[CHQ] Guild Examination Quest

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee watched from her unusual perspective as the thing tried to work this out. She pondered about the thing for a short while. It didn't seem particularly powerful nor particularly smart. One would think if someone were to do something so against nature as create a thing like that they'd do it to create something incredible. So what was it this thing was made for?

 

Her attention drifted to the bowman. He was in a cage of sorts it seemed but he didn't seem too concerned about it. Kasayee had been in a cage but once and she knew it wasn't a nice place to be. Perhaps some humans liked being trapped. Or perhaps it was comforting in some way. It was true that the womb was a small space so perhaps that was why...

 

She heard the girl speak while she mused on these matters. Oh, that was the thing Kasayee had read. Perhaps she should think about what those words she had spoken meant. It likely was important...but she had gone this far without doing anything and she wished to continue her streak. Perhaps the others had already pieced together the clues.

 

Kasayee wasn't in a rush. It was oddly entertaining to watch these humans and that thing working. Similar to watching a leaf float in the breeze. Or a bug crawling on a tree. It was, somewhat, nature as well in a way.

[Hälō]

"..." Vincent sat with his head in hand and watched his guild-mates struggle with the puzzle. Combat strategy was one thing, but this was completely out of his field of expertise...

 

With his arm still stuck in the obelisk, Vincent listened with a bored expression as Fen read off the words on her pillar. This was getting old fast, and it seemed that nobody on the team had an affinity for such a trail.

 

"We should have brought four-eyes or Flo..." He sighed before calling out to the others. "Yo, maybe it's saying that we should skip that one."

[Alaina]

 

As Fen continued to examine the obelisk, she heard Vincent speak out, saying they probably had to skip this puzzle. Fen wasn't sure what to think, personally, but she assumed Vincent had a better head on his shoulders for these things then she did. So, instead, she continued to look around each of the different pillars they were standing on, though she couldn't quite figure out what to do either. However, as she looked at the bow in her hand,  thought crossed her mind. "Oh, what if we need to find an arrow for this bow first?" The moment the thought of an arrow for the bow crossed the girl's mind, the string ignited with a golden flame as the girl felt her own magical energy being tugged on. The girl yelped in surprise, clearly shocked by this, but decided to keep going with her examination of the bow. As she touched the string, the flame didn't harm her and it only felt like the tug on her magic was greater. As she pulled back on the bowstring, an arrow slowly formed, only to be completed when the girl fully pulled back. As she released the bow string, the arrow of golden flame shot forward, striking against a random stone pillar as the girl wasn't aiming at anything specific. "Uhhhhh," the girl looked to Ro, unsure of what to make of what had just happened. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Fen had realized that the bow was something that was fired. Kasayee was wondering what they were carrying around the weapon for. It didn't look helpful, even if it were shiny, but humans did like to keep unusual things. Though apparently it turned out the bow was something magical.

 

"I think you need to shoot something." She said without much enthusiasm. She didn't really want to be here anymore. She was usually patient but something about this place put her on edge. But she hadn't so much as thought about the puzzle after she gave the group her information. She was behind the others in that regard and she couldn't quite remember what it was she had said.

 

So she watched and hoped one of the others would have figured out what to do by now. Kasayee didn't care much for this "examination" but she wondered. If they couldn't figure this out perhaps they should just try and leave and give up. It sounded a lot easier.

 

Kasayee rolled back to her stomach then moved to a sitting position. Seated cross-legged her eyes wandered to the obelisks.

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

By accident, it seemed that Fen had discovered a secret to the golden bow. From what appeared to be thinking of firing it, a bolt of energy would manifest out of thin air. Ro glanced around the room. This must have been what they were missing earlier, but then by extension of the discovery, there must be something to fire at. He motioned over towards Fen.

 

“Can I see it for a moment? How did you form the arrow?”

 

Listening to Fen’s reply, Ro nodded along. Taking the bow in his hands, he closed his eyes, visualizing the formation of an arrow. Slowly pulling back on the bowstring, a bolt of energy formed, just as before. Handing it back to Fen, Ro made his way over to the obelisk. Examining it, Ro could see a roundish slot, filled with a grayish liquid. Angled slightly upwards, Ro glanced upwards and behind him, checking for any possible vantage spots, but finding none.

 

“Well this is a bit of an issue. The slot’s angled upwards. We can’t shoot it from right in front of it because of the angle and neither of us are tall enough to just fire downwards.”

 

He pointed over at a pillar a little ways off, towards the north-west. It stood above the other pillars and was more or less a direct 45-degree angle in line of sight towards the slot. If any of the pillars were to be picked, that would make the most sense.

 

“Do you think you could make it over to that one?”

 

Fen nodded. Ro nodded back, flashing a thumbs-up.

 

“I’ll make my way over that way as well. If you need any help, just let me know.”

 

With a running jump, Ro leapt to the pillar directly west of the one Fen currently stood on, crossing the gap smoothly. He waved towards Fen.

 

“We can cross the gaps together. Better to be safe than to leave someone behind and end up needing help.”

 

Once Fen made her way to Ro’s spot, he would jump northwards this time to the pillar over, before waiting again, then one more time in a north-west jump to the pillar diagonal, again waiting. Pointing upwards at the pillar directly to the west, Ro started to climb, throwing himself over the ledge onto the top. Grinning, Ro’s tone was calm and encouraging.

 

“Of the two of us, you’re probably the better shot. I couldn’t hit the side of a church to save my life. Once you’re up here, see if you can fire the arrow over into that hole from before. Maybe that’ll get us somewhere.

 

I’m sure you can do it.”

 

---

[Hälō]

"Hey," Vincent called up to Fen as he watched the girl prepare to shoot the arrow towards the obelisk. "You're gonna wanna stand with your feet shoulder length apart, and your weight evenly spread between them." If he couldn't physically help, the least he could do was coach her. "Back straight. Breath in. Then line up your shot and release..." 

 

Sighing Vincent closed his eyes and scratched the back of his head in annoyance. "Screw this! I'm not just gonna sit here on my ass..." As he spoke, Vincent began to study the energy signature of his prison once more. The construct was simple, and it didn't take him long to get a feel for the pattern of magical particles that gave the bubble physical form. 

 

After of a moment, the boy extended his free hand towards the bubble and began concentrating on the weaves of mana. Small particles of light could be seen drifting away from the barrier and towards Vincent's palm as he begun breaking down the construct one particle at a time. Though it seemed that any damage he did was quickly regenerated...

 

Nonetheless, the boy continued to pull magic from the barrier that surrounded him. Gathering the flow of magic particle and willing them to swirl around his extended arm for later use. 

[Alaina]

 

As Ro had made his way across the pillars, Fen followed after the boy, jumping to next pillar as she did so. The pillar they were going too wasn't far away and with some effort she had managed to climb up on top of it. With Ro standing next to her, the boy gave her the bow back and told her to fire it, remarking that he probably wouldn't be able to make the shot. Nodding, saying, "I'll do my best," the girl took the bow and readied herself to fire. Before she did, however, she heard Vincent speak up, telling her about the proper form on how to shoot. "Oh, u-um, thanks for the advice." The girl acted, while naturally flustered, also surprisingly had a tone as if Vincent had told her something obvious. Taking a deep breath, the girl looked on with focus towards her mark, beginning to take her stance to fire. With calm and, relatively steady, movements the girl had formed an arrow, firing it from the bow. The arrow flew true, striking its mark, as the flame of the arrow burned across the gray substance of the hole. Feeling excited for a second, feeling as though she did something correct there was a sudden interuption. 

 

Were Vincent paying attention, he would be able to notice the faint magical aura of the pillar Ro and Fen were standing on began to light up and grow stronger. A small dome of force shot out from the pillar, wrapping around Fen and expanding, knocking Ro off of it and to the lower adjacent one. Fen was quite surprised by this, though shouted out, "Ro, uh, are you alright?" After asking it, the girl realized that she was now trapped in a bubble, in quite the same way Vincent was. Wondering what was going on at first, the girl's confusion was again stopped as a clicking noise could be heard. A part of the obelisk's wall, the one she had shot the arrow into, had slid off, revealing an ebony staff to be inside of it. 

 

[spoiler=OOC]

And the second obelisk opened. Fen's now trapped. But hey there's a cool staff you can see. Doubt that's important. 

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee breathed out. She took her time to stand up to her full, not very tall, height. With a groan she raised her arms high above her head and stretched her body out.

 

This being done she watched the humans again. She could tell. It was about done. Which meant she'd have to move again. She didn't really want to but this room was getting uncomfortable. The bow had revealed yet another object. It baffled her why the humans would bother leaving such objects in this place hidden away where they can't be used for anything but this unusual puzzle.

She didn't think she'd ever understand how they live their short lives.

 

In either case it was clear that the object was what would be needed to finish up the task here. She wasn't going to bother grabbing it though, the others were closer, they could deal with it.

 

Though if she was correct she might have to do something anyway.

 

Such was life, she supposed.

[Hälō]

"Nice... almost done." Vincent nodded in approval upon seeing the next part of the puzzle reveal itself.

 

Particles of magic continued to flow from his prison, and now majority of his arm was covered in the swirling specs of light. This certainly wasn't what he expected to be doing on this quest but at least he wouldn't have to worry about ammo for the rest of this adventure. 

 

Sighing, he closed his eyes and once again began focusing on make up of his prison. Before long the flow of particles began to increase, causing the bubble to flicker slightly due to being forced to rapidly repair itself. 

 

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

Vincent shouted advice from his trapped position towards Fen, but from what Ro could see, she hadn’t needed it anyways. If anything, she had seemed quite adept if not just completely natural at handling the bow. He let out a whistle as the arrow sunk, hitting the target dead-on, and he flashed Fen a thumbs up. Before he could do anything else though, a sudden lash of magic struck his senses a split second before a much more tangible barrier of magic struck him. Knocked off the pillar cleanly, he just barely managed to catch himself into a proper landing pose on the lower pillar.

 

Looking upwards, Fen was now trapped in a bubble as well, similar to Vincent. A clicking noise suddenly rang out as a side of the obelisk slid open, and with a quick glance, an ebony staff was visible inside.

 

“Seems like that worked, Fen!”

 

Quickly making his way back over towards the obelisk, Ro tugged on the staff. It was slightly taller than him, and weighed a reasonable amount, unlike the bow before, where the difference of gold and steel was clear. He turned it over in his hands, inspecting it carefully.

 

Maybe… since the bow had to be imagined firing an arrow… perhaps channeling or firing magic…?

 

Ro turned towards an empty side to make sure none would be in the blast radius, then closed his eyes. Visualizing the flow of magic from his body down to his fingers and through the staff, he tried to recreate the sensation of wielding magic. Yet, nothing happened. Focusing again, this time he repeated it, but tried to visualize what firing a projectile would be like. Still, nothing happened. Shaking the staff around, he growled.

 

“Maybe I have to actually use magic...”

 

Closing his eyes, he focused, bringing forth a familiar chant to imbue his body with his nature and magic, then reached out with his magic towards the staff. Yet again, no response. Ro sighed. Glancing towards the remaining pillar which he had already accidentally traversed to before too early, he slowly made his way back over, starting to feel a burn in his muscles. Slumping down on the pillar, he took a few deep breaths before getting back up and walking over to the obelisk. Seeing the slot, the realization just popped up in his head.

 

“Oh, maybe I was overthinking it.”

 

Taking the staff, he spun it around into position, then pushed the staff into the slot. Waiting a few seconds, nothing was changing. Ro paused, scratching his head.

 

“Did I do something wrong…? It fits, so at least that part must be right…. Hmm…?”

 

He walked up closer, examining it. The cylinder that the staff went into was attached by a hinge to the obelisk. Without really any other ideas, Ro flicked at the hinge, swinging it around and playing with it.

 

“I mean there’s gotta be some reason there was a hinge, right…?”

 

---

[Alaina]

As Ro placed the staff into the hole, the boy began to examine the hinge and fiddle around with it. Nothing would happen directly were to mess around with the hinge, though it would appear that the thing it was attached to would be able to move back, he just didn't have a good enough angle to pull back on it directly from the attachment itself. However, were he to pull back using the staff, he would find that whole thing would move back, with some effort. After pulling it all the way back, a clicking noise would be heard as the wall at the back of the obelisk would slide down, revealing a sword inside of it. 

 

Were Ro to let go of the staff, the wall would instantly close back up. Were someone to take the sword and Ro let go of it, whoever was on the obelisk would be trapped inside of a bubble of magical force. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Her instincts were proven to be correct. Looking around the room it was clear that everyone else was stuck and the puzzle still needed solving. Unless she planned on staying here forever Kasayee would have to act once more.

 

It was a good rest while it lasted.

 

Transforming into bird form the girl flew towards the pillar where the thing was. Though she didn't want to be near it for long she had heard some noise as the obelisk opened up so she knew this was where to go. Swooping upon the pillar she turned back to normal and landed near the thing that was holding the staff in place. "Does anyone else feel this took longer than it really did?" She muttered as she reached for the sword.

 

Looking at it the object was the size of a regular longsword. The hilt was gold and the guard went into a dragon-like shape. What struck Kasayee as odd was how good the condition of the blade was. It seemed to be in perfect condition despite the situation.

 

The girl was once more struck with how wasteful humans tended to be. This weapon seemed to be one that would cost a lot and yet it was just stuck down here like this...what was the point?

 

Shrugging to herself Kasayee pulled the blade out, having to use a bit of force to do so, and turned to the nearest pillar. She crouched and leapt to it. She took her time and each jump was made so that she would land on the center of each pillar as she made her way towards the doorway at the opposite end of the room than they entered.

 

In the doorway was the small, stone, block she had seen before. There was a slit at the top. Remembering the words "The hero's journey is fraught with danger and loss, yet only his sword may open the dragon's tomb." Kasayee knew what to do.

 

The sword felt awkward in her hands as she reversed her grip on it. She would be happy to get rid of it. The druid stabbed the blade into the opening in the block.

Click

That noise was followed by another. A rumble.

 

"What now?" Kasayee thought, with slight exasperation.

[Alaina]

As the sword was placed in the slit, the pillars the guild members were on started to rumble. In a sudden movement, the pillars all lowered themselves, becoming level with the platform the exit was on. Stone bridges shot out from each of the pillars, creating an interconnecting path between each of the pillars and allowing the members to merely walk across it to the door. All of the bubbles of force had also dissipated as a result. The door itself started to rumble as well, as once everything was done, the door raised upward, opening the path forward. 

 

The path forward was a hallway, quite like the ones that the guild members had walked through when they first entered. A dimly lit hallway, narrow in size and sloping upwards. As the gang made their way upward, they would eventually find themselves in a large empty and circular room. To the group's left would be a large stone door blocking any path, while directly ahead of them was another entrance mirroring their own. The main thing of note, though, would be the four other people who seemed to be in the room as well, who were fairly close to the large stone door. The group would recognize the four as one of the groups that had been apart of this exam as well, Barkskin, with Vincent more remembering them as the guild that lacked any sort of inherit magic, though there seemed to be faint auras of it radiating from them. 

 

The man with the large coffin like object strapped to his back, turning around as he saw the Cherry Heart guild members. "Well, look who's finally arrived." 

 

[spoiler=OOC]

So yeah, puzzle cleared, you're all freed. Woo. And now there are other people in a new room. Such mystery. 

 

Anyway, if you want to talk on the way up to this place, you don't have to appear in this room in your next post. 

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee watched the door as all sorts of things happened behind her. She assumed that the others would be able to make it the rest of the way without trouble and so, when the door opened, she moved onward.

 

They were going up. Which was a bit unexpected. She had thought they'd be going down into a sort of heart of the mountain. Though perhaps this just meant their goal was near the top of the mountain instead.

Or maybe they were just wandering around back and forth.

She didn't really mind either way.

 

When the hallway ended they found a rather plain looking room. Which was fine by her. The less exciting scenery they saw the less tampering must have been done. There were people here. People with weapons. Not all too interesting people. She assumed they had emerged from the opening on the other side and were now stuck here until that stone door opened up.

 

One of them, a boy with what Kasayee knew to be a coffin, reminding her of her trip to the tomb days ago, spoke to them. They sounded like they had expected the group to arrive. Was there something she had missed? Was this supposed to happen?

 

She glanced at each of them, sizing them up, and decided that if it came down to it she'd go for the girl with red hair first.

With that train of thought Kasayee looked at the coffin boy and said, sounding downright bored, "Are we supposed to fight now?"

 

He shrugged saying, "seems that way. Door over here says that only once someone takes another's shard by force will it open. I take it you also have a shard of the 'dragon jewel'?"

 

Instead of responding Kasayee merely crouched down. She turned her attention towards the red-haired girl. "Might be hard not to kill one of them." she said to no one in particular. These "rules" that they were under seemed like a bother.

[Hälō]

"Might be hard not to kill one of them." 

 

"Don't worry..." Vincent scoffed. Using the surplus of magic particles he had gathered in the other room, he quickly formed his bow along with massive arrow. 

 

The boy let out a small grunt as he pulled the bolt backwards. Seemingly aiming straight towards the other guild for a moment before closing one eye and suddenly shooting the trick arrow upwards at an angle.

 

"Self preservation should do most of the heavy lifting." He smirked as he watched his trick arrow quickly climb into the air before shifting his attention down to the other group. "If you don't wanna die, hand over the shard and get out of our way!" 

 

His words prompted the crimson arrow suddenly burst into a rain of smaller projectiles that shot down towards the group with new momentum. "Scatter!" 

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

Thankfully, the rest of the room clear went without a hitch. As was predictable, pulling back the staff had revealed a slot containing a sword which was the key to the last door. Once it was complete, all the pillars equalized to the same level, with stone bridges connecting all of them together. In addition, the magical barriers dissipated, and Ro slowly made his way across, stretching his arms out and yawning loudly.

 

The door led through a stone pathway inclined upwards. On the other end was a large room with two pathways and four people standing there. The figures were vaguely familiar, as they had met before the quest had started as well - the members of Barkskin. Ro glanced back and forth as Kasayee approached them though, before asking for a fight.

 

What a bother. I don’t feel like fighting. Are we really gonna have to…?

 

He watched disinterestedly, sitting down in the corner as Vincent decided to attack first with a salvo of projectiles raining down upon Barkskin. Taking out a pipe, Ro pulled out one of his vials of blue lotus extract, pouring it delicately inside. A content smile made a way across his face as he took a deep breath, letting out a small cloud of bluish purple smoke.

 

“I’d rather not get involved anyways. Not a fighter. Oh well. A rest after that last map is nice.”

 

---

[Alaina]

The boy with the coffin didn't seem to be any bit surprised as they leaped straight into the fight, gesturing his head towards the group as the fight seemed to be breaking out. Seeing the boy create an arrow of force that he shot to the ceiling, he said, "Nent, Sibl, above." The boy with the sword and shield and the girl with the large axe nodded. Spinning her axe around, the girl swung it upwards in arc, shattering the arrows with the swing, with only one nicking her back.

 

The girl who Kasayee had been eyeing up had returned an equally confused yet confrontational glare at her, before running to the boy whit the sword and shield. The boy with the sword and shield raised his shield towards the ceiling as well, humming with a blue arcane force. The sides of the shield expanded out, creating a bubble of force around both him and the archer girl shielding them from the arrow rain as well.

 

The boy with the coffin raised it into the air, opening it as he did so and placing both of his arms in either part of the coffin. Using the coffin to shield himself from the rain, he then pushed his arms in separate directions, splitting the coffin into two separate parts, one covering each part of his arms. 

 

The boy with the coffin gauntlets looked over to see that rather than fight, one of them was just sitting in a corner, and raised an eyebrow. All the same, he said, "Nent, keep vigil on all of them." The boy with the shield nodded. "Sibl, take on the human girl. Temra, well, you seem to already have a mark." He looked over to  the boy who had shot the arrow saying, "sorry, but you're not the only one with a fancy arrow or one with a trick or two." The front ends of the boy's coffin gauntlets started to glow before he punched forward with them, releasing a high pressure blast of steam towards Vincent, which would both be really hot and provide enough force to knock whoever was hit by it backward.

 

The red haired girl, Temra, looked towards the lizard girl, pointing her crossbow at Kasayee saying, "oh yeah you - uh, - stupid lizard girl. Not killing you will also be hard. So there." With that, she fired a bolt from her crossbow, which would do nothing special other than have a blunt tip to it, not having enough power to pierce someone but still really hurt if they were struck with it. 

 

The girl with the axe, Sibl, twirled her massive weapon around with relative ease. Looking at Fen with an unimpressed expression, said, "well, I don't really take pleasure bullying helpless animals, but if you're going to keep us from passing, then I'm willing to make an exception." 

 

Fen, clearly nervous about the whole encounter in general, merely gripped her polearm tightly, looking at Sibl. Unsure of what to do, she merely walked a few steps to the side, but didn't actually make any kind of headway towards approaching the girl. Sibl raised an eyebrow at this, but merely stood her ground, a bored expression on her face as if she were waiting for Fen to do something. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee's eyes darted back and forth as she watched the enemy's movements. They seemed to be somewhat cohesive as a group. With the boy with the coffin directing them. She wasn't entirely concerned. If all they had to worry about were those weapons, then Kasayee thought she could handle it.

Though she preferred hunting only to feed herself. This "combat" thing was a pain.

 

She almost smiled as the boy split the group up to take them each on one on one. It was a tactic that would work if they knew they were superior but as it stands...they really should have focused on one at a time.

 

The girl Kasayee was watching, predictably, decided to attack her. As she had been focusing on the girl Kasayee was able to dodge the attack by transforming into her bird form and flying upwards.

She made her way towards the girl. She intended to transform to her normal form as she flew above them. However the crossbow wielding opponent instead ran off. Loading her weapon as she did so.

 

It didn't take long for Kasayee to catch up to her however and, when she did, she transformed and fell upon the girl. Who then swung her crossbow as though it were a club.

Kasayee reached forward and grabbed the weapon before it could hit her and her momentum carried her forward. Kasayee's wrist stung but she was now in the position, more or less, that she desired. She bowled the red-head over and they both fell to the ground.

Unfortunately Kasayee overshot the mark and, while the girl fell on her back, Kasayee continued forward and rolled over her.

 

She moved into a crouching position near the girl's head and transformed one of her hands into a claw. "You might want to give up now." Kasayee told her bluntly. She had to keep alert, though. She didn't know how well the other humans on her side would do and if any of the other enemy humans decided to focus on her she'd have to be ready to move.

[Hälō]

"Sorry, but you're not the only one with a fancy arrow or one with a trick or two."

 

"If that's all you've got, kid..." Having been ready for a counter, Vincent quickly leaped to the side and formed a current of magic particles at his heels to dodge the blast of steam at the last moment. "I don't think we have much to worry about!" 

 

Skillfully riding the particles in a swift upwards slope, Vincent formed his next arrow whilst he hastily surveyed the battlefield. He knew well enough  that the druid could handle herself, but Fen on the other hand definitely would need support... 

 

"Tsk," Seeing that the ice mage was up against someone who was obviously more comfortable in combat, Vincent leaped from the current of magic he had been ridding in order himself at the red haired girl's side. "Heads up!" He barked at Fen's opponent right before letting an explosive arrow fly in her direction. 

 

Oddly enough the boy with the coffin gauntlets simply stood their observing. Seeing this, Vincent began to twist in the air to face his true opponent, only to have his attention stolen by a sudden burst of movement from the boy with the shield. His eyes narrowed in annoyance as he watched the the other boy intercept his arrow before it could reach it's intended target. Even so, Vincent still had the last laugh when the boy was sent skidding backwards from the bolt's explosive payload. 

 

"Your teamwork isn't bad at least..." Vincent sighed as he begun molding more of the particles that swirled around his wrist.

 

Hitting the ground with a roll, he quickly caught himself on his right knee brought his bow up with a new arrow already notched and aimed towards the girl that held the axe. Not wanting to leave himself open for too long, Vincent sent the arrow soaring towards his target before quickly turning to the boy with the coffin. Now all he could do is hope that Fen would make use of the opening...

 

 

"Now..."

 

It only took a second for him to begin molding his next arrow. Locking eyes with the boy wielding the gauntlets, Vincent shifting his bow's shape into it's smaller wrist mounted form before breaking off into a sprint towards his opposition. Following suit, the man with the coffin began to walk forward as well. 

 

The faint shimmer of magic could be see dancing around Vincent's heels as he made the preparations to ride another current. With the gab between them steadily closing, Vincent brought up his wrist mounted bow with a bright crimson arrow laying menacingly across the length of his forearm. 

 

"Com'on!"

[Alaina]

While Temra was on the ground, clearly spooked by the naked lizard girl with the claw hand coming at her, she merely stammered out, "n-no you!" With that, the girl rolled onto her stomach and fired the crossbow bolt towards Kasayee. While it was going in her direction, however, it was not actually aimed for her. Instead, the bolt slammed against the ground, turning into a large explosion of force. There was no other effect of the bolt, merely just a burst of concussive force. After firing it, the girl tried to slowly get back up onto her feet. 

 

Meanwhile, while Sibl had managed to deflect the arrow that was sent her way, Fen had decided to use this opening given to her. Reaching out with her guan'do the girl jabbed it forward towards Sibl, who merely glared at the girl as she backed off, stepping away from the stab. However, as she did, shards of ice produced from Fen's blade extending the range of the girl's attack. While it didn't do much, it did manage to cut Sibl's cheek, a small amount of blood forming there. Gritting her teeth, she said, "Nent, go help out Ol or Temra. I'll be fine here." With a vindictive look on her face, Sibl engaged Fen, rushing forward and swinging her axe at the girl. Managing to bring her polearm down to defend in time, Fen managed to guard against the brunt of Sibl's attack, though was still knocked backward and off balance from the attack. 

 

Ol, the man with the coffins, merely continued walking towards Vincent. Beginning to step to the side, circling around the boy, he said, "thanks. And your teamwork certainly seems to be lacking." With steam erupting from his left coffin gauntlet, the boy launched yet another blast of heated steam towards the boy. However, were Vincent to dodge the attack as he had before, the attack would continue moving forward, going straight to where Ro was sitting. 

 

Meanwhile, Nent seemed to just try and get back into position, surveying the battle for anyone that would need help. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

The blast managed to knock Kasayee to the side. Though her nimble body was able to roll with the fall and she ended up back on her feet again. Albeit in a crouching position, with one hand on the ground. "I really would rather you have given up." Kasayee sighed.

 

She dove forward as the girl was getting up. Both of her hands now in claw form she reached forward. Attempting to grab onto the crossbow and shove it upwards and into the red-haired girl's face.

Temra didn't seem surprised by the attack but neither was she able to do much about it. She struggled briefly but was overpowered. However as this went on the girl grabbed one of her bolts and tried to stab Kasayee in the side with it.

 

As the girl went through the motion she would find Kasayee no longer there. For the druid, realizing the girl had something in her hand, had transformed down into her lizard form to avoid the attack. She scurried between Temra's feet right after. Temra looked around in confusion moments before Kasayee turned back into her normal form, right underneath the girl.

 

Which, with some difficulty on Kasayee's end, would wind up with Temra being flipped over. Temra landed on her side and rolled over onto her stomach.

 

Kasayee reacted instantly. She knelt down, with her legs on either side of the girl, and sat on the small over her back. "You're not very strong are you?" She said bluntly before grabbing her by the back of her head and shoving it into the ground.

 

Temra struggled to break free but her saving grace came from her companion, Nent, who appeared next to them and slammed his shield into Kasayee. The druid was knocked off the crossbow wielder and rolled across the floor.

 

She began to stand and let out an instinctive growl. "You're making it very hard not to kill you." She tells the pair.

[Hälō]

BGM

 

Upon seeing the blast of steam coming his way, Vincent prepared to will the particles gathered under his feet to whisk him out of danger. Glancing over his shoulder to plot his course, his eyes narrowed at the sight of Ro.

 

"..." Though part of him thought it would serve the boy right for sitting out such an important fight, Vincent couldn't find it in himself to just let one of his allies get hurt. "Damn it..." After meeting Ro's gaze for sharp moment, Vincent planted his feet firmly on the ground and brought his bow up. 

 

"Alright, let's have a trade then!" The boy barked whilst firing a Drill Shot through the steam.

 

Just as he let the arrow fly, Vincent reached down and swung his arms upwards to form a cross over his face. Heading his command, the particles he had gathered under his feet suddenly surged forward along with all the remaining particles that Vincent had stored from the last room to form a hasty shield. 

 

The exchange was over rather quickly. With Vincent's improvised shield blocking the brunt of the force from the steam attack, and Ol raising his free arm to block the drill arrow with his other gauntlet. Though he seemed to struggle for a moment, Ol was eventually able to stop the attack after being pushed back a couple steps. However now his gauntlet brandished a visible crack on it's surface... 

 

Welp, there goes the rest of my ammo...

 

"Careful..." Vincent growled after studying his own forearms. Though his defense held well, the heat from the attack was still enough to leave his arms stinging. Peering through the steam that still lingered in air, Vincent looked towards the other fights and began pulling in the particles produced from the Fen and the druid's magic. "Don't wanna break your toy." As he spoke, Vincent began to forge another arrow whilst also expanding his bow to it's regular size.

 

A direct hit from one of those blasts could be bad. I need to take this guy out quickly...

 

"Noted." Steam pumped out of the top of the coffin before Ol continued. "But I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you." With that, he punched forward, this time releasing a jet of steam, rather than a burst.

 

"Crap." Not wanting to have to cover for Ro a second time, Vincent broke off into a sprint towards the other side of the room whilst firing a shot towards Nent, who simply swatted the attack away before dashing off to join the fight between the other archer and the druid. 

 

Seeing that Vincent was heading towards Sibl and Fen, Ol quickly stopped his steam jet in favor firing another burst with the damaged gauntlet. However, rather than flying straight, the blast of steam curved to strike and the ground near Vincent rather then a direct attack. 

 

Clever bastard!

 

With little time to react, Vincent leaped backwards away from the blast whilst retaliating with volley of three arrows. Landing clumsily, he quickly forged a Scatter Shot and fired it straight towards Ol whilst the other boy was dealing with the initial three shots.Rather then raining downwards like the first time, this arrow broke off into a wall of smaller projectiles that shot forward with new momentum halfway through their flight. 

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

Ro watched the fight lazily, his eyes widening as one of the enemies shot a blast of steam straight in his direction. Scrambling to his feet, he let out a sigh of relief when Vincent covered for him. A quick glance showed Vincent’s arms were reddened and probably stinging, and Ro couldn’t help but feel guilty.

 

“Ah, my bad.”

 

There wasn’t any time to react longer though, as several more volleys were being traded around the room.

 

Running to the side, Ro deftly avoided the jetstream of steam aimed straight at him. Ro chanted several incomprehensible words as he skidded around, pivoting for a pincer attack on Ol with Vincent. A fierce, bright green flame lit up his hair and hands, his eyes glowing the same color, as a stinging, acrid scent started to fill the room.

 

Aiming his palms towards Ol, a large cloud of clearish green fumes blasted forth in a wide area. It wasn’t moving too quickly, but it covered a wide range and would be hard to avoid without relocating entirely. Any normal being who came into contact with it would experience stinging of the skin, and if it were to come into contact with eyes, watering of the eyes and a burning pain. It was based off a chemical that Ro had synthesized a few years ago after consuming a strange plant in an eastern forest. The effects weren’t permanent and would fade within around 10-20 minutes after prolonged high exposure, but would be more than enough to be a irritant. The reason Ro picked this particular one was after analyzing Ol’s fighting style.

 

From what he could see, Ol was adept at avoiding or countering physical projectiles with the usage of his gauntlets, as he had proved against Vincent. Ol’s own attacks only consisted of steam blasts. However, as with gas, they would only fire at high speed and pressures when they were concentrated into smaller or thinner blasts. Thus, to avoid a large, slow-moving cloud, the only two options left for Ol would be moving out of the area entirely, or to blast back an equally large cloud of steam. However, then Ol’s own attack would be reduced in speed and pressure greatly, lowering its effective strength. Due to it being steam rather than any chemical though, as well as the heat of it carrying it upwards, it would be next to useless at that point.

 

Ro couldn’t help but grin. Weakening an enemy’s potential by using a weaker attack that would normally be useless was incredibly amusing. He wasn’t much of a fighter, but he could still support allies in ways like this. A thought suddenly came to mind.

 

“Careful, Vince! You might start crying!” Ro giggled, poking his tongue out. “‘Cause of my dashing good looks, of course~!”

---

[Alaina]

Raising up his coffin gauntlet to guard against the attack, Ol managed to guard against the brunt of the arrows. However, as the new found speed in the arrows midway through their flight had surprised the boy, he wasn't able to stop all of them, having a few strike deal cutting his legs slightly. While he was about to go and attack the boy yet again, his attention turned to the boy who had done nothing so far. His eyes went wide as he saw an acrid cloud of something move towards him, and figuring that it would be bad to be caught in it he knew he had to do something about it. Shouting out, "Temra, cover me!" the undamaged coffin on his other arm began to glow with a bright blue color as it seemed to be charging up something. Punching towards the center of the cloud, the boy let loose a burst of stream several times larger than the ones he had before, exploding against the ground. The force of the explosion and the heat of the steam created a large updraft, forcing the gas upwards and towards the ceiling of the room. While he had managed to avoid the attack, Ol seemed to wince a bit with sweat forming on his brow and as he hadn't noticed the cloud until it was near him his eyes seemed to be watering a bit as well. The coffin as well seemed to have steam billowing out of the top and sides of it. 

 

Temra, focused on her opponent before her started to get back up onto her feet. "Thanks Nent." The shield bearer merely nodded at her. With a frustrated look on her face, she faced Kasayee, which the lizard girl would be able to see her face red from pain and a small trickle of blood coming from her nose. "You- you're making it hard for me to not kill you too! You think you're so amazing because you can turn into a bird and have a tail don't you? Well, we'll see about that!" In spite of her words though, the girl loaded her crossbow and fired what was just an ordinary blunt bolt towards Kasayee's chest. As she did, however, Nent tapped Temra on the shoulder pointing her over to Ol. Loading her crossbow again, with the same bolt she tried to stab Kasayee with, the girl fired it off towards Vincent this time. Her reaction to Ol's words were delayed, however, and there was a clear gap of time between him asking her to cover and her actually doing so. 

 

Sibl didn't seem the slightest bit worried about the situation around her. While things didn't seem to be going all that well for the rest of her party members, things were going quite well for her fight. As Fen backed up, charging her polearm with ice magic, the girl went for a swing against the axe wielding girl. Not wanting to be caught off guard by the extension of her attack again, Sibl merely swung her axe at Fen's weapon, knocking the blade upward and opening Fen up for an attack. With a swift kick to the gut, Sibl forced Fen backward and with a scowl on her face said, "so do you do anything or are you just here for decoration?" 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee blinked several times rapidly as Temra responded to her words. It seemed she had shaken the girl up somehow. She wasn't very composed was she? To prove that she fired off a rather telegraphed bolt.

 

All she had to do was turn to the side to allow the bolt to pass by her body. Standing sideways Kasayee waited to see what Temra's next move would be...and the girl had decided to turn to fire at the archer.

 

Kasayee felt this would be the moment. She charged. The girl would pay for taking her attention away.

However the other one was still there and he reacted accordingly. Stepping between the two. Kasayee didn't falter however and continued forward.

 

She ran with her body lowered, as though ready to pounce. He, too, lowered his body with his shield out. Kasayee chose to ram right into the shield. Though she didn't put her full weight on in for she then attempted to swing her tail at his legs to knock him off his feet.

 

Hitting the shield caused an unusual reaction. The face of the shield pushed out like a piston to try and knock her away. However her attack managed to keep him off balance.

 

She knew that she couldn't get through that armor that humans loved so much easily. So she instead transformed into a bird to fly above him and transform back when she was between him and Temra. Kasayee attacked right away, aiming to slash at the girl's arms. The girl tried to block...though she tried with her arms and so the attack got through. Her claws dug into the girl's arms and she let out a scream of pain.

 

However Nent's shield hit the side of her head and she stumbled back. However this caused Temra even more pain as the girl tried to pull away. Kasayee growled and was prepared to go farther...however Temra stared down at her heavily bleeding arm and fainted on the spot.

 

Kasayee pulled her claws back to avoid causing more damage and turned towards Nent. "You should make sure she doesn't die." she told him in the same, if a bit more irritated from the head injury, tone as before.