Dragon Sign [IC/PG-16/Not Accepting]

[Chaos Sonic 442]

Basically on cue after he said stuff (and a bit more than that as well), Sabrina went in before the rest of the party. It seemed like a rookie mistake in the grand scheme, considering the fact that the number one rule of any game with a party: Never split up the party. And yet, Sabrina took that one rule and threw it out the window. So much for the dragon blooded warrior being a team player...then again, what was he doing any different? He had been pretty distant lately after that last fight against the Guardians, least in his mind.

“...Sabrina’s gone, I’m going to go look for her. ...I’m going left,”

"N-No telling where she went...but..." Gene sighed, nodding slightly. "May as well see if we can find some clues on the left path..." ...maybe get some actual puzzle solving going.

His decision was made as Gene followed after Marshall down the left path.

Like Marshall in front of him, he scaled up the pile of rubble as best he could just to see a dimly lit hallway...a poorly lit one at that. It stretched in both ways as the previous floors had, though there was a clear lack of floor. Eventually though she would hear armored footsteps from further down the hall and it's winding castle walls, though it was difficult to make out how many there actually were. Even still, Gene had the mind of a puzzle solver in this moment. He knew there had to be something within these halls in regards to a secret or something. And he was determined to find it!

He got within the hall and started to slowly run his hands along the walls. Here and there he would press on it to try and find out if there was a hidden secret within the walls. Nothing. ...okay...no secrets in the walls...damn. Let's try the next thing.

Gene proceeded to move towards the collapsed floor, to see if he could find anything within the pile of rubble. Unfortunately, once again, he came up empty. ...o-okay...this is starting to really upset me... he slightly grumbled silently to himself. He figured the only thing left to do was to move forward. And that was the last thing he wanted to do.

With a slow, drawn out sigh, Gene moved past Marshall in a cautious manner and proceeded forward. Walking around the bend, Gene saw them: a patrol of three armored Drengr, all carrying weapons. He let a slight gulp after seeing these creatures walking around on patrol, though they were walking on the opposite direction of him...which was a plus. Though on the right, he saw a door, though it was a bit further down.

Damnit...and it's past the Drengr...just my luck. Gene thought, slightly defeated at this point. He decided to just play it safe and go back cautiously and quietly back to Marshall and just relay all the information to her. Maybe she could assist with a better plan of attack.

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

Marshall was once again pleasantly surprised by her teammates; for she had honestly expected them to split away so as to explore the tower better. However, as she had heard armored footsteps decreasing in volume, she was more than ready to welcome Gene’s presence. It was, in fact, as she was debating whether or not to draw her weapon, that he pushed forwards. A smile came to her face, as she nodded. “Good idea,” she advised in a hushed tone. “Your swifter status will make scouting a more natural task,” she explained as he disappeared; and as true a compliment as it was, she knew in her heart she hadn’t said it just as a compliment either.

He would need to be confident in his abilities, and aware of the boons he could make use of, if they were going to deal with any sort of threat effectively; and it never hurt to try and encourage someone to apply themself. So it was that when he returned with… Fair enough tidings, that she nodded, and adjusted her cap. “...Three Drengr. Armored, with weapons; not unlike those at the gate, then…” she trailed off. “With some careful planning, I think we can take them with ease,” she smiled, in an almost natural fashion; as if she was using this as practice for an eventual real smile.

So it was that as she walked, approaching slowly and as quietly as she could, she continued to speak in a hushed tone. “...You have that spell, which creates a wall of water, yes?” she asked, hand situated on her hat. “I’m going to propose you use it to slow them down, as I attempt to pick them off with my weapon,” she explained, nodding. “I’ve yet to summon it, but I’ve full confidence it will manifest in the form I’ve imagined. As long as we can force them to come to us, we should make it out of this fight relatively unscathed,” she encouraged again with a slight nod.

From that moment, she stayed silent until she rounded the corner, and began to assume a firing stance. As if summoned by that motion, the rune on the back of her hand began to glow, and what appeared to be a nondescript rifle, with a dark blue and black stock came to be in her hands, perfectly steadied in her arms as she examined the golden embellishments for a brief moment. In all reality, it was hardly a functional rifle; but Marshall had never truly known the inner workings and exact manufacturing of a rifle either. This, instead, was simply what a gun might look like in her mind; and so it is what manifested, and what would work for her purposes through magic. She lined the golden sights up with her target, the Drengr in the middle’s head…

And pulled the trigger.

The 'bullet' was slower than she expected; it was possible to perceive, but she knew that to be because it was made of magic, given the nature of the rifle. There was a loud noise that followed, though still quieter than she was to expect, and as the Drengr in the center began to turn to see its source… The bullet met its mark, in a bloody, terrible fashion. It fell unceremoniously, messily to the ground, as Marshall took a deep breath, and steadied herself. The recoil was more than she was expecting as well, but that was from her inexperience, rather than the magical nature of the rifle. “Counting on you,” she instructed, no longer lowering her voice as she watched the other two carefully.

Gene waited for the moment to strike, taking the shot that Marshall fired as his signal. "...alright...here's Water Wall..." he muttered, the sigil on his hand glowing as he conjured up a Water Wall exactly where he was told and at the precise moment too.

The Drengr, meanwhile, had lost no time closing the distance before them; and only stopped as the wall came up between them and the Exalted. For a moment, a crucial moment, they looked confused. It was in this moment that Marshall swapped her aim to the one closest to her, teeth grit as he began to ready himself. “...Go for the one closest to you,” she called out to Gene as that one swung its halberd through the wall, destroying it, and the one closer to her lunged forwards. “Durch die Wälder!" she shouted as she steadied her aim, unabated by the lunging beast, and fired again; the shot… Different this time, as rather than a bullet, a blue bead of water shot forth from the barrel of her gun. For a second, it looked as if it might miss the Drengr, going low... "Durch die Auen!" -before arching upwards in an instant, as if directed to do so, spearing straight through the Drengr’s skull. Matter-mixed-with-water as the Drengr slumped to the ground, all momentum continuing as Marshall stepped swiftly to the side to get out of its way, taking a deep breath, and a moment to steady herself as she turned her attention to Gene and his foe; hoping to see him faring well.

[yui 574]

As the quartet-now-trio assembled within the hole in the wall, it immediately became clear that Sabrina had gone ahead on her own. That was... not ideal, to say the least. While Marshall and Gene announced their shared intents to go left, Abby responded instead with a nod to the right.

 “...Sabrina’s gone, I’m going to go look for her. ...I’m going left,”

"N-No telling where she went...but... May as well see if we can find some clues on the left path..."

"I'll go check for Sabrina over this way, then. Try not to get in too much trouble without us, mkay?"

After all, if three people were going the wrong way, that would leave Sabrina high and dry without any backup for longer than necessary. And Abby could take care of herself if it came time to trade blows.

And right did she go, conjuring forth her hammer along the way. Right into a long hallway. Eventually, on her right once again, there was a door leading up to a staircase, yet the hall stretched further still. Reasoning that checking the upper floors first would be slightly faster, Abby elected to go for the stairs. Up the spiral staircase she went, and after a bit of climbing, she came to a landing with a door and a continuation of the stairs. Abby elected to take a quick peek out the door, in case there was anything interesting on the other side. Alas, it was just another long hallway. There seemed to be a few of those around here, which made sense for the building in question and all. Still, Abby was resolved to continue following the stairs, so she left the mysterious Hallway #2 behind for now. Continuing further up the stairs, Abby found herself at the top of the stairs, where her search for Sabrina would begin in earnest.

And, as luck would have it, where her search for Sabrina would end as well.

At the top of the stairs was the dragon descendant(?) girl in question, along with a very dead Drengr. Un-conjuring her hammer, Abby looked over the dead Drengr, before giving Sabrina a thumbs-up of approval. "Nice. Any injuries on your part?"

"Huh? What?" Sabrina looked around, startled, until seeing Abby. "O-oh, yeah. I mean, no!"

"Great. The others are downstairs looking for you. We should probably meet up with them, unless your dragon blood senses something up here worth doing of course."

"Looking for...me? Er. Well. There's another door there...but I don't know where it goes. I thought..." She shook her head. "T-that is I discovered a watchman who would have surely, um, alerted their boss and..." her voice trailed off. "Uh, I guess I'll...go downstairs now."

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Abby winked, nodding to the door behind her. "You took out a watchman who would have alerted the boss. That's a huge help to the rest of us. Good work!"

[LordCowCow 839]

"Y-yeah! Yeah I did didn't I!" Sabrina replied to Abby's encouragement. Still she couldn't help but feel let down. She was so certain she was going to find something much more exciting up there. She took one last look around and, as she did, she gazed off to what the tower was looking over.

It was overlooking a large portion of the castle area. Many ruined buildings, some connected some stand-alone, were across her field of view. She could make out a courtyard which seemed to be where the entrance they had seen before led into. All across the 'town' of sorts she could see little figures moving about. It was high up so it was hard to tell but she assumed they were more Drengr patrolling around. Had they went in through the front gate they likely would have ran into many enemies along the way.

In the center of the entire area was a huge building with four lightning rods jutting out of it. That had to be it! It looked like a place that the lord of the castle would reside in. "Maybe..." she for a moment considered trying to jump down and perhaps glide over to it but shook her head. She had no idea if she even could attempt such a thing and if she couldn't....splat.

So she turned around and went back down the stairs. Maybe it was for the best to just meet up with the others....

However as she once again saw the door partway down her eye was drawn to it and she started to walk slower. Behind her Abby clearly wanted to just keep going and regroup. Which perhaps would be the right thing. "But...the door..." Sabrina said, now standing by it and turning her head to look at the door directly. "Maybe there's something in there..."

She turned around completely to look at Abby. "P-Perhaps we can...just take a quick look? Just in case. Wouldn't want to miss something and have to come all the way back after all...right?" Her insistence paid off as Abby agreed to check out the area. Sabrina opened up the door and barged right into....

A hallway. A plain and simple hallway that curved after a bit so that she couldn't see where it went. "Well, might as well at least see what's around the bend right?" she said as she continued onward.

However before she could see that she heard something instead. Metal footsteps coming from farther along the hall. "Oh. Someone's coming." She said to Abby.

She summoned her scythe and crouched down, ready to strike, and muttered to herself "this time I'll make sure to look much cooler..."

[Chaos Sonic 442]

The plan was executed perfectly, almost flawlessly. The Water Wall did the trick, and yet...now Gene was looking at a Drengr breaking through the Water Wall with a halberd. Now the halberd was swinging down directly at the young hero. This wasn't what he was hoping for...but he was at least prepared for it in the grand scheme of it all.

"O-Okay...take this!" he said, calling Aqua Star to his hand and immediately using his Weapon Art - Quick Strike. With a quick upward slash, Gene knocked the halberd upward and immediately immediately moved forward and slashed at the Drengr's legs. Unfortunately, due to the fact that the Drengr was armored practically all over, it did next to no damage...correction, it did some reduced damage. That was still a win in his book. ...would prefer more damage being done, but beggars can't be choosers. He had another action in mind: the horizontal slash along the neck. If he could get a clean swing on that...this could all be over.

Unfortunately, the Drengr was a tad smarter than Gene had anticipated and it simply moved back and parried the horizontal slash with it's halberd. Once it did that, the creature was preparing a slash right at the Exalted's torso.

"N-No you don't!" Gene immediately had his Dragon Sign glow yet again as another Water Wall was summoned, blocking the torso strike. The young hero crouched slightly and in a quick movement of speed, maneuvered around the Water Wall and slashed at the Drengr's arms to drop the halberd. Once again, the arms were like the legs...armored...it was nothing but reduced damage. However, the halberd was dropped from the creature's hands. Victory! ...or so it seemed. Despite it's arm being mildly injured, it reached for a sword and went in for another attack. He raised his sword upward to block and parry the strike...it wasn't very...elegant in execution but the attack was blocked nonetheless. Once it was done, Gene pushed back and used his Quick Strike again, this time at the chest. The disengage worked and combined with his speed, Gene was able to cut through the armor on it's chest. This was the opportunity Gene was looking for right now...he shouted a bit and immediately dealt the fatal thrust into the Drengr's chest. One less Drengr...

With a slight huff, Gene wiped his brow, giving Marshall a thumbs up before slowly advancing towards the door they were looking at prior. Slowly, he opened the door... The door led to a small hall that led to another door that led outside onto a raised platform with a staircase on either end. It was curious for sure, but Gene kept looking around. There were buildings and a road around, and while he couldn't see very far because of the buildings, Gene could still see a massive structure in presumably the center. "Huh...that's...interesting..." he muttered, before backing away slowly and looking in Marshall's direction. "H-Hey...you may want to take a look at this..."

[yui 574]

With Sabrina retrieved, the plan was now to bring her back to reunite with the rest of the party. However, Abby was also very much not the type to rush the checklist. If there was a bit of sidetracking worth doing on the way back, she certainly wasn't going to stop Sabrina from going for it. Within reason. Peeking out to see what was behind door number two, and perhaps dealing with it if it was an enemy? That seemed pretty reasonable.

And behind that door? A hallway! Abby was, despite everything, somewhat surprised at that. Further down the hall, however, they could hear footsteps. Footsteps that were, unlike every other footstep Abby had heard since getting here, more metallic in nature. And, for a probable want of robots in this world, that only meant one thing. Armored enemies.

"This time I'll make sure to look much cooler..."

"Just try not to do anything too reckless, m'kay? I'll lead the way from here."

As Abby took point and led the not-quite-an-expedition further down the hall, calling forth her hammer in the process, the guess turned out to be quite right. Not just one armored enemy, either, but two of them! Two armored drengr awaited further down, one armed with a halberd, and the other with a sword. Not only that, but they had a sort of... coyote-warg beast type animal with them. And once the Exalted and the drengr locked eyes, it was on sight. Without a moment's hesitation, the coyote charged and leapt forth.

Woah, fast boy!

Abby would have preferred to get a good swing of the hammer in retaliation to this sort of aggression, but sometimes, you just didn't have the time to figure out how to get a good swing. Met with such a circumstance, Abby elected to do the next best thing she could think of at present. She took the head of her hammer, and rather than swing it in an arc, simply thrust it forward to intercept the attacker. It did successfully intercept, but the unusual attack didn't seem to hurt the coyote very much, and the beast was already raring to go for round two.

Only this time, it had its friends with it. The coyote leapt forth once again, this time accompanied by the tag-team of drengr, with the halberdier of the pair taking a clean swing at Abby's side. The swordsman, meanwhile, was making its way to Sabrina. And if Abby could help it, she'd slow the advance some to buy her own tag-team buddy time for a better advance, or at least reduce the pressure on herself. Abby pulled her casting hand back as the mark on it lit up a brilliant green, then shot it forward with a gust of wind that pushed the coyote back, further than her bunting attack from just a moment ago did. However, in so doing, she was unable to prevent the attack on her side.

Fine, she could get to him next!

[LordCowCow 839]

"Just try not to do anything too reckless, m'kay? I'll lead the way from here."

"Oh, but, well..." Sabrina began to protest. She wanted to be the one to lead the way but...Abby hadn't wanted to go this way to begin with so complaining about who went first felt awkward. "I'll, uh, watch your back then."

Three enemies showed themselves. Two of them, like the previous fight, were armored drengr and one of them....seemed to be a very large coyote. Her first thought was that it was strange seeing animals handling animals and her second thought was to wonder if that was racist in some way.

In the time she went over this Abby had got into action and blew the coyote back. It hadn't been knocked over nor did it seem all too injured. She could tell that it was taking a moment to recover, however, which meant that it wouldn't be attacking right away.

Unlike the two drengr. One of which, with a sword, was circling around Abby to try and reach her. While the other was heading right for Abby herself. She considered attacking the one with the sword, as it was closest and was the one who would soonest be able to attack her.

However a surge of excitement washed over her as she realized she had an opportunity to try and look cool in front of Abby.

The other drengr was focused on Abby and not herself so it wouldn't expect if...

"I shall deal with you later, foul beast, but you are not worth even a moment of my time!" She declared to the sword wielder. She saw a brief moment of surprise in the creature's face, which caused a giddy feeling to well up, as she used wind magic to launch herself up into the air and over the top of the halberd wielding drengr.

She brought her scythe out and swung it, cutting into the creature's neck as she descended. She was once more shocked at how sturdy these creature's were as she wasn't able to fully cut through the neck.

There was a moment hesitation as she pulled the scythe out as she was suddenly struck with the realization she was about to take a life but she managed to shake it off quick enough to spin in place to deliver a second swing.

While doing this she noticed the sword wielder had closed in but she noticed it too late. She continued her swing and took the creature's head off but immediately after the other drengr attacked.

She had stumbled a couple steps to the side when finishing her swing but the sword still stabbed her in the side. She yelped at the sudden pain and was caught off guard by it.

Sabrina suddenly realized two things.

She had never been stabbed before.

And being stabbed hurt.

[Tiamat's Circus 116]

Marshall was pleased to see that Gene seemed to have things under control, having dispatched his Drengr with only a bit more trouble. She’d have to remember that in the future; as while she was poised for an ambush attack, that her allies may not always be quite so… Ready? She furrowed her brow. That wasn’t the word. Capable. Not in the idea that they weren’t capable of taking care of themselves, but in that… Their strengths lied elsewhere; and she’d need to give more warning, and think further ahead next time. She took a deep breath, adjusting her tie with one hand, as she let her weapon fade from the other.

All of this is going to take some getting used to, even now… Ah, but there's no use slowing down yet.

She followed after Gene after only a moment, doing what she could to make sure she walked in a casual, yet quiet manner; as there was no telling how many Drengr there were total in this castle. It was only after they walked through what felt like a maze-- A corridor which led to another door, which in of itself led to a raised platform as well as a pair of stairwells… “If I know the others… They’re liable to go upwards and only upwards, which means to go down would be a bad idea…” she murmured under her breath, tilting her head to the side slightly as she thought. “So our best course of action…”

“H-Hey...you may want to take a look at this..."

Her attention was grabbed, in an instant, as Gene spoke up, pointing out some more of the scenery around them that they could see from this raised platform. Of particular note, were several other buildings, including one particularly large building at the center of it all; likely the ‘center of power’, if she had to guess. “...Ah. That’s…” she murmured, cutting herself off before she could produce something as useless or witless as ‘lovely’ or ‘just great’. That sort of idle chatter had no place here, after all. Instead, she chose to narrow her eyes, scanning the road below them for… Well, just about anything of note; Drengr Patrols, identifiable symbols. Anything about the location they overlooked.

And what she saw… Wasn’t exactly inspiring.

To start things off, there was a trio of Drengr in a patrol of sorts with what appeared to be a Coyote Warg leading them, off in the direction of the left staircase. There was also another landing of sorts, similar to the one they were on, with a Drengr standing guard there; and to the right, the sight aws the same. Not to mention another group of Drengr walking in their direction, in a sort of ‘three + 1’ patrol. And if that was what she saw with her limited vision here…

“...Too dangerous,” Marshall replied, flatly, as she began to back away. “Based on how calm they are, we can guess that Sabrina didn’t go this way; leaving only the direction Abby and you split off in for her to have gone. I suggest we begin backtracking, and regroup before we get ourselves killed,” she stated flatly, already moving to retrace their steps without hearing Gene’s reply. She wanted to think that it was because he would agree with her; because he would see reason. But she also knew…

Well, that there was no time to waste, was all.

So it was that she made short work of the distance they had traveled; no longer searching its every nook and cranny as she walked. She would have ran, but doing so would make a bit… Too much noise for her liking, and so, a power-walk was best. Climbing down the rubble was a bit of a challenge, and yet… Well, that wasn’t what weighed so heavily on her mind. If anything, the thought that stood out the most was frustration.

The issue with that, of course, was finding a target for it to be aimed at. She could hardly be frustrated with Gene; as he had simply followed someone. In that fact, he was the only one who had done 'right' in her mind. Perhaps, then, she was annoyed with Sabrina, who ran off on her own; but in that manner, shouldn’t she also have been annoyed with herself, and Abby? Of course, while they were both only looking for the girl, she hadn’t particularly waited for Gene to follow-- And Abby hadn’t known for sure that Sabrina had gone this direction either. 

No, if she was frustrated with anything… It was their group’s knack for never saying anything.

“...So, it was this way that Abby and - hopefully - Sabrina went, yes?” Marshall asked, glancing back to where she hoped Gene was, provided he had followed, as she came to stop at the ‘entrance’ they had all entered through, gesturing in the direction she hadn’t gone. “We should do what we can to find them and catch-up; if we ran into a patrol group, they surely must have as well, and…” she trailed off. “Well, we dispatched them as efficiently as we did only because we took the initiative and ambushed them,” she explained. “So, if they weren’t as lucky…” she trailed off, hoping she didn't have to finish the sentence.

[Skaia 578]

Though there was one enemy down two still remained. The Dregnr that had stabbed Sabrina pulled out its sword, and seemed to be ready to go for yet another against its opponent. Pulling back the sword, the two Exalted would be able to see lightning crackle across the Drengr's blade as it winded up its next swing.   The large bestial coyote meanwhile had recovered from the attack that Abby had delivered earlier. Rather than immediately pounce, however, it began to go from a low snarl to something much louder, before letting out a roar. In a large conical burst coming from its mouth, a blast of sound struck all three combatants. Both Sabrina and the Drengr would find themselves staggered, if only for a moment, by the attack. Abby meanwhile, though the attack still hurt a little, was able to Endure through it entirely.