FujiwaraPhoenix

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

Sydney Harbor

Glancing towards her two companions for the mission ahead, Elise took a deep breath to still her heart before activating her Chi-Mechframe. The mechanical equipment quickly formed around her body, and without any further reason to delay her advance, the half-Korean girl began to slowly float up into the air.

"Selene, moving out for reconaissance."

And with that, she was off.

The design of her own Chi-Mechframe prioritized stability over speed, and so unlike Supplice or Infernus, Elise had to move at a slower cruising altitude to search over the region. While the others went towards deeper waters in their search, she would remain somewhat closer to the harbor, attempting to examine deeper rather than wider in her sweep. The day prior had been spent scrutinizing the already-defended harbor and helping to fully secure it from any Warped attempting to push further into the city's lifeline, of course, which meant that today was the first day that they would actually begin to move into deeper waters.

The scent of the sea breeze would likely take a back seat to the three pilots, however, given their current goal. As much as a flight over open waters might have been a thought more reserved for days of relaxation, it was unlikely that taking in the scenery would be in any way smart.

With that said, if either of the two pilots further ahead took a moment to pause, the sight of an odd pulse of light from within the waters below might have caught their attention. Though the sun's rays did shine and bounce off the surface, the deeper waters below were blotted out—save for the occasional odd glimpse of that which should not have been.

@Izurich@Medili

---

Perth — Provisionary Office

As the Pilots discussed the possibilities as to what could be instigating the incident, the person assigned to the case until then—a woman by the name of Sherry Brown—sighed and picked up a few maps from her desk and carried them over to the three.

"I've already done an analysis of the victims before you three arrived," she began, placing one onto the desk in front of the group, "and there doesn't seem to be any immediate link here... Or, well, at least in terms of the people themselves. Haven't gotten around to checking the data points other than the frequency of attacks where the deceased were, though."

After placing the other maps on hand in front of the three Pilots, Sherry stood back up and promptly returned—this time, with a stack of profiles on the deceased.

"Might go a bit faster if I'm not the only one working on this like they made me do for the past two weeks. Would it be too much of a hassle to start trying to sort what I've got here? Autopsy reports, addresses, all that other stuff... Maybe something'll come up?"

Sifting through that information could lead interesting places; varying (but subtle) differences between the bodies of the deceased, for instance. Some bereft of pools of blood beneath their bodies, other with limbs missing, some with both, even. Others, notes mentioning their supposed activities before their passing—some returning home after a late shift of work, others drunk on the street...

But no witnesses, and seldom any attacks to those who could have had some nearby.

@VitaVitaAR@Laduguer@Mole

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

Saitama Prefecture — Outpost

Despite her readiness to actually do some extra work (that she, admittedly enough, hadn't planned to do that night), Elise soon found herself summarily booted out of the kitchen by Xuan-Yu. Though she had initially intended to argue about his choice of action at that point, the other Pilot seemed less-than-inclined to hear her out, much less let her back in to work.

It was irritating, yes, but ultimately there was nothing really to be done about that stubbornness at this point. The best she could do—at least, in this situation—was to speak with the other soldiers who had been drawn by the allure of food and drink to be had.

The praise from them towards her and her colleagues by those who came to eat was some small solace as she realized that there would likely be some sort of reprimand in her future, but to show such worry at this time would drag down the mood of the area.

The least she could do, then, was attempt to socialize—speak to those present and convey their thoughts to the others still on The Horizon after the night was done.

---

---

Australia

The Horizon had lingered another day or so in the skies above Tokyo, as per the details of their contract for the reclamation of Saitama, before promptly setting forth towards southern seas. The mission, after all, seemed to have resolved without a hitch, and without any immediate intent to reclaim more land and instead to stabilize what they had taken back, there was no further reason to stay around.

That, in other words, left those on board free to pursue other missions elsewhere in the world—or, at the very least, as free as the captain would dictate. With the success of their first 'proper' mission at their backs, other nations seemed inclined to follow in Japan's stead in enlisting their aid.

Which, in other words, left them where they were now. Efficiency was the name of the game now, and splitting up the Pilots and sending them out from there seemed like the best way to accomplish that.

---

Perth — Provisionary Office

The first stop after arriving in Australian airspace was the city of Perth—or what they could keep hold of, at least. With its (comparatively) closer proximity to the mainland, the city had been able to muster up enough resources to stave off the Warped, but that put it at equal threat to be invaded by threats that bled over therein. Though isolated from the larger cities on the eastern coast, the people of Perth had managed to hold on in spite of everything. The results were by no means pretty and they had by no means been able to thrive, but here they remained.

Of course, without any Frame Pilots, the city found itself at a loss with regards to how to deal with it's newest problem—a string of disappearances and murders that did not seem to be done by human hands. With law enforecement focused towards the external threats, the people in charge had decided it more prudent to cover the issue up and request aid in handling whatever it was that was threatening the city from the inside.

Whether or not that was a good plan, however, remained to be seen.

The only information that the three Pilots had been given to start with, though, were a series of locations at which the incidents had taken place and alleged times of death for those presumed deceased. The trends leaned towards the later hours of the day, which at least narrowed the timeframe down, but the locations, spread throughout the city as they were, seemed less than helpful.

@VitaVitaAR@Laduguer@Mole

---

Northern Territory

With the threat of Warped higher the further away from the bastions of civilization, it would seem almost foolhardy to have been flown down into the midst of the sun-beaten brush. But a mission was a mission, and so the two Pilots had arrived thus; whether they wished to be here or not was another story.

An abandoned facility, not too far from where the aircraft the two had arrived in had landed, stood in front of them. Nature had begun to reclaim what was left of it, at least—as had the Warped which had undoubtedly taken root within. Their mission objective was simple—retrieve the core of an AI module located within the lower levels of the facility, along with any other things of interest they could find, before leaving. The first took priority above all, of course; given how it seemed to still be active in spite of the death of the people within (enough to send out a request for retrieval of its own volition), doing so could prove to be valuable.

Could, of course, was the key word here.

@ERode@JDubs

---

Elise Kim

Sydney Harbor

As far as punishments went, a verbal dressing-down and some supplemental work aiding the technicians on board for a day were far from the worst that Elise had expected to do, and in that regard it hadn't been too much of a loss to handle what they had been given to do. But with another mission on the table (and this one no less daunting than the last in her eyes), the young woman had no leeway to linger upon what had happened.

Not with the problem in front of them, at least.

It had been less than a day since The Horizon had landed in Sydney with the intent to recover, which had left her and her partners for the mission—Pyralis and Teodora—time to get a lay of the land. Ultimately, though, that meant that most of their time was spent near the coast.

After all, their target lurked within the waters nearby, not inland. A 'giant aquatic Warped', or so they had been told. Reliant on trade as the city was, losing access to a port was not something that they could afford—and with the Pilots here still in training, something of this magnitude had required external help.

In other words, theirs.

With a sigh, the half-Korean girl leaned on the railing in front of her as she stared out towards the ocean. Despite being marred by underwater barriers and blockades to impede the smaller Warped from catching them unaware, the harbor at least looked somewhat reminiscent of days gone by.

A moment of nostalgia, then, to take in the moment before they were to head out for the day for some more reconaissance. Ordinarily, sonar or radar would have picked up some trace of the creature terrorizing the bay, but the lack of any proper response on that front meant that they would have to do things the old-fashioned way.

Or, at the very least, by air. A boat in this situation seemed borderline suicidal.

@Izurich@Medili

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

Saitama Prefecture — Outpost

Though the man in the suit seemed less than pleased at Xuan-Yu's choice of language, the Pilot at his side seemed to be mildly amused at how things seemed to be panning out. The explanation that had been given seemed innocuous enough to him, and even if the higher-ups likely wouldn't have approved of this sort of thing, something like this—a taste of days since gone—would likely bring spirits up.

Or, well, so he believed.

"Well, my friend here is probably a bit too uppity to allow for something like this," Akio began, smiling as he clapped a somewhat-irate 'Takemiya-san' on the shoulder, "but as the person who formally outranks him out here, I'd say that a morale boost is just what the people down here need. By all means, feel free to set up what you need. I'm sure that some warm food would be a welcome change of pace—doubly so after staring death in the face, right?"

The man in the suit seemed unable to actually speak up against his 'superior' and his okay, stickler for the rules as he looked to be, and after biting his tongue to refrain from attempting to argue back chose to take a step back from the aircraft and bowed.

"Takemiya Shinji," he spoke through gritted teeth. "We shall be in your care."

Choosing not to push the man's buttons any further, though, Akio simply walked over to where Xuan-Yu was waiting and took in a whiff of the food before smiling.

"Fast delivery, I'd say. All right, I'll lead you over to the kitchen crew and send out a notice to everyone. We have roughly 50 people stationed here, us two included, so make sure to portion everything accordingly. Also, I see you have a few crates of beer here, too; I don't think I need to say this, but just so my second-in-command doesn't start breathing down my neck afterwards: try to keep from giving any one person too much. This is still a military outpost, after all, so I want everyone to be somewhat ready in case of an emergency order from base. If that's all, then I'll lead the way."

If there were no further questions to be asked, the brown-haired JSDF Pilot would promptly grab a box of the chicken and begin walking back towards the center of the camp. Shinji, it seemed, had already left—likely to convey his superior's orders to the rest of the on-site personnel.

Though surprised by how easily things had panend out, Elise simply shot another sidelong glance towards Xuan-Yu for his cover story before picking up the boxes of edamame she had left off to the side and following after.

Hopefully her co-worker's plan would pan out well enough...

@ERode@Laduguer

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

The Horizon — Hangar

Working off of a timer as she was, Elise wasted no time in making her way back to her room and changing into something a bit more suitable for the weather outside. As comfortable as her current clothes were, walking out in a spring night with them—delivering a bunch of goods to the soldiers below, no less—seemed both stupid and tone-deaf.

Making sure to don a light windbreaker before she left, the half-Korean girl quickly ran back towards the hangar, where it seemed that Xuan-Yu had decided to not simply set out without her. Of course, Hoshiko's delivery would likely have played a part in that decision, given how she had brought over actual food instead of snacks, but ultimately the reason mattered less to the Pilot than the result in this case.

"Sorry for the wait..." she said as she re-entered the room to hear Hoshiko's scream of triumph over... Something or another. With an expression of confusion plain to see on her face, Elise turned towards the source to see the younger Japanese girl in what felt like a somewhat uncomfortable position with the boxes of karaage stacked in her arms.

"...Need some help?"

Without waiting to see if the girl would even accept (which, all things considered, she likely wouldn't if given the chance), Elise quickly walked over and slid a few boxes off of the stack that Hoshiko was carrying into her own arms before placing them with the rest of the food and drinks that were being prepared.

"Good to see I made it, though," she said, deciding to take a seat as the rest of the food was loaded onto the aircraft. "I'm ready whenever you are."

---

Once everything had been loaded on and the people who had decided to tag along had entered, the hangar's door would slowly open and allow the aircraft to slowly lift off and depart the ship. Ordinarily, one would have expected the door to have not opened at all and their efforts denied, but it seemed that there was at least one other party sympathetic to what Xuan-Yu had intended to do.

The flight towards the secured zone, unexpected as it was, immediately caused a buzz within the JSDF forces below. Though there were still a few patrols milling about, most of the group was concentrated within the camps in the center—likely in part due to the security cameras installed in the region to allow them to monitor the area without worrying about losing good men and women to any stray Warped that had somehow managed to escape the last few sweeps of the region.

Once the aircraft was brought closer to the ground, though, the Pilots within would be greeted by a man in his late fourties, his brow furrowed as he stared at the group as his suit and tie were buffetted by the wind. Once it had landed, though, the clearly-irate man decided to simply speak candidly towards the group.

"I didn't hear anything from the commander about further reinforcements," he said, glancing at the group and what they were wearing. "Is there something that you need?"

"Ah... Well, not that we need, no, but—" Elise began to say, only to be promptly cut off in turn.

"Then I would recommend you head back. We are in the middle of a military operation, after all, and so—"

"Takemiya-san? Is there a problem?"

Just as he had been cut off moments before, the voice of someone else cut through the conversation. The source—a young man with light brown hair—quickly ran over once he saw exactly who the man was talking to.

"Oh, you're the Pilots they asked to help with the operation here today, right?" he asked, a bright smile on his face as he looked at the group. "I'm Kougami Akio, a Frame Pilot working for the JSDF. I didn't get to see you guys in action since I was assigned to help with the other offensive to the north, but everyone's been speaking pretty highly of you since I arrived. So... What brings you here?"

Compared to the more taciturn response of the other man, Akio's demeanor seemed a bit less standoffish—and given how 'Takemiya-san' had chosen not to respond, maybe this encounter would be in their favor.

@ERode@VitaVitaAR@Laduguer

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

The Horizon

It had taken Elise a moment to realize what Xuan-Yu was actually planning after he had spoken, but the Pilot had barely managed to restrain the expression that would've crossed her face otherwise. Internally, though, she was kicking herself over thinking that the Chinese man in front of her could have actually managed to down that many beers on his own and wasn't actually doing something more altruistic for the people holding out on the ground. With their own fights settled, it would ultimately be up to them to continue to hold what had been taken back, though. Though she felt bad about assuming something more self-centered at first, the young woman didn't feel it was right to longer on something so petty as that.

There were other plans afoot anyways, it seemed.

"Well, then I'll go pick up some edamame from the kitchens. Seems only right to pair with that," she said, waving to the other Pilot as she disappeared into the kitchen.

Of course, by the time she had emerged with what she had set out to retrieve—a few containers of boiled and salted edamame—Xuan-Yu was gone from the mess hall, no doubt already making his way to the hangar. Not wanting to be left behind, the half-Korean woman quickened her pace, plastic containers somewhat precariously held in the bags she was carrying in her hands.

Whether it was by good fortune or speed that she managed to catch up with the other Pilot in time before he left didn't matter so much as the fact that he was still present in the hangar. Though only slightly out of breath, Elise made her way over to where Xuan-Yu was and gently placed the bags in hand next to the beer...

Only for Xuan-Yu to comment on her appearance. At that, Elise glanced down at what it was she was wearing and considered where it was that they were supposed to be headed before a blush of embarrassment crossed her face.

"Ah... Right. I'll go change, if you don't mind waiting," she said, rubbing the back of her head as she stepped off of the aircraft. As she turned to go leave, though, the young woman ended up face-to-face with Louisa... Who, given her words, was possibly misunderstanding the situation.

Or not. Given how she had already been off the mark with one assumption for the day, doing so twice would likely be little more than folly.

"I... Don't believe you'd be interrupting anything?" Elise said before promptly slipping past her co-worker and heading towards the door, "I'm just going to be right back. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes, I think?"

At the very least, swapping her shorts out for a set of jeans and getting a jacket to wear over her shirt wouldn't take too long, right?

@VitaVitaAR@ERode@Laduguer

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

The Horizon — Mess Hall

With the battle in Saitama complete, Elise gave herself some time to breathe as the helicopter ferried her and her allies back up to the airship above. This was the first "real" mission that they had been put towards, and their success was more than just a boon towards their egos.

A victory, of course, meant a celebration was in order, and the congratulations of the staff as the triumphant Frame Pilots returned showed that they likely thought much the same.

First on her to-do list, however, was to wash up; though the others had fought major Warped threats on their own, it was likely that the one that they had fought would have done more mental damage in the long run. There were people flying down all the same to try and carve up their corpses (or what remained of them), and Elise pitied whoever was going to be sent to deal with the centipede and its foul bile-like liquid, but hopefully it wouldn't suddenly spring back to life and murder everyone.

That would be... Less than ideal.

After spending the time washing herself off in a hot shower and scrubbing anything that had managed to stick to her in spite of how long she had spent flying around, Elise dried herself off and changed into something a bit more casual—a T-shirt and shorts. The day had worn on her (as it likely had everyone, to some extent), but that didn't mean she was thinking of simply passing out and eating later.

After making her way to the mess hall to pick something up for herself, Elise found that most of her fellow Pilots had similar ideas in mind; a few were off to the side in a manner reminiscent of her halcyon days in high school gushing over food, but what caught her eye was Xuan-Yu carrying a few boxes of beer on his shoulders. It was no question as to what he was planning on doing, but after the insanity that was today, the half-Korean girl had half a mind to join him. Never mind that he likely wasn't going to drink all of it on his own, of course, but compared to gorging herself on sweets, food and alcohol seemed a lot more appealing.

"Do you mind if I tag along?" she asked, casually strolling towards him as she looked at the boxes again, "I can go get some food and snacks, too, if you wouldn't mind."

@ERode

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

Saitama Prefecture

With her shot finding its mark upon the insectoid Warped, Elise let out a sigh of relief and let her shoulders relax ever so slightly. The most pressing problem in their path had been dealt with—as had most the others', given the current visuals on her HUD—which meant that they could return to their job of sweeping the area clear of enemies.

"I suppose we clean up after whatever Hoshiko leaves behind," Elise responded, switching back to her live ammunition before promptly raising her weapon back up to her shoulder. "Mission's not over until we get the all clear, so let's hurry up and kill the rest of these things so we can head back and wash off."

@JDubs

---

As the komainu rushed headlong towards the one target it could still see, its gait began to visibly falter. The poison Xuan-Yu had left to fester in its body was leaving its mark, now more than ever, and the heat washing off of the Warped was no longer strong enough to blacken the ground beneath. The single-minded determination it held seemed to matter less and less as it approached Louisa, and when it finally had reached her, the beast was all but spent.

One last attempt at a swing was all it could muster before the creature collapsed in front of the Frame Pilot, unable to bear the weight of it's own body any longer. Though not yet deceased, the Warped no longer had the strength to fight any longer.

A swift stab would be enough to put it out of it's misery.

@Laduguer

---

---

With the death of the larger Warped in the region and the continued support of the Frame Pilots with them, the Japanese offensive to retake western Saitama continued with little further issue. It seemed that the monsters were left with little else after the four that had attempted to stymie the effort were slain, what with the remaining enemies only barely able to offer any further resistance beyond pure numbers being thrown at the infantry on the ground.

Luckily, cleaning even those up would be child's play to the group compared to what they had just slaughtered.

As night began to fall and a defensive perimeter began to be established, though, a helicopter would descend from above to pick up the Frame Pilots and return them to The Horizon. With the operation in northern Saitama seeing similar success and Japanese Frame Pilots arriving onto the scene for their intended night operations and defense, their job was done for the moment. The necessity of their presence to continue pushing west remained to be seen, of course, but given the information being relayed to them, retaking the forests and mountains was of far less importance than the formal residential areas next to Tokyo.

In other words, the mission was likely all but complete, which would leave the Frame Pilots free to wind down in the skies above. As to what they would do after night fell remained to be seen, but success would likely see spirits high—not just among them, but the staff as well.

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@Medili@ERode@Laduguer@Mole@JDubs

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

Saitama Prefecture

The sight of actual blood being spilled by the Warped meant that their efforts were at least showing some meaningful sign of progress, which was honestly the best they could have hoped for. The virtual HUD in her peripherals showed that the others were dealing with similarly problematic Warped, and the call-in from Pyralis showed that at least one group amongst them was better off than they for the moment.

"I—"

Elise attempted to respond to the offer of aid, but Norika seemed to have no part in it. Given how well she was faring, such an offer would likely have been unnecessary, but if it helped resolve the situation faster, then all the better.

With that said, the call for help from the Seraphima left Elise without any worries about whether or not they could handle the beast (they clearly could), but rather to distribute people where they were needed instead of focusing solely on their positions as the vanguard.

"...We should be able to handle this one on our own," Elise said, her words directed at herself as much as they were at Norika and Pyralis as she swapped out the bullets she had been loading into her rifle for something a fair deal more powerful. "Replacing live ammunition with light rounds. Aiming for the hea—!"

Before she could finish her sentence, another wave of whatever vile liquid the Warped had in store was launched at the two, and Elise barely managed to slip out of the way to dodge it. A bit had barely managed to clip one of her wings, but inorganic as it was, it seemed to roll off harmlessly.

With that said, cleaning up afterwards was probably in her best interests.

After taking a few moments to recenter herself, the Frame Pilot brought her weapon up to her shoulder and took aim at the Warped's head from above.

"As I was saying..." she said, eyebrows furrowed as a small sphere of light seemed to be forming from within the barrel of her weapon, "Aiming for the head—or whatever might pass for one on this thing. Don't get caught in the crossfire."

And with that, Elise pulled the trigger and fired.

What had formed as a small ball of light instantly turned into a thin, momentary laser that pierced through the Warped, well beyond where most of her other bullets would have stopped. Whether or not it mattered in the long run remained to be seen, but hopefully Norika would be able to carve up the rest of the monster as it recovered from the attack if it wasn't already dead.

@JDubs

---

With the birdlike Warped most certainly dead after having its head pulverized into the ground below, the smaller Warped around it seemed to hesitate for a moment before the group seemed to split up. Some continued to charge at Hoshiko, apparently ignoring the beast she had just felled without so much as a scratch; others, however, seemed to be retreating—a wise decision, in many respects, but an odd one in the face of what the Warped tended to do.

Not like it was any reason to be worried at the moment—fleeing enemies meant less bodies to have to clean up, after all—but the day was still not yet won as the young Frame Pilot chose to stall the remnants of the horde as her partner flew off to provide aide to their allies.

@VitaVitaAR

---

Seeing its prey disappear before its eyes left the komainu-esque Warped disoriented for a moment, the heat around its body still leaving the ground alight. It's eyes flicked about restlessly as it searched for the two that had escaped, but as the monster finally figured out where the two had gone, it paused.

The poison that Xuan-Yu had managed to infect it with had been easy enough to ignore before, but with the injuries it had now, the weakness that seemed to grip its entire body left it feeling heavy and sluggish. The heat began to subside, little by little, as it began to move back towards the sole Pilot that was left in its sights.

It had burnt far too much energy attempting to kill the faster one among the two, but without that one in sight and the heat in its heart beginning to fizzle out, the Warped continued ahead, fully willing (it seemed) to throw its life away to at least take out one of the beings it had aimed to kill.

@ERode@Laduguer

Advent of the Dawn —A Mecha Musume/Tokusatsu-Inspired RP

Elise Kim

Saitama Prefecture

The effects of whatever the Warped that they were currently engaging was spitting out were clear as day to see, and much to Elise's chagrin, the monster was aiming it at her. The stench of whatever was rotting on the ground did not linger ere long in the air, thankfully enough, but that wouldn't change the fact that taking even a single hit would likely mean an amputated limb at absolute best.

"Understood," she barely managed to say as she curved around the stream of caustic liquid aimed at her before moving further into the air. "The anti-air assault seems to have weakened enough in the interim, so I'll be changing focus towards your target. The sooner it's gone, the better."

Of course, it would fall to Norika to close the fight out, but the least she could do was attempt to disable its movement. Taking out those uncannily humanlike limbs, then, would be of the utmost importance. Granted, it was a bit more difficult to aim for where the limbs met the body as she flew about, but even when she missed it still meant another bullet into its body.

@JDubs

---

As the massive beam that the avian Warped had fired left a gash across the earth in its wake, the monster noticed that there was only one target in its sight. With what unnaturally keen eyesight and intuition it seemed to have, though, the Warped seemed to begin to quickly look around in attempt to relocate what it had lost.

Too little, too late.

As the monster's gaze panned above itself, it managed to find what it was seeking—and with next to no time to fully respond. With a screech, the Warped attempted to twist its body out of the way of the incoming assault, only for it's right wing—undamaged until this very moment—to be punched clean through. Of course, this sudden shift in weight caused the bird to spin momentarily in the air as it began to fall—straight towards an incoming beam of flame.

Once the flames had ceased, the bird's body was left charred and scorched. The once-damaged wing was nowhere to be seen, scattered as ash to the wind, and the black smoke coming off of it as it continued to plummet to the ground obscured whatever else there was to be seen of it.

Confirming if it was dead or not as it crashed into the ruins, though... That was a different matter altogether.

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich

---

Though the poison coursing through its system was slowly beginning to take root, the unbridled rage that the beast seemed to be using as fuel seemed to only be growing with every attack that Xuan-Yu dodged. Regardless of how much or how fiercely it lashed out, though, the komainu seemed unable to reach it. As the heat around its body grew stronger and stronger still, though, a single unexpected strike seemed to leave the creature off-balance for a few moments. The pain, it seemed, had forced it to remember that it was not facing one single enemy, and that it had more than one target.

Though Louisa's javelin had indeed found its mark within the Warped's body, a slight deviation had steered it towards where the monster's injured leg met the rest of its torso. The flesh torn from its body as the weapon was pulled back was hot enough to see steam rising from it, but the damage had been done.

With one leg now thoroughly maimed, the komainu finally turned its attention back to Louisa and threw itself towards her, the scorching heat unrelenting as the monster seemed to be burning its very life away in order to try and kill at least one of the Frame Pilots engaging it.

@ERode@Laduguer

Emerald Odyssey — An MMO Isekai RP (Now Accepting!)

Shokatsu Yu

Sunswept Plains — Riverside

With there being general agreement that they could move to deliver the sword the next day (after assurances that the sword, damaged as it was now, would likely not be something that they had any reason to steal), the young boy who had come all this way to retrieve it was soon back on his way home. Of course, Yu was aware that a detour like this would delay their ability to reach the floating city by a day at minimum, but the curiosity of seeing what 'new' things had popped up after the world had changed was enough of a reason to explore in the interim. Of course, it was up to the others if they wanted to follow, but if it was somewhere close enough that even a boy like that could get home before too long, was it really all that problematic?

Or so he told himself, at least. Once the two girls had returned—one in a slightly more 'modern' outfit than when she had left—he had been promptly handed the now-dirty set of clothes to be washed. If it meant anything, washing what had gotten stuck to it wouldn't take too long; it was the drying that was the problem.

Once all of the mud and gunk was removed (or at least removed to the best of his ability), the group promptly made their way back to camp, where Eunice and Kokoma's arachne had all but finished the preparations for their meal. As far as everyone could see, there were a bunch of fish on skewers around a fire, and the massive bird that the arachne had retrieved was being carved up..

"Ah, I see you've..." Eunice trailed off as she stared at Sefira, the pastel colors of her outfit a far cry from what she had been wearing before. "...Returned. What sort of outfit... Actually, let us save that question for later. The fish should be done cooking soon, at least."

Of course, whether or not anyone had remembered to give the pair any sort of seasoning was a question still left unanswered...

@Sho Minazuki@Rune_Alchemist@VitaVitaAR

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Sen Rynta — Sanctuary

The older man seemed a bit taken aback at Magnificus' introduction, and the oddity of the man's appearance and mannerisms seemed to throw him off, if only slightly. However, that passing surprised seemed to wane after a few seconds, and he gave a simple nod in return.

"My name is Liu Zhen; I'm a traveling monk from Wufeng," he said, giving a bow towards the odd man—and the woman who soon strode up to his side. "It is an honor to meet you. With regards to my worries... I suppose that if you're willing to listen to an old man's sudden outburst, I have no reason to hide what I'm looking into, hm?"

Of course, that name was not one so easily forgotten—not when the last expansion of the game was still so fresh upon players' minds. Though he was somewhat disguised now, the older man's voice and appearance would match up near-perfectly with what had been shown in the game—and now he was here in the flesh, though notably not aware of who those in front of him were.

"Over the past few months, I've been travelling around this continent here—Usira, was it?—because I wanted to... See the world for what it was," he began, his voice somewhat heavy for a moment as he lingered on those last few words. "And while I have been surprised at what I have seen, a few days ago a friend of mine asked me to investigate some place to the west of here. Something about an odd confluence of mana and a resurgence of undead, or something of the sort."

There was a bitter smile on the old monk's face as he finished his explanation, and for good reason. His daughter had been taken from him by the vengeful spirit of a hero betrayed and a demon sealed, and she had given her life in front of him to see them put to rest. It was only natural that he would have strong feeling about those bound of the past bound to the present, even if he was hiding it from these passing strangers.

"But, well, that's neither here nor there," he said, settling back down against the tree he had been resting against. "I'm sure you adventurers have more interesting things to worry about than an old man's worries, hm?"

@A Lowly Wretch@Operator Luna