[CHQ] Guild Examination Quest

[Hälō]

"Thanks..." Vincent nodded in his comrade's direction whilst glancing over the other fights. Ro's words made Vincent cringe, but he was certainly grateful for the assistance.

 

"I'll finish him off. Go help Fen..." He motioned towards the ice mage just as the enemy archer lined up her shot.

 

Vincent sighed in annoyance at the sight of the basic bolt flying his way. Having been given ample time to react, he quickly stepped to the side to avoid the attack before raising his own bow and sending an arrow flying towards the jerk with the shield. 

 

Breathing in, Vincent turned his bow towards Ol and brought his hand backwards to form an arrow. He'd been using quite a bit of trick arrows in this fight, and knew if he kept it up his energy levels certainly wouldn't hold out... 

 

"Here..." Vincent growled towards his foe whilst they tried to recover from Ro's gas. "Let's see how you like this!" As the words left his lips, Vincent began firing arrow after arrow in a rapid fire fashion.  

[Alaina]

When Temra had finally fainted, Nent's attention was immediately placed to her. Rushing to her aid, the boy crouched down, eyes now locked onto Kasayee as she made her note about not letting the girl die. Reluctantly nodding, the boy then noticed a volley of arrows being fired towards him, raising up his shield in response. Taken a bit by surprise, the man managed still managed to activate his shield, swinging it at the arrows .While some made it past, striking against his armor and pushing him a bit back, others were deflected back. Those deflected went wild, some hitting the ground, while one made its way towards Ro. While he would've tried to do more against the archer, it seemed that the he was more preoccupied with Ol, who hadn't seemed to be in the greatest of spots. While he wanted to go aid his other guildmates, the man merely pulled out a roll of bandages and attempted to help nurse Temra's wound at the moment, though still kept his wits about him. 

 

While Ol had managed to start venting out the steam from his gauntlets, his attention was still placed on the archer boy he had been fighting this whole time. As such, he was able to react in time as the boy started to shoot a volley of arrows at him, though this reaction was quite limited. With a large barrage of arrows coming at him, dodging wouldn't do much good, and he couldn't quite use both of his gauntlets yet. So, moving the one that wasn't venting upward, the damaged one, Ol managed to shield himself against the volley, merely holding his ground.

 

Fen, a rare annoyed expression crossing her face as Sibl taunted her, began to channel her magic into her weapon. The entire polearm became coated in ice, the blade itself starting to extend outward the ice creeped on top of it, making it just a bit longer. Shouting, the girl rushed towards Sibl, beginning to swing her weapon at the axe wielding girl. Sibl merely sighed at this, swinging her axe downward, the curve of the blade hitting the shaft of Fen's weapon. Fen's charge stopped, not wanting to rush into the blade of the axe, as Sibl pulled back on her weapon, ripping Fen's polearm out of her hands. Sibl then followed up with another swift kick to Fen's stomach, knocking the wind out of the girl as she was sent to the ground. 

 

"You're better off staying there as floor decoration. Now then," the girl looked towards the rest of the combatants, a scowl on her face as she noticed the sorry state the rest of her team was in. While Ol was pinned down, the girl figured that he could still hold his own, or at least not lose while she fought the others. Looking over to Kasayee, she shouted, "hey lizard jabroni! Want a go?" The girl started to make her way over to where Kasayee was.  

 

[spoiler=OOC]

Neph is at two strikes. 

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

The girl having fallen Kasayee was down to three enemies. And one of them was busy tending to the girl. Though it seemed that it would still be difficult to attack him. Not worth the effort. If his other allies were down as well then he'd likely have no choice. The path of least resistance was the way to go.

 

She looked at the others. The man with the coffins seemed to be struggling. While the other one had just knocked down the girl on Kasayee's team.

 

"hey lizard jabroni! Want a go?"

 

"...Not really." Came Kasayee's response. She instead ran towards the other one, Ol, who had been preoccupied by the archer.

 

It seemed the girl didn't want to let her go that easily and went to intercept her. She swung at her while still not close enough, usually, to hit her. As she swung the axe's shaft extended and bent, the metal segmenting itself, enough to reach Kasayee. Interestingly, to the druid, the girl was trying to hit her with the flat of the blade.

 

Once Sibl made it clear she would get into Kasayee's way the druid jumped forward and transformed into her bird form. The axe slammed behind her and into the ground, ruffling some feathers in the process.

That was risky.

She should avoid doing that.

She wasn't going to die for these people.

 

Making her way towards Ol she transformed again in order to grab onto his back. The girl was nearby now, and calling out to warn Ol of her presence, but Kasayee was already in the process of trying to land on him.

 

Once on his back her eyes flitted over the scene as quickly as they could and she bit down onto his shoulder. The shoulder on the arm which he had raised. Her teeth weren't razor sharp but she did have sharper than human canines and several more than them at that. In short, she had a fairly wicked bite. Which Ol would find out shortly.

 

As she bit into his shoulder the boy let out a shout of pain and reflexively swung his arm downward.

Hopefully it was enough so that someone could finish him off and they could wrap this up.

[Hälō]

Now's my chance!

 

Seeing the druid land on Ol's back, Vincent quickly fired off a final burst of arrows before drop down to his knee. He was hyperventilating now but that didn't stop him from bring his hands together and drawing backwards to form a large Drill shot. 

 

I won't let it slip...

 

Seeing Ol's arm swing down, Vincent brought his bow upwards whilst closing his left eye and inhaling to slow his breathing. As he did so, the tip of his arrow rounded itself into a smooth sphere before violently spinning inches from Vincent's face.

 

"You're done." Vincent's voice boomed loudly to herald his attack, and as the large spinning arrow soared quickly through the are towards Ol's face, the boy exhaled and watched hopefully whilst doing his best to catch his breath.  

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

“Tch.”

 

Ro spat on the ground, seeing how deftly Ol managed to counteract the caustic gas cloud. Not that he expected it to be super effective on the first place, but he still couldn’t help but feel a bit irritated. After a closer look though, Ol did appear to be suffering from some of its effects though, as well as what could possibly have been an overload strain from his coffin gauntlets. Ro grinned. Despite his own tear gas attack having taken a good bit out of him, the sight of the enemy feeling its effects was enough to revitalize him emotionally at least.

 

Dodging around various bolts and ricochets of weapons and other attackers, Ro began to formulate a secondary plan in his head. If the steam from Ol’s weapons would be able to disperse gases and counteract solid projectiles...

 

“Then sludge should do the trick,” he said to himself. Projectiles that relied on their solidity would be smashed apart by the steam and lose their effectiveness. Gas attacks were somewhat effective in draining the coffin boy’s weapons of their steam, but otherwise were too easy to disperse. A sludgy cross between solids and liquids would not be reliant on its solidity as any portion of its material would all maintain the same effect, similar to gas. The difference was it would not be nearly as easy to disperse due to its higher uniform molecular density. Ro glanced at Vincent, then the others around the room. An issue with chemical based attacks was always that allies could be caught in the crossfire.

 

The demonboy’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Then…!” he almost shouted. His eyes narrowed as his gaze bored into Ol. The steam relied on pressure and emission from the gauntlets, which must mean there were slots from which the steam would be released. Like any pressure-based system, one that maintained too much increasing pressure without release would eventually detonate in a magnifcent manner. Rather than chemical-based attacks, a material-based one was the choice he decided on. “Finally I’ll have a use for that god-awful tree sap I tried to eat a few centuries ago.” he muttered.

 

His hands began to bubble, this time, not flowing with gas, but creating and condensing energy and light into a sticky, viscous ball of liquid. It was semi-translucent, its color a beautiful glowing amber that radiated a feeling of magic. If Ro’s plans were to succeed, the attack would gum up Ol’s weapon, rendering it a one-way generator of steam that would find no release. Ro turned to Vincent, just as his guild mate unleashed an attack of their own. He wouldn’t even have to ask Vincent, his own opportunity had just been created. Jumping in long strides to the side and around Ol, Ro lashed out with his arms in a slingshot motion. The basket-ball size globs of tree sap construct flew out in a beautiful, fluid, random array, soaring through the air towards Ol. With it maintaining no specific form, avoiding it entirely would be nigh impossible, and for every glob that hit, it would either drag the coffin gauntlet fighter down or plug up his weapon.

 

“Chew on that!”

 

---

[Alaina]

While Ol was trying to keep himself steady, the pain and weight from the lizard girl on his back was proving to make this difficult. Being unable to move any bit forward, the boy tried to use his other gauntlet to block against the arrow that was forming in Vincent's hand. However, before he could do anything, Ro had moved to his side, flinging a large mass of tree sap at him. With no way to stop the attack, Ol weakly tried to raise his arm to stop it, though it only served to cause the coffin's steam vents to get gunked up. Sadly for Kasayee as well, the attack had no real aim to it and she was caught in the crossfire as a result. While the coffin had managed to block a large majority of the sap, some of it had still managed to hit Kasayee, though it would only serve to be a minor hindrance in removing herself from the body of Ol. 

 

Vincent as well had let loose his arrow, and with no way to prevent the attack, Ol was struck right in the head, being forced backward as he was knocked out by the force of the attack. With him down, all that had left was Sibl, who was standing with a standing expression on her face. As she examined each of the members of Cherry Heart, she sighed, saying, "I give up."

 

"Wh-what?" Fen was a bit baffled at this sudden declaration, as she got herself back up. 

 

"Don't get me wrong, I can probably kick your asses," she proudly boasted, "but I'd rather not break my axe, be torn up and get sheet in my hair," she motioned towards the sap, "to get that win. Besides, it's not like I can't take this exam again. So," rifling through her pockets, she tossed a red gem, identical in color and shape to the one that the group had found earlier. "There. You win. Nent come on." She motioned to the man, still tending to the wounds of Temra. 

 

The boy looked at her in a bit of disbelief, but taking in the situation he merely said, "I surrender as well." As the, mostly silent, man declared this the door at the north side of room began to rumble and shake before finally sliding open. Beyond the door it revealed yet another staircase, going upward through the cavern. 

 

Motioning towards it, Sibl said, "well there you have it. Now get going before I decide to kick your asses anyway." 

 

[spoiler=ooc]

And there you have it, trial 2 is complete. 

Now feel free to climb up the stairs, talk with each other, talk with Nent or Sibl or I dunno just kill each other. Whatever you want really. 

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Tree sap. She was covered in...tree sap. The thing had done it. Kasayee looked at it for a moment. This seemed to show that the thing didn't care much for what happens to her. Similarly she didn't care about it. She'd have to avoid it more from here on out if she wished being caught in their crossfire. It would take some effort, which was bothersome, but she hadn't particularly wanted to be in its company anyway.

 

The enemy girl gave up after this. As did the one with the shield. "You should have just done that at the start." Kasayee told them. The door had opened, responding to the surrender through some means, and they would be able to move on. The others hadn't gone yet and she didn't particularly feel like rushing anyway so she examined her body. The sap was mostly on her side and back it seemed.

 

She licked at her shoulders, getting some of it off and spitting it onto the floor. But it would be difficult to reach the other spots. Which meant... She looked at Fen. "Can you help get this off me?" She asked. "My tongue won't reach."

[Hälō]

"Feel free to give it a shot..." Vincent seemed to be bearing fangs at Sibl as he walked over and scooped up their prize. 

 

Sighing with relief, the boy turned his attention towards his guild mates and quickly realize that for the most part they were relatively uninjured compared to the other guild. His attention fell on Fen, who had been knocked to the ground during her fight with Sibl. Though maybe the word "fight" was a bit inaccurate...

 

It was totally one-sided, but at least she still fought to best of her ability...

 

Vincent rolled his shoulders and slid the gem in his back pocket before making his way towards the ice mage. Hearing the druid's request, he glanced over just in time to see the girl licking herself clean from Ro's attack, and in that moment Vincent realized that he had completely forgotten that she'd been naked the entire time...

 

"M-Maybe Ro can cook up something that will get rid of it..." He stuttered and quickly threw his thumb back towards the imp man.

 

Quickly ripping away his gaze, Vincent lifted his hand and began gathering the magical particles that still lingered in the air from the battle. By the time he reached Fen, the particles had begun to grow visible as they swirled in his palm.

 

"Taking on other people for real isn't easy..." Vincent's tone softened a bit as he reached down and extended his free hand to Fen. He wasn't quite sure why he was trying to reassuring, but the girl certainly did deserve some praise for her efforts. "You ok, Fen?" As he spoke the boy scanned her for injuries whilst inattentively  gathering particles.

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

The fight was over. Barkskin had conceded. It was their victory. And yet, Ro wasn’t feeling satisfied. If anything, it was closer to irritation. The entire fight was a bother, and it only led to each other getting hurt, just to prove themselves towards an authority group they were a valid guild to rank up. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to fight common enemies than each other,” he muttered. Glancing around the room, his gaze fell on the unconscious two members of Barkskin. Ro waved towards the remaining two members, calling out.

 

“I can get the gunk off of your coffin friend there.” he said meekly. Even though it was a fair fight between the eight members present, Ro felt he should start trying to work more on interpersonal relationships. I am going to spend the next half-decade or so with a guild anyways and around others. The demonchild looked between Nent and Sibl. The knight said nothing - not to Ro’s surprise - and the axe-girl shrugged. “Go ahead,” she said.

 

He held his hands up as he slowly walked towards the prone form of Ol. Even without looking, he could feel their gazes drilling into his back. Of course they’d be suspicious… Blagh… Ro knelt down, placing his hands slightly above Ol. The boy chanted a few arcane syllables, his hands and eyes glowing green. A clear liquid started to drizzle from his fingertips, and where the flow touched, the sap melted away, flowing to the ground. In just a few minutes, Ol was free of the tree sap.

 

Ro stood up, looking towards Nent and Sibl. “I can apply an antiseptic, if you’d desire.” Sibl shook her head. “Don’t worry about it.” Nodding, Ro gave a small bow before heading back to his teammates.

 

He noticed Kasayee also covered in some of the sap. Ro groaned. She must have gotten hit during the fight with Ol. Sighing, he called out towards her. “I’ll get that off for you,” he said, as he walked over. “It’s the same stuff I gave that coffin kid over there,” Ro explained, as he pointed towards Ol’s prone form. Given the past experiences with her though, he remembered she quite clearly disliked him. Probably for his composition, not that he could help it. He paused, waiting for her response hesitantly.

 

---

[Alaina]

As Fen was beginning to get herself up, Vincent had walked over to her. As he said something about fighting people, she could only involuntarily nod in agreement, though had a more shameful look in her face. While it was true, that the people she fought here were certainly difficulty, she had been the only one to, not only struggle, but be handily defeated. She had noticed it partially in her last quest, but being pitted other guilds and fighting alongside her other guildmates the difference in strength was becoming all the more apparent. Her attention turned back to Vincent as she realized he had asked her something, with her quickly stammering out a, "o-oh, yeah. I'm, um, I'm fine. She didn't hurt me too badly or anything." 

 

Getting back onto her feet, the girl went to pick up her discarded weapon as she turned her attention over to the lizard person. She seemed to be having some difficulty getting the sap off her person and seemed to require Fen's assistance. While Ro had offered, the lizard girl who didn't quite acknowledge that Ro had even said anything. Fen gave a confused shrug to the boy as she went over to help the lizard out. Pausing a bit, unsure how to actually get it off with what she had, Fen instead just rubbed her sleeve against the sap, figuring she could probably get it out of her clothes later.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee winced a bit as Vincent suggested having the thing help her. She wished it not to touch her any more than it had already done. Having its sap on her was bad enough but whatever else it cooked up inside that unnatural body...
 
So when the thing came to her to offer to help she instinctively crinkled her nose at its smell and shook her head, turning away from the construct with clear disinterest.
 
The girl finally responded to her and came up to help. Though it seemed she didn't really know what to do. She began rubbing the cloth covering her body over Kasayee's own which didn't seem to be all too effective. Perhaps with time but it would be much faster if..."You need to get it wet." She pointed at her tongue. "Otherwise it won't come off easily." She glanced over at the open doorway. "If you want to continue I don't mind. I can jump in a lake or something later."
 
"Oh, well um - " Fen looked at her hand, then back to the sap, seemingly thinking about something before shaking her head saying, "well, if you're not too uncomfortable with it we can um, get it off later."
 
Kasayee shrugged. "Might as well. It's not going anywhere."

[Alaina]

Fen felt a bit bad leaving the sap on Kasayee, but she didn't really have anything on hand to remove it with. With that out of the way, the group left the Barkskin guild members to their devices as they ascended up the staircase to what they believed would be the next trial. The stairs would go on for most longer than any of the others they had gone on thus far, with more twists to walk through. After awhile, though, the group had eventually end up in a room similar to the one they had just been in. 
 
The room itself was made of the same stone that the rest of the cave was, though rather than a full circle the room was only a half-circle. There were two entrances on either side of the room, on the flat end of the circle, the group appearing out of the right one. At the head of the curve was what appeared to be a large door, also similar to the one from the room they were just in. Most notably, though, were the people that were in this room alongside the Cherry Heart people. At the door at the end of the room stood one of the proctors; Neru, the male of the two. He had a bored expression on his face as he was simply sitting down, giving the group a wave as they finally made it into the room. Were Vincent to look at the man, he would notice that while Neru's aura still felt like looking at a wall, it seemed even more defined and attention grabbing then all of the other auras in the room. 
 
On the side opposite of the one that the group came out from was the familiar four members of Lemon Soul. The four looked a bit roughed up, though in regular high spirits Agina looked over to the group waving, as she said, "hello there friends!" 
 
"Yeah, glad to see you all made it here too," Alpine followed. 
 
Before the pleasantries continued, however, Neru stood up. "Right, congratulations on both of your teams making it this far. Yay." There was no enthusiasm in his voice as he gave a small golf clap. "As you are now here allow me to present to you the final challenge you have to clear. Between the eight of you, you must land four solid hits on me. After that, the door behind me will open." 
 
Sen stepped up, a wary look in his eyes as he said, "don't you think you're thinking a bit too highly of yourself?"
 
"Who knows?" The man shrugged. "Regardless, allow me to remind you of the rules of your exam. Your task was to find the dragon jewel, more specifically its four shards, in order to past this exam. Whenever a team brings all four shards past this door they have passed. Now, throughout your first two trials I am sure you both found two of the four shards. So, you'll have to get them some way, won't you?" 
 
Alpine and Sen seemed more on edge as the implications of Neru's statement set in. The two looked at each other, back to Agina an Mellow and then to the members of Cherry Heart. Speaking up, Alpine said, "well, I guess we should team up to bring him down right?" 
 
"Hell no!" Sen looked to Alpine in disbelief. "Listen, the four of us can take one guy easily enough and there's no way in hell I'm working with him." The boy pointed towards Vincent, clear anger in his eyes.
 
Despite Sen's clear hatred towards Vincent, Alpine continued to attempt to convince him to try to work together. As the two bickered, Agina just looked between the two with a strange look of curiosity and amusement directed at them. Neru continued to stand there, a look of indifference on his face as he watched the two groups. Mellow looked confused but looked back to the members of Cherry Heart and gave a wave.

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

"This is pointless." Kasayee said. It wasn't a matter of frustration, though the long walk certainly had been a pain, as she had come to accept that this was just going to be the place she'd be for a while. She simply didn't think that there was any reason to try and figure out what to do. She didn't care if the other group wanted to work together. Nor if her own group wanted to come up with a plan.

 

Though she did give a nod of acknowledgment towards the quiet girl. Kasayee still needed to figure out what was going on with that one. The growling was more aggressive than before and Kasayee wondered if it was reacting to this Neru or if it was due to whatever combat the group had seen before. Perhaps to figure out what it was she'd have to fight the girl.

She didn't really want to do that.

 

She didn't even want to fight this man. He didn't look too interested in it, either, which made Kasayee wonder what the reason of it was.

 

"We can't do anything if we don't know what he can do." She told the group. She could attack him and find out, of course, but there was no threat here. No reason for her to act right now.

 

Instead she wandered over towards Mellow. "It's angry?"

The girl shrugged.

Kasayee stared at the girl, trying to find where exactly this spirit was located. Where it resided within the girl's body. She might be able to talk to it directly if she could figure that out.

 

Mellow stared right back and there was no change with the growling. Nor could she locate the spirit. "I want to talk to it." Kasayee explained.

 

Mellow opened her mouth, pointed to it, and then shakes her head.

"Is it...stuck?" Kasayee asked.

 

After thinking for a moment, Mellow nodded. Kasayee's interest was increased. A trapped spirit, this was important. More than some "quest."

"Does it want to be unstuck?"

Another shrug. Back to square one once more. "I will find a way to speak to it. Perhaps another day."

 

Mellow gave her a thumbs up. Agina turns to the girl and says, "oh, you should speak to our guild master then! She probably knows more about Mellow's friend."
Sen turns around and shouts, "Agina now is not the -" he turns to Kasayee, "when did you get here?"

 

Kasayee glanced at the others, then back to Mellow, and shrugged. "When does anyone get anywhere?"

The guild master...Kasayee would have to go there some time. Maybe after all this she could go back with Lemon Soul at least until she had figured this out. She had done quite enough quests to satisfy her own guild for now, she thought.

[Hälō]

"You wanna come over here and try yelling like that to my face?!" Vincent glared daggers at Sen as the druid causally strolled over and began chatting with the other members of Lemon Soul. Vincent was ignoring everyone else in the traditional sense. With lion's share of the boy's attention split evenly between the auras of those in the room and giving Sen the evil eye...

 

Extending his fist towards the other boy, Vincent's scowl turned into a vicious sneer as a small bow of crimson energy erupted into existence atop his wrist along with the crackling form a developing trick arrow.Though Vincent's eyes seemed to be glued to Sen, his senses were focused elsewhere whilst the boy reached out and drew back the arrow resting on his forearm arm. 

 

"Trust me, I have no intention of working with you either, pal..." He growled over to Sen once he finally finished lining up his shot. 

 

In that instant, Vincent suddenly spun on his heel. Turning towards towards Neru, he released his scattershot towards the man before willing it to erupt into a large wall of smaller projectiles. "Just sit tight, small fry. Your ass is next after this guy!" As he watched to see how Neru would deal with his attack, Vincent ripped the bow from his wrist and began molding it's traditional size. 

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

Ro grumbled, spitting on the floor. “Of course this would be the final challenge. Why did I ever expect to get a break?” The Archaios glanced back and forth. As predictable, Vincent and Sen - the two fireheads - immediately broke the façade of calm, the former launching a barrage towards the others. He danced out of the way, avoiding any possible incoming projectiles, sitting down against the wall as far away as possible from the other combatants. Between just having gotten out of the last fight and being thrusted into another, Ro was less than eager to join the mix. “Hell, I’m not even a fighter.”

 

The demonborn’s eyes flickered towards the proctor. Would I get points off for not fighting? Bleuugh… He fiddled with his fingers, unsure of which course of action to take. On one hand, he could help his guild, but removing the other guild before the proctor seemed unwise. Ro was almost certain the proctor would be easily stronger than both of their guilds put together. One quick look at Vincent and Sen showed that neither would probably be willing to cooperate with the other. The silver-haired being groaned.

 

Sitting off to the side, Ro called out to no one in particular, towards the general direction of the two guilds.

 

“So… does no one else think the proctor is the bigger threat…? We can fight each other after, but if both of us combined fail, then neither of us individually will succeed. The victory condition isn’t just beating each other, it’s getting the taps on that proctor.”

 

---

[Alaina]

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Sen looked incredibly confused at what Kasayee was talking about. However, before he could say anything more, his attention was turn back to Vincent as he began to crack his knuckles at the boy's challenge. Getting ready to make his way over to the boy, as he drew his bow Sen got into a fighting stance as the magic particles that were just barely off his body began to move towards and onto him. As they did, a thin veil of magic covered Sen's body.While he was ready to take on whatever arrow that Vincent would shoot, the boy instead fired the arrow off at Neru. Saying, "typical," towards the boy ,he then turned his attention towards Neru. 

 

While Neru had been standing at ease, he was incredibly quick to react to the barrage of arrows being shot at him. As they scattered towards him, seeming none too surprised by it, Neru merely stood where he was and raised up his hand. Two shimmering squares of force formed in front of him, one to cover his lower half and one to cover his upper as the arrows harmlessly struck against them. "Try again." The man's voice was flat as he said this. 

 

As Ro made his case, Alpine said, "yeah, see. Clearly he just wants us to-" 

 

"Fine! I'll just kick his ass after I'm done fighting him!" As Sen declared this, he rushed forward, fists at the ready. 

 

Alpine sighed as he looked to Fen and Ro saying, "well, I guess it works." With that, he drew his sword and got ready to attack, charging alongside Sen. With Alpine's blade charged with water magic and magic flowing across Sen's body the two rushed forward to strike at Neru. Without moving from his spot, as the two attacks came towards him, Neru waved both of his hands and two similar squares of force appeared around him, blocking the two attacks. As Sen's fist struck the square, it dissipated once he no longer had any force behind his hand, being met with Neru's fist to his face. Pivoting on his foot, as Alpine began to draw back his sword to begin to strike again, th other square vanished as Neru's foot met Alpine's gut. Pushing the swordsman back a bit, Neru put his foot back onto the ground, not having moved from his original position at all. 

 

"Well, any other takers?" As Neru asked this, Sen seemed to be visibly more annoyed than just a few moments ago. As the boy clenched his fists, ready to strike back against Neru once more, Vincent would be able to see that the magic particles left over from Neru's magic would start to flow towards Sen and merge with the magical veil over him. 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

The boy didn't get what Kasayee was saying. That was to be expected. One who was so full of passion wouldn't understand the concept of non-existent existence. Which was fine, it wasn't for everyone.

 

Though things certainly would be easier if it was. Peaceful. A much calmer world. Alas such a world was out of her reach for now.

 

Especially as a battle is now upon them. A very one-sided battle. It seemed this man had some kind of barrier ability. And was quite fast in the creation of them. "I wonder how many of those he can make." Kasayee wondered aloud. She stretched and continued to watch.

 

"They seem very eager to complete this task, I doubt I'll be needed." She said, loud enough for the others to hear.

 

The girl then sat on the ground, cross-legged, and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and attempted to relax her mind and body. Open her senses to the world around.

 

If the time came for her to act. She would know it. And if things went well this man they were facing wouldn't expect it.

 

Hunting wasn't about attacking with full force, after all. If she decided to make this man her prey he would fall.

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

To Ro’s pleasant surprise, the others actually listened to his suggestion, and began to attack the proctor. However, it was quickly visible that - as expected - the proctor was putting up a solid defense, as well as a good offense. Ro watched carefully, observing the proctor’s usage of abilities and movement. The energy that the proctor was expending was minimal, timing his shield-formations only at the moment of attack before retaliating. Watching the others continue to fight, he began to speculate.

 

“I wonder if he would be unable to attack through his own shield as well. If that’s the case, then as long as there could potentially be a constant attack maintained which would force the shield to stay, he would be unable to attack back through his own shield. I can’t quite tell if the shield only lasts so long or is fairly fragile per shield, or if he’s calculating the exact amount required to block just the attack. I wouldn;t put it past him to be capable of the latter though...”

 

Ro was mumbling to himself as he ran through various ideas and his analysis of Neru within his head.

 

“It seems like the creation of the shields is through the motions of his hands as well, although dispelling them seems to be freely possible for him. As such, the shields would be limited to the general range of his hands and awareness, possibly… Hm.. All projectile and solid force attacks are countered by the shields as the force would be deflected by the shield itself. However, the proctor seems to need to remove the shield afterwards to attack, with the shield disappearing into thin air.”

 

The Archaios’ hands began to glow as a variant of the same sticky sap he had used in the previous fight started to form, coalescing into a few baseball-sized orbs.

 

“Then if a liquid or viscous fluid comes into contact with the shields… There would be no force to really dispel as it would only need to make contact with the shield itself. And as such, removing the shield would make it so the liquid or fluids would fall through with nothing in their way once more. Hm… Will this really work though…? I expect him to be able to dodge the sap altogether at this point… Ugh… guess I’ll have to get off my ass and actually get into the fight again.”

 

Standing up, the orbs combined, before splitting back into two halves, one floating around each of Ro’s hands. This time, they were shapeless, changing size and form fluidly as they floated. With the others attacking the proctor for now, Ro began to run around, looking for an angle that the other guild members wouldn’t be focusing Neru from. Once Ro found a suitable rear-side angle, he took a deep breath. He was sure that Neru was aware of his presence, but hopefully, this would work regardless, assuming the other guild fighters could occupy the proctor at least temporarily. Standing back, Ro waited for the others to launch an attack before charging towards the proctor with surprising speed. Once Ro would reach roughly two arms-length from the proctor, he would lash out with his hands in a slight upward angle. It would sling the sap lumps in a freeform and wide net-like shape towards the proctor’s sides and back and above. If the proctor remained in the area to counter the other guild members’ attacks, it would at least coat Neru somewhat, with it coming from in front as well as slightly upwards as the sap fell back down from above as well. Gritting his teeth, Ro braced his chest and stomach, tensing his muscles in preparation for a possible swift and brutal blow.

 

---

[Hälō]

"They seem very eager to complete this task, I doubt I'll be needed." Hearing the druid's tiny voice, Vincent glanced over his shoulder to see her making herself comfortable. 

 

"Just be ready. We're gonna to have to deal with your new friends after this..." He scoffed before turning his attention back to the fight.

 

As the others rushed into battle, Vincent hung back and begun gathering the magic particles left by their respective magics. However after seeing the particles from the instructor's barriers flow towards Sen, the boy's eyes narrowed in fascination. 

 

"Is that..." As he spoke, Vincent molded the particles gathered from Ro, and Alphine into large Drill Shot. "Mugen?" Bringing  his bow up to take aim, he would take the shot at the exact moment the instructor went to counter Ro's attack.

 

"Let's see how you like this one!" This arrow was specifically designed for this kind of foe, and given the size barriers used prior, Vincent was confident he'd be able to catch his target off guard.

[Alaina]

As the instructor had awaited the next attack against him, his eyes seemed to drift towards Kasayee for a moment before Alpine and Sen began to charge at him once more. As they swung both blade and fist at him, Neru stopped them as simply as he had before. Summoning two square barriers, he managed to block both attacks, only for the two to keep up their attack. While Sen seemed to not be moving from his spot, his fist staying firmly planted against the barrier, the magical particles that made up his barrier continued to flow into his aura. Alpine, meanwhile, attempted to coat water with his blade. Swinging the weapon he sent out a wave of water in a horizontal cut, while he moved towards the man to bring his sword up with a vertical cut. 

 

Neru had managed to use his barrier to block the water, and then pivoted on his foot to the side in order to dodge Alpine's slash. It was at this moment that he grabbed onto the boy's arm, continuing his pivot as his leg swept Alpine's legs out from underneath him. While he hadn't actually looked in Ro's direction at all, he seemed to be completely ready for the boy's attack as he tossed the swordsman into the sap net that Ro had tossed at him. With Alpine being covered in the large majority of the sap, the Lemon Soul guild member was sent into the wall which he then clung to, as he let out a groan of pain from the impact. As Ro was now in striking distance and Neru was facing him, he was soon met with a kick directed towards his ribs. As that finished, it had appeared that Sen had managed to absorb most of the barrier, it now shattering, prompting Neru to swipe his hand towards the next punch, making a barrier to stop the attack.

 

While his back was to Vincent at this point, the man seemed to turn his head to look at him, as he tried to turn around to face the archer one more. However, his response to Vincent's arrow was quite delayed as, while he had managed to avoid the majority of the sap being thrown at him, some had still managed to cling to his foot and the ground, causing him to lurch a bit as his body didn't move the way he expected it to and was hit squarely by the drill arrow. The force of the arrow, while great enough to wrench Neru from his sappy leg lock, would probably seem to be less powerful than Vincent was expecting. All the same, Neru tumbled against the ground before finally getting back up. 

 

Coughing a few times as he was recovering from the attack, the man pulled a sheathed short sword out from behind him, now wielding it merely saying, "one." 

 

As Neru seemed to stand firmly in his new location, Alpine continued to struggle against the sap that bound him to the wall. Sen, meanwhile shouted, "Agina, Mellow, any time you want to join in would be great." Agina clapped her hands together excitedly, which prompted Sen to look towards Vincent. While there was a moment of contemplation, he begrudgingly said, "I wouldn't look at her if I were you." It would become increasingly apparent in a few moments why. While everyone else would simply see fire erupt and coat Agina's arm, Vincent would see the smoldering ember of an aura she had explode into what almost looked like an enormous, bright, plume of flame that stretched a few feet higher than her body. 

 

As Mellow seemed to clench her fists tightly, merely nodding to Sen's words, Kasayee would hear the snarling from within her start to be broken up with a few feral sounding grunts. 

 

[spoiler=OOC]

So, as you can see the three remaining members of Lemon Soul (and Fen for that matter) didn't do anything at the end of this post. When you all post, if you'd like to ask me about the actions of the currently not acting members when you make your posts so things flow a tad better be sure to hit me up. Otherwise all the actions will be in the next host post.

 

 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

They certainly were trying hard weren't they? Kasayee watched reluctantly as both sides tried to land a hit on the man. It seemed like much more trouble than it was worth. After so much effort they only managed to hit him once? It felt kind of pointless. All for some...rank?

 

She was curious about the girl with the spirit though. It was making more noises. Some kind of grunting. She was preparing for battle it seemed. While Kasayee was wondering exactly what she would do it seemed that the other, Agina, acted first.

 

She stretched her flaming hand and from it a large jet of fire blasted out and towards Neru. He, in turn, created a barrier in the shape of a dome towards the flame, shielding himself from it as the flame was caught in it. Despite being stopped, Agina did not seem to have any intention on stopping her stream of fire, but Neru's barrier seemed to be holding just fine.

 

"There's too much going on." Kasayee declared. "Too distracting." And so she transformed into her lizard form and just stayed still, seemingly trying to no longer have to pay attention to what the others were doing.

[Hälō]

"Huh? What are you talki-" Vincent responded to Sen's warning with an annoyed grunt as he begun forging his next arrow. However upon sensing a new flow of magic, the boy glanced behind him just in time to see Agina's aura begin suddenly spike with a blinding light. Slamming his eye shut at the last moment, Vincent did his best to dull his own senses a bit whilst turning his attention back to Sen to avoid the vibrant light of the girl's aura. 

 

"You..." He growled whilst studying the aura Sen was producing with gathered mana particles. It was far too similar Xel'Cie style combat for it to be a coincidence, yet somehow the technique was slightly different than Mugen. "Why are you here?!" There was a hint of panic in Vincent's voice, as the prospect of the other boy being sent by the clan to retrieve him poked into the back of his mind. Noticing this, Vincent quickly tried to shake it off, and regain his composure. "Actually... we'll talk later." 

 

They wouldn't send this kid... No way. They'd definitely send those guys.

 

Vincent shuttered, pushing the image to the Xel'Cie vanguard out of his head as he set his sights back on the battle. The group had managed to land a hit, but now the instructor would be even more on guard. "Ro, you alive?" Calling over to his ally to make sure the instructor hadn't caved in the imp's frail chest, Vincent took aim once more. "Help him out." He nodded towards Alpine. 

 

"Fen," Vincent then glanced over to the ice mage as Agina and the instructor entered a struggle. "I know he seems tough, but he's just a guy. If we all come at him at once, we can overwhelm him..." As he spoke Vincent begun to also gather particles under his feet, causing dull glimmer to begin to shine at his heels. Though he knew the girl lacked confidence in herself, he'd have to trust her anyway if he wanted that to change. "Take point with Sen whilst Ro frees up the water mage. I'll cover you from here!" With that, Vincent began striding to the left, releasing a continuous volley of arrows as he aimed at the instructor's side. 

[Astolfo]

---

Ro

---

The coordinated attack on the proctor had scored a point, but just barely. Even so, the proctor seemed only slightly worse for the wear, unlike the guild members around the room. Ro coughed, sitting up slowly. Neru’s kick had driven straight into his chest, sending him flying back and crashing against the rock wall. His head was fine solely due to his last-second reflex shielding his head, but the rest of his body was feeling bruised and scratched up. He flashed a thumbs-up to Vincent to signal he was fine, hopping up and dusting the dirt off his clothes. With a quick glance at Alpine, Ro nodded. He was ready and back in action, and he prepared the matching solvent formula for the tree sap as he ran to the gummed-up fighter.

 

“Sorry,” he muttered tersely. Applying the orb to his hands like before, Ro drizzled the chemical over the tree sap, and it quickly flowed to the ground like water, taking the melted sap with it. Within just a few minutes, Alpine would be virtually free of the sap, and Ro, unsure of what else to say, nodded silently before hurrying back. Ro still wasn’t used to socializing with people in his own guild that often, let alone others.

 

As Ro watched the proctor unsheath a short sword, a sudden smell of burning started to fill the room. Ro couldn’t place where it was from. Glancing around quickly, it seemed to be the same girl from before - Agina. He wasn’t sure what she’d unleash, but he could tell something was coming and moved out of the way, angling around Neru. From the looks of things, with each point, the next would become successively harder. The first point involved just Neru using his shield and his own body, but this next point would involve the usage of the short sword as well. Ro wondered what the final two would entail, but he shook his head. No point in focusing on that when it would be hard-pressed just to score this second point.

 

The sap seemed to be somewhat effective, but only in the slightest. The majority had been redirected towards Alpine, but the remaining part had still gummed up Neru enough to help assisting Vincent with landing his arrow. However, as with his earlier ideas, most projectiles and solid-force objects were all easily countered, leaving only gases and liquids as a viable option for Ro to attack with. Tear gas was an option, but the risk was that it would hamper teammates as well, and Neru would undoubtedly take advantage of that far better than they could. Sap was an option but it was easier to avoid and would hamper at least one other teammate. Everything was a suboptimal option because Ro had no doubt that Neru would be able to handle the chemical assaults better than his teammates.

 

Something suddenly caught his eye. From the girl that smelled like smoke earlier, a massive jet stream of flame shot out at the proctor. Neru, as expected, was handling it without a break in his step, but this gave Ro a new idea. He took a deep breath, praying, an olden phrase coming up in his mind.

 

“Que será, será.”

 

In his hands, an amber glow radiated as a ball that appeared to be the same as before manifested once more, growing in size slowly. However, unlike before, the composition was different. Instead of the semi-sweet scent of sap, the new liquid had an acrid smell that stung the nose - fuel. Ro briefly wondered if this was illegal, then dismissed it. Of course it would be. The better question here was whether it was allowed. With nothing to really lose though, Ro decided to chance it. At worst, he’d be on his way to exploring the world on his own again after all. Escaping prisons were never too hard, even if they took a century or two to get out of.

 

Running towards Neru’s backside, Ro stopped a safe distance from the barrage of flames. Even from there though, he could feel the sweltering heat.Ro swung out with his hands at the same time in a crossing diagonal motion. The highly flammable liquid would disperse out in a large net, much like before, but with greater area and speed due to being much less viscous. He was sure he would take another blow, but as long as he could douse the proctor with any meaningful amount, it would be enough. It’s not like Ro would die from a kick. Without shifting his gaze, he shouted out loudly towards Agina.

 

“Light him up, flame girl!”

 

Once Neru either retaliated against him and sent him flying or some new change in the battle would occur, Ro would back off and rejoin the rest of the group. He had done what he could for now, and the rest was in the hands of the others.

 

---

[Alaina]

As Vincent called out to Sen, the boy looked with a far more annoyed expression on his face saying, "that's what I should be asking. The hell are you doing here?" All the same, he didn't seem to press Vincent any further, and merely got himself ready to attack Neru once again. Fen too, who had been wary of actually joining in on the combat thus far, nodded as Vincent tried to assure to get into the fray. While she had felt generally outclassed by the two melee fighters in Sen and Alpine, the latter was currently indisposed of and she couldn't just leave it all to the former. So, nodding, the girl gulped a bit as she said, "right." With that, the two melee fighters charged Neru. 

 

The proctor, meanwhile, seemed to be entirely nonplussed by the stream of fire in front of him. As the arrows started to be launched at it from the side, Neru flicked his wrist, creating a small circular barrier that blocked the first of the arrows that Vincent shot. He would find that the barrier would start to seemingly move on its own, tracking each of the individual points that Vincent tried to barrage him with arrows. Turning to face Sen and Fen, the man spun the sheathed blade in his hand, patiently waiting their move. Sen, however, was not a patient fellow and merely rushed headfirst in once again. The moment he pulled back his fist, however, he was met with a swift kick to the face, forcing him back. Trying to follow up on this, Fen brought her polearm up to strike at the man, striking at him. Though the blade would not be able to reach him, ice crystals formed at the end of it, extending its reach to slash. 

 

Neru, however, seemed ahead of the game on this as he merely brought his weapon up to block against the ice. He then followed this up by kicking her weapon, wrenching it out of her hands before Sen made his way to try and punch him once more, only to be met with a swift kick to the gut. 

 

As Ro had managed to finally free Alpine, the boy landed on the ground, and slowly got back up to his feet. He waved his hand, saying, "it's fine. These things happen." He looked to Agina's flames. "Trust me. I know." Alpine wasn't ready to charge Neru once more, stretching out his no longer sap covered body and so he left Ro to go and attack Neru himself. R

 

o more than likely felt empowered by the fact that Neru was not looking at him, but as he got ready to send his attack out, the proctor merely said, "you aren't very smart, are you?" 

 

Pivoting on his foot, Neru turned to face Ro and was leaning far more to the side then he had been previously. As the liquid was flung, Ro would realize Neru's meaning. Ro was behind him, and in front of him, the barrier that was holding back Agina's stream of flame. As Neru turned to face Ro, the barrier dissipated, and due to Neru's posture he was no longer in the path of it. Not wanting to be splashed by the liquid, Neru formed a slightly larger square barrier in front of him, though his eyes went wide with surprise as Agina's flames hit the only thing in their path. Ro's attack. The liquid ignite almost instantly, though, Neru was mostly fine from it outside of the heat generated. Ro, on the other hand, would find himself in a much worse situation as the resulting explosion of flame was pluming towards him. While he had little time to react to this incredibly explosive and heated force, he would find himself mostly safe from it as, before the point of impact, a dome like barrier facing towards the flame appeared in front of him, taking the brunt of the attack. 

 

During this whole time, Mellow, who had done seemingly nothing up to this point had slowly been walking her way towards Neru, not slowing down despite any and all of the attacks that were being thrown towards him. As the explosion had subsided, Neru seemed to be largely unaffected it, though there was clear sweat on his body due to the close exposure to the heat. While she seemed ready to attack him, even with his seemingly supernatural awareness of everyone's positions, seemed to have little time to react to what was happening next as his attention had been mostly directed towards the fire. As such, when Mellow reeled back her fist, Neru wasn't able to simply kick her away like he had Sen. Furthermore, he was stopped as the girl opened her mouth. And roared. 

 

From the silent girl it was a surprisingly loud and almost feral sounding roar that escaped her mouth, echoing in the circular chamber and causing Neru to wince from the sheer volume of it. Kasayee would be able to hear not only Mellow's roar, but also that belonging to the snarling spirit inside of her. Both voices seemed to be in unison, as the girl's left eye turned red with black sclera and her arms seemed to follow suit. The crimson and black magic that made up her aura seemed to cover her entire arm, as everyone would be able to see it both bulk up and turn more into a bestial claw made of raw magic, none of her real arm visible. The girl continued to shout as she punched towards Neru, the latter summoning up a circular barrier to stop her fist. But, both due to the hasty nature of it, and the force behind the girl's swing, she seemed to almost effortlessly punch through it, and struck Neru dead on, sending him flying a bit backward. 

 

As the man skidded across the ground, he let out a small cough as he seemed mildly annoyed before his expression settled back on neutral. "Alright. That's two." 

[LordCowCowCowCowCowCowCowCow]

Kasayee wished there was a leaf for her to observe. It would make standing there much more interesting.

 

Though the spirits certainly would have rejoiced to see the thing almost explode just then. She didn't care much herself though it did make her realize that the time was now.

Reluctantly she began making her way towards the man, coming from the side, as that girl that Kasayee was curious about let out a roar, along with the spirit, and attacked. She very much needed to figure out what was going on there. It seemed almost like a possession but the girl didn't suffer any side effects that Kasayee could tell...

 

The lizard known as Kasayee continued to scurry across the floor towards the man called a proctor. She was aiming for his ankle, the only place she could reach in this form. She just needed him a bit more distracted...

 

As she neared him the others made their moves.

 

Alpine and Mellow were the first to approach him. Alpine was met with a large wall in his face as he got close enough that he couldn't break through.
Mellow charged at him. Neru didn''t block her and instead just ducked under her swing before going for an uppercut that pushed her away. At this point, Fen appeared to his side to toss an ice dagger at him, which he merely parried with his short sword and shattered it.

 

It was then that Kasayee closed in. In this form her mouth wasn't large but her teeth were sharp enough for what she needed to do. The girl chomped down onto the exposed flesh by his ankle, drawing a small amount of blood. Neru began to swing his leg, towards Mellow, in an attempt to get her off.

 

However Kasayee had done as she needed. She let go herself and he paused in his kick and looked down at the lizard.

 

Kasayee transformed to her normal form, in a crouch, and looked up at the man. "Three." She said before backing up. She had made her strike, her part here is over. Her, the spirit girl, and the archer. They had managed to score a hit. Which meant...Kasayee looked over towards her other guildmate, Fen. "Your turn." She said.