Reinaan looked over the group's would-be camping spot. It didn't look particularly special. But then that was part of the problem he had with this dense forest. Every placed looked just like every other place. Though had he spent fifty years here like he had on his homeland mountain ranges he imagined he might get a hang of it. An obvious campsite was a pretty simple affair but the hunter didn't like the idea of simply inviting a pack of wolves, much less wolf-men, to surround and pile on them unimpeded. He searched through the group's supplies for a moment before turning back to the forest itself with only a simple knife from among his things he'd brought from home when starting this whole mission. He let out a frustration grunt before picking up a sizeable stick. His work was swift and before anyone could see he'd brought the end of it to a fine point that looked like it might have a chance at piercing his scales were he to put all his weight in it. "We don't really have the stuff for it but no reason for us to make it easy for them." The draken declared before looking over the group and what all there was to work with. Plenty of twigs leaves and other plant material. Pointed sticks and simple snares seemed about all he could do. Like hunting small game as a child before his village had let him join the real hunting parties. He left Keres and Lindow to make their own preparations, the latter he imagined needed to ready no less than three different swords for the encounter to come, and turned to the rest of the group. Madelyn and Pan declined aiding him, choosing to use what time was left to them to rest. Keres and Cym were more willing participants but Reinaan soon found himself a bad teacher with bad tools and worse materials. Slowing down his practiced motion so either newcomer to the practice could perceive his technique only proved to mess him up. "Gah! As long as they're not flat." He pouted in defeat and left the two to try what they would. Eventually he had a stockpile of sticks of varying sharpness. He dug ever so slightly into the earth at varying intervals around the perimeter of the camp-to-be. He planted the sticks into the ground the points just peaking above the dirt and then scattered leaves about the area to obscure them. One would have to be looking for them to notice so he hoped blood-craved wolf people would simply charge in and injure themselves prior to the battle starting in earnest. Looking over his finished work it didn't inspire a lot of confidence. But the worse the traps did the more wolf chopping he'd have to do himself so it couldn't go too badly. Still, Cym had wanted it obvious and there was one trick yet Reinaan had for that particular task. Taking himself a bit further out from the group the boy sniffed about for a moment. His nose wasn't quite up to precision work on this task but he knew how to annoy territorial creatures. Reinaan found what he felt was a suitable tree and urinated over the base of it, a direct challenge in the world of canine-adjacent beasts. How lycans would react to it he couldn't be sure but he still smirked at his handiwork before turning back to return to the group.

Reconvening with the group was hardly the relief from the troubles of the floor Estellise might have been hoping for immediately after her grappling with the zombie earlier. Yet more undead loomed on the edges of the mist, one in particular came into the mage's sight which Chris reacted to first. The Fereis house had been sure to educate her on some of the basics of necromancy so it was easy enough to say it was undead. But none of that study had been about actually practicing the school of magic or much of the specifics. She knew general common categories of things to look out for but whatever this was hadn't shown itself in any lecture or book the woman could remember. She tried to scan it through the mist for some sign, some thing she could latch onto to identify it. But that was when she locked eyes with it. "It is nothing I-" Estelle tried to start to answer Chris' question of what it was but found herself unable to continue. All she could feel was its eye's on her. How the simple act of looking imposed a physical presence was unknown to her. Before she could process the sensation pain surged through her body, eliciting a shout. The pain led to images surging through her mind. Images of herself in the room she was currently standing in only surrounded by legions of the undead dragging her to the ground and tearing at her flesh. The vision lasted only a moment as Chris' dagger landed in the side of the monster's head. The gaze broken Estelle came to her senses, catching her breath she'd been involuntarily holding during the affair. Her body was still intact and there were no more undead than before. A premonition of its intentions perhaps? After steadying herself the monster seemed no worse for wear despite the weapon lodged in its face but it had gotten closer. Estelle readied her magic a volley of arrows with somewhat shaky aim, images of her own death still fresh in her mind. Her aim was toward the monster's chest in an effort to avoid eye contact with it. Once was enough to know not to repeat it. "I know nothing helpful about it. Though I would advise not looking it in the eye." Estelle stated her breathing evening out as she fired her magic.

Noibat was in heaven and not processing anything going on around her as she ate. Clobber being embarrassed to eat, the others coming and going in search of other food sources. The ominous world consuming mist coming for all of them in half a day. None of it mattered. That was until the bat's teeth clicked down not on succulent coconut flesh but the hard very not tasty husk of a piece she'd already eaten. She quickly tossed it aside and picked up another, again the same sensation. She was out of coconut. That was fine. Clobber was offering to break more open. But that meant her brain came down from the fruit bat high and began registering things that had been said. "D-defog?" Noibat could only timidly fire back Clobber's move idea at him. It sounded familiar. Like a thing Pokemon could do. But now didn't seem like the time to admit to only ever taking damaging moves on her Pokemon when she still actually played the games. She could guess what a move called Defog might do just from the name of it at least here as a real Pokemon doing real things physically herself. That sounded pretty useful all said with the world ending fog on its way. "H-heh how would I even know?" she finally managed to say voicing her concern. Just figuring out moving and gust had been adventures unto themselves. Her pulse was picking up at this point as one of her hand-like claws high up on her wing came up to her mouth, a clear nervous tick awkwardly translated into her new body. Noibat's breaths were accelerating, inhaling greater volumes of air and exhaling very little in the process. Her head was feeling light and her toes were tingling, a familiar sensation but certainly not welcome. The bat sat, or more properly collapsed, onto the ground only able to think about the word Defog. "It's stupid enough I got isekai'd..." Noibat muttered to herself though audible to Clobber any gathering near her. Her ears were pinging with no rhyme or reason as she spoke, though never for long or too loud. "But it's post-apocalyptic. And they think I can do anything about that? I don't even like post-apocalyptic games." A weird thought took hold that she knew this opinion because like all of her opinions she'd voiced it many times on the forum, the only thing she could actually remember. But it was still strange to remember a preference so clearly while not being able to recall actually playing the things at all. Entertaining but only for a moment and not enough to break the overriding train of thought that they only had half a day before the rest of the world ended. Taking any sort of charge in the current situation was out the window and a few miles back on the highway. Noibat was very ready for one of the others to tell her what to do. Anything to get her thinking about something else.

Contrary to experiences in the Dungeon thus far, Estellise was not a fighter and did not have the mindset of one. When she could see the battlefield unfolding as with most of the other floors it was simple enough to force herself to act like she did have a knack for these things and participate accordingly. Casting spells was simply acting on things she'd practiced quietly at home with the added stress of being attacked. But the fog had stilted her movements and overwhelmed her other senses trying to account for the lack of useful information sight was providing. So as the others jumped into action as quickly as ever it surprised the mage who found more of her allies and new threats slipping out of view. She heard them calling to her, asking for support but she had trouble positioning everything in her head let alone to take aim. By this point even Lana had disappeared from sight yet something was nearby. "Gah!" Estelle cried out as the zombie that had approached her from behind tackled her to the floor with a thud. She should have been able to see it coming but as focused as she was in the direction of her comrades voices she'd failed to notice it until she'd finally thought to perhaps try to simply add light to the situation to see better. She struggled against the rotted arms grabbing hold of her but the woman had never had much of any upper arm strength and thus found herself singularly unfit for grappling. All she could do was try to slip one of her slender arms out from the thing's grip to get a hand on its frankly disgusting face. Magic surged into the hand as she did so with no thought for form or finesse other than blowing up the head of the thing on top of her. This her magic accomplished, several unfocused lasers pumped directly into the thing's head in gruesome fashion, spraying the gore around and onto the mage herself. Though Estelle didn't have the room to simply be grossed out and gather herself as the now headless creature was still moving, grabbing for her neck with its hands. "Of course..." the mage grunted, reminding herself to research what it actually took to kill the undead when she got home. Losing one's head apparently wasn't cutting it. Estelle moved the hand still flowing freely with the blasts of light down toward the nearest shoulder of the creature. The limb too was blown off and the rest of the mass seemed to stop moving after she did so. Stilling her magic and using her muscles Estelle instead pushed the rest of the thing off of herself rather than soak her garments in any further mashed undead flesh. She shuddered and shook herself as she stood, reorienting herself to her comrades voices. "I am alright!" She called out to let them do the same. As she approached she saw comforting silhouettes again in her sight which sure enough seemed to be her companions and not yet further zombies looking to grab her.