---

---

Perhaps what he had needed was time. Aleph Banton was initially unable to find that spark in his mind that set him off, that let loose the delusional, wannabe hero. He was incapable of letting his mind run wild with preposterous ideas that might get him into trouble. He simply could not be Aleph Banton, THE Hero. But that began to change a few days into their trip. The transformation from worthless waste of flesh into irresponsibly-arrogant and delusional was about as subtle as a honey badger tearing a cobra apart. Whereas he was quiet the first few days, Aleph became much more responsive in the later half of the trip, until he had returned even better than ever, much to perhaps everybody's dismay.

It no longer mattered what had happened to him. He was sure all those negative thoughts were merely a slump he had gotten over and never had to look back on. Fear of death? A hero? Ha! Even if he died, he would not stay dead because a Hero does not stop until his job is finished. And right now? Henry Ford is out there somewhere, causing problems for the innocent!

.........

......

....

.

Thankfully, it did not seem as though he had to twiddle his thumbs and wait for action, as but mere moments after they had arrived in the village, they were under attack. Aleph did have to admit he was not expecting rabbits with a taste for flesh, but then again, who did? To make matters worse, they were easily hidden in the tall grass that filled the surrounding area. As much as it might pain anybody to admit, the fight with these rabbits wasn't going to be the easiest thing in the world.

Good thing they had The Hero on their side.

"Fwahaha! I, Aleph Banton, descend!" he declared heroically as he hopped out of wagon and into the fray.

Brandishing his weapon, Aleph, like the rest of the people who had come with him, began to fight the rabbits as best he could while spreading out just a bit away from Firebelly and his immediate company were. Beside him was Alexander, a man he had initially met while he was with Olly. It was not a pleasant first impression either of them left on each other, but no particular bad blood seemed to remain between them so Aleph was willing to pretend like nothing happened in the first place. More importantly, this particular man seemed to be relatively accurate in his attempts at cutting down these rabbits. Was there some kind of magic or trick he was using?

As he was wondering this, he was snapped out of thought by Duncan doing something that was either really ingenious, or really pointless. Either way, it would have to wait as Aleph found there were a fair amount of these rabbits attacking him and Alexander. Aleph had to wait until they attempted to attack him before he could reliably get his own hits in, what with them darting around the place.

The team Malakaus had gathered had become quite big before the day he decided to leave the city. It was incredible how many adventurers he had gathered for his mission to defend a village in the borders of the Lugnicia kingdom. Presumably the crystal that used to protect the village had broken or run out of energy making it able for the monsters outside the village to enter the premise. It was not the first time to happen to any village so it was the natural duty for the royal guards to help the villagers of Lugnicia. Every time something like this happened it took a few days before the villagers got help from the kingdom soldiers due to the long travel time so it was only luck if the village was still intact now. It seems the team of Malakaus had a lot to deal with for now.

Team Tani had ventured with Malakaus for quite a bit on their road to the village after coming to know both their missions were partly the same way, after 5 days they both parted ways with Tani taking a slight road towards the north of the village. There wasn't a lot of traveling distance in between the two points yet it still took half a day of running. They both decided to meet up again at the crossing point back towards the city in a few days.

Tani had set down camp on higher ground, the camp overlooked empty grassland with farmland in the distance, nearby was quite a huge forest presumably with their target walking in between the trees, he likely had a hiding spot somewhere in the forest in a cave of some sorts so it would take some time to find him presumably. They were gonna find him whatever to costs to defeat this foul beast.

Meanwhile in the heart of the kingdom the city had not moved away from its peace yet. Everyday was still the same with three of the royal guard gone from home. The tavern had died down from its hectic past days quite a bit and the celestial mansion wasn't any different either, the adventure guild was overflown with small guests no one cared to take on and the slums finally started getting back on their feet again after the hefty fighting last week. There was however one new individual in the slums.



She was quietly staring forwards with her arms lightly hugging her legs. She was wearing what was to presume a old bag that was holding potatoes back in the day. It had a few chunks ripped off of it to fit her head and arms through. It was long enough to cover her bum which was needed since she had nothing underneath. Her old clothes lied next to her ripped to pieces acting as a pillow for the night. She had had it rough the past few days, she hadn't eaten for the past two days and had maybe died once or twice but she clearly didn't want to be reminded about it.

Her clothes had been ripped apart by a crew of vigorous men and had done quite gross things to her that can't be spoken off. She felt absolutely horrified, people walking by had tried speaking to her but she had only sat and slept there for the past day on a cloth without uttering a single word. Her eyes having a faded look in them. All kind of things went through her mind to where she could go but she was scared, scared of finding others again that would harass her.

She was thinking back about what Avery, Vesta and Dante said, it was rough outside and she could stay there, it didn't seem like a bad deal after having gone through all this, her body was aching, her mouth tasted gross from not having been able to brush the last days, she was smelly, her hair was a mess, everything was looking down, she wanted to go home. She wanted to eat normally, sleep in a warm bed, take baths and brush her teeth properly. Tears dripped down past her cheeks with her face not crunching up one bit, was she already broken? What was happening to her. Her body was trembling.



A sudden explosion inside a small tower above the resident houses made smoke puff out of the small windows. The smoke rose up towards the blue sky but was quick to fade again, a sweet looking witch girl stumbled out of the front door of the house coughing and gasping for air as smoke followed past her out of the door. Her newest experiment had let up on her and exploded. The effects were luckily not as showing as all her other experiments, big watery pox were all over her body luckily without much of a harm but still looking gross, only the ones on her face and hands could be seen for now.

Elendor was gasping for air for a moment before she let out a hefty sigh, she was trying to find a cure for smallpox but it wasn't much of a use yet, it only made them bigger or grosser. Once Elendor opened her eyes she saw the couple of catgirl and human on the street in front of her. Her eyes widened once she got a closer look and almost immediately her voice made anyone startle for a moment.



Elendor rushed inside again waving the smoke away a little and ventured the stairs to the top floor as quickly as possible, she shoved everything away from her experiment table and readied some of the needed potions and bandages.





The past week has been rather hectic but like any other week it died down again after the storm, Tani had passed by to gather some adventurers and had taken some of the louder guests away from the tavern letting Yoshinobu her heart beat a little slower from all the things happening and stress from impatient guests. Ease had taken two cute twin cat girls in for some food but Yoshinobu found them so cute they could stay for a while till they found their older sister. Letting them stay by some slum dweller would only raise problems with money for that dweller. Eventually Emi and Eli would still end up on the street after that so this was for the better.

They ate the same as rats and didn't drink much either, they only took one bed to sleep in so it was all find with Kondo as well, Yoshinobu would often dress them up or make cute costumes for them when she had the time too and they enjoyed pretty clothes too so it was a good deal for everybody. Kondo would walk with them to find the older sister who was still gone for some reason, to be honest Kondo though the worst of it yet refrained from telling them just yet. He didn't want their effort to go to waste. It was about time for them to go again so with a quick gulp Kondo drunk his coffee empty and placed his newspaper aside.





After the camp of Tani had settled down they had some time to relax but to be honest Shiina had been relaxing for the past few days, she could quietly nap in the cart or sit at the back or in it as she liked and eat the food she wanted. The others tried making her walk next to the car or let her ride a horse for a bit but it appeared she already got blisters on her feet after a ten minute walk and was pretty much afraid of riding a horse so she was stuck in this position for the past 7 days. Shiina did not mind however, she had been either drawing eating or sleeping the past few days, she only came with them to train her a little, it appeared she had great potential in magic and with this trip they hoped she would advance her magic a bit yet the only thing she was able to do was make a small ball of her element in her hand which appeared to be fire. At least she practiced with one of the knights each day so it had some effect at least. Her lazy behaviour put everyone off from interacting with her so it was more like a task to teach her then it was fun.

Shiina was quietly crouched down by a small pond close by the camp looking interested towards the water. She could see her own reflection in the water looking with an agape mouth at herself and the fishes in the water. Her finger lightly reached out towards the water slowly dipping it in. The fish hastily moved out of the way making her look even more interested. The fish softly moved back towards what they thought was food but before they could get to her finger she pulled it out of the water. Shiina could get amused by anything at the moment. She was at least happy she could come with Maria, she really adored Maria after the sweet words she gave Shiina. Maria had offered her food and shelter and not even lacking it was pure luxurious. While Shiina was distracted for a moment it went a little less slacking at Tani place.





Everyone moved around her while she commanded them to do things, it was all a little commanding of her to let everyone do things for her but most of them knew she would pay them back in the fight. It was to see from her previous wounds she had gained during battle, she was always the one to go full into battle so they trusted her with leadership.

Zin's new yellow eyes locked onto the tall horned man with plumes of smoke emerging from her nostrils, she didn't understand the growing pains epithet that he labeled her with, but she felt like she shouldn't like it. A fire welled up in her gut ready to be released upon the guy or just near him as a show of strength, but the second he began to list off names, one of which was Vesta, the woman she sided with. " Vesta ?" She parroted.

Out of nowhere, Zin breathed out a long stream of fire from her mouth that reached out a few feet in front of her, after wiping her mouth with a scaled forearm she stared at Olly."What are you talking about?" She questioned the two of them once again," I'm tired of not getting answers from either of you, I demand that you answer me right now or face my wrath." The dragon woman was done waiting for answers, she didn't know what either of them was talking about, and it was just angering her even more.

Once she thought that the little one was about to inform her of the situation, Zin simmered down a bit thinking that she was about to be informed of the situation with Vesta, the flat chest board of a woman just asked Zin a question. Zin put a scaled hand down on Midori's head before telling her."I'm a woman, what does it look like?" She told the small white haired girl, Zin looked behind Midori not to look at Olly but to look down at the plank's backside, she didn't want to grope the girl with her claws.

"Since you don't look as if you could fight properly I'll fight him instead." She told Midori before picking her up by her head and moving her to the side before walking down to Olly." You!" She called out to him."I'm going to take my wrath out on you and if the little one if she joins in." Zin told Olly before breathing out a small stream of fire.

Without her weapons, she'd have to rely on the new sharp claws she had and her fire breath. Zin ducked down into the almost knee high grass and folded her wings down to give her a low profile, the monster woman, began moving quickly on all fours as she rushed towards Olly in the grass moving quickly from one spot to another giving Olly no time to get a good bead on her. As she closed in on him from the vegetation, letting her scales camouflage her body, many ideas filled her mind. Attack him from behind with claws, ambush with fire, knock the arrows out of his quiver.

Most of her ideas seemed like good ways to attack him, but not knowing what the guy is capable of, then she just did it. Zin erupted from the tall grass behind Olly and released a gout of fire upon him. Once Olly became a plate mail briquette, Zin turned her sights upon Midori. Without a word she began to charge at the flat chested girl and lunged at the small girl once she was close enough.

F-fura-sensei? Shiraga didn't know what just happened, she was pushed aside just so she could find Olipher, she thought Zin would be a reasonable woman capable of hearing any sort of explanation... and instead of waiting...

...she just straight up burned her "sensei" to a crisp...

Time seemed to slow down as she processed this, clenching her fists she opened her eyes with tears streaming down with her teeth gritting as well.

"Y-you... you're... a bad... person... no... you're a monster." These thoughts started to race around the Oni's head before suddenly blasting Zin with a powerful shockwave coming from her mouth. "FURA!" The sound almost sounded like an echo, the wind blasting Zin in the face would only push her just a few meters away.

It isn't exactly strong, it was just as strong as gale blowing from one direction. However, despite this, she knew she couldn't fight something like her.

Which is why she had to outsmart her...

Before Zin would even recover or insult whatever incantation was that, Shiraga took off to the east side toward a dense forest. If she followed her, she might want to lead her to a bunch of trees or dark caves... if she didn't, then she could retrieve Olipher's (dead?) body.

@Spriggs27

Malakaus ran into the thick of it as soon as he could, standing on the front lines to cut down as many rabbits as he could. His axe flew swiftly and he did what he could, however these beasts were no fools; they knew their fangs would not penetrate his armor, and thus they avoided him. He tried to use this knowledge to his advantage however, putting himself in front of the horde to keep them corralled. ”Don’t let them escape. If there is even just one survivors this will happen again!” Positioning himself between the village and the Oousagi, the demon beasts at least went towards the other warriors.

The Oousagi went after the most lightly armored opponents first. Thus, quite a few went towards Alexander and Aleph, though a non-dismissable amount headed towards Duncan as well. But just as they leapt out of the grass to lunge at him, his mighty swing managed to blow them back down to the ground. While those in the tall grass were relatively unaffected, it at least stopped their movements for just a moment. A moment that Atisha would capitalize on. ”Ur Huma!” Atisha created a large chunk of ice over the Oousagi, landing and crushing a small handful of them before exploding into large icicles that impaled many more. At least seven were killed this way, but right after the relentless beasts continued onward and lunged at Duncan and Atisha, too close for her to try and cast another spell. She braced her trident to intercept the incoming assault.

As for Alexander and Aleph, a few rabbits were cut down, but that wouldn’t dissuade the horde. They surrounded the two quickly, sending one or two to lunge at their faces while the rest went for the legs and ankles. The oousagi used the cover of the grass to their best advantage. As the group fought, in the distance the Laab Village militia was approaching with a few of their men. More villagers armed with crude weapons, wooden shields, and short bows. At least their armor looked thick; they had thick leather garments protecting their legs from the waist down, no doubt familiar with the oousagi’s tactics.

@Letter Bee@Lunarlors34@Sir Lurksalot@FamishedPants

Before dragon woman could touch the flat chested woman with her claws, she yelled out some strange words, without any real warning Zin flew backward away from the small woman as if someone pulled her or the wind pushed her back, then after noticing the gap between the two of them, the girl began running away.

Wanting to know what these two strangers knew of Vesta, the dragon woman began to chase her on all fours like a beast, even though her new found chest weight should've slowed her down, Zin still moved fast enough to soon catch up to Midori. But as she caught up to the small girl, she noticed that she wasn't fleeing carefully from the dragon.

It wasn't hard for the dragon to notice, or in this case, hear Midori's footfalls while she fled, the silver-haired girl didn't watch where she was stepping as she ran. The death of her friend really must have gotten to her, the dragon woman needed to stop her, or this could become worse than it already is for her.

Once the dragon was right behind Midori, she called out to her."Stop!" She yelled out to her."Stop! Or you'll bring worst beast or bigger beast than myself." Zin's instincts could tell her other creatures were beginning to look into their chase, but she couldn't tell which creatures were the predator, or prey." I need you to tell me about Vesta! Quit running and I won't hurt you. If I wanted to hurt you, I'd let the wolgarm kill you instead." She told her.

Zin knew that it was more than strange to kill someone's friend, then attempting to talk to them."Now just stop already, I demand answers from you, I need to know what you know about Vesta, afterward I'll take you to somewhere safe, you just gotta tell me where she is, and if she's safe."

Vesta Celestia and Avery Ackbar Celestia

Vesta sat in deep thought within the carriage, her very figure the definition of concentration and deep thought as she must've been holding the famous 'thinker' pose for the last six or so hours. It still bothered her to have let Aya go off by herself, even a week later. While normally she wouldn't care about other people a great deal it was still her job as a noble to try and make life easier for others. At least, that was Vesta's belief. Others unfortunately didn't share such a view.
But also to Vesta, Aya was basically a small child who didn't stand a chance in the world by herself. However she was sure that no matter how much it was bothering her, it was bothering Avery at least ten times more. She hadn't seen much of him today nor during the trip as he seemed to be keeping to himself for the time being. Aya was in a similar boat to himself after all, but at least he was lucky enough (and smart enough) to have gotten into the Celestia Household.
That and if her goal was to be obtained, then she thought that Aya might've had a hand to play. Alas, she at least managed to get that Dante boy on board and the capable looking Heinrich as well. Despite him apparently not having any experience with weaponry or magic. But Vesta would tutor him in the ways of magic, he certainly looked like he had talent by the bucketloads so it would be worth her time.
It was at this moment that a sudden noise now got broke the concentration of the Celestia Mage. Something was happening. That squire of Malakus' was yelling out something which Vesta didn't quite get the time to catch, but it was pretty damned obvious that it wasn't good news.

Avery was slower to react than others to the sudden onslaught, despite he himself already having been outside the carriage and wandering at a slower pace a few metres behind the group. He too like Vesta was in deep thought, but was snapped put of it by the sounds of battle. Finally. He was getting bored of just walking all day!
By the time he had ran after the others Vesta had already leapt out of the wagon and placed a gloved hand on the ground beneath her. Damn, too many people moving around to get a proper reading on the enemy. Though she could tell from sight alone that they were up against...some killer Mabeast rabbits?
Ah so these must be Oousagi? Vesta had read about them but had yet to face any despite her lengthy time in eliminating Mabeasts for the Kingdom, as is the main duty of the Celestia's. Avery meanwhile had stopped short of the others as he noticed the Oousagi.
Wouldn't do for Avery to get too close. So instead he was going to do what he did best, stay back and support from afar. Twirling his staff for no reason other than to be a complete show-off, he now leveled the gem residing in it towards the Oousagi attacking Alexander and Alepth.

"Huma!" Avery fired off a couple of shards of ice towards the group of rabbits aiming for their legs, before the soft, familiar red glow of his staff indicated to him his next spirit was ready.
And what better to combat killer demon rabbits...then a giant, rabbit devouring snake?
"I never intended on letting any of these vile creatures live regardless Mr Firebelly." Vesta fired off in response to Malakus as the earth mage had covered the distance in no time at all, going straight past Avery to place herself between him and any of the Oousagi which might try to target him.
With a swift movement of her hand she ripped chunks of earth out of the ground and now fired them towards the long grass where the other Oousagi were trying to stay hidden. But so long as they were on the ground, Vesta would be able to find them. Being able to hit the little devils was a completely different matter, as they seemed quite agile.
She did however want to finish this before that god awful looking militia turned up. She couldn't afford novices to get in her way, for their safety as well as her own. Funnily enough however despite being able to notice and feel the militia coming, she had yet to notice her travel companion for the past week in Aleph. Probably because he wasn't being loud and rambunctious.

Over the course of the tripped Dante looked at bit worried, wondering if Aya would be okay by herself. Maybe he should have urged her better and stopped her from leaving. however, he didn't want to do so cause there still some doubt to rather not Vesta would taste her well or not. Though the woman was mostly likely not a kidnapped she is well...a bit eager to get violence if someone were to disrespect her family name. and that dragon girl of her was even worst when it came to temper. Dragging other people into her fight when she gets angry. Hopefully, Aya will be able to meet back up with Kyojin and Daisuke so they may help her back in the city.

Vesta party soon found there the way to the battlefield. and thus it was time to reflect on the past was done...and the time to fight for the lives of yourself, your team, and all the citizen living in the village has come. It was time to lay his life to protect thought around him, even thought the character he was working with were a bit questionable he believe it was better to try to remind positive so that some of Dante would rub off on the group and they would in return be better people rather than just fight to keep himself alive and allow Vesta and Zin to remain unchanged.

So Dante ran into the fray with his blade in hand and move to Vesta's and Co's side. "I'm fighting with you!" He told her before joining the frontlines along with Vesta while making sure not to get in her way. With his first attacked Dante had cut apart three of the four rabbits he swung his sword at, while one narrow avoid the attack by jumping up to attack him. Dante then used what left his momentum from his first swing to spin at of the way of the rabbit leap attack before turning in the direction of the surviving rabbit and cut it in half with another horizontal slice. However, two more rabbits were right behind him and saw the opportunity to attack while his back was turned. Sadly for them, Dante was trained by his clan to reacted to an attack without seeing it thus Dante was able to cut the two rabbit heads off by turning around quick and slashing them in mid-air. Dante primary fighting style was depending on agility, speed, and well accurate slash attacks so he had less of a problem cutting down rabbit demons.

---

---

Due to his previous nature as a NEET, Heinrich Ford found it difficult to speak to others. This was because his favorite things to talk about did not exist in this fantasy land. How could one speak about video games and anime to others who did not even know what that was? Hell, it was hard enough back on Earth because most casuals thought lesser of him for enjoying it.

Needless to say, he was not the most talkative during the trip. He remained reactionary for the most part, only speaking when spoken to. Even then, everything was short and concise, with little room for small talk. To the unknowing onlooker, he likely came off as cold and uncaring. But that was the best he could do. If his curse allowed him to make a complete idiot of himself, he very well would have.

Darn, being sociable is tough.

.....

.....

.....

I'm not too confident about my positioning or my purpose.

Heinrich could admit, at least mentally, that he was at a loss. Things were happening so fast to him. He was marching beside the wagon one moment and in the next there were man-eating rabbits. He also wasn't sure how to feel about this, but everybody else seemed to know their place. He felt did not want to be dead weight, so he had to do something too!

At the current moment, Heinrich had access to only a small dagger for personal protection. Being unskilled with it, he was not going to be a very big threat, but if he could just carry his own weight...!

He had almost decided to be the frontline for Avery, who seemed to be their ranged DPS, but Vesta had that covered. Instead, Ford made an attempt to slash at a few of the rabbits trying to surround the two strangers. He then made more attempts. These rabbits were swift and he was had no experience, so he missed a lot. But the point was to draw them towards him so that there was less of a chance the other two men would be surrounded. Heinrich was aware that he should be the one hiding, but he always preferred to play the tank or fighter.

That said, Heinrich was not exactly equipped to tank hits. In fact, "equipped" was a strong word to use to describe him right now. But because he was wearing very little and he had joined the battle, some of the rabbits had decided to target him. At least he got the aggro part right? Heinrich was a bit frightened at the sudden hostile attention, but attempted to prepare himself for the fight ahead. He took a stance that betrayed his inexperience.

Then, one flung itself towards his face while others attacked his feet, as the others seemed to be doing. A simple yet effective strategy. Luckily, the one going for his face wasn't too quick for him to swat at of the air with a powerful backhand. He stomped on one, and tried to kick another, forcing it to retreat for a moment's respite.

Or so he thought.

As he looked up from the grassy floor, he noticed too late that there were more darting through the air. Would they reach his throat and tear it out? What a pitiful way to go....

---

It would seem as though Aleph and Alexander were to receive some needed help in the form of some girl with a staff, and... others. It was very frustrating to have to deal with these quick foes. They were small, too, so it was difficult to catch them in the grass until they were all but upon you. The best thing to do in this case was to play defensively, and let them come to him. And that's exactly what Aleph did.

What proved to be even more irritating was that these rabbits weren't stupid. Rather than mindlessly flinging themselves to their doom, some were used as distractions while others went for his legs. Aleph chopped the rabbits mid-air in half, but suffered small bites from the others on the upper part of his leg. He could only be thankful that he had good boots on to protect his ankles.

Aleph made it a point to cautiously retreat while he cut, slashed, and kicked any bunny attacking him. As Vesta made her appearance, he got some slack as rabbits attempted to hide from or attack her.

Banton looked over. A small distance away stood an oversized, underdressed man. He was desperately trying to hit the mabeasts but failed quite miserably. Under normal circumstances, Aleph would not interact with such an odd individual, but he was in trouble. This looked like a job for a Hero!

---

"Not while I draw breath!"

The ending of Heinrich's life... was postponed.

Heinrich Ford was not able to immediately recognize what had happened. For a moment, he had thought his vision was now failing him. But instead of black, like he expected, it was all brown. This strange visual mystery had been solved as soon as he took a step back.

The brown he saw was merely The Hero's hair.

In an instant, the mabeasts met their end at the hand of one of the stranger's he had attempted to help. It was a bit shameful to be saved by the one you were saving, but at least he was alive.

"Thank you." Heinrich said.

The man before him did not turn around. It was true that there weren't as many rabid rabbits as before, yes. But letting your guard down here was not likely to be a good idea. At least, that was Heinrich's assumption for the man's reasoning.

"I'm only doing what's expected of a Hero. There's no need to thank me." the man said. Heinrich both appreciated and admired a person like that, even if the man sounded odd. A hero? Was there even such a thing?

---

Aleph had reached the man in time, effortlessly disposing of his attackers. His work was now finished. But there was one pressing matter on Aleph's mind as he began to return to the frontline.

Damn, I hope I looked cool.

Alexander Sky

"Damnit!" Alexander managed to blurt out as he managed to cut apart an Oosagi jumping towards his face while his legs and ankles, protected only by cloth and leather, suffered from kicks and bites from the demon beasts, though not enough to notably injure the sellsword...for now.

Is this how I would end? A failure? Alexander thought as his main advantage - his Divine Blessing - proved to be of marginal use against the enemy. But this time, he felt at peace, peace with the fact that he would never be anything important.

Then Aleph - he had learned the other man's name on the way - actually pulled through, while reinforcements in the form of several brightly-glowing figures with immense magical power headed towards Alexander, bringing renewed hope to the young man, who, making sure that he was close to Aleph, tried to pull his weight by hacking down the killer rabbits still coming towards Heinrich, whose presence Alexander had tried to avoid looking at, as he was a brilliant star of energy.

"Commander Aleph!" the words escaped Alexander's mouth on impulse, "I'm with you!"

They were going to make it. He was going to hack and slash and not show off...

@Lucius Cypher@Seirei no Hai@liferusher@Sir Lurksalot@Letter Bee@FamishedPants@Lunarlors34

Zin's words were nothing but incoherent echoes for the girl's ears. She was still running through the forest and noted that she was still chasing after given the unusual noises. She slid carefully on an open path with mud, and turned a hard right towards a clearing where they were first on the trail behind Malakaus's party. Sure, he's no longer there anymore, but it could help right?

She stopped in the middle of a round area surrounded by trees and several other huge rock formations around them. Shiraga looked about, only to turn around and be confronted with the dragon girl that "killed" her sensei.

She had one hand on the back of her flap, and the other with an open palm stretched out towards the dragon girl. A face mixed with both fear and hate. There were only small streams of tears flowing down from the sides of her emerald eyes.

"Get back... Back, don't make me use my wind magic." She sounded unsure. She was half focused at this point and one single move from her might just let the Oni do something more stupid.

@Spriggs27

Olipher knew he'd made a critical mistake the moment his back was turned. Not hostile? This dragon thing had killed those wolves with some sort of fire magic, he was sure of it, but still he had dropped his guard. His mark had not been placed and the Dragon sprung like a snake. But instead of Venom there was blinding fire. Too close to dodge, too fast to counter, Olly recited a novices Fura chant to create a weak gust of wind as he turned to face the dragons flames at the last instant. The spell dispersed the flames slightly but it was still enough to overwhelm him.
The flames licked over every inch of his armor and found the gaps with ease, burning his skin in a burst of searing heat. It was over almost as quickly as it had begun. Armor still slightly aflame, the Oni lost consciousness as his senses became overwhelmed by heat and pain and fell to the grass in a slump. The last thought in his mind was a prayer that it was the end..

------------------
Not much later
------------------

Gasping for air, Olipher came to his senses and tried to raise his upper body only to find an excruciating pain accompanying the movement. His torso had been burned painfully by the flames of the Dragon.. THE DRAGON! Ignoring the pain coursing across every inch of his flesh, the stubborn Oni rose to his feet and scanned the immediate area. No Dragon. No Midori! Hissing with pain on every step, the fresh burns were agony across his skin as the still heated metal irritated them further, he collected his thankfully unblemished bow and looked to the ground for clues.
Two footprints. One clawed.. the other hard shoes. Midori!
With all the speed he could muster, Olipher sluggishly followed the trail leading further into the forest. This would not be her doom, not by his mistake!

As the dragon woman charged after the small horned woman trying to get her to stop running as she could make other dangerous creatures interested in her besides just Zin. After what felt like an hour of chasing the little woman, the two of them ended up coming out of the forest and getting onto a trail, once on the trail Midori ended up leading Zin to a clearing surrounded by dozens of tall trees, Zin knew she blocked one of the only ways out, the dragon stood tall on her two legs.

" I'm not going to eat you or kill you, you don't even have any meat on you worth eating, and killing you wouldn't be useful. I need to know where my mistress Vesta is." She told Midori." So tell me now, or I'll get it out of you a different way."

After demanding that she tell Zin where Vesta was, the small girl turned to Zin and looked as if she was desperate she had tears going down the sides of her face and soon held up one of her palms towards Zin. The dragon put a hand on one of her hips and stared at Midori, then the little woman warned the dragon, that she had wind magic.

Zin wasn't sure if she the brightest creature of whatever race she now was, but she knew that her wings would prevent her from getting anywhere near close to Midori." Are you stupid?" She asked Midori." I may not be the brightest dragon around, but you don't tell people that could kill you what abilities you have."

As she spoke she folded her wings closer to her body." I just want to know where Vesta is, Celestia Vesta." She charged at Midori on her two feet instead of pouncing she had an idea of how to get the information she needed from her. Zin closed in on Midori not wanting to swipe her with her claws or badly maim or hurt her, someone of Midori's size Zin will just simply spank her to get information from her.

@Seirei No Hai

The rabbits were getting cut down one-by-one, slowly but surely. So far they haven't had much luck taking down any of the others despite their massive numbers thanks to the skills and tactics of the defenders. Soon the numbers were culled until there was only five left, each of the three running through the tall grass. One leapt into the air to bite at Atisha, but having readied herself she speared the rabbit through the chest before using her magic to send a liquid snake through it's body, tearing it apart from the inside out. The last of the demons headed towards the largest concentration of mana, Vesta herself. She could sense their path easily enough, at least up until they were ten feet away. That's when they did a mighty leap into the air, intending to land on Vesta's face and eating her flesh from the head down.

"Heads up!"

At least that was one of their plans, when a huge axe was flung through the air and nailed one of the rabbits mid-jump. The sheer weight of the weapon crushed the rabbit upon landing, leaving four more in flight towards Vesta. Malakaus, the one who threw the axe, was running over to Vesta as fast as he could, but he wouldn't be faster than the rabbits. She had to be able to act fast, or at least survive for a few seconds so Malakaus and the others could deal with the last of the vermin.

@Letter Bee@Lunarlors34@Sir Lurksalot@FamishedPants@demonspade64

Vesta Celestia and Avery Ackbar Celestia

Vesta seemed rather unfazed as the fighting waged on around her. The fighting wasn't pretty, but Vesta had certainly seen worse scenarios unfold. Some of these people should trying handling an entire pack of Spotted King Dog's by themselves. Now that wasn't fun, especially when they numbered around the same as these rabbits.
So even as she felt the rabbits disappear off the ground it didn't take a genius to work out they had done one of two things, a. stop moving and thus no vibrations for Vesta to follow or b. more likely they had leapt in the air like the mindless animals they were.
Malakus' warning proved her correct it would seem as well, his burly axe slamming into one mid-air and...well, a huge axe and a tiny rabbit. The result was a bloody mess as anyone would expect.
Vesta looked towards the remaining rabbits as they descended upon her with an almost bored expression, not even bothering to raise her arms or do anything at all in self-defense. Time to be slowed for Vesta as she recalled she had been in this situation many a time, and it would take timing if she was to get out of this predicament.
"Anytime you're ready Avery." Was all she said as a solid layer of rock now covered her fist. Bringing her fist back she punched clean through the first one, then in the same movement she back-handed the second one away like one would swat a fly with enough power behind it to snap the little thing's spine clean in half.
That left two more which a large serpent would now leap out of nowhere and devour whole in one go. Vesta could feel the scales of the serpent brush past, that's how close the Oousagi had gotten to her.
"Sorry Vesta! It took a little longer than I thought to get the image in my head." Avery called out as he ran over, panting had as he moved some of his long lavender hair out of his eyes. The serpent meanwhile did a full circle along the ground before disappearing into a glitter-like substance that was drawn in by the staff and absorbed by the crystal atop.
"That would appear that was the last of them for now. I assume everyone still has all their limbs intact?" Vesta questioned as she coldly glanced around the group. Her focus was on Aleph for a moment, a twinge of recognition in her eyes, before she turned her attention fully to Malakus.
"I assume you know what you're doing?" The mage asked, clearly referencing Aleph's presence "I believe an indepth explanation is in order.

@liferusher @Lunarlors34 @Claw2k11 @Lucius Cypher @demonspade64
"Yawn---" Kurokono wiped his tears away, waking up from his deep sleep. He held a round device on his right hand. "Huh... the carriage stopped, and where's everybody?"

"Ahh... He's hungry now..." Rubbing his eyes, with visible trails of saliva down the edge of his mouth, Kurokono descended down his carriage. His pair of eyes are focused on that egg-shaped device, better known as Tamagotchi in Japan. Out of all those junks he brought along, that was the most useful thing in the world. Near unlimited battery life and open ended gameplay, for buying such an amazing (outdated) device, it gave him great gratitude for his Grandfather.

"Just holding the back lines, in case of any ninjas popping out~"

Kurokono said nonchalantly as he approached right behind a yellow furball with the name of Dante, creating his 'back lines' as the mere excuse of slacking off. Actually, that isn't slacking off, he's putting on blood & tears of effort on his virtual pet. He was rather focused on playing Tamagotchi than to pay attention to the white haired 'princess Vesta' that he saw before on the previous week.

"Dragoon just shitted, had to clean up..."

Kurokono muttered groggily behind the battlefield, pressing a few buttons on the egg-shaped device to clean up Dragoon's poop. To think he's still alive after all these years, what a miracle~

The Oni had one chance to do this, but since Zin was making a point so much, she let her guard down. The dragon girl pounced on the oni, laying flat on her back with her eyes stared up at the reptilian eyes of the hybrid. She struggled, only to get pinned at such a provocative, and misunderstood position.

She didn't know what state she was in, she knew she hesitated and closed her eyes, preparing for her doom. "Kuh. Just get this over with. Burn me or whatever, what I'm saying won't matter anyway."

Thing is. When someone's scared and the other person burned their friend to a crisp, who wouldn't run away and not answer their questions while their adrenaline runs deep? AH well.

She's getting a spanking either way. Not that she would know.

@Spriggs27 @Zelosse

Once she pounced on Midori, the dragon woman caught a glance of her eyes before she shut them tight, she had the look of utter despair in them, then she just told the dragon to burn her or kill her. Zin gripped up the small woman telling her." When you give me the information I want, then I will give you the permission to fry."

Zin bent the small woman across one of her knees and held a scaled palm out behind her." Where is Vesta?" She told Midori with little time to answer before she placed a firm smack on her bottom before giving her the same question again."Where is Vesta!?" She slapped her bottom a second time with her scaled palm." Don't make me repeat myself!" She yelled before placing another smack on her backside." You're just enjoying this now, aren't you!?"

She brought her tail around to give her a hard smack across her rump before telling her." I will stop right now if you just tell me where Vesta is!" Zin glared at the woman before pulling her hand back as far as she could before spanking her on the backside." That other guy mentioned Vesta I want to know what he was talking about!" Zin slapped Midori on the butt once again."Tell me what I want to know!" She screamed. Her mind flashed back to everything that the guy she burned down she remembered him mentioning Vesta and that Orc Maka-something.

Then Zin realized she didn't stop herself as she thought back to her hatred of Maka-something, she was still spanking, Midori and this time harder than she was before." That damned Orc, he better not have hurt Vesta!" She said aloud before giving Midori one more hard slap on the rump." Now tell me right now, where is Vesta, where is that Orc, where are they?!"

The Oni was preparing her doom, small droplets of tears already falling until she noticed something was off...

...her position changed and suddenly she could feel scales from her arms to her torso... "Huh? W-what's goi-" before Shiraga could even finish, she would be met with the hard slap from the scaled hand of the dragon girl, Zin. Everything slowed and the background behind them flashed white, she blushed a little and her tears just splashed away from both sides with her mouth agape.

She was moaning... moaning rather provocatively...

"Ahhh~ w-what? W-who- ahhh~!" Shiraga was silenced yet again, pressured by the question of " Where is Vesta?" ringing around in her hand as she was smacked like a bratty child.

With each slap, all she could do was moan uncontrollably, she tried to cover her mouth to keep herself quiet, only to feel something harder and with force striking her plump backside...

...it was Zin's tail.

"Waaahahhh~ I-I don't knoooooooooooooooooooooow~!" She sniffled as pain coursed from her bottom, if this keeps up she may not have to sit anymore. Poor girl.

If only SOMEONE out there could save her from the spanking.

@Spriggs27 @Zelosse

Olipher followed the tracks as closely as he could with as much speed as possible despite the burns. Adrenaline was blocking out the stinging annoyance of them so they must not have been too severe, but his cloak had been thrown away after having sustained a majority of the damage where it connected to his armor anyways. It lay somewhere in the forest to be forgotten. Arrows at his hip, bow in hand, the Oni hunter finally closed the gap as the trail began to widen, both parties having sprinted a great deal of distance.
That terrible thought of the dragon thing..

Anger, humiliation mostly, sped up the pace through the dense foliage until he heard it. The winds whispered of something striking something else. It was faint but Olly followed it as best he could with as much urgency as he could muster. Unaware of just how close he was, he burst from the bushes into a large clearing and saw it.

Midori moaned as the dragon-kin.. slapped her butt? That was NOT the sound you made when you didn't like something.. Given his many feelings earlier about revenge and such but seeing this Full-bosomed dragon woman giving the soft round rump of his apprentice. A lot of thoughts went through his head at light-speed.

Should I come back in a moment?

So she's the kind who likes it rough..

Look at those funbags..

Of course none of those things escaped his mouth but in the back of Ollys mind this would be remembered for a long time. Shaking his head, and his mind from his loins, he glared at the Dragon girl.

"Let. Her. Go." His free hand inched towards the quiver at his hip, hovering about a black feathered arrow. Though not truly in a condition to fight this creature evenly it was the only solution readily available.