Aliquam: Academy of the Arts – South-Western Section“Thank you, Amy,” Rose said with a smile, her hand softly caressing the sleeping Sebastian’s mane. “I appreciate it… a lot.” Despite having a broken ankle, the Student Council President showed more concern, affection and relief for her trusty steed then she did herself, and it was only after Amy asked the young woman if she could walk that she remembered her own condition. Rose tried to stretch out her leg, and indeed compared to before the pain was significantly dulled. But whilst Amy’s magical prowess was considerable, and growing every day, it was still not yet potent enough to be able to heal broken bones, and indeed Rose didn’t know if there was a healer to have lived who could mend them that quickly. And so it was that, even if the pain was minimal, it was still there, every time she moved and the bones in her ankle would grind against each other. There was no way she could walk.
“Nn… I think I’m going to have to sit this one out,” Rose said, resisting the urge to loudly curse. “My ankle’s broken. I can’t move on it. But…”
Amy looked down at the other blonde, and nodded in understanding. Her brother was the one being held hostage by the Masked Phantom… and it pained Rose to know that there was nothing she could do. Not like this.
Amy sighed.
“Don’t worry,” The cleric said. “The others… we’ll get Angel back. Somehow.”
Aliquam: Academy of the Arts – Northern Sector: Outer Theatrical Hall“Oh no you don’t!”
Estelle shouted, her figure already darting fast and low along the ground, towards the gargantuan man in the strangely adorable bunny mask. Whilst he had just effortlessly knocked back Moira and Lute, demonstrating incredible prowess, Estelle was undeterred, moving completely on anger and irritation at the whole group of aggravating thieves. In fact, seeing her friends get hurt only propelled her to fight on even more. Both Miffy and the child thief Fabian drew their attention to Syed - believing that if they knocked the Pride’s source of light out, the battle might more easily swing in their favour, and with the odds at two to one, they needed it.
But Estelle would do everything in her power not to let that happen.
She dived to the ground, sliding towards Miffy’s legs. Her fireblade extinguished its flame automatically, and she twisted the sword within her hands so that the flat of the blade faced him. As much as the thieves were enemies, she couldn’t afford to actually cut them – but hitting the thief in the leg with a powerful swing of blunt metal would still do just as well.
Aliquam: Academy of the Arts – Northern Sector: Theatrical HallAs soon as the battle began, the door to the Theatrical Hall swung open and closed with a clatter, as a diminutive pint sized prankster burst in dramatically, firing her guns in the air wildly. It didn’t take her long to spy the Masked Phantom at the far end of the hall below her atop the stage, the flares he had cast about the room being more prominently placed around him. The distance between them was too great for any immediate accuracy, but it didn’t deter Trixie from firing anyway, hoping to do what she did best… and that was to annoy him.
She darted to the eastern side and ran down one of the aisles towards the stage, firing again as again, whilst parallel to her, in one of the other aisles that led from the entrance to the stage below, Jay managed to break free from his cage, and both her and Francesca, who had been lying in wait, managed to attack both Tobias and Dylan.
“Ignorant fools,” The Masked Phantom muttered in his emerald encased form. His hand shot out, and a brilliant burst of wind was shot out from his hand, gripping Trixie and throwing her back into one of the rows of seats in a haphazard crash.
At the same time, Lucien’s bear had reached the stage, looming over the Masked Phantom and swiping one massive arm down at him. The heavy paw however hit nothing but air and the stage below, crashing through the wooden flooring. It blinked in surprise, catching the blonde figure out the corner of his eye, from where the thief had suddenly shifted. As a wind mage, he could alter the speed of his agility at an instance, and so Lucien’s summon, whilst powerful, was helpless if it couldn’t hit a target it couldn’t reach.
But like Trixie’s attacks before it, it too served as a nice enough distraction…
…for Xandra to follow after, swinging her prosthetic fist forward, shaped like a sword. This at last caught the thief off guard, and it was with incredible luck and reflexes he managed to backstep in time – but the attack still cut a thin line across his chest – cutting his spectacular suit and drawing a thin film of blood.
He glanced towards the metallurgist with anger.
Wind buffeted and picked her up, gripping her and dragging her off the stage in a swirling vortex that spun her around and around, to crash in another row of seats opposite Trixie’s position at the western part of the hall.
Lucien’s bear roared again, charging to the Masked Phantom once more. But this time, a ball left the thief’s hand and into the bear’s face, the flash grenade erupting right before its eyes and sending it blind. The sensation travelled all the way back to Lucien, as the Masked Phantom dropped off the stage and walked towards Aria.
“I hope that dreadful boy stays down,” Francesca growled after getting back to her feet, immediately shifting to a defensive stance as she glanced from side to side and back to Jay. “You’ve seen their skills, oui? Who should I take care of?”
Jay had no time to answer, before both he and Francesca found their bodies suddenly and violently ripped from the ground by yet another force of wind. Both thieves were sent flying backwards away from each other, as Marcus stepped inbetween where they once were, crouching besides Dylan and Tobias to check that they were okay. Francesca and Jay’s wails were heard trailing behind them before they too landed awkwardly amongst the rows of seats:- Jay in the west close towards Xandra, Francesca in the east, near towards Trixie.
“Are you two alright?” Marcus asked, lifting the Matter Artist up.
“I’m fine,” Dylan said with a nod. “And angry. These thieves… they’re going to get it.”
“By Aislin’s anger they will,” Tobias also stood up, shakily. He wasted no time in stalking towards the east, where Francesca and Trixie were. “That gutless wench has my sword. I mean to run her through with it.”
Marcus glanced briefly back to Dylan with a raised brow, but said nothing as they heard the calamitous results of the Masked Phantom’s battles with Trixie, Lucien and Xandra, now slowly approaching Aria.
“C’mon,” Dylan said, readying his slate.
“Oh man, what the heck is going on!” Asked Simon as he dived for cover down one of the rows of seats. He immediately began crawling on his sprayed out feet and elbows, shimmying as far away as possible from the battles around him, pausing to grimace with disgust as his hand fell splat in a piece of chewing gum.
He popped his head up intermittently to watch the battles, and simply couldn’t believe his eyes at everything that was going on. It was dangerous. Frightening. Mad.
And also meant good photos!
He occasionally took a snapshot before moving on to somewhere else and repeating the process.
