[IC] War Notes

[Zynros]

Well. This is new.

As Morgan evaded the strike of the shadow-like monster currently trying to kill him, his thought strayed elsewhere. Whatever the creature was, it was capable of injuring him in his Ethereal form, something only vessels were capable of doing prior to this.

It's rather fast for its size. The regeneration's odd too, I doubt any natural being could be capable of self-healing at such a rate.

Stepping back, He reverted Arcanus to its standard form and ran for the ruined church.

Well, even if something like this has shown up, it should act as a decent gift for those guys who kidnapped us.

[TheWendil]

✠ G R A D O N G I L T W I T H ✠
^{⛨ Current Location: Village Ruins ⛨}

“I like to think they’re just lost soldiers trying to find their way in the ruins. Or maybe they’re on a mission just like us,” Gradon said in response to Tzi. He found a nice tree beside where his tent used to be before leaning against the hardened bark with crossed arms. “Of course, that’s probably just wishful thinking. If word got out that the Princess is traveling with us…then she’s probably their priority,” he offered with a smile. He was confident in their own secrecy to where that wouldn’t have been the case.

The cadets would have some lingering time to themselves before something truly horrendous would snap them out of their lulling states. A sound that pierced the winds and seemed to resonate from deep within the ruins. And yet it echoed with such hate and ferocity that it was enough to make Viola near jump out of her skin in terror. Gradon widened his own eyes and stared in the direction of the scout team’s trail. Just what the hell was going on there?

“Princess Ires!” Gradon said when their leader seemingly passed out under mysterious circumstances. Was it the strain of that roar or something more? Whatever it was, Viola was thankfully by her side in seconds, lifting the unconscious girl up armor and all while looking to him for answers. “That doesn’t sound like a human enemy. We need to move out and help our comrades out as fast as we can,” he said, already looking for the rest around their camp.

“Tzi, Esther, rally up!” Gradon said, glaring slightly as he saw Clean dash without order to go and assist. While he had the right idea, blindly charging into the fray was licensed to get them all killed. “Everyone move out. We’re heading to the ruins. Viola, stay in the back and keep the Princess out of danger,” he said, already leading the way with a sprint.

[Crimmy]

TZI TI'AMTUM

"Getting cash or just taking out a bigwig for the politics, huh?" offered the tall young man. "Yeah, there's loads that they could ..."

That bloodcurdling scream. An inhuman noise that sent pinpricks of lightning down his spine. Tzi Ti'amtum whipped his head around in the direction of the ruins, his one visible eye widening in shock and surprise upon hearing something so ... inhuman. Unnatural. A sound accompanied by terror and chaos, echoing through the ruins with a vigour he never would've thought possible. He'd heard a lot of screams before. The others probably had too. But that sound ... he couldn't describe it. He didn't know what could've been responsible for it. But ...

"That can't be natural," he had to say, his voice low. "No way that's natural."

Signing up with the Empire had promised some real queer stuff, but this ...

Tzi Ti'amtum had absolutely no idea what it was.

"Don't worry." The eyepatch-wearing youth grinned reassuringly Viola's way. "If there's a problem, we'll just have to punch it in the face, yeah?"

That wasn't usually the best plan. Tzi Ti'amtum was perfectly aware of that. But despite what he was saying, he was worried. There was something just ... super unnatural going on. You had to cut a bloke some slack for that. Like Viola, he didn't have any idea what was going on. But if it was some ... unnatural monster or something, then he couldn't really think of anything more right now than to punch it out. Or hit it in some other way. That was usually how they took out monsters.

"Just keep calm and we'll handle it," he continued with a shout, running after Gradon. "Make sure nobody gets the Princess, yeah?"

Current goal: follow Gradon. Goal after that: beat up whatever is responsible for this stuff. Protect his mates at the same time. It was a pretty basic and half-baked plan, but until he could get more info, that was the best he could do.

As they closed in on the ruins, however, the thing responsible became clear to his eyes.

"That's ... big."

Thrice his size, in fact.

[Apollosarcher]

Foley Barca

---

Foley almost didn't have to stop moving before Egwene slashed at his body with that maddening blade. He felt better leg no longer in pain... Just in time to see a massive monster summoned. "...Well, I did not expect this." The bow man answered as he watched his fellow students rush and attack the creature.

Foley moved back taking aim for the things eyes. "Keep it distracted, I'll try to blind it." The archer called as he fired his arrows of light towards the beast's eyes. Wanting to distract or keep it from killing Morgan before things got out of hand further.

With that, he moved to the wall trying to scale up so he could a better angle to fire at the thing. Wondering if he could mentally link his team mates, normally he preferred to do that before the fighting started... But you know, that really wasn't an option.

[Lonewolf685]

Leblanc Farris

[[ Location : Enemy Encampment]]

Her expectations were subverted in two substantial regards, and Leblanc was pleased to find neither of them were due to the fault of the cadets trailing in her wake. First was the unexpected escape of what appeared to her to be captured cadets if there Vassals and antipathy to their captors war anything to go by, the second was a monster infinitely more threatening then the flock of Rocs they'd encountered the day before.

She'd stiffened in the shadows and fell to a knee with a cry drowned out by the monster's own as her attuned hearing came back to bite her with a disorienting flare of pain. By some small miracle there were ample cadets crawling out of the woodwork to confront the clear and present danger before them, and thus it seemed to have no reason to target her in a moment's weakness. That was all she needed to gather her wits about her and adjust her senses for the frantic cacophony of combat, unwilling to expose herself to such a blunder in the future. As she rose from the dirt her hand brushed across a loose brick, fallen from it's brethren and chipped at the corners, yet still sporting an oddly satisfying weight to it. With the air soon to fill with arrows, bolts, and musket balls it would have been the height of stupidity to dart in with her knives and hope to dodge both the enemy and ally with impunity.

A harsh kick to the decrepit masonry knocked loose several more in what Leblanc took in the way of ammunition, and she rose to full height with brick in each hand. Her body twisted as though a screw, arms whirling and embracing herself with near impossible dexterity, only to unwind with a snap and hurl her impromptu projectiles as though shot-puts aimed at the creature's bulging neck.

[Hammerman]

Esther von Degraff

---

"Y-yes, right away!" Esther replied to Gradon's order. And so they're heading out to combat again, this time against who knew what? Anything that made such a sound couldn't be good. And the princess just had to faint in a time like this.

They soon closed in on the ruins, Esther not daring to go ahead even though she could if she wanted, thanks to her vessel. And when she arrived there, what she saw made her thankful for not rushing ahead of the others.

"W-w-what is that?" Esther asked to no one in particular. Her expression was that of fear and surprise. Fear of the creature's terrifying presence. And surprise that such a creature could even exist.

She saw how some other people were already fighting the beast, with the most recent attack being a bunch of arrows of light fired off towards the beasts' eyes, most likely intending to blind it... Wait, were those vessel users? Were they reinforcements?

She would think about that later. For now, she just had to concentrate her attacks on the beast along with the others. And so she switched her vessel to its combat mode and started kicking off wind blades towards the creature. She didn't know how effective her attack would be. She had a feeling it was not going to be that easy to slay the abomination.

[KoL]

World's End Strait

---

---

"You can count on me! I'll not let anyone get close to the Princess. Do you best out there too, guys," Viola replied to the receding figures of both Gradon and Tzi. As soon as she was done taking care of Ires' immediate condition, the Aquarian Squire picked her weapons once more and waited at attention by the entrance of the tent. Unless someone used supernatural means, it was going to be hard to deceive Viola.

• • •

The beast howled in rage at the Cadets' counter-attack. Its bodily structure seemed to be withstanding the barrage well, most hits only registering as a distortion of its dark mass before any gap opened began to close itself at an astounding speed. Even then, the Cadets' attacks, whether they were made using their Vessels or not, slowly piled up, leaving wounds that didn't heal. It looked like this was going to be an uphill battle but one that they could ultimately win with enough coordination and hard work.

The first one the beast responded to was Zarin. Raising its arms defensively, the monster avoided having its head scorched. Right about the same time, Clean would discover that the beast's reaction time wasn't to be ignored as well. With a powerful mule kick, it sent several chunks of debris and dirt, like a shotgun's blast, at both Clean and Zarin's direction. An unfocused attack likely wasn't going to hurt so badly, but it certainly was going to clear more space for the beast to maneuver.

Regina's initial shot landed right where she aimed, perforating one of the monster's knees. The fact that he was still able to move with unhindered agility, or that not even a drop of blood was shed, made it obvious that its anatomy was the same of a normal living creature if it had an anatomy at all.

The creature covered its face once Folley tried to blind it, only to have his light arrows stuck to the being's thick arms. Nevertheless, this reaction blinded it to Leblanc's assault. The first bricks to hit the creature almost shook it out of balance. However, it was just a matter of time until it reacted by grabbing one or two of them out of the air and throwing the at Regina, like buzzing cannonballs cutting her routes to run on the floors above.

Perhaps that wasn't to the Cadets' disadvantage, though. By the time Esther joined the fray, adding more damage to the slowly raising amount the creature piled, one of the nearby buildings was all but crumbling apart. Perhaps a little creative thinking on their part could speed up the fight?

---

[Noodles]

Egwene

Egwene turned to face the beast after returning her favour to Foley. Now both of us are even, and seems like the other guys are finally here ~ Egwene raised her sword, putting a stance of her blade pointing upwards as she approaches the ugly beast. Her fingers trickle on the handle in excitement, steadily closening the distance, but not calmly. Entering the sword reach, Egwene, with one lunge swung her insanely screaming sword downwards towards the beast, letting out her smile that she often shows in battle.

[Awesomoman64]

Zarin Malthain

Location: Ruins

---

As the fireball hit the beast’s arms, Zarin watched in dismay as, the burns healed just as fast as they had been inflicted. Cursing under his breath, the cadet reignited his whip while reassessing his situation. He wouldn’t get much time to do so, unfortunately, as the beast was quick to counter attack sending chunks of debris at high speed. Acting fast Zarin ran towards the flying debris and dove into a combat roll just as it was about to crash into him.

Having closed some distance between him and the monster, Zarin originally intended to force the beast’s focus on him which would allow Morgan to escape while letting the others come up with a course of action. Upon closer inspection, however, he noticed that some of the wounds from before had not fully healed yet. Perhaps they were doing enough damage to hurt this thing! Only one way to find out.

“Alright you monstrous freak. Let’s dance!” Zarin said before rushing towards the massive creature. With his focus completely on the beast, Zarin failed to notice the ready to collapse building right in front of him. It would take another cadet with a keener eye to alert him or destabilize it themselves.

[Bushman501]

---

Regina saw the bricks coming from a mile away, having watched the monster's movements carefully and marking it. It was due to this that she was able to avoid the bricks. However, this maneuver did not go without positive results for the monster, for Regina fell down to the floor below where the rest of the cadets were. She was lucky to have not gotten any more injured than scraped hands and a back injury already adding on to the list of injuries she has received on this one mission, the first being the ones she has received from the day before. Adrenaline was an amazing thing, for it allowed her to still keep fighting.

However, when Regina looked up she saw no sign of Leblanc even trying to organize their forces a seething rage took hold of her, what was left of her niceness slowly dying piece by piece and being replaced by Peter Cormier's bitterness. She did not mind that Leblanc tried to take some semblance of command earlier and even admired that, but the second she did not try to take control of the situation when it counted was when Regina's respect was lost. Yes, her fighting skill was alright but that did not make one a good leader, and Regina was already at her breaking point after the Rocs yesterday.

By the princess's bosom, can't I catch a frakking break?! She was most definitely going to have a word with one of their "officers" about this.

And thus, this lead to what Regina did next. She thought of the only thing she could do as she analyzed the surroundings and spotted the crumbling building. Too bad they did not have the explosive power required to bring down the building, for they had to go with something different. With an angry yell, Regina started barking what she wanted done hoping that at least someone would listen "ALL WITH A RANGED WEAPON, RALLY UP. FIRE, RELOAD, THEN SOMEONE ELSE FIRE WHILE THEY ARE RELOADING THEN REPEAT! SCATTER IF THE FRAKKING THING TRIES TO KILL YOU, THEN REFORM. MELEE GROUPS, SEPARATE INTO TWO TEAMS. FIRST TEAM, STRIKE THE MONSTER AGGRESSIVELY AND KEEP THE PRESSURE UP, SECOND TEAM STRIKE AT THE POINTS THE RANGED TEAM IS HITTING AND TAKE OFF THE HEAT FROM THE FIRST, SWITCHING ROLES. MOVE IT!" Regina did not think this was going to work at all, knowing that her previous luck with attempting to conduct a plan was met with hostility, but she felt she had no choice in the matter. She had to organize them to give them a better chance. If they didn't organize? Well Regina figured she would at least tell the officers that she tried and to never put Leblanc into a command position ever again if they survived this.

That was when Regina saw Esther come in while she was looting the soldier's bodies for grenades, gathering a few of them. "Esther, where are the officers?! Tell them to take command of this rabble and there is a collapsing building, but we don't have the explosives to collapse it onto the thing! Cover me!" Regardless if she was successful in organizing the cadets enough for the soon-to-be-present Gradon, Regina took a risky move: charging toward the beast with the grenades she collected, activating the grenades, cooking them, then throwing them at the beast while warning the others that grenades were being thrown at the top of her lungs, aiming right for the spots the monster was hit and hoping that maybe one of the grenades would be swallowed or something. Really, even as Regina was charging the beast she knew it was stupid and shouldn't work. But she was committed the moment she activated her first grenade, stopped just in range of her throwing arm, and started throwing, shouting out to give their allies time to get away from the explosions.

[Hammerman]

Esther von Degraff

---

As the fight continued, Esther noticed that their attacks, even when there were so many of them, were barely effective against the monster. The wounds she cut with her air blades, they all had closed on their own. This beast, it had amazing regenerative ability for sure. Somehow, they had to strike it with enough force so that its regeneration couldn't keep up. Perhaps it also had some sort of core that controlled the regeneration. If they could strike at that core, then they could stop the regeneration from happening.

"Esther, where are the officers?! Tell them to take command of this rabble and there is a collapsing building, but we don't have the explosives to collapse it onto the thing! Cover me!"

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Regina shouting at her. Quickly, she shouted back.

"The princess had fainted for some reason and Viola is taking care of her! Gradon is heading here right now!"

Regina then shouted that she was throwing explosives at the creature and that they should keep their distance. Esther was not worried about her own distance as she had been fighting from a distance all this time, but there were some melee fighters who were uncomfortably close to the beast. So Esther readied herself, changing her vessel back to its speed form so she could drag anyone lagging behind to run away from the explosions' radius.

@Bushman501

[Lonewolf685]

Leblanc Farris

[[ Location : Enemy Encampment]]

To her elation and surprise the improvised sneak attack was fired to good effect on the creature of darkness and demonstrated to her that it could be stunned and disabled through sufficient force, their actions having practical detriment to it's own capabilities. The probing strike did have some drawbacks, however, as she observed it reacting to the assault by snatching the projectiles from their air and hurling them towards the ranged combatants still hiding amidst the woods. Leblanc found a moment's concern well up and hoped that Regina and Szeren weren't so focused in their assault as to forsake evasion, yet an eruption of bestial screaming allayed those concerns and brought a cold rage to her buxom.

Yet again Regina sought to co-opt the chain of command, having no faith in the capabilities of her fellow cadets to operate in the knife's edge of pitched melee to the best of their ability. This was even worse of a situation then with Rocs, as at least then they had the rest of their group with them, a Princess in command, and didn't need to rely upon a group of Vessel users they had not even identified outside of a shared enemy in the rampaging monster.

Then came the orders themselves, and Leblanc had to wonder if Regina had actually been struck in the head if she actually thought that trying to organize such disparate people into any sense of cohesion would work. Worse of all, she wanted them to surround and engage in melee while she and others bombarded it from range? Friendly fire had nearly claimed her life not seconds ago and she wanted them to run in and just hope a stray bullet wouldn't take them in the back or that this nimble beast wouldn't move aside and expose the Cadets to a withering hail of fire.

"That's it. I'm going to have to make an example of her." Leblanc said with a clarity belying the adrenal rush flooding her system as she rose from the shadows and stalked towards the creature with a brazen calm. Her voice rose, amplified in challenge to both monster and man while her Roc talon spun in her palm. "Cease your damned barrage, Cadets. Select your fire only when the beast's attention is occupied and the lane of fire is clear. Anyone who can approach in melee, follow my lead and strike for it's limbs. I want it on the ground and impaled on steel before Ires ever lays eyes on it."

Perhaps it was a matter of spite at the marksman's obstinate ways, but Leblanc couldn't let Regina go screaming orders like that from a distance and not act with a certain daring of her own. It would have been something of a folly to ascribe to her the sentiment of the battle kings of yore, alive only in the thick of the mess and cleaving men in two from the very front of combat, but if she stuck to the shadows and operated like a surgeon slicing an artery, then all chance for order would be lost and Leblanc would be damned if that happened on her watch.

Bounding off the mark she took to the air to cross the distance between herself and beast, pressing off it's bent knee to change momentum from horizontal to vertical. The rancid breath struck her bare skin with all it's moist heat as she rocketed past it's snarling muzzle, only to orient herself with the sharpened talon stabbing into it's neck and swinging her about one hundred and eighty degrees, where upon her boots slammed into it a back rippling with knotted muscle and pushed with all her might to either cleave the beast from throat to crested head or simply bend it backwards from the force of her rush and stagger it for the attacks to come.

Assuming it didn't find the time to swat her off it's back like a gnat on a cow's ass, a fate she hoped the competence of others would spare her from in the seconds to follow.

[Crimmy]

TZI TI'AMTUM

It was loud. That was a pretty obvious observation, especially when everyone was hitting the giant monster with all they had, but the two sets of orders being thrown around by Leblanc and that Regina girl just made it louder than he'd expected. Tzi Ti'amtum could tell instantly that however the fight ended, there was probably going to be some beef going around, and not any beef he was planning on eating. He didn't know how serious it would be, but even the smallest of conflicts in the middle of a fight was some bad juju, and when the big beastie was trying to crush them all, bad juju would only get in the way.

That's why he needed to find a way to get them to agree on something pronto before the butting of heads lead to their butts being kicked.

His Vessel manifested in his hands, but Tzi didn't attack. Not yet, at least. The tall youth keenly observed the battlefield with his one uncovered eye even as he rapidly moved around to position himself better for any strike he could launch on the monster. It was a pretty huge mess of a fight. Chaotic and hard to read. He needed to narrow things down quickly.

Firstly, the monster itself. Three times the size of a bloke like him, give or take. Bulky. Its size and mass seemed to be the main advantage it possessed, and if that impressive mule kick was any sign, could squash them all like bugs. Or throw the environment at them and squash them. Either was possible.

Secondly, big crumbly-looking building. Tzi could see it. The others probably could too. Would dropping the building work, or would the giant monster tank it? It was worth a shot, except -

The fight was a total mess.

Some figures he didn't recognise were attempting to rush the monster, putting themselves in close range. Leblanc was airborne and assaulting the neck. All while the Regina girl was throwing a ... sizable amount of bombs at the thing.

There was so much potential for friendly fire there.

Tzi took a quick glance at his trident from the corner of his eye.

Real big mess.

And thus Tzi Ti'amtum decided that running into the radius of explosions was probably a bad idea.

He was a cook, not something to be cooked!

[Zynros]

A little... Loud, I guess.

At some point during the confusion of the past minute, the abyssal monstrosity that had seemed intent on chasing Morgan had been distracted by the overwhelming mass of attacks against it letting him slip away from the chaos and back into the ruined church. Originally, he had found a better place to his, the second biggest structure in the small group of ruined buildings, but he chose to escape after noting the damage it was taking in the crossfire.

Those guys were also cadets, right? They should have no issues with that thing.

Nodding to himself, he wandered through a few of the now empty rooms around the building. It took him a little while to find the place he was looking for, the room the soldiers were using as their temporary armory. After a bit of sifting around, Morgan pulled his pistols out of a box they had been stuck in and grabbed a rifle from where it leaned against the wall.

After pocketing any spare ammo he found lying around, he made his way for the roof of the church, climbing up from one of the windows. Taking a position with his newly acquired rifle, he watched as a brown haired girl hurled a bundle of grenades at the creature, and a green haired girl followed up with a melee assault.

Huh. Those two make a decent team.

Looking over the rapidly regenerating wounds the efforts of the two had inflicted, he nodded and aimed the rifle at the creature as he muttered to himself.

"The current rate of regeneration is about five seconds to repair any given wound, but there doesn't seem to be a limit on simultaneous repairs. In that case..."

He fired, and the creature staggered, a hole opening the left side of its mask-like face. As he rapidly reloaded and fired again, he finished his prior thought.

"Just aim for the obvious weaknesses."

As a second bullet pierced the the creature's left eye, a dark grin formed on Morgan's face as he let out a small laugh.

[McFazzer]

Crispin Clean

It was pollution. This creature was a mere source of disease, Clean could swear he saw the world around it die around it like a black heat haze. This could also all have been a visual hallucination based on the sheer disgust at the creature. Clean's attack was admittedly hasty, but given the nature of his vessel the range of attacks he had were limited. Nonetheless he still suffered the consequences. The abhorrent creature, the new bane of his existence, sent a shotgun blast of dirt and debris towards him. Scowling Clean leaped backwards, frantically waving his sword in front of him, the largest chunks of rock were swatted away. Dirt however isn't something that can be blocked with a blade.

"No, no, no, no!" Dirt getting into his mouth Clean was left coughing and hacking. Spitting out a globule dirt, Clean looked down and a look of utter despair as Clean could only call his clothes unsalvageable. Between Roc blood caked in and now the dirt and the tiny shards of stone tore open a number of small holes in his outfit. Tearing off his jacket, the former white now shredded and stained crumpling to the ground. Unbuttoning his top few buttons, Clean heard the rattling off of orders from disparate places. Gradon had called for a regroup earlier, but Leblanc called for smashing the beast at close range simply spoke to him.

"No more distractions." Drawing the parrying dagger on his hip, Clean capped his thumb on the pommel and left the dagger in and icepick grip. Leaning up onto the balls of his feet, Clean bounced a few times to make sure he was well balanced before 'following her lead' as Leblanc commanded and went for the limbs.

Having abandoned any notion of living up to his namesake for the time being, Clean dashed back towards the creature's left side from head on, low to the ground and as Leblanc pulled at the creature's throat, lifting it's head and meaning that Clean was outside it's cone of vision. With his rapier leading the way momentum threatened to have Clean over shoot the beast until he stabbed his parrying dagger through the creature's foot and into the ground, intending more to pin the appendage there an hinder movement, hopefully preventing Leblanc being crushed into a wall or the ground. Clean's grip on the blade caused him to turn in a tight and and roll to the ground behind the creature, looking up and seeing Leblanc still there, Clean saw the barrage of bullets and explosives and did his best to make sure the creature was between him and any live fire.

"Stop it with the fucking grenades you daft goddamn fuckwit! Ever heard of friendly fire?!" A stray grenade was lobbing towards Clean and he swung at it with the flat of his blade, sending the explosive projectile back along the arc whence it came.

[KoL]

World's End Strait

The chaos of the battle was unbearable but, little by little, the uncoordinated attacks of the Cadets added up and the beast's reactions grew slower and sluggish. Eventually, it sustained too much damage even for its powerful regenerative abilities and succumbed letting out another bone-rattling scream as its body dissolved into a pool of bloody darkness.

Where once stood the beast only a piece of paper, with some odd symbols written on it stood. In fact, a closer examination would reveal that the symbols weren't all that eldritch. In fact, they looked uncannily like... musical notes? The piece of paper itself was written as a music sheet of some sort. The music sheet itself would be consumed by purplish flames, its ashes blown away by an eerie wind.

Viola and Ires finally rejoined the party a few moments after the beast fell, even though the Princess was still feeling ill and relied on the Aquarian squire for support. The Cadets' reprieve wouldn't last for long. Before any of the two girls could say anything, the sound of crushing rocks put them back on alert.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Viola shouted after laying Ires against a wall and taking a defensive position in front of the Princess.

"Oi oi, there's no need to be like this," a voice, sounding like that of a girl around the same age as that of the Cadets' average, if not younger, echoed through the derelict village. "I just came because I heard a Banshee around here but, it looks like you guys already took care of the Dissonance. That's kinda impressive if you ask me. I thought that no one could do that anymore," the voice said once more. A perceptive person could easily track its source to the crest of the ruined church's steeple. A perch so high and on so bad conditions that even an acrobat of Leblanc's caliber would have trouble to reach, much less seat while swinging her legs nonchalantly, just like the owner of the voice was doing. Granted that the difference in their physical builds certainly played a factor here as well, still getting up there was a feat that required either inhuman coordination and reflexes or the ability to fly.

"Say, what are you guys doing in this place anyway, this is as close to nowhere as I think that you can get. Unless you are trying to go to the country north of here on foot or digging for treasures, don't you think it's a little dangerous?" the girl asked with a broad smile gracing her face. Suddenly, she made a motion to jump from there, leaping quite high in the air while performing a somersault. A moment before her feet made contact with the ground, a pair of translucent, golden, draconian wings sprouted from her back softening the fall with a mighty wing beat. "By the way, did any of your friends go missing or something like this? I found this unconscious guy yesterday and took him to the place I'm living in now. I think that he'll awaken soon, so I came to get some food from the woods up there. That's when I heard the Banshee."

"Oh! Where are my manners? Hehehe~" the girl laughed while scratching the back of her head, her golden scale clad tail twitch more or less like a cat's as well. "The name's Diana," she declared, smiling, "Who are you guys, again?"

---

[Hammerman]

Esther von Degraff

---

When the battle ended, and the monster finally defeated, Esther knelt down on the ground, feeling terribly exhausted. She had used her wind blades over and over again, kicking so many times she felt her right leg was about to fall off. And her clean body from washing herself in the river before was now all covered in sweat. At least the monster didn't explode into gory bits this time.

Viola and Ires rejoined them a few moments after the beast had vanished, though the princess was clearly still weaker than her usual self, needing Viola to help her move around.

And then, she heard the sound of a rock being crushed.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Viola shouted towards the sound, her stance showing that she intended to defend the princess from whoever made it.

The one who spoke introduced herself as Diana, and she made quite the entrance, jumping from such a high place and landing with golden wings on her back. Perhaps that was how she could get up to such a high place in the first place as she doubted even she with her wind boost could jump that high.

Esther didn't know whether she should trust her or not. She didn't seem to be another cadet like themselves. But she had that golden wings thing which could be a vessel. But she didn't look like a bad guy. She said she had found someone who looked like a cadet and she took care of him in her house. If it were true, and not a trap, then they owed her for sure.

However, she knew about the monster, which she called a Banshee. Just who was this girl?

[Apollosarcher]

Foley Barca

---

Foley had been trying to keep up with sudden and erratic changes upon the battlefield, however, before he could recover and join back into the battle from his new perch it was over. Foley jumped forward diving off the perch and letting his bow vanish returning it to appear as tomes of knowledge at his side. He entered the building carefully only taking time to locate his personal items from his former captors. After retrieving his items, he made his way towards where the reinforcements had come from.

Curiously however before he could make any introductions he noticed a scale woman in gold around with the others, Foley saw her addressing the others and stopped. Taking a moment to check his uniform and brush off any dust before straightening it, wondering who exactly they had sent him up here to meet. He really hadn't gotten many details on what was happening just that they would need someone who knew the area and his tactical skills might be useful.

It was quite annoying not being aware of what had been occurring, but he knew that with time they could catch him up.

[Awesomoman64]

Zarin Malthain

Location: Ruins

---

With Leblanc on it’s back and Clean pinning it’s foot, Zarin focused on keeping the beast from healing. Every wound that looked as though it was about to regenerate was torn open again by his whip. Combined with the barrage of bullets and grenades, it was only a matter of time before the beast was finally defeated. In all honesty, the fight had gone over a lot easier than he had anticipated. It was kind of disappointing actually, though how was he supposed to know there were reinforcements right around the corner ready to jump in?

Zarin watched as the once intimidating monster melted into a dark bloody pool of nothing, and in it’s place left what appeared to be a piece of paper. ”Well that’s strange.” Zarin muttered as he walked closer to inspect the paper. It seemed to be a sheet of music, something the cadet was actually able to read, but it was no song he had ever heard before. Wanting a closer look, he reached down to pick the music sheet up, only to have it burst into purple flame just before he could grab it.

He would probably need to report that to someone, but that would have to wait. The moment he pulled away from the ashes, a number of the cadets went on alert after hearing something moving close by. Zarin followed suit unfurling his whip and angling it back ready to strike. When the source revealed itself to be a non-hostile girl around their age, Zarin once more lowered his guard and began coiling his whip while she talked.

Though he chose to remain silent for most of the questions, as he wasn’t sure what information he could trust to give this girl, her last statement about finding one of their squadmates forced a loud sigh out of him. “That would be Chen.” Zarin said shaking his head. “He was with us before we got captured. Of course the freaken magician found a way to escape. I guess we should go get him, if you wouldn’t mind taking us to your place?”

[TheWendil]

✠ G R A D O N G I L T W I T H ✠
^{⛨ Current Location: The Ruins ⛨}

Needless to say, the other Cadets would go on in passing him by as Gradon ran towards the main Ruins. That was because his footsteps had slowly faltered to a stop as he noticed something shift in the near distance. Concerned, the boy considered summoning his Vessel but before he could do so, the shifting had revealed itself. Gradon nearly jumped back as a large, black snake quickly slithered by his feet as if in a hurry. Initial surprise was replaced by curiosity and he wondered where such a thing was headed to in a hurry.

Another deal wail from the monster up ahead snapped him out of this dormancy and he left the snake to its journey in pursuit of his fellow Cadets. By the time he had arrived, the battle was already over. As the beast dissipated back into the darkness of which it came, Gradon, like the others, noticed its presence was left with a marked paper. “Music?” he asked to no in particular before the sheet burned into cinders.

In any case, he looked around, relief being felt as he saw everyone had come out of the battle without too major harm. Regina looked to be on edge and Leblanc seemed ready to punch someone out, but he will leave those two be for now. Not only that, but Ires and Viola’s arrival would be met with another, and Gradon looked up to see a girl with glasses descend upon them all with…wings?

As everyone had their initial reactions to the new girl, now named Diana, Gradon stepped forward. “Banshee? So that must have been the monster terrorizing this land that we were assigned to kill…oh! We’re Imperial Cadets from Arcadia. If you saved one of our own, then we have no reason not to trust you. I guess our job is done here?”