Polar Peril

Wearing an all-white insulated outfit and a backpack with a strip of fluorescent orange tape on it, Victoria was trekking through Silent Glaciers and trying to stay warm enough to complete the latest job she had taken on. She and four other mages had been called upon by the Magic Council to undertake a special assignment. A continent-wide emergency had been declared because invaders were emerging from portals all across Earthland to terrorize its inhabitants. The group's mission was to discover the reason for the invasion, then put an end to it. The Magic Council expressed a clear preference for a non-violent solution, but they would accept a more aggressive resolution as long as the invasion was stopped and no one else got hurt.

Victoria could live with that edict. She and the others would try to end the problem peacefully if possible. If that was not an option, they would forcefully hand the invaders an eviction notice. Now that she had mentally rehearsed the basic outline of the job, the brunette thoughts turned to her teammates.

Victoria would be working with Guild Ace Imai and Masha Dymonrel, both of whom were from Sabertooth. She would also be working with Vinn Cobalt, the guy she had met in Hargeon Town and ate seafood with some time ago. Finally, she would be working with a Guildless mage named Saraphina Zima, a mage the brunette had never met before today. Victoria did not mind working with new people. The state of emergency meant that team members did not have to be all from the same guild.

Victoria paused next to the deadly moss cave near the delta. Waiting near a recognized landmark would mean that her teammates would have an easier time of finding her than if she just kept tromping into the frozen wilderness. The brunette set up an orange flag to mark her location and waited for the other mages to find her.

[Word Count: 323]
[Total Word Count: 323/3,000]

Normally, the coated nerd wouldn’t approach such harsh wilderness like the Silent Glaciers unless if he was up for a challenge or task. Partly, yeah, since he too was called upon by the Magic Council about a country-wide situation; a literal terror struck the land with magical portals mentioned in the paper. He did know a thing or two about magical portals himself, if he had to be honest. This made it reasonable… no, necessary for his aid to come out and support the stop of this terrorizing act. Despite fired up, he was clearly given the circumstances from the Magic Council; most preferable of all actions was a diplomatic one, and if he screwed up the possibility of such an efficient outcome, then he would likely be blamed for it for a very long time. Remember, this was a country-wide terror, and he wouldn’t want to accidently worsen it, would he?

Out in the Silent Glaciers where the sky was free from the blocking covers of street lamps and other artificial lighting, the stars were as clear as literal, white dots painted onto the atmosphere. It was the cold season of winter, and Imai made sure to bring his Magnescope to keep an eye for magical portals… and once in a while take a good, sweet look at the constellations that were clearest in this part of the year. Having his vision focused on the right eye of his that he looked through the telescope with - it was a small telescope, hand-held and capable of being utilized even whilst walking across the icy tundra that led up to a large delta - he followed the aligning stars that made up the picture of Monoceros. It consisted of four stars only, and the fashion looked more like an amateur drawing of a key when aligning lines between the stars. How people in the old days were able to associate such a simple, geometric form with that of a unicorn was marble-dropping.

By adjusting the telescope a bit further up and to the right, he quickly spotted a more recognizable constellation - that of Orion. This constellation was named after an ancient hunter whose existence was so coated in legends that people could barely distinguish truth from myth. His constellation had a shard-like torso and a triangle-like bottom with three very clear stars making up his famed belt. An arm stretched out from Orion’s right side, while the left arm held a bent line of stars that resembled a bow.

It almost looked like that Orion was aiming for Taurus, the next constellation that apparently was about to jump over Orion. The bull consisted of fine, long lines of stars that not everyone could recognize at first. Again, imagination was underestimated, especially that of those who drew up these stars for the first time. To think that their mere fantasies were immortalized as normal astronomy as well as astrology made Imai wonder if he would ever leave his own marks in the sky.

Maybe, if he continued looking at the stars and watching out for magical portals like this, then he would be able to maintain his cool… despite the atmosphere and temperature, Imai was in smoking company, and having his eye drilled to the telescope was a desperate escape from his overdosing hormones taking effect.

“Hmh… come forth, come forth, circles…”

WC: 562

Masha froze on the slopes of Silent Glaciers. A low moan escaped her lips. This was torture. She couldn't open her coat and for whatever reason, the coat wasn't letting her skin breathe. It trapped the pheromones inside her. It swam throughout her, setting her skin alight. Masha could barely breathe as her body writhed. Opening her white coat now would be a terrible idea. Her body would take damage almost instantly thanks to her complete lack of cold resistance. Yet it was becoming a tempting idea. This was pain unlike she'd ever known. Curse the scientists. Curse the cold. Curse the Magic Council for sending her out to this remote winter wasteland. Another step was all Masha could take. Skin needed to show. Now. She scrabbled at her glove. It would only be a second. Just long enough for some relief. The glove fell into the snow. Masha sighed happily.

Then her hand began to glow pink. Panicking, the succubus pointed her hand away from her. What was going on? A concussive blast sent Masha flying through the air. Snow sprayed high, tinged pink. The redhead hit the slope hard, tumbling down a fair way before she halted. Masha stayed crumpled in a heap trying to catch her breath. What was that? That had never happened before. The succubus groaned, doing her best to move. Her body refused to do anything for a short time. When it finally did move, Masha pulled her bare hand in front of her face. Pink still crackled between the digits. What the hell? Her magic wasn't pink. Her magic didn't even have a color. Her pheromones couldn't have made the color either given they were invisible. Otherwise what would the point of them be?

Grumbling to herself, the succubus checked to see if she was hurt. It didn't seem like it. It had only been an explosion of pink and snow. Hopefully she could find her glove. Her fingers were already getting numb. Masha got to her feet, trudging back up the slope to where the strange phenomenon originated. The snow had been blasted clear for a fair distance. Fifty to one hundred meters from Masha's best guess. It was lucky that the blast hadn't started an avalanche. She sighed heavily. There went that glove. There was no recovering it now. The succubus stuck her hand in a pocket. That would have to suffice to keep it warm.

Looking up the slope, the succubus caught sight of a orange strip. That would have been a smart idea. Masha had bundled herself up all in white. No one would have found her if an avalanche had been started. The succubus made the trek up the mountain as best she could. A cold wind blew snow into her face on several occasions. She was rapidly tiring of this mission already. A few of her team mates for this mission were already gathered. Masha stepped up to them. "Masha Dymonrel. Are we all here?" She asked in a clipped tone. The faster they finished whatever the problem was, the happier she'd be.

517/3000

Victoria turned around to find Imai, Vinn, Masha, and a young woman in a questionable dress who turned out to be Saraphina. They had found her thanks to the fluorescent orange flag she had planted to serve as a beacon to the mages. She was glad that she had spent the extra Jewels for the flag because it had saved her the trouble of trudging through the frigid wilderness to find each mage. She could pat herself on the back later... right now she needed to get the team going. They wanted to know who she was.

"For those of you who don't know me, I'm Victoria Sheridan. I'm a mage from the guild known as Sabertooth." She briefly introduced herself to the team. She would spare them the details of her tenure with Black Rose because she never knew who had a grudge against the defunct guild. Since they could no longer strike Black Rose directly, they just might settle for attacking former members to avenge grievances real or imagined.

"Now... we've been called here by the Magic Council itself. They want us to investigate this area and learn why it's being invaded by the unknown entities. Once we learn the purpose behind the invasion, we're supposed to stop it in its tracks." Victoria started an explanation of why they were here. They had likely already read the news or saw reports of it on lacrima or social media. She was giving a briefing for the benefit of Saraphina and Vinn, who were Guildless and therefore did not have access to the resources that Guild mages did.

"As to how the invasion's stopped... the Magic Council would prefer a peaceful solution to the problem. They recommend talking to their leader and trying to negotiate with them." Victoria announced without any hint of irony. She personally did not see how one could negotiate with invaders out to terrorize the region. However, on this job she was getting her marching orders from the Magic Council. When the Magic Council talked, any mage with a modicum of common sense listened.

"If we can't negotiate with the invaders, then we've been told to hand them an eviction notice. The Magic Council's only restriction on force is to keep the property damage down. Since we're out in the middle of Silent Glaciers, we don't have to worry too much about property damage." Victoria outlined the policy on the use of force to repel the invaders. She had no problem with that. Most of her hard-hitting magic had the potential to be... destructive. Out in Silent Glaciers that would be a low-priority concern since it was thinly populated by humans and was a region with plenty of open space. She would have to try pretty hard to hurt humans in this remote area.

"Now then... the invaders get here through portals. Our first priority should be to find a portal and learn why they're here." Victoria opined. It was stating the obvious. Now she needed to get the team going and actually find a portal, then go from there.

[Word Count: 514]
[Total Word Count: 837/3,000]

Once when Imai’s feet approached the orange cloth that was clearly visible even from afar - especially due to the dying blizzard that could render a person’s field of vision blurred - he lowered the small telescope and suddenly assumed that he was further away from his destination… until he braked his feet from stepping, his right eye seemingly glued to the scope as he eyed a pale, joyful woman with a questionable sense of fashion comparative to the ecosystem and weather. Despite literally being surrounded in thick blocks of ice and little tundra and vegetations in the distance, she didn’t appear to catch any cold or even bother for that matter.

As she clapped her hands together, though, Imai had to release his eye from the scope. It was too sudden and destructive to endure - like a punch right to the nose.

“A-Ahh…!” he let out a tad awkwardly and with a blush to warm him up in the cold air, finally fathoming his presence among Victoria, the pale-looking bust-bomb, another rather pale-looking, white-haired male, and a freezing Masha… why was she the only one freezing so much? Even Imai hadn’t begun clicking in his speech yet - did he miss anything? Did she need an extra coat? Why was his nose bleeding?

Anyway, as Victoria greeted herself, he followed suit without being bothered by the red liquid trickling down his face: “Sabertooth here as well. Imai Uchuuken *sniff*.” Yeah… that should be enough for a greeting. As directly called by the Magic Council in this crisis of a Christmas, Imai remembered many a piece of advice from previous Sabertooth wizards and Itori, keeping a serious tone and cooperative nature… or more or less trying to not gag around.

Man, it was Christmas. Why did people have to ruin Christmas? By now, the redhead should have been at Shirotsume and enjoyed a good duck fest with his parents and Koguma, but the duty of a wizard was a life-long devotion that he had promised to bear. Hopefully, this mission would be solved swiftly and efficiently, which would depend on what would happen from now on and how they would respond.

But if they - the threatening foes that kept popping around Fiore from the request - were bent on terrorizing the land, then how big was the risk of making this mission more difficult than it had to be?

A good idea would be to locate a portal. Hearing that, Imai took a look around without his telescope, his eyes shining a bright-blue tint and fiery waves of blue energy escaping his iris. Huh… now that he thought about it, this area was a weird place to start attacking, since nobody was known to actually live and hold residence here - other than the native animals.

“It should be easier to talk with them here,” he stated to the group, sharing his thoughts about the circumstance, “Since not much is around to be terrorized *glaring across the delta and to the empty, monochromatic, icy field of glaciers and cutting weather in the distance*, they’re probably camping. So they won’t be too busy assaulting, and they’d probably hear us out… at least.”

Putting his magical sensory to good use in the group, he focused mainly on finding any emergences of magical energy in the atmosphere that would form a portal. It usually happened when a lot of magic emerged, then quickly retracted into a single point - much like the theories of singularities in a black hole. For the time being, though, he felt that he had to wait for a little longer than assumed earlier, given that no magical signatures popped up… until a few minutes later.

“Over there! To the east, near the foot of that glacier,” he warned them, pointing towards the empty location that soon revealed a green and red magical circle. A melody played out, familiar in its tone but with a broken, eerie twist to it. The star mage’s ears shrank a little by hearing it, not feeling like casually welcoming whoever they were about to meet.

At least his nosebleed was gone.

WC: 690
TWC: 562 + 690 = 1252

Masha listened politely to Victoria. Or as politely as she could. She was caked in snow form her tumble down the mountain. It was now either freezing or melting, making her shiver violently. The succubus was so cold she couldn't tell if the snow was freezing or melting. Her teeth clicked together. She didn't want anyone here thinking she was weak. It might be a leftover from her days as a dark mage but it wasn't a bad trait. Not showing weakness, projecting strength was important in the right situations. As Victoria talked, the succubus took time to gauge the other members of their group. It'd be a good idea to see what she was working with and had nothing to do with checking them out. Nope not at all.

Two of the group were nuts. Each was in dress that wasn't suited for the cold. Masha couldn't complain though. She loved how the dress revealed much of Saraphina's cleavage. It also barely covered her butt if the girl would ever turn around. The succubus licked her lips. It had been a week since she'd had a decent 'meal'. Her body was urging her to take even semi attractive people. As if she'd stoop to that level simply to stay alive. Still, staying devoted to her chosen course was harder than she'd thought. Masha had gotten a little too used to taking what she wanted when she needed it. As the time of pain inched closer, she struggled with bursts of anxiety and sudden punches of intense lust. She needed to find someone to 'help' her sooner rather than later. Anyways back to oogling.

The second lunatic was clad in only a suit and tie. Masha could appreciate it. It was a dashing combination of cold hard male body and elegance. It was something the old Masha would have tried to dip her toe into. Instead, she merely flashed the white haired mage a smile. A much better approach than anything she would have done in the past. Victoria was bundled up, a rather puffy white winter outfit hiding her assets from view. That was too bad. She'd have to content herself with fantasizing about what was under that puffy exterior. The redhead turned toward the last member of their group. A sly smile began to cross her face.

Imai was suffering from a nose bleed. Masha knew it could be from the cold but she preferred to attribute it to the rather sexy Saraphina. It was nice that there was a man who was honest about his feelings. Artemis was like that. Mmmm Artemis. There was a man that set the succubus on fire. She felt a little warmer simply thinking about him. Which meant she could have a little fun with the other Sabertooth redhead. "Pssst. Imai." She whispered, winking if he looked. Then Masha slowly slid her zipper down. Underneath her coat, the succubus wasn't wearing anything. It had been intended to help her with controlling her pheromones. Now it served a secondary purpose. The zipper stopped halfway down, revealing miles of creamy skin. Masha was almost popping out of her coat now. For a little added fun, she stretched. The coat struggled to contain her ample chest.

Having had her fun, Masha looked toward the spot Imai had pointed out. There was indeed a portal there. Creatures were spilling forth from it. The succubus cracked her knuckles as Saraphina shot down the hill. "I say screw diplomacy. Let's just shove them back into the portal and close it behind them." Masha stated before heading after the pale mage. A red spiraling rune appeared over the backs of Masha's hands. She was going to come roaring out of the gate on this one. While opening the coat had given her some relief, the pheromone was still swirling about under her skin rather painfully. The quicker they dealt with this, the better.

Saraphina skidded to a stop in front of three standing bears. Masha rolled her eyes at the foolish mage. Who wanted to tame a polar bear? The succubus ran past Saraphina. Coiling the muscles in her  legs, Masha leapt as she struck. The blow hit the bear square in the stomach and exploded. The bear stumbled backwards but didn't fall over. The other bears turned toward Masha. The succubus got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. These weren't normal bears. Normal bears would have gone down with that blow. The best part was that now she had pissed them off. THe succubus braced herself for a whole lot of pain.

WC: 768
1,285/3,000

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

---

'Monster Dice' :

Victoria wondered what was going through Saraphina's head when she elected to wear that revealing outfit. Her declaration that she hailed from a country known as Iceberg helped the decision make a little more sense... just a little. As long as the guildless mage could pull her weight in a fight, that was all that mattered. Speaking of fights, the team did not have to wait very long for one because Saraphina had spotted polar bears and voiced an intent to befriend one, possibly even make one a pet that she could ride. The bears had no intention of becoming domesticated pets and went after the guildless mage.

Masha took it upon herself to intervene before Saraphina bought the farm, using her magic to hit one of the white bears directly in the stomach. Unfortunately for her, the bears only turned their attention to the hapless redhead. The Sabertooth mage needed help fast. There was no time for flashy magic. Victoria brought out her suppressed sniper rifle and tried to get a clear shot.

Masha was too close to the bears to use her rocket launcher because the blast of an exploding rocket might harm her too. A Heat-Seeker rocket would be more likely to home in on her heat signature than those of the bears by virtue of her being closer to the brunette. A Sticky Grenade and Flashbang were out of the question for similar reasons... the redhead would be caught inside the blast radius and harmed by the grenade explosion or the sudden emission of light from a Flashbang. Victoria would have to resort to any weapon other than her rocket launcher or shotgun. She would have to draw them away one bear at a time.

Victoria dropped to one knee and took aim as best she could. She aimed for a bear closest to Masha and let the scope's crosshairs stop swaying long enough to aim at the bear's chest. Victoria squeezed the trigger and fired a Kinetic Shot that struck the animal and knocked it back but otherwise did not harm the sturdily built creature. The bear roared and glared at her before its companions followed suit.

Victoria needed to lure them away from Saraphina and Masha so that the others could get clear shots at the aggressive animals. She had an idea, but it was a dangerous one. She would run off to the side and get their attention in a way that would be impossible for them to ignore. The plan hinged on her teammates. They needed to help the brunette by hitting the bears with everything they had before Victoria became bear food.

"I'm gonna lure them away from Saraphina and Masha, but I'll need your help to stop them. We're gonna need to kill them fast. Get ready!" Victoria told Vinn and Imai. She put away the sniper rifle and rushed over to a small hill nearby. It gave her a good line of sight on the three bears and minimized the chances of hitting the mages she was trying to rescue... if they did not make any sudden moves forward in the next few seconds.

Victoria wordlessly formed her fingers into a gun and aimed at the bear on the left. She waited until her hands were steady and fired a magic projectile. The shot hit the bear in the right shoulder, drawing a roar of pain from it. That was what she was hoping for. Animals under attack tended to make a beeline for their aggressors in an effort to put a stop to the attacks.

"OVER HERE!" Victoria shouted at the animals, waving her arms for effect. She hoped that her plan would have some measure of success. Otherwise she would look like a major idiot. Or a dead major idiot. In a worst-case scenario, most likely both at once.

She fired a Derringer shot with one hand, deliberately hitting the same bear just to be certain of drawing away at least one bear. She spotted in the distance an evil-looking Christmas tree bedecked with ornaments and a rotund fellow with a white beard wearing a red-and-white suit with black boots. Great. Santa Claus himself was leading the invasion. It looked like she would be getting nothing but coal this year and for many more years to come.

[Word Count: 720]
[Total Word Count: 1,557/3,000]

Uhm. Saraphina, as she introduced herself as, had made a clear intent to tame one of the bears that appeared from the magic circle that came into the vicinity just a moment prior. Whether if she was rivaling Imai in childishness or was pulling up a skit or a joke was beyond him… but could you imagine having such a large, ferocious bear as a pet? They were excessive in their sizes comparing to the smaller, more common cousins; they towered almost 10 feet or something, and their fangs grew out of their meaty lips. Who were they? Imai had never encountered these creatures of the cold before, so it was also a huge minus and a kick in the shin that he forgot his notebook back at the Ace of Spades. Damn it, sudden emergency notice! He mentally clenched his fist in annoyance by the fact that he could only further explain this creature’s existence to future second-hand witnesses by memory only. A picture could be sufficient as well, perhaps even more preferred than mere words that could be both interpreted and misused by receivers and sender. To think of all the possibilities that he missed now that he thought about it made him fume a bit.

Were they suited for a meeting with them? Would they resolve to combat? He was ready to fight and all; his fists were bristling, already. However, in respect of the group that he was accompanying, he didn’t go head on for the time being; who knew, maybe they could prevent Saraphina from getting eaten by one of the bears. God, she looked too cute to be massacred by predators in a ravaging maul.

His ears twitched a little by the familiar, inviting voice of Masha. At first, he genuinely knew little of her intention to gain his attention right now, so his eyes rolled to the side to look at her as she sent a wink to him. A dry heat slowly rose from his throat and up to his chin as she oh so slyly slid her zipper down. To his greatest surprise, she confirmed to be a bomb of lewd urges and desires of his as she wore absolutely nothing underneath. Most of her front was exposed directly at him, and the mere witness of such smooth, hot skin and arousing reveal caused steam to escape his nose. The cold was no problem anymore.

“Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma-Ma…“

He had honest trouble even pronouncing her name to even go for a ‘what? why? what again?’ He was too entranced by her skin to even think straight - it felt as if his brain melted down and leaked out of his nose. Oh wait, nevermind, that was more blood. Fair enough. He even got a fresh, ample view of her cleavage… ti was rather annoying not being able to see it all, though. So annoying, in fact, that his aroused expression turned into a troubled, flustered face. T-They’re about to jump out… I… I want… I want to see more…, he thought with whatever solid part of his brain that was left.

And by a little stretching from her, his head was pushed back by a fountain of blood that looked hilarious from a distance. It almost sent him off like a rocket, but he would need more heat than that to pull such a feat off. Besides, it was still cold and all… but he got to express himself thoroughly. Boy, he felt electrified. Astonished.

… Oh, yeah, right. Victoria brought him back to the actual reality of the situation - he spotted her run to the side and inevitably draw the attention of three bears. She asked Imai and Vinn to get ready, and her words were put into action as a light-blue magic circle spawned underneath Imai to trigger his Heavenly Body Magic. His limbs and torso burnt up in bluish light akin to some ethereal armor, and by crossing his arms, he spread the fires of astronomic light throughout his entire body. The shockwave of his magic cracked the icy ground beneath him as he eyed Victoria’s present position. At this point, one bear was solely aiming for her and drew away from the two others. The two last bears were more interested in attacking Masha and Saraphina, so Imai dashed over to aid them. He wanted to have a punch at this giant monster too… well, more than that, he did want to tame a polar bear like Saraphina wanted, but that was likely out of the question now, wasn’t it?

He opened both hands with grabby-like formations of his fingers, and as he clashed them both towards the middle in a comic-like fashion, a laser emerged from the impact and spread forth into a volley of light blasts. They looked almost serpent-like in their movements as each light blast passed by Masha and Saraphina to drive right into the two bears, and each impact caused big, blue explosions to push them further back as well. Unfortunately, they were tougher than he thought; even the bear that took Masha’s kick was still able to stand up.

If he could just tame them like he wanted to, urgghhh…!

He figured that there was a main man behind all of this. However, to Imai’s greatest surprise - yes, an even bigger surprise than Masha’s ferocious skin-show - the figure who made its presence known along with a giant Christmas Tree… was none other than the classic children’s super-friendly gift sender, Santa Claus!

“*gaaaaaaasp*… N-No, it can’t be…” Imai stuttered in his terrified voice, “S-S… SANTA! IT’S SANTA CLAUS!” the giant, rotund celebrity scratched its ears by having its name spoken out loud, in which the tall fella slowly aimed his look at the small figure who charged across the ice and caused the glacier floor to crack in his velocity. The polar bears aimed their attention back at their master too as he was approached by the Sabertooth Wizard, but the Christmas Tree came ahead in cutting the way between the two of them with its log body.

A gift sprung out from its lower roots… this, however, promised nothing good for the youngster…

WC: 1033
TWC: 1252 + 1033 = 2285

The member 'Imai-chi' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'Normal Dice' :

[/i]

--Word count reached--

1 weak (3-5 Santa's Helpers)
2 normal (4-6 Polar Bears)
1 strong (1-2 Christmas Trees)
1 boss (1 Santa; accompanied by 3-5 helpers, 2-3 bears, and 1-2 trees (personally votes for least amount))

Spells used:

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

---

'Normal Dice' :

The feeling of the bear's claws in her side made two thoughts go through Masha's head. One, ow. Even with the durability of her body, the claws still hurt like a bitch. Two, she was sooo fucking done with this. She'd trekked up a mountain, been mainly considerate of everyone, nearly been blown off the mountain and now this? Nearly being cut in half by a bear? Fuck. That. The change was near instantaneous. Her body became taller. Her curves became nearly perfect. Her skin took on a golden glow. Claws sprouted from beneath her nails which she quickly retracted. Her pheromones exploded outward, encouraged to spread by the transformation. Masha suppressed a little glimpse. Perhaps she should have kept track of her allies. Everyone within 15 feet of her would lose all inhibitions - a merry power boost to her pheromones courtesy of this form. Now to deal with these fools who DARED defile the temple that was her body.

Masha sunk her talons into the bear that had attacked her. The bear whimpered surprised by the attack. With the increased strength afforded by her new form, the succubus lifted the stunned creature into the air. Something flew by her head, striking another bear in the shoulder. Her gaze turned slowly towards the source of the attack. Her normally turquoise eyes briefly flashed red. Masha shuddered as she struggled with the need to attack. The need to feed. The desire to destroy. The bear in her grasp began to struggle. With herculean effort, the succubus heaved the bear towards the portal. It slid across the icy ground and disappeared into the swirling energy. Its massive weight barely missed elven creatures near the portal. Strange. She didn't remember seeing them before. The big boobed ghost pale lady shouted something about the portal. They don't come back? Good. And what was that woman's name again? Sassafras? Serenity? Symphony? Ah whatever it was, she seemed to be handling herself.

Imai was shouting something and Masha turned to look. The bears were well in hand due to the ghost lady person. "May the great demons have mercy!" The succubus exclaimed seeing that Imai was without a stitch on his person. Like the lady she was, Masha put her hands over her delicate eyes - though she may have peeked through her fingers. "Imai! There are women here! Cover yourself with something!" Perhaps covering her eyes wasn't the best strategy in the middle of a fight. Elven creatures appeared from nowhere and leapt upon the succubus. It took her all her self control not to brutally murder the things when they tore her coat. The nerve of some things. As it was, she tore each of them off one by one and threw them hard at the  portal. Each of the five had to leave with an annoying 'WHEEEEEEE' which cut off once they entered the portal. Why her?

A large red figure accompanied by apparently more enemies was charging toward Imai. Masha hadn't noticed, distracted as she'd been by Imai's ahem assets. Now she was torn. Did she help finish off the last of the bears or did she aid her fellow Sabertooth wizard? Maybe she could do both? Or have someone else do it? The succubus felt like smacking her own forehead. Her servus would have easily evened the numbers of this fight! Why hadn't she summoned them before? However, first... Fire rippled up Masha's arms, burning away the sleeves of her coat. Pity. The whole thing was ruined now. There were things she could take her anger out on though. So many bears to choose from."Ex-plosion!" She screamed punching outward. Fire enveloped the most injured polar bear. It was swiftly reduced to ash before it even had time to signal any pain. The succubus breathed deeply. Calm thoughts. Calm thoughts. Calm. Something nailed her in the shoulder and her eyes snapped open. Santa had thrown a present at her. It had hurt. "Oh, no you didn't!" Masha snarled. Yet her anger was not for the present or the pain. It was for something else entirely.

The succubus' eyes flashed red. This time however, they stayed red. The succubus wasn't going to take this one lying down. The fat man dared to even lay eyes upon her perfect form. She could see the lust burning in his piggy little eyes. The saliva dripping into his hideous beard clearly came from him salivating over her expansive cleavage. His greedy little hands wanted to touch the magnificence that was Masha. Not a chance in hell. As the shadow of a bear fell upon her, Masha used the darkness to teleport herself forward. Unfortunately something was waiting for her. A tree of some short that shot a present out at her. It caught her mid center, and the succubus turned toward it. Her hands vanished they moved so fast. Explosions ripped into the tree. Only then did the effects of the present seep in.

Her eye sight went fuzzy. She smelled... toast? The sounds of the battle were far away almost as if it were hundreds of meters away. Masha felt slightly unsteady, slightly slower than usual. Mana dep? How? The succubus struggled to orient herself. She had to fight. Had to... The redhead bent over and emptied the content of her stomach onto the ground. It was impossible to tell if she'd missed her shoes with her fuzzy eyesight. Fuck! And with the depletion of her magic, the succubus couldn't even call one of her servus to help. This wasn't good at all. There were still bears about. At least a couple of those elf things and surely there was another tree around. Masha shot off a couple fireballs, hoping she didn't hit any allies. With her ears messed up from the mana dep, there was no way to tell if she had either. At least she had her sense of touch. The succubus staggered around trying to find anything that might point her in the right direction.

WC: 1004
2,289/3,000

(First dice: Santa's present, Second dice: Tree's present)

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

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'Normal Dice' :

Victoria watched as a strange series of events unfolded around her. Imai lost his clothes to a malicious present, Vinn grabbed an icicle to use as a weapon, Saraphina finally got her head out of the clouds and went on the warpath with summoned weapons against the holiday-themed intruders and literally beat some of them back into the portal, and Masha finally had an opening to deal some fiery retaliation against the ursine aggressors that had prompted Victoria to intervene in the first place. It was quite a sight to behold, but if she wanted to get any time to appreciate the full picture, she had to deal with the remaining bears and elves and that demented Christmas tree that doled out clothing-stealing presents. Victoria had a tall order in front of her, so it was time to get to work.

Victoria fired a Derringer at a bear that was close to Masha, drawing its attention onto her and making it forget about the dazed redhead. The brunette rushed to meet it with Collapsible Baton in hand... she was going for non-lethal incapacitations, but knocking out a bear would be hard because of its size, bulk, and aggressive temperament. Then she had an idea. Why not use her Disorienting Mini-Crossbow to make its vision blurry and then go to town on it with the Collapsible Baton? Taking on a polar bear in hand-to-hand combat was still a really dumb idea, but if it had blurry vision the task would be just a little more manageable.

The brunette pointed her wrist at the bear and fired a dark green dart loaded with a tranquilizer that blurred the vision of anything it hit. If it had worked on demons, it could certainly work on ordinary animals... at least Victoria thought it was an ordinary polar bear. The dart hit it in the shoulder and a few seconds later the bear's head began to wobble as she closed in on it for the beatdown. She easily dodged its wobbly paw swipe with a timely duck and hit in in the face. She then spun behind it and started hitting it on the back of its head as hard as she could.

The bear was only getting more and more pissed off, but distracting it would buy Masha some time to get up and refocus. Each hit was slowly wearing the bear down; strikes to the bear's head sped up the process. It was also wearing itself out with vain attempts to catch the mage and retaliate by swiping nothing but air. Eventually the bear gave up and slumped to the ground on its chest. Victoria took the chance to hit it several more times before it passed out.

Victoria had just won that small victory when a snowball packed with ice hit her upside the head. She saw an elf pointing and laughing at her and was not going to put up with being laughed at by such an annoying little guy. She aimed her wrist and fired another Disorienting Mini-Crossbow dart that hit it in the left shoulder. The laughing elf soon wobbled and fell face-first into the snow, where the wide-eyed elf flailed about in a vain attempt to get to its feet. Its spinning was making something that resembled a snow angel if it was made by a drunk person, which the hapless helper was... the tranquilizer dart was working its magic and the disoriented creature was about as much threat to her as a falling snowflake.

She turned back to Masha and was going to help when another bear presented itself as a threat, rearing up on its hind legs and unleashing a roar. It was time to beat down another polar bear. She led off with a Disorienting Mini-Crossbow dart, then repeated the strategy of circling the dazed bear and gradually wearing it down with the baton. This bear spun to follow her and was hitting nothing but air and increasing the dizziness it had to be feeling with the fruitless spinning that it was doing in pursuit of a target it could not hope to hit. After a few minutes of fighting it, the bear finally fell to the ground and Victoria hit it about the head until it passed out.

"Well, that was fun- OW!" Victoria said before being interrupted with another snowball to the face. She spotted another giggling elf exchanging high-fives with a buddy and silently vowed to wipe the smile off of its smug little face with a ranged weapon. Victoria put away her baton and brought out her sniper rifle. If they wanted to use her as target practice, she would return the favor and do a little elf shooting. She did not feel bad because the little jackasses had it coming.

Victoria carefully aimed at the snowball that one of the grinning elves was rolling in its evil little hands and waited until its hands were together. She then fired a shot at it and shattered the snowball, making the elf panic and look to its friend for answers. Its friend was busy making a snowball itself, so the brunette shut that down with a shot to the snowball that reduced the cold projectile to slush in its evil little hands. The elves eventually cottoned on to the fact that someone was shooting back with something a lot worse than snowballs. They looked into her scope with terror etched onto their faces.

Victoria gave a wolfish grin and pointed the weapon right at them. The elves were no longer smiling as they raised their hands and ran for the portal in justified fear for their lives. Victoria helped them along with a few "misses" that landed near their ugly little red shoes and kept them moving until they ran into the portal and left this world. The angry brunette raised a middle finger at the portal.

"And don't come back, you little jackasses!" Victoria shouted at them even though they could not hear her through the portal. Her mischievous revelry was cut short by the arrival of another polar bear, which caused her to scream and fumble with her rifle, nearly dropping it to the snow. It was too close for comfort, so she brought up the weapon and fired a Kinetic Shot that hit it in the shoulder and sent it flipping heels over head onto its back. She took advantage of the breathing room to produce a Billy Club, which was certain to do more non-lethal damage per hit than her baton.

Victoria decided to be reckless and rush the dazed polar bear, striking it about the head with the Billy Club and reforming it after each use. She used the time-honored strategy of clubbing it hard and then moving out of its reach, causing it to spin like a white four-legged top in a vain effort to get retribution on the annoying human mage. The strategy worked wonders as the bear's response to each hit got slower and slower. While Lawrence Sheridan probably never intended his adopted daughter to go toe-to-toe with bears, the magic he taught her was saving both her life and those of her fellow mages. If she ever had any kids, she could tell them the weird and not-so-wonderful story of how she beat up polar bears and shot at elves while Santa Claus invaded Earthland in the company of an evil Christmas tree that could make people naked by throwing exploding presents at them.

The warm and fuzzy stories could wait because the bear was still conscious, a problem she quickly remedied with a few more well-placed hits to its head. Once the bear was down she turned her attention to another pair of malevolent elves throwing snowballs at her and giggling in their undecipherable but no doubt evil language. The brunette would teach them a lesson in manners with her suppressed sniper rifle, just like she did the first pair of elves who thought it was a good idea to use her for target practice. They would soon learn that coming to Earthland to wreak havoc was a big mistake. Now to drive them away.

Victoria aimed carefully and shot the first elf's snowball out of its hands, then repeated the process for the second one. Both of them looked flabbergasted at what had happened and scooped up more snow to make more projectiles. A repeat performance convinced them that sticking around to harass the mages was a terrible way to end their elven lives, so they wisely decided to book it and did not stop running until they reached the portal and went back home to Holidayland or wherever it was those little devils came from. Victoria bade them farewell with a one-finger salute and turned her attention to Masha, who looked like she was still dizzy from something. The brunette dispelled her sniper rifle and spoke to the redhead to let her know that a friendly face was nearby, not an angry polar bear that wanted to eat her face and wash it down with a bottle of soda.

"It's me, Masha. It's Victoria. I'm right here, I'm right with you. Just take it easy." Victoria said to the dizzy mage, extending her hands so that the redhead could grip them and use them for support whenever she got the energy to stand up.

[Word Count: 1,564]
[Total Word Count: 3,121/3,000]

… It was too cold for his own good. He should have brought an extra scarf, maybe… no, this cold was felt throughout his entire body. He just realized that now. He just didn’t want to believe it… no, he was probably just caught in an illusion. That would make so much more sense than a Santa Claus practically ripping a young boy’s clothes off. That sounded very wrong, and Imai was about to break into tears by the mere humiliation… if this was real, that was.

It wasn’t real, was it…? He could swear on his life that this was but an illusion, a dream. Maybe the light from the gift caught him in some naughty situation where he was forced to stand nude. Maybe… argh, it was too awkward to think about.

Oh thank god, he wasn’t in an illusion, ‘cause Masha could see him- wait, she could see him?! That meant that everyone could see him! Instinctively, he covered his lower body with snow - as painfully cold as that was, he needed a quick moment of ‘what the tinsel just happened’. Wait, no, he couldn’t just take a pause - but then again, who wanted to see a naked wizard fight?

Santa didn’t seem to bother with Imai for the time being. At first, his eyes were set on Masha and the others, and Imai could clearly see the drools fall off the large bastard’s beard. Polar bears were wide-spread on the battlefield, so Imai felt the need to proceed his fight right here and now. He wouldn’t let anyone hurt his guildmates, not even the likes of his childhood heroes.

Sara mentioned that Vinn should aim for the portal. Elves and allies of Santa were approaching into this area from their only transport line, so taking them down would be useful. So Santa Claus was free? Imai did want to get revenge for his lack of clothes - it did paint a very ugly situation. I should move all the time and not slow down, so my jewels won’t be seen, he thought.

His eyes lit up in a bright, bluish color. Blue aura enveloped his body as if it woke up from within him, slowly rising up like fires. The snow around him quickly melted, but he managed to dash out in a blinding speed before any other inconvenience was made. Any other enemy around Santa was caught by surprise as Imai aimed right for the big man himself, a fine line of bluish light passing by Santa’s head and sucker-punching him, causing him to trip backwards a little. Due to Santa’s large size, those steps made large holes in the glacier beneath him.

Imai’s entire body was shaking with cold. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the suitable time to go get a coat on or anything - especially since the nearest coat available for him was ripped into pieces. Masha must’ve felt the stinging cold just as badly as he did… or maybe worse. Before he knew it, his hands were held in a sledgehammer-like fashion as he slung it down on Santa’s head from behind. He was jumping around like an annoying fly, and Santa even whapped his large hands around to either catch or slap Imai away.

At one point, during the bluish flurry of attacks that looked like lines of falling stars that covered Santa’s position, Imai dashed right into one of Santa’s flapping hands and was clapped across several meters into the cold ground. The snow made nice work covering him up, now. “D-Damn it… it’s so gODDAMN COLD!” he roared out, “You’re not supposed to be like this! Santa’s not supposed to be like this! Santa brings gifts and adores good children! He doesn’t try to kill them all…!!!”

“You appear to be in big trouble, young boy.”

“No shit- wait, it’s you…!” Imai spoke in confusion as the elder man next to him made his presence known. At times like these, he wasn’t in the mood for a little talk or for spiritual guidance to Imai only - the elder archmage was visible for everyone to see. And his hands were stretched up into the air… and anyone who looked up would quickly notice the approach of a descending meteor.

Obviously, Santa spotted it too. He tried to make a run, but his foot was caught by Imai who decided to quit the napping and get back on the action. Despite his physical injuries and rather mental breakdown due to SANTA CLAUS being his enemy, he still had a duty to be done. Slowly, he began swinging Santa around against the giant’s will, and as speed picked up, Imai waited for the right moment to throw him up at the descending meteor. That would prevent collateral damage… if that was even accounted for way out here in the wild.

With one last swing, Santa was sent up in the air despite his colossal size. Imai was heavily exhausted enough to forget that he didn’t have any clothes on as he stood still and looked at the inevitable light show. A descending meteor plus an approaching Santa resulted in a huge clash midair, causing several fires and rocks to scatter in every direction. It was a beautiful view…

Oh, nevermind, Imai was done for. He fainted an instant after the witnessing of the meteor crash, his bluish mana escaping his body as he laid on the cold ice… on his back.

How would the other enemies react, now? Or was Santa still alive after that attack?

WC: 926
TWC: 2285 + 926 = 3211

Masha was helpless. She hated it. It was like she was back in the scientists' cage, waiting for whatever they were going to torture her with. Sounds of battle echoed from far away. Her eyesight showed nothing more then a white blur. The succubus would never admit it but she was terrified. Vibrations of something heavy hitting the ground came from nearby. Masha stumbled away from the source. Had that been aimed at her? Hands touched Masha's back. The succubus let up a small scream and a fireball flew from her fingertips. The hiss of melting snow reached her ears. She'd missed whoever had touched her. "Don't come near me." The redhead said in a small voice. Her own voice sounded distorted. How long would this last? "Don't touch me. Please" Masha's voice broke, begging a little with her last word. "I'm not a plaything. I'm not an animal. You can't just use me!" Her mind was struggling. It was flipping between the present and the past. She was in the snow. No, the cold was her cage. She was with friends. Those were her imaginary friends. Sounds of battle were reaching her ears. It was the guards' TV and one of them wrapping the bars of her cell.

Fire poured off Masha's arms as she screamed. The desiccated coat that still hug about her finally gave into its fate. The bright pink quickly turned to black and the pieces fell off of her. The fire roared encircling the succubus. Her eyes were shut. Her mind struggled to reorient itself. Masha's return to reality was slow. The roar of her fire melted a good chunk of the snow. As she opened her eyes, once more firmly in the present, the succubus saw a blurry Victoria. The requip mage was standing at the edge of the melted snow circle. Had she been trying to help Masha? Had it been her hands the succubus felt? A wave of shame overtook the redhead. She shouldn't have let her past overwhelm her so easily. It would have been awful if she had hurt her guild mate. This was why she didn't have any friends. She was either all thot or psycho crazy bitch. There was nothing redeemable in between.

The succubus turned away from Victoria in shame. Her blurry eyesight alighted upon the other girl teammate and Santa. The ghost pale mage struggled in the fat man's grasp. The blurry sight seemed a tad too familiar. Masha's imagination filled in the rest. She could see his hands touching, groping. His beard scratching. His mouth drooling. All the while the female struggled uselessly in his grasp. The succubus had conveniently forgotten that the ghost woman was a capable mage in her own right. Perhaps to justify taking her anger out on Santa. Maybe it was to shake away the shame falling so deeply into her past had wrought. It didn't matter. Whatever the reason Masha had concocted, it pierced everything. It was time to put an end to Pervy Santa Sempai.

A deep red aura filled the air around Masha. Her hair rose with the power of it. Her red eyes glinted with the intensity of her rage. Her arm raised slowly to point at Santa. "You will receive judgement." Her voice reverberated with magical power. Once the words stopped echoing, Masha teleported. From shadow to shadow she jumped her eyes always fixed upon Santa. The big man was so intent on the pale mage, he didn't even notice Masha approaching. Her first fireball collided with something Santa couldn't quite ignore. The big man threw the female mage away with a roar of pain. His hands immediately went to cupping himself. A cruel smile curled the edge of Masha's lips. Her visage was that of a goddess of vengeance. "You have been judged, Santa Claus. I find you lacking." The next fireball collided with Santa's face, burning through part of his beard. "You have betrayed the trust," Fireball. "The faith," Fireball. "and the hope of children around Earthland." The last fireball pushed Santa the final step toward the portal. His body was covered in burns. His eyes teared from the pain. He was weak. Masha knew she could kill him. It wouldn't take much. Just consume his head with a final fireball.

She took a deep breath. That wasn't who she was anymore. No matter how horrible a man he was, Santa deserved a second chance. "Do not return here again because we will stop you again."With the word we, Masha spread her arms to encompass all the mages in the area. The icy Vinn, the calm Victoria, the eccentric Saraphina and the ever lovable Imai. Masha didn't deserve to stand with any of them. She turned her attention back to the fat man in front of her. "And we won't be so merciful a second time." The succubus planted her foot onto Santa's chest and shoved him through the portal. It snapped shut behind him, putting an end to the assault upon Earthland. Masha wrapped her arms around her chest. She stood there shivering for a moment, her form shrinking back to normal. Looking around, Masha called out "Anyone got a spare coat?"

WC: 870
3,159/3,000