Rummaging around, down below.....

[Vega]

5th Cylus, 720 ~~ following this

"Hmm," was Vega's only comment as they made their way forward. Having blocked off the hole by the wall, others had gone on a reccie to find out what other holes there might be. There had been, as it turned out, a cellar. That was their first place to go. So, Vega had volunteered to go down there with a small group. Just how small that group was, she hadn't really thought about but that was fine with her. They didn't know how many of what (if anything) was down there, so it was probably best that a small group went looking first. That group ended up being three of them. Varlum, Gennadiya, and her. Quite what role they were all playing, Vega had no idea, but there it was.

The small group in question made their way down the stairs, into the cellar. They'd got a rough layout of the place, and what was there. Prison cells, storage rooms, that kind of thing. Vega knew that there was a small, but interconnected, series of rooms and she was still half of the mind that these creatures were coming from there. Although, when they'd looked no one had been able to see anything in terms of the grounds outside and so on - which meant that there wasn't, or there probably wasn't, a whole network of interconnected tunnels leading from somewhere to here. But still, Vega knew, there was every possibility that there were creatures down here - after all those three critters had not come from nowhere.

So - she had her sword, her bow and - of course - her fiddle, and Vega was more or less ready to go. Down here, they needed to move carefully and slowly. She and Varlum would need to keep an eye on Gennadiya, she knew. Not because the healer was a liability ~ far from it ~ but because of the three of them she was the least experienced in terms of actual battle. It was dark down there, Vega knew and she spoke softly as they made their way. "I can see in'th' dark, if needs be." She touched her chest where there were glowing spots of starlight in the rough shape of a dragon. "Xiur grants me it." They got to the first room and it was a dark storage area. Dusty and old, nothing here was useful any more and there were small rockfalls where areas had crumbled. However, glancing down at the ground, Vega's experience of hunting came to the forefront and she pointed at the tracks in the dust.

Her hand dropped to her sword and she'd have said something, but suddenly there was movement. Three of the creatures were running towards the group - one of them significantly larger and - by the look of it - faster than the others. "Tio's tiny todger, look out!," Vega called and she moved forward to meet the larger one. As she did, as she saw the speed at which the thing was moving, the size of it, and so on, she knew that it would take every ounce of her concentration to fight it, so she gave it that. Not singing - this time - she concentrated on moving forward so that she was taking care of the largest threat since, in her mind, she was the only one truly qualified to do so. She moved, her stance light and flexible. She didn't give in to the idea or feeling of needing to dig in and become rigid in her stance. That would be detrimental, she knew. "Come on, you ugly lookin' nerf herder," she growled and as it moved in to attack her she twisted so that she was at it's side.

Immortals, she hoped Varlum and Gennadiya took care of the other two -they'd be on the pair in an instant, after all.

[Vivian Shiryu]

The day was starting to wear on as Vivian rode up to Storms Edge. During her travels from Rharne to the fortress, Vivian had read through the papers that Stefan had given her on Chained Runes and Diffusion. The former allowed her to use two Runes on the same limb, but at the cost of making the Runes weaker. The latter allowed her to make a single Rune and diffuse its effects throughout the entire body. Frankly, both had their uses, but Vivian was more impressed with Chained Runes than Diffusion and had spent some time on the trip working out exactly how to use Chained Runes.

When she arrived at the fortress, Vivian had managed to figure out Chained Runes, and had Chained together a Strength and Endurance Rune on both of her arms and both of her legs, while her torso had a Chained Endurance and Regeneration Rune. If need be, she could Diffuse the last Chained Rune to bolster her natural healing from her Mortalborn powers. All told, she was feeling confident in her current Rune set up, and she was ready for whatever trouble Storms Edge could throw at her.

Storms Edge, however, was in worse shape than she thought. A squire who was stationed there came up to her as she dismounted Raio, the big Zephyrus shaking as she got off and letting out a loud rumbling purr. "Take him to the stables, he won't bite." she said, handing the reigns to the squire. Then she sought out someone who looked to be in charge, eventually finding rough looking Sergeant in the Guardians. She quickly introduced herself, and then the two got down to business. She was given a quick briefing on the situation, then told, almost as an afterthought, about the expedition into the cellar, to see if they could find out where the Fireborn were attacking. Vivian volunteered to join the expedition, and the Sergeant had a Private take her to the cellar entrance. Since she was already wearing her armor, Vivian thanked the Private for his help, then started down into the cellar after the group that had gone ahead of her.

As it happened, she had gotten there just in time. She heard the shout and drew her sword, hurrying ahead. She got into the storage room just in time to see Vega, who Vivian remembered from past adventures, engage the biggest of the creatures. Varlum was there as well, and Vivian knew her ex-squire could handle himself. But the other girl, she didn't look like a warrior, so Vivian ran to her. When she got close to the girl, Vivian quickly stepped around her so that she was in front, then gathered lightning under her feet and lept at the closer of the smaller creatures. Vivian was wearing heavy plate armor and had her shield held out in front of her, plus Rising Lightning carried her forward incredibly fast, so the crash from the impact was likely rather noisy.

Compared to Vega, Vivian had a more rudimentary fighting style that relied heavily on taking hits on her shield and armor, relying on them to shield her from harm. That is not, however, to say that she was slow or stationary. Three Sheets to the Wind gave her incredibly reaction time, and she was generally able to get her shield or even her sword in front of an attack with relative ease. She was also an aggressive fighter, using the weight and bulk of her armor to try and push her opponent while she hammered at them with Shiryu. All the while, she also had Conduit running through her armor, shield, and sword, meaning that anything that hit her or that she hit got a little shock each time they met. Finally, her two passive Mortalborn powers had triggered, giving her a sense of where everyone and everything was in the room while they fought, and constantly regenerating her stamina. Under her helmet, Vivian grinned. She loved her job, and she liked to fight, and to fight against something she had no reason to hold back against, well that just meant she could use everything she had.

[Varlum]

5th Cylus, 720

"Wonder why nobody else volunteers for the cellar" the Ithecal said quietly with a small chuckle, the dark and dingy cellar haunting him with both appearance and smell as he held his axe in hand, climbing down with the other two. Vega, who he had talked to earlier that trial, and Gennadiya. While he hadn't met the woman before, her courage to come down to the cellar in a shithole like this had already earned Gennadiya some level of respect from the Ithecal. Besides, he wasn't one to judge someone based on being a healer for the team. Faith called herself a healer from time to time. Doesn't mean Varlum would fight her.

Quietly, the Ithecal followed alongside Vega, watching as best he could in the dark and long tunnels they ended up in. It was in no way easy to see, at least for the Ithecal. Vega already seemed to have it under control, so Varlum would have to rely more on her sight. Cautiously, the Ithecal kept close to Vega while allowing space between the three. If they got jumped in a cluster it'd be a mess for everyone, especially if Varlum got knocked into them. There was a lot of weight in the Ithecal before he was coated in stone, he didn't want to think about what they kind of weight would do to someone now. Nor did he want to think about the time it'd take to clean it up when they were done.

As soon as Vega shouted, Varlum readied his axe and looked in the direction she had gone to, seeing the darkened figures in the distance as they approached rapidly. Vega had gone for one without hesitation, and in what felt like seconds Vivian had already shown up to help defend Gennadiya. That left one creature for Varlum. Without any hesitation, Varlum mustered up his spark as the creature got closer, reaching for fire and embracing it. There was more he could do that he had yet to learn, that he would need. So he compelled the fire to show him, in whichever way it could. As he felt for his power, finally, he let the fire burn - and it did.

In a loud burst, Varlum erupted into flames as him and the creature collided, the beast wailing out in pain with a shriek as the Ithecal threw it to the floor. As the creature stood to it's feet, Varlum let more fire burst out of his mouth, roaring at the top of his lungs as the flames ensnared the beast, coating it fully and cooking it alive as it writhed in pain. To ensure that it couldn't run, the Earth around it's feet snapped up like binds, cracks forming and quickly closing to trap it into the ground. Just a few trills went by, the creature's struggling fading as it lay there, Varlum letting the flames around his body disappear and glancing to the others in case they needed help. Though it was clear rather quickly that they didn't.

"Didn't expect to see you here" Varlum said with a small smile to Vivian, realising two of his sisters were in the same place. "We having a family reunion?"

[Gennadiya Lyosha]

Cylus 4 720

The upper floors hadn’t produced anything in the way of monsters which Gennadiya didn’t object to. Now she found herself going down into the basement with Vega, and others to look for more monsters. As they walked down stairs Gennadiya wondered what she had been thinking when she agreed to come. By good decision making it wasn’t just the two of them as a Ithecal knight named Varlum had agreed to come with them. The young healer followed at the back of the group not because she was afraid but because it made sense to but the healer where she could help best.

The blonde healer was still dressed in her leather armor. It was true that if any of those creatures got there mouth around any part of her they could penetrate the armor but it would protect against other types of attack that could have shredded her skin with out it.

She also carried her war fan in her hand the blade opened to its full extent and held lossy in her hand so that it could be easily used if it was necessary. As they came down she quickly noticed the place had very poor light. Gennadiya shook her head in disappointment at the clear sign of abandonment. They might not be using the basement but really just letting out alone when dealing with monsters was offering them a way in.

Gennadiya wasn’t surprised when they came to an abandoned room and were confront by three of these flame monsters. Gennadiya saw Vega move forward to take on the first of there’s creatures but this time with out singing. Gennadiya could easily tell that they were moving with much more speed. She wasn’t any warrior but she prepared to attack the third creature as it came forward to attack.

Suddenly a loud changing noise came from behind her. Gennadiya was keeping her eye on the monster heading towards her and so was surprised when a armored clad knight dived in front of her. Suddenly there was a lot of clanging as the knight and the monster came in contact with each other.

Gennadiya was surprised as lightning came out of the newest knight. Well they were the lightening knights. Varlum suddenly breathing fire was another surprise and Gennadiya was glad she wasn’t in the way of that attack. Gennadiya still held her weapon in front of her in case something else came at her.

One of them was gone the other two were taking care of their own monsters. Gennadiya kept an eye opened on the other monsters to see if there was opening to attack. Gennadiya skill was such that others more trained might see a chance but she was seeing an opening yet. She also kept an eye out to see if any of them took damage

"Genna", "NPC"

[Vega]

5th Cylus, 720 ~~ following this

Damnit all but this thing was fast. Vega was quick with a sword, and a fine swords-woman, but this creature was faster, and stronger, than her. She knew that there was no doubting that, but Vega also knew that she had other things on her side. Such as "An' in yer face you ugly," she said, as she turned and drove her sword down. There was a tiny chink in the natural armour it had, Vega could see and so she went for it there. "useless," as her sword sliced, she heard it's scream echoing throughout the lower reaches and she knew that she had it, but also - she realised that just because it was dying, it didn't mean it was necessarily stopping. "... an' downrigh' stubborn beast!"

Whether she was talking to it, or herself, or one of them? Who really knew? But Vega had sliced down and she knew that, in that moment, she'd hit on something vital as the ichor-like substance oozed from it. It turned and started to bite at her and Vega did the thing which, to her mind, made the most sense. She jumped into the air, wrapping both hands around the hilt of her longsword, and she twisted in the air as she moved her body in a sort of cartwheel like movement over the creature in question. As she did, she twisted and kept hold of the sword so that it turned, twisting inside the creature which screamed even harder.

The twist was vicious and, as she did it, Vega realised just how much more strength she was putting behind it by using both hands. The grip on the sword was strong and she was able to easily move it how she wanted. She landed lightly on the other side of the creature and was pleased to note that it bit, hard on the air where her foot had been less than a half a second ago. "That were close!" she said, cheerily; anyone who recognised the colours in her eyes would know that cheery was the last thing she was feeling. Still, she landed and the creature turned to her. There was this strange, sticky and disgusting substance oozing out of it, it was obviously dead, but it just kept coming and Vega gave a yell as it tried to bite her, once more.

"Will you jus' have the good grace to DIE!" she sounded irritated, she was irritated and she let her sword go, still in it, to step nimbly out of the way of it's mouth, although she gave a yelp as it's strength surprised her and it's body weight crashed against her upper leg. She didn't move further away from it, though, she was right in front of it and, as she finished her movement, Vega swiftly punched it directly down on it's eye. Or, more precisely, just above it. There was a ridge there that she'd noticed and she hit - full force - and the creature fell over, immediately. Quickly, she pulled her sword out of it, stabbed it twice more, just to be sure it was dead and then, she looked at who else was there, and what was happening.

"There's more comin'!" she said, and that was all she got out before, indeed, the door off to the side crashed open sending chips of wood everywhere.

[Vivian Shiryu]

These dog things were very annoying, was Vivian's first impression of them. Their natural armor was annoying, and they had really big mouths that meant she had to keep an eye on its maw, lest it catch her off guard. Fortunately, it couldn't the whole of that big mouth around her shield, or else she would have been in big trouble. But it was during one of the times when the creature had attempted to take a bite out of her that she had gotten an idea. It was a bit insane, certainly, but insane plans had a habit of working out for her, as the Pearl Hopper could attest from her storage chest back at her house, assuming any part of the oversized frog was aware within his prison.

The next time the creature went to bite at her, Vivian wedged her shield into its open mouth, keeping the beast from being able to close its maw. Then, after taking a claw swipe on her gauntlet that was more an act of surprise than a genuine attack, Vivian stabbed her sword into the top of the creatures mouth, seeking to bypass its natural armor by stabbing it in the softer tissues that made up its insides. The creature yelped with pain and tried to step back, but Vivian stepped forward with it, keeping her shield wedged into its mouth as she stabbed again, seeking whatever brain the beast had. She didn't find it and it stepped back again, all its efforts now on getting her out of its maw and stopping her hurting its mouth.

However, again, Vivian just stepped forward as it stepped back and her third strike found the brain. The beast shrieked as her blade sunk into its brain from within its mouth, a shriek that extended as the creatures started to spasm. Conduit wasn't particularly powerful, all it did was lightly shock the impact area, usually causing a numbing effect. Its main purpose was that numbed areas were generally slower and more awkward to move, so numbing legs and arms made an opponent easier to deal with. However, certain organs were significantly more sensitive than others and thus Conduit did more damage there. Tongues, as she had proved when fighting the frog men, were downright susceptible to being shocked, and it seemed that directly shocking a brain that already had a sword blade in it did a very significant amount of damage. The cries subsided as the creature slumped over dead, Vivian pulling her sword, and sword arm, out of its mouth before she jerked her shield out. "We outta have some of these corpses studied." she said to the others, nodding at her brother. "Guess we are, but don't a family reunion take more than two?" she asked curiously, but she didn't have time to pursue that curiosity as the door burst open. Vivian stepped in front of the healer, raising her shield to block the flying wood.

"Let's go then." she said, keeping her shield up as she moved to engage the new threats.

[Varlum]

As Vivian asked if a family reunion needed more than two the Ithecal only gave a small chuckle, axe in hand. "Suppose it does" he said, a knowing glance heading to Vega. She was the one that had to tell Vivian, not Varlum. If she picked up on their conversation at all, perhaps she would. Varlum wasn't planning on pressing, though.

His train of thought came to a stop as Vega called out that more were coming, Varlum's eyes glancing forward as the door shot open, small shards of wood slamming into the stone around his body, doing no notable damage. While Varlum couldn't see how many came rushing out as an exact number he couldn't ignore the two that ran straight for him. Immediately, the Ithecal glanced back to check on the others, all of them accounted for and standing. Without hesitation he burst into a sprint, axe preparing to swing as a vicious roar left him, rushing the two beasts.

A loud slam echoed through the room as his axe planted itself in the side of the beast, causing it to cry out with a roar more feral than Varlum's. Almost immediately, the other create pounced, planting it's teeth into Varlum's arm and cracking through the stone scales as the Lightning Knight hissed, letting go of his axe and leaving it lodged in the first creature. "Bastard!" he burst out, the beast still latched to his arm as it tried to drag him to the floor, being met with Varlum's hand, lunging forward and pinning the beast under his own weight as he reached for his axe and tore it out of the now unconscious dog, if you could call it a dog. With one hand free Varlum raised up his axe, using the power of Caress to set it ablaze. When the axe had been made for him the Ithecal had only been nine feet tall, before his growth at the hands of Ethelynda, making it somewhat easier to swing in one hand - or at the very least it was doable.

With as much force as he could he slammed the axe into the creatures underbelly, not doing enough damage to kill it. Slam came after slam, until finally the beast released his arm and the axe shattered through it's hard hide, killing it. With a small hiss Varlum finished off the other creature with one well-placed swing, eyes wincing as both beasts were finally killed. While the others fought, Varlum stepped back beside Gennadiya with his axe at the ready in case any others rushed forward. "Any chance you know how to heal big fucking lizards covered in stone?" he asked, glancing to the healer as his arm bled across the stone scales on his body, showing the healer his injury with a small hopeful look.

[Gennadiya Lyosha]

Cylus 4 720

The sapphire eyed woman watched as the original trio was killed by the three skilled warriors with her. Fan still held in her hand and at the ready Genna could see more of what everyone was doing and watched with surprise written all over her face as Vega flipped over the ugly dog. The young healer hadn’t ever even though of trying something like that and figured she would yet, but it did inspire possibilities. Not allowing herself to get to distracted Genna actually closed her war fan to her belt and then figured she would do better acting as a support then a fighter and summoned Ray of Sunlight focused from her other palm. The narrower space made the light more focused and would allow her to direct it as a blinding or stunning method. This way she could blind and strike as her skill wouldn’t really allow her to charge into combat like her companions

It was a good thing that she had changed over when she did. As the first three summoned their siblings with their dyeing breath. Genna turned as the door crashed open behind them. Wood from the shatter door fell all around them and Genna threw up her hand with the fan to block splinters from hitting her face. She also was grateful that she was wearing her leather armor as a few slivers stock into the thick hide.

The battle continued and Genna over the shoulders of the fighters used her ray of light to stun where she could. There was so much movement between the various combatants that she didn’t focus on any one creature but she moved her ray focusing on eyes of different creatures. She managed to surprise on the creatures behind the initial few. It made a surprised noise and then stopped for a moment but it was enough for another to crash into it. The two growled at each other than even as Gennadiya moved on to another creature.

Gennadiya paused as the larger Ithecal Varlum finished off his two monsters and stepped back to join her and asked if she had any healing. “Moseke has blessed me with some basic healing.” She said as she put the fan in the glowing hand. She focused for a moment and felt the divine energy accumulating as she called on Moseke’s Light. She began to glow green all over put then it began to gather into her open palm now. Genna touched the wounds and it was almost like Genna could see the multiple layers of the skin. The stone would take great effort to heal but farther down where the organism that was the outer covering of the body was younger and more malleable. Genna in that moment felt her self coaxing the base layer of skin even as the green light spread across the wound. The wound wasn’t gone, but the bleeding had stopped and there was that healing tingle. “It will take more treatments to heal it further but that will stop the bleeding.” Genna said with apology. If they weren’t fighting she would have cleaned it and wrapped it but the creatures where still there.

"Genna", "NPC"

[Vega]

5th Cylus, 720 ~~ following this

"By Karem's knickers, an' schnizzle my snoot, look lively!" That was Vega's inspirational cry to make them focus; whether it worked or not, she called it as the next round of creatures came in. Vega was not - ever- concerned about her safety first. It was something which more or less drove Arlo batty, but it was who she was and - in fairness - ever would be. The next wave of creatures included another of the larger ones, and so Vega moved to intercept. Her sword flashed and the blade, Melody, sang out in tune as she moved. Swirling the blade in a defensive pattern, Vega did her best to protect the people in this room.

It was just a rhythm, after all, and she found herself swaying gently as her sword moved, protecting those with her. Like a dance with the 'nickels', and so it went on. As her sword ability grew, Vega was learning about ways to defend others which allowed her to still attack and that was what was happening for her right now; the toadernickel in front of her was bearing down and aimed to bite her, so Vega slid her sword horizontally across it's mouth, slicing up and cutting into it. She more or less disconnected the top of its head from the rest of it, and then she let the sword continue it's journey, pulling it free and moving on.

There were at least four more and Vega knew that she couldn't defend everyone against all of them - nor would she try to. Gennadiya, yes, although the silver-haired healing woman had Varlum there with her. That was good - he was big enough to defend anyone. Frankly, Vega thought, the pumpernickels could get squished by him just belly-flopping on them. Though, once he'd done it once, they'd swarm him.

So, maybe not.

"Everyone a'right?" Vega called, slicing at the toadernickel which had just fallen, in order to make absolutely sure it was dead. "Nobody gettin' an owie?" She stabbed at one of the frogernickels, and just kept fighting. That, she rather thought, was all they could do. Just keep fighting.

"We need to close off that hole in the ground!" The creatures were coming out of a big, and now that the door was open, very obvious hole in the ground. If they could block that up, or do something else clever there, it seemed likely that they would be able to stem the flow of these critters. "Varlum - can you do that while the rest of us keep them busy?" He was a large, and he had magic, too. Vega didn't know what he might do but she was sure that he'd think of something. He seemed like a very resourceful chap, after all. Her sword continued to move, slicing through another pumpernickel, but there were just lots of them which kept emerging.

"Unless someone's got a better idea!"

[Vivian Shiryu]

Vivian had followed Varlum's look at Vega, but she didn't have time to follow up on that thought before the door burst in. Vivian rushed the door alongside Varlum and Vega. Varlum's aggressive tactics took one out in a quick hurry, but it left the big Ithecal injured as he dealt with a second. Vivian's Mortalborn powers would provide some ongoing healing for the entire group, but it was still smart of him to have the healer patch him up. Vega had a more dynamic fighting style than Vivian was used to seeing, but it was definitely effective. Vivian kept up her usual fighting style, preferring to take claws and such on her shield or armor rather than try to dodge or parry with her sword.

All this meant that Vivian wasn't killing them as fast as Vega or Varlum, but she was taking any real damage either. Her other Mortalborn powers had kicked in as well and she could tell what was down that hole because of them. "No injuries so far, barring Varlum. He's still standing though." she said, blocking a bite with her shield and driving her sword into the creatures eye. She still had Conduit running on her gear, so the shock to the eye got a shriek of pain from the creature before Vivian put her weight on her sword and drove the blade the rest of the way into the creatures brain.

Her powers were telling her what else was in the room, but at first there didn't seem to be much besides the hole and the beasts. Then a stack of boxes in a corner, that she admittedly only knew about because of her powers, caught her attention. "There's a lot of these things down there, we won't be able to hold them off forever." she said, wedging her shield into one of the beasts mouth to force it open, then stabbing into its brain. "Varlum! There's a stack of boxes, back left corner. It's full of rocks. I can get over there to open them if you need to me to, but if you can control those rocks in anyway, you might be able to get them into the hole, then get them hot enough with your fire magic to make them melt slightly, just enough to stick together and seal the hole!" she called to her brother, before she started to gather lightning under her feet to make for the boxes if Varlum needed them open. "But you'll need to let me know if you need me to open them. I can get there and back pretty quick thanks to Palenon, but it'd be risky, so we'd need to plan for it." she said, before taking a hit on her shield and responding with a horizontal slice that tore open the side of the offending creatures jaw, essentially taking it out of fight. "Either way, we need to move pretty quickly."