Tzi, who was unfortunately wearing a shirt for once, and Leon both offered their weapons for the stretcher as she had requested. She could tell they were reluctant to give up their arms, but hopefully they could book it for Orello without getting into more fights. She quickly assembled the stretcher, wrapping the sheet around the poles and securing it with suture then with the help of the bearers carefully loaded the wounded scout onto his improvised transport.

“Your assistance is appreciated. Now, make sure to keep ze patient steady as we travel and avoid jostling him”

She quickly collected her own journal and writing implement, stored them alongside the patient's journal in her bag and then hurried back to the rest of the troop columb. She kept a close eye on Wagnil’s condition as they traipsed through the rocky hills, while helping his bearers secure their footing whenever possible or adding a little bit of push or pull to get up slopes. It was a little way into the walk when she remembered to put her Vessel back on, plucking it from her bag and securing to once more around her wrist. While she was hopeful they wouldn’t run into more trouble it would be unfortunate to be caught without her vessel at hand. Or rather on her hand.

---

"Alright, Cadets, it's time to move out!"

"Hmm--A-aaahh, yes, Captain!" Esther replied. The girl had been sitting on the sidelines as she waited for the others to report their findings. As she was feeling tired from all the excitement, she had been slowly dozing off to dreamland. So when the Captain shouted her orders, she immediately jumped in shock, before quickly walked towards where the Captain was. She then heard something about Prime Minister Bergman, and then the Captain chastising Natus for his idea of going on ahead. She had to agree with her. They really didn't need another (near) tragedy like Wagnil.

"Everyone, form a line, we are moving to Orello, now!"

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Esther answered, giving a salute, her voice full of excitement.

As the cadets head out towards the hillside in a line, a gust of cold wind blew upon them, making Esther hold herself, shivering a little bit. It was indeed a cold night. Esther hoped they would get to a warm place soon, which would probably be the fort. But there was a chance that it had fallen to enemy control. That meant they would have to either take it this night or sleep outside again.

"I swear I will make whoever did this pay!" she grumbled to herself.

Gradon nodded, both to Althea and Esther. It would have been politer to acknowledge their words but as Althea had said, their work came first. And so he continued to act as their shield in any way he could, mainly deflecting bullets and slashing at anyone who dared to come close. He didn’t have to do much because as soon as the battle began, so too had it suddenly ended with the quick retreat of the enemy.

A great sigh of relief was heard from him as the Captain announced her presence, praising them on their efforts. Thankfully no casualties had been made on this day. With her orders given, Gradon made a note to do just that after finding out about that book. After all, he was curious as to what they were risking their lives for. When Althea revealed the contents, he tilted his head in confusion. Surely the fuss hadn’t just been for a personal journal, right?

But more importantly…Esther looked to be in near tears. And it wasn’t right to have one of his classmates on the verge of sobbing. So before she could leave he said, “Ah, good job Esther. We couldn’t have done it without you.” Perhaps it was just being nice but there was nothing wrong with being nice now was there? Certainly, it did no good to morally bring down his friends.

With that said and done, he nodded in acknowledgement to Althea before discarding the traces of their presence here into the inferno Leblanc had created. Note to self; try not to get on that one’s bad side. With that resolved, he reported back to the Captain and waited for her next orders. All the important things to say had already been said by the others at this point.

In any case, the Captain’s next orders required for them to line up in rank and march towards their destination. And given that they had just been ambushed, it was doubtful they would be stopping until reaching said location. As the class trudged on, the cold air and buffeting winds was definitely not a good omen for things to come.

As if fulfilling this prophecy, the wind began to pick up even more. The snow and ice surrounded the group on all sides, obscuring vision and carrying voices everywhere. But one voice, one very close to Esther, could be heard by the girl alone. “M-Miss? What are you doing in the cold this late?” it asked, sounding much like a sniffling child. “It’s so c-cold out here…please help me…”

---

Esther trudged along amidst the cold winds. Even when she was walking in the middle of line, with Leblanc in front of her and Gradon behind her, she still could feel the chill going inside her body. Her long-sleeved dress somewhat helped in lessening the effect, but it still wasn't enough. She wondered how Leblanc could look so comfortable when she wore such little clothing.

Suddenly, her ears picked up something other than the sound of the wind. It was hazy at first but it grew clearer and clearer the further Esther walked forward. It was the sound of a... sniffing child? But that didn't make sense! How could there be a child in the middle of nowhere like this?

“M-Miss? What are you doing in the cold this late?” it asked, sounding much like a sniffling child. “It’s so c-cold out here…please help me…”

At first, Esther dismissed it as just her imagination. But the sound kept coming back, louder and louder each time. She looked nervously at Leblanc and Gradon, but none of them gave any signs that they heard anything.

And then, it dawned on her. There were tales of disembodied voices echoing in the mountains amidst the cold winds. Voices of spirits that wandered across the earth, doomed to never finding their way to the afterlife.

A ghost had been whispering to her.

Esther's face immediately turned as pale as a sheet. She was never good with ghosts. She remember how her playful tutor would often tell her stories about them, and every time she would cry due to just how scary they were.

"G-g-g-g-ghosts! T-there are ghosts here!" Esther shouted before jumping towards the nearest person she could find, which just happened to be Gradon. She clung to his arm, unknowingly pressing her amply-sized bosom into it.

@TheWindel

@TheWindel@DracoLunaris@KoL@Mercurial



"Heh, no problem. I got this in the bag."

Tzi was nothing less than careful as he carried the makeshift, Wagnill-occupied stretcher, his size and musculature belying his surprising agility and caution as they traversed up the rocky path. His feet pattered against gravel and dirt in a controlled manner, never allowing himself to stumble on any loose pebble or suddenly slip down the treacherous hillside and into the cold stream. That just wouldn't have been cool, especially when looking at his unfortunate pal lying on the stretcher; failing the guy after everything he'd done didn't sit well with him at all. It was pretty strenuous work, particularly on the downhill portions and with the intense, sinister wind, but it was something a man just had to do. Even if it was beginning to grow colder than even his own home on that stormy fishing island.

"Lucky I'm wearing a shirt today, eh?" he said jokingly, a lopsided grin aimed at both Altea and Leon, the latter of whom he was making sure to walk as in sync with as possible so that they didn't jostle Wagnill too much. "But at least it ain't too chil-"

The breeze picked up. Breeze, of course, wasn't that great at describing it. It was more a strong wind, its already-powerful howls intensifying to a scale that he hadn't at all expected. He was really lucky that he'd been wearing a shirt, because the sudden appearance of all that snow and ice and wind now buffeting his body would've been a killer on his abs.

Except that wasn't the main thing he had to care about right now.

He gripped tightly onto his end of the stretcher, taking care that he could still feel and hear the marching of Leon even through the wind and snow. He wouldn't let some bad weather distract him from making sure their buddy got out alive. No way.

He counted his steps. Made sure they were synced. Get a rhythm going or they'd probably lose Wagnill and never find him again. The snow was looking like it was that bad. Couldn't even see that properly.

"Hey, is there somebody out there?" he called out over the roaring of the wind. That voice was also a total surprise. They needed help? Dang, he had his hands full right now, but hopefully they could find whoever it was. Get one of the others to nab the girly-sounding voice to safety. "What's wrong?!"

Leon Brandeau

Leon took his end of the stretcher as the captain ordered them to march to Orello. He could only hope they would all be able to move fast enough to reach the fort in time to have more extensive work done on Wagnill. Of course, it wouldn't do for them to be reckless in their advance. Not only would it be dangerous for Leon and Tzi to go to quickly with the stretcher, but it would also be a bad idea to blunder through hostile territory without a care. It was an odd thing for him to think of a part of his homeland as hostile territory, but given the recent attack, there was no other way to think of it. If they could be attacked like that earlier, they could easily be attacked again prior to their arrival at the fort. Fortunately, it seemed Tzi was being as careful as he could be without prompting, so Leon was certain nobody had thoughts of being reckless here. Except, it seemed, for Natus, who was being admonished by the captain for trying to head off alone.

He appreciated Tzi's attempt to lighten the mood by referring to his nigh legendary shirtless status. It was better they not dwell on thoughts of uncertainty and danger. Not that it lasted for long, as a stiff breeze cut his words short. It was as if the weather wanted to make sure they couldn't relax. Of course, the weather of this region was hardly something Leon needed to fear. He'd felt biting winds and cold snaps like this back home, and he had even been in and around this very terrain once before. It would take more than some snow and ice to get to a Brandeau. Then, a commotion started. Leon was sure he heard Esther scream about ghosts or something. Tzi also seemed to hear what was going on. "I think I heard someone say "ghosts"!" He called to Tzi. Even though he was right there, he felt like the wind might drown him out if he didn't raise his voice. "Maybe we're all just getting jumpy?" He questioned aloud. Surely they weren't really dealing with specters right now? With all this obscuring snow about, and given the recent ambush, it was all too likely they were just jumping at bumps and sounds. Either way, he wasn't about to let go of the stretcher just yet.

@Crimmy

The two gentlemen made excellent stretcher bearers all things considered, and with how awful the weather and climb where getting she was glad it was them and not some of the less sturdy or more apathetic of their comrades. It seemed as if the weather was doing its very best to make them miserable, for as soon as Tzi managed to lighten the mood, a simple joke that she could nonetheless not help but laugh softly at, the wind doubled its efforts as if in spite of his efforts.

She was glad for her suit, for though it sometimes could be stuffy it was invaluable in this climate. The only problem was having to periodicly clean the lenses of snow, but that was preferable to it getting in her eyes or freezing to death. She was more worried about the weather's effects on Wagnil, she had done her best with his uniform but there were still holes where the shots had hit him, leaving him partially exposed to the elements. Hopefully the speedier arrival at Orello would be worth the cold and she dare not stop to sew them shut lest they be left behind. The bandages would have to do for keeping him free of frostbite.

It was a little way into their traipsing through the worsening weather that there came a shriek from up the line. Tzi was understandably concerned and agitated while Leon thought they heard something about ghosts, which was propostorose, ghosts weren't real. Right? Hopefully he was right about it just being nerves but...

“Maybe someone slipped. I am going to go check, just incase anyone got hurt. Keep up ze good work you two, I’ll be back in just a tick”

She activated her gauntlet and began to channel it, a soft blue light acting as an improvised lantern to light her way and letting the others behind know she was still ok. It was partially to ease their worries that she had gone, it would not do to have them mess up their sofar excellent carrying because they were busy worrying about what had happened to the others.

She and her glowing fist emerged from the snow near Esther and Gradon, slightly lighting up the area. She frowned a little as she saw the girl clinging to the man’s arm, her complexion white as a sheet, though that might be a result of the cold. A pretty good candidate for the source of the noise at any rate, Althea had not taken the heiress as someone used to stressful situations, so her jumping at shadows was not surprising. However, she was worried that perhaps she was holding onto him because she had sprained her ankle or something, so she called to the two:

“I heard a shriek, is everything alright? Do you require aid?”

The trip to Fort Orello was proving to be more difficult than any of their group had imagined; though they should have expected such a turn out. It was no easy feat to trudge aimlessly around in the ice and snow, and they would have to rely on the Captain to so much as navigate. Still, Gradon was left wondering why they had placed a fort so high up in these mountain ranges.

So lost in thought was he as he marched like the monotonous soldier he was, he near jumped when a rare source of warmth found itself spreading along his arm. Confused as to where it had come from, Gradon looked down to see a familiar, shivering form. “Greetings Esther. Is there a reason you’re clinging to my arm?” he asked, halting in his steps to see what the matter was.

Ghosts? Well that was very doubtful because he doubted even the undead wanted to reside in this kind of weather. But something had spooked her, be it a trick of the mind or a wandering survivor. So while Tzi began to call out to the winds, Gradon gently patted Esther’s head in an attempt to calm her. “It might be another traveler,” he called out to Leon. “Maybe it’s best to wait for the Captain’s word.”

The arrival of Althea was a welcome sign and Gradon only shook his head. “Esther said something about a voice and ghosts,” was all he could say before the snow picked up. The voice Esther had heard had now moved, apparently not interested in obtaining help from people who couldn’t decide if it was real or not. Instead, the words were heard directly beside Althea.

“Oh Miss, won’t you p-please take me away from the cold,” it said. And then a very real, very human hand grabbed her wrist and gently tugged at it. The snow was buffeting in such a way that the owner of the voice was concealed by the flurry of white all around them. Assuming Althea wouldn’t throw the person away from her, she would suddenly be yanked away from the group.

Something was trying to rip her mask off her face. Something that was neither a ghost or a little girl.

---

Esther quickly calmed down at Gradon's warm and comforting touch, and that made her realize that she had been clinging into the boy's arm, even to the point of pushing her breasts to him. Esther's face quickly reddened as she released her grip at him and said, "I-I'm sorry! I-it's just that I hear voices out of nowhere and no one else seems to be hearing it! A-and it sounds like a crying child so I think it must be a spirit of a dead child that has perished here in the past!" She bowed deeply towards the boy. Anything to stave off her embarrassment.

Suddenly, she saw Althea, who had joined them to ask what was all the fuss about, yanked away from the group, as if an invisible force had taken grip of her.

"A-Althea!" Esther shouted. "O-oh no, t-the ghost got her!" Esther felt like she wanted to cry. This was straight out of a horror novel, where the ghost would slowly take out the group one by one by separating them.

@TheWindel@DracoLunaris

So it had been Esther freaking out due to stress. She was weighing the amount of help she could provide by calming her down vs the desire to berate her for believing in such silly superstitions when someone she had never heard before spoke directly into her ear. Her Eyes widened in shock, for a moment ghosts were all too real to her, before she was grabbed by the wrist by the speaker.

“Whaa?”

Was all she managed to squeak before the tug turned into a much more forceful yank, dragged her off into the snow storm. The grabber, who she vaguely made out as a woman with mostly shocking pink hair and Heterochromia, then grabbed at her face, trying to tear her mask off. In the few moments of confusion that followed there was a short lived battle between her doctoral training and her military one. In the end she let go got the hilt of her long knife and grabbed the woman’s shoulder.

“Ma'am, I can help you. Just please, let go of my mask.”

She said loudly, with as much authority and calm as she could muster. The poor woman was probably delirious from the cold, Althea thought, it was important for a doctor to remain calm, to be bastion of serenity in a stressful situation. Unfortunately, with how on edge she was from the attack earlier, she didn’t quite manage to keep the fear from her voice as she shouted over the sound of the wind.

“We can lead you down from here, I promise. It’s OK Ma'am. You're going to be OK. Just try to calm down.”

Althea used her grip on the woman's shoulder to pull herself closer, trying to hug the woman to share body heat with her. All this she had being randomly channeling different magic from her glove, reds, blues, yellows and greens flashing indiscriminately in the snow washed air, hoping someone stronger than her would come to her aid and help restrain the poor woman.

@TheWindel@DracoLunaris@KoL@Mercurial@Hammerman



Esther was crying. It was audible even over the harsh wind and snow that buffeted their small company. Tzi tried his best to listen to what was going on, or at least catch a sight through the wall of white, but no dice. He couldn't even get closer to find out what was even happening, or help out in any way. Not when he was making sure that Wagnill was going to make it outta here alive. That was way much more important, but ... Althea had gotten nabbed? By a ghost? That was what Esther had shouted about, right? He gulped. A ghost? Was that really what was out there?

Not that he was scared of ghosts or anything. He wasn't some little girl or anything. Those legless wraiths weren't even real anyway, and they certainly weren't going to get into a fisherman's head so easily! No way.

"There's, uh, definitely something out there," he replied to Leon. Any chittering in his voice was no way because of some ghost. It wasn't a ghost. He was just cold. Except that someone or something out there had grabbed Althea, except he couldn't seem to help in the slightest. "Dangit, we can't even go help!"

He was fine with the treacherous environment of these hills, but what was it that had stolen away their comrade? Was she hurt? The snow was making it really hard to get a good grip on what was happening. He was worried for her here!

That was a disappointment. Although he’d never let it show He though Ferris would have stuck around to enjoy herself a bit. With a sigh, Clean kept hold of the axe and instead tossed the body of the dead soldier onto the flame, letting the pyre cremate the corpse. Smiling as Ferris vanished into the night, Clean fell in with the rest of the troops. He would have followed Ferris, but he knew he would be holding her back. Bright white clothes and a distaste for dirt? Never has there been a person less suited to a scouting position.

The sound of dirt and snow cracking under heel, he followed. Leading was unnatural. It is fine to stand out, but having pressure of those behind you and so many of them, responsibility such as that would be crushing. Good soldier. Marching in line following the well-trodden path of others. Safe. Easy. Comfortable.

"G-g-g-g-ghosts!”

A shriek pierced the air. Spectre of Death coming for them? What a bad omen. Picking up the pace, Clean saw the ‘ghost’. Miscoloured hair and clothes and grabbing at the mask of the resident medic. Bad omen indeed. Then they vanished into the blizzard. Off the beaten path he will go.

Crunch, crunch, crunch. Snow crushed as he ran off in hot pursuit of the stolen medic. Enemy axe in hand thoughts ran through his head, how should her extricate the medic from the mysterious woman’s grasp? How violent would he need to get? The woman was eccentric and after having just encountered an enemy, Clean could only think she was hostile. Better err on the side of violence then, just to be safe. Flashes of colours and blurred forms were ahead and Althea’s voice called out loudly over the frigid wind. Arriving behind the mismatched girl holding the medic hostage he called out in a polite voice.

“Pardon me miss, but I must axe you a question regarding our medic you have there.” Bad pun aside, Clean swung the blunt edge of the axe like a club into the side of the ‘ghost’ aiming to knock the wind out of her sails more than anything else, carefully avoiding the ribs to avoid any bones splintering into lungs. On the plus side, they have a medic right there.

@DracoLunaris@TheWindel

---

"Thank you, for your service." Mercy pushed the enemy rifleman she had just reanimated into the surrounding flames. Watching body break apart with a small tear. Her soul returning whole. With the ambush over with, everyone began following the captain's orders. Her skeleton even helped gather the group's supplies, packing and loading the good majority of the class's supplies. Mercy stretched and supervised her skeleton companion. The idea of carrying stuff didn't interest her and it seemed everyone was on top of everything else. She just smiled and fell in line, resting in her skeleton's arms as it carried her along with the rest of the camp. "Onward, Jeeves~"

Mercy actually fell asleep during the travels. The cold not bothering her in the slightest. Though it was only a half sleep. She perked up at the mention of ghosts, breaking open her eyes just in time to see Clean swing his ax into a mysterious stranger. Curious. If that really was a ghost the ax shouldn't affect it, right? Mercy called forth her own shade that peered out of the stuff the skeleton was carrying; ready to charge it into the ghost as soon if the ax not have any effect.

What Leblanc had once hoped would be the fast track to getting to sink her knives into more enemy combatants was rapidly becoming a fool's errand taxing her with the same veracity with which the snow buffeted her flimsily covered form. Such weather patterns weren't in anyone's prediction, and she certainly hadn't felt a shift in the pressure systems, yet that didn't stop the precipitation from coming down in flurries of white making their journey all the more precarious.

Ahead of the group her heightened perception was simultaneously put through its paces and paradoxically dulled beyond reason as there simply was nothing to be detected ahead of them besides the scampering of her bombastic comrade slinking in the dark.

And what cruel irony it was that Leblanc turned on her heel with an expression of forlorn disappointment to hear the traipsing of light feet and whispered words carried along the wind. Such an attack from the rear was almost unfair in how it denied her the chance for a righteous kill! Before she even finished exhaling at the poor luck she was struck with, her breath was but a streak in the cold air as she abandoned her post to Finnis alone and bounded atop the snow with knives brandished and hopeful Clean's axe hadn't ended the engagement so soon.


@Er0r, @Crimmy, @Hammerman, @Leotamer, @Mercurial, @DracoLunaris, @Mega Birb, @SilverDawn, @KoL, @TheWindel

Natus had heard faint noises coming from behind, however he had yet hear a signal or sounds of battle, so he decided to keep with his forward scouting. Whenever he observed Leblanc head back towards the group, he sighed.

To keep moving forward alone would be dangerous, not due to any enemy other than forces of nature. This weather could prove much more lethal then common grunts. He moved back towards the group, but he did not engage unlike his blood-thirsty companion. Instead, he watched both the front to make sure that no enemy would surprise the group from the direction he was scouting, and the rear in order to provide aid if necessary. In addition, he tried to aware of every direction, as it seemed the group was surprised by a group of possible enemies from the side. It was harder to concentrate on having full awareness of his surrounding in the storm, and it natural blocked some of his perception, but it was possible that there was more enemies yet seen.

The House Finis has rules, not of morality or civil service, but of effectiveness in hostile situations, the first of which is "Carelessness inevitably leads to death."

The sudden movement of the Cadets called the Captain's attention as she threaded the rocky hills. "What's happening over there, Clemons, Degraff?" she called out for those who began the story about ghosts. Undead where not an impossibility in the North, especially when the weather was like this. If they had the bad luck to cross the path of them it would make the already hard hike even more difficult.

"Don't stray away from the main formation in a weather like this—" Before the Captain could finish her orders to regroup, it seemed like more of the Cadets decided that randomly falling out of formation was a good idea, leaving them vulnerable. "What's it now?" The Captain asked herself as the front of the vanguard and middle of the of the formation got attacked by a pack of wolves that came from uphill, taking advantage of the bad terrain to circle and separate the group.

As soon as they decided to charge forth, the wolves made their target clear, three of them pouncing straight at the downed scout and his transporters. The rest of the pack making an effort to keep the other Cadets away as they tried to drop Wagnil in the river below. They could easily recover his corpse later and avoid a potentially dangerous fight. But if the Cadets got in the way, well... the wolves were prepared, a small group of them left behind the other, attempting to tackle boulders downhill, to hit whoever got caught in their path.

Fighting an uphill battle in bad terrain was going to be hard as proven by the Captain trying to engage a wolf, only to find that it caught her blade in its teeth. The two of them got locked in a tug of war, with the Captain trying to force the creature dowhill, or slice it's mouth open, while shouting a command for the Cadets to be alert.

---

Esther soon calmed down after seeing her comrades going after the snatched medic. Ghost or not, there was no way they would be able to handle all of them at once. She had utmost faith in the skills of her teammates after all.

However, said calmness turned into panic once more as wolves out of nowhere attacked next. It seemed fate didn't wish to give them a break at all.

"W-wolves?" she said once she recognized the threat. With their limited sight, it shouldn't be that odd that the creatures managed to ambush them as they were split apart.

One of them leaped towards her, fang wide open as it aimed to bite her neck off. She had no time to change her vessel into combat mode so she had to respond by leaping away from the creature. Her panicked jump made her land straight on her butt however, sending off a signal to the wolf that she was vulnerable once more. It ran straight at her once more, merciless and without any hesitation. However, Esther had enough time to activate her vessel this time, so when the wolf leaped at her, it crashed into her wind barrier, causing it to whimper as it felt pain from the impact.

"Hrrgh, this is the worst day ever!" Esther shouted to no one in particular, just to fend off her frustration.

With animals, especially predators like wolves, Esther had no hesitation. She retaliated by sending off a wind blade towards the creature. It actually managed to dodge however, but it was enough to send a signal that the girl was actually a threat, so the beast now merely growled as it circled around her, looking for an opening to attack.

Esther looked around in the meantime. It seemed she had been separated from the others. She just hoped the others were alright. She looked back at the wolf again. As she felt a bead of sweat roll through her cheek, she told herself that she could handle this one guy just fine. No need to panic.

...And then, another pair of wolves came into her sight, making it three wolves now that she had to fight.

Really, what did she do wrong to deserve this?

@KoL@Mercurial



Wolves. In his experience, they didn't really go for big groups of humans like theirs, but maybe they were some ghost-cursed wolfpack (not that ghosts were real, because no way he was fighting ghosts; it was probably some hostile force attacking them with their trained animals, yeah, that was way more sensible). Either way, he could see their growling shapes through the white, snow-filled air, barrelling down the hill towards him, Leon and poor Wagnill. If it wasn't his imagination, then he was totally smelling them salivating all over three seemingly-vulnerable targets. They weren't catching a single break at all.

Dangit, they just had to attack from uphill. It was going to be real hard to fight them off like this, not when any movement of his arms would probably turn ol' Wagnill into one of those snowballs that got bigger and bigger the more they rolled down a hillside. Tzi glanced at Leon's form in the corner of his eye. Both of them really weren't that suited to swinging their giant sticks around today.

He took a deep breath. Not the right time to panic right now. He just needed to get a good way to get rid of all those wolves. Wolf meat could be eaten, right? He'd never actually tried any, but what if the stuff was poisonous? How would he prepare it? But that meant he needed to take out all the wolves first, and his trident wasn't going to be stabbing anything any time soon. So if he wanted to use Retiarius, he'd have to make use of one of its abilities.

Wagnill wasn't going to get ditched any time soon. No way. When the guy woke up, he'd be happy to know that Tzi'd netted him some meat to chew on.



The flow of energy intensified. Tzi breathed in. His unmoving trident, still holding up the stretcher that held Wagnill, glowed, and a massive net, its fibres made of magic itself, launched out towards the three wolves pouncing towards them. He'd always thought that animals were smarter, but they'd chosen the worst place to jump. Now that they were airborne, there was absolutely no way they could change their direction.

No way to get outta the way of his giant net.

It was like spearfishing in a barrel, except the barrel was a cold hillside and the fish were wolves.

If the three got caught, the weight of the net would drop them like a rock, and then it wouldn't be him and the pals on the downhill. Nor would Wagnill'd be forced to turn into a snowball.

It'd be the wolves instead.

The net nabbed them, the magical creation enveloping the three lupines in a tangled mess of whines and howls. Tzi grinned as they fell onto the snow with a thud, sliding uncontrollably down the hillside as gravity proceeded to remind the animals who was truly the king of the mountain. The grin proceeded to fall off the trident-user's face. They certainly wouldn't be eating those wolves any time soon.

But there was a bigger problem. Something rockier than just wolves.

Actual rocks rolling down.

"Anybody gotta way to take out those boulders?" he shouted over the wind.

“Esther calm down. There’s no such things as ghosts, trust me,” Gradon said, trying to get a better grip on his classmate. While he had no doubt Althea needed help, this weather was just too hazardous for either of them to be leaping into the fray blind. That, and he could somewhat hear the pounding of crunching snow underfoot, indicating that some of the other cadets had got the memo that something wasn’t right.

Yet as he strained to hear over the snow and wind, another set of pounding was noticed and seemed to be getting louder with each passing second. “Wolves? Right now?” he asked to the air as the creatures made their appearances known. Hungry and feral, it was just their luck that they would be targeting them now of all times. Worse yet, Esther had somehow gotten separated from him as the wolves descended on their group in large numbers.

Activating his Vessel, Gradon held Round Table out before him and batted away the leaping creatures. He was just barely able to hear the Captain’s command, indicating that yes, they were under attack. “Esther! Esther, where are you!” he called out, stumbling in the storm to locate the girl. “Esther-” Gradon stumbled backwards, legs hitting something large and warm. Rolling in the snow, it took a few moments of dazed wonder to note that he had tripped over one of the wolves.

“Oh, Esther. There you are,” he said, getting up and brushing himself off. “We should probably get back to the main group before-oh.” Now he saw that he had tripped over one of three wolves, each of which were snarling now. So that was what had been keeping her back. “Get ready to fight,” he said to Esther, holding his blade out and slashing as soon as the wolves jumped at them.

Back at Althea’s location, the mysterious girl paused to actually comprehend the words being spoken to her. Was…Was she being serious? Blinking, she allowed Althea to wrap her arms around her in a bear hug, twisting about to give the masked girl a look of raised eyebrow. And then she slammed her elbow into Althea’s gut, throwing her off and away. Did she look like some poor soul lost in the snow?

Well, actually, maybe a little…no time to ponder on that now. Not when a boy seemed to manifest out of nowhere, all with a bad pun and a swing of an axe. Winking at him, the girl spun about and slammed the heel of her boot into the flat side of the weapon to knock it away. Whoever she was, she certainly had flexibility…and some steel boots too.

All smiles, she ignored both the boy and the rapidly approaching form of other cadets to turn and locate Althea. Eyes trailing to her side, the mismatched girl bared a happy grin, revealed a healthy amount of what looked like shark teeth. Without waiting any longer she leapt at Althea, eager to tear the diary away from her form and disappear again into the snow.

As she flew through the air Althea was still under the impression that she was dealing with a delirious woman. Her initial words, her false request for help, had shaped Althea’s entire reaction to the situation.

It wasn’t until the woman effortlessly parried Crispin’s ax blow with a spin kick that Althea realized she had made the wrong judgment. She should have gone with her soldier training in the first place, it seemed. However it was the shark grin that actually kicked her into fighting mode. That was incredibly freaky. What kind of person filed their teeth like that, it was absurd.

As the woman lunged for her she grabbed her knife with her left hand and channeled her magic in her right. She thrust up with both, vaguely aiming to stab the woman’s hand as it reached to grab her. At the same time she she closed her eyes and crushed the vile in her right hand.

There was a deafening explosion and a brilliant flash of light escaped from her fist as the magnesium and other chemicals reacted with the water in the air, causing a violent exothermic reaction right in front the woman's face. The flash powder detonation was not harmful in a lethal sense, but neither of them would be hearing or seeing anything for some time. Althea’s closed eyes, hood and tinted lenses would protect her slightly but it was still a painful thing to do to herself.

She had chosen flash powder because she doubted crisp would be willing to help her if she had used one of her gasses, nor would they be fast enough and there was no way she was using acid this close to herself. She was also hoping her blind stab and gauntleted punch would force the stunned woman off of her.