The paladin seemed to forego her weapon in the name of dealing with the laser blasts: swinging the massive sword to cut into it, blocking the worst of the damage--her armour obviously searing from the rest, but nevertheless intact. Unlike the now-bladeless weapon... though that hardly mattered. The "but why" was answered scant seconds later; like the others, Tyaethe ran straight at the crumbling tower... and ignored the doorway or the stairs.

Indeed, the knight had apparently decided that the state of the outside and the tower being at a slight incline made it faster to simply scale the wall rather than dealing with collapsed staircases. Perhaps fast enough to avoid another laser barrage, though it would be quite the task to aim it almost vertically downwards with any accuracy...

Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri jolted in surprise as something fell onto his shoulders, but his alarm quickly subsided when he realized it was just the girl with the hat from earlier, taking her sort-of-praises in good humor. Judging from her cheerfulness, and to his relief, she didn't seem to be injured from landing on him. If she had missed her jump she could've hit the ground or even landed on the pommel of his zweihander. But why was she here? Did she know about where the puppy was all along? Was this just a game to these children?

"I'm glad you're pleased with us. The Iron Rose Knights are here to serve," he replied, gently lifting the child off his shoulders and putting her down. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to tell Sir Klaus and myself what exactly is going on now?" He wasn't really in any position to scold them for this, not when he was willingly running around to find a lost puppy, but he wanted to know what in Reon's name was going on.

Fanilly couldn't stop to let out a sigh of relief, as much as she wanted to. But the moment that she reached the base of the tower, it immediately became much more difficult to be directly targeted by the witch's magical assault. She was powerful, incredibly so. Not merely from the display so far, but from the construct she had left at the ruins or the laser that had instantly vaporized a troll when deflected and left a molten hole in the earth. Even with her lack of knowledge when it came to magic, the young girl knight couldn't help but think of this as unreal. What kind of person was this Beatrice, Witch of Wild Thorns? Was this what she meant when she said she was taught by the Witch-Queen herself?

There were no more orders to be given, now. They simply had to reach the witch as quickly as possible, before she could do much more damage. Taking stock of the tower's interior, seen through the crumbling, rotten oak door, Fanilly was thankful to see the stairway was still intact enough to allow her to make her way up it. Surely, the witch wouldn't target the very tower she was standing atop, would she? With a deep breath, the small blonde began sprinting her way up.

"You spilled plenty of blood here tonight, Iron Roses," commented the witch, "All those orcs, slaughtered! The fields are coated in black blood! It's not as if I expect you to feel guilty, of course."

She waved one hand idly, further magic circles materializing around her. It was as if she could create an infinite number of them.

"Orcs are barbaric beasts that are fundamentally opposed to the other races. Why, I think some of them even planned to eat the town's children! You did excellent work~"

She was praising them? For slaying her minions? By why? Fanilly shook her head, racing up the stairs to try and get closer. She knew Tyaethe was on the outside, scaling the wall.

"You spilled all the blood I needed. Now I'll surely get her attention."

Wait, what did she mean by that?!

"But first... allow me to show you just why I'm called the Witch of Wild Thorns!"

With one raised hand, she snapped her fingers. Immediately, the foliage around the tower began to twist and contort, erupting into thorny vines that started to spread upwards across the tower. Without a moment's pause, they began to constrict on the ruins, tightening further and further as they spread, squeezing the stone... that began to crack...

Fanilly could see the old stone beginning to crumble and crack from inside the tower. Was the Witch mad?! Or... was it possible she had a way off the top of the structure, even if it began to collapse! She was too high up, now, to flee back down it, so the only response was to make her way to the top as swiftly as possible! If the tower fell, that was where she had the chance of escaping with the least injury possible!

@Raineh Daze@PKMNB0Y@TheFake

---

For a moment, Rissia pouted as she was lifted from Fleuri's shoulders, but her smile returned soon enough as her feet touched the ground. She stood proudly, with her hands on her hips and a smile, as if she had somehow been the one who located the puppy herself, and she was immediately taking the credit.

"What do you mean, what's going on?" she asked, holding her hat on her head as she cocked her head to the side, "The little cutie wanted to find her even littler cutie!"

Clutching her puppy, Mae blushed immediately.

"R-Rissia, that's embarrassing!"

"Fufufu~" the black-haired girl placed one to her lips as she giggled.

Klaus's question, however, seemed to leave Mae at least quite confused.

"Um... If you have business, we're not stopping you! Um, thank you again for finding Ennifer!"

@Noodles@Crimson Paladin

Klaus

Klaus tried not to frown at the staggered response at those two owners of the pet Ennifer. Thy are just children, apparently. She’ll have to use that approach as a Knight,and even when she were to face a bunch of girls, there are ways to deal with them, and a thousand more things that she could do with a kind and innocent face. And she’ll be playing along with those 'childrens' farce, in one way or another.

“Goblins have just attacked here, and it wouldn't be safe for us Knights to allow you girls to venture outside alone.”

Klaus folded her arms beneath her dull grey coat. Should they spin out another of those wool merchants’ tales……

On the outside of the tower, there was absolutely nothing that she could do to retort to the orc comments, or the praising of their actions--not, least of all, without singling herself out for some sort of punishment. Though it turned out there was no need for the paladin to worry about any of that... the witch was more invested in bringing down the tower. By crushing it with thorny vines.

Not wanting to be crushed by the rapidly growing vines, Tyaethe did the first thing that came to mind when she noticed them: grab it. Perhaps being on the outside of the tower was a good thing. After all, this did something the witch probably hadn't been expecting to happen: bring one of the knights to the top without their needing to climb up the inside of a crumbling tower.

One who immediately thought the best way to finish the spell was to tackle her off the edge.

Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri shook his head. He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but their quest was over. "I should head back. A knight's work is never done. You kids stay out of trouble, and Reon bless you.. And..." he said, looking at Rissia, "Who knows, perhaps you could become an Iron Rose someday."

He dusted himself off, sweeping the dirt off his Reonite livery, then walked out of there, leaving the girls with Klaus. He was unsure if his knight-sister would follow behind or continue interacting with the children. Regardless, he needed to check up on the others and find out if there have been any updates since the Captain left.

I wonder if the Captain is having any luck in those ruins...