The Chosen [IC/PG-16]

[Alaina]

The Earth Chosen had kept her watchful gaze over the man, trying to make sure he wasn't going to do anything suspicious. The more she looked at him, though, the more nervous he seemed to be. His hand was not gripping his blade in a manner that seemed not conducive to actual use. He himself, as well, looked as though he were trying to get ready to run, though, probably in the opposite direction of the shark. The girl felt that there were still questions to be asked towards him, but before she could, she heard a few cries of pain, one human and one not. Instinctively, she turned around with worry on her face, only becoming far more worried, fearful, and slightly confused at the whole situation.

 

It was Chaos, and not in the normal sense that battles generally were. On the ground near the shark was the blond haired swordsman, followed by the orc being not too far from him. Then there was the bird like creature with a large slash mark through him. Thinking that it was much more pertinent for her to take care of the shark, the Earth Chosen's attention shifted away from the man and instead onto the sand beast. Drawing her mace out, she went to go in and assist in bringing it down, as the Water and Light Chosen tended to the wounds of the blond haired man.

 

The shark was in a rather odd position, kept aloft by the lightning blade of the man with the eye-patch and unable to do as it wanted. As such, being set up perfectly for her, the girl had run to the side opposite of the man, and with an overhand swing, went to strike the snout of the sand shark. The mace connecting hard onto its face, the creature was clearly in pain as it started to trash about, blood coming from the wound that she had created. As the injured shark turned its attention to the girl, she took a quick back step with her shield raise, waiting for its next move.

[Andx]

Reinaan looked on mostly in confusion as the others rushed to Kha's aid. In a mixture of attacks, some effective and others not, the creature was now hanging in the air off of Lindow's blade of what looked like lightning only it wasn't going anywhere. How was he doing that? Regardless the Orc seemed somewhat alright now. The same couldn't be said for the Chosen of Darkness. It seemed there'd be a bit of a line of injuries to treat ahead of his neck. And that was alright with Reinaan so long as they weren't in immediate danger. Which they didn't seem to be with the shark occupied. He was trying his best to stay focused on keeping a look out for any more potential attackers but someone was making that more difficult than it should have been.

 

"Are you okay Reiny boy? Don't die on me now!"

 

He knew that voice. And if he knew it well enough, which was hard to say given the time they'd spent together was limited, it would be conti-

 

"Whatcha looking at? You looking for food? I don't see anything but sand. Wait! Maybe I'm not looking hard enough!"

 

There it was. The halfling couldn't help but say a mouthful every time she spoke it felt like. And every word pounded on Reinaan's focused ears, completely breaking his concentration. He snarled in frustration at the girl as he didn't much like being interrupted while he was focused on a hunt.

 

"Would you knock it off?!" he yelled along with the reptilian noise that had immediately preceded it. The yelling agitated his neck injury some to which he backed off and held a hand lightly to the bandaging. Thinking on it they probably needed to move everyone out of the sun seeing as it had been bothering the others some and there were injuries in need of treating. The men had seemed to be calling to others inside however so the safety of that move was questionable. Ryia then moved to attack the shark and seemed to get a pretty solid strike on it. Reinaan cautiously started making his way toward the other Chosen hoping that if anything he'd at least be able to help move the injured Chosen of Darkness or something to that effect. "Let's figure out a safe place to move everyone to." he said looking back to Anis and her bird companion.

 

Meanwhile Ziiyol was standing not far from the shark. Reiny had asked her to do something if the others couldn't get it off of the orc but it seemed rather well taken care of. This put her in an odd spot. Should she dance as she had prepared to? But then what would she do with the flames? Then a brilliant idea came to her.

 

"A dance without the flames!" she concluded aloud joyously. She began twirling about in place with no flames to speak of being produced around her. What purpose this could accomplish only the fire spirit knew.

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"You're good as new, hopefully."

 

"Kwaa! (That was way too shocking for me, Anis! Please talk to your allies better next time!"

 

As the others were busy treating the Chosen of Darkness and the Chosen of Light, Anis was busy dealing with Ileca's injury first of all. She's her life partner after all - how could she ignore her for others' sake? The wound caused by the accidental hit wasn't too deep, but Ileca was quite annoyed with the electric shocks she got from it. Anis thus advised her to stay put even if the bird's mood called for a tantrum. Closing the wound by regenerating the tissue and putting some feathers on top of the wound to conceal it, Anis made sure that it's all good first before turning her attention to the rest. Just in time for something to happen.

 

"Would you knock it off?!"

 

"Stop yelling. I hate it when my patients don't even help themselves in recovering."

 

Short reply said, Anis turned to check on Ayden. It looked pretty bad even if he's been treated by the (also seemingly injured) Orc and the Water Chosen, but Anis realized that treating him fully here would make them lose even more precious time in the middle of this heat. What he had now seemingly was a good enough first-aid for them to start moving again.

 

"You're right though. We should start moving again now. Gilly and Keres should be able to do something to keep Ayden from getting worse while we're moving, I guess. I'm not that well-versed in navigating a desert though, so someone else would have to do it unless we're going to return to that place and break in.

 

Oh also, Ileca. If you're feeling hungry, just take some bite from the shark over there once the Fire Spirit's done. Maybe you can ask her to cook it for you?"

 

---

[Hälō]

"Never a dull moment with you guys, huh?" Lindow tried his best to maintain his composure as chaos erupted all around him. Gritting his teeth, he returned his attention to blade of energy that sprouted from his open palm, as the sand shark began to thrash around furiously. "This is harder than it looks..."

 

Though it seemed that with two of the more combat oriented members of the party currently injured. the Earth Chosen was the only one amongst the group that would be coming to his aid. Watching as the girl dashed around to the opposite side of the shark and swung her mace into its face, Lindow grunted with new strain as he widened his stance to keep his victim steady against a new wave of thrashing. The beating sun was now beginning to take it's toll on the witch hunter, and as he tried his best to maintain the spell, Lindow couldn't help but wonder when the others were going realize that they couldn't stay like this forever...

 

 

"You're right though. We should start moving again now. Gilly and Keres should be able to do something to keep Ayden from getting worse while we're moving, I guess. I'm not that well-versed in navigating a desert though, so someone else would have to do it unless we're going to return to that place and break in. Oh also, Ileca. If you're feeling hungry, just take some bite from the shark over there once the Fire Spirit's done. Maybe you can ask her to cook it for you?"

 

Ah, at least someone was thinking of a way for them to get out of this situation. "There's no way we're getting far with two injured, and more of these things skulking about..." Lindow called out to the group whilst drawing his sword from his hip. "Someone get that door!" Taking advantage of the fact that the shark had turned to face the Earth Chosen, Lindow thrusted his blade into what appeared to be the creature's gills. It needed those to breath, right?

 

"... f***." Worry instantly struck him, as he was met with the feeling of stabbing into gravel. Seconds later, he felt a tugging at the end of his sword, and upon further examination, realized that his weapon was now being pulled into the beast's body. With his captive now thrashing even more fiercely then before, Lindow clenched his jaw and attempted to yank and twist his sword free whilst trying his best to maintain the magical blade that was now beginning to fade. "And help us put our friend here out of his misery, before he takes another bite out of someone... " He urged on, knowing all to well that lighting blade would fade at any moment. 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Keres refused to worry about the shark at this time. She had to focus. There were others that could deal with that threat after all. If they were to be a team she would have to try and trust them to not get her killed. It was rough, trying to depend on others, especially since she had been cast away from groups most of her life. So she would treat it as research. She was observing an adventuring party and that was all.

With this in mind she looked towards Ayden.

"Ya know...just for that it was almost worth it."

"Not smart..." She said. It wasn't meant as an insult but a warning. She didn't even realize it would easily come off as insulting. She was just trying to warn this man away from such things in the future.

However it seemed the Orc had come to take her place. Thankfully he seemed to have become stronger in the process and the healing was going much smoother. The shark hadn't managed to take a chunk out of the man, so, the wound should be able to heal soon enough. The only issue was...

 

Too hot. Help me if you can.

 

The healer was overheating. Keres frowned at the Orc and shook her head. She might be able to hit him with water but it wouldn't do much. The water she had was, at best, room-temperature due to the intense heat keeping the insulated water from staying cool. However...

Gilly was looking out into the desert. She wouldn't see much, except, possibly, the faint outline of the oasis far in the distance. The entire scene would look quite wobbly, though, and, being unused to the desert, it would certainly be a strange sight to her.
"Make it cold." Keres said simply to the young girl, before looking back at Kha.

 

The shark was having quite the bad time. It had found a large amount of food all crowded in one place and they just so happened to have been covered in thorns.

First was the tingly thorn that was wiggling inside of its mid-section.
Then there was the blunt thorn that hit its nose.

Then a big, really hard, thorn was inside of its gills and making it hard to process the rocks that it had gathered up to breath outside of the ground. It was almost like a stuffy nose. But with metal instead of mucus.

And now a giant bird creature was trying to eat HIM. The irony of it all. This deformed vulture apparently didn't get the memo that the shark wasn't dead yet.

It began to thrash even more, weakening Lindow's hold over the electric blade to the point where it would fail after a few more moments. Once free the shark dove for the ground, yanking Lindow's sword in the process while trying to go back underground.

 

Meanwhile the "soldier" was realizing that this distraction wasn't going to last long. He had to get out of there. However he couldn't just run or they'd catch him. Or worse they'd stand still and let the shark get him. He had to do something....Panicked he threw his sword at Ryia's back, with more accuracy than one would expect from such an unconventional move, and took off in the direction of the bridge.

[Alaina]

Focusing on the shark, the girl was simply awaiting what its next action was going to be. However, it seemed to be preoccupied as she saw the Thunder Chosen plunge his blade into the gill of the creature. What likely would have been a fatal blow on a fish under the water, this seemed to pose a far greater problem. As the man seemed to struggle with the creature, it eventually thrashed about hard enough to break free from the man's lightning blade and started to dive into the sand. As she had seen the thrashing of the creature, she took a small back step, bringing her arm back to swing her mace at the creature. Before she did, there was a small bit of force that seemed to hit against her back yet, it was ultimately unnoticeable to her nor did it seem to have any effect. Unbeknownst to her, a sword had been thrown at her back, yet upon hitting the armor that she wore just toppled to the ground without much impact whatsoever. Keeping her focus on the shark, the girl used a somewhat diagonal downward swing to hit the top fin of the creature, giving it great pain and distress, yet also causing it to veer its descent towards the Earth Chosen. Bringing her arm up, she attempted to try and put her shield as a wall between her and its mouth were it come at her.   

[Sethera]

"Would you knock it off?!" Reiny boy seemed grouchy. Perhaps he hadn't had enough food? Gilly started to babble about food he could eat to feel better, like that shark, but he seemed distracted with his neck and moved away to help the pink-haired girl. Speaking of, the halfling really didn't know the names of everybody here. That was something she should get on, otherwise she would always be saying, "Hey, you!" Still, she had a job to do. Back to her desert gazing, Gilly frowned, seeing nothing but a funny blur. "Ehhh," said, "This is boring." Her head felt all wibbly-wobbly just looking out here for too long. How did people stand living here? It was so...weird.

 

"Make it cold."

 

"Hmm?" the halfling asked, turning to look at the speaker, that weird silent girl, before the words went through. "Huh? Who are you to give me orders, huh? Or do you just not know how to be polite? Because, you know, if that's the case, I could tell you how. You just say this--" and so she continued for a bit, completely forgetting about the request.

 

Snow, meanwhile, had hopped over to the orc. "Gilly, the orc is suffering from preliminary stages of hyperthermia. You should use your powers to cool him down."

 

"Wha? But wait, wouldn't he need to warm up then?"
 

"No, that's hypothermia. Use your powers."

 

"Oh okay, fine fine. Uhhh," she concentrated for a second. "There's not much water here to freeze up, though," she pouted. "And I don't want him to get hit by ice balls or an ice spear."

 

The rabbit sighed. "Okay, I'll do it." Closing his eyes, he became corporeal, and, ignoring the shock of the desert air, focused on summoning a snowstorm around him. Hopping up on the orc's shoulder, he lessened the fury of the storm, till it became more like a gentle snowfall, but the chilly air remained.

 

Gilly, meanwhile, had an idea! The idea of ideas! Or at least a good idea, anyway. Sidling over to that strange rude girl, she beamed. "I just thought of something. Why don't I give you this?" and she handed over an ice spear. "You can use that to cool your water down! I know, no need to thank me, just being awesome as usual!" she gave a thumbs up.

 

Hob inched closer to the healer, wary of the shark, but wanting to be nearer to the cold that radiated from the rabbit.

[Cherz]

"Not smart..."

 

"I wasn't being serious you jabroni..." He said with an exasperated sigh. He gazed around really quick, surveying his surroundings. He tried to stand, but the ache in his chest started to return, so he simply stopped. He continued to lie back prone, while the Orc that was taking care of him had his needs met.

 

"Say...Nocturne? Where are you?" He meekly stated, calling out to his Spirit. Sure enough, Nocturne approached.

 

"Taking shade in that cactus. I'm not cut out for this heat. Next time, let the others handle the shark. That was a really stupid move, and you're lucky to be alive." His spirit lectured, before simply retreating and squating by that cactus, taking what little shade he could find in the desert.

 

 This time, Ayden forced himself up. He managed to find his footing, and was a bit wobbly, but he stabilized himself. The patch job from Kha would have to do. The ice spirit seemed to be cooling Kha off, so Ayden lurched on over and clutched onto Kha's arm, basking in the chilly air that now enveloped him. The cool air was such a refreshing feeling, especially after having been sprawled out in the heat.

 

"Thank you." Nocturne said, to the chosen of Water, Light, and Ice respectively.

[Andx]

"Hmmm, this dance isn't much fun." Ziiyol concluded after twirling about gracefully for a bit. She had really wanted to summon some flames but hadn't wanted to risk hurting the others. But that didn't mean she didn't still want to do it. Reinaan had reached the other Chosen and saw Ayden standing back up after some of the Orc's treatment. "That must be some good stuff." he said aloud in awe. It wasn't perfect but given the relatively short time the healing magic seemed incredible. As he drew near he noticed the air get colder due to the Ice spirit hard at work. The difference in temperatures was a fascinating sensation as his front side was cold and his back hot from the desert sun. He took a moment to enjoy the feel of it. Ziiyol's boredom was building and she intended to do something about it. "Reiny can I do my real dance now?" she called out hoping her partner would allow it. Reinaan groaned a bit at how she could be caught up over dancing given the situation.

 

"Look, just get over here! We're gonna get out there in just a second." he called out to her. Hearing what sounded like a potential merging with her partner Ziiyol happily complied and raced over to the Draken's side. Her presence conflicted with the chill the ice spirit was sending out and as she approached she naturally backed off from the group. "You didn't say it was cold over here!" she said pouting. Reinaan couldn't help but laugh a bit but his neck quickly reminded him that wasn't a wise idea. Turning to the Orc Reinaan took a second then spoke again. "Kha I know you have to be tired but could you work some of your magic on my neck? Just enough for me to get back to fighting. I can't stand not being able to do anything..." he said trailing off. He hated to trouble the obviously tired Orc but he hated not being able to do much for the fight a lot more. He tried to focus on his surroundings again having caught a glimpse of some metal object striking Ryia. He'd almost forgot the men who'd tried to kill him were still around. His eyes were largely on them now figuring the rest of the group had the shark under control.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

"I wasn't being serious you b****..."

"Thank you."

"Words hollow in succession." Keres said. She had recoiled from Ayden as the man snapped at her in such a manner, drawing farther into herself, and mentally blocking out his presence, when the Spirit thanked her. She couldn't really appreciate the gesture, however, given the previous words. So she turned from the two and ignored them, looking at what happened with the shark.

 

The cold seemed to work to cool off the Orc and he was no longer in danger of overheating. In fact. It worked so well that he was beginning to feel, unbelievably with this sun, numb. As was Lindow who ended up losing grip on his sword as it got lodged farther into the shark's gill.
Speaking of the shark. It was in a rather unusual situation at the moment. As it was currently falling, with nothing to stop it, it flipped over itself and ended up crashing on top of Ryia. The shield kept her from being directly pinned but she was brought down into the ground as the full weight of the shark landed on her shield, barely keeping from crushing the girl.

 

Keres gaped, surprised at what happened, and began to rapidly try and think of something to do to keep the shark, which was still moving about and trying to bite anything nearby, from crushing the girl. She opened her flask of water reluctantly, knowing how little she had, and began to prepare to use that to try and lift the shark.

 

"I just thought of something. Why don't I give you this? You can use that to cool your water down! I know, no need to thank me, just being awesome as usual!"

Keres looked at the spear, grabbed it, looked at the Halfling, and tried not to mention how weird it felt that the ice was melting in her hand. A thought occurred to her. "Infinite water?" She wondered, was this ice drinkable? She was tempted to lick the spear and see what happened...

 

Meanwhile Reinaan, his plea for healing currently going unheard, felt the pain in his throat flare up.

 

And Anis, standing apart from the group, would be able to hear voices coming from the slit-like window at the top of the building behind them. Voices that hinted at disbelief, amusement and, it seemed, growing confidence.

[Ren✧]

Kha leaned back into the sand, his magic finished with Ayden's wound. At least for now. He suspected that a bite like that would have some serious internal repercussions, but for now, just closing the wound would have to be enough. He feared that the sun was going to take him as a victim if he didn't find his way indoors fairly soon. Fortunately, the air around him immediately began to cool. At first it was a blistery sort of cold, not that Kha minded. However, before long the two extremes met to a comfortable wintery chill, compliments of the Ice Spirit. 

 

"Thank you." Kha said with hushed gratitude. He made a mental note to think Keres as well. However, those pleasantries would have to wait.

 

"Kha I know you have to be tired but could you work some of your magic on my neck? Just enough for me to get back to fighting. I can't stand not being able to do anything..." 

 

Kha just briefly gestured for the Draken to move closer to him. Once he had, Kha tenderly laid his hands on Reinaan's neck and began to focus his healing magic. It took a moment for the magic to start working. Almost as if there was something blocking it. Kha could feel it coursing just beneath his skin, but for some reason unable to spill out and heal the Fire Chosen's wound. Like a dam holding back precious water. Kha squeezed his face tight with concentration and slowly felt his magic begin to work on Reinaan's wound. 

[Sethera]

"Thank you," the dark spirit said to Gilly, that rude girl from before, and orc-man.

 

"No problemo!" Gilly replied cheerfully. "But you should probably thank Snowy instead. He's doing all the work."

 

Meanwhile, the ice spirit was working to maintain the temperature. It was hard work considering the desert heat, and he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. Rolling his eyes at the antics of the fire spirit, Snow kept up his concentration. He didn't have it in him for much more, but hopefully enough to keep the heat off the orc's back while he healed the Draken.

 

"Thank you," the orc said.

 

"You're welcome," the ice spirit replied.

 

Gilly was more focused on the rude girl. She had grabbed the spear and was looking it over. Scratch that, weird girl. Or weird and rude? Wude? Reird? Either way, she was sure different, all right. "Infinite water?" she asked.

 

"Infinite whatsit? Water? Oh, hmm. I don't think it'd be infinite. I think Snowy told me it's cuz it's made from magic or something so yeah," the halfling mused. "You're welcome to try it though. You seem the nerdy magician in a tower sort," she grinned with nary a hint of malice. Looking away, she saw the shark, currently crashed on top of Ryia. "Oh no!" she gasped dramatically. "Pinky is in trouble! Guys, we have to save her!" she squared her shoulders. "It's time for Gilly to the rescue!" Forming another ice spear, she ran at the duo. Setting her spear underneath the shark but still over Ryia's fallen form, she attempted to use it as a lever to get the shark off. "Never fear...Gilly...is...here!" she grunted, straining against the weight of the shark.

 

Hob, seeing this, walked forward and set his weight against the small halfling, providing a support so she wouldn't fall over in her efforts.

[Hälō]

"We need to get out of this heat..." Lindow gasped as he lost grip on his blade. Watching as the shark fell on the Earth Chosen, he glanced over to the others. 

 

"No really!" He growled before drawing one of the daggers from his cloak, "I'm going to need some help here, or she's done for..." Fighting off the fatigue from the beating sun, Lindow dashed towards the creatures back end whilst dragging his knife across it's hide to attract it's attention. Though it seemed he wasn't able to cut as deep as he had needed to...

 

The shark was now violently thrashing about atop of the poor girl, and it was becoming a painfully apparent that they were running out of time. Driving his dagger into the beast's tail fin, Lindow wrapped his arm around the sharks tail and attempted to pull it over to the building. However despite his strength, the shark seemed to only barely be moving. 

 

Unable to speak through the strain, he looked over to the rest of the group for help... 

 

 

[Alaina]

While she knew she was likely going to take a large impact from the creature, nothing quite mentally prepares a person for a giant fish from the sand falling on top of them. Despite her best efforts, as the shark had crashed into her shield, the Earth Chosen had been taken aback by the momentum of the creature and knocked to the ground. As she impacted into the sand below, the girl felt the entire weight of the creature starting to crush her from above. Thankfully, with her shield propped up, she was not completely helpless and prone, yet she was still in no position to retaliate at the creature. As she let go of her mace, freeing her hand up, she pushed it against the shark in an effort to hoist it off of her. Soon, two of the other Chosen had come to aid in her endeavors and with their help, she had managed to budge the creature, though not fully get it off of her. In order to help push it off even further, she then balled her free hand into a fist and began to punch at the side to keep up pressure in getting it off of her. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kha was pushing himself to heal the two injured Chosen, however, his efforts seemed to be working. Both Ayden and Reinaan were coming around. Unfortunately for Kha, his energy was draining fast, and he would feel week, tired, and a slight headache would start to form.

 

"Infinite whatsit? Water? Oh, hmm. I don't think it'd be infinite. I think Snowy told me it's cuz it's made from magic or something so yeah," the halfling mused. "You're welcome to try it though. You seem the nerdy magician in a tower sort. Pinky is in trouble! Guys, we have to save her! It's time for Gilly to the rescue! Never fear...Gilly...is...here!"

 

The shark was having an even worse day, however. The cold of the ice spear seemed to hurt it somewhat, and its thrashing suddenly slowed down as the ice touched its body.

Between the trio of Gilly, Lindow, and Ryia the shark was starting to be moved off the girl. But they needed help, still, to finish the job.

Keres was unsure how to respond to Gilly. The response had been surprisingly....intelligent. Keres felt embarrassed for having such a rude thought, but, she considered the truth behind the girl's words. Perhaps there would be some way to gather water from the girl's ice, but that would have to wait. "I can help Pink...her." Keres said, casting her magic and wrapping the water from her flask around the shark.

 

With a great effort she heaved it to the side and, with the four of them, the shark began to budge inch by inch until finally....

Flop

It landed on the ground beside Ryia. As soon as it did it resumed its thrashing, seemingly trying to burrow its way back into the ground, its underside sticking up.

Keres noticed something flash, within the shark's mouth, and she grew curious. She drew her water back towards her and began to cast a new spell. Focusing on the shark she created an illusion in its mind. It saw itself deep underground, without any prey nearby, and the creature began to calm, and stop thrashing as much. Instead it did a sort of wriggling motion, as it believed itself to be digging through the earth.

 

Reinaan would be able to hear snippets of voices from above him, inside the building. Not much could be understood but some words could be made out. "Incompetent" "Injured" "can take them"

[Alaina]

As the girl had continued to put her strength into pushing the shark, a small collection of water had gathered around the shark and pushed against it as well. With one final push, the shark had managed to roll off the of the girl, and landed softly on the ground below it. With the large crushing weight no longer on her, the girl exhaled a large breath, lying there on the sand. Catching her breath, the girl recovered from the experience, reaching out to grab her mace she picked it back up. She then proceeded to pick herself up, standing back up, the girl looked around seeing that the shark's tail was just gently swaying outside of the sand. Looking to the halfling, the man with the eyepatch, and the witch girl saying, "um, thank you." Looking more specifically to the man with the sword, she then said, "and um." She saw the sword that had dropped near her, from somewhere. Her hands full, and her not wanting to really put anything away in this current situation, she nudged the blade closer to the man with the eyepatch with her foot, saying, "sorry, um, about your sword." Wondering aloud she then asked, "so, what do we do with this?" She pointed to the shark, unsure entirely what was going on with it at the moment, but still standing on guard to see if it would do anything else. 

[Andx]

Reinaan was amazed at Kha's healing abilities. The longer it went on the less pain he felt in his neck until eventually the would had properly closed. The young Draken stretched his neck about to be sure and while the area was slightly stiff it wasn't painful to move his neck like that anymore. And to the hunter frustrated at his inability to help his friends that was more than enough to get back into things. He stepped away from Kha figuring the Orc must be getting pretty strained trying to help two different severe injuries at once. "Thank you." he said quickly as he turned around to assess what was happening around him. As he stepped away from the cold the Ice Spirit had been generating Ziiyol excitedly rushed to her partner and embraced him which warmed the boy's scales through the cloak. The shark was off of Ryia and was largely helpless at this point. Given it had tried to kill them Reinaan had half a mind to merge with Ziiyol and run it through the head to prevent further trouble but something else took his attention.

 

Words, phrases, coming from the building the men had attempted to get them inside of. The door had been closed from the inside, there were likely more where the two that had initially attacked them came from. How many he couldn't know. He could only make out a few words. Incompetent, injured, can take them. These remaining men seemed confident they could kill them. Given the state of the group it perhaps wasn't all that far from the truth. The Draken's muscles tensed. He had to play this calmly but he had to stay alert. Sudden movements might make the men attack them on the spot. He returned to the small group still gathered around Kha and spoke to them in a calm quiet voice hoping the men wouldn't overhear him.

 

"We need to get moving. They're-" he said with an emphasis on the word as he moved his eyes conspicuously in the direction of the building, "They're looking to finish us off." he finished. He moved over to the others who had helped remove the shark from Ryia and repeated the message and finished by approaching Anis and giving it again. Ziiyol stayed close by as per his request. He needed to be ready to fight whoever came out of that building at a moment's notice but readying his spear at this point might draw attention.

[Sethera]

Gilly cheered when she saw Mr. Lindow coming over to help. He and Pinky were doing their best to get the shark flipped off, but then Miss Weird came over as well, speaking weirdly. "I can help Pink...her," she said.

 

"That's good!" she cheered. "We need all the help we can get for this. This shark's pretty big. Must have eaten too many cream cheese cakes."

 

And then the shark flopped on its side, trying to get away, but then Miss Weird did some weird magic-y thing so then it was all fine!

 

"Um, thank you," Pinky said. "So, what do we do with this?" she pointed at the shark.

 

"We eat it of course!" Gilly exclaimed. "Because food is so so so good and I've heard shark fin is good too. But of course we'd be eating more than the fin!" she giggled. 

 

Meanwhile, Snow had stopped his work on Kha's shoulder. "You should be able to handle it from here," he breathed, before fading into the ether. He would need some time to recuperate before he could manifest on the physical plane again.

 

Reinaan seemed to have noticed something nobody else had. "We need to get moving. They're-" he said with an emphasis on the word as he moved his eyes conspicuously in the direction of the building, "They're looking to finish us off."

 

"What?! That's mean!" Gilly shouted, who seemed not to have noticed her volume nor how conspicuous it made her. Hob, did, however, and butted her gently in the side, causing her to fall over. "Waa, what'd you do that for, Hob?" she asked. Getting up, she spoke again, thankfully in a much quieter tone. "Well, we just have to show them what we're made of then, right? Except not literally, cuz that would be kinda gross and kinda bad. I mean, I don't know about all of you, but I think it'd hurt to show my insides to somebody. Especially my stomach. What if they decided to stab it and then I couldn't eat anymore? Oh, that would be bad, super duper bad! Like bad as in bad! Anyway, we need to come up with a plan don't we? Or do we just charge? I vote for charging! The sooner we get out from under the sun, the better, in my opinion."

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Keres smiled at Ryia, in her own way, glad for a thanks that didn't come with an insult. Sending a glance over at Ayden, Keres pondered Ryia's question.

"so, what do we do with this?"

"We eat it of course!"

"No time to cook." Keres said, stepping closer to the shark. It was certainly an interesting creature. She wanted to study it more, and her hand instinctively brought out her notepad...Then she noticed something glinting inside the creature. "In its mouth..." she said, leaning closer to try and get a look at whatever was inside.

 

"They're looking to finish us off."

Keres stood up straighter and glanced at Reinaan. Seems whoever it was inside the building intended to attack them. Gilly immediately wanted to attack but Keres figured that wouldn't be a good idea. Especially as.... "Closed door." She mentioned to the Halfling.

 

Turning back to the shark she also added. "Not permanent." Should they leave? But then this shark might follow. Perhaps they should kill it then and leave? Would they have time for that? Perhaps, if they went about it quick. And what was this thing inside its mouth? Keres wished for more time to study the creature but even now there could be heard noises coming from the inside of the building. It seemed whoever was in it was preparing for their attack.

They had to plan quickly.

Keres hated being rushed.

[Ren✧]

Kha was having trouble keeping track of things. Not only was he still recovering from heat exhaustion but it appeared as though he had overdone it with the healing magic. Having finished with Reinaan's wound, the orc felt a stabbing pain in his head. He needed a moment to rest. Away from the heat. Away from...vicious desert fish. He appreciated the ice spirit working to cool him down, but he knew that it only went so far. Before long he would be battling against the heat as well as the fatigue that now racked his body. He briefly inspected his hand, noticed that the glow that usually accompanied his form when he was merged with Kal'bri was no longer there. The Light Spirit must have retreated into some incorporeal state without him noticing. Kha was not worried, he knew from experience that she would reappear by his side very soon.

 

The true issue at hand still appeared to be the shark. Despite the fact that it was no longer attacking any of the group, it was still alive. The rest of the group seemed to be looking between each other, trying to figure out what to do. Kha had no questions. An enemy left alive was still an enemy. Picking up Derg-veras Mora from where Kha had dropped it, he confidently strode over to the twitching beast. He muttered a quick prayer underneath his breath, asking the spirits to release the soul of the sand shark, and with a quick strike to the creature's abdomen he moved to kill it. 

 

"We have no time to..." Kha clutched his head, fighting back a wave of nausea that accompanied his migraine. "...hesitate." Kha looked to Reinaan who had issued a warning. "They are coming, yes? Do not think we will survive any organized attack. We should go. We can return tonight."

[Alaina]

While she was wondering what they were to do with the creature before them, the only one who seemed to come to a conclusion was that of the small halfling girl. The earth chosen's face was one of mild confusion, as it always was, when listening to her, though the water chosen seemed to take it entirely in stride with the rather obvious comment. As the draken boy seemed to walk over to inform them of something, the rather ragged looking Orc had made his way over to the shark and struck down at it with the intent to kill. While the blade struck the side of the creature, it started to thrash about, it's maw ready to clamp down onto the light chosen again. Seeing this, the Earth Chosen swiftly wound her mace up before striking it down on the head of the creature. While it was still not felled, the creature seemed to be dazed, not biting at the man anymore. It was at this point she once again noticed something blue and shiny on the roof of the creature's mouth. Though she was quite curious to figure out what it was, she wanted no part in inspecting the mouth of the still living shark. In addition, as it seemed the men inside the building were ready to attack them all, the girl nodded in agreement with the Light Chosen as she said, "yeah, we should go." She wasn't quite sure about returning back to this area later, but this also wasn't the time to be deliberating for long periods of time. 

[Cherz]

"f*** it, lets get the hell outta here before we all kick the bucket." Ayden suggested, looking at the situation at hand. The sand shark was probably going to be easier to deal with if it followed than dealing with it and the reinforcements. Either way, he was starting to regret this desert decision. The orc seemed to agree, getting out now and coming back later was the best course of action. The chosen of dark started to power walk, but stopped. Despite the healing he received, there was still a very prominent ache in his chest, and since it had been some time since he received the healing, he was starting to feel the pain set in.

 

"f***ing damnit it s*** damn f*** f*** damnit!" The profanities just rolled off his tongue like a second nature as he clutched his heart. He forced himself to proceed onward, doing his best to keep up, while whining the whole time.

 

"Why does all the bad s*** happen to me? Can't anything go my way? First the witch accusations, then this counsel bullshit. Seriously! We can't even take on a shark or a f***ing group of people how the f*** does the counsel expect us to close the demon gates!? f*** them, and f*** this!" He ranted on and on, mostly to himself and nocturne, but surprisingly audible for everyone.

 

"Holster your tongue before I remove it." Nocturne stated in a flat tone of voice. Naturally, Ayden obeyed. 

[Maeriberii Haan]

---

 

"...With a mouth that foul, it wouldn't be bad if I cut your tongue and let a new one grow there instead, right?"

 

After long period of silence due to a sudden fever, Anis finally spoke again, admonishing Ayden for his string of profanities. Of course, this time it was quite warranted. The situation they were in was quite unfavorable. She tried to figure out something to solve the dilemma that the group faced. She had something in mind for quite a while already, but she was wary about the safety of doing such. But, with the gang decently healed now, Anis decided that she should take the risk. She went closer towards the shark, and turned around to call the group.

 

"I have something in mind. At least this would solve one of our problems. The shark might move around after I do this, but well, that's why some of you should come closer to help me."

 

"Kwaaaaaaaaaak! (Why can't it be a quick death, Anis? Why must you use that kind of stuff too, I can't eat it this way!)"

 

"It's big so it works slower. Don't worry about that too much though, I'll get you more food later."

 

Bringing out a stone arrowhead, she held it on her hand until she bled from it. Now bathed in her blood, she recited a bit of traditional shamanistic spells to imbue her magic into the blood covering the arrowhead. The drying blood suddenly turned black, and it started to smell oddly. Anis started to cover her nose and mouth from inhaling the air around the liquid, and once she was sure that the poison was concentrated in high enough volume, she jammed the arrowhead into one of the shark's open wounds, before Ileca drag her away from the shark, fearing any backlash.

 

"I'm not sure how fast it'll be, but...I don't think any normal creatures would survive that much concentrated poison for long."

 

---

[Hälō]

"Um, thank you." Lindow turned back to the Earth Chosen whilst he caught his breath. "and um." A smile formed on his lips as he watched girl kick a new blade over to him. "sorry, um, about your sword." Scooping up the scimitar and examining it's craftsmanship, Lindow nodded in appreciation of her gesture. It wasn't nearly as well made as his original blade, but it would certainly serve it's purpose... 

 

 

"so, what do we do with this?"

"We eat it of course!"

"No time to cook."

"They're looking to finish us off."

 

Before he knew it, the situation had escalated yet again. Glancing around the fatigued faces of the group as they began shifting around the area in preparation for the new threat, Lindow couldn't help but agree with those who wanted to retreat. They were in no shape to take on an organized fighting force right now...

 

With the shark being taken care of by the Light and Nature Chosen, Lindow rested his new blade atop his shoulder before quickly darting towards Gilly and Keres. "So if there aren't any objections..." He said whilst keeping his eye locked on the door of the building. These two were the most vulnerable of the group, and if anyone were to come running out, he'd be ready to protect the girls. "Let's get out of here before our friends inside get the guts to come say hello." As one of the more capable fighters, he'd also be sure to stay in the rear of the group to guard their flank during the escape. 

[Andx]

Several of the group moved to finish the shark off including Kha, Ryia and finally Anis who administered a poison. The shark began thrashing with that which was almost painful to watch. The group consensus seemed to be running away was the best idea. Except perhaps the halfling who seemed to fail to entirely grasp what kind of situation they were actually in here. Maybe it was because she hadn't been hurt herself. Thankfully Lindow seemed ready to move her and Keres as the group began their retreat into the desert. In fact it might be wise for him to do the same. After Kha's healing he was one of the better off to fight any potential attackers. But then if they couldn't outrun the attackers what would be the point of running in the first place? And what if something dangerous appeared at the front of the group?

 

"Ziiyol!" the Draken called out to her partner. He wanted to have her power on standby and thankfully just being combined with the spirit didn't run a chance of blowing his insides up. "Hm?" the spirit started but quickly realized what it was the boy wanted. "Oh yes of course!" she said excited at the prospect of merging with him again. The spirit's form faded as her power entered Reinaan. Sparks began one again to appear to be generated from between his scales and fly off at random directions. with only his head, hands, feet and bits of his tail visible and in the bright desert sun the effect wasn't as impressive as in the dark tower of the Council.

 

With his spirit's power running through him, Reinaan took to the front of the group while steering clear of the dying shark. His senses intensified letting him focus on scanning for danger both ahead of and behind him. "Time to get moving!" he called out to the group. All things considered this wasn't the beginning to their journey he'd imagined. How long they'd be running or what else they'd encounter was worrying to think about. But it was far too late to do anything about it at this point.