The city block looked like any other block, at least if you only took a moment to gaze at it before hurrying on thanks to that terror inducing sensation that started at the base of your skull and shot down all the way to your neck like when a high school bully whose nose was touching yours while one hand flexed over your windpipe and the other held something a lot more sensitive to damage below your waist: sure there wasn't exactly violence going on, but that didn't mean it wasn't lurking around the corner, juggling knives, and just waiting for someone to take a wrong turn. As it stood fifteen wardens had gone into the block looking for the source of the fear inducing aura and none have come out. In fact, nothing had come out, aside from the occasional red court vampire in a human disguise. If you spent enough time watching the place you'd realize that birds didn't even fly over the area above it. If there was a big flock heading in its direction they just parted like water going around a stone or people in a rich part of town avoiding a corner filled with beggars.

In a room with a view, at least on a few blocks away from the building in question, a lone warden sat on a chair with cold cup of tea on the arm rest. In his hand was a letter explaining to him what he, and the others that should be arriving shortly, were supposed to do: investigate the building at the center of the area, and neutralize any red court activity. "This is a bad idea." He said folding his arms and crossing his legs. "Going in blind is what got the others killed and its going to get us killed. Sending more and more people in at a time isn't going to change the fact that we lack any sort of in-tell, aside from the knowledge that red court vampires seem to be doing fine there." He turned and looked back at the door, hoping someone would show up soon so he'd have an ear to complain to.

Jade took a deep breath as she walked up the stairs to the meeting room. The area was covered in a blanket of fear and any sane creatures steered clear. However the fear only served to focus Jade’s attention. She had been given the general details and sent out in a rush to meet a support team to deal with whatever threat lurked in the building. The warden’s cloak made no noise as she reached the door and knocked. After a knock and a whispered password she was let into the room.The man who greeted her seemed to be the only one there. What struck her about this man was his mismatched eyes. She was sure that they have crossed paths before but was never introduced to. Then again most wardens were mere acquaintances until they’ve survived their first year of the ongoing war. Their numbers seemed to be culled until only the fittest were left.

“Good evening, I am Warden Wong and I have been sent as support.” After a moment she added “Will there be others joining us? I was only told to meet here and nothing more.”

Damien was sure the message he'd been sent couldn't be right, it had to have been a trick, except the countersign was correct and the warden knew him by name so it had to be right. Fifteen wardens had entered a building supposed to be filled with red court vampires, and none had come out. So why would they send him in next? This was a job for the truly hardened combat specialists of the council, he had a few tricks up his sleeves to be sure, but this was a whole other level. However, fear didn't mean he could shirk his responsibilities, he had been sent to the location and if he was told to fight then that was what he would do. He just really hoped he didn't have to.
The building where he'd been told to meet the others was covered with a blanket of fear, it moved across Damien's skin like grease and oil, trying to seep through the pores and get into this brain. He adjusted the bandanna on his head, making sure the protective spells had the most coverage. His master had told him that this was pointless, that the spells were useless, but wardens were allowed to have superstitions. He walked up the stairs and knocked on the door, entering when he heard a whispered voice. Two wardens were already there. The one with mismatched eyes, Jimmy, he knew only by reputation. The other one he didn't know at all, but she looked strong enough to snap his arm in four places if he offered it to shake, so he settled for a polite nod. He knew there was going to be more than this, but sitting still was not his thing. So he placed a dreamcatcher on the door, and using it as the focal point of his spell, started spinning wards around the room. He couldn't keep out much but he could keep the oppression of dark magic from interrupting their sleep. That had to be good for something right?

As the others who had already arrived accented themselves with one another, a faint voice could be heard coming up the stairs. At first the word weren't even really noticeable. Sort of like a distant rumbling that could have been some plane over head. But moments later they were audible, though totally unintelligible. The tone of them was clearly displeased. And then they became more clear as the person behind the voice was clearly drawing very near. The voice was unmistakable that of a young woman whose voice had the sharp bite of a Irish accent. She was clearly displeased with something because she was swearing so much and so quickly that it sounded like the European version of that angry little cowboy from the bugs bunny cartoons.

As the person was coming down the hall the words became more distinct and could be made out. "...An on top of all of this rubbish heap of a mission, they didn't even let me head by the my work shop and pick up a thing or two that might come in fuk'n handy for this kind of opp!'No time for that lass, mission gets top priority, head directly there no stops!' fuk'n nightmare this is gonna be I can just feel it in my damn bones."

The door was knocked on rather harshly and the pass-code wasn't so much whispered as 'not yelled'. The door opened to reveal a woman of impressive height and build, her muscular frame evident even beneath the lairs of cloak and wizarding attire. Her deep green eyes shone with faintly with her agitations, her bright red hair tied back in a long single braid that nearly reached the floor. "Warden O'Bagley, ready and reporting for duty. So, anyone have any ideas when this shit-show starts?"

Gideon Maltese entered the apartment building which he was told the Warden safehouse was located through the back alley ways, he had only just put on his Grey cloak and strapped on Garm underneath it after the taxi that brought him here had dropped him off several blocks away. some may have called him paranoid, but he called it a security measure, the Red Court Vampires themselves were not likely to attack in broad daylight, even in dark alleys but that didn't stop their addicted human hitmen from taking pot-shots at an undercover wizard who currently looked like a cross between a hobo and a hippie.

By the time he reached one of the emergency exits into the building, one with an alarm linked to it like most modern hotels, Gideon checked over both of his shoulders for any sign of tails or scouts before he uttered a single word under his breath "Feldr", Gideon vanished from mortal sight, and the usage of his power in such close proximity to the door fried the electronic alarm, and the nearby CCTV camera, that was sure to draw someone over there at some point, but Gideon didn't plan to stick around anyway. The door seemed to open and close on its own accord, no alarm triggered at all, and Gideon's steps, muffled greatly on the carpeted floor, walked a few steps over to the nearby stairwell up. There he slipped in the door, checked for cameras or people coming by extending his senses slightly, and lowered his veil, reappearing.

He calmly walked up the stairs, considering the situation. He hadn't taken part in much actual fighting in the War with the Reds yet, his role was mostly a support role, using his contacts in the spirit world to keep tabs on Red Court lairs and hideouts and using them and his knack for veils to spy upon and tail some of their human servants as they met with their Vampiric handlers up in Canada. Not many Reds up in Canada anyway, too cold for most of the older Barons and Dukes to bother setting up holds there, who preferred the heat and comfort of their long-standing strongholds in Central and South America, or the more temperate United States. Which came to the reason why Gideon still wasn't in Canada, his duties as a Warden demanded that he go where his superiors in The White Council commanded, and Canada wasn't exactly top priority for them in terms of battle lines, and if half of the news he'd heard was correct, the war wasn't exactly going in his side's favour and every Warden was needed to step up and take on more responsibility for the cause of his fellow wizards.

He'd also been used to working solo, since most of his clients on the Ectomancy side of his business weren't fellow practitioners of the Art, and those that were didn't usually measure up to his skills. But then, he figured it could be a nice change, with any luck, most of them wouldn't flip out the first time they see the tattoo on his neck light up, but there is no guarantee of that.

He heard at least one of the other Wardens before he saw them, if a Red Court Vampire was looking for them and was near the floor entrance, they likely would have heard the password, but luckily it was just him, so Gideon just smirked. This was going to be fun.

He followed up into the hallway just as the last Warden entered, the one calling herself O'Bagley, and decided to play a little amusing prank/test of his companions, right before the door, he muttered "Feldr" again, casting another veil. He knocked on the door, whispering the password, the door was opened, to the Warden at the door's initial surprise at seeing nobody there, Gideon stepped in lightly behind O'Bagley and the other two recently arrived Wardens, dropping his veil again suddenly.

"Warden Maltese, ready and able."

Kain sauntered idly down the hallway, twirling his collapsed staff like a baton without triggering the release, resisting the urge to whistle a little ditty. As he approached the door his senses alerted him to the other Wardens in the room, causing him to hesitate for a moment I hope I'm not too late.. After a slight pause, Kain squared his shoulders and put his staff in his thigh holster, knocked and gave the countersign. Entering he looked around and mentally marked all the Wardens that would be accompanying him on the mission. Lounging up against the nearest wall, Kain flashed a giant grin and waved at everyone, "Evening all, did you start the party without me?"

"Good Evening warden Wong." Jimmy nodded towards the warden. "I'm James, but you can call me JImmy on the account of the fact we'll be diving headfirst into what's probably a suicide mission so if there's ever a time for being informal I'm sure this is it. As for others, that's the one good bit of news you and I are likely going to get tonight. There's actually quiet a few of us going in." He turned and looked out the window. "Whatever's going on over in that building, its got the wardens worried, especially with all the teams that went in and hadn't come back."

There was a floor clicking as someone new came in. Jimmy turned eyes turned to see who it was. He wasn't sure who the man was, but that didn't really matter, did it?. The man didn't seem like talking either. He just gave them a nod and started setting up a defense for the room. "Good idea." He said, nodding to the new comer. "Too bad I didn't think of that. Not that it would've done any good since I'm not really good with wards, especially doing it on the field."

Jimmy turned and looked towards the door. "Someone's coming." He muttered. "And they don't sound happy about it." A few seconds later woman came in, the kind of woman you didn't really see too often outside of fighting games and bodybuilding expo. "Evening O'Bagley, welcome to shit show, which'll start just as soon as the rest of the members of our party show up."

There was a knock at the door, and then it opened up, revealing empty space. "Hmm." Jimmy scratched his chin and reached for his staff but someone appeared. It was a warden who promptly reported for duty. "Welcome Mltese, It's good to have you. I'm sure glad we'll have someone good with veils with us." There was a sound as someone new came in right after Warden Miltese who seemed a bit nervous about being late. "Wouldn't dream of it." Jimmy said, grinning. "When your going into hell, its not a bad idea to take all the friends you can get get your hands on."

"So" Jimmy said rubbing his hands together. "I'm sure you've all heard stories about this place and how there's a ton of red vampires going in and out, and everything else stays away, right?" He put his hands behind his back and looked through the window at their target. "Over a dozen wardens have gone in and none have come out. They've tried everything from scaling the building to parachuting to the building, and even sneaking in from the back. None of it worked, apparently. So, here's my idea." He took a moment to look at the wardens. "We just walk in." He grinned, trying to look confident, butt there's was a single drop of sweat that threatened to give him away. "We'll just stroll in and start shooting reds."

Her first reaction to Jimmy’s suggestion was to refuse but she could not think of any other reason then it was reckless. Jade was a direct person by nature and her parents encouraged it. It was better to deal with problems immediately and to clearly speak your mind but she wasn’t sure what she would be saying in this instance. She was sent with very little information and Jimmy was heading this assignment and knew more about what was going on, but still…

Jade took a moment to take out the ‘monocle’ as she called it. It was a circular piece of obsidian glass and she peered through it towards the building. The one good thing about this little trinket was it allowed the person to see the energies at work. Although not as clear or precise as opening her wizard’s sight, the images wouldn’t become permanent memories for the viewer. Seriously, it was traumatic to some wizards looking at monsters with their sight and Jade would be happy to never to experience something like that.

Magical energies tend to be colored lights and the energies surrounding the building were an angry red that emanated from the ground and spread over the area. Besides keeping people away it also served to punch anyone in the face if they got too close. But what interested Jade more was the energy… energies? inside the building.

“Everyone, before we go charging in, look at this.” She held out the monocle for everyone to pass around. Jade gestured towards the building in question. “From the energies surrounding the building that seems to be the warding off spell, but there’s another energy being contained inside the building. Is it another ward? We can deal with the ward surrounding the building easily but something about that inside ward doesn’t feel right.”
“Anyways, I would suggest we do this smart. If the only way is the front door, I suggest we split into two teams one to disable the wards and the other will bust down the front door. The first team can then act as back up. Warden Maltese seems to have a knack for veils and if Warden…” Jade paused, she didn’t know his name. He entered after her and only nodded at Jimmy but he never introduced himself… actually she didn’t introduce herself to the other wardens either. She smiled a bit sheepishly, “My apologies but I haven’t introduced myself, I am Warden Wong.”

Damien felt a bit sheepish as Jade introduced herself, the social niceties always escaped him when he was nervous, and he mumbled his name to the room without looking anyone in the eye. He was grateful for her monocle, the last time he'd used his sight it had left him with some, less than pleasant memories. He wasn't certain about Jimmy's plan, although it did have the advantage of surprise. Jade's seemed a more cautious approach, taking down the wards before storming the keep, the question he couldn't decide on was which group he should be in. Damien's wards and knowledge of them only really applied to dreams and the Demesnes created by those dreams, but he wasn't much for combat either. Everyone seemed to be weighing up the words and trying to make the same decision. He remembered the paranet member who had found him, her stories of hiding in the dark and a desire to fight back. She couldn't, not directly, but maybe he could.
"I'll go with Jade, I know enough supportive magic to make retreat easier if necessary"
He went over the various skills he had with thaumaturgy to see if there was anything else he could add, and decided on an interesting idea. Settling down on the floor he drew a chalk circle around himself and started mumbling nonsense syllables in german under his breath. He could feel eyes watching him with curiosity as he worked but blocked them out, concentrating on the spell and nothing else. When he broke the circle to release the spell he heard something in his ears, the sound of a man snoring. He knew nobody in the room was asleep, but it meant that someone nearby was asleep. He paced the room a few times to triangulate the sound and confirmed it was coming from the building they wanted to enter. That meant...
"Umm, warden Matlese. With your veils do you think you could draw me a circle around the building. If you could, I might be able to whip up a distraction"
Bringing dreams to life was one of the most complicated parts of his art, but if he could do it, then the people inside would be distracted when the team made their assault. It had to be worth trying.

Gideon listened intently to Jimmy's suggestion and pondered it. He saw the logic in it, since the entirely covert approaches had failed it might not be a bad strategy to go overt. But then it could also be suicidal, and under normal circumstances it would be, but they were Wizards, preparation to dive into normally suicidal situations was part of their business.

Using the monocle himself, he glimpsed upon the swirling energy of the wards, along with the internal energy from within the building. His experience as an ectomancer left him theorizing as Damien and Jade both asked about and discussed his role in the coming operation. To be polite, he curtly responded to Damien's question first.

"I could, the only question would be if the Reds have anyone watching for someone making circles around their building...speaking of which: do we know how or if the Wardens died? Did you sense any traces of Death Curses? Could they have died in such a manner as to return to this world as ghosts? That could explain the energy trickling out from within, but then making ghosts is not the preferred style of the Reds if I recall correctly, not to mention the fact that I'd be surprised if they could control and contain so many."

He sets the monocle down for some else to use if necessary.

"If they were ghosts, I could deal with them. I am an ectomancer, and I have enough ghost powder to cleanse Bachelor's Grove cemetery."

As the wizard lifted his veil and introduced himself to the room Regan had the largest reaction. Seems she had a personality to match her stature. One hand pulled back in a closed fist ready to deliver a blow to what ever had appeared so near to her, the other hand produced what looked like a a knob-topped club fit to the wardens per portions. Closer inspection would show that it was infarct a shillelagh, the traditional Irish walking stick/cudgel, though this one covered with carved runes that began to glow with a subtle purple light as she ran power through the tool. She called it her 'wacker' it helped with the big offensive spells and it made for a handy close range combat tool that suited her build. It was subtle, and no one probably really noticed this, but as she held her power ready in the staff everything in the room grew just the tiniest bit heavier in response to her earth focused magic.

When her warden-trained battle instincts finally calmed down and she saw it was another warden who had sneaked into the room and appeared from behind the veil she scowled darkly, sliding her wacker back into her robes. "Fool git! I would break you noes and send ya arse to medical on principle if Da didn't know what my handy work looked like. Lucky for you I'm in no mood for one of his lectures."

But that was all she said on the matter. And as the full crew arrived and the began to discuss their dubious task all her attention became focused on that. She took her turn on the Eyeglass, briefly admiring the subtleties and utility of its magics, and taking a look at their target zone.

"So many wardens already went down on this task, surely they attempted some of these ideas themselves. The outer wards look to be crude but tough. Perhaps a distraction from the true danger inside, that doubles as a real defense? I should be able to ground them out and dispel them with enough time but a distraction would be welcomed. I would prefer if we caught the reds off guard rather than the other way around. What ever they have going on on the inside is big...maybe even complicated. Ritual perhaps? Could be why they are so intent on holding the position and spilling powerful wizards lives rather than retreat? They have to know that if they make their position so obvious we'd eventually just call down the big guns to whip the spot off the map after we lose to many wardens on it?"

Jimmy rubbed his chin. "No, we don't know with any certainty if the other wardens died. I'm doubtful that they did because I can't think of any building which would still be standing after so many death curses letting loose. Still, the council is treating the wardens who disappeared as MIA. "

"I'm sure the other teams did try a little bit of everything we're thinking of, and I'm sure a lot of them went in with the assumption that the energies inside were the same threat, and it didn't help them get back to us." He sighed and held out his hand to take the monocle. Before raising it to his eye he took a moment to maneuver it around his fingers, examining the fine work of wizarding craftsmanship. "They did send several of the more senior wardens to check the place out before our turn came. Honestly, between the six of us there's really only one thing we have that they didn't, two if you count the fact that we have the awareness of just how dangerous the place is thanks to everyone failing that came before us, and that's numbers. So, if we're going to have any advantage that's going to be it."

The building through the lens was like a watered down version of what he'd seen through his wizard's sight. There was the aggression of the outside wards and the other worldly panic of the inner energies. It was those inner energies that worried him though. He'd never seen anything like them. The closest he could think to that blue energy was the portals to the never-never, but that didn't make sense since the reds and the fairies weren't on the best of terms at the moment so why would they have an open gate like that? He shook his head and tried to tell himself the pain at his temples really wasn't there because it would suck to die with a bad migraine.

"This is a really handy device." He lowered the monocle from his eye and handed it back to Jade. "Wish it was around a bit earlier. Definitely wouldn't be worrying about nightmares I'm going to be having for awhile." He nodded at everyone and moved to the front of the room and turned so the building was behind him. He crossed his arms behind his back and took a deep breath. "So we'll do this smart, or at least as smart as we can under the circumstances. We'll go with Jade's idea and split up into teams. The first one will be include myself and anyone else who wants to start blasting away with the expectation of getting blasted back in return. The second time, consisting of at least Regan and Damien, as you two give me the impression that your good with wards. Gideon, set up a veil and start working a circle as soon as I give the signal, which will be a big boom." He paused and looked at everyone, wondering if they'd agree with him or not, and then came to the conclusion that standing around and talking wasn't going to get anything done anyways so might as well get going. "Well we're not getting paid by the hour so lets get this kamikaze mission started."

Jade took the monocle and slipped it back into a pocket. Damien’s posture changed and he began preparing a spell. Jimmy took charge of the conversation and laid out the plan. At least he was being a bit more sensible now, Jade thought and she nodded. “Sorry, Damien but I think it’ll be better for me to go with Jimmy. The support team needs you and as you said, you can get us out.” Jade gave the man a small smile and left with the first team.

Jimmy lead the team and Jade followed close behind. The building’s ward was more intimidating up close. Gathering her will, she pushed the fear away but it was the years of training that kept her heart beat and breathing steady. As much as she would’ve liked to drop into her usual fighting stance, hand to hand combat was probably not a good idea in this situation. She drew her warden’s sword instead and waited for Jimmy’s signal.

While Jimmy laid out his plan, Kain leaned back against the wall casually scanning the room, marking the other Wardens in his mind. Not having worked with them before, he knew that he would have to be extra careful not to have any interference go on when the spells started flying. When Jade volunteered to be with the support team, Kain stepped away from the wall as a wolfish grin spread across his face, "I must say, going with the support team sounds like my gig, allow me to introduce myself," he raised his gauntlet hand in a wave, and put just a tiny amount of will through it, causing a few small sparks to dance between his fingers. "Warden Kain, door smashing and ass kicking specialist, at your service."

---

Waiting outside with Jimmy and Jade, Kain began to feel the wire tight exhilaration run through his body that he felt every time a fight was about to go down, he saw Jade draw her sword, and rested his hand on his collapsed staff that sill sat in his thigh holster, ready for a quick draw when needed. Grinning like a mad man, Kain resisted the urge to laugh as he whispered to Jimmy, "Let's do this."

Gideon shrugged off Reagan's tongue lashing, as far as he was concerned, it meant he had done his veil well enough that he could surprise at least a couple Wardens by dropping it.

He nodded solemnly at Jimmy's explanation, it was about as much as he had expected that they would know. He checked his satchel and glancing out the window to make sure he'd have enough chalk to encircle the building, affirmed his stance.

"I'll wait for the boom, then."

He nodded over at Kain. "Good, well there shouldn't be a shortage of either of those things in the near future.

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Gideon waited sidelong down and across the street from the assault team, several paces away from the outside wall of the target building. Already veiled, he tapped Garm's pommel under his cloak with his right hand, twitching a long piece of chalk in his left, his eyes focused on the doors and windows out in case he thought someone (or something) might see him despite his veil. His tattoo hadn't started lighting up yet, which was a good sign in terms of his theory about there being ghosts there, but the oppressive feeling being exuded from the building could still be felt by him, he'd been in enough legitimately haunted houses to recognize a similar feeling. Whatever was in the house likely wasn't good, but they wouldn't know until they tried.

"Alrighty." Jimmy said nodding at his two partners in a desperate attempt to draw all the fire they could so everyone else could bring down whatever nasty surprises would be waiting for anyone dumb enough to enter the building while the wards were active. "There's no time like the present right, except the past of course if you like looking at things with a smudge of nostalgia over the lenses, so let's bring the noise." He made a face the kind one makes after sucking on a lime covered in salt and spicy peppers for the first time. "God that sounded terrible." He shook his head. "Remind me never to say something like that again. Please!"

Once outside it was hard to mistake the feeling of eyes, lots of them, staring down from everywhere like a bunch of birds waiting for the old lady in the house to throw out their morning bread. "IF this isn't a trap." He muttered under his breath. "Then I'm not only a monkey's uncle, I'm also a Gorilla's niece and the father in law of a couple of penguins who got confused and married ostrich." It was tempting to open his wizard's sight again and get an exact count of how many of the reds were looking at them, or other things, but once was enough for a day. "Come on." He said, deciding to ignore the threats until they were jumping out of the windows and rushing towards them from every angle.

He stopped in front of the building, and pulled out his staff as Jade got her sword ready, and watched the other one's hand hover over his staff like a gunslinger. "Okay, everyone ready?" He said, and then raised a hand towards a mailbox, or mail can, or whatever the big things were called, in front of the building. "I'll take that as a yes." He snapped his fingers and said "Inanis." There was a whoosh of sound as an empty space was created and then this thunderous, oddly muffled bang as the mail box, and everything around it in a twenty feet circle got smashed inwards, leaving a two feet deep crate, and a whole bunch of stuff compressed in the center.

There was a moment of silence where Jimmy worried that the reds hadn't heard that, but the fear was quickly but aside by the bellows of rage that rang out from all around them. "Oh that was close." He said, grabbing the staff from his back. "Was worried for a second there we'd need another wanton display of destruction of public property to get them interested." He looked up and frowned as dozens of red poured out of the windows above them.

"Goodie, a target rich environment." Kain breathed while slapped his thigh and extended his staff with a flick of his wrist."Just my style," Then with a sweep of his staff he shouted, "Furyoku!" and began to launch Reds back into the building, using gale force winds to slam them back into the building. Audible snapping sounds came along with several of the impacts, indicating broken bones. One vamp in particular had a particular bout of bad luck, spinning wildly back through a lower window with a crash, and shards of broken glass ripping open his throat and stomach, causing the unfortunate vamp to thrash about on the floor while his blood reservoir emptied out around him.

Not all the vamps had be delayed by his spell however and Kain drew his warden sword, a whip thin rapier, and he gave the vamps a mock salute and assumed his stance, grinning at them. "This should get interesting, any volunteers?"

Jade paused to admire the evocation Jimmy performed. Compressing that much space was impressive. The other team would be casting whatever spell now, but immediately after the bang were the roars of the vampires. The howls filled the air and they burst through the windows of the building. Kain and herself took it as a signal to unleash their own spells.

“Himi” She muttered the word and the will she gathered was unleashed through the tips of her index and middle fingers of her right hand. A stream of white fire shot forth and pierced the winged beast through the belly and the two immediately behind it. Those that didn’t die in a spray of blood and guts were consumed in fire and fell from the sky. Jade moved her hand fingers sharply in a horizontal line, cutting the vampires Kain sent smashing back to the building. But there more monsters pouring out the building and she saw Kain ready for close quarter combat.

For a moment she thought of unleashing Roux, but there wasn’t enough heat in their surrounding to kill all their enemies. Most will probably catch on fire but having burning vampire monster bats hurtling at them probably wasn’t the best move. Jade readied for the incoming vampires hoping that whatever spell the others have prepared would be unleashed soon.

Once Jimmy compressed the ground roughly outside the Red Hideout, Gideon got to work, keeping his veil up, he stooped himself and started drawing a circle of chalk around the building, the white line appearing as if from thin air on the ground as the chalk left the stick and appeared on the ground.

Reds were jumping out of the windows and bursting out the doors now, their focus on Jimmy, Kain, and Jade who were doing an effective job at making as much noise and flash and bangs as possible, but as Gideon worked his way around, he kept his eyes trained on any Reds that poked that sprang out, his left hand resting on Garm in case he needed to drop his veil.

He had made it roughly halfway around the building when a couple of Reds looking out saw the conspicuous white line suddenly appearing just outside their building. They couldn't see Gideon, but they didn't have to think long of what might be causing it as one of them pulled out a light machine gun from somewhere nearby and started spraying the area around the start of the line with bullets.

The gunfire forced Gideon to switch tactics. Dropping his veil, he lifted up his left hand and shouted: "Lind!". Gideon appeared in view and as the bullets sprayed down in his direction, they were caught in a wall of energy, shimmering with blue-ish white light as they hit and stopped at the energy from his shield. With a flick of his will and his fingers, the wall pulsed and the bullets reversed trajectory, firing back at the building at the Reds looking out of it. The shells caught some of them, but Gideon knew conventional bullets weren't likely to kill any of them.

Picking up his pace with the chalk and drawing Garm in his left hand, a conventional long sword in the Viking style, he shouted over to his fellow Wardens, hoping they could hear him "Cover's blown! Watch my lines and my ass while I finish!"

Reagen gave a -so-so- gesture with her hand "It not that I'm so strong in the art of wards. I can aid in their construction to be sure, but don't ask me to be I primary ward maker. More of an artificer to be honest." She gestured wither her gloved hands, to her necklace and to her boots, both sets covered with rune-etchings just barely visible in the light of the room, before adding in a grumble under her breath "not that they gave me time to gather up anything that might have been useful back at my lab."

"It's just that my personal specialty, in the elemental sense, is earth magic. Grounding out magic is the next best thing to running water after all. Not skilled enough to invoke like that, canceling out spells like that is probably another half a century outside my league, but given a circle and a few minutes I can break down a good chunk of those defenses." She looked over at the Damian "I'll take half if you take the other. I should be able to handle that much...if not the next best thing to it. Afterwards...well I'll guess I move to aid which ever team appears to be having the most trouble."

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Reagen stood not to far away from where the various teams had been deployed. Specifically she was up on a near by building she needed line of sight on her building and this was the best way to keep an eye on everything she needed. She had already drawn her circle well in advanced and begin preparing her spell. With a circle and a line of sight taking down a ward wasn't something that Reagan would call hard work. Doing this to most warded places would be sort of like magically kicking in a door. But on this scale? Well, that was a different story. She was about to do was more akin to being a one-woman-magic-wrecking-ball. Breaking down Countless defensive spells weaved all around the building like its own personal great wall of china. It was going to be a big spell, a relatively un complex one, but it would be alot of heavy lifting.

She held her shillelagh in both hands, eyes focused on the building, and doing three things in her mind at once. One) Drawing in power Two) Forming and holding the spell in her mind and Three) Reaching out with her senses to tether the oncoming spell to the targeted wards. It started out simple but as she gathered more and more of the wards into the spell she fell the burden grow significantly. The Amount of power she had pulled in for this one was about the biggest single spell as she had ever done. The inside of her mind began to feel pressure like something was growing in the center of her brain and trying to push the whole thing out. She was distantly aware that the first boom and happened and the world below her had gone in to chaos as wardens and vampires clashed in the streets. Time, just a little more time and she'd be done.

Finally she felt her hit her absolute limit and with gritted teeth she broke her circle and swept out her shillelagh, all its runs glowing a brilliant purple light she called out in a loud thunderous, commanding voice "SCAIP!"

The power flooded out of her enough to make her fall to her knees with the shocking sensation of it's sudden absence. But the spell did as it was meant to. There was a faint rumble in the ground as the spell rolled its way through the earth and clawed wards down into the defusing presence of the world. It took her a moment to regain he breath. She rose to her feat and looked down. Seems things were going about as well as could be expected. She jumped over the side of the building, running power through her gloves and boots as she did, She commanded the gravity of these items to cling to the side of the building, she slide down the side at a safe, if a bit quick for comfort, pace and landed on the ground. She ran at a dead sprint past the main team, her warden blade in one hand and her walking stick in the other she struck at any red that was near her path. As she passed 'team boom' she yelled "Got my share of the wards down. May be safe to start tossing magic at building it self or pushing into it if ya can. You keep this up, I'll cover Gideon and hopefully get us both back to ya for back up."

With that she ran on and matched pace with Gideon, coming along to his shielded side. "On my mark, you can drop the shield and focus on the drawing. We should move quicker with you focusing on the circle and I focusing on the defense." She began to run power through necklace, it began to take up a more metallic seeming purple glow. "One...Two...Three! Timpeall!"

As Gideon's defenses went down her own went up. A sphere of gravity about them that made the oncoming rain of bullets not stop in their tracks but rather move around them along its edge, they passed harmless around them. In the river of gun fire they the stubborn stone that parted the flow. She was glade to have this defensive necklace handy today. She wasn't sure how much direct evocation she could handle after such a big spell. But she was still physically on full, and woe beget any dirty red that get within arms reach of her and her short, wicked Hallstatt Sword in one hand and her rushing cudgel in the other.