==~==

Mako gritted his teeth at the knight's insistence at staying upright. He thought about what attacks had been thrown at it so far, gauging the effectiveness of each one. They'd all done damage, sure, but none of them seemed overly effective, which was irritating. He searched inside himself again, seeing what else he was capable of. His eyebrow raised as he realized he was equipped with both Fire and Ice spells. Intriguing. I don't think anyone else has tried Ice. I'm not even sure if any of the others are even capable of it. He began summoning Israfil again, still grinning in a predatory way.

Only one way to find out if this is a good idea.

"Persona!" he shouted, Israfil bursting from the air behind him. He pointed at the knight (which he was pretty sure was unnecessary, but it was fun), and commanded again.

"Bufudyne!"

Israfil responded, slashing its trumpet-lance-thing in the knight's direction as it manifested shards of ice, flinging them at the Shadow.

Kotori Shirohane - Sapphire Inn: Floor 1 | Sunday, July 5 2015

Thankfully, the healing spell took effect before any further harm could come to Akane - not that she let any do so, seeing as she seemed more intent on taking a cautious feinting approach in order to lure the large knight away at Rui's behest. Sato too followed through on Rui's order and started to strike at the shadows guarding the incense pot with Chronos' assistance, blasting them with crashing wind that tore them asunder or left them dazed enough to be easily finished off by others. Rui himself meanwhile made use of both these facts, pressing on past the distracted knight and into the fray of the gathering shadows as he reconfirmed his previous intentions - only this time asking for Sato and Kotori to focus on clearing a path for him.

With any immediate danger of anyone taking a particularly dangerous blow cleared, Kotori was a lot more willing to go along with the plan in an offensive manner. Without any wide-arced attacks, neither Sato nor she could stem the tide of shadows - but if they only had to focus on those which were an immediate threat or in the way of Rui as he charged forward to deliver a heavy blow directly to the incense pot, they just might be able to do so. As such, Kotori gave a quick nod at Rui's words as she shifted her focus from the group - though not quite without the occasional glance to make sure everyone was safe - before calling upon Kikuri-Hime once more.

A thunderous crack followed whenever she directed a "Zionga" at one of the shadows that barred Rui's way or was about to swing around him and strike from behind. Together with Sato's spells, a rift was forming in the shadows - though Kotori worried what might happen if the rate at which they appeared increased as Rui drew closer. Still, it seemed like the lesser shadows were now almost entirely focused on him, leaving Sato and Kotori mostly free to aid in clearing a path and Akane to continue her exchange of blows with the knight as she dodged another of his attacks; only to land one of her own with Setanta's assistance.

With Akane avoiding any incoming strikes and the shadows being cleared for Rui, Kotori was left to tentatively hope that his and Askr's strike would be true, even as a shadow in his way, dazed by her own lightning strike, was blown apart by Sato's Garula.

Akane after being healed up was able to face the knight head on for a short while safely, trying to do as much damage as possible. It was a fairly violent slugging fest as she used a Kill Rush directly into the knight's slashes. Meanwhile, Rui was given the opportunity he needed and struck the incense pot with a Garudyne, destroying it rather easily.

"Alright, the pot's destroyed, it seems some of the swarms are retreating further into the dungeon, deal with the knight and continue moving through", Rui then gave the order to focus the knight. It seemed quite sturdy, but a bit of focus fire and it should go down.

---

Mako's Bufudyne struck the White Knight clean, but despite the spell's power, the knight didn't seem to give an inch, only stopping and bending it's knees for a moment, bracing the impact fairly well.

"It seems resistant to ice attacks. The field blocking my vision is gone now, so I can see the source of the ghosts. There seem to be some tomb stones somewhere in the darkness, I'll send you the directions for them", Ayano said. Send... Directions? As soon as they were wondering how she was going to do that, a few screens showed up in front of them, it was a map of their immediate area, and outlined in large red dots were the tombstones. They themselves were marked with coloured arrows, and the knight was the even larger red dot.

"Alright, understood, this makes things a lot easier. Ryan stay with me to hold off the knight, Mako and Shizuka, hunt the tombstones down", he ordered. The ghost assault was starting to refresh after Kami cast a Mazio, signalling the beginning of the plan before he would prepare to brace against the knight's attack. They had a map, finding and even taking the tombstones out from a range if they had a shot should not be too difficult. There seemed to be three of them, two to the left with a fair space apart, and one to the right a little behind diagonal to the knight.

@Sho Minazuki@EnterTheHero@Amaterasu

After Mako's attack barely fazed the knight, Ayano spoke up and informed the group where the ghosts were coming from. Some screens popped up in front of Ryan and he helped slightly in surprise. After the initial moment of shock he shook his head and focused on the locations, ready to destroy the graves.

"Alright, understood, this makes things a lot easier. Ryan stay with me to hold off the knight, Mako and Shizuka, hunt the tombstones down"

Ryan nodded in acknowledgment and shot a Garula at the knight to put it on the defensive. Kami cast another Mazio to shake off the ghosts and the battle continued.

Akane Hanazawa // Sapphire Inn - F1
Sunday, July 5th, 2015

With her successfully keeping the knight in check, Rui was able to destroy the pot easily. And with the pot destroyed, now they can turn their full attention towards destroying the knight. Now that she won't have to worry about the knight slipping away, they can go all out. Time for turn it up. To prepare for the offensive, she casted Rakukaja, giving everyone extra firepower to dispatch the knight.

Rui certainly broke that pot. That is something Rui did, all right, with that well-timed Galeslash. Most of the mob shadows began to withdraw once they'd broken the incense urn, so Sato quickly helped clear out any stragglers and turned his attention to the knight shadow. Akane had done her job of keeping it busy well, and with a Matarukaja up to help the offensive, the team went in for an all-out kind of attack. Meaning, Sato just kinda stood there, pelting spells at it. It probably wouldn't target him. Probably?

Kotori Shirohane - Sapphire Inn: Floor 1 | Sunday, July 5 2015

For a moment, Kotori was worried if the hit had been strong enough when Rui's Garudyne seemed to only crack the pot - only for the cracks to suddenly expand all along the outside before the entire thing burst apart. This seemed to disrupt the enclosing shadows in some way as a great many of them fled away further into the dungeon and the few remaining were weak enough to not be any significant threat anymore. Megumi briefly informed them of how the situation had changed before everyone's attention focused on the knight which was still preoccupied by Akane darting in and out of its attack range and taking attacks of opportunity wherever she could - and luckily not having taken much in return.

Still, even if she managed to avoid all its strikes, it would take quite a while to take down such a foe all by herself - and after having felt the power behind its slashes before already, she didn't seem too keen on experiencing that again and instead used Setanta to empower everyone with Matarukaja before once more diving into the fray and getting the knight's attention. This left it open for attacks by Rui, Sato and Kotori - an opportunity that didn't go unused as a roaring wind blast struck the knight before thunder crashed as Kotori too added to the spell barrage with a "Zionga"; a little surprised at just how much increased the attacks were due to Akane's help.

The focus fire was a success, the black knight's chestplate shattered and then the rest of its armor crumbled away as it revealed a person beneath it, collapsing to the ground unconscious.

"That must be one of the other people we detected... I'll have Kazuki come pick him up", she said. The stairs were immediately next to them, but Rui opt to wait a minute until Kazuki had arrived, he arrived with Riku as well, and the two quickly just grabbed the guy and headed back. Not many words were exchanged, just a few pleasantries.

"Right, we're going to keep going. Let us know if you detect anymore of those knights", he said... The knights didn't seem thematically part of the dungeon, which struck him as a little strange, perhaps testament to the fact that these people's egos were overpowered by whoever the dungeon's owner was. Regardless he moved along.

As they reached the second floor they entered what appeared to be a bath house, at least not before a small corridor full of rooms, they seemed to be like an Inn's accommodation rooms, and then there was the hot spring. The bath house led outside too from what they saw, but they were a bit cautious to keep going. The main area for this floor looked like the outdoor hot spring, many times more spacious than this little changing room they were in.

As they entered the outdoor area, they could see passive shadows taking a dip, much like in the first floor, but these ones were noticeably more... Aggressive. If anyone here had met Jun before, they would be reminded of her advances towards other women. It didn't help there was a slight pink tinge to some of the lighting, suggesting a bunch of things.

"I honestly feel like I shouldn't be looking at any of these...", he commented. The implications were enough to tell him this.

---

As the tombstones were taken out, the party was able to focus their efforts on the knight. The Garula proved effective, it didn't seem to have any resistance to it, but after a few exchanges, it's weakness to fire was abused and then it was quickly taken down. As the knight fell to its knees, its armor crackled and broke apart, revealing a man beneath it, eyes white until he was completely free, and now unconscious.

"This is... One of the people who got wound up in this... I'll move some people in to pick him up"

Among the people who did was Matthew, Shizuka was a bit uncomfortable with the cavern, so she asked if she could take a small break, so Matthew agreed and the two switched duties for the moment. As this was going on, Kami with Ryan scouted ahead and found the stairs, so they headed back to inform the party.

"We've found the stairs... Ayano, we're going to keep moving up", and with that, they headed off.

As they went up and arrived to the next floor, it looked as if this area was like some kind of secret passage for the inn. They could see many parts of what seemed to be a building's foundation. One could imagine this could be a kind of secret escape route. The area they were in was just a long winding and somewhat narrow cave hallway... If they were attacked here, it could be trouble, so the idea for this was to keep their magic users in the middle, so that if something attacked, they would already be in formation.

"Sooner we get out of this hallway the better...", he grumbled.

Matt - Sapphire Inn Cavern

Lately things had been going rather dull for Matt, he was at a total loss every day, he honestly didn’t think that kind of thing would affect him so much. He knew he had to deal with the situation sooner or later or he would have to let it blow over with time… but did Matt really want that? He had to at least bring up the topic… but how? It was an extremely awkward situation that seemed to annoy Matt with its complicatedness.

Deep in his own thought it seemed as if he wasn’t even really taking the kidnapping events seriously, that and the whole strike team thing was kind of dull in the beginning as he would’ve liked to let off some of the steam.

That was until he was requested to switch which he eagerly accepted.

Walking down the cave hallway after meeting up with the party was eerie to say the least,
“I hope i get to start burning stuff soon” Matt muttered as he walked.

@Sho Minazuki@EnterTheHero@itano123

Ryan and Kami focus fired on the knight for a bit, soon afterwards the armored titan fell to reveal an unconscious man with white eyes. Shizuka switched out and Matt replaced her, while Ryan and Kami went to scout for the staircase. They found the stairs and headed back to grab the rest of the party.

Ryan waved at Matt as this was his first time meeting him and they went to the next floor. They emerged into a narrow hallway and Ryan felt a little claustrophobic. Ryan stayed in the middle of the party in case they were attacked, listening intently for anything and anyone.

Kotori Shirohane - Sapphire Inn: Floor 1 | Sunday, July 5 2015

Distracted by Akane's constant dodging and weaving between its strikes, the shadowy knight put up little resistance as the spells of both Sato and Kotori struck home; leaving it open for a decisive blow by Akane and Rui. Caught in the crossfire, its chestplate began to crack - and then shattered completely, the rest of its armour quickly following as it too crumbled into shadowy dust that disintegrated before it even touched the ground. However, unlike most shadows, this one did not disappear fully - instead, in being destroyed the knight's armour revealed that a living person was actually hidden within.

Megumi was quick to establish that the person was merely unconscious - to the relief of Kotori, who was worried that their attacks may have unwittingly harmed them - and sent Kazuki to their location in order to bring them to safety. This too was quite welcome news to Kotori, seeing as it gave her a moment to catch her breath and, though unnecessary at that time, check on everyone else's condition while they waited for Kazuki to arrive. He did so only shortly after and, after just a brief few words, carried the recovered victim back to safety - which meant it was time to press on for the team, Rui announced and heading towards the stairs ahead.

Kotori Shirohane - Sapphire Inn: Floor 2 | Sunday, July 5 2015

Heading up from the previous floor, Kotori looked about carefully as no one knew quite what to expect; even with Megumi's watchful eye on them and their surroundings. For the moment, however, things were quiet as neither Megumi nor their own eyes detected any shadows in their immediate vicinity - leaving them to inspect the dungeon itself a little more closely. From the look of things, the theme from the previous floor seemed to be continuing - if the first floor was a dining area, then this one was a bathing one it appeared; the look and feel of a traditional Japanese inn undeniable - even if the strange disparity between being in the mirror realm and yet on seemingly mundane ground at the same time was a little unnerving.

Nonetheless, they carefully pressed on through a changing room and reached a rather large outdoor hotspring - which Kotori most definitely was not looking forward to. But whilst she wasn't exactly keen on public bathing, considering she didn't like having her scars on display, it wasn't like they'd be getting into the hot springs themselves - instead, the reason was far more prosaic in that steamy places simply did not mix well with glasses. Of course, that was before they actually arrived at the hot springs and saw the shadows mingling there - and by the looks of things, it seemed that they had ventured into the women's bath.

Similar to the dining ones a floor below, these shadows did not initially seem all to interested in the group and were instead more focused enjoying on the water - or, at a second glance, the presence of each other. Whilst she hadn't really known what to expect, it certainly hadn't been this for Kotori who tried - and failed - to somehow avert her eyes from the shadows whilst still keeping an eye on them in case they turned hostile; a slight blush undeniable even whilst wondering - and not for the first time - if it was alright to be seeing into other people's private matters, seeing as these places seemed to somehow reflect their thoughts and personalities.

Akane Hanazawa // Sapphire Inn - F1 ---------> F2
Sunday, July 5th, 2015

Their joint attacks successful, the knight's breastplate shattered, with the rest crumbling away soon after and revealed a person underneath it. Luckily, the person was only unconscious and wasn't in any grave danger. Afterwords, they contacted Kazuki, who will come to pick up the unconscious man and get him out of there while they continued onwards.

---

Reaching the 2nd floor, they arrived at what seemed to be a bathhouse. The more they wandered about, the more it became clear that they probably happened upon the women's bath, if the 'naked' shadows taking a dip wasn't clear enough. Given the fact that this is supposedly a dungeon, she expected shadows but a bunch of shadows, who didn't really seem interested in them, 'naked' and lounging about in a hot spring? Yea.....this is definitely not what she expected.

It all seemed like something straight out of a porno or one of those cheap bathing scenes from a b-rated movie. If a dungeon is based off the mind of the owner of it, it really speaks of what kind of person they are. While the view itself wasn't bad, it was strange in the fact they haven't been attacked by the shadows yet. Laughing at the reactions of the others at the sight, she turned to Rui.

"So? Do we sit and stare or do we get on with it and attack? If these shadows are like the one before (the knight) then would that mean we'll need to fight them and render them unconscious as well?"

==~==

Mako sighed with relief as the tombstones and knights were taken down. He dismissed Israfil, rolling his shoulders as he tried to keep his body loose in preparation of anything else supernatural ambushing or seeking to harm them. He also strayed out toward the front of the group- since he seemed to be more suited to the front line, anyway, with his ability to weaken his foes before closing in for the kill. All in all, he was enjoying himself a little bit, surprisingly, even given the life and death nature of their endeavors. No one said this mission had to be 100% doom and gloom, anyway.

Smiling slightly, he walked up the recently discovered stairs to find himself... seemingly in the foundations of the inn. Mako frowned- there were plenty of places an ambush could be hiding in wait for them in this area. He turned back toward his companions.

"I'll stay out in front- I can take more of a hit than some. Plus, I can Debilitate. Seems logical to me."

With the urn gone and the mobs retreating, the entire team had little else to do but blast the black knight with everything they had. A Tarukaja'd assault later, blasts of winds and cracks of lightening storming around the room, and the knight's chestplate cracked. It only took a second for the entire cage of armor to crumble into dust and release the prisoner inside. The person simply fell to the ground unconscious. The team was informed that Kazuki would come pick up the saved person, but Rui decided to protect the person until Kazuki got there. A couple of minutes later and Kazuki showed up with Riku in tow, and the two young men carried the rescuee back to the dungeon entrance with little said.

With that having been dealt with, the group of four decided that it was good time to move on now. Climbing up the nearby stairs, Sato could feel the air get a bit more... humid. Stepping onto the floor of a bathhouse, he couldn't help but wonder how the knights they'd seen fit in with a traditional Japanese onsen. With multiple people in mirror world at the same time, it was almost definitely a result of the victims mixing dungeons. That didn't quite answer why one "theme" was so much more overwhelming than the others...

There was no point in trying to figure it out while they were still exploring it, so Sato merely followed along with the group as they waked out into the outdoor portion of the bathhouse. It was almost freeing to step into a much more open space, even if they hadn't been walking through the corridors for very long. The heat and humidity of the hot spring had a heavying effect on Sato, but it had an artificial, fake feeling that unsettled him. It didn't help that there were a group of the "passive" shadows lounging about in the spring, doing more stuff. Sato subconsciously looked away instead of watching the weird shadow flirting, or even thinking about what the others thought about it. Was this still a metaphor for something, and if so, was it... okay to watch?

The team seemed to grind to a halt, much to Sato's dismay. The boy was already trying not to look flustered. "Well, I don't know about you three, but I have no intention of getting in. Are we going to attack them as Akane suggests, or try to move on with the mission?"

"It doesn't look like they're hostile... I guess if we can avoid a fight, then we should", a logical conclusion. It was likely though whatever enemies were waiting here were in hiding somewhere... As he was thinking that, and they reached near the end of the area, wild screeching stopped them in their footsteps.

They turned around and to their sides to see shadow monkeys, in fairly large numbers, and soon, there was one large likely leader monkey. After some grunting and pointing, they attacked. As they did, the women shadows in the hotsprings screamed and ran, disappearing into mist.

"I guess we'll clear them out... Megumi, do a scan on the big monkey. I'd like to figure out how we can make this quick", he requested. The rest? Do as they please until the larger monkey was scanned.

---

"Well you're in luck... You just might get to", Kami said, as they reached a corner. What he sees on around it, might be why he made the statement. As everyone managed to get around and peek out, they observed what looked like a shrine. There seemed to be quite a few enemies here, a lot of shadows, it almost looked like they were praying.

"Doesn't look like they notice us...", he commented, they could avoid them, but there was one problem. They were standing in the way of the only way through...

"We'll sneak around into position, and then wipe them out with a volley of spells", a sound plan. They were already grouped up, meaning area of effect spells would almost assuredly hit all of them. Kami made some hand signs and then began to move along the darkness of the cavern's walls, the idea was to surround, and then clear them out as quickly as possible.

Kotori Shirohane - Sapphire Inn: Floor 2 | Sunday, July 5 2015

Responses to the lingering shadows were mixed - and not only in terms of what exactly they were doing. However, with no over signs of hostility and no warning from Megumi, Rui cautioned them to proceed without attacking. Kotori wasn't averse to avoiding conflict where possible, seeing as it would mean they'd not have to exhaust themselves unnecessarily and as such was quick to agree with a nod - all the while still trying to fix her gaze on something that wasn't the shadows in the water or the other party members. This did turn out to be a little more difficult as they continued on however, as she found her glasses to be ever less transparent due to the rising steam until she finally had to concede to it and had to wipe them on her uniform just to be able to see clearly once more.

Unfortunately, she picked a rather inopportune moment for it as the very second she removed her glasses, a screech resounded through the hot springs. Making a rather rushed job of cleaning them, Kotori had clear sight just in time to see the shadowy women in the water scatter in a panic - and the veritable horde of shadowy monkey now surrounding them; seemingly only waiting for a signal from a noticeably larger monkey which seemed to be their leader. Not knowing exactly what they were up against, Rui asked for Megumi to scan their opponents as everyone got combat ready - including Kotori, who once more summoned Kikuri-Hime to her side in preparation to cast her lightning spell if any of the shadows got too close.

She couldn't help but worry that someone might get knocked into the water though - which might not exactly be the best of things considering the relationship between water and electricity; even if she wasn't sure if such a thing still held true in this strange Mirror Realm.

Well, they were right in assuming the lounging shadows were still passive. It just doesn't help that, as the team neared the end of the open area, actually aggressive shadows jumped them. Shadow expected something like before-- knights, something humanoid-- but instead, screeching monkeys lounged out from seemingly nowhere. They were in reasonably large groups, with one noticeably unique monkey. Said monkey was probably the leader, as after it grunted a bit, the shadows jumped into the fray. Thankfully, the passive shadows ran off into the steam of the hot spring at the sight of the shadows, screaming as they disappeared into the fog of it. Sato was almost glad they were gone, but he wasn't sure if he was just feeling embarrassed about it or if the heat was getting to him in his every-day outfit.

Pulling out his bow, the team had little defined strategy besides full assault. It was pretty implied, though, that it would be a good idea to do something about the "leader" monkey, but that entailed carving through the small army of soldier monkeys first, as they made it a bit of a hard target. Megumi needed a moment to properly scan it before they could get any intel, so Sato took matters into his own hands and started off by launching an arrow into the chest of one of the monkeys. It was a good shot, so the shadow dropped back instantly, disappearing into a small cloud of black smoke.

Picking a crowd off one-by-one would be tedious at best and dangerous at worst, so Sato decided to try to get creative with it. Arrows weren't getting anywhere fast, but none of his attacks screamed area of effect... Well, wind was a force and force launched projectiles, so Sato summoned Chronos to his side. When the moment was right, his persona launched a torrent of wind out in front of Sato, tearing throw a monkey and tossing it crashing through another two. The collateral damage was fatal, but it knocked them away enough to prove better than anything else Sato had up his sleeve. As a bonus, it also cleared away the rising steam for a bit, but that was more of a quality of life pro if anything.

Rui was probably the only one with a good sweeping attack, so he would most likely be dealing with the crowds. If they could pierce through the primate forces fast enough, an opening to the ringleader would have to show itself sooner or later. Realizing this, Sato tried to keep close to the front line, trying to multitask with his persona by sending a Garu one way and shooting an arrow the other. If the moment for a decisive blow appeared, Sato would be ready with his persona's scythe.

@Sho Minazuki@EnterTheHero@itano123

Ryan peeked around the corner and cringed at the sight of such a large amounts of Shadows. There was no way they could take such a large amount of shadows in a head on battle. Luckily Kami voiced a pretty solid plan and the group spread out to surround the Shadows. Ryan was on the left wall of the room and he prepared to gale Slash all of the shadows at once.

Akane Hanazawa // Sapphire Inn - F2
Sunday, July 5th, 2015

Their timing is as perfect as always, as the moment Rui said it, the enemy made it's move. Well, it wasn't the 'passive' women shadows, but a gang of monkies instead. Monkies and hot springs....are we stuck in some cliche ecchi anime or something? With a sigh, she lifted up her katana and assumed her battle stance.

Before making her move, she called forth Setanta and casted Matarukaja, raising the teams defense. Usually primates are usually depicted in games and what not for having a good deal of attack power, so until Megumi gets a better read on the monkey leader, Akane figured she'd remain cautious until they find out for sure. Never underestimate an enemy until you're sure of all they can do.

With that casted, katana in hand, charged towards the nearest monkey, taking advantage of Sato's as they were thrown into confusion.

==~==

Mako grimaced as he noticed the large amount of Shadows on this floor, though he was thankful they weren't attacking them. Yet. Still, the praying seemed a bit off- what exactly were they doing it for? Were they preparing something? Perhaps empowering some other entity in the dungeon? Whatever it was, Mako didn't really care too much. All he saw was a target-rich environment. He pulled the hatchet from where he stashed it on his belt, getting it ready. Spells were all well and good, but in case some of these Shadows survived their initial onslaught, he should be ready to get up close and personal.

Without a word, Mako crept along the outside of the group of Shadows, trying not to spook any of them. He prepared to fire off an Agidyne (no pun intended) once Kami gave the signal, and then tensed in anticipation, ready to start knocking heads together.