Doggo

As the first explosion lifted one of the rust bugs Estelle was feeling rather confident in her more or less improvised spell. But the mage had forgotten the all too possible reality that one of the bugs or bugbears would simply walk over the first to fall victim to one which came true not all that long after Lana managed to spill the guts of the creature that had touched the spell. Chris moved to engaged the bugbear, leaving Estelle's immediate line of sight due to the rock formations. Lana stayed in sight and was looking to wrap up quickly with the second of the closest rust monsters but it proved a bit more difficult to handle having not been knocked off balance. Estelle noticed it seemed more interested in whatever metal was on her friend's person than immediately attacking her but that wasn't going to stop it from hurting Lana in the process of getting to her axe. After several exchanged blows Lana shouted and the source was clear in the rust that had formed on her weapon. "Lana, take this!" Estelle shouted, magic sparking in her hands as a construct of light began appearing in front of her friend. The mage was moving as well, crossing another of the small channels of water to get along the side of the unfolding strikes. She needed to be able to provide cover fire without hitting her friends after all. But for now her magic formed an axe made of light for Lana to grab hold of and finish the job. It wasn't an efficient solution to the rust problem these monsters presented hence the mage not jumping to it to start. Estelle's constructs had a habit of dissipating after a single strike to conserve her energy and the training was so engrained into her that making the axe not do this, while not impossible, would prove rather difficult at best and potentially explosive at worst. And under the circumstances the Fereis very much doubted that Lana would want a very detailed explanation about the magus' magical machinations so she settled on a much simpler explanation. "One swing! I will get more ready." she called out. From her changed position it looked like Chris might be benefited from a magical armament. Multi-tasking could work.

Aduain, Morgan, and Fen had begun moving to the athletic section of the clothing store. The fish was still a touch confused at Fen's mention of his goal and Morgan's encouragement. But he didn't want to delay their moving further away from the photographer so he chose not to question it much more than that. Aduain was curious to see what Prana felt athletic equipment should look and feel like. A lot of it was stretchy but most all of it felt like it would slow him down in the water so he wasn't immediately keen on buying anything. Morgan seemed to be enjoying herself anyway as she held a shirt out toward him. She was right, it definitely would be big on him. But that could be fun in its own way and like she said, enough room his gills wouldn't be obstructed. "Mouth's for eating, sides' for breathing." The hunter succinctly summarized Morgan's open pondering about how he breathed. The flaps of his gills even lifted up for a moment as he took a big breath to show her before taking hold of the shirt. He held the article of clothing up to himself to try and see just how big it would be on him. It was going to be long more than anything that was for sure. As it happened this section of the store didn't have much of a wall as it bled back out into rest of the mall. And the group had caught the attention of a man just across from them. Adonis' laugh pierced the air as he stood in their path just as they were moving in the general direction of his store. Aduain had been looking over his shoulder half the time since they had moved and continued to do so now. The fish hadn't entirely registered everything the muscular human had said but an excuse to go into a different store altogether was perfect. "Yeah yeah, sounds great let's go-" Aduain cut himself off as he finally got a good look at Adonis. "Wow that sure is some shape." he said in awe of the physique before him. "Yes, it is indeed quite majestic isn't it?" Adonis said as he tossed his hair and admired himself in the nearest window. "I'm sure even one as small as you could look, well, something like me if you tried." Aduain had to try not to laugh at the idea of his body looking anything like what he saw before him. It was funny enough he almost wanted to take the deal purely to see what it would be like. "Hmm... seems like that might slow me down. I know! A demonstration! I wanna see what muscles like that can do!" Aduain said as he began looking around for the heaviest object he could find in the mall. If he was going to look ridiculous like Adonis he had to be sure there were benefits. The body builder instead offered an arm to the fish to grab onto which Aduain did gigling all the while. The man then looked to Fen and said "Excuse me, little lady" as he proceeded to lift her off the ground and into the air along with Aduain. "Not bad big guy!" the hunter cheered, enjoying the display. "But I ain't the biggest fish in the sea, let's see you go all out!" Adonis laughed and moved to pick up Morgan as well. But upon closer inspection of her he decided against it. "This was just child's play of course! The great Adonis can lift more than you can even imagine." Adonis declared as he motioned for a staff member to join him outside the store. Without warning they too were lifted. Aduain could only laugh. Without nen, at least he assumed this was without nen he couldn't tell if Adonis had any like most of the Pranans, this was fairly impressive. "Not just for show!" The hunter said as he let go and hopped to the ground. "If you can really lift more than I can imagine then... what'd people call it again? Oh yeah! We should arm wrestle!" he said, bouncing from foot to foot at the idea. Adonis busted into laughter for some several seconds before settling with a look of surprise. "O-oh, you're serious! Well, I suppose Adonis does not mind but I wouldn't want to hurt you little man." the buff man said. "No problem! I'm tough as they come! Even a couple giant squids can't hold me down" Aduain boasted in an attempt to assure he was up to the task. "Giant...squids...Well, alright if you say so just don't feel bad about losing!" Adonis returned with confidence. Adonis escorted Aduain, and either of the girls who wished to follow, into the athletic store across the way. At his word staff set a table and two chairs down in the middle of the room which caught the attention of any shoppers in the area. Surrounded by workout equipment and other buff, though perhaps not Adonis level, people, Aduain seemed even smaller than he already was but his excitement was bigger than any of them. A small crowd was forming around the table, knowing Adonis must have been issued a challenge. Several cheers were already sounding from some fans of the man. Though he seemed conflicted as though there should have been more people clamoring to see him all the time. Disbelief shot through the crowd as Aduain stepped up to his seat. Several concerns could be heard among the whispers of the still growing spectators. Surely he was out of his mind to challenge Adonis. He was so small. What was this fish person doing here? Would his arm survive even grasping Adonis'? Where were his pants? Endless angles to the same conclusion: Adonis was sure to win before it even got exciting. The two contestants shook hands first then transitioned smoothly into the standard positions, each elbow on the table with fists above. Though the size difference made the posture somewhat difficult. Aduain readied himself and visible only to Morgan his nen was very calm and stable at the moment. Adonis offered him one last chance to back down which Aduain assured wasn't necessary. At a staff member's call the two began pushing against the other. Despite the talk it was clear neither was pushing all that hard against the other yet. Smirks were exchanged and the hunter obliged and began pushing as Adonis' hand began moving. "Good, good that's the way! But the great Adonis will not be beaten!" the man shouted. Cheers erupted from his fans while others turned away, not wanting to see how badly the fish's arm would be crushed once Adonis finally exerted himself. With his ever present flair for the dramatic the man let his hand come nearly to the table before the veins in his arm began visibly popping out as he forced Aduain's hand over and nearly to the opposite side of the table. But to everyone's alarm, none more so than Adonis himself, the fish's hand did not go all the way. The nen in the hunter's arm was flowing faster now and was the cause of the deceptive strength. Adonis exerted more and more of himself trying to push the fin hand the final inch yet it wouldn't budge. Aduain's smirk grew all the bigger as new murmurs went through the crowd. Finally someone shouted for Adonis to stop messing around. The moments seemed like eternities for the body builder at this unflinching tiny hand. For Aduain this was a light warm up. "Pretty sure I can imagine this big guy." Aduain mocked as his nen began really surging. Slowly Adonis' hand was moving back. Up and through the middle, back down close to the other side of the table. Visible panic set in to Adonis' face at the prospect of losing to one less than half his size. The crowd now was souring as his defeat hung over them. How could he be losing to someone so much smaller than him? Were they wrong to have believed in him? Aduain, who had been ready to beat the man and show the error in judging strength purely by muscle size, took note of the crowd and saw the pain on the man's face. These people meant a lot to him. Their respect and admiration obviously kept him going. And as a guardian of this place... well Aduain didn't feel it right to take that from him. So he completely relaxed his nen, his arm taking on the strength one might expect of such an untoned limb. Adonis felt the unbearable strength leave his opponent and he looked deeply into the fish's eyes and found only understanding. With a genuine smile and a nod Aduain told him silently to do what he had to. A single manly tear fell down the body builder's face as he slammed Aduain's fist into the opposite side of the table in one motion. The Great Adonis had triumphed. Renewed cheers sounded, faith was restored in his fans. "That was a dirty trick letting me think I'd won!" Aduain cried out in feigned bitterness. "There, there. Prana wasn't built in a day! And neither were the muscles of the Great Adonis!" The man cheered with another of his hearty laughs. The store joined him and even Aduain couldn't help but try it out himself.

Before the wolf could answer his question with anything but a thumbs up, Flurry was startled as a hedgehog fell on top of him. The lemur jumped back in alarm, only for his focus to lock on to the last of them to arrive, thinking perhaps Roxie had come through the portal after him. That was quickly shown to not be the case as Flurry saw the hedgehog was male. Everything seemed fine despite the oddity of their gathering as the hedgehog stood up and apologized for the landing. But this quickly shifted into aggression as he barked questions, implying he was ready to fight them if he had to. Flurry wanted to return both of his questions to him but the wolf was first to react, even introducing himself to help disarm the situation. Zane he called himself. Flurry didn't know any Zane's but the wolf's description of the portal was right on to what the lemur had experienced so for now he felt no need to distrust him. He would have to be some kind nefarious mastermind to be behind any of this the way he was talking. "Uh, hi, green one here." Flurry started, calmly pointing to himself. "Flurry's the name, tech's my game or something like that." the lemur continued, trying to lighten the mood a bit with a joking tone. His hand movements reminded him he was still clinging to Roxie's Chaos Tracker which he shifted focus to, inspecting in a panic for any damage. Thankfully it was in working order, or at least so far as he had debugged it. "B-but I didn't do any of this. Same deal as Zane here, I was getting on a ship when I just fell into that colorful portal and ended up falling here."

With the group now starting into the forest, Reinaan couldn't help but feel on edge. Perhaps it was just past experience but he fully expected something to attack them. But as the hunter carefully scanned his surroundings from atop his lizard he did notice something strange. The borders of the forest looked almost entirely undisturbed, either by person or animal. Nothing was abnormal about the plants though certainly some different things grew here compared to the mountains of Blagos. Still it was strange. His own village wasn't a stranger to the idea of wanting to be left alone. But to that same end they also occasionally patrolled the outskirts of their lands aside from their usual hunting grounds. Something had to be scaring near everything away from these places to keep nature so untouched. Thinking on it too much was frustrating because Reinaan would have to make up too much to even continue the thought process. So instead he rode up alongside Keres looking for some information on a different subject. "So... elves live here right?" Reinaan asked more generally but looking at the young mage. "You ever read anything about 'em Keres? Feels weird that we've had two elven wind chosen at this point and I still don't know much of anything about them." he commented, putting something of a damper on his own mood thinking about Pyrrha's unexplained departure.

Happy to default to Chris' mind on the matter, Estellise moved with the others to the left after completing her task of reinforcing her companions' weapons. The mage crossed the first small gap with water running through it just behind the others and was able to observe the respect shown the water sources by the monsters moving to attack them. After the previous floor Estelle had no desire to find out how deep the water ran or what might be lurking in it. Chris had another idea, that of flipping the rust monsters onto their backs. Estelle wasn't nearly as well versed on the subject of bugs but that the idea was even being raised confirmed her friend did. Whether they would prove immobile once flipped or simply easier to kill, the Fereis wasn't opposed to the idea. The less their weapons had to touch them the better. "I might have something for it." Estelle voiced as she felt about her person. Not finding what she was looking for, the woman soon took to reaching down to the ground to look for stray rocks. With a good six or so gathered she began channeling magic into them, interweaving enchantment and evocation techniques in a way that would very much upset her mother and other older members of the family. Content with the spell, Estelle lobbed the rocks ahead of the group, the energy imparted in part guiding her throws and giving them more power to spread them out ahead of the oncoming attackers. Each rock pulsed with light periodically, helping the three to see where they had landed. "Lead the insects to my spells if you can. They will activate on their own when touched." she called out her approach to the situation. Magical traps to help with bug tipping.

Watching Roxie soundly wallop one of the shadows chasing them, Flurry almost thought he could get used to running for his life. Under any normal circumstances it'd be pretty low on his list of priorities but the presence of a cool, attractive friend did a lot for making it suck less. The distraction was just enough that he fumbled a bit on the catch when Roxie tossed her chaos tracker to him, asking for him to keep it safe before jumping off into the canyon. Flurry's heart skipped a beat, purely out of alarm, as he didn't have a hold of her and couldn't ensure a safe landing as well if he had to use his wind to move her around in the air. But to the lemur's surprise, the hedgehog's ship was hovering not all that far below to receive them. The S.S. Titan she called it and reached her hand out to take his as he followed. Flurry jumped off towards the ship with little hesitation. With a welcome like that and an army of death behind him it wasn't much of a choice. Almost immediately his powers kicked in, they were second nature at this point. Winds were slowing his descent so he didn't crash onto the deck or into Roxie and damage her chaos tracker in the process. Just as he was expecting to make contact, the lemur blinked and he couldn't see Roxie anymore. Colors enveloped him as the sight of the canyon and the Titan vanished. His sense of direction, weight and orientation all seemed to vanish. Panic started to set in, Flurry's powers naturally readying a large overreaction as his emotions grew out of control. So when the lemur emerged, a large blast of wind filled the area which rattled loose bits of the junk piles scattered about and would be felt by Zane who had arrived just before him. The lemur's landing wasn't as graceful as it could have been but neither was it quite as rough as the wolf before him had been. Wait, a wolf? Who was this and why were they here? Where was here for that matter? Flurry could hear sounds in the distance. Clashing metal. Metal seemed to be all there was here. Aside from again, this random wolf. The lemur wanted to ask a million questions as he got to his feet. But given the wolf hadn't yet done the same it didn't seem much like he was the mastermind behind the portal. So for now only one question needed to be asked. "Hey, are you okay?" Flurry asked Zane hesitantly. He reached a hand out as he knelt by the wolf but didn't fully commit to touching the stranger. No need to take too bad a risk here.

Definitely shaken by the fishy encounter, Estellise took a moment to collect herself once the group were fairly certain they were clear of threats on the current floor. She did her best to answer Chris' question, an attempt to assure him she was fine. But the words were garbled and mangled. They were still understandable but any number of nobles would have looked upon her with ghastly horror attempting to process what she had said. It amounted to saying she was fine really and as she tended to the group's injuries her heart and breath settled restoring some clarity to her thoughts and words. It would not be long at all until her vocabulary was back to its usual flowery self. Content with the work of healing the mage moved on with her allies when everyone was ready to do so. The new floor was yet another new sight for the mage but she had little time to take it in as there were monsters some distance off who already noticed them. Bugbears tending to insects that rusted and devoured metal. With relatively little metal on her person the mage wasn't immediately concerned for herself but her friends who relied on metal weapons would certainly be put in a pinch. "Quickly, your weapons." Estelle asserted calmly for Chris and Lana to each hold out whatever they intended to fight with. Assuming either or both did the mage would focus her magic into enchantments, fortifying the weapons to make them stronger and more durable. It wasn't a perfect defense but would hopefully give them time to attack, and ideally kill, the beasts before losing their weapons entirely.

Aduain was suddenly in Morgan's face. His body knew this before his brain registered it as the Hunter's nen stood out in the crowd of nen-less beings that occupied Prana. So despite the circumstances it was something of a happy moment for the boy purely by the familiarity of the sensation. Still, once he registered who it was that was under him, Aduain jumped up and off her in something of a panic, trying to help Morgan back to her feet. She didn't seem hurt, which only made sense. It would take a lot more than that to hurt a Hunter. But still, none of this was quite what he had wanted to happen. He shuffled out of the jeans and dress now that he had the moment and Morgan's figure to obstruct him from the view of the fashion fiend. Though maybe putting something on was the only way out of this safely. His brilliant blue scales would only shine as brightly as they had to get him into this mess in the first place. "Yeah, not really my style huh?" He offered in something of a nervous laugh in response to Morgan's advice to not buy the things that now sat in a pile at his fins. A giant sigh of relief escaped the gills at the boy's sides as he saw Melissa getting caught up with his new acquaintance. Perhaps she would fare better under the onslaught of different outfits. A noble sacrifice she was, and one the boy would be sure to remember and honor. Fen was soon at the group's side to check up on everyone which was a convenient excuse of Aduain to try and get some more distance. "Everything's fine!" He tried to say with genuine enthusiasm. "But we should totally move things uh... that-a-way don't ya think?" Aduain asked excitedly pointing at a random location in the store. As it happened the most immediately visible thing in the direction of his finger was a display for athletic gear talking about new patented weight loss technology.

That Damien was talking to him, and so readily at that, was something of a surprise to Reinaan. Because of his own initial distaste for the man in their initial meeting he assumed the feeling mutual yet had never directly challenged the idea until now. As he listened to the man talk he wondered what sort of life he had led to feel less comfortable around his own people than other races. The idea of feeling more comfortable around humans than draken was something he couldn't entirely process. But thinking on it, meeting the templar employed by the Council was perhaps some small taste of the feeling. The boy turned his eyes toward the forest as Damien did, curious if he would offer any additional information if asked about it. But asking plainly didn't seem appropriate. "What, elves cheat you out of a drink once or something?" Reinaan tried asking with a smirk. He winced. "Nothing like that....Honestly it's...not the elves I have issue with." his eyes flick towards the others for a moment. Reinaan worried he'd said something wrong or offensive for a moment before recalling talk of the Lycan that also supposedly inhabited these woods. "Oh you mean... Are they that bad?" Reinaan questioned back not wanting to say the name directly if it was this sensitive. "It's kind of a long story. Let's just say I had a pretty strange upbringing." he scratched the back of his head and glanced away, clearly uncomfortable. This certainly wasn't the direction the Fire Chosen had expected any of this to go. He felt like he needed to offer some sort of assurance. "Well, nothing you gotta worry about. I'll just scare off any who try to mess with us." Reinaan tried to seemed threatening as he delivered the line, his chest puffing naturally. Granted with his physical growth since the journey's start, the gesture wasn't entirely void of merit as it might have been in the past. If he could nearly wrestle a minotaur, surely a couple Lycan wouldn't be an issue. He was ready to tackle the forest with everyone.

Sure I'll toss some in for if the roster expands any. No sweat if they dont make it in. Buizel Lucario Rockruff Houndoom Sneasel Noivern Heliolisk Nickit

With the group deciding there was ultimately little they could do for the Minotaurs, they found themselves on the way to their next destination. Reinaan was surprised, but a bit grateful, that they weren't teleporting into Flomest. The boy had next to no idea what the place even was, but getting their by conventional means felt ideal. And the travel time game the draken room to think about what had been happening. On top of wishing he'd been able to more meaningfully interact with the minotaurs, or wrestle one with his improved strenght, he was also somewhat off put to see Madelyn intended on continuing on with them. The boy was pretty sure she didn't like him and this was before this supposed bath incident he didn't remember all that clearly. Just the way she spoke of non-humans generally was bothering him. As the group approached the knights who prepared to let them in, Reinaan found himself hanging back with Damien of all people. From their initial exchange Reinaan had been defensive enough to have barely tried speaking with the man since. But it seemed somewhat unfair thinking on it now. Damien seemed to show no distaste for non-humans like Madelyn did. In fact he had been quite friendly with minotaurs in town and hadn't wanted to go with them to the village, perhaps because he didn't want to come to blows with them. It was enough to set the draken thinking. And thinking... and thinking some more. Eventually as the others began speaking to each other or the knights, Reinaan finally attempted communication. "Hey..." he started as he lingered on silence for a moment, uncertain where he stood in relation to the man. "I've been wondering how you ended up friendly enough with minotaurs to be drinking with them. I haven't properly met a lot of humans outside this group and well, some of them," he continued as he quickly glanced in Madelyn's direction before returning to looking vaguely around, but not directly at, Damien. "Don't seem like they'd be excited about the idea, minotaur or otherwise." Reinaan managed to say.

Aduain had done a pretty good job of not getting distracted on the way to the mall and more specifically the clothing store. But before entering the latter with the girls he couldn't help but try and look around for something vaguely big like he'd been hoping to find before coming. This brief frantic search had him looking up at a large light fixture. But from the looks of things it was going to take some intense acrobatics to even get up there to really see how big it was and he'd have to find someone from the mall willing to sell it to him if he liked it. While planning his route in front of the store's entrance he caught the attention of someone inside. Before he knew what was happening he heard an excited scream and was being dragged inside by the arm. Only once he came to a stop did he get a good luck at this person. But somehow looking at them didn't help the boy make sense of what was happening. Between their hair, clothes, and makeup there were altogether too many colors for Aduain to process and he was content to merely agree that this was a person and move on. "You're perfect!" the voice squealed again, this time intelligibly. The hunter was having a hard time placing if this voice counted as feminine or not but that would have been true of a more conventional looking person. "Perfect?" the bewildered fish asked in response. The person was holding their hands up in all sorts of different angles to frame Aduain's body against imaginary backdrops. "I've never seen a body shape like this! And yours is just screaming 'paint me like one of your Pranan girls'. But seeing as we're in a clothing store that will have to do!" the person explained while reaching for several different articles of clothing. Aduain was confused but trying to be optimistic about the person's enthusiasm. "You think? Well I guess that could be fu-" But before even finishing his sentence the hunter had sealed his fate. A cyclone of clothing struck, putting him in and taking him out of various outfits at breakneck speed with dozens of pictures being taken of the whole process. And perhaps if the whole affair had been any slower Aduain might have had a better time. But after the tenth or so outfit the fish boy was looking for an excuse to get out. The boy was halfway out of a dress and half way into a pair of jeans when he enacted his master plan. That of pointing in the opposite direction and fake gawking, "Wooooah look at them!" The awe in his voice was enough that the fashion fiend followed the direction of the boy's finger, found a couple walking casually through the store and decided they must have been what he was talking about. A small squeal before realizing they looked fairly normal but as they turned back to their fish model he was no where to be sceen. Aduain was making a mad dash through the store to lose his new friend, the last few articles of clothing flapping wildly behind him and causing him to stumble here and there. Speed was important enough he didn't try to finish undressing. But the jeans were ultimately not a good fit even if he had had both legs on and the bottom of the leg he had on continued creeping down until it was under his foot. On a good day, Aduain's feet fins struggled to navigate land entirely smoothly so under the circumstances it shouldn't have surprised him when he tripped and started into a roll. But it still did surprise him and the rolling blue bundle found itself on a collision course with Morgan and the people she was helping, not that he could tell who specifically was in his way while rolling. "Look out!" he tried shouting with his tone rising and falling as his stomach did flips over his head.

Said goodbye to my cat Cinder today. She was ten years old. It was only early last week she went from her usual self to barely eating and lying around all day. A vet visit last Tuesday and we thought it was just an infection and she'd get over it. But they wanted to do some scans to be sure that's all it was. Last Thursday an ultrasound confirmed it was instead a large tumor in her liver that was pressing up against her stomach. We had some medicine to help her out but it all hinged on her eating which she lost all interest in. We watched her closely from that diagnosis to this morning and she was just getting worse. She was boney and her breathing even started seeming labored today. Another vet visit earlier today and it was quick to confirm there was no hope of her perking back up, she was just going to suffer until she died on her own. I tried several things to try and get her to eat, read about a lot more, and ultimately force fed her pureed tuna in some hope she'd get stronger but it didn't matter. Cancer still came and stole her away. Covid restrictions aren't fully lifted here so only one person was able to be with her as she passed. My dad did it since he was closest to her but there's still an empty feeling that I wasn't there. There's a feeling I failed her somehow. Didn't notice her slowing down sooner or didn't try enough things to get her to eat. But cats don't show signs until they're too far gone and nothing I could have tried was going to turn this around. She's not hurting now that she's gone and that's for the best, but the family's still a mess over it. You really don't know how much you love something until it's taken from you. I wanted to see her get old and spoil her rotten on her last day when she was fifteen or something. Instead I had to watch her waste away and put her down before she suffered overly long. Fuck cancer, I want my cat back.

Aduain awoke early the next morning to the sound of running water. Rubbing at his eyes a bit he quickly realized he'd spent the night in the shower he'd started taking. His skin certainly wasn't complaining and the water hadn't ever stopped so no harm done really. But as he soon found it was too early to be truly up and at it so he turned off the water after its hours long run and meandered back into his room, the profuse dripping leaving a damp trail from the showers to his room across the floor. From here there was little to do but flop onto his bed to resume his sleep which he did. At about the time the rest of the group began waking up Aduain awoke for the second time that morning, but this time not not on his own. There was a knock at the door. Or so he thought but as the young fish opened his door with an enthusiastic, though still half-asleep, hello there was no one to be found. Confused he looked up and down the halls to see if someone was playing a prank but if they were they had moved too fast and were no longer visible from this vantage point. The hunter had half a mind to go pursue when before he even closed the door he heard the knocking again, this time distinctly from one of the walls of his room. He had to confirm quickly that it wasn't simply his neighbor messing with him but found he had no neighbor along the wall he heard the knock from. It sounded a few more times allowing the boy to pinpoint it before he ultimately knocked back and placed an ear on the wall to try and get a grasp of things. "Hello!" he shouted at the wall as if it might answer him. To Aduain's astonishment a door appeared where he knocked though it looked nothing like the door to the apartment. It was distinctly wooden and looked timeworn. There wasn't even a door knob, instead an iron ring that seemed to be meant to function like one. The fish tapped at the ring several times, uncertain what any of this meant, before tugging on it. The door didn't just look like a door but was in fact a door and it started giving way and opening. There appeared to be a room on the other side of the wall but the details were difficult to make out. It looked pitch black more than anything. Ever curious, Aduain shouted another hello into the void and as before this received no reply. Though something definitely seemed to be moving in the darkness. It was almost like the darkness itself had moved. Now that he looked again he thought he could make out the shape of a room and several tables some distance across from this entrance he stood at the step of. "Well, you knocked first so don't mind if I come in." Aduain said casually as he braved the unknown. More details were coming into place. Stone walls and floor formed the room with a single small window. The limited view suggested this to be in a tower of sorts, one you read about but never went to. The idea that a castle might be connected to his apartment was incredible given he hadn't seen any sign of it from outside the complex. Though the fish did have to wonder if his eyes were okay. Everything seemed blurry. He hadn't been awake very long but it didn't take him this long to get over being sleepy, especially not with a discovery like this ahead of him. At one table a figure finally came into view. A human girl sitting in a chair, looking dejectedly at several piles of books she had laid out around her. Nearby a muffled voice came from someone Aduain couldn't see. "I've read all of these books myself. And I didn't have anyone telling me to do so." "Yeah, well, I bet you can't even lift all these books." the girl responded to the voice. Aduain could understand not wanting to read a lot of boring books just becuase someone was telling you to so he was inclined to take the girl's side of things in this argument he knew nothing about in this place that confused him endlessly. "Perhaps. But I dont have to. Knowledge is much more powerful than strength anyway." the voice without a source replied. The girl rolled her eyes as the voice began again before suddenly stopping. "Who'se there?" they said and Aduain felt the strange sensation of a hand passing through his body back and forth. "Hey, cut that out!" Aduain shouted as he tried to wave away the hand he wasn't able to see. He could hear the voice at least so maybe he could talk to it. "I'm Aduain and you knocked on my room's wall so I should be asking the questions here." He tried to assert his hunter authority with his tone, not much caring for if anyone in Prana recognized it. "Are you going senile on me or something?" The girl asked. "How old do you think I am? Can you not sense that? Hear that?" the distinctly male voice asked back. He seemed greatly distraught about Aduain's being there. Something a fair bit bigger than a hand moved through the young hunter as suddenly the source of the second voice came into his view. A man with long white hair and robes was looking around. "I do not know where you came from, spirit, but be wared I am the court mage of the King of Celta and I will not have intruders in my study." He said with more authority than Aduain had been able to muster. That had to be addressed at him Aduain thought but then he wasn't a spirit. The people in front of him were more like spirits than him surely. He could poke himself and not pass through his arm while they simply moved through him. At the least now that he could see both people present, the fish tried waving to get attention before speaking. "I dunno what to say to make you believe me, but I'm not a spirit and I was invited here to... Celta? Never heard of that place. And I guess it was less invited and more someone from Celta felt like playing a prank on me." Aduain began, the longer his own voice carried on the more it served to confuse him. "Aaaaanyway, all this to sasy I wasn't trying to intrude on anything, just trying to figure out what's going on." he concluded. Yet the man didn't seem to address him directly despite this explanation. "It seems to be too chatty for a spirit... then what, a spy? this place should be protected from such things... Miranda, we can pick this up later, go on." he said, dismissing the girl. "Fine by me." Miranda said as she jumped to her feet. She passed through Aduain as the older man had before, and shuddered as she did so before leaving. Only after she was gone did the man speak again. "If you are here to interfere with my plans, I will not hesitate to exorcise you. You know not what you are dealing with here." he said before crossing the room and unveiling what appeared to be a simple mirror. Aduain wanted to try and explain himself again but felt a paradoxical sensation. He was being pulled toward the mirror but also back through the door he had come through at the same time. Trying to assert some will in this situation, he tried walking toward the mirror. "I don't wanna mess up anything you're doing I just wanna know who was trying to get my attention!" he called out while trying to fight the sensations. "If something brought you here then either you are a threat... or you are an energy source." the man spoke ominously. Looking again to the mirror Aduain now saw a face in it, entirely burned and missing both its eyes. Yet in the scorched empty sockets glowed a dark energy. The pulling sensation only grew. Curiosity was one thing, but the shiver that went down his spine while looking at the face in the mirror was more than enough for the hunter to want to call it quits. The boy began backflipping his way right on back through the door to his apartment, landing back inside and falling over his bed. Another knock sounded, this one a lot more aggressive and with some accompanied shouting, but from his actual door not the wall. In fact, now that he looked again the door in his wall was gone entirely and no one was knocking from the other side of it. Beyond confused at the turn of events, there was nothing to do but answer the door. On the other side was Salvo, the lady who had helped them fight off the sharks. Apparently she'd brought food for the group and Aduain's adventure into Celta had kept him from joining everyone else in a timely manner. Apologizing for keeping people waiting, Aduain grabbed his trident, slapped on the watch-like device he'd been given and walked out of his apartment to join Salvo on her way back down. Still confused and curious he felt he may as well take a shot in the dark. "You ever heard of a place called Celta?" Aduain asked the woman. "Is that where you're from? Sounds magic-y." she replied. "It does have a familiar ring to it though, but can't really put my finger on it." "No, it's a place i wandered into when a door appeared on the side of my room after I heard some knocking. Was wondering if all the apartments did that." Aduain asked without batting an eye. Salvo laughed in response. "Oh, man, this place never fails to come up with something new. Never know what's gonna happen next." she said. That was a definitive no to that. So it seemed Aduain's apartment sometimes connected to another world. As long as they didn't wake him up with the knocking or try any magic stuff on him that was probably fine. He'd wanna try to talk to that Miranda girl if it ever happened again though as she seemed a fair bit nicer than the old man. None of that was going to get the boy's empty stomach any fuller though and Aduain descended to the provided breakfast, just as some of the others were gearing up to get going about their day. Not wanting to miss out on anything exciting, the fish began stuffing his face with far too much food and approximately zero table manners. He tried to ask Melissa, Fen and Trevor to wait up but with his mouth full it sounded like a language unknown in all of Lemuria, Prana or Celta for that matter. With some manic chewing, swallowing, gasping for air and chugging of water to clear up his throat for the finessed task of speaking, Aduain thanked Salvo and Natasha, motioned excitedly to Morgan his fellow hunter and followed after the others. "What's the cool plan for today guys?!" he almost shouted, trying to act like he hadn't been late.

Reinaan had slept about as soundly as he ever had given the exertions of destroying the gate the day prior. Yet when he awoken something seemed different. His feet felt further down the bed than when he had gone to bed and it wasn't until the group had congregated outside that he could begin to confirm that he had actually grown again as he stood a bit higher above Lindow's head than he last recalled. The sense of satisfaction that came with knowing he was overcoming his status as the shrimp of his village carried him squarely through the day's journey, Damien's refusal to accompany them and Madelyn's continued company aside. Though now that they were here in the Minotaur village, the Draken did have to grapple with the fact that he didn't entirely understand why they were there. He understood well enough that the minotaurs and the human village were on less than perfectly friendly terms at the moment but with the threat of the demon gate off the table it seemed to the boy that it was up to the two sides to settle the dispute however these things were normally handled. But Ryia had insisted and given the new sense of strength Reinaan had he was at least hoping he might find a wrestling rematch. He wouldn't even have to cheat this time. Or so he thought anyway. Once in the village, Madelyn and Lindow took to handling the negotiations with the minotaur chief more directly. Reinaan didn't think himself good at these sorts of things and was happy to leave it to the more skillfully tongued human companions present. The Thunder Chosen's words made sense to him anyway and didn't think there needed to be much more said. But the minotaurs were less than satisifed with the answer. The chief snorted in reply, "I've seen worse from humans. You say these artifacts would bring ruin but all I know is that our chance to use them was snatched away." Having seen the effects of two gates first hand, Reinaan was frustrated to hear this kind of reply. But then most people hadn't seen what the gates actually did so perhaps it only made sense. "Using them would have just made you all two-headed freaks eventually." Reinaan commented thinking on the sharks and lions they had fought at each gate. "I won't try to tell you what to do with the humans. My village wasn't too found of them either. But there's a couple humans here trying to talk with you instead of jumping right to the fight you seem to want to have with them so maybe hear them out." The boy settled his piece to the conversation as he shifted his focus to Ryia. His look and body language was motioning to her to take the stage at this point and voice what it was she wanted for the minotaurs and the village.

The theory behind walking on water was endlessly escaping Estellise as she cycled through fragments of incomplete memories. Hours and hours spent learning enchantments with her father and none of the information she needed was readily coming to mind. A loud splashing sound would soon signal to the mage that enchantment was no longer necessary as she looked up to see Lana had either fallen or been thrown into the water that filled most of the room. Chris was decidedly more dry and a cause for less immediate concern. The most pressing matter for the Fereis was the two approaching Sahaugin cautiously approaching her. She had yet to see monsters be particularly wary of her magicks and somehow that put more pressure on her than had they simply leapt at her. Frustrated as she was about not getting the enchantment right, Estelle wasn't inclined to shift to particularly controlled offensive magic. She shifted focus between the two Sahaugin, waiting for them to get close enough. It seemed to last an eternity until they were close enough to strike. In that moment the mage raised a hand to each fish creature, the magic escaping her hands seeming to warp the air around them for a moment before two resounding booms sounded into the cavern. The mage had caused localized explosions aimed at the gut of each fish creature but the hurried nature of the casting of the spell had her in a less than sure footed position. The force of the spells knocked the mage back almost as fiercely as she had intended to hit her targets.

For all her readiness to mingle, Taeyang found her form ever cumbersome. It was to the point she was ready to simply curl up somewhere and wait for the fighting to break out. That was until a voice addressed her. Lin Ju the boy called himself. He seemed awfully friendly, if not a bit stupid to so lightheartedly approach a dragon. Were she less agreeable than she was she might well have eaten him on the spot but he seemed not to even consider that a possibility, instead thinking of her as a neighbor and honored friend. "Yes, that's right. But I don't think there's anything particularly special about us or different." Taeyang spoke, seeming a bit upset with her own low booming voice. She'd met several chinese dragons herself at Haemosu's request. What divided her from them was something best left to scholars she felt. As for the boy's offer she took a moment to ponder it. The dragon scanned the room looking at god and champion alike. Her eyes settled on her own patron god. No doubt off in a dick measuring contest with other sun deities. Whatever she thought of this Lin Ju boy, walking the grounds seemed nicer than playing Haemosu's diplomatic games. "Sure, I'll join you." Taeyang began after her deliberations. "But there's no need for any of the formalities. I'm hardly old enough to deserve it." she spoke plainly with little of the pomp one might expect of a creature of her kind. One last glance toward her god to be sure he wasn't keeping track of her and off she went to enjoy some fresher air with this particularly polite punk.

Despite his intentions, Hari had swapped himself with objects at least two other times. Dodging a projectile knife on a chain was harder than it looked even for his smaller, agile form. The man-turned-monkey had somehow taken stock of just how messed up this particular office room had gotten as he found himself finally escaping back out into a stairway. He'd have to send an apology later, maybe they could take some of his pay to cover the damages, it only seemed right. He found himself running up the stairs instead of down them as a more sane monkey might have thought to do at the moment. Up was bad, up was where the bigger ghosts were going to be. This one still wasn't done chasing him either so what did he plan to do if more showed up? The answer for Hari was not the soul blast so gracefully executed by their high powered friend from earlier. Not that he didn't think he could do it, rather the technique simply wasn't on his mind at all. Nothing beyond not getting stabbed by a ghost knife seemed to be on his mind at the moment. But as the knife flew by not an inch from his face, the monkey realized he needed to be taking a more direct approach or this was never going to end. Thankfully the knife also presented him a course of action. It had broken through the glass of a fire extinguisher. And though not the intended crisis to answer, surely this counted as an emergency and so Hari didn't feel particularly bad about leaping forward to mark the extinguisher. The knife was being retracted as he did so but Hari tossed one of the pens he still had on him at the imp as the knife was readied again. With a press of two fingers to his thumb, instead of a pen the fire extinguisher was now in front of the knife which pierced its side. The contents spewed forth from the pressurized chamber, covering the imp spirit in the chemicals now that Swap had let the extinguisher interact with spirits. Now to follow it up. "Hiiiiyah!" Hari shouted with a dramatic karate chop. So dramatic that passed immediately through the spirit without doing anything at which point Hari wanted to slam his palm into his face about as forcefully as he had tried to hit the ghost. Thankfully it was still confused and blinded by the extinguisher's contents, allowing the monkey to pick up the extinguisher and smack the spirit squarely across the head. The spirit was sent tumbling down the stairs, chain and knife rattling after it. How long that was going to last Hari wasn't intent on sticking around to find out and so off he ran. No where to go but up.

"Yeah for sure! I always love another hunter's perspective on stuff I'm looking into. People hear stuff you couldn't believe sometimes." Aduain bounced in place at Morgan's invitation to swap stories later. The boy was not going to get over seeing genuine nen again any time soon, much less from a fellow hunter. If he was bothered by her explanation of her body or powers it never showed, In fact there was a sense of awe because he could properly attribute these as being nen-related or some sort of hatsu as oppoed to the others. They were still very cool to see while fighting the sharks and and flaming skeleton but it was hard to be as excited when he couldn't understand the mechanism that let people summon ice, or balloons, or turn into dragons. There was still a lot to ask about for that matter with the others but the draw to his fellow Hunter was too strong. But not strong enough as it happened. "Oh yeah I should go see about my room or something." Aduain remined himself the reason they were even standing here in the first place. He smacked his mouth some. "Water first though. Didn't realize how much I'd dried up out there." the fish stated. Of course what classified as dried up to the hunter would have been unpleasantly damp to just about any normal person. The boy leaped off to the first unoccupied or claimed room he could find, slightly disappointed not at the size or simplicity of the room but by the utter lack of bodies of water. Still he deposited his trident before setting out on the search. And it wasn't long before he found and jumped head first into the showers and poured the water on as fast it would let him. He lied down on the floor to take it in and probably could have stayed there forever. In fact that was the current plan this was much better than the bed he'd been provided.

Rather than send lights out to get the residents of the floor angry at them, Lana had offered herself as tribute. Estelle couldn't argue the results but still would have rather her friend not immediately be in harm's way. Chris was faster to respond to the prolonged um calling back to the party as he usually was. The mage recognized the creatures as sahaugin from a book she'd read once about a human woman falling in love with one. That had not been her most productive weekend but the occasional fantasy reading never hurt. Regardless there was no time to be kissing any fish even if they wanted to and the mage took stock of the two sahaugin in the room. With the exchanges thus far that seemed simple enough but it was difficult to say what else could be hiding in the water. It was time to multitask Estelle decided. She readied magic and soon four orbs of light flew into the room overhead forming a diamond with each of her friends at one of the corners with the other corners straddling the central bridge they all stood on. These served to light up the room before they began pulsating two spheres each would soon fire blasts of magic at the two sahaugin, diminishing their own brightness in the process. Letting the spell aim also made for some less than perfect aiming but each orb would have a few shots left. Surely the quantity would make up for it. Estelle was already on to the next spell, preparing for situations she hoped would never happen. "How does one walk on water again? Solidify water beneath your feet, have a soul lighter than air, just believe, no no no..." she mumbled to herself while wracking her brain for the theory behind the intended water walking enchantment for the group's shoes.

Rich as they were, the chosen weren't made of money. Not that Reinaan had any way of knowing that of course with his limited knowledge of monetary exchange. Still, a highly expensive and very large bomb seemed less than practical even to him. The ten or so smaller bombs they settled on seemed more than good enough and all things considered the boy considered the venture worth it. He lingered a bit in his movements, as if his body was protesting leaving the raging fires scattered about the structure but soon enough he was with Ryia and Lindow back on their way to rendezvous with Keres. For the water chosen's part she seemed engaged with rearranging the state of affairs with the mule they had been gifted. The creature now pulled a cart behind here where the majority of the things had been moved to rather than directly on its back. The sight was impressive to the boy for a moment if only because it made him think to rearrange his own things with the collection of weapons he rarely used gathering on Kloqah's back. But that was for later, a nice soothing night activity perhaps if the boy didn't get up to any more trouble. Keres said a word the boy wasn't sure he recognized as he rarely made it a point to remember what fruits and vegetables were called. But it must have been some sort of food with how Lindow suggested they discuss things over food. Reinaan wasn't particularly hungry all things considered. With how much fish they had eaten on the first night here and his slow metabolism he probably didn't need to eat for another day or more yet. But from the exertions of the fights there was definitely a bit of room to top off. Before long the four Chosen were sat down at a table in a restaurant that decidedly did not smell of fish. Not that Reinaan wouldn't have eaten more fish but this was closer and had some more interesting smells he found worth investigating. Upon entering one of the staff had nervously eyed Reinaan then a plaque that stated time honored tradition of no shirt, no shoes, no service. But of course Reinaan couldn't read and they didn't seem intent on calling a draken out given he was taller than most humans in the room at this point. "So we can go anywhere now. Maybe somewhere one of us knows pretty well to speed things along. Unless we still wanted to do something here." The boy seemed lost in thought and wholly uncommitted to thinking deeply at the same time while waiting on the food to arrive.

With Lana confidently triumphant over the confused hobgoblin, Estelle sighed in relief and quickly moved herself back to Chris' side. Some few hitches aside the plan seemed to have worked well enough. At the least they hadn't had to fight the entire village. The mage's concern for herself was minimal such that Chris' asking them had her more focused on scanning for wounds. Though nothing looked severe as Lana observed it was still a cause of concern. Better the noble thought to patch everyone up than risk any sort of infection or furthering of the injury through sloppy movements. But any sort of glowing magic as her healing often tended to be seemed like a bad ideal until the group was well on their way to the next floor. "Mind your step as I close your injuries." Estelle spoke softly as the group began descending the stairs. A hand glowed for each of her comrades, imparting the familiar healing power to dull pain and stitch wounds like they had never happened. It wasn't much of an exertion due to the nature of the injuries but it was always best to be thorough. It seemed well timed as the humidity in the air began to grow as they approached the next floor. The sight before them was water and a small bridge. Just how deep the water went was a question the mage was not eager to answer. "I can light the room as before if we would like a better look. Though I fear it may similarly rouse something to attack us." Estelle spoke in regard to the splash they had heard. She had a glowing ball of light at the ready, only waiting for confirmation that it was what they all desired.

A five-fold roar pierced through the gathering on Mt. Olympus but late as it was on arriving the impact was much less impressive than planned. But into view came a chariot pulled by five enormous Asian dragons with brilliantly colored scales. A sixth slightly smaller dragon was at its side and unharnessed. The chariot itself had but a single occupant, an auspicious looking man who seemed all too irritated despite the splendor of his entrance. The five harnessed dragons bowed respectfully upon landing as the man exited, the sixth however stood on their own feet, looking anywhere but the man's general direction. "My apologies dear friends. I had plans to be here well and early but someone was feeling particularly disagreeable today." The man spoke, his expression settling into a more refined and serious look as if trying to bury the frustrations that were fairly blatant. "I am Haemosu, god of the sun and this is my champmion, Taeyang-ui Suhoja." he said, motioning to the smaller of his six dragons. The dragon did little in the way of recognizing his introduction, only looking Haemosu's way briefly. An intense exchange of glares soon prodded the dragon into action. "Yeah, that's me." the deep voice sounded briefly. Taeyang sounded less than enthused to be there and in fact wasn't after the near constant bickering she and Haemosu had been occupied with the entire day. It had been entirely her fault and that this point she was well aware of it but it was far too late to back down from her initial position. Still, bickering openly in front of the other gods wouldn't serve either of them very well. Haemosu did not seem particularly thrilled with her lack of formality especially under the circumstances. "You would do well to at least greet your fellow champions and apologize for our tardiness." the man muttered in a tone that clearly intended it as a threat. Taeyang looked over the room before responding. "You're lucky there's some lookers here." the dragon moped back. Haemosu took his leave of his champmion to go and greet the other gods and begin playing the game of apologies and posturing he would likely be caught up in for the rest of the day. Taeyang for her part looked back to the gathering, noting the awkwardness her size presented in interacting normally in this setting. She had a remedy to the situation but Haemosu had told her not to reveal it prior to a battle. She would see how long she could put up with that as she began shifting from the entrance to go and meet some of the others.

The young fish hunter seemed satisfied with his work after shattering the arm he had pinned. Granted there was a general sense of confusion as what remnants of the skeleton remained and the corpses of the slain sharks all disappeared in front of everyone. Aduain was left staring around somewhat blankly before his focus shifted back to the others that had been brought here with him. The boy was generous with compliments for both ice users and asked a million questions about how they did it and if they could teach him. But eventually this was cut off by the police arriving on the scene. The law enforcement seemed suspicious of the group, Aduain in particular received a few longer stares no doubt from the reports of fish attacking, until Salvo spoke on their behalf. The hunter was all too happy to try and relay what information he could as the various combatants were questioned. He told his stories with an energy and sense of exaggeration that ultimately proved unhelpful to the law enforcement and they quickly moved on and invited him to leave. Salvo got everyone's attention that they would have a place to stay while they were here which Aduain ultimately decided was probably helpful enough to be worth checking out. He had just planned to find any body of water he was nearby at night and crash there but maybe that wasn rude in Prana culture. For that matter the boy ran off to find his gifted tie and hat he had set down before getting into the fight. It took a few minutes and he nearly missed the bus for it but the young hunter found his gifts and ran off to meet up with the others. There as a lot more talking as they arrived to the building they were to be living in. Aduain's curiosity focused in on the devices he was to wear about his wrist. Caught up in a stream of excitement the fish tapped randomly at the device while cycling through a number of different functions. All the while he hopped in place about the room until an incredibly familiar sense took hold. Looking up to see a girl that looked like she was a couple different people sown together the hunter felt not a vague approximation but the genuine article. This girl was a nen user! And a hunter at that! "You're a hunter?!" Aduain exclaimed while rushing through the room to stand not but a few inches away from Morgan. "I'm Aduain, I'm a hunter too! But I don't remember you at my exam so we musta passed different years. You really do have nen though I almost thought I'd never sense it on anyone else again." the boy continued as he looked around the zombie girl on either side as if making sure she wasn't an illusion. His own excitement seemed to have the boy blind to immediately pressing on the oddities of her appearence unlike a certain book in the room.

Aduain had been on his way to join the fight against the flaming bones when a cry reached his ears. Turning to meet it the fish saw far off someone being chased by one of the few straggler sharks. Hardly one to leave someone to be eaten the boy hopped off to intervene, taking an extra high jump as he got closer. He landed on top of the shark with enough force to shut its mouth prematurely and spare the soul the loss of limb. The trident was soon to follow as the hunter plunged it into the brain of the beast causing it to stop moving fairly quickly. Looking at it this shark seemed a bit scrappier than the others. Maybe younger or else just not as strong or impressive. Despite the danger being averted Aduain could still hear the person he'd rescued screaming and so he hopped down off the shark to see a very well dressed man cowering on the ground. Perhaps he'd tripped or simply given up, either way he was safe now but didn't seem to realize it. "Hey-" Aduain started only for another shrill shriek to interrupt him. "No, don't eat me! I'm too rich and important!" he yelled at the sight of yet another fish creature. "I'm not-" the hunter tried again, a bit off put and uncertain how to approach this. More screams cut him off of course. "I can't die to a stupid fish, you're supposed to eat fish not the other way around! Isn't there someone I can pay to spare me?!" he shouted as if Aduain had some master nearby that would accept the bribe in exchange for his life. Nevermind that if he stood he'd be taller than the fish he was currenly afraid of. "Look, I'm here to-" Aduain started again, clearly frustrated, only to get cut off again. But these screams didn't get to carry as the fish slapped the man's face, his irritation kept him from pulling his nen entirely from the attack and in a moment the man was unsonscious on the ground with a bruise already forming on his cheek. "Wait... wait wait wait! I was supposed to save you not kill you!" the boy started clearly concerned. This felt like a rookie hunter mistake to make. He shook the man who awoke in a fright and began looking around. There was less screaming this time. "W-what are you?" the man asked nervously and apparently had forgotten the previous attempts at an exchange. "...Just a hunter here to help. That uh... shark got ya pretty good there." Aduain started, blaming his actions on the dead shark. "Best get moving, it's not exactly safe here yet." Still clearly confused the self-important man didn't need to be told again and off he went. With detour complete Aduain turned his attention back to the flaming skull which at this point wasn't as on fire or in one piece as it had been on arrival. The others had been doing quite the number on it. And a dragon had appeared which was almost beyond belief until the boy saw its shape changing as it began to fall. That had to be the shapeshifter that had arrived with them then. With nen flaring the boy leapt off at high speed to join the others and the first order of business was to open a geyser underneat the falling shifter. This geyser he made an effort to make gentler. Strong enough to slow their fall but not so strong as they normally were lest it hurt them. The skeleton was the next target of a geyser, this one decidedly not gentle. With his nen taking on the properties of water, the explosion of nen underneath its still flaming left arm soon saw the flames on that body part extinguished. The skeleton launched darts of fire at the fish in retaliation who began hopping about, avoiding the projectiles with a wide smile on his face. He was trying to only just barely dodge them and nearly scorched his back for the maneuver. With one last big vault jump using his trident Aduain took to the air and dove in at an angle, his flipper like foot extended. A fierce nen-powered kick landed on the now flameless arm, an audible crack sounding yet it held for the time being. Damage to the bones and broken hand aside, the skeleton still tried to attack the fish with the arm which Aduain found himself unable to dodge in his current position. A solid blow to the abdomen sent Aduain twirling through the air before he landed with the grace of a drunken cat. He shook his head a bit to get readjusted before looking to the others engaging the monster. And while he hadn't seen every detail of the fight, Aduain was pretty sure two of them had ice hatsus and that had him forming a plan. "Hey, ice guys!" he called to Fen and Trevor. "Gonna need a lot more here!" the fish smirked as the beginnings of several more nen geysers began forming about the skeleton and at his own feet.