And so, the shitty situation got worse as Reitain now had a choice to make. His wind wall may have stopped the lances from impaling him, but it didn't stop the demi god he was fighting from finding another way around. When he saw the lance pierce it's way through the wall of wind, Reitan briefly thought that avoiding it would be easy. Then out of the corner of his eyes he saw yet another weapon break through the wind towards him. A Zweihalder. This kinda hindered one of his plans of actions for unlike the wind wall, this plan wouldn't stop the two weapons from striking him unless he left his lance behind and that wasn't going to happen. With the two weapons quickly approaching him, Retain had to act. He slightly changed the angle of his lance as the end started to glow red. Imperial Lance First Stance - Amaterasu! The wind was blown apart by the resulting explosion that had blasted Retain out of harms way. Well harm from Kalak anyway. It may have been his own explosion, but it still caused damage to him shown by his now tattered clothing. Landing on his feet didn't help either for as more blood pour out the wound, further dampening his pant leg as well as bringing him down on one knee. At this rate he wouldn't be able to stand for much longer, let alone fight. Despite this there was still fight in him, so he forced himself back onto his feet with his lance held out in front of him oppose to using it as a crutch.
While no answer was given to his question, it soon didn't matter for Brianne and pushed her away off of him and turned to the nearby wall for support. She declared that she wasn't going to be going anywhere despite any risks to her health. Not exactly the answer that Creed was hoping for, but he knew that she could handle herself so perhaps it was for the best. Then someone else had arrived, Brianne had named the man Corvo. He wasn't sure just what to think of this guy and it wasn't because the first thing that he had done upon walking in was to give out orders. No, it was what Brianne had said that lead to this uncertainty on Corvo. Sien's confusion at what the werewolf had said turned into surprise and further confusion at the sight before them. He wasn't even given much time to process what was going on before the beast swiped at him. Getting hit would probably hurt like hell, thus he stepped back as quickly as he could to avoid the attack. Just what exactly were they supposed to do here? Seeing the fairy form the dome around her as well as start raising up pillars of earth around her. Seeing as how she went ahead and made a dome of earth to surround herself, Valister assumed that it was either for her protection or a requirement to use her magic that was calling all these pillars of earth. If the former was the case, then maybe they were supposed to get past it somehow and get to her.
While Vyle had pretty much given him a straight forward answer to his questions, Ana on the other hand had treated him as if he was her younger sibling by flicking his forehead and ruffling his hair. He didn't think it was going to be as simple as then finding him and 'saving the world', but he willing to believe. Besides, he actually liked the younger brother treatment that he had gotten from Ana. It helped to remind him of the better times that he'd spent with his sister opposed to the incident that frequently haunts his mind. The brief thought of said incident had cause it to attempt claw it's way into his mind, but Zephyr shook away the thoughts before they could settle. When the hooded figure was revealed to be Aaron, Kruez was surprised, but not to the same level that Keenan and Veera were. He'd only briefly seen him when he'd first arrived at Kaer Morhen and they didn't really say much besides introductions. Despite that he was still surprised that he had been killed at some point. Next up came the offer form Solomon and the counter offer from Veera. If it proved successful, then it would likely save both their lives at the cost of hers. "Well if you'd rather be publicly executed for that, then by all means go for it." Xross simply said. It wasn't much longer before the trio had gone in the quest to find a way out of the city, fortunately for them Xross had no interest in helping them beyond that point and simply headed the other way. Now the question was what was he going to do now. Seeing as his main source of entertainment for the time being had left on a quest of escape, he would have to find some other way of passing the time. Sweallow is unconscious, just felt like making that known.
She had a point, he certainly would be safer sticking with them oppose to staying here. Not saying that he didn't trust the two who he would be staying with if he was still to be staying behind. One of which was a pilot so she probably had as much combat experience as he did, maybe a bit more. Hell maybe even less. He didn't know for certain. Then there was the guy sleeping, that alone limited how helpful he could think he'd be in a firefight. As they left the ship, Crow did his best to look around for anything that stuck as something of potential harm to them. Though that became fruitless when the security team had been spotted by a spotlight. Following that they found themselves to be under fire. Following Commander Lightwoods instructions, he quickly moved right towards the low wall where she was, keeping his head down as he did.
It was clear that the demi god had wanted to put and end to their fight and as much as he hated to admit it, this was a good time to do so. He may have been still able to at least defend him, but that was really all he could do without further injuring his leg. Which had put him in a tight spot given the two shadow lances that had appeared in front and behind him. Since dodging was out of the question, there was one thing that he could do that would help him in this situation. Imperial Lance Third Stance - Susano-O! With his lance already being partially in the ground, it was easy calling forth a wall of wind around him to deflect to two shadow spears. Reitan knew that this wouldn't work for long, especially given that this wasn't the first time that he'd done this and unlike the last time he'd done this, he was in no shape to use this as a cover for another attack. This was quite the shitty situation that he's in. A shitty situation with a few ways that Reitan could think would get him out of it.
In what was likely a stroke of luck for them, Roxanne had appeared in their path. Creed had no idea just who the Seelie Queen was, but going off of the panic tone in her voice, it wasn't hard to tell that she wasn't someone that he wanted to encounter. Before he could take a step in the opposite direction, someone else had appeared out of nowhere in front of them. Once the surprised had passed, Creed recognized him as someone else who had been at the safe house prior to all this. He had said that it was hell outside, which served as another reason as to why they shouldn't go out the front. "Alright, I'll do what I can." Not only was the pretty much the only thing that he could do, but it was likely the best thing that he could do. "Is there a back entrance we can use?" He asked. Creed didn't know the layout to the institute at all, so he'd decided to ask before he headed that way. It had appeared that Gaia had decided to let them pass. Learning that information from the werewolf had let him with mix feelings. On the one hand he was glad to know that they had managed to pass, but on the other hand if Gaia hadn't decided to show mercy to them, what would have happened then? Well worrying about it wasn't going to get them anyway. Bottom line was that they had passed. Making their way back to the clearing, it had looked like everyone else had made it pass their trials as well. Masque was the only one who had appeared to be upset, but for completely different reasons that what he would think. Upon hearing that the second trial would be starting, Sien silently followed behind the werewolf. Hearing the vampire's warning him on the consequences on trying to harm others, Valister nodded. "You're Queen won't have to worry about that." The brekaing of Masque's mask was a surprise as was Masque's reaction to it being broken. The vampire knew very little on the man that he had been partnered up for the trial and from thsi he coudl assume that the mask that was seemingly broken meant a lot to him. The warlock was given the option to either stay behind or follow behind his assigned group. The choice was his and regardless of what he choose, Valister followed behind the fairy named Vo.
Once the ship had reached a complete stop, Crow had went along and checked his weapons as he was instructed. He may have been primarily a medic and lack any real combat experience, but he did have some basic knowledge on how to use a gun. Once everything was all set up and accounted for, Crow awaited for Commander Lightwood to give them the rest of their orders. That was when he had noticed an contradiction in the orders that he was given prior to arriving and the orders that he was now given. "Excuse me Commander, before we had taken off you told me to stay behind on the ship so I'm not at risk of being shot." He wasn't sure if she had simply changed her mind or made a minor mistake. Regardless of which, he had to ask to make sure just what exactly was he supposed to do.
Admittedly Zephyr felt at ease during the time Ana had the fog lit until they had reached the outskirts of the area. Normally Zephyr didn't mind the fog all that much, but to be honest right now he really didn't want to go anywhere near that place again. There weren't that many things that could make him be that tense in an area, least that he was aware of anyway. Vyle had noticed a trail for them to follow. At first Zephyr silently followed behind them, but as the silence went on he made his way towards Ana and asked. "So if we do end up finding Solomon, what's the plan?" In one short instance the silence was filled with the sounds of a piano and that was followed by a vast amount of the undead rising up from the ground beneath them. It wasn't long after that Keenan and himself were pinned down. The pungent smell of death was the primary thing that Kruez could smell for the time being. In their current situation there wasn't much that they could do. The figure holding the witcher swords had caught his attention as well, but he didn't say anything on it for Kennan had already asked the one thing that he could think of. "And who's the one who choose to intervene in the first place, shame playing the royal card didn't work like you thought it would. It's not my job to intervene in your flawed decisions." Xross retorted. There wasn't a single hint of instigation nor encouraging from Xross that lead to Talon's decision to intervene in what lead to him getting him shot and arrested. "I didn't think getting shot would affect you're memory." Xross sighed, now on to the girl who had just showed up. With the arrow of the girl was notched back and aimed at him Xross was about to say something, but it didn't appear that Xross needed to do much for Talon had tried to talk her into lowering it. Though seeing as how that has never stopped him before from saying something, he did so anyway. "Are they really innocent, can you say that for certain knowing nothing about them." Xross of course knew nothing about them either and for all he knew, they actually could've been perfectly innocent. "Though I suppose that depends on how you look at things." And with Xross's view on the world, no one was truly innocent. "But I digress, running away won't solve anything. Unless you take out the root of the issues, running away only delays the inevitable." The distract part of Sweallow's plan had worked to perfection. The bear had opted to ignore Terra and head straight for him. Now for the current issue at hand, dealing with the bear. It had already bit into shoulder. Pain surged through his arm as the feeling of blood sliding down his arm was felt. There wasn't much time to worry about that though for not only once the bear finished with her shoulder, it would likely move on to another limb of his and after being knocked to the group had left him in a brief daze and he barely had any strength to move.
Once more Brianne had caught Creed off guard, this time with the sheer speed in which she'd gotten to her feet from her laying down position. Follow her barrage of questions, the only person that he knew where they were was Rhett. "Rhett's outside last I saw him." Clarity and Roxanne he didn't know where they had gone off to. When she grabbed his arm to steady herself, Creed used his other arm to help keep her on her feet. "Who's in trouble?" Moments after asking, his mind reminded itself of the fact that Cin was outside. Had things regarding that taken a turn for the worst. He didn't think that was the case, but he couldn't deny the possibility. "Alright, I'll take you to where I last saw Rhett." As Creed escorted Brianne outside, he wasn't sure what to expect upon getting there. Maybe Cin had won and was preparing to continue on with what ever he was planning or maybe they had managed to beat him and he was long gone by now. Well it turns out that none of it was the case for what was waiting for them outside was something that Creed hadn't expected, nor could he. First off Clarity was injured on the ground being treated by vine and Cin was being restrained by another set of vines. None of this was certainly here before, nor was the woman who looked to be the root (pun not intended) of all this.
Despite the lack of any clearly noticeable signs, Reitan was starting to get tired from this fight. From the last time that he fought to now, he hadn't rested enough to completely feel at 100% yet. Plus running at full sprint early hadn't helped. Still he didn't allow any of this to show to the demi god he was facing. Never show weakness before an enemy, for they will exploit it. Reitan's teacher's words rang out in his head. "I refuse." He answered calmly. "Giving up wasn't something that I was taught." Before he could continued, he got the feeling that something was going flying towards him along with the sense of danger. In one swift movement Reitan spun about 180 degrees and moved his lance in a defensive position. This had done well to block one of the bullets that Jayce had fired at him, as for the other one. It found itself going though the lancers leg. A grunt of pain sounded from him as pain surged through his now injured leg as he continued to stand on it. This was tolerated long enough for him to turn back towards Kalak and start using his lance as a support. Well screw the fact that he was getting tired, now he could barely moved the way he wanted to.
Lumen will go with Sanderson
So Alice really wasn't helping making any of this simple for Lumen to figure out. He barely knew the guy nor anything about this totem and at this point was just going along with it because he couldn't do anything else really. Thus when Alice had said that Rayyad was lying, he was fully prepared to shrugged it off. Least before Rayyad had actually admitted to lying. Not sure how to respond to all this, Lumen did nothing while things too a further turn for the worse. Lord Arval (who I'm not even sure if Lumen would know, but fuck it he does) appeared and threatened to kill Rayyad, which lead to Tessa fully losing it. Taking into account that she likely had the most trust in Rayyad, she was clearly devastated by his apparently lying on top of being attacked.
Not going to lie, just sitting around at his station was pretty damn boring. While the task of keep the ship in it's idle position was an simply one, despite which he didn't plan on slacking off in this task. With there being very little to keep himself occupied, he simply just wandered about in his thoughts. He didn't think of anything specific and in fact he more so just jumped from one thing to another. This worked for a little bit before he heard heard someone call out to him. Removing himself from his thoughts and seeing just who it was that had spoken to him. Seeing that it was the captain, Aeros simply replied with a "Right." Crow boarded the ship, laziness op
As Ana took the lead in leading them out of the city, Zephyr followed without saying a word. He had an uneasy feeling the moment he stepped into the fog and couldn't wait to get out. There weren't all that many times were he was that tense about going somewhere, but given past experiences he had a good reason to be not only tense, but cautious. This was new to him, however he wouldn't let it hinder him from making progress. Instead he would simply use it to better himself in certain situations. Venturing into the castle behind Veera, Kruez had started to look around at their surroundings. Much like Veera he was expecting something to come out, especially given the things few things that he's been told about Solomon. Plus it seemed odd to him that a castle would be left as empty as it was so far. It didn't add up and in the event something was actually up, Kruez continued to keep an eye out while trailing behind Veera. Odder still was the sight of the food that was seemingly just left there. The food did look appealing, especially given that the mage hadn't eaten anything. However that wouldn't be the best of ideas given their locations. Thus Kruez turned away from the food and continued to follow behind Veera. As much as he hated to admit it, Xross was actually started to get bored with this idle chatter with Talon and unfortunately he didn't seemed to be the type to physically respond to his taunting. That or he just hadn't found the right buttons yet. If the was the latter, then he must have gotten close with his remarks about having someone that cared about him. An assumption that turned out to be true when someone else had joined them. Two people to be exact, a little boy and a girl. "Me? Think of me as a 'guardian' of sorts. Simply keeping eye on your brother here." Xross answered. Despite being unarmed and basically unable to do anything in his current situation, Sweallow fortunately did have some form of training in the event he was caught unarmed. None of which covered being attacked by a berserker unarmed of course, but there were still somethings that he could use to assist in his predicament. He saw the look the that bear had given him which had further put him on guard. Once the barrier had fallen and Terra gave her order, Sweallow did in fact run, but not to far away from the battle. With her injuries and the shape she was in, Terra wouldn't last long against the beast on her own and while he couldn't be that much of a help offensively, he could at least be a distraction for her while she thought of some form of counterattack. Sweallow had ran towards a loose pile of concrete, broken from some other means. He grabbed a handful and turned back towards where he had ran from and threw one of the pieces towards the berserker. If he could somehow blind it, it would be a good place to start. Assuming he didn't lose a limb in the process.
Creed was caught off guard by Brianne's sudden question. Was this really the time for reminiscing? He may not have thought so, but regardless he still answered. "Um, three years I think." Yeah that sounded about right. He was 16 when he had his first and almost last encounter with a werewolf if not for Brianne intervening. At lot had happened since then and he'd been through more than one close call during those three years. Some cause he choose to intervene, others because he got dragged into it via some outside force. Then Brianne mentioned self acceptance, which gave him a general idea of what happening. He wasn't sure how or when it had happened, but one thing was for sure. Somehow Brianne was changing form her normal nephilim self. "If that's the case, then I'll help you through it like you helped me." Sien nodded at Aethelrick's plan. The warlock made sure to do everything as instructed, he stood exactly as Aethelrick was standing, aimed his bow and arrow at the leaf on Aethelrick's chest and fired a arrow towards the leaf once he was given the signal. Beyond that all he could really do was to hope for the best that this was what they were supposed to do. Valister didn't respond to Masque for he was still too concerned with holding back his vampiric urges at the time. At this point the vampire was assuming his lifetime of experience was the main reason why he hadn't lost himself at this point for an inexperienced vampire likely would've cracked by now. Masque held his painting up to the sky, waiting for some form of approval (and I don't know what the sign was, but he got one which allow him and warlock to enter the clearing where Alarick and Ash were.
Despite the pain that was running through his body, Kel not only remained on his feet, but readied himself for another attack on the shadow blot. It took him some time to get a running start but he did managed to do it and attack the Shadow Blot once he was in range. Kel attacked with Combo
Creed certainly wasn't expecting Brianne to wake up, let alone respond to him, but it was likely his fault for not being cautious of that. There wasn't anything that he could about that, but what Brianne said had added another layer to the concern that he already held for her current well being. "What do you mean 'no one can help you'? Just what exactly is wrong with you?" When the first leaf had fallen and landed on his chest, the first thing that Sien did was to try and brush it off. When it didn't fall off him, he tried again and again it didn't move. The moment the skin jacket started to tingle, he knew something was wrong. Aethelrick had come to this conclusion as well, albeit faster than Sien did and had already thought of a suggestion. His plan sounded like a good one, despite the risk of outright shooting each other with their respective weapons. "If you think that'll work." Sien started, pausing in order to materialize his bow. "Then let's go for it then." The leaves were still falling from the trees above head and the icy prickly sensation from the first leave that had fallen on him hadn't gone away. Probably a way to make avoiding hitting each other even harder, assuming that was what they were supposed to do. Fortunately Sien did trust Aethelrick to not shoot him and drew back on his bow and waited for some sort of signal to start firing. At first when Masque had drawn blood from his arm, Valister felt noting besides the slight pain the blade cutting his skin made and the tickling sensation that followed. As time pass however, he started to get thirsty and thirstier. "How long until you finish your painting?" Valister asked in a slightly strained voice. This certainly was new for him, for normally he had no problems with suppressing his vampiric thirst, but yet he could feel himself slowly slipping and wanting to drink from the nearest source of blood. This being Masque. For now he could keep himself under control, but if the thirst kept worsening at the rate it was now, who knows just how long that would remain true.
The talk between Vyle and man before them appeared to have gone without anyone resorting to violence, but regardless of that Zephyr remained tense at this whole situation. The primary cause of that was the fog that surrounded them. If one person was hiding in the fog, who knows just what else was there waiting. This guy may not have decided to attack them right off the bat, but that didn't mean that whatever else was sitting in wait in the fog wouldn't. Even if Vyle had't said anything, Zephyr would've likely kept looking around them as unnoticeable as he could as they made their way out. Kruez walked in silence behind both Keenan and Veera as they continued towards their destination. There wasn't much conversing going on during their walk, though it wasn't like there was much to take about in the first place. They had decided to follow behind Veera despite her giving them the option to turn away. Whether it was due to her being concerned for them or just wanting to handle this matter alone wasn't known, but Kruez was leaning for the latter. What was known that whatever hell awaited them ahead, that had chosen to face it head on. Moments after Terra had spoken, Sweallow had heard cracking and munching as well as the following heavy footsteps. Upon seeing the berseker, his first instinct was to reach to his side for his weapon, but that was when he'd realized that he didn't bring his weapon with him. Sweallow cursed to himself. Of course he didn't expect to actually need to bring his weapon along with him given that they were just going out for a short walk, but he should've brought it along for the just in case faction. A factor that didn't include a berserker attack. "Right." Sweallow responded, within Terra's barrier.
With a nod Crow did as he was instructed and walked over towards the section of the armory that held the pistols. It didn't take him very long to find one that would be suitable for defending himself and holstered it to his side. When that was out of the way, he'd heard Commander Lightwood ask if they had any question. A brief moment was taken to think about that before shaking his head. "None here Commander."
No sooner than he had muttered that, someone had appeared out of the fog. This served to quickly put Zephyr on edge as one of his hands moved to his newly acquired blade. He didn't draw them just yet for he didn't know if this guy was a threat or not. Seeing the sickle that was on his back, he assumed that he knew how to us it. Zephyr felt himself be tugged closer by Teliana. He held no objections to the action, for there surely was a good reason for it given the situation that they were in and Zephyr choose to trust Ana in her decision.
