Rayne smiled a little bit at the positive feedback, even if her ‘just say we are from another world’ got turned down. Rather than try and argue a lost point, she instead picked up on someone else’s and added her voice to it.

“Lewa also has a good point: if Lavielle is worried about the capitol, then maybe someone there knows about her? Maybe she has priests or, if the state her temple was in is any indication, maybe a historian would be a better bet?” she suggested before having a thought, and adding “oh, and maybe we could find out if this has happened before? Because if the power to kidnap people from other worlds exists, and works mostly flawlessly, then it must have been used before, right?” before joking that “For all we know this goddess solves all her problems this way, and all we need to do is wait for one of her monks to come and hand out information leaflets about what’s expected of us and how we can get home once we’ve done whatever that is she wants”

Other than that, she also suggested “We should also find out if our various magic powers are otherworldly or not when we’re asking the merchants stuff? Is healing magic a thing they can do, or is Remilia’s ability to do that really rare? How about Frans super, well, everything, or Lewa’s entire existence?” before explaining why this would be useful, by saying it was “So we know how big of a deal they are when it comes to getting the right kind of attention”

@PKMNB0Y @DracoLunaris

“We should also find out if our various magic powers are otherworldly or not when we’re asking the merchants stuff? Is healing magic a thing they can do, or is Remilia’s ability to do that really rare? How about Frans super, well, everything, or Lewa’s entire existence?”

Rayne's questions actually made Fran put some thought into it. Looking back on it, her own existence would be considered very much unlike anything this world could've possibly seen. Hell, the fact that she was still here, without having Independent Action or being a Caster to connect oneself to a leyline, without a Master was virtually unheard of back in her world. Yet here, magic and mystery is very abundant, that much was clear from what she can sense. Along with her ability to absorb energy of any kind, Fran could keep herself materialized here indefinitely, so long as she doesn't fall in battle.

Perhaps now was a good time to explain to the others what a Servant is. It would serve to answer Rayne's question about whether or not their entire being is one of a kind.

"Ser...vants...", Fran began, calling everyone's attention as she explained as best as she could. "By...gone....spi...rits...from....life...fiction...myth....Brou...ght....to....life....Super....pow...ered....ghosts.....basic...ally....Is....that....wei...rd....here?"

When Remilia asked if she was of noble blood, Mokou just returned a blank stare for a second. Then another one. Then it clicked that the small vampire wasn't from Japan and would hardly be familiar with the Japanese nobility—especially since, as far as she could remember, the entire political structure of the country had changed numerous times even before she was in Gensokyo...

"Yes, I'm a noble."

Though, of more interest than the planning was the slow-speaking Servant's explanation of what she was. Brought to life...? "So, you can't stay dead either?"

---

Joker gave a small chuckle at the halfling witch-knight's joke before the questions revolving around the possible scarcity of their powers brought him to thought. Fran's description of her power, or rather existence as a whole, these 'Servants' reminded him of the Personas that he and his ragtag band of friends had awakened... Though it seemed that they sparked from the same realm of mind, they were summoned in different ways... unless he was wrong.

"Huh... Seems oddly familiar. I suppose you and Arsene are in the same boat then, more or less, but you don't need someone to awaken you, or summon you in general?"

With the most immediate—and most actionable—course of action set, Sanae felt it best to actually call upon one of the merchants the group was so apt to inquire for information on the state of the world rather than simply speak about it. With every topic of note in hand (or, at the very least, the intent to ask about them), the green-haired girl poked her head into the nearest caravan occupant (one not occupied with driving a carriage, obviously) and asked if anyone was free to answer a few questions that the group had.

To her surprise, though, it was the merchant that she had first asked about taking them here that had answered her call. The man seemed to still be somewhat reticent with regards to the group as a whole, but given how Syldon had managed to convince him...

Maybe there was some merit to seeing if he answered at all?

Having made his way to the back of the wagon he was seated within, the older man regarded the group with silence as they relayed to him, in no meaningful order, their questions.

"Mmm... Well, the Raven Heralds have been pushing more towards the east as of late, so I'm not sure why they would attack a frontier town," he would begin to say, "but hell if I know what the king of Eiderheim's plans are. I guess I should be stocking up on some more arms if they're preparing an offensive south, though... Well, regardless, the information's greatly appreciated."

The question as to the commonality of their strengths and abilities, however, did cause the man to pause and reflect for a little bit.

"Mmm... Well, I didn't really see you all go at it, but with how thoroughly I hear you all went at beating my hired help into the ground, you might be... Fairly rare as far as talent goes? Of course, I've heard tall tales of adventurers and heroes all my life, and the stuff the bards sing about is pretty outlandish even at the best of times... But maybe I just haven't been lucky enough to see them."

Regardless of his feelings on the matter, the merchant at least seemed to be willing to humor the otherworlders' other questions, provided they had any more he could meaningfully answer.

---

The next days came and went more or less without incident. Traveling along the dirt roads by foot was, to some, agonizingly slow—Sanae chief among them, given how she had been used to both mechanical vehicles and flight as regular forms of transportation until now—but with no apparent dangers ambushing them day or night, the young woman had no real reason to complain.

Well, no, maybe the meals could have been better; she was already beginning to miss the ever-essential staples of rice and eggs, and having to make due with rations meant for long-distance travel did her semi-modern palate no favors.

Though she was prepared for yet another day of mild boredom on the road, the abrupt halt of the caravan caused the young woman—who, at this point, had been riding on the back of one of the wooden carriages—to poke her head out to see what was wrong. Being near the rear as she was, though, finding out the cause of their sudden halt would mean poking around to see what the issue was.

More than ready for a bit of stimulation now, the shrine maiden quickly leaped out of the carriage and, after flying to the front where it seems the mercenaries had congregated, glanced around to see why they were suddenly on-edge and ready for combat.

"Uh... Mr. Hest?" she asked as she glanced around. "...Is there an enemy nearby?"

"Yes, actually, though not one I've seen before," the older man said as he gestured lightly with his chin towards a nearby hill. "Some strange creatures that look like... I don't know, purple slimes with yellow eyes? Seem to be moving towards the area. There's a town a bit further ahead, but I'm not sure if we'd make it there in time to reinforce or would be walking into a deathtrap..."

There was a brief pause as he looked at the young woman floating in the air before promptly smacking himself on the head with his free hand.

"I'm an idiot. Hey, young miss, would you mind taking a look to see how bad the situation is?"

Before he could even turn to see if Sanae was willing to accommodate his requests, though, Syldon watched the young girl zip by over the hill to see what it was keeping the group from moving.

The situation was... Not particularly far off from what the man had described, as far as Sanae could tell. The place seemed like it would have been a quaint little hamlet, had it not been for the oncoming mass of monsters moving towards the town. The description he had given her wasn't particularly inaccurate; they did indeed look like slimes with a pair of glowing yellow eyes, though it seemed that the man had failed to mention that they also didn't seem to be particularly intact, either.

Oddly enough, though, there already seemed to be combat breaking out around the hamlet, as the monsters seemed to be facing off against a massive, living tree brimming with spectral energy and a blue-haired girl wielding a pair of scissors.

They seemed to be doing well enough at fending off the horde for the moment, but from the air it was clear that the number of enemies bearing down upon them could very easily wash over the town regardless of their efforts.

Now with a slightly better view of the situation, Sanae quickly apprised both the mercenaries—and her other companions beside—of the situation at hand.

"Mmm... Well, that's rather concerning. With numbers like that, I'm not sure if we'd survive getting attacked head-on. Maybe we should retreat and find another way around..."

"Eh? But there are people down there—"

"Look, I know we brought you along because you and your friends were strong, but we're here to protect our clients, not play the hero," Syldon cut Sanae off with a stern look on his face. "You're welcome to act as you want, so long as you're not endangering the rest of us."

As he spoke, a few of the creatures seemed to be moving around the hills and towards the group—a fact which did the group absolutely no favors.

"All right, you guys! Don't panic and start moving the caravan around! There aren't enough of them coming at us right now, so get those things turned around while we stall! If things get too rough, abandon the goods! Better to live at a loss than die greedy!"

@VitaVitaAR@EchoWolff@Izurich@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris@Rezod92

@PKMNB0Y @Izurich @Raineh Daze @DracoLunaris @Drifting Pollen @VitaVitaAR @Lugubrious @EchoWolff





Next several days would pass by uneventful but peaceful, which gave Fran plenty of time to find and collect various flowers she would find as they traveled. Even so...

This peace would not last.

---

Sitting within a wagon in the center of the caravan, Fran was in the midst of making a floral crown when said caravan came to a sudden stop. Setting the crown aside, she poked her head out just in time to see Sanae flying toward the front. Curiosity peaked, Fran hopped out and briskly jogged to join those that had gathered, both the mercenaries and her fellow otherworlders. She wouldn't have to wait long to know what the commotion was about as the flying priestess flew up the hill and relayed to the others what she was seeing:

A wave of slimes with glowing yellows eyes, threatening to overrun a nearby town. Along with seeing... a walking tree and a girl with scissors? While the latter was definitely a head scratcher, the former was clearly the most concerning. Even with the strange duo fighting them off, it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. They, along with the town, needed help...

...and they were going to get it.

"You're welcome to act as you want, so long as you're not endangering the rest of us."

She didn't need to hear the rest. If that wasn't a granted permission, then Fran didn't know what is as she instantly summoned her battle mace before leaping up the hill, leaving a crater from the force she exerted. Once at the top, she ran downward, picking up speed as she rocketed toward the wave of slimes from the flank.

The sentient tree and the scissor-wielding girl would hear a shrill battle cry before hearing a thunderous boom as an explosion of verdant electricity vaporized dozens of slime monsters within the vicinity. Dust settling, they would see a peach-haired girl with strange head ornaments wearing a wedding dress and carrying a huge mace, green lighting sparking off of her body.

The Berserker has been let loose.

"With your skills as a diplomat, I shall be expecting you to serve as my aide upon our arrival at the capital."

Not halfway through the journey, and she was already being subordinated? That Remilia sure was a haughty one... Fortunately for the vampire, though, Anne didn't particularly dislike her brazen confidence. Though she sighed under her breath, the Knight answered the call with a resigned and nostalgic smile. "Normally I'd have to charge you for that kind of service, Lady Remilia. But since it's all for a good cause, we'll call it even if you can get the needed results."

For better or worse, she'd make a deal with the Scarlet Devil, and put her faith in the other woman's abilities. She seemed to fit the mold of a court lady much better than Anne did anyhow, and it'd be nice to have someone serving as a metaphorical shield between her and any overeager aristocrats. Being forced to marry one evil emperor was enough for this lifetime, thank you very much...

The conversation carried on, but besides the sensible suggestion of splitting up into teams to investigate further, much of it went over Anne's head. Fran wasn't a chimera, but a superpowered ghost? Mokou was actually a noble, and could resurrect herself besides? The sudden flow of unexpected information was nearly enough to give the Knight a headache, though she chipped in with her own minor contribution. "I'm not sure if my techniques have counterparts here, but the technology I'm carrying should be well beyond anything this world has developed." To demonstrate, she raised one hand and brushed it against the sleeve of her coat, which briefly revealed a glowing forcefield of interconnected hexagons floating just above the material. "Of course, it might just get brushed off as more magic... If I had some proper tools, it'd be easier to prove it directly."

Another task for when they reached the capital, perhaps. In the meantime, Anne followed along with Sanae as she sought out someone to fill them in, and once the essential questions were done with she smoothly walked up and introduced herself by name. And, she wondered, what did he go by? See, she and her companions had never seen the capital before, but surely he must know the place well—perhaps he could suggest some landmarks or historical sites to go and visit. She assumed the ruling family lived there, right? Ah, and where there were lofty nobles there would always be rumors and gossip surrounding them, which might make for an entertaining topic of conversation, especially if he'd met any local aristocrats and had some stories to share...

And so it went. It wasn't just about gathering info, but about building a relationship, getting this trader and his fellows a little more comfortable talking with the otherworlders in general. An ongoing project that proceeded over the next several days, with Anne approaching merchant and mercenary alike to make small talk and gentle inquiries. When she wasn't resting or chatting up the rest of the caravan, she tried to spend some time with the remaining otherworlders as well... Who were all beginning to feel a little less like strangers by now.

Say, would Lewa mind if she took a closer look at his mechanisms? Joker clearly knew how to handle a dagger, but she had a few tips to improve his performance. Why could half the group seem to fly, especially everyone from Gensokyo? Fran didn't seem much for conversation anyway, but as time passed and Anne watched her gather flowers and weave them carefully together, the Knight's expression slowly shifted from wariness to curiosity.

...Until, as inevitable as the coming of the dawn, the tides of war washed over them all once again.

---

Monsters. Nothing like the things Anne was used to fighting, but clearly inhuman nonetheless. Though she wore a grim expression, the fact relieved her: this way she could cut them all down without remorse. This time, no one would have to die.

Fran was off like a rocket, already on top of the priority target. For her part, Anne considered for a moment, dividing up forces in her head.

"Wide-area attackers should focus on clearing where the enemy's most concentrated—that's you, Mokou, along with Sanae and Fran. Joker, Lewa, see if you can deal with the ones trickling around and then hit the main horde from the back? Lady Remilia, I request ranged support, along with healing for any of us that go down... Rayne, watch from above for weak points and shore them up however you can. If you can spot key targets or enemy leaders, signal those of us on the ground." She hadn't spotted Youmu yet in all of this, but knowing that girl, she might well be in the thick of the fight already.

Of course, Anne had no way of guaranteeing that the others would follow along with her tactical advice. Even so, she trusted that their combined firepower would be enough to cleanly mop up a swarm of enemy infantry. She was more concerned about the possibility of a nasty surprise—and thus set off at a steady pace up the hills, seeking out a central position roughly overlooking the entire battlefield.

"I'll be joining in too, this time."

In the very moment she heard commotion, she was already on her feet.

Without Yuyuko-sama, it was important to do everything she could. Both due to the fact it was the right thing to do, and because of her pride as a Konpaku.

What better way to display the skills of her lineage by cutting down monsters? It wasn't the most common thing in Gensokyo given most fights were against people you could reason with who would give up after losing a duel, but it wasn't as if those sword skills only applied to such things.

The carriage rocked slightly as she sprang from it. Even without her full speed, she was a blur as she reached the strange abominations.

Something about them felt wrong. The air around them felt sickly and unpleasant. It wasn't something that Youmu could identify, but it felt like some sort of spiritual corruption. As a half-phantom she could detect such things simply due to her partially-ethereal nature, and the air around the swarm of strange, oozing, slimy creatures was full of it.

Were they some sort of evil spirits? Were they curses of some kind? Youmu didn't know, not really. But it didn't change her response.

Roukanken slid from its sheath and flashed.

The first of the oozing creatures came apart, split in half in a single blow.

Youmu couldn't really describe the feeling. It wasn't quite the same as cutting through something with no physical existence. There was clearly some kind of body there.

But at the same time it was without mass and formless.

But it felt rotten to its very core.

The creature dissipated, dark blue-purple-black fluids spurting into the air and fading in that same moment as she moved past it, swiftly drawing Hakurouken in her free hand in the very same motion.

A twisted, blackened, oozing shape lurched out of the body of one of the creatures towards her.

It was trivial to dodge it, and immediately she drove Hakurouken into the creature's limb and dragged it along its body, severing cursed ooze as she sliced it all the way to the base.

But before she could do any further damage, the creature was already fading. Its body ceased to pulse and writhe, turning first grey and then fading to white before dissipating into nothingness.

Had she not been in active combat, Youmu would have paused. But even despite the battle, she wondered if Hakurouken had some sort of additional affect on it. They seemed to have some sort of physical form, but that was certainly different then the response to being cut by Roukanken.

And yet, either way, both had died. So in the end, it didn't truly matter what she slashed with. Just that she slashed.

Roukanken split the air as she moved, a sharp swing downwards severing one of the monsters down the middle in spurt of ooze before she moved on, passing its fading form to thrust Hakurouken directly between the eyes of another was it attempted to lash out at her.

With their plan prepared and set in motion, Remilia was quite pleased, finally some actual progress. Make no mistake, she didn't regret helping those villagers - well, perhaps a smidge due to the centipede incident - but the fact remained that all of them here needed to secure a way home, even if they decided to follow what Lavielle called them here for, it'd only be beneficial for everyone involved. Besides, a lady such as myself shouldn't be doing this alone, I need proper servants. What if the only way to return home was to accomplish Lavielle's goal? Ha, surely it couldn't be the case... right?

Before she could let the paranoia fester, Remilia's thoughts were interrupted by the emergence of trouble. There seemingly was a commotion at the settlement yonder, being seated quite high as she was, the Scarlet Devil was already in the perfect spot to scout. "Mmm... it appears the hamlet ahead is being accosted by... something." Sanae's reports confirmed her suspicions, it was quite fortunate they had able-bodied guardians among them, but judging by how numerous those dark purple ooze creatures were, indeed they could need some assistance.

The hired guards' refusal to help was not unexpected, they were paid to keep the merchant safe, sticking their nose into every little problem they came across would be in their employers' poor taste. However, none of Lavielle's abductees was beholden to such contracts, no? "Haaa... I suppose it falls on us to play heroes indeed." Remilia quipped in faux resignation, doing a poor job at masking her excitement. She stood up, spread her chiropteran wings, then casually floated off her 'throne', "Once more into the fray, comrades~"

The lilac-haired bloodmage grinned at Anne's suggestion, twas' a good plan, nay, a great plan, "I won't have it any other way, Lady Anne~" Yes, that's how it should be, she might not have Sakuya, nor Meiling, but these people could do. "Now cry havoc and let loose your fury!" As Fran, Youmu, and the others charged to join the Ent and the scissor-wielding blunette in their defense against the ooze insurgence, Remilia kept a watchful eye on their backs, ready to provide support to whomever needed it. After all, one couldn't form a proper spear with just the head.

"I wouldn't say that I'm much of a wide-area fighter, unless you want an entire forest fire," Mokou answered with a shrug, "Danmaku wouldn't do much good here."

Still, like the others, she had no issue with contributing to the extermination of the purple slimes, though perhaps not in the exact manner that Anne meant when she had expected area denial. It was the work of moments to simply toss ofuda into the fray and then... boom.

Indiscriminate explosions really were great for clearing out such fragile enemies, so long as she was careful not to throw them at the direction of anyone fighting the things.

The next few days on the road were fairly uneventful, sans the occasional spell card duels the Gensokyo ladies got up too, which Rayne joined in on a dodging only basis to get herself used to not being able to blink through projectiles. She got hit quite a lot, the absolute waves of bullets they put out put everything in her world to shame, but better to be hit now than by actually dangerous projectiles. She also attempted to learn how to do their specific kind of non-lethal magic from some of them, but given her power was more granted by the Link and her purchased spell cards (which were entirely different from the Gensokyo’s ones in function, which resulted in unhelpful term overlap) than arcane trained, that was slow going as she had to learn a lot of the basics of spell-casting more or less from scratch.

Fortunately, the next time she needed to fight, she didn’t need to put her crash course of spell card education to the test, as what they came up against were swarms of blob monsters that she had no qualms about blasting her own way. Unfortunately the reason she wasn’t ready to use any non-lethal magic was because they ran into that trouble all too soon.

-

After throwing on her armor and floating to the front just in time to hear about what was going down and how the merchants wanted no part of it, Rayne began to insist “We have to help-” only for Fran to demonstrate how actions spoke louder than words by rushing off to help without a second thought.

She was going to do the same before Anne started coming up with a plan, which she stuck around to listen to. When it came to her part of it, the which knight began to object by saying “I’m more useful when I'm up close and-” only to remember one of the cards she had drawn from her deck and nix that line of complaint with a “-never mind, I can work with this,” before flicking said spell card forwards to cast it. At first it did not seem to do anything, but when she darted upwards, pointed a finger forwards to bring up her targeting arrow, and squeezed the metaphorical trigger it became clear what the card had done: replaced her piddly short ranged shots with unlimited range high explosive rockets.

She still wasn’t being optimal up there offense wise up there even with that spell card in play (almost all her non-shot augmenting ones where AoEs around herself of one kind or another) but having a steady stream of high explosive shots able to be rained down at any point on the battlefield was nothing to be sniffed at tactically.

Firing down from on high also meant that it was fairly easy to avoid any risk of cross fire, and so she did her best to pepper the parts of the horde that were approaching the two defenders of the hamlet, aiming to thin it out at least a little so that they’d have less coming at them. This also left little patches of floating mana orbs near them at the rocket’s impact sites, though if that was of any help to them she had no idea.

That said, she couldn’t provide that much aid to them as she might like, because she was also tasked with keeping an eye out for anything that looked like it might be in-charge of the blobs, or if anyone was in trouble.

In regards to the latter, those who had already gotten stuck in seemed like they were more than capable of handling themselves without her, and weren't going to be having much issue themselves (she suspected) unless there were nasty surprises laying in store. As such, when it came to weak spots in their ranks, her main concern was the slow moving caravan, which she made sure to stick fairly close to them, and gave the odd glance to check and see if they were moving along ok, or if she’d need to dive down to provide close support.

All in all, despite not seeming to be in any danger herself, it was quite the stressful situation to be in, Ryane quickly found, as she kept switching her focus here and there and everywhere to try and work out where she’d be needed, all while worrying she might have missed something important.

After stating his plan and resolving to try and stay more positive going forward, there was unfortunately not much more Lewa could offer to the strange band's ongoing conversation. What little the toa knew of society went straight out the window in this world, and he couldn't really speculate about either the nation or its inhabitants. Even with the current circumstances, he knew, one of his fellow toa might have fared a bit better in a situation like this. While Lewa fostered a connection with animals, Gali could connect better with the matoran (and humans mostly likely) by virtue of her keen and empathetic mind. Meanwhile, someone like Pohatu was a real people person, with a likeable personality and a knack for making pals. Among his brethren, the similarly gregarious Lewa counted the Toa of Stone as his best friend. Onua's sensibility and stout heart would have probably served him well, too. Only two toa might conceivably be worse off, given Tahu's aggressive, fiery temper and Kopaka's chilly, solitary nature. One would be more likely to get himself in trouble, while the other would probably isolate himself and go it alone. Regardless of their individual tendencies, Lewa missed them all. If he meant to reunite with them, he would need to stay strong and keep pushing forward.

To that end, he added some questions of his own to those posed by Sanae to the members of the caravan. Though he had a million questions in mind, he stuck to just those that concerned Lavielle. After all, this world's denizens were much less likely to understand his situation than his fellow fish-out-of-water, the otherworlders. And naturally, the greatest question -why me- he would reserve for the 'goddess' herself. Thanks to the merchants' cooperation, Lewa managed to assemble a crude understanding of Lavielle's position in this world and her relationship to the people, insofar as anyone in this world might know. This 'goddess' turned out to be quite the mysterious being, as distant and unknowable as the Great Spirit Mata Nui himself. The more he heard, the more Lewa understood just how unheard of it would be to meet with this being at all. It was a sobering realization, but Lewa kept a hold of himself. The impossible was just something that nobody had managed to do yet.

Gradually, Lewa settled in for the long haul. Days spent traveling agonized him almost as much as the days he spent languishing in and around the village, but there was one ray of hope: the possibility of actually getting somewhere. Compared to his island home, this world seemed immense, with much broader and less varied (not to mention less interesting) biomes. At least the journey spared Lewa one misfortune that it inflicted on his fellows: travel rations. Preserved meats like salted pork, hard tack that needed to be moistened with water or wine, young cheeses, trail mixes of nuts and dried fruits, plain beans, and just downright gruel did not make for fine dining, but that seemed to be how medieval travelers sustained themselves. As everyone journeyed, Lewa tried to foster good relations with the others, hard as it was. Those who already knew one another tended to be a bit insular. Anne interacted with him willingly, but the curiosity in her eyes as she examined him unnerved him somewhat--he wasn't some gizmo to be broken down and studied. The further the group got, the harder it would be for them to reach Millie again if she turned out to be important. Lewa didn't like total reliance on strangers for directions, but he did his best to memorize the lands he passed through. Very little broke up the monotony of travel, but when it rained, it poured.

On that day, things started slow, with a sighting of unusual slimes in great numbers. A quick scouting trip from Sanae suggested that the town had capable defenders in the form of an impressive tree monster and a human with huge pincers, but even capable defenders couldn't be everywhere at once. Lewa decided to help right away, reasoning that the caravan was slow enough that he could catch up easily, especially if the wagons gave the situation a wide berth. Of course, the toa wasn't the only one thinking about the commoners' welfare, and Fran was more than a little faster off the mark than he was. Watching her eviscerate slimes as he moved to insist, he couldn't help but wonder if there would be any left by the time he got there. It was a little disappointing, but there were more important things at stake than his personal pride. Instead of following in her footsteps, the toa heeded Anne's suggestion to help with the flank.

With a much smaller group of enemies, he could do his thing without worrying about Mokou blowing him up. That said, his axe didn't seem to be the best tool for the job; these bizarre creatures seemed to lack vital organs, or even a coherent form, and just chopping them only slowed them down. "Like fighting protodermis," he muttered. These slimes were more viscous than protodermis, though, and that gave him an idea. Working methodically, the toa used both bursts of wind and carving blows from his axe to splatter, then separate the slimes. Once divided up, the individual blobs could be flung even farther by his air currents, effectively negating each threat. Not as efficient as the others just vaporizing them, he knew, but Lewa was glad to be doing something, at least.

---

Peace is broken, yet again.

The Phantom Theif wasn't surprised at this point, no good thing ever lasted long. As tensions rose his senses became more alert, his eyes sticking to the living tree and the girl with glowing scissors...

Guess I'm going to be seeing quite a bit of weird stuff as time goes on... Though I should have expected that... Joker's thoughts chimed, his focus shifting to the slimes that put on the assault on the village. Tactics would make sense here, and thus he followed the orders of the Space Knight.

"On it!" He calls as he rushes off, hurriedly putting his coat back on so it is not inevitably lost somewhere... He went the opposite direction as Lewa, if they were going to flank the mass, then it would be best to cut them off from both ends, encircle them, and devour them from the outside in...

Like an amoeba catching its prey.

Blade drawn, piercing the air as well as flesh... or sludge in this case.

Cutting down slimes felt strange, to say the least, like quartering Kanten... It was effective, but the underlying fear of them reassembling themselves loomed over his mind...

He had to do something to make sure they stayed down...

Like draining whatever lifeblood they had.

I am thou, and thou art I...

Ripping off the mask, the blue flames of rebellion flaring forth, as Joker unleashed a new trick hidden up his sleeve...

Life Drain.

Arsene's arms lay outstretched as he plunged his blade into one of the formless creatures, as purple ichor seeped from it, staining his blade... Invigorating himself as he imbued its stolen lifeblood with his own...

Thanks for the boost... Remilia.

With implicit approval given for her (and the rest of the otherworlders) to break away from the caravan, Sanae took a deep breath and prepared herself mentally for combat. The enemies this time were monsters, at least, and not people; though she hadn't been as keen on taking the lives of people as her peers here were, things like those weird slimes definitely did not fall into that category.

After nodding in response towards Anne's rapid division of their forces, Sanae shot off after the others with her gohei at the ready. While the usage of more indiscriminate firepower by means of a spell card in this situation would probably have done well enough at cleaning the nearby fields up of those strange slimes, the young woman felt her pride taking a bit more of a hold as the others who were airborne chose to rely on more straightforward methods of attack.

If massive explosions were the weapon of choice for the day, then it seemed like a good a time as any to use her own, right?

Swept up in the moment as she was, Sanae took a fairly comfortable position in the air alongside Mokou and Rayne and began to fire clusters of frog-shaped bullets into the overwhelming sea of inky darkness—far away from the melee fighters holding their ground, of course. The frogs that landed simply blew up on impact; compared to the ones that she usually used, though, these seemed to have bits of earthen shrapnel embedded in them for good measure.

"Suwako-sama... I know you upgraded those, but... Turning them into grenades?" she mumbled to herself as continued peppering away at the horde of monsters. "I know they blew up already, but adding shrapnel is a bit..."

At the ground level, though, those fighting would see that the "slimes" were less slime-like than one might have otherwise expected. Though they moved and functioned as one might have expected, their bodies seemed to simply dissipate into the air after receiving any sort of particularly lethal blow. They left no residue, no trace of their existence as they died.

Luckily, however, that meant that they could be shorn through in time.

Such was the case for the scissor-wielding girl and the living tree near her, who, after noticing the presence of the pink-haired Berserker by their side smashing through the horde, began to fight back with newfound vigor.

"I had thought this would be a tough fight, but help is always welcome!" the girl declared, a bright smile on her face as she swung her weapon around, stabbing and snipping through any monsters that approached. "But I suppose introductions should wait until after the battle's over."

The treant, however, seemed to be far less enthusiastic about the sudden arrival of newcomers. All the same, though, it continued to fight against the horde with little restraint. With it's prodigious size, the massive being swung it's arms around, slamming into the oncoming horde it's arms and into the ground to release blasts of concentrated magical energy—also directed towards the enemies, of course.

Between all the chaos of handling the slimelike monsters, though, what would be of immediate concern was that there were larger ones crossing over the nearby hills and slowly moving towards the town. They were fewer in number compared to the smaller ones, of course, but their presence would be coupled with something more concerning.

More specifically, of course, that was the fact that they were firing what was unmistakably balls of concentrated, corrupted magic towards those fighting, both in the sky and in the air.

By now, the caravan had already been turned around and had begun to retreat from the battlefield, but the mercenaries seemed to be equally occupied as the number of monsters began to steadily increase.

The hamlet still seemed to be their main priority, however, which meant that anything that wasn't directly engaging with one of the otherworlders was still slowly pushing onward to the center of the settlement. There had to be something there if they were converging, but figuring out what that was would probably have to wait until the area was a bit more secure.

@VitaVitaAR@EchoWolff@Izurich@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris@Rezod92

“They are really tearing it up down there, aren't they?” Rayne observed from her safe aerial position. From up there too, she got to take note of the strange unreal nature of their foes, that seemed to not really exist as actual physical beings, what with them seemingly just coming undone and ceasing to exist upon death, which to her was very odd to her.

“Either of you ever seen anything like this before?” she asked the two other fliers as she kept shooting rockets till the power up ran out of time, and she switched back to short ranged magic blasts that she couldn’t really hit anything with from up on high. Right as she did, the battlefield situation changed, with the arrival of the big blobs coming over the hills.

As soon as she spotted them, she called out “Big ones coming!” in warning, before calling down to Anne and asking “Think they might be leaders?”

Prodigious size alone wasn’t their only virtue compared to their lesser kin, for once in position the big blobs began to unleash a barrage of arcane fire at them, putting the fliers in danger for the first time in the fight, as well as adding to the danger the ground pounders had to worry about.

“I’m out of long ranged fire power, going over and in to handle those! Give me space if you go in too!” she called out, signaling her intent, before starting to blink-dash towards the foes. She didn’t go right at them, mind. Partially because, well, that was a great way to ram into corrupting energy blots, but also because she zipped down close to the grounds t one point, absorbing a few stray mana motes she had created while rocked bombarding things.

Fully charged up, she got closer and closer to the enemy spell shooters, and then dived down through their close ranged fire till she was right above the base of one of the hills, surrounded by blobs, bib and small.

At which point she exploded.

With a flick of her fingers and a cast of a spell card, the witch knight unleashed Armageddon upon one of the hilltops, causing a ginormous detonation that washed across it, annihilating everything in its path in a flash. Certainly not the kind of spell she could or would ever use against people or in any kind of confined environment, but here, on the unoccupied hills, away from everyone else, and against monsters?

Rayne could unleash all her power.

Case and point, her next move was playing her collection card, which caused all of the mana littered across the battlefield post missile bombardment to start to fly towards her in a stream, giving her a few seconds where her usual mana drought issue was banished, and she became a one woman missile. The little lady dashed this way and that, and as she flew, giant swords spun, bullet hells where unleashed, dark clouds of death were dropped, lightning lanced down, and then at the end she exited the mana frenzy with her magic gun re-augmented to be a machine gun that blazed bullets into her foes, causing yet more mana to drop as she gunned them down.

@PKMNB0Y

"I had thought this would be a tough fight, but help is always welcome! But I suppose introductions should wait until after the battle's over."

"Ah!", shouted Fran in agreement. The hulking trent was of the same opinion, though less verbally and more crushing the slimes. The berserker was about to join in when she looked up. Gasping, Fran ran to the trent and used his shoulder as a platform to leap into air and, with a big swing of her sparking mace, intercepted a dark ball of energy that was headed straight toward them. The ball exploded upon contacting the weapon, allowing Fran to pass through harmlessly, but she wasn't about to let the residual energy go to waste as she activated her Galvanism skill, converting the energy into electricity for Fran to absorb, powering her up. With that additional boost, Fran landed with another hammer strike to the ground, green lightning crackling outward and vaporizing swathes of dark slimes. A momentary lull in the fighting, Fran noticed Rayne raining down havoc on the bigger slimes that were responsible for those dark energy balls.

She wouldn't be the only one.

Power surging, Fran blitzed through the battlefield, a literal streaking green spark seen by all as she swatted and bashed any slime that got in her way as she raced toward one of the towering slimes. One of the said creatures noticed her, but by the time it moved to defend itself...

"GRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

It was too late.

A verdant line of lightning shot through the head of the giant slime, the electric explosion destroying the creature as it faded to dust in the wind. It was strange how these slimes die, but it was of no concern to Fran as she landed on her feet.

One down. The rest were next.

Once she'd reached a suitably high vantage, Anne paused to take stock of the situation. She'd been ready for the worst, but thus far the battle seemed to be playing out entirely in their favor. Sanae and Mokou rained down destruction from above, while Fran tore into the horde from the flank and thinned out the numbers reaching the defensive line formed by the two strangers. The mercenaries appeared to be holding their own, the caravan was moving to safety, and Lewa, Joker, and Youmu had each made steady progress around the fringes, all closing in from different angles on the bulk of the enemy force.

The enemy, however, would not relent. They did not scatter or retreat, but pressed on with a seemingly mindless zeal, like a living tide pulled by some unseen natural force. At Rayne's warning, Anne's emerald eyes fixed upon the larger units, and the mass of dark projectiles that arced up from their direction.

"Not leaders. Artillery! Take them out first!"

The Knight Witch was already on it. Fast, versatile—and, as everyone was about to find out, enormously destructive when she cut loose. She was ideal for handling issues as they cropped up, a trump card to counter whatever their foes might bring to bear.

That left one visible problem: the strays, still moving towards the hamlet unchecked by any defending forces. Winning this battle was one thing, but if a few creatures slipped through in the meantime... Just what kind of damage would they do?

It would be easiest if they never had to find out. With a deep breath, Anne kicked off from her position and raced down the hill, using her momentum to circle around the edges of the wider battle towards the settlement and its borders. It wasn't the same kind of explosive speed she'd shown back at the sparring session with the mercenaries: this was more like the sprinting pace of a regular soldier, only sustained without fail over a distance that would have left most gasping for breath. It would take a few seconds for her to get where she needed to be, but there would be no escape for her targets once she did.

As an amorphous monster crossed her path, the Knight finally drew her sword. Without slowing down, she sliced clean through it in a single one-handed strike and moved on before it had even finished dissipating. Two more loomed ahead, and two more swift flashes of her blade turned them into four. Using half of one disintegrating body as a foothold, she leaped to the side just as a ball of dark energy soared past and crashed down where she'd been a heartbeat before.

Without batting an eye, Anne pressed onward.

Her condition had improved somewhat after all the rest she'd had in Aventon, but she was still holding back, regulating her output to the bare minimum required for the task. Fortunately, the enemy here was slow. Even if their sheer numbers meant that some of them slipped through the killing field and approached the village proper, Anne would run each of them down and wipe them out before they could do any harm. Some fought back, flinging misshapen tendrils her way. Her sword was faster, carving through blackened slime with the same ease that it cut through the air. Creature after creature boiled away and vanished from existence, while the Knight beelined for the next one, and the next one, and the next.

It's not exactly glamorous, being on clean-up duty... But I can handle this much without issue. As the last line of defense, she'd make sure that nothing at all got past.

A safe distance away from the thick of the fighting, Lewa continued his efforts to mop up the slimes attacking the caravan's flank. They weren't exactly quick, but the gelatinous monsters spread out in order to try and get past him, so the toa of air kept himself constantly on the move. Fortunately he possessed more than enough speed to keep pace with the oozy onslaught. As alien as these things were to him, both in how they lived and died, his strategy for dispatching the pests worked well, and Lewa's only got better at it as he went. As the prairie winds swelled around him over the course of the fight, making the grasses dance to a tumultuous beat, he found himself in his element. With that wind at his back, he had enough momentum on his side to cleave through his attackers and disperse their jellied masses, rendering them little more than splattered remnants in the dirt and noxious fumes in the air. The handful of blows he'd taken prevented a perfect victory, but they were nothing that his armored body couldn't handle.

With the caravan's flank successfully defended, the triumphant toa could turn his attention toward the main battle for the village, and lend a high-spirited hand if necessary. Right away he registered the presence of new threats on the way, similar to those he'd already helped expunge, but much bigger and stronger. During the battle so far he'd noticed something foul about these amorphous enemies, like a dark stain of unknown origin, and even from this distance he could sense an even deeper sense of corruption emanating from his fallen foes' larger kin. Such was this loathsome dark aura that they could evidently detach and eject pieces of it, lobbed through the air like clumps of magma from the mouth of a volcano. Lewa knew instinctively that he did not want one of those hitting him. Still, he doubted that even these super-slimes would pose any real threat to his fellow otherworlders. After all, to a toa there wasn't much difference between a Fireflyer and a Hoto Bug. They all squashed just the same.

Case in point was Rayne's gigantic explosion. So far the Knight Witch had given a modest account of herself in comparison to those from Gensokyo, working remarkable magics more for helpful and considerate utility than egotistical destruction, but this blast dispelled any shadow of a doubt that Lewa couldn've possibly had about her power level. And from there, she went on rampage, doing much more in seconds than the toa of air achieved in minutes with a jaw-dropping display of magic. Not to be outdone, Anne strutted her stuff as well, wreaking havoc on both distant mortar-slimes and scattered strays. Without much to do, all things considered, Lewa kept close to the caravan as it gave the battlefield a wide berth. If by some miracle an enemy managed to get past Anne, he would make sure that the merchants and guardsmen came to no harm.

With this glorified slaughter all but won already, Lewa's real problem was the war within. Seeing Anne and Rayne go to work made the toa of air realize that he wasn't just last place in terms of ability, but distant last. Still, he swallowed his pride and held firm. He just needed to stay positive and keep looking forward. None of this mattered--only getting home.

Between the copious amount of firepower that the group was raining down from the skies and the way that the fighters were carving through enemies on the ground, it was not surprising in the least to the green-haired shrine maiden that the enemy numbers were rapidly thinned down from the horde that they initially appeared to be. Their strategy was by no means perfect, granted, though the few that did manage to slip through the cracks in their counterattack were promptly dealt with by Anne if nothing else. Things seemed to be going all right, at least until Sanae noticed—and promptly grazed past—a blob of dark energy that had felt uncannily similar to what she had felt earlier from the mishaguji that Suwako had summoned when they had first left for the capital.

"...Curses?" she muttered to herself as Rayne, taking the initiative before anyone else could, charged off to go deal with the slimes that had shot them in the first place.

Not like they were any threat, of course, but with gravity still being... Well, gravity, any shot that failed to meet it's mark could very well fall back to the ground, and who knew what sort of problems that could lead to. If someone could break away and cause enough damage to stop them from being any issue, then all the better.

It didn't take long after that for the torrent of enemies to finally die out. The largest among them had been the last, it seemed, though it was rather strange that there didn't seem to be any sort of leader (obvious or otherwise) leading them here in the first place. With the matter settled, though, Sanae finally stopped launching her shrapnel-laden frog bullets and slowly floated back towards the caravan, which at this point had refocused from full-on retreat to simply fending off the few enemies that had trickled through the chaos.

"Everything's all clear," she declared, waving her gohei in the air as she approached, "More or less, at least. The settlement's undamaged, but if you want to stop by for a moment, it'd probably be a good idea to stay away from... Uh... All the potholes we made in the process."

Upon hearing that declaration of victory—and in such a short span of time—Syldon glanced at the others present before shrugging his shoulders and conveying the news to the others, mercenaries or otherwise, and getting to work getting them back on track.

While that matter was being settled, though, the two original defenders of the area shaved through the last of the enemies before turning their attention towards the pair of melee fighters that had first drawn their attention. The girl, of course, seemed far more chipper about the whole ordeal than the treant.

"Thanks for the help! Honestly, your arrival was quite the boon; I think we would've been fine, but I can't say the same about the villagers there," the girl spoke first, stepping forward before giving a slight curtsy. "My name's Gwen; this is Maokai. He doesn't... Like people much, though, so it'd probably be better if you let him be."

At the hamlet itself, though, it seemed that all of the villagers—fearing the worst, as would be expected—had all gathered up in one of the central buildings of the area. Naturally, fear of that wave of unnatural monsters steadily marching upon them had kept them from doing much more than trying to get out there and fend for themselves, but with that threat settled, it seemed reasonable to expect a few of them to exit and scope the situation out after the threat had passed.

@VitaVitaAR@EchoWolff@Izurich@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris@Rezod92

Well, well, well, things were progressing quite nicely here, though... not unexpected. Those shambling blobs of malicious shadow might be quite a hassle for two defenders to deal with, but with the addition of more than half a dozen combatants, the tide rapidly shifted against the oozeling's favor.

Between Youmu's phantom swords, Mokou's divine flames, Rayne's... spellcard of mass destruction, Fran's electric fury, Lewa's sylphic swings, Joker's vampiric blade (now where did he learn that technique?), Anne's cybernetic assault, and Sanae's amphibian grenades, on top of what the scissor-wielding blunette and gigantic treant had been doing, Remilia observed in amused glee as her comrades cut, scorch, blast, cleave, drain, and blow up the seemingly endless slime horde.

Even when the bulkier hostiles arrived and started launching shadowy spheres toward those in the backlines, including Remilia, the vampiress simply needed to ever so casually shifted her position here and there to let the projectiles harmlessly rush past her. She didn't even need to retaliate as Anne and the others quickly took care of them too, nor did she need to start healing anyone since it was such a one-sided massacre, the otherworlders managed to have their cake and eat it too.

Eventually, no more oozes emerged, made completely extinct. A foregone conclusion, all things considered.

"Good show, my friends, good show.~ With a casual pace, Remilia flew toward the center of the village, where the two curious guardians were expressing their gratitude, well, one of the two as it seemed the living tree was the strong, silent type. "Brave Lady Gwen, I am Lady Remilia of House Scarlet, it's a pleasure," The youkai curtsied in return, "Now, I'd love to exchange pleasantries with you, but only after you direct me to the wounded, I so happen to be a healer, you see."