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Rune Iyora

A Jiangshi, conjured by her father.

0 · 720 views · located in The Horat-verse

a character in “The Great Guild Fortune (2014)”, as played by Rann

Description

"You know, life really doesn't mean anything at all."

Image
Name:
Rune Iyora
Sex:
Female
Age:
Physically 12 at death, actually around 43 in total, and 23 if you don't consider the years when her body was separated from her soul.
Race:
Wolf Beastman.

Physical Description:
Being a Jiangshi, Rune is pale. Really pale. And since she died at twelve, she never really got to develop in terms of height or bust. So she looks perpetually like a child, even if she's actually an adult by now. She has a few scars around her body from the sickness she died from in her original life, and they snake around her thin form. Being a wolf-beastman, Rune has quite a few indicators. Her teeth are sharp and typically fanged; she has wold ears sticking out from her hair, she has tufts of hair bushing out on her hands and feet, and she has a medium-length, swishy tail. She hides most of these, but the tail is mostly impossible to cover up.
Clothing:
The most prominent facet of Rune's clothing is her long brown cloak, that she usually wears hooded to hide her wolf ears. Underneath the cloak, usually, is a green tunic with an orange flap near the top, draped around her collar. The tunic is fastened to her by a belt, where a brown quiver is hooked onto her hip. Beneath this, is orange shorts, then orange laced hiking boots. She also wear a pair of black gloves that are almost a second skin to her, so she doesn't lose any dexterity. Both the boots, gloves, and hood are designed to hide the fact that she's a wolf beastman.
Height:
4'10"
Weight:
100 lbs
Skin Colour:
Pale
Hair Colour:
Almost silvery white
Eye Colour:
Black

Occupation:
Jiangshi

History/Bio:
Krawl's life was pretty terrible. At about thirty years of age, he'd lost his wife and daughter in a sequence of a few days, from an illness that plagued Askia at the time. The plague was wide-spread, and wrecked havoc with a pretty grim mortality rate. And alas, both his wife, Nelen, and his twelve year old daughter, Rune, died horrible, painful deaths, in hallucinations and terror. Krawl had a pretty serious mental breakdown in which he encased his daughter's corpse within a block of ice, with his significantly strong ice chi, and when he broke out of his breakdown into some semblance of sanity, his wife's corpse was missing, so he couldn't preserve her as well. Still, Krawl, in his grief, started thinking up a plan. To at least let his daughter, rune, have the life she deserved, as much as possible.

The next twenty-or-so years of Krawl's life were spent o a few things. First, he set out to master necromancy, and practiced on his supply of newly made corpses from surrounding areas, in trying t ease a soul back into the body. When that didn't work the way he wanted, only really causing a soul to be trapped in a dead body, he kept working on his necromancy chi while working on healing chi, as well, to heal up any wounds caused whilst dying. So he did this, but the experiments continued to just be inanimate bodies. Eventually, though, he decided on lightning chi, to deliver a controlled shock to try and restart all the systems on the body. He first tried it on one of his victims, and brought the poor fox-beastman back to life in grotesque fashion. It took another two years to do it in a way that kept the revived form aesthetically impossible to discern from a living organism. Then, after losing twenty years, a large chunk of sanity, and becoming a mass murderer and mad scientist. Krawl took the last vestige of his experiments to work: he revived little Rune.

She was back, almost completely unchanged. It was like a dream come true. Rune was brought back to life. Of course, there was a hitch: her life was tied to his own. Once he died, her own spirit would be released, unless the talisman on her head is transferred out for another necromancer's talisman. This was where the second conundrum lied: she was utterly forced to submit to the will of the necromancer 'owning her' so to speak. But, she was alive. She could see, speak, she could live. At that point, that was all that Krawl really cared about. Sure, for his experiments being found out, he and Rune were run out of Artaran, and ended up being more or less nomadic, but he had his precious daughter back. That was enough for him.

He made a good owner, to be honest, giving her as much freedom as he could. Of course, there were some things he couldn't really stop from restricting. Because of Rune's fatalistic personality, it made Krawl anxious that she'd find an arbitrary reason to just go and kill herself, because for some reason, the girl just didn't have much joy in life. Was it because she lacked stability, moving around from place to place? Was it because her father essentially controlled her will? Maybe being essentially brought back to life cheapened the meaning of life for the girl. Another factor might have been that her real personality was being suppressed by her father's idealistic impression of her; a perfect and flawlessly cheerful little girl, ignoring the genuine Rune festering within her mind.

In any case, Rune decided that she wanted to take up combat, because perhaps that'd give her some semblance of excitement. And in a way, it did. It gave her something to aspire to. She learned quite well, how to use a bow and arrow, and even received her father's Dark Orb, filled with the souls of his victims, and she eventually learned to specialize her innate necromancy chi into an almost physical form.

Currently passing through Gangamai, the father and daughter are continuing their life. Krawl, though, is getting worried. He knew he had maybe some years left before he died; and he wanted so badly for Rune to be able to outlive him, and keep going. So as a hidden objective from her, Krawl is also looking for a necromancer to take over as her owner; one that he could trust to take care of her and treat her well. Chances of this were low... but he had to try, didn't he?

Home Town:
Artaran, a walled city near the Kakan Wastelands. Known for being a hard city to siege because of it's defenses and internally built farms.
Home Country:
Askia
Personality:
Really, for Rune, what you see if more or less what you get. A sarcastic and witty girl that seemed to be wiser than she appeared. She knows how to indirectly state things that are contrary to what she's actually saying - sarcasm - and her biting tongue is always a pleasure. More than that, though, and possibly the crux of her self identity is her fatalism. The idea that no matter what she really does, it won't change anything. It won't really fix anything. And she's more or less doomed to this life, in this form. It's also a kind of self-hatred, in a way. Rune has trouble finding enjoyment in every day life - the only thing that really works is connecting to people's souls, sensing them - as well as combat. She dislikes what she's become; but contrary to what you might think, she doesn't actively seek death. Even if she were allowed to, she wouldn't simply let herself die. Because no matter how much she talks about how life's meaning is devalued by virtue of her being alive, shes unwilling to simply give up on this second chance.
Fears and Desires:
Rune desires to find meaning to her new life, to figure out what she can do that really matters. Her biggest fear, other than being controlled, is turtles. there's something about turtles that really bugs her.

Equipment and Weapons: Rune wields an arched yew bow that she wears underneath her hooded cloak on her back. Strapped to her hip is her quiver, full of barbed arrows that tend not to break, and are thus reusable for the most part. At the bottom of her quiver lies her Dark Orb. Also at her hip, just in case, is a short sword.
Styles and Abilities: Sniper Style: Essentially, Rune is a master of long range combat. Armed with a quiver, and a Dark Orb to extract soul energy from, often imbuing her arrows with the soul energy, allowing for enhanced and precise arrows. The soul energy typically increases the stopping power of the arrows, the flying speed, and the durability. She has a quick draw, and can shoot while moving, even while dodging if need be, though it tends to lower her accuracy. Rune is agile and acrobatic, and can step in a way that minimizes any sound of her presence. For melee battles, Rune has her sword, though that's only at average skill, and she prefers not to depend on that.
Chi and Augmentations:
Rune's only chi is necromancy. She's given free reign by her father to use as much as she desires, and she prefers not to raise the dead or take souls or anything like that, even if the Jiangshi could do such a thing. Instead, Rune prefers to use the Dark Orb she has to draw upon the souls inside for energy attacks, such as projectile beams, or a shield surrounding her. She's pretty fast at this, and her energy attacks are potent. She can fire beams of soul energy, or make barriers from said energy, or even imbue her arrows with the soul energy, amongst other things.

So begins...

Rune Iyora's Story

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Nee Me-Hyung Character Portrait: Amanhã Tiamat Character Portrait: Rune Iyora Character Portrait: Teri Serizawa
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#, as written by Rann
No one really likes you, you know.

Hyuna was flying through the air, not really paying attention to where she was going. Was she even in Yune anymore? She had no idea; above the clouds, above all the pain of life. Up here, she didn't see anything on the ground. Up here, she was free to herself. Up here, nothing else mattered but controlling the air around her, making sure she didn't screw up and plummet to her death. Not that it'd be a bad death - just somewhat disappointing. A master air chi user dying because she couldn't fly. almost laughable. She was alone to her thoughts - no Orion, no Yaeha, no Lunan or the weird red man, or ...Muna, or Terra or Yamato or even Yuwen, possibly most importantly of them all. She was completely isolated up here. Gone from everything.

Except for the dark one constantly nagging at her.

Hated by everyone. Alone. Aren't you?

Shut up. Please shut up. I've had it with this shit.

Course, the dark one was a pretty perfect enemy for her, wasn't it? No matter how much it burned at her, Hyuna was helpless. Like this, there was nothing she could do to drown it out. Maybe stab her head with her spear? Explode herself? Would that - no, if she was going to die, it'd be to the war. She'd fling herself into the war, get herself too deep, and die magnificently. A warrior's death. Nothing else would fit.

All you're good at is fighting.

Is that really true? Hyuna thought detestably. Couldn't she -

No. There really was nothing. She didn't even need the dark one to tell her that. Despair began swirling around in her mind once again as the taunts continued digging at her, ceaselessly. Hyuna didn't know how much more she could take.

Muna never liked you. You were just a pawn to her. Yamato forgot about you, your brother hates you. Your father's dying and you just up and left. Orion just thought of you as a tool. Yuwen only saw you as a sidekick to further boost him up. You have no ties to this realm, Hyuna.

Submit to me. if you give me control of your body ... I can fix everything. You have nothing to lose. And you'll keep on degenerating if you-


Shut up. Get out.

Of course, it didn't. And invisible to her, the very tips of her wind chi was laced with an almost misty darkness, and she was flying at a much faster rate than she was used to flying normally. And even if she did notice it, would she really care? She eased her way down, not wanting to be left alone to fend against the dark one on her own - she couldn't take it really. Or else she might just feel tempted to just let him take over.

That'd be a disaster for sure.

As Hyuna went below cloud level, she saw a familiar figure, someone left behind at the whole ball fiasco. What the hell, why was Millie just there? Wasn't she supposed to be with the rest of the guild? Hyuna, not wanting her to get captured by slavers, or murdered by teenaged bandits, landed down beside her with a rough swoop, just looking at her in puzzlement as the little girl sat at the bank, feet dipped into the river with a look of ease.

"Uh." Hyuna murmured, realizing that she was probably the worst person for taking care of a child. "Millie. Why aren't you with the others? What happened?"




A twirl of hair, and a warm seamless laugh emitted from the illusionist. Teri mostly ignored her as she looked almost longing at the ice cream. It had messed with her guard, sure, but it did taste good. Odd, but good - she'd never had anything remotely similar to that, being more used to salted foods and warm water than anything else. It had to be made with ice chi, right? The only thing that made sense. Why would people even use chi for - well, she couldn't really say anything. If she had something more conventional, it would be nice to be able to use them for whatever everyday purpose. But combat comes first, so she doesn't end up dying on a mission. And in this stead, she chose light chi for distraction purposes, as well as reflex. Nothing else would have fit with her style.

For some reason Sainko seemed almost pleased for some strange reason. Teir would have tried to discern it if she was someone else, like a rabbit beast-girl or perhaps a young revolutionary, but alas - it didn't really matter to her. Perhaps a happy coworker was better than one that was irritable. Not that they'd ever meet again, once she returned to Tengala. Team missions tended to be rare anyways - so she was pretty certain that it was going to be a big dramatic clash. Fortunately, it was really easy. And short.

"Sainko. It's as good a name as any."

Offering no further information than the bare minimum. Teri could respect that. There was a bit of a pause until the illusionist directed the conversation elsewhere. "That Shan... that was quite disappointing, wasn't it? I don't know if maybe you're the type who doesn't care as long as in the end they get it over with, but with all the big-talk the big names upstairs were making about the man, I was hoping it would be a little more... fun."

Teri nodded her head. It was true. Shan, for all the hype of seemingly single-handedly taking out the Yin family... was really nothing special. Too cocky, too proud of himself, and didn't consider a pretty basic thing such as a paralysis agent's potency. to Teri, any real fighter takes it seriously. Doesn't mess around with it. Because that's a disrespect to your opponent. Even if Orion did prove to be strong... she'd still refuse to respect his mannerisms. Just how he is, supposedly. Least it wouldn't have to be dealt with again.

"Rare for two to be sent." Teri said almost aloofly. "Expected something bigger scale. I ... was slightly let down, I suppose. Thought it'd be bigger."

Even just that much talking was somewhat exhausting to her. Teri wondered how dysfunctional she was in normal society, and then realized that normal society meant nothing to her. All she needed was the last surviving Kuroba. As long as they had each other, it'd be okay.

Still, she didn't want any... misunderstandings.

"Sainko." Teri said in a steady voice, hand digging in her back for no apparent reason. Just a habit. "I don't ... dislike you. Just not used to talking. So you don't get the wrong idea. Wouldn't be against a future team up."

Okay, maybe that last part was a stretch. But Sainko was preferable over others so she wouldn't have to remember any new names, just in case she was slated for another two-person mission in the future. Teaming with someone familiar saved quite a lot of time.




With almost hollow eyes, Nee returned to the inn. A bloodbath. Her kimono was drenched in the red liquid. All she could really think about was that it was ruined, and she'd need some new clothing soon. Hopefully something silky and light, but she doubted she'd really have a choice in the matter. Still, she felt a little better. Well, better was likely a bad term for it. Despite the blood all over her, drenching and staining her, Nee felt cathartic. Just a little bit more stabilized than previously. Still dirty, still a killer, but not as dire as she had been. At this point, she'd be willing to take any advantage. She was just glad that her chi managed to calm Amanhã down. If anything, she wanted to mention that to Gridiron. To point out that Amanhã wasn't necessarily beyond hope, and that trying to reform her wasn't a bad idea.

Reform. What an odd word. Nee thought briefly and figured that, to stand against the Imperials, she'd have to reform the Ku'Rannos into a merc unit, a massive mercenary unit, and have all the slaves be forced to fight. Anything to bolster numbers. Anything to increase overall strength. Reformatting and militarizing them should make them a force to be reckoned with. Enough to even challenge the mighty legions of Yune, especially if she played her cards right.

first step first, though. Take out Mog- wait. Wait a second. Where was the guide? She took a fervored glance around and saw nothing. Was he simply gone? Or were Nee's suspicions early actually hold weight? She hoped he just decided to head home. Because if not - he was probably one of Moga's plants, and is already informing him. Nee clenched her teeth and thought of her chain - she really should have gotten rid of him. Somehow. If anyone manages to find out their location, this would be disastrous.

Utterly disastrous.

Then they rounded a corner and saw the guide, darting up to Nee in shock.

"What- are you okay, miss? Are you hurt?"

Nee gave him a blank stare, before turning the charms on. "I'm... I caught myself in some trouble, sorry! My clothes! They're all dirty..."

And so, they entered the inn, with Nee a few pouches richer, of course - she had eventually cheated the guide out of some of his hard earned cash. Amanhã did her thing, plopping a severed bleeding stump of a head onto the table, making her one liner, then turned away. Nee looked back and forth between them, before approaching Gridiron, showing her the cash.

"Don't worry!" Nee said swiftly, hoping Gridiron wouldn't react badly. It was hard to resist using her chi to calm her down - Gridiron would probably be even worse off because of it. And that wasn't favorable at all, not to mention that it undermines the 'equals' dynamic. However, if it comes to it, she'd use it without hesitation. "None of them escaped. They were too cocky trying to grab at the bait - me - after all. Passage to Jiefong should be safe, and Cha'Valkar probably won't be aware of it for a while."




To be honest... she was stalking the guild for a while. And her father wasn't too far behind. Their smell was odd - seriously. Her wolf's enhanced smell and hearing easily picked up on words between the two guilds. A competition, in this treacherous desert? She took a glance to where she sensed her father to be observing, and since she didn't feel his will try to bend hers, she made her approach. Rune Iyora really wanted to join in the competition. Didn't matter which side - but a fight helped her feel alive. And a competition was probably an enhanced form of that. And so, the apparently 12 years old wolf beastman more or less trotted her way to one particularly Gwanish woman, keeping her hood up. Nothing to be done about the tail, though.

They had come to the Gangamai a while ago, father and daughter. They'd even gotten talismans - because it couldn't harm, certainly. And plus, her father had heard tales of the curse. Horror stories of people who never made it out. So of course, buying talismans to protect against that curse would be prudent from whatever it was. And they survived quite well in this fashion, despite Krawl - the father - going older each day.

"Uh." Rune spoke directly to the woman. She'd ask once, then give up -nothing to be done, and it wasn't really worth the effort of trying to change one's mind. "I'd... like to join. I'll -" She looked back and forth between one and the other, before deciding on the one with the gwanish woman, the tengu, the witch, and others. The one lead by that rabbit woman. "Your side, if you would. I believe I can compete well enough to be an asset."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Shiisan Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Ann was mildly surprised to find that someone had actually decided to approach her, opening up with a simple question. She stuffed her hands in her pockets as they walked into the temple, listening patiently as the man talked. The same man that had been cut down from the net trap before she'd been whisked off. He mentioned something about the twins getting off on opium and she couldn't help but laugh a little to herself. "It happens to the best of us," she smiled weakly. "I can't say that I haven't tried any myself. I could imagine myself going down the same road, though I'd like to think that I take a little more care of my well-being than that. And I do talk, only...I don't know, I suppose I'm just not comfortable with starting conversations. I never feel that I have the need to tell people anything so I tend to keep quiet until I'm spoken to.

"What am I good at?" Ann blankly echoed the question. "Not a lot, unfortunately. I've dabbled in plenty of things from art to music to medicine, but I just didn't have the talent for any of those things. The only thing I'm good at..." With her left hand, she drew her kodachi in the blink of an eye, the flash of motion drawing a ringing sound as the blade left its scabbard. The weapon spun in her hand for a few moments before settling upright in her grip as Ann briefly gazed into its reflection. "...is killing." She lowered the sword and gave him a small smile. "I've never been good at anything else." Though her eyes were passive, there was a dangerous glint in them that belied her reserved, soft-spoken nature.

"Being a bandit, I suspect that your circumstances are similar?" she said quietly, turning her blade upside down and thrusting it back into its sheath. "Perhaps ironically, I've never been fond of killing. That just means that there's one more person you'll never get to know, one more person whose thoughts and experience you'll never get to explore. I like people, you know? All people. I tend to think of them as friends I haven't met yet. That's where the disparity lies between me and most of the people I've met on my journeys. I've never been fond of killing, but...it's never really bothered me, either. It didn't matter if they were elderly, sick, defenseless, or children - it's just that..." She paused for a bit, momentarily in thought. "Hm, how exactly does one explain what it's like to care about something without actually caring? Human sentiment can be surprisingly complicated sometimes, can't it?"

An unfamiliar girl approached from the side, asking to join their efforts in the competition. Ann's gaze lingered for a few seconds, but it wasn't enough to hold her attention. "You're asking the wrong person," she smiled. "The one in charge right now is Lo-Muna," she continued, pointing toward the rabbit beast-woman. "Though I imagine that there will be some opposition to that idea." It was understandable considering the fact that she was only a child - or at least appeared so - but such things were never subject to her judgment. There was no reason for her to force others to live by her own ideals, after all.




Afraid. Millie was...afraid. She wasn't abandoned, she knew as much; there was only so much that could be done after everything that had happened, but being lost and alone in this unfamiliar world did nothing to help her psyche. She calmed down at the edge of the riverbank, wondering what her next move would be. Was anyone out there looking for her? Should she get up and begin searching on her own? She frowned, her fingers digging into the dirt. Her feet ran through the cold water and her hands were planted at her sides among the flimsy blades of grass, dancing with each breath of the wind. It was an overwhelming pressure to put on her all at once, putting her into a state between despair and apathy. What could she do? What power did she have? Nothing. She had nothing.

Just as tears began welling in her eyes, something suddenly landed beside her with a loud crash. Startled, she kicked up a little water and scrambled back, tears now springing from fright rather than sadness.

"Wha...H-Hyuna?" she stammered, struggling to recover from the girl's abrupt entry. She talked, but her words didn't reach her at all. Millie's immediate reaction was to bury her face in the girl's chest, wrapping her arms around her in a tight embrace as she shuddered, tears shed freely as she cried in a moment of joy too strong to be described in words. "Hyuna!" she cried, her voice choked as she spoke. "Hyuna! Hyuna! I missed you, Hyuna!" She sniffled a few times in between her words, hugging her tighter as she looked up at her with moist eyes. The warmth of her body, the familiar edge in her voice; she needed this more than anything. "Where did you go? I c-can't - I can't believe you came back! I-I almost thought that, I thought that I w-was going to be left behind forever!" she barely managed, her chest heaving in pauses as she struggled to keep her crying under control. "Please...don't leave me...don't leave me ever again..." Millie closed her stained eyes, her arms beginning to go loosen as she leaned into Hyuna with her weight, feeling her body going limp. "I need you..."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Shiisan
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No sooner that Terra had offered to assist the guild, than another girl suddenly appeared out of seemingly nowhere, making the same request. Though Terra was startled and confused as to how the girl had gotten there without being noticed earlier, she quickly also voiced her support for the new girl joining. "I-it won't cause any problems, I'm sure!" she reassured the new girl, though her voice probably didn't sound convincing at all.

Suddenly, there was the heavy sound of feet landing behind her, and she turned around in surprise to see a menacing looking...what was she supposed to even call it?! Half human, half beast man? Was such a thing even possible?!
Regardless, the creature growled, baring his teeth, and whispered in tones that seemed to shake the very stones Terra stood upon, "Listen here, sheila. Our guild don't fear death, see? We live the challenge! 'N' when you live by the challenge, you gotta accept that there are winners and losers. Winners get the satisfaction of victory, the prizes, 'n' the satisfaction of crushin' the losers beneath their heel. Losers get whatever card fat deals 'em."

He then drew out his butterfly knife and tapped the flat of the blade against his forehead violently. "'N' iffit were up ta me, losers would just get the kiss of death. Heh heh heh..." The creature cackled as he swerved around and walked back towards his guild, before the astonished Terra could make a reply.

No. Just...no. To any other Gwanish warrior, even one in training, his or her mentality probably would be similar to that of the creature. But Terra found her fists clenching in anger as she turned his words over and over in her mind. It just seemed too cruel to her! And yet when she looked back at the real members of Fortune, none of them really seemed to be in disagreement with the statement. Then, that meant to Terra...

I said I would offer my support to Fortune...but in reality, I am competing against everyone.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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"Ann, why is it you attract children into the guild?" Muna asked jokingly as she walked over to get a better view of the new arrival. The unknown girl who had asked for admittance into the guild was quite young however. Muna guessed she was either not in her teens yet or was very early into them. While the rabbit's first instincts were to deny, another case had been brought up before in the form of Millie who was considerably younger than the child before her. The same Millie who was now off somewhere, lost.

Lo-muna looked over to where Shiisan was talking to Ann and then back to the young child. There was something strange about this child as was with Shiisan. Although, she was considering leaving the bandit somewhere to die after his outrageous display of utter disrespect towards the forest. She wasn't a fanatic like her family but Muna still thought that nature deserved some respect and not to be relieved upon. Not only that, but he did anger the demon into wanting to kill them all so..

"It's dangerous, it's lethal in fact, this journey that we are taking. Should we get out of this alive, our road will lead to even more opposition whose sole intent will be to kill us, maim us, or leave us all separated to the far ends of this world. There will be times where death is a relief and where we will mourn one of our own. If we fail, you will be trapped here with us for at least a year. I cannot guarantee your safety or permanent status within the guild. For now, I am a temporary leader as our permanent one was taken so when we recover him, I do not know if he will go against my word or not." Lo-muna stated with calm as she looked at the new girl and Terra.

Even though she knew Terra, she wanted to remind the girl of what she was signing up for. What had happened before in Jiefong and where they had started, Muna knew that was only the beginning. Journeys had a habit of escalating, especially if they were on a quest for a legendary treasure. They were not alone, as the Hunters Guild clearly showed, and neither were they most powerful or coordinated. It would be a miracle if the guild members she had at the moment survived her own reign.

"So if you understand all of this and are willing to bet your life alongside us, I will gladly accept you into the Great Guild Fortune and that goes for both of you," Muna looked over at Terra and laid a hand upon the young girl's shoulder. "Don't listen to Jakkar, Terra. He's a member of the rival guild and it seems he'll settle to any lengths to rattle us."

The beast-woman smiled warmly at Terra, "I value you and your life and the last thing I want is for it to be wasted foolishly. That is why I'm giving you this warning as well. Even if both of you decline, I will still make sure you get out of this place safely into Gangamai should we win. That way, you won't be forced to join.. But I really would be glad to have you Terra."

~*~

Meanwhile, Sha was grinning as usual as she listened to the bear beast-man explain his own skills and his assurance in that of the others. She nodded, looking over at her own guild and saw Tsukumo roll her eyes at Jakkar's antics and make a gagging gesture. Daken beside her nodded in agreement. Her eyes roved over the others who were probably studying their opponents. Sha looked back at the guild members of Fortune.

"Well, I'm sure you will all be suitable for what we have planned!" Sha exclaimed loudly. "This will cover a wide set of skills and will not necessarily need chi or physical skills for all of them! But, I'll let my guild members explain the challenges."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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"More than that..these people are insane..." Suiken added, approaching Lo-Muna and Terra. "But the bird demon will be after us either way, so we might as well compete to the best of our ability. After all, if we just decided to quit now, I'm not sure they'd take it so well..." Suiken frowned. He then looked at the newcomer. "What brings you to us, child? You seem to understand that danger lies on our path, but knowing that, why would you want to help us? If I may ask?" he queried, raising an eyebrow.

Shiisan nodded at Rumelis and Ann. Seeing as Rumelis spoke first, eh addressed him first, "Nice! A fellow explorer of the wilderness." He then looked to both Ann and Rumelis. "See, as a bandit of this forest and desert, I've gotta take it upon myself to know how to live on the land," he explained, nonchalantly picking his left nostril with his pinkie. "I'm pretty good at hunting honestly. Not so much at traps and gizmos. That's what other members of my old crew specialized in. But maaaaaan, do they all hate me now, so..." Shiisan shrugged, placing his hands behind his head as they walked.

"We were kind of crappy bandits to be honest, I mean yeah when someone stopped by our turf, we'd demand they hand over anything, but our leader had no sense of strategy. Only real reason I stuck around was 'cause of his daughter, I guess," he sighed, nostalgically. "and to tell you the truth being a bandit bored me after a while, bein' stuck in the same forest with the occasional visit to Gangamai. Heroic guild life sounds waaaay more fun."

He then glanced at Ann and asked. "So...you think potentially anybody could be your friend? And yet....you wouldn't have a second thought about killing anybody at the same time? Weird double edged sword thing you've got goin' on...or whatever ya call it," Shiisan paused to glance at the newcomer, a young girl it seemed. He then sniffed the air and shrugged and returned to speaking to Ann and Rumelis. "So, tell me this you two...I know that bunny-baby isn't the original leader of the guild? What happened? Was the old leader, the, uh...Duwen Fortunate dude, or whatever, the one who pushed you all down the river?"

"Alright as soon as you're done chattin' it up, you can decide which two member of yer guild'll participate in the first challenge!" Jakkar called, removing a brick from what appeared to be a dead end in the wall. The wall, through some mechanism, slowly pulled itself back, revealing a an cobwebbed filled mining tunnel. Looking alongside the walls, the guilds could see fragments of jade spread out across the dirt. Most of it had been mined up and cleared out years ago.

Two wooden, decaying mining carts stood abandoned in front of the tunnels. They hadn't seen use in who knew how long? But they were the object of the first challenge. "Here we go," Tawa began. "There are two trails of tracks carved into the dirt for these two mining carts. They're big enough to fit two people, so two members of each guild will get in the cart and race to the finish. Simple enough ,since it's the first challenge."

"The rest of us'll be takin' the tunnel off to the right," Jakkar pointed out. "It has a safe walking path. Well..."safe". The bird demon'll DID say he'd try 'n' kill us so...stay on yer toes, I guess."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki
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#, as written by Rann
The gambit seemed to work out, Hyuna thought. The dark one wasn't constantly digging at her like it usually did. Where had it even come from, anyways? She didn't know, and although it seemed her chi was stronger and less tiring to use, still. That might've been connected. Whatever the dark one was though, it certainly wasn't a nice thing. Wanting to... take control of her body. Maybe to manifest in the real world. Hyuna had no idea how she was going to deal with tha- wait. Was this related to the enigmatic character named Magic? Did it start around that time, during the ball? In which case, Magic might've been the culprit. Perhaps.

This was frustrating. Now she had to track down Magic and kill him before things got even worse. Not that she could go on a hunt for Magic with this little girl here. Someone had to take care of her after all, right? And since no one else around, the probable least suited out of the entire Guild - if she even counted as a guild member at this point - had to take up the responsibility. And thus, Hyuna relaxed herself at the river bank, watching Millie.

"Wha... H-Hyuna?" The little girl stuttered, looking shocked at the pseudo-rocket's sudden appearance. The next second, the little girl rushed forward and pulled Hyuna's chest into a close embrace - the spear girl didn't even really get the chance to react at the sensation ... not that she minded. Too much. It's Millie, so it's okay, right? It wasn't bad... it wasn't uncomfortable... "Hyuna! Hyuna! Hyuna! I missed you, Hyuna!" The cries of 'Hyuna!' were interspaced with little sniffs and chokes and more clutching, to the point that Hyuna almost felt as if she was falling over backwards. She tried to fit in a few words here and there, beca-

Kill Her.

Godamnit. Hell no she wouldn't kill Millie. Millie's awesome. Hyuna frowned internally at the dark one's reappearance.

She's pointless, will just get in your way.

"Where did you go? I c-can't - I can't believe you came back! I-I almost thought that, I thought that I w-was going to be left behind forever! Please...don't leave me...don't leave me ever again..."

"Hey, I wasn't gonna-"

"I need you..."

And thus, Hyuna promptly felt like shit. She awkwardly looked around, and glad that no one was secretly spying on them, gingerly rubbed a hand on the little girl's head, ruffling her brown hair a little bit, fondly. This really wasn't so bad at all. She heard the dark one cry out for more blood and slaughter, but there was no way Hyuna'd let that happen. Not when Millie needed someone's protection. Not when at least one person in the world gave a shit about her.

Probably the only person in the world to remotely care.

"I won't leave you." Hyuna said gently. "Millie ... sorry you were scared and alone. I - " Damnit. She really did feel shitty. "Hey. What say we go an' try to find the others? I'm probably not the best person for taking care of a kid."

Furthermore, she didn't want to corrupt Millie with her own darkness. That'd probably be the worst sh could do. And she didn't want it to end the same way Yaeha's life went down. That'd be even worse.

She'd do it right this time.




At her admission of not disliking her, Sainko seemed further mollified for some reason. It was odd. Did she really care so much about Teri's own opinion of things? She didn't seem the type, at first sight. But then again, first impressions never tended to be accurate. She and Fuuta had gotten on terribly at the beginning, for instance. Teri leaned back to gaze idly at the children playing around, without a care in the world. It was almost sad. A few years from now, the half-tengu could be certain that those children would be jaded teenagers in the large scale of things. No one was really happy-go-lucky any more by that age, in her experience. Even the younger and more naive members of the Kurobas were pretty cynical compared to the idealistic lifestyle of children.

Pity, she supposed. Nothing to do with her, in any case.

"I'm glad," A deeper, more serious and grave voice. Was Sainko taking her more seriously? Did it really matter if she was? "I don't like to be disliked." Another cascade of hair, and Sainko approached. "Knowing how these things work," And it wasn't long until the illusionist reverted back to a voice that matched her form. "We'll probably end up working together again soon. Wouldn't put it past the higher ups, you know."

Teri then stood up, and took Sainko's hand. They still had to report in, after all, the details of how the mission went. That was the last thing, before it was time for her to return home to where she found some small semblance of belonging. And she wants to bask in that feeling now; she knew she had enough food to fly the hours required in one go, at least. Especially if she met with favorable winds. She grasped the illusionist, and meeting no resistance, leapt into the air, and swooped down to the lower levels of Jiefong; wind speeding past blindly; before using that downwards momentum to shoot them up into a warm current of air, further boosting their height. It felt amazing, and Teri almost glowed as she absorbed the feeling of flight.

"Comeradic Woods." Teri said, just for verification. "Right? Lots of bees. Might need to wear metal wings to shield us."

Those bees were legendary, even in Tengala, for being notoriously murderous. So the Comeradic Woods were a particularly good place to have a secretive rendezvous, right? Most people would, logically, try to avoid being there as much as possible.

Upon seeing the blotch of red trees, Teri then gently eased them down, falling through the canopy into the thick of the woods, instantly hearing a pulsating, hypnotic sound of buzzing all over them. Despite the afternoon sun shining down on them, it was dark, because the leaves and branches blocked it all out, except little steams floating down, almost majestically. And of course, the buzz of the bees instantly rose in tempo and volume. Once they landed on the soft, mossy floor, Teri quickly fastened the plates onto her wings, and spread them to cover both her and Sainko's bodies.

And thus, they waited for the representative of the Runiguard to appear.




The Sudean, as expected, reacted rather negatively to the whole thing, spurting out a "Wait, she used you as bait?" after struggling to even form a sentence together in a coherent, intelligent way. The explanation did nothing to really calm her down, and Nee once again felt the temptation to just resort to using her fix-all chi. She didn't, though, and perhaps that made things just a little bit better. It'd been a while since she tried to talk to someone without using the obvious advantage. A talk on true equal ground. So, Nee nodded mutely, and waited for Gridiron to continue. Saying anything else at this point wouldn't accomplish anything.

"...I'll have to mention to her that that was... not a wise thing to do." Gridiron looked exasperated, but the anger had died down. She still didn't look remotely pleased, but there was nothing to do with that. At least the problem was dealt with, right, and they could move on. Nee looked back to Amanhã, and shrugged a little. Perhaps the whole thing was a little much... Perhaps. She was drenched in the red liquid of death, after all. Nee made sure to buy some clothes as soon as she could.

"About the shit that went on before. I don't mean to overstep my boundaries or anything. I know I'm at best just some person in your eyes, and at worst a detriment to whatever nation-shaking plot you have boiling up in that fourteen year old head of yours. But, as awful as I am at phrasing it accurately, I... did sincerely mean what I said. Y'know. About wanting you to be safe and happy. I figure you deserve as much. I'm not too good at making this point without sounding like an idiot, but, uh... well, just know that much, will ya? I don't want you to return to Furoe thinking I'm only doin' this out of a sense of duty or some shit."

Nee nodded again, and took what Gridiron had said to heart as best as she could. She felt warm and fuzzy; and she wondered briefly if this was what friendship was all about. No harm if it was, right? In fact, it was rather pleasant. to the point that the usually verbose girl was rendered almost speechless, only managing to squeak in a 'thanks' in return, and couldn't think of anything else to say whatsoever.

"But that being said," Gridiron said, in a more authoritative and charismatic way, and started addressing her troupe about the situation, and about moving out. If they were going to, now would be the best time to do so. Nee saw the little gesture, and followed the cat out, keeping a safe distance away from him, then took the opportunity to wander off on her own into a clothings ship, after muttering to Garrus that she'd be just a sec. She had to change out of this shit, after all. In there, she purchased something rather simple - just a small, greyish tunic that more or less worked as a one piece, a leather belt letting the bottom billow out to somewhere above the knees. The also wore furred boots, and a black cloak with lilac lining overtop it all. Something more practical than a kimono, really. With that, she returned to the troupe on their march. She couldn't really hide the hain anymore, and it was more or less fastened to her belt, looped around in a way that trailed down her leg.

Time to head home. Nee didn't quite know how she felt about it.




The Gwanish woman was the first to respond, with a more or less neutral expression. "You're asking the wrong person." A smile graced her face. "The one in charge right now is Lo-Muna, though I imagine that there will be some opposition to that idea."

Rune glanced over at the rabbit beast-man. Someone that looked as weak as that, the leader? Well, to think that would be hypocritical, really, because Rune was hardly physically menacing. But still. It was more than a little surprising. It was then that the rabbit began to speak.

"It's dangerous, it's lethal in fact, this journey that we are taking. Should we get out of this alive, our road will lead to even more opposition whose sole intent will be to kill us, maim us, or leave us all separated to the far ends of this world. There will be times where death is a relief and where we will mourn one of our own." Rune struggled to keep a twisted grin off her face. She really didn't mind the idea of dying at all. Why would she? It's not as if it was a terrible thing, right? Right? She was eager too. To see what interacting with people other than her father was like. For the last few years it was only those two, wasn't it?

"If we fail, you will be trapped here with us for at least a year. I cannot guarantee your safety or permanent status within the guild. For now, I am a temporary leader as our permanent one was taken so when we recover him, I do not know if he will go against my word or not."

Lo-Muna. And the witch was Terra, apparently. Rune looked over with a bit of a shrug at the slightly taller girl, flashing a cool grin.

"A witch, huh?" She said. "Interesting." She then turned back to Lo-Muna. "And, thank you. I'm looking forward to fighting alongside you all, for as long as we're alive, at least.. We do have the disadvantage here, because I bet the other guild probably did this sort of thing before."

This was going to be fun. Exhilarating. And she could almost feel her father's encouraging sentiments through their little bond of necromancy. The wolf beastman listened to the others speak, and then peered at the two minecarts, ideas running through her head.

"A mix of weight and ranged combat." She said finally. "That would be the best. So, uh." She looked at the blue oni, who appeared to be the heaviest, and then at her own bow and quiver. Would it work? They'd have to see, wouldn't they? The bear wouldn't be bad either, but didn't appear to weigh as much. "Fat Oni for the weight to make the cart go faster. And then me to attack at range. That should work, unless you all disagree." She gave off this cool, almost savvy aura as she looked at her new, however ephemeral teammates. "Unless one of you has earth chi to control the cart, or wind chi. But what are the chances of that?"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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The words Muna had for Terra made her feel much better, because now she knew at least someone really did care that she was participating...or even alive, really. However, just as Terra was about to respond...

"A witch, huh? Interesting."

These words came from the new girl that just joined. And, of course, that word drained out Terra's enthusiasm quickly. Not another person who thought that way about her... "P-please, don't refer to me with that term," she whispered, in a somewhat weary sounding voice. "Unless you really t-think...that way." But her tone uncharacteristically darkened on the last words.

Then, the annoying beast man/man from before suddenly opened up the wall through some kind of secret mechanism, revealing two minecarts that were practically falling apart, directly set upon the stones themselves. So they were supposed to race in these? It seemed absolutely suicidal, didn't it?

"A mix of weight and ranged combat." Terra jumped slightly before realizing that it was the new girl who said this. "That would be the best. So, uh. Fat Oni for the weight to make the cart go faster. And then me to attack at range. That should work, unless you all disagree." It seemed the girl was rather full of herself, but that was just Terra's impression. "Unless one of you has Earth chi to control the cart, or Wind Chi. But what are the chances of that?"

What were the chances indeed. The alleged "witch" was about to step forward and say she, in fact, had Earth Chi, but suddenly her mind screamed for her not to. What if something went wrong again? It's not like she was that skilled, anyway...

No. Just stop thinking like that. Swallowing hard, Terra stepped forward, placing herself one meter from the other girl. "I-I have Earth Chi, a-as a matter of fact. W-well, what do you say now?"

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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"I really would prefer if you called your guildmates by their names," Lo-muna sternly admonished Rune. "It is a matter of respect after all."

She turned to look at Terra and Suiken.

"It is true though. Suiken, you can probably aid with your girth in the speed of the cart and in the event of the crash. Terra, you can get the cart moving in the first place and actually aid Suiken in defense and attack should the other guild try anything," Muna explained with a calculating glance. She paused for a second, a worried look on her face. Leaning in close, she confided, "I don't think things will go well for such stakes. Shiisan certainly isn't helping in matters...But, I do believe this will be the lighter of challenges so I believe it's best for you Terra and Suiken, well, I trust you will protect Terra. You seem capable of handling yourself after all."

"But please, be on guard."

~*~

Sha looked over at her own guildmates and nodded to the two who would participate.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Nee Me-Hyung Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Amanhã Tiamat
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#, as written by Rann
Teri relaxed when the ebb of the bees ceased their futile assault; escaping in a stream of hatred and rage to destinations unknown. That was mildly harrowing, and annoying as well. Unfortunately, the buzzing was still pulsating as loudly as ever, the humm screeching into their ears with merciless abandon. Everything seemed just a tad darker for a second as the Ruinguard emerged from the fauna and the flora, looking as if the bees didn't even remotely bother them. And the Ruinguard looked just as you'd expect, really, the whole black robes, hood, sorta deal. The almost self important cryptic air they carried themself with. The half-tengu felt a tap on her shoulder, and took that as a cue to open up her winds, revealing the illusionist back in what appeared to be their preferred form, greeting the Ruinguard.

Just as could be expected, the Ruinguard offered no real response, allowing Sainko to delve into her report on Shan's... well, you couldn't even really consider that to be a battle, could you? It was almost simply toying with someone who thought they were all powerful, before crushing them entirely as the truth of their power became apparent. It was pathetic.

"Overestimates his own ability." Teri said, almost flippantly, not even looking at the Ruinguard. Her face was twisted in distaste, remembering the battle. She really was kind of hoping for something even marginally more exciting. Can't survive as a Ruinguard if you can't enjoy a battle, after all, right? But perhaps it was better all the same, that it was quick and easy. Perhaps. Fuuta was waiting back at home after all. "Idiot. Not even worth fighting. Unsure why two of us were even necessary."

She wathed the envelope be exchanged from the Ruinguard to Sainko, as the figure more or less just left. Teri regarded it with a feeling of dread - goddamnit this meant she wouldn't be able to head home just yet. Another quest, probably for the both of them, and... well, hopefully it wouldn't be as easy as this one. If she was going to be mobilized, at least let it be worthwhile. Something of a challenge. Not like the let-down that Shan was.

"Perhaps we should read this in a less unsavoury location," Sainko murmured, and Teri just nodded wearily, clutching at the illusionist once again. With the exit of the Ruinguard, the bees were starting to act up again, and their throbbing buzzes warped the fabric of air around them with it's tenacious volume. Teri was already starting to get a headache from all of this, and as they tried to approach, the half-tengu emitted a bright flash of light - stunning the closer ones - and allowing her to take hold of Sainko to fly up into the air. Without an air current, it was harder for her to get up, but with enough effort, she managed it at long last.

It didn't take long for them to leave the vicinity of the Comrade Mountains, and with a steep nosedive, and a rush of speeding wind, the pair landed far below, at the base of the mountain. The air was particularly warmer now; and they could see a farm and some fields in the distances, separated from them by a thin, snaking river. The idyllic image of Yune's country side, according to the tourist pamphlets offered out from time to time.

"Open it." Teri said, referring to the envelope as she leaned against a pine tree with a slight frown. "...And you were right. They would team us up a second time."

Honestly. Well, and this time Teri lowered her guard just a smidgen - at least it was Sainko and not a whole other Ruinguard. Probably the only mercy in the whole situation.




Nee more or less completely blocked out the talk of this Muoy or whatever, and Võ. She didn't even know who they were, really, it was completely pointless. Honestly, the idiocy. She had more important things to worry about than fighting as a recreation. She had to try and plot more about Moga's downfall. Had to do it with very limited resources and knowledge. Hell, she didn't even know the general power structure of the Ku'Rannos right now, only thought Valkar was the head, and that power was probably inherited, and that Moga was the second in command. And all she knew about him was that he was an ambitious man, probably thought Valkar was getting too soft - of course he was, any slaver with guilt was unsuited for being a slaver, let alone a slaver lord - and wanted to seize power when a weak leader was in charge. The only possible weak point she could discern at is this Minayne. His own personal slave. If she could establish communications with her, then perhaps she'd get an opening. find out who she is. Find anyone who might've known her prior to her enslavement. Feed them the info; have them lead the charge of revenge and allowing her to, during the distraction, establish dominance over Moga and possibly even over Valkar.

If she was lucky, she'd have them both down in one swoop - Moga dead, and Valkar her faithful ally. And then -

Wait. How would she even keep Valkar's slavers loyal? They obviously didn't have enough goodwill to all be completely loyal to him, so simply winning his heart wasn't enough to have them on her side. And without them as her personal army, her entire plan fell flat. What could she do? Was there anything... yes. It made her shudder with self loathing at the thought, but this might work. She can threaten the slavers with death if they tried to desert; death by the noble's army. In that vein, she'd have to keep both armies separate from each other, so there was no back and forth communication.

Rule both of them with fear in what was overall an empty threat. It was all she could really d-

A bird flew overhead. Nee did the whistle and it came swooping down to perch on her shoulder. The noble girl quickly tore off the letter and read it.

"glad to know your fine.
it wasnt my blockade so mogas probably up to something
ill check it out
see you in furoe


Nee stared at the terrible penmanship for a few seconds, before letting out a small laugh. It was almost impossible to read, like, didn't he ever learn to write? Or did they not value literacy all that much in Gwan? In any case, Nee wrote her response, and sent the bird off, feeling somewhat better. At least she wasn't wearing blood soaked clothing, that was always a plus. She the sauntered over to Amanhã, who was also more or less completely ignoring the conversation, and followed her in silence. Maybe to alleviate the suit of armor's possible loneliness?

Or maybe her own?




The witch was the first to respond, stuttering, as if she was afraid, or something. Rune turned her head with amusement. "I-I have Earth Chi, a-as a matter of fact." Oddly enough, the witch- Terra -almost sounded unsure of herself. "W-well, what do you say now?"

What would she say now? it didn't really matter either way - not as if there was much to do in a mart cart race that pertained to combat, right? So Rune offered Terra something of a sarcastic, demeaning grin, meaning no real ill will; "So you do. Good luck then, Witch!"

This getting along with people was a little hard. She'd never really interacted with anyone other than her half-insane Father. The one that killed hundreds upon hundreds to bring her back, like, seriously. She didn't particularly mind being dead, though she didn't really remember any of it. It couldn't have been all that bad, really. Really now. She then heard Lo-Muna's voice waft to her in the sweltering heat.

"I really would prefer if you called your guildmates by their names," The rabbit beast-man said. "It is a matter of respect after all."

Respect? Really? They didn't do much to really deserve respect ... and what was the point of respect if it wasn't genuine? Just pretending to respect someone accomplished nothing. There was no point whatsoever. Rune let out a fake yawn, but nodded her acquiescence.

"Would if I knew their names." She eyed Lo-Muna. "I'm Rune, by the way." She then turned to the old Oni, and the wit- Terra, Terra the Witch. In a competition, anything goes, right? And she didn't want to be on the losing team. She spoke in a quiet, hushed voice.

"Don't be afraid to cheat." She whispered smugly. "Can't trust them to not try to take you out at first chance. Even if they say they won't, I bet they will.|

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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The other girl grinned back at Terra with an expression that seemed absolutely insincere to her. "So you do. Good luck then, Witch!"

"H-hey, listen, I just told y-" But Terra's anger had no time at all to flare up, for Muna began speaking while her fist was rising.

"It is true though. Suiken, you can probably aid with your girth in the speed of the cart and in the event of the crash. Terra, you can get the cart moving in the first place and actually aid Suiken in defense and attack should the other guild try anything." So it would be Terra and Suiken participating, then... "I don't think things will go well for such stakes. Shiisan certainly isn't helping in matters...But, I do believe this will be the lighter of challenges so I believe it's best for you Terra and Suiken, well, I trust you will protect Terra. You seem capable of handling yourself after all."

Despite how unsure of herself she was, Terra felt almost a little indignant hearing Muna essentially state she should be in this challenge due to it being easier. All the same, though, she bowed her head slightly and replied, "We understand. Y-you can depend on us to win." Whether she actually meant this or not, she had no idea.

As Terra climbed into the mine cart, the other girl--apparently named Rune--leaned in after getting admonished by Muna. At first, Terra met her with a rather icy gaze, expecting another round of the girl ignoring her request...but the mischievous-looking girl with the silver hair only had these words for her, said in quiet tones as though they shouldn't be heard: "Don't be afraid to cheat. Can't trust them to not try to take you out at first chance. Even if they say they won't, I bet they will."

Us? Cheat? That isn't even... Terra glanced at the other guild just to be sure. There wouldn't be anything suspicious about them...right? Suddenly, though, the mere looks the Hunter's Guild's members exchanged with each other looked very suspicious. "...I-I'll keep your warning in mind," she told Rune without really thinking much about it. "Come on, then, Suiken."

Setting

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Character Portrait: Yuwen Fortune Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki
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"Alright, wait!" Shiisan said, raising a handing front of Terra. "Uh, guild meeting! Team meeting! Captain Spastic and The Fat One are who we're sending in, but uh, we want a team meeting first!" Shiisan muttered, calling the Great Guild members over to him. "Hey, look guys," Shiisan muttered quietly as they approached. "I dunno if you've all picked up on this or not....but these guys are crazy!" he whispered, pointing a thumb at the Hunters Guild.

"They WILL get us killed. And as someone whose spent months trapped in a net, lemme tell ya, I'd like to live out my life as much as possible," Shiisan whispered. "Look, I've been in this temple before. Even before the curse hit, it was pretty deadly. And now that the whole place is cursed, we won't be able to turn without danger lurking at every turn."

"So here's my idea...you two!" Shiisan decided, pointing at Terra and Suiken. "Will still do the race. As a distraction. While the rest of us...go with the members of their guild not competing and watch the race with them for a while. The some of us will stay with the spectators as a second distraction, maybe compete in some of the other challenges while a small bit of us sneak off and try to find the map, which leads to both a massive horde of treasure AND a curse-free ticket out of here."

"And what about gathering the rest of the guild after the would be treasure thieves find this map?" Suiken asked skeptically.

"That might be the only hard part as these loony tools are liable to attack us," Shiisan shrugged. "So we yell out a signal and the rest of you follow us and book it! So...whaddya think, gang? Who should do what?"

***
Pele Mele nodded at Jeon to inform Yuwen of the situation as he got a better look at the sea before them. "Gonna be a long voyage. Might have ta go for a surf if things get too boring..." he noted, drowsily.

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Character Portrait: Yuwen Fortune Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki
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"Suiken and Terra are both powerful enough to compete and escape so that stays as Shiisan has confirmed," Muna began. "I will be part of the initial group staying along with Rune and Yamato. Ann, Rumelis, and Suunarashi can accompany Shiisa to find the treasure. After all, I trust you know your way around the temple since you've been through it before, Shiisa."

She smiled warmly at the bandit before looking over at the others, "Any complaints? Objections? Suggestions?"

~*~

Jeon sighed and looked at Yuwen, saying, "Since my companions aren't in a talking mood, how very unlike 'em, I guess I'll be up to flap my beak."

"See, it seems you finally gained what most are looking for- a bit of specialness to ya. You have a few things of interest to us that would include the key and whatever you have inside you now. Now, before you start cheering, this is not the good kind of special. Well, it is if our plan goes the way we want it. We're travelling across a sea for this, for the good ending, and you and him-" Jeon pointed at Yuwen and Hoods. "Might really be able to help us save the good old world. Well, if we can figure out how to rid the evil in you first cuz as he mentioned, you may not know the key and I hope he's wrong on that, but you are a key. A pretty vital one to our plans."

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Shiisan
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But Terra, who was still midway into the cart, was not so keen about Shiisan's plan. "Are you sure, um, that they won't notice that so many of us are gone?" she asked skeptically.

At the same time, she glanced nervously in the direction of the Hunter's Guild. If they had heard the plan, that would not be good.

--------------------------------

A full day had passed, eh? Phecda was back in perfect condition now, but it still felt a little bit frustrating that he had accomplished nothing for an entire day. And Terra was still out of his view.

Well, with Yuwen and his friend at sea, there was not much he could do with the Umbrals he had already summoned. So there was only one use for them at the moment...

Raising his hand, he sent a telepathetic message to the Umbrals. "Find Hyuna Ka-nan. Bring her back here, alive." They would likely get killed if he sent them against the berserk lancer.

But he was planning on that.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare
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#, as written by Rann
Kill the brat.

No, Hyuna protested internally as Millie clung to her. She wouldn't. Millie was the only one who really wanted her, there was no way Hyuna would kill her. She would never allow that to happen. Even at the cost of her own sanity, that'd never happen. She'd shove the spear through her own form before it could. She rubbed the little girl's back lightly as she steeled her resolve, her desire to be somewhat functional. Her desire to not just be a murdermachine.

She'll just weigh you down.

Shut up. Just shut up. Millie's not going to die just because some stupid dark one was trying to take over her body. Hell if she'd let that happen. But finally, Millie added some distance between them - relieving some of the hardpressed tension rising inside of the spear girl, as what was most likely an attempt to insidiously manipulate her physical form. She stood rigid as a board to try and counter this as best as she could.

"Y-yeah." Millie said finally, seeming just a bit tougher than she had been before, in response to Hyuna's query of finding the guild. Her voice was quiet; weak, and Hyuna felt the faint sense of... a threat. She wasn't entirely sure if it was just residual paranoia from the dark one screwing with her, or if someone was approaching, but she moved closer to Millie, almost protectively - bitterly reminding her of when she tried to protect Muna - keeping a wary eye on the surroundings.

"I want to know how Ann and Terra are doing." Millie said - and the latter name is what flared up in Hyuna, making her almost let go of the child completely in her sudden exploding rage - and the child gave a little pause. Did she notice? "And the others, too. Do you know where they are? I thought they would've been gone by now."

Hyuna thought. She last saw them at that riverbank. Would it be so much of a stretch to assume that they went down river, to wherever it might've lead? Yuwen was mysteriously absent, though; and that did burn at her mind as she tried to consider. The river. That had to be their best bet. Follow the flow of the river in hopes of catching up. And possibly, possibly... no. She couldn't hope to reconcile anything with Muna. She'd go there, drop the little girl with them, and then leave.

She wouldn't let someone as volatile as her be too close to her, after all. And if Yuwen were gone - Muna would most likely have taken charge. She'd take care of Millie, even if no one else did. She was pulled out of her slight reverie by a hand brush onto hers, clinging to a finger; and a bit of a smile wormed it's way towards her.

"Thank you, Hyuna. For coming back."

"I have an idea where they are." Hyuna said, going very slightly red at the thanks - she wasn't used to this shit, even now, was she - and scooped up the child, preparing to fly. The river, south east of Jiefong, at the base of the Comrade Mountains. What else was there to do? Hyuna made to boost herself up into the ai-

Wait. What the shit was that. Those weird... those monsters were coming. The same as she's seen from the village. Creepy ass disjointed runs approaching; this was going to be a shit of a hassle. In order to keep Millie from being afraid, Hyuna pulled the child into her form with her chi hand, as she held her spear stiffly in front of her in a defensive stance.

"Looks like we got company. Shit." Hyuna's eyes darted all around her, as if looking for a weak spot in their ranks. With Millie like this, she couldn't go all out like she usually did; she couldn't use her chi wildly. But this meant she had to rely on her weakened wrist that still wasn't moving right like it used to.

Sure you don't want to use chi?

She was sure. Relying entirely on her muscle strength, Hyuna bounded forward, using the spear as a buffer to any attacks, while driving it through the skull of one of the weirdass monsters, and flicking it with the blunt end of the spear, barreling towards another group that was incoming. She'd struck at one of the edges - but the other sides were now starting to converge. She was fucking surrounded, wasn't she? A familiar rage built up within - she couldn't let it out, she couldn't depend on losing control right now. Now with Millie here. She had to do this right.

A quick series of lunges and parries and jabs - a flurry of swings and twirls, leading to something of a pole-vault and another wide slash. Twist your body to tank the claws before skewering a bunch of them in a row. Raise your arm to keep them from getting at the girl, removing some others from the battle. Leap forward to go with the momentum and stab through another three, and flung the bodies at more trying to get close. Fall to your knee as you realize you can't get out of this without chi - you're already bleeding again.

"Damnit." She hissed. "Sorry, Millie."

With that, Hyuna let loose a burst of wind to shoot Millie into the air. A few surges of chi later, and all of the enemies were destroyed; torn into meaty shreds on the grassy plains. Before Millie could plummet to her death, Hyuna flew up to catch her, almost gallantly, and then landed back on the ground where something dark started rising up inside of her. Dark energy seemed to swirl around her form, and she felt herself twitching and bending into herself; clutching her chest in some desperate attempt to keep it all in.

Don't go psycho. Don't go psycho. Goddamnit, the battle's already over.

It's not. The girl is still alive, isn't she?

Goddamnit. Goddamnit. Stop. She was losing control. Again.




As the troupe more or less walked off, Nee just stood there, in somewhat of a stupor. This was her chance, was it not? She could take this opportunity, be rid of her father, and plant Garrus's fur there - having him be blamed for the murder. It'd be a cinch, and then she could continue with her revolution, and leave behind this idiotic chapter of her life. It'd be simple. She lost her chance to really manipulate Amanhã at all; if that's even what she was trying to do. Let alone Gridiron, who she hadn't wanted to in the first place. If she had done so from the beginning, and not tried to delude herself with stupid, childish fantasies, then maybe it'd have gone better.

There's no room for personal emotional chains. No room for friendship. There was only the Revolution. There was only saving the People. Nothing else mattered, isn't that right? Chances are, Gridiron wouldn't interfere with her at all, and it'd all go more or less smoothly. Manipulate both of her forces, possibly gain more help via any strong guild out there, so on and so forth. Take out Moga, gain Minayne's relative as an ally, and whoever they might also be affiliated with. It was more or less a clear road from here, most of her pawns being in place for the time being. So with a bit of a sardonic smile to herself, she began walking back to Furoe - back to her home. Because Gridiron was right. Trying to help them out had nothing to do with her; it was all irrelevant. A sidequest with no reward. Why would she possibly stay around, just for some fleeting attempt of companionship? There was no reason for that at all.

....Sure, guaranteed safe passage into Gwan would certainly be a boon; she predicted a mass panic would occur if her father died, after all. In said panic, it wouldn't be difficult for Moga to capture her, if he so needed. She could only rely on Cha'Valkar to retrieve her in time, and take her back. And that Moga wouldn't influence him at all in the time between now, and their reunion.

A few minutes later, the noble happened across, strangely enough, a horse merchant. Why he wasn't at a stable, she had no idea. Nee figured a horse would help speed the process along, of course. She checked her cash - she had enough for just one. So of course, she bought it - a rather stunning stallion. As a noble, she'd obviously learned how to ride a horse. It was something most nobles learned. Her mind flashed back to Gridiron - could they really save her lover? Amanhã wasn't even remotely fast, was she?

All of a sudden, Nee felt incredibly lonely. It was crushing and visceral all at once, and she didn't quite know how to deal with it. She never cared about companionship before, so she didn't quite know how to deal with this new development. But... a revolutionary that was bogged down with personal gripes couldn't be particularly effective, could she? Was it so bad to want a friend in life, so she wouldn't die completely isolated when the time came?

The blade flashed and appeared at the merchant's throat. Nee regarded him coldly for a few seconds - this was no time to try and use diplomacy to get the horses, after all.

"I need four more. If you value your life, you'll give me the reigns."

It wasn't long until Nee caught up to the troupe, with the other four equestrians behind her. She made something of an awkward look towards Gridiron before dismounting her horse with a childlike grace, and looking her bashfully, feeling somewhat as if this wasn't congruent with her personal perception of herself at all. Whatever happened to ruthlessness, and 'at any cost'? Almost feeling as if she was betraying herself, Nee lowered her eyes into a more humble expression.

"...This should help y-us.. us catch up, should it not? At least until the tunnels."




Rune was entertained. Things were starting to look up -and it appeared that this gild at least had the mental capacity to realize that the opposing guild was guaranteed not to fight fairly. Depending on how this Lo-Muna went about it, it could lead to a particularly fun fight. She'd never really trained against anyone but her father before, after all, and this'd be an interesting experiment. It wouldn't change much about her outlook on life, but hey. It was fun. Fighting was fun. It was a thrill. Rune gave the former bandit a thumbs up for more or less bringing it to light that they'd have to cheat in order to win.

She looked at her group - Lo-Muna and Yamato, the tengu, and felt more or less at ease. They looked as if they could handle themselves just fine, perfectly fine. And fighting alongside worthy allies seemed just as fun, if not funner, than fighting on your own.

"No issues on my end." Rune drawled, looking rather enthused. "Win at any cost, right?"

Setting

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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"This doesn't seem too well thought out...but it's better than the alternative of dying in a cavern for an insane challenge," Suiken sighed before following Terra towards the Hunter's guild. "Alright, we are competing. It's time for you to put forth your competitors."

Among the rival guild's number the strong Tawa, was the first to approach. Jakkar raised an irritated eyebrow. "What the hell? ain't ya gonna be in the fighting competition?" he asked his lunkheaded cousin.

"What and risk bruising this beautiful figure?" Tawa obnoxiously asked, flexing a muscle. "No way!"

"...Alright," Jakkar snorted in derision, walking away.

"Woo, yeah!" Shiisan shouted. "The competition! It's, uh, it's pretty great!" he shrugged. He glanced over at Rumelis and shrugged. "Hey, dude, it's cheat or die. Ya wanna live or what?" he muttered quietly, before continuing with his mock cheering.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare
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Ann simply shrugged again, acknowledging their roles. As long as they found a way out, it didn't matter. Even then, she wasn't too averse to the idea of staying behind for a year, either. It wasn't like she particularly had anything to live for or had anything important to do outside of this place. When it came down to it, just being alive was all that mattered.

"Fine by me."



It was over quickly, this she knew, but Millie felt like she'd spent minutes up in the air. Those...things had come out of nowhere and thankfully enough, Hyuna was able to fend them off, if with a bit of trouble. She felt a pair of hands grabbing her, taking her safely back down to the ground. She was a little shaken, but at least there wasn't any harm done.

"N-No, It's...sort of my fault too,." she shook her head. "If I weren't around, you wouldn't have had to put yourself in danger for me." She paused, looking up at the girl with a curious expression. She seemed to be troubled, but by what she couldn't quite understand. "Hyuna...? What is it? Is something wrong? If you're feeling sick, we can get rest a little before we start moving."

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki
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"Shiisan," Sunaarashi said. "I really don't think it's that simple. Especially since you ticked off that demon thing." He sighed. "Do you really think that little of our chances in winning? There's only four competitions. And if we lose, we can always try to find the map later. But playing through this competition will get us a good idea on what we're up against, both in the Hunter's Guild and the crazy stuff around here."

He shivered. "Speaking of which, have any of you just felt really strange since getting here? Especially when that demon thing showed up?" He rubbed his arms.

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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Despite the doubts raised, in the end, it seemed Shiisan's plan would be going along. There was really nothing Terra could do but sigh and hope that they weren't detected.

Seating herself completely inside the crumbling minecart, she carefully made room for Suiken. "L-let's do our best, alright?" she asked, with the most confident smile she could manage. Although...why did it look like the members of the Hunter's Guild were giving each other sly grins?

Don't be afraid to cheat. Can't trust them to not try to take you out at first chance. Even if they say they won't, I bet they will.

Suddenly, Rune's warning didn't seem so far off...

----------------------------

Well, that was a rather short performance the Umbrals had put up against Hyuna. But nonetheless, it told Phecda quite a bit.

"I should be able to piece a winning formula together with this," he muttered, recalling that she had struggled to kill any of them without her Chi, even with that little girl weighing her down. In addition, it seemed Spectre's influence had tried to actually possess her body...interesting. Perhaps it could turn her into a pawn for him, even? "As for your Chi attacks...hm, that might be a bit harder to deal with. But if I have this..."

At this moment, he was holding a vial with a strange liquid in it--though it was similar to the one he had given his friend before the ball, the substance had a different color. "...you won't be able to win against your senior, Hyuna Ka-Nan."

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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Suiken nodded and climbed in the mining cart, after Terra. "We'll give 'em our best and then some!" Suiken grinned, nodding at Terra and ready to begin the race. Tawa climbed into the cart, realizing there was barely enough room for him and Daken.

"Maybe I wasn't the wisest choice..." Tawa shrugged, attempting to make some room for the fox-man.

"Alright..." Jakkar began. "We'll start on the count of three, then? Then your teams will push off and start the race..." The Hunter's guild members began to gather in excitement ot watch the start of the first challenge, cheering on their guild-mates, while Shiisan looked back at Ann, Rumelis, and Sunaarashi. "Alright," he whispered. "The morons are getting pumped up! Just wait for it...."

An in a split second, both the heavier members of the respective guilds, Suiken and Tawa pushed off their mining carts. The carts launched off a bit slowly, steadily moving along the tracks laid out for them by the previous occupants of the temple. Speed began to pick up as the carts rounded a corner. As they did so, the two guilds took to a hallway to the right, which led them to a pathway where the could oversee the race. The Hunter's guild seemed to be studying it intently, silently muttering among themselves as they followed the cart race at their own pace.

The two guilds in their carts continued to gain momentum until they reached their first big drop. A lengthy hill where the mining tracks seemed to drop downward in a giant 'U" shape. Suiken turned to Terra. "Alright, I'm going to lean forward a bit. My weight should be enough for us to overcome that hill with ease. Failing that you should use your earth chi to push us back up. That way we can-"

"EARTH chi?!" Tawa screamed at the top of his lungs form the opposite tracks, despite the two guild's minimal distance from each other at this point. "I got your earth right here!" Tawa chuckled obscenely as he pointed at several stone statues decorating the walls of the temple beside the tracks. And as for the chi..." he grinned as he activated his augmentation chi and began to shake viciously as his muscle mass increased. He took one of the statues, ripping it form it's metallic hinges with one hand before doing the same with another. "Which of us do you think is gonna win...?! I'd say...it's a toss up!" Tawa grinned, tossing up the two statues towards the Great guild cart, one of them heading towards the cart. The other landed directly on the tracks in front of them, smashing it to splinters.

"Alright....we have a massive statue headed at our left and a railing malfunction right in front of us.," Suiken uttered quickly, but calmly. "Which one do you want to handle?"

***

"Hell yeah!" Jakkar cackled. "That's the way to show 'em, cuz!" he grinned, cheering on his teammates.

"Yeah, uh! hey guys!" Shiisan called. "Don't..die or whatever," Shiisan shrugged halfheartedly, before nodding silently at Ann, Rumelis, and Sunaarashi. He looked on to the path below them, one that the presently occupied hunter's guild was too caught up in the race to notice. With that, he led them off.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Nee Me-Hyung Character Portrait: Amanhã Tiamat
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#, as written by Rann
The wolf-beastman sat back, alongside the rabbit and the tengu with something between interest and intrigue. Why did they need a map so badly? Did the guild somehow forgot to get talismans, despite being in this desert? They really should have known, right? It was borderline stupid, not getting talismans. How could they be unaware of the curse? She shook her head, watching as the mine carts went off - and Rune felt some mild affiliation with the one housing the bl- housing Suiken and Terra. They were her new guild after all, and Rune wanted to experience something like non-familial friendship pretty badly. And it's not as if this guild seemed to be bad people or whatnot - moreover, a lot of them seem kind. Though, the keyword is 'seem', and the fatalistic Rune wasn't going to overlook that.

In any case, she's here now, she's been brought back to life - what else could it be but fate? Any further effort wasn't really necessary, then. Although, when Lo-Muna did her cheer, Rune shrugged and kept looking - the witch seemed to have dealt with the interference rather spectacularly, with her earth chi. So she was also competent, right? You'd have to b, to be in a guild.

"Good job!" Rune cheered from where she sat, amicably, her tail whapping the seat. "I knew you could do it, Witch!"

Before she could get any rebuttal, she turned to the guild leader, Lo-Muna, with a slight shrug.

"It's a nickname, that's all. Those eyes, right?"




"N-No, It's...sort of my fault too," Millie's voice broke through the roar of the dark energy that was currently wresting for control of Hyuna's crumpled body. She could hardly hear it - yet heard it with absolute clarity at the same time. Her whole body was screaming and aching as she did her best not to give in, not to succumb to the dark one - fuck no, she was stronger than this. She had to be. Otherwise she wasn't worth living at all. Millie's voice shattered another vestige of the shadows, and Hyuna clung to it, as if it were a lifeline. "If I weren't around, you wouldn't have had to put yourself in danger for me. Hyuna...? What is it? Is something wrong? If you're feeling sick, we can get rest a little before we start moving."

That ray of figurative light was what Hyuna needed, and forced the dark one back to it's corner in her mind, and sighed in relief as the echoing roar in her ears dissipated, and she was back to normal, for the time being. Though, how long this would last was questionable. She shot some questions into her mind, and in receiving no answer, it seemed that the dark one was exhausted by the latest attempt, as well. Or perhaps... was it gone, completely? Time to experiment.

"It's fine." Hyuna said sharply, touching the claw marks on her arm and back, trying to gauge the severity of the damage. It wasn't as bad as when she had her chest clawed out, or when she got arrowed in the wrist - damnit, it still didn't feel right yet, how long would it take? - and decided that whatever injury she had was probably not serious. If it was serious, she'd have collapsed onto the grassy floor, crippled and dying. Anything less, and she was fine for pushing on, just a bit more. Just a bit more.

"You're safe, Millie." Hyuna said in a slightly strained voice, bundling the girl up into her spear arm, after hooking it to her cloak in back. "That's what matters..." She took the time to pat her head just a bit before using a burst of wind to shoot them up - and Hyuna made sure to see the dark wispy lines appearing with the wind, and scowled as she realized the dark one was still inside her - and set off towards the river where she'd last seen the guild.

"I hope Ann'll be surprised to see us again." Hyuna forced a bit of a laugh. "Yeah. That strange woman. Maybe she'll show an expression more than the one she always wore, huh?"




"With respect?" Valkar looked confused. "Wait, but-"

Riev let out a tired sigh. He'd woken up a while ago, but neither Lunan nor Valkar were willing to reveal that they'd seen Hyuna, not even to each other. Valkar, because he still wanted to capture her, and Lunan, because he didn't want his father to know how far she'd fallen. His daughter, nothing more than a thug now, a killer. A murderer. It had warped her to her very core.

Not that that's what mattered now. They were busy discussing on how to treat a woman they wanted to befriend. Lunan was more or less staying out of it; at times putting his palm to his face and shaking his head in the true expression of disappointment.

"Before she died." Riev said. "My wife really did enjoy it when I treated her kindly after being cruel to her." He smiled wistfully at his lost lover, briefly sinking into the fond memories. "The smile she gave... yeah. That's respect."

"...So be kind, after being cruel?"

"Yup. That's one of the ways I did it."

Valkar scratched his head, not really getting it. Moreover, could he? He always did hate the female sex, and how they were. Their whining, their complaining, all of it. The illogic they had at times, and not to mention during the moonflow week, when their negative aspects got even worse. How could anyone really try to understand them?

"It-"

A bird swooped in through the window, carrying a letter. Valkar quickly tore the letter off and read it, with Riev muttering, "ah, that Moga..." and Lunan looking in some curiosity.

That sounds like a plan. I'm glad to know it wasn't you, who set up the blockade. You don't have to use force to get me again. And don't think you have to use force, or the power of your empire for anything. Life doesn't necessarily work that way.

I am looking forward to being at your side again, so please treat me kindly!

Nee.

PS: Please learn how to write. It was hard enough to read your previous letter.


Valkar looked blankly at his two companions.

"Are my writing skills really that bad?"




Nee looked uncomfortable, but not unhappy, as she saw Gridiron and the others begin to mount their steeds. Even Amanhã more or less pulled her heavy form onto the horse Nee'd specifically chosen for her - not as if any other but the majestic Ashuran Thoroughbred would work, after all. She tossed the vigilante leader a bit of a grateful smile, before hooking her foot into the stirrup and propping herself up onto her own white stallion, petting it's neck once she was on.

She felt a little sorry for what she did to the merchant. But it didn't really matter, overall, did it? The ends justified the means. Otherwise she wouldn't be trying to embroil Yune into a massive internal war, right? Still, with the Yin family fracturing, Elan and probably Ukyo dead as well, she knew that her family now had dominance in all of northern Yune. IF she played her cards right, she could essentially enslave the other families economically - easily snuffing out most of the other northern families with no real effort. It was the perfect threat. Of course she had their loyalty, no noble wanted to lose their fortune. Though, in supporting Nee's ideal, they would end up losing their fortune in the end, anyways, would they not?

If any noble pieced that together, she'd have trouble keeping them reigned in.

As the five equines made their way north east, Nee more or less slumped down in her saddle. Why had she gone back for Gridiron? Why was she helping? She still, she couldn't think of any potential gain for all of this. None whatsoever. It wouldn't help her revolution - Gridiron wouldn't join her cause simply because of this, after all - and their friendship had already been snuffed out like a small ember being crushed underfoot. That's really all there was to it, at all. She had nothing from this venture - heck, she'd even almost directly killed someone. Nee shuddered as she realized that she really would have slit his throat if she'd had to. And this, somehow, was affecting her, while more or less baiting an entire blockade to their deaths was nothing to her.




The expression on Sainko's face made it clear, as she read the envelope. Teri sighed- yup for sure, she was stuck with more Ruinguard business. Why, she wondered, why her? She wasn't really showing off her real strength when any of them were watching, so how could - well, perhaps. Perhaps they somehow knew she never gave her all, ever. Perhaps they could calculate her actual strength, and perhaps they deemed it was strong enough to make use out of.

So tiresome. So irritating.

"Indeed," The illusionist said. "It would seem you are not so easily rid of me."

Teri grasped at the letter and gave it a cursory glance. At least, only for a few seconds. Because when her eyes glazed over the words scrawled upon it, she let out a slight gasp and made herself reread it. And then again. She still looked as if she was in disbelief as she handed it back to Sainko. That was their mission? Really?

What the fuck.

"Great." Teri murmured. "Let's get going, then."

The half-tengu once again took the form of the illusionist into her arms, and they made their flight eastwards, all the while wondering, exactly, how she could've landed herself in something deep like this. But... perhaps it was just fate. But she had the faint feeling she wouldn't be back in Tengala for quite a while. She sighed, preparing herself for the long haul.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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"Great job, Terra!" Suiken laughed as Tawa angrily commented on how they were beginning to lag behind as he used his strength to swat the rebounding stature at the ground far below. Suiken leaned forward to the right, near the wall. The distance between the two tracks was widening now and between them was a long fall to the ground below. "Not a shortcut we'd want to be taking anytime soon..." Suiken muttered, glancing below. He continued to lean to the right allowing them to quickly make a sharp turn which looped around the temple's stony walls.

It was at this point, a black inky talon ripped through the rocky surface of the walls, attempting to take a swipe at Suiken and Terra. And it wasn't alone as it was soon joined by a good dozen counterparts. A quick glance over would tell the Great guild racer's that the hunter's guild was having the same problem.

"Duck!" Suiken shouted, pulling down Terra slightly as a several claws reached out for them.

"Uh, actually, dude, I think it's a crane!" Tawa corrected, inciting a an exasperated sigh from Suiken and probably Daken as well. Tawa had begun punching some of the talons on the wall, causing them to dissipate into shadow. Then he used his chi ability, and increased his muscle mass yet again. This time he leaned over towards the railing behind them and punched it with his fist, severing it form the railing ahead if them.

Using all of his might Tawa ripped the railing behind them, off of it's hinges, before using it as a bat to smash the shadowy wall talons on their side. He then gave the two great guild members a twisted grin and began to swing the railing at them. Around the same time, the shadow talons had multiplied on the guild's side, this time having sprouted a pair of bloody yellow eyes in the center of their palm and spouting gibberish that seemed to give the guild members a headache the longer they listened to it.

"Think you can take care of those?!" Suiken asked Terra rapidly, referring to the claws as he stood up slightly and tested his augmentation chi against the railing bat, holding up an arm. The railing bat was swung harshly by Tawa and his the arm Suiken held up, causing a dent in the railing.

On the wall next to the guild's cart, the bloody eyed claws, seemed to be slowly pulling themselves out of the walls, revealing more complete, sinister forms. The eyed claws were in fact, their heads. Their bodies seemed similar to human sized black cranes, and their feet resembled a crane's head, as if they were using it as a pair of slippers.

"Oh, shit..." Suiken commented as he saw the creatures emerge from the corner of his eyes.

From the hallway of the spectators, the Hunter's guild was continuing to cheer. "Not that I'm all to fond 'a that Crane demon, but I hope he knocks those two Great Guilders into the chasm!" he laughed cruelly like a tool.

***

Meanwhile, Shiisan, Ann, Rumelis, and Sunaarashi found their way into another room, below their comrades. Looking around, Shiisan saw an unlit torch lying in a holster on the wall. Shiisan then picked up two stones on the ground to spark a fire, which he then passed onto the torch. "Alright, so let's see what we've got down here...Buncha cobwebs...broken sword. Oh hey, a skeleton," Shiisan commented as he drew closer and saw it wasn't simply one skeleton, but a whole hoard of them.

"Way I figure it, these are probably a bunch of invaders from years ago, that tried to raid the place but failed," Shiisan guessed. "Ah well. They're loss. Free weapons for us!" Shiisan grinned, pointing to the large horde. "You got your swords, your bows and arrows, your axes, take whatever ya want, they might be antiques by now! Could fetch a good price, and hey! They might still have some use if ya want an extra weapon."

Taking a broadsword for himself, Shiisan glanced over at the skeletons warily. "Alright, I've heard of stuff like this. This is probably gonna be the part where they revive from the dead!" he assumed, suddenly bracing himself in a battle stance. Then...nothing peculiar at all had occurred with the skeletons, aside from one of their heads rolling off their collarbone and hitting the floor.

"Oh, uh, guess not, then," Shiisan shrugged as the he and the others marched on. They soon came across a wide bridge, comprised of small jade square shaped tiles. They only made it a third of the way across when the bridge began to shake. A light emerged from the cracks, that connected the small square tiles....before they began to separate, but still remained afloat in the air.

Shiisan nearly fell off as he slipped off his tile, if he hadn't grabbed onto it with his arms at the last second. "Okay...okay, Guild. It doesn't seem that far down. If we jump, maybe we can survive...." Shiisan paused ad a giant beak with rows of rotating sharp teeth seemed to open on the ground below, waiting for them to fall. Glancing at this for a split second Shiisan tuned towards the others. "Okay, change of plans. We probably won't survive if we jump down there. But...new plan!" Shiisan grunted, pulling himself up a bit, so his elbow rested on his tile. "We gotta hop these tiles to the other side." With that said, he leaped from his current tile, to a tile slowly drifting away from him, wrapping around it with his arms...." Should...be fun, right?" he panted with a chuckle.

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Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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"Great job, Terra!" For reasons Terra couldn't really understand, the exhilarated laugh from the Oni behind her caused pride to bubble up in her chest. Why she was experiencing such a feeling now and it had practically been muted out for the past few days, she wasn't sure.

"Good job! I knew you could do it, Witch!" Immediately, Terra groaned and put a hand to her face. That...wasn't so welcome. Just how many times was she going to have to tell Rune not to refer to her with that word?

Of course, then things started going downhill. A pitch black, spectral claw suddenly lashed through the air in front of them. The startled Terra let out a scream and recoiled, just as Suiken pulled her down a moment later. When the initial panic faded, Terra poked her head just above the edge of the cart to see that there were a dozen or so talons sweeping at her and Suiken. "Think you can take care of those?!" the Snow Oni shouted over the air whipping furiously past them.

Terra was about to nod and reply affirmatively, but when she turned her head, she suddenly saw one of the members of the Hunter's Guild swinging one of the rails itself at them! Though Suiken somehow managed to block it with his arm, the impact slammed Terra roughly against the inside of the cart. "...ugh, they're really out of control!" she groaned as she rubbed her head while placing one foot on the edge of the cart.

At that moment, the talons, which had been missing the two quite frequently up till now, suddenly flew from the wall, revealing themselves to be ghostly cranes with blood red eyes...well, each one vaguely resembled a crane, but they were absolute monsters in truth. They reminded Terra too much of the horrors that she had been chased by all this time...

"I-I can take care of them! Don't worry!" she declared, though it didn't quite sound as confident as it could. Drawing her swords once again, she threw them at one crane, using her Chi to accelerate them...but the gambit didn't work as well on these enemies, it seemed, for the demon crane easily flew out of the way and swooped down. Terra was about to throw herself downwards, but realized it was not a good idea to do so while standing on the edge of a minecart, and opted to duck instead...the claws grazed her shoulder as she did so, however.

A second crane flew towards her, and Terra immediately willed her swords to return, bashing into the crane's back. Unrelenting, the girl pointed up at the stalactites and brought them down forcefully upon the cranes who were flying over the void. At first, they dodged easily...but while they were avoiding the storm of stones, they suddenly were aware of a pale blue light shining from the diamond clutched in Terra's right hand.

The witch of the crystals opened her left eye, which shone a pale blue. "I've got you now!" she roared, thrusting a hand into the air as the diamond shattered above her head. The next moment, what appeared to be diamond dust surged about her and flew towards the cranes...but, well, let it be remembered that diamond dust is a metaphor for snow.

Before long, the fragments of ice which landed upon the spectral feathers of the cranes suddenly solidified, causing them to screech as they found themselves unable to continue flying. They tried in vain to reach the witch, but they could get nowhere near her coldly shining left eye before they were frozen completely. It was a miracle that the girl had not completely frozen everything around her, although Suiken would notice the brake handle had a few ice crystals appearing upon it.

Finally, as the vortex of diamond dust ended, the young witch's eye reverted to its original weak, pale green color. With a groan, she fell backwards against Suiken, while the demon birds let out cries of fury as they tumbled helplessly into the void. "...w-well, I took care of them," Terra panted, clutching the side of the minecart and pulling herself upright. "H-hope they don't come back..."

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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"Great!" Suiken nodded as he saw the bird creatures perish in a blast of ice. "Now we just have him to deal with..." the ice oni muttered, glancing at Tawa who continued to swing the railing at them, which Suiken continued to block. Suddenly Suiken turned his head and chuckled to himself. "Lights out," he said simply to Tawa who was still concentrating on knocking the Great Guild members out of their cart.

Tawa raised an eyebrow. "Lights out? What you gonna knock me out from here? Not unless you have s-argh!" Tawa frowned as a hevy looking fixture hanging from the ceiling smashed against his face. It didn't hurt him in his increased muscly state, but it annoyed and distracted him enough for the Great Guild members to get another lead.

"That's it....that's it! No more games! I'm going full strength!" Tawa frowned, using his chi to increase his muscle mass to it's limit, rapidly becoming more monster than man, Tawa grinned as his teeth became something akin to a tusks and his pupils began to become small and bloodshot red. He grew first over nine feet tall, and his skin became as rough as an elephants. "Now, to see how you handle some real competition! Once I...uh...uh-oh," Tawa frowned as their cart completely stopped, given the fact that Tawa was so huge he, Daken, and the cart basically become stuck, wedged between the ceiling and the railing below.

Everyone stared at the moron as he struggled to free himself as Suiken and Terra passed by with ease and after one long drop, made where the rails stopped, with devices on the side of the railing, causing their cart to brake and eventually stop. Suiken gave a thumbs up to Terra. "Looks like we've won!" he said as the other spectating guild members emerged from a pathway shortly.

"Damn it, Tawa!" Jakkar muttered glumly. "I knew I shoulda interfered..." the half-beastman continued, somewhat loudly, perhaps not realizing if the other guild heard....or most likely not giving a shit.

Tawa merely held his head down in shame as he practically deflated and reversed his augmentation until he reached his normal form. Jakkar spewed a series of curses under his breath before looking at the guild. "Your hides are toast this next round! In the fightin' challenge! Choose your warriors!" Jakkar then turned to Sha and asked, "Alright, boss. you wanna take this one or should I?"

***

Shiisan through several hopping attempts, eventually made it across. "Whew! Fun..." he panted, as Rumelis eventually made it across. "Can't just stand here to rest for too long, though," Shiisan shrugged, jumping to hi feet and dusting himself off. He then sniffed the air as if smelling something odd, but soon shrugged his shoulders and continued to lead on. He had lost his original torch when the tiles started to separate, but luckily there wasn't any shortage of torches on the wall or stones upon the ground to start a fire with.

They descended down a flight of stairs next. Nothing notable about it other, than the fact that it never seemed to end. Nevertheless, they moved quickly and had eventually managed to reach the bottom. Another room was up ahead, and even before they entered it, they could heat a noise akin to that of frogs.

Moving inside they soon found an underground lake. A remnant of the caverns the temple was built over and around. Giant lily pads seemed to dot the somewhat murky water. "Bah," Shiisan frowned. "Hate water. Unless it's in a drinking capacity, but still...this can't be safe...." Shiisan then grabbed a stone from the ground and skipped it across the water. Around the first few skips of the stone, nothing happen, but as it went further in the water and the clip-clop sound of it skipping continued to echo, it soon attracted two ominous shapes moving closer to it, further and further until they leaped out of the water.

Two seven foot tall reptilian creatures, with turtle like-shells and beaks akin to that of a ducks. Atop their heads was what appeared to be a seaweed and if they were able to take a glance at the top of their heads thee guild members would notice that it was in the shape of a bowl, filled with water.

"Damn...kappas," Shiisan muttered, beginning to whisper. "These don't look like the friendlier kind either. Good news is, I think they're blind what with living in a cave and all. But you all know the deal with that, right? Other senses are enhanced tenfold or whatever." Shiisan then glanced around. "Way I see it, swimming'll be dangerous. We should probably just use the lily pads as makeshift boats. Row slowly and quietly. Just, uh, make sure not to accidentally touch a kappa," Shiisan advised as he made hsi way towards one of the giant lily pads.

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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As the minecart rolled to a stop, Terra tried to exit the cart, but suddenly, her injuries jolted again, and she slammed face-first into the ground painfully. Nevertheless, the breathless girl saw Muna and the others approaching, as the other minecart came rolling down with the infuriated members of the Hunter's Guild.

"...we...won...?" Terra rasped, as the Hunter's Guild members continued to complain about their defeat. As the members of Fortune surrounded Terra and Suiken, she found herself too tired to say anything, but still gave them all a smile and a (horribly shaking) thumbs-up. Finally, it felt as though she had done something right.

"Your hides are toast this next round! In the fightin' challenge! Choose your warriors!" The beast-man/man creature from before bellowed out furiously, without any sort of congratulations or whatnot. The sore losers. Unfortunately, Terra still had not been properly healed, so she shook her head when any of the others' eyes passed over her...

At that moment, her stomach let out an extremely loud growl, much to Terra's embarrassment.

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Elated, Muna hugged Terra gently and gave Suiken's belly a couple pats. She was relieved at their first win but on guard with the fighting challenge. Muna was not a fighter and had run out of tricks at the moment. The river they had arrived in had soaked her supplies and thus her explosives were useless. There was still her rapier but it was not meant for a head on battle such as this. The sound of Terra's stomach growling interrupted her thoughts.

"Here," Lo-muna said as she offered one of the fruits she and Yamato had collected earlier. "You should make sure to take care of your body's needs Terra."

"And the body itself," Tsukumo barged in as she approached the guild. "Leader says I have to heal the kid."

Muna raised an eyebrow, "Why?"

"Wants her in top shape for the competition," Tsukumo shrugged.

"Clearly she won't be in the fighting portion, huh?" Sha cut in with a large grin.

"No, but I will," Lo-muna answered as she stood to her full height, silently challenging Sha. The Hunters' Guild leader chortled and nodded.

"Then so will I," Sha replied. "Jakkar! Looks like we'll both be handling this!"

"Rune," Muna said as she turned back to the new guild member. "Would you like to accompany me in this challenge?"

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
The guild's victory. Rune felt a strange surge of pride - yes, this was definitely worth it. And she new her father was watching, most likely approving of the company she chose to interact with. Right? He had to be close by, somewhere, because otherwise she wouldn't feel his necromancer chi running through her body. The wolf beastman shot both the oni and the witch encouraging grins, shouting out to them.

"Good work! Suiken, Witch, you guys did great!"

When the healer of the enemy guild came, apparently to do healing, Rune looked wary. Untrusting. Why would someone willingly help the enemy in a high stakes game such as this? It was very suspicious, wasn't it? It was idiotic, but still, Rune stayed silent. Lo-Muna was offering enough of a challenge to them, and hopefully the Hunter's Guild knew now to fuck with it. Because otherwise, Rune might have to call on her father to wreck shit. And hell is he strong, or what? He brought her back after all?

Still, fate decided that Rune would more or less have to fight - and yes, she was really excited to show off what she could do, if she could do anything - so she regarded the rabbit beast-man with something of an eager grin.

"Rune," The rabbit said "Would you like to accompany me in this challenge?"

Rune nodded, flashing her fangs.

"Of course I would! It'll be fun!"

Of course, all anyone knew was that she was an archer with a sword for emergencies. No one really knew about her Dark Orb, nestled deep in her quiver. Her necromancy. Wouldn't that be a surprise, when it was revealed? Reaching into her pack to munch haphazardly on some Malaise - a specially broiled kind of Sudean Pheasant - Rune glanced over to her opponents nastily.

"Shouldn't take long, should it, Lo-Muna?"

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Despite how gently the rabbit woman tried to hug her, Terra still felt her injuries jolt and shrieked. "H-hey! I-it still hurts, M-Muna!" Regardless, she still said all this with a smile. Muna, though, seemed troubled...

But her expression faded as Terra's stomach growled, and she pulled out a fruit that Terra had never seen before. "You should make sure to take care of your body's needs, Terra," she told the girl, who quickly accepted the fruit without a second thought.

"And the body itself," a black-haired woman in a dark red and black kimono from the Hunter's Guild suddenly interrupted, having walked right up behind the two. "Leader says I have to heal the kid. Wants her in top shape for the competition."

As Terra moved out of Muna's grip, she stumbled slightly. "Y-you really should have handled it before I went in, you know..." she grumbled. Wasn't that just common courtesy to begin with?

"Good work! Suiken, Witch, you guys did great!" The moment she heard Rune's voice again, Terra turned around, opening her mouth to respond somewhat harshly...but strangely, the beast-girl that had just joined had a genuine look of pride for their victory.

That expression was enough to throw Terra off-balance, so she just nodded slowly. "U-um, yes, t-thank you," she replied awkwardly. Ugh, it looks like I went back to being a social retard again...

But in a few moments, it turned out the people participating in the next challenge would be...Rune and Muna?! Terra couldn't believe her ears. Why was Muna going up so soon?! And when she looked at Rune, and then at the members of the Hunter's Guild that were participating...well, it seemed sadly obvious who had the advantage. "...p-please be safe," she whispered to the overexcited Rune, doing her best to ignore the ridiculously sweet scent of whatever it was that the beast-girl was eating.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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"Thank you!" Suiken nodded to Rune. "And good luck to you on your challenge as well!"

Jakkar chuckled silently to himself as he set his massive backpack upon the floor. "Here are the rules," Jakkar grinned. "Fight 'till both of your opponents are knocked out." Jakkar then smiled a toothy grin. "Or dead..." Jakkar seemed to contemplate for a bit. "Well...that's all I can think of really. Any rules to add, Sha?"

"I have a couple..." the voice of the Crane Demon spoke, echoing across the room. Suddenly both guilds were enveloped in a large dome of air. "As soon as you start the battle...you'll have ten minutes as the air slowly runs out of the dome, eventually suffocating you. If either team wins, I'll collapse the air dome, allowing you all to live. After all there are much more...entertaining way to kill you. Ahahaha..."

"Hmm," Jakkar grinned. "Ten minutes eh? Now that's a challenge! Best to get started now, then, eh?"

***

Shiisan sat upon his lily pad, finding it could safely hold his weight. Nodding, he quietly drew a shoot of bamboo sticking out of the water, using it as a makeshift oar. "Remember, guys...keep it quiet, unless we wanna alert those blind kappas."

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
As if following her example, the rabbit-woman turned to the opponents, smiling, and more or less agreed with Rune's statement. This fight was going to be a cinch. Rune herself was pretty quick, and she could assume that Lo-Muna had some sort of augmentation to make her faster. Fair assumption, right? And when the two would-be-victims tried to safe face, the wolf felt some sort of satisfaction inside her. This was going to be fun. But possibly more than that, heck, why not help out the guild. They seem small as of now, but they wouldn't stay like that. Already they seemed pretty individually capable - they had the makings of a young guild, essentially. And since she more or less joined, the Wolf wanted to throw in her lot to make it stronger.

Rune finished wolfing down - get it, wolfing down? - the succulent sweet, yet tough and salty meat of the Malaise, not even sparing her enemies the courtesy of a glance. Eating this was more important right now. Once she swallowed it, then took a swig of water to wash it all down, the Jiangshi wondered briefly if the guild would ever head into Sudea sometime soon. She wanted more of that Malaise - and eating the food in it's native country was always preferable to eating imitations of it. It felt richer, fuller, better, if it was all fully Sudean products. Just can't get that sauce right without boiling down the right ingredients, and whatever the Yunish equivalents were, they didn't quite match up.

"...p-please be safe." Was whispered towards her, and Rune looked at Terra. She made a dog-like grin at the strangely-eyed girl, and tilted her head back to Sha and Jakkar.

"Not even a challenge." Rune snarked. "It's almost as if fate wanted this guild to win."

She was done eating. She returned Suiken's encouragement with a "We don't need luck, we've already won" when just in time, a crane demon was there. Rune was still hungry, and she could do some neat shit with crane meat. Crane demons worked the same way, right? Rune licked her lips in anticipation, more or less ignoring Jakkar's toothy grin. However, sine death was allowed... Rune wouldn't have to hold back, would she? Killing moves would be allowed. She closed her eyes to focus - and then felt both Jakkar and Sha's souls from her own position.

Now she could aim arrows and be sure that they'd not miss, unless she massively messed up. That was when air more or less encircled the fighters - ten minutes was more than enough time to kill them.

"Hmm, ten minutes eh? Now that's a challenge! Best to get started now, then, eh?"

"My words exactly." Rune sneered, and quickly focused on the dark orb hiding in her quiver, drawing soul energy to create barriers in front of both her and Lo-Muna. A few moments later, and Rune rushed forward, aiming a few quick slashes at Jakkar, before propelling herself backwards and out of melee range. From there, she drew her bow - imbuing it with necrochi - and with her eyes closed, took aim at where she sensed their souls.

Then she fired flurries of shots, aiming for the joints of their limbs, knowing that if even one arrow hit, it'd severely inhibit any possible chi that they'd use. The arrows flew their path, glowing with a dark, purple aura as the barbs screeched their way to their targets.

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Sha had been looking to her members when the crane demon had arrived. The challenge had been made more interesting and the smile on her face had grown practically from ear to ear. There was a rather insane look in her eyes, just for a moment, before she had made one last nod to her guild. Daken had nodded back as did the others except Tsukumo. The medic was getting annoyed by the other guild.

"Look kid, by the time I realized the extent of your damage, competition had already started. What did you want me to do? Jump in the opponent's cart to heal you?" Tsukumo looked over at her guild mates. "I mean, come on right?"

Not bothering with a response, she looked back at Terra, "So you want to get healed or not? Cuz in a couple minutes, that rabbit and other kid will probably need waaaay more attention than you do right now."

That rabbit was currently gripping her rapier and waiting for an opportunity to dive in. She wasn't much of a fighter but more of an opportunist. And when the opportunities arrived, Muna was sure to seize them. As of now, Rune seemed to have it under her control. Jakkar had her slashes to deal with and both Sha and her guild mate were under fire of arrows. It looked certain they would be hit until a wall of solid earth came up over Sha and Jakkar to protect them from arrows. Muna noticed there seemed to be something shimmering in the air in front of the wall of earth as well. It reminded her of a telekichesis field.

Concentrated on the effect of Rune's attack, Muna nearly screamed when she saw a burst of fire flare up in front of her. The barrier protected her however and she was thankful of Rune as a partner. But what the rabbit failed to see was that the fire split off near the bottom and instead, snaked around to hopefully hit Lo-muna and Rune from behind.

From below, Daken watched with utmost concentration.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Nee Me-Hyung Character Portrait: Amanhã Tiamat Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
Silence for quite a while. It was to be expected, wasn't it? As Hyuna finished cleaning off the carrion blood, she waited for the child's response, feeling more insecure than she usually did. Damnit, she really wanted to kill stuff. It'd relieve all the shit inside of her like it always did; it'd fix everything. Make her stop worrying. Why didn't she? Why not just put Millie somewhere safe, out of the way, and then go and murder everything? Until her bloodlust was satiated; until her need for slaughter had died down. Everything was just too uncomfortable and scary and she didn't even know, but she didn't like it. The more she killed, the more it dulled her feelings. And the less they could affect her. It'd been like this for a long time - and she's well aware of how it makes her a monster. But she can't do anything about it, so it's better to just spend it wisely before trying to interact with anyone. Or else her overflowing emotions would dominate and she'd either kill someone she gave a shit about, or simply make a fool of herself and lose them anyways.

She could never win. Ever.

"W-why... why would you think that you're useless?" Millie said finally, and Hyuna turned her attention sharply to the girl - possibly too sharply. Was the girl intimidated by her aggression, or jut trying to find a way to word things? More shame broiled in Hyuna as she realized how stupid it was to throw such a question at a child - if Millie, someone who'd seen the attack on Poyo and presumably lost her family counted as a child - and expect any kind of actual answer. Hyuna let out a 'tch' and began her descent. Couldn't find anyone to kill while in the air, at any rate. As they gently broke through the clouds and saw the mighty city of Jiefong yet again, Millie elaborated on her answer.

"I mean, at least, you're not...to me." She mumbled, timidly. "You don't have to be so hard on yourself. N-Not that I'd know anything about that, maybe you're not being hard on yourself at all. Maybe it's something else entirely?"

Typical, right? Hyuna bit back her response to that - someone like her who was so easily swayed by the dark one couldn't possibly be hard enough on herself. Someone who pushed away everyone who mattered.

"I really don't know, all of this thinking is making my head hurt. I mean, there are...there are people that care about you, Hyuna. I care about you. Isn't that enough? Isn't it alright to just...leave it at that?"

Yeah. That was fine. Damnit. And the only one that seemed to really care was this child who was too nice for her own good. Hanging out with a mass murderer, and all.

"...Won't ask you stupid questions anymore." Hyuna muttered, spying potential victims to kill. She placed Millie safely in an alley - out of sight of any cops or guards, of course - and told her to stay put while she dealt with some business. Precisely, her urge to kill. And well enough, the human joke was right there, surrounded by guards. Hyuna felt the pressure building up around her chi hand - once she let loose, no one on these streets would make it out unscathed. The destruction of almost an entire district excited her. She was about to rush forward when some men - bandits? - more or less appeared out of nowhere, dashing at her. Avian beast-men. Hyuna redirected her compressed air chi and sent it spiraling towards them, while dodging a blade coated with something - a poison? - after conjuring of a fallen her in place of where she was.

The avians took out something - a damned collar, they were fucking slavers, the lot of them - and that gave Hyuna her chance to dive in and after a few more slashes of her spear, two avians had their throats slit open into a bleeding, pumping, pulsating mass. A few seconds later - and yes, the scream of the villagers who'd noticed, great, now Hyuna'd have to escape quickly before Painji found wind of this - the spear girl had pounced onto a rapidly fleeing crow beast-man, knocking it onto the ground with a resounding crash - shattering a well. As the crow struggled in the pool of water spreading out onto the stone tiled floor, Hyuna snarled and gripped it's throat, forcing it's head under the water. She let out a psychotic giggle as she pounded it's head once against the stone, before letting it breathe again.

"Who the hell do you work for?" The girl hissed. When the slaver didn't answer, she slammed it's head under the water once again, enjoying the desperate jerks of it's body as it tried to get away. Few minutes later, and she let it up again - the slaver gasping and choking as it tried to get air in. This time, she didn't even bother to give it time to respond; she didn't even ask the question dunked it under again - a few bubbles of air emerging on the surface of the water with a weak gurgle.

This went on for about an hour until the midnight toll rang. The slaver never really gave an answer, and Hyuna in the end just let him drown, almost chuckling at it's feeble struggles to live. Once that was done, Hyuna quickly returned to the gore piles and rummaged through their packs - ending up picking out whatever they had in food, cash, and these weird talisman things. No answer on who had sent them, though. Was it related to that scarred man from before? In any case, she returned to Millie after once again cleaning herself of the slick metallic blood, holding up a loaf of sweetened bread.

"You can have it." She said, putting the spear back in it's straps on her back. "Eat it while we fly, we'll follow the river. Unless you... want to sleep, or something, I suppose we could find an inn at some place outside of here."




As she should have expected, the hunter's guild had begun cheating. The arrows should have stopped Sha and Jakkar from being able to really use any chi - and yet earth and what seemed to be telechises suddenly erupted around them to shield them. Rune muttered an obscure Askian expletive as her eyes darted where the Hunter's Guild was spectating, before sensing what could be chi coming from a fennec beastman, most likely directing the telechises. Rune turned to glare at her partner, who was still more or less rooted to the spot.

"Lo-Muna!" She hissed. "The Fennec's cheati-"

Flames suddenly struck and burst against the two barriers. Acting entirely on instinct, Rune enveloped the barriers around the two of them just in time for both Rune and Lo-Muna to only really feel the heat, but not the actual fire itself. The next second, bolts of pure necrochi shot forth from Rune's bow, flying towards the mantle of earth to weaken the earth chi until twisting around it, like dark tendrils, and shooting at almost split-second speed at the fennec. She then raised one arm in the air - a signal to her spectating father to add some help from wherever he was. And, lo and behold, a flurry of rigid and sharp ice spikes shot from all directions towards the Fennec beastman. Mentally thanking her father for the backup, Rune charged chi through her sword, giving it an ominous appearance, and flashed it.

Rune used her chi and lashed it out - almost like a whip - coiling around the earthen wall and then catapulting herself, almost like a sling of sorts; shooting herself at inertia-boosted speed around the wall to the backsides of the jackal beastman and the fire oni; aiming her sword out and doing a complicated mix of both necrochi bolts and slashes, covering her vulnerable sides with necrochi barriers as best as she could. Hopefully this would give an opening for Lo-Muna to bound over the wall and attack from above, ending the battle quickly.




And thus, what appeared to be the first wave of guardians collapsed under the might of the sudean, the living suit of armor, the two indistinguishable gendered enigmas, and the noble girl - the latter of which didn't add too much might, only having a sword that more or less made sound-speed projectiles out of anything it touched while it was charged with chi. With the long range of her chain attached to it. Nee was panting - using chi offensively was much more tiring than simply using it as a more or less passive field of effect that she was used to. But at least it was done.

"Knowing my luck, that probably ain't even close to the last of 'em," Noxchi turned her attention to the noble, particularly hew new toy. Nee somewhat recoiled, but not by much - there was no way she was giving up something this powerful. If she had to, she'd leave them behind in the darkness of the tunnels. And as it was, she was already near the border of the light supplanted by Wu. "I don't imagine you maybe found that outside this cave, or have we truly ventured into the realm of dreaded narrative cliches?"

"Sorry." Nee murmured, not feeling particularly sorry. It was probably pointless to try and reconnect a now severed friendship. She didn't really have enough energy to try and then fail spectacularly. She had too much at stake to risk further weakening her mental state. And in failing to regain Noxchi as a potential friend, that was a sure way for her resolve to break, at least a little bit. There's no way she was going to let that happen. There were people she'd have to eventually save, after all.

"But is it so bad that I took it?" She implored. "Once we've finished rescuing Turas... and then you leave me in Furoe - you're probably excited to be rid of my company anyways..." She added that last bit bitterly, almost looking away. But still, Nee, more or less ignoring Amanhã and the two unknowns, aimed her outwardly calm gaze at Noxchi herself. Trying to possibly appeal to her. "If I follow through with my plan, I'll be at a pretty... big risk of being enslaved again. Is it really so bad to want to be able to protect myself? So something... s-something..." She shuddered again, this time looking away completely, and then ending her somewhat feeble defense with a murmur. "I can't have that happen to me again."

Setting

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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When the faintly visible dome of air suddenly closed over them, Terra's mind went back into its normal "panic mode". Just 10 minutes? It seemed even less likely that they would win. Could she just destroy the dome by using an emerald?

"Look kid, by the time I realized the extent of your damage, competition had already started. What did you want me to do? Jump in the opponent's cart to heal you? So you want to get healed or not? Cuz in a couple minutes, that rabbit and other kid will probably need waaaay more attention than you do right now." The woman in the black and dark red kimono was speaking to her again, but Terra wasn't paying attention. She was now watching Rune and Muna with apprehension...

Wait, what the-?! Barriers of faint violet light appeared in front of Rune and Muna, and the small wolf-girl lunged at the big man/beast-man from the other guild, making swift, precise attacks. Then she jumped back and fired arrows at both the opponents, glowing with a violet energy as well. In fact, the barriers, the arrows, Rune herself- they all seemed to emanate a menacing aura which, despite the two being allies, caused Terra to feel her throat tighten with dread...

Meanwhile, Muna was starting to make her own move--but before the rabbit woman came within a meter, a thick rock wall suddenly burst up between her and the Hunter's Guild, with a strange glow of its own. Then, fire blasted up in front of her, causing the temporary Guild Leader to let out a cry of surprise. While Rune's...well, it was probably Rune's, anyway...barrier protected them, the flames snaked behind the two and surged from behind. "L-look out!" Terra hollered, before she suddenly wondered where those flames had come from anyway...

"Lo-Muna!" The wolf-girl barked, her face one of fury and alarm. "The Fennec's cheati-" But she had no chance to finish before she had to protect them both from the flames. Then Rune fired dark violet tendrils at the earth wall (presumably) to destroy it, and then lashed at one of the members of the Hunter's Guild--namely the Fennec. Out of nowhere, icy spears suddenly flung themselves at the same person, as Rune raised her sword, which had been enhanced with Chi and had its appearance altered, and began furiously attacking the other team.

With Rune's attack, it became painfully clear to Terra what had created the flames--it was the Fennec. "...no. I don't want to get healed by you!" she shouted, pushing the "healer" back with a furioius expression upon her face. "P-people like you and your guild of liars...would rather kill me than save my life!" The pain from her injuries screamed through her body again, but her rage caused her to be almost completely unaware of it. As she spoke, she yanked her pouch open, sending a bright yellow gem flying into the air before the girl caught it in her hand and raised it over her head.

The topaz immediately responded, glowing bright yellow as Terra's left eye mimicked its color. Then, as the gem shattered, the witch thrust her hand forward, sending powerful lightning bolts headed straight for the Fennec. The golden light in her left eye was burning so fiercely with rage, that it was a wonder she had not called up a thunderstorm at that moment.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Shiisan Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende
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Jakkar had been hit, took a few slashes from Rune's sword, even. And although his jacket had been ripped apart by the various attacks he had been the target of, there were little to no bloodstains and no visible wounds could be seen on the rips in the half-jackalman's tunic. If anything he looked healthier than before.

"That's what you Great Guilder's haven't figured out yet..." Jakkar grinned, taking one of his butterfly knives and carving it across his forehead, which received no wounds, nor any sign the half-beastman had drawn a blade across it. "I don't fear pain 'n' I don't get bloodied. Instead, they're just the things I love to revel in..." Jakkar howled, slashing at his own ankles, which like the rest of his would-be wounds, seemed to be fine.

Jakkar then took a glance at Rune. "Weird chi barrier she's got. No matter. I'll go after their boss..." Jakkar snickered, leaping in a similar speedy manner to Lo-Muna and acrobatically flipping behind her as he tossed butterfly knife, aiming at her left thigh.

"Eight minutes..." the Crane Demon hummed cheerfully.

Suiken tapped his chin in thought as he observed the fight. "Necromancy. Hmmm," he frowned. "Something odd about it, though."

***

"Alright, not too far to the other side," Shiisan whispered to the others as they continued to row their lily pad's to the other side of the lake, in one of the lower floors on the temple. "Kappas are way on the opposite end of the lake, so they shouldn't bother us."

"Not without provocation, anyway..." the group could hear the Crane Demon cackle. As if propelled by an invisible force. A chunk of jade fell from the ceiling above and plopped down into the water, nearby the guild. almost immediately, the two blind Kappas turned their heads in the guild direction. They screamed a bellowing screech, before quickly diving into the water.

There was brief gap of silence where nothing was heard aside from the ripples in the water and occasionally the sounds of the bout occurring in the upper floors of the temple. Shiisan shrugged, still whispering, "Well...maybe that scared 'em off?" he offered, only to be quickly proven wrong when four pairs of clawed, webbed hands the size of woks reached out of the water and began to attempt to drag down Rumelis and Sunaarashi.

"Okay, guess not..." Shiisan paused, about to draw his blade, when he noticed four more pairs of webbed hands emerge from the opposite side of water, attempting to drag him and Ann under the depths as well. Shiisan quickly, leaped backwards, off of his lily pad and into the water.

"Leaping into their turf," Shiisan frowned. "Not the brightest idea, but look....kappas are tough. But still there are four of them and four of us," he grunted as his fist collided with the beak of the kappas in front of him, which caused them both to tumble backwards into the water. Shiisan didn't appear to activate his chi ability at all against them. If anything he seemed reluctant to fight them at all. "We should be able to take 'em..."

Several more screeches emerged from various places in the lake. More blind kappas, it appeared. "Come on, really?!" Shiisan groaned, shaking his head. "Any of you got any military experience?" he asked. "Some tactics on what to do when you're outnumbered?"

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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The barrier of earth crumbled and its summoner was quickly overrun by Rune's attacks. Earth remained within the bubble and rather than summon more to come through the what the demon crane had created, Sha used what she already had. Jakkar had managed to get away but that was expected of him. Sha had to contend with the beast-man's blows and did not come out better for it. Her arms were covered in cuts where the earth had failed to protect her.

Focused on the opponent before her, she didn't hear the footsteps of the rabbit above her. While Jakkar was fast, Muna had heard his footsteps and had heard the blade whistling through the air. The fire had receded and the rabbit had jumped. She had spun in the air and instead threw the last jar of balm she had kept. It was really more of a wild toss of the contents but there was no time to focus on accuracy.

She had seen his type of chi before just a variation for it. If her hunch had been correct, then Jakkar would feel pain. But if she was wrong, she would be without any medicinal supplies until they reached another town. And then again, the second option was also viable if the balm completely missed the jackal.

That wasn't her concern at the moment. Her concern was getting to Sha and taking the leader down. One opponent that couldn't get hurt was bad enough. That same opponent having insane backup was overwhelming.

Lo-muna's rapier was aimed straight down...

~*~

And Daken didn't see what happened after that. Ice rose from the ground and lightning was sent from above. He immediately raised a telekichesis field around him and the ice hugged the barrier in an attempt to shatter it. The lightning struck fom above and the barrier shook and suddenly collapsed from above. A pain filled yowl escaped him before a growl overcame his vocal chords. Pain wracked his body and the ice was taking advantage of the opening. A coldness swept his body and suddenly he felt himself being healed. Tsukumo was beside him with a pained look on her face as she tried to fight against the ice and heal the lightning.

"Guys!" she called out to her other guild members on the ground. "A little help here!?"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora Character Portrait: Kaede Lythronax
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The icy voice from behind actually surprised Phecda, and he immediately wrenched one of his rings from the others, raising it above his head to throw it...wait, who was that? An Ashura wearing faded yet very ornate armor, it seemed...lowering the rings, Phecda realized he recognized the Ashura, and sighed, putting his rings away.

"So this is how you greet me, eh? By breaking and entering my beloved atelier?" The annoyed edge in his voice was equally menacing, but it was really just a front--to be honest, he was actually somewhat glad to see her, one of his former comrades, alive and well. "And, long time no see, by the way. Shall I get you something to drink?"

He was only making idle banter now, but he knew he should answer her question quickly. So as he pulled off his mask, poured some water for himself and grabbed a tea bag (it would be better to not ask where he got the tea, for it was actually a fairly expensive brand), he let out another sigh. This one was more regretful than anything.

"And, I'm sorry to say...Fortune is beyond our reach. He is far at sea, with another one of our real friends. Sir Hoodiekins, I believe some of the others jokingly called him? Anyway, their current companions don't exactly seem to be going on a cruise, so I doubt it's wise to go after him now."

--------------------------------------

Terra's hands whipped around once again; she had no intent of stopping her assault. Two more lightning bolts flew from her hands before the golden light in her eye faded, and she staggered, realizing how much Chi she had expended. It was probably an incredibly reckless use as well, but that didn't matter to her. As her foot stamped on the ground, the stones underneath their feet rose, and Terra was ready to hurl them at the other team--

Wait a minute. This wasn't right at all. What was she even doing?! Despite not liking the members such as Jakkar, she had joined the competition with a (presumably) different goal in mind. Though she wasn't sure how Muna would act on this, Terra had decided to win the competition, physically get to the treasure first...and use the map to lead both guilds out. Neither of the guilds, she had been sure, would have done this; even Muna probably wasn't that nice. But now, despite hating the idea of the competition because it would cause the losers to essentially be killed, she was trying to kill them herself...

B-but...they cheated! I had every right to attack them! No matter how hard she tried to convince herself, however, Terra couldn't bring herself to accept her own actions. Her hands slowly began to lower, and the stones clattered to the ground. Suddenly, she found herself extremely exhausted again, and toppled over onto the floor. If the other team was going to try anything else, she'd kill herself trying to stop it.

----------------------------------------

The tiles were honestly getting more and more maddening to Umi. Repeatedly he found himself slipping and barely managing to cheat death by grabbing something at the last second. His arms and legs were getting fatigued quickly; he had to put so much effort into balancing and...argh. Just argh.

Kicking off from the tile he was standing on, he launched himself at another tile, and tried bouncing off it. Then the water he was carrying spiraled out and shot upwards under his foot, sending him flying up the last meter. His hands grasped onto the ledge of the doorway on the other side of the room. He had made it!

"...I do...not want to do that again," the boy grumbled as he pulled himself up and returned the contents of his waterskin to their rightful place. "Oh well, wonder what horrors I'll be seeing next?"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Nee Me-Hyung Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Amanhã Tiamat Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
A faint buzz of satisfaction ran through Rune's body after she halted her flurry of attacks. Alongside her father's reinforcement of ice spikes aimed at the Fennec, that Terra also lended her aid in the form of lightning chi. The Fennec more or less collapsed under both attacks, allowing the Jiangshi to focus on the more immediate threats - them being Sha and Jakkar. While Sha had to more or less tank the quick alternating strikes of sword and necro bolts, the Jackal seemed all the better despite Rune clearly feeling the blade passing through his body. She encased herself with another barrier as she watched him, scrutinizing, listening as Jakkar gave some small hint of an explanation.

"That's what you Great Guilder's haven't figured out yet..." Slashing across his forehead with a sick grin. "I don't fear pain 'n' I don't get bloodied. Instead, they're just the things I love to revel in..." the deranged Jakkar then drew the knives around his ankles, and Rune just more or less wondered if his chi reversed damage. Her father could also help with this, couldn't he? With him having mastered Healing Chi in his bid to bring her back to life. She could easily call him for aid again - it'd be a cinch. She readied herself, keeping an eye on Sha, just in case.

The Jackal then went to target Lo-Muna, and Rune, deciding to trust in her comrade to have noticed the weird chi he was using, made a running dash at the Hunter's Guild leader, brandishing her sword menacingly as she tried to land in a way that had her blade at the oni's throat, in an arm lock that stopped her from being able to move or even struggle. Hopefully the crash of the chi barrier smashing into Sha would be enough to stun her, and give Rune enough time to trap her in the grapple, and end the fight under risk of her death. And Rune knew that she wouldn't hesitate to kill, if it came to it. She didn't want to risk going over the time limit of eight minutes, so she had to cleanly finish it fast.

Meanwhile, her father continued the barrage of ice strikes on the Fennec, making them sharper and faster, aiming for both Daken and Tsukumo now, trying to get fatal shots at their arteries to force the healer to keep healing if she wanted to live, so that they could no longer interfere with the fight.




It seemed that Noxchi had taken a few scant moments to consider both options, and Nee knew that it was probably all the more likely that she'd choose to simply press on as is - Menia is rather small, isn't it? Chances of having a sufficient stables was low. She cursed her minimal knowledge of this province - she was more concerned with the Haran Fields and Swine Valley, after all - she more or less assumed that the Raging Rivers would be one of the easier ones to sway to her side.

Since they are here, though... it'd be convenient if this group could be side-tracked to travel to Atoro some time after rescuing Turas. It was... far from Furoe, for sure, but it would let her further her own goals. Rescuing Rhea, killing the Baron of Atoro, and hopefully securing the loyalty of the populace there. It was more convenient anyways. She paused though, in her thoughts, and asked why she didn't just leave Noxchi's group behind her? Sure, there was the risk of Moga snatching her up, but that wasn't the only factor involved. She'd gotten too attached to the idea of having someone she could... just be able to talk with. Be friends with. Noxchi was the only one for that, after all. She didn't think she could ever find anyone else that might suffice. Was it asking for too much? Perhaps. She'd already given up on personal happiness, after all.

She suppressed an internal sigh. Her friends - Liu, Rhea, the twins Ocalena and Akia, and Karekin. They probably would disapprove if they knew of the psychological strain Nee underwent, wouldn't they? They'd tell her to stop it; to just try and be content with life as it is now. With society. If they knew. Even the people she'd grown up with, Nee knew, she could never be totally honest with no matter what. They wouldn't side with her if she did.

Maybe it'd be better to just leave them behind. And if Nee was a stronger person emotionally, that's exactly what she'd do. She was already of half a mind to start trekking southwards - the group as is is more than sufficient to rescue Turas, after all. She wasn't needed, and she had no revolutionary gains. There was no reason for her being there at all. She could do it. Just start abruptly changing direction, towards Menia and farther west to Atoro, eventually. Leave behind this network of complex emotions she didn't have time to deal with. Even if somehow, the friendship between her and Noxchi was revitalized, it didn't mean that Noxchi would take her side once the revolution began. And the fear tactics obviously would have no effect on her even if Nee wanted to opt to manipulate her.

"I don't want to risk any delays," Was the reply. Nee snapped back to attention, once again feeling the sore joints ache in her legs as they begged for rest. "From here to that bridge, we will not suffer anything but ceaseless progress. No stopping, no rest, just forward. If you get tired, just... let me know."

And with that, Nee's resolve weakened just a tad. Noxchi was showing a tiny amount of probably unintentional kindness once again, wasn't she? She was prepared to just leave them behind, maybe apologizing - but now she couldn't. Her mouth made a small downward curve that she hid from the other four, and a sour mood filled her. Why was she so weak, she wondered. Someone really prepared to fix the world had to be able to completely give up on personal happiness. Spurn it entirely. And yet, she was faltering, and Noxchi wasn't even a guaranteed friend.

Her legs were tired, though. She considered telling Noxchi, but then decided against it. If she wanted to be stronger; to be more capable, she had to depend on her own body to support her. her own legs and muscles would carry her until there was a battle. Just the little bit more work she got from walking would strengthen her, bit by bit, right?

"I'm fine." Nee brushed it off, seemingly easily. "If I can't keep up, then I guess I'm - nevermind." She shrugged, smiling slightly. "I'll keep up with my own strength. But... thanks."

Suddenly, a thought occured to her. The bridge was a warzone, wasn't it? Chanes were high that they'd... perhaps. Maybe they'd find some units heading to back up the Leiya Line. Backing up the units already placed their, to try and make an offensive push. It was plausible, wasn't it? And the best route followed the rivers, from Atoro's military base to Leiya. She glanced again at Noxchi.

"What if we come across the Yunish Army?" She queried. "We might. I'm... not fully aware on the warfront, but it's fair to assume that there are supply lines from Atoro to the soldiers stationed there, right?"

She wasn't exactly sure what the implications of that were. If it'd be a boon or a burden or even entirely irrelevant. But bringing it up to mind wouldn't hurt.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Shiisan Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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"Oh, it almost makes me sad to carve up a beauty such as yerself, rabbit! but a challenge is a challenge and....eh? " Jakkar forwned, raising an eyebrow s Lo-Muna had tossed the healing balm at him. Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Jakkar for a second as the healing balm grazed his knee, which began to billow out smoke as if it was being burnt. Jakkar howled in pain as he flew backwards, grasping onto his knee.

"Yeeeowowowow," Jakkar yelped, attempting fan away the smoke emitting from his knee. Tawa approached his cousin and placed a concern hand on his shoulder.

"You alright, cousin?" Tawa asked. This only seemed to further Jakkar's pain as more smoke seemed to erupt out of his shoulder. Jakkar, smacked Tawa's hand away and glared at him in a rage.

"Don't show me concern ya big doofus! Just go...Why don't ya help Daken or somethin'!" Jakkar growled, as Tawa shrugged apologetically and wandered off. Jakkar sighed loudly and dug his knife into his shoulder, causing the smoke to recede. Sweat poured down his face, as he grimaced at his opponents nervously.

"Six minutes..." The Crane Demon informed them. The could all feel the air get more sparse and heavier to breath into.

Jakkar began to get jumpy now. "They've found me out. They'd have too, they all saw...Time ta do what I was plannin' to do in the first place...Whatever it takes to win..." Jakkar grinned cruelly, finding the large backpack, that he had left on the ground. He drew out a canister, several of them in fact, and proceeded to pour their contents (which was oil) onto the temple grounds.

Jakkar then grinned and drew out a match. the fire would barely burn him and Sha, being a fire oni raised on the Koru Islands, would be able to resist the intense flame for a while. But the two Great Guilders? They wouldn't stand a chance. As the oil spread out across the floor, Jakkar struck the match and lit the flame, before tossing it onto the flammable liquid below him.

"Time to end this fight quickly!" Jakkar grinned. "You see this, Great Guild?! Yer gonna be roasted alive! Ahahahaha!" he cackled madly.

"I'm assuming that you're aware that fire needs to "breath" too...?" the Crane Demon questioned, amused. "Your six minutes, have been shortened to three..."

".......eh?" Jakkar frowned, raising an eyebrow.

***

Shiisan shrugged, sure Sunaarashi could handle himself. If anything, he seemed more concerned for the kappas. "Just don't go all out on 'em. They're not quite themselves what with the Crane Demon controlling 'em and all." Shiisan then nodded to Ann and Rumelis as they shimmied through the crevice. It wasn't exactly comfortable to move through, though, they made it to an open room and flight of stairs quickly enough. The stairs led them to what appeared to be the last floor of the temple.

There was nothing in the room, aside from two small sealed doors and one large one, which led to another room on the final floor. In the middle of the room, there lay a small pillar. Atop the pillar lay a a stone disk. "That's it!" Shiisan spoke. "That's the 'map'..so to speak. It's more like a compass. Something that'll lead us to the exit when it's time to go. Plus, it's also the key to all the treasure!"

Shiisan slowly, carefully made a grab for the disk....and took it with surprising ease. "What, no repercussions?" he questioned.

"Not yet anyway..." the Crane Demon spoke. "You all seek the treasure, yes?"

"Well, we're all kinda broke, so...yeah," Shiisan shrugged. The room suddenly darkened and only two smaller doors were visible.

"Then I will play a...somewhat fair game with you all..." the Crane Demon grinned. "These two doors lead to one of two treasure rooms...One is full of riches. The other...was full of riches. Now it is my nest...If...you choose the treasure room...then I will spare you for a moment longer. But your fate is sealed if you happen to choose my domain. Now choose!"

Shiisan nearly snorted with laughter, as he turned to Ann and Rumelis, whispering, "See, what this guy doesn't know is, I've been in this forest longer than he has! I know this place like the back of my hand." Shiisan then casually pointed to the left. "There's the door we want. Obviously."

The disk-like stone then floated out of Shiisan's hands, unlocking the door to the left. A golden light peered through the cracks as the door slowly slid open. "Yes!" Shiisan grinned. "C'mon, guild! Treasure awaits!" he laughed, greedily. The three of them entered the room. And the golden light was no more. Instead replaced by oddly shaped, fleshy walls that seemed to be breathing and emitting a black fog that covered the room as it rained feathers from the ceiling.

"Oh, uh..." was all Shiisan could manage to say as they saw a large mound of corpses of various warriors, their weapon laying beside them on the cold floor. In the far back end of the room, was a large pile of sand. Atop the sand lay a small treasure box, out of which more black fog seemed to be emerging from. Several lights dotted the room in the form of flames floating in midair, encircling the room.

There was another motion in the room, aside from the guild and breathing walls. One that might've caused some alarm if it wasn't so...sluggish. It was an old human man, practically cocooned to the floor by a dark ooze. His attire seemed to indicate that he was a miner. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the guild approach.

"Two humans and a beastman...how interesting..." the old man coughed. "Hopefully you make it farther than the rest..."

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Rune's hit connected and Sha was stunned as the fire erupted around them. She stumbled and could feel the young girl grappling her but a smile still lingered on Sha's face. The fire was warm to her skin but it would burn her opponent. More fire erupted around the two, prompted by the fire oni, but suddenly the guild leader had trouble breathing. The crane's voice could be heard but Sha wasn't listening. She stumbled to her knees, air running out.

Fire was never a good thing for a rabbit. It consumed, it destroyed, it cooked. Muna promptly spun in the air, withdrawing her rapier, and looked over at the cause of the blaze. It was Jakkar and her eyes widened when she saw how he reacted against his cousin's act of concern. It was practically poison to him. Realizing that they were about to die from suffocation, she sprinted over to behind Jakkar and extended her arms. She caught him in a friendly embrace, holding tightly as she could.

~*~

Tsukumo was healing as fast as the wounds opened and gritted her teeth as weariness began taking over her. Tawa had arrived and some of the ice had stopped, unable to penetrate Tawa's muscles.

"Goddamnit," she hissed as she continued to heal.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora Character Portrait: Kaede Lythronax
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Phecda let out a "tch!" sound of rekindled fury. "Trust me, my friend, if I had my way, I would be the one causing his demise. Just as I tried to do last night, as a matter of a fact. But, even if I use the shadows to travel or fly, reaching Fortune, who is several hundred miles away, is impossible. Unless you have a plan for crossing the distance?"

Filling another cup with water, he tossed it in her direction, fully prepared to catch it with air chi in the unlikely (at least, if he remembered correctly, it was unlikely) event that she failed to catch it herself. "So, what kind of tea would you like, while I'm at it? Apologies, but even I forget peoples' food tastes. Ah, if I knew I had guests..." He sipped from his own cup, tasting a rich strawberry flavor as he did so.

-----------------------------------

No sooner had one bit of madness ended, than another one started. Flames suddenly danced wildly inside the dome, and despite being mostly confined to the place where the combatants were, the flames were still slowly starting to spread. And eating up all the air in the room as well...

Still lying on the floor, Terra was finding it harder and harder to breathe as well. Her throat felt tight, but not just with terror; she knew they'd be dying in a few minutes if this continued.

"S-Suiken," she gasped weakly, trying to get the Snow Oni's attention. "I-I don't care about keeping t-things fair anymore...j-just find a way to stop this! W-we don't have...m-much time before it's all-" But her words abruptly halted when she saw Muna embracing the other guild's man/beast man. W-WHAAAAAAT?!

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Nee Me-Hyung Character Portrait: Amanhã Tiamat Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
Fire. Oil. More fire. Damnit. Rune saw the smile on Sha's face as the flames erupted around them - but while Rune could easily sense that air was running out, she didn't particularly need to breathe, did she? And so she more or less dragged her captive to the side, away from the direct influence of the fire, until she realized that the fire oni was more or less incapacitated from the lack of oxygen.

Idiot, Rune thought, referring to the Jackal. She saw Lo-Muna and Jakkar in some sort of embrace... for no apparent reason. To be safe, Rune aimed a strike with the blunt end of her sword to Sha's head, hopefully knocking her unconscious, before looking at her guild leader with a strange sense of what the hell are you doing?

Roughly three minutes left, huh? Rune almost scoffed. She wondered brief- whoa what the hell, when had her boot caught on fire? Rune smashed it against the ground several times until the fire was put out from her now raw foot, more or less glaring at it, wondering why she didn't really feel the pain until just now. Oh well, not as if it really mattered, she could just get her father to heal her up once all was said and done, Rune sauntered over, with a limp, to Lo-Muna, casually, before inhaling some excess air and transferring it to the rabbit beast-man.

"Corpses don't need to breathe." Rune deadpanned to the guild leader, before glancing at the slowly suffocating enemies. "...Looks like we won this."




Under the scorching summer noon sun, the Faceless Five had arrived at the Leiya bridge. It was, for want of better words, more or less exhausting for the noble, at the very least, being not used to such extended physicla exertion with no real time to rest. Sixteen hours of straight travel - and she only slept for the first few, fitfully, on her horse that had disappeared some ways back, around when they had entered the tunnels - and more importantly, Nee had gotten her Flash Blossom - but there it was, really. They weren't exactly at the bridge -but the island of Leiya was in sight, obscured by some fog in the distance, making a misty ring around it at sea. They could see the Yunish contingent of troops more or less blockading the bridge at a camp on the other side - there was no real way to know if the slavers had taken Turas accross the bridge yet, with their identification papers. but nonetheless, the golden arches and intricate designs of the bridhe were there, also slightly obscured by the fog. How there was sea-mist in the heat, didn't really make sense, but that's how it was. The ocean was probably quite freezing.

In any case, they made it. What else could they do but wait and hope that they were fast enough? They for sure couldn't muscle their way across the bridge - not with the Yunish army there - and heck, Nee knew some scouts were already watching them with wariness from the other side. Her legs more or less shook as she tugged at Noxchi, somewhat desperately becaue damnit she couldn't support her own weight much longer.

"...um... I'm tired." She said, almost feeling ashamed at the admission. "And, we can only wait now, right? So - " A sharp inhale of breath, and a hand clutching at a stitch in her side - "We can... take a bit of a break while we hope for the best?"

Frankly, each moment in which Nee had kept up with the brisk pace of the Faceless Five without so much as a hint of fatigue or complaint had been an individual oddity to Gridiron: the others appeared little affected, but then it would have been nothing short of absurd to conceive of holding Nee to the same physical standard as three professional warriors who were more than accustomed to strenuous physical exertion. Therefore, when Nee at last succumbed to what Gridiron suspected was a silent but debilitating enervation and voiced her fatigue, it was of no surprise to the vigilante leader.

She nodded solemnly, neglecting to take her gaze from the horizon that lay before them. It was true-- nothing better to do now than wait, and pray to the benediction of the gods of the dunes that the slavers bearing Turas had not yet crossed the bridge to Leiya. Had that been the case... well, her objective of retrieving Turas and rescuing him from a fate he absolutely didn't deserve would have become that much more difficult to achieve. But difficult was something she could deal with-- it was something she'd spent her whole life dealing with. The respective military might of both Tengala and the Yune Empire was nothing she couldn't handle if she put her mind to it.

... well, probably not, anyway.

Every second spent waiting was a world of impatient torment in and of itself-- each second spent casting a hawkish vigil over the view that the vantage point the Faceless Five had adopted afforded unto them, looking for any sign of the slavers. When, at last, a shapeless mass emerged on the horizon, gradually growing more and more defined, revealing itself to be a host of soldiers at first, and then indeed the very same slavers that had taken Turas, Gridiron felt the tension and worry depart her body. Henceforth, it was a simple affair-- they had only to slaughter the slavers and take Turas, all within view and walking distance of a Yune blockade. Hell, she'd done riskier shit when it came to the Yune authorities.

"Let's go," she commanded laconically to the others, pausing briefly to nod at Nee. "Though in your case, it may be smarter for you to just stay here and wait for us to come back and get you."

The noble shook her head when sensing the battle was drawing near. And despite the cold calculus of revolution screaming at her that this was a stupid idea, an idiotic impulse that served nothing in the end. But despite her exhaustion and waning energy, she wanted to do something. Maybe help in some small, marginal way. It was slavers - something not really worth considering human at this point. So if she could dehumanize (or whatever species they may be)she could avoid the chance of guilt residing in her head, just maybe. Why, though, was she so intent on helping? Nee searched the fathoms of her vast mind, but she couldn't -

Well. Looks like she could. She wanted companionship and friendship. and not the farce of a friendship she had with any of the ones she grew up with - despite whatever Liu or Rhea might say in defense of whatever it was they had. Nee only viewed them as little more than tools to accomplish her goals, right? That's all it was. But Noxchi was different. She could be honest with the Sudean vigilante, and she knew more or less that if things were better, they could have gotten along. And perhaps even more than this - Nee was somewhat suspended as she thought with some sort of dawning Eureka - being truly friends with Noxchi meant that maybe she could manage to open up to her group of six. Her little gang. Wouldn't that be something?

"I'm helping." she grit her teeth with her resolve. Resolve to fight, and to hopefully get some trust back that she'd lost. The revolution could be put on hold temporarily. She wanted to settle this first. She wanted to fix things here, first. "If it wasn't for me, Turas never would have been taken, right? This is, in part, my responsibility."

Now this-- this was unexpected. Was this not the same Nee Me-Hyung who, just a day previously, had insisted that she would do all in her power to disrupt Gridiron's intent of delivering her unto her family in Furoe? That very Nee Me-Hyung who had cast an image before herself of Gridiron as little more than her detainer, all the more so even than that stain of filth Cha'Valkar? And now, lo and behold, she was insisting that she fight alongside her captor, at immense risk and no tangible benefit to herself, for a purpose that had nothing whatsoever to do with her own professed goals. The ever-vigilant cynic in Gridiron meticulously scrutinised and analysed every word in pursuit of the vaguest hint of an ulterior motive: the facet of Gridiron that was pretty sure that cynic in her was partially responsible for several occasions of near mutiny amongst her crew preferred to muse that perhaps Nee actually gave a shit.

The Sudean vigilante concealed a tinge of a smile upon her thin, scarred lips as she remarked in reply, "Well, judging by your tone of voice, it's probably not worth it to try and talk you out of it..." She turned toward her sister, who had been preoccupied with glaring out at the incoming slavers and, perhaps, seeing if she could kill them all at a distance through sheer force of loathing (alas, it appeared this was not a valid tactic of battle). "Amanhã..." She began to speak, and her half-sister, turning toward her, seemed to immediately realise what she was about to propose: the suit of armour gave no verbal indication of discontent, but there was a veritable aire about her of 'oh, come the fuck on, not this shit again'. "With that weapon of hers, she can mete out some serious damage on your shoulders," the vigilante pressed, before adding, a foreboding thought striking her, "... if she feels suited to it, that is." It was hard for Gridiron to remember the gravity of taking a life-- she had done it so much over the years it meant nothing to her-- well, almost nothing. But... well, these were slavers, after all. Could it really be much of a moral quandary to kill a person whose profession encompassed unabashed revelry in evil?

If Nee had any such quandary, Amanhã was sure as hell having none of it: a bit bitterly, and none too gently, the bounty hunter swept down, grabbed the tiny girl, shoved her right onto her armoured shoulders, and then turned back to Gridiron, as if to say 'all fucking right, I've got the whelp on my shoulders, now let's go kill shit'.

It as like the calm before the proverbial storm. It offered Nee the chance to take one glance at Noxchi after Amanhã had grabbed at her roughly - Nee did her best to more or less take it, it was the only way she'd be useful in this fight, after all - and took a deep breath. She could do it. She'd help save Turas, kill some slavers, prove that she really did mean it that she wanted to help. An earnest furrow of the brow splayed across her face as the upcoming group of slavers stopped very ephemerally as they got sight of the five vigilantes. There wasn't much else for it now - Nee could even make out the details of Turas,gagged, with hands and wrists tied painfully tight with thick rope. A second inspection showed blindfolds - although for what reason really, Nee couldn't really guess at.

"Nox - Gridiron." Nee said quietly. "Let's save him, and then get on with everything." An idea suddenly struck her, though. If the Flash Blossom really worked like the legends said... couldn't she... Nee triangulated the angle between her, Amanhã, athe slavers, and carefully swung the chain - and the sword - in a way that the blade smacked dully against the back of the living suit of armor's plate. In that instant, Nee charged chi through the chain and then to the blade, and hugged on tightly - the next instant, she and Amanhã were shot at blinding speeds at the slavers, right in the thick of things. Despite the spinning dizziness and the need to throw up, she didn't allow herself time to catch her breath or her surroundings - the next instant, Nee started whipping the chain around and occasionally charging chi to send rocks smashing into collarbones, or one slaver in particular flying towards the sea - drowning, presumably - and even snagging the blade against one's tongue somehow, before tearing it out with a fierce yank.

Nee located Turas and then her snake-like weapon reached out to tap against him, and with another charge of chi, Turas was flung at high speeds back to where the others were, towards the bridge, and hopefully out of danger.

"Alright," Gridiron remarked confidently as she turned toward her comrades. "We need to work out a strategy to best maximise our ability to slaughter as many of those bastards as we can whilst still retrieving Turas safely. We have the higher ground and they're not aware of our presence, which, naturally, is our greatest boon at the moment, but we'll have to be wary of their chi casters-- they were our veritable bane in the last encounter, and--"

A sound like a small explosion interrupted Gridiron, who instinctively all but leapt for cover before clambering back up to her feet and realising Nee and a probably none too chuffed Amanhã were long since off the small cliff that overlooked the slavers, already in the thick of their adversaries.

"... or we can flush any semblance of stratagem down the toilet and just go charging into battle," the vigilante leader frowned. Okay, so maybe there were one or two things she didn't miss about the old Nee.





Turas Az'raus' life right now, in a word, sucked ass. Which was two words, but he was kinda hard-pressed to give a shit right now.

His wrists hurt like a bitch, this gag in his mouth was annoying, and to top it all off, he was blindfolded, because clearly the only thing between a skinny dude whose martial prowess could be unfavourably compared to that of a badly-made stool and a goddamn superhuman who could slaughter their way through a band of slavers despite being bound and gagged was his eyesight. Perhaps worst of all, he still couldn't find anybody to back him up on the whole Muoy-Võ thing. Did nobody besides me see Muoy totally kick Unstoppable Syha's ass last match? he lamented as he felt himself roughly carried along harsh terrain. I mean, c'mon. Clocked him just one upside the skull and had him down for the count. Hell, didn't that guy beat the shit outta Võ at some point? Hell, you gotta be in straight up denial to say Võ's got shit on Vang Muoy.

Ah hell. Who was he kidding? It didn't matter anymore-- he was just trying to distract himself from the fact that he could hear the sea now, and even a goddamn idiot like himself could figure out that meant he was probably about to be carried across the Leiya Bridge. And once he was on the other side... Even Gridiron won't be able to get me out of this. Dread began to pollute every fibre of his being-- Turas didn't want to be a slave. He talked a big game, but.... fuck, he was terrified-- he wasn't Gridiron. He wasn't some towering, larger-than-life, musclebound fucker who could arm wrestle an ashura with their little finger. He was... well, Turas. And he knew so much as a day living the life of a slave and he'd probably lose all semblance of willpower or resistance.

The sound of the waves lapping at the bulwarks of the bridge came ever closer, and despondency seized upon the Sudean vigilante. All of a sudden, it was like his twenty eight years of life had really been nothing-- like there were too many things he'd never done, too many things he'd never said, and many of them centred on one figure alone: Gridiron. It seemed so suddenly that his attempts to delay the inevitable despair with needless wise-cracking were overwhelmed by an aching wish to see her just one last time, that confident, tenacious smile of hers; to hear that gruff, hard-edged voice assuring him of his importance in the vigilante crew and to her every time he found himself feeling like he didn't make a difference, the feel of her calloused, rough hand in his own in those rare moments in which they had a moment away from the maelstrom of violence to simply be there with one another-- her discordant, uncertain laugh, the laugh of one accustomed to the act and yet beautiful in some strange way to him nonetheless, her deep green eyes gleaming with inexorable intent, the way she shed some of that 'ruthless, larger than life hero' facade and let herself become more relaxed, more open and affectionate when she felt comfortable in doing so-- when she was with him...

It was like suddenly every little thing about her he'd never realised made such a difference to him was becoming so much more painfully real to him-- now, when he feared he would never see her again.

And then of course, because everything wasn't fucked to shit as it was, the next thing he knew he'd been hurled into the air, landing on the sandy shores like a sack of potatoes fired off by a blade that directs chi. His gag came loose in the impact, and he spat out sand irascibly, struggling to twist his body so that he could lie on his back. "Oi!" he bellowed bitterly. "That was just all kinds of not cool! Who the hell did that? Was it that fucker who talked shit about Muoy? Man, I tell ya, you can never trust a motherfucker who talks shit about Muoy--"

"Well, shit." Turas fell sharply silent as a familiar drawl emerged from just over him. "In that case, maybe I oughta just walk on back to Harad?"

Gridiron hauled Turas up to his feet, sawing away at the robe binding his body with her half-sister's dagger (which was more of a goddamn longsword than a dagger, really, but that aside) and then tearing away the blindfold about his eyes. The Sudean blinked from the burst of blinding light that met his freshly opened eyes, and then, as his vision cleared away, he was greeted with the vision of a helplessly grinning Gridiron standing before him.

"... goddammit, I shoulda known the second I went into full on desperate nostalgia mode you'd come swingin' in to the rescue," he grumbled. "It's, like, the first rule of narrative awareness."

"I love you too," the vigilante leader retorted, before handing the freed vigilante the aforementioned totally-not-a-fucking-dagger. "Now, enough tarrying about. I know you were probably too busy whining to yourself about how Muoy is gonna get her ass kicked in the title fight to hear, but there's a battle going on around us."

"Lovely." Turas took the sword and looked it over as though he found it rather dissatisfactory, before adding, "Will I get to kill the guy who talked shit about Muoy?"

"Hell," Gridiron shot back, turning once again unto the battle and bringing her warhammer to bear. "I saved him just for you."



After expending so much chi in such short time, Nee was more or less, on the verge of fainting. Dots swam in her vision, and her grip on her perch on Amanhã's shoulders was gradually weakening. Godamnit, she couldn't just screw it up now, after rescuing that heart-print-boxers-man, Turas, and acting kind of cool in front of Noxchi. She swung the chain out again, letting it wrap around a sword and flung said sword with a pull into a nearby tree, meanwhile the living suit of armor was more or less cleaning up whoever tried to get close, with that greatsword swinging in massive arcs around her. Nee managed to see Turas be given a sword smaller than the Flash Blossom, free from the bonds, and that allowed her to focus again on the battle at hand, ducking slightly to dodge an arrow that whizzed past where her neck once was. Nee readjusted her position on the shoulders, breathing hard, and was about to use the sword to propel her and Amanhã back to the others-

The veritable crash of lightning scorched the ground around them. Nee let out a yelp - somehow it just missed, despite Amanhã being encased in full metal. Shortly after that, flaming balls shot towards them, along with cascading sheets of dagger-sharp ice. Nee cleared her head, and used the Flash Blossom to shoot Amanhã out of the way before the chi strikes could kill them - only to notice more chi-users working together at the cliff's edge... wringing the seawater up. A goddamn tidal wave. And from the corner of her eye, she saw what seemed to be a captain directing the lines of healing chi once again - the slavers were now organized despite the probable shock of a giant greatsword wilder and a noble girl sat upon her shoulders appearing fast enough to almost break the sound barrier. Moreover, Nee saw that she and Amanhã were more or less shut off from easily rejoining the others, and there really was only so much even the half-ashura could do before succumbing to the massive chi strikes.

Nee tried to gauge mentally how many more "bullets" - as she liked to call it - she could still manage. If they were lucky, maybe four or five? Still, the girl cursed her lack of real combat tactics - if they made it out of this alive, she'd be sure to study any texts on tactical large-scale combat as best as she could, possibly from the Ashura warmaster Aldhoran - well renowned for sure, despite being an apparent enemy of Yune. That was, of course, if one wanted to learn about quick, decisive warfare, about remaining on the offensive and on the move, using momentum and morale again- oh, it didn't even matter right now, what mattered was getting out of this. She tapped Amanhã's faceplate, hopefully getting her attention.

"Um. Point at whatever group of chi-users is the immediate threat." Nee asked almost pleadingly. "I'll send us there to wipe them out..." Sure, the giantess probably didn't even remotely like her, but she did hopefully want to survive this, didn't she?

Amanhã scowled as she felt the little whelp all but rapping on her helmet, resisting the urge to fling her off of her back so she could return once more to the happy little business of wanton slaughter. Sure, the girl was an effective weapon with that blade of hers-- not even remotely a real warrior, obviously, but an asset as a tool against the slavers nonetheless-- and yet, that aside...

Well, now that Amanhã considered it, it was pretty hard to get caught up in the bloodlust when every time she began to lose herself in the crimson haze, her next target got hurled into the sea by a tiny girl riding on her shoulders wielding a legendary sword on a chain that she was almost uncannily skilled at manipulating. Which, to be fair, was not a phrase Amanhã had ever figured on thinking, but hey, there's a first time for everything.

Disgruntled, Amanhã was of half a mind to give the proverbial finger to the girl, mostly by not doing a damn thing she'd asked, when it came about she wouldn't have to: the captain directing the lines was struck with a precisely aimed bolt of coalesced lightning energy, and then, following that, a stream of arc lightning surged downwards toward the slavers' chi-users, each individual acting as a conductor for the electricity, which decimated the ranks as it spread. The bounty hunter glanced up, and saw the slighter of the hooded figures-- Wu or however it was-- drifting up in the air, at last seeing fit to weigh into the battle with their own set of skills.

The slaver that was obviously a Võ fan was still standing, despite the lightning tearing through their ranks. A man from gwan, and a particularly mediocre one, found himself more or less lost amidst the chaos that was the battle. However, he did see that stupid Muoy fan was free - hell, who needed a slave that supported that piece of shit fighter, anyways? Võ obviously was the stronger one. Anyone, even a blind spectator, could see it. That particularly slaver weaved his way through the bedlam when he happened upon priority target one: the girl. Nee. Apparently, at least, because it's not as if they had pictures, it was more of a general description. "Small girl." Moga'd said. and in this group, there was only really one who fit the term. The girl in question was having trouble staying upright, blinking blearily as she surveyed the battlefield.

The Võ fan knew this was his chance to become something more than just some average slaver. In nabbing the girl, this would let him rise up through the ranks, wouldn't it? Sure, there was the problem of that hulking mass of death, but he was certain he was fast enough to circumvent it. He looked to the side, seeing the water chi users - their wave was more or less ready, and it looked like they were condensing it to maximize impact. This was tantamount - if he timed this right, he could grab the girl, and then be swept away by the wave, bringing him far from the battle. And he had a distinct feeling that the deathmachine didn't care less about her fate. To be honest, he couldn't figure why anyone would really care to much. The girl was just some bratty noble who'd lived a life of privilege - so it was only right for her to be brought down to the rest of them, after all. He also didn't particularly see why she was considered a charmer - but then again, the Võ fan was more partial to the male physique, himself. It worked more for him than any female body ever did.

It was time. He used his telechises to more or less toss one of the bodies in front off him, watching it get shredded by the greatsword, and he ducked under the top half, before leaping up on the sword itself and using that momentum to leap and grab the target by the chain - dragging her off of her perch with a little surprised yelp - and splashing cleanly into the torrent of water that suddenly hit them. As the powerful gush of water made to drift back to the sea, the Võ fan realized his mistake - the fall off the cliff was certainly fatal. And it seemed that the girl noticed that too mid-plummet, and so she quickly fastened a collar around her neck, locked it in place with the chain, and tossed it up to wrap around a tree near the edge before either of them could die. And so, they dangled awkwardly, with the girl suddenly trembling and whimpering when she realized who she inadvertently saved, and the Võ fan wondering how badly Muoy was going to be crushed in the match.

It was quite some time before Amanhã realised she no longer had a ten pound weight bearing down upon her shoulders.

And when she realised it, she shrugged her shoulders-- or would have, were she not in the midst of decapitating some other slaver type thing. After all, she'd had no obligation to her: if the whelp was too pathetic to even stay on her goddamn shoulders, if she was so pitifully weak that even astride the massive bounty hunter she was vulnerable, then she probably deserved whatever fate her impotence had earned her. Amanhã had recognised that she had been deluding herself into the belief that as the strong it was her duty to crush underfoot the weak, but that sure as hell didn't mean she wasn't accurate in her conviction that those who, presented the option of pursuing strength, opted instead for weakness merited whatever agonising demise their idiocy meted out unto them.

Plus, she'd been a chi user. The fuck with her.

Indeed, nobody quite realised Nee had been deposed from her station astride Amanhã's shoulders-- not initially, anyway, when the battle drew to a gradual, bloodshorn termination and the Faceless Five (and the distinctly faceful Turas) stood amongst the carcasses of their adversaries. "Oi, the hell?" Turas whined aloud, casting a glance across the corpses. "Who killed that piece of shit Võ fan? That dude was mine, dammit!"

"Must've been caught up in Wu's chain lightning," Gridiron mused idly, rolling her neck along her broad shoulders, feeling the tension dissipate just a bit with a crack as she turned away from the shore. "But hey, if it's any consola..." She trailed off as she caught sight of Amanhã, casually dropping the body of the slaver she'd just strangled to death (ya had to keep it interesting, y'know? Just stabbing and slashing the fuckers got a bit dull after a while.) only to find a distinct lack of tiny noble girl on her shoulders. "Amanhã!" she called over at her, alarm immediately setting in. "Where the hell is Nee?"

When Amanhã merely returned her worried gaze silently, Gridiron was of half a mind to let loose a storm of obscenities upon her sister, but she thanked the gods of the dunes she had the sense not to lose her self-control so swiftly. Instead, she began to call out Nee's name-- hoping that, failing that, she wouldn't have to start looking through the bodies.

"You shithead Muoy fan! I'll tear out your soul!" The Võ fan couldn't help but make a retort from where he was hanging. It took him a few seconds before he realized that revealing his position was probably a bad idea. But then again, simply falling to his death once the chain broke was also a pretty bad idea, was it not? The girl herself was more or less unresponsive - if it took a little hanging over a cliff of death to scare you, then, you really must be a coward, the Võ fan mused. The life of a noble did little to prepare you for real life, after all.

Still... Turas was rescued, and the remaining slavers had fled to who knows where, some vague direction to the east, but this was a rather overwhelming victory for the vigilantes. The noon sun still shone as it verged, signifying that the afternoon had begun.

Also, there was a hanging Võ fan, along with a yunish noble.

"COME AT ME, BRO," Turas immediately bellowed in responce to the petty Võ fan's whining. "I'LL HIT YOU SO HARD YOUR FRIEND VO WILL FEEL THE WRATH OF MUOY THROUGH MY FISTS."

"If you don't shut up, you'll feel the wrath of Gridiron through my fists." Gridiron resisted the urge to slap a palm to her face in exasperation as she put her foot down on yet another Muoy-Võ debate, before striding over toward the source of the initial taunt-- the cliff overlooking the sea. Gridiron already had an inkling of what the Võ fan's quandary at that moment happened to be-- but she managed nevertheless to be taken aback when she peered over the edge and saw Nee hanging by the throat from a chain that had managed to catch onto the branch of a tree not far from the edge of the cliff. And, clinging for dear life to the little noble girl, was the Võ fan himself, clearly none too pleased with his lot in life at this particular juncture.

Without hesitation, Gridiron reached downward to grab onto the chain, disengaging it from the branch it had been wrapped tightly about and tugging the two individuals clinging to it up onto the surface, trying to take care not to inadvertently slam Nee's head into one of the rocks jutting out from the cliff face or some shit-- she really didn't fancy the thought of pulling them up only to realise Nee was now bleeding from the skull and the Võ fan was perfectly untouched.

No sooner had she pulled the two up than Turas, having evidently been waiting with withering patience for his opportunity, scored a flying kick from absolutely fucking nowhere, landing the kick on the Võ fan's chest and sending him careening to the waves beneath.

"Thus always to they who favour the inferior over the magnanimous Muoy!" the Sudean vigilante declared auspiciously, striking a pose and nearly sending himself tumbling after the Võ fan, whereupon he lost all his prior bluster and became immediately concerned with putting as much distance between himself and the cliff as possible.

With the immediate threat gone, Nee managed to calm herself down and made a tired, washed out smile to Gridiron.

"...we got him back, huh?" Was all she could really say before more or less collapsing.

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Shiisan
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Jakkar's face flushed for a bit as Lo-Muna embraced him. Only for a bit though, as he realized that the rabbit woman was playing his weakness against him. The show of affection contrasting with his karmic reversal chi. A fountain of blood shot out of Jakkar's mouth as he passed out onto the floor. The Great Guild had won. With one minute to spare! The dome of air dissipated.

"See?" Suiken grinned at Terra, happy to be able to breathe clearly again. Or breathe as clearly as the musty temple air would allow anyway. "We have it handled. We're going to survive this, Terra. Just a bit more and we can be done with these maniacs..." his voice fell into a whisper. "And hopefully, our comrades will be able to complete their task safely and get us out without a hitch."

Tawa somberly got to his feet and lifted Jakkar, Dalen, and Sha, lifting them over his shoulders. He looked bitterly at the guild. "Alright, Great Guild. Next challenge..." he frowned as he began to descend a flight of stairs. It was a long walk down to the next lower levels of the temple. The Crane Demon hadn't made any other moves yet, perhaps waiting for the next challenge to taper with them.

"The next challenge is an obstacle course..." Tawa began to explain curtly after a long period of silence. It was clear he wasn't too keen on losing two challenges in a row. "One on one." Tawa glared over at the guild, glancing at Yamato. "You haven't gone yet. You'll be his opponent." Tawa nodded to the silent member of the Hunter's Guild. One who presence had had barely been noticeable in all the commotion of the challenges. "Gatger Yamus is one of our best. Never lost a challenge yet, have ya Gatger?" Tawa then turned his head quickly, and glanced at the guild.

"Wait..." he paused. "Weren't there more of you?"

Suiken gave an aside glance to Lo-Muna. Their current leader had a bit of a silver tongue about her. Perhaps she could talk her way out this query.

***

"The rest..." the old man laughed, as he began to tell his life story. "Warriors of the past, felled here long ago. Some of them are my associates. Miners. We first explored this temple a year ago, searching for jade and other treasures. We were mostly successful. But then a few months ago, something odd happened. We spotted a treasure box. It looked so...unassuming, it was no wonder we never noticed it before. But that day something was different. It called to us..." he said pointing towards the treasure box, from which the black fog was emitting from.

"It was locked tight for such a small treasure box, but we managed to pry it open...and freed the horrid creature sealed inside," the old miner bemoaned. "The Crane Demon...it's evil reached out through the temple and permeated into the forest. It trapped us here, keeping us alive to feed on our guilt, making sure we knew we were the ones who released it's evil back into the world. We'd brought enough food to survive in the forest for a weeks. Rationing it off, allowed us to survive for months. Unfortunately...my companions lost their will to continue. They let the guilt take over."

"I'm the only one left surviving here...the guilt still eats at me...as I eat this stale bread and dirties water," the old man sighed. "But the desire to one day see this monster put back in it's place will keep me living for as long as I need too. One day..."

"Well. That sorta settles it then, don't it?" Shiisan asked, cracking his neck slightly. He turned to Ann and Rumelis. "Sister Silence, Brother Bear..." he began, pointing at the treasure box. "Attack whatever in that box." Shiisan turned around, harnessing his chi. "While, I provide ample distraction...."


[b]"I believe you all have worn your welcome..."
the voice of the Crane Demon spoke, in a hurried tone, somewhat . "You. Your friends upstairs, your enemies with their petty contest, all of you...will soon peri-AAAHGH!"[/b] the Crane Demon howled. Shiisan, using his chi to restore things to their natural state had blasted one of the odd, oily, flesh-like walls, briefly restoring it to it's original state, before it slowly regenerated back into it's corrupted form.

"Don't like that, feather-face?" Shiisan asked. "Got more where that came from!" Shiisan then turned to glance at Ann and Rumelis again, nodding at the treasure box. A wave of human sized, crane-beasts emerged from the floors, brandishing blades made of sinewy feathers and charged at Ann and Rumelis to block the path towards the treasure box. Shiisan had begun to dodge giant, boulder sized talons that had begun emerging from the wall, blasting whatever he could with his nature chi.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Rune Iyora Character Portrait: Gatger Yamus
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#, as written by Rann
The sudean smiled. "How about we place a bet on it? Winner take all. If you win this course, we'll not only throw in the map, but we'll give you enough supplies to last the journey out, and a honored escort! However, if you lose, you're back to square one. What do you say? I'll even pay you some money on the side!"

Rune sighed, looking at Lo-Muna, hoping that this wouldn't be idiotic.

"It's already winner's take all, in our favor." She said to the rabbit. "We win one more, we win best three out of four, anyways. Don't risk taking the bet. I wouldn't trust any escort, anyways. This is just them trying to have a chance to win - pathetic, really."

She turned to Yamato.

"Good luck, though you probably don't need it."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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With Ann's blade driven into the Crane Demon's box...a hoarse cry rang throughout the entire temple. Sunaarashi smashing through the wall, Rumelis and Ann's attacks on the Crane demons minions, Shiisan's chi blasts, and of course the blade now piercing through the cursed box had all but severed the Crane Demon's ties to the temple and the world of mortals.

"This...won't be the end of me...I...return..." the Crane demon coughed as all of the vile shadow coating the walls of the room, as well as the hellish aura within the temple, as well as the dark cursed placed upon the forest, began to reel back and recede towards the box. A sense of tranquility had filled the air that the Great guild hadn't felt since they'd landed on Gangamai's accursed desert.

"Wow, totally didn't know that would happen," Shiisan remarked, sounding thoroughly unsurprised.

"Re--remarkable..." the old miner grinned. "You all did it! You..." the miner paused as something in the treasure box began to spark and shimmer with a loud hum. "I think...we should leave this room..."

"Yeah, good point..." Shiisan agreed as he and the other guild members hurried out of the Crane Demon's former domain and went back into the room with the pedestal where they'd found the treasure map key in. It seemed that whatever was emerging from the box was the Crane Demon's parting gift. But it had lost too much power...Electricity surged throughout the treasure box, smashing the walls surrounding the room and toppling them.

***

Suiken and the rest of the guild turned in surprise as one of the walls collapsed in front of them. The Hunter's Guild turned, equally surprised, as they saw the 'missing' Great Guild members standing across the other side of the massive hole in the temple wall. Their looks of surprise soon contorted into rage upon seeing the Guild was standing in the very room, they'd surmised the treasure map to be in.

"You...what were you...cheaters," Tawa frowned his face growing with rage. "All of you! Cheaters! You've forfeit the contest! Hand over the map!" Tawa demanded. "You get to rot in this cursed temple..."

"Yeah, it's not cursed," Shiisan pointed out.

"Wha-, come again?" Tawa frowned.

"The curse is gone and so...there aren't really any stakes left in this contest..." Shiisan shrugged. Tawa looked completely lost as he looked over to the other Hunter's guild members, who simply offered equally infuriated yet stumped looks.

"So...now I take it that we all can just leave and be done with this contest?" Suiken asked Tawa.

"I, uh...." Tawa stuttered, looking over to Tsukumo as she began to heal their unconscious teammates. "I'll have to ask the boss first...Can you all just, uh, wait here a sec?"

The entire guild gave Tawa a blank stare, before simply leaving through the new hole blown into the wall. The old miner approached them excitedly, asking. "Do you all know what you've done? The entire province must've been suffering for a long time due to this Crane Demon and you all just...well you done a very good thing to say the least! After spending months in that room with that wretched thing, I feel as if I am twenty years younger!"

"This has to be told to someone! Perhaps, I will go to Jiefong and relay the news..." the old man continued, scratchiness his chin. "Er, what do I call you people?"

"We're the Great Guild," Shiisan explained. "The Great Guild Fortune. We're a pretty big deal, right?" he asked Lo-Muna, elbowing her a bit on the shoulder.

"The Great Guild Fortune..." the miner repeated, before turning around, beginning to take his leave. "I will remember that!" he shouted as he began to run off, in another direction than the guild. Back to a now curse-free Ganga Desert and towards Jiefong. "And thank-you!"Shiisan nodded and looked back at the guild, pulling forth a burlap bag in one hand and the key/map to unlocking the treasure room in the other.

Needless to say, the Guild realized that it was finally time to take a bit of a reward for themselves after the past couple of days. The key had unlocked the treasure room without a hitch and they soon took as much as they could take with them.

There was only one thing left to do, which was make for the exit into Gangamai. The last room that needed to be unlocked was unlocked. It led to a simple tunnel that simply led them in a straight line. They traveled in haste despite their tired demeanor, until they were closer and closer towards a dim light.

And then finally....they made it. The underground City of Gangamai. They were soon greeted by a confused rabble of dirtied faces, giving them looks of shock and surprise. There was an odd silence for a couple of minutes, before Suiken spoke. "Aha...excuse us, we've traveled for a long time without a decent rest and we-,"

"Stow it, oni," a Gangamai guardsmen spat, still looking in amazement at the group. "Did you all...just come from that temple?"

"Why yes," Suiken answered. "We've come from Jiefong, across the river and trekked through the Ganga Desert to..."

"You went through the cursed desert?!" the guard laughed obnoxiously at them. "You washed up by the lake right? You ARE aware that there's a a mountain near that area...?"

"...Yes?" Suiken nodded, vaguely recalling the geography of the area. "What of it?"

"The curse doesn't go that far!" the guard snorted. "There's a passage in those mountains that'd taken you right near here safely!" he guffawed.

Suiken gave a low sigh and turned towards the guild, whispering, "Remember, let's...keep a low profile here. Perhaps news of our...activities in Jiefong haven't spread this far yet, but we should nevertheless, be careful. Now...I suggest we search for an inn."

"Woah, what'd you guys pull off in Jiefong?" Shiisan asked, waiting for an answer as he turned his head back towards the tunnel, where unbeknownst to the rest guild, a pair of eerie, but not particularly threatening eyes peered at them from the darkness. The eyes of the qilin. Shiisan gave it a nod, before it bowed respectfully and departed as quickly as it had arrived. Shiisan's attention soon turned back towards Gangamai as the guild continued to search for an inn.

***

A filthy gecko beastman of a guard tapped violently on Orion's cell with it's warhammer. Glaring at Orion with razing hatred and iron willpower, the reptilian beastman snorted, "You ready for the full might of the judicial system, scum-lord?" he asked Orion.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Shiisan
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Shiisan shook his head as they followed Saaklemore to the edge of town."Cold blooded?" Shiisan questioned Saaklemore. "You blind? That guy tried to kill us for not having some papers or whatever. And given all of the beastmen and tengu slaves here, whose to say he wouldn't have done the same to them?" Shiisan asked.

After listening to Sakklemore's proposal, Suiken shook his head. "I believe we need to know more, first. Though, perhaps we will think on it after you provide some shelter for us."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Nee Me-Hyung Character Portrait: Shiisan Character Portrait: Amanhã Tiamat
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#, as written by Rann
"Hey, Hyuna," The girl said quietly, downcast. Hyuna spun to glance at her - she was about to grab Millie and have them go flying through the Genga desert. Millie had taken the sweetened bread more or less, biting into it solemnly. She'd said she didn't need to sleep, so Hyuna wanted to get her to safety as soon as she could. The Guild'd protect her, after all, right? "If...you and I never met, if I was somebody that you had to..." Then Millie's train of thought stopped, making the lancer raise an eyebrow. "Never mind. Just...never mind. We should go."

What the hell kind of question was that, anyways? How could she - Hyuna couldn't even think of the answer. She gripped Millie's hand harder, shooting them up into the air with an explosion of air below them, blasting them up into the heights of Jiefong, twirling to maneuver them to the side, catching sight of the south-east river. Hyuna then more or less tossed Millie over her shoulders, hooking her legs around her neck as they flew.

"What are you getting at?" Hyuna asked, feeling unsettled. What was she trying to say? What point was she trying to make? For some reason she really felt disturbed by whatever thought Millie had tried to make, and it messed her up just like everything else seemed to. "I don't get it, Millie."

Hyuna reached into her back, and gave Millie one of the talismans. She'd pilfered them off of those slavers - seriously, what the shit were they trying to do, anyways, who were they for? Were they also related to that mysterious villain, Magic? - Goddamnit, Magic, stop trying to screw up everything. Maybe the talisman was... who knows, maybe a gift or something. But in any case, there it was, right?

Eventually the ground below them turned fro the grasses of Jiefong and into a desert range.




So, Gangamai, eh? Earlier, Rune had gotten her father to heal up her foot - he'd told her, 'Good work, I knew you could do it', and well, of course she could do it. It really was a simple matter of a fight, and that Lo-Muna made for a pretty good partner at that, despite the shaky start. There was a bit of a facepalm moment in that they could've avoided the whole cursed desert thing by taking the mountain range, but what was there to do about that at all? It was just silliness. And hey, it let Rune have some time to hone her combat skills against something other than her father.

But in this underground dystopian metropolis, Rune kept her bow drawn and at hand at all times, because this was really getting creepy, with all the goblin slaves, and the owners, and the mine keepers at a distance, making money off of the toiling slaves who get inevitably worked to death. It sickened her - but then again, it was fate. There wasn't much to do about it at all, if that's what fate dictated. No point in worrying too much about it, as long as said fate didn't involve having herself be taken in as a slave.

She'd be able to fight and get free on her own anyways, though, if anything. But having thrown her lot in with the guild, well. At least that Yamato seemed pretty cool. Sarcastic, witty, just like she was. And so, the wolf beastman unconsciously gravitated closer to the tengu, keeping her hood carefully pulled over. Of course, when the bandit, Shiisan, killed the guard in open eyes, Rune just rolled her eyes, following the bandit and the tengu into the alley.

"First, off, yeah." Shiisan said, trying to defend his actions. "Not the brightest move I made, but then again, the guy moved and I reacted as quickly as I could. Didn't have much time to think, asshole."

Rune yawned.

"You really do like pissing off powerful people, don't you?" She asked sharply, grinning and flashing her fangs. "Looks like we'll have to fight through Gangamai, huh?"




"A story!" The man yelled at the Faceless Five and Turas. "Anything! An update on your life! Why are you travelling with these people? What are you planning to do next? Do you miss being at home?"

Nee sighed, tiredly looking at this new disturbance. He'd been following them for a while now, just yelling questions, claiming to be a part of the "Noble Outlooker" section of the "Yuna-Yae Daily" newspaper. A reporter, or whatnot, scribbling down whatever he could onto his paper, while his partner was hastily sketching and drawing both her and Turas from where they were.

"I don't-"

"Nee, you're the favorite noblewoman of Northern Yune! Everyone wants to know more about you!" He said enthusiastically, almost jumping up and down. "How old are you? What's your favorite color? Your favorite animal! Your birthday, your love life, your sexual lif-"

Nee shot him a dark glare, still riding the living suit of armor. The reporter took the hint - at least, it seemed he did, anyways, and turned to Turas.

"Turas, we haven't even seen you for years until now!" He exclaimed gleefully. "A lot of us thought you might've died, you know! Your fans in Yuna-Yae were getting worried! How have you been, why did you leave your family? Why are you with these two.. big women? Are you -" He looked between Nee and Turas and then gasped. "Nee and Turas are eloping? So the rumors of Nee's kidnap were just a cover for the young lovers to-" He turned to his partner, making hasty whispers.

Goddamnit. Nee just wanted to relax as best as she could, thinking of the upcoming festival to commemorate her return. Of how to entertain Noxchi and her vigilantes in some semblance of thanks. But then this.... this happened.

"Gridiron..." Nee whined sullenly. "Can you make them go away...?"

Seriously. This was the last thing she wanted enroute to Furoe. Other than another run in with Moga's faction, of course. Maybe if they just killed the damn reporter they could get on with everything.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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Was she really like this back in the old guild? Phecda's memory was starting to fail him now. "Well...you seem rather optimistic that he won't get lost at sea," he commented with a lopsided grin. "Ah well, if you really wish, I will be keeping tabs on wherever Fortune is going. But it's hard to say his new...companions...won't be intending the worst for him."

Suddenly, when he spoke of monitoring on Fortune's location, he remembered something else. "Hold that thought for a moment..." he muttered, turning around, draining his cup of sweet-tasting tea, and setting it down. Placing his mask back upon his face, he began sensing for, not Fortune, but Hyuna. And it seemed she was going towards the Gangamai Desert...

...but what was this? Terra and the rest of Fortune's new Guild had just emerged in an underground city at the edge of the desert. Interesting. He'd at least have something to do, if Kaede was planning to wait until Fortune got back to the mainland. "So, what will you do next, my friend? Even though I don't technically have a job, I've still got quite some work on my hands."

----------------------------------------

As Terra's eyes fluttered open, the first thing she noticed was that, while the pain was still there, all her injuries from the past two days were completely gone. But immediately after that, she noticed something else: They weren't in the desert temple anymore. Instead, small sandstone houses stood around them, illuminated by torchlight and the desert's afternoon sun piercing through...holes in the sky?! But she quickly realized that they were underground a few moments later. So...they got here while she was sleeping. Ugh, why can't I ever have the slightest clue where I'm going these days?

Pulling herself to her feet, she landed directly next to the beast-girl who had joined them just that previous night...it took her a bit to remember the wolf girl's name, though. Rune, was it? "M-morning...or whatever time it is, Rune," Terra greeted, still a little bit bashful. "W-where are we now?"

However, as she walked, suddenly someone slammed into her from the side--Terra let out a scream as she was roughly knocked back a few inches, directly in front of the wolf girl that she had been talking to. "H-hey! Watch where you're going!" she began to say. But when she saw the face of the person who ran into her, her voice faultered. Was that really him?! Why was he here?!

----------------------------------------

Umi had been in such a hurry to get away from the area in which that woman screamed for the guards to arrive, that he hadn't paid much attention to where he was going. Before he knew it, he smashed into a very small girl while he was turning a corner. Just as the girl began to reprimand him, and Umi was already preparing some sort of sarcastic apology out of habit...the girl's voice suddenly stopped. Confused, Umi took a better look at the girl...

When he realized who she was--despite her having grown slightly taller, her face hadn't really changed--the response he had suddenly evaporated from his mind. She was right here. Terra was alive and well. And he had finally found her.

"...U-Umi?" Terra finally stammered. "I-is that really you? B-but...h-how did you find me?"

Then, Umi finally found his own voice. "Y-yeah, i-it's me, Terra! I...well, I came back from Onium...j-just a few days ago. But, well, when I got b-back to Lindas...um, well, you had already left...for the Yune Empire. A-and, I-I was worried about what happened to you, so...well, I, uh, I went looking for you. I-it took me a lot of searching, b-but...yeah, I-I'm here now!" God dammit, what the hell am I doing?! I usually...don't, uh...stumble on my words like this...geez, now it's happening to my thoughts, too! Ugh... Despite all the thoughts racing around in his head at the moment, though, he had a broad smile on his face, glad to have finally found her...

But the same expression wasn't really replicated upon Terra's face. "Y-you s-seriously c-came all this way...j-just for...m-me, of all p-people?" The words were said with...much less joy than Umi's words had carried, even in their jumbled state. "I-I...w-well, um...t-thanks, I guess." Wait, what was with those words? They sounded so half-hearted to the boy's ears.

"H-hey..." Umi leaned so that his face was in Terra's field of view, for she had turned her head away from him when she thanked him. "I-is something wrong? Y-you didn't get hurt by someone, right? I-I mean..."

Terra, however, quickly turned her head in a different direction again. "N-no...I-I'm well, t-thank you. Th-there were some...um...n-nice people that h-have been taking care of me f-for the past few days, s-so..." A pause, and then she swallowed hard. "B-but...Umi...I-I, um...did I really m-matter that much t-to you? S-so much t-that...a-after coming back, f-fighting so hard for Gwan, y-you'd just throw yourself out there just for s-some girl y-you trained a few years ago?"

This took Umi aback, so much that he actually stopped smiling. "I...uh-what do you mean by that? O-of course you'd matter to me! I-I mean, I didn't have very many chances to write home...i-in fact, not a chance at all for the l-last 3 months...s-so...I..."

But he couldn't really finish what he was saying. After a long pause, Terra finally responded. "...w-well, I missed you too, b-but...Umi, e-even if you really liked me t-that much...t-to me, it just d-doesn't make sense you'd follow me here! N-not even for my sake, I mean..." At this point, her voice dropped to a whisper, as though she were afraid to say the words. "...I-I don't mean t-to hurt you by saying this...but, it seems more to me...like you went after me, into the Yune Empire...more for yourself than for me."

These quiet words had the effect of lightning on Umi's mind. At first, he tried to deny it, but the more he tried thinking about it, any arguments he could think of seemed silly and unworkable. Then, just why did he come here?

----------------------------------------

It seemed as though the last few words she said were causing Umi to actually stagger in what seemed like pain. Part of Terra wanted to rush up to him, hug her old friend, and deny she meant what she said...but, the way she saw Umi now, she couldn't tell if it'd make things even worse. And also, doing that just felt downright wrong.

"...but now that we're here, Saaklemore, I'll accept working with you on one condition." The two suddenly were aware of Sunaarashi speaking to an unfamiliar man who seemed to be their guide. The bald member of Fortune, however, was speaking in cold, almost bloodthirsty tones. "Every slaver in this town dies."

The girl in the ruined green kimono stared at him in shock. "S-Sunaarashi...a-are you serious?!" Her mind was already strained from her conversation with Umi, but this was sending her into panic mode at the worst possible time. "W-we can't take on e-every slaveholder a-at once!" And yet, the guide agreed to this idea. What the-?! "E-everyone, p-please, this is just suicidal!" Terra pleaded, trying to reason with them. "I-I know, slavery is terrible, b-but-" But no one seemed to listen to her...

"...if we do have to fight them...what will you do?" The weary voice of the boy in the long blue jacket came from behind her once again, as though it had lost all of its strength.

Once again, Terra wondered if she should support him or something, but something was still telling her not to. It was really strange... "I-I...well, if w-we really have to, t-then...I-I really don't know, Umi. W-whatever plan they've got, it probably won't work...right?"

"...y-you just said yourself, that slavery is wrong." As he said this, Umi started to pull himself up straighter. It seemed as though a dying fire burned in his expression...but a fire nonetheless. "I'm sure a lot of us think it's wrong, too. And if that's the case...I think we should take action, just like your bald friend. We just need a plan."

After staring at him as though he had turned into a pegasus (which, to her knowledge, doesn't even exist) or something, Terra sighed, figuring she probably was outvoted on this issue. "Alright...I guess, then, both of us will go along with it. Umi...I, um..." Her voice faultered once again as she tried to get out the last words. "...t-thank you for helping us with this," she finally managed, giving a weak smile.

Silence fell between the two, before Umi gave his own weak smile. "Hope I can be of use in this crazy plan," he replied.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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Kill everyone? Rumelis had thought, for a while, that the bald one-- Sunaarashi-- was a step above most of the guild members, but it seemed he was as indifferent to killing as the others. Was it really the only option? Not that slavers were harmless brigands, but still... a life should be a difficult thing to snuff.

"I know slavery's wrong and all that-- hell, there are probably lots of beast-men like me enslaved here-- but still, kill all the slavers? At the very least, wouldn't that be incredibly difficult? It's not like these people walk about the streets with no guards..."

He'd done things slightly against his morals before, but this was rather dire. At the same time, it wasn't like Rumelis was going to single-handedly hold them back, so there wasn't much he could do.

"Well, anyway, if you're set on it, then go for it-- but don't expect me to help in the killing. I'll free slaves and incapacitate guards, sure, but I won't kill them in cold blood. It doesn't sit well with me."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Yuwen Fortune Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki
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"I agree with Rumelis and Lo-Muna," Suiken began. "I will gladly join in freeing slaves, but I will take no part in a mass slaughter."

"Slaughter would imply that the people we'd be fighting would be helpless, Brother Fat. I assure you these slavers'd most certainly fight back," Shiisan then turned to Rumelis. "Brother Bear, only thing that's coldblooded around here is working men, women, and children to until the day they die. If these slavers were warriors they'd expect nothing less than for you to give them an honorable death after a battle. But...that's besides the point. If what Saaklemore says is true, then whether we kill or incapacitate these slavers won't matter. No matter what we do, they'd send an army to raid the town for us."

"To face them now, whether to free slaves or to kill slavers, would mean our death. And that sickens me. What we can do and should do...is deliver a fatal blow to the slavers from the shadows," Shiisan sighed. "Create a wound in their system that they'd never recover from.

Shiisan then turned back to Saaklemore. "Which would be impossible without the help of Brother Saak, since he's the only one here who truly knows Gangamai. So, Brother Saak...your plans?"

***

"See that's the one thing I hate the most, Fortune...somebody who proclaims themselves a 'hero' just give the hell up. Kid, we kidnapped you under orders, but we planned to defy that from the start" Pele began to tell Yuwen. "And I knocked you unconscious again, and I apologize for that. But stop mopin' and listen for one second, will ya? We aren't the den of 'murderers and thieves' you think we are. It ain't coin we're after here, but one specific goal. To rid the world of an evil it's not even remotely prepared for."

"Nameless Ashura's right. You're unfortunately, the best lead we've got to fight this evil, so do what real heroes do and make do with what ya got." Pele turned to face the crew he assembled proudly. "We ain't exactly a Great Guild, but I'd say we're pretty damn great."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare
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Millie took the pendant, the smooth metal cool to the touch. Her fingers tightened around it as Hyuna offered a confused response to her words. She shook her head. "I'm...I'm not get-getting at anything," she stammered. "I wasn't trying to..." Looking down, she noticed that the fields of green had turned to a golden yellow during their flight. "It's nothing. Never mind." If she really was going to get into the thick of it, it would have to be at a better time, a time where matters weren't so sensitive.



"Killing is the last option," Lo-Muna said as their acting guild leader. That was all she needed to hear. It wasn't as though she'd particularly reveled in murder or found battle to be a thrill. It was just that ending a life was usually faster, easier, and less risky than trying to knock out the opponent. However, she was confident that it wouldn't have any real impact on her overall combat performance.

"I understand," Ann nodded. "If a combat situation arises, I will aim for nonlethal take-downs." It was strange, though only to a certain extent. Everybody seemed to have strong opinions on this matter one way or another. Some were intent on killing while others were completely against it. She wasn't exactly caught in the middle-ground, but alternating between the two just seemed incredibly inefficient. It couldn't be that they expected their entire journey was to follow through without bloodshed so she couldn't help but wonder why it mattered now if it wouldn't matter later. If they were going to have conviction in a more peaceful end to matters, they could be at least be a little more consistent about it.

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Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
Rune just shrugged at the whole thing. To be honest, in a way, wasn't she herself a kind of slave? She had more freedom, sure, but she also had a lot of things that she couldn't do with her father there, lording over her will. She couldn't find love, for instance - not that there was anyone she felt particularly affectionate towards, everyone was more or less 'yeah, he's cool' or 'sure, she seems nice', and other similar statements. No one to really hate or like. But of course, it had only been about a day so far. She was fine to take the relationships with the others slowly, if need be.

Slavery. In a way, it was simply fate, right? Sure, the fate was terrible and life-ruining, but still. No matter how you struggled or perhaps, didn't struggle, there was no getting away from it. Whatever ultimate course life chose for you was how you'd go. Even if you did everything in your power to change your path, it had as much effect as killing a worm did in the grand scheme of things. She was fated to die of that disease, back in Askia. Everyone Krawl had killed to perfect his technique were fated to be slaughtered and experimented on in order to bring her back. And she was fated to live out whatever semblance of life she could - if she could even be counted as one of the living.

"I don't really care either way." Rune said finally, shrugging, with a bit of a tug at the corner of her mouth. "Killing or not killing them. Either way has suffering slaves so it doesn't matter in the long run."

The Wolf-beastman Jiangshi shuffled next to the tengu, Yamato, as they entered the ... base, apparently. Krawl wasn't too far behind - she could feel the power surging through her body, after all - and grinned a little.

"Oh, and..." She turned to Terra and... that guy. "Go find a room, I'm not exactly a fan of exhibitionism."




"I'm...I'm not get-getting at anything," The girl propped up on her shoulders said. "I wasn't trying to... It's nothing. Never mind."

Hyuna just let out a grunt in response, as they landed onto the dunes of the Genga Desert. There were rumors of people going in, disappearing, or whatever the fuck, but it didn't really matter, really. They weren't disappearing or teleporting - what the shit, teleporting, really? - so that's all that mattered. They were getting close to Gangamai now - the slaver capital, and Hyuna really... didn't the idea of maybe the guild being down there, somewhere. A lot of fodder for her to murder, after all. She turned to Millie, drinking some water from her canteen.

"I think the guild's in the underground city." She shrugged, glancing around, trying to get a bearing on their location. "It's... not the best place. Slaves everywhere, so. Stay close once we get there okay?" In a smaller, less obvious voice. "Don't want shit to happen to you, that's all..."

Killing slavers? Does it really matter who you kill?

Goddmanitfuck. The dark one. Why did it come back now? Hyuna felt almost uncertain - but her little break was over, and a few minutes later, the two were flying through the air again until she saw it, the entrance, and dove down, at speeds fast enough to blind any guard at the entrance, feeling the cool air wash over them. The great underground chasm.

Slaves everywhere. It really was disgusting. But at least they were out away from the actual desert itself. Unfortunately... Muna was close by. She could tell. The rabbit was - fuck, don't even think about that. Don't even fucking waste time on that.

"Don't get off my shoulders, Millie." Hyuna repeated sternly, once again feeling the dark energy course through her. "I mean it."

They started walking, Hyuna with her guard up, ready to slaughter anyone who tried to lay a hand on them.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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As the others commented on Sunaa's plan, and Rune sent what sounded like a snide remark in Terra and Umi's direction (which caused Umi to give the wolf girl an enraged, embarrassed glare, and Terra to let out a rather flustered reply filled with stuttering which Rune probably didn't understand anyway), their guide suddenly called that they had reached their destination. "Talk to the boys, I'm sure they'll have something for you to do in exchange for the kindness I've treated you all with."

"Well...this is a welcoming sight," Terra heard Umi say from a small distance away...but it was so dark that she could barely see him. "So...better get comfortable, I guess." Along with the others, he walked into the hideout, dim torchlights being lit shortly afterwards.

But Terra remained outside. At the moment, her eyes were fixed upon her old friend and (not-so-professional) mentor in unarmed combat. Somehow, she just didn't know how to think of him now...it just made no sense to her that he'd come after him! Especially not after all the things she had done to the Guild while trying to help them, and her inability to solve anything...

No. She must not think like that, Terra reminded herself. If you think you're useless, you really will be useless. I don't know if I did enough in the competition with the Hunter's Guild, but...well, we're here, aren't we? So I did help some, in the end... The small egotism she could feel in those words made them feel strange, coming from her, but nonetheless, they made herself feel just a bit better about herself.

Leaning against the doorway, she started quietly singing to herself, still not really caring to talk with the other members. Even if her opinion of herself was improving, she still felt reserved about spending time with them...particularly Yamato, who seemed rather disapproving of...a lot of things, really, or Sunaarashi, who probably was coming up with some other convoluted, unworkable plan for mass murder of slavers. Which reminded her...if somehow, they ended up using Sunaa's plan, what would she do?

It enough to make Terra feel the slightest bit paranoid, and so, ending her song prematurely, she walked a few feet away from the doorway. Unsheathing her swords, she focused on their edges with her mind, reshaping the structure of both of them so she wouldn't cut herself if she did something foolish. Then she began to whip them around herself in the air, carefully practicing all the techniques she could remember, while trying to refrain from using her Chi as she practiced.

Time seemed to fly past Terra as quickly as her swords and feet flew through the air. As she made a wide arc far to her side with her left arm, thrust forward with the green sword in her right hand, and tried to quickly move back, however, her feet ended up crashing into each other, sending Terra falling to the ground in a rather embarrassing heap. "O-ow...guess I still need to work on that one," she muttered to herself with a sheepish smile.

"Hey, it's not...uh, that bad at all. Clearly, um...you've improved since we...I mean, since I last saw you." Looking up in surprise, she saw Umi leaning against the doorway in the exact same manner that she had been 15 minutes earlier. He was eating...a rice ball? Terra eyed it a bit enviously, as she was particularly fond of them, especially the ones made by--
Well, at that point, Umi noticed her gazing at it, and, apparently assuming she was wondering where he got it, he smiled a little more, held up the half-eaten treat, and declared, "Specially made by Rika Hakaze."

The moment he said that, Terra immediately forgot any restraint. "Y-you have more, right?" she asked, dropping her swords and standing up. Half surprised and half amused by her reaction, Umi nodded, went back inside, and came out soon with a second one in his left hand, which the silver cestus had been taken off of. He held it out to her, and she quickly snatched it from his hands, biting into it and tasting a wonderfully nostalgic, sweet flavor. Just one month and this was the effect of Rika's cooking on her? Kind of silly, but there was not much she could do about it.

"Well, I...would have thrown it to you...but, I don't seem to, uh, remember you being very good at catching things," Umi muttered as he tossed the last of his own rice ball into his mouth, and then sucked a grain of rice that had stuck to his thumb up.

"H-haah?!" Terra, who had finished her snack almost as soon as she had received it, nearly fell over as she was picking up her swords. "Are you serious right now?" As if for emphasis, she tossed her blue sword into the air and swept it in an arc above their heads before causing it to fly back at her. Then she caught it in her left hand, in the same backhanded position that it usually was held in. With this display finished, Terra flicked the crystal blade back and forth before her feet, and slid it back into its sheath, flashing an almost uncharacteristically triumphant look at her friend.

After staring at her for a few moments, Umi sighed and looked away, with a smile that looked a little more...melancholic. "I guess, well...a lot really has changed," he sighed. "S-say...Terra...w-when I set off, I was planning to, um, you know...bring you back to Lindas. I-I guess the place, as nice as my memories of it are, just...I dunno, doesn't seem quite right without you. But..." Turning back, he looked at her directly in the eyes with an expression that seemed afraid of what her response would be. "W-well...if I did ask you to go back with me, a-after all this is finished...what would you do?"

At first, Terra was not sure what to say...it was Umi, after all; even if he was acting strange, wasn't she supposed to help him feel better about this kind of stuff as his friend? Besides, the reason she had come to the Yune Empire...she had already long been sidetracked from it, after the incident with the horrors. And then, the Great Guild Fortune...looking back into the hideout, she remembered that a number of the members had not really shown her much respect. No matter what she did, it never seemed like she really had a valid reason to stay with them, did it?

And yet, the answer she delivered... "...Umi...to be honest, I...I don't really want to go back to Lindas." As he gave her a wide-eyed, disbelieving look, she cleared her tightened throat, and began to speak again. "I-I mean, it's not like I h-haven't gotten homesick, and the Yune Empire w-wasn't exactly the nicest place to be...b-but..." Looking into the hideout at Fortune's members, who were still socializing, she sighed, swallowed again, and whispered, "I-it's strange, you know...being dragged into the strange things those people get themselves into, and fighting for their sake...even if I don't manage to do anything, I...I kind of feel like I enjoy being with Muna, Rumelis and the others. It really feels like my life actually has a meaning now...so to speak. That's why..."

"Are you kidding me?!" Umi leapt up, not bothering to keep his voice down. "I--you-" Remembering where he was, he glanced back into the room to make sure no one was listening, and turned back. "The Tengu said you were nothing but trouble, you know! He probably doesn't care if you die or not, you realize. And besides...uh..." Confusion began to cloud his voice at this point. "I...well, I...I kind of want to stay with you, you know..."

When he mentioned what Yamato had said, Terra felt a little stung, but also the despair that usually plagued her mind began to return. "...I...well, yes, I guess I was kind of trouble," she muttered. "I...Umi, I almost killed one of them, and I also got some of them jailed. But it feels more to me, as a result...that I must stay with them now. And..." Now was the hardest one of her reasons to say. "Umi...you kind of, um...made it sound as though you need me a lot...not just that you thought I would need you to save me. That's why I personally believe that, um...the two of us should stay apart from each other for a while longer."

At first, Umi began to protest, but after meeting her eyes for a full 30 seconds, he sighed and seemed to sag a little. "Well...I guess I'll decide, um, what to do after this is over," he sighed. "I-I guess I'll...uh...trust your judgement for now." But once again, he seemed utterly devoid of energy.

Terra clasped his hand tightly. "Don't worry, Umi. Just a bit more time, away from all the wars and our troublesome parents, and everything else...but please, away from me as well. Look, I've gotten stronger myself, by being with these people!" With a quickly brightening smile, she gestured into the hideout at the Great Guild Fortune. "So, i-if it works for me...everything will turn out wonderfully for you, too, I'm sure!" Pulling him after her, she started moving into the hideout herself, finally feeling ready to speak with the others if necessary. "W-well, when you're ready to decide where you want to go, let me know, okay? B-but for now, let's get you introduced properly to the others!"

The girl in the ruined green kimono stepped inside, pulling her rather reluctant and flustered friend in a dark blue jacket directly to her side. "M-Muna? Everyone? I-I don't think we properly got introductions out of the way..." Raising her hand, she gestured to Umi, who, rather embarrassed, raised a hand in greeting awkwardly. "T-this is my old friend, Umi Aogetsu. H-he'll be helping us with whatever we decide to do, alright? P-please, let's get along for the time being!"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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The guild walked into the hideout, their noses greeted with the smell of soup boiling over a small fireplace built into the wall. The inside of the base consisted of one large room. A dimly lit lantern hung from the stony ceiling and in the center of the room lay a large table, surrounded with chairs and various criminals, some looking over a plethora of papers and maps, while others were busy bundles of coins. On the far side of the base, to the right, lay many beds of various quality.

Saaklemore had run off to one of the members of his crew who was going over maps, a dragonfly beastman and whispered something, to which the dragonfly beastman nodded. The insect beastman grabbed the map he was glancing over and swiftly flew over towards the guild, buzzing around each of them to get a good look at them.

"So you're the new blood, eh," the Dragonfly mused, tapping his chin. "How'd you like your first taste of Gangamai? Sucks, huh? Welcome to everyday life for us. We make the best of it, though..."The dragonfly held out the map he was holding in front of them. "And now, with your help, it's going to be even better. See, we've run into...a bit of a big debt with some powerful friends of ours in Sudea. Time was running out to pay up, so two days ago, we set our sights on a HUGE shipment of gems our scouts spotted, about to be hauled out to Yuna-Yae. We sent our best to retrieve it, but...we were desperate and careless. One slip up cost us all and soon all of our best soon became not much of anything at all, but a smear on the street. Gangamai might be one big pile of shit, but with as big as the the slave trade is here, it has to be guarded like a royal fortress. The army folk around here are nothing to mess with..."

"That said, we did manage to give the army a fright in our ambush, I think. They put the gems back in storage. Guess their waiting for a more opportune time to ship them out," the Dragonfly continued.

"Aaand, lemme guess. You want us to steal 'em for you since you lost your top goons?" Shiisan interjected flatly. "Big surprise there. But,uh,won't that be pretty well guarded?"

"Well, yeah..." the Dragonfly shrugged. "That's pretty much the first huge problem. The second is that uh...there's one of three safehouses they could be stored in. And all our best scouts are out, so we had to rely on our good ones...and they didn't know which," he admitted, garnering skeptical looks from the guild. "Look, I know it's kinda risky, but hey this is in exchange for lodgings in Gangamai. you won't find any better than our place....trust me."

"And look at it this way...you do this and I give you this map of Gangamai," the Dragonfly added, his clawed finger hovering over three circled areas on the map, presumably the three possible safehouses. "Looking over this map, visiting various locations....it'll give you a good layout of this shitstain of a city. You wanna plan out how to free the slaves here? This is a good crash course in how Gangamai works."

"If you say yes, you're free to stay here for the night, safe from the guards. We have enough info on each of the three potential safehouses in our files, so I suggest you go over 'em tonight along with your plans tonight and get thievin' tomorrow. If you accept the job, that is..."

"Well, what do you all think, gang?" Suiken asked. As he did, Terra had walked into the room, introducing an old friend of hers.

"Greetings, Umi," Suiken greeted.

"Yo," Shiisan greeted. "So, uh, either of you two like burglary?" he asked nonchalantly.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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Umi nodded to the others as they greeted him, though he still acted somewhat icy in demeanor. But then... "Wonderful, the lovable idiot is back! I thought we lost you to the forest. Can this day get any better?" Yamato's harsh words cut through the air.

Almost immediately, Umi stepped forward, an enraged look in his eyes. "Hey, yo-"

However, as he was raising his fist, Terra suddenly grabbed it, an urgent look in hers. "Umi, p-please stop! We can't afford to be fighting amongst o-ourselves right now!" Before Umi could protest, she moved onto her toes and whispered into his ear, "Yamato is one of the less tolerant members of Fortune. J-just ignore him, please."

After some moments of glaring at Yamato, Umi sighed, raised his hand, and sent a small amount of Yamato's drink spilling onto the counter just to spite him, prompting Terra to put a hand to her face and groan quietly (not that he noticed). "Fine, whatever," he sighed, before turning to Shiisan. "And, as to your question, um...sir...well, I was sent on a few missions to steal intel while fighting in On-" He was cut short when Terra suddenly elbowed him, pointing frantically at the Snow Oni at the other side of the room. "...uh, in Gwan's wars," the boy finished lamely. "Terra...you?"

The girl shook her head. "I-I'm afraid I don't have any experience in the field. But...even though I don't usually like stealing, we'll gladly help. Of course, I-I hope you're not worried about losing any gems...I might mess up while transporting them, after all." Or I might have to use those gems to defend us, on the other hand...

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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Yamato continued to sip his drink, despite Umi tipping it over while he'd set it down for two seconds. He just smirked and shook his head. He'd heard Terra's remark about him being the least tolerant member of the guild. It was a double edged remark. He'd thought himself quite tolerant, he hadn't killed a guild member yet after all, and at the same time he liked the feeling that they were some how beneath him. He lasted this long on his arrogance, to lose his arrogance would mean to lose the image he'd created after killing his clan. A feat that was more self preservation and subsequently an adrenaline rush. However, he was pegged as being in the wrong, so he ran with that. He couldn't let them know he had been officially exiled from his homeland. Not that he cared, but it was a piece of his image that he was acting on his own choices.

He downed the drink and quickly put the money on the counter, just give me the bottle. He proceeded to drink a quarter of the bottle without a breath. "Better..." he whispered as the memories and emotions became blurred. All that remained was his rash decision making. He looked over at where Terra and Umi stood, "I'll be dammed if I actually let anything happen to that girl. She has too much potential to die with this group." He looked the rest over, "None of these people deserve to die in this guild. It's my blade that will make sure they don't, I'll make sure this guild reaches its goals and I'll be remembered as the Demon of the Great Guild Fortune. A nice ring to it." He thought as a small evil grin crossed his lips, "The Fallen One..."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
Sleep? Rune didn't need to sleep. The idea was almost laughable. While the others slept, the wolf beastman prowled through the dimly lit streets of Gangamai. Her little disguise was sure helping at the moment - all signs of being a beastman, obscured, and thus a low chance of her being enslaved. And just in case, she had her father available to launch whatever was needed. Nothing to worry about, nothing at all. And plus, she wanted to explode. Get a feel for the territory. Learn it's little nooks and crannies, it's little spots to do whatever it was she had to. And from the looks of things, it was needed. If the guild really were to fight against the institution here, well, a great many things could happen, really. And most of them bad. They were simply outpowered and outnumbered - and over the years, Rune and Krawl have heard rumors of two particularly powerful figures here, one being a centipede beastman, and the other is rumored to be a really big ashura. Cant be sure, though.

Naked goblins littered the streets, in utterly abject states. It really wasn't much of a life at all, really. They were basically dead. Rune observed them, shrugging, as she walked. This really was a shithole. But a potentially entertaining shit hole. So many little alcoves where a fight could break out. And Rune, well, a fight was always awesome. And it's especially fun on the losing side of things. Rune wandered along, seeing more things around her the whole time. This really was going to be fun. Her body was already preparing for a battle, and hell, it'd be fun, wouldn't it?

Many goblins and beastmen slaves. Everywhere, literally everywhere. Rune let out a sigh as the pathetic sight. They didn't even try to fight their fates, did they? Not that it would have amounted to anything, but at least you'd have a semblance of life, rather than simply being a dead mindless vessel. Why didn't they even try? They had the strength of numbers, did they not? And perhaps a swift death would be a kinder way to go than this slow agonizing path. Farther along, she heard voices. Her ears pricked as she focused to get a better hearing.

"You've got a shit sense of humor as always."

Squinting from her position,she ducked behind a few crates, watching the scene unfold.

Hyuna was pissed off. The only one that really gave a shit about her - goddamnit, what was she thinking, doing this? Bringing Millie into this shit? Gangamai, fucking Gangamai, Hyuna really was the worst idiot. The absolute worst. She eyed both of the slavers coldly, holding Millie defensively to her. It was obvious what was going to happen if she just submitted. But could she fight her way out with Millie at hand? Shouldn't be too hard, not at all. The lancer started swirling air together in her left fist, preparing to simply explode the fools to death. It was gruesome, but quick and effective.

"I refuse." She growled, and tensed her legs, ready to -

This is all the brat's fault.

Goddamnit. Why did the dark one have to come now, of all times? Hyuna clenched her teeth viciously, doing her best to keep it down, to not respond to the taunting that was sure to arise. Couldn't she get one simple break? A few explosions, and this would be a damn cinch. Why did the dark one have to fucking - whatever. She'd do what she had to do.

She couldn't let a repeat of Yaeha happen. No matter what the cost. She couldn't lose the only one that really wanted her around. Without Millie, what did Hyuna really have? A hole shitload of nothing, right?

Don't be stupid, and just give her up, you idiot

Shut up. Shut the fuck up.

"Sorry, Millie." Hyuna murmured, and shot her backwards using a blast of wind - Hyuna could feel the dark wisps straining through her chi hand, and shook it off. The dark one, again. She had to finish this quick. Not even bothering to answer the slaver's lines, Hyuna charged forward, quickly conjuring an illusion of her spear transforming into a scythe, and the glowing wings erupting from her back, blasting herself forward fast enough to-

Fuck. She felt it again. Losing control. Losing goddamn control. Hyuna more or less crumpled as she fought to keep the dark one from taking control of her body, crying out as she fell to the ground in front of the slavers, dark energy emerging from her body in tendrils and swirling lines. Don't lose it. Don't goddamn lose it. If the dark one took control.... Millie....

Rune recognized it pretty quickly, what was happening. That spear girl had an extra spirit housed inside her. It was almost a coincidence, really, but what the heck. So far all the spear girl did was lunge, make illusions somehow, and then collapse - the dormant soul trying to take control, it seemed. But perhaps more pressing was the girl that had been flung back. Rune quickly bundled her up, diving out from her hiding spot.

Whoever the spear girl was, Rune wouldn't be able to help her with her hands full like this. Not that she really cared all that much - but despite her disposition off fate ruling all... really, though, the kid was pretty young for whatever fate entailed. It... surely wouldn't hurt to help her out, right? Maybe care a little bit? Only a little bit. She was still in this mostly to make up for the time she's lost, after all.

"I've got a guild." Rune sneered. "I'll take her to safety, kay?"

The spear girl almost went frigid in shock at the word guild, but didn't move from her spot. She was, in essence, at the mercy of the two slavers, and she didn't even manage to land a hit.

A few minutes later, Rune returned to the hideout, seeing some of them now awake. The wolf laid the little girl down, dusting her off, and shrugged.

"Some spear girl and her got hit by slaves, looks like." Rune yawned to the guild leader, Lo-Muna. "Mind if we keep her with us for now? Not exactly a kid friendly place here." She rubbed her bow absently. "Other than that, I'm fine with whatever job. Wherever I'm needed, I guess."

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Well, it didn't seem as though Muna had slept at all, either. The way she and Rumelis were acting almost made Terra feel guilty that she had slept for so long herself, both during the trip here and for a few hours in this hideout. Nevertheless, Muna had a reply for Rumelis that probably would do a lot more to convince him than whatever Terra could say. "W-well..." The girl sat back down upon the edge of Muna's bed again. "I-I guess we should do our best still, Rumelis, okay? Even if w-we can pretty much, um...get out whenever we want to...at least, I think we can. Right?"

They were suddenly interrupted by the last of the beast-people who was accompanying them--Rune--walking in through the door. "Some spear girl and her got hit by slaves, looks like," she yawned as she placed a little girl with brown hair upon the bed near Terra. "Mind if we keep her with us for now? Not exactly a kid friendly place here. Other than that, I'm fine with whatever job. Wherever I'm needed, I guess."

But when Terra saw just who the girl Rune brought in was, she gasped in disbelief. "M-Millie?!" she nearly screamed, probably ruining everyone else's sleep in the process. "O-oh my god, w-what happened? Y-you're okay, right?" Come to think of it, she hadn't seen the little girl in the Gangamai desert at all...where had she gone?!

Wait. "Spear girl." Does that mean--?

Abruptly, Terra stood up and bolted out of the hideout...and was immediately greeted by the sight of mottled black tendrils of energy (if it even could be called that) shooting up into the air. "W-what...on Earth is..." she stammered, starting to step backwards. But looking at the shadows swirling into the air like that...it reminded her far too much of the horrors that she had been working so hard to avoid. "O-oh god, please don't let her be there," she half-groaned, half-pleaded (not to anyone in particular) as she hurried towards that area.

Surely enough, however, just as she feared, Hyuna was on the ground when she arrived, and...what?! It was her body that was exuding all these shadows! As the baffled slavers stared at the sight, not sure whether this was a sign that it was time to back off or if they could run in and do as they pleased, Terra immediately flung out both hands, and just like that, the ground the slavers were on flipped upwards, sending them spiraling several dozen meters down the street.

But Hyuna...there was nothing she could do at all about her, was there? Unless Terra asked the lancer to vent all her anger out upon the "witch" she hated so much...but wait, that would not necessarily help anything. The only thing she did, as such, was stand a few meters away from Hyuna, looking on with fear...and maybe a bit of despair.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Despite the bright words, the guild situation quickly became grim again. Rune had burst in with Millie in her hands and Terra had run out the door, having pieced together the situation as quickly as Lo-muna had. Instead of immediately bolting after the young girl, the rabbit looked at her guild and ordered, "I can't stop all of you from following but two of you stay to check on Millie and guard her. The rest of you can come or stay but I will be back."

And with that, the rabbit was gone. Her tired condition made her slower than usual however and she wasn't able to catch up to Terra until the young girl had finally stopped. Lo-muna's eyes widened at the sight and before she realized what she was doing, she was running towards the fallen spear girl. It wasn't the darkness that made her tremble with each step, but the sight of the young woman before her. Gangami seemed intent on reviving every bad memory Lo-muna had stored carefully in the recesses of her heart.

"Hyuna!" Lo-muna screamed, reaching out for the spear girl. "Hyuna, snap out of it! Hyuna!"

The cries sounded desperate even to Lo-muna. It was odd, the mix of guilt and fear with that hint of something else, something akin to relief really. But it was the fear that overrode the other emotions. The rabbit had no idea what she was doing. Even Suiken would have been more helpful at the moment. She continued to walk forward blindly...

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Just as Muna reached Hyuna, who seemed to be in one of her most horrible moods, and the lancer seemed to gain control over the terrifying dark aura she was emanating, the two slavers somehow managed to get behind the two quickly and grab them, pinning their arms behind their backs. "No!" Terra ran towards them, both hands on her swords, the slavers somehow managed to bolt away again, disappearing into the crowd.

Terra looked left and right, desperately trying to spot the slavers, but it was hard to tell them from the rest of the crowd. Catapulting herself to the rooftops, she looked around once again...but by the time she spotted the slavers, they were so far away that she knew she'd never be able to catch up. Just like that, she had lost both Hyuna and Muna.

No...not again...they got into trouble, and I did NOTHING again! Letting out a frustrated shout, Terra collapsed to her knees and slammed the ground with balled fists, tears streaming down her face. Just when she thought she had finally been able to stop weighing down the Guild, she had just failed again. And now, their leader was gone, in addition to Hyuna...and even if Hyuna technically abandoned them all, Terra felt absolutely horrible having seen her been carried off. "I-I'm really sorry...you two..." she sobbed.

But there was something in her mind telling her that this wasn't what she should be doing. So you're just going to sit here crying? You really can't do anything after all, can you? Stand up. Stand up, for god's sake! You'll never save them if you just sit around feeling sorry for yourself! "But...what can I do?" she wondered through her tears, raising her head just a little off the ground. "I-it's not like the Guild will ever trust me after thi-"

Suddenly, a new idea appeared to her. The Guild. They might not trust me, but I'll need them to save the two. If it's them, I'm sure...we will definitely save Hyuna and Muna! Wiping her tears away with her arm, she stepped off the building and landed upon the street, picking up the spear which Hyuna had left behind. It was gold-tinted, light, and ridiculously ornate...as a weapon, she saw it as just a silly mockery; Umi had told her once that more ornate weapons were easier to break. She had yet to test this, but fancy weapons still seemed just stupid to her. Didn't Hyuna have another spear?

Nevertheless, Terra headed back to the hideout, the spear held over her shoulder. Rune, Millie, and Rumelis were all awake, of course, but she seriously hoped someone else woke up to hear her words. "E-everyone..." Her throat cracked, and she was sure she was about to burst into tears, but she furiously beat back the urge and continued her message, trying hard to stutter as infrequently as possible. "H-Hyuna...she's arrived in G-Gangamai...b-but s-she..." A pause. She didn't think she could continue at all now...

Someone else was rising from a bed...it was Umi. And he was staring at her with worry, knowing how bad she was at speaking to people she didn't know well. He was about to say something, but Terra forced her panic down and continued. "S-she and Muna have been captured by slavers!" she almost shouted, the words forced out almost painfully. Indeed, it seemed she now was leaning upon Hyuna's spear for support...but regardless, Terra swallowed again and delivered the last part of her words, while Umi continued to stare at her, surprised and maybe even impressed. "Please, I-I'm sorry I...wasn't able to save them. But...if you all help, I'm sure...we c-can definitely get the two back!"

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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It was hard to say that Ann wasn't surprised by Millie's sudden appearance, but she accepted it with a warm embrace all the same, wrapping her arms gently around her. Her thoughts had been so adrift and aimless the past few days that she'd almost forgotten that the girl had even existed. It wasn't like her to be forgetful like that, but it really couldn't be helped with all everything she's had on her plate.

She nodded silently as Rune and Terra briefly explained the situation.

"Hyuna..." Millie cried softly. "We have to...go back for Hyuna..." She ran her fingers through the girl's hair and reassured her in a soothing voice.

"Shhh...It's okay, Millie," Ann smiled.

"Y-You're going to go help too, right Terra?" she asked with teary eyes.

"We'll get Lo-Muna and Hyuna back," Ann said. "You don't have to cry anymore." She let go of Millie and wiped away her tears. "Stay here with the rest. Terra, you don't have to come if you don't want to. This is a dangerous place for you." She rested her hand on the hilt of her sword and started walking in the direction that the two had been carried off to, gradually quickening the pace into a steady run. She'd already been around Gangamai on business terms before so she was somewhat familiar with its layout. This shouldn't take too long.



"Guess they'll have to do," Ren sighed. "The kid is who we really should've gotten, but I guess things can't ever be that easy." He raised a brow at his companion. "The hell are you doing? Just drop that dumb thing."

"Yeah, I was about to," he said, tossing the weapon to the ground with a metallic clatter. "The thing was fucking heavy. Is that even a real weapon?"

"I'm telling you, man. Gwans are crazy."

Ren briefly stopped in his tracks, his breath frozen and his nerves stiff.

"Yo, Ren? What are you stopping for?"

"...Nothing. It's nothing. Some chick with white hair just walked past me and gave me this killer glare. I swear I thought I was gonna have a heart attack."

"Huh?"

"The broad was staring at me like she wanted to tear my head off or some shit," Ren said with a slight shiver in his voice. "Gave me the fucking creeps. She had a katana on her too so I thought she was seriously gonna try to do it."

"White...hair? Oh, yeah, I saw her walk by us too. Damn, she was hot."

"Keep it in your fucking pants man."

"I feel like we're being followed."

"By the white-haired girl?"

"No, someone else." He shook the girl he was carrying. "There must've been more of them. Might be the one that knocked us back with earth chi."

"Then we better pick up the pace."

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Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Though normally, trying to speak to so many people about such a serious issue would have caused Terra so much internal chaos that she might even black out, she somehow managed to stay standing. As was, it seemed she had gotten at least a few of the others...at least, Ann, to take action.

Suddenly, she noticed Millie looking at her with teary eyes from Ann's arms. "Y-You're going to go help too, right Terra?" the small girl asked.

"We'll get Lo-Muna and Hyuna back," Ann's voice cut in at that very moment. "You don't have to cry anymore." She placed the small girl down, wiped away her tears, and stood back up, a hand on her sword. "Stay here with the rest. Terra, you don't have to come if you don't want to. This is a dangerous place for you."

Terra shook her head. "I...you might think I-I'm crazy, but I-I personally believe I'm at fault for letting them get taken...Ann, I'm coming along as well. Umi, please stay here with the others."

"H-hey, what?! I can't just si-" But Terra and Ann did not pay attention to the words of the boy as they headed out the door. After staring at them for a few seconds, hand raised, Umi sighed and sat back down onto the bed. "Well...just do me a favor and come back alright," he muttered, even though they wouldn't hear him.

Strangely, it seemed as though Ann knew exactly where to go, and the black-haired woman soon broke into a run, with Terra having to use her Chi to keep up. "H-how do you know where they've gone...?" she couldn't help but wonder aloud. As nice as it was that Ann knew where the slavers were going, it was a little too convenient...ugh, she couldn't let that bother her now! Straining her eyes again, Terra looked among the people they passed on the street, trying to see if she could remember the slavers' facial features at all.

Of course, it probably was far from the best idea, considering she had no idea how to fight with the weapon, but Terra was still holding tightly onto Hyuna's spear with both hands.

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Characters Present

Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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Just wonderful. Right after they had left in defeat, the people--Sunaa and Yamato, specifically--whom Terra had been fearing most appeared on the scene, demanding to know what happened. At first, Terra tried meeting their eyes as she spoke, but before she knew it, she felt tears gathering at her eyes. They probably would only think of how useless she probably had been in that fight, and to the guild in general.

"I-I...s-sorry, Y-Yamato...we...um, more like I...n-need to rest for a-a bit. Ask Ann, if s-she feels like a-answering...I-I'm heading back," she stammered, unable to meet the Tengu's eyes further. With those words, she staggered past him, back towards the hideout. If either he, Sunaa, or Shiisan were asking her any more questions, she bluntly ignored them.

------------------------------------

It felt like hours passed before Terra finally limped back into the hideout. But if any of the members of Fortune were asking her questions, Terra ignored them. Instead, she simply fumbled with the buckle of her belt which held her pouch and swords until it fell from her body and stumbled in the general direction of the sleeping area. "I need my bed," she muttered sullenly, not ready for whatever remarks the others had about her powerlessness. Without really caring about whose it was, she collapsed into an empty bed and lay there without pulling the covers up.

But then, someone sat on the bed, prompting Terra to look up. It was Umi who was sitting on her bed, looking practically terrified out of his wits--maybe that wasn't a surprise, with the giant slash that had appeared upon her back. "Terra, what happened out there?" he asked.

At first, Terra just smiled weakly and unconvincingly (because of the tears), told him nothing was wrong, and asked him to leave her alone, but the lie was too obvious for anyone at all to be fooled by it, and so Umi persisted. "Just...Umi, please go, I need to...rest now," she groaned, trying to push him away with a laughably feeble shove.

Turning to him for everything that made her cry, no matter how serious, was something she didn't want to have to do anymore.

-----------------------------------

After trying to get a response from Terra and getting weakly shoved away in response, Umi sighed, realizing he was getting too far into territory she probably didn't want to talk about, even with him. Though he wanted to help her, after the previous day, he wasn't sure he was the best person to do so anymore. Standing up, he went back to the table where the others were sitting. "I guess the rescue didn't go very well, did it," he sighed, sitting down heavily with both elbows on the table.

He didn't care at all about the guild named Fortune at all, but with Terra in such a dreadful state--physically and emotionally torn up from being unable to save some of them--just what did they mean to her? Umi couldn't understand it anymore, at least not without knowing who they had lost. "So...Hyuna and Muna, their names were?" he asked, keeping his voice somewhat low while glancing back at Terra. "Tell me, what were they like?"

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Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene
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Damn it.

Rumelis had been pacing their little hideout since the "rescue operation" began, anxious to see Lo-Muna-- and, despite the violent bent, Hyuna-- again. Now that probably wasn't going to happen, unless they could somehow get the two back from the slave trade... which would be nigh-suicidal. And he hadn't been able to do shit about it.

The other kid, the one he'd ran into in the woods with Fie, was asking them something about how Hyuna and Muna were. He figured it best to respond, as far as he knew.

"Hyuna's got a violent bent, but I think she's got a soft spot. Especially for beast-men... she had a thing for fur, I guess. As for Muna, she's probably the nicest woman I've ever met. A good leader, too, and a skilled healer."

He slammed his fist on a nearby table, which almost cracked under the blow.

"Damn it, we need 'em back! You guys got any leads or anything? I'd go out-- I'm sick of staying in this hole, really-- but I don't favor my odds as a lone beast-man on the streets. Not after this..." He paused. "If you have anything on the slavers who have those two, I'd like to know it. Now."

He hoped nobody noticed the twinge of desperation in his voice. They'd lost another leader in their little group... and they were running out of them, as far as he could see.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
To be honest... none of this really mattered to Rune. Why was slavery such a bad thing, anyways? It helped the economy - and without this slavery, a lot more people wouldn't be able to eat, and therefore, die. It's simply how things work. Slavery exists because it has a function that's ultimately beneficial for society. Sure, it sucked to be the ones fated to be slaves, but not everyone could have what they wanted. Rune certainly didn't want to be revived. She assumed she was perfectly fine wherever her soul was for those years. So despite that this Hyuna who seemed like an immature idiot, and Lo-Muna had been put into slavery... did it really matter? Not to Rune, at least. Their toil would help others live comfortable lives. That was a noble thing, wasn't it?

Seeing the bear freak out was entertaining, though. Rune decided to try and calm him down, at least a little bit. It hurt the guild's chances for him to suddenly rile up like this. And, of course, the failed rescue mission wouldn't help anything, either.

"Does it really matter?" Rune asked. "I mean, really. It sucks for them, I guess, but that's just how it is. We can't fight a whole system, y'know." She let out a bit of a chuckle. "I mean, really. Think about it, once they've been sold or whatever, it's not just one or two guys we'll have to fight. It'll be the entire city. We don't stand a chance."




"No, my fault, my blame, my comeuppance. My plans, my schemes,my webs, my irons," Hyuna watched Lo-Muna's despair creep up again, and the ex-spear girl bit her cheek in frustration. This wasn't working. This really wasn't working at all. Maybe there was a way to at least help her. Even a little bit. They were heading through a tunnel now, to what seemed to be a rather large area. Possibly an auction? If she was going to get Muna out, it'd have to be fast. Hyuna tried to move her hands again - but yet again, that failed to yield any results. It was almost too late.

"We escape. We sort it out. We decide then," Tears leaked from the rabbit's eyes. Okay, that was it, Hyuna had to deal with this now. There's no way she'll let anyone make her cr - well, uh. That was a stupid line, Hyuna scowled at herself - wait, fuck, this isn't even what's important right now, don't get distracted. Idiot. Dark one's being all quiet right now so she has to get herself some leverage as quickly as possible. "What comes with servitude is not something either one of us should have to endure."

She wouldn't let Muna suffer like this.

She turned her head up to the slaver who'd wanted to fuck her. It was the only thing she could do.

"...You can do what you want wit my body." She said, feeling more afraid than she let on. It was worth it, though. A murdermachine being put in the slave market was probably a good thing, anyways. At least that way she wouldn't be able to kill anyone anymore. She wouldn't be able to. And as such, her body's value was lesser than Muna's freedom. Maybe, just maybe... "I'll even try to make it good for you. So... let the rabbit go, okay? I'll do whatever you want."

This had to work.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Rumelis looked at the girl, Rune. It was hard for him not to get angry at her, for saying something so blunt, but... he had a feeling, in the back of his head, that she was right, that they couldn't do anything like that. It would be the whole city against them...

"Damned slavery!" He exclaimed. Under his breath, he wondered why the hell he hadn't stayed in the woods of Yune, where none of this was a concern... but that was past now.

"Listen. I know you're probably right, but I don't want to admit it yet. I mean, at the very least..." He wondered how the idea would sit, figured it didn't matter in the end. "If we can get our hands on some money... we could buy them back, right? Wouldn't be heroic, but at the very least we'd be able to leave this shithole and get the rest of the Guild together."

He was still pacing the room. He couldn't help himself-- he wanted to make sure that these people wouldn't be killed-- or worse-- in front of him.

He wasn't going to let them die, have their lives be a wasted effort. Nobody deserved that.

"How much does a slave cost, anyways?"

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
Rumelis... didn't take it very well at all. Rune sighed - this was kind of a hassle. But the bear was an idiot if he thought this little ragtag group could do anything to fix the problem. They couldn't - and was it really that much of a problem? Rune questioned the intelligence of leading them into Gangamai in the first place. Going into such a cesspool clearly wasn't going to lead to any good situations. It was pretty stupid, and in entering Gangamai, you more or less had to be careful. Otherwise, you end up like Hyuna and Lo-Muna. Why no one else seemed to understand this was beyond her.

"Listen. I know you're probably right, but I don't want to admit it yet. I mean, at the very least..." Paused for a second, and Rune grinned slightly. "If we can get our hands on some money... we could buy them back, right? Wouldn't be heroic, but at the very least we'd be able to leave this shithole and get the rest of the Guild together. How much does a slave cost, anyways?"

"Dunno." Rune said at last. The bear really was way too idealistic, but perhaps it was simply the way he was. Rune was a pretty good thief though, so she immediately started walking for the exit, feeling slightly giddy. "Gonna nab some cash from some people who probably don't need it."

The wolf nimbly melted into the heavy crowd, keeping her bearings so that she didn't get lost. Every once in a while when she saw what appeared to be a slaver, she slipped next to them and nabbed at their pockets before slipping somewhere else. It wasn't long until she filled her quiver to the brim with coins, hearing some faint cries of "hooded girl stole my cash!" She shrugged, figured it didn't really matter, and returned to the little base, emptying her quiver onto the table. Coins splashed down like water - it really was an impressive amount. To Rune, at least, it looked like she could buy anything she ever wanted for the rest of her life with that much coin.

"Does that work? Should I go do another round?"




Muna... wasn't taking it very well at all. Hyuna sighed... making this more of a hassle than it had to be. But, really, Hyuna didn't really expect her to, but really, it was making it harder for her to go through with it. The lancer looked the rabbit in the eye, putting on a braver face than the freezing cold fear that rushed through her veins, threatening to make her break down in that very moment. It wasn't just her offer and what it entailed - but a life of endless toil and suffering that lay ahead. But she wouldn't let that happen to Lo-Muna.

She loved her. It was the least she could do for her, right?

"It's worth it." Hyuna said, scowling angrily at the rabbit. "I got you in this mess, didn't I?" She tried to gesture, but failed, since her arms were firmly behind her. That pissed her off even more. "Whatever happens to me doesn't really matter. But if I can get you out, then it's okay. Just shut up and let me do this!"

She shot the rabbit an urgent look to just be quiet, and turned back to the slaver.

"I'll be your fuck slave." Hyuna urged. "Whatever you want... literally. I got illusions, can look like whatever you need me to, whenever. Just let the rabbit go..." Her voice took on a more pleading tone. "Whatever it takes. I'll be yours forever." Hyuna gulped. Forever... really was a final word. But she did mean it. she meant all of it. "All you need to do is release her, okay?"

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Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Shiisan Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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"Hey, what happened?" Shiisan asked, returning to the hideout along with Sunaarashi and Yamato. "We left early to scout the heist spots and on our way back, we spotted Ann and Terra lookin' bruised. Terra didn't tell us what was goin' on, so uh...what exactly is goin' on?" he asked, turning from Rune to Rumelis.

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Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Shiisan Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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As the bear man spoke about Hyuna and Muna, Umi sat and nodded quietly. Remembering with a bit of guilt how he had accused Muna (and the goddamn Tengu, but screw him) of not caring about Terra, if the bear man's words were right, Umi figured his first impression was completely off base. "I guess I can see why you guys want to save them so badly," he sighed, sitting up a little bit straighter. Though he didn't have any reason to, save for his own hate of slavery, it seemed to the boy that helping the Guild get their members back was a worthwhile thing to do.

Then the wolf girl, after probably making the bear man's frustration over the kidnapping worse, slipped out for about 15 minutes or so, before coming back in with a huge sum of money. "Does that work? Should I go do another round?" she asked, seeming somewhat proud and awed about the fruits of her heist.

Peering over the coins, Umi whistled. "That looks like it would buy more than just a slave with a decent build in Gwan, at least. But...this isn't Gwan, so I can't say for certain it'll be enough." Looking back up to the bear man and wolf girl, he gave them his most encouraging smile and leapt to his feet. "Well, I'm certain it's worth a try, anyway, guys! All we have to do, then, is figure out where they'll be sold."

Suddenly, some of the other guild members...including the tengu...returned to the hideout, having apparently been looking around the sites where they would steal the gems. The one in front, with dark brown hair, was asking about what Terra and "Ann"...that black haired woman that Terra went with, probably...had been doing.

Pointing to the sleeping area, where Terra still lay, probably weeping, Umi raised a finger to his lips urgently. "Well, you see...two of your members--Muna and Hyuna--have been taken in by slavers," he whispered to them, keeping his voice low. They didn't need to ruin Terra's mood even more by talking about how she failed. "Terra and Ann tried to go after them, but...it went wrong, is all I can say."

Glancing back at Terra again, but seeing no movement, he continued, "We might be able to buy them back...and essentially free them, after that. I can't say for certain it'll work, but it's certainly worth a try. Ugh...Yamato, was it?" Even though he really didn't like the Tengu, Umi had to bottle up that hatred for now. "Fly around, see if you can spot them, okay? And, I guess I should put in some effort as well, so I'll look for them, too, in a bit. Anyone else, if you feel like helping, please do so."

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Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Ann'Razul Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Shiisan
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Sunaarashi smiled. "You don't know anything about who I am, do you?"

He took a few steps out into the dirt streets and squatted down. Peering upwards into the sky, Sunaarashi blinked as a light rain began to fall. Still smiling slightly, he looked down and began tracing some symbols into the dirt. After a few moments, he had created a circle.

Standing, he drew his sword.

"You see," Sunaarashi said, "although I hail from Sudea, I am not of Sudean blood." He held his sword horizontally. "Although I know very little of Hyuna, from the time I have spent with Lo-Muna, I can trace any strong emotions that were hers... or involving her. It is a magic that was taught to me by... my brother."

His sword began to glow white as the rain began to fall heavier. "Technically, this is my first time using it, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out." He closed his eyes as a white mist began to rise from the runes. Although it looked like fog, the magic flowed unnaturally across the streets.

Suddenly, a piece of it turned black and shuddered. Sunaarashi gasped.

"There," he said, pointing towards the blackness. "I can feel her pain. It's a start. We might be able to pick up clues from where they grabbed her."

Setting

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Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Millie Kiyare Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Terra Himene Character Portrait: Shiisan
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Almost as soon as the bald man entered, he got ready to leave just as quickly. "And you're saying your way, which could kill you just as much as it could kill those slavers, works?" Umi retorted hotly, taking a step after the man. "Or what, are you saying you'll just pull some divine power of ultimate destruction out of your ass?"

But as it turned out, a Snow Oni barred the bald man's way, voicing similarly how suicidal his ways were, and after asking who had been taken away, his eyes widened at the mention of Hyuna, but he quickly got over the shock. "Either way, let's spare no more time, talking here, we have to find them!"

Umi nodded and started following them out the door, picking up Terra's belt, pouch, and swords, and setting them on the table. Then, he glanced one more time at their owner...but saw her in a fetal position at the part of the bed farthest away from where they all had been standing, tightly clutching herself. The bald man's words had obviously carried over to where she was resting, and just as Umi had feared, they seemed to have hurt her terribly.

He wanted to go to her side and try to make her feel better, but when he remembered the words she had spoken when they met for the first time in this blasted city, his movement slowed. Finally, he sighed, swallowed, and called, "Terra, you don't have to follow us now. You've done your best to try and save those two; we'll take it from here. Sleep well, alright?"

The girl did not respond, but Umi knew no other things he could say to her. Stretching a bit, he turned on his heel and started walking down the road after the Guild, putting a hand to his face in disgust as the bald man did something that looked more like a hoax to him than anything else. With all the rain falling around them, though, he knew he would have a greater advantage if something forced them into battle.
First thing was first, though--he wanted to see where Terra and Ann had battled the slavers; they could probably get more reliable clues there. "So. Where did you encounter Terra a few minutes ago?" he asked, addressing Yamato and Shiisan. "You don't have to come with me if you don't want to, but in that case, just tell me which way it is."

Even if Terra said that doing reckless things for her sake was a silly thing to do...sadly, Umi had no other goals in his mind. So for now, he'd help the members of Fortune out in her place.

Setting

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Character Portrait: Lo-muna Vanhi Character Portrait: Hyuna Ka-nan "Falcon" Character Portrait: Nee Me-Hyung Character Portrait: Amanhã Tiamat Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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#, as written by Rann
Rune sighed. If the idiots were really intent on going and getting themselves killed - it was a whole goddamned city they would have to fight, no matter how individually strong any one of the guildies were... it was pointless. And while Rune more or less liked to leave things to fate - or perhaps this is just an excuse for laziness, but either way it was the same - she... didn't particularly want to become a slave. Or die for some stupid cause such as this. It wasn't that she hated the guild or anything, she was just more or less ambivalent. Wanting them alive was really the extent of her caring. If they were going into a direct confrontation, Rune didn't want any of that. And the old man didn't seem completely sane, anyways, with that weird technique of his - Rune had seen that exact thing before, and she knew it was a total sham. A lie. Only really worked as a party trick. It didn't actually work.

"Have fun dying." Rune said sardonically. "The whole city isn't nearly as weak as you may think, Sunaarashi." With that, the wolf exited the little base, already forming a plan of action. Walking through the heavily populated streets of Gangamai really wasn't all that interesting, no matter how aware she was. Her eyes peered out from her hood, and her tail was carefully tucked in so no one would really be able to tell she wasn't human. The disguise was flawless.

Movement. Rune glanced behind quickly - something was moving fast, and just barely out of sight. The Jiangshi closed her eyes and focused on the souls around her - there it was, leaping across that store building to a small private clinic. Rune focused everything on that fleeting soul, to the point of being unable to sense any others. What resulted was a dark void - with only the glowing light behind her signifying whoever was following her, and herself. Rune pushed her way through the crowd into a more secluded area - whoever it was, and it wasn't her father, she knew that, it would be easier to lure it out with no one else around.

More rapid movement. Right before there was a connection, Rune spun and blocked the strike with her sword, eyes still shut. She could sense the body tensing and whirling - but the wolf knew where each blow was aimed, and successfully parried each attempt at cutting past her guard. Her mind went into hyperdrive as she sensed the soul moving to her left - Rune then lunged forward, and charged chi through her sword, before slashing it roughly to the side. As usual, it was a perfect hit, perfect accuracy, and the assailant went down. Rune opened her eyes. She'd aimed to get it in the torso - a non lethal attack, but certainly debilitating.

A somewhat young girl. Rune kicked her form, with a bit of a grin.

"Well, well, what've we got here?" Another harsh kick, and the body went up a little bit - and there was another gasp of pain. Rune felt nothing. "Wouldn't it be smarter to try and kill someone else?"

"Great Guild Fortune, huh?" Was the weak response. Rune's grin curved a bit more.

"We've... w-we've watched you since you entered Gangamai." The girl groaned, pressing a hand to her chest. Healing chi, Rune noted, but didn't react to it outwardly. She still sensed killing intent from the girl. "Kupiga keeps an eye on whoever comes in and out. If you try anything to fuck up what we've got going on in here..." A grimace. "Well go after you. We've got lots keeping tabs on you all."

Kupiga, huh? Rune recalled once to watch out for screams in Gangamai. And Kupiga, the word for scream... that wasn't ironic at all. She almost laughed - it was funny. It was really funny. She thought it meant, literally, to avoid areas where people were screaming in Gwan. She didn't know - oh man. That was priceless. Rune buckled down into laughter, as the spy just stared in some confusion.

"...anyways. I don't recommend saving Vanhi and Ka-Nan." The spy was tensing her body in what she hoped would be a surprise attack - Rune was obviously prepared, and could sense the chi preparing to unleash. She readied herself, too. "You should be worrying more about yourself!"

Rune shut her eyes that moment, and when she saw the soul rushing at her for a fatal blow, she jumped and rolled backwards, before shooting bolts of soul energy from her orb towards the assailant. Sure, they missed, but when Rune jumped up and swung sideways with her sword, it was aimed in a way that the girl couldn't block in time with her ow-

Shit. More souls were approaching. More of the spies. Rune couldn't hyperfocus onto one soul, and sense all their movements now. As she faltered, the first spy struck at her - Rune only barely blocked it before another strike went flying towards her. She twisted her body out of the way, and brought up a customary soul barrier, protecting her from frontal attacks once again.

Another sword swung at her. She would be quickly overwhelmed if she didn't do something quickly. Rune took the chance to stab at the opening, ducking past the blade, and pushed that body at the second soul. She relaxed her focus enough to count - five of them were close enough to engage, and each one seemed pretty strong. Farther out, a sixth and seventh were quickly approaching.

Coalesced lightning snaked it's way towards her. Rune charged her sword with necro chi, dampening the effect of the lightning as it coursed through. Rune hissed in pain, but forced past it to run forward, leaping onto one spy after weaving his weapon away, and used his back as a trampoline to boost her up onto the rooftops. She quickly turned and aimed more bolts at each one. With that, the wolf escaped before they could get their bearings - the force of the bolts causing enough dust for her to just barely get away.

Damn.

She returned to the guild, looking much worse for wear.

"We're... being watched. Followed." Rune growled. "Just a warning."




One of Moga's bigger and more powerful brutes was marching through Gangamai. He was sent on order to try and find slaves that could fight - the more the better. They could make quite a bit of money off of the Atlus Atrium, couldn't they? The large ashura could more or less sense the strength of people's chi from looking at them - so while most slaves wouldn't necessarily be physically powerful, they could very well be chi masters. Apparently, one of his old acquaintances, Ren, had a good catch recently. Maybe one willing to buy before the slave auctions.

Kailas more or less stomped his way to Ren's abode, and forced past the door, using his wide girth to look down on the man. In the corner were the tied up slaves - some sort of bird beastman, and a rabbit. The ashura's face tightened as he sensed almost overwhelming waves of chi emanating from the winged one - raw potential that was almost ridiculously strong. The rabbit was no slouch either - perhaps he could buy them both.

Kailas dangled a huge pouch of coins from his pack, and tossed it over to Ren, indicating both the rabbit and the bird. It wasn't long until he had them both collared and marched out, both in bonds.

"You've costed me quite a lot." Kailas's voice rumbled, as he followed the paths that lead to the famed Atlas Atrium. "Looks like you can fight, though. Maybe win me back what it costed to get you."

The winged one glared viciously at the ashura, and it looked as if she was desperately trying to tear the ropes binding her wrists apart. Already there was blood and raw flesh there, coating both the ropes and the thin wrists. She would be the one, Kailas thought, she'd be the one made to fight. The rabbit was prettier, anyways.

"I'll kill the shit out of you." The winged one hissed, earning a chuckle from the muscled ashura. He sensed almost a protective aura from her, towards the rabbit. How... interesting.

With a free hand, Kailas gestured towards the rabbit. "You'll fight for me, for her sake." An almost lewd laugh. "Who knows how many breeding programs would like a specimen like her?"

That shut the winged one up, and the trio marched through the somewhat colluseumesque doors of the Atlas Atrium.




"Raekwon?" Was Noxchi's response. Nee's face turned into a shrewd smile as she was prepared to prove the truth of the matter. Of course Nee was smart enough to not be fooled by an imposter. The idea was laughable. It was obviously genuine - the odd, cheerful, somewhat therapeutic goldfish seller had to be the real Raekwon. "Raekwon, of the Wu-Tang? Can't be. Must be some sorta imposter, they're everywhere these days..."

Nee opened her mouth to speak, but... the living suit of armor beat her to it, leaving both Noxchi and Nee staring at the half-ashura in some shock. In a display of great expression, Amanhã's eyebrow raised just a tiny bit. That it itself spoke quite a lot. Had she met with Raekwon during the festival? Did something happen? Noxchi looked just as dubious. But in any case, the confirmation sure helped, and Nee was glad to not have to actually prove it.

"... you're acquainted with Raekwon?" Noxchi asked. "With the Wu-Tang Clan?"

An affirmative nod. Nee watched with almost childlike interest.

"... so, uh, hey sis, I don't suppose it'd be a whole lotta effort for you to do your dear little sister a favour and get her GZA's autograph or something, would it?"

Nee grinned at the two sisters, trying to muster as much excitement as she could. "C'mon, c'mon, let's go. I know where he might be." She turned to Toku, who had just walked in, prepared to help be an escort, with a reassuring look. She didn't want Toku's attention on her, when it could be much better placed in watching the city, and making sure no one got in our out whatsoever. That could lead to too many variables, and Nee didn't want to have to work with all of that.

"Focus on the city." She said sternly. "These two won't let the assassin get me, I promise."

The guardsman nodded.

"Be careful, Little Princess. Furoe can't stand to lose you too."

The traveling goldfish vendor. Under normal circumstances, Nee wouldn't choose to seek him out at all for something like this. But as time went on, the more Nee felt that she was heading into deeper, darker waters, and that no matter how much she struggled, the tide would keep on reeling her farther and farther. It was terrifying... but she was doing what she could to try and stay level. Eventually they reached the Selph Inn, just outside of the Residential District, to the west side of the city, where she and Raekwon had their occasional talks. Hopefully, he was there. She marched to the innskeeper with a little lilt of a voice.

"Is Raekwon in, Enna?" She asked cutely, and the innskeeper pointed a thumb to the stairs. "Third room."

Nee lead the two giants up, ignoring as best as she could the obvious tension that swirled around the town. If her calculations were correct, there would inevitably be some kind of clash happening today. That was probably unavoidable. With Marisa, the guards could handle it fine. Without? She shivered at the thought. It'd be tough, for sure.

"Hey, Raekwon, it's Nee." She entered the room, smiling. "So... uh." She looked almost like a lost, scared child, that didn't know what to do or where to go. She looked at the old legend with an almost pitiful gaze. "I... think I need help. A lot of it. I'm... scared of what's happening, but I don't know if I can... I don't know if I can do it. I'm - I don't know what to do."




"Things are heating up." Marisa said sadly. "I wish I could be by the Little Princess' side right now."

The pair were walking around the darker alleys of the Market District, using some of the paths Asura (and Nee) took to avoid people's gazes. The fake maid kept a careful eye out, making sure no one was around. And they were more or less alone - luckily. It was the sort of path that was hard for outsiders to be able to locate or navigate, and it requires a lot of knowledge of the landscape in Furoe. It was questionable, really, why the Little Princess hadn't informed the guards of these pathways and how to go about them - but that line of thought lead to uncomfortable possibilities. Neither Asura nor Marisa wanted to entertain the idea that she might be the one behind everything.

Who else could have done the kill, though? It couldn't be Marisa, and hopefully it wasn't Little Princess. An unknown assassin, perhaps?

"She's stronger than she looks." Asura said calmly. "We have to do our part here. If the assassin's anywhere, they'll be in these pathways."

When Asura first showed Marisa the paths, the guard captain was stunned, really. She had no idea that the Little Princess had a whole network of routes to go around Furoe that the guards had no idea about. And they were so cleverly hidden that it was impossible to see them without knowing them. Another... hint, actually, that the daughter of Me-Hyung was more devious and cunning than first thought.

Still, they didn't want to go against her. They both loved her, after all.

"Any idea on who it could be?" Marisa asked. Asura shook her head.

"No. But... there's someone who might be able to help. Ever heard of Sen?"

Dragonkiller Sen. Who didn't know about her? Marisa nodded her head with recognition.

"Maybe her presence could draw the assassin out. Perhaps using these routes, she could circumvent the lockdown." Asura frowned slightly. "I didn't want Furoe to end up like this. I should've been more careful - I was right there as it happened."

"Can't be helped." The guard captain put a hand on the maid's shoulder. "Come on, show me the rest of these paths. Then we'll see about getting the assassin into the open." A kind smile. "...Thanks, again, for being my ally. And the Little Princess's, too.

A noncommittal grunt from the Ruinguard.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Shiisan Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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Suiken's words had been some relief for Rumelis-- more people than just him were openly concerned. Though Sunaarashi's words had been disconcerting-- he figured they were true-- Rumelis still wanted to try and help somehow, and he doubted letting Sunaarashi handle the problem alone was going to fix anything. It would probably just make the Guild look even more criminalistic, with more reckless murdering.

So, for now, the logical course seemed to be following Suiken to look for Muna and Hyuna. It'd get him out of their dark hideout, too, which was a bonus.

"Suiken, I'd be willing to help you. I've a feeling Sunaarashi's plan, however noble, would carry its own consequences. Besides, I'm sick of waiting around." Rumelis picked up his axe from nearby, and the now-dry bow and arrows. He tested the draw-- surprisingly, the bow held his full draw, and the arrows were, for the most part, not warped.

"But I'd suggest that we move in as large a group as we can. Slavers can pick us off if we travel alone, but as a group we've more of a chance, should it come to blows-- and less of a chance to be attacked in the first place," he added.

Setting

Characters Present

Character Portrait: Sunaarashi Character Portrait: Suiken Character Portrait: Yamato Hibiki Character Portrait: Shiisan Character Portrait: Rumelis Morende Character Portrait: Rune Iyora
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"Yeah, well does anyone have a better plan than him?" the irritated Umi intoned a little bit too loudly just as the bear man finished speaking to the Snow Oni. The boy was jerking a thumb in the direction of Sunaarashi, who he was really getting annoyed by with the idiot's recklessness. True, Umi was not one to talk about being reckless, but that person seemed to be at least 10 years his senior; he should know better, right? Or what, did that guy do drugs or some shit like that?

But as far as he could see, the wolf girl had also disappeared...already the bear man's suggestion had gone moot, as far as he could tell. Just as Umi was about to point this out, however, she came back, parts of her skin and clothes blackened. "We're... being watched. Followed," she snarled grimly. "Just a warning."

"Followed? By who?" Umi asked, looking up worriedly. "Are they still chasing you?" He looked in the direction from which the wolf girl came, but saw no one charging after her or anything overly climatic like that. "...okay, fantastic. But they're still somewhere in the city," he muttered, figuring things just got a few times worse.

Making sure the cestus on his right arm was tied down properly, he turned to the members of Fortune, a bit more urgently. "Guys, if you have a decent plan that will actually work about how to find your friends, I'd suggest we act soon. Those bastards might spring upon us at any second, so slavers aren't the only thing on our concerns list anymore."