Thaum's Square

Amy hesitated when Atlas arrived. Lucien was right; indeed none of the blood on the magician appeared to be his own. But Atlas appeared to be in a daze - he did say he was hit over the head, so a hallucination was possible. Well, she was already convinced that many of the guilders were drunk if not high out of their minds, as she was one of the few who also caught sight of that talking rabbit. So would a man of cheese really be impossible to believe at this point? Then again, she's seen the kind of power Marcus displayed before. Surely he wouldn't let himself...

As much as she hoped everyone's judgments were wrong, Amy too remained skeptical at the man's claims. She merely stood back with her arms crossed, watching with red lips awry as everyone haggled Atlas for answers.

Trixie on the other hand was not at all incredulous about the man's words; after capturing giant bugs and seeing a talking rabbit, to her it wasn't doubtful that a cheese man attacked them. To be fair, she would have been caught off guard by an attacking cheese man too, if she didn't smell him first! She figured the three could have just eaten their way through him - but if there were bears too, then that would be difficult. Maybe the bear thought they were going after her food supply? Do bears even eat cheese??

If anything, Trixie was more concerned about the way her teammates were addressing Atlas more so than how he presented himself bloodied and alone to them. Xandra's and Estelle's cold voices, Lute's hissing and pulling of Atlas' hair - it was hard enough to see her friends ganging up against another ally like this, but Don had crossed the line. Trixie jumped in, pulling Don off of the man with her tiny arms wrapped around the former's stomach. "STOP! Calm down, please! Don't be so mean!! He tried his best." She locked eyes with Don especially, worry in her own rather than anger. "Come on... yelling at a friend isn't what superheroes do. Let's be... people-like about this, okay?"

Amy only lifted a brow at Trixie's outburst - oh the naivete of that girl.

"At-- uh. At... ... bloody guy. You said a cheese-man attacked you, right? Could you please bring us to where this stuff happened? My- my nose is really good." She pointed to it on cue, with a forced, nervous smile. "I can sniff him out - and I don't even need to know what kind of cheese he is for that." From smells alone she also could tell that Atlas' blood was foreign to him, but it wasn't like she could pin down who or what it actually belonged to. Something as odorous as cheese or honey though, she would chase down to the ends of Ddaear.

Thaum’s Square

At first he was sure he was still dreaming. A bloody Atlas was telling him that he had been attacked by a cheese man! There was no way something like that happened in real life. But no, the way that everyone else responded and growing sense of alertness that Dylan felt convinced him that this situation was real. He hung back as Estelle questioned the man, not knowing what else he could add or even wanting to risk her ire.

That girl was crazy protective over Marcus.

But he had to admit that Trixie had a point when she stepped up to defend Atlas. “She’s right,” he added, his soft compared to the other’s demands. “If he had been involved he would be stupid to meet us here afterwards, especially looking like that. Now I don’t know if Trixie can really smell out this cheese man - if there was really one at all - but we might be able to find some clues.”

Gesturing at Atlas, he gave the man his best attempt at a smile. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that reassuring. “Lead on, then.”

Thaum's Square
This was insane.

Syed opened his mouth to agree that everyone needed to calm down too, only to be beaten to it by Dylan. Not that he agreed with his reasoning as to why. Nor did he look like he should be telling anybody to be calm, his expression very much one of thinly veiled panic.

Bears? Cheese people? No kidding it sounded crazy. It just plain old didn't make sense! If it weren't for people talking of some talking rabbit earlier, he would have instantly dismissed it as some variety of dellusion or instability. Instead he found himself wondering if they'd all been drugged or something. Again. He was quite glad he didn't eat any of the food at the restaurant now.

Still one way or the other, Atlas was the only lead they had. He didn't trust him either, especially in a situation like this, but hey needed to make sense of this whole fiasco somehow. He stepped beside Estelle and have her a short but firm pat on her shoulder to reassure her. Like Don he wasn't too sure if it was the best idea, but he went along with it anyway. "We'll find him," he said quietly to her. "He's a clever guy, I'm sure he's okay."



Moira said nothing, finding everything so rediculous that she was a bit lost already. Instead she simply wrapped her fingers around the hilt of her greatsword, before withdrawing it a little from the strapping across her back.

Sometimes, body language was the best communicator of all. If he didn't cooperate, he was going to regret it.

Thaum’s Square

"I'm not fooling around either. It sounds crazy, but I swear, it's the damned truth."

Cheese men? Bear with a hammer? Like most of the others of the group Aria’s first reaction was one of doubt as she watched the others frantically start to question Atlas. The more she thought however the less Atlas seemed like he was lying. For one, if he was lying he would certainly have made up a much better cover story.

She twitched. By the Gods, if it ended up being yet another illusionist- There was no way, right? Her mind quickly flashed back to when she had glimpsed the white rabbit in the crowds. Could it have been caused by the same person? Or maybe it was just something they ate?

What worried her most, however, was if the blood covering Atlas wasn’t his, then who’s or what’s was it? As far as she knew cheese didn’t bleed, so could it have been the bear’s? Or did it belong to Marcus and the scientist? She bit her lip, wisely deciding to keep silent as Don shook the poor around before quickly being stopped by Trixie. There was no need to incite more panic, but the fact that Marcus had gone missing was very alarming- from what she had seen back in Los Paraisos he was more than capable of taking care of himself.

“Yes, take us there please.”

She nodded in agreement with Trixie’s suggestion for them to go to where the trio had been attacked. Perhaps they would be able to find clues to where Marcus and the scientist had gone.

Thaum's Square

Just as Trixie and Syed aimed to deescalate the situation, Selan sought to calm the tension as well. "Enough," she said sharply, dismayed at both Estelle and Don's impulsiveness. She was still the highest-ranking Guilder among them, and she would not allow them to waste time by clowning around in this manner. She shared the others' misgivings and disbelief, but this was no way to act when their client and partner could be in danger.

"Everyone, gather your things, we're leaving right now. Atlas will lead the way, and Trixie will let us know if he's being truthful." she said, nodding to the trickster.

Lisette grabbed the bag that she left beneath the bench and shoved the rest of the marshmallows inside. Although she wasn't as forceful as Estelle, she too was worried about Marcus's whereabouts, and was eager to leave to look for them.

Thaum's Square

Estelle retracted from Atlas, looking towards her friends with a wary eye, before taking in a deep, lungful breath in the hope of calming herself down. The others were right, panicking wouldn’t get them anywhere, but she would still regard Atlas with unease. No matter what he said, his story sounded no less then fishy… and until she found Marcus again, she would continue to be suspicious.

None of this made sense.

“Amy…” Estelle turned to the blonde tressed cleric. “Could you heal Atlas, please?”

It would do no good for him to continue being injured or as disoriented as he was from this strange hammer attacking assailant. And, maybe if his head didn’t throb and hurt so much, he might be able to finally talk some sense. After that… after that he could lead them to wherever this attack had happened.

---

A short time later, the Pride’s journey had begun. Amy had, with some level of begrudgement, followed Estelle’s order and used her talents to heal the man. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on the real origins of that blood, the majority of Atlas’ dishevelment and wounds were not severe, so it didn’t take too much of her healing magic to repair. Which is good, since she wished to save it more for the others, just in case they were the source of all that blood…

Atlas led the group at the front, with Trixie by his side, her nose hung high in the air, her nose twitched again and again as she sniffed the air. The Guilders had yet to leave Thaum, still walking throughout the town’s deserted cobblestone streets, passing quaint house after quaint house, with the luminating lights within starting to turn off one by one as their citizens fell asleep. Night was beginning to settle deeply.



“Ah, you don’t need to sniff quite yet,” Atlas laughed, his hand still gently rubbing the back of his head. “We need to leave the town first… it’s on the trail to the mountains.”

“Atlas,” Estelle perked up. The black coated man turned to look over his shoulder to the swordswoman, her fingers still drumming along the hilt of her sword. “You mentioned before you were attacked by these… things. Do you remember now what they were? Were they all…” She didn’t want to say bears with hammers. The idea sounded absolutely stupid.

“Hmm, I…”

Suddenly the Pride stopped, as the streetlamps around them flickered off and on. Estelle’s eyes shifted up to look at them, as they flashed continuously. “Weird,” She muttered. “Something wrong with the electrics, you think? Not that it’ll matter once we’re out of town. Amy, do you think you’ll be okay with providing us ligh-”

At Estelle’s request, an arc of light shot through the black sky above. And then-

KRAKADOOM

Estelle’s question was rudely cut short by the sound of a tremendous cacophonous din echoing all around them. And both the lightning and thunder were only a precursor to the rainstorm that followed after them. A violent downpour that would only drench them.

“Oh… come on!” Estelle moaned.

The Pride’s soaking was shortlived, as with a wave of Amy’s gem, an invisible barrier formed over the top of them, droplets of rain bouncing off the top of the invisible sphere. Amy’s brow furrowed.

“Let’s… not waste time, alright?”

The Pride nodded, and moved on after Atlas’ lead. Trixie’s cheeks puffed out in displeasure. The thunderstorm would not make sniffing out that evil criminal cheese mastermind any easier!

Outside Thaum

Well, it’s not that bad. Okay, the situation they were in (Lute obviously counted himself in trouble too) was unpleasant but at least Atlas wasn’t pounded into a nice limp beef steak. Truth be told the virtuoso had trouble imagining the Pride choosing to do violent things to his friend so he wasn’t all that panicked, save for the cautious bodyguard stance he adopted when Moira moved her greatsword.

Lute stayed close to Atlas like a paperclip stuck on a magnet and kept his (and Delilah’s) ears open for any hiss of a sound that might prove threatening. He didn’t want to admit to himself (or at least to the rational part of his brain) that he was indeed listening in case they get ambushed by more cheddar/mozzarella rogues, but here he was. There was the possibility that the assailants were illusionists, and if they worked for a gang, general circumstances are that the physically more adept types did the hurting. Unless he missed some one-class fad that was going on, Lute was sure that his theory was insubstantial, yet rational enough. The girl who jumped on the chair earlier, the exact one who asked him about the blobfish, was beside his friend and seemed to act like some sort of hound on the scent, which actually (sorta) impressed Lute. He wanted to compliment her, but really didn’t know what to say (“Nice nose. I mean, not your nose nose, but it’s nice too. I meant, your sense of smell-”) so when Lute finally managed to catch Trixie’s eye, he raised a thumb up for the universal “good job!” sign before trying to (inconspicuously) hide himself behind Atlas.

The young man scratched the back of his head and then started to address his friend, about to ask about what they should tell their respective families about their late return, but was cut off by the sudden rumble of thunder and lightning.

Plus rain.

“Don’t get your head weeeet!” Lute half-screeched, half-screamed as he raised his hands over Atlas’s head to shield the man’s newly-healed wounds from the downpour. He realized only after a few seconds that there wasn’t any water falling down on them thanks to Amy’s magic barrier thing.

He looked like he was blessing Atlas.

Lute tucked his hands in his pockets and sighed deeply, then kept up the pace when their group hurried on under Atlas’s direction. He remained in front along with the dark-haired man, and didn’t seem likely to leave that position soon.

Outside Thaum

Dylan followed along as they all made their way out of Thaum, keeping silent as he tried to make sense of the evening. There was so many questions to answer, as well as a driving need to find Marcus as soon as possible. Why had they split up again? It was starting to look like something bad happened every time they split.

And then, if things weren’t bad enough, it started to rain. No - downpour. They would have been soaked to the bone if it wasn’t for some quick thinking from Estelle. “Of course,” he said, sounding more aggravated than he really felt, but it was late and they needed to find Marcus as soon as possible. “Let’s keep moving.”

They picked up the pace, kept dry by the shield, but they still had to dreg through the muddy path. Finally, just when Dylan had enough, Atlas came to a sudden stop. “Are we here?” he asked, excitement creeping into his voice.

Glancing up ahead, all excitement slipped away from him as he saw the scene in front of his eyes. “That’s...that’s not...” he stammered, struggling to find an explanation that made sense. An explanation that was rational and sensible and proved that he crazy as Atlas had sounded.

He had nothing.

Outside Thaum
Hundreds of thoughts barraged Syed's brain all at once. Was Marcus okay? He wasn't the sort who could easily be ambushed. Why were they up on some mountain trail? Was the lab up here? He thought it'd have been in the town. If it was up this way, why did Dr Dream think he didn't need any protection when he did travelling around otherwise? If it wasn't... was it a trap?

He was shaken out of his paranoid train of thought when Atlas suddenly stopped, followed by Dylan.

Moira strolled forward, withdrawing her greatsword. She wasn't taking any chances here...

Only for her to stop too. What on earth?!

The sight of a fox wouldn't ordinarily be unusual. A fox standing on two legs holding a camera certainly was though. It kept it's distance from them as it brought up the camera to it's eye, before giving out a yap.

Click!

Moira's expression changed to one of complete and utter disbelief, while Syed looked like his entire world view was crumbling around him. "Wha... wh... wh..." he stammered, sparking a little. Would a camera even be functional in the pouring rain? Why did that thought even cross his mind when a bloody fox was holding it!!!

And with that, the fox turned and began to run further up the track.

"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE MUTT!" Moira suddenly bellowed, before jumping to run after it. With her speed she'd never catch it, but she wasn't going to let that put her off.

Outside Thaum

It had been such a nice day at first, not a cloud in the sky. It was only when they saw and heard the crash of lightning that the dark, forboding clouds began rolling overhead, and the downpour followed shortly after.

Selan's eyes grew wide, and her head drooped forward, intent on staring at the ground rather than the sky. She never liked thunderstorms, or the way her fear of them impaired her ability to focus. Thankfully, Amy had at least formed a barrier above them to shield them from the rain.

The Pride continued on the muddy, slippery path, leaving a haphazard trail of footsteps behind them. Atlas eventually stopped, and they gathered around, hoping to the gods that there would still be clue left behind, that the rain hadn't washed everything away. Selan stayed near the back of the group; she had no knowledge of tracking, unlike some of the others, and she was still rather suspicious of Atlas's story. She would watch and wait.

Lisette stayed near Estelle, completely unfazed by the thunder or the rain. Kapi, however, was nestled inside Lisette's bag. He didn't mind the wet ground, but Lisette wasn't so nonchalant as to carry around a capybara with mud caked on his paws.

Click!

"Whawasthat!" Lisette yelped, jerking her head in the direction of the flash. She recognized the sound of a camera when she heard one, and wondered if they had been followed.

"That's... No, that's not..." Selan murmured, stunned by what they were looking at. She hadn't seen the rabbit from the square, but she definitely saw that!

"GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE MUTT!" Moira bellowed, taking off after it and leaving deep bootprints in the mud.

"It's a fox, and I got it, I got it!" Lisette broke into a run and followed after her, much faster than the berserker. She followed the fox up a narrow, muddy hill, keeping the small, camera-wielding animal in her sights. She was prepared, and with a wave of her hands, vines sprung out from the sides of the path, reaching for the fox's hind legs. But the fox was very nimble, and hopscotched out of her snare with ease.

She didn't get very far. Distracted, Lisette didn't realize that she was headed straight for a pool of mud. The first of her booted heels to hit the mud was stuck fast, and then the other swung forward and got stuck as well. She pitched forward, pinwheeling her arms, and had to squish her hands into the mud to keep herself from falling entirely.

The fox made a sound almost like a snicker, and click! appeared to take a picture of his victory before darting away.

"Someone stop it!" Lisette yelped toward the others, unable to turn around all the way.

Even with Amy's assistance with her barrierbrella, the smell of rain did interfere with the rest of the environment's scent; no doubt if the cheese man was near, Trixie would have difficulty catching onto his odor right away. She was about to ask the Doctor (Dylan) to draw her a bigger nose or something, but the sudden sight of a bipedal papafoxxi cut that short.

When he pulled his camera up, Trixie inadvertently pulled double bunny ears over Atlas, though her expression remained contorted. "Uh. Does that mean we're famous again? Miss Pretty, stop being such a hot mama, geez. All people ever wanna do is stalk us around now! Heck it's not even a people this time!"

Moira quickly jumped to the chase, with Lisette in pursuit as well. Due to the former's speed, she was quickly outran by Lisette - and soon Trixie, who charged off after the fox as well. As Lisette found herself nearly collapsing into mud, the prankster took care to charge around Lisette, accidentally splashing on puddle remnants and splashing a bit in Lisette's direction.

After snapping another photo the fox continued to prance away, but Trixie still dashed after it with energy. "Gotcha now, suckaaaa!" Soon the mutt's path became encumbered by even more trees than before, more so forming the walls of a hallway rather than haphazard obstacles.

Licking her lips, Trixie whipped out her uzis and burst fire at a cluster of thick branches overhead. The fox, with eyes on the rearview and not on the road, held his camera back up, ready to snap again. Trixie giggled, pulling squinting eyes and peace signs, as she taunted the criminal. "Better watch where ya going ya--ooph!"

Right as she crashed into a tree - click! - light flashed the scene. And then he skid to a stop in front of the fallen debris, just in time to avoid careening into the newly formed barricade. Though he was slown down from Trixie's stunt, he would get away again if no one else acted up quickly.

Of course they wouldn't believe him.

Atlas winced as he was throttled by both Don and Estelle. He didn't know what those things were and he didn't know where Marcus or Dr. Dream were at. The last thing the magician remembered was trying to fight back and buy them some time. After the hit to the head though, things went dark and he didn't know how much time had passed since then. It wasn't dark out when they met those things. It had to be at least a few hours since then.

He gave them a look of defeat before Lute asked him about the cheese men.

His friend's faith brought a bit of clarity back to his messed up thoughts. Atlas gripped Don's hands firmly then slowly pushed the frantic man away. "No...no...they didn't talk. They hissed like animals." He winced when Lute began fussing over him, it was usually the other way around. "I'm alright." He stated, still looking a bit dazed. The others looked skeptical though, but the youngest looking guilder stopped them and offered to sniff out the enemies.

---

It was raining, this was just perfect.

Atlas looked at the others with a frown. There was nothing believable to say because what had happened had been crazy. "Those things," he scoffed. "Cheese people, some looked like normal people but they weren't...we'll be there shortly." The Pride trudged onward. Lute was in mother hen mode and Atlas gave his friend a soft punch on the shoulder, it was meant to be comforting. "I'm alright, don't worry, just keep an eye out for strange things, okay?" The magician grinned, looking better than he had when they first saw him.




They walked on, until they saw a fox with a camera.

Xan gaped and rubbed at her eyes, this...things like this did not happen. She turned to look at Aria, "is...is this an illusion? Can you sense any illusionists nearby?" She turned around and looked at their surroundings. It was dark, and someone could have easily been hiding behind one of the trees.

"It might be Mr. Rabbit's friend." Lucien mumbled, amazed. "Um, did you happen to see a tall, blonde guy with glasses?" Lucien began gesturing with his hands and Xan couldn't believe he was talking to a fox with a camera... what on earth? "He was with this guy in a lab coat, Dr. Dream?" At the mention of his owner's name, Isaac popped his head out of Lucien's messenger bag and sniffed at the air.

Of course, the fox didn't respond.

Moira chased after it and it dashed off. Lucien stared at the boss and at the quickly retreating Fox. "Thaum...is really interesting."

Lisette chased after the fox as well but fell into a puddle, while Trixie crashed into a tree. "Hey, kid, you okay?" Lucien asked as he began darting after it! "Hey, Leader!What if it leads us to Marcus?"

The magician's eyes went wide. That fox...it had been with the bear. "Follow that Fox!" Atlas yelled and in a blink of an eye, he was beside Lucien, racing after the creature. His ability wasn't exactly called teleporting, but Atlas did something called flash stepping and he could propel himself forward at a ridiculous speed.

Xan followed after both boys, but the fox ceased running and it turned around with a devilish looking grin.

It raised its camera, its flash blinding both Atlas and Lucien. They tripped over their own feet and the Fox snickered.

Something was off...something was very wrong.

The fox began laughing before it began to double in size. It didn't stop, it kept growing until it was bigger than any of them, until it was taller than even Syed. The camera turned into a pair of scissors and Xan froze up.

Lucien scrambled to his feet. "Um, yeah, I think we should run."

Outside Thaum

As much as she enjoyed thunderstorms, Aria couldn’t help but wince at the sudden downpour of rain as it quickly turned the dirt road underfoot into mud. Amy thankfully put up a shield overhead, shielding their group from the brunt of the rain and making the trek a bit more bearable.

Click!

"is...is this an illusion? Can you sense any illusionists nearby?"

Aria stared in disbelief at the camera-toting fox. “It doesn’t feel like one-“ Before she could finish her reply it scampered away, forcing Aria to quickly giving chase along with the rest of the group. The muddied road made it difficult to catch up with the wily creature, with Lisette falling first in a puddle of mud as the fox cackled and snapped a picture before running off again.

The illusionist skidded to a stop beside the girl, trusting the others to catch the fox and offering a hand to pull Lisette up from the puddle of mud.

“Come on, let’s catch up with the others!” She smiled down at the girl, pushing her now sodden hair to the side. Amy’s shield had disappeared, whether because the woman had gone on ahead or because it had been dissipated she didn’t know.

The two quickly caught up to the group the group, only to gape at the now scissor-wielding fox. What the heck had happened in the minute they were gone for? She edged away at the manically cackling fox so it couldn’t attack and catch them by surprise, nudging Lisette along.

"Um, yeah, I think we should run."

“But it’s our only lead on where Marcus and the Doctor went, isn’t it?” The rain would have undoubtedly washed away all clues to where the two could have gone. She eyed the still cackling fox warily. “I don’t suppose we have any other choice than to fight?”

Outside Thaum

Estelle and Don both looked on in utter disbelief at the bewildering sight that greeted them on the trail towards the mountains. In the brief flash of light that preceeded a deafening roar of thunder, they saw… they saw a fox, holding up a camera, taking photos of them. Before Estelle could break out of her stutter to properly find any words to speak with, the rest of her friends had started to chase after it, trying to capture it in order to wrangle some information out of it. Efforts that were easier said then done before the fox suddenly turned back upon them, growing in monstrous size, the flashing camera in its paws transforming into a giant pair of snipping sheers.

This night was just getting stranger… and stranger…

Another crack of lightning and the echoing cacophony of thunder. The rainstorm above grew more frenetic and intense, the raindrops growing in size and painfully pelting the Pride from above. And the size of the raindrops just kept growing bigger, and bigger, until…

“Ow!”

One smacked Don painfully on the head, almost knocking him out. Gripping the back of his head and gingerly rubbing the soreness away, his eyes widened in incredulous, disbelieving lengths as he looked at what had landed on the ground in front of him after bouncing on his head. Flopping about, its tail slapping the wet muddy ground and its wide eyes staring back at him, Don simply could not believe it. It was… it was…

“FISH??”

Amidst some of the rain droplets was the falling of fish of all sizes and varieties, collapsing onto the ground with a dull thud. One particular fish spiralled through the sky, slapping Lute square in the face and sending the virtuoso to crash painfully on his back. Opening his eyes, he saw the face of true horror staring back at him, and he let loose a small yelp.

Meanwhile, the giant scissors wielding Fox took a step forwards, the ground trembling beneath its feet. The metal of the scissors glistening from the flashing lightning. A mischievous laugh escaped the giant Fox’s lips, and it dashed forwards with frightening and unpredictable speed. Trixie, the closest to it, automatically hopped back on her feet and started racing back the way she came, past Lisette and Aria. Both of the girls braced them, the mud below their feet making it difficult to gain traction to turn and run, as the sharp edges of the scissors snapped shut towards them…

And then both women were yanked from behind, their bodies tumbling backwards and collapsing into the mud, as the blades sailed harmlessly over their heads by mere inches. In-between them was their saviour, Don, whose eyes continued to stare with bulging fright at how much of a close shave they had. And then a fish from the sky slapped him in the face.

“No running!” Estelle yelled, brandishing the new sword she had received from Tiberius after the destruction of her Magitech sword in the battle against Lucifer. She held it in front of her, firmly staring their giant, preposterous opponent down. “We take it down, beat it up and make it tell us where Marcus is!!”

Sparks suddenly circled the length of the steel blade, and then the sword erupted into pulsing flame. Estelle charged forwards.

On the Precipice of Darkness

Outside Thaum
“Are we there yet?” Lute was still rubbing the spot where Atlas’s fist connected with his shoulder. Remind him again why people punch each other? Maybe it was a personal preference. He never saw Atlas punch Robin. On the contrary, Robin loved punching Atlas, especially when he landed in trouble. So, Robin punches Atlas, Atlas punches Lute, and Lute punches whom? Jeff?
The virtuoso broke into a run when Atlas hunted down the creature doggedly; the magician kept flash stepping and Lute kept getting stuck in mud, so by the time he caught up to his friend Atlas was already planted face down on the ground beside the summoner. Not to mention the paparazzi fox was now upgraded into a gigantic one with large scissors.
Lute grabbed Atlas by the collar and pulled him up. “Those are sharp scissors. Wow. Look, the blades are shining!” He laughed nervously and his eyes flicked to the side, assessing the surroundings. No good, the mud was going to prevent speedy movement (for him, at least) and the rain… The rain was, well…

“FISH??”
“Wait, what?” Lute looked up at the sky and was rewarded with a heavy weight suddenly pressing down on his face. He fell down on his back just smack on a mud puddle, sending drops and chunks of wet dirt flying around as his fingers clutched about the thing in vain, slipping again and again on the slimy skin of whatever it was- “Oh, there, got it.”

The relief of seeing what landed on him was short-lived.

“Holy shi- No! You’re supposed to be stomach goop now!,” Lute yelped and threw the blobfish away, crawling backwards as it landed back in the mini mud pond. The blobfish began…Moaning with that anguished expression on his/her face. “I didn’t have a choice!” He screeched (yet again) in reply. Great, now this was turning into a teenage drama, like what, The Blobfish and I: a Wretched Tale of Love between a Klutz and a Blobfish of Unknown Sexual Orientation. What a hit it would be! Lute felt like fainting all of a sudden. He probably would have if Atlas hadn’t grabbed him by the collar (copycat) and reminded him of the fox.

“’No running’!? No running!? Okay! Aight, you’re coming with me! I’m going to make up for my failure!” He said in a determined manner and picked the blobfish up, tucked it under one arm then unsheathed his sword. “Dellie? Okay, thanks. HEY!” Lute’s voice echoed throughout the area, and he waved his sword in the air to get the fox’s attention.
“WIMP!” It wouldn’t look. “YOUR FUR SUCKS! LIKE WHO HAS THAT OCHER HUE NOWADAYS ANYWAY!?” Nada. “OKAY, WELL YOUR CAMERA SUCKS! BIG TIME! I HAVE A GRANDMOTHER WHO COULD MAKE A BETTER ONE!”

That caught its attention. The fox turned towards the virtuoso, its teeth bared back into a snarl (wow offended much?), leaving it open to attacks from its blind side.

Outside Thaum
Moira didn't know which was worse - how she was now cold wet and muddy, which seemed to happen far more often than she would have liked these days. That the fox... oh hell she had no idea what was going on with the fox, other than it hurt her neck a bit to look up at it. Or that the music guy was going off on one again. Yep. He's insane.

What a day.

"Sy, let's go!" she shouted, glancing over to her partner... who was now staring at the fish falling from the sky. He looked a right sorry state, looking around himself with wide eyes like nothing made any sense anymore. Which... yeah he was right. "SY!"

He shook himself out of his thoughts, blinking rapidly at her for a second as he came back to the present. Moira didn't waste any more time checking her partner was with it, since it looked like Lute was going to be keeping the focus of the thing on him. Not that she trusted he could take a hit. She hissed and leapt forward, her heeled boots slipping and sinking into the mud. Damnit, talk about a speed disadvantage!

"We need to disarm it!" Syed shouted, keeping in mind Estelle's words. If they could get the scissors... camera thing off it, then they'd have less to worry about when taking it down. He was already moving his hands in wide gestures, feeling out in the electricity-charged air for the scissors. There! He reached out-

SLAP!

Syed was down, dazed by a particularly large fishy blow to the head. A critical hit! Electricity shot off in a random direction as he fell to the floor.

"Oh for FUCKS SAKE!" Moira bellowed. Not really knowing what to do anymore, and kind of stuck where she was thanks to her downed partner, she did the first thing which jumped into her head.

She threw her hefty greatsword right at the scissors, hoping to knock them right out of the fucker's hands.

Outside Thaum

Far off from the fox, Amy had set up a second barrier after the first dissipated, though she quickly took cover nearby a large tree, as there was no way her invisi-barriers could hold up against a downpour of fish. One of which knocked Syed to the ground in an instant. Amy let out an audible grunt, complete with rolling eyes; the man was frailer than an aging skeleton. Instead of rushing to assist him, she sent a quick defense buff to Lute instead, just in case Moira's attack would fail. However, something else had snagged away her attention before she could prepare another spell.

A deep moan gurgled behind her. Amy glanced over her shoulder, eyes widened. Some of the tree's myriads of branches reached forward to ensnare the cleric, though she caught onto the assailant's movements and leapt away on time. "Oh, fuck, not these things again!" With a jerk of her staff, her light-whip was summoned, sparking with life and ready to snap. "Everyone, stay clear of the trees!"



Trixie charged her way behind the fox as it moved in towards Lute. While Moira stepped forward to disarm him, the prankster readied herself to become his next target should he get too close to anyone else. That was until one of her guns was knocked right out of her hand by a slippery blob fish. She let out a curse - "Oh cheeseburgers!" - as she reached down to retrieve it, only to have her other uzi knocked out by a second fish. "Stop it, o-m-g. This isn't fair, you g--UUUYYYSSS!"

In an instant she was lifted to the sky by an animated branch. She didn't remain skyborne long however, as she was quick to chuck out one of her two flashbangs. "Waaaaii'm sorry guys, close your eyes or something!" A close radius, to include the fox and anyone nearby him, was enveloped in a flash of light. (This missed Amy and anyone else closer to the outskirts of the battle.) Even the treant behind Trixie was blinded, letting out another gurgling groan, as it dropped the girl to the ground. She landed right on her feet and snatched her fallen uzis. Jumping away from the stationary tree and splashing even more mud about, she reloaded her guns and positioned them on where the fox had been standing.

Whether Moira's assail had gone through or not was not immediately clear, but the fox did emerge from the flash in ultra cool sunglasses.

Outside Thaum

"What kind of sorcery is this!?" Selan cried, pressing her palms hard against her ears to drown out the thunder, and feeling fish after fish smack her on the top of the head with a sickening wet thud. She didn't know whether to feel nauseous or terrified.

"Everyone, stay clear of the trees!" Amy shouted, brandishing her light whip.

Lisette thought Amy was just giving some helpful advice for thunderstorm safety, but she turned to look at the tree nearest to her anyway. It was one of many treants, and a pretty angry-looking one at that. The nature-loving girl was clearly distraught at the sight of fish suffocating on the muddy ground, as well as the idea that someone was using some kind of magic to turn the plants and animals hostile to them, but she knew better now than to stand back and let the creatures attack her friends.

Trixie's flashbangs lit up their vision, just as a bolt of lightning lit up the sky. Lisette squeezed her eyes shut as she reached back to draw her bow. It was the first time she would be using the new weapon that Tiberius Rex had given her, and the weight of it felt different in a nice way in her hand.

When the light subsided, the treant that had grabbed Trixie was still flailing its branches, disoriented and blinded. Lisette had a brief idea, and extended her hand in the treant's direction, intending to control the tree's branches while it was temporarily weakened. Her magic grabbed hold only for a brief moment before the treant regained its vision, and Lisette felt an unpleasant sensation of something wrenching away from her grasp.

Meanwhile, Moira's greatsword sliced through the air towards the giant fox's giant scissors, and it seemed as though momentum would be on their side. But the fox suddenly snapped the scissors shut, miraculously catching the sword as though it were inside a vice. The fox whipped the scissors skyward, sending the greatsword flying and spinning into the sky high enough that it was impossible to see it clearly. With the darkened sky erasing their shadows, no one knew exactly where it was going to land.

Lisette paid no mind to the imminent danger above them and readied an arrow, charging it with some of her magic. She let it fly towards the fox, hoping it would catch it off guard. Mere seconds later, a heavy catfish knocked Lisette on the side of her head.

The trees wanted to kill them and it was raining fish. What kind of twisted fairy tale were they in?

Lucien looked up and winced as a swordfish fell from the sky, impaling the ground and missing the summoner's foot by just a couple of inches. "Hey, hey, the fishes, they're getting bigger aren't the--" He scrambled back, but before he could finish his question a giant tuna fell on his head, knocking him to the ground.

There was a bright flash of light and the summoner found himself blinded.

"What," the metallurgist scowled when the fox emerged in sunglasses. Just what on earth was happening? Moira's greatsword fell into a puddle creating a giant splash and Xandra followed after Estelle, her prosthetic now in the form of a hammer. The fox didn't look happy and it grabbed onto a nearby tree, pull it out of the ground and swung it at both the approaching girls and any of the nearby guilders.

An arrow sailed through the air and caught the fox on the shoulder. It let out a hiss and instead of swinging the tree again, it sent the thing flying towards the guilders. Xan dropped to the ground immediately, right into a mud puddle. Well, at least she wasn't crushed. "Leader, are you alright?" the girl called out, before a fish knocked her head back into the puddle.



The fox pulled the arrow out of its shoulder then gave Lisette a menacing glare. It wound its arm up like a spring before throwing the scissor in her direction. It spun around, a deadly, super fast, twirling weapon of pointiness.

The animal let out another roar focused on the jerk who made fun of his camera. He pulled a rock hard, gigantic camera out of it's bag and tossed it at both Lute and Atlas.

"I think you made it mad." The magician held onto his friend's sleeve and propelled both of them forward.

They fell onto their faces, the camera now deep inside the earth and just a few feet behind them. If that had fallen on them...

He yanked his friend up and scowled. Atlas' coat was horribly torn and dirty, Cashmere wouldn't be happy about this, not at all. "Stupid fox!" He pulled out a pair of knives and rushed forward. "Maybe someone can go for it's eyes? Or it's feet perhaps?" A giant fish hit Atlas in the face and he crashed straight into a tree. The fishes were growing bigger by the minutes and it was becoming a lot harder to fight.

The animal kicked at a boulder and sent it flying towards the pride. It had enough of the pesky guilders and went all out Godzilla.

Outside Thaum:

“I think you made it mad.”

“No kidding!” Lute exclaimed as a gigantic camera spiraled towards them. Atlas pulled him down and the two of them surfaced from the mud a few seconds later, both covered in grime and fish scales but otherwise unharmed. He felt well, less achy than a rough trip like that should have made him feel, only to be informed that the cleric “magic-schmagicked” (Dellie’s words) him. Cool. “Thanks for the uh, protective er… Yeah!” The virtuoso hollered towards Amy before returning his attention to the fox. He plopped the blobfish on his head and then held his sword flat above himself like it was a shield instead of a blade, the tip pressing against his palm as heavier loads of fish fell upon it by the second.

Hell, he can’t see with all the tails and fins falling down from heaven!

"Maybe someone can go for it's eyes? Or it's feet perhaps?"

Distract it? Again? Oh gee whiz. Lute bit his lip as a dory slid down his hair, leaving a thick line of slime down the front of his face as it shimmied down his skin. He extended his hand, palm outstretched towards the raging fox, with a clear intent to stun it with a very, very loud sound.

He just didn’t calculate that the skies would cry goldfishes next, and that one, in some miracle, would manage to slip inside his shirt.

Let’s not go into detail about the slimy squishing sensation Lute suddenly felt on his back, but the stir made the virtuoso instinctively reach for his nape. As a result the wave stemming from his hand basically hit the creature, though the people near the fox would hear a slight ringing noise depending on their proximity. Thankfully, the fox heard enough; its ears flattened against its skull as it looked around for another boulder to flip at the Pride.

As he was about to try to right his failure, a barracuda slapped him on the face and Lute fell facedown.