Follow the Light into (the Heaven's Forge) !

Job:

"But is worth a lotta money ye say, fo' sho?" the redhead asked in a low tone, her voice urgent with the need for confirmation.  Standing tall and amused in front of her, the cloaked figure replied in the affirmative.  Just as she was reaching forwards to snatch up the box filled with those mysterious packets of pale powder, his voice stopped her in her tracks.

"It's worth more than money if you use it for what you're supposed to."

She snorted and shook her head immediately after he said anything at all.  "I ain't fool enough t' go an' take up any a' this," Leah replied tartly, her eyes deeply distrustful as they gazed at the stranger.  "'Tis better to sell it all," she finished with a slow nod as she picked up the box and stored it away with her magic.

"You shouldn't scorn things just because you haven't tried them before, my dear," replied the voice smoothly from somewhere under the shadows left by the overhanging fabric of the dark hood concealing the man's face.  She couldn't hold back the laugh that followed that statement, it was just so priceless.  Drugs, huh?  Did this man really think she was stupid enough to do that, especially here in the middle of one of the most wretched cities of Fiore?  The mage almost spat in his face, but she managed to hold back that and instead shook her head with a half smile quirking up the left corner of her mouth.  Deciding against taking any more time out of her schedule to be derisive at this man, the female turned away to walk down the street and leave this place.  It honestly wasn't safe.

"You'll regret it, darling."  The man's voice sounded like it hadn't changed at all despite her staunch refusal, and that unnerved the emerald eyed girl.  Nonetheless, she shook her head and continued to walk away.

All of a sudden everything was blurry.  There was no pain, none at all... (it was just impossible all of a sudden to breathe or see).  But she could hear.  Hear the man talking, and his voice was less deep and less mysterious.  Less... good.  Less of the benevolent stranger who had only wanted to give her a little gift that was worth a world.  More...

More cruel.

"You'll love it, little pet," he murmured before the world went black.
Leah...

The girl found herself standing upright in a plane of pure darkness, her feet feeling as though they were standing on solid ground.  But when she reached down to touch the soil beneath her feet, there was nothing there; she was hovering in midair but felt no pull from anywhere.  Her breathing grew fast and heavy as she peered into the darkness, but hyperventilating soon became tiresome and she steadied her intake and outtake of oxygen.  Where am I? she wondered; what else was one to do in this situation?  She supposed a person could theoretically try to light up the area, but was she even in Earthland anymore?  Leah concentrated on her surroundings and found that she seemed to be alone, so what had called her out of her sleep, if forced unconsciousness could be known as sleep.  The mage was sure that the stranger from earlier had put her into it.

Leah, wake up.  Leah, I need you to wake up so you can-

"Wake. Up."

She jerked to her feet; somehow, she hadn't been already, and then the world was dark again (again?) but not quite as pitch black as before.  Then her eyes could open (had they been closed just now?) and her lips drew back into a snarl when she awoke to the sight of the hooded man from before.  Except, he was holding a box like the one he had given her before.  "Just listen to me.  Listen to your heart.  You're curious, aren't you?  This is a good idea, and you shouldn't be opposed to it at all."  The redhead nodded slowly, her eyes trained on the figure and his every moment.  The outline of his body seemed to shift and merge with every step he took towards her, until everything was an enormous blur and all she understood was the thud of her pulse loud in her ears and his words, even louder.  Yes, she heard herself say from miles away.  Reaching out one hand for the box to rest on, to hold it close and cradle it against her chest until trembling hands could pry open the lid.  Of course, she repeated before the world was swept out from under her feet.

Leah, there you are.  When you wake up, you'll be safe.  I need you to do something for me, though.  Can you go to Kyoka?  Do this for me... do this for me... she clutched at her temples as the strange voice from earlier echoed against her skull in the darkness she found herself trapped in once more.  Go to Kyoka, Leah.  Go to Kyoka.  To Kyoka.

It was all she could do to nod.  Where were her senses?

852 Words.  Spirit's color is #ffff66.

Job Details:

Mashyuu found himself laying in bed again, glowing blue eyes staring up at the dusty rafters of his family home, the place he had started to call home that he stayed in with his lover, Kenna, and his best friends including Itsu. Something had been eating at him for days, he had been doing jobs just fine and getting paid for these jobs but he felt like something from his past had been poking at him, urging him to do something that he never got the chance to finish. What was it? Mashyuu, get up! You need to come back. You never did what I asked of you, you and Kanix failed in the end. Only two of the three items were found and once again have been stolen. I need you to return now. You have changed at your core and can return to my world. Try not to screw things up this time dummy! Come back to the portal and enter my realm, follow me! Don't wander off! Follow me and defeat the creatures holding the keys to the forge so that I can be free! Please! I cannot do this without you. In order to ensure you are successful I am going to get other Wizards to help you." A voice echoed in Mashyuu's ears and mind, reminding him of the Heavens Forge. A place he visited shortly after he had married Kanix and the two went to help a spirit that had been haunting Kanix the spirit shameness. Mashyuu blinked his glowing blue eyes and got out of bed lazily, his shaggy hair fell in front of his face and he sighed heavily then glanced at his current lover and fellow God like being, Kenna. She made his life better in every way and everything he had done lately was for her. Weather it was going to help her learn about her past, or making extra money so that she could stay out of danger as much as possible. He reached out and brushed her raven hair out of her face, bringing a soft smile to her beautiful face. Carefully he reached down and kissed her forehead then whispered. "I love you babe. Promise I'll be back soon." Mashyuu pulled himself out of bed and wandered to the living room where Itsu was half asleep in a chair. He patted her shoulder and smiled at her. "Come on, we have a job to do." Itsu shook her head and got up, in a matter of moments both Mashyuu and Itsu were dressed, Mashyuu wearing his fathers old brown martial arts uniform that was infused with both his parents signature spells before their deaths. He smoothed his hands over his suit and it flashed with dim light then changed to a white set of pants with black boots, and a white vest with orange trimming. He strapped his bracers to his forearms and hooked his sword to his belt and secured his cross to his left wrist. Itsu was quickly dressed in her form fitting white bone armor and strapped her black dagger to her wrist sheath and the two headed to the portal.

"So a spirit told you to come help it when you were married to Kanix and you didn't do what you thought you did so it asked you to come back? And it said that it was going to get other Wizards to join you here? Mashyuu I think you're going insane. Did you take one to many hits to the head?" Mashyuu's brow raised sharply and he growled under his breath. "A demon raised you from the dead, only for you to turn against it and help me. I was in a coma for almost a year while a Goddess that was put inside of my soul by a cult kept my body alive and taught me God Slaying magic. But the spirit is what makes you think I'm crazy?" Mashyuu asked with an annoyed tone to his voice.

WC: 672

Rolling for first 15 encounters. Remember we can put them in any order with any groups together we want.)

The member 'Mashyuu Kumonosu' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

So she had agreed to go to Kyoka, but where the hell was it?  The redhead flopped back over onto her bed in the guild hall, which was where she had woken up after one of the strangest dreams she had ever had.  Except, the pounding headache and the nausea swirling in the pit of her stomach was nothing fake; the mage never woke up like this.  She was a bit of a workaholic after all, and therefore Leah was well accustomed to springing out of bed (not really though) and galloping out of the guild hall for her newest mission (this was true.  Jewels were a wonderful motivator).  However, it was clear that because of some of her... ahem, poor decisions was a nice way to put  it, this day would not be so fortunate as to start off like most of her others.  The mage groaned out loud as she toppled out of bed, taking the bedclothes with her and becoming entangled in the covers until she was well and truly heading in the opposite of getting prepared to leave.  Although she tried to sharply rebuke herself to stop this tom foolery and get going, absolutely nothing was happening.  That was, until she felt an agonizing throbbing start up in her head, even worse than the headache from minutes ago that she hadn't even realized had stopped until this new migraine had started.  With a drawn out half gurgle half moan of pain, the emerald eyed girl extracted herself from the blankets and sheets and trudged into the bathroom.  Geez, she would never trust a stranger again (until she did).

The water was freezing of course, since it was habitually cold until the shower was run for at least a minute or so, and a smart mage would have waited to jump in until after this time period had passed.  But the girl wasn't thinking in her right mind, so she hopped into the small square of space with plenty of grumbles before smacking the lever of the shower dial a few times until it was loose enough to crank all the way up.  Icy liquid that felt like... seawater from the arctic ocean (or just bathwater that had sat out for millions of hours, although that was more gross than cold in how it was uncomfortable to think of) sprayed out from the shower head and doused Leah thoroughly before she could react and step out of the affected zone.  Her lungs immediately seemed to stop working properly before deep breaths were all of a sudden needing to be taken, and they did happen.  Just with jittery, shaky intakes and a little bit of chattering of teeth.  Stupidity was so fun, was all the girl could think.

In the end, she managed to take that hot shower that she had wanted, although the extra oxygen from the forced deep breaths had actually managed to get her brain a running more quickly than usual.  The redhead swiped a few flower shaped crackers from her box of snacks as she hurriedly dressed, first trying to slip on her normal outfit of dark pants and a leather jacket over a crimson tunic before she gave up on getting the clothes on.  For some reason, her concentration was simply off today.  Because of this lack of focus, the mage ended up requipping on the first dress she saw, which unfortunately ended up being a wedding dress that she'd had stored at some point after nicking it from a store surreptitiously while window shopping.  Leah paid no heed to the fact that her steps seemed unusually hard to take today (because of the heavy layers of skirts that stuck around her legs) or to how her hair was automatically already out of her face despite never having put it up in a ponytail after her shower.  Instead, she just stormed through the halls of Golden Phoenix's guild house, ignoring all the strange looks and chalking everything up to the unusual circumstances surrounding her awful mood and situation upon waking up.  But when she finally made it out of the entire hall and was standing on a mountaintop overlooking the island that the entrance was located on, the redhead reflected on how very, very cold she was.  Didn't the thing she'd chosen have sleeves- oh.  No.  No it didn't.

The emerald eyed female choked as she stared into the floor length mirror that she had requipped to see exactly what she was wearing.  Oh gods.  With her lip almost bitten cleanly through, Leah couldn't tear off the dress fast enough (the process actually took an arduously long time, she definitely wouldn't have stolen the stupid thing if she knew how many petticoats came with it).  The shoes were surprisingly practical, though: white calfskin boots, low enough that the top rims barely brushed her upper ankles.  Clearly she had planned for the case of running away on her wedding day, the mage reflected with a grim smile, although her eyes danced with a slight bit of melancholy.  All of the... the crap in her hair though, that wouldn't come out!  No matter how much she tugged at the mess, everything seemed hopelessly stuck, and even trying to magically requip the entire outfit didn't work.  She probably should have attempted to do that before it was all physically attached to her head, the girl thought dejectedly.  Oh well.  The mess of white veil and random feathers/flowers, with about four thousand pins, would just have to stay.  After getting herself into a more suitable outfit (basically, her normal one that she wore literally every single day) and throwing a threatening look all around her in case some random person had been staring up at her half undressed at the summit of a mountain this entire time, Leah called out sharply, "Ilosa!  I know you can hear me!  Take me to Kyoka right this instant, or else I'm never giving you apple snacks again," she threatened without the slightest bit of hesitation.

A beautiful pegasus, appaloosa pelted in black and varying shades of dark grey, cantered out of the shadows and nosed the female in the side with what seemed to be a disgruntled expression.  However, there were no complaints as the mage settled onto the flying horse's back (no saddle, as always) and gently squeezed with her knees.  No further encouragement was necessary (if that had even been, anyways) as the winged creature darted forwards into the darkness beneath the trees, into those long shadows created by the low morning sun, then vanishing as though she had never even been there at all.  It was barely a minute or two before Leah and Ilosa stepped out in a foreign place, although familiar enough to the animal; all the world that held at least a smidgen of magic felt like home to her.  And this place seemed to be strong in magic, indeed: it was almost as though the redheaded mage's power had multiplied as she slipped off the pegasus's back and slipped her an apple treat before the magical creature slunk back away into the shadows.  Her eyes burning with curiosity, the mage peered into the shadows (there were quite a lot of them around here, actually, all with a slightly greenish and unnerving tint), her face full of hesitation.

A pair of pale hands darted out from the darkness and grabbed for her throat.

Reeling backwards, Leah drew three throwing daggers and hurtled them into the shadowy area where she had seen the mysterious fingers that were so dangerously white and seemed to be almost emaciated, now that she thought of it.  There came no retaliation or response, so the girl hesitantly requipped her actual proper weapons, two High Imperial Daggers, before she pointed the tip of one threateningly at the patch of darkness that, now that she thought of it, seemed to spread all around her as though the female were standing in a clearing surrounded by a forest of shadow.  What the hell kind of planet was Kyoka, anyways?  The mage had absolutely no clue.  Just then, however, a cloaked figure stumbled out of the shadows, and it was revealed to be a young man as his hood slipped down from covering his head.  

"Please... Please save me..." he whispered before collapsing onto the ground.  She bit her lip, staring at the motionless heap for a few beats before reluctantly approaching.  It was soon made clear exactly what had happened; three silver throwing daggers, the hilts very familiar to the redhead, were buried inside the torso of the youth.  With an abrupt sigh, she reached down to yank them out as cleanly as she could manage, before she propped up the young man against the trunk of a tree nearby.  As it turned out, this was actually indeed some kind of forest even if the trees seemed like they were made out of shadow.

And then, within the course of five minutes, the stranger ceased to be breathing.  Leah felt a twinge of guilt, for it had been her thin blades that had pierced between his ribs and caused his death, but he had tried to strangle her after all.  It was clear by his bloodred robes that the man was a mage or acolyte or had some other occupation along those lines, so actually it probably hadn't been strangulation he was aiming for... some sort of flesh magic?  Dark magic, she assumed either way.

With a short sigh, the female turned around, the three daggers swinging loosely between her fingers, when she met face to face with a scrawny wolf, eyes wild and glowing with a savage light.  Immediately her hand was brought up on instinct, to slam the points of the three blades underneath the creature's chin, backing away right afterwards.  There were others, too; there were at least teni other wolves in all, but oddly enough they seemed intimated by her immediate display of a lack of mercy.  Pitiful, the whole mass of them were.  Even with a clear cut numbers advantage, the pack of animals cowered against the forest floor, and with a growing trepidation, the redhead backed away from the group before she slipped into the shadows and breathed a small sigh of relief.  In her mind, she pictured the thin wolves, their ribs showing through and their tails ragged and the rest of their pelts plenty torn.  There had been at least fourteen in all, she guessed, counting the dead one.  It was a relief that not all had to be killed.

Continuing under the cover of her magic that utilized the darkness to hide, Leah slipped through the forest aimlessly.  Sometimes, she felt like she could spot a small yellowish white light and would follow it until all of a sudden, it disappeared, at which point she normally encountered a group of enemies of some sort.  Almost all were wolves who scattered as soon as the mage stabbed one of them or held up a pelt from one of those big old grey wolves she had hunted a while ago in Iceberg, but there were a few humans or at least, monsters shaped like them.  She met a pair that wore the same bloodred cloaks as the first young man, except these were much more on guard.  Really, the female was thankful that she was already hidden from their eyes, for she passed by without a problem; the encounter between the next two ended similarly.  This was a boring mission so far, but then again it hadn't really been a mission in the first place.  Maybe things would be made clearer when she finally caught up with that stupid white light...?

Emerald eyes suddenly caught sight of a girl with white or grey hair (the lighting was so dark and poor in this area that it was difficult to tell, in fact Leah supposed her own locks might seem maroon or something) who carried a branch of some sort whose wood was the same color as said hair.  Because the person seemed so different from everyone that she had encountered so far, the redhead couldn't resist slinking up behind her and reaching out to try and tap the female on the shoulder, uttering a soft, "Hello."

2902/~4700 Words.  "What combat?"  Anyways, I took three normal enemies as wolf packs, two normal enemies as mages, one weak enemy as a mage and one weak enemy as a wolf pack.  The redhead on the right - here's a reference for the hair she still has.

At the portals, Mashyuu and Itsu glanced around, a faint residue of familiar magical power seemed to pulse around one portal and the scent was unforgettable to Mashyuu. "It seems we are gonna run into Lise somewhere on the other side of the portal. Are you ready Itsu? This place is sort of weird. Like Earthland but.... I guess you could say more... advanced. Yeah that is what you would want to call it." Mashyuu explained. In response Itsu simply raised a brow sharply and cracked her knuckles, ready to strike whatever might come at her on the other side, or embrace any cutie she saw. The two Sabertooth Wizards pushed their hands threw the portal and stepped forward. A moment later they stood in front of a large pair of doors, moss growing off large metal and glass passage. "It looks like a new sort of arena..." Itsu whispered. Mashyuu smiled and nodded up and down. "It is. Its' called a baseball stadium. Apparently it was a sport in realm at some point. But as far as I know, the time has passed and this world is mostly over grown. Only the strong survive and the last time I was here I met the spirit inside this very stadium so I figure that since the portal brought us here, this is as good a place to start as any other." The brown haired man replied. He reached out and grasped the moss covered handle of the door and pulled it wide open then stepped inside the darkened halls. Each of their steps echoed in the darkness of the hall leading to the playing field, so dark were the halls that Itsu could actually see the faint light screen that surrounded Mashyuu and deflected damage away from him at any given time. It only made his glowing blue eyes that much weirder. Itsu was about to ask a question when the sound of growling came from the throat of Mashyuu and his blue eyes narrowed. He took a stance like that of an animal ready to pounce. Itsu looked in the direction down the hall he was looking and saw sets of glowing eyes, Five sets of eyes in total. "Let me light this room up for you." Mashyuu offered to Itsu and tensed his body up, flaring with golden light that changed the color of his hair to match. The light flooded down the hall, revealing a set of five strong and powerful looking wolves that charged the Sabertooth Wizards.

Itsu stepped in front of Mashyuu and threw her arm forward, a dagger launched from her palm and stuck into the neck of a wolf, causing it to yelp in pain. Itsu snatched the metal cable that was attached to the dagger and yanked hard, pulling the blade back to draw a steady flow of blood. In the narrowed hallway Mashyuu jumped forward with both his hands clenched into fists and slammed the ground under him with them after he moved past Itsu. "Earth Gods Molten Blast!" The ground before his fists rolled and broke, launching magma from the earth itself to spray upon the pack of wolves. Even this however didn't deter the wild animals who were starving and ready to eat the flesh of humans. The lead wolf endured the pain of the magma and jumped up to bite Mashyuu's shoulder hard, drawing blood from the mans muscle and bone. He seethed from the pain but didn't give up any ground. Instead he jerked to the left while Itsu stabbed out with her blade, catching the wolf in the neck with the dagger. Harshly she yanked up and around while Mashyuu grabbed the animal by the legs and tugged, cutting the wild animals head nearly clean off its neck. Blood spilled all over the floor at Mashyuu's feet as the head of the wolf remained on Mashyuu's shoulder until he pulled it off and kicked it into the wolf that Itsu had stabbed at the start of battle. Quickly Mashyuu's wound started to heal thanks to the healing light that flowed off his body.

"Ghost touch!" Itsu called out then drew a deep breath of air and exhaled, smashing a blast of pink light into the four remaining wolves, sending them smashing into the walls of the hall from the force of the blast. Each of the wolves struggled to get up but fell to the ground, no longer wishing to battle the Sabertooth Wizards. "Pesky things really. Come on. Lets keep going." Mashyuu said while touching the rapidly drying blood on his shoulder. Itsu thought for a moment then spoke. "Say, shouldn't we be looking for Lise? You said you could smell her near the portal. You don't think its strange that the spirit placed us in different areas?" Itsu asked. "The spirit is a blacksmith and requires three keys. It wouldn't be a far fetched idea to reason that the spirit got three Wizards and put them in different spots to claim three different objects to act as keys."

The two Sabertooth Wizards stepped onto the baseball field and peered up. High in the sky the spirit that demanded Mashyuu come to the realm waited, as if calling others to the area. Under it stood a woman with a blood red cape and hood on her body, covering her from near head to toe while keeping her shrouded in a strange sort of mystery. Mashyuu growled when four more mages dressed in similar robes stepped onto the diamond that made up the baseball field. "Dark Wizards...." Itsu noticed how quickly Mashyuu's hand went for his blade and the movement made her tremble a little. While he was indeed one to charge head first into battle he wasn't the type to simply draw his weapon before a foe attacked. A blue field of light burst from Mashyuu's body, taking up the entire baseball field. "Light Dragons Domain: Transition!" He called out, one of the bases appeared where he had been standing and Mashyuu was suddenly upon the woman in red and drawing his weapon while charging the woman. "Single Blade Style: Shishi Sonson!" He shouted while drawing his weapon, cutting and replacing the blade in the scabbard in one fluid motion. The woman gasped as a gout of fire exploded from her side where Mashyuu cut, showing that she had been setting a trap. The fire jumped from her and hit Mashyuu's back, burning him to the point that black smoke rose off his wound.

Itsu whispered while she clenched her dagger in her palm. "Revive!" She shouted, creating a second, copy Itsu at her side. The two split off without a word to one another and attacked the four Wizards, each Itsu taking on two. The real Itsu ducked a strike from one who had wrapped his hands in fire then brought her leg up, snapping her knee into the jaw of the man, knocking him backwards a few steps. Before Itsu could bring her leg down the other man rushed her, and tackled the woman to her back and lifted his arms up high over his head. "Fire fist!" He shouted and lit his arms up with fire and brought them down on Itsu's chest. She coughed in pain as air left her lungs and fire burned her chest harshly. She didn't have much knowledge in fighting Fire Wizards, in fact the only one she had ever met was Kite and he never tried to harm her. Itsu watched as the man brought his flaming arms up again to strike and instead of bringing them down he yelped in pain when a two pronged black dagger stabbed into this thigh, drawing a small pool blood. He pushed himself off and started to hobble away from Itsu as she rolled up to her feet. Itsu started to spark with energy as she compressed her magic on her body. "Phantom Speed!" Itsu shouted and vanished. A moment later she appeared at the mans side and drove her sparking palm into the mans jaw, breaking it on contact. The fire Wizard slumped down in a heap of pain when he was attacked. Again she vanished just when the other Wizard was about to strike, leaving behind an after image of her in place of where she was. The Fire Wizard struck air and winced when he realized he was about to be attacked. In the blink of an eye a foot caught his knee, kicking it in and to his left, breaking the bone, forcing him to fall to the ground in agony.

Mashyuu's sword quickly drew and clashed against a flaming sword made by the woman Wizard, sending wild embers across the battlefield. Mashyuu scowled and swept his leg, the ground rolling with his sweep as he commanded the ground to work at his call. The energy he put into the strike took the woman off her feet and caused her to crash hard into the ground. Without a moments wait, Mashyuu smashed the flat of Excalibur into the face of the Fire Wizard, once, twice then again, breaking bone before she could counter. As he lifted his weapon again the woman changed to fire and moved around his weapon in order to evade what would surely be a finishing blow. She appeared above Mashyuu and placed both her hands together. A torrent of fire erupted from her hands but before she could strike Mashyuu he shouted. "Transition!" He traded spots with a Wizard the clone Itsu had been attacking, burning him to a crisp. Mashyuu looked at the last remaining lackey of the head Wizard and slashed his weapon across the mans belly, drawing a spray of blood from his brilliant sword swing. As he continued his swing he shouted. "Kings Cleave!" A blast of light flowed from his weapon and smashed into the Fire Wizard leader, the power of the blast knocking her out cold...

WC: 1677
Total: 2349
OOC: A few weak foes and a strong left.

Rolling for more enemies before I do this.

The member 'Leahndr Aspont' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Leah's face tightened as she saw an odd looking creature, that seemed to be pure white mist with random pieces of armor or something over the top (almost as though the metal was holding the form together) step out to confront the two mages. "Hello," the redhead greeted with her eyes shadowed with suspicion, and her fingers lifted up from where they had balanced on the human stranger's shoulder (or at least she had seemed to be human). "Listen to me, please." That was all she could say to the foreign mage (would an ordinary person be here in Kyoka? Doubtful) before the monster that had just entered the clearing chose to lunge at the emerald eyed girl, its hands spinning around some kind of invisible mass that sent a shiver of foreboding through Leah. Without further ado, it thrust its palms towards the two, and a great burst of air came flying towards them; the redhead dove out of the way, hoping that the other girl would do the same since she didn't know what further touching her would bring. So the creature used air; well, that would do. Her eyes almost seeming as though they ought to be boring holes into said creation by now, the girl drew her Mercenary's Daggers and hurled herself towards the monster. Immediately engaging into battle, her knives flickering in and out of vision as the dark metal, etched with a dragon, blended neatly into the shadows of the forest. "Go to hell already," she growled, unwilling to put up with this foolishness any longer even if it was useless to be complaining to her opponents about how annoying they were. She wanted to get on with following the spirit already. Not pausing in her movements, the girl stabbed downwards at the same time with both blades of the pair, the double strike slashing cleanly through the creature before it disappeared. It wasn't as though she was left completely uninjured; the sharp and forceful air had rubbed her skin almost raw in certain places, but Leah was sure she would survive. Besides, the attacks had also forced that awful wedding hairstyle out of the many knots it had been in.

"I'm going to go follow a spirit. That's the reason I'm here," the redhead murmured, turning back towards the stranger who she had greeted a little while ago. Maybe she could choose to follow her, maybe not but either way the mage wanted to be getting on now. There was no telling how many wolves and mages lurked in here. "My name is Lise Ansem," she offered with a slight smile before turning away and setting off into the woods without another thought to the other female. If she followed, that was just that. It was nice to have somebody watch your back, but who knew whether the white haired girl was trustworthy anyways? Either way, there was no time to worry about things like that, because another pack of at least ten wolves had surrounded the girl; mage in a bloodred cloak sat with swinging legs in the branches of a tree; and four green, partially disembodied monsters (kind of like that air elemental thing except appearing to have a nature theme) all stopped her in her tracks before she could make much progress in the journey. "Just great," she couldn't resist muttering before she was dashing forwards, Oriental Armor securely protecting her body and a Bilgewater Falchion gripped in her right hand. The blade cut through the wolves as easily as though they were slicing through butter, but emaciated as the animals were they still bled a lot and it was uncomfortable. The mage ended up posing little to no threat, for she was down without another word after one of the glowing green elemental wove vines around the bloodred cloaked mage and strangled her to death. Still, its three companions who weren't busy stepped closer to the mage until they were almost surrounding her in a small cluster; Leah's jaw tightened and she spun around quickly, lashing out at the knees of one with a roundhouse kick. Another quick snap kick to the head of one managed to take him out, but the last creature was prepared and sent a whirl of leaves towards the girl, which obscured her vision and left the redhead scraping the ivy colored mass off of her face. In that brief span of time, the monster chose to fight and reached back, gathering swirling green energy in his palm before clenching it into a first and thrusting towards the mage's head. Fortunately, the thing hadn't predicted that she had the certain sight that would allow her to see through the idiotic leaves; so although they itched, she was prepared and dodged the powerful but slow attack. A spinning kick that was perhaps a bit superfluous but certainly did surprise the monster, finished him off. Since when was she a master at martial arts? Since basically never, but hey, she had trained in them with her old mentor at some point; blades just happened to be her preference most of the time.

Before any celebration of her victory could happen, though, a pack of at least forty wolves decided to saunter out of the forest and once again surround the human. Gaping at the pure numerical advantage they held over her, no matter how scrawny the animals were individually, the girl flashed a nervous smile before her cloak was fluttering over her shoulders and the mage was flying up into the sky, trying to pierce through the canopy. All of the atmosphere here seemed to have a strange greenish tint that left Leah feeling very uncomfortable, but she didn't mind taking along the white haired girl if she had followed and was alright with flying. Grabbing the stranger wouldn't be too hard during her escape from the wolves. As the redhead flew over the tree tops, scanning the ground for a place to land (preferably away from anymore large groups of enemies) she spotted some kind of... arena? It reminded her almost of that gladiatorial place in heaven where she and Mashyuu had been forced to fight angels. But what was that? Her mind was crazy or something, or it was just another trick being played on the redhead by the spirit that had her already hallucinating and had brought her here. Because the Sabertooth mage was standing inside the stadium, his weapon glowing with an Itsu right nearby. Without another thought, the girl flew over and landed maybe ten meters away from the two; she would drop the white haired girl as gently as possible, if she had come along.

"Did a strange spirit send you here, too?" she asked. "It was white and- that one!" The girl suddenly cut herself off as a bright white light (the rhymes!) flickered into existence nearby before it began to move. Rushing to follow the thing and abandoning her attempts to start a conversation with her two acquaintances, Leah ran until she realized that at some point, the small leading guide had disappeared. Where had she been going...? Everything was revealed, however, when a howl cut through the night, and an enormous, shaggy silver wolf stepped up onto a rocky mass of stones that the redhead hadn't even noticed until now. Clambering up behind him and loping forwards came a pack of seemingly well rested and well fed but ravenous anyways, wolves. At least twenty of them.

4151/~4700 Words. I took care of all the enemies I rolled and the rest of the ones left over from Mashyuu's post (minus the boss), sorry if this one is hard to understand but basically there's the boss left and she followed the spirit to the stadium without checking to see if y'all were with her.

Mashyuu and Itsu stood tall with their weapons drawn, quickly giving each of the blades a flourish before replacing them in the sheathes on their bodies. Mashyuu smirked when he sensed a familiar magical power drawing closer and down on them. The man looked up to see Lise and a small girl floating down to touch gently on the ground. "Lise!" Itsu shouted and rushed towards the young red haired mage and hugged her tight. "Looking good as always, and I love what you did with your hair!" Itsu pointed to the mess of red that was framing her face. Itsu leaned in close and whispered into the woman's ear. "Were you thinking of Mash before you got here?" The God Slayers ears twitched at the sound of Itsu's voice and a light red blush touched his cheeks. He drew a small breath and glanced down at the younger Wizard who he had not seen before. Slowly the large man walked up to her and extended his hand out to greet her. "Hi there, I'm Mashyuu and this is my friend and team mate Itsu. We are Wizards from Sabertooth, what is your name?" He asked while trying to keep the young girl calm in order to make sure that everyone felt safe in the strange new place. It was then that Lise seemed to go on about following a spirit and he was about to say something when she took off, out of the stadium and into the woods. Mashyuu sighed and narrowed his eyes. "So that is what its like. Hey there little one, stay right behind me and Itsu until we get to the next safe zone. Okay?" Deciding it best to keep together the brown haired man and Itsu took off after Lise until a large white wolf and twenty smaller ones cut Mashyuu and the girls off from Lise. Mashyuu groaned under his breath and considered reaching for his blade but decided against it, instead he would try to not kill the monster outright.

"Earth Gods Sand Skin." Mashyuu whispered while pointing back at the young girl to wrap her in protective sand that would attack if the armor was broken. It was then that Itsu raced to the side of Mashyuu and placed her hand on her friends shoulder. "I got the pack taken care of. Just focus on the big guy." Itsu smirked and clapped her hands together and with it the sound of thunder rolled and lighting started to spark from her hands as she pulled her palms apart from one another. "Lightning Lance!" She shouted. She boomed with energy and raced at the pack of wolves faster than the human eye could see. She struck each wolf in the side as she raced past them, giving each of them a terrible shock that nearly stopped their hearts. She smashed her fists into the Alpha Wolf, leaving its fur burnt and smoking from the strike but aside from that the large wolf seemed unharmed. "Crap that thing is strong." Itsu muttered. The Sabetooth Wizards took a half step back, Itsu moving to the Wolfs left while Mashyuu twisted to the right. He pushed his hand forward and willed the earth to move at his call. "Earth Gods Combo: Part One!" He shouted. the ground under the wolf exploded and ejected three pillars of stone into the wolf's belly. It yelped with pain but barely budged. A moment later the monster like animal lowered itself low and jumped up high. It came down with a snapping maw towards the Wizard. Mashyuu jumped back and placed his hand on the ground. "Earth Gods Combo: Part Two!" The ground opened up under the Wolf and Swallowed the Wolf entirely. As the ground crushed the beast Mashyuu pulled his right arm back and sand started to swell on his forearm before growing out to form a sharp blade of sand. "Earth Gods Combo: Part Three!" He called out while charging. In a blur of white and orange the Wizard cut through the wolf as it was expelled from the ground and hit the wolf hard with the blade, dragging it across the left flank of the wolf while Itsu jumped up and brought her arms together. Moisture condensed in her hands while she took aim and conjured Magical energy. "Torrent Cannon!" Magical water roared from Itsu's palms, whirling around to smash into the Wolf's back, knocking it out cold in the process. She landed at its side and reached down at the side of the massive wolf. She yanked something off its leg and held it high, a bone etched with magical runes. "Come on, time to catch up with Lise."

WC: 799
Total: 3148
Just gonna leave catching up and what happens next to you Charlotte.

Rolling for more enemies again. Since Charlotte is on hiatus declared today, we will count her words from the total count, divide the rest by two and the new required word count is 5821.

She did ~17% of the total word count requirement if we're rounding up. So mods can determine rewards as they would like.

The member 'Leahndr Aspont' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

But Lise was already moving, not leaving them time to catch up.  As soon as she had seen that the wolf was down, the redhead had taken off.  Itsu's words... about Mashyuu and her hair?  The mage reached up to touch her ruby locks and found them to be a bit tangled, but mostly blown out by her rush through the trees.  Heck, even that stupid half veil half headdress was gone, which was convenient even if the girl felt a pang of pity for the fact that she eventually wouldn't have a matching set of hair piece + gown on her special day.  What did her swept straight hair after to do with the male Sabertooth mage anyways?  Oh well, it wasn't something to be worried about, not when there was yet another pair of mages stepping out of the trees to greet her.  Their cloaks, that signature bloodred color, really were getting quite tiresome to see and the mage debated just killing this next couple and stealing the least battered of the two sets of robes.  Maybe she could avoid some conflicts that way, since quite a few of the opposing mages she had encountered so far were on their own but hadn't been fighting (or really interacting at all) with their fellow crimson garbed folk.  Either way, there were two approaching hostile mages and she had to deal with them both, considering that she had pretty much just up and left Mashyuu and Itsu somewhere back in that clearing the group had first headed for after leaving the stadium.  

The redhead felt like narrowing her eyes into the darkness as the two strange mages seemed to melt away into the shadows, but instead she simply took a few steps back away from the center of the clearing.  Now immersed in the dark shadows cast by the trunks and masses of branches, the girl was free to disappear into the treeline herself.  And disappear she did.  With emerald eyes burning dimly in the light, they then altogether vanished as she crept slowly towards the last spot she had seen her opponents.  They were fire and blood magic users, as she had discovered since her last battles with their kind, and so therefore the one with blood abilities might be able to sense her.  It was about half and half, the ones that were able to figure out her exact location while using stealth; after all, some people didn't ever learn that as a sort of sensory ability despite how well blood lent itself to tracking.  After inhaling one last deep breath, the mage struck swiftly, her High Imperial Daggers barely gleaming in the low moonless night before sinking deep into the sides of the nearest red cloaked mage.  Attacking brought her out of a state of stealth, but that was fine.  

Already, Leah was throwing daggers and even a few of her reliable spiked ponytail holders, aiming for the face and neck of the one mage that was left.  However, either on account of the darkness that impaired her vision or purely because she was being sloppy now, the majority of the redhead's projectiles missed her mark.  Her opponent took the opportunity to bat away the remainder of the weapons that were actually on track, swinging a fold of her cloak around so that although a few shredded through and others stuck inside the weave of the fabric, the majority of them were shoved aside by the horizontal force.  Immediately afterwards, the foreign mage (who turned out to be female, as life would have it and was revealed when her hood fell down to unveil dark hair and striking sterling eyes) reached towards the redhead's face with a hand that smoldered like the coals of a bonfire.  Great, so this was the fire user out of the two, then, Leah reflected as she leaped backwards and away.  That was a smart idea, (although it was also pretty much a blatantly obvious one) for a pillar of flames, well a cylinder of one since it was horizontal, shot out from the center of the woman's palm and headed straight for the redhead's face.  As the flames flickered towards her eyes, reflected on the jewel like tones and facets that almost seemed to be present on the orb, the mage neatly slid to the side and let the blast go straight through where she had been standing before.  

Thankfully, there was no need to block; the undergrowth here wasn't so thick that it completely stopped her movements.  If that had been the case, the mage would have reluctantly lugged out that heavy, kite shaped shield and used it for defense.  But that would be troublesome, especially because that item had a tendency to glow in the dark and probably would attract many enemies.  Anyways, back to the battle.  Well, it wasn't much of a battle; Leah, having recovered from her earlier lapse in both skill and concentration (in missing all of those weapon attacks) was slicing and slashing furiously at the other mage, refusing to let up even for another moment.  Oh, she took quite a few hits in return but they were nothing compared with what the redhead dealt out, and within just a few moments (as it seemed) the strange female was lying on the ground, bleeding profusely although she may not die later, depending on the availability of medical treatment, healing, and... well whatever, it didn't really matter what her state of health was.  Letting out a small huff of satisfaction, the redhead sharply flicked her blades towards the ground, letting the crimson liquid that had coated them after such an intense bout of fighting, be flung onto the rushes that littered the forest floor.  Then Leah trodded off through the grass and twigs and all the stupid little branches that seemed to be everywhere, towards some other destination.  There was the spirit to lead her, after all.  And it seemed to be doing a decent job; a decent job at getting her into trouble, at least, if that qualified as finding her the perfect spots to be ambushed by great multiples of enemies at once.  For once the spirit flickered out of sight again, the redhead found herself in a clearing, surrounded by copious amounts of wolves.  More wolves.  Nice...  

She groaned at the sight and unsheathed her blades, which had never really even been exquipped.  Somehow, the mage had been sure that she would need them again soon, since this stupid spirit light thingy mabogger was so great at getting her into tight spots and heaps of difficulties.  Not that she should complain this much; surely there was going to be some kind of reward?  No?  Damnit.  The emerald eyed girl argued with herself detachedly before she realized that the savage creatures (don't tell her those wolves weren't foaming at the mouth, and it wasn't just because they were hungry.  Well, she could acknowledge that most of them had their ribs full on almost pressing all the way through the skin, but whatever) were steadily padding closer and boxing her in (figuratively, the circle of animals was more of... a circle).  Another forty wolves, alright so clearly fate or this weird guiding light wanted her to have a huge massacre like fight.  It had already brought her to bunches of enemies before, so this time Leah intended to actually fight her way through.  

She flipped her two High Imperial Daggers up as far as they could go and watched the blades flip end over end until they were almost touching the ground, since she hadn't attempted to catch the weapons.  Right before any contact could be made, however, they disappeared and all hell broke loose at that very moment.  A few wolves lunged for the mage, but many of them simply stood their ground, stopped advancing, and threw their heads up to howl at a nonexistent moon.  That sent definite chills down her spine despite the fact that she was strictly not afraid of the dark or of most animals (aside from those creepy magical creations that were basically just corrupted spells in physical form).  And then, they all swept their tails up and attacked.  She had already been trying to deal with the couple animals that had immediately tried to claw out her throat and had successfully either gutted them or knocked them out cleanly with the heavy pommel of her daggers (ordinary ones, since her High Imperial Daggers were safely back in storage lest they be scratched.  She was shallow, too).  Now, slightly overwhelmed by the sea of wolves, the redhead growled into the face of the nearest one and pulled out the Bilgewater Falchion that she had acquired comparatively recently, if one thought about the rest of her favored weapons that had some degree of magic.  

"Mist!" she spat out before collecting all the throwing daggers, armguards, knives, every single weapon she could find in her arsenal, and shoving them all out towards the pack with all of her might.  The blades pierced through the creatures and after passing through, continued to the next animal that was behind what was now only a carcass.  This deadly weapon attack was assisted by her Death Lotus, which the redhead had no qualms in using in order to win this stupid fight against forty wolves.  Actually, make that closer to like fifty, since a few of these ones seemed to be quite strong and refused to be taken down by her ordinary weapons, no matter the power put behind the assault.  But her Death Lotus did take care of the fighters.  Shadow blades, arcing towards the beasts, invisible especially in this darkest night and under the cover of Mist.  They pierced straight through the animals' hearts and just like the metal weapons except with an even greater efficiency because they had never been tangible in the first place, headed straight for the next opponent... well, it was more of a victim by now.  Surrounded at last by around fifty dead wolves, the girl narrowed her eyes at the scene before Shunpo'ing away from the mess.  It was too much of a bother to try to navigate the maze of bodies, especially because she already probably had to polish these boots anyways.  There was no need to get even more blood stains on them.  But just as she was getting ready for a serious departure, and was staring around searching for the spirit, the girl tensed as she heard soft footsteps behind her.  Turning around brought the sight of dark, bloodred eyes (the color of all the mages' cloaks) and a shadowy form, with fire flickering around the figure's feet and scorching the earth.  Lovely, really.  Just lovely.

5943/7500 Words.  So apparently it doesn't count what Charlotte did. I summoned the second boss, took care of the enemies that I had rolled aside from the two bosses (the second rolled one/ the third boss hasn't showed up yet at all and that'll be the atronoch one). You can take care of the second boss if you want or just part of it, if you do the second option or something else I'll deal with the second boss and start the third one and that'll probably be my last post.

Mashyuu and Itsu stood proud over the downed body of the wolf, while it weakly drew breath and the spirit that the team had been following soared around their heads then darted in the woods towards Lise. It stopped for a moment and glanced back to the young girl with Mashyuu and Itsu then soared around her until she was wrapped in a white light and the girl vanished as if she wasn't there at all. The spirit then winked, its light fading and flaring once. Then it darted into the woods. Mashyuu lifted a brow at the strange happening. He glanced at Itsu and then back to where the girl had been standing. His shoulders sagged and he licked dry lips before taking a breath to speak. "Guess the spirit decided that she wasn't cut out to do battle with foes like this. Shame really, we never even got the chance to..." Mashyuu shut his mouth when he felt the flare of power coming from deeper in the forest. Lise was in serious trouble, not that it mattered. So were the Sabertooth's.

Without warning a fire rushed through part of the forest, black smoke filled the area Mashyuu and Itsu stood in. The pair fell into a coughing fit until Mashyuu lifted his hands and sent a wave of dirt over the fire that was slowly coming towards them, smothering the flame to put it out. Slowly the smoke cleared and the two Wizards felt their jaw drop. A creature of pure elemental power lumbered towards them. Larger than half the trees in the forest, made up of stone for a body with powerful wind keeping it afloat as if on two legs, sparks of electricity for an arm along with water for the other and fire for a head. "Holy hell, this is gonna be a real fight." Mashyuu barely managed to whisper while he tried to figure out how the hell to beat an elemental that was so strong. Mashyuu drew a deep breath of air and flexed his hand around the hilt of Excalibur. Itsu wasn't sure how she could even start to help in this situation. She decided on fighting for her life and roared with anger to hyper herself up in order to do battle with such a mighty beast.

The monster stopped when it saw Mashyuu and Itsu and lifted its crackling hand of electricity while opening its palm. Energy flowed through it and a blast of power erupted from him. Mashyuu winced and thew his hand up, a small stone wall came up in front of him and blocked the blast but the wall was destroyed in the process. Light from the blast cleared and already the monster was charging on legs of wind. Itsu dived off the hill the dead wolf was on and smashed her body into the elemental, knocking it off course from smashing into the God Slayer. She bounced backwards and landed on her side while the Elemental caught itself from falling and started to fly again. Its hand of water sent a powerful wave of water into Itsu, washing her halfway down the path that Leah had taken in one powerful attack. Mashyuu watched at Itsu was blown back and he was visibly shaken. Excalibur was drawn from the scabbard, the blade glowing bright to warn of the intent to kill. He let the fangs of his teeth jut from his lips while he started to prepare to battle. He took a single step forward with his left foot then pushed off the ground, soaring through the air as he pushed off the floor. Mashyuu knew a few different sword attacks from meeting with various sword fighters over the course of his adventure. His sword arm flexed as hard as it could. "Single blade style: Gorilla Stance. Eighty Pound Cannon!" He shouted and smashed his blade straight into the monsters chest while pulling his legs up to his chest. His feet planted on the bottom of the stone that made up the body of the Elemental and kicked off of it to avoid a strike that would have surely electrocuted him.

Mashyuu flipped backwards and landed about ten feet away from the monster who looked like it hadn't taken any sort of damage from the powerful strike the God Slayer hit it with. Shit, I don't know what its gonna take to deal with this thing... The Slayer thought while his brow became covered in sweat. Mashyuu activated the power of his sword while pointing it backwards. It flared with energy and launched Mashyuu forward at a high speed. Just before he would have collided with the monster he swang his blade forward and shouted. "Kings Charge!" The weapon exploded with energy and blew back the monster like Elemental, knocking it back into the burnt trees it had created on its walk towards the Sabertooth Wizards. Mashyuu glanced over his shoulder, feeling the magical power of Itsu slowly coming closer to the man and a smile crossed over his face. Maybe he could beat this thing? Maybe not. Either way he would need to refresh his magical supply. While the monster started to collect itself Mashyuu reached into his jacket and pulled a small blue vial from it and popped the potion. His magical energy increased and boiled in his body. The supply he naturally held filled and his eyes lit up with extra power.

In a brave assault Mashyuu and the monster charged one another. The two clashed, electricity coursed through the metal blade of the sword Mashyuu held then through his body, locking him up from the paralyzing pain. As he locked up and winced the monster struck him hard with a pulse of water that launched him painfully hard into a tree that cracked from the force of impact that the monster hit him with. A light ruffle rolled through the forest and darted past Mashyuu. Itsu came galloping through the forest, her magic used to make her change into a massive ram like fighter. She smashed her horned head into the chest of the monster to knock it back again and help keep some distance on Mashyuu. She stopped and trotted up to Mashyuu's side in order to make sure he was okay. She reached down to help him up and the Wizard gladly took it. "Thanks for the sudden help. Didn't think I was gonna be able to get up and battle." The pair regrouped as the ground exploded with roots, the earth itself started to wrap around the duo before Mashyuu snapped his finger, ending the earth magic the elemental used. Itsu sighed with relief and then charged again, her weapon whirling on the small cable that was attached to the weapon. She slung the weapon forward and stabbed the weapon into the monsters head that simply flickered in response only to fall uselessly. She winced in annoyance and pulled the weapon back and veered to the left to try and evade a blast of electricity however the monster used a blast of wind to hold her up in the air, the blast of electricity rocketed through Itsu to cripple her. She winced and convulsed in pain while the Elemental created a storm over her head, it started to rain while thunder rolled and dared to shock the woman. Mashyuu placed his hands together and shouted while aiming at the two. "Light Dragons Holy Shower!" A stream of crosses made of light hit both the elemental and Itsu, sealing her wounds while harming the monster. It dropped Itsu as a bolt of lighting struck the ground next to her.

The Elemental roared with frustration while it recoiled. Mashyuu Started to spark with energy and ran towards the monster then changed to a bolt of electricity. Golden sparks smashed into the monster and sent it backwards into a tree while Mashyuu reformed where it once stood. A wide grin spread over his face. "I think I got it." Mashyuu mused while Itsu pulled herself up from her grounded state. She looked back and frowned then pointed at the monster. "Yeah, I don't think so, its getting back up!" Itsu declared. The Golem stood and roared, fire shot out of its mouth, flowing into the air to make black smoke to fill the air near it. "Itsu it takes to much of a beating. I don't know how to drop this thing and when it hits..." "I've been hit by it already. I know how hard it hits. We need to get it out of the forest!"

Mashyuu and Itsu both glanced at one another and started to turn while keeping their eyes on the Elemental. It glared at the two and started to give chase. "Itsu, to the stadium so we can corral it around and reduce how much damage it can do. If it gets to Lise it might kill her!" Mashyuu shouted. Itsu nodded her head to show she understood and took off in a full on gallop towards the arena again. Mashyuu turned back to face the monster and kicked the ground, launching a wave of lava into it, burning its body but not enough to truly harm it...

The doors to the stadium blew in hard as Itsu and Mashyuu kicked against them hard. The sound echoed loudly in the empty area, while the pair tumbled into the arena. Mashyuu lifted his sword and let it pulse with energy while aiming it behind him. The moment the Elemental came through the door way Itsu inhaled and unleashed a blast of energy into the monsters chest, cracking stone hard enough to knock it backwards. Mashyuu unleashed the power of his sword and raced through the stadium then stopped under the tumbling monster and fired a blast of energy from the tip of the blade as he swung it up to face the Elemental. "Kings Charge!" He commanded the sword to activate and with it a blast of power rushed through the weapon, blowing the Elemental off its air like feet and into a row of seats behind it. Mashyuu winced as the creature went crashing down and its flaming head set a seat on fire, then another and soon the entire row of seats were flaming while the Golem got up and launched a blast of water into Mashyuu's chest, washing him backwards and into a wall. The Slayer groaned and dropped his sword to the floor while Itsu rushed the Golem and jumped up. She teleported to the seats the Elemental was standing at and drove her knee into the monsters chest, cracking it further while her dagger clanged against the creatures stone body, barely chipping it at all.

Mashyuu hit the ground hard and started to cough up water that was in his lungs. "Thank god for my parents..." Mashyuu whispered as his Quicksilver armor had saved him from a terrible fate. If he had used an earth spell the fight would have been over long ago. He pushed himself up off the ground and picked his blade back up, slowly locking it in the scabbard. His blue eyes glanced up to see Itsu barely evading blows the giant Elemental sent her way while making quick and light strikes against the monster to counter and slowly wear the beast down. "Gonna have to put an end to this thing now." Mashyuu raised his palm and commanded earth to float up to his palm while light started to pulse from the stone in waves. Each time the light slowly started to ignite the ball of stone. Once it was flaming Mashyuu braced himself and shouted. "Dragon Gods Meteor Swarm!" A blast of magical stone ablaze with light rocketed past Itsu and smashed into the cracked chest of the elemental, blowing it apart to reveal a heart like power core. Itsu had seen this before in a different elemental and jumped up to stand on its fragmented chest and reached inside, harshly yanking the heart out until the Elemental tumbled forward and Itsu sprang out of it, landing on the grassy field of the stadium, leaving both Mashyuu and Itsu standing, bloody but alive.

WC: 2052
Total: 5200
I'm gonna have to figure out how to get 2300 words out of ending this thing..

I like these enemies so I'm just gonna roll more of them so I can be sure to meet the word count in this next post... and Mashyuu, you could always say we have to fight our way back out.  Or plotty things of the spirit leading us to the forge and creating the magic item.  I have faith in you.

If I roll a boss I'm just going to ignore it completely because we've already rolled the required enemies anyways.

The member 'Lark' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

I posted for the rolls with the wrong account. Cry >.> I've never had this problem before is this why people don't make alts?

She was just about to throw all of her ordinary daggers at the strange elemental that had appeared in the clearing when she reached for the bunch and found her extra dimensional space to be empty. Cursing to herself, the redhead reached for the javelin, one of her least favored weapons and therefore almost always stored away, when the enemy all of a sudden seemed to dissolve into the night. It was clear that it had indeed gone somewhere, because there was a faint trail of shadow that seemed to be disappearing into the atmosphere; it lead in a direction that the weird mage like cloaked thing definitely could have gone towards. Rather than being able to huff out a sigh of relief, however, the mage grumbled under her breath when she turned away from the dark, misty trail and witnessed the scene of a wolf pack sitting on the ground in a circle around her. It was comprised of five of the savage animals, and they all seemed to be grinning; their leader, a female with dark grey fur and the oddest jade color for her eyes. The followers, all a bit smaller but seemingly just as ready to chomp on some Leahndr Aspont for dinner, only had the amber irises that the redhead had seen many times before. She reflected that they honestly did look better in a dead corpse than in a live one, if only because they didn't have so much killing intent leaking from them. Anyways, going back to that murderous beta pack... well, it was really only one group of five so far. The mage didn't see a problem in standing and fighting them, except for how her normal metal weapons were basically all flushed out after taking on that group of fifty wolves or so. Blowing her hair out of her face, she let go of the hand that had closed around her javelin and halfway disappeared into the extra dimensional space. Instead, pulling it out, the girl flashed a smile at the animals before she just straight up bolted.

Of course they gave chase; but Leah didn't actually really have the intention of out running them, she only wanted to buy some time to collect her arsenal together again. So around they went, with the mage tiring just a little bit and hopefully causing the wolves much more in the way of fatigue. She didn't get weary very quickly, after all, especially having been in this forest and under so many shadows. One might think the further she got into a mission, the more drained she would be, but that wasn't always the case. In fact, she actually reflected on how the darkness, at least, made her feel better most of the time; whether that had to do with the fact that her own magic was slightly tainted, or if it was something else, who the heck knew? Well by now, she had subconsciously collected all of her weapons while her mind was dilly dallying basically and wondering about how recovering strength worked depending on one's environment. Furthermore, besides the finished task of gathering the knives and various other implements, the beta wolf pack that had been trailing the mage was now nowhere to be seen. Good riddance, she thought, but it was a bit of a shame, since now she had all of these weapons for nothing.

Maybe it was time to catch up with Mashyuu, Itsu, and possibly that strange little girl who had never introduced herself or said anything besides hello. Did she even end up following the redhead to the stadium in the first place? Oh well, it was... it was whatever, she supposed. Actually, perhaps thankfully considering how Leah had gotten somewhat hyped (although she was still feeling as calm as ever, her battle senses were thrumming inside her blood) about battling a group of wolves, another pack appeared. How opportune. Of course, the girl took the opportunity and charged immediately at the female beta wolf that was leading the others, taking her by surprise and sinking one of her High Imperial Daggers up to the hilt inside her chest before the animal could even blink. She had experienced enough fighting with these troublesome creatures so far today that she could deem, and rightfully so, them to be vicious and not altogether opposed to killing the mage. Even if they were admittedly ready to give up and let her live if it was a condition for keeping their own lives; it was surprising how well animals could communicate with those who didn't speak their tongue, when it was necessary. The wolves surrounding their fallen beta immediately jumped to attention, so to speak, and snarled up at Leah. She had fallen back a few meters promptly after killing the beta, because their senses would have told them to leap at her should she be in range. Obviously, however, there had been some sort of miscalculation because one of the wolves leaped anyways and landed a little bit, perhaps half a meter or so, short, and it was painfully easy for the redhead to reach down with one slice and slash open the beast's throat. Why wasn't she sparing them again? Well, probably because her mercy was on vacation after that fight against almost fifty frikking wolves.

The girl's grip on the hilts of her classic, signature High Imperial Daggers tightened at the mere reminder and thought of that encounter. Truly, she would hate that stupid spirit after this; if it didn't yield something nice from this mission, then the Golden Phoenix mage would vow never to go on these types of unplanned journeys ever again. Better to stick to jewel jobs, one could assume, but this would be a nice learning experience. Speaking of learning experiences, it seemed that the remaining three wolves had learned from their comrades' mistakes and A) were unwilling to let Leah come anywhere near them, so whenever she took a step, be it by mistake even, they flinched back, and B) were either calculating their jumps in their heads or just lying around and sleeping with their eyes closed. Because those wolves. Were. Not. Moving. At. All. This peeved the mage to no end, and she growled out loud before rushing forward and slamming her knives underneath the chins of two of the wolves, leaving one left.

One quick swipe of the sides of each blade on the long rushes that provided a nice soft place for any corpses to fall in this grove, cleaned off the daggers nicely enough to last until this small bout of fighting was complete and she could get them properly cleaned. It really didn't take that long, but the emerald eyed girl wasn't foolish enough to suppose that the animal couldn't tell when she was disarmed and prime for being attacked, especially after it had seen its fellow pack members slaughtered and its survival instincts were on high alert and... and many other things. She snorted at her own incompetence when it came to thinking, but it didn't matter in the end, because the wolf seemed to complete give up; it threw itself on her blade. A strong wolf like that, who'd ever think something like it could happen? With a slight shrug of her shoulders, the girl began to walk away from the fresh somewhat of a pile of bodies (it was only five, so basically nothing compared to that heap from earlier with the wolf boss itself and the fifty wolves. Leah really couldn't get over that). Something stopped, her though. A scratch to her frikking rib cage that tore apart her leather jacket and scratched through the cloth, almost breaking the skin except it didn't, because the ReQuip mage turned away just in time, reacting fast but it could have been much better if only she had reacted faster. Yet, she had seen and heard and even felt no movement whatsoever, so how had this enemy almost gotten through? The girl whirled around, and to her eyes was revealed the mangled image of one of those weird elemental things, dark and bloodred.

Wait a second... bloodred? Clearly, it hadn't exactly been an elemental... it was more of a mage. Oh yes, that stupid dark mage from before was back, and the girl groaned at the sight. Clearly it was skilled at concealing its presence, either with the assistance of shadow magic, blood magic (hiding one's pulse actually did wonders for stealth), or both. Probably both. And considering how flames seemed to dance from the ground around the man or woman's feet, it didn't really matter which one since the figure was hooded anyways (and it was the kind of hood where she doubted the thing would be falling down soon. In fact, she couldn't even tell where the robes ended and the person aka random dark magic mass thing began), this opponent used fire magic too. So oh joy, she was in for a treat. The battle had begun with that swipe at her side that was half scare tactics, half actually quite useful because apparently, it had set fire to Leah's shirt underneath her jacket without the mage even noticing the smoldering heat. Gritting her teeth, she ripped off her jacket, feeling the coolness of the air hit her arms and pull goose bumps to the surface of her skin.

"Javelin of the North Sky!" she hissed, and the heavy silver spear fell into her hands, almost freezing the skin to the metal with the sudden frigidness. Hey, if she was going to be cold, she might as well go all the way. Leah could be salty like that, but honestly, the ice would hopefully help with the fire. She struggled to lift it at first, and the mage steadily approached with a ball of flame swirling in his palm, but then all at once she dashed forwards to thrust the point of the javelin towards his heart, neatly piercing through the area. Even if it was supposedly a lethal it, it didn't kill him right away; only slowed him down, but already the redhead was planning her next move. "Stormbird-Feathered Cloak," she gritted her teeth as she noticed the fireball spinning towards her face. Apparently, her opponent had thrown it on instinct after taking the wound to his chest. It was a guy, after all; the light from the flames caught on his features and revealed a certain physique; besides that, she heard a deep voice murmuring some kind of runic spell that would probably be disastrous. But she wasn't about to let that happen, let it be unleashed. Time to attack instead of assuming opponents' genders. She leaped forwards, conjuring her trust Mercenary's Daggers, slicing downwards and right through the flesh and bone of the mage, severing the man's arms and causing him to cry out with pain and surprise. Without those extremeties, it would be impossible to cast most spells: at least that was what she had thought. Shadowy hand snaked up from the ground and grasped at the emerald eyed mage's ankles, but she kicked off the forest floor and flew high into the air. Hovering there for what seemed to be eons, time slowed and she glanced down just as lethargically to meet eyes with the ruby cloaked man.

"Good night to the shadows," she murmured before all of the weapons came out of her arsenal again and they were suddenly flying down through the air, propelled by not only gravity but also all of her strength, piercing through the mage and his robes until everything was a bloody mess. Almost immediately, Leah pulled them all back up and recollected them; she was done with this place. Utterly done. Only one last thing remained, and she finished it up as quickly as possible. Pulling out the small vial that Gabriella had given her, she drank briefly of the whitish, milky substance that tasted sharp, almost like tears. Suddenly, her memories of the last few hours, last... day? Had it been a day since she entered Kyoka? Seemed to be so much clearer. They were even studiable for errors, if one really wanted to think that way, and the girl supposed her subconscious would analyze the new crystal clear records and help her improve. She sighed and turned away from the dead mage's corpse. Mashyuu and Itsu... well, they could wait. It was whatever; she saw the spirit light now, and it was flittering around the body. When Leah stepped over, she leaned down to pluck out a magic core that glowed faintly a mix of crimson and ash grey. "I'm done with this place," she muttered, "But whatever you have planned with these things, I'll stick around until then," the redhead informed the spirit, intending to follow it wherever the magical intelligence went.

8088/7000 (+500).

It was done, Mashyuu and Itsu had bested the Alpha Wolf and the mother of all Elementals. How they did it neither of them truly knew. Luck had been on their side to say the least. With a loud huff Mashyuu flopped into a seat and glanced up in the sky. "Think Lise got the last part to this thing?" He asked and held his hand up for Itsu. She shrugged and flopped down next to him, placing the orb in her friends hand. "I don't know, just don't eat that thing. I want whatever comes from it." Mashyuu turned his gaze to the beauty with green hair and smiled. "Oh? Well you did the heavy lifting this time around so I can for sure give you whatever item or treasure I would have gotten without splitting it. Itsu.... Thanks for helping me out, even when you thought I was going crazy." Itsu blushed and sat up straight while trying to get the blood off her armor. "M-Mashyuu... we are friends, we were lovers once. I have nothing but trust in you. If you say that you need help then I'm gonna be there to help you." She stammered and tripped over her words while glancing down as if it were the first time Mashyuu had thanked her for anything but honestly it was the fact that they had both come close to death this time, something that had never happened before. "Do you think we were out of our league a little with this one?" Itsu asked after a long silence. "What? No way. Have you seen us? We are better than ten Wizards.... Oh shit! Lise! Come on, we gotta make sure she's okay!" Mashyuu shouted and jumped off the seat he was sitting in to land in a crouched position on the green...blood stained grass. Mashyuu landed and winced from the pain that rocketed through his legs. No amount of healing magic was going to take the aches in his bones away. He needed a bed and a good sleep. Itsu darted past him and stuck her tongue out. "Should have taken the stairs cowboy!" The God Slayer chuckled and gave chase, quickly following behind the slightly faster woman. "So you're worried about Lise eh? You got a crush on her or something? Does she know that?" Itsu teased while the two left the tunnel of the stadium to enter the woods. "What!? I don't have a crush on Lise. Besides even if I did, I'm with Kenna. I doubt she would be okay with me seeing someone else!" Mashyuu snapped back while blushing a faint red. He was worried though, if she had to fight anything near as much as he and Itsu did then Lise would be in some pain if she wasn't dead already. All he could do was hope that the spirit they were all following would lead her around the path of least resistance.

Mashyuu and Itsu stopped at a grizzly site. Dead wolves and Wizards laid strewn about all over the forest, and the ones that weren't dead surely were wishing they were, heavy cuts ran along most of their bodies and the ones that didn't have cuts had puncture wounds. The thick smell of blood made Mashyuu gag thanks to his enhanced senses. "God I forgot Lise was a treasure hunter and not an actual legal Wizard who didn't kill. This looks... Oh boy, I guess we can just follow the trail of bodies." Mashyuu commented and cast a few quick healing spells on those around him that were still alive to at least give them a fighting chance at making to a safer place. Itsu stepped carefully between the bodies and found herself covered in even more blood as her shoes quickly went from a dirty white to a crimson red shade. "Ugh! I should charge her for this. But to be honest I think I would have killed these wolves too. Plus we left those Dark Wizards in a bad spot." Itsu commented. "Yeah... I wonder if Lise fought one of the blood Mages?" Mashyuu pondered out loud when the two took a break from following Lise's trail to catch their breath. "Blood Mage?" Itsu asked curiously. "Yeah. Last time I was here there were Blood Mages. They are kinda like Necromancers but instead control the blood of others or themselves in strange ways. Some water Wizards also use blood magic since blood is mostly water to begin with. They can make their opponents do some really weird stuff. I wouldn't want to fight one alone. Even the weakest of Blood Wizards are a serious threat. If you see one and don't have back up, go get some quick." Mashyuu continued to explain to Itsu as carefully as he could. "Well what if Lise fought one on her own?" Itsu asked. "Then we will likely come across her body in this mess sooner or later." The God Slayer whispered and started to walk on his way again, figuring it best to keep on moving instead of staying still for to long. Itsu started to feel afraid and surrounded in the darkened forest and gripped her dagger firmly in her hand. "Wish I had a sword right now..." "Why? So if a blood Wizard got a hold of you he could make you ram it through your gut?" Itsu became whiter than any ghost and flailed her arms wildly. "MASHYUU WHY WOULD YOU JOKE ABOUT SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!!? CAN'T YOU TELL I'M WORRIED AND AFRAID!?" Itsu screamed so loudly that it echoed in the forest. "... Yeah but... Who's joking?" Itsu stopped while Mashyuu continued on and wiped a few wet tears off her face with the back of her hand and took some breaths to steady herself while glancing around. It only took the sound of a branch falling off a tree to have her give chase to the God Slayer, afraid that she would be taken by some terrible force or blood mage before she ever saw one of her friends again.

After what both wizards would call an hour of walking, Mashyuu and Itsu came to a small clearing where the spirit was floating with Lise standing near by. Mashyuu's blue eyes widened with joy as did Itsu's purple orbs. Both Sabertooth Wizards ran up to the red head and wrapped their arms around her. "Hey! Glad you're okay. You're okay right?" Mashyuu asked and took an arms reach step back. He looked her over carefully. She didn't look too banged up but he wanted to be sure. His body erupted in gold light that washed over Lise and healed a few of her wounds slowly until most of the pain in her would have surely died down. "So what did you end up fighting? Aside from a ton of wolves? We saw the trail of... wow you really took down everything in this forest didn't you? I think this is what one would call over board. Couldn't have ran after a while?" Mashyuu asked with a smirk on his face. Itsu was very different on the other hand... "LISE! I'M SO HAPPY THE BLOOD MAGE DIDN'T GET YOU!! DON'T EVER GO OFF ON YOUR OWN AGAIN DO YOU HEAR ME!?" She screamed while snuggling up to Lise and holding her tight. The idea of an evil Wizard who could control blood clearly got to Lise more than she would ever be willing to admit to anyone. After the rather odd reunion Mashyuu and the other sat down, the spirit flew around them as if it was on a time limit. Mashyuu batted his hand at the thing and glared up at it. "Hey! You dragged us here and put us in danger. You can wait till we break for dinner and recover some of our strength.
Be happy that you get to work on that forge of yours with all the things you need. Yeah I remember the forge!" Mashyuu snapped at the thing while spreading his arms to create a small fire pit. Itsu went on her way to grab some kindling while Lise gathered a few wolves to cook in the fire. Sure it was a bit stringy as far as meat went but it was better than nothing for the night. The fire flared to life after a bit of work from the trio but the roasting meat smelled good. Mashyuu had taken his time with Itsu's dagger to skin the wild animals enough that their fur wouldn't have to be roasted with the rest of the animal. Mashyuu took the heart of the Wolves and said a prayer over each one. (A habit he picked up from his former wife Kanix) Once the prayer was said he devoured the hearts while the women picked the bones clean. Once the meal was over Mashyuu looked at the spirit again who was at this point bouncing up and down on the ground like a foot tapping rapidly. "Alright,
alright! We are done, lets get a move on!"

It had been a long time and Mashyuu couldn't remember the way on his own but he did remember the walk well enough for the most part. Traveling up a small mountain, past a river that ran down the side of said mountain and at last coming to a cave that was dug into the top of the mountain that of course, ran down deeper into the stone. "You would think for all this work, they would have just put the cave at the base of the mountain." Itsu complained. "Mmm, nope. Do that and anything could wander in and just take a tool that might be needed. This way makes sure that only a smith or a thief finds the forge. Its an old school style of defense. I'm sure there is a way out of the mountain that doesn't need to be climbed out of like we are climbing down into as well, but honestly, this is sound logic. If I could chose were the Sabertooth Guild hall was, I would put it in a place like this." Mashyuu retorted.

The forge, a place of magical power so old that simply standing in the area restored the Wizards magical energy a great deal. Feeling refreshed the trio could actually look around at their surroundings without feeling like they were going to die. The greatest source of heat, the smelter, was carved in the side of the mountain in the shape of a massive lion's face, its maw open and roaring. Two anvils were near the smelter and shaped to look like the paws of the lion. Tools laid strewn about the area with dust so thick on them that it would take days to simply remove a single layer of the dust from the tools. "Thank you for helping me in my time of need. I have waited years to finish my life's work and thanks to you three. I can now do that. Mashyuu, I rewarded you the last time you came to help, while you couldn't finish the task alone you helped both times. So I will gift your friends instead." Mashyuu simply nodded, understanding that his reward was the power he gained from two visits here. The light expanded and grew into a stout but short Dwarven man. In one hand was a massive smithing hammer and in the other a pair of tongs. He set the hammer on the ground and pointed to each of the Wizards, causing the items they had gathered to float to the smelter and boil. Some time passed before anything happened but the Man pulled each item out of the smelter and hammered them into different things, Mashyuu couldn't make out anything and Itsu couldn't see what he had made for Lise. But when Itsu's gift was finished she smiled wide with joy and accepted it as the light floated to her hands. In her hand rested a multi faced ruby with a gold frame holding it up. A chain of solid gold was looped in the gem to wear, and when Itsu touched it, a heatless flame erupted from the ruby to show its magical power. "What does it do?" Itsu asked the smith. The Dwarf chuckled and motioned for her to put it on. "It does whatever you want it to do. But once you decide, and your heart will do that, the magic cannot be changed. Use this item carefully and treasure it. It will always work as long as you wear it." The Blacksmith explained to Itsu. The woman smiled and placed it on her neck, already knowing what she wanted. To be able to stay safe in combat and attack with the force of a hurricane. As she thought of this, wind erupted from her amulet and wrapped around her body to form a sort of armor that would blow attacks aside to deflect harmful attacks while her arms pumped with a constant stream of air to make her hit harder than ever before. "See, your heart knew what the amulet would do. Never doubt yourself little one." "It's beautiful. Thank you Master Smith." Itsu grinned ear to ear and bowed from sheer respect. "Congratulations Itsu, it looks good on you. Now, I have a beautiful woman I snuck out of bed with to do this. Sir, can you take us home?" Mashyuu asked and gestured to his friends. "Oh! Lise. Hey before we part ways again. I was talking to my Guild Master, and we want to let you know that if you ever decide you need a change of scenery. Sabertooth will welcome you with open arms. I'm not saying you have to join. But just think about it. We do a lot of the same jobs together. You can still get that treasure you love so much. Plus we all give our guild members free room and board." The Smith laughed and smashed his hammer into the anvil at his side, causing the vibrations to echo through the forge and wash over the Wizards. A bright light enveloped them and when it cleared each Wizard found themselves back at home.

WC: 2407
Total: 7607