I Don't Like Sand

While Theo hurried upstairs Leona moved to follow him, but suddenly four Crimson Sashes barred her path; they wielded scimitars in a threatening manner and started to surround her in a rough square formation, separating her from him. The Wizard Saint of Courage was not daunted because she had faced them before. The Crimson Sashes were just one of many outlaw groups that had been terrorizing her home village of Nebdoui for roughly a century, but they were easily the most persistent of them. It seemed like they raided Nebdoui at least once a month, if not more frequently. Every time they attacked Nebdoui's graveyard grew a little more and the village's border shrank accordingly.

Theo did not seem fazed by what he was up against; he dismissed them as just another band of raiders before initiating combat. Leona would let him fight on his own but would try to be available if he got into trouble and needed a helping hand. In the meantime the bandits began to slowly close in on her in an effort to make the blonde panic and make a mistake that they could exploit. Unfortunately for them this was not the Wizard Saint's first battle with them.

Not wanting to be completely surrounded and not wanting to wait for them to close in, Leona rushed one of the men who waited a bit too long to make his move. She closed the distance with a Zephyr Dash and followed up by using a Mach Straight to the chest to knock him off of his feet. Before she could move in to knock him out one of his partners sprang to his defense, coming at her with a diagonal scimitar slash and forcing her to back away from the downed enemy. The man kept charging and Leona could hear the two Crimson Sashes behind her moving in to trap her between them, but Storm Impact would stop them in their tracks.

Leona raised her right fist into the air and quickly focused her magic into it, then dropped to one knee and punched the ground, releasing a dome of wind that caught the men by surprise and knocked them off balance just long enough for her to take the fight to the enemy in front of her. Leona ran up to the enemy and ducked under his scimitar slash, then popped up and hit back with a Hurricane Punch; the first punch hit him in the chest and the second through twelfth punches hit around his chest and stomach, disorienting him with the speed and force of her punches. Before his fellows could come to his aid Leona hit him with a Mach Uppercut that knocked him in the air: he landed on his back and passed out, leaving her with three enemies still standing.

The blonde whirled around in time to avoid a throwing knife to the back. She ducked just in time for it to graze her left shoulder instead of it hitting a vital area like her torso or neck. The Wizard Saint faced the offender and crouched down as she focused magic into her body for a Lion's Fury spell. Once it was ready Leona stood up and initiated the "flash step" that allowed her to take the man by surprise just as he was readying another throwing knife. She saw his eyes widen before Leona began slashing at him with the fingernails of wind magic that had appeared on her fingers. Leona began slashing at him and hit him a total of eighteen times while he rocked back and forth from each blow.

He staggered back with an exposed torso; Lion's Fury had hurt him and had torn up his outfit. He backed away from her and his colleague jumped at Leona with a jumping slash. Leona saw the blade descending on her and sidestepped to avoid it, then attempted to hit back with a Swift Palm. He leaned to the left and it passed by him, giving the enemy a chance to try and grab her right arm as she pulled it back. Leona felt a strong hand grip her right wrist and rooted herself in place just as he pulled on her.

The Wizard Saint felt a second pull on her arm and resisted again. A third attempt was rebuffed just like the first two. After the third try the opponent grew tired of trying to pull her off-balance and raised his sword, deciding to just cut her arm off and let her bleed to death. Leona reacted by suddenly launching herself at him and connecting with a headbutt to the right side of his face. The unexpected move staggered him and let Leona keep her arm, of which she would have need if she wanted to defeat the men and hurry to Theo's side.

Leona attacked with a Swift Palm that connected with his chest. She followed up with a Mach Jab to the right side of the face and connected with that attack as well. She drew back her right fist for a Mach Straight and punched, but the man avoided it with a timely sidestep. He took a step forward and swiftly retaliated with a kick to Leona's left side and followed up with a kick to her left knee that hurt so much that the pain threatened to bring her to a knee. The blonde stood her ground and hit back with a Wind Blast that sent the man sprawling to the ground.

Leona felt pressure from behind and felt a pair of hands wrap around her waist and lift her into the air. She was slammed forward onto the stone floor and was lying on her stomach when the attacker began to stomp on her back repeatedly. Leona counted six stomps before she was able to roll away and scramble to her feet in time to receive a kick to the stomach. She staggered back and was hit from behind with a sharp kick; the man she had hit with the Wind Blast had gotten up and had renewed his attack.

The blonde staggered forward and into the arms of the enemy in front of her. He reached out to wrap his arms around her and Leona headbutted him before he could close his arms. She took the chance to hit back with a Sky Hammer kick that caught him on top of the left shoulder and knocked him to the ground. She followed up with a kick to the face and he was knocked out, leaving just two enemies now.

Leona stole a glance behind her and saw Theo at the top of the stairs looking distraught over something that had happened. Perhaps he was not used to taking life like she was. She would find out later... right now she needed to defeat the enemies in front of her before she could go check on her guildmate.

[Post Word Count: 1,156]
[Leona's Word Count: 10,840/12,500]
[Total Word Count: 19,967/25,000]

As if the violence and death he'd just wrought woke him up more to himself, Theo dropped the frozen jello katanas and let them melt away on the temple floor. He didn't do this anymore. He'd had enough of this. He was good at it. Too good. It was too easy. Even as he gripped his wounded middle, thinking about how he hadn't had this magic back then, his mind was quickly acclimating to the magic he'd learned from Granny Bonbon. Quickly wiping his eyes with the back of one hand, he darted off to the left to avoid some of the raiders scurrying down toward him from the right. If he could keep from fighting but also not allow all the enemies to flood Leona, that'd be the best option.

The treasure hunter skirted the far wall, well aware a group of about five raiders was eagerly on his tail. They thought they'd have him cornered against the wall since there were no paths forward. There was a rather large gap from his platform to the next with only some narrow stone steps would connect them at the center, and here he was darting off to the dead end to the right. However, once he reached it he stepped up onto it and ran up. The sticky jello on his feet allowed him to walk on most surfaces regardless of orientation. And despite how thin he looked, he was actually quite strong, plenty strong enough to keep himself parallel to the ground as he ran along the ancient stone wall. With any luck they wouldn't have projectiles--

*crack*

"Eep!"

Theo's head whipped around to lay icy eyes on whoever had just thrown a blade at him. Luckily their aim against a moving target wasn't perfect, but it made this more annoying. They continued to sling throwing blades at him and he continued to eep as he dodged them clumsily. After a few moments, he earned a reprieve as they retreated to cross the stairs in the middle and then run back toward the right wall to continue their attack. Those with swords advanced to the last platform where the altar sat, presuming that would be the area he would come back down on. Eeping his way through he clangs of metal on stone, he did eventually reach the last platform, though he didn't come down. Not yet. They were waiting for him, and he was still trying to avoid fighting so he wouldn't have to use deadly force.

"Listen guys, I just want something that I left here. I don't want whatever else you've got here, ok?" he tried to reason with them, but he knew they wouldn't go for it. When he was in their shoes, he wouldn't have either. Dashing up the wall even more, he came to stand on the ceiling so he could see better. His jello dragon continued to rampage on the left side, seemingly making a game of how many bad guys he could fit within his gelatinous body. Leona seemed to be holding her own where he'd left her, though she was certainly busy. He'd have no backup here. If he could just get down to the right side of the altar and see if his lacrima was still hidden there under the dragon plate, then he could get out of here.

Sneaking in, grabbing what he needed, and sneaking out was something he was much more comfortable in, old habit or not. The glaring issue with this was the literal band of enemies anxiously awaiting his descent, circling like sharks under a bleeding pirate dangling from a plank. The dark-haired man resorted to throwing sticky blobs of jello fo various sizes down on them, hoping to incase them or immobilize them in some way, but they were much too agile for that. What they didn't notice, though, was that with ever blob that missed the more the floor was coated in the jiggly substance, made worse by their mindless trampling. With a snap of his fingers, the floor turned slick and they fell. Taking this opportunity, he dropped down, bouncing a couple of times before he found his footing and skated off on his rink of jello toward the side of the altar.

Hastily his fingers clawed at the smooth plate ornately carved in ancient Desiertan hieroglyphs. In the bottom corner was a crudely carved dragon, his own handiwork. It was easily recognizable despite time eroding it a bit. However, it didn't budge, much to his dismay. His attackers were scrambling up, bearing down on him albeit slowly due to falling over and over again. As much as he hated to destroy such hard work, his fist bashed into the slab and cracked it. A second time was enough to snap it into several pieces. Clearing it away, he reached in, eyes clenched in both anxiety and prayer. "Please, let it be here, please, please," he asked of fate, and for once, fate was kind. Inside was a pouch containing a smooth stone. Yanking it out, a bright smile lit his face. "AW YEEEAH!" he whooped, opening the pouch to get a glimpse of the glittering lacrima within. It was warm, familiar, beautiful....terrifying. He knew what he became when he enjoyed its power last, but despite that, he knew there would be a time when he had no choice but to do it again if he wanted to stay alive. "Thank you thank you thankyouthankyou," he praised the heavens, though the swishing of a blade brought him back. "YIPE!" he cried, bending his jello body in a normally impossible way for a human to narrowly escape the blade's wrath. Right. The bad guys.

They all swarmed him in a flurry of blades, made even more dangerous by their lack of footing and slipping around. Theo ended up in a hilarious dance with death, his body whipped, stretching, twisting, and bending in ways only a jello man could accomplish without breaking his spine. "Whoa, hey now, those are sharp! Please, I don't want to hurt you guys!"

Pleading would do nothing. He knew that. His mind raced over ways he could get through this without cutting off limbs and killing people. Even though his blades hadn't caused the death, his actions had. Avoiding the frenzy of swords and thinking at the same time was hard, but finally, he came to some sort of conclusion. Sliding on his knees through the legs of one of the raiders, he broke away from the wall and slid toward the seemingly bottomless gap between platforms. He slicked the floor as he went, then threw his hands out to fill the gap with a giant green jello mold, though it was low enough to be out of sight. As the raiders screamed out in dismay, thinking he was about to bounce across the gap to get away. Instead, Theo turned to face them, his face taking on a look of sheer terror. As if he'd just realized he was trapped. "Oh noooo!" he lamented, not the best at acting, but doing enough to convince these guys in the heat of the moment. They rushed forward-thinking they had the upper hand, but he had duped them! One by one he skated and spun around, kicking or shoving or just letting them slid right off the edge to what they thought was their doom. Screams lingered strangely in the air, then tapered off as they realized they weren't falling. No, they were stuck inside the mold except for their heads so they could breathe. "Ha ha!" he celebrated, then whistled to his dragon. "Gather them up and drop them here!" he commanded, which the cherry-scented reptile complied.

Body slamming the raiders that futilely tried to stab its massive jiggliness, he gathered up most of the den of thieves further in and then joined Theo at the giant mold. He forced them out of his translucent body into the fruity prison. With a pat to his big snoot, Theo unsummoned him and made an unhindered break for the hole blown in the side of the chamber. "Come on, Leona! Let's get out of here!" he called, standing in the sun streaming in and inhaling deep lung fulls of fresh but hot air. Theo was certainly ready to get out of the land of sand.

[wc: 1394 || Personal Total: 10693/11,000 || Thread Total: 21,361/22,000 Almost there!]

"I'll be there as soon as I can!" Leona called out to Theo, who seemed to have found what he was looking for and had already left the temple through a hole in the side that had been blasted some time earlier. The men who had opposed him were bound in some kind of jello prison and were not going to escape to pursue him or her any time soon. That was good enough for Leona because they were not opposing her and they were not chasing Theo while she was occupied and unable to go to his aid.

Now that Theo had safely escaped with the treasure he was looking for, Leona turned back to the two enemies standing in front of her for clues to their next move and saw them look at one another. The man to the left motioned with his eyes towards the blonde and the right man gave a slight, barely perceptible nod. The man on the left pulled and threw a throwing knife aimed right at her head. Leona saw the gleaming silver blade in midair and ducked under it; that was when the two men made their move against her. The pair rushed her and the man on the left reached her first: he kicked at her as she stood up to fend them off.

She took a booted foot to the midsection and staggered backwards, but the Crimson Sashes did not let up. One of them raced to grab Leona's arms and pin them behind her back, but the blonde had recovered by the time he could get to her and rewarded him with a left-handed Mach Straight to the face for his trouble. He groaned as he rocketed back and slid on the floor a good five meters from the force of the punch, leaving her to deal with the Crimson Sash who had closed in and was trying to kill her with his sword. Leona jumped back a meter and avoided the diagonal slash at her chest and started stepping back as the man jumped to close the gap and began swinging his sword in alternating strokes of diagonal left-to-right and right-to-left.

The Crimson Sash was putting pressure on her, but Leona had just the solution. She extended her left hand and fired a Wind Blast that knocked him off of his feet, giving her enough time to turn around and spot the man she had knocked down with the Mach Straight to the face earlier. He had gotten to his feet and was drawing another throwing knife to throw at Leona. Leona, tired of having to fight two men at once, opted to take this particular enemy out now so that she would only have to deal with one opponent. She crouched down and used the "flash step" of Lion's Fury to close the gap, then slashed at the surprised man with claws made of wind, hitting him eighteen times and knocking him down for the count.

Now that the first opponent was unconscious she only had to deal with the last raider before she could join Theo on the outside of the temple. The man got back to his feet and clutched his weapon, then charged at her for another furious round of swordplay... or he would have if Leona had not tired of playing around with the outlaws and decided to end things here and now. Leona calmly pointed her right index finger at the charging man and fired a small silver ball of wind that was the size of a marble. The Wind Bullet hit the man directly in the chest and he flew backwards about ten meters before landing on the floor and sliding on his back another three meters. Unwilling to let him get to his feet again, Leona took off at a sprint and tried to close the gap with the man as he groaned and struggled to get up.

The blonde reached him right as he was about to sit up and stopped. He looked her straight in the face before the blonde raised her right foot and kicked him in the face, knocking him out. The unconscious man fell back to the floor and Leona breathed a sigh of relief. All the enemies in the area were either dead, unconscious, or imprisoned in jello.

The fighting was over.

Leona turned to look for the escape route Theo had taken and quickly spotted it. She ran towards the hole and made a break for the outside before the men in the jello prison got free and gave chase. About a minute of running later Leona was free.

-Outside the temple-

Leona hurried outside the temple and caught up with Theo, who was clutching a pouch with something small inside of it. The blonde did not bother to ask what it was because he had mentioned something about a Lacrima earlier. She was just glad that he had found what he was looking for and both of them had gotten out of the raider-infested temple safely. Any job with a guildmate where they had successfully completed the objective and were still in one piece at the end was a win for Leona. That much-needed success would go a ways towards proving to doubters that Leona was a decent Guild Mistress, but she would need to work with more guild members and get them home safely before she could silence the skeptics once and for all.

"So Theo, I take it you found what you were looking for?" Leona asked him as the wind began to pick up and kick some sand around the pair. While she waited for his response Leona felt the sunlight on her skin and was glad to be outside the dark temple with a pit of snakes and collapsing floors and raiders aplenty. Now that this job was complete, she was ready to get out of Desierto for awhile and return to Silver Wolf Guild Hall to take a break before she took another job for the guild.

[Post Word Count: 1,010]
[Leona's Word Count: 11,850/11,000]
[Total Word Count: 22,371/22,000]