Esayo

The Heroes of Beacon

Emlyn basked in their victory for a few moments, letting Auriel's own elation fuel him. He'd practiced for a while, he was well-versed in handling his chakram and had excelled against targets. But it was different fighting against something else that was -arguably- alive, and infinitely more hostile than a wooden target. It wasn't like fighting other people either, which, admittedly the last time he'd had to test that he wasn't particularly good at it. No, this was a monster. Not just one, many, they'd fought a pack of these beasts and come out on top.

It took him a moment to realize that Auriel had moved on to practical business. Ah, right, the Itzamna feathers, icing on the cake. He checked his shoulder, now bare of the feathered spaulder from before. A quiet huff of air left his lips, and he made his way over to one of the corpses.

"I'll only need a few, the rest are yours my friend," he said, carefully extracting the feathers from the tail of the dead Itzamna. "Though Aury, Aury, you've got to promise me you'll look into gussying up a bit."

He spoke jokingly, though if they were going to be famous hunters, he hoped his partner would at least look the part. But that was a little ways away still, for now, they had a victory to revel in, and an artifact to find. They'd run a little ways away from their previous spot, but he was fairly sure they could recover the distance quickly enough. When he was finished, he stood back up, immediately regretting the decision when the strength left his legs and left his knees wobbly.

Without missing a beat he leaned against Mirror, playing it off as nothing. It seemed as though he was still a tad shaken, but that'd wear off. He cleared his throat and turned his attention to his partner once again. "Uhm...thanks for the help, really, good job. Teamwork," he mumbled, offering an accentuating thumbs-up.

The Heroes of Beacon

Well, to his credit Emlyn was surviving. He'd hardly been able to move from his previous spot, remaining back-to-the-ground with Mirror held defensively above him. The Itzamna only paused in its assault every few moments to try and snake a talon around, or over, but Emlyn had retracted almost his entire form behind the shield. This was a little less than the best situation he'd ever been in -maybe the Grimm would tire out? He must've looked ridiculous laying there like a turtle, and if his life weren't on the line, the embarrassment would have been deadly.

He faintly heard the dying screeches of the other Itzamna, and that brought a sliver of relief to him. On top of that, he wasn't the only one to take notice; the Itzamna hurling slash after slash at him paused for a few terrifying moments until it screeched, directed away from him. Emlyn chanced a very brief view around his shield, and realized the Grimm was gazing off at Auriel as he slashed off the other Itzamna's tail.

Emlyn saw his chance, and took it. He rolled to the side, out from underneath the beast, and retracted the center from Mirror. Springing to his feet, he whirled the chakram around and tore through the front of the Itzamna's neck. The thing tried to screech again, but the sound wouldn't travel past the gaping wound, and after a few flails of its arms, and its tail, it toppled to the ground, dead.

"Yes! Holy shit we did it!" he yelled, jumping up in excitement. He gave the nearby corpse a swift kick, scurrying a few steps back when it twitched a bit. He recomposed himself though and grinned in the sinister way that was his default. "Oh man, we absolutely wrecked them!"

The Heroes of Beacon

Emlyn snapped back into reality when he heard Auriel's voice in such close proximity to him. That wasn't right, last he'd checked his partner was a ways away dealing with Itzamna of his own. A troubling thought passed through his mind that he'd been more unaware than he'd thought.

He offered a hasty nod to Auriel as he climbed off of the dead monster and stood up beside his partner. "Right, yeah, distraction - I gotcha," he said.

He took a skip of a step forward as one of the two remaining Itzamna's began their charge, and launched Mirror forward. However much to his chagrin, the chakram sailed past as the beast dipped to the side, and continued his charge while Emlyn was defenseless. He scrambled back and away from Auriel, giving his partner space to work with the remaining Grimm. His own Itzamna came in slashing, fast and deadly, but Emlyn was able to match its speed -if not barely, and sloppily. His eyes caught Mirror as it began its return trip, and in a desperate move he ducked down beneath the clamping jaws of the raptor beast, and then dove forward, rolling beneath its legs and springing up on the other side. He caught Mirror, but was afforded no opportunity to strike, as the Itzamna immediately charged him again. Instead, he turned the weapon to its shield form and took the brunt of the first slash, which, while it sent him onto his back, caused him no real harm. Still, it was not a good place to be, and he realized this quickly as the Grimm continued its assault, slashing against the shield in an attempt to snare the fleshy prey beneath.

No this was certainly not a good place to be. He chanced a brief glance to see how his partner fared, before his attention was forced back to keeping himself alive under the attack of the beast.

The Heroes of Beacon

Site's been super laggy, sorry for the delay on a reply Media xD

The Heroes of Beacon

(laggy double-post, apologies)

The Heroes of Beacon

Emlyn went into something of a panic. One down, all of that energy expended, his Semblance used up, and he'd only killed one. He was more than happy to hear Auriel heed his warning, and whipped back around to sprint away with him. He found adrenaline was filling the gaps in his energy with each step; undoubtedly more of the fear than anything. His heart sank however when he saw Auriel come to a screeching halt at the beginning of another decline.

He was more in-tune and listening at that point, even though he didn't like what he heard next. His partner was right though, the high ground was giving them the advantage and if they sacrificed that they'd be dead for sure. He turned as Auriel made another charge, and readied himself. When the front few were distracted by his partner's teleportation, he took the opportunity to launch Mirror at them. It struck clean through another, and returned with haste, but it did draw the attention of another.

The Itzamna charged, but this time Emlyn was ready, and Mirror shut into a shield before the claws came down. The force was enough to bring Emlyn down to a knee, but he held tight, dug in, and then shoved forward. The Grimm stumbled, but barely, just enough for him to get back to his feet and slash out. The outer rim of the shield dug into the beast's chest, but didn't severe through, and though it roared in pain, it also struck out with a reflexive slash, catching Emlyn's shoulder and tearing one of the spaulders free.

He screamed, though more in shock than pain. He could feel everything still, and his skin was hardly nicked by the attack. He ripped Mirror free, letting out a roar of his own, human as it might have been in contrast to the Itzamna's. The shield portion retracted, and he gripped the chakram properly again, before swinging out and cleaving through one of the raptor's legs at the knee. It collapsed, but Emlyn was not finish; he leapt atop it, grabbing Mirror with both of his hands, and brought it down on the Itzamna's neck. Once, twice, three times and then four. The thing was dead, that was for sure, the downside was his awareness dropped entirely to the other two remaining monsters. If he would have been aware, he might have been praying that Auriel was more attentive than he was.

The Heroes of Beacon

Oh wow Lugu that's awesome as hell! Yeah like, if you have spare time and what not I'd love one for Emlyn, though not too sure what it'd be like either xD

The Heroes of Beacon

Indeed the mountain had begun to level off, and it was more than a slight relief to Emlyn's legs. He was used to running, he could even sprint quite well when he needed, but this sort of prolonged strain did his wiry form no favors. So, when Auriel decided to pause and admire their progress, he instead chose to plop down on his rear and catch his breath. Normally he'd be all about celebrating his accomplishments, but that required the air to voice such compliments, and that he would have to recover.

Auriel's voice faded to white noise over the course of his praise, in fact it was the lack of words that caught Emlyn's attention, and he looked up to the troubling sight of his partner's expression. Expressions, he was good at expressions, reading people was imperative to his manipulative tactics. In the brief moments before Auriel spoke again, Emlyn's whole form tensed up, and he felt a fear that jolted straight to his spine. He didn't hear the next words, but simply yanked Mirror up off of the ground, before swiveling around and up. He was vaguely aware of Auriel running up beside him, but most of his attention immediately focused onto the horrifying Itzamna closest to him.

Raw fear locked his arms from action, and it wasn't until the nightmarish raptor took a slash at him that he brought Mirror up. The shield component failed to activate in time, and so instead the talon hooked into the chakram, and with the jerk of its muscle, tossed Emlyn aside. He tumbled backwards and ended up flat upon his back with what little wind he'd gathered knocked once again from his lungs. The Itzamna that had thrown him tossed Mirror aside, and focused back on its defenseless prey, beginning to stalk forward.

Emlyn scrambled back up to his feet, which only seemed to alert the raptor further. It let out a viscous screech, and its slow stalking rapidly evolved into a full on charge. Emlyn wasn't afforded much time to think, and it was perhaps by sheer luck that he caught sight of Auriel using what he could only assume was his Semblance. On reflex, he Coveted it, and his gained the faintest twinge of luminescence to them as they turned back to the Itzamna. He matched its action, and ran forward, waiting until it was just close enough before letting his legs collapse beneath him into a slide aimed directly between the beast's legs. The Coveted Semblance flared into existence, and Emlyn's body flashed forward a few precious feet behind the Itzamna, and he snatched up Mirror. Like a whip he snapped around, and with as much energy as he could muster, launched the chakram forward, and, sure enough, it tore through the Grimm at the neck, beheading it. Then, like a boomerang it returned, and slapped into his gloved hand.

His attention turned to Auriel immediately. "We need to get out of here!" he shouted.

The Heroes of Beacon

Auriel proposed another issue as they walked -he seemed to have a knack for that. Though to be honest Emlyn hadn't given it too much thought, he wasn't sure what to expect really. He supposed that when they reached the top they'd just...find it. It'd be there, their reward. Something stone perhaps? Or maybe golden? Did it matter really what it was as long as they found it?

"I'm not sure, no..." he mumbled, keeping pace with his partner. "But we're already this far, it has to work. If it doesn't we don't have a chance at getting out of here before nightfall."

The possibility that they might be stuck there was starting to gnaw at him, and with every passing second he could feel his breaths get just a little bit sharper, and his heart beat just a little bit faster with every raw thought. They very well might have to fight something for no gain at all other than survival, and even that wasn't guaranteed. Well, Auriel might have to fight, Emlyn was confident enough in his ability to escape should it come to that. But that thought grew stale, and even gained a twinge of disgust to it. Would he ditch his partner to survive? Why not? They'd only just met, it wasn't like this other boy meant anything to him yet. But could he actually do that?

His attention was directed to Mirror when Auriel asked his second question, and he was quick to find a new train of thought to follow. "Wh...I-yeah, yeah it's got range. I can throw it pretty far," he said. "Shield too if I need."

The Heroes of Beacon

Something felt odd about following Auriel. Not that he didn't believe the other boy didn't know what he was doing, in fact he felt quite safe and assured. But all the same, it was an itch to be behind someone else. Of course he didn't say anything to the matter; he wasn't about to start anything over egos right now, there would be time for that later.

The new mountain was indeed a much easier climb. He set Mirror back around his shoulder and for the most part had no issues as they walked as far as stamina went. But Auriel's words stirred his mind. There wasn't actually a chance they wouldn't find an artifact, was there? Of course they'd find one, that was part of the test. Wasn't it? He'd worked so hard to get here, could this actually just be another way of weeding out initiates? He was not going to be a laughing stock to anyone. He'd earned his place dammit, that would not be taken away from him just when he was so close...

It took him a few moments to realize all of his thinking had stayed his feet along their path, and that he'd fallen a little ways behind Auriel. his cheeks grew hot, and he scrambled up after him until he was walking along side his partner.

"No, no we certainly can't afford that. We're going to find this artifact," he said, determination overcoming his own face too.