Mashyuu and Lise in: Tomb Raiding!

Job Details:

The Earth Slayer, Mashyuu and his job partner for most things, Itsu were headed back home after yet another job done, this time they had helped Buggy and a young Wizard named Hikari find a treasure on a far off island. The trio had arrested Blackstache the Pirate, while Itsu saw Hikari back to the mainland, Mashyuu had waited with the arrested Pirates until some Rune Knights arrived to take the Pirate King away then he too joined Itsu back at the port. As the two were headed for the main gate, shortly after the sun had set, a man in rune Armor approached them and bowed in respect. The Knight handed Mashyuu a letter and stood at attention, waiting for the Earthen Wizard to look at the paper.

Mashyuu, the Magical Council would like to thank you for the timely arrest of Captain Blackstache and his pirate Crew. However we regret to inform you that we must once again call on your services once more. The well hidden tomb of Saints has been found and is currently being raided by a group of treasure hunters who will surely use the magic in the tomb to further their evil desires. We ask that you, an Earth Slayer, delve into the tomb and help us by defeating this group. In return we will pay you with Ten Thousand Jewel and one item that we feel will help you, from the Wizard Saints Tomb. The Rune Knight who delivers this message will take you to the tomb should you chose to accept this job.

Itsu peered over Mashyuu's shoulders and sighed with a mixture of annoyance and pleasure. "Boy, it looks like your job is never done. It amazes me that you had time to even have a child let alone get married, and fall in love again once you came back from the dead." Itsu nudged Mashyuu and wrapped an arm around the Rune Knight. "Okay sweetie, take us to this Tomb. We will make sure that nobody takes anything out of it."

WC: 345

The trio walked for what seemed like an hour before breaking for a late dinner on the side of the road. The Slayer munched on a rock and started to chew, while Itsu glanced at both Mashyuu and the Rune Knight. "So what do we know about this treasure hunter?" Itsu asked after she shoved a rice ball in her mouth. "It seems he uses gem magic of some sort. This is why the Magic Council chose you first. gems are stone and thus, you would have the best chance of beating him at first glance. We reached out to others but you are the closest and we have no idea how long it will be till others even get the message. Before you ask, no I won't be joining you in the fight, I'm a new recruit and tasked to simply deliver messages and escort others. My captain is on his way, and will try to join you if you haven't already defeated the bandits by then. I'll be a few rooms behind you at any given time but I too have no idea how to get around down there." The Rune Knight explained. This information was good to Mashyuu, anything was better than nothing and knowing that Mashyuu had an advantage against a Wizard was nice. Normally his magic wasn't very great as far as having a clear edge against someone was concerned but, it also meant that others didn't normally have an advantage against him. This however would mean that the man would be able to take the leader with seemingly no effort. "So, do we know how many men he has to work with? Is the place trapped? Anything else?" "Sorry, I wasn't informed, just in case I was captured on the way to find you.
We have also been dealing with a mole in the Rune Knights who we are currently looking for, so that kind of information is on a higher pay grade than mine." The Rune Knight explained. Mashyuu nodded his head with an understanding motion and he smiled. "Well, nothing to be done about it. At least you know where we are going." "That I do, and apparently we are almost there, there is a tunnel that will lead underground and from there.... well I have no idea." Itsu finished her small meal and stood up, quickly collecting the things the Rune Knight had brought to camp with and packed everything up. Mashyuu in that time had collected his gear and strapped his gear to himself, securing his blade to his hip and checked to make sure his bow was in place...

The Rune Knight led the Sabertooth Wizards to a tall tree that had been stripped of its branches long ago. He glanced around and grabbed a large stone and started to drag it. The stone swung to the side on a metal slide and locked in place to reveal a small portal that held a latter leading down. "Well buddy, it's been a pleasure, stay safe and I'll catch you on the flip side when I drag this guy up from the cavern." Mashyuu's body flared up with a white light that allowed Itsu to see in the dark as the pair descended into the tomb of the Wizard Saints.

WC: 557
Total: 902

Job:

Spending money in buckets was fun, but unfortunately, one had to make it first.  This was a fact that Leah was quite familiar with and as a result, she did not loath it as much as one might expect of the money grubbing redhead.  After a few years of scrounging together as many jobs as she could while assuming the position of a wandering mercenary, the girl had made it to Fiore and joined Golden Phoenix.  Quite frankly, that had turned out to be the best choice of her life so far (aside from deciding to swim in the Aspont, but that ended up with her drowned so the mage might have to rethink her decision to label it as wise).  Anyways, the reason the guild was so helpful was because it enabled her to get job requests directly from clients.  In this case, the one making the request, although it seemed to be more of a hybrid of a public service announcement and a formal request, was the Magic Council itself.  That alone made the stiff piece of paper pinned to the cork board much more interesting.

Before any of her fellow phoenixes could grab it and decide to take the mission for themselves, she took the liberty of yanking it away from where it was posted next to all of the other possible assignments that mages could undertake.  Unfortunately, the pins were enchanted to only allow one to remove them from the board if the job was allowed to commence, and Leah had no intention of waiting that long.  Golden Phoenix was an adventurous guild with members who were not always the most patient people (but certainly not lacking for other virtues generally), so she doubted that there would be much fuss about her lack of protocol.  Especially since she was positive she had seen her former ace (now guild master) do it at least once before in her excitement to get started right away.  Of course, that could have been her complete wistful imagination, but it was doubtful.

As she packed for the journey to the Ancient Ruins, since that was where the slip listed the location to be, she read over the rest of the information detailed on the paper.  Apparently Harper Goldenshine (of course she knew the name, who wouldn't want to be as rich and in possession of as much treasure as him?) had bragged to some lady in a drunken stupor that he had figured out how to penetrate the confusion of the maze within the Ancient Ruins.  Consequently, it was said that he and the Gem Brothers (what a snazzy name, really; Leah wouldn't have minded being a Gem Sister anyways if that meant she had access to treasure maps and easy routes to riches) were currently wandering around somewhere in the half buried city.  By request of the Magic Council, any mages who decided to accept the mission were to intercept Goldenshine and his crew.  Furthermore, they were free to find the treasure and take a respectable about of jewels: ten thousand was the approximate amount listed; from the treasure trove that would certainly accompany the graves of such powerful and famous mages as the Wizard Saints had been.  So Leah was psyched.  Even more of an incentive was given as a footnote at the end of the lengthy paragraph concerning the responsibilities and details of taking the job.  It simply described the golden pile of treasure as 'stretching the size of fifteen buses' and the redhead looked forward to taking her choice of prize from the wide variety.  Perhaps she could sneak another one or something as well, who knew?  Nobody would, unless she ended up with some kind of goody goody mage from a light guild, but that was yet to be determined, now wasn't it?

Finally she had finished packing, and the girl set out from the guild hall with no small amount of joy at the idea of going to dig up some graves while earning profit for it.  Of course, the biggest issue would be how to navigate while inside the Ancient Ruins, but surely the Magic Council would see fit to give her a map or something?  Then again, if they were in possession of a proper map, nobody would have had to come up with the idea of outsourcing their... security? That wasn't quite the right word to describe the job that Leah was doing, but anyways, giving their work to strange, completely known mages (furthermore, both dark and light!).

She was quite familiar with the area around the Phoenix Islands, but every time Leah took the boat from the biggest isle to the mainland, she refused to look down at the water.  Even a simple glance made her feel like she was about to be sick to her stomach.  The Ancient Ruins were notoriously dark and rocky and sandy; in other words, it would be a preferred, if not perfect environment for the girl.  She had taken care to pack plenty of water despite the fact that it was heavy, since it was unknown how long the journey and mission would take.  Nonetheless, the first didn't take much time at all.  The redhead stood in front of one of the entrances to the old city: a set of stone steps cut into the rocky ground.  They looked none too stable,  but dubiously Leah began to descend the staircase despite any concerns she may have had floating around in her mind.  Treasure was a risky business sometimes, and she had a good feeling about this place.  Maybe the dust in the air, that plainly showed as a few last rays of sunlight filtered through cracks in the ceiling and shone down through the dark underground, was actually gold dust.  She didn't know, but she could hope.  Stepping forwards into the dark, the mage was relieved to find that while there wasn't exactly a visible source of light, it was dim but not completely unmanageable without some flame or glow to light her way.  After all, she could see her fingertips wiggling in front of her eyes if she squinted a little bit.

The girl padded cautiously further into the ruins, her footsteps as silent as she could make them against the rough and loose stones that covered the packed, sandy soil.  Just then, her toe caught against a deep crack etched jaggedly across the walking space, and her lips inadvertently parted to let out a sharp, "Oh!"  It hadn't hurt, exactly, but Leah had been worried for a moment that she would fall in the semi-darkness and hit her head on a pointy rock or something.  As she leaned against the wall to quiet her breathing, which had surged in pace due to the surprise from tripping, the redhead glared intently into the darkness ahead.  If any of the Gem Brothers were in here, or any other second-rate explorers (like herself, to be frank) or even other mages... they all might have heard her by now.  Who knew how far away the other entrances were, even if this one she had used had been moderately hard to find and likely had seen nobody else coming down recently?

1203 Words.

Mashyuu and Itsu planted their feet firmly on the ground and took a moment to get used to their surroundings. At least in this area the walls were smooth, as if someone took the time to sand down the brown and red stones inch by inch then polished them till they reflected light, evident by the way Mashyuu's white light flared off the walls and bounced around, lighting the small chamber up like the sun did the earth. The ground had a mural on it that depicted the original Wizard Saints and the idea made Mashyuu scoff. "Fancy titles don't mean a thing, Soon I'll be just as strong as they were. If not stronger." He mumbled to himself. Itsu glanced at the Wizard and cracked a smile but didn't say a word about it. The two took in a deep breath and headed down a narrow hall. The light on Mashyuu's body flickered like a candle as he led the way down the effective tomb that smelled like mold. "Geeze, the way these guys were buried you would think that they ruled Fiore at some point. This tomb is massive and we haven't even seen a grave yet." Itsu complained. It was Mashyuu's turn to chuckle at Itsu and her complaint. It seemed both the Wizards weren't very impressed with the burial grounds of the original Wizard Saints.

It didn't take long for Mashyuu to stop and put his hand up in order to halt Itsu at the same time. The pulsing light that radiated off his body died down to a darkness that hid the pair. Mashyuu's hand gripped the handle of his sword as he reached back and took Itsu's hand with his free one and the pair slowly walked forward. "I just heard a woman cry out. I don't know if it was one of the treasure hunters or someone else. Lets move forward carefully." Mashyuu informed Itsu. The woman nodded and whispered a word of understanding. Together the Sabertooth Wizards crept further into the crypt. Mashyuu stopped when he could smell the thick scent of leather and attractiveness. "Oh.." Mashyuu whispered and let the light he could generate flare up. "Lise! Come out, it's Mashyuu and Itsu!" He called out and started to jog up to her. When the trio were together Mashyuu moved to hug the woman and smiled at her. "It's good to see you again Lise. I'm glad to have someone else down here I can trust. So I take it you're here to clear out the Saints Tomb as well? I can handle the gem Magic but I don't know what else we are dealing with. Do you have any leads?"

WC: 456
Total: 1358

Leah pressed her back more tightly against the wall as she tried to completely silence her breathing.  Stupid... jaggedy floors.  The redhead had just resigned herself to certain death by whatever dark creatures roamed the hallways down here when she became aware of a slight tug in her gut to her left.  Blinking in surprise, the girl thought of exactly who it could be.  There were really only three options at the moment: Mashyuu, Suna, and Ursala, since her ability should have worked on all of them unless they were keeping certain secrets.  It was too bad that her sight didn't work properly down here, or else she would have been able to tell exactly who else was down here with her.  But at least none of the three were part of the Gem Brothers as far as she knew.  

Standing up straight again, the girl started down the hallway in the direction that her senses pulled her.  It made sense that the Magic Council would have found more than one mage to take this assignment, as it had been more of a general encouragement to search the Ancient Ruins in the first place (at least in her experience).  Hopefully, it was Mashyuu whom she found.  After all, Suna had been lacking magic the last time the two had met, and Ursala was complicated.  Something strange about the girl told Leah that she probably wouldn't be able to track her anyways if she tried.  Focusing briefly to disable her ability for the time being so she didn't concentrate too much on following the tug, the mage stayed put and listened to the tunnels.  There seemed to be nothing much, but surely the other person was coming?  She listened even more closely.

Thankfully, there was indeed something there.  Leah caught the end of an 'oh,' trailing off before a bright pulse of light suddenly lit up the space a few meters down the way that she had been heading before she paused.  There was no visible source, but a shouting caught her attention.  The girl was able to pick out her own... name... as well as 'Mashyuu' and 'Itsu,' which was a bit of a relief.  She would have felt terrified for Suna if the magicless girl was caught down here alone.  Not that the redhead was particularly strong or anything... Shaking her head at her own ego, the mage watched as the two Sabertooth wizards came into sight.  She was slightly uncomfortable when the young man moved in immediately for a hug before beginning to say something about her presence as well as the Saints' Tomb.  Yes.  That was why she was here.  

"I'm glad to see you both," she said with a quick smile at Itsu.  "Do crystals fall under the category of earth some how?" she wondered out loud as the brown haired mage explained that he was sure he would be fine against gem magic.  "Either way, yes.  I heard from a young man who sold me water that a group of lads were planning to haul a few miniature cannon down here.  He reckoned they were treasure hunters, and I would assume the same."  It had been unfortunate that the store had refused to let her fill up her water bottles without actually purchasing the liquid (which should be free) afterwards.  Even when she had tried to dump it out... those stupid idiots really only wanted money.  "I only just got down here, so I have not encountered any other mages or treasure hunters aside from you two," she added once her momentary irritation at the memory of wasting money had faded.

606 Words.  3169/12,000.

Mashyuu couldn't help but complain in annoyance when Lise mentioned cannons. "Explosions and Zombies, its all I ever deal with anymore. I can't wait to break everyone's legs. I swear to the gods...." Mashyuu put his hands on his hips then sighed. "To answer your earlier question, yes gems are part of the earth. Watch." Mashyuu reached down and pulled out a lump of coal from the ground. He molded the coal to compress on itself until it fell apart and left a small diamond in the coals wake. He placed the gem in Lise's hand and closed her fingers around it. "For you, a token of our friendship." He playfully winked and patted her shoulder. "You look uneasy, relax a little. Mashyuu is on the case. As it happens, this is not my first time in this tomb. In a past life I visited and have a general idea of where I'm going. Then again, last time I was battling hordes of soldiers who were trying to kill me and put a demon's soul in my body. So I didn't pay much attention to my surroundings. But I remember some of these rooms being trapped. What was the one? Oh! The walls compressed in on themselves. Then one had gas that could kill and another room dropped the floor out from under it. Hmm Good times." Mashyuu mused to himself. He set his glowing blue focused on Lise and he looked her up and down for a moment. "You look like you're doing well. And I've heard a bit about the jobs you have been doing. You are starting to make a name for yourself. Maybe you should consider applying to the Magic council for the rising stars position. I was one once upon a lifetime ago." After rambling for so long Itsu nudged Mashyuu and nodded down the pathways. "Stop rambling. If we don't get a move on these treasure hunters are gonna get away and we won't get paid." Itsu whispered through gritted teeth.

"Fine, fine. Let me show you why the council chose me to go on this job and hunt these guys down. See.. Most Wizards don't have great tracking skills and even for a Slayer it can be hard. But when you have Geokenisis... you can do amazing things." Mashyuu tapped his foot on the ground and the footprints of Harper and his family of treasure hunters rose up about an inch from the ground. "They might know where they are going but we can follow them and cut them off as they try to get out." Mashyuu grinned wide and motioned for everyone to follow him since he figured Lise couldn't requip a flashlight... The group walked into an open room that had a camp fire set up and six men with various sized swords on their waists standing around the fire. As Mashyuu and the ladies stepped into the wide room, aside from the fire, the first thing Mashyuu noticed were the statues lining each side of the bare room of each of saints, five on each side. "You gotta be kidding. These guys were full of themselves." Mashyuu complained while looking at the six men. "Oh hi! You guys must be part of the statue making guild right? Say if I wanted to get a statue of me and my friends here how much would you charge me?" Mashyuu asked. Alarmed by the sudden intrusion, the men drew their weapons and charged the group. Before Mashyuu could even draw his weapon, Itsu darted past him and drew her dagger. "I want three of em, I've been itching for a fight. Lise can you deal with the others!?" She asked, prompting Mashyuu to simply lean against the wall and watch the ladies work.

WC: 642
Total: 2000

Leah ducked her head and hid a smile under her hair as the male mage ranted briefly about how his enemies during jobs were boring and always the same. Cannons and zombies, huh? she thought to herself. It was an unusual combination and the way he had said it made her want to laugh outright. Her smile became more of a surprised look of interest as the young man leaned down and drew a chunk of a dark solid from the ground. She couldn't exactly see, but his fingers seemed to be working with it or something along those lines. Much to her surprise, the redhead was handed a small diamond afterwards. Unable to resist the lover of shiny things that resided inside her, the girl closed her fingers around it. It had been clear enough but felt imperfectly faceted and rough to the touch; on account of that, it was probably unlikely she could get much in the way out of money for it. Considering that it was a 'token of their friendship,' however, Leah supposed that she ought not to be inclined to sell it right away no matter what it was worth.

The pat to her shoulder caused barely a flinch, since she had come to understand that seemingly, Mashyuu was just more of a touchy person than most. After regaining her attention or giving some reassurance (whatever the brief contact was intended to do) the young man went into a spiel of why they would be absolutely fine down here in the Ancient Ruins. That was well enough, since extra information typically never hurt. And the redhead did make a note of what traps were in each room; it could come in handy later if the group somehow ended up getting separated or something. Finally, he briefly mentioned Rising Stars. That was a rather odd point to bring up in Leah's opinion, but she could acknowledge that at least, she had become more well known than before. Still the girl was a fledgling mage, but everyone had to start from some place, and rising was the key word. Who knew what would happen in the end, though. As she was mulling over all the things he had said, Itsu wisely hissed for Mashyuu to get a move on, for the sake of pay. Well, that was a gal after her own heart, Leah recognized, and she once again dropped her chin a bit lower and let her fiery locks cover the upturned corners of her lips.

She witnessed a strange thing as Mashyuu somehow... recalled the treasure hunters' footprints up from the ground so that they were clearly visible as a trail to follow. It was indeed a good reason for the Magic Council to have chosen him, but the girl had some talents of her own. Now, it was only dim, so she could in fact have used her visionary abilities. His literal pathing worked just fine, however, and it also interested her. Without saying a word though, the girl followed in the footsteps (literally) of the brown haired mage and the previous treasure hunters who had come by, choosing to walk side by side with Itsu. Leah was glad that the young man seemed to be a human lantern, for it would make fighting a lot easier if push came to shove. That point ended up also not even mattering in the end however, because the trio walked straight into a room that appeared to have been constructed to honor the Wizard Saints who had been buried here. There was a small fire set up in the middle of the room, with men sitting and crouching around it. One of them was lying down, but he was also sharpening his sword and had it out of the scabbard, unlike the others (although the entire group soon rose to their feet upon the trio's entry to the room). Leah took note of that and listened with a little amusement as the slayer took the opportunity to say a few more choice things about the deceased wizards. Itsu seemed to care about that just as much as she had earlier, but clearly the green haired woman did want to fight.

Pushing past Leah and Mashyuu, she said something about wanting to fight (kind of like her companion's comment earlier about wanting to break somebody's bones). Well, the redhead couldn't sympathize because she almost never wanted to go looking for fight to pick with someone, but this was a mission after all. Resigning herself to doing battle, the emerald eyed mage requipped her fiery roller skates with a twinge of annoyance at the remembrance that her cloak would be nearly useless here. After all, there was not much space to fly around; maybe, just maybe, there would be more at the center of the maze of ruins? Accompanying her Firewakes, she took two daggers; Mercenary's Daggers. At first, the girl had been tempted to go with her cutlasses on account of the fact that it seemed so blasted hot in here, but none of them seemed to be water uses. More was the pity. They all could have their swords ruined, then.

She zipped around the room on her skates, leaving a blazing trail of fire behind her that would singe anyone who decided it would be a good idea to walk through. Accidentally, the girl had left Mashyuu outside of the circle, but he was near the tiny bit of open floor she had left in case Itsu wanted to leave the area she had encircled or something. Smiling jovially at the men, who were gaping at the smoldering path with doubt, Leah swooped forwards and sliced in half the blades of every opponent she could reach. It wasn't a particularly difficult task, since the enemies were holding their swords up in the air and trying to slice downwards at the speeding girl. Six blades fell to the floor in about two to three pieces each; she had gotten a little bit knife-happy on a couple and ended up creating more chunks than were necessary. The men could still use them to stab at close range, but there was no guard or grip so cutting oneself was quite possible.

In the confusion that ensued with the treasure hunters trying to figure out a way to pick up their weapons, the girl felt tempted to just slit as many throats as she could get away with and be done with the mess. But she knew that Itsu was handling the other three with her dagger (maybe they'd lose their lives to a series of quick stabbings anyways), so Leah restrained herself and hit two of the defenseless men over the head with a solid clunk of the pommel. The third was not so lucky but did get off comparatively easy with his left hand, the one that had attempted to hold a shard of sword, cut off. along with a few decent thunks on the head to knock him out. It really was hard luck for the three, but that was the whole point of this. Human flesh was soft thing anyways, even if it did count. The redhead glanced over at Mashyuu, who seemed to be relaxing against one of the wide stone pillars, almost like slabs really, that the Wizard Saints had probably ordered to be constructed. Itsu must have been doing fine, if he didn't make a move to interfere. Hopefully the girl's fire trail hadn't caused the woman any problems.

1257 Words. 5068/12,000.

Mashyuu's brow lifted curiously when Lise shot around on roller skates of fire. "Can't say I've ever seen that before. Interesting really." Mashyuu mused to himself while she started to attack in a ring of fire. "Hmm that could cause a problem for Itsu if she isn't careful. Maybe I should step in." After speaking Mashyuu shook his head and decided not to waste the energy, instead he started to walk around the room that wasn't ablaze to the next door.

Itsu was dealing with three swordsmen, her dagger flashing in the light of the fire as she let her blade clang off of swords to deflect attacks, Itsu's enhanced speed clearly an advantage during the barrage of attacks the men sent her way. Itsu dropped down, stabbed her dagger into the foot a man and pinned him to the ground then stood up quickly, and slammed her ram skull helmet into the jaw of another man. Her slender hand came up and grabbed the one sword that wasn't cut by Lise's attack and yanked it out of the hand of the man that she stabbed in the foot. She used the flat of her blade and smashed the nose of one of the three men in, causing him to recoil and step into the fire, setting himself ablaze. Itsu giggled and kicked her leg backwards, hitting the man she had sent her head into a moment ago yet again, this time kicking him below the belt and dropping him in one well placed blow. With not a moment to lose Itsu dropped the sword and placed her hands on the mans shoulders. She shoved him hard into the fire while dropping to yank her dagger out of his foot as he fell over.

With everyone taken care of Itsu winked at Lise and skipped over to the door. "Nice enough work out. Oh by the way, nice skates hot stuff." Itsu said in a sing song voice. Mashyuu sighed and placed his hand on the door and knocked on it. Solid stone. "Hey, stand back, there is a trap on this door." Mashyuu advised the women. The man placed his hand to the door, fingers spread while his palm hit the center. He pushed in on the center of the door and held his breath as the door slid and a thick cloud of dust shot up around the doorway and hit Mashyuu's face. Slowly Mashyuu stumbled back and wiped his face clean of the dust, his nostrils flared up as he inhaled the scent of the dust. It was sour and made his eyes water. In a way he could taste the dust and started to choke for a moment before he fell to the floor and passed out, his slayer enhanced senses going into over drive from the poison. It forced him to sleep in order to try to fight off the effects.

Itsu winced and looked at Lise then nudged Mashyuu with her foot. He was taking in air and that was a good thing. She grabbed his legs and nodded her head at the door way. "Alright brawler. Lead the way while I drag this.... holy crap." It was then that Itsu realized that there was no force on the planet that could actually move the man unless they were literally a higher ranked Wizard than he was. She sighed and drew an arrow in the dirt of the floor. "We are on our own until he gets up. Come on."

WC: 592
Total: 2592

Thankfully, the battle had gone by without a hitch, and Leah was able to exquip her skates without any real problems having happened.  Her daggers soon followed, but she resolved to keep a wary eye out should any weapons be needed again.  Itsu seemed to be particularly chipper as the group continued again, and the redhead winced slightly at her words before following the woman to the door on the other side of the room.  Mashyuu seemed to be suspicious of it immediately and knocked on the center, afterwards warning the other two mages of the trap before activating it.  Wait... before activating it?  

Gaping at the man from a few decent paces away, the girl wanted to swear when the man inhaled poison and promptly fell into something like a temporary (hopefully) coma.  She reached down to help Itsu drag the slayer through the open door, but she noticed that there was some of the white powder on his hands as she did so.  Just as the mage had decided to grab somewhere else, the teal haired woman dropped the legs of the dead weight and muttered about how it would be impossible to move him.  Hiding a small smile, the redhead reached down to try the same thing that the woman had.  It was doubtful that it would work, but- ugh.  Her face dropped into an expression of bafflement as the man refused to move even an inch.  

"What the hell do you feed this guy?" the girl hissed before she let go and shook her head.  Leah stalked over to the doorway and commented, "I can still lead if you want."  Without waiting for much of a response, the mage strode through.  As soon as she passed over the threshold, she breathed out every drop of hair in her lungs and slowly slid to the side to melt into the shadows.  It was unknown to Leah whether Itsu had amazing eyesight or not, but considering the fact that she wasn't using actual magic right now, it should be fine.  The point was that enemies who weren't looking for her would have a greater chance of just being out of luck.

The emerald eyed girl kept walking, but her footsteps were slow against the stone floor.  She didn't even have a very good sense of direction in the first place, and now they were practically in a maze.  Deciding that if they ended up getting lost too badly she would just teleport out and abandon the job (live to try again a next time to be honest), but she needed to trust Itsu as well.  And to be fair, there was some more light up ahead.  Squinting at the pinprick through the darkness, the redhead resisted the urge to sprint towards the spot of brightness and instead continued to slink forwards until her movements halted as her left foot slid off an edge and pushed down against nothing but air.  Acting quickly, the girl pressed her right foot against the stone and hauled herself back onto stable ground.

"There's a pit or something here, Itsu," she commented as she backed away even further.  Hey, it could collapse more or do... who knew what.  Hopefully monsters wouldn't emerge and try to eat them, but they would have starved in the bajillion years the wizard saints were buried for, right?  "I can fly over it if there's nothing inside that will drag me down.  Do you need a ride?"  There was the possibility of trying to get Ilosa to help, but she was so stubborn... there was probably another way across, too. It wasn't as though everyone could just fly. Perhaps it was narrow enough to hop over?

618 Words.  6278/12,000.

"Would you believe rocks and sunlight? It's why he can cast spells so long without running out of energy. He is constantly at near Slayer Force mode. I'm sure as soon as he wakes up he's gonna start eating again then come find us." Itsu assured Lise and glanced over her shoulder at Mashyuu, surprised the Goddess that rested in his body hadn't taken control yet and started to move Mashyuu around herself. Itsu shrugged and waved bye to the slayer who laid still on the ground, at least he still drew breath. Itsu frowned and wandered off behind Lise who had already lost her. "Damn it... I can't see a damn thing." Itsu complained as she stumbled through the next room until she bumped into Lise who had just said there was a gap in the floor. Itsu looked at the gap and picked up a lose stone then tossed it down the gap. She never heard the stone hit the ground and gulped. "That's a long drop. But I think I can get across the gap. You sure you're good?" Itsu asked Lise while she started to back up.

Itsu put her dagger away and focused her magical power. "Resurrect!" She commanded. The woman's armor slid in on itself and her bottom half became like that of a horse while her helm grew full on ram horns. Itsu moved up on her hind legs and started to charge towards Lise. "Either get on or move!" Itsu shouted. When her front legs touched the edge of the ground, Itsu jumped as hard as she could, throwing herself to the middle of the gap before she started to drop. "Phantom Speed!" She called out and vanished. she appeared at the other end of the gap, slowly galloping to a stop in a small doorway to meet up with Lise.

WC: 315
Total: 2907

As Itsu bumped into the redhead from behind, said redhead immediately felt a bust of panic as she threw her arms out to the side. Where's the hole, where's the hole, where's the hole? she thought worriedly. Fortunately, the woman moved almost immediately, and the mage was able to retreat even farther back to safety. Leah watched as the teal haired female chucked a rock down the pit. Both of them listened for the thud of the object against whatever earth was underneath, but it never reached their ears. Wincing at the idea of either falling forever or actually being eaten by some monster, or impaled on the walls, or... or some other awful thing, the girl shoved her back against the wall. She resolved to watch Itsu and follow her comrade's clues, for if it wasn't necessary she was going nowhere over that gap. Unfortunately, it seemed like she wanted to go over instead of possibly finding another path around (ignoring the fact that this had been a one way passage after going through that trapped door).

Leah nodded as the woman asked if she was sure she could get over the opening. After all, the redhead did theoretically have two ways. One might be quicker than the other, but it might not be as useful for small spaces. And at the same time, she didn't really feel like arguing with a pegasus at the moment. Shocked out of her thoughts as Itsu shouted something about resurrection, and then morphed into... a female centaur? A female sheep? The mage squinted at the shape, but it was rather dim after all; she was surprised there was any light at all reaching down here, too. Upon being yelled at to get moving in some way or another, the emerald eyed girl threw away all of her possible aspirations in case this didn't go well and clung to the woman-now-part-animal. Just as it seemed they were fine and able to soar over the opening without any scary things jabbing up and spearing them like a shish kabob, Leah realized with a start that they were falling. Before the panic reached her mind, Itsu yelled something else and with a lurch, the mage found herself moving in a more level way. Groaning with the sudden feeling of going from flying to a canter, the mage fell off and rolled on the ground a little bit as the green haired woman kept moving. I'd better not fall in the ditch, the girl thought as she winced at the enormous headache she had at the moment. There had of course been no motion sickness... but she should have honestly just brought her grumpy old pegasus to this dimension and begged the ornery creature for a favor.

Leah sat up slowly and tried to get her bearings, but in the near darkness it was very difficult. Eventually, she breathed in and got to her feet. A faint noise seemed to come from behind her, so the redhead walked cautiously in that direction, never quite putting down her full weight. Then she was the one to run into Itsu, and the mage apologized briefly with a, "Sorry," before she went on to say, "Thanks for helping me avoid any complications with getting across. I guess we should keep going now." With that, she continued forwards and soon came to the realization that it seemed to be getting brighter in the tunnel. Further up ahead, the green eyed mage spotted a door that was painted dark burgundy, and seemed to have a gold symbol (a rune or something?) carved in the center of the upper half. There was no visible door knob or anything like that. Leah stared at the red rectangle and focused her ability, trying to look through the material. Unfortunately, she could see nothing besides darkness behind it, and quite unnerved, the girl frowned and backed away a little bit more from where she had stopped in her first approach. "It's either made of some magical material, or there's pure darkness beyond there. Or some other powerful magic at work," she added.

687 Words. 7290/12,000.

Itsu almost literally jumped when Lise bumped into her in the darkness of the room. It seemed they were both on edge and a little jumpy but who could blame them with traps galore in this tomb. "No, it's fine. I'm just glad we both made it across." Itsu twisted her long body around to look at Lise and get used to seeing her in the darkness. "Don't be afraid of this form. I promise it's just a spell. Nothing to really worry about." Itsu watched Lise lead the way and stop at a door with a red spell like rune in the center of it. When Lise said it was either trapped or was dark on the other side Itsu's brain kicked on and she had an idea. "Tell ya what. Instead of rushing head first into a trap like Mashyuu did, lets use what skills we have. Take a step back sweetie." Itsu ended the spell she had on herself, causing her armor and body to return to its normal state and she raised her left hand while she started to light up with magical power. "Revive!" In a flash of white light, a second Itsu appeared at the originals side. The real one took a step to the side of the door and the fake one pushed the stone door hard, causing it to shake and move slowly until the women could fit through the passage.

The spell copy looked over at the others and motioned for them to follow. The room was circular and had a flight of sloped steps going down in a spiral at the center of the twenty by twentish foot room. But more importantly were the five tomb raiders with pistols all aimed at the door way. It seemed that the men were going down when Itsu and Lise pushed the door open. At the same time all the gunmen opened fire on the fake Itsu, destroying her in a single set of attacks. The real Itsu grabbed Lise by the hip and teleported with the requip mage, putting both ladies behind the gunmen, each on a step. Itsu jumped up and drove both her knees into the back of one mans head, knocking him forward in a stumble while she took his spot in the firing range line. The gunmen glared at Itsu and it was then that she realized that they were in some serious trouble if they had to beat all five of these men, just the two women.

At her side, a gunmen leveled a gun at Itsu's head and pulled the hammer of the pistol back with his thumb. In the split second it took for the man to do that Itsu teleported again and drove her elbow into the man's gut as she appeared right in front of the mans body and drew her dagger. "Hewy, Dewy, Lewy! Please, I need you to defend me!" Three skeletal soldiers with greatswords appeared behind Itsu and rushed the man that Itsu attacked first. As the man aimed his gun, all three skeletons ducked. Hewy brought his blade up, knocking the pistol high as the trigger was pulled and a bullet hit the roof of the room. Lewy stabbed his sword into the mans foot and twisted the blade, nearly cutting his foot in half. In that time Dewy stabbed his sword into the chest of the man, ripping through the heart of the gunmen so fast that the man never even noticed he had died. The undead skeletons not caring weather or not they killed someone so long as they did what their owner ordered, in this case, keeping Itsu safe and alive.

WC: 620
Total: 3527

She could appreciate the fact that her comrade had used her brain before opening the door. It was made clear that the room was not empty as soon as it opened; she really should have expected so, since there was the strange light being emitted earlier. The false clone was ripped to shreds by bullets as the redhead tried to slip back behind the door with the intentions of maybe closing it and trying again... later. Her fellow female seemed to have other plans, though, for the summoner took hold of the emerald eyed girl and yanked her with her into a teleport. Now, here's the thing. Leah understood the concept of using the element of surprise to attack. In fact, she very much approved of such tactics and didn't mind that Itsu was trying to help her out by taking her along with the green haired woman.

But for the sake of all, girl, who teleported unsuspecting allies within strangling distance and especially point blank firing range of gunmen?

The redhead wanted to facepalm or something, especially because both Mashyuu and Itsu seemed to have a habit of just grabbing people and moving them around without said person's permission or even an inkling of being willing. Instead of wasting time, though, she shoved the nearest man over the railing, which ended up taking out the guy next to him who was sandwiched between the railing and his companion. Both of the men flopped over the railing, and the redhead resisted the urge to wave a taunting good bye before they each did a face plant into the stone floor several meters below. That would probably be messy; hopefully blood didn't get on anything important, like the treasure if there happened to be any. She glanced over and noticed that Itsu had attracted the attention of two men, one who seemed to be standing a few steps away with a disgruntled look on his face. The other was struggling to shoot the woman, but a few skeletons summoned by the female took care of him no problem. That left...

The girl turned to glance at the gunman who was stuck in the middle of all the havoc. He seemed to be conflicted on who to attack, so Leah went ahead and requipped a pair of High Imperial Daggers, smiling at him courteously. "Is the treasure worth your life?" she asked. His gun was lying on a step just a meter or so down from where he was standing; it had been knocked out of his arms when the man had thrown himself to the side, against the wall, to avoid being hit by one of the skeleton's swords. The treasure hunter stared at her nervously and licked his lips a couple times, seemingly speechless. She raised an eyebrow, and his own pupils twitched in the direction of his weapon.

"You can try it," she told him calmly. And so he bolted down the stairs, grabbing his gun as he went. Surprisingly, the man was extraordinarily fast, and Leah was almost surprised before she hacked out a laugh and jumped off the side of the stairs. It was indeed a long fall, and the redhead just had time to think, Oh crap, what if I land in a puddle of blood? before she hit the stone floor and rolled, refusing to absorb all of the impact straight on and probably break her legs. The man had reached the bottom of the stairwell by now, and he fired at her, slowly stepping forwards a little bit at a time. The mage hit the floor once again (really, barely after she had gotten up) and immediately sprung back up to account for his second change in aim. It was lucky for her that the man had been stepping closer, because now she could reach his arms. Off they went, sliced cleanly from the elbow up, and down went the gun. And then he passed out, and Leah regarded the still form with a bit of skepticism.

"If he had stopped to staunch the bleeding before he went off into unconscious-land, he could be okay," she muttered. Oh well. Saving the lives of tomb raiders wasn't her job, not this time around. She turned to glance around the space, pointedly refusing to look at the floor or her boots (which had been polished and cleaned a few days before she had taken this mission). Anyway, there seemed to be nothing much around; several statues of previous Wizard Saints were stationed around the room. There wasn't even another door. Reluctantly, the redhead looked briefly at the floor and found that underneath the many bits of red (let's just pretend it's paint and it's okay to get it on ourselves), there were engravings set into the stone. They might have formed a picture, but the mage couldn't recognize it from her vantage point. Maybe Itsu was still up on top...?

She raised up her head to shout in the direction she thought the summoner might be. "Hey, Itsu! Does the floor look like anything to you?" Hopefully the, uh, graffiti... and paint... didn't make a significant difference to the appearance. Maybe it was just a fancy image on the floor, after all, and there was another secret doorway somewhere. She just had a bad feeling about standing on top of all these carvings.

897 Words. 8807/12,000 Words.

Before Itsu knew what happened, Lise and a gunmen dropped down the steps, leaving Itsu to deal with three gunmen. A blast rang out in the stone room as a gunmen who was hiding shot Itsu in the back of the leg, dropping her to a knee as blood seeped out of her fresh wound. The woman sobbed and groaned while she crawled to the door way and her skeletal fighters formed a wall to protect her from the gunfire. Quickly their blades slashed through the air and deflected gun shot after gun shot. From the doorway a torrent of light flowed through the halls that only seemed to get brighter and brighter as a terrible force of magic bore down on Itsu and the gunmen. The light drew the attention of everyone in the room when suddenly Mashyuu appeared in the room with a snarl on his face. The white light that washed over his body melted the skeletons for just being around him. The God Slayer glanced at his Itsu who was on the ground and then to the gunmen. "Earth Gods Combo: Part One." He muttered while pushing his right palm towards the three gunmen. A single pillar of stone shot up out of the ground between the men's legs and hit them below the belt. As they slumped to their knees Mashyuu pulled his right arm back and flexed hard. A long blade of sand exploded out of his forearm in a curved fashion. "Earth Gods Combo: Part Three!" He shouted and charged forward while swinging his arm at the same time, cutting each of the men across the chest and arms, drawing blood that quickly dried up. Their bodies soon lost moisture as they fell to the ground and Mashyuu glanced over at Itsu. He walked to the wounded woman and touched her leg, letting his natural warm light wash over her and heal her wound while Lise shouted up at them.

Mashyuu glanced down at the ground and looked curiously. "Lise! You okay down there? There is a lot of blood! In fact it was used to paint what looks like a magical seal on the ground!" He didn't say a word about the fact that he had been knocked out due to his own enhanced senses to anyone but instead looked at the seal very carefully. "Move, I'm coming down!" Mashyuu shouted and jumped down the steps. His body whistled in the air for a moment until he landed on both legs and slowly stood up, leaving a small crater in the ground. Mashyuu bit down hard on his lip, not wanting to show that he had dropped further than he expected but at least he was next to Lise. "You aren't hurt are you?" He asked with a hushed tone while he let his eyes scan the area. Down here he could see the statues and noticed that the seal seemed to have its edges connecting to the statues as if they were part of the seal itself. "Oh I get it. We need to touch the statues in order of the ranks of Wizard Saint, from either one to ten, or ten to one. I'm not really sure in what order. Ideas?"

WC: 547
Total: 4074

Well, that was one good thing about this stupid red... let's just call it dye, all over the place. Apparently, it was actually meant to get on the seal? The mage squinted at the ground and was just wondering if they should perhaps get off the floor when Mashyuu shouted something about coming down. Was he really planning to- Yup. Leah stared up at the staircase as a figure dropped over the edge of the side and came hurtling towards her. Taking barely four steps away, the redhead raised an eyebrow as the slayer slammed into the floor into a crouch; the stone shuddered underneath his feet and cracked into a shallow impression where they had contacted the ground. She winced a little bit since it hadn't seemed to be the most gentle of landings, but he seemed to be fine. In fact, there he went asking her if she was okay, and the redhead laughed lightly and replied, "I'm fine. The stone did a lot of the work. It's nice you finally showed up, thought, just at the right moment for those extra two gunmen that came at the same time as you." She reckoned this place was full of secret passageways and that they had sprung from somewhere on the side of the stairwell. That couldn't have been the actual next path the group was supposed to take, though. After all, it wasn't exactly a two way thing.

By now, the crimson liquid had soaked into the jagged impressions left in the floor by some person who had clearly been trying to create an image. That only further revealed what was going on, since it drew darker lines between the statues stationed at the edge of the circular room. Mashyuu commented on this, and the emerald eyed girl was wondering what the connection was when he deemed that it required them to be put in either ascending or descending order. Well, that was one way to figure it out; make a conjecture from who knows where. It definitely did make sense. Leah strode over to the Wizard Saint who was right in front of her: a solemn looking fellow with young features and a square brimmed hat. She tapped his shoulder and then took another look at the floor; nothing had happened. Moving over to her left, she brushed against the arm of a second stone likeness of a mage, this one with a pointed hat and shoes that had curled toes. Once again, there seemed to be no effect on the seal on the floor. Not yet deterred, she was just making her way over to a third statue when her foot slipped in a small puddle of blood lying around, and the girl found herself splashing a little bit of the red liquid on the statue she had been intending to touch next. Nothing happened to the seal, but the stone figure glowed slightly before an 8 appeared briefly on the man's wrinkled forehead before it faded away.

She glanced over at Mashyuu. "It's a little bit gruesome, but I'm pretty sure we could put them in order if we really wanted to," she commented. "If you don't feel like dipping your fingers in some random guy's blood, a paper cut on your palm or a finger would probably do the trick." The situation wasn't exactly idea either way; the stone would be dusty and she didn't fancy pressing a wound onto those layers of who-knew-what covering the statues. At the same time, touching other peoples' blood was never good. She cursed her luck and then requipped a small handkerchief, dipping it gingerly in a puddle. Eww. Then she wiped it against the next statue, noting the 3 that showed momentarily before vanishing once more. Repeating the process, the girl found that so far moving counter-clockwise around the room, the numbers were 8, 3, 1, 6, and 2.

652 Words. 10,006/12,000.

A wide smile spread over Mashyuu's face when Lise said it was nice of him to show up. "Couldn't let you two have all the fun and I can sense that we are close. Something about danger really gets me excited to jump head first in danger. Besides the faster we do this the faster I can get the hell outta this terribly pompous place." Mashyuu added. Mashyuu watched Lise get to work and discover the secret to the room, blood activating the statues rather simply. "Well that explains why the floor is covered in blood. You might want to get those cleaned later." Mashyuu nodded at his friends boots while Itsu joined the others. Mashyuu stood at the edge of the room and watched the floor as Lise finished touching the statues in the correct order.

The floor lit up, the magical seal breaking for a moment as the floor started to split and slide in on itself to reveal a pool of gold and treasures richer than any could hope to own in their entire life. "Holy shit." Mashyuu whispered under his breath while Itsu looked up, hearing the stirring of men as they recovered from the swift beating Mashyuu gave them. In the Saints Vault two men, both in dark brown garb, looked up at the Wizards with a shocked look on their faces. "Hey! Who are these guys?" Harper shouted while he took off his large brimmed hat and tossed it aside to land on a pile of gold. "Well you're Harper Gold something. Goldsmithy? Goldshine... Yeah that's it." Mashyuu shouted. "But I'm Mashyuu, Sabertooth Wizard and this is Lise, a hottie in leather. We are here to kick the shit outta you and go home. Sorry you have to fight me. Don't blame the Magic Council or me though. Blame your bad luck!" While Mashyuu started to shout at Harper, Itsu ran back up the steps to make sure the group wouldn't get attacked from both sides.

Mashyuu could smell the urge for battle in the air, he was about to jump down when one of the men jumped up for Lise and a giant crystal hammer appeared above Mashyuu and started to hurtle down atop the Earth Wizard. Mashyuu's body twisted and he looked up while opening his mouth. The hammer smashed down atop Mashyuu hard but when the dust cleared Mashyuu was chomping down on the crystal stone. "Sorry buddy, but your magic is only gonna fuel my power. But hey, I might let you have a few hits on me."

WC: 435
Total: 4509

She winced as he commented on her boots, which were probably irreparably stained because of those stupid five men deciding it as a great idea to rob a grave today. Clearly she wasn't going to let them just waltz by and take as much treasure as they wanted. With a slight huff under her breath, Leah was just stepping over to the side of the room when the floor split in half and began to move, creating a circular opening. Apparently, their floor was now the ceiling of somebody else. That was made clear as two men gazed up at the mages with bemused expressions. One called up something that could be considered half way a greeting, and as Mashyuu answered, their faces grew beet red with annoyance and indignation. The redhead didn't bother to laugh at his cockiness, but she did narrow her eyes at his reference to her as well as the fact that he hadn't thought to mention her guild. Well, it was whatever to be honest. After all, it wasn't as though she had even bothered to tell him the right one. It wasn't their bad luck that had gotten the two into this situation, though... really, it was their greed for treasure that was clearly meant to either be left alone or in her own hands.

Leah cracked a smile at the man on the left, who hadn't yet spoken a word, and he glared back at her. Just as the girl was beginning to think this would be an utterly boring situation where all the two groups would do is yell and possibly get confused (and then make off with some treasure) the man she had laughed at leaped up towards the opening. Simultaneously, an enormous hammer made from purplish crystal materialized in the air above Mashyuu and began to fall on top of him. Thankfully, he seemed fine; as for the female mage, well... she was doing just dandy. All the dust that came from the impact had clouded the gem hunter's sight, and when he finally managed to see what was going on, he was standing on the upper level next to a wizard saint statue. Furthermore, there was no Leahndr in sight.

The girl had jumped down through the opening. After all, there was no time like the present to grab some treasure and maybe kill an unsuspecting mage or two, but when she noticed that her comrade had faced no trouble with eating the gems, she decided it might be best to pass of Harper Goldenshine to Mashyuu. After all, he was famed for using that magic; even if it could block most things, there would be hardly any attack options for the poor guy. But anyways... how was she supposed to get back up there? Maybe it would be best to wait for the other hunter to come down here- oh, speak of the devil. Just then, a loud chain of jingling echoed through the room as the second hunter toppled out of the sky (kidding, it was really the ceiling, but still somewhat cool) and plunged headfirst into the mound of treasure sitting in the middle of the room. Leah whistled lowly and glanced around, taking the opportunity to examine the surrounding area. It was honestly cavernous, with lots of pillars and statues of the saints, as well as chests of treasure scattered throughout the room. Goblets, necklaces, and even gold encrusted daggers littered the ground; if she had been able to, the girl would have requipped it all. Unfortunately, her time was limited and the mage returned her gaze to the pile of coins and various artifacts as the man struggled to get his head out. It didn't help that standing on the mound was useless and his legs began to sink underneath. Honestly, he could probably drown in there if I just let him do his own thing, she thought.

She was not that lucky, it seemed. Harper Goldenshine was preoccupied with fighting Mashyuu already, but once the other enemy did pull his head out of the treasure, she realized that she probably could have stabbed him in the back. Or the butt. It would have completely thrown honorable fighting out the window, but... oh well. Requipping her Mercenary's Daggers, since they seemed perfect for this situation, the girl smiled at him. Then she stuck the two in the loops of her belt and summoned almost a hundred little daggers, which she scattered in a circle around her. Hopefully, any allies were out of range... good. The hunter was not. Continuing to smile genially, she said in a conversational tone, "Sinister Steel," and slowly at first, but then gradually faster and faster, the blades began to rotate around her. Laughing as mirth showed in her eyes, the redhead leaped towards the enemy mage and yanked her daggers out of her belt.

With the familiar weight in her hands, she dashed towards her opponent with whirling blades following her path and ready to slice through anything they could reach. The guy had been inside her circle of blades before, having dodged the ones she had thrown so they landed behind him. Apparently, he had forgotten this, because he promptly ran from her charge (panic was a lovely thing) and nearly impaled himself on the spinning daggers. Fortunately, it wasn't really impaling, because digging out weapons from corpses was a time consuming process, especially for ones as small as those. Rather, because of the horizontal movement, they just kind of... shredded him? Ripped him apart, instead. It was messier for everyone else except Leah; after all, she didn't really have to have anything to do with him after this point.

She slunk over to the mound of treasure and scooped some into a bag; just by the weight alone she could tell it was at least the ten thousand jewels that the original request had promised. Not forgetting that Count... Count Cardinal? No, it was Count Blue Jay, had said something about allowing them to take an extra relic from the place, she cheerfully scooped up the most expensive looking thing she could find. All of the 'extras' didn't even seem to be just unnecessary elaboration (and if it was, she could sell the thing anyways). Whistling cheerfully, the girl took a few steps in a random direction, noting that there seemed to be doors everywhere in this cavern. Clearly, it was intended to be a final stopping place. She looked forward to getting lost in the Ancient Ruins trying to get out. As soon as Mashyuu seemed to be done with his battle and didn't need the possible back up any longer, she would scoot without another word.

1121 Words. 11,562/12,000.

Lise and a treasure hunter moved into action to begin an intense fight but Mashyuu wasn't about to let Harper get away. The man with gem magic smashed his hands together and made a pistol of ruby and took aim at Mashyuu's chest. The God Slayer darted forward and quickly side stepped as a gem bullet exploded out of the gun and whizzed past Mashyuu's torso as he evaded. The moment the bullet ripped through the air past Mashyuu he jumped down into the treasure hoard and rolled forward at Harper. The man in tan pants and a brown jacket tried to step back but was to slow as Mashyuu's body sprang up. "Dragon Fist!" He shouted. Mashyuu sprang up and threw his closed left fist into Harper's jaw. The resulting sound was that of clattering teeth and a groan of pain. Harper wobbled a step back and shook his head but didn't fall at all. His hands came up as gem batons formed in his grip. Mashyuu's brow raised with joy and he drew his sword. A moment later the blade burst with brilliant golden energy as it hummed in the air. "You might be able to eat my magic but can you beat me in a hand to hand battle?" Harper asked with a smirk on his face. Mashyuu laughed and took a step back, aiming his blade for the mans chest while making his profile narrow so that Harper wouldn't be able to land a lethal blow easily.

Harper started to swing his batons at Mashyuu who quickly flung the end of his weapon up to bat the blunt weapons aside while he took a step back. His bare foot pressed to a gold coin but never slowed or hampered his movements. Mashyuu stopped hard and thrust his weapon forward for Harper's chest but the man brought both his batons down in an X like pattern to catch Mashyuu's sword. Locked the two struggled for an advantage in the middle of the dead lock. "Okay Harper, I'm gonna show you a trick I have only shown a few people in my entire life, and one that I don't want my friends up there to see." Mashyuu snapped his finger and released a bit of magical power, disrupting Harper's magical spell. One of his batons vanished thanks to Mashyuu's birthright and ability to simply end magic that could be considered Earth Magic. Harper suddenly went wide eyed as he stepped to his left quickly to evade Mashyuu's blade suddenly coming up for both of his hands. "So, with your Slayer powers you eat earth magic and use the power you get from that to give yourself an advantage against other earth users. Anything else I should know?" Harper asked. Mashyuu shrugged his shoulders and took a step back to allow the man to have some space. "Actually, take your best shot and see what happens."

Mashyuu spread his arms wide, allowing for the man to make his best attack at the God Slayer. Harper scowled at Mashyuu for a moment then put his hands together. "Gem Make: Roaring Diamond Lion!" A massive lion exploded out of Harper's palms and smashed into Mashyuu, trying to rip through his flesh. But the spell was almost only about half as effective as it should have been, barely drawing blood from the God Slayer who simply bit down on the lion's neck and started to eat the creature. "That kind of magic barely hurts me at all. You're out of your league here Harper." Mashyuu shrugged his shoulders while flipping his sword around to slide back into the scabbard until it locked in place.

As it turned out, Harper was a little more than worried and he started to sweat, his head twisted up to consider making a break for it until Mashyuu called out to him again. "If you run, I'll find you, and won't hold back when I do catch you. Oh and trust me when I say that I can move a lot faster than you think I can." Harper glared at the Earth God, his lip curling up with annoyance as he realized he had just started a losing fight. "You really want to arrest me? Think about it. What are they offering you? some Jewel? Maybe a single magical artifact from here? Come on. Together we could make out with everything this tomb has to offer!" Harper tried to reason. "Seriously? Oh man! I hadn't once thought of that! Dude you're so right! Just one problem. I really hate this place and everything in it so far. Including you. Plus one of your goons shot my partner. So now you have to answer for that. Sorry buddy. You just have bad luck when it comes to the man who is gonna arrest you."

The man in brown roared with rage and smashed his hands together in a clap. "Gem Make: Wings!" Two large wings exploded out of his back and Harper started to fly at Mashyuu at a quick pace, figuring that if Mashyuu couldn't counter Harper, than he couldn't beat the treasure hunter. Harper slammed into Mashyuu's chest and lifted up, flying Mashyuu high, up past the steps where Itsu was battling gunmen hand to hand and to the top of the large room above the treasure chamber. Harper spun in the air and created a series of spiked sapphires on the ground of the treasure chamber. Before Mashyuu knew what happened, he was facing the floor far below with his hands bound at his sides by Harper's massive arms. "Sapphire Nightmare!" He shouted and started to drop to the floor with Mashyuu bound, both men facing one another so that Mashyuu couldn't possibly eat the sapphires below.

With a sickening thud Mashyuu found his body impaled by a small series of blue sapphires, his body twitched while his eyes rolled into the back of his head from the sudden pain that jolted through him. Harper had managed to stop his own fall with his large wings, floating a few feet above Mashyuu with a grin on his face. "Not so high and mighty now are you Slayer? What good is being able to eat my magic if you can't reach it with your mouth? Don't you know who I am!? I'm Harper the Gem Wizard! You can't stop me!"

Mashyuu's body tensed as the shock of being impaled through multiple wounds and blood started to stain his ripped clothes. Really he should have been dead but his scabbard had been keeping him alive. While Harper gloated about impaling Mashyuu he managed to mutter the command on a single spell. "Light Dragon's Domain:.... Transition." A blue field of light flowed out of Mashyuu's body and surrounded the treasure room. A moment later a small pile of gold was in place of the God Slayer and he was on a knee, holding his chest a few feet away from the gold. Brownish red energy rippled off his body, the Goddess inside him taking over in order to keep the Slayer vessel she had alive. "That was Mashyuu's mistake, underestimating you. But I will not do the same, mortal." Using Mashyuu's own magical powers the Goddess lifted Mashyuu to his feet and screamed loudly. His body erupted with golden magic that started to super heal his wounds shut. The God Slayer took a half step forward and the ground under him launched a wall up, springing Mashyuu high into the air with his hands spread wide and balled up into fists. When he was eye level with Harper, Mashyuu lifted his hands and brought them down hard on the crown of his foes head, sending him rocketing to the ground below. As Mashyuu started to fall to the floor, he conjured a ball of stone, roughly the size of his chest before him and wrapped it in white hot light. Taking aim at the cloud of dust under him where Harper had landed Mashyuu pushed his palms forward, launching the meteor. "Dragon Gods Meteor Swarm!" The ball made contact with something but didn't seem to do any damage. When Mashyuu landed and the dust settled from the quick exchange it was revealed that when Harper hit the ground he created a shield of diamond around him in a sphere to collect his wits and get ready for the next exchange of attacks.

Man, his attacks and speed just got a lot more intense. I don't know if I can keep up with it. What's with this guy? Harper thought to himself but his attention was quickly brought back to the battle when Mashyuu, now being controlled by the Goddess inside him started to literally eat Harper's dome shield. Eating enough of it to restore some of his power the God Slayer pushed his hand through a hole quick enough to grab Harper by the jacket and pulled the man face first into his own spell, breaking the Gem mage's nose on impact. Mashyuu let the man go and watched as he stumbled backwards. By the time the man found his footing and released his own face from the wound Mashyuu had transformed into black sand and reformed inside the diamond dome. "What will you do when you can't escape?" Mashyuu's hand pulled back and sand started to swarm in his palm, slowly growing bigger until he released a tornado of sand out towards Harper. "Secret Art: Earth Gods Sand Twister!" Mashyuu shouted then vanished again, leaving Harper inside the gem dome with a tornado of Sand and a small pile of the gold he wanted so badly.

The sand tornado smashed into Harper, knocking him hard against the wall then swallowing him as the sand continued to inflict wounds on the treasure hunter. Mashyuu used the time to start to eat the ground and the diamond shell that Harper had made. As the shell was destroyed and the sand twister faded away Harper found himself laying on the ground, barely able to draw a good amount of breath. As much as Harper wanted a moment to recover, he had no time because Mashyuu had eaten enough of the shell to change one last time.

"Oh man! I haven't done this since completely bonding with the Goddess! It feels good to be back. You ready for the loss of a life time buddy?" Mashyuu asked with a grin on his face while black and red magical power flowed off his body. The treasure hunting Wizard pulled himself up and created two daggers of emerald and started to swing them around until he had a steady flow going through his body. The Earth God simply started to laugh. He pushed his right hand forward as if he were shoving something away from his body, causing three pillars to smash into the legs of Harper. Harper stumbled forward to a single knee but that didn't even last long when Mashyuu placed his hand to the floor. "Earth Gods Combo: Part Two!" A deep rumble hit the ground and swallowed Harper neck deep then started to constrict the man harshly. While the ground started to crush Harper, Mashyuu created a scythe of sand that curved out of his right arm. Swiftly the ground pushed Harper up and Mashyuu charged. "Earth Gods Combo: Part Three!" Mashyuu cut Harper across the chest with his sand blade and knocked the man into a pile of gold.

While Harper struggled to push himself up Mashyuu bent his knees and sprang up high into the air with both arms lifted high. As he landed on the ground his fists smashed into the floor right in front of Harper. "Earth Gods Molten Blast!" Mashyuu's spell caused stone to super heat and explode from the ground, melting gold to wash over Harper from the neck down, holding the knocked out Harper in place. Mashyuu folded his arms across his chest and glanced up to the battles that had ended above him and smiled wide. "You weren't so tough..." Mashyuu bluffed, clearly nearly defeated in the battle. Mashyuu placed a hand on Harper's head and the ground lifted the two back to Lise and Itsu's level. "Okay, lets get these guys to the Magic Council." Mashyuu grinned at the women and lifted a thumb as if he were fine...

At the meeting chamber of the Magic Council, it seemed Lise had slipped away, a shame considering that Mashyuu wanted to thank her for helping so much. Still he and Itsu were thrilled to have done something needed so great for the Magic Council and more importantly helping Earthland as a whole. "Thank you for coming to our aid when we needed it most Mashyuu and Itsu of Sabertooth. Here is the Jewel we promised and also.." The eldest of the Council Members produced a large wooden box covered in dust. "We noticed that you have no long term movement spells and this set of bracers will help you with that. Again Mashyuu thank you." Mashyuu gladly took the his reward and handed the money to Itsu then slipped the brownish gold bracers on over his forearms to make sure they were snugly fit on his arms.

WC: 2234
Total: 6743
Job total: 13,796