FujiwaraPhoenix

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Kochiya Sanae

Aventon — Forest Outskirts

As much as she would have liked it if the creature they were pursuing was more apt to go somewhere more open, Sanae had no expectations that she could do much more than restrain the beast. That feeling only grew as the team split up; Remilia and Lewa had opted to split off, and with Joker appearing to be lost in his thoughts for a bit, it seemed quite apparent that she would be heading out with a fellow incident-resolving regular in the form of one half-ghost gardener.

Given what they could be facing, that wasn't actually all that problematic. Quite the opposite, really; a pair of swords were more likely to deal a meaningful blow than her danmaku, especially if it was someone like Youmu wielding them.

The pair-up meant that pursuit of whatever it was that crashed through the area didn't take all too long, either; between Youmu's natural agility and Sanae's ability to simply choose not to get caught up in the underbrush by flying over it, finding their mark was never a matter if if, but when.

Said mark being a rather nasty-looking boar with bloodstained tusks, however, didn't seem to shake her much at all. The state of the beast explained the state of the area from which they had begun their search, and it didn't exactly take a genius to put two and two together.

With that said, a creature like this being so close to a human settlement was naturally cause for alarm. And when something like that was turning towards them and, while staring dead-on at the pair, began to shake its head around and stomp at the ground...

Well, it was clear that it saw them as a threat, too.

"Don't think we're going to be able to scare this one off," Sanae remarked before the massive boar suddenly began to rush at them. Given how she had expected the animal to posture a bit more before anything happened, though, the only thing that she could instinctively do was dodge upwards.

"I'll back you up from the air!" she called out before forming a few ofuda and firing them off towards the creature's thick hide. Unfortunately enough, it didn't seem like the impact of a few bullets would do much.

...Maybe she just needed to fire more? Surely Youmu of all people could dodge accidental friendly fire if it came down to it, right?

---

The boar that Remilia and Lewa had come across seemed to be far warier of their presence, especially as Lewa made himself known. Even with the latter's gentler tone and choice of action, the boar seemed to be less inclined to actually want to acknowledge his words than it did to stand its ground. Rather than back up, though, the creature chose to shake it's head and grunt at the unfamiliar being approaching it.

A closer look—or a keen sense of smell—would make the presence of wounds both new and old quite apparent now, though. A few gashes upon the beast's shoulders and an odd festering bite wound on it's rear leg made clear that the boar was injured.

It still seemed to have enough energy to fight if one broke out, though given it's current demeanor it didn't seem like such an outcome would be all too desirable to begin with.

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@Lugubrious@EchoWolff

---

Aventon — Hunter's Lodge

Anne's explanation of the situation left Kendrick with a rather distinct grimace on his face—particularly the notion that he or his would-be wards could be taken as hostages in order to trade for Millie's. That had as much to do with his own safety as it did everyone else's, of course; with Ywain gone, it naturally fell to him to protect what remained of Aventon. If that meant his safety was in turn tied to the kids' own, that would naturally leave him at a troubling crossroads.

It didn't help much that the village head and his wife had passed in the attack too, leaving only their daughter behind to carry on in their place. To say that this entire situation had spiraled out of control would be an understatement at this point, and heavens knew how many people wanted to try and rebuild after so much had been lost.

Hopefully the survivors would recover soon enough to make a decision on the matter, then. But that was a problem for the future.

Though he had been lost in his own thoughts for a brief moment, Anne calling attention to what exactly had transpired when the small group he had seen before—including the odd "gift" that they had received. Naturally, this was cause for concern in it's own right; the remark about "falling into hell" didn't help assuage any fears about the matter either.

When presented with the actual items within said box, though, the guard seemed to take a moment to examine each. His attention panned over towards the vial first, and after picking it up, Kendrick took a moment to hold it up to the light before popping the cork on top off and taking a quick whiff of it.

"...Mmm... There's a really strong medicinal smell to this one, but I'm not super qualified to say what it might be. Might be better to get this examined by an apothecary; unfortunately, given the situation, the one we have here is probably going to be busy for... A while," he stated before turning his attention towards the other two items.

"These, though... Call it intuition, but there's gotta be more to these things than just looking pretty," he continued before picking up the jewel and looking at it in the light in turn. "At the very least, I know that the symbols carved into this gem aren't just for show. Seen a few mages use things like this when they were passing through, at the very least, but I've got no affinity for magic so I can't help much there, either."

Naturally, that left the one object that hadn't yet been examined by him: the necklace. After placing the jewel back in it's place, Kendrick slowly lifted the necklace up and held the emblem in his hand as he checked it over. Nothing seemed to be apparent beyond the fine workmanship that had to have gone into such a piece, though, which was... Somewhat disheartening.

It was at this point, though, that the presence of an odd piece of paper that had been hidden away beneath the necklace caught his attention, and curiosity soon got the better of him as he picked it up to examine it in turn.

"Hm... Any idea what this means?" he asked before handing the paper off to Anne.

"Enshrining a god without proper precautions can lead to unforeseen consequences. Unchecked divinity can overwhelm a soul, snuffing it out like a light."

@Drifting Pollen

---

Aventon

Being so high in the skies above the town would provide Rayne ample view of what the townsfolk were up to now that the battle had passed. If the situation was better, it was more than likely that she would have seen people milling about in the market square by this time of day, picking up what they needed from the vendors peddling their wares. Instead, though, everyone seemed to be on edge and still barely recovering from what had transpired the day before. Guards were still posted around the town's walls, though there seemed to barely be enough to keep watch; else, civilians who were of sound enough mind and body and not otherwise occupied with care for the injured were starting to move around town to try and start getting things back in working order.

In less vague terms, that meant cleaning up the remnants of the battle, bodies and rubble alike. It was by no means a job meant for the faint of heart, but the reality of the situation could not be ignored. The Raven Heralds had not collected their dead when they had departed, though, which left them awkwardly strewn about all over the battlefield for the survivors to handle alongside the bodies of the deceased.

In that regard, though, it seemed like a few of the more able-bodied among the townsfolk were beginning to gather the dead outside the walls therein and (very roughly) trying to sort them into two groups. The Heralds, of course, were gathered into one group and stripped of what arms they had; the deceased residents, then, were gathered into another. It went without saying that the latter were treated with far more respect than the former, but at the end of the day it was far from a pleasant task.

Those with less of a heart for matters like these, however, were busy trying to move all of the broken wood and shattered stone away from the buildings scattered about the town, slowly working their way out from the lodge where a majority of them had spent the last night. There, at least, there was less of a chance of witnessing a scene that might have left them sicker than not.

@DracoLunaris

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Seasalt Caverns — B2F

Richard couldn't help but wince as Luna took the Mud Shot head-on, and though she seemed to come out of it better than he had expected, the issue of the Nacli not wanting to engage them remained. By this point, though, it seemed reasonable to assume that the Rock-type Pokemon had been sufficiently weakened enough to try and go for something more impactful.

Well, that and the fact that Luna didn't have any ranged options meant that it wasn't exactly viable to stay at a distance as she was now.

"Luna, you okay?" Richard called out, to which the Snivy responded with a quick cry of affirmation and a nod as it shook the remaining mud off of itself. "Then let's try and close this one out! Close the distance as best you can and tackle it down; once it's on it's last legs, you just let me handle the rest."

With that command, the grass snake Pokemon shot off. The second that the Nacli looked like it was about to go down (assuming it would, of course), Richard would lob the Pokeball in his hand at it in hopes that he'd have someone new to add to his team.

What came after, though... Well, he could worry about that after the battle.

@Rune_Alchemist

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Tachibana Masaru

Nagano Prefecture — Abandoned Mansion

Despite expectations that the enemy might have survived more than a single hit, Masaru found himself ever so slightly disappointed at their complete lack of durability. With Zhao covering the vanguard as he was now, the duration really did boil down to little more than target practice. Arrow after arrow flew true, crippling any ashigaru that had miraculously not been shot somewhere "lethal"—not that they lasted long afterwards, though. Between the flurry of limbs and follow-up attacks, crushing the defensive line was but child's play.

Just as they were beginning to make headway, though, the defensive line that the team had broken through for but a moment seemed to reform in an instant. Despite the lighting in the area being less-than-ideal, though, Masaru could make out more than a few of the phantoms taking aim; with more melee-oriented ones essentially marking the positions of a few barely-concealed rifling, though, it made sense to try and take them out before potshots could start being issues of any sort.

Not that he'd have any chance to, though, as Zhao took the offensive and began to rush down the snipers before he could.

"You're fine without any covering fire?" Masaru chimed in as he shifted his focus back towards the spearmen standing staunchly between them and the rest of the main hallway. "Don't think the guys turtling over there are liable to break formation or anything."

Regardless of his thoughts on the matter, Masaru began to unload volley after volley into the stationary ashigaru, to the point where he began to intentionally move forward to bait stabs before retreating and firing into any openings made as a result.

This wasn't a phalanx, after all; poking the line until it broke wasn't exactly too outlandish if the only things he had to be aware of were linear stabs or stray bullets, and moving unpredictably solved both of those issues easily.

@Psyker Landshark@Raineh Daze

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Kochiya Sanae

Aventon — Forest Outskirts

"Uh... Huh. Right."

Though Derek might not have been a fool, the explanation that Remilia provided didn't really explain anything to him as much as it tell him to accept that it was monsters that they were dealing with. Probably. The semantics of the situation mattered little in the long run, though, so long as the problem—be they monster, youkai, rahi, or whatever other word these otherworldly travelers might have had for them—was dealt with.

"Well, if we're talking about a general description... I will admit that the size of whatever it is that we're hunting was about... That high and roughly that wide?" the hunter continued, gesturing towards the bottom of the treetops and between a pair of trees roughly four meters apart. "It wasn't a clear look, mind you, so that's a rough estimate... But I can at least trust my eyes if nothing else. Not a hunter for nothing."

With that description and Lewa's assertion to proceed, though, Sanae took a brief moment to think for a bit before pointing in another direction, wherein the trees seemed to be equally scarred by whatever had passed through in that direction.

"It might be a good idea to split up here, then—teams of two, maybe, if we want to be safe? If there are a bunch of these things in the area, it might be a bit too slow to take them out one at a time. Worst comes to worst, we can always just run; no way these monsters are any stronger than those soldiers, right?" the green-haired girl asked—somewhat rhetorically, of course—before starting to head off. Hopefully someone actually able to track monsters would join her; otherwise, it'd come down to relying on her intuition. While that had served her well enough in the past, hopefully she could just follow the vague trail of destruction in front of her and not lose the trail entirely.

Assuming the group split up, though, each of them would come across very similar scenes—namely, the presence of what could only have been described as a massive boar surrounded by decimated trees. None would notice the people that had come seeking them immediately, but it would take little more than a few seconds before they turned and recognized the existence of something yet foreign to them—and likely hostile, to boot.

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@Lugubrious@EchoWolff

---

Aventon — Hunter's Lodge

Kendrick chose to listen to Anne's word's in silence, but all the while that same expression seemed to remain as it was. Once she had finished speaking her piece, though, the guard spent a few more moments in silence before sighing.

"...I guess I can't blame you for saying something in that situation. Still doesn't sit right with me, but if the alternative was false hope or something..." he mused before shaking his head. "...No, wait, it's a kid we're talking about at the end of the day; there was no way something wouldn't happen. Gods, why's it so much more complicated now of all times?"

After scratching the back of his head and groaning in frustration, Kendrick took a deep breath before finally turning to face Anne again.

"Ugh. Well, in any case, he should still be asleep now, which gives me a bit of time to talk to you about what comes next," he said as he glanced towards Millie. "Those two are orphans now, no two ways about it. I could take them in, and that'd be that. But my gut's telling me that something's up; I don't know why those Raven Heralds came here in the first place, but it's got something to do with them, right? No way Ywain would've made them run if he didn't know something himself, and it's not like he's around to ask any more..."

@Drifting Pollen

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

@Strosivadan: Aye, still open at the moment.

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Kochiya Sanae

Aventon — Forest Outskirts

With crossed arms and a look of concern rather evident on her face, Sanae glanced around where the group had stopped and shook her head. Up on the peak of Youkai Mountain, beasts rampaging around was an occasional occurrence, but seldom had she seen anything to this extent. More often than not, the tengu or kappa would take it upon themselves to clean matters up before Kanako could even thing of sending her out (or cause bigger problems that would call for her presence to resolve the matter), which meant that her experience on this front was rather limited at best.

Luckily enough, there were those present who did have the skills for just such an occasion, which would inevitably mean that she wouldn't have to make a fool of herself by chasing the wrong trail.

Not that there would really 'be' any wrong trail, though; Remilia (and anyone else with a keen eye for these things) would notice that there were indeed multiple creatures that had passed through the area—and a few minor clashes to boot, if the rare patch of blood or torn fur was any indication of anything.

"Uh... A youkai?" Derek would ask in response to Youmu's inquiry, scratching his head in confusion. "I haven't the foggiest what you might mean by that. Is that a monster of some sort? Because if we're talking monsters and magical creatures... Well, there are probably more than a few deeper into the forest, but they usually don't tend to get close enough for us to have to worry."

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@Lugubrious@EchoWolff

---

The Skies Above Aventon

With the sky as clear and as blue as it could ever be, Rayne would find no issues flying higher and higher into the sky. Ascending into the heavens above, the halfling would soon be met with a beautiful late-morning vista over the horizon—and a nearly uninterrupted view of the land below.

Aventon itself seemed to be somewhat damaged from the chaos of yesterday, but most of the damage could be repaired in time; there was nothing so devastating so as to force the residents to have to abandon their home outright. Sure, the wounds of battle and the loss of life marred what would otherwise be a picturesque little town, but that much couldn't be helped.

There would be little of note to be seen to the north, where the Heralds had retreated towards; there scarcely seemed to be a road of any sort that way, though the ground seemed level enough to not warrant a need for any. A gaping hole in the northern wall, though, would explain how the Heralds had been able to access Aventon's inner workings. Maybe that was an issue to be handled later in time.

Looking east would provide much of the same visuals, though these lands seemed at least somewhat developed. Fields of grain had only started to grow, it seemed, and by some miracle or another the Heralds had left the area mostly untouched. There was evidence of some robbery of whatever was near the town, but beyond that everything seemed intact enough. Further still would be a river, and one large enough to provide for the needs of the town's food supply.

To the town's south, a long, winding road would stretch out into the distance. This one, though scarcely anything more than worn dirt, would at least indicate the presence of travel to and from the humble frontier town. There wasn't any clear destination from where they were now, which at the very least meant that wherever that road led to was too far away to see even from the skies above.

That ultimately left the west the last, and it was there that the expanse of the forests made itself rather apparent. Trees blanketed the area and only really stopped right where Aventon had situated itself—a strategic choice of some sort, no doubt—but seemed to extend far off into the distance, at which point they seemed to bleed into the ground below a somewhat moderately-sized mountain.

The clearing where the church was positioned—in other words, where the group had all come from—was visible from where Rayne was in the sky, as were a few scattered ruins that she had seen yesterday. They weren't convenient trips by any means, but their distance from the town would at least make return visits doable within reason.

@DracoLunaris

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Tachibana Masaru

Nagano Prefecture — Abandoned Mansion

With the sole ranged phantom ashigaru promptly dealt with by none other than Zhao and his fists of death, Masaru moved to follow after his teammate with more aggressive positioning. If their enemy was to take a more defensive posture to use their spears as tools to ward them off—against an archer, no less—then there clearly had to be some sort of misstep in their training.

Well, assuming they had been given any, at least.

As Zhao moved to break through their weapons, Masaru began to fire volley after volley of arrows into the gaps where the martial artist wasn't. If their enemies had been felled with simple shots like those he had fired earlier, then surely he could just turn them into pincushions and achieve the same result in less time... Right?

"Well, trash mobs like these are an... Okay warmup, I guess? Still feels a bit like target practice, which isn't particularly riveting," he remarked as he fired another volley of arrows. "...So if we've got foot soldiers here, maybe we'll find some sturdier stuff deeper in? Wonder how you go past 'armored samurai' in the chain, though, since I assume that's what's up next..."

@Psyker Landshark@Raineh Daze

From Realms Beyond — An Isekai Crossover RP (Now Accepting)

Kochiya Sanae

??? — Hunter's Lodge

Sanae turned to look at the others present who hadn't yet left for the night and was left only mildly surprised at the fact that a majority of them wanted to go hunt down whatever it was in the forest that was leaving the hunters on edge. When that number promptly doubled when the two who had been missing when she had woken up when she had chimed in, the green-haired girl was left in a bit of an odd spot. Naturally, dealing with monsters would have been no different from youkai extermination—a job she had become quite familiar with, but not in this sort of context—but Anne did have a point. But to choose between staying behind or gathering more information about the area...

"Mmm..."

After being lost in her thoughts as she weighed the pros and cons of doing whatever she did, Sanae finally chose to simply choose both options at once. It made sense to her; after all, there were also corpses near the church, which meant that the 'monsters' in question could still appear near there... Which meant that she could accomplish her original goal and help a bit before coming back. "Two birds with one stone" and all that.

"I'll go tag along for a bit, then," she said, stepping forward. "Or, well, I'll join the group to check the area around that church up and help deal with monsters on the side—assuming there are any, of course. I'll head back to the town once my own investigation's done, though, just so we can split the difference."

At the sudden wave of support for an investigation into the nearby woods, though, the hunter who had first mentioned the presence of something odd therein seemed to look surprised for a moment before giving his friend a bit of a smirk.

"Guess we've got the heroes on my side, huh?" he half-joked before raising a hand towards them. "Right, name's Derek; if you wanted to know where we are right now... Well, this is the humble town of Aventon, slapped right on the frontier of the nation of Riltaea. As you, uh, overheard, I saw an uncannily large shadow in the woods earlier today during a hunt. Seemed too dangerous to continue with something that big lumbering around, so I came back early."

There was a bit of a pause before Derek scratched the back of his head before glancing briefly towards his companion, then back towards the rest of the group that had assembled.

"I can show you where it was I saw it, at least. If something that big really is around here, then we're going to have a hell of a time getting any food from the forests here."

---

Aventon — Forest Outskirts

Led by Derek into the forest as they were, the group would swiftly make their way westward. For the most part, nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, but anyone with an eye for nature would feel anything but. Signs of freshly-marked trees, gouged out by something far larger than should have been ordinary, and large amounts of underbrush that looked to have been crushed underfoot in a single motion...

"Here we are," Derek said out loud as he slowed to a stop and looked around. "This is where I saw whatever that thing was, but..."

The more problematic thing wasn't that whatever had marked this place as its own didn't seem to be the only one—not with so many branching paths with clear signs of things passing through every which way.

"My instincts are telling me that something's off. The heck could've caused all this, though...?"

---

Aventon — Hunter's Lodge

As the rest of the group left to go and hunt whatever beast was giving that hunter cause for concern, Kendrick—who by the looks of things seemed rather worn-out—entered the lodge. He had given a passing glance to those who were headed out, but his goal at this point in time was not to speak with them.

No, it only made sense that he wanted to talk to the woman who he had entrusted the pair of children to the night before.

"Miss, uh... Sorry, I don't think I ever got your name," he said to Anne as he walked over to her. "...I saw Alvin run off back to his old place last night. I'm guessing you chose to break the news to him?"

The guard had a complicated expression on his face—an indescribable mix of concern, frustration, and understanding all in one—but he chose not to act on any of those emotions and continued speaking his piece instead.

"Either way... I checked in on him last night after my shift ended. He was still there, thankfully enough—sleeping on the floor and soaking wet, but there. But that's more than enough reason to talk to you now."

It was at this point that Kendrick's expression hardened a little, and a frown made itself rather evident on his face.

"Look, I know I'm not the kid's dad. I can't replace what Ywain's done, and I don't even want to think about how to handle the situation with Millie after she wakes up. I also can't thank you enough for bringing them back here safely—a lot of people here lost their friends and loved ones, and every person alive is a blessing on its own. But would it have been too much to ask to try and keep the news from him until... I don't know, today? Even asking me to do it like you had suggested would have been fine; it's not like I haven't had to do that more than enough times already."

@VitaVitaAR@Izurich@DracoLunaris@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@EchoWolff

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Seasalt Caverns — B2F

Given that his plan hinged upon Luna getting enough experience, it seemed reasonable to just start by defeating every Nacli that they could come across and try to get the Snivy enough experience in battle before heading deeper out onto the trail. The first two were dealt in much of the same way as they had Laurel's Sprigatito—in other words, paralyzing them with Glare, then steadily tackling them down between their own attacks to knock them unconscious. The battles were by no means intricate or intense, but in an enclosed space like the cave there was only so much space that Luna could use to maneuver in.

At the very least, though, there were a few stalagmites that could be used as cover if it came down to it.

After dealing with two Nacli, Luna seemed fairly confident in her ability to take on another. But when the third seemed to be unaffected by her Glare and swung back with a Mud Shot, Richard wasted no time in calling out to her.

"Change of plans! Luna, dodge to the side and Leer! If it tries to come in close, tackle back; if it stays at range, keep dodging and using Leer!"

It was only at the last second that Luna seemed to notice Richard's cry, and after somehow shaking off the shock of their tried-and-true strategy not working, the Grass Snake Pokemon attempted to dive out of the way before mounting a counterattack. While the battle continued on, though, Richard reached into his bag and pulled out an empty Pokeball, readying himself to try and capture their opponent once Luna weakened it enough to do so.

@Rune_Alchemist

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Tachibana Masaru

Nagano Prefecture — Abandoned Mansion

"What the heck, you were right?"

Masaru's follow-up to Zhao's quip was quickly followed up by a quick backstep as the Agent brought his bow up to a ready position. Sakura had already retreated using that odd portal magic of hers, and with Zhao taking point and causing chaos on the frontlines it swiftly fell to him to keep the pressure up on the enemies that hadn't yet engaged him.

A quick analysis of the room left Masaru with just enough leeway to start firing without threatening to tag Zhao in the process, and the young man wasted no time in nocking an arrow and firing towards the gaps in the shadowy ashigaru soldiers' helmets. He didn't expect them all to land dead-on, but even exposing the area underneath would make it easy for a follow-up attack to land true.

Not like he could just aim for the body, though; with all that plating, all his arrows were apt to do was bounce off and maybe leave a bit of a dent. Using whatever weird electricity magic his bow had was an option too, of course, but limiting the space that their frontliner could access seemed rather counter-intuitive at best.

@Psyker Landshark@Raineh Daze