Lenna heard her team announced, and took a moment to think.

She recognized the names from...somewhere. it took her a moment to realize, but when she did, she smiled.

She had seen Elisha's name on the paper she had herself signed. A scion of the Marluxia family, who, according to Lenna's relatives, were a very old fashioned family, ascribing to some very out-dated views. Lenna hoped the young girl wouldn't be a problem as a result.

Cecilia she'd heard vague rumors about. The Shadow was a figure wrapped in, well, Shadow. Lenna knew very little about her, and only could really hope she was trustworthy. She knew the woman would be competent.

As for the final one, Lenna knew of the Valliere family. They were as rich and powerful as the Underwoods. However, she'd heard of the massacre that had taken place. She had to admit, she felt bad for the poor kid.

One thing did occur to Lenna as she departed with her allies.

She would have to keep them safe.

***

Lenna paused only a moment before getting ready to jump into the fray.

"Keep each other safe, and protect the villagers. The demons are what are driving the birds mad, most likely, so take them out quickly."

"Could we capture it and sell it?"

Lenna bristled visibly, the fur on her ears standing on end.

"Absolutely not. That's illegal and wrong. Besides, we have a mission to accomplish. Focus on it, thief, not the money."

Lenna was perhaps being mean to the legendary Shadow. From Lenna's perspective, the girl already was hard to trust because of her reputation. Beyond that, Lenna had never needed to make ends meet with earning her own that, so she really didn't understand that Cecilia might actually NEED some money.

And with that, Lenna lauched herself into battle, beast stone gleaming. One moment, a relatively short woman was running forward.

The next, an absolutely gargantuan rabbit as big as a horse was charging forth, letting out a furious war cry. She bounded forward quickly.

She had been rushing for a scarecrow, and had leapt toward it, prepared to tear the demon apart, before a voraptus dive at her and slammed into her side. She fell to the side and rolled, wincing in pain. The voraptus continued its assault, charging with a low and deadly dive, and Lenna shifted into human shape and rolled under it. She grabbed its tail, and was lifted quickly into the sky. Before the bird got too high, Lenna climbed up its back a bit and shifted into bunny form again.

The weight of the huge bunny was too much for the bird to maintain flight, and it began to fall, Lenna tearing into its back. After a few moments it crashed. Lenna had killed it, crushing the feral beast's bones and tearing it's flesh. She had gotten battered in the attempt too, however.

Lenna was tossed to the side by the crashing bird, and, before she could get up, was slammed into by another. Her reckless charge had had good results, but left her in dire straits.

Vance and Eve both listened and the crier began to list the groups that were going on the quest.

"The fourth group will exit by the Northern gate. They are Miercoles of..." he siiiiighed as if to say 'what is up with spellswords and not filling out their information'," Miercoles the spellsword. Vance of Masa and Elle of Asterith."

As soon as they called the third group, Eve was starting to worry that they wouldn’t get called at all. As soon as the crowds around them began to cheer, and applaud, Eve gave them several proud bows, as if she had already been victorious. Vance simply sighed. He was by no means a showman, and he didn’t like being the center of attention.

“Let’s go” he said, nearly having to carry her away from the adoring crowd. She fluttered faithfully behind him as he walked.

Vance’s head turned towards one of the gates as it opened, signaling that they were to head that way. “Already?” he thought to himself.

“Damnit!” he whispered. Even flew closer to his face. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

He sighed, closing his eyes. “I thought that we’d have more time to prepare.” He said, walking at a steadier pace to his horse. After approaching it, and unbuckling the bag that was strapped behind the saddle, he whispered something to his fairy companion. She blushed a bit, but then nodded. Reaching into the bag, he pulled out a cloth tent that he would use as a privacy curtain, enough to cover half of the horse’s backside, and Vance, as he started to give orders to Eve. Only Vance’s voice could be heard behind the curtain, as well as protests from his horse.

“Harder”

“Faster”

“Pull more on it!”

“That’s it, now do it again on the other side”

“Yeah, you got it”

“Too hard!”

All that was heard from Eve were small grunts, as well as protests from the horse as Vance accidentally backed into it a time or two during all of this. What the hell were they doing under that tent!?

With one last small grunt from Eve’s efforts, the curtain fell to reveal Vance wearing his full plate armor, which he always needed assistance putting on. There were twenty four pieces in all, 12 for each side, not including the shield that he wore on his back.

Reaching up, Vance adjusted one of his shoulder plates, and it clinked against the chest guard as it moved into place. “Not bad! Those straps can be a pain sometimes” he said with a grin as he put the tent back into the bag behind the saddle. Eve responded with a small salute to him.

He mounted his horse, guiding it towards the northern gates. As he approached, the gates opened and the two portly men seemed to be bothered that they had to work today. Vance shot them a look of scorn for what he considered laziness. Maybe if they weren’t drowning their sorrows in a bottle, they could pick up a sword for the cause, but he didn’t dwell on it too much before he was out of the gates. A few others emerged before the gates were shut, and locked behind them.

“Who was supposed to be with us?” Eve said as they looked at the carnage that was already taking place a small way out of the gate. “A Spellsword, and a ..” he started to say, but then saw some of the volunteer villagers rush from behind him towards the scare crow demons with pitchforks, and a few handmade spears.

“Damnit!” he said, kicking his horse and taking off after them. One of them had fallen before reaching the scarecrows, thankfully. One less that he would have to worry about. He quickly dismounted and readied his shield, as well as drawing his sword. There were so many of them, and so many villagers that were trying to fend them off. His rational mind tried to prioritize what he should do, but he had to work on gut instincts. One of the villagers stabbed at a scarecrow, but he only succeeded in getting it stuck in the creature. The villager was quickly knocked to the ground with the monster hovering over him with a sickle, ready to make the kill. Vance rushed towards them, using his shield to knock the scarecrow off balance, and slashing at its midsection with his sword. With one quick motion, he had beheaded the creature before it hit the ground. He helped the villager to his feet, but his attention was quickly diverted towards the chaos around him.

“Aren’t we supposed to be getting help with these things?” Eve said as she looked around, helping him survey the situation.

“Introductions will come later!” he said as he headed towards another scarecrow that was running towards his horse. “If we live.” he added.

Bo snorted at Adrial as he walked away and nipped at the air where the cleric had stood- reflecting the anger that both beast and tamer felt toward the man. They both watched him walk away before Jere brought Bo's attention away from him,

"He isn't the enemy, Bo, remember that. We're all here to protect the people of Maplestead."

Just then the crier raised his voice, announcing who Jere and Bo would be teamed with. What happened next was rather rushed- after the crier finished the crowd cheered and separated, allowing the others to head toward their destinations.

Jere climbed bareback on to Bo, gripping at the shaggy blue fur of his companion. Their hearts began to palpitate and sync together- the beast tamer felt the anger of his mount melt into a restlessness to sink their- no his- teeth into flesh. His uneasiness was overshadowed by the beasts aggression. As they paced through the town on their way to the gates the elves eyes glazed over, all was a blur to him.

~~~~

Outside Jere winced at the sight of the lava demons and the Basilisk. His hand on hand tactics would be useless against them. Below him Bo seemed undeterred by the task. Jere leaned his head down as if to speak into the animals ear- but the rusty red eyes of his companion turned toward him as if to hush his words.

Rend the flesh. Blood- blood to drown my nose. Images of gore flooded Jere's senses at these grotesque words that rang through his head, in a voice not of his own. Bo always spoke to him when they faught- with a vulgar vocabulary that disturbed him.

The Basilisk let out a roar as it crushed some stables in its haste to attack the assembled townspeople. The beast tamer and his creature spotted a young man, shabbily armored, run away from the demon- they sprang to his aid, only to be splattered by the boys blood as the Basilisk crushed him. A growl, low and predatorial, escaped their lips as they looked up into the eyes of the demon. It lifted both front feet to crush them, but they dove away in time.

Jere noted that the hide of the Basilisk was inpenetrable and not even Bo's bite could do anything. If they touched the lava demons they would be killed. As they circled baxk to the group he looked on toward his group- the tree of a man and the flamboyant archer,

"We need to cool down the lava demons somehow- or hit them only on the already cooled parts. And that big one... Its eyes." He looked at the archer,

@Happy Go Lucky"Shoot its eyes and blind it." He said, "Because we can't get past its defenses."

Someone out on the field screamed and he turned his head just in time to see a man, now armless, running away from a lava demon. It sluggishly pursued him for a moment before losing interest and shooting lava blasts at things.

"The next team will exit Maplestead from the Southern Gate. They are: Adrial of Carnan, Brennen of Warrington, and Alyssa of... yes, Alyssa the spellsword."

With a slight hint of disdain for the royal scumbags, the Cleric sighed, turned his visage toward the direction that lead toward the southern gate and proceeded slowly toward its location, folding his arms he proceeded to question some things in his head with his expression reeking of both boredom and enmity.

"So these deplorable, brainless, worthless louts are going to send a mass amount of civilians and potential fighters into the field of battle in an instant without giving anyone the time to come up with some sort of coherent plan so that we wont all get butchered up on the spot? Now I understand why this pathetic "Hunt" was established. It's hard enough you stuff your greedy maws with your coin, but keeping the "worthless" around is too much on your little pockets... A few "peasants" mean nothing to the royal line, and in sending out die-hard idiots to their doom, they kill the beasts and at the same time, lose some of its "non required" civilians, increasing their pockets so they do not need to be fed any sort of coin from within their clutches... How calculable... It makes me sick..."

The cleric cracked his knuckles and stormed toward the southern gate, noticing the female warrior alongside her wardog opening the gates, he didn't show her any kindness, why bother when he knows she's just under the payroll of a monster, it would be like showing demons generosity... As she opened the gates and spoke, Adrial quickly raised his hand up quickly as to stop her from speaking, looking at her with a seething hatred.

"May the gods watch over you-"

"Don't you dare speak such half-baked lies, you useless, feeble-minded, senseless, imbecilic puppet... You just send us off to our own deaths with some laughable final burial lines such as that? Gods. Don't make me laugh, if there were truly gods, they wouldn't send mortal beings to their death just to line your pockets with gold... I spit on your "Gods"..."

Once the gates had fully closed, Adrial could look out into the battlefield to notice the scarecrows which had surrounded the feilds ahead, ontop of the imposing looking screecher which loomed further ahead of them. Brushing his longcoat and fixing the glasses on his face, Adrial unbuttoned the grimoire's strap against his side before slowly slipping an elegantly golden trimmed, pure white grimoire out of its casing, holding the heavy book in one hand, he held it with pride whilst smiling with content, looking to his companions, a red geared outfitted tactician named Brennen and A spellsword by the title given named Alyssa... He then heard the tactician spoke, and generated a small frown when he did.

"Finally. Some action." The Tactician spoke, as he ignited a small fireball in his left hand and his right upon his shortsword, the cleric let him speak once more before retorting.

"Scarecrows. If they're like the real things, then some fire should take them down to cinders. Fire magic users and people with torches, go for them, but watch it, they've got blades. I got nothin' so far on that, uh... thing over there. It can tear into flesh, so I'd say keep your distance if at all possible. Test its speed and refleses before rushing in and getting yourself killed. We can do this if we stick to a plan, and I don't hear anyone else with a plan."

Adrial looked to the tactician with a look of annoyance and folded his arms before approaching him, Adrial giving him a look of displeasure.

"Seriously? That is what you call a plan? That sounds more like you don't know what on earth you think your doing in this battlefield... I thought your skill was being a tactician, formulating a battle plan, taking into consideration our strengths, weaknesses, speeds and powers to take the battlefield by storm... I don't thuink you understand, or rather, I think you highly overestimate the intellectual capability of these villagers. Most of these people have possibly never had the chance to gain a proper education, and if you don't teach them proper tactics, if they do not follow you by the heel, then they are surely going to die...!"

The cleric would then stand infront of the villagers, who all appeared to look confused, frightened and shaken, just what Adrial would expect from people who have not had a proper fight against demonic monsters such as these, the cleric folding his arms once more, ready to speak to the crowd.

"I know all of you are frightened, your scared, but this is a natural emotion, I may be a cleric, but do not allow this to make you reckless, I am warning all of you creatures, if you rush out recklessly and get yourself injured, and think it'll be fine because i'l just magically heal you up with powers you can't begin begin to comprehend, I will let you die! I will let each and every single one of these entities rip you to shreads and consume your corpse, and I will feel no remorse! So if you wish to survive, you need to act smart, you need to be careful and you need to make sure you know what your dealing with! As Mr. Brennan said, fire attacks can defeat scarecrows, so each of you light your weapons aflame with his fire and fight each scarecrow from both the back and front! And if you get cut, try to control the bleeding, and move back! Do not pursue your foe if you get weaker, seek me and I'll attempt to help you recover your stamina to continue fighting, but do not act reckless and assault the whole group by yourself! Take out each unit in a team! As for the screecher, leave that one to me, the spellsword and the tactician, it is too deadly an opponent for weaker fighters, and you'll only die pursuing it, understood MAGGOTS?!"

Adrials voice boomed authority, which only made each villager alongside the three heroes at the southern gate obey, nodding with fear, understanding their necessary behaviors, each of them would find themselves lighting their swords a flame with the help of Brennans fireball and without rushing on ahead, decide to approach the scarecrows in teams, allowing these villagers to take advantage of their slow, weak foes, and while they were busy, Adrial looked to his other two companions.

"I apologize for doing your job, Brennan, but I wasn't going to risk these civilians being reckless... otherwise they'd have to die, so I have taught them a lesson. As for how we approach the screecher... I assume you have an idea how we three can eliminate it efficiently?"



"The third group, who will make their way out by the Eastern Gate, are as follows: Veltis of Byron, Tanzin of..." the crier adjusted his collar, as if it were strangling him,"Dun Gadar.. and Jere of Garrowtree."

Veltis expressed a smile and bowed as his name was called for the third group, readying the massive greatbow on his back, his left hand rested on his hip, the eccentric flamboyant greatbow user ready to proceed to eliminating the beasts until he realized something... They were going to be deployed now...?

A small expression of confusion rested on his face, the long haired human not disobeying the order but thought about the event on his mind, speaking to himself.

"Already? Why would we be sent out on such short notice? Aren't we allowed to communicate with the others before we begin? If we don't, we might not be able to come up with any sort of plan if it comes to it, and it could furthermore cause disruption on the field... Many innocents might die here today because of this... I'l have to try my best to make sure that doesn't happen...!"

Veltis soon approached the gate where the eager soldiers were peering out of, hearing what they said about lava demons and a basilisk, the flamboyant hero approached them and folded his arms in a friendly, lax manner, smiling rather pleasantly toward them, which only made each of the youthful soldiers raise their eyebrows in confusion at his rather feminine appearance and stance, before he exited the gate alongside the villagers and the other companions consisting of a beast tamer Jere and Tanzin the mace-master.

Veltis' eyes quickly widened as he noticed villagers had already ran ahead and were getting decimated by the attacking monsters, crushed, maimed and murdered, Veltis' suddenly sprung into action, he couldn't control himself and let such monsters make quick work out of the innocents around him, he wouldn't let them all die due to wasting time, and after hearing the voice of Jere, he already knew what to do.

"Fear not, this isn't my first battle against the rising spawn of such detestable entities, I'l have you know I've fought many beasts such as these, and this isn't the last battle i'm going to partake in, not until the day of my death many years from now, and I shall not stand while innocents are butchered by these monstrous bastards!"

With blinding speed, Veltis ripped the massive bow off his back and slammed it into the ground with a thud, a lance length arrow inside his quiver poking out, he immediately placed his arrow against the mithril string and pulled back, slowing his breath, veltis began to speak in a calm and monotone like voice, as if he were not the same person he was before.

"Longitude, latitude, angle, height, weight, speed, wind, flesh, heartbeat, movement, stance... All of these I have calculated in but a mere moment of setting my eyes upon my prey, there is nothing else to determine aside from these major factors, all situations, all predicaments, all possible outcomes have been taken into calculation, I have already planned each and every moment in not even a millisecond... And it is now ready... The Angels embrace you foul creator, and your flesh shall be given as tribute to the stars above... Mercy on your soul, should it exist..."

Veltis almost instantaneously let the massive arrow go out of his quiver after angling his shot, every inch prepared for it, the expert greatbow user fired from his bow a shot which zoomed into the air and danced along the wind like magic, before he readied another arrow in its wake and let it out another arrow swiftly, readying more and more arrows, and firing them without skipping a breath, the shots he fires dancing past multiple lava foes and even grazing some, which imbue the silver tipped massive arrows with fire as they fire like cannon balls toward the basilisk like foe, big and tough, but once blind it is destroyed, and as the massive arrows sunk with 100% accuracy into the soft fleshy eyeballs it possessed, a familiar pop echoed as flesh and blood splotched its whole body, the basilisk letting out a dying, heavy shriek as it ceased to move, its eye having been completely destroyed along with a lance sized arrows having embedded directly into its body through each eyehole, there would be no way for it to have survived, and with that, the archer had claimed a victim, his voice having returned to normal as he looked to both the beast tamer and mace master.

"Now everyone, protect the other civilians! If you don't try to save a life, you are never going to save anything! So protect these people like your lives depend on it! I shall cover you"

With this, Veltis readied another shot, and fired once more, keen on protecting the others from being attacked or injured, however after firing he panted and fell to his knees, his attack from before having severely drained him, he couldnt move, and worse yet, his fingertips along with his palms suddenly slitted open and began to steadily drip with blood, deducting strength from his perceptive ability and weakening him. A heavy pant escaping as he uses up all his abiity

"Gah... Not now... I have... to continue...! I was careless...!"

If Louis had to be honest, he would have admitted that this wasn't going quite as he expected it to. He had naively assumed that he was going to be taking part in something far more grand and epic. Only to find out it was more or less an extermination job. As such, Louis found himself in an odd predicament in which his pride both demanded that he just leave since such work was beneath him, and demanded that he fulfill his obligation. Something else he found strange was the Underwood girl a few years older then him. He knew of the family, but he was sure that they were human, not beastkin. That would be something to check on later

At the west gate, he soon discovered just how ill-prepared for this he really was, having not really thought about the fact that he had never so much as touched a weapon until a few days ago. However, he did have something to fall back to; his memories of his brother training. While Crow wasn't a Rapier user per-say, he was very proficient with every kind of sword that Louis could think of. So he had seen his brother handle one of these before. As much as he loathed having to copy his brother, it was his best bet. Falling into what he could remember of the proper stance, he readied himself for combat...

Only for one of the bird monster things to charge at him.

His body moved without any input from his brain, and he thrusted his weapon into it's chest, badly wounding it. The bird crumpled to the ground, to hurt to do anything else. Once his brain caught up, Louis took his weapon and shoved it into the bird's head, finishing it off without anymore pain. Feeling awfully proud of himself (and looking like he knew what he was doing), he decided to reply to that Cecelia girl "If you're so willing to risk your life and name for coin thief, then be my guest. However, don't expect any of us to aid you is such a foolish endeavor"

Elisha heard her name as one of the members of the first group. Part of her was relieved that she knew two of her three teammates right off the bat. At the same time however, this means she'll have to deal with Cecelia's proposal later on.

Before long, the group had already been pushed outside to deal with the monsters lurking around.

"Will the four of us be alright?"

Taking on this quest suddenly became a bad idea for her. Although it was her parents' wishes to give her experience, her physical condition will most likely just get in the way of her more experienced teammates.

Before she could do anything however, one of her teammates had already rushed forward to deal with the monsters. The sight of a beastkin transforming into their beast forms and back was an amazing sight to behold. Part of her wanted to cuddle with Lenna's beast form, but that thought can wait as Lenna was being attacked by another voraptus.

Luckily, Cecelia was quick to action and had saved the rabbit girl.

Elisha shifts her thoughts onto the oncoming danger. Following Cecelia's lead, she proceeds to use her fire magic to attack the other scarecrows. Elisha had meant to use a spell strong enough to obliterate the remaining ones, but the last remaining voraptus interrupts her channeling and sends her flying several feet away.

Having been caught off guard, the girl was unable to catch herself and crashed onto the ground.

Lenna was thankful for Cecilia's smoke cover for a moment, until she heard the voraptus that had been keeping pressure on her flap away. That meant that it had chosen a smaller, easier target. Thinking of the young nobles in their group, Lenna burst from the smoke.

She briefly considered engaging the scarecrows, but then realized where the final voraptus had gone. Lenna let out a bestial warcry before racing for her white mage ally.

As the voraptus knocked Elisha over, Lenna dived on it. It couldn't fly away with her weight pressing on it, and Lenna began wrestling with the bird on the ground. Lenna pinned the bird, making it a clear target for one of her companions.

"Yes" Louis answered, although that was really unlikely. Getting into the stance once more, he readied himself to attack the bird. All at once, he moved forward towards his target, hand ready to end it's life. Once he was in range, he lashed out with his weapon, striking the prone beast in the torso. Badly wounded, it quivered under Lenna, no longer able to muster up any strength to escape. With it unable to fight back and slowly dying, Louis walked over and shoved his weapon in it's skull, ending it just like the last one. The creature didn't even know what hit him...

...Mostly because he didn't even notice Louis, and it was already trapped under a large bunnykin...but still

"Is she badly hurt?" He asked Cecelia, regarding Elisha. As of right now, Louis was feeling pretty good about himself 'This is far easier then Crow made it out to be...perhaps I simply have a knack for it.' It's too bad that he didn't consider dumb luck a possibility

Miercoles managed to get signed up at the last minute and yet he managed to get into a group. Still he was late as by the time he rushed to the northernmost gate one of the group members was already in combat with some bizarre looking creations. Definitely not animal, vegetable, or miner but scarecrows? While he didn't want to say they were going to be easy, it could be a lot more worse. Even if enchanted it was enchanted wood, straw, and cloth is no match for a keen blade and an even more keen hand.

A small group of the possessed scarecrows fell apart in the time it took for him to re-sheathe his blade as it cleaved through them with the ease of gust of wind kicks dust up. Dramatic entrance now complete he spoke to the armored man with a tip of the hat, "We can exchange names after this. For now let us focus on destroying these pests quickly." He then set down his box as it would be a bit of a nuisance in this fight as well out of a desire to minimize any possible damage that could be inflicted on it.

"Man, I am really out of shape." Elisha thinks to herself as she desperately catches her breath. The impact she made blew all of the wind out of her.

Before long, she could hear Cecelia and Louis coming to check up on her. "I-I'll be OK... Cecelia... I just need... to calm down for a few."

Elisha slowly forces herself to stand back up. "Get a hold of yourself, Eli. You told yourself you won't be a burden anymore." As she says that to herself, she closes her eyes and begins channeling the spell she was going to use moments earlier once more.

"The three scarecrows are... there... there... and there..."

Envisioning where her targets are, Elisha envelops the three remaining demons in a cloak of flame. Being made out of straw, they were quick to catch on fire and were shortly burned into a crisp, but not before loudly wailing out into the skies one last time.

Lenna shifted back into her human state, then appraised her allies with a smile.

"Good job, guys. Especially you, miss," she noted Elisha, "That magic work was great.  Those demons didn't stand a chance."

She then looked at the dead birds.

"It's a shame we couldn't take care of the demons first. The raptors would have likely calmed down."

She shook her head, then listened to what Cecila said.

"Good to meet you, miss Cecilia. I am Lenna Underwood, of the family and town that share that name."

She smiled, "Thanks for the covering smoke, by the way."

She glanced at Louis, "And decent rapier work by you, sir. Keep practicing, you'll make a fantastic swordsman."

Serena Nuias had been in the city of Maplestead after hearing that there was an unusual amount of demonic activity affecting its surrounding regions. She had wandered the city for a few days trying to glean information from the inhabitants, but in the end she didn't have to pry too far. Maplestead wasn't just suffering from a small demon outbreak. It was under siege. It wasn't just demons either, there were other beasts running rampant in unusual ways. Even she was aware that she couldn't face this level of demonic activity alone. Then came the crier with his announcement of rewards going to those who could kill the creatures attacking Maplestead. She immediately realized that this was a suicide mission for most, and knew that she had to assist. One of the oaths she had taken when she became a Templar was to protect the weak. Even if the individuals themselves were ignorant, greedy, and detestable; it was her duty. She cared nothing for the gold.

When she arrived at the town square to sign up, she had noticed that more than a few intriguing characters were abreast. Some seemed experienced and cautious, like the tactician and cleric who obviously had several years of experience under their belt each. She had heard what the cleric Aldrial had to say about the pains of healing another, and she shared some of his sentiments but also felt that it was the duty of a healer to bear that pain and anguish. Of course, she didn't think that fools who rushed into the heat of battle should be rewarded for their stupidity, but leaving them to die was like turning one's back on their own calling.

She had also seen several with far less experience but the potential for greatness, and many who simply should not have been risking their lives as it would be fruitless and wasteful. She steeled herself for the horror that would come soon. Earlier in the day she had watched a young girl collapse after running for just a short while and was shocked when she realized that that same girl was going to be facing the horror of battle alongside her. She was almost dead set on protecting that girl, as her kind spirit shone brightly even though her body was weak. In the end she left protection of the girl to the thief who had helped her up in the first place. It seemed apparent that the thief known as Cecilia was attempting to propose to the other girl, as strange as that was. In any case, she was not Serena's responsibility.

She stayed out of sight, and silent for almost the entire morning. When the town crier finally appeared to announce the various teams that would engage the monsters, she was placed with three absolute imbeciles who had no combat experience. She decided it was better to just fight on her own. She paid them off with the bit of gold that she carried on her for emergencies, and they happily obliged after hearing how soon the battle would begin. They were smarter than most, but still cowards. She did not judge them for this though.

~~~~~

The time came for the battle to begin. Serena watched the various teams make their way to the various gates that protected the city, and chose to follow the group heading for the Eastern gate as she felt the presence of a creature that was far more deadly than what any of these peasants were capable of handling even on a good day with the correct equipment and a plan. It had taken several minutes to convince those farmers to return to their homes, and by that time the crowd had scattered and gone to the gates. She rushed as fast as she could to the East Gate, hoping that not too much damage had been done and that the villagers had at least some of their wits about them, but her hope was soon to be crushed.

On the other side of the gate, dozens of the lightly armed villagers ran screaming as a Basilisk tore through the crowd, crushing all in its wake. Several other villagers were being lit on fire by the Lava Demons and the stench and cries of pain that emanated from them lit an anger in Serena's soul at the nobles who sent these villagers to die like dogs. She watched the Beast Whisperer Jere bravely try to save a villager from being trampled, and then noticed the elegant Archer Veltis set up his greatbow to lay siege to the Basilisk. In utter amazement, she saw him loose arrow after arrow into the demon's many eyes, and it finally collapsed to the ground. She stood there stupefied by the sheer skill of the man, but the cries of the maimed and dying villagers brought her back to her senses. She needed to help in whatever way she could.

She ran to Veltis who was now on his knees from the exhaustion of firing that greatbow so many times and helped him to his feet. She then hastily introduced herself so she would not seem rude.

"Hello good Sir, I am Serena Nuias. I would like to further introduce myself, but I feel that now is not a good time. Excellent work with the Basilisk," She smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "That is quite a feat you just pulled off." She then gripped his shoulder tightly and muttered unintelligible words in another language under her breath. A white glow came off of her hand and spread to the tuckered out archer. "That spell should revitalize you just enough so that we may deal with these Lava demons together. The villagers need our help."

With that, she drew her sword from its sheath on her waist and mounted her shield and ran forward towards Jere and his Wolf.

Adrial waited for Brennan to finish his speech before speaking himself. His scowl and upsetting mannerisms shifted to a look of mutual understanding, while his folded posture relaxed.

"It's perfectly fine, It's just a rather understandable peeve of mine, but you seem to know how to control a battlefield either way. As for how we eliminate the enemy, it might be best I gain its attention at the start, it could probably smell the magic seeping out of me, and no doubt will seek to rend its claws and teeth into my very flesh, that gives you, sir. Brennan an equal opportunity to assault this worthless runt from the back, you seem like a fast sort, I'm perfectly sure you could run up behind it while it chases for me without breaking so much as a sweat! And one more thing..."

With a snap of his fingers, a wispy blue aura would slowly encase Adrials body, causing his clothes and his hair to flap slowly as the magic around him begins to slowly intensify. A ball of white healing energy rests in his palm, the size of a basketball, but before anything happens, that ball starts to twist and transform in colour, from a white to a bright blue, whilst at the same time, a set of ephemeral bright blue wings sprout like magic from behind Adrial himself, completely putting his tiny angel wings to shame, these spread out like true wings of a deity, of course, he wasn't, but they were impressive none the less. Adrial simply smiled confidently.

"Just because I am a healer, do not think me as something you must protect at all costs, I am not weak... Do you know how healers heal? It is not just some simple method of placing magic against a wound and all is well and done, I have to manually repair each piece of tissue and muscle in your body using my own grand mind... Just imagine I was in a bad mood, and decided to rearrange your vein tubes to go to places they shouldn't... Of course, as a cleric, this would be seen as taboo... But I follow no church, my powers are mine to wield as I desire... and If I desire it, my foes will bleed their tainted blood through their eyes... While I obliterate them with pure, unadulterated... grand energy."

Adrial using his free hand would pat Brennan on the shoulder and wink reassuringly to him, before stepping beside him so as they would both be able to attack the screecher together, Adrials hand pointed and twisted, as if to direct Brennan toward the back of the creature so as he could attack it from behind, before Adrial walked away, ready to lure the screecher.

"But don't worry, you and I are allies, perhaps we can even become friends if we both survive a few battles...! Just position yourself now, and then run for the screecher as it approaches me...!"

Once the Cleric was in position, readying his aim, he threw the ball of magic energy at its location, the ball of energy hit the bloody soil at its fleshy feet, merely using this energy ball as a lure, which only caused the screecher to shriek and lunge toward his direction, giving Brennan the opportunity of getting it from behind.

"Now!"



She ran to Veltis who was now on his knees from the exhaustion of firing that greatbow so many times and helped him to his feet. She then hastily introduced herself so she would not seem rude.

Veltis' vision twisted into that of a blur, the blood he was losing from his hands were having a rather dangerous effort on him, and the noise of the surroundings only grew much more muffled, but before he could collapse, a wind of air gushed into his lunges, and the grasp of another held him and raised him to his feet, sending waves of pain straight through him, which only made him grind his teeth, letting out a painful grunt.

"Gah! W- who?"

That was all Veltis could speak before she decided to herself, his vision unblurred and his bleeding ceased once she began to cast her magic, helping to revitalize, if for now his strength, able to hear mostly every word she had to say, Veltis merely bowed his head once he was able to stand completely.

"My apologies for the inconvenience, madam... I'l do my best!"

With that, Veltis raised his bow and took aim again, making the necessary calculations he would need, the archer let out another large arrow from his bow, as it pierces through the cranium of a lava demon, causing it to explode with a violent outburst, helping to continue fighting in the battle.

Jere was awestruck at the archer single-handedly killing the basilisk. He knew the man must have been skilled- for who could have such a manner and wear a bow so proudly without at least knowing what they were doing? The elf felt a wave of admiration fall over him for the other man- but it soon gave way to alarm when Veltis fell to his knees, seemingly hurt. However, before he could move to the aid of his teammate, a woman dressed in heavy armor was at once by his side. They spoke- words muffled by the hellish screams around them- and she healed him.

Grateful for this new arrivals help he knew that he would not be needed by Veltis after all. The Beast tamer turned toward the chaos at hand. Below him Bo was in a rage- the world was in bedlam and they had made no move to help.

The smell of charred and sweltering flesh filled their noses. They would need to put out the flames on these poor people. Wolf and man shared a thought- at once they bounded into the flurry of screams and lit bodies.

Bo clawed at the earth and dashed mounds of dirt at the people- enough to snuff out the flames. Exhausted they fell to the ground, one by one. Jere jumped off of Bo's back and began to drag the people on to his mount. These people were, for the most part, unconcious and badly hurt. But those that he could save he implored Bo to take them back to the gates. The wolf did as he was asked and was soon crossing the battlefield, sure to keep an even enough pace so the wounded would not fall off of him.

And so Jere was out in the open. He searched for a sword and soon found one- blackened by the flames of the lava demons. There were only a few left (3? Or 2 idk)- but he knew that he could do nothing about them. They were close by but did not seem concerned with him.

I can't even touch them.. he thought, feeling tiny and useless. He desperately wished he knew magic- it seemed to him like using magic and long-ranged weapons were the only way to deal with these monsters.

@AokageHe felt the presence of the woman from earlier near him, he glanced toward her before looking back at the demons,

"Thanks for helping my teammate earlier. I'm Jere." And barely before he could finish his sentence his companion was by his side, eyes on the demons as if glares were daggers,

"And he's Bo."

As Serena ran to Jere she saw him and the large wolf that he called his companion put out the burning villagers by kicking dirt on them. She marveled at his ingenuity and was grateful that she had both powerful and resourceful comrades. She noted that Veltis had already made short work of a Lava Demon even in his weakened state.

The beast whisperer looked at her for just a moment with a gaze of determination and then returned to staring at the two remaining lava demons. "Thanks for helping my teammate earlier. I'm Jere." And barely before he could finish his sentence his companion was by his side, eyes on the demons as if glares were daggers,

"And he's Bo."

She reached his side and nodded. "I am Serena Nuias. Its good to meet you," She turned to Bo and nodded at him as well "you as well Bo. It was my pleasure to assist warriors of your caliber." She turned her attention to the two Lava Demons, who with very few villagers left to set ablaze were inching their way towards Serena and Jere. She wielded her sword in both hands and held it just before her face before beginning a prayer.

"Gods of olde, grant me the strength to banish the blights that tarnish your beautiful creation. Help me send them back to the cold pit where they belong. Cut down all Demons in my path! Claíomh Solais!"

A bright blue light appeared around her sword while odd runes appeared along the length of the blade. Serena opened her eyes with determination and turned to Jere. "Please show me that charred sword of yours if you would." She focused on the blade and chanted in a strange language. The soot that covered Jere's sword immediately blew away and it shined a dimmer blue than her own sword. "I've just imbued your blade with holy energy so it should be much easier to slay those creatures now. Be mindful though, they'll spew lava when they die." With that she charged forward, raising her shield to protect herself from the heat and motioned at Jere and Bo to go around while she drew their attention.