"Because its the right thing to do." That was all Henry had said to explain his care and concern. It was truthful, sure, they hadn't been close in the old world, but looking out for others was important. No one deserved to suffer a painful death or be left alone in this new place. At least, that was what he felt. He didn't say anything to Amaris when she came up beside him, but he felt grateful that someone had stayed behind. Perhaps he was a fool to do this, but he believed something was important about covering all bases. He'd noticed what the dwarf was doing, by leaving a path. That was both good, for him and Amaris and anyone else who ended up nearby, given he swore he heard someone screeching/yelling out, to follow a route back to them. Bad because a smart monster/animal would follow the way, so that was risky.

As he worked to dig, he listened to Amaris talk, agreeing with her on the whole energy thing. He could feel that down below. It was what made him dig, hoping to find that something.

---

---

Three hours of digging passed. He just kept working at it, hoping something would occur. But after all that digging, something did happen. It was underwhelming, a bit of water/mana shooting up into the air a tad. He stared at it for a few moments, then looked to Amaris. If she'd stuck around by the end of the three hour mark. If she had, he sighed softly. "Unless we're unlucky, and its about to erupt, I don't think any more digging is going to help. I'm gonna go look for the gem I saw. I uh, had a vision when I touched the pillar. It might cause something though, so be ready to run." This was of course, assuming she was still there. If she'd say, gone in search of the screaming midget, then well, hopefully they were fine. He got up, brushing himself off, realizing how big a hole he'd dug, mindful of the pillar nearby, to avoid bringing it down. He began to search around, and if the gem was still in the pillar, he'd get to it as able, and pull it out. Well, he almost did, he stopped, and looked back, if Amaris was still there, he'd smile gently as able. "Stand back.

Only then did he grab the gem, hopping back quickly, hoping that nothing went wrong. Who knew, perhaps they'd all get lucky? Truth be told...if any of those creatures were say, attracted to the energy in the landscape, he was worried the source underground would cause problems...This was going to be interesting, one way or another.

Albrecht's plan made sense. Something about the 3/3/3/3 rule or whatever it was actually called. 3 minutes without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food, and 3 years without entertainment. Wait, was it actually a thing? Jyu-in may have just made up that rule based on some survival documentary she watched years ago. Or was it 'Surviving In A Frozen Tundra With Your Best Friend ASMR'?

"Aye, I'll do just that Azumgi," she replied before freezing. Azumgi? What did that even mean? What had she become? She shook it out of her head, "I'll hook it o'er 'ere if a lassie screams."

Observing the gang, Jyu-in noticed something very peculiar. The group that decided to mess around at the statues managed to say something particularly interesting. The goffick girl had mentioned something about mana and the glade. Was that the tingling feeling? If she wasn't mistaken (she wasn't, she was a lonely nerd), mana was used for spells. Magic, even. Did magic even exist? Judging by the massive fists that floated behind her, yes. Yes it did. If they found themselves in a fantasy world, the first thing Jyu-in would want to do was (of course) become a mage. Mages shot spells everywhere! They constantly blew their magic load! What wasn't to love?

How to cast spells, for starters. Turns out, getting thrown into a different world didn't come with an instruction manual. Still though, magic was important. Importantly cool! How did fantasy mages do it in those Japanese picture books she often read? They would chant stuff, draw magic circles, and just cast by thinking. She didn't know what to draw or chant, though. The best option was, by COMPLEX DEDUCTION, just thinking about it. Simple enough, actually.

Feel the tingling. Understand it. Absorb it. Move it. Collect it into the palm. Breath. Every bodily function being controlled manually. Wait, not that last part. Just move it from the earth to the palm. The tingling began to move up her feet. It took a direct path to her left hand, the magic resounding within her. A neon green light began to form above her palm. First, nothing more than a single spark. The light intensified. It was a barely audible crackle at first, but now it was a discernible hum. The light grew and grew, swirling as ethereal turned to corporeal. A single clear sphere was given form, hardening as the hum retreated within its new form. The light swirled within and green softly tinted the orb.

In other words, she made a marble. A really fancy marble.

"Well gander that..."

Shoving the marble into her pocket, she began her adventures opposite of the distant forest. While she didn't quite have a strict sense of urgency, she really didn't want to shirk her work. After all, she didn't want to encounter whatever was making that noise. It appears there would be no lassies to protect, but she could at least make a path to the nearest road. She left the large group to gallivant towards any sort of objective, a large finger dragging the earth behind her. Her big brain could make more important discoveries later. For now, the dreaded road. Actually, did they even have roads? What if they had awoken in some apocalypse zone with all civilization gone? That would suck.

Phann had just wanted to eat her insectoid delicacies in peace. That was a lie actually, she couldn’t say enjoyed the butterflies taste, quite the opposite in fact, and she didn’t exactly have much of a mind for peacefulness either. Either way she hadn’t expected to be greeted by the elf girl from earlier flying through the air and colliding with Phann. Unprepared and rather lacking in the strength department, Phann was easily toppled over and found herself pinned underneath the elf's body? Well this was awkward.

”Good eeevening… ahhhhhhh… hehe… this voice still sounds weird!”

Wrestling one of her arms out from under her body Phann began theatrically gesturing with it as if to emphasize her words, putting on quite an impressive show of completely ignoring the fact that she was currently stuck under a elf.

”You can call me Phann, Avoid Her, Go Away or any one of my other nicknames! Anyway, you wouldn’t happen to be a student, bus driver or terrorist by any chance would you or do I just sound like a crazy person?”

Phann let out a small deranged giggle and flung her free arm wildly out to the side in a less than comfortable motion, just in case there was any chance that she didn’t sound like a crazy person. Quickly trying to work out who this person sitting on top of her might be, assuming that they where another student, Phann came up with nothing, realizing she hardly knew anything about any of her peers at all and hoping that whoever the elf was they would just give her their name. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to have isolated herself from pretty much any and all social interaction with normal people for most of her life, then again, it wasn’t like Phann had any plans on so easily giving up her ideological beliefs and starting to act like a normal person.

"Ya know it might be worth us moving away from Mr Angry roars at some point, maybe hide from it in the forest when it comes out?"

@soph

Dropped

"Ow..."

Although her fall had been conveniently cushioned by the jester, that didn't stop it from hurting. The elf imagined that it hurt (who she presumed to be) Phann more than it did her, giving herself the mental note to apologize. Another mental note-- if she herself was chasing the butterflies and ended up here, that meant Phann was too. Whether it was for the same reasons, she didn't know. With as little as she did know about her classmates, she didn't remember Phann to be the predictable one. So it would be just as likely for her to have been chasing the butterflies for some reason as absurd as "I wanna eat them," as it would be for her to have been chasing the butterflies because she felt the energy within them. _{Side note: the word energy is getting kind of annoying. Mana sounds cooler. It also sounds like it's from a videogame, which means it's double-cool.}

"...eee… ahhhhhhh… hehe..."

The sound of some weird unearthly goblin scared the hell out of her, prompting the elf girl to let out an unflattering shriek and jump up, barely managing to land on her feet. She was somewhat exhausted. Learning that the sound that she thought was a 'weird unearthly goblin' was Phann didn't make her feel any better. There was a small sense of security in knowing that she was right about her inference earlier, but in general she just felt bad. Also, she just noticed that she had flown into the air via a _magic? gust of wind and landed on a frail-looking elf jester girl.

Shit.

"Phann! Are you okay?" The elf asked, quickly kneeling by her classmate's side and looking over her body to see if there were any visible bruises.

"I'm so sorry! I was just really focused on this butterfly because it felt really special and then I was following it and then my feet were all tingly and then I was flying, but I didn't see you until it was too late and I couldn't do the really cool wind thing again, I-" sound like a fucking idiot, apparently. She realized she was getting off topic, and she knew Phann probably wouldn't care about what she was saying. Taking a deep breath to reset herself, she continued.

"I mean, my apologies, Phann. It was my carelessness that put us in this situation. If there is anything I can do to make up for it, I will be more than happy to do so. Anyways, I'm Fa..." she began to say, but something stopped her. It didn't feel right to call herself by that name anymore. If the events that lead up to her smothering a fellow classmate and embarrassing herself meant anything, it meant that it was important for her to do what felt natural in this new world. Like how she had done with that...magic she performed earlier. The spell may have winded her a bit, but she still felt like it happened for a reason. Now, what was that name she thought she liked?
"Tiki," she held out a hand for Phann to lift herself up with, "No, I am not a terrorist. Or a bus driver. Yes, I am a student, and yes, we should be moving away from Mr. Angry Roars." Looking around her, she noticed that the lizardman was digging into some hole, Albrecht was talking for a while, the pirate with robot arms was walking in the direction opposite of the forest, and the mysterious man-like figure was also walking in some other direction. She looked towards the forest. The sight of it had an unexplainable calming effect on her. Something about it told the elf that the forest was where she belonged, yet it was also clearly dangerous.

"I'm not sure if the forest is the greatest option to take here, Phann. Not saying that I don't agree with you, but," she pointed towards Albrecht, "Everyone seems to be following him. Normally, I wouldn't care for what others have to say or what they're doing. But this situation is different. We have no idea what would happen. Mr. Angry Roars could be a small reptile with a large voice, or he could be a gigantic monster with enough strength to wipe out all of us with ease. His roar could scare people away from where we are now, or it could attract many other monsters like him. And, most importantly, we don't have any resources. On the off chance that there is a town through the forest, it's much too dangerous for what we have right now. It's likely that the journey would be too long for us to make it there without water. Or food. While we do have magic," she looked at the ground (in fucking awe, there's actually magic?), "It's not something we'll be able to control right now. Or even know how to use." The elf groaned just thinking about what she was going to say.

"I think we--as in you and I-- will have to follow Albrecht for now. The guy I was pointing to earlier. In a time like this, the best possible option would be to stick together," Tiki stood up, before again realizing that she had landed right on top of the girl that was forced to listen to her talk for too long, "I'm sorry. Can you stand?" She asked, once again kneeling back down to the shorter elf's height. "If not, we can wait. It doesn't seem like we're going to be moving for a while. Not without the rest, at least. Either way, if you don't mind, I'm going to stay by your side for now. Elf solidarity, you know," She pointed towards her own ears.

She would give it some time for her new name to grow on her.

“Hrmm.”

A roar. A Chirotoraptor. Due west, within the forest.

She brushed her hand against her sword, before ignoring it, projecting an aura of confidence and indifference for her men to emulate. That rapturous monster may be a fearsome foe, but considering its eating habits, it would not choose to go after the crusaders themselves. No, such a creature is naught but a trial sent by the Goddess On High to examine the veracity of the heroes she called. A squadron of crusaders was enough to strip the flesh from the beast’s bones. It wouldn’t be a challenge for the heroes.

The Templar rode on, the Bishop beside her. As the sun dipped lower, the village of Tiki came into view. A Skalan village it may have been, but the modesty of the settlement was pleasant, at least. Wheat fields spread over the sunrise, and comforting cottages bore not the ostentatious embellishments of normal Dwema buildings. Through the visor, she could see the forms of a few Bestia finishing up a day’s labor, and the sight brought a smile upon her face, hidden as it was. She nodded slightly at their retreating forms, as the platoon entered the vague borders of the village. As customary, the town bell rang thrice, and as customary, the village-folk gathered outside, a few of them already dragging out bags of grain.

“Stand down,” she spoke, her voice echoing out of her helm, “The Order has not come to collect the Goddess’s generosities this time. Where is the elder of this village? We require food and drink for the night, as well as housing for Our Venerable Bishop.”

"WHAT IN THE FUCKING HELL IS THIS SHIT!?"

…

“And who is that within your well?”

But, of course, such things were to be left unanswered, when a beam of light pierced the night skies, the tremor of ancient mana felt even at such a distance. The Glade. The heroes.

The Templar found her hand wrapped around her sword.

This, this she could not ignore.

As Irene saw something in the distance, Albrecht was quick to follow as well, jogging up the hill. Six hours of non-stop walking, no matter how carefully he controlled the pace, was still painful. His legs ached, his throat was parched, and his stomach grumbled, all physical discomforts that Albrecht never had to suffer from before. Incredible fatigue from pulling all-nighters? Easy. A whole day spent pouring over a subject he had no interest at all? Easy. But business leaders of multinational conglomerates certainly weren’t armor-wearing cross-country-hiking knights, and by the time he got up to that large hill, the youth was more than fine with plopping onto the ground with a thump, turning his head towards the darkening horizon.

It was hard to see, but it was certainly there. He spotted cultivated land, small rectangular bumps that must have been buildings, and even vague shadows moving about in the distance, no doubt the residents of this strange land. A village? A town? It was a bit shitty that it was in the opposite direction they went, but still, Albrecht let out a half-laugh of relief. “Look,” he pointed, “There’s south, I guess. Fuck me, guess we’ll double ba-”

And then, there was a light. Nothing but a glimpse, nothing but a flash. A bright blue shine that light up the distance and disappeared just as soon as it emerged. The knight rubbed his eyes, then narrowed them.

Next was the tremor, deep and strong, running up Albrecht’s spine, his armor clacking together. He turned to the others, raised a brow. An earthquake? Good thing they weren’t by a mountain then. And he couldn’t see any sort of giant creature rushing at them either, so…nothing to worry about.

There was plenty to worry about.

Right as Albrecht stood up, a beam of light shot up from the distance with a tremendous roar, flying up into the heavens itself. The skybeam burned away the darkening day, and, at this distance, with this much flowing out, even he could feel that aberrant tingling now. This was bad news. This wasn’t something any of them were prepared to handle. What the actual shitduggery was this? Like, come fucking on, just give them a break already. Was this some demon portal that would spawn the DARKNESS they had to fight? Was this aliens, coming to completely eradicate the fantasy setting of this place? Was the Goddess just memeing on them at this point, and really just plucked them out of their normal lives and deaths to troll them with random environmental threats?

He allowed himself two seconds to toss unanswered questions against his skull, before refocusing himself by clapping his hands against his cheeks.

That was a bad idea too. His palms were armored.

“Ow, crap that stings.” Albrecht grimaced, a red mark on either side of his cheeks. “But I guess that tosses THAT village out of the picture. Let’s uh…stay calm for now and just keep on walking on. I’ll take the front, Jyu-Ni takes the middle and Irene, stay in the back and just keep an eye out for that giant frickin death ray beam. If it looks like it’s growing bigger, gimme a word and we’re fucking booking it.”

Yeah, sounded good. He nodded once to himself, forcing an overconfident grin on his face.

“For now, ladies, let’s keep calm n carry on.”

If there was one village behind them, there had to be another village in front of them, right? With that in mind, Albrecht plotted a course over more hills, hoping to see another sign of civilization in the distance, hopefully far and away from that ominous pillar of light that gave him the heebie-jeebies.

Hope sprang inside of Irene as she finally scaled to the top of the hill. Progressing across the planes had become a sort of disjointed ennui, with very little of distinction to separate incident from incident in her memories. But that had all changed with elevation. She hadn't a clue, her back largely turned to the surprise which awaited her as she went up. Cresting only brought the sight of yet more Glade, and it was stop the incline that the Bestia stopped to hold her knees and sigh. The new body had held out at least, wandering was not nearly as taxing as it should have been in her newfound constitution, but that was of little comfort knowing that their starvation was inevitable without sweet, sweet civilization to solve all of their problems for them. Irene straighted up, turning around as her gruff face scanned impassively for the group she'd gotten a bit distant from... And then she saw it. Buildings, the unforgettable but vague bumpiness of faraway structures. It was a sight from her vague memories of home, the one before the move away, where you could wander out and see such minuscule settlements in the distance in the more rustic regions.

"Heyyy!" Their excited voice chirped as they spryly waved a hand in the air, signaling her traveling companions that there was totally something interesting on top of her hill. She nodded emphatically as the others caught up, jabbing at the distant town with a thickly gloved finger. She was about to nod some more at Albrecht as he suggested going back. It sucked having to walk even more but it felt right, they could sweep up the people still at the standing stones and get them all to safety. Who knew how long those childish bodies would last out here. Her own was an aberration, she felt. Her senses were too sharp to be human, but... That wasn't as much of a logical leap as assigning fantastic durability to the little ones. They were certainly not recreated equally.

Before that nod could happen, her eyes were pulled to distant blue spectacle. Some kind of panning light, gone in an instant. A signal mirror? Magic? God come again to fix this mess? The earth shaking felt pretty Biblical, even if everything else about their situation, Goddess' identity included, was most certainly not. Instinctively her stance lowered, her heavy body rocking little during the tremor despite the deep, primal unease it made her feel.

"Ha, weird," She forced a chuckle. "Guess thataways it is..."

Her voice trailed off as a blue light speared the sky. Everything became lit in its otherworldly hue. The sheer brightness of the manaflare etched away sight of the things surrounding it, the standing stones and the shapes of their friends washed away either by brightness of the lance or the halo of contrast shadow that hid the world around it. Irene looked away, some sense that it was too bright to safely stare into triggering before the sharp drop in her stomach that told her your friends are dead.

Dead again, actually. It didn't really hurt the first time, and friends was admittedly a stretch but if they weren't comrades now they weren't anything.

Oh right. They weren't anything any more. A few hours walk away, Irene had time to hit her knees on the dirt before the deafening roar of the blast struck them. The concussion, either from the explosion or just the sound it was making, thudded upon her chest like a hammer. She could have talked in the silence before were she not speechless. She wanted to scream in the noise that followed, but it wouldn't have made a difference. There was something raw and traumatizing about witnessing the annihilation of ground on which one had walked; a sensation unknown to most of the world she came from, and alien to her until that moment.

"Yeah... right," Irene said, voice a shellshocked fragment as Albrecht talked strategy. She could definitely keep watching it, she supposed.
"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on the... thing." She slowly pushed up to standing, swiping dirt off of her pant legs before realizing that trying to clean them didn't really make much of a difference to how they looked. Instead, she motioned loosely with one arm, beckoning Jyu-Ni ahead into the formation. "It'll be alright Jyu-Ni. Calm as he says."

Dropped

The walk up the hill was an incredibly arduous task. Despite her gait being significantly less than the other two, her stamina was surprisingly good. She was tired, but was considerably less exhausted than the paladin dudebro. She did wear cloth instead of Albrecht's plate. That helped, for sure. Her tiny legs couldn't beat out the smelly hobo in terms of energy consumption, though. Still though, six hours of walking. A thought crossed her mind. What if she rode her fist? By flexing it forwards, she could essentially accelerate infinitely. Wait, wouldn't that be a bad idea? If she could just accelerate, she'd probably get thrown off and get horribly injured. She barely had proper control over the fists despite her massive brain. If she just did things haphazardly, she would probably die horribly. It was probably good to just wait. Yea, maybe experiment with it later.

Behind them was a village. Before Albrecht could even finish his sentence, a flash of light came from behind. Then came the rumblings. Knowing what was about to happen (possibly from an ASMR video), Jyu-in plugged her ears with her fingers. The metal arms, naturally, formed a shield that protected her from the wave that pushed them all back. A distant earth shattering roar of energy. The tingling all over her body confirmed that it was mana. The same mana that she had compressed into a marble. The marble of destruction. Was that why the goddess told them to go south? Probably was. Most importantly, were the other students okay? There was the lizard noises, then this massive beam of destructive light.

Albrecht gave the advice to just keep calm. Irene pushed her forwards. Could Jyu-ni simply ignore her comrades and push onwards? She even said that she'd run back in case of danger, could she just so easily break the promise?

Yea. She could. Rather easily, in fact. The left-behind gang probably didn't even know what hook it meant.

A certain feeling known as 'self-preservation' overcame any heroics that Jyu-ni had in her body. It was better to be alive with two friends than a corpse with four. Plus, six hours out. By the time they went back, something would be dead, making the trip back kind of worthless.

"... 'ea. Hook it opp'site that." Her tone was rather serious, despite her drunk-speech. She didn't want to die horribly. That would have sucked big time. Her pace quickened away from whatever the fuck was happening behind them. Despite a brief gap, she still dragged the long groove behind her.

Just in case.

Henry had only just grasped the gem in his hands when he felt...something. He'd ignored the spout of water at first, his gaze shifting towards where a flash of bluish light was seen. Probably the source of the roar, right? He caught barely a glimpse of...whatever was there, before the sudden tremor drew his attention back. Amaris was still in some sort of bizarre trance, and the other two who had remained behind were doing...something.

And then all hell broke loose. He had barely a moment to pull his hands back, before the ground started giving way. If he'd been any form of geologist, perhaps he would have known not to dig down like that, who knows how much pressure had been building up. Still, could anyone have predicted...that? Still, as the sinkhole began to form, for a split second, Henry froze, before flight or fight kicked in, and he began to twist around, trying to run after the yelling Amaris. While he couldn't speak for the other two who had been messing around with the butterflies, getting clear was key. Still, he wasn't sure if he could make it. But that wouldn't stop Henry from trying, yelling out to Amaris as he rushed after her. "Keep running! Hopefully the others are alright!"

Even in the midst of all that was happening, Henry thought of the three who had gone ahead, and hoped that they'd be safe. He clutched the gem close as he kept moving away, praying that he'd be in luck, and that him and Amaris could outrun the ever growing whirlpool, and that the thing blasting up behind them wouldn't...get worse?

And to think, all he had wanted to do was what was usually logical, search the area for anything valuable. Funny how life works out, huh?

Uriel Bertolini

Alright, this was a major issue. The sheer shock of the revelation had caused hi-he-them to forget how to properly swim for a brief moment, causing Uriel to sink down and flail their arms around in a frankly pitiable show and it took them a couple of seconds to calm themselves long enough to rest a hand on the inner wall of the well to support themselves better. At this moment, he didn't know whether to hate or thank the darkness they were in, as it was what avoided Uriel from seeing just how they looked at.

Whilst they were pondering how they could try and get out from this situation when the darkness got slightly darker. Uriel's eyes turned upwards and, whilst they couldn't make out exactly what was obscuring the few rays of sunlight that came downwards, they made out shapes altering the circular shape of the hole. Then, the sound of a child's voice echoed from wall to wall until it reached Uriel's ears and the complaints of a man who found his virility taken away from him were soon overshadowed by the kid's words:

“Weird lady, you know there’s a monster in our well right?”

Revived only to be eaten by the Loch's Well Monster, what a fate to be subjected to. However, Uriel was gonna take this new chance given to him, even if it means saying goodbyes to certain commodities his original body provided him. "Hey, kid!" Uriel stopped for a second, surprised at how femenine his new voice was. Even if it had a distinct masculinity with his tone and manner of speaking, his vocal chords made it sound like a tomboy rather than a stereotypical butch. "Mind throwing a length of rope or something for me to climb out?" requested Uriel. Meanwhile, his eyes darted around and he kept his ears peeled for any sort of disturbance. He was in a woman's body, he had been brought back from the dead, there was a Goddess and he was inside of a well. A monster didn't sound far fetched, so it would be better for hi-he-them to prepare.

Phann found the elf’s concern to be rather amusing if a little out unusual. Was it because Phann was no longer covered in burn scars? No, the girl had borne witness to Phann acting like a crazy person and seemed to be aware of her identity, so maybe this person was just kind? Whatever the case Phann resolved to at least try and get a better reading on the elf before taking her antics too far.

The girl had said she was a student by named Tiki, Phann couldn’t say the name sounded familiar, so there was a chance that that was just a nickname or something, but then again it wasn’t like she actually remembered most of her classmate's names anyway so it could just be that. Tiki’s reasoning as to their course of action made enough sense, either way, it was a gamble but at least if they followed the others if they survived they’d have other people to rely on for help.

”Okay then, sounds good to me!"

With the plan in mind, Phann nodded in response to Tiki asking if she’d be able to stand, a few moments later pulling herself up with a dramatic teeter for effect and taking a moment to shake off. Damn pins and needles. It was definitely starting to seem to Phann like Tiki might actually just be a good person, with her offer to let her rest, the constant apologies and the comment about elf solidarity… wait. Phann’s hands reached for ears, poking at the tapered points.

"Holy shit! I’m an elf! You’d think I would have realised this earlier, huh?"

Phann figured that explained the tingling feeling she’d had in her feet, either that or some kind of summoning sickness. Speaking of which a similar tingling sensation had begun in her stomach so maybe eating those butterflies earlier hadn’t been such a good idea, didn’t really matter now there were more pressing matters to deal with, like Mr Angry Roars. After a mighty stretch and a failed attempt at violently cracking her neck, Phann turned back to Tiki.

"Okay then Tiki, I suppose it's best if we get going now… Onwards to that way!"

Phann pointed vaguely in the direction Albrecht’s party had headed off in holding her arm out for a few seconds before beginning to move in that direction. Only a short while after she’d begun her march a bright light flashed from somewhere behind Phann and a feeling similar to the one being caused by the literal butterflies in her stomach, albeit somewhat more annoying, washed over her. Turning around Phann immediately spotted the source of the disturbance, a massive beam of light, looking like the result of some kind of arcane WMD, shining up into the sky from where she’d previously seen the now presumably dead lizardman.

"Hehehe… That’s our cue to begin running the hell away right? ... Tiki?"

Glancing over at Tiki, Phann realised the elf wasn’t doing so well. Was it panic? Maybe, kinda hard to tell, but this seemed like something else. Running over to her companion Phann grabbed onto the elf’s arm, yanking at but not really doing much given her lack of strength.

"Come on, you know I’m a fan of games, but I’m really thinking it’s probably time to get going, you know? Also, my new year's resolution was to die no more than once per day and there was that thing you mentioned about elf solidarity, so I’d really appreciate it if we could get moving."

Phann briefly considered ditching Tiki, but that seemed like a bit of a dick move after the elf had offered to help her, so instead she busied herself continuing to tug on Tiki’s arm and breaking down into manic giggles, partly because Phann found the whole idea of dying immediately after being given a second chance hilarious, but mostly because she was panicking.

@soph

"Don't worry. It took me a while, too." Tiki laughed. If she was honest, she expected Phann to ignore her and go with her own plan, so to have her listen was a surprise. Having someone from her class with her gave Tiki a pleasant feeling, one that was foreign to her. She happily began following Phann, but she felt a bit of guilt. It was likely that Phann had no idea who she was due to her name. Surely, it must feel weird having a stranger fall on you and then start following you around, right? Definitely not comforting, at the very least. Thinking that she shouldn't focus on things like that right now, she forced those thoughts out of her mind. She'll deal with it at a later time.

While walking, Tiki's mind went back to when she was chasing butterflies. Several questions appeared in her mind, like what exactly mana was and how else she could use it. Why was it so natural for her? Something she's never done before, with a feeling she's never felt. If she practiced more, how much of it could she use? How fast? Were there other types of magic, besides the wind she used earlier? Surely, there had to be, but perhaps it would be dangerous if she started experimenting right now. For one, Phann was right in front of her. Two, she didn't know how safe mana was. If using magic exhausted her so quickly before, then it could probably do something even worse. Tiki shuddered at the thought. She didn't want to risk dying for a second time, as absurd as that situation might've sounded.

Immediately after that thought, there was a flash of bright light, and the tingling sensation in her feet turned from a welcome feeling to a hostile one. It started from her lower body, then spread throughout in the blink of an eye. Tiki coughed mildly, but it escalated into a fit that left her exhausted. She felt like her airways were being blocked. Her breathing quickened to try and get more air, but it only helped to make the pain even worse. She managed to keep walking throughout the feeling, but it was unignorable once her entire body felt like she had sat on it for too long. Everything was numb, but at the same time hypersensitive. Tiki fell to the ground. She was surprised when she managed to look up and see Phann unphased by it. Tiki thought it was only affecting her, which made her somehow feel even worse. Like it was all in her head.

Regardless of if it truly was the mana or just her brain tricking her, she couldn't focus. Only when the pain faded to a dull throb for a split-second did Tiki realize that Phann was by her side, tugging on her arm. She tried telling the other elf that she couldn't move, but any attempts to speak were halted by a cough. When one started to come out, it was more of a squeak than any actual words. Tiki did the deepest breath she could muster (which wasn't even as good as a normal one) and looked up. Seeing a panicked look on Phann's face, she became saddened on top of the horrible feeling of every part of her body, inside and out, being bitten by insects. If Tiki didn't start to move soon, Phann would be stuck here with her. Something told her that if they stayed here, they would end up dead. She tried speaking again, to tell Phann to move on without her. Nothing came out.

Disappointed in herself, Tiki tried to ignore her pain as well as she could. She stood up, her legs shaking. It took too much focus to stand up. She knew that she could only do one thing at a time. If she took her mind off of walking, she would fall. She couldn't talk, turn her head, or do anything else, really. She relied on her subconscious to control her breathing and hertbeat as well as they could. Tiki began walking ahead, moving in the direction Phann was before. Whenever her mind faltered, even just a little from hearing sounds, she stumbled. She kept getting back up. She could only hope that her lack of response didn't offend Phann.

@TheMushroomLord

Concurrent torrents continued to lash out from the storm of earth and water. At this point the flora in the area would begin to grow at a rapid pace causing the grass to turn to overgrowth and small trees to sprout from beneath. The forests themselves would residual feel these effects, many of the animals began to flee from their homes and far away from the manastorm.

The forward party of the holy swordsman, the beast, and the mecha-loli would be far from this effect though it would be felt to a small degree. And because of this distance it was they who would be able to see a small humanoid figure at the summit of this explosion seemingly floating happily within the rampage of nature.

“Oi! Ye’ mucks know what’s goin’ on o’er there.” A gruff low voice would be barely audible to this group, but its source would soon be apparent. A giant, twenty feet in height stepped lightly towards them, floating boxes following him just at his rear as he made his way towards them. He was tanned, bright red have, garbed in leather robes and tassels.

---

“Evis!” The fauna woman exclaimed with her sword aimed at the big-bearded dwarf. The weapon would glow a bright mint-green before a scythe of wind mana was projected directly at his face, though having little force. It was on the other hand, sharp, and should it make contact with his beard would likely remove more than half of its sum.

Meanwhile, a small fauna child would make her way to the bucket-apparatus feeding it rope to lower the allow container down. The rope was thick and tightly woven, strong enough support her weight.

“Climb up! You’re small enough!” The dog-eared girl shouted down at the scorpion them. She flashed her teeth in a wholesome genuine smile, hopefully her efforts went well.

There was the issue of the Templars nearby however, they ignored the children and their amusement and instead decided to peer down the well as the rope was hoisted down.

“And when you make your way up here, we will have some questions for you.” A blonde middle-aged man spoke down in a stern echo down the well.

In times of crisis, what was needed wasn’t the ability to formulate a perfect plan, but the ability to act in the absence of it. Three years ago, she had drawn the sword of a corpse to stand against the hordes of the unpraying, and three years later, she had to be just as decisive.

“Tobias, Grett,” the Templar spoke sharply, “Take your men and protect the Bishop. Secure the town in case further beasts are attracted to the eruption of the leyline. Investigate the well too. Sounds like something’s inside.”

The light of the heroes. The roar of a chiroptorapter. The birth of an elemental. Events were progressing fast, and if she didn’t catch up, she’d be left behind. With a rasp of well-oiled steel, the masked knight drew a sword of a strange length, too long to be a dagger but too narrow to be a short sword, and called out, her voice ringing through the plaza, “The rest of you to me. Sister Clarissa, follow twenty paces behind and sing hymns of protection. Arden, guard the rear, ten paces behind. We move now!”

WIth momentum alone, she kicked her spurs and jolted off, her battlebred stallion a white streak of lightning that heralded the thunder of tens of other hooves.

In the dust cloud left by their dynamic exit, the Bishop watched, slightly bemused, as the remaining knights used their capes to frantically wave the dust away from the holy man.



Blinding and deafening. It was like looking at an explosion that simply didn’t stop, and the sheer sensory overload of the magical eruption caused the chiroptorapter to flinch, two of its sensory organs compromised.

That only fuelled its hunger, its anger. And the reality of it was that it didn’t matter regardless. Above the stench of the mana-rich waters, it could smell something far more appetizing. The hefty, spicy overtones of a lizardman’s sweat, undercut by the fear-sweat of a female human. So close too. They were running away, but they were still so delectably close. Baring its teeth in predatorial ecstasy, the raptor sprang off. The earth rumbled under its eight-clawed feet, its spiked club of a tail swinging side by side in anticipation.

It wasn’t much of a chase. It wasn’t even a challenge. Whether through physical defect or just natural fatigue, the chiroptoraptor was upon Amaris within seconds, its twelve foot frame surging upon her. What distance she made during the premilinary moments of running was negligible, and the monster didn't even have to grab her to take a bite. Like a bird plucking its prey from the ground, the rubyscaled beast snapped its neck down and brought two sets of dagger-sharp teeth upon the girl's left shoulder, ripping out her heart as it drew back. Her body was tossed high up into the sky before thudding down onto the ground, limbs sticking out erratically as sanguine ichor fed the glade beneath.

In the last moments of her life, Amaris could hear only the soft chuckling of her Dark Queen, the mirth that a cruel being could extract over the failures of their incompetent toy.

Fuelled by bloodlust and seeking livelier prey after its appetizer, Tiki and Phann were mere afterthoughts, moving so slowly that there was no doubt in its reptilian mind that it'd be able to attend to them after it chased down the lizardman.

True to her word, the rear guard stamped along at the back of the trio. Her mind fatigued, dragging her lively new body's step. The bestia turned as they walked, drifting through sidesteps and at times following the party backwards as their eyes dutifully trained themselves across the horizon, always drifting back to the geyser of light behind them for what felt like the maximum safe time to witness it. It left a dreary ghost of brightness across her vision every time she swept it, the echo of that terrifying spire painting her surroundings flickering green-red in her eyesight. Between the hills, glimpses of that horizon revealed... Waves. Rolling waves of green, tall grass pierced through with trees radiating from the storm, expanding outward as the fields swelled with life.

Irene scratched at her eyes, the backs of her gloves falling away to reveal that this was in fact not a complete hallucination brought on by the odd tingling the blue light etched into her skin. Even the grass at her feet seemed to recoil from the storm, tips curling as the lush carpet moved with unreal vigor. That was barely even worthy of recognition, though, because something far more fantastic pulled her mind on her next robotic sweep of the landscape. The way she felt she doubted if she would have noticed something actually approaching across the plains, but there was no missing the conspicuous darkness floating atop the continuous explosion. Was that one of them? Some kind of rock thrown up by the blast? It was floating, maybe even surfing the constant gush of whatever that light was.

"Um," Her voice grumbled, catching her by surprise again after having fallen silent for so long. She definitely need to tell the group about that shape. The interruption was enough to invite a deeper rumble from another voice. Ye mucks? Her head snapped instinctively to Jyu-Ni, wondering if two people with the same accent would get along by default. As her head turned to check her party member her jaw dropped as she saw the stranger. Easily the tallest creature she'd ever stood under, several meters at least. Wearing robes of leather, the scent of tanned flesh striking her senses at once, like he had any business to be acting like just a normal guy at that height. He, at least she assumed by the voice, wasn't running at them, wasn't waving a weapon around. Was this a native? Was this the dominant species of this planet, some kind of shepherd of floating boxes they'd stumbled across? Wooden crates hovered along in his presence. Just like Jyu-Ni! But with boxes instead of threatening mecha arms.

"Uh," She cleared her throat, deepening her tone as she eyed the stranger from the back of the group. Just enough silence for her to speak first. "Got no clue and got no inclination to find out, we've just been walking straight away from... That mess." She hung over her feigned indifference, a fresh pang of remorse lancing through her stomach as she emphasized her words by pointing first in the direction they came from and then openly towards where they were going. The wolfman wavered before continuing. "Erm, good day though. How... do you do?"