Sutoratosu

"Weeeell..." she glanced down at the still burning little green abomination, thinking for a few seconds "No, no.... not right now at least, it might take a while to figure out, but I think whatever this thing is it can be useful to us, if I manage to get rid of the whole trait where it, you know, burns everything it touches outside of water. Let me try a few things first, if none of them work... then yes, by that point, killing it would be the safest option." at the second part of his question, she blinked a little, before looking around, well hearing around- not like her eyes were worth a damn. And upon picking up the eerie, relative silence around them, she couldn't help but be surprised. She... honestly hadn't noticed, between training on controlling the buggers around here and rushing to stop this thing burning every in it's path. Lo and behold... the place, aside from the three of them really was deserted... figures. "Yeh, I see what you mean... Don't worry about it, I'll already have to stay here and keep this thing under control while see what I can do about it. Meeting whoever they send to pick the stuff up shouldn't be an issue."

Aurora "What? I'm not making what this 'bling' you speak of is..." the spider had responded to dackly with a tone of obvious indignation, as she continued working "I'm making something that will fix the problem so many of these fleshbags seem to have with staying alive on their ow-" aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand like that, the snake was talking to the human mage from earlier, the one with the soulless golem, if Aurora recalled correctly, which she did, given she could see see the construct right beside him. "Wait, what!? I told you, I'm not making.... what are you even-" and they were both gone before she could say anything else. Aurora simply sat there, dumbfounded as to what had just happened. But soon enough, her eyes drifted back to the shimmering gems she had finished so far- nowhere near enough. "oh forget it..." she sighed, before going back to her work "lovely, now I'm apparently caught up in some competition I wanted nothing to do with, ontop of everything else.... simply lovely... damn fleshbags better be thankful for this...." then again, if they weren't wouldn't be her problem; Aurora won either way with this solution. But it definitely wouldn't help her growing exasperation with them if they didn't...

"How?" she asked lilly, but soon after overhearing harry speaking to someone about how it had all started when the thing was apparently removed from water, she got her answer, "Water, huh... the things not that big, if I just-" and with that, she had effectively cut off her own sentence, as she launched into chanting something in an alien, nigh unnatural tongue that seemed to bend the very fabric of reality around them. The raw focus, was clear on her face, as her mind whirred in overdrive to keep track of the countless equations being processed, by no safe space to write them out and release them on in a timely matter- no.... who knew how long the dousing harry had given the thing would last, before it burst into flames again, lucille had no intent of being near it when that happened. And so... she had resorted to this. The casting of a runic sigil through incantation alone, it was by no means an easy feat, but nor was it one she was inexperienced in either; the key was to allow nothing to impede oneself, to hold every once of information that under normal circumstances could be written out at one's leisure, left and returned to later if one so desired. And as she continued the incantation, a very light erupted from the ground near the plant creature, and said light formed into the lines and symbols of the Alchemical Marriage circle. Her targets were simple... she would take a few inches of the asphalt in one one circle, and combine it with the asphalt in the other one- perhaps a bit frivolous a use of knowledge that, under the right circumstances, could make or unmake entire worlds and create or destroy life, but... she was more concerned with getting the thing under control as soon as possible, damn any misgivings about what the Maven's may have thought, had they been here. there was a brilliant flash, and as it faded, there in the street was a small hole, and a foot or two away from it, a raised spot in the asphalt where the moved material had been relocated. The divot was more than big enough for the little plant monster to fit in with plenty of space. And already, the hole was beginning to fill with the water that had been spilled on the ground. Lucille ordered it in, and it followed with such swiftness, she might've mistaken it for eagerness, but she knew in all likelihood, this thing was simply naturally drawn to water.... "So uh..." she finally asked once the ritual ended and she stopped the massive incantation, panting just under her breath, though she hid it well "Now that we've avoided burning the place down for now... from the top, how exactly did this thing come into existence?"

With Mirri seeming to have eventually shaken off her self-doubts, Lucille had seen no point staying any longer- if anything she had likely stayed too long already. Weaving her back through the docks surprisingly well (well not that surprisingly from her perspective, but of course, ignorant sighted folks would no doubt find it fasciniting who she managed to walk without bumping into anything or falling into the sea) she soon came upon the warehouse, and as soon as she entered she had found a relatively quiet spot among the rows of forgotten crates. The cats had been left to their own devices, as she relaxed her control as loosely as it could go without just outright cutting it altogether, and they had busied themselves chasing each other among the stacks, weaving in and out, up top and down below, like the agile little beasts they were. Lucille meanwhile had begun to focus, bringing herself to a higher plane of thought almost instantly as she reached out her senses like a fat man reaches his hand out for a jelly donut, and taking in all the small life forms inhabiting the place. Small things, mostly, the token rats, and a variety of different critters, the spiders were by far the most common of which, in such an open space with so many dark nocks and crannies. With their signatures in her mind, she had set about practicing something she'd seldom back home- use the insects around her, control them as she did any other creature. and by the end of it, she found herself only vaguely satisfied with the technique- she had succeeded in managing to scatter a single part of herself among multiple bugs, but it was... crude, rough, she couldn't accept such a spotty job, she knew she could do better if only she tried, but.... but she was tired. After the fuck up in the lab and the strange altercation on the docks, she'd hoped this would help take her mind off things, but clearly, it hadn't- Lilly's voice cried out from the front of the wherehouse, and almost instantly, both Lucille and cats perked up, and were on their feet heading towards the disturbance. It was through Do's eyes that she saw... it. The flaming, writhing plant abomination making its way towards the entrance, leaving a trial of flaming pitch as it went. But that wasn't even the strangest part, for... Lucille could pick this thing up on her senses like any other beast. This, whatever it was, was close enough to animal that if she tried, she may very well be able to reach out and bind out. She could see the flames it had started and left behind, could smell burning flesh, whatever it was, it had already done damage. Stop the threat first, ask questions later; that had been the key to her survival after... after... nevermind. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!?" she called to harry and lilly as in the same moment, she triggered her inborn command spell, extending a Bond to the creature as it crawled away and exerting every once of restraint against it she could; she didn't know what she was dealing with, afterall, and it was better safe than sorry. Lucikly however, it seemed the bonds had taken hold well, and mere moments later she commanded the beast to stop in it's tracks, and just like that, it did, going still.... LUCILLE BINDS THE WEIRD ASS PLANT MONSTER

Ghost entered the room not long after, and after a moment of scanning the room found.... more or less what she was expecting. There in one of the corners, huddled under a shelf, pressed against a table. Still transfixed with that same, far away gaze, that stare that could pierce a thousand yards, see clear over the horizon and see the sun setting on the opposite side of the world. She knew naught how many times she'd encountered it over the decades. But at the very least, it was often enough to where she had come more to expect to see it, than she did not to. Legionnaires, coming back from the front, their bodies marching forward and eyes straight ahead, though their soul was quite thoroughly dead. Young men and women who, up until she and Sumur had found them, had gone their entire lives as nothing but mere dust farmers, cultivating what little they could, hadn't even thought about having to commit such acts until someone had pressed the blade into their hands and told them plain; that this would be their life now, if they wished to continue it... that this is the only way you will survive the coming storm. She may well have been able to get them to rise up, to reject the fate about to descend upon them, but the after... oh the ever after, that was always the hardest. No matter how much you inspired them by word and by deed, there would always be those who left with scars. Scars that cut deeper than any wound, scars that killed men yet left their bodies and minds still alive, to wander as mere shells of themselves, living husks in all but decrepit, rotting form... And though you may tell yourself that, between the evil of tearing away whatever peaceful existence they once knew in order to help them or standing by and doing nothing as that peaceful existence becomes the reason they are raped, slaughtered, and pillaged, that teaching them the ways of war to defend themselves was the far lesser vice... you would always know, somewhere inside of yourself, you were the cause, whether you've the courage to admit it or not. You would always know you have saved no one, merely killed them without even giving them the mercy of Oblivion. "And now, I may well have killed another... yet one more walking death to add to my name..." no, no, no. She banished the thought, banished it three times, as she approached Hiroki, intentionally making her footfalls loud despite knowing perfectly well how to cover ground better than even a wraith, all to give the girl some warning and not catch her totally off guard in this already fragile state of her. She stopped as she finally drew closer to the corner, keeping far enough back to give the girl some space as she dropped down to a knee, setting herself and Hiroki at eye level as the girl cowered there. And there, up close, she could see it all too well, written in every movement she made, see it even clearer than she had on the faces of the soldiers who fled after Gozer's bombardment. If she recalled from the team loadouts, then the girl's name was... "Hiroki," she began. Her was voice soft, and her expression even softer; the hard, cynical mask of indifference or snark usually plastered on her porcelain mug, the one she had always so readily met the world with for so many years, now replaced with a knowing look in her eyes, mouth set in almost motherly concern "About everything that occurred... out there, if you wish to talk about it, I would be more than willing to listen; I'd perfectly understand if you didn't want to right now, though."

Aurora having back at the fortress, and much to her annoyance, finding none of the fleshies seem the least bit interested in learning how to heal their own damn selves, Aurora had eventually wandered off to a darkened corner somewhere in the yard. With not much else to do and with a fair bit of ire for how poorly the group had done overall, yet how unwilling many of them seemed to be in order to fix it, she came upon a different idea- if they would not take the initiative to learn... well that meant that most of the burden would still be falling onto her. She was beyond tired of it, at this point. She'd been keeping their fleshy hides alive since the very beginning, mostly because they were more useful alive than dead, considering the things they were constantly going up against. But by the gods... by her, there comes a time in every healers life where they begin to question to true impact of what they do, of whether or not it's even making a difference anymore.... whether or not those who are healed truly appreciate it, or have simply become so accustomed to having someone patch them up at their beck and call, they develop some bizarre sense of entitlement, as if it is their right to be healed because they are too squishy to live long without it or too ignorant to learn how to be self-sufficient.... And it was in the throes of that exasperation, that state of being totally done with the whole afair, that a thought came to her, as she sulked in her corner, watching them. If the fleshies wouldn't learn, then perhaps it didn't matter. If she made a few artifacts so easy to use, even an absolute dunce could activate and effectively themselves with them, then maybe.... Yes yes... there was a way to lift this burden for herself yet... She went to work almost immediately, conjuring several small spheres of light before her and smashing them into on another in the palm of her hand, molding the divine forces therein until they were packed so tightly, they began to take on physical form... much like a potter shaping clay.

She grit her teeth at the announcement, hadn't she already given him the full rundown of the battle and everything she'd taken note of? What more could the talking slab realistically need at this point, all this did was create the same type of needless, sluggish bureaucracy so common in the legion, back when she was still around to bear witness to it first hand. Feeling Tama's presence, she wasted no time, "Oh for the love of.... look, I'm not going to leave without checking on her, after all that occurred out there. Go in my place, if the slab gives you any trouble, tell him I'm tending to something important and that you're the best, and only, representative he's gonna get out of me for his little meeting." "There may be little you can do to help her..." "And? Does that mean I shouldn't try at all? In the end, I may have actually done little to help out all those places we visited, but even still, does that mean I was wrong to try at all back then, hm? He did not answer, already sensing more than a fair bit of scorn rising in her voice... "Nothing, huh? Thought so. Now please, drop this nonsense, and just do as I ask" and she left before he could say anything else, continuing to follow Hiroki into the fort, from what she could tell, she was heading to the armory for some reason... *************************** several minutes later.... Rather than the albino commander, what would've met LOTUS and the other squad heads before long was a small, crackling sphere of lightning and congealed storm clouds, hovering a good meter or two off the earth and casting a faint violet glow wherever it went. With a graveled tone lacking preamble, it spoke up as it arrived "The one you call ghost will not be attending this..." it began "she has more pressing matters with someone from the group. I however, am Tama Vajra, and will be present in her stead; anything spoken here will be relayed to her nigh immediately, and anything she feels important enough to voice, I will do so for her."

Ghost As Ghost and the others had left the killing field and filed back through the gates, she radioed in and told the Talking slab, Lotus, about the battle. There wasn't much to tell really- they had been grossly outnumbered, just as they had when they landed on this world, but it didn't make much difference. The enemy commanders had been rather shite and seemed more intent on pursuing petty vendettas than actually commanding their men, and the soldiers had so little loyalty that by the time the fight was over, they had cast down their arms and fled the field. The skeletons, while annoying with their constant reinforcements, had been manageable, and though the plant...snake... thing still perplexed and slightly exasperated her, ghost made sure to give credit where it was due for Dackly; without her strange petrification abilities, things likely would have a been a bit rougher. And she had to give credit to the Rock elemental as well- his bombs had been utterly instrumental in ensuring the battalion they had faced would never rise again. With that done, she had sought out a soldier within the courtyard, and upon asking their rank and determining it was likely high enough to be entrusted with important intel, relayed much the same message for them to carry to the noblewoman, Silef. And with it a commendation for how well her troops had provided support fire from the wall. The foes who had posed the most immediate threat to the fortress were dead, and the plant snake had even created some bizarre type of healing fountain in the yard- ghost knew naught exactly the specifics of its functioning, but she had test it and indeed worked, it should prove a valuable assets to the troops stationed within. All in all, the foes who posed the most immediate threat to the fort were dead... more would eventually come to replace them, of course, but until then, their victory should bring a bit of reprieve to the beleaguered defenders. and with both of those out of the way, she had turned to climb the path up the wall, see how the current state of the killing field from on high.... when something caught her, just on the edge of her vision, and she turned to find one of the outworlders who'd been part of her squad fleeing the yard and into the fort proper. But more than anything, it was the expression on the girl's face which so thouroughly stole Ghost attention from the wall. And just like that, there was a change of plans. She backed away down from the steps and set off after the child, the crowds doing nothing to slow her down, given she simply phased right through any idle soldiers who got in her way.

Her left eye twitched, ever so slightly as she watched the energies of her spell dissipate into nothingness as the damn knight mustered his faith in an apathetic god. And soon, both her eyes flashed with subtle emerald light, as he continued to wear said faith oh so proudly like the bloody instrument of wanton death he was, daring to profane this world by donning the armor of killers and hypocrites. She said nothing though, nothing at all. Even with a man standing here who, for all appearances, was the grand culmination of all things wrong with his faith that had driven her to despise it so thoroughly, and who she was unable to kill like the mindless dog he was, she said nothing. She probably had something in her arsenal that would have worn the wanker down, but calling up the recollection of what might do the trick, and then taking whatever measures were needed to cast it, would take far more time and effort than it made any logical sense to expend right now... especially considering how his little Rogue friend was oh so unprotected.... none of that ridiculous armor befitting a overzealous murderer, and probably none of the faith to call upon either. She launched forward, bringing Atropos to bare and slashing at the neerdowell, her blade reflecting the eerie, dancing lights of the growing flames nearby... and a light all it's own as well, for that matter. Oleander slashes Dismas with Atropos (basic attack)

Stellio 26/26 HP; 12/30 MP; 0/200 TP Current Ogre Boost: +0 Str/Ess Ess/Str/Dex/Int/Syn/Res/Con 5/5/-2/5/0/8/3 -minimum of 2 moves each round -MP-fueled actions have their checks boosted by 1/2 Int ((2)) The knight continued to run for a bit longer, though as some... odd contraption was strapped to his back, and even before then the crusader he'd spoken with earlier was dragged away through the fog, he soon stopped and turned, surveying the field. Though he had put decent distance between himself and the-.... The ogre. that was truly all that could describe what he saw in the distance, as even now the obese pig occupied itself slowly crushing the crusader to death. He may not have borne the deformities and other hallmarks of the corruption of chaos, as Dorgulia and Rodric both had, but there was little doubt in Stellio's mind about it. The manbearpig definitely seemed possessed of the might to contend with one, that much was true... So too did he... but part of him was far too weary to consider diving right back in, to toss aside the fledgling peace that had been born back home and plunge himself, body and soul, right back into the fires of hell, to swim once more through a sea formed from the blood of warriors and civilians, manipulators and masses, guilty and innocents alike. But even as he uttered the incantation and wove the mana he'd gathered, he already knew that was most likely going to be precisely his fate. And just as he had on the killing field of Valeria, he already knew he would undoubtedly embrace those fires yet again... however much the darkest parts of himself rebelled against the vicious, futile cycle of it all, this charade where he time and time again tried to use a power so clearly meant to destroy in order to defend and preserve. But he would carry on, in spite of them. For, those were the parts that Stellio had grown to know best, over the decades... for it is the arguments you despise most which you should listen the closest to. "Ripple ye forth in waves of darkness," The terror knight declared, flinging a hand skyward and unleashing the woven mana up to the heavens. Like a million brilliant fireworks, it erupted before his head, an ominous, black sigil forming as the energy dispersed into thick black tendrils that seemed to suck the very light from the world around him "steal five temples of the soul, to bind them in your blindness!" And as quickly as it had formed, the sigil was gone, and in the distance a wave of violet, lightning like energy flowed over the Man-Pig abomination, as Stellio focused his arcane might on slowing the beast down... Stellio Runs Away, then he spends 10mp to cast Paralytic Wave against Roadhog, and only Roadhog! ((Stellio will gain [+2] to his check roll on Paralytic Wave, due to "Ring of the Mind")) Loadout

well, I suppose I'm willing to give this another go.... who knows, maybe the third time will be the charm?

"WAIT, WHAT WAS THAT NAME YOU JUST SHOUTED!?" Maya practically whirled on her heels as the fire mage made the taunt, but even as she questioned it, she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt what she had heard. Her grip on the staff tightening like the noose around a convicts neck, she set off in a quick stride before she was even aware of it, shooting the commander in the distance a look so utterly toxic it alone could've ended Roswell's reign, if the bastard had been there at that very moment. Before she even made it half-way though, a hand was on her shoulder- not cherry's, and definitely not the new recruit, both of them were much too far away. "Whooooa whoa sis, let's slow down for a minute, alright? Yeh.... that bitch beyond the wall who's been dropping thunderbolts at random is a Cloudbreaker, shocker, I know. But that's exactly why I told you to be careful... which from the looks of it, you're about to do the exact opposite of." "What can you honestly do against her, Maya? What, are you gonna walk over there and bash her with your staff, knock her brains out? That revenge fantasy might seem satisfying, but there's no way in hell you're gonna manage to kill her, you're nowhere near strong enough... and you'll just end up getting zapped for your trouble-" "Oh please, I could take a spell from that witch like it's nothing-" "Fair enough, maybe you can. But it doesn't change the fact that what you running off on your own is pretty reckless. You want nothing more than to tear her apart, I get that, but I guarantee you sis, there is no one on this earth who wants to see a dead cloudbreaker more than I do. yet you don't see me running off in blind rage without a plan, now do you? Just calm down and think about it for a moment- you aren't alone here, and she's laughably outnumbered by this point, and the only thing she's got left in her squad are a bunch of squeamish mages.... There's an easy solution for this, you're holding it right now." "..." though she did not want to listen to him, to simply... push aside the surging wildfire of emotion that even now was trying to drive her against his logic, she knew there was undeniable truth in what he said, as she glanced down at the Barrier Orb, "Fine... you have a point, brother..." She shook off his ethereal hand, and he did not resist, fading away with the winds as she continued on her path. It's destination had radically changed, though. Rather than heading right for the Cloudbreaker, she approached Meredith, hailing the woman's attention as she went to work; just as when she had woven the blessing on her the first time, once more a hexagonal matrix of shimmering aqua light washed over the Soldier's armor. "Here, Meredith. With this, the ones that are left will be powerless to stop you. It's time we end this charade; the sooner we get away from this mess, the better." Meredith, however, probably would've noticed how she didn't actually make eye contact with her as she spoke, but rather kept her attention focused in the distance... on a certain sage. E13, Barrier Meredith

"Oh, chances are they do, don't worry," Cade responded, though it was nigh impossible to tell whether it was cynicism or sarcasm that her voice dripped with "It would be just our luck if they did, anyway. But that's a bridge we'll just have to cross if- or when -we get to it, there's no point worrying what'll be waiting up above us when we haven't even escaped from below." as she finished, she turned to glance for just the briefest moment at Belros. "And even if they do, I think it should be safe to say we've learned a lesson about splitting up," "Hopefully past mistakes won't end up repeated and screwing us over yet again." Move to O18

((so uh... I couldn't say anything on the discord when all this went up because, you know.... I was kinda doing this nice thing humans do called sleeping, but Stellio is actually supposed to have a minimum of 2 moves. And yes, it's mentioned in the master sheet)) "Well, no better time to start that tactical retreat then now, now is there? The rest of you make sure to keep your paces ahead of me, I will do what I can to slow him down..." And with that said, a strange, coelescing energy began to filter in between the knight's gauntleted hands and flow up his arms into his entire metal clad body, as he began to take his own advice and put some distance in between himself and the figure in the distance who that he could see, was quite indeed some bizarre cross of man and pig.... Stellio runs away Stellio runs away again Loadout

The Terror Knight turned to the crusader "I am inclined to agree with the first part. Rats who lurk in the gutter, only to emerge and kill before slinking back into it's safety of it's shade, seldom know anything of open combat. But this man sounds too similiar to certain... beings from my home. Beings people foolishly compare me to, because they've studied nothing of the old days, and know naught their true might. Let us not forget either, we are strangers in this... realm, barely just arrived. We have no bearings, and no whispers of what our foe is capable of besides what this footman here has provided. An army that marches blind falls like a house build on a foundation of sand; it would be wise we beat a tactical retreat, and learn more of this... how did you say- "Roadhog?" -before we contemplate how best to gut him like the mad pig he likely is."

"She..." despite her misgivings about it, Lucille found herself speaking anyway. Figures how that worked... but after hearing more about how this "Force" operated and comparing it to what she already knew, coupled with how utterly certain the woman seemed that she was damned either way, she couldn't help it... and like that, she'd found herself going from merely watching to entering the conversation "She... has a point. It's never that black and white, despite what people might try to say. They just boil it down to it's simplest possible components because it either serves their purposes, or they just don't care about everything inbetween..." she was already slipping, she could feel it, and started searching for how to catch herself, when... something the woman had said earlier came back "Has... there really never been anyone who's used what both the 'Jedi' and the 'Sith' teach before though? Has there really been no one who ever managed to walk a middle road, without giving in? Because... well you don't seem like someone who's too far gone... um..." shit...again slipping "what I sensed from you earlier, what I'm sensing even now... this "Force" can't be corruptive, at least not on it's own, can it? It started off like a wave of the purest thing I've ever felt, and then all of sudden it was like that wave was just... carrying everything you wear feeling, and it's still doing it even now... but it never felt like it was forcing you to feel any of that, or trying to drag you down even further, or negate the power of choice, or... anything. It was... is... just there, as far as I can tell...So, is it inherently corruptive? Because if it isn't, how are you certain that you've already lost, that you can't try for redemption?" Hmmm... even now, she was having second thoughts about speaking, from how... rough it all sounded. Would be just typical if this turned out as botched as before...

It had, yet again, been an utter whirlwind. One moment, he was turning to thank her, and just like that, the Arrow found her, and then... then... Him. "HEEERMIIIN!!!" but it was too late. even as he shouted her name, the world held it's slow motion. Though he moved fast as he could, it was still nowhere near enough, as the vagabounds axe came crashing into her. Nowhere near enough as the damn pirate sneered with his ratty little grin, her blood still glistening on his edge. And in that brief moment, as she fell to the deck, the two of them locked eyes. And the fucker's sneer grew even bigger. and Marek was even fairly certain he heard him laugh. His entire body shook, grip bone white, the elders beginning to speak to him, resonating with the rising swath of emotion, the destruction, encouraging it, stocking it like devils tending to the fires of hell, showing him how the man might move, how he might react, all the possible paths this fatal encounter might take... "Wipe...that fucking grin... OFF THAT POCK-MARKED, PISS GUZZLING MUG THAT PASSES FOR A FACE!" and with the ferocity of a wyvern, Marek pounced and descended upon the man from above, teeth bared and eyes burning with violet luminence as he angled his lance to drive right through his heart and down into the very planks beneath him. "YA THINK YA DID GOOD? DO YOU THINK YOU'RE A BIG MAN, YA FUCKING SEA RAT!? CUTTING DOWN A HEALER LIKE THAT... I WILL GUT YOU LIKE THE HONORLESS, GODLESS SWINE YOU ARE!!!" K22, avenge Hermin with Slim Lance

The towering figure towards the edge of the group put his hand to the hilt of his blade, as the plans were made. He had said nothing thus far, nor done much of anything, really, to even give away his presence, had one not been idly looking around already and simply caught him there... watching. Despite the sweltering heat, he somehow didn't seem that bothered, moving as swiftly and comfortably in his armor as one might expect from a large man wearing full plate. His attention turned to the man with the strange, otherworldly mask who had spawned the poison cloud, as black Damasc steel slid from his scabbard. "Allow me to aid you then," his voice, a graveled tone mixed with a strange accent of an unknown land, emanated from with an echoing hail from the slit in his spiked helm "whatever it is, there is likely to be greater safety in numbers."

While the other ones in the group ran off and began to... banter in the distance, the knight glanced back to their roguish benefactor, his expression unreadable, "I'm inclined to agree with the boy," he said, "afterall, it's easy for you to stand there and just say 'leave them'. You haven't been forced to live as a slave for the past all these months. You haven't seen your family or companions worked to death and their bodies discarded like broken tools. Nor have you seen the type of sicknesses that occasionally tear through your fellow workers and leave even more bodies in their wakes." "But you and I are not the same. I can not leave these people to their fate without, at the very least, trying. And if, by some chance, I fail, or it proves to be impossible for all of us to get out of this hell... then so be it. If I cannot save them, I will avenge them instead... but one way or another, I will not stand by and do nothing at all. "But you know, getting out of here alive and springing them as well may actually be feasible... if you lent us your help," with that said, he turned and began to walk away, "So, make your decision, rogue. The boy and I have made ours." He did not wait for the man's response. His words meant nothing to him at this point; his actions would provide all the answers Mercadier needed. G6

Aight, time to give a neglected franchise from much needed love... behold, a wild secondary appeared! Stellio Kontos Blank Loadout sheet:

By the time the others had split off to pursue the ones involved in the altercation, Lucille was still at a general loss as to what had happened- from what she had gathered though, the same moment her head had finally been pulled out of the clouds, some display of power had gone down, from the static pop, the choking breaths, and the odd... sensation she had picked up. Like something she had never felt before, mixed in with all the wrath the woman's voice had held... the two feelings had been... interwoven, almost. So palpable in the air she could've sworn that if she'd tried, she may have been able to reach out and... touch it, whatever it was. Alive... alive? Was it alive? That was the closest facsimile she could conceive of, life itself... the very concept. Like if somehow, all things were mashed together into a single, anomalous entity, all minds and souls, everything that was, could be, and may one day still become.... and then take that entity, and twist it, warp it, into something ugly, something driven by hate... She shivered inwardly. Whatever it was, she was both fascinated, and terrified by the sheer magnitude of it's presence mere moments ago, and even now, it was there, in the background, except this time muddled with... loss? The one who had created the sensation, she had not gone terribly far at all, and it seemed there was another already with her- not that Lucille herself had any intent of approaching, from how things had gone in the lab, she knew she would only make it worse -but she could not help but stay there, and watch from afar, ever more curious as to whatever the root cause of this sensation... this living field(?) might be...

There is trepidation on the soldier's faces as yet another volley of attacks is prepared by the party. Gone is their discipline, gone is their tenacity. Their brethren are all dead, their commanders, all dead, the constructs they had relied on for backup, crumbled, naught but dust littering the war torn earth. The might they faced from the outworlders... it was beyond any they had faced from the Asterlux forces before, and it had utterly annihilated them from root to stem. Screams of Terror fill the night air as nigh simultaneously, they come to the agreement that this war is not worth their lives, and all at once they toss aside their Swords and their Shields, and they dash off the killing field and into the blackness of the night to avoid the encroaching wave of death. Only the 2 skeletons remain, but they are easily dispatched as they move into the line of the green light Dackly had fired, instantly turning to stone and shifting one last time as their bodies hardened, before they were forever frozen as effigies in testament to this victory, skulls grinning menacingly, swords held high, prepared to strike. "HOLD, ALL OF YOU!" Ghost commands, but surprisingly, its not directed at the fleeing soldiers, but rather the party itself, as her steely gaze tracked their retreating forms until they vanished into the dark. CONFLICT RESOLVED Final Status Once they did, she stepped forward before the squadron, turning to address them all "The looks on their faces just now... those were the looks of men with every intention of deserting. Their might has withered, and their spirits have been broken. There is no point pursuing them, this battle is won..." with that said however, a small, almost coy smile bloomed on her lips. Oh how much it reminded her of the old days... She continued, "and from what I heard earlier, so too is the fight against the witch and the other servant..." and just as quickly as it came, the smile was gone, "we're making progress, but the war is still far from over. It's best we get back to the fort now; we may have dispatched these forces, but soon enough more will be rolling in."

Lucille had remained silent, following the events of the lab. The noise of the city and the gawking crowds were just that- noise. Noise that for the most part, she ignored, even as it served as the closest thing to a sun she'd ever known in a world of perpetual darkness, shedding a great and inescapable metaphorical light upon the landscape stronger than any individual sound could've mustered. The entire area for blocks around mapped itself out in her mind practically unbidden as followed at the tail end of the group. Noise wasn't what occupied her however, it was all in the background, just sort of... there, without any true meaning. The response was... not what she'd anticipated, though in all honesty she didn't even know what she had expected, but essentially being called mental definitely wasn't... well to say it wasn't even a remote possibility was lie. Plenty of people in the enclave had seen the little blind girl apparently talking to herself, claiming to see and hear things they could not, despite her lack of sight to begin with. And of course, they'd had no hesitation assuming she'd lost the plot, that whatever her defect had blighted both her eyes and her mind. But What she had said, she'd said because she felt it needed to be. To simply remain silent- to act as if what she had sensed firsthand, and been explicitly told in that situation wasn't a potential recipe for disaster -would've made her even worse than the ones who had brought about the fall to begin with. Antagonizing... perhaps she had gone a bit passionate with it, to the point that at least in some way, some anger had leaked into it. Anger at the ones who had given reason for such a warning to be given in a foreign world in the first place. Anger at the fools who had been in the throws of such gross negligence as to care nothing of the potential consequences, of what would be lost and who would suffer if they failed. It was special type of insidiousness, that apathy. A type that deserved a special kind of contempt in turn, one that she was all too willing to give. After all, it was her generation, and her father's generation before her, who had been condemned to live in the ruin produced by that apathy. And it may well have not been her original intent, but one way or another that contempt had gradually leaked in more and more. And it hadn't been the only thing to go wrong either... the remark about not getting a memo was there as well, though the ire behind it had been far better controlled than girl's comment. And it was right, because whatever it referred to, she had drawn completely blank at it for a while. Even now, she wasn't entirely certain, but after racking her recent memory she had recalled something in that awful recording of the woman's voice, one particular line about using "their best judgement" whether to conceal themselves or not... and it started to click a little from there. As far as she could tell, they had apparently decided to do just that. And of course, she had utterly failed to pick up on any sign of it, or even thought to ask about it. How ironic, that she knew the engineered horrors running around her world almost like the back of her hand, and yet the basic social nuances of her own race so easily escaped her as water passing through colander. In the end... she had to face the facts, she had botched that whole thing up from beginning to end, and it had been solely because of her own social ineptitude. "Maybe I should just keep my mouth shut from now on and stop trying..." she thought, suppressing a bitter laugh, "it would probably be for the better, if it's just gonna to end up like this every time. Not like anything can change being stuck out there for all those years with nothing aside from a bunch of animals for company." Even as she she had never really... understood the beasts, not in the same way two people can understand each other. They may have had souls, but that was nothing special on arganor, everything that knew some form of life had one... and they may live, breath, eat, sleep, and die, just like her, but the beast couldn't reason. "That's right... you can't, can you?" she directed her attention to one of the cats, and all she got in response was the same background noise typical to every beast- base desires, instincts, hunt, kill, eat, reproduce, and eventually die. She simply sighed "exactly, just as I thought..." There was no higher mind in this creature. Those of it's kind could not defy the natural... or in some cases, quite unnatural, programming which dictated their functions, and thus they lacked the awareness of self that gave rise to subjective experience, to the ideas of free will, of choice, and other such concepts that made sentient life well... sentient in the first place. "Even with your kind, I've never really understood any of you, and I never will...not in the way actual people might with one another, at least. No, it's more like knowing how a machine works, or how your anatomy is set up... it always how it's been for me, and it always will, doesn't matter whether it's an animal or something that can think for itself..." Whatever the hell had just happened up ahead, it had been enough to snap her out of her thoughts, just from the sheer malice that the voice had held alone. But true to her earlier judgement, she elected to speak not a single word, instead looking on in mild curiosity... from the sounds of it (for sounds truly were all she had), things had somehow gotten pretty heated. Had she really been this lost in thought, that she had tuned it all out up to this point? Well, perhaps she was even better at filtering out things than she gave herself credit for...

Hold