Rescue in the Crystal Caves (Shane/Veronica/Job)

Job:

Excitement pulsed through Veronica's body much like the very blood in her veins. In fact small crackles of lightning occationally danced around her form from time to time from the pure excitement she felt.Her first job! As an official Rune Knight no less! There was EVERY reason for her to feel the way she did, especially since one of the Captains had decided to take her under his wing and teach her to be a true Rune Knight. Even if he was the Captain of a different division than she herself belonged to. "A good exercise in cross-division team building" they claimed. Or something along those lines at least.But that was still something for her to be more than proud of. The fact that she, despite being such a brand new recruit to the Rune Knights, had been picked to help start such a big undertaking was unbelievable.

That was, in fact, why she and Shane were currently out in Sakuramori. A job had come in and her new mentor, Shane, had decided it would be a great first outing for them as both mentor and mentee as well as the first attempt at implimenting the cross-division idea at the same time.

WC: 202

@Shane Stern

Job sign up approval

It was his first time in Sakuramori, a magical forest in the middle of Fiore. The entire area looked like paradise and a nature lover’s haven, but the beautiful façade was the perfect cover for the ominous tension that tingled in the air. Shane knew of the beasts and other beings that had taken residence in the forests of Sakuramori, wishing to have no involvement with them as he usually just skipped such jobs. The monster hunter group of mages could have them. If it hadn’t been because of the urgent job request forwarded to them that involved a missing child, Shane would have just dismissed the job.

In addition to that, Shane was also using it as a perfect opportunity to train his new mentee, a new recruit from the Combat Corps called Veronica Hawke. As one of the few Rune Knights who had participated in the cross-division tournament held some time ago, Shane had shared the same ideas on forming cross division teams consisting of members pulled from the Combat Corps and Special Operations. Which was the reason for picking Veronica as his mentee instead of just another candidate from the Special Operations division.

Shane went through the warnings that the couple had mentioned, after explaining the whole scenario with their missing child. A few of the warnings hadn’t made sense to Shane, but having recalled of cases of people getting lost in Sakuramori and attributing it to supernatural presences, the Rune Knight Captain thought it wise to just heed those warnings instead of showing an unnecessary bravado. Superstitions existed for a reason.

“Keep your eyes open, Bravo,” Shane said to Veronica, having assigned to her the codename Bravo while he took the name Alpha. Using their own names to communicate within Sakuramori was a taboo among the superstitious, believing that the spirits that resided within the forest had the ability to mimic voices and would use it to lure their targets away. Using a nickname or codename was their way of confusing the spirits.

“Remember the warnings. We are going by our codenames. You’re Bravo, and I’m Alpha. Always keep your eyes fixed on me. Keep quiet unless necessary, don’t say any unnecessary stuff, take nothing from the forest and don’t hurt anything in the forest,” Shane instructed as he took the first step into the forest. The plan was for Shane to take point with Veronica behind him. His guns appeared on his hips, within leather holsters tied to his thighs.

“Let’s go.”

[417 words]
[Total WC: 619 / 7000]

Veronica, having been studying the forest from where they stood oustide of it, brought her attention back to Shane as he instructed her to keep her eyes open. Once more he reminded her of the safety protocalls they had set in place prior. Reminding her to simply respond and refer to each other with their code names, Alpha and Bravo, respectively, and to keep her eyes on him at all times. "Roger Alpha." The girl replied, speaking to him for what would likely be the last time until they exited the forest. Keeping her eyes on Shane, as he took the lead and readied himself to lead the two forward, she took notice of a pair of guns appearing on his toned thighs.

'Damn. He's got an ass on him.' Was the first thought to pop into the girl's head, her face becoming slightly flushed as she continued to stare. Trying to, as silently as she could, slap her cheeks lightly to bring back her focus to the mission Veronica took a breath. Reaching over her shoulder she moved to grip the handle of her sword, Bölverk, and drew the weapon from its sheath. 'Protection only. Don't attack or touch anything.' She reminded herself, gripping the weapon tighter.

WC: 208
Veronica WC: 410
TWC: 827/7,000

Shane led the way into the forest, not knowing of the thoughts that were running in Veronica’s mind as she followed behind him. The experience as they ventured deeper into the forest was surreal, watching plants of never before seen types, and the occasional rustle of leaves above them accompanied by the muted creak of branches. Sometimes there would be shadows flitting between bushes and among the tall grass. The first few times Shane had kept his vigilance up and turned his head to regard anything that might have caused those disturbances.

But he had never been able to see anything. Pretty much after that, the Rune Knight Captain had learnt to leave those alone, looking from the periphery of his vision with the barest of effort while keeping his head straight and forward. He would still pick up those sounds, differentiating them and judging their distance by sound, to judge his next reaction. So far, it had all been rather tame, nothing appearing with the intent on stopping them.

It was only as they proceeded much deeper into the forest, approaching the crystal caves that the girl had supposedly been lost in, that a rare sight greeted them. Shane had no name for the creature that suddenly appeared in the middle of their path. It was completely snow white, with soft luxurious fur and resembled a fox in every other way. Except for the weird things growing on its body, which Shane later realized were jewels.

Eyes narrowing, as he tried to decide if the jewels had been a natural growth as weird as that may be, or artificially transplanted. He decided that it was natural growth when he took note of its front legs, which were either entirely made of out of a dark, cloudy crystal in the delicate form of its legs or just purely encrusted with them with flesh beneath them. A long red ruby stuck out of its forehead like a horn, while the same dark jewel forming around or was its front legs grew out of its rear end as a tail. Smaller pieces of jewels adorned the creature’s body.

It was regal and elegant at the same time, and neither the Rune Knights nor the creature moved as they stared at each other. After a few minutes of the staring game, the jewel-encrusted fox suddenly moved its head back and sniffed the air. It threw a final glance at the two of them, let out a high-pitched yelp before hopping away, disappearing into the bushes.
Shane turned around to look back at Veronica, his mouth wanted to say let’s go, but what came out was, “Oh shit!”

Approaching them unnoticed from behind was a huge humanoid biped with a round head. The very same type of jewels that adorned the fox earlier was present on the biped as well, with a crown of blue jewels ringing its head. It stood at six feet tall, leaning to the front on its longer forearms. The forearms were made of flesh, Shane assumed, but black crystals jutted out like daggers from its joints. A long tail of various coloured crystals joined together like a bead necklace swung around behind him with a fervent speed yet missing all the surrounding foliage by inches.

The angry snort that it let out was enough for Shane to know this wasn’t a member of the welcoming crew.

“Run! Straight ahead!” Shane shouted to Veronica, his finger pointing to the direction they were moving towards, while he quickly positioned himself behind her. The warning from the couple was ringing in his head. They were not to harm the creatures in the forest.

[611 words]
[Total WC: 1438 / 7000]

Veronica found herself astonished by the sceneary as she and Shane tredged on through the forest on their way toward the crystal caves. The natural splendor of the foliage the girl was seeing for the first time in her life, in addition to the peaceful quiet, was stunningly beautiful as far as she was concerned. At least it would be, if the occational snapping of twigs and crunching of dry leaves didn't add a kind of creepiness the the otherwise empty silence. Each step they took, each time Shane turned his head in the direction of another brief sound, found Veronica easing up on her grip on her sword until she was no longer holding it white-knuckled and instead carried it normally.

The Knights were halted in their tracks by an otherwise otherworldly sight. At least by Veronica's standards. At the base description the creature in the middle of their path resembled a white fox but the similarities were minimal, to be generous. Actual jewels, at least as real of jewels as Veronica was able to tell from how far away from the creature she remained, still standing behind Shane. For all she knew they could have been some kind of natural bones that resembled gems. A dark, somewhat cloudly crystal actually seemed to make up the creature's front legs completely, contrasting with the snow white fur otherwise covering the creature. Similarly colored crystal seemed to form the creature's tail as well. The most striking aspect of the creature that, against that white fur, stood out all the more was the ruby colored horn-like appendage forming out of the "fox's" forehead.

Veronica stared at the creature, eyes wide and jaw slack. It was, as far as she could confirm, the most stunning creature she had yet seen in her life. Leaning over Shane's shoulder Veronica just continued to watch the creature with a mixture of awe and interest, almost even becoming vocal enough to comment on the creature's appearance. Even watching it simply sniff the air mesmerized the female Knight. Even when the creature let out its yip Veronica couldn't help thinking of how cute it was. At least until Shane seemed to turn his attention to look behind them and uttered the words "Oh shit!"

The veteran Knight ordered Veronica to start running, pointing her forward in the direction they had already been travelling in. She didn't need to be told twice. An obedient soldier, at least given the immediate situation, followed her superior's orders and moved past him. Slinging her sword back onto her back as to redistribute the weight as she ran, she looked back over her shoulder to see if Shane was still following her or not. In addition to her Captain she could see what they were running from and, unlike the fox creature, she didn't want to look at it longer than that short moment.

WC: 481
Veronica WC: 891
TWC: 1919/7000

The two Rune Knight ran, with Shane adjusting his speed so that he was permanently behind Veronica, occasionally turning around to look behind him. And every time he did so, he would just see the huge humanoid beast with the crystalline growths from its joints advancing upon them. His round shield, Patriot, had already been strapped around his left forearm, replacing the two guns as his current main weapon of choice. The creature’s snorts began to grow louder as it advanced on Shane and Veronica. Seeing no way out of this, Shane put on a burst of speed, going much faster than his current pace and quickly ran to Veronica’s side.

With an effortless scoop, Shane swooped up his mentee in his right arm, positioning the girl over his right shoulder and ran like crazy. He stomped through all manner of vegetation, anything and everything in his way crushed as he charged forward. Behind, the sound of the creature was getting more and more frantic as well, as it picked up speed as well.

“Is he getting nearer!!” Shane shouted to Veronica. He had finally seen the cave that they were supposed to be entering up ahead, and gritting his teeth, the Rune Knight Captain charged forward. The moment he stepped into the cave, Shane put Veronica back on her feet and hastily turned around. Just in time for him to raise up his left forearm with the shield attached, taking a momentum-fuelled punch from the bipedal creature. The impact created a loud boom that shocked the monster itself, prompting it to stop, eyes wide. It had obviously never seen someone stop it’s punch head-on before.

With a grunt and a huff, the creature appraised Shane one last time, two of them standing at their full height, eyes locked in a stare down for a full minute before the creature bared its sharp canine teeth at the Rune Knight and then turned around to leave. When it was finally far enough, Shane let out a sigh of relief, as though the monster would have returned should he have let it out earlier.

Shaking his head, Shane turned around to look at Veronica.

“Are you okay? Sorry I was a little rough earlier,” the Captain remarked apologetically.

[376 words]
[Total WC: 2295 / 7000]

As the duo continued on, attempting to keep far and ahead out of the creature's reach, Veronica failed to notice Shane falling back just slightly behind her. He kept this pace until something made him throw Veronica over his shoulder and caused him to run even faster than she had already been going. Her back draped over his shoulder she watched, upside down, as the creature continued to chase after them. Clearly the beast had some kind of impressive amount of stamina if it was this capable of keeping up with the pair. It actually seemed to have picked up the pace itself, clearly eager to get its hands on the pair. For what purpose, Veronica desperately hoped to never find out.

From the front she could hear Shane asking her if the beast was catching up to them. In response Veronica simply shouted back "Keep running! KEEP RUNNING!" with the belief that it would serve as an appropriate answer. The light would grow dimmer shortly after as glittering stone rose above Veronica. The view was rather short lived as Shane attempted to set her back on her feet, practically throwing the girl forward as she had little time to brace herself or her center of gravity before he spun back around. At that point the only thing Veronica was aware of behind her was the sound of something large and heavy slamming against metal, the sound practically ringing out and echoing throughout the cave the pair now stood in.

A firm, soldi figure ended up pressed against Veronica's back, forcing her to dig her feet into the ground in order to stay standing, her sword being stabbed into the cave floor in order to offer additional support. Silence followed suite, just as quickly as the events from the pair entering the cave to Veronica being thrown to her feet, to the solid mass against her back. Moments passed in the silence before finally Shane seemed to ease up, a snort of sorts preceeding this moment. The higher ranked knight offered Veronica his apologies for being "rough" in his handling of her. Righting her posture once more and placing her sword back into its sheath on her back the girl ran her hand through her hair, fixing it as best she could so that it didn't look like its own hazard site thanks to the erratic movements.

"I'll live. Is it gone?" She asked him, not quite wanting to look over her shoulder to check for herself.

WC: 417
Veronica TWC: 1,308
TWC: 2,712/7,000

“Yeah, it left. Whatever that was,” Shane said as he gave a thoughtful look in the direction that the bipedal creature had left in. The Rune Knight Captain was going over the reasons why the large creature had chosen to abandon the chase, quite certain that it wasn’t because of the blocked punch. Shane had noticed that the creature had stopped just outside the crystal cave’s entrance before it turned away. In fact, its fist hadn’t even crossed over into the cave.

There was something about the cave that had caused it to stop, and Shane began to wonder what would really happen should they venture into the cave. But it was a job that they had taken up, so they couldn’t leave it.

“I guess this is the cave we were supposed to look for,” the male Rune Knight remarked as he walked further into the cave which was bathed in an iridescent assortment of colours, caused by the sunlight outside the cave being filtered through the large crystals of multiple colours jutting out from the floor and walls of the cave. Similar to their initial plan, Shane took point and led the way into the narrow cave. He refrained from touching anything, using only his eyes to take in the sight of the jewel-encrusted cave.

Five minutes later, as the light within the cave began to dim, slowly casting them in darkness, Shane finally saw the other end of the tunnel. And weirdly enough, there was light coming from that end. He shuffled forward at a quicker pace, and when he finally reached the end of the tunnel, which happened to be a cliff as well, Shane came to a very abrupt halt, holding his hands out to his side, just in charge Veronica charged over the cliff by accident.

What laid before him left him speechless. A cavern more than a cave, the cavern appeared to be the remnants of an ancient civilization. The roof of the cavern was entirely covered in stalactites, made entirely out of the crystals with varying colours but the main attraction was the largest of them of all, hanging from the roof in the very center of the cavern like an inverted pyramid. In fact, it was an inverted pyramid but how it had come to be was a mystery to Shane.

And adding its light-producing characteristic, it bathed the cavern in a multitude of colours like a kaleidoscope. Beneath it was an equally large pyramid also made entirely out of crystals with steps carved into it on all four sides, leading from the bottom to the peak. The peaks of both the inverted pyramid and pyramid were aligned, and if he wasn’t mistaken, anyone standing on the peak of the huge pyramid would be able to touch the peak of the inverted one if he raised his arms.

Surrounding the pyramid were walls, standing at roughly ten feet tall, and even then, they were considered minuscule compared to the pyramid. From his position, Shane could see that the walls formed a maze, that ultimately led to the pyramid. Four exits from the maze in total, one for each side of the maze. When the grandeur of the architecture had ceased its beating on his senses, Shane took note of the other pressing issue as well. There were plenty of exits leading away or into the humongous cavern, and it seemed that those would lead to ecosystems of crystalline monsters, as proven by the myriad of creatures roaming around the maze.

A flash of movement caught Shane’s attention, and he directed his gaze towards the peak of the pyramid again. The crystal fox from earlier had reappeared and it sat there on the top of the pyramid, staring pointedly at the two Rune Knights.

[632 words]
[Total WC: 3344 / 7000]