Alice turned to face Isshum when the young man released a cry of pain. The heat from the wild sparks that flew from him held a warmth that was not at all comforting; unlike the fireworks display the dragon slayer had showed the mother and son earlier. Even James detected this, taking a step away from Isshum with tears welling up in his eyes as the man who had been so kind to him fell to the floor.
"Mommy, help him!" brought back from shock by her sons cries, Alice instantly moved into action with as much swiftness as a swordsman moving in to strike. Moving down onto one knee quickly, she gently placed her arm under Isshum's head as he fell to the floor; protecting his skull from receiving any physical damage. With her spare arm, she removed her lab coat and bundled it up into a makeshift pillow to rest his head on top of. Isshum was as warm as anything, from his high fever and from his magical fire that refused to stop. A flame licked up and singed Alice's now bare shoulder, but she didn't wince. It was unfortunate to say, but the feeling of being burned was something she had become all too familiar with while under the care of her old master during the war.
With the flash of a golden magic circle, Alice's eyes radiated with pure power; glowing golden as she scanned the young mans body from head to toe. With her Mystical Sight, she'd be able to quickly determine the issue if it were a physical one. However, this didn't seem to be the case. She was sure that Isshum had accidentally inhaled a poisonous substance from her box, but she knew deep down that was impossible. Those vials were all sealed personally by herself, and she wouldn't make a rookie mistake such as improperly sealing one of them. However this did complicate things, since there didn't seem to be anything physically wrong with Isshum to cause these attacks on his body. Regardless, she had to do something to stop the pain in his heart and try to wake him up.
"
Isshum! Isshum! This is Alice Vetrov, we were in my office moments ago!" Alice spoke loud and clearly to the seemingly lifeless body of the young mage. "
Your name is Isshum. I am going to treat you, please try to focus on my voice. You're going to be okay." If Isshum was unconscious, then Alice would need to do everything she could to keep him grounded. While she gathered magic power to her hands, she continued to speak his name and where he was. Throughout it all, she kept mentioning that he was going to be fine. She didn't want his body to go into shock.
"
You're name is Isshum. I am Alice Vetrov. Listen to my voice; you're going to be fine. Mending Palm!" Pressing down onto his heart with one palm on top of the other; using her elbows for force, Alice began to pump her healing magic in perfectly timed pulses throughout his body. There was nothing that her magic could do to heal him, but by pumping it onto his heart directly she was making sure to keep it beating. "
Isshum, listen to me. You are in my office. You're going to be alright, I promise." James sat near Isshum's head, crying gently while he gently pleaded for him to wake up. Alice had no clue what had caused this, but her best hypothesis was that there was a sudden disturbance in Isshum's magic power. It seemed to have settled down as far as she knew, but had left Isshum in a horrible state. She continued to pump power to his heart, hoping to keep him breathing until his magic could stabilise itself.
Beatrix Durandal and April Quartz
April giggled in delight at the sounds of discomfort when Beatrix ensared several of the masked man's lackeys with her wires. To be honest, the young girl didn't even realise how she'd trapped them until the light reflected off of the thin strands, releasing a gentle glare that caught her attention.
"What kind of magic is this?!" One man yelled, but was silenced when a seed bomb dramatically jumped, arms and legs spread, onto his back and latched itself there. Not knowing what was grabbing him, the man started to struggle under the force of the wires to no avail. "Get it off me! Get it off!" The bomb sat on his head, waiting for the command.
"
Now you just sit there and be quiet, or..." April spread her arms wide, making a dramtic 'boom' motion with a devilish smile plastered across her face. Many of the other ensared individuals found themselves in a similar position.
April looked over her shoulder as Beatrix complemented her magic, which brought a sincere smile to the young girls expression.
"
Oh? I had no idea you were such a woman of fine tastes. This is only the beginning of my repertoire of colorful delights!" The vulgar attitude of the young girl swapped so quickly to sweet and refined that some of the cult members stared in disbelief. Could this be the same person that had spent the last few days adding at least four pages to their book of curse words?
Kicking one leg over the other Beatrix smirked as the ensnared ones became even more trapped by the color bombs now resting atop of them.
"Of course my tastes are fine, it is me we are talking about after all. Still it seems only one real threat remains" There were other cult members but the flanks were being dealt with by her dolls, easliy sweeping up the untrained crowd with ease while the two mages focused their attention to Lumen - The masked dark mage.
"Very well done... However it seems that your magic is nothing to be worried about. If this is the exstent of your power that is?" "Kehahahha~ I have yet to even use a drop of my magic power and yet you are so confident? It is good to see someone so brave!"Beatrix sounded genuine when giving him a compliment, though she had finished playing around and giving his reputation as a assassin she didn't have any choice but to strike first. Lifting up both her hands she pulled sharply on the tight wires that exstended from her fingers
"April, would you mind attacking with me? Marionette - Sword Dance" The wires that had been attached to the cult members weapons suddenly pulled them away from their grasp, bringing them floating into the air before menicingly pointing towards Lumen. However she was not yet finished with her little display, as with a twist of her hand the five swords hummed with magic and activated their ablities! Flame, Ice and Win slashes shot towards her enemy!
The masked man slumped forward at the oncoming attack, his arrogant posture suggesting that Beatrix's efforts would be childs play for him to avoid. Kicking off of the ground, he soared high above the elemental attacks in an almost elegant fashion. April '
tsked' at the insulting display of indifference. She saw Beatrix's blades fly towards the man, but from the way he began to move it seemed as though he would dodge them as well.
Holding Iris in front of her, April decided that she wouldn't give him the chance to dodge.
"
Color Switch! Dream Fan!" Taking on a colorful appearance of greens, yellows and white, Iris transformed in her hands into a large, metal fan that was folded closed. With one sweep of her right arm, the fan slowly opened up; completely covering the girl from view. Bringing it back behind her, April took a step forward before swinging the large fan towards the onslaught of blades. "
Dream Gale!" A gust of powerful wind swept through the enclosed space in one direction; harshly pushing April and anyone not prepared forward slightly. When the wind passed the weapons, the strength of the gale put strain on the wires holding them. The blades were trying to move faster than the wires permitted thanks to the gust of wind, and eventually the forces in play caused them to snap free and sling forward at almost double their speed.
The masked man was not prepared for the sudden change in velocity of Beatrix's deadly arsenal, so when one blade scraped the side of his arm he gasped in surprise. Quickly changing his position in the air, he scrambled to avoid as many of the weapons as possible. Even despite being caught off guard, he was very nimble. The first wound he received from the attack would be the only one. April frowned, hoping to do more damage to the creep than that. Still, it was a start.
Beatrix was more than a little suprised by the suddenly combination attack, but it was a good kind of suprise since it seemed despite her attuide the girl was very adept at working in tandem with others, at least when she wanted too. Thanks to that Lumen got hurt more than she was exspecting, still she was missing two out fo the five blades because of the force of the wind, so she made sure to restock while she had the chance.
Standing upright once again Lumen may have gasped at the suddeness of the attack but despite his deep wound on his arm he was showing no signs of pain at all. His blood also had a dark blue like color to it.
"Suprising. It has been a good while since I saw teamwork, most mages that had died at my hands but strangers and loners even when more and one of them are fighting me. " Suddenly his body twitched a little and slowly but surely he leaned forward to take on a limp fighting stance as if he was a wild beast.
"Still, it matters not. You will die like the others, well one of you will at least." Peering towards April for a moment he suddenly dashed forwards, his arm extending to bring out a hidden blade in his forearm!
Shifting her arm the blades followed Beatrix's command to move infront of April, either using the same attack from before or just defense either way he was right where they needed him, at least that is what the girl had suspected. With a flash of the lacrima that made up the eye of the mask Lumen exstended his other arm and spoke aloud
"Force Magic - PUSH!" Suddenly a gaint wave of force slammed into the blades infront of April, causing him to fly backwards right for her! Beatrix pulled with all her strength to pull two of the five swords away from her, but the others snapped from their already weakened wires. However, this was not the only effect as it looked like the magi that Lumen had used had broken one of his arms in the process, and yet he only peered down to it in frustration.
There was barely a moment to reach to the blades that furiously flung themselves towards April. That dirty bastard had some despicable tricks up his sleeve. If April were a more skilled fighter, she could have easily defended herself against the blades. As it stood, even with Beatrix deflecting a couple of them, she just wouldn't be fast enough. She closed her eyes in fear, expecting the weapons to hit her. Then something strange came over her. She could swear that for only a moment, a hand had gently rested itself upon her shoulder. The touch was warm and comforting, and oddly familiar to her.
She opened her eyes, expecting to see Beatrix's hand on her. Instead all she saw was the blades of her Dream Fan opened up to form a shield that had blocked the flying weapons. She could swear that she hadn't touched the weapon, but it couldn't have moved on its own? April had no time to think about it, since there were more pressing matters to attend to. She folded the fan shut, staring at the masked strangers broken arm. He seemed disappointed by it, but he showed no signs of pain.
"
Just what the hell are you, creep?" Her question was mostly rhetorical, since she was already charging towards him once again with her folded fan as her weapon. She wasn't about to let this chance slide while he was injured. With a hefty swing, she brought Iris down upon Lumen with a surprising amount of force.
Lumen peered up towards the girl charging him, his eye once again flashing as he readied his own forearm blade once more, blocking the incoming strikes but it was clear he was on the defensive and a rather low strength one at that when compared to April's forceful strikes.
"Dammit, I should have replaced this a long time ago... How foolish of me to underestermate you." Suddenly he felt his back hit something akin to a wall, but when he pushed April's fan away after a attack to take a fast look he saw two towering black and white angels behid him!
"There is more than just her you have to pay attention too. Ari, Shi deal with this thing."On Beatrix's orders both the angels raised and swung their spears towards the man, missing by meer inches as he nimbly dashed back away from them, however no matter his speed he was vastly out numbers this time around. It seemed his tactic of having the others weaken them did not work at all with those damn dolls around! Turning his head he spotted April coming in for another strike and with his feet off the ground and unable to avoid it he tried shouting
"Force Magic-," but was cut off by the girls attack and as a result was sent sprawling across the ground, unmoving...
April leapt from the ground with excitement at her attack making contact. From the looks of it, the creep seemed to be out cold. Twirling around, the little girl blew a kiss towards the unresponsive stranger with a cheeky grin.
"Ha! Suck it, douchebag! You're so outclassed and outnumbered that it was pathetic for you to even try!" April walked up to his body that lay still and began prodding him in the shoulder with the pointy end of Iris.
"It seems I shall not being paid for this job... " Lumen's voice echoed out from the body on the ground, and suddenly it seemed to be rising but something was off about how it was doing so... Being unsteady on his feet at first he uses his one good arm to check his ribs
"Broken, as exspected. Still I can return without any ploblem. That is unless you wish to still fight me? I do warn you though that using my magic I would be able to wipe out this entire cave system, so I don't suggest it" Beatrix was making her way over by this point, and though she didn't want to let him go she had a feeling that his calm tone of voice and lack of his own safty from before he was truely willing to take everything down with him if he so wished.
"Well then. I shall be leaving. However if we ever meet again I wont be the same. So be ready to perish if we do." With that Lumen started to head towards the exit of the cave, leaving the other cult members to their fates without a second throught.
April raised Iris in objection, not ready to let this creep get away so easily. Yet as she did so a sudden fatigue fell over her. She'd been swapping forms with Iris quite a lot and it had only just taken its toll on her body. Her magic had limits, much more so than someone of Beatrix's power. She was after all, still a rather weak mage in comparison to the puppet master. Although she would never admit it. Turning to face Beatrix, April forcefully stopped panting to try and act as if she wasn't affected by the battle. Even though she had to use Iris as a walking stick.
"
Well, looks like we showed him. But now that the ordeal is over, let's be honest with each other. You didn't come looking for me because you actually gave a damn did you? A wizard like you must belong to that damn guild, right?"
"Ah of course I 'give a damn' I would not be here otherwise. As any knight should be. The guild jobs only give me the opportunity to find people in need. Though yes I do belong to that so called guild, there was a reward and everything. Another also came along with me."" Beatrix had both angels return to her side, their clothing and bodies a little damged from the fighting. she also made sure to use some of her physical wire to tie up any remaining cultests.
"We shall go and find him and then return. I am sure he has been working just as hard as us. You did very well I must say, much more powerful than I or that assassin exspected."Beaming at the puppet master, April softened her demeanor up a bit at the compliment. Despite her anxiousness, it seemed as though her intentions were truly to rescue April. For that, she should be thankful for.
"
That's why you don't underestimate the amazing Rainbow Mage!" She grinned, twirling around with Iris in her hand. "
But, I'd probably be back in that cell by now if you hadn't shown up conveniently. So uh, thanks for that I guess. Let's just go, this place is creepy!" The girl had tried to divert attention away from her expression of gratitude as quickly as possible, walking past Beatrix whilst avoiding eye contact. No doubt the puppet master had something smug to say in regards to April's gratitude; but for now the pair seemed to head out from the hidden cave in search of Sage.
