FujiwaraPhoenix

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

Tenjou Seika

Yamazaki High School

"This should... Probably be good enough?"

With a deep breath as she leaned back in her seat, Seika glanced briefly though the window to her left. The evening sky had already washed over the town, and her high school was obviously no exception to the rule. While everyone else in her class had left for the day, she had stayed behind to make sure that everyone's physical preparations for the upcoming cultural festival were all ready and accounted for. She couldn't really complain about being saddled with that responsibility, though; while her attention had been directed towards flyers to begin with, creating those had been a simple enough task with the power of the internet and a brother with image editing software. The designs had been passed around and reviewed by most everyone else, but while the heads of the class committee came to a verdict on their own, Seika had been given a new task to keep her occupied... Or so she felt it to be.

Either way, though, it was well past time to head back home and relax a bit. The amount of homework had shrunk, no thanks in part to the festival itself, but that didn't mean that her responsibilities had waned with them. With that thought in mind, the young woman grabbed her bag and, after one last pass to make sure that she hadn't forgotten anything, slipped it on and headed for the door.

With any luck, she could get home before it grew too late...

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

Kochiya Sanae

Hillside Hamlet

Between the copious amount of firepower that the group was raining down from the skies and the way that the fighters were carving through enemies on the ground, it was not surprising in the least to the green-haired shrine maiden that the enemy numbers were rapidly thinned down from the horde that they initially appeared to be. Their strategy was by no means perfect, granted, though the few that did manage to slip through the cracks in their counterattack were promptly dealt with by Anne if nothing else. Things seemed to be going all right, at least until Sanae noticed—and promptly grazed past—a blob of dark energy that had felt uncannily similar to what she had felt earlier from the mishaguji that Suwako had summoned when they had first left for the capital.

"...Curses?" she muttered to herself as Rayne, taking the initiative before anyone else could, charged off to go deal with the slimes that had shot them in the first place.

Not like they were any threat, of course, but with gravity still being... Well, gravity, any shot that failed to meet it's mark could very well fall back to the ground, and who knew what sort of problems that could lead to. If someone could break away and cause enough damage to stop them from being any issue, then all the better.

It didn't take long after that for the torrent of enemies to finally die out. The largest among them had been the last, it seemed, though it was rather strange that there didn't seem to be any sort of leader (obvious or otherwise) leading them here in the first place. With the matter settled, though, Sanae finally stopped launching her shrapnel-laden frog bullets and slowly floated back towards the caravan, which at this point had refocused from full-on retreat to simply fending off the few enemies that had trickled through the chaos.

"Everything's all clear," she declared, waving her gohei in the air as she approached, "More or less, at least. The settlement's undamaged, but if you want to stop by for a moment, it'd probably be a good idea to stay away from... Uh... All the potholes we made in the process."

Upon hearing that declaration of victory—and in such a short span of time—Syldon glanced at the others present before shrugging his shoulders and conveying the news to the others, mercenaries or otherwise, and getting to work getting them back on track.

While that matter was being settled, though, the two original defenders of the area shaved through the last of the enemies before turning their attention towards the pair of melee fighters that had first drawn their attention. The girl, of course, seemed far more chipper about the whole ordeal than the treant.

"Thanks for the help! Honestly, your arrival was quite the boon; I think we would've been fine, but I can't say the same about the villagers there," the girl spoke first, stepping forward before giving a slight curtsy. "My name's Gwen; this is Maokai. He doesn't... Like people much, though, so it'd probably be better if you let him be."

At the hamlet itself, though, it seemed that all of the villagers—fearing the worst, as would be expected—had all gathered up in one of the central buildings of the area. Naturally, fear of that wave of unnatural monsters steadily marching upon them had kept them from doing much more than trying to get out there and fend for themselves, but with that threat settled, it seemed reasonable to expect a few of them to exit and scope the situation out after the threat had passed.

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

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

Neir — The Drunken Bear

"Parker? Certainly is quite a far cry from the 'C' you provided your acquaintance," Meira replied before taking a bite of the sandwich she had been served and taking a bite. There was a brief pause before she spoke again, though this time with a bit more scrutiny in her gaze as she answered his next few questions.

"The Guild does host some training courses for newcomers—those who come into town from smaller towns with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a dream—but if you want to focus on magic, you'd be better served finding a mentor. As far as I know, only the really dedicated choose to enter the magic college, and that place is well beyond any of my expertise. They do have some basic manuals for fighting at the guild, though, if you're not the type to learn by doing... but that's a different problem altogether," she began to say before leading into her own set of question. "There aren't any wild fae here as far as I'm concerned, though, so I'm not sure why you'd be so worried about names... Or magic like that at all, for that matter. You and Cassius came here together, correct?"

The catgirl retained a casual demeanor as she waited for a response, though, and chose to simply eat her sandwich as she waited for a response in turn.

@Zeroth

---

Neir — Slums

The child that had, until that point, been poking at the odd slime was quickly taken by surprise when it began to talk. At first, they seemed to be shocked, looking around to see if anyone was playing a trick on them; when cursory exploration provided no answers and the slime continued to speak, however, their dirt-smeared face seemed to light up with (understandably) childlike joy.

"It's a talking slime!" they cried out before quickly covering their mouth and looking around to see if anyone had overheard. Nobody had, it seemed, which meant that they were wholly in the clear for what to do next.

Namely, grabbing their newfound pet-slash-toy up and fleeing from the shack where it had been found.

"Your name was Namsil, right?" they asked, having clearly misconstrued the attempt at providing a name as such. "My name's Ain! Nice to meet you!"

@TheMushroomLord

---

??? — ??? Forest

As might have been expected for a creature that appeared to have been donning full plate armor, the massive bird seemed almost wholly unfazed by the barrage of the three wanderers not caught in it's grasp. Though a layer of frost coated one of it's wing for a brief moment, it didn't take much more than another flap as it began to lift back off the ground for the ice to be promptly shorn off and thrown right back at the defenders. The stabs of the knife had at least a modicum more success in stalling the creature, but at best it looked like the stabs only brought about discomfort and small trickles of blood past those tough-as-iron feathers that lined it's stomach.

For what it was worth, though, the force of a human leaping up and onto a tail feather was more than enough to tear it off—but not enough to stop it from doing more than screeching in pain—a horrible sound akin to metal scraping against metal—before lifting off.

Instead of rising higher and higher into the sky to drop the captured knight, however, the bird flapped it's wings a few times before swiveling around and flying over the forest the group had been so keen on avoiding until now.

At the very least, Nyana would have a good enough view of the ground below as the bird cut through the sky—though maybe not quite at the same speed and steadiness it had approached them at.

@Crusader Lord@Thunder999999@Crimson Paladin@Expendable

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

Not a Gacha Addict

• Name: Tenjou Seika
• Age: 16
• Gender: Female
• Appearance: "Rather nice out today, isn't it?"
  Seika is a modest 5'6" (~167cm) with a figure that doesn't particularly stand out among the crowd of other Japanese people, much less other students. Her choice of clothing is also often rather low-key, opting for ensembles that are simple rather than gaudy whenever prompted.
• Personality: Seika could be considered to be a rather friendly and outgoing individual, though not necessarily on the level of a social butterfly like some of her other more-popular classmates might be. At the very least, the young woman positions herself as something akin to a 'side character' (as her brother might put it) able to reach across the usual stratifications of friend groups in the class. To that end, Seika has become adept at both leading and maneuvering groups and social situations from the shadows—a distinct oddity given how her popularity might have shot up if what she spent her free time doing in lieu of accepting offers to hang out playing at arcades or singing karaoke came to light.
  That being said, Seika doesn't desire the shallow popularity provided by student cliques; though peer approval is a meaningful part of her motivation to continue as she has, it is a desire to be acknowledged for what she has done and what she can do that pushes her to further and further heights.
• Backstory: Though she originated from a rather mundane household (even by normal standards), Seika's childhood was punctuated more than anything else by the deep impression that the media her older brother consumed as she grew up. Games and anime that were popular among his peers were oft played while their parents were off working, and in so doing they became her introduction to the mass market appeal of otaku culture. In so doing, however, the young Seika found a connection to her sibling... And with that, a penchant for voice acting in turn.
  With the boom in internet media where anyone could become an amateur videographer, Seika's brother found himself dabbling in experimenting with content to toss up on NND and YouTube, and began his slow grind through the content algorithm with something decidedly tried-and-true: gameplay with commentary. Seika, still quite young at this point, had one day chimed in and asked him if she could help. Curiosity of a child notwithstanding, the young man decided it reasonable enough to humor her request and prompted her to try reading some of the lines of a character in the game he was playing at the time. Her performance was surprisingly well-received by both him and by the pittance of an audience he had gathered at the time, which really just meant that she was unsurprisingly asked to do it again.
  One thing led to another, though, and the young Seika soon found herself in talks with her parents about going to afterschool voice training classes to refine the one skill that she might not have ever found otherwise. Since then, though, that ability of hers, as well as the vocational tracks that they often lead towards, have become core parts of her identity and have remained as such since then.
• Skills: Seika's voice could be considered one of her greatest strengths, and even if divorced from any connections to voice acting, her ability to speak and sing clearly could very well have opened other avenues for her to explore over the course of the years to come. Her ability to dance on stage is, in comparison, a bit lacking; while acting and movement through acting seems to 'click' at a glance, those movements serve a "purpose"—to convey the feelings and emotions of a character she is presenting. Modern dancing choreography is a bit too much for her at times, which really just means that being an idol was never really in the cards for her future—at least, not without extensive training to make up for her occasional two left feet.
  Otherwise, though, Seika is rather adept at improvisation. Regardless of what the world throws her way or what tools she has at hand to try and break through a situation, Seika will do her best to figure something out to resolve it.
• Spiritual Energy Grade: B
  
  • Contracted Being: Menreiki
  • Contract Rank: C
  • Contract Abilities: Seika's contract allows her to, after paying a fixed amount of spiritual energy, summon a set of random masks for her personal use. Each mask has it's own set of abilities that can range from "completely useless" (such as increasing her ability to read faster) to summoning weapons (which she could or could not have any proficiency in using) to even increasing her physical capabilities or transforming her outright. The sheer randomness inherent in this ability leaves it's potential as inconsistent, and being coupled with the fact that Seika can only have one mask equipped at a time means that her actual usefulness in combat can vary wildly even over the course of a single battle.
  • Cost: In order to continue using the effects of her contract, Seika she needs to 'perform' in some way, shape, or form to an audience. This can take many forms, be they singing, dancing, or acting to an audience, but obviously anything that incorporates all three provides the biggest benefits. Those 'benefits' primarily take the form of relative increases her "luck" whenever she next needs to invoke said contract, but may be subject to change in the future.

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

Kochiya Sanae

Hillside Hamlet

With implicit approval given for her (and the rest of the otherworlders) to break away from the caravan, Sanae took a deep breath and prepared herself mentally for combat. The enemies this time were monsters, at least, and not people; though she hadn't been as keen on taking the lives of people as her peers here were, things like those weird slimes definitely did not fall into that category.

After nodding in response towards Anne's rapid division of their forces, Sanae shot off after the others with her gohei at the ready. While the usage of more indiscriminate firepower by means of a spell card in this situation would probably have done well enough at cleaning the nearby fields up of those strange slimes, the young woman felt her pride taking a bit more of a hold as the others who were airborne chose to rely on more straightforward methods of attack.

If massive explosions were the weapon of choice for the day, then it seemed like a good a time as any to use her own, right?

Swept up in the moment as she was, Sanae took a fairly comfortable position in the air alongside Mokou and Rayne and began to fire clusters of frog-shaped bullets into the overwhelming sea of inky darkness—far away from the melee fighters holding their ground, of course. The frogs that landed simply blew up on impact; compared to the ones that she usually used, though, these seemed to have bits of earthen shrapnel embedded in them for good measure.

"Suwako-sama... I know you upgraded those, but... Turning them into grenades?" she mumbled to herself as continued peppering away at the horde of monsters. "I know they blew up already, but adding shrapnel is a bit..."

At the ground level, though, those fighting would see that the "slimes" were less slime-like than one might have otherwise expected. Though they moved and functioned as one might have expected, their bodies seemed to simply dissipate into the air after receiving any sort of particularly lethal blow. They left no residue, no trace of their existence as they died.

Luckily, however, that meant that they could be shorn through in time.

Such was the case for the scissor-wielding girl and the living tree near her, who, after noticing the presence of the pink-haired Berserker by their side smashing through the horde, began to fight back with newfound vigor.

"I had thought this would be a tough fight, but help is always welcome!" the girl declared, a bright smile on her face as she swung her weapon around, stabbing and snipping through any monsters that approached. "But I suppose introductions should wait until after the battle's over."

The treant, however, seemed to be far less enthusiastic about the sudden arrival of newcomers. All the same, though, it continued to fight against the horde with little restraint. With it's prodigious size, the massive being swung it's arms around, slamming into the oncoming horde it's arms and into the ground to release blasts of concentrated magical energy—also directed towards the enemies, of course.

Between all the chaos of handling the slimelike monsters, though, what would be of immediate concern was that there were larger ones crossing over the nearby hills and slowly moving towards the town. They were fewer in number compared to the smaller ones, of course, but their presence would be coupled with something more concerning.

More specifically, of course, that was the fact that they were firing what was unmistakably balls of concentrated, corrupted magic towards those fighting, both in the sky and in the air.

By now, the caravan had already been turned around and had begun to retreat from the battlefield, but the mercenaries seemed to be equally occupied as the number of monsters began to steadily increase.

The hamlet still seemed to be their main priority, however, which meant that anything that wasn't directly engaging with one of the otherworlders was still slowly pushing onward to the center of the settlement. There had to be something there if they were converging, but figuring out what that was would probably have to wait until the area was a bit more secure.

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

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

??? — Streets

Forcing the door to the smithy open wouldn't take too much effort, owing in part due to the rotten wood that had once held the lock in the doorframe in place. With a conspicuously loud cracking noise as the door gave way, Bianca—and anyone who followed after her—would be met with a cluster of undead soldiers. Scars marked both their equipment and bodies, and none seemed to be in great condition, but that didn't change what they were now.

Given how they had been trapped within the building, however, the bell's ringing seemed to have done little beyond gathering them all in one place up until the door opened.

Now, however, there was a new noise to follow—a new existence to chase after and strike out at. Though their reactions to the noise seemed staggered, it didn't take long for the zombies to begin lurching towards the broken door, rusted and shattered weapons at the ready.

@VitaVitaAR@RolePlayerRoxas@Aku the Samurai@SilverPaw

---

Neir — The Drunken Bear

Though Meira had given a bit of a curious glance towards the young man as he half-shouted for beer, the way he had spent the next few seconds freaking out pushed the assumption that he was desperate out of her mind. At this point, he seemed more awkward than anything—a bit of an oddity for someone who looked as old as he did—but the catgirl chose not to judge and instead offered suggestions for their meal as per his request.

"Menu's up there on that signboard," she mentioned offhandedly as she pointed to a plaque of wood marked with papers nearby, "but if you want suggestions for someone who hasn't eaten in a day... Probably something not too heavy would be fine, so I'd recommend the rabbit stew."

After the waitress returned with their drinks and left with their orders, though, the adventurer would take a sip of water before hearing the young man's next question. By this point, Meira had begun to feel that Cassius' outlandish story didn't seem too far-fetched if someone was asking questions on this level to her, but without revealing any such thoughts she simply replied in turn.

"Monsters nearby... If we're talking about within vicinity of the town and past the slums, you'd probably be likely to find meridian vipers and the silverspine rabbits; there's been a bit of a population boom of both lately, though, so I'd expect to run into those in the plains nearby. If it's Bero Forest, that list grows a lot longer; blackfang boars, whipvine wolves, poison slimes..." Meira trailed off before shaking her head. "Well, they're not too worrisome if you don't cause a fuss. I can't help much when it comes to plants, though, since I'd probably get smacked upside the head by the botanists at the guild if they found out I was explaining those badly. You'll have to get that information elsewhere. That aside... What other non-humans are there beyond beastfolk and elves here? Ogres, dwarves, and the occasional daemon is probably the best answer I could give if we're talking regular residents, but I think I've seen a few lizardmen walking around as of late. Couldn't tell you why they're here, though."

Hopefully, that much would be enough to let the young man ruminate on whatever it was going through his mind while they waited for their meals to arrive.

"Oh, right, I don't ever think I got your name... Or you, mine?" she added in. "It's Meira, by the way."

@Zeroth

---

Neir — Slums

After the chaos had settled and the offending ne'er-do-wells promptly dragged away, the residents who lived or "worked" in the slums quickly got to work. While one body had been dragged away by Connor, the other had been left unattended by Meira in favor of Cassius' survival. This meant, of course, that those who were more curious (or opportunistic) quickly got to work, taking what they could off the corpse (or what remained of it) before moving to dispose of it.

They had the decency to clean up after themselves, at least.

Unfortunately for Petra, however, the focus of the others on the dead did not exempt her from catching the eye of someone else—a young child who had to be no older than ten. Donning dirty hempen clothing and wielding a stick from somewhere or another, the boy began to poke at the slime out of pure curiosity.

Whether or not it would be a problem... Well, that was up for the slime to decide.

@TheMushroomLord

Pokemon: Dream

Richard Evans

Route 5

While not as centered upon slowly grinding the opponent into the ground, Richard couldn't really deny how this new improvised method of attacking was panning out. Something like this—forcing a 2v2 into a pair of 1v1s—would probably be worth examining in the future, but the young man quickly brought his focus back towards the battle at hand. With the Sneasel slowly being worn down by the Leech Seed and Wrap on top of the continued barrage of Vine Whips, taking a few smaller blows here and there wouldn't really amount to much after the fact.

A quick glance at the Munchlax at Luna's side, however, showed that the situation wasn't as ideal as the Trainer might have otherwise preferred. The Pawniard that had since been left to run rampant was quickly becoming a problem, and it was only a matter of time before it folded to the pressure.

Given how Laurel's plan seemed to center around turning the fight into a 2v1, though, Richard quickly came to the conclusion that using the opponent to speed things up in the interim was a good an idea as any to do so.

"Luna! Use the Sneasel as a shield for Munchlax and block that attack!" he ordered—and the Snivy he had asked to do so seemed more than happy to oblige.

Maybe that Taunt had done a bit more than just block off any debilitating moves, for better or worse...

@Rune_Alchemist

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

@Aku the Samurai: I have been summoned, and so I shall provide input for thee (because it's late and it'd be better to provide this statement than not).

My problem with using Ryujin is that he (unlike the other more choleric choices people have proposed) doesn't seem the type to force that sort of physical transformation on people? Given how one of the major traits of Ryujin (and a lot of Eastern dragons, honestly) is access to a human form that doesn't retain any of those classically draconic features, forcing those more animalistic/serpentine traits onto someone doesn't feel like it makes sense. The rest of the cost also doesn't really hold up; unlike Western dragons, Eastern dragons (and the dragon god especially) are not generally presented as avaricious to the point of forcing the collection of treasures in any context. The other part of that is...

Taking really long baths or swimming in a pool? I dunno, seems more like a reward to some people to me.

There's also the dangling thread in the backstory that is the serpent, which is sort of used as an "ooh, look, danger noodle!" sort of reference that is promptly forgotten to tie the character to the school. I assume this is in part a holdover from the Orochi concept from earlier, but still.

That aside, the powerset feels sort of scattered to me. A focus on the ocean and water makes sense, but coupled with the limitations in play that we have for both this character and Rain's own and we end up with a bit of overlap. Immunity to toxins and poisons I'll... Sort of give a pass for now, since he holds fairly notable ties to medicine and healing in mythology. Healing blood I'm not going to say too much on for similar reasons, and talking to sea creatures...

Well, that's the sort of Aquaman ability that we have to force scenarios to have that be useful in at best. Funny, but can be superfluous, so I'm not going to needle at that one too much.

My suggestion is to lean a bit more into some of the mythologies associated with Ryujin if you want to go all-in here and not find a different route forward. For example, Urashima Taro is tangentially related by dint of traveling to Ryugu-jo, which is still his domain, and the myth of Tawara Touda slaying the oomukade also features the Dragon King as a notable side character. Either way, there's a bit of room to draw upon syncretism and more abstract things beyond what's being presented...

But, well, that's just my opinion and not something you need to follow to the letter.

Edit: @Teyao (not like the mention will lock in, but still), I don't think I have any qualms about Mr. Narrator here. It's not usurping control, so I have no reason to shoot it down.

Shadow Contract: An Urban Fantasy Action RP

Oh, I guess I've gotta do my part, huh? Lessee...

@King Cosmos: Well, Reina (or Heihachi) jokes aside, I think the problem is that the big counterplay other than pure LoS-breaking tactics is to never engage in continuous combat... For any longer than six seconds before trying to disengage. One could argue that six seconds is a lot of time, but I would argue this makes it very difficult for us GMs to design any sort of slow encounters or ones that don't have conveniently placed obstacles that might break that LoS. Any of THOSE would effectively be forced to be placed against any team or scenario your character isn't on, which I would argue limits how interesting we could make encounters both in terms of environment and enemy concept.

I would also argue that a core problem of this kit is that enemies, at a glance, wouldn't really know how to work around "break LoS for 9s", and depending on how many targets you can track, this could make her really strong at AoE cleanup on top of a really solid DoT-centric fighter... And this is also ignoring the question if if you could incidentally turn her into a sniper by slapping scopes onto her eyes, but I digress. Either way, I'm in the camp of "probably not workable if not tuned more towards utility/ability unlock at 9s" over "9s autohit burn until all LoS is broken"... Y'know, on top of the 15s poison application that makes it even easier to force the DoT...

That is also ignoring how the autohit DoT immediately resumes as long as any eye catches sight, and given how you can sorta just run a target down because eye 1 gives X-ray tracking after 3s it's just... Really difficult for anything trying to flee to ever succeed.

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

Kochiya Sanae

On the Road

With the most immediate—and most actionable—course of action set, Sanae felt it best to actually call upon one of the merchants the group was so apt to inquire for information on the state of the world rather than simply speak about it. With every topic of note in hand (or, at the very least, the intent to ask about them), the green-haired girl poked her head into the nearest caravan occupant (one not occupied with driving a carriage, obviously) and asked if anyone was free to answer a few questions that the group had.

To her surprise, though, it was the merchant that she had first asked about taking them here that had answered her call. The man seemed to still be somewhat reticent with regards to the group as a whole, but given how Syldon had managed to convince him...

Maybe there was some merit to seeing if he answered at all?

Having made his way to the back of the wagon he was seated within, the older man regarded the group with silence as they relayed to him, in no meaningful order, their questions.

"Mmm... Well, the Raven Heralds have been pushing more towards the east as of late, so I'm not sure why they would attack a frontier town," he would begin to say, "but hell if I know what the king of Eiderheim's plans are. I guess I should be stocking up on some more arms if they're preparing an offensive south, though... Well, regardless, the information's greatly appreciated."

The question as to the commonality of their strengths and abilities, however, did cause the man to pause and reflect for a little bit.

"Mmm... Well, I didn't really see you all go at it, but with how thoroughly I hear you all went at beating my hired help into the ground, you might be... Fairly rare as far as talent goes? Of course, I've heard tall tales of adventurers and heroes all my life, and the stuff the bards sing about is pretty outlandish even at the best of times... But maybe I just haven't been lucky enough to see them."

Regardless of his feelings on the matter, the merchant at least seemed to be willing to humor the otherworlders' other questions, provided they had any more he could meaningfully answer.

---

The next days came and went more or less without incident. Traveling along the dirt roads by foot was, to some, agonizingly slow—Sanae chief among them, given how she had been used to both mechanical vehicles and flight as regular forms of transportation until now—but with no apparent dangers ambushing them day or night, the young woman had no real reason to complain.

Well, no, maybe the meals could have been better; she was already beginning to miss the ever-essential staples of rice and eggs, and having to make due with rations meant for long-distance travel did her semi-modern palate no favors.

Though she was prepared for yet another day of mild boredom on the road, the abrupt halt of the caravan caused the young woman—who, at this point, had been riding on the back of one of the wooden carriages—to poke her head out to see what was wrong. Being near the rear as she was, though, finding out the cause of their sudden halt would mean poking around to see what the issue was.

More than ready for a bit of stimulation now, the shrine maiden quickly leaped out of the carriage and, after flying to the front where it seems the mercenaries had congregated, glanced around to see why they were suddenly on-edge and ready for combat.

"Uh... Mr. Hest?" she asked as she glanced around. "...Is there an enemy nearby?"

"Yes, actually, though not one I've seen before," the older man said as he gestured lightly with his chin towards a nearby hill. "Some strange creatures that look like... I don't know, purple slimes with yellow eyes? Seem to be moving towards the area. There's a town a bit further ahead, but I'm not sure if we'd make it there in time to reinforce or would be walking into a deathtrap..."

There was a brief pause as he looked at the young woman floating in the air before promptly smacking himself on the head with his free hand.

"I'm an idiot. Hey, young miss, would you mind taking a look to see how bad the situation is?"

Before he could even turn to see if Sanae was willing to accommodate his requests, though, Syldon watched the young girl zip by over the hill to see what it was keeping the group from moving.

The situation was... Not particularly far off from what the man had described, as far as Sanae could tell. The place seemed like it would have been a quaint little hamlet, had it not been for the oncoming mass of monsters moving towards the town. The description he had given her wasn't particularly inaccurate; they did indeed look like slimes with a pair of glowing yellow eyes, though it seemed that the man had failed to mention that they also didn't seem to be particularly intact, either.

Oddly enough, though, there already seemed to be combat breaking out around the hamlet, as the monsters seemed to be facing off against a massive, living tree brimming with spectral energy and a blue-haired girl wielding a pair of scissors.

They seemed to be doing well enough at fending off the horde for the moment, but from the air it was clear that the number of enemies bearing down upon them could very easily wash over the town regardless of their efforts.

Now with a slightly better view of the situation, Sanae quickly apprised both the mercenaries—and her other companions beside—of the situation at hand.

"Mmm... Well, that's rather concerning. With numbers like that, I'm not sure if we'd survive getting attacked head-on. Maybe we should retreat and find another way around..."

"Eh? But there are people down there—"

"Look, I know we brought you along because you and your friends were strong, but we're here to protect our clients, not play the hero," Syldon cut Sanae off with a stern look on his face. "You're welcome to act as you want, so long as you're not endangering the rest of us."

As he spoke, a few of the creatures seemed to be moving around the hills and towards the group—a fact which did the group absolutely no favors.

"All right, you guys! Don't panic and start moving the caravan around! There aren't enough of them coming at us right now, so get those things turned around while we stall! If things get too rough, abandon the goods! Better to live at a loss than die greedy!"

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