Chevaleresse

"Bel, yer just lucky I'm better at asswhoopins of the physical kind." She turned to Emilee, still exasperated. "I mean, I ain't gonna stop you from learnin' any weapon, but 'not wantin'' ain't gonna stop you from havin' ta worry about fightin' people in armor anyway. I don't want ta fight anyone with a weapon at all, doesn't mean I don't gotta worry about it."

Morgan shook the powder out as best as they could before donning the cloak once more, seemingly unbothered by the pinkish dust still on it. "Do all butlers know how to deal with bloodstains so well?

"If your Servant's that uncontrollable, you'd be best served usin' all of those seals to off him right now. Truth be told, you'd be better off that way, though you'd miss out on whatever cut of my profits I decided to give ya for the trouble. Though if you do call him over here, just remember one thing. I ain't that interested in killin' ya, but I won't be cut up if you die. You gotcherself into this. Choose wisely," He shook his head. Kid couldn't even control his Servant. Karsten was starting to think he was more of a liability than anything else. Of course, he might just resolve the conundrum by his lonesome in a few moments, without any influence by the bounty hunter. Karsten turned his attention back to Nadia. "Anyway, you got a cell, or are you one of those types that'll only send letters over familiars and magical gadgets?" He tried to keep the disdain out of his voice as he spoke. Magical gadgets were all well and good. . . if they were actually superior to the alternative. Magical communication? It wasn't.

Arturia flinched at Lilith's movement, afraid that the girl was going to attack her again and potentially do worse than before. Her body was stiff when Lilith wrapped her arms around it, but relaxed when she realized she wasn't about to be strangled on top of everything else that had just happened. It took a moment for it to click, but once it did she pulled Lilith tighter against her own chest. She was still crying herself, making it hard to speak, but she sniffled and tried to manage it anyway. "Lilith, I'm sorry. . . It's not your fault. I keep m-messing things up for you. Please don't hurt yourself even more because I screwed up."

"I could kill someone with my boot, too, doesn't mean it's a practical weapon. Sword's got less reach than a lance and isn't as good against armor as an axe or a good solid hammer. Knives got merit, I'll give ya that, but ya shouldn't be relyin' on 'em to save you from anyone in proper kit." "And I ain't even gonna comment on calling Belros reliable."

[Mode: Prediction] [Select: Cannon D, Attack+10] [Move: Up] [Use: Cannon D] [Fire Buster] [Move: Up] [Fire Buster] [Move: Down x2} [Fire Buster] [Wait: 2 hs]

Sheet probably done

Myrdwyn snorted, shaking her head at Belros's response. "I'm talkin' about your sad excuses for weapons, ya dumbass street rat. 'Sides, you think I couldn't kill someone with a spoon if I put my mind to it?" She didn't wait for an answer to that question before continuing, turning back to Emilee as she did. "Still, even if you're gonna be fightin' with the most impractical weapons known to man and manakete alike, I can help ya out too. Learnin' to defend yourself is a good thing ta do, 'specially with the rate things have been goin' lately."

Crow had been ready to interject, but fortunately Immanuel had seen fit to rectify the lack of information provided. "The fort isn't the primary objective. It's a target of opportunity, and the city would be best served if it were taken down, but your main goal is to get intel on these Epithet Cards. Where they are, what they do, everything you can find. I have a list of them that I can provide you with; they're mythologically and historically connected, should be hard to miss. I should note a couple other things. The 'standard armaments' are assault rifles with what appear to be underbarrel shotguns. The substance they have with them is, as he said, unidentified; I would suspect some sort of alchemical concoction, whether it's a stimulant of some kind of has a more offensive purpose is anyone's guess. Also. . . I wouldn't have asked you to do this if I didn't believe you were capable. If all else fails, I have ways to bail you out."

"Oh, thank the gods, I thought I was never going to eat anything but stale bread and sadness again!" She took a fruit to munch on, trying to resist the urge to put it all down at once, as she moved over to the fire circle and stacked some of the gathered timber on it. She took a moment or two to grab some random nearby brush and twigs for tinder, carefully but quickly setting the fire up; it seemed that she'd practiced this before. This task completed, she pulled out her Fire tome, glancing through it for a moment, before sending a thin stream of flame from her right hand to the base of the flame, and fairly quickly had a cozy campfire prepared for herself and the rest of the group. "Ready to go! Just be careful eating, Dad used to warn me about stuffing yourself after you haven't had enough to eat for a long time."

"Ya could learn to use a real weapon, too, instead of a glorified kitchen utensil," Myrdwyn called as she witnessed Emilee's approach to Belros. "'Sides, isn't the idea to learn ta kill people with 'em? Or at least convince 'em you're good enough at doin' it that they don't want to try and find out."

The sniper turned to face Tor and Chise better, an unreadable expression on her face. "Now then, Tor, and your friend I haven't been introduced to, given Challenger One's briefing, how would you prepare to deal with the enemy armaments and fortifications you will be encountering on this little jaunt?"

Kusuke just shrugged. "You already know everything I've been up to. Other than helping with the walls, I've been trying to work out the kinks for Magic Element engines; so far I've got them working, but you'll need some way of disconnecting the engine itself if you need to turn it off. Let me know if you need one, I guess." He blinked a bit it the Ork's appearance. Wasn't that what the bad guys were supposed to look like?

The cessation of the fear projected from Lilith's gaze resulted in Arturia's progress away from her similarly halting. She dropped to the floor once again, a combination of lingering pain and mental exhaustion taking their toll now that the primal impetus to move had faded. She stayed there for a moment or two, trying to gather the scattered shards of her composure, her sobs gradually coalescing into heavier breathing and frequent sniffling. She was still crying a little; this entire situation was scary even without supernatural assistance, and a part of that apology was genuine; she really did feel as if she'd somehow made things worse for Lilith, helping to take away what she assumed passed for a maternal figure (awful as she was.) The sound of Lilith's actions in the kitchen pulled her attention back to the other girl and away from uselessly contemplating how she'd handled the situation thus far. She stood up back up unsteadily, blinking a few times to clear her eyes. Lilith's huddled figure combined with the still-hot spoon told Arturia everything she needed to know about what she had just missed. Fear rose in the back of her throat again as she started to move back toward Lilith, halting her progress momentarily; it wasn't being magically enforced, but it was hard to overcome both experiences in her current state. "Lilith. . ." Her hand shook as she reached out toward the girl, much as she had in the forest. She was already mentally preparing herself for the girl to lash out again, something that seemed to make it harder, not easier to extend her arm toward the nascent goddess. "I-I really am sorry, I keep trying to m-make things better and it just. . ."

Arturia blanched, eyes going wide in fear even as the dam on her tears burst. She shied away from the girls' gaze, instinctively bringing her hands up to shield her face as if Lilith were prepared to physically batter her again; the earlier instance of the girl strangling her was suddenly a painfully clear memory. She was trying to do something other than cower and bawl, but cower and bawl she did, backing away from the younger girl and very nearly curling up into a ball at the edge of the room. "I'm sorry," she blubbered, "I'm sorry I'm sorry I was just trying to help you and I fucked everything up, please don't hurt me, I want to go home. . ." Lilith was going to kill her over this, wasn't she? Arturia started to half-blindly stumble toward the door, still choking out half-formed apologies between sobs, though between the amount of time she'd spent frozen on the spot and the lack of efficiency in her movement now, she wasn't liable to really get anywhere quickly should Lilith do any of the things Arturia seemed to think she might.

Arturia glared at Cora venomously before returning her attention to Lilith, which fairly quickly replaced her expression with one of deep concern. Arturia was hoping her already incredibly-strained nerves would hold out long enough for her to try and defuse this situation. She felt the desire to break down and cry rising up within her, but she forced back as hard as she could manage. She slowly walked toward Lilith with her hands up slightly, her outfit clanking slightly with each footfall. "Lilith, it's okay." Step. "I'm here." Step. "I'm not going to let anything happen to you." Step. She realized that part of the uneasiness in the air wasn't just coming from her own thoughts on the situation. She glanced back at Knife for a moment, and jerked her head toward a door. It would probably be helpful if the woman left the room; Cora wasn't liable to be a threat at this point, and her questioning seemed to have only upset Lilith. "I'll do my best to protect you, okay? Just. . . calm down for a second." Step.

Myrdwyn waited for another attack. She added extra force to her parry on that one as to knock its weapon away (and hopefully put the entire creature off-balance,) then swung the opposite end of her own lance forward, trying to sweep the creature off its feet so she could go for a killing blow. Well, a blow that would end it, anyway, she wasn't sure that "killing" really applied to spooky skeleton wraith things.

Myrdwyn approached this one slightly more cautiously than the others. She had something resembling a plan, this time: test its reach a bit, try to parry a strike, then knock it off balance with her greater mass and finish it off from there. She moved inward, jabbing at it a few times with her weapon, while grumbling audibly but mostly unintelligibly about creepy convoy men and useless teenagers.

"I could offer you the same service, good saint." Nobunaga definitely grew in height as she spoke, taking on a menacing aura as she rapidly assumed a much more mature-looking (and taller form) more befitting one with the title of Demon King. "You really should be more careful about your insults, peasant." She glanced over at Magna when questioned, however; aura and boosted height both vanished with a slight, but audible pop as Nobunaga reverted back to her preferred form. "Well, that's really all there is to it, but I doubt taking down this Caster is going to be very easy. He's still commanding a large body of troops, and as far as I know that shiny bastard should have nothing to do with the monsters I've seen appearing, yet appearing is something they continue to do. We could go for a strike directly at the Grail, I suppose, but there's no guarantee that would actually end him; I'd imagine he could sustain himself for quite a while with the souls he has available. I will say this: when it comes to fighting Caster, be ready for anything. And I mean anything."

"Well, it ain't gonna hold up very long if it's anythin' like the skeletons I put down so far. Let's just keep movin'." She stuck to her word, moving ahead of the mysterious convoy man with her lance ready to intercept anything foolish enough to attack her. She still had her doubts about this whole venture, but it's not like she had a lot of options at this point.

Arturia stood the rest of the way up, partially to hide the dubious look that flickered across her face. "Yeah, I do, what do you need from her?" She had a sinking feeling about where this was going. Hopefully they just wanted to get her out of this situation and help her find somewhere to live where she wasn't being whored out by. . . was Cora actually her mother? She looked the part, at least. Hoping for things to go well hadn't seemed to have been working out so far, though it could have been much worse. If Knife hadn't showed up, and her suspicions about Lilith's lack of action had been correct. . . she didn't really want to think about what would have happened next.

Arturia glanced vaguely in the direction of the sounds of the shower before answering. Lilith wasn't going to get in trouble for this, right? Still, best not to mention her involvement immediately; it wasn't exactly hard to put two and two together, there. "Arturia Eberhardt. I came here to check up on a friend of mine, and as soon as she left the room, Cora here decided that I needed a job screwing older women for money. I disagreed." She knew why the door wasn't unlocked; the woman had likely expected Lilith to return, and. . , not to help her with her predicament. It hurt to think that, but it's not as if the girl knew Arturia that well. Plus, Cora had probably convinced her that she was doing a good thing for Lilith somehow. Somewhat belatedly, she realized something. She wasn't holding a sword made of lightning, but she was still in that platemail dress, which the police officer(?) didn't seem to notice and/or care about. Best not to mention it for now.

It took a few moments for Arturia to regain the ability to breathe properly, but when she did, she pulled herself up into a seated position using the nearby chairs and table to assist herself. "For a certain definition of alright." She took a couple of experimental deep breaths, wincing a bit. She realized somewhat belatedly that she was trembling a bit from the combination of lingering fear and its relief. "I gotta say, I wasn't really expecting to get the tar beaten out of me again when I came here. . ." She frowned slightly. It wasn't as if they had made a lot of noise, and it was a pretty big house. How did the woman know to show up here and now? Not that she was complaining; it's not as if Arturia had the situation handled. "Thank you, by the way, I don't know what I would have done if that had gone any further."

Arturia made a somewhat pathetic-sounding attempt at cursing as she went down from the shock; turns out it's sort of difficult to speak coherently when there's electricity coursing through you. Apparently having lightning powers did not make you shock resistant; she hadn't been counting on that, but it wouldn't have hurt, exactly. . . Resisting physically was apparently not working; the rational part of herself told her that she should just submit to the woman's demands for now, and just abscond with Lilith at the earliest opportunity for escape. What she would be forced to do in the meantime, however, was something that she didn't think she could handle. That, and she was trying not to be the type of person that gave up on something halfway through. She mumbled something into the floor - along the lines of "I don't even like girls" - while she tried to gather her strength, and then lunged at the woman once more, trying to sweep her feet out from under her.

"Well, um. . . Necromancers kinda weird people out, but it's still a valid thing for a mage to learn, I guess. If you actually brought someone back to life, they might give you uh, what was it called. . . a Sealing Designation? Yeah. There's only one weird old guy that does Magic, and I couldn't get my dad to tell me much more about him. It didn't seem like he liked the conversation, though." Lucine shrugged. "A sealing designation is supposed to be a big honor, since it means you have a super special ability, but um. . . It also means they kinda, uh, kill and dissect you, to learn how you work."