FujiwaraPhoenix

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

??? — ??? Forest

Despite being a massive creature that looked like it had no right to be in the air to begin with, the armor-clad bird was moving uncannily quickly through the skies as it pressed down upon the group of wayward travelers. The distance between them had rapidly closed as the four readied themselves for combat, but the avian seemed wholly unfazed by what they were doing.

Just as Jace had predicted, though, the bird's head deftly moved out of the way of the incoming spears of ice. With no other long-range tools to utilize otherwise, though, the beast quickly drew within melee range of the group.

Nyana's quick thinking was, arguably, the only thing between them and a faceful of bird talons; acting as the vanguard in the direct trajectory of the bird's dive meant that she would be the one bearing the brunt of the impact, but that just as well meant that she had become primary target number one.

After all, her shield had been large enough to mitigate the impact of the attack, but with how massive the bird was, the fact that it would choose to pick her up as it loosed another howling gale—this one far more potent given how close it was now—was not something to be expected.

Swiftly, the creature began to rise back into the air, apparently less burdened by carrying the slimegirl-knight than would have been ideal—as it prepared to leave.

There was a brief chance to try and latch on (or leap onto the bird outright), but time to consider if such a course of action was worth it was a luxury they could ill afford at the moment.

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin@Expendable

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

??? — Ruined Inn

A quick once-over through the inn in search of mobile storage would reveal little more than a few burlap sacks in the kitchen, clearly meant for carrying loads of produce more than they were for traveling at length. It was possible to improvise some makeshift equipment out of what little was left here otherwise—maybe even looting the bedside stands for sundries that fleeing travelers might have left behind.

Examination of the innkeeper's old room—which itself would take a fair bit of force to open, if not knocking it off its hinges entirely—would reveal much of the same decor as that which the group had awoken to. The only difference here, however, was a coil of rope and a now-empty lantern off to the side, untouched by the elements (though dusty all the same).

After retrieving whatever they could, any brave soul who chose to wander outside would find themselves along a rather long, open road. The bell, still tolling in the distance, could be seen swaying back and forth atop a belfry in the distance. The road, it seemed, led towards a town square.

One filled with plentiful undead drawn to the sound, visible even from here.

Around them, though, were signs that the once-lively town had certainly seen better days. Gashes and cracks marked the paved streets, the stone itself broken by the grasses and lichens that had begun to reclaim them. It was clear, though, that the inn was far better off than more than a few stores that surrounded it. A few seemed to be little more than charred wood atop crumbling foundation, while others, though intact, had their windows or doors smashed through by something or another.

At the very least, the variety in buildings meant that there were other places to explore if need be. A faded sign hanging off a rusted chain of one, for example, seemed to have the faintest outline of a hammer. At another, the remnants of a multitude of broken tables and overturned chairs lay strewn about within the interior—a sure sign that people had once gathered there for some reason or another.

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw

---

Neir — Guardhouse

"A... Doggy bag?"

Though Meira was clearly confused by the term presented to her by "C", the context around the phrase was enough to clue her in as to what the young man wished to do.

"...Oh, you wanted to bring him leftovers," she finally said before glancing back towards where the elf had thrown up mere moments earlier. "...I don't think he'd be able to keep it down, to be honest. It'd be better to just let him drink water for now and let the healers—and maybe a chirurgeon—do what they need to. I'll treat him some other time."

Once Cassius' condition was made known to the guards (and that they would be aware that she would be heading out for a meal), though, the catgirl promptly led the young man to the gates of Neir proper. There, though, the adventurer would be promptly stopped by a guard who seemed to be ever so slightly on edge.

Given what had just been reported, maybe that was to be expected.

"Don't worry about that one," she quipped before revealing her own adventurer plate, "he's with me. I've already checked in at the guardhouse outside, if you really want to be paranoid."

The guard gave the item a brief glance, then tossed a slightly less trustful gaze towards the human behind her before nodding and letting the pair through.

Past the latticed gate overhead and the stone arches supporting it, what could only have been described as the quintessential Western fantasy town lay splayed out in front of Connor's eyes. Though nowhere near as fancifully lively as media might have made things out to be, the place seemed to be quite clean—a far cry from the slums sitting just outside it's walls.

"Anyways, you wanted to know about more adventurer stuff, right? I'll fill you in as we go," the catgirl remarked. "Materials are the general rule of thumb, though, yes; not sure why you'd assume letters at a glance, since not everyone speaks the same language. Wood, tin, copper, iron, bronze, silver, gold, platinum... Up until that point is where you'd expect the top 'normal' adventurers to find their limits. But beyond that—moonsilver, orichalcum, mithril, and the like—is the sort of thing meant for legends. Not like I've ever seen anyone past moonsilver here, though, but honestly half the tales around those ranks feel so exaggerated they may as well have been spun up by a drunk bard on his tenth ale of the night."

By the time she had finished her explanation, though, the catgirl had come to a stop in front of what was undeniably a tavern of sorts, complete with a sign of a wooden mug hanging overhead.

"Welcome to 'The Drunken Bear'. Place is a bit rough later at night, but that's because it's pretty popular with the locals," Meira said as she opened the door and motioned for "C" to follow.

It didn't take long for one of the barmaids to notice the pair and bound over towards them, nor did it take much longer for them to be seated at a small table off to the side.

"Shall I get you some water to start? Or would you like to try our signature beer, instead?"

"I'll be fine with some water," the catgirl replied simply before glancing towards her companion. Hopefully, he would have at least some restraint despite his first impressions...

@ERode@Zeroth@TheMushroomLord

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Route 5

Though he winced when Luna took the brunt of the Rock Smash to the face, Richard quickly righted himself—and just in time to notice that Luna's one-two combo had managed to land without issue otherwise.

That was one benefit to having an enemy willingly close the distance, at least.

At this point, though, there really wasn't much else to be done; caught in the Wrap as it was, the enemy Sneasel was more or less forced out of combat. That didn't mean that they could simply wait for it to be choked into fainting, though; with the advantage they now had, it only made sense to try and keep that momentum up.

"Luna, keep whacking it in the head with Vine Whip, and don't loosen your grip for anything!" Richard called out. The Snivy nodded her head in response and, as requested, began to slap at the bound Sneasel's face.

There were other ways of brutalizing the opponent, of course, but seeing as how he didn't know the extent to which Luna could move a bound target, Richard chose to reserve any more aggressive callouts for emergencies. Hopefully Laurel could keep the Pawniard occupied long enough for them to beat the Sneasel down—or, well, maybe even help with that so that Luna could tag out sooner than not.

There was only so much she could do against this specific combination of opponents, after all.

@Rune_Alchemist

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP Interest Check

Hello, I am here.

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

Kochiya Sanae

On the Road

Sanae had been rather quiet as she followed the rest of the group alongside the caravan, if only because the entire situation was growing increasingly more complex the more she thought about things. The keywords of 'capital' and 'danger' had obviously been at the forefront of her mind, and coupled with the whole mess that had apparently allowed her to call out to Suwako-sama as she had..

Well, it was a giant question of "where to begin" now. Before she could spend too long lost in her own thoughts, though, the Scarlet Devil had spoken up, prompting the group into a conversation as to how to proceed with their plans. The green-haired girl listened in silence to the conversation that followed, all the while thinking about where to best focus her own efforts in the process.

That didn't mean that their current plan, vague as it was, was without flaws, though.

"I think Rayne's got a point," the shrine maiden chimed in as she crossed her arms and tilted her head ever so slightly to the side. "That said, it'd have to be some uncannily lax kingdom to let a bunch of strangers claiming to have come from another world into the audience of the most important figure in the nation, and I don't know if we'd get an audience if we just presented the Raven Herald attack to him as evidence. At most, we'd probably get, like... I don't know, some cranky old military man to check things out?"

After saying that, however, Sanae figured that following in Lewa's footsteps and figuring out more about the world—and of the threat prophesized to be bearing down upon them—seemed to be the most reasonable course of action.

"If you want to handle politics and high society, by all means. I'm going to do what I do best and go around trying to figure out the culprit behind whatever's threatening the city," she added before thinking for a bit more. "...Are we just going to be splitting into teams for this, then? It certainly feels like everyone's got different priorities..."

@VitaVitaAR@EchoWolff@Izurich@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris@Rezod92

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

Neir — Guardhouse

Though she still felt a fair deal of responsibility for Cassius' current troubles, Meira couldn't help but nod her head in silent acceptance at the elf's assertion that he was the one at fault for his current situation. The catgirl didn't share those sentiments, but whether or not the injured elf truly believed that or was simply speaking pleasantries the young woman felt it as good a time as any to simply drop the topic for the moment.

It was at that moment that Cassius' odd companion, paranoid as he had been since the last time she had seen him, had chosen to enter the room. The fact that he was here meant that the guards were done questioning him, and it was at least admirable that he had chosen to check in on the elf instead of fleeing with his...

Newfound spoils of battle?

"...I guess that explain where the knives on that bastard went," she remarked, noting how odd the ensemble looked on the young man to herself before Cassius suggested that a meal was in order—though, obviously enough, not for him.

"I feel like you'd probably be owed a bit more than a meal, but that's fine by me," she replied as she glanced towards 'C'. "If you want to work on your own time, though, it might be a good idea to stop by the Adventurer's Guild..."

The catgirl trailed off before simply shrugging her shoulders.

"If you want to some of that work you were asking about for some coin, though, you'll need an adventurer plate. That would take a while, though, but I'll let you decide what you want to do."

@ERode@Zeroth@TheMushroomLord

Reborn in a Fantasy World, This Time I Shall...!

??? — Ruined Inn

As the pair who had entered the cellar resurfaced from it's depths, they—and those still waiting above—would be met with the sound of something that would feel quite out-of-place for what little they had seen of the town.

The sound of a bell tolling could be heard from somewhere off in the distance, and each ring seemed to echo throughout the otherwise-empty town. A cursory glance out the window would show that the otherworlders were not the only ones to perceive the sound; it would have been difficult for anything not deaf to not, after all.

The undead that had been milling about the shattered glass earlier, however briefly, seemed to slowly be moving towards the bell and away from the entrance, leaving the path more or less clear if the group wished to explore the area outside the inn.

The cause of the event remained to be seen, of course, but that didn't change the opportunity that had been so fortuitously presented to them.

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw

---

??? — ??? Forest

Though the massive bird seemed to be content simply drinking water for a while, the continued discussions of the group took long enough for it to finish what it had initially come to the lake to do. After straightening it's body back up, the avian creature slowly turned itself towards the four that were still busy debating their options.

Whatever their choice would have been seemed to matter little as it let out a cry and flapped it's massive wings towards them. With that came a strong gale that, even from this distance, could be felt.

Doubly so, now that the bird had lifted off from where it had been standing and began to fly at the four.

There was some time before it drew close enough to do whatever it planned to do, but any opportunities to plan seemed to be very quickly running thin.

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin@Expendable

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Route 5

"Ah, crap."

Richard swore lightly under his breath as the battle began to unfold in front of him. The Sneasel's taunt was, unfortunately enough, the exact thing to stop his and Luna's standard strategy in its tracks. The Grass Snake Pokémon floundered about for a brief moment as it's flow was disrupted, but it didn't take long for it to her back up with what felt like a rare desire to repay it's aggressor in kind.

For what it was worth, the situation wasn't wholly out of his control; losing access to his primary strategy just meant having to improvise a new one on the fly.

"Focus the Sneasel? Sure, I can work with that," the Trainer remarked before calling out to Luna. "Luna, Vine Whip into Wrap! Aim for the limbs!"

Without so much as a sound in response, two whiplike vines shot out towards the Sneasel from Luna's body. The Pokémon seemed wholly intent on repaying what damage had been done to its still-burgeoning pride, though to what extent it could improvise remained to be seen.

@Rune_Alchemist

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

Kochiya Sanae

Aventon

While she had expected questions more directed towards her ability to summon deities, Sanae found herself being questioned about the presence of the Moriya Shrine in Gensokyo period—and by a resident of the place, no less! Given all the things in the last few years related to them (and her own efforts in the Human Village side), the young woman rather baffled by having to answer the question before doing so regardless.

"How? Uh... I don't think I could tell you how, but it's on the top of Youkai Mountain now, lake and all. Heavens know how much faith Kanako-sama and Suwako-sama had to use for that, but what's done is done, right?" she responded, only for Remilia's assertion to not use her abilities for anything but breaking so that they still had a line home. "As for that... Well, there's always the possibility of gathering some up here. I can't guarantee I won't use that stuff in an emergency, though, but I'll do what I can to keep from losing too much in fights."

Rayne's own attempt at optimism soon reminded the young woman, though, that theirs was now the only group who had a method of reaching home, no matter how limited. To that, all the young woman could provide was a nervous smile. She had no knowledge of other worlds outside of what media she had consumed while on the Outside World, and her own limited abilities meant that offering her own help outside of what she was already doing for the group wouldn't have amounted to much at the end of the day.

With her explanation for what had transpired now left to the others to interpret, Sanae's focus quickly shifted away from that to handling whatever else it was they needed to do, if only because of Anne's prompting her to do so. To be quite frank, the thought of setting up a defensive barrier had not crossed the young woman's mind; it wasn't her realm of expertise, after all, and the most she had done outside of combat in the past was spiritual barriers.

...That didn't mean that she couldn't do that now, though.

"Um... I can do spiritual barriers for sure, but nothing selective," she replied after producing a few ofuda from her sleeve. "A proper defensive barrier might interfere with the townsfolks' daily lives, so warding off the supernatural's the best I can do. The others who chose to stay behind should be enough to handle anything physical, though. Hopefully."

Discussions regarding any last-second preparations for the protection of Aventon and it's residents otherwise, however, was rather brief; none of the others seemed capable of leaving any lingering protection, which meant that once she was done and Mr. Hest had finished talking the merchants into letting them along, they would all be capital-bound.

Not that they couldn't follow from a distance anyways, but with half the group traveling on foot and the other half capable of just flying along, there were bound to be some logistical issues if they chose to split up.

"If that's how things are, then, I'll be right back!" the green-haired girl called out as she floated into the air. "I'll go set everything up and be back here in a moment."

---

By the time that Sanae had returned to the southern gate, the merchants and their entourage were all ready to head out. With the state that the town had been in when they had arrived, it seemed that the men of coin had deemed it proper to simply sell what they could in the day before heading out. Quite frankly, the shrine maiden couldn't blame them for their choice of action; it was difficult to sell things to people if there weren't many people to sell to, after all.

Hopefully, though, the town would recover well enough in their absence.

Millie and Alvin had initially wanted to join along with the rest of the group as they traveled the world, but with Ywain acting as their guardian (and the merchants' own insistence that bringing children along could be dangerous), the siblings eventually stood down... If only on the condition that Anne and her friends come back at some point to tell them tales of what they had seen.

It was as good a compromise as any.

With everything more or less settled as best they could be for the moment, the merchant caravan soon set off southbound, now with a few more people in tow. Slowly, the town began to shrink over the horizon as the forests began to give way to wide, rolling plains. The beaten dirt path they trod upon now was the only thing indicating any sense of direction, though it was another question entirely when they would find another town to rest at or if they would need to set up camp for the night instead.

At the very least, travel provided ample opportunity for the otherworlders to speak with one another or with the natives of the world. A trip like this meant that this would be the only company they had for a while, for better or worse.

@VitaVitaAR@EchoWolff@Izurich@Lugubrious@Drifting Pollen@Raineh Daze@DracoLunaris@Rezod92

Qlippoth Shift: A Supernatural Action RP About Combating Otherworldy Anomalies

Tachibana Masaru

Branch-092 — Records Department

With the matter regarding the samurai settled, Masaru felt it perfectly reasonable to consider the mission resolved. The young man felt as if he hadn't actually done much in the grand scheme of things—if only because he was used to being the big playmaker when it came to hunting most days—but whether or not that was true would be left to the people reviewing footage of the incident to decide. What he felt and what he knew[ were two different matters altogether, though; at the end of the day, cleaning up trash and keeping them off of the people who could actually land meaningful blows on their enemy was what he was here to do.

In that sense, he had done his job exactly as he should have... But that didn't mean that he couldn't do more next time.

Rather than going back to the simulators and exerting any effort there, the Agent had instead elected to go and review the VODs of the last incident.

Thankfully, nobody seemed inclined to stop him when he walked in with a bowl of ramen and took a seat in front of a computer. Watching videos and eating food at the same time was nothing particularly groundbreaking, but that didn't mean it wasn't worth doing anyhow.

Hopefully nothing would spill, though, else he would've been left on the hook for cleanup...