Job; Find the Lost Puppy [Nikolai, Natalia - Team]

The Job:

'It's for a good cause. It's to save a puppy. You like puppies, don't you? What's wrong with a trip through a simple forest. So what if it's a "spooky" forest? What's so spooky about it? What does spooky even mean? It's just a word; a term used to describe something slightly scary. What makes it scary? It's just a bunch of trees. And bushes. And rocks. And creatures. Various different creatures. Nothing to be scared of. Nothing at all.'

Nikolai tried his hardest to convince himself not to be scared. There wasn't anything in the forest he couldn't handle, so why be scared? However, he couldn't shake the feeling. It wasn't called the spooky forest for no reason. There had to be some reason. Just the name itself was freaking Nikolai out. He wasn't exactly the calmest person already, he didn't need any special reasons to get scared. So giving him one was all but making everything worse. The forest itself didn't look overly menacing. From all basic glances it appeared to be just an average forest. Albeit maybe a bit darker than most, with a little more places to hide and ambush someone. No, there was nothing different about it, just your average forest, he was freaking himself out for no reason.

He knew that he had to stop this behavior though. He was here to save something, to protect an innocent puppy, there was no time to be scared. He was also here with Natalia, and it was his job to protect her. He turned to her, taking a deep breath and trying to give her a calming smile. "S-So, are you r-ready to g-go in?"

Natalia shook in her boots as she took sight of the spooky forest, she was finding it very difficult to concentrate. She shook her head trying to shake the thoughts of what may be inside. 'Get yourself together Natalia, that puppy is not going to save itself.' She tried to will her emotions off to no avail, but when push comes to shove she could at least make preparations of a different form before entering such a place. She sat down and looked up at Nikolai who didn't seem to have any better state of mind than her own, so she began to meditate quietly till it began to snow lightly.

"S-So, are you r-ready to g-go in?" The words rang out at her and broke her concentration, causing the snowfall to be interrupted for a short moment but at least she had managed to get it to sustain itself without her intervention. She stood up and brushed herself off and took a nervous deep breath. Right she had wasted enough and Nikolai probably would be annoyed if she had done anything else to delay their operations in the area."Right Let's go." She said almost ready when she started thinking about what might be inside the spooky forest which sent a paralyzing shiver down her spine if only for a moment.

"Y-you don't think there are spiders in there do you?" She asked Nikolai in a very fretful voice. She dreaded even the thought of spiders, the things were creepy their bites itch and some might even be deadly but the worst part was the webs, they were sticky and get caught on everything when you walk through them and they probably bring their denizens with them. 'Stop it Natalia, you need to be brave here. There's a puppy that needs help, puppies are cute and cuddly right.'

Nikolai tried his best to remain calm. He had to be strong, if not for himself, for both Natalia and the puppy. Taking a deep breath, he pushed all of his fears out of his mind. He looked around the forest, trying to find any signs of the small creature. So far, he hadn't seen anything, and honestly, it felt almost like a goose chase. Such a small creature in a large forest would be hard enough, let alone the very small amount of info the job had given. He had taken Natalia on the mission because it seemed like an easy one; out of all of his teammates, Natalia was the one he knew least. So he figured an easy mission would be the easiest way to get to know her a bit better. However, almost all of his efforts would be ruined if it ended in a failure.

He turned to Natalia when she spoke, giving her an awkward smile. He wasn't as comfortable around her as he was with the rest of his team. That, in combination with the anxeity the forest was giving him, was making staying calm very difficult. He forced out a small laugh, shaking his head dismissively. "I-I'm sue that th-there aren't any sp-spiders Natalia. Th-There's no need t-to worry." He sighed. He sounded in no way convincing. The chances of her believing him were astronomically low. He truly was a master at first impressions.

He noticed something strange and stopped. One of the trees down the road was knocked down. Normally, this wouldn't seem that strange, but it was how it was knocked down. Rather than be a natural fall, taking the roots out of the ground, the trunk was broken in half, rather brutally at that. He placed a hand before Natalia, stopping her from moving. Something had broken and taken half of the tree. "There's something around here." While Nikolai was terrified, his instincts took over, needing to make sure he protected them both.

Natalia felt a chill run down her back again as Nikolai tried to assure her that there were no spiders, though he didn't sound very assuring but at least he had tried. She released a quite sigh, if only she had a cupcake to calm her nerves a bit. Nikolai came to complete stop and part of Natalia wanted to nag him about why he had stopped, but realized quickly enough that now was no time to be hasty. She again tried to calm her nerves then took a look at what Nikolai had spotted. The Tree clearly had been snapped in half, nothing natural either than a really really strong wind could have done that.

She began utilizing her sensory ability to try and detect whatever might have broke the tree. She was finding it quite difficult to concentrate and detect anything of the sort, then she felt a tingle and immediately jolted her head to the right in a near 135 degree angle to face what she might have detected. "It's behind us!" She made sure to raise her voice to a proper octave for Nikolai to hear her clearly. Her heart began to beat furiously, in fact Nikolai could probably hear it by now. She could barely breath at the thought that they may have just let something big and scary get behind them. "It's not f-far in that da-da-direct...n" She attempted to explain to Nikolai but the words coming from her mouth were starting to sound incoherent.

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

'Monster Dice' :

Seeing Natalia's fear, Nikolai knew he had to man up. No more excuses, he had to be strong. As soon as she muttered the word behind, Nikolai was already in action. Glasses on thrown on as he turned, he scanned for any signs of movement. Noticing something a few meters off in the distance, he summoned his metal and was already on the charge. He had to get the first attack in and determine the flow f the upcoming fight. Besides, if he didn't get it's attention now, he wouldn't be able to make sure it focused him instead of Natalia. When the creature suddenly came into view. Nikolai was able to identify it immediately. It was a vulcan, and a large one at that. It dragged the trunk behind itself, almost with no effort at all. He couldn't tell if it hadn't noticed him or if it just didn't care about him, but he was doing to make it care about him.

While it wasn't a direct threat to him, it was better to be safe rather than sorry in this situation. Vulcans were wild and unpredictable, and allowing one with such a large weapon to roam around behind him and Natalia was an event ready to happen. Honestly, he was most curious about what it planned to do with the trunk. Forming his metal into Augmentation; Fist, He took a swing from a bit back, slamming one fist into the back of the neck, and the other into it's shoulder. The creature howled wildly on contact, staggering slightly from the blow. It turned to face him, clearly not happy, it's face snarled in rage. Good, he had it's undivided attention now. This would allow him to keep it off Natalia and allow her a chance to attack. Standing before the creature, he was ready to strike and block it's attacks at a moments notice.

Magic Power: 115%
Spells Active: Augmentation; Fist

Natalia felt unimpressed once she realized exactly what it was they were fighting and how Nikolai chose to act like a big hero. Vulcans were known for their strength but are not particularly good in the intelligence department, and here she was afraid it might be some crazy abomination. She had no time to dawdle, the beast was provoked and angry now and it was her job to support Nikolai. She held her hand above her head and began to form a large shape snowflake created by the snow she had prepared earlier. Know now that it was just a few Vulcans she could now clearly concentrate on her magic, she didn't detect any in the immediate area so she could focus on the Vulcan she and Nikolai were fighting.

Natalia was almost complete her Snowflake Shuriken and began to look for a clear path of attack which she could throw at the vulcan without losing any of the Shurikens power in the process. Then she got an idea, instead of throwing the Shuriken laterally she will throw it vertically to reduce the width of the spell. The snowflake was ready and she took stance to throw it directly at the Vulcan's head. She took a step forward and threw the snowflake at somewhat of an angle instead of completely vertical and it had taken an upspin instead of a downspin but at least it wouldn't come into contact with anything to slow it down. It flew through the tree's and connected with the Vulcans chin fallowed by a "Fwubfwubfwub" as the snowflakes 4 arms kept waking the Vulcan in the chin before dispersing. She was now going to have to get closer but that would help Nikolai for now.

Magic Power: 90%
Spells Cast: Snowflake Shuriken

The vulcan's head was forced back slightly when the snowflake hit, losing it's balance slightly. Taking this chance, Nikolai went for two punches towards it's legs, trying to make it fall over completely. The punches made contact with them, but it clearly wasn't enough to do more than injure the beast. It regained it's balance, holding the trunk in one hand like a weapon. While it's swinging range was lowered by the nearby trees, that also hurt Nikolai's work. Having them all around him prevented perfect flow of his metal, and limited his options, removing Ripple completely from the equation. First, he had to formulate a strategy. Keeping the vulcan's attention on him, he prepared for it's attack as he called out to Natalia. "Stay back and try to attack from range. I have it's attention but I can't guarantee I'll keep it if you get too close. The best moment to attack is after it swings, the weight of the trunk will limit it's abilities to dodge of prepare."

Almost as if on queue, the vulcan let out a wild howl, lifting the trunk above it's head with both arms. Then then let down a strong downward swing, attempting to smash Nikolai with it. He dodged to the side, letting the slow, heavy attack smash into the ground here he once stood. Since the creature had put all of it's weight into that attack, Nikolai took another swing for it's face, attempting to knock it off balance. He was lucky it was a vulcan; they were slow, so he had many chances to dodge it's attacks. If it discarded the trunk, he'd have a much harder time dodging with the increased speed, but the likeness of the vulcan realizing that was low at best.

Magic Power: 115%
Spells Active: Augmentation; Fist

Natalia attempted to re-position herself so that she can cast snow blast but she wasn't going to be in a position soon enough to assist Nikolai who insisted she attack from range. Natalia instead took on a different position to manipulate the snow that had already fallen to attack normally, it wouldn't do much to hurt the creature but it could at least keep it preoccupied for Nikolai to attack at well. Now that she got a few attacks off she needed to get into a new position not only so she can cast some of her closer ranged spells but now that she was attacking with the snow the creature could spot her as well and take its attention of Nikolai.

Judging by the size of the creature snow blast probably wouldn't knock it back but it would at least do a bit of damage, and that was all she needed to do right now. It was a shame really, if she could have knocked it into a bunch of trees or maybe a rock she might have even incapacitated the beast but alas that was not going to happen and if it did she was going to have to get quite a bit closer, and closer wasn't exactly what she wanted to do right now. Found herself at an ideal position to cast Snow Blast but she was going to have to wait for Nikolai to make his next move or else she might just hit him as well and that wouldn't be the best move.

Spells On Cooldown: Snowflake Shuriken. 2 posts remaining.
Spells Used: None
Magic Power: 90%

Natalia's attack seemed to have little effect on the creature. Enraged and beaten repeatedly by Nikolai, it seemed to focus all of it's attention on him. That was good, at least, meaning that Natalia was safe. The beast seemed to be struggling to stand as well. A few more good hits and it should be down for the count. Deciding it was time to end it, Nikolai felt it was safe letting Natalia get in range for now. "We can finish it now. I seem to have it's attention, it's safe to come in for the finish." While the creature could still go for another attack against Natalia, he felt fairly confident that she could finish it off before it had the chance to do so. As well, he felt confident enough in his ability to block any hits from the creature in it's current state to call her in.

The vulcan had steadied itself again by now, holding the trunk and preparing for another attack. Taking a large downward swing from the right, it attempted to hit Nikolai as if he was a baseball. Unable to dodge the attack in the same manner as before, Nikolai was forced to block it. shifting the metal away from his Augmentation; Fist, he made a wall of solid metal, reinforced by his magic. The trunk slammed into the wall but was stopped. Unexpecting the sudden resistance, the vulcan lost all of it's balance as it had tried to shift it's weight with the swing. Struggling to keep itself up, it dropped the trunk swayed around a bit, trying to catch it's footing. This would be the perfect chance to attack, and Nikolai hoped that Natalia would take it.

Magic Power: 100%
Spells Active: Manipulation; Wall

Natalia took a step forward in final preparations for her final attack on the beast. Natalia saw the beast sway unstable, now would be the prefect time to hit it with a full strength Snow Blast. She took on her stance and carefully gathered the proper amount of snow to topple the beast. Her final motion was swift and in perfect motion, the snow surged forward to impact the Vulcan on its left cheek and it let out a bellow as it fell over with a crash as it hit the ground. The Vulcan would trouble them no more, it was time to get back on track.

Natalia felt a bit exhausted, maybe she was a bit to hasty in her last attack and had miscalculated her magic flow. She sat down to take a quick moment to rest, as well as reactivate her sensory which had been disrupted during the fight. Attempting to locate the puppy she startled herself when she detected several more tall figures, seems the Vulcan brought a few friends with him and that bellow was more than enough to alert his buddies to the two mages presence. "Nikolai, there's more." She explained as she tried to track their movements, at least one was making its way towards them but was still quite far away. Natalia stood up and dusted herself off, there was no more time for breaks.

Spells on Cooldown: Snowflake Shuriken, 1 post remaining.
Spells Used: Snow Blaster.
Magic Power: 80%

With Natalia's blast taking down the vulcan, Nikolai took a second to breathe. While it wasn't a very hard creature to fight, that didn't mean it wasn't taking it's toll on Nikolai's stamina. Vulcan's were brutes, and matching that strength with his magic wasn't an easy task. Especially since he had to make sure that he kept the beasts attention on him rather than Natalia. She was his junior in the guild, and as such it was his duty to keep her safe. Looking around, he tried to spot any obvious signs of movement but so far found none. It still bothered him what exactly the vulcan's were up to; what use did they have for a tree trunk? There was something here he was missing.

When Natalia spoke about more coming, he knew that she was probably right already. The chances of their being another vulcan or two in the area was fairly high, and the noise from their quarrel would be more than enough to attract them. The question now was how to handle them. He wanted to make sure he was the first one they encountered; the first impression was key. However, the biggest issue where they were coming from, and how many. He turned to Natalia, nodding slightly. "Hide next to a tree. Don't let them see you. Which way are they coming from?" Nikolai would then move to wherever Natalia said she could sense them from to intercept. He needed time to prepare another Fist, but he felt fairly confident he'd be ready by the time they got there.

Magic Power: 110%

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

'Monster Dice' :

Natalia heeded to Nikolai's words and immediately took cover next to a tree at a proper range. "Careful, I can't support you too will from too far." She explained to Nikolai so that he understood that she had a limited range. She took a moment to concentrate so that she could detect where the vulcans were going to come from next. She had it one was approaching Nikolai from directly in front of him, they truly were dumb. She turned to warn him immediately but in her haste she revealed her position to another vulcan that she had apparently missed approaching from behind.

The beast let out a howl as it took a swipe at Natalia's head. Natalia luckily avoided the swing in time and the creatures fist pounded right into the tree behind her. Right now she couldn't worry about him she needed to warn Nikolai about the other vulcan approaching from the front before he decided to come to the rescue and leave his back towards it. She mustered up enough strength to shout to Nikolai about the other threat. " Nikolai there is one right in front of you." She attempted another dodge but the tree behind her was making moving a bit difficult and the brutes fist hit her in the shoulder and sent her fly a couple of feet. This was bad, she made a mistake of letter her guard down in the presence of enemies and in return she was paying the price. Already battered and bruised from the previous strike Natalia stood back up a little bit shaky, but none the less determined to defeat this foe.

Magic Power: 90%
Spells on Cooldown: Snow Blaster

Charging down the vulcan in front of him, Nikolai was focused on making sure he got it's attention immediately. In this forested area his potential damage was low, and it made it hard for him to make himself the biggest threat to the vulcans. As such, making sure that Natalia hid herself until ready was the most important factor. Staring down the large creature, Nikolai readied himself to face it. He was about to form his fists and swing at it when he noticed the large crashes behind him. 'Something has found Natalia. Priority is to guarantee her safety.'

Forming his boots, Nikolai quickly attempted a short kick at the beasts legs, trying to unbalance and stun it temporarily, before using the increased movement they gave him to run back to Natalia. Finding her on the ground before the other vulcan, he went into a full speed kick at the creatures chest. He knew that if he would be countered at this time he'd be in a horrible situation, but he trusted his speed enough to be able to hit the vulcan before it could react properly. They were slow, dumb creatures, and their reaction times suited that fact. As well, if the attack went through, the powerful blow to the creatures chest should be more than enough to make sure it stayed angry at him and shifted it's attention from Natalia. Worse came to worse, he was flung by the creature and it gave Natalia the chance to recover and counter attack.

Magic Power: 90%
Spells Active: Augmentation: Boot

Natalia crossed her arms defensively in front of her and stared down the beast, Nikolai should be able to deal with the other beast quite easily if she could get a snow wall down in front of herself to deal with this one. However he instead came charging in to deal with this one instead. The idea of him ignoring the other vulcan to help save her was indeed noble of him but it in a way angered her that he would turn his back on an enemy. 'I'm not helpless you know.' She wanted to say but she didn't have time to berate him for being both over protective and reckless. Instead this worked perfectly, Nikolai had knocked the vulcan over towards her and she was at the perfect range to abuse this fact.

To finish her current spells she spread her arms like wings and the vulcan tumbled directly into a freshly made grinding snow wall and was scratched up quite a bit as well as being slammed directly into the ground by the downward motion of the snow. Natalia however didn't account for her wall being to long as it also ground a nearby tree to bits which fortunately for her the tree began to fall directly towards the vulcans head. Crashing on the vulcans head the tree would most certainly knock him clean out, the tree wasn't even that old making the impact much harder. She now detected the other vulcan stabilizing himself and charging at Nikolai enraged. "Nikolai look out! Use the wall to your advantage." She shouted out, she was going to need to prepare another spell to assist Nikolai in his coming battle with the other vulcan.

Natalia's efforts on the vulcan had proven more than successful in knocking it out. Already unbalanced by Nikolai's surprise attack, the creature was easily taken down by the snow wall. Nikolai was already preparing to deal with a counter attack when the creature was assailed by the falling tree. It was definitely gonna be out after that. The immediate threat gone, Nikolai turned to Natalia to try and gauge her status. She seemed OK, but he could tell that she wasn't the type to take blows. His actions weren't because he thought her weak, but because he knew that not everyone was able to take hits nearly as well as him. It was his job to take advantage of that and control the situation.

However, as Natalia called out, Nikolai was already aware that he had another aspect he had yet to get under control. The vulcan from earlier clearly wasn't happy with what he had done, and Nikolai knew that an angry vulcan wasn't something you wanted to let be on its on. The question was how to deal with it. Natalia's suggestion to use the wall was a good one, but how exactly to handle that was the question. It took only a second for Nikolai to realize; if a Vulcan is dumb and enraged, he didn't have to think at all. Waiting for the creature to get close to him, at the last second he quickly sidestepped, letting the creature run smack into the wall. To follow it up, he let loose a strong kick to the creature's back, attempting to almost nail it into the wall.

Magic Power: 90%
Spells Active: Augmentation; Boot

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

'Monster Dice' :

Nikolai was a very intelligent individual, fallowing Natalia's advice he had used the wall to his advantage. The vulcan in fact has kicked into the wall so hard that he almost went all the way through it and at the same time caused the wall to completely disappear. The Vulcan however was going to be down for the count being that he just got pushed through a wall of grinding snow and being kicked that hard in the back. Natalia sort of grinned at the downed Vulcan, now it was only about finding the puppy, or so she thought. She detected two other vulcans though these two were a great deal smaller and the seemed to be walking in single file with some sort of structure on their backs. "Nikolai I can sense two more coming but they are carrying something with them." She stated and motioned in the direction that the vulcans were coming from.

Natalia stared in disbelief as the two vulcans carried what seemed to be a throne of which the very puppy they were searching for sat. It seemed as though the vulcans were praising the puppy like it was a king or god and it was very very strange to Natalia. "I guess we don't have to look for the puppy much long then." She said stating the obvious. The Vulcans of course weren't going to make taking their furry deity very easy, and thus Natalia began to prepare herself for a final showdown. The snow from the wall would be perfect for another snowflake shuriken.

Magic Power: 80%
Spells on cooldown: Snow Wall

As the vulcans came into sight, things started to make a little more sense to Nikolai. So, the vulcans were using the puppy like a pseudo deity. It didn't surprise him at all; vulcans were so stupid he could probably make them worship him if he tried hard enough. Looking at the "throne" the vulcans carried the puppy on also explained a good amount. Made very poorly out of loose branches, stones, and dirt, it explained why the vulcans were gathering wood; to create a home for their new god. At least they seemed to want to take good care of the dog. Despite their attempts however, Nikolai knew that the puppy would be in better care with humans, as well as calming down the family who lost the dog in the first place.

The vulcans both looked a lot weaker then what he had encountered before, so he doubted there would be much of an issue in dealing with them. The problem lied in rescuing the puppy. Any attacks against the creatures would likely cause them to drop the throne, possibly injuring the small dog, and he couldn't risk that. With the speed his boots granted him, he could probably get the puppy safely, but he was incredibly open to a counter attack. Still, that seemed to be the best option. It would be up to Natalia to cover him from this point on. "Cover me. I'm going to get the puppy. Keep them off me until I return it to you." Nikolai couldn't really fight while watching the dog, but Natalia could. Getting the small creature and delivering it to her seemed like the most logical way to handle the situation. His boots was about to end, but it should give him enough time to get the dog. Charging forward, he jumped high towards the vulcans, reaching out to grab the small dog quickly. If he managed to grab it, he would be completely left in Natalia's care to keep safe.

Magic Power: 90%
Spells Active: Augmentation; Boots

Nikolai charged off to get the puppy and was going to give it to Natalia to take care of. The idiot what was he thinking, giving the puppy to her would just make her the vulcans main target. She didn't have any choice but to support him for now but maybe she could take down a Vulcan before her returned. She prepared her second Snowflake shuriken and waited for the perfect moment to throw it. Nikolai had just retrieved the puppy and had just leaped off the  throne of sorts, now was the best time to strike. Natalia threw the shuriken which hit the front vulcan dead in the gut while he was distracted by Nikolai causing him to fall over and at the same time caused the throne to fall on top of him, hopefully the power of the shuriken and the weight of the throne would incapacitate that vulcan.

The other vulcan roared enraged about Nikolai taking his deity and about Natalia incapacitating his comrade. "I think we made him angry." Natalia commented as she took the puppy from Nikolai. She was still worried that she would be the target of the vulcan, but logically the vulcan wouldn't attack her cause she had the puppy in her grasp. "It's just one and it doesn't look very strong." She said a tad bit exhausted, she only had one option left for defense and that was a well aimed Snow Blast, she prayed that Nikolai could handle him quickly enough so that she wouldn't have to.

Magic Power: 70%
Spells Used: Snowflake Shuriken
Spells on Cooldown: Snow Wall

With the puppy now safely in Natalia's hands, Nikolai was free to go all out on the vulcan. It's partner was easily overwhelmed by the combination of Natalia's attack and the throne collapsing on it. That made his job even easier. Since Boots was going to expire any second, he figured it was best to use it to take advantage of the fight. Jumping up to preform a large kick, he released the metal from boots to cast Augmentation; Shockwave. Sending the metal flying, he attempted to barrage the vulcan with it and knock him off balance.

Now he had to follow it up and try to end the fight now. He couldn't give it a chance to try and get to Natalia and the now rescued puppy. Taking more of his metal he formed his Augmentation; Fist. Winding back for a punch, he started to bombard the creature with a series of consecutive blows. With it already having to deal with the metal from Shockwave, he doubted the creature would be able to avoid his onslaught. So far, the vulcans had proven themselves to be fairly weak, so he doubted he'd have to deal with much resistance from the creature. Still, he could leave nothing to chance. Both Natalia's and the puppy's safety was on his head. It wasn't that he thought Natalia weak, it's just that he viewed it as his job to protect her, and as such he had to make sure that he didn't let anything hurt her, though he had already failed in that respect.

Spells Active: Augmentation; Fist

Magic Power: 75%

Natalia decided her best course of action would be to back off and find a safe place to hide while Nikolai dealt with the remaining Vulcan. The puppy didn't seem too content to stay in her arms and she struggled to keep it from squirming away. Using the trunk of a rather large tree she placed her back against it and took a moment to catch her breath, she was done fighting for the time being. She continued to attempt to keep the puppy contained while taking a peak around the trunk to check on how Nikolai was doing.

Natalia felt a sudden jolt of pain rush through her head as the impact from the vulcan before finally caught up to her. Her left cheek had swelled up a bit since then and she was starting to feel a bit unstable. Natalia slumped down into a sitting position next to the tree feeling a bit dizzy, she concluded that she may have had a concussion when the vulcan hit her. She just needed to wait for Nikolai to finish with the last vulcan then she would be safe to withdraw, so she would just have to hold the puppy for a little longer. She was finding it very difficult to concentrate and she was getting very dizzy, hopefully Nikolai would be done soon to help her back to the client and get her to a doctor. She snapped back into reality just thinking about how Nikolai would help her back, she hated being carried and she hoped she was stable enough that she didn't have to be carried.

The vulcan seemed unable to deal with the sudden burst of damage Nikolai let out, and as such collapsed. Nikolai waited a few moments before doing anything however, wanting to guarentee it was down. Vulcan's may not be that strong or smart, but they could be tenacious, and he was not about to let himself get tricked by that fact. After he was certain the beast was down however, he let out a sigh of relief. As far as he could tell then job was finished. They had retrieved the deity dog, and now just had to escort it home. He doubted that they'd run into much more, if any trouble from this point. Their actions probably scared off anything around that might want to mess with them.

Taking off his glasses now, Nikolai felt his senses return to him as he looked around for Natalia. It was safe to get out of here, and getting out of there sounded perfect to him right now. Spotting her by the tree slumped over, he looked at her with a worried expression. "A-Are you alright? D-Do you n-need me to h-help you s-stand?" He offered a shoulder to her, fully intending to support her on their way out, should she need it. "Y-You d-did a great j-job today, th-thanks for h-helping me out w-with this." He really was glad to have someone help him on the mission, he disliked the idea of going in alone. At least now it was over with, and he could focus relaxing for a bit before having to deal with anything else.

Natalia looked up at Nikolai with shaky eyes the swelling of her left cheek had increased a bit. She attempted a smile at the compliments Nikolai supplied but it proved rather difficult. She held the puppy up to Nikolai so that he can take it while she attempted to stand. "I made sure we were safe." Her tone was even starting to sounds shaky. "I guess I screwed up huh." She said noting her current physical state. She used Nikolai's shoulder to stand up, her legs extremely unstable and she was quite dizzy and could barely see straight. What Natalia could use right now was a nap but she knew this wasn't a place to take a snooze, she needed to remain strong until they got back to town then she could have a real nap in a real bed.

She would use Nikolai as both a guide and as support for a while until they made it back to civilization, but he was going to have to carry the puppy. She didn't feel too happy about relying on Nikolai for everything and how she was the one slowing them down ever since they left town, maybe she just wasn't meant to be on this kind of team. She was going to have to consider where she belonged later but for now she had to focus on standing up and moving forward. In the end the puppy was safe and would be delivered to the client unharmed, a deed worth doing in Natalia's mind.

Closed