The orange haired girl was speedy on her feet, half way to the portal when a clawed hand snatched her up by the collar of her shirt. Inari's slim brow twitched with annoyance, eyes closed shut as he growled out. "We have to decide a leader first since you want to be in a group so badly." His disgust was evident with the idea, but Faera didn't seem to notice.

She lightly blushed, flashing a cheeky smile up at the fox spirit. "Hehe, oops. That would be a good idea." Inari released her as soon as the bat winged girl opted for leadership. The fox's ear twitched, not seeming to like that proposition at all, but Faera once again undermined his body language. "Yeah! I vote for Vivilyn, she'd make a good leader!" The girl said cheerfully, Inari's face showing the strain of not screaming at the naive girl. You can't just vote for someone to be leader because they're your friend, baka!!

"Cool! I don't mind Vivilyn being the captain of the group! Please don't steer us in the wrong direction cap! Now if you don't mind, let's jump...right...in!"

Okami excitingly hops into the Portal which has already been configured to the 2nd Floor. He does snatch the hand of a random person as he hops into the Portal...which unfortunately turns out to be Faera by accident. Lupa isn't far behind him, seeming to let out another chuckle as her joyful partner hops in rather quickly into the Portal with the group's trusting red-haired girl. She notions with her head for the others to hurry up as she joins him and the other two...hoping to not be too far behind.

---

As soon as those who entered the portal and came out into the new floor, the dim lights spread throughout the caves provided by either torches or crystals, a rather large sign was quite visible for everyone to see. It states:

"Path on the left leads to the small encampment made by the Flaming Heart Faction. Path on the right leads to a much more open cavern that leads to smaller paths, however, routes for some reason in this area are inconsistent. The Portal to unlock the next Floor is always located in one of the six passageways in there. Good luck adventurers!"

Just like the sign says, the damp and somewhat brighter path on the left shows signs of life at the end of it in the distance due to some noises and varied lights shining in the far distance. The path on the right did show a rather large opening at the end of it...though strange whispers and noises echoed in that direction with an occasional shadow flashing past. Though to add more to the eerie atmosphere, the occasional cackle that sounds similar to an old lady made the safe path seem more favorable. Someone should probably light one of their torches or provide some sort of light if the group were to enter that area...



@Rune_Alchemist@RabidAnubis@Lady Athena@Cherrywitch

Direct Interactions: @Lady Athena@cloudystar@Rune_Alchemist@Cherrywitch@MacDuffy
In Area of: The Tower, 2nd Floor

Vilivyn listened as the others responded, taking notes of how they seemed to feel. Lena seemed on board with it, although as expected Tania did not seem too ... thrilled, about the opportunity. Faera seemed happy to hop along, but Inari didn't seem to like it too much if she looked at his body language, but he seemed perpetually grumpy anyways. The fox spirit was still holding her hand, although the succubus was willing to let go of it if she didn't seem interested anymore. Okami also seemed thrilled about what was going on, and Lupa seemed to have no opinion.

---

So that meant that at least all the summoners liked her ... yay? As the group entered the portal, the demoness took a quick look around to see the others. They seemed to be in a safe space for now within the caverns, so Vilivyn turned back to the group. "Hey, Lena, what quest did you pick out? It'd probably be nice if we knew that." The girl started thinking a bit more tactically about how to arrange the party.

"Alright, me and Faera don't have any weapons, so I think once we figure out our quest weshouldsticktogether!" The girl tried to add a little enthusiasm, but truthfully she was thinking hard. "Lena, if you could stick to the left and have your spirit fly around a little for surveillance that would be great. Okami, you seem like a cutietoughie, so I want you upfront, alright?" She gave him a little wink, before pushing him into place. Looking back at the mercenary and the fox spirit she thought for a few seconds before squeezing the white haired girl's hand and looking into her eyes. "Would you be alright sticking to the back, and using those sharpears to make sure nothing is following us. Sneak forward if you need to. And tough guy, could you stay with her to make sure nothinggoeswrong? If there's room, I can fly around for a bit to help look around."

Vilivyn slid a little to the right of the group, putting Faera in the center so they would be arranged like this:

O
LFV
BA

"Everyone alright with this? And does anyone have a light?" Vilivyn couldn't load up her own backpack too much, or she wouldn't be able to fly correctly.

---

@cloudystar@Cherrywitch@RabidAnubis@Lady Athena

Lena followed the others through the portal, Tania fluttering in behind her. Both of them seemed quiet for the most part, and definitely not at least outwardly excited as Okami, Faera, or Vilivyn. Lena in particular seemed nervous as she arrived in the caves, seeming to fidget slightly uncomfortably as the others started talking among themselves. At least, until she was addressed by Vilivyn.

"O-oh! Uhm, here." The elf quickly handed over the paper with the quest info on it. "T-tania sort of...picked up the one on the sixth floor." Tania shrugged, not seeming bothered by the fact she had picked up what was likely the most difficult quest on the entire board. Not like they couldn't handle it. Lena could definitely at least handle it, she was sure. It wasn't until Vilivyn started trying to order her around did the Pixie finally speak up for herself.

"Like I'ma do anything you tell me, Batsy." Tania replied. "And I would definitely not put Okami in the front. He's not exactly a hard hitter or would know how to fight if something jumped us. I'd put Lena up there and him on the right so he could jump anything before they even knew what hit 'em"

"E-eh? M-me!?"

"But y'know, do whatever you want. I'ma take a nap." The pixie took a brief seat on Lena's shoulder, conversing with the Elf quietly. "Right, so. You know what to do, right elfy? You'll do fine. Just keep your ears open and the wind will be your friend." The pixie, for once gave the Elf an almost affectionate seeming nuzzle on her cheek.

"I-I'll be fine...what about you, though? You seem...erm, rather quiet." Tania gave a small frown before shrugging, dismissing the thought.

"Just haven't been here in awhile. It's a little funny, is all. Now get out there and show 'em whose boss or I'll bite ya." The brief moment of sugary feel goodness over, Tania disappeared in a flash as Lena's body and equipment suddenly feeling much lighter as the 'blessing of the wind' as Tania put it took effect. Well, despite what happened in the past...Lena couldn't help but to want to see this new adventure through.

"R-right! I'll take up position on the left then. And uhm, my boss gave me a few torches...though, uhm, considering my sword It would probably be erm, not a good idea for me to carry one."

---

Fortunata nods at the idea of the demoness leading the party as they made there way onto the second floor which was in a dark cave. She held on to the demoness' hand as it was warm and honestly the only member of the group Fortunanta actually trusted. She was slightly confused for a moment when her name was mentioned. But all became clear when the demoness looked into Fortunata's eyes. The demoness would say "Would you be alright sticking to the back, and using those sharp ears to make sure nothing is following us. Sneak forward if you need to" She stood there frozen for a moment before gulping. Of all the people.... She had ended up with the one of which she trusted least.

Fortunata would stand there for a few more moments before shaking her head. It was obvious that she wasnt a fan of Baldur as she would hold onto the demoness' hand tighter. Her fox instincts were telling her Baldur... Was not someone to trust.

@cloudystar@Cherrywitch@RabidAnubis@Rune_Alchemist

The girl gave a little squeak of surprise as she felt herself be yanked into the portal, blinking with confusion.

Inari jolted in surprise, swinging around to snatch his summoner back but was too late. His fluffy white ear twitched with anger, he crouching down slightly at the portal. "Faera! Dammit, I can't take my eyes off you for a second! Why can't you just stay still?!" He pounced forward and through the portal, landing gracefully on his feet.

As soon as he reached the other side and located his summoner, he immediately pulled her away from Okami with a protective glare, she only glancing up at him curiously.

Soon enough, Vili was in action as leader, reorganizing everyone. Faera hummed thoughtfully, glancing around at the configuration. "And I do have a weapon, Vili." Faera turned her big eyes to Inari who had found a place off to the side of the group. "Would you mind staying in your weapon form for this, Inari?"

Inari visibly tensed. But.. how would he protect Faera if he couldn't move freely? He glanced at her hopeful eyes before turning them away quickly, lips thinning. Instantly, his body flashed white and a line of lightningesque energy shot to Faera's open hands, she grinning thankfully as the light cleared to reveal the katana. "I know you don't like it, but you won't have to stay like this for long, okay?" She tucked the katana into her belt, facing back to Vili.

"I can hold the torch for you Lena! I do have free hands and hey, I'm not that bad of a fighter...but that is true. I don't have armor otherwise I can't move as quick. So being in the front for fighting is no show for me. Much rather to scout ahead if anything."

Okami laughs a bit as he moves forward and waits for Lena to hand over the torch...though he does a nod toward Faera as an apology. After all, he must have ticked off his pal's Spirit for suddenly dragging her through the Portal. He does stretch a few more times as he gets ready to take the torch and head off into the darkness if the others still want him to lead.

"Wonder what's down there, hope it's nothing too much that we can't handle. I'm just going to stick to Lupa hanging around so that we can have an extra body in case for we enter a group fight."

---

Lupa

Ooo...is that a friendly Spirit? I wonder if it's friendly? I wonder if it's a boy? Girl? Likes chase? I want to say hi but partner don't say anything. He must have seen it right? Should I give a signal? Oh, but he might get angry...no, partner will hopefully understand! He friendly, I like his friendliness! Let's try it!

Lupa rubs against Okami's leg a bit and even goes over to Vilivyn as well since she was rather friendly too to Spirits...heck even going to Fortunata since she had a similar scent. She notions with her nose that there were Spirits or at least something on the path to the open cavern...her nose and slight whimper hinting that they weren't the only ones in the area. She seems to grin though thinking about how these newcomers will be entertaining nevertheless whether evil or good.

@Cherrywitch@Lady Athena@RabidAnubis@Rune_Alchemist

Direct Interactions: @Lady Athena@cloudystar@Rune_Alchemist@Cherrywitch@MacDuffy
In Area of: The Tower, 2nd Floor

It seemed that everyone had a disagreement with the way she arranged things, so the demoness shook her head. This wasn't how things were supposed to go, but she could fix it, right?

"Al-alright! How about likethisthen! Alba, staywith me! Okami, to my right! Lena up front, and Faera in the back along with the tough guy!"

L
AVO
BF

After a short moment, the entire part was rearranged according to their preferences, and hopefully grumpy pixies, uncomfortable fox spirit-kin, Okami, and well armed innocent looking girls would be satisfied by this. She gave a breath of relief. This was very new to her, but she had asked for the job, hadn't she?

She looked down in surprise though as Ookami's spirit seemed to be trying to communicate something. Picking the little thing up into her right arm, she started walking forward with a smile on her face and Alba's right hand in her left. "HeyLupa! What'sgoingon little one?" As usual, the succubus seemed cheerful and happy to talk to her relatives, a big smile going across her face.

Talking to spirits was an incredibly useful ability to have.

---

@cloudystar@Cherrywitch@RabidAnubis@Lady Athena

"O-oh dear." Lena really, really, didn't want to be at the front. Not that she minded, really, but that meant if she missed something there was a great chance someone else might get hurt. That said, if there was anyone out of them that was skilled enough to actually be able to fend something off effectively...well, she looked to be the only one with any sort of actual combat experience, save for Baldur, and that was saying something.

"A-alright, I'll lead the way then." She said, handing over the torch to Okami. She started walking, hopefully taking the right direction. Honestly, she didn't feel like Tania had really thought this through and probably just wanted to mess with Vilivyn. But well, she was here and she was going to do her best. That was all she could ever do, really.

---

Fortunata looked to the demoness and giggles as she holds the demoness' hand as well. She was happy with the new formation.. She had her only friend with her... She looked at the demoness and then Okami's spirit which was showing the demoness some kindness. Next thing She knew, both Cerulle and Tsuna were peering out of her robe at the other spirits... Cerulle wanted to meet all the other spirits while Tsuna wanted to be timid. She giggles as she shrugs "Go ahead, Although be ready for a fight" Cerulle cheers before taking off quickly to go meet Lupa and Siren

@cloudystar@Cherrywitch@RabidAnubis@Rune_Alchemist

Lupa quickly got distracted by the fact that the other Spirits started to want to have fun and she immediately forgets to signal everyone else but...Vilivyn what was approaching. She does give one last prod toward the darkness when something started to make a slithering noise nearby. However, the noise disappears rather suddenly and Lupa was too busy trying to play with the other Spirits tag of sorts with her being it to pin point where the noise came from.

Friends! So many friends! Play, let's play! I love tag, let's play tag. Please, pretty pretty please cute and friendly friends?

---

Okami, unfortunately, wasn't that aware of where the sound of the slithering/hissing came from. He was too busy trying to not laugh from watching the Spirits attempting to play with each other, while trying to hold the torch steady for the others to view the path clearer. He does look around a bit when the noise is made, looking at the others curiously.

"Err...as much as I want to say I'm going crazy or join the other Spirits in tag over there, did anyone else here that? Not really the best at locating things and Lupa is kinda busy."

Sure Okami was eager for a fight or scuffle to keep the blood flowing, but fighting in the dark while having to be restricted a bit due to the torch...was quite an annoyance.

@Cherrywitch@Lady Athena@Rune_Alchemist@RabidAnubis

Faera giggled, crouching down to go play with the little spirits when a distinct hissing noise caught her attention. She thought it was nothing until Okami seemed to have heard it as well. "Huh?" She stood, orange eyes wide with confusion. With a sching she withdrew Inari in his katana form from his sheath, getting in a stance as her eyes flicked around the cave. The echoing made it near impossible to pinpoint where the sound was coming from, and it was too dark for her to see!

Faera, its to your right.

The girl glanced down at the red blade, giving a firm nod of her head. "Got it." Good thing Inari still had that great fox hearing even in his weapon form. The girl swung towards the right, readying herself for whatever beast or spirit would pop out at her.

---

@cloudystar@Cherrywitch@RabidAnubis@Lady Athena

Lena walked calmly as she could given the situation. She was leading them. Her! Leading! People! Those three things don't go together in any coherent fashion at all, do they!? At least, she never figured she'd be doing it so quickly. She liked to think at some point she might be a totally cool knight hero that everyone looked up to, but this? This was almost too much for the elf to take at once. So many things could go wrong if she screwed up, and so many of them bad.

...she'd just have to remain positive regardless, wouldn't she? Questioning her own skill would be bad for all parties involved. Before she could continue down that train of thought, a hiss came from somewhere in the cave.

Some sort of snake maybe?

Lena had no real way of locating it. She wasn't all that skilled with 'reading the wind' as Tania called it so she had no idea where it was coming from. Thankfully, it seemed like Faera was able to detect it in some manner though, which was good for them. She turned to the right as well, hand drawing the large blade she used to fight with and readying it for whatever decided to attack them. She chose to remain silent - she wasn't sure if she tried to speak that she could say anything coherent. Her heart was beating faster than it was when she had first come into the tower.

Direct Interactions: @Lady Athena@cloudystar@Rune_Alchemist@Cherrywitch
In Area of: The Tower, 2nd Floor

Initially, Vilivyn was considering Siren out to meet Alba's spirits, but ... Lupa was acting strangely. Almost immediately, the demoness summoned her spirit to enhance her wings, preparing herself for something bad. Those slithering noises didn't exactly sound ... nice. The poor Lupa thought she was meeting new friends, but it sounded far more like some sort of serpent.

Then Faera swung at something that she didn't see. What was going on? "Guys! To the right!" Wait, this could be an ambush. After giving the fox spirit-kin a quick squeeze of the hand, she released Alba's before giving her an order. "Alba, make sure no one sneaks up on us! Those ears of yours can hear nicely, right? Is anything else coming?"

Of course, she hadn't seen anything herself at all. Despite being a demoness, her night vision was just a hair above average. The moment she spotted ... whatever this was that they were fighting though, she'd be sure to cast a hex on them.

Although maybe a fight wasn't necessary? "Spirits of the cavern, we mean no harm! Let us through unhindered, nooneneeds to get hurt!"

---

Fortunata would stop at the sound of slithering. She looked to her spirits then to everyone. Fortunata had a slightly heightened sight in the dark due to being a previous resident of the tower and also being partly a fox (Technically). She looked to Vilivyn and sighs "I guess my hearing is enhanced…." Fortunata shuts her eyes and listens carefully. She points towards the source of the slithering as soon as she can locate it. She would slowly draw her Katana and both Cerulle and Tsuna would go back into her robe.

@cloudystar@Cherrywitch@RabidAnubis@Rune_Alchemist

The snakes began their assault on each of the party members. There were a trio of snakes that seemed to separate for a moment in order to swiftly bite at Okmai, Alba, and Vilivyn. The two girls managed to react in time before the snakes struck, but Okami was bit on his exposed hand that wasn't holding the torch. He yelps a bit in pain as the snakes quickly gather back, leaving a strange poisonous mark on his hand that made him grimace a bit as it continued to burn a bit.

Not only that but in the rear, a trio of snakes similar to the ones that attacked the middle group but were colored red (not I can't edit the pic to make the lump of snakes red), and were about to hit Faera but she was able to easily block the snakes attacking. The red group of snakes pulled back and cut off the group's previous path they took which led back to the portal.

The other bundle of snakes that for some reason constantly grouped together kept moving together on the left side of the group...while in the front stood one lone purple-ish looking snake. She stood in front of them and shook her head when Vilivyn tried to speak to them about peace/diplomacy. The little snake was even smaller than the other snakes...but her eyes glowed purple to cause those in the front feel a bit drowsy as if it was hypnotic.

---

Lupa was slowly going down as she kept falling for the snake's gaze. She couldn't do much before she started to stagger down to her knees...eyes closing longer and longer as she struggled to stay awake. Okami, on the other hand, couldn't seem to move. His small bite on his hand kept stinging more and more as it gave off a bad odor of sorts. He does his best to continue holding the torch up but does give a small smile at the snakes catching him off guard.

"If you guys want to fight, then I'm game! But not planning on making these guys my first Spirit kills...so let's just try to knock them out guys? I'm fine with whatever you guys want to do though, but I do prefer making these guys pals instead of taking them down...though then again, they do come back to life eventually. That would suck to be dead for an interim time too though..."

@Lady Athena@RabidAnubis@Rune_Alchemist@Cherrywitch

"Ah!"

The girl swung out, blocking the fangs of the attacking snake quickly. Faera took a movement back, getting into a more aggressive stance. Defense might not work too well with such fast opponents...

"I don't think that they want to hurt us, they just see us as intruders. We just have to get through to them and show them that we truly aren't going to invade their territory!" offered Faera, to which Inari scoffed.

Faera, you can't keep being so docile. These are your enemies, you can't befriend them. Just look at them! You have to fight.

Faera frowned, gazing up at the hissing crimson faces. She didn't want to hurt anything...

---

@cloudystar@Cherrywitch@RabidAnubis@Lady Athena

Uhm uhm

Peace?

Diplomacy?

Uhm uhm, how did one go about doing that. She was all for it of course, but if they wanted to make friends, she wasn't going to easily be doing that. She didn't exactly have a weapon built for that sword of thing. A giant sword like hers was built for one thing, and one thing only. Defending oneself and others, or taking out threats. As cruel and perhaps mean as that sounded, making friends with every spirit here was not what Lena was trying to do.

"U-uhm...can we really be diplomatic with them, though?" Lena asked, readying her sword. "I don't want to fight either, but they don't seem like they want to back down..." Granted, with her giant sword it was a bit difficult to maneuver in this space and hit an agile target if she was careless.

For now she'd stay at the ready to defend any of the others who were being attacked, as well as herself if any of the snakes came after her. She didn't want to hurt any of the snakes if the rest of the group didn't want to either...

Direct Interactions: @Lady Athena@cloudystar@Rune_Alchemist@Cherrywitch
In Area of: The Tower, 2nd Floor

Vilivyn darted out of the way as a few snakes tried to attack her, noticing how Okami's hand was bitten. Three behind, three left, and ...

A single one ahead? Purple? It was a pretty color, but it was also different from the others. Was it possible the thing was a leader? Rather than attacking outright, it seemed to try using some sort of mental effect. Luckily, the demoness had been trained to deflect such penetrations into her mind and shook them off easily. However, the others would likely not be aware of it's effects. "Ahead! Purple messes with your mind, stay alert and don't look at it! I'lltakecareofit!"

The succubus twisted her fingers over eachother, focusing intensely on the purple snake as if trying to surround it with a will of her own. Soon enough, a few black clouds would start moving around it in thin lines rapidly, going around it again and again and again. The small thing's location was clear in her mind as the hex spell took it's full effect.

"Ten-ebrae sag-ittam!" Moving her hands once more in an arcane manner, the demoness focused her dark powers into a smaller form and fired out a single arrow of darkness to see if it could dodge.

As for the other monsters, she would simply try to stay in the middle of the party and let them handle it. Okami needed to deal with the pain for now, but she hoped the man would realize that they were certainly engaging at this point.

---

Cerulle and Tsuna were starting to wonder what was happening outside the robe. They both peer out and immediately feel drowsy. They both fall asleep leaving Fortunata to fight without her sprites.

Fortunata stared at the purple eyed serpent and sighs. She seemed captivated by its hypnotic purple eyes, but she didn’t seem to be affected by it. Fortunata rubs her face before drawing her katana. She would try and active her sprites abilities. Once she notices nothing is happening she would stab her katana into the ground causing vibrations on the ground attempting to scare away the serpents. She would say something in sprite "We mean you no harm, leave us be. We do not to fight and if you let us pass we shall leave and not disturb your territory!" Her eyes returning a slight blue glow.

@cloudystar@Cherrywitch@RabidAnubis@Rune_Alchemist