Scene Listing

||

Scene Schedule

||

Scene Schedule RSS

Owner	Pose
Velvet Crowe	Prison Island Titania.     Reached through a warpgate on the docks, the sight to take in is pretty simple. There's a very long stone pier, and two ships anchored by it. Decorated in white and gold, the wooden vessels look heavily armed, with a number of cannons pointed directly at the warpgate. As if that wasn't enough, you can feel a few magical barriers surrounding it. Nothing that'd stop YOU if you tried to punch through, but no normal person would reach the warpgate. It's upon seeing that the lot of you are human (for the most part) that the exorcists on the ships - knights in heavy white, blue and gold plate - aim their spears and swords at the barrier to disable it momentarily and usher you all through, before setting it up again.     Past the pier is a large stone platform, probably where ships load and unload cargo, and large gates, swung open, head into the island, which used to be a small mountain. It's into this mountain that the prison was carved, with two large watchtowers to either side, and a few occasional balconies and small windows visible in the stone. The ocean abounds in every direction, and it's easy to see why nobody could escape from here without a boat and a crew.     Things in the prison look much less calm than near the ships though. Sounds of battle are loud and plentiful, with the bodies of exorcists and daemons (mostly werewolves and various undead) alike strewn about past the gates. It's kind of claustrophobic in here, poorly lit too.     Those who ask the exorcists for details before heading in get the general briefing: a daemon freed every other one and it's a mess in there. Their commanding officer, praetor Oscar Dragonia, hasn't come out since heading in. Situation is looking awful.     You can head in through the front gates, the two watchtowers (very high and hard to reach though) have entry points too, and there's a second dock on the other side of the island they have no contact with.     It's currently late afternoon, but unnatural, heavy black clouds make it impossible to tell that. At least it's not raining?     There's a certain pressure in the air. Darkness of some kind? If anyone has especially strong negative feelings bottled up, it tugs at them, but nothing more.
Kirito	The trouble with being connected to the big wide Multiverse is you hear ALL of the 'bad news' when it happens. In one lifetime, perhaps Kirigaya Kazuto would've left this alert to the actual police and military - what can a PC enthusiast gamer possibly hope to do against MONSTERS? Nothing, nada, zip and zilch.     The Black Swordsman flies in low after leaving the warp gate, propelled by thrumming fairy wings at speeds great enough to possibly alarm the guards. He does slow down and skid to a halt to ask the 'questgivers' about the situation though...     With the details figured out, the Black Swordsman draws Vox Unitas from its scabbard and heads towards the main entrance.     But he's a cautious Spriggan. He hangs out at said entrance, listening for anything happening inside.     He hasn't lived this long by just CHARGING INTO THINGS.
Sanary Rondel	Going to prison isn't exactly the sort of thing Sanary would normally do. They smell, there's all sorts of people there that may or may not have reasons for actually being there, and just getting there is an ordeal in itself without the convenience of warpgates.      Luckily, only two fo those are actual issues. Maybe even one? Who knows. The healer's trying not to breathe through her nose too much just in case as she comes in through the warpgate with the giant gunaxe slung over her shoulder and a cautious eye directed at all the weapons already aimed in her direction. "Good security. You sure you really need us in there?"      She has half a mind to borrow one of those cannons, too, but... Maybe later. Sanary glances between the front door and the watchtowers, weighing her options for a short while before turning to the group she's tagging along with today. "You want me down here or up there?"
Maya	The Paladins had got a call for help from Prison, one that contained Demons? That was enough for Maya to be making for the deployment. Maya didn't look like much clad in metal and leather armour and toating a strange looking rifle as she moves for the front gate from the Warp Gate. The information the locals have given left her concerned. She's delt with Demons of all sorts in the multiverse and they have left her scars upon her in the process. She also felt something wrong here she feels ill for lack of a term, she's not ure wha to think but she checks her rifle for a moment before she starts for the gate and she's very wary as she goes. "Get ready for hte worst. I do not know of thise world's Demons but past experiance? Be on your guard." She takes note of Kirito and she ponders for a moment. "Kirito? Good to see you." Sanary will on the other hand need to be watched, Maya's not forgot what she's done as a Confederate after all, but even while she has a grim look on her face. "We'll need you on the front with that Axe of yours and your ability to heal. There's a likely hood of surivors will be in bad shape, and it's better to have two people who can heal, if we need to split up."
Samantha Middleton	Samantha looks human... ish. Knowing she was going into a combat situation, she brought Fido along, and that means the armored tin can of a 'power armor' that she uses thuds through the Warpgate to see what all the mess is. She wasn't a Paladin, but didn't care. A breakout of daemons(which she presumes are like demons but higher up in the seating chart) is the sort of thing she doesn't like the sound of.     "I'm going to see what the front door is about. Maybe I can find a way to reinforce it," Samantha says, just about first thing after getting an idea of what's going on. She's going to try to raise someone on the radio to figure out what kind of things these daemons can do, so she can prepare.
Xiaomu	Whatever exactly these 'daemons' are, if that's more than just a local world for basically the same thing as youkai, Xiaomu has no idea ... but she's hoping that the guards will be as cooperative about letting her *out*, once the situation is taken care of, as they are about letting her *in*. Then again, she hasn't lived among humans this long by rubbing random strangers' noses in the fact that she's not exactly a card-carrying member of homo sapiens. (Usually it's somebody whose nose is sharp enough to rub itself in that detail that starts the trouble for her.) She's loaded for bear as more-or-less usual, her Buddhist monk staff in hand, handguns holstered inside her vest, and a carry-pack across her back containing extra clips, extra grenades, extra fried tofu in case she gets hungry in mid-mission and has time to pull out a snack. No games this time, though - she doesn't want to bring any of that valuable hardware into what could be a messy fight. And she's dressed as usual, too - it's basically her Shinra uniform, why wouldn't she wear it? If it distracts some of the daemons/youkai/whatever, all the better. "They wouldn't have put out a distress call if they could handle it themselves," the sage fox points out to Sanary. Then she looks to one of the guards, "I presume you want the prisoners subdued alive and with minimal injury? Just knock the fight out of them, get the situation under control so that people who know who goes where can put them back in the correct cells?" she asks. Then she casts an eye over the prison, one more time. "Wonder how many of them are actually sitting in their cells and waiting instead of trying to run out and break free ... Hey, if there's a map or a floor plan or something, we could use that. Even if we just have to look it over out here and can't take it inside with us."
Charity Whiteheart	Nice welcome, Charity has to admit. She's trying to figure out the situation so far, but as soon as she sees all the Paladins arriving and prepping to defend against the daemons, she has her own ideas of what to do. "Be careful around these guys, Samantha," she cautious the younger girl. Then she draws two of her knives and heads right for the watchtowers. Between her leaps and phasing, she's not going to assume that getting IN will be as big a problem as getting OUT of a presumably magic-reinforced prison.     "I'm going to try to find Oscar," she says shortly to the forces greeting them. "I work best alone or in a small group, and I'm not as good with raw firepower as the rest of these people. Where were they last seen?"
Gawain	Out of the warpgate comes something possibly more familiar to the exorcists: a knight in white and gold plate with a floral trim, a holy sword at his side. He's holding up a badge as he enters, which holographically lists him as Sir Gawain - Paladin Warden. Gawain would start by speaking to the exorcists and learning both the scale of the problem as well as what they want the Elite party to do and any restrictions they may have, before cheerfully heading to the rest of the party. As there's those he doesn't recognize, Gawain greets himself. "Sir Gawain, Paladin Warden! It's a pleasure. Now, I believe that unless we find a situation where multiple soldiers are wounded in multiple places, we should stick together. But at the same time, we should also begin our approach. Several men are in there, and we cannot allow them to risk injury any further!" Gawain nods at Samantha moves to reinforce the door, as he himself begins his approach up towards the prison, slowly and carefully. Gawain takes a look around with all of his senses, trying to see both if anything is amiss, and if he can't find the source of the fighting, as that is likely where people need assistance!
Velvet Crowe	With Gawain appearing, the exorcists all start whispering to each other. It's hard to make out, something about feeling like a malak and looking like someone they know?     Sanary asks if they're really needed. An exorcist replies, "We don't know. Oscar was pretty clear, if he doesn't come back out, we call for help. There's thousands of daemons here, if they manage to get a ship and sail out, or break through to the warpgate here, it'd be..." Well, the exorcist doesn't finish his sentence, but you can fill in the blanks.     "Go where you want to. The front should be clear, at least, we don't have any eyes on the rear, and you can see shapes moving through the watchtower windows. They're probably going to try to get on top of them and jump off. Pretty sure not even a daemon can survive the fall, but they're desperate enough to try."     A quick word of warning, too: "Daemons. You're from offworld, right? Big, monstrous. Super strong. Nothing left of their humanity, just bloodlust and hate. No way to turn them back, either. Look for the praetor, we have to stay here to keep the ships safe."     A map? The exorcists look at each other like they have no idea if they even have one. "It's going to sound stupid but I don't think we have one. There should still be guards or their malakhim alive in there, they'll know the layout."     The front doors are, it turns out, not broken open, just open. They're pretty heavy, stone and metal blast doors, but they wouldn't be all that difficult to punch through if someone got to them. Probably why they kept them open, so it doesn't get in the exorcists' way, knowing it won't stop the daemons anyway. There's room for improvement, or you could seal them behind you.     The exorcists answer Charity too: "Straight in. With a full squad. Ran into the leader of the daemons, apparently, and went off chasing after them. Wasn't very clear from here but he hasn't answered since." This makes the southern watchtower Charity's best bet.
Kirito	Familiar faces abound. Kirito's soft-featured face shows recognition as he swerves a view across Maya, Sanary... Gawain... and Samantha too. Certainly Xiaomu. But Charity just earns a momentary brow-furrowing. One that itensifies as he watches her climb. She's one to keep an eye on!     After hearing what they're up against, Kirito decides to take a few moments to thumb through his menu and materialize an extra set of healing potions and an odd-looking rectangular blue crystal that glows from within, setting each into pockets inside his coat.     Then with a final button press... blue light congeals on his back, forming into a second crossed scabbard. He draws the crystal-blue longsword Divination from it.     Casting his attention Maya's way, the Spriggan answers with a tense, "You too, Maya. I'll also take front."     Anxiety and worry is running high, here. Kirito's full serious, not a hint of his usual mischief or lightheartedness. It's kill or be killed time and his face is grim.     Being in an unusually public situation also has turned him into a boy of few words, as usual. But deep determination shines in his dark, worried eyes.     He steps through, and heads on in.
Velvet Crowe	LOBBY:     The entry lobby has multiple sets of stairs, leading up a floor, down a floor, deeper into the prison, or into side rooms (used for food storage if anyone looks). It's, again, very claustrophic in here, as expected of a prison carved into a mountain. In the lobby, the corpses of daemons, exorcists and malakhim (human in appearance, but they feel like spirits) are strewn about everywhere. The daemons mostly look like werewolves with a few undead sprinkled in. Malakhim are dressed like exorcists, just a bit more colorful and regal. (They have color-coded tabards and such.)     Fighting can be heard coming mostly from the stairs going down, and the path leading deeper in. Upward it's a lot more quiet. Makes sense, really-- if you designed a prison island, you'd probably put the cells at or below floor level so you can chokepoint riots more easily, and to minimize access to windows and rooftops.     One of the malakhim suddenly twitches. Is he still alive? He's groaning, despite nasty gashes tearing right through his white armor into the skin below. Bleeding, like a human. If someone takes his helmet off, they'll find a young man. He doesn't feel too far off how Gawain feels, just less powerful. Similar kind of magical entity. He could use a pick me up.     Your options are to head a floor down, which is probably where all the cells are, or deeper in towards the rear docks.     SOUTHERN TOWER:     Charity ascends up the southern watchtower, and finds near the hatch a woman. Red hair fading into white near the tips, a white, blue and black one-piece, long-sleeved dress and black thigh-highs not somewhat similar to the exorcists' outfits. A black and gold visor shaped like a bird spreading its wings covers her eyes, floating there on its own. She has a nasty hole through her stomach, and is probably lethally wounded, but still breathing.     She raises a hand to stop Charity. "You-- where are you going? Who are you with?"     Like the malak in the lobby, she feels like a spirit.
Sanary Rondel	There's some familiar faces around, but Sanary doesn't have too much time to meet and greet every one of them. Maya, for better or for worse, isn't recognized quite as easily by Sanary as she is in return, and she offers her and Gawain a quick nod. "Gotcha. Yeah, I'd be surprised if there were more injured up there than down here, anyway." She starts towards the front door, pausing to flash Samantha and Charity a confident grin. "Don't worry. I'll keep hand girl covered in case anything tries getting through while she's working on that. Just hoping you got something better than that ball thing with ya."      Easy to say before she's actually seen what these daemons are capable of. Xiaomu only reinforces that, drawing a light (if slightly nervous) chuckle from Sanary. "Ah, it'll be fine. Er. Probably. I mean, it's just... Thousands." Another chuckle, and she clears her throat while looking between the exorcists.      "Eh, it's a prison, not a... What's the word. Lab-rinf? Can't be that confusing even without a map, but we'll keep an eye out for the guards and makla... Them."      There is some slight relief that the entrance /isn't/ broken down. The axe healer readies both hands on her axe as she heads through the doors with Kirito, possibly even taking the front unless someone else opts to take the lead instead. Either way, they're inside!      ... And faced with the sounds of combat in one direction and a malakhim up ahead. She wastes little time in hurrying towards the young man, already channeling a cloud of green light in his general direction to try patching up his wounds once she's close by. "Easy there. We're here to sort out this whole mess."
Maya	Maya is thankful for the updatefrom the locals. It's very useful she hd a better plan of what must be done. They may need to scuttle ships in the harbour to prev en escapes. As they get warned about the demons she nods grimacing. Still the fact they kept them contained? Rather than just offing them all? She started to get an idea someone might have hope to cure them someday or it's out compassion. Who knows for now they need to keep them from getting out one or another and rescue any surivors of the gurds in the complex. She looks to Kirito for a moment, Maya will fall in behind Kirito she knows what he can do in a Melee and she's used to having partners who fight up close while she strikes from afar with her rifle and magic. She should be good she's very concerned she's not sure if the deamons can infest others she will need to be ready as she mvoes in with the groupo keeping silent now with her rifle up and she looks to the wounded man? She's not sure but it's clear they are moving Maya rifle slung over her shoulder. "Cover me." She says as she moves to pull out a fate card she does move to remove the man's helmet. "I'm here to help." Between her and Sanary they should hopefully get the 'young man' back on his feet. A pink glow comes froms Maya while blue fire bleeds out into the card before she casts the spell and move to focus the healing energy on the malakhim. There was no doubting Sanary's healing abilities either the team was in good for terms of support and fighting.
Xiaomu	"So they're capable of desperation but you say there's 'just bloodlust and hate' ... ?" Xiaomu frowns some at that; the lack of a map elicits a deeper frown. "So we rescue guards. What are 'Malakhim'?" She doesn't have time for a whole lot of additional questions, but hopefully it'll be clear soon enough. Meanwhile, the jailbreak isn't going to quiet itself down - if it were, they likely wouldn't have needed to call for help - so with other people claiming point, she heads on in as soon as somebody's answered her question, her staff in hand. She'll hold off on drawing her guns until she thinks she really needs them. Rather than charging in at a run, she walks into the prison, vulpine ears perked for whatever advantages moderately-superior hearing might grant her, and her nostrils flared, at least initially - not that her sense of smell is much better in this form. She doesn't expect things to smell all that good, though. She's also trying to feel out magical/supernatural presences, in the hopes that it'll provide guidance as to where the Elites need to focus their attention. "Well, this one's kind of a spirit ..." she comments in relation to the wounded 'man' being healed by Sanary. "I'd have to examine further." The uniform is enough to tell her this is PROBABLY one of the guards, or allied to them - if the guard was right about how feral the daemon prisoners are, it's unlikely any of them would know enough to play possum.
Samantha Middleton	Hmm, so closing the gates won't be a big help. Samantha thinks for a moment, then sighs, dropping the only two turrets she has with her and positioning them. She hands out remotes to the nearest priests. "You can use these from relative safety. Please be careful, they don't have a ton of ammo, and I'd like the pieces back even if they're wrecked." The components don't grow on trees, after all.     Samantha then thinks briefly about where to go. Tactician she ain't, but shoring up the docks sounds like a better plan for her. Using Fido in cramped quarters sounds like a recipe for trouble in her mind. "I'm headed to the docks. If they're secure I'll be right back."
Kirito	Kirito's quick to inhale a sharp and freaked out breath. SOMEONE'S ALIVE IN HERE! "H-healing magic, quick! he's bleeding out!" The Spriggan exclaims, jumping across the room and taking up a guard position. He sends Maya and Sanary a grateful nod after they do their healing thing! ... then tentatively asks the malakhim man, "We're here to help. Which way did the praetor go? Down there?"     He'd rather not bumble around withoutsome idea of where he needs to go. Otherwise he's wasting time and energy!
Charity Whiteheart	Who is she with? "Good question," Charity answers. "I'm going in after the Praeto while some... acquaintances are securing the gates. Anything I should know before heading in there?" She eyes the wound. "On second thought, you should stay quiet. I'll get a healer up here, if I can, but I don't know much about that stuff."     Readying her knives, Charity just... heads inwards, keeping an eye out for targets of opportunity. She is going to be actively trying to /avoid/ engaging hostiles for now, though. Also, this might serve to test and see if the defenses were made with phasing in mind.
Velvet Crowe	TOWER:     The woman tries to stop Charity. Not physically, she doesn't look like she can even get up. "Stop! Please, it's pointless. My life is already over. This wound is lethal. I was separated. I need you to take me to someone. Conveniently, she should be with the praetor if nothing separated them like they did with me. You won't have to carry me, either."     It's up to Charity if she wants to help or keep going. If she does keep going, the way down the watchtower is a set of ladders, and there are wounded exorcists at the bottom catching their breath. There are no anti-phasing measures in place. It might be daemons can't do that, or at least can't do it with Charity's level of skill.
Gawain	As the group enters the lobby, Gawain takes a look around the dead. His cheer doesn't really go away, but he does seem determined to solve this. He briefly checks the bodies, and when the malak twitches, he shouts out quickly. "We have one! Healer!" Gawain would move aside to let them to deal with his wounds, before heading to the stairs to investigate the sounds. And then head straight down them without waiting, because people need help! Sword is at its ready, as the knight presents himself. "This is Sir Gawain, Paladin Warden! Exorcists, we're here to help! Daemons, surrender yourself!"
Charity Whiteheart	Ugh. Charity pauses before heading in, and frowns. With no phasing defenses in place, she could move pretty quickly. And she's not obligated to help this person. On the other hand, if the woman is so dead set on giving some kind of dying message... it might be important enough to carry her with her. "You'll slow me down," Charity says bluntly. "But if it's that important I'll do what I can."     It's less than ideal, but if the woman isn't going to be carried... well, maybe there's a trick to it that won't slow her down too badly.
Velvet Crowe	LOBBY:     "Malakhim. Elemental spirits. We pact with them for power. Without them, we couldn't fight the daemons," the exorcist answers, for Xiaomu.     Inside, the malak is healed, which is very good news for him. He opens his eyes, regains consciousness, strains to get back up an glances around him, frowning. "Dead...? They're all dead. I need a vessel," he states, flatly, almost lacking emotion. He looks at Kirito, recalling. "The rear docks. To secure them. Down there is the cells. It's probably too late to save anyone who went down, the daemons will slaughter them. Reason dictates we secure the docks."     Conveniently, where Samantha has decided to go!     Still, the lower levels sound pretty chaotic. Focusing on the docks might doom the people down there fighting. Or they can handle themselves? Who knows. The malak seems to think it's pointless to try.     "A vessel. One of you form an oath with me. I will see you to the praetor. That is my function." An oath? Maybe you just need to promise to take him to the praetor? Decide who gets to do that! If you're going to do it.     Maybe decide who's going where, too!     Samantha, who plows ahead past the group after giving the exorcists turrets, opens the door leading further in to find... a huge hallway! Huge hallway. With a dozen connecting hallways and sets of stairs, a few dead exorcists and malakhim, and, less welcoming, about a dozen daemons. Bulky, huge werewolves, a few skeletons with swords or staves, a lizardman who seems to be wearing exorcist armor with a spear and shield, and two female gargoyles with tridents. They all have this black, red and purple-ish mist coming from them, like they're radiating darkness out. Plus, glowing red eyes. It shouldn't come as a surprise they all turn to face her and the part of the group they can see past the open door.     Especially with Gawain shouting.
Xiaomu	"If you can make an oath with a non-human," Xiaomu offers, "then I'll be your vessel until we can reunite you with somebody who actually lives and works in this world. What specifically do you need?" And ... oh, so those are daemons, through that door. Well, at least that dark mist seeping off them makes friend-or-foe determinations really easy. They don't look like they're going to be subdued peacefully, either. For now, Xiaomu crouches next to the malak, ready to form the oath - if she's qualified to do so, anyway. It should just be temporary, right? And local help will DEFINITELY be handy. If it's a matter of being able to provide magical energy, she should be in okay shape on that front.
Velvet Crowe	The woman lets out a sigh of relief. "I won't. It's alright. With this oath I agree to take you to the praetor and you to my target."     There's a rush of power as the woman turns into a floating ball of red light and fire, and plunges into Charity. Charity feels stronger, faster, and can now manipulate fire instinctively!     <<My name is Seres. The docks aren't far from here. Get past the exorcists and take a right. Take the first two flights of stairs going down you see, another right, and straight. Leave the daemons and exorcists to fight each other.>> she says, directly into Charity's head.
Velvet Crowe	"Alright. With this oath we agree to reach the praetor," the male malak answers Xiaomu, flatly, before she feels the same rush of power as Charity did. The big difference is that the malak turned into a brown-ish orange ball of light, and Xiaomu has minor earth powers now, with no traces of the malak left.     <<Through that door. Fourth stairs down, then third back up. The daemons have flooded the hallways, so it won't be easy to reach the docks.>>
Maya	Maya takes a deep breath for a moment. "A Vessel? What doe sit entail?" She looks questioningly to themit's noit hostil she want to know what she might be saying yes to for a moment. However Xiaomu has far more experiance witht his and might be the better call for a situation like this she steps back for now from this. Xiaomu is someone she does trust in matters like this. sTill if it is needed she seems to be willing to make such a pact here. "The Docks? We need to keep them from escaping." She grimaces anyone who went down were trying to keep things contained. She knows they need to move though they don't have much time, to go she watches the transformation and moves readying her rifle again.
Kirito	"Dammit, don't go it alone into daemon town!" Kirito blurts the moment he realizes that Gawain just ran off. He vaults for the stairs himself... simply leaping down the entire expanse using his insane Spriggan agility to navigate the trip. Surfing down walls or whatever, if he has to make turns.     He's not about to let Sir Gawain face these things alone! ... Even if he's probably able to handle himself.     But this just makes him worry about the girls he's leaving behind... "No, Maya can take care of herself... so can Xiaomu." ... Sanary on the other hand, he's not so sure about sometimes.
Samantha Middleton	Oh. Um. Oops? A hallway full of monsters! Samantha caught that these things were once human, but it's really kind of fortunate - or unfortunate for them - that Samantha already believes that people too far gone need to be put down. She backs Fido up enough to have some cover, and waits until any of the werewolves or undead or whatever head her way to start firing the heavy autocannon built into Fido's arm. Clearing a path to the docks seems like the first thing to do.     "Guess this won't be as easy as I thought," she grumbles. Going through a small army is not her idea of a fun time.
Sanary Rondel	It takes a while for Sanary to put two and two together regarding the malakhim and vessels. She does eventually get it, though, once he spells out his need to make an oath. It's a curious sight, but the war cleric can't stand there and watch for too long. She's got someone in a tower to heal! "Be careful, everyone. I'm gonna go back Charity up and the injured up in the tower."      And thus, Sanary books it in the other direction... For about three steps until she turns right back around after hearing Charity and Gawain over the radio. Sanary breaks into another run and very nearly hurtles down the stairs after Gawain, catching herself at the last moment to...      Stare imposingly with her axe over her left shoulder! And scan the area for any injured people that might need healing, even. He's got the talking handled, so she can go for the quiet tough approach instead! For now.
Charity Whiteheart	Huh. Charity flinches briefly, then frowns. MEntally, she answers, <<Spirits that grant power over the elements? My Mistress would have been interested in you. Let me know if it's crowded in there.>> She does have that piece of Wrathborn attached to her soul too, to worry about.     Directions seem simple enough though. Charity isn't even gouing to try to engage the daemons now. Not unless there's an imminent danger. She phases through the nearest wall, taking a roundabout yet somehow faster route as she heads for the nearest intersection. Got to get her bearings after all. <<What is so important?>>
Velvet Crowe	HEADING FOR THE DOCKS:     The reason the malak now in Xiaomu gave you directions to head down and back up, by the way, is because eventurally this hallway finishes in an obvious dead end, and a lot of side-rooms are things like storage areas, kitchens, quarters for the guards and so on. Before you can go down, though, you have to clear the hallway.     The werewolves, skeletons and lizardmen all charge into melee, predictably. Samantha manages to blow one of the werewolves' arms off, but it doesn't seem to stop it. She has to deal with claws getting up close, swords, a spear.     The gargoyles, as well as one skeleton with a staff instead of a sword, let loose a barrage of ice and dark magical bolts towards Xiaomu and Maya. These actually clip one of the werewolves too, showing the daemons aren't exactly working together fully.     LOWER LEVELS:     The lower levels of the prison are darker, especially with a lot of the torches having been put out. The layout is, thankfully, very simple. It's series of small square rooms from which long hallways full of cells sprawl. With the gates all being torn open between the rooms, there's at least a dozen, and that's if they only go forward. There are stairs leading down, so probably even more cells there. Luckily, the rooms act as bottlenecks. Exorcists and malakhim have holed themselves up three rooms down, fighting werewolves and skeletons from every direction.     Gawain, Kirito and Sanary, coming down the stairs, are BEHIND a wave of daemons smashing into the barricade that's been set up. They're not very organized, and some are infighting, growling blame and insults at each other. True to the malak's words, it doesn't look like the barricade will hold up much longer. Gawain shouting buys them a bit of time.     One werewolf, much larger, armored even, turns around to face the group. Like the other daemons he's letting off this black, purple and red mist, and the tugging pressure and darkness is stronger here.     "More exorcists! More food!"     He charges. He's fast! The stone floors crack under the pressure of each of his steps, and his claw swipe could hit all three people in one go.     TOWER:     Seres avoids poking around Charity's head. That's not really something malakhim do, anyway. <<It's complicated. When my life ends something will come into being. I can't have it fall into the wrong hands. I came here to give it to someone, but...>> But, well, obviously something happened!     Charity easily moves past guards and walls. She sees daemons and exorcists trading blows, slipping unnoticed past them. She reaches a large set of gates, finally, like the ones at the entrance. Open. Past them is...     A dragon? It's a big, glowing dragon. Black, purple, kind of... weirdly textured. Glowing, like the daemons do, but much stronger. Being near it at all feels wrong. It's fighting. A man in gold, blue and white armor, with a square, flat blue sword, holding the dragon's claws at bay. There's a young woman with him, in tattered red and black clothes. She's wounded, way worse than the man. She too is fighting the dragon--     No wait she's fighting the praetor.     No wait she's fighting the dragon again.     Are they... having a three way fight?
Xiaomu	With her newly-contracted malak providing guidance, Xiaomu is able to lead the way - or, well, she will be. Once these daemons are out of the way. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!" the sage fox calls out before hurling a grenade; she's aiming for the back of the daemon pack, hoping they don't have grenades (or at least that expression) in this world. And the grenade goes off, erupting in a fireball with extra fire just like the usual 'Shinra Specials' Xiaomu occasionally puts to use. She's not depending strictly on the grenade, though - she doesn't know for sure how vulnerable these daemons are to fire, mundane or magical (and the grenade kind of incorporates both). Still, it should at least singe the gargoyles, and maybe the skeleton is extra-susceptible? Who knows? If it staves off some of the spell barrage, it's worth it. In the meantime, there's a lot of melee to worry about; one grenade is all Xiaomu can really spare. Rather than going into melee with her staff, though, she draws her handguns and opens up on the charging daemons - aiming for limbs for the most part; she's good enough to pull that off, and a bullet through the elbow or the shoulder - or, heck, anywhere in between - will do a lot to slow down anything that can still feel pain. Leg wounds are a bit more risky, but disabling an arm also reduces the threat from a wielded weapon. Her current load of bullets is strictly mundane, though; she usually starts with normal ammo anyway, and changes up to anti-spirit rounds if necessary. In this case, though, she doesn't WANT to use anti-spirit rounds - the objective is to subdue, not to slaughter, and she doesn't intend for her bullets to do more than slow the daemons down. Stopping them? That's where the hand-to-hand comes in. If the earth magic from her temporary malak lets her draw on increased strength, all the better; if the best she can do is make sure hitting the floor when she suplexes a lizardman or a werewolf hurts her opponent that much more, she'll settle for that. Given an opening, she'll try to make the floor extra-jagged under the daemons' feet, like walking on a carpet of caltrops instead of smooth stone. Anything to slow the daemons down. Of course, she'll smooth it out again once the way is clear to proceed. The way has to be cleared first, though, and it's going to take a lot more than one eager sage fox to deal with this many daemons ...
Samantha Middleton	These things are tough, but Samantha kind of expecte that. Her stance was intended to keep them at bay! Too bad she's not really used to fighting werewolves, but a full suit of power armor does wonders for one's confidence, doesn't it? And the suit isn't tough enough to laugh at the attacks, a hose splitting and spewing steam with a loud hiss, and she grumbles as she notes the arm on the other side is also going to lose some mobility.     Upside! The charge into melee means that Samantha can use /less/ lethal means to subdue. Like Fido's giant hands slamming the nearest into the wall, then stomping down to pin it. Hopefully. Fighting hand to hand is something she's familiar with, she just has to remember to not use the blades she has in the suit. "Huh... I guess we need to head downstairs..."
Gawain	As he heads down the stairs, Gawain immediately notices the presence of the daemons. He furrows his brow as he notices the barrier cracking, but luckily, there's still exorcists alive. He's about to move to aid them...when the werewolf shouts, coming at them. "Please, surrender! It doesn't have to be this way!" Gawain is attempting to reason with the werewolf, because it can speak, and therefore should obviously be capable of reforming itself, but when it charges with that strike, he moves in front of the others, taking part of the swipe for himself, and swinging his sword in an attempt to block it from hitting the others. The blow smashes into him, causing him to slide back on his feet and grunt. "Kirito, Rondel!"
Kirito	"So... Daemon just means monster." Kirito declares upon seeing the Werewolf that's coming swinging for him and his fellows! This would be a HUGE problem to tackle solo.     But he's Fronting alongside a mighty Heroic Spirit clad in the kind of plate mail that only tanks really show off.     Kirito's raid battle instincts tell him... Gawain will tank.     Kirito's awareness sharpens to a razor edge. As his heartrate increases time seems to slow. Accelerate, quicken, speed on beyond reason screams his reflexes!     Flashes of intense bloodlust - pure murderous intent - are the only warning the Werewolf will get.     The onrushing claw? Kirito leaves to Gawain to deal with that. The Black Swordsman kicks the ground at an odd angle and WHOOOSHES under the blow with ghost-like steps. It carries him through the razor wind wake of that swipe though, slashes that rend crimson marks across his avatar and elicit some quiet hisses from the Spriggan.     But Kirito suppresses the pain. It only pushes his hyper focus to further heights.     Before a half-second's even passed he's taken a forward-leaning stance with both swords held weirdly outwards like bird wings. White-Holy Light blazes up the weapons like a liquid tidal wave, roiling and bubbling like the solar surface. And then Kirito launches forward with both of those blades, spinning each radially so their glowing contrails become like sawblades. He dives in with these spinning blades, advancing one and slash-slash-slashing then swapping with the other before delivering a final Cross-Slash with both that ends in a small explosion of pure Light!     A double-digit combo strike. That is NOT a move that he's ever been seen using in casual play... what the hell is it?!     "/Let us THROUGH/!" The boy roughly demands amidst a bone-chilling kiai. His heart goes out to Gawain, but Kirito's not going to quickly offer mercy to anything that calls people 'food.'     This party has a Tank, a Healer, and a DPS. Kirito intends to capitalize on this tried-and-true holy trinity while they've got it, that's for sure.     But... was he always this brutal and razor's edge?
Sanary Rondel	Gawain and Kirito? That's probably a good combo for dealing with whatever comes their way. Sanary's keeping her gunaxe ready as the sight of everything downstairs hits her all at once, a cautious frown crossing her face at the sight of the barricade, and the oppressive feeling of the mist weighing down on her.      There's something oddly nostalgic about it.      "We're not exorcists, and we sure as hell ain't foo!. Now y'all wanna settle down, or do we take you down? We can go either way!" Inwardly, the healer's grinning broadly. That actually sounded kind of cool and definitely not like a country bumpkin, right?      Right. As the werewolf charges for them, she starts channeling magic around and directs the eerie light into Gawain and Kirito, both to boost their endurance in weathering those hits as well as to provide them with some lingering healing effects. The gunaxe, meanwhile...      The gunaxe goes unused for now. It's clear from the odd grin on Sanary's face that she's itching to use it, but she's biding her time until the demons show that they really aren't interested in backing down.
Maya	Maya heads for the doccks she knos wht her orders are they need to keep them from escaping she follows along side Xiaomu as they move she will be following her lead here but there's many comming after them. She will act accordingly, something an old friend said her once comes to mind. Suffer not the deamon to live and this seems these are that sort of deamon here. She comes under attack her and she's caught by the drk magic and it hurts quite a bit seemingly ignoring her armour. "Xiaomu I'mg oing to cut lose..." She moves to follow along with Xiaom as her rifle's housing opens up and small missiles fire off into the daemon horde. The explosives should be enough to mess them up but Seekers have always been more for area saturation than for anytthing else. She would rather just exterimnate these things and be done with it however she has her orders so some of her more heavy hitting arsonel will be held back but as the battle goes on she's on the look out for ships and the like. They have to keep them away from those or even sink them if it comes to it.
Charity Whiteheart	Following direction is something Charity is good at. She actually usually prefers to be taking the orders rather than giving them, at least when it comes to this sort of thing. But true to her word, she doesn't bother with the small fry, slipping right to the gates and-     What's going on here? She pauses, then mentally speaks to Seres, <<Well, that seems to be your Praetor. Mind if I help with the dragon? Who is the girl? A daemon?>> Interrogating her passenger is probably easier on said passenger if she doesn't use those flame powers. Instead, she sharpens herk knives with her wind magic, and dashes in to give a quick slash from about oh... forty feet away. A little over ten meters, so metric people don't have to figure it out. She'll aim for a hamstringing, to see if this creature can regenerate or not.     "Praetor Oscar, I presume?"
Velvet Crowe	TO THE DOCKS:     A grenade right into the cluster of daemons isn't a bad idea. The blast doesn't kill them outright, or the bullets even. These aren't your average monsters. Even with an arm or leg missing and severe wounds, they keep advancing. It makes it easier on Xiaomu when she has to wrestle that one-armed werewolf, she's less likely to get clawed as she slams one of the beasts to the floor and knocks it out. So tally so far, several wounded, one werewolf KO.     Sam KOs the lizardman as she smashes him into a wall.     That also works fine.     Maya's own missiles actually finish off the gargoyles and the skeleton that were staying in the backrow and casting spells. They're pretty dead, but they didn't look like the kind to play nice anyway.     BASEMENT:     Gawain plays tank, aided by Sanary's buffs, stopping the larger werewolf's claws. Sadly, he doesn't get kind words back for his attempt. "Shut up! You're just like the rest, you'll kill us if we turn out back! I'll eat you and then you won't be able to do that anymore, exorcist!" Is angry werewolf. No one is surprised.     Kirito slashes. A lot. There doesn't seem to be a particular elemental weakness (or resistance) at play here, the daemon is being hacked apart regardless of what the swordsman does. The first slashes just wound and tear through armor, but the final ones cut limbs off, and the massive werewolf topples over dead. The other daemons pause, and the exorcists see the opportunity to push.     "Go! GO! Push them back into their cells!"     Is it that easy, though? The black mist, the darkness, it bleeds from all the daemons and fills the air. One of the malakhim, heavily wounded, who is ordered to push on despite his injuries, he starts quaking. Trembling. Screaming. His body erupts with those black and purple and red flames, and suddenly grows massive. He bursts out of his armor. The malk turns into a dragon, straight up. The other exorcists and malakhim are forced out of the room (in every direction, so some of them are forced into the daemons) to not be crushed, as the dragon's head smashes through the ceiling and...     TO THE DOCKS:     A dragon's head smashes into the hallway from the floor below. It breathes fire down the hallway, engulfing both the daemons, and potentially the party!
Velvet Crowe	DOCKS:     Charity, now that she's closer, will probably find that Oscar looks a lot like Gawain. A slightly younger Gawain, maybe. He turns to look at her, a moment of distraction that lets the dragon smack him back against a wall, while Velvet uses a sword concealed in her bracer to stab the beast in the side of the head to little effect.     <<She is a victim. It doesn't matter what she is. I owe her too much. Get me to her. Don't allow the praetor to stop me or her!>>     With the dragon further hamstrung, it is revealed it can renerate. Very, very quickly. It topples over, but even after Velvet's slices it gets back up, with a thundering shockwave to boot. Velvet, like Oscar, is slammed into the side of the dock, and the two transport ships are rocked by the dragon's fury.     "I'm Oscar, yes!" the blonde man finally answers, towards Charity. Why does he seem hostile...? "And I can sense that traitorous malak inside you! First you help that daemon escape and now you're here to finish the job, Seres?!"     To Charity only, she clarifies: <<I didn't want this. But there's no choice. Use my powers to shackle him. I specialize in binding spells and fire.>> But is Charity interested in getting dragged into this?
Xiaomu	Wait, they had DRAGONS in this -- "SIDE AND DOWN!!" Xiaomu yells to her teammates, flinging herself back and to her left ... well, what was her left coming in, anyway. She grabs her staff as she goes, smacking its ring-bearing head against the floor near the wall, and causing a barrier to erupt into existence ... a mix of ice and stone, it looks like, thanks to her partnered malak picking up on her desperation and adding power to the panicked scramble. The half-improvised barrier isn't nearly big enough to cut off the corridor, so any allies who want to take shelter will need to hunker down next to her. Once the firebreath subsides, she'll poke her head out to size up the dragon. Not that its size needs to be upped any ...
Maya	Maya is now moving to channel spells this time three cards rise out of her hand in rapid succession as the fire is comming she's going to do something dumb, very dumb. She will mass cast a fire barrier on everyone, party and even the enemy. She's not happy about it but they have their orders so she's going to stuick with it as she too dives down hard. Hopefully this will deal with the spill over. "Xiaomu! This is getting crazy!" She now rises up as she looks at the Dragon too to get a look at it. Why did it have to be dragons? Memories of Thion a long dead Confederate general come to mind the massive Red Dragon Left quite a mark on her and her wodld after all. It always had to be /dragons/ doesn't it?
Velvet Crowe	<<You were told everything,>> the malak inside Xiaomu states, plainly, as he explains regardless (audible to everyone): <<Daemonblight. It spreads from daemons. It transforms plants, animals, objects, even people, into daemons. There is no cure. Reason is not retained. They are beasts, with no hope. They are kept here, when possible, in the hopes one way there may be a cure. But there won't be. No one has ever recovered in all of history. If not for the Abbey, the world would have been consumed by daemons and daemonblight a long time ago.>>
Charity Whiteheart	Hmm. <<Don't presume I trust you, either, but for the moment our goals align.>> Charity thinks that to Seres, a bit curtly, but verbally she replies, "Looks to me like you should focus on one thing at a time. Kill the dragon or subdue it, whatever, and then figure out the rest. My boss was the one who was good at working out compromises and deals, not me. So I'm going to just remove an obstacle and get this dragon taken down."     She flicks a blade point toward the girl. "And you're going to answer some questions after. But for now..." She calls upon Seras to send a restraining power toward Oscar, because getting him out of the way of the woman, so the two of them can concentrate on the glowing dragon. "I'll see if I can distract it while you kill it," she offers. It's a risk, but she's fast, and going to try to remain intangible as much as possible. To try to get the dragon to attack her and hopefully not get too badly hurt.
Velvet Crowe	DOCKS:     With a bit of focus, Charity forms shackles of fire around Oscar's wrists and ankles. They burn him and make him fall to the ground, and not for a moment does he take his eyes off Charity with this sort of... heroic determination and conviction in his eyes. This is a knight, a hero, a man who will push forward no matter what, and he's refusing this situation with every ounce of his being.     Velvet isn't going to look the gift horse in the mouth. She lunges for the dragon's head again, but it has none of it. It breathes a blast of concussive force and sends her smashing to the ground, before the beast's eyes lock on Charity.     <<Damnit... can you really distract it? Or kill it? I'm going to go around. If I can reach her, she should be able to help you fight.>>     No waiting for confirmation? Seres pops out of Charity, and with her her blessings go too. She's still lethally wounded, and barely walking, but she's making for Velvet the long way around. The dragon stops glaring at Charity to turn towards Seres instead. It takes a deep breath in!
Velvet Crowe	TO THE DOCKS:     Maya and Xiaomu combine forces to protect the daemons in the hallway, themselves, and Samantha, from the dragon's breath. The hallway isn't doing so hot with all the pressure it's putting on the structure by growing inside of it, but Gawain was right that right now it doesn't even have room to spread its wings. It may well be stuck with its head there.
Xiaomu	Xiaomu isn't actually all that concerned about the daemons, but hey, if they take a break from trying to kill her and the others? She's not gonna waste time or ammunition worrying about them. The dragon is the biggest concern right now ... and in the course of discussing things with her allies, plus her malak's explanation of Daemonblight. Biggest worry: It's contagious. So this whole place is less of a prison than a quarantine hospital. Good reason not to waste too much time dealing with anything here. "Okay, let's give the big fire-breathing lizard a big ol' headache," Xiaomu states, laying her left hand on the wall next to her and channeling the malak's earth-elemental power. First priority: Reinforce the architecture - not just the floor, but the surrounding walls and ceiling as well. That's the most important thing. Second priority: Try and clamp down around the dragon's snout. If her borrowed earth magic won't do that much, she settles for ice - a big shroud of ice surrounding the dragon's mouth and nostrils, maybe strong enough to hold its mouth closed, definitely heavy enough to stave off another breath of fire, even if only for juuuust a little longer. And that's probably as much as she can manage. She *was* hoping to drop a pillar from the ceiling to punch the dragon in its skull, but she can already tell that's not going to happen. "Go for it, and start your cut from the back so you sever the spinal cord!" she instructs Kirito (and Maya, if she's helping with the decapitation maneuver). Stabilizing the floor is going to take a continuing effort as long as the dragon is messing with the architecture by being here ... or even if it technically won't, she's still making that continuing effort.
Samantha Middleton	Sadly, Samantha's skills do NOT include architecture, like her rival's. She can't really judge what state the structure is in! The armored girl grimaces inside the suit, and then tries to figure out a way to safely contain this thing. "What is this anyway? Some kind of..." She thinks back to what was said earlier. "Oh."     With so many going for the back, Samantha tries something! Exposing the back would be good. "Okay, Fido, let's give him something to chew on." The jets on the back of her armor fire off, shooting the heavy, massive armor up to the dragon's face, trying to slam into it and angle the neck in a way to expose it for the others.
Gawain	Gawain's chipper mood momentarily pauses as the werewolf replies. He speaks like a person. He has emotions like a person. He wants to /survive/. And people who can speak that way? They can be redeemed. But it's too late for the werewolf, as Kirito brings him down. As the exorcists call, he's about to move to help push the daemons away...when one of the malakhim transforms into a massive, horrible dragon, pushing everyone back. Gawain is knocked back, and has to actively land on his feet, as he looks up at the beast. Over the radio, a plan is forumlated. Xiaomu restrains it from above, and the three down below all strike at once, moving to do as little damage as possible to the prison. Confident, Gawain runs forward and leaps onto the dragon's back, ready to climb up and slay i- wait. Something's wrong. Everything feels wrong. Sadness. Anger. Despair. These feelings hammer at Gawain, almost taking the frown straight off him. He has trouble holding onto the dragon's back, the emotions overwhelming him. And the dragon by now has noticed him, so it could slam him over and over with its tail and he'd have no time to react. But... But no. Gawain can't allow that. They have people to help here. Exorcists, malakhim, and daemons alike are endangered by this dragon. If he allowed negativity to overwhelm him, he wouldn't be Sir Gawain, Knight of the Sun, the one who smiled even in combat, even when he might die. So via sheer force of will, a hand reaches up to grab a scale. And then the next. And then the next. And he pulls himself up towards the upper back, drawing his blade and lifting it over the spinal cord. And while it's difficult, he brings himself to do it. Sir Gawain smiles, and shouts to Kirito. "On three! One...two..." And on three, his sword goes down, hopefully alongside Kirito's.
Charity Whiteheart	Can she distract it? Charity feels a little irked at Seres being so sudden in departure, and then... uh... remembers that she's been kind of a bitch to them. Oh yeah. Fair's fair.     Distract the dragon huh? Sure! Charity smirks, "Yeah, I think I can handle that." She vanishes... dropping through the ground to zip forward, erupting to the side and aiming a slash right toward the neck that's exposed by the breath attack building up. Her daggers are sharp enough to carve through alloyed metal, thanks to her supernatural enhancement. This should get its attention.
Sanary Rondel	That's... A dragon. What is with Sanary and running into dragons all the time? Luckily, this one seems to be way too big to actually attack the Elites in the basement comfortably, meaning it's going to be a rather easy target for herself, Gawain, Kirito, and possibly even Maya, Samantha, and Xiaomu upstairs!      That suits the healer just fine. Her axe needs to see some use, after all, even if she's not quite as fast as Kirito or coordinated as Gawain. Swapping her focus from defense to offense, Sanary channels the magic energy into herself this time to augment her own strength while charging towards the dragon. As she draws closer to it and that miasma, however, the healer finds herself getting inexplicably angrier.      Why the hell is everyone but her getting to show off here? She can do more than just heal and support, too! Just because she's not as fast as them or doesn't have the same flashy-looking techniques or weird tech with lasers and cool magic...      By the time she reaches the dragon proper, Sanary looks like she's less interested in saving anyone and more on just killing the monstrous being in front of her. She lets out a frustration and rage filled roar as she drags her gunaxe along the ground and swings it upwards, taking a massive upward swing at the creature from below in time with Gawain's (and hopefully Kirito's) strike on the other side!      Of course, with that much power behind her swing, her aim might not be quite on the mark, and she's probably not holding back enough if the dragon's body and spine are softer than expected.
Kirito	Kirito's mood similarly sours alongside Gawain's. There's no helping it though. The werewolf has to be brought down. And there's just no stopping a Sword Skill once it's been begun - not if Kirito wants to keep his head and ensure Sanary and Gawain keep theirs!     So he presses on, cursing himself and the situation but biting down on the feeling just as quickly.     Bury it, bury it deep, along with the other horrible things he's had to do to save lives. His face turns gloomy as they come, but... only briefly. He's shocked out of the gloom by the sudden appearance of a DRAGON.     Without any warning whatsoever. His jaw promptly drops. This got INSANELY more dangerous than he had bargained for. But if he backs out now...     "Dammit, there's no time to think about it--!!"     Gotta do the hero thing, even if it's incredibly risky. He wouldn't be able to face himself if he bailed on everyone now.     Gulp.     He's in the basement, without heavenly light to power his wings... but Kirito readies his swords and leans forwards anyways. The Black Swordsman's wings appear. Anyone familiar with Alfheim Fairies would know that they cannot fly indoors.     But this isn't ENTIRELY true. There's a Skill available to Spriggans and Imps that allow for indoor flight in brief bursts. Imps are much better at it, but to Kirito...     3 Seconds of flight will be quite enough. As he inhales and gathers his focus, Kirito slings his blades around into a ready-to-swing position... and thrums his wings up from zero to FULL THRUST with the kind of daredevil precision only pros could manage. The floor *CRACKS* when he leaps off, becoming a black blur.     Screaming all the while, he pours on the furious will to move those wings at speeds the system can barely handle. Dust scatters and a shockwave races through the basement in his wake...     And the bolt of black light he's become intersects the lines drawn by Sanary and Gawain across the dragon's neck with exact timing!     "FALL!!"
Velvet Crowe	TO THE DOCKS:     Xiaomu reinforces the structure of the prison. This isn't a bad move. Slabs of stone and patches of earth fix holes and cracks and prevent any real danger, at least for the time being. The malak is pretty cooperative in guiding her to make sure this happens correctly.     Samantha PUNCHES a dragon in the face. That had to feel good and it's something to brag about, because for a few seconds there it's stunned and roaring in annoyance. It is definitely distracted.     BASEMENT:     Kirito, Gawain and Sanary triple-tech. The dragon incurs severe wounds-- slashes from the gunaxe cut and cut and cut, and as quickly as it does, the dragon begins regenerating rapidly, its health keeping pace with the damage, barely. But that's good. It's further distracted. Its energy is going there, not where Kirito and Gawain are about to strike. As all three fighters connect at the same time with one, final stroke amidst their flurries, the dragon's neck bursts with a shower of purple-black blood, and the beast immediatly dies.     Its skin, scales, flesh, muscles, everything melts off, leaving only a skeleton. And a gushing, intense wave of darkness. It seizes almost everyone, this sort of... negativity, tugging at bottled feelings. Tugging at things like rage, despair, sorrow, heartbreak, doubt, fear. But it's a newborn dragon. Just as quickly as this starts, it ends, and there are no traces of its influence left.     The daemons are seeing reason. A dragon, defeated. They are actually going back to their cells, though exorcists and malakhim are having to escort a few still struggling.
Maya	Maya is bein pressed by that right with the Dragons as she's making ready to go. She falls in after Xiaomu they need to move and she knows it. The Lizard is an bit of an issue still okay a major one? Maya's casting againt his time she's channeling water magic in burst at teh dragoin maybe she can put out the pilot light so to speak. Eiyther way she'll batter it with water while Xiaomu uses the earth magic to stablize things and she doesn't let up, she also keeps moving. She then calls out. "Got it!" She'll switch out from water now and she'll bring up another rifle mod the beam she'll super charge it and aime for where she's being told to go. she's gong to try to aid in taking it's head. They have little choice here she'll fire the moment she gets a shot with the burst of focused energy to hopefully aid in cutting the dragon's head off before the roof comes down.
Velvet Crowe	DOCKS:     Charity begins fighting the dragon at the docks. It's larger than the one inside, and surprisingly fast for something its size. A slash through the neck sees it open and gush blood, but just as quickly the dragon's black aura seals the wound shut. It takes a second longer to charge up, and then unleashes a blast of force and energy towards Charity in reprisal!     Meanwhile, Seres reaches Velvet. Charity can't make out what the two are saying, but when Velvet rises, her left arm bursts out of its bandages, turning into this massive red and black claw that glows not unlike the dragon. She's using the claw to pin Seres to the wall. Very uncomfortably.
Sanary Rondel	Success! It... Doesn't really feel like it for Sanary, though, as the dragon dies and releases that wave of darkness. The healer bites down hard enough to draw some blood before snapping out of that lingeirng despair and rage, letting out one last shout just to get it out of her system while maintaining that white-knuckled grip on her weapon.      "Who's... Who's next? Anyone else want so-..?!" Her attempt at bravado is cut off, though, when she spots the remaining daemons actually being relatively compliant after all that's happened. The healer's still breathing heavily as the adrenaline slowly wears off, and then she approaches the exorcists and malakhim as a cloud of green light slowly forms overhead, floating towards whoever indicates or points out that they need healing.      "Th... That's better. Alright, who's injured? I got ya, so just holler or raise your hand or whatever. Don't crowd now." She sends some of that energy Kirito's and Gawain's way as well. Although she's trying to maintain a strong face, however, they might notice that she still seems a little shaky compared to how she was before they had come into the basement. Not physically, but more like she's got a forced confidence going on.
Xiaomu	Scratch one dragon, but the miasma surges outwards from the disintegrating corpse - and even with that barricade, Xiaomu gets bathed in it. And suddenly, the sage fox understands *EXACTLY* how Daemonblight is transmitted. Hopefully her malak is safe from it, but .... the memories, the fury, the anguish? They're there. They're inside her. Buried, bottled up, suppressed through discipline and willpower, held back by the knowledge that there are some REALLY nice humans if you don't write off the whole species for the bigotry of a loud-mouthed handful, buffered further by how awesome mortal inventiveness can be when it's put to good uses like games, movies, literature .... Xiaomu reaches out, half-blinded, and grasps her staff, using it to get back to her feet .... and then she slams the staff's butt end against the floor, making the rings clash against each other, a loud chime filling the corridor, echoing down to the basement through the dragon-wrought hole. Then again. And again. And again, as Xiaomu starts chanting a sutra - not in Japanese, but in the centuries-old Chinese that was her *first* spoken language. She doesn't dare try exerting her supernatural power outwardly, this is just to give herself more focus, shore up her will, and help her claw free of the Daemonsblight again. She doesn't keep slamming her staff down, just shakes it rhythmically as her chant crescendoes ... and then it ends, the last of the burning shadows falling away from her once more, leaving the sage fox looking exhausted, enervated, and atypically depressed. "'M okay," she grunts, "just a sec ..." She unslings her carrypack, fishing out a package of fried tofu, and zips the pack up once more, re-slinging it before she starts walking onwards. As she goes, she tears the package open and starts eating like a starving foxgirl. Granted, she's frequently a glutton for fried tofu (as Reiji could attest if he were here), but this .... is something different.
Kirito	The Dragon's cleaved apart and Kirito erupts through the space where its head had just been before it dispersed into shadows. He cuts through the cloud, wreathed in darkness... and...     "... Oh... CRAP--!"     HITS THE BRAKES! His wings cut out just as he begins to brake though. Ultimately, he cancels very little momentum.     Oooooooooooooooooops. He REALLY should have thought this one through a bit more. All Kirito can do is prepare himself mentally. Because...     BAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!     He impacts like a meteor against the reinforced ceiling and pinballs back down towards the floor. He goes skidding across the floor until he slams into another WALL... and promptly falls to the ground, his swords coming to a rest on the ground nearby.     But the pain isn't the main reason that the Black Swordsman's groaning and hissing as he gets up onto his hands and knees, struggling to rise but gurgle-gasping like he's being strangled...     Shivers run down his spine. Fear, rage, terror, bloodlust, and more. It all mixes into a single blur of panic and flashing memories.     ONce some energy from Sanary reaches him though... the shivering and hissing dies down. He starts to breathe normally. Coming back to his senses. "Is that what these things are...?" He realizes suddenly with a snap of logic.
Samantha Middleton	You know what? It DOES feel good to punch a dragon! Even better, it puts her and Fido near the head. And just at that moment Samantha remembers what they asked. SUBDUE or kill the daemons. So... that's... um... a thing she can maybe try to do? Try being the operative word. Let's get on that.     With the claw-hand smashing the dragon snoot, Samantha probably opens herself up for a bite of some kind. The other launches a rope and grapple, drawing it in rapidly to whip around the snout and try to slam shut the jaws. Yes, she's going to attempt to hog-tie a dragon using her power armor. This will probably not go very well!     She's also being a little more rough than she has to. Negativity and all.
Charity Whiteheart	Fast. That's bad. Of course Charity is fast as well, but that just means she isn't murdered. More durability or not, that wouldn't be good to tan head-on. The hunter whips both her enhances, air-boosted blades right at the dragon's eyes, either to blind it or make it flinch so it won't know where she went.     Not that this is a hard to guess thing. Charity vanished into the ground again. When she surfaces, it's near Velvet and Seres, and she rises with a bloodied shoulder, arm, and probably a limp in her left side. "Let's try this again! Since everyone is doing the opposite of what I suggest, I SUGGEST you all bitch and whine and fight yourselves while the convenient passerby fights the HUGE DRAGON assaulting everything all alone! That will be useful! Now do you all want to take this thing down or do I just start stabbing kidneys until people listen?!"
Gawain	The triple attack works, slaying the dragon. Gawain turns to Kirito and Sanary, smiling as it dies, before the next wave of negativity hits. He finds himself frowning, briefly, before he forces himself to fight it, to force it /off/. He just grabs his head and shakes it back and forth, as if he is trying to shake the negativity out. Eventually, it fades and he cracks another smile. "Alright! I'll assist the exorcists here; you guys can go assist the others, if you'd like!" Gawain will proceed to then join the exorcists, helping lead the daemons back into their cells. His armor is /coated/ in the dragon blood, which might as well help with that.
Maya	the Rage, despair, sorrow, heartbreak, doubt and fear. She knows all those well as they wash over her. Sorrow and Despair are known well to Maya the day her parents die. Her father gunned down buy bioarmored shock troopers of the Chosen. His last words to her mother and her to run, it was in vain for her mother. Her mother shielde her at the cost of her life. She would have died clinging to her mother's corpse, had it not been for the man known as Uncle rasing into the hell of that street to pull her out of it. Heart Breatk is well known to her as well. A Chosen Nobleman named Gunner who had sided with herr cause to save the planet from Dosakis Hearsay. Her worked with them well and she came to trust and start to have feelings for him but she never got to tell him. Their airship durinf the war was boadrd he delayed Dosais at the cost of his own life to save her party. It was an act that did leave to salvation but Maya never got to tell him, she didn't even understand till after he died what she felt. Rage is perahaps Maya's greatest Sin, she knows this the slaughter of an entire country by Doskais men. She found them demanded their surrende and when they refused? She and her companions wiped them out to the last man, there was no mercy in her heart that day only the red rage of compassion. Doubt? She ahs heer doubt about her blood line, about what she actually is, the thing she wants but knows she'll never have. She questions her judgment in later love a lover who turned out horribly for her, questionale jobs during hertime saving her world? Even now about her new path in life with the Paladins there are doubts they are alwys there. She's afraid though of ending up like Doskais so mad on his blood lines power that he became the very thing the Fates had fought over a thousand years ago more or less. The force from the fallen dragon plays off that yet? Maya has will she has ... more than just the darkness in everyone's heart. Maya pushes back, friends, salvation found in the most unlikely of places in the heart of a man who sold his killing skills for money and the lover of the very man she fear. She's seen the worst of her world rise up in it's darkest hour and prove they could be better that she could be better. Even in the end Kyra had still loved Dosakis and in his drying realization he had ... saved his soul from the fires of Jinac. Maya pushes back with everything she ahs she grits for a moment. She pushes through because in the end? Maya's never been alone even when she thinks she is. She snaps free and she's panting raggedly looking pale but all right. "Is that...how it spreads...Xiaomu...?"
Velvet Crowe	DOCKS:     The dragon eats knives in the eyes.     It lets out a terrible roar of pain as it stumbles forward and crashes onto the ground. Its eyes begin regenerating, but it needs a moment.     This allows Charity to pop up by Velvet and Seres. The daemon glares at the intruder, then back at Seres. The malak weakly raises one hand to chide Charity. "Please. It's fine. I told you, my wounds are lethal. This is the only way for her to make it off this island." A faint smile, and she looks back towards Velvet. "... like she told me. Our goals align. Do it, Velvet."     Velvet presses Seres harder into the wall. The big, glowing clawed hand begins glowing brighter, pulsing, like it's drinking. Seres raises her other hand, extending an ornate comb towards Velvet. "Our wishes... are one... and the same. I treasured those days... when you, and I... and Arthur were... together."     Velvet screams. It's not anger.     INSIDE:     By now, most daemons have either returned to their cells, or been "escorted" back to their cells. The exorcists and malakhim don't have any qualms about killing the ones that don't cooperate-- in defense, of course, not for fun-- but, given the aid of those who stay back, and healing, it isn't difficult.     Samantha ties up the dragon's skull. It's dead, I mean, it's not going to put up a fight. It's a pretty heavy skull though! Then again she has power armor, so it's no big deal.     By now, everyone's sufficiently freed up they can head to the rear docks if they want. No doubt Sanary and Maya have dispensed delicious healing and a few deep breaths will allow shaking the darkness off. Time to find the praetor, right?     DOCKS:     But when they reach the docks, what they see is Oscar, held to the ground by fiery shackles at his ankles and wrists. A blinded dragon whose eyes are regenerating. Charity, Seres and Velvet near the wall behind the dragon, and Velvet's massive hand just... squeezes. Clenches. Crushes Seres.     Her body breaks apart into flames and energy that's sucked into her arm. A large ornate ring is all that's left, and the daemon seizes it immediatly. The shackles on Oscar come undone and he rises. "You'd kill anyone to leave, wouldn't you? Even your own rescuer?!" He probably shouldn't laser-focus on Velvet like that with the dragon still there, but one problem at a time.
Xiaomu	Xiaomu is still finishing her emergency fried tofu rations when they reach the docks to see .... well, that. The empty packet is carefully rolled up very tightly and stuck into a pocket of the sage fox's vest, and then Xiaomu pulls her staff loose from the loops on her carrypack. "Hey, don't look now but the cavalry's here," she notes to Velvet and Oscar. "So is the other boss fight. You wanna maybe save your bad feelings until we're *not* --" Waaaaaaaaaaaait a second. Rescuer? And this was a jailbreak. "Who was rescuing who, exactly, and what *are* we doing about the big dragon over there?" Xiaomu asks instead, keeping half an eye and most of an ear on the dragon, the rest of her attention split between Oscar and Velvet.
Sanary Rondel	After dispensing some more sweet sweet healing juice to prisoner and guard alike (and tossing the evil eye at any exorcists who might have looked like they went overboard), Sanary's finally heading out with Gawain and Kirito in tow! She's still a little shaky even then, but she does cast a vaguely concerned glance and another overly forced smile towards Gawain and Kirito.      "You two okay? Don't force yourselves if you're feeling out of it." The axe healer takes a moment to steady herself, and then she hurries to the docks to see... Actually, she's not quite sure what she's looking at. Blonde guy in a bad position, another freaking dragon (which has her clenching the axe tightly again), freaky arm lady, and then blonde guy yelling at freaky arm lady.      "Hey! We'll take care of the dragon, so just get inside or downstairs or... Whatever." Sanary starts getting herself ready for another charge at the dragon, but she stops after a few more steps when she starts actually processing what's going on (with some help from Xiaomu's question about rescuers).      "... Uh. We /are/ killing the dragon before we get into that, right? Or is that what we're rescuing?" Things just got confusing. Again.
Gawain	Once the daemons are escorted back to their cells, Gawain will superjump through the hole that the dragon made, healing due to Sanary and Maya's support. He makes his way towards the docks, wiping the blood off his blade carefully, just in time to see a young woman with giant, clawed hands crushing one of the malakhim to death and...absorbing her. He suddenly has no idea what's going on, except that this is confusing, as the Knight rushes up to the others, only keeping his sword drawn mainly because of the dragon. "Sir Gawain, Paladin Warden! What's going on here?!" And now that they're close by, the similarities between Oscar and Gawain are probably highly noticeable. Except to Gawain, who doesn't even realize it.
Charity Whiteheart	Charity sees the others arrive, and she makes flailing motions. "PLEASE kill the dragon!" Maybe that will give her a chance to give a hard look at Velvet... and an even harder one at Oscar. "You're lucky I don't like acting without knowing everything. You're looking a lot worse than she is right now."     Drawing two more knives(seriously, her inventory list just says 'lots' under 'Qty'), Charity looks at Velvet. "She was willing to die for you, you'd better be worth it." But right now she has a dragon to take care of.     Gawain wants answers? "Giant regenerating dragon! How about we down that and then you can ask questions!" She phases into the ground, so she can resurface to the side, aiming two more slashes toward the beast.
Samantha Middleton	A quick query over tacband has Samantha figuring out what needs done in the immediate manner. Why is this so complicated? The armored girl levels her arm at the dragon and switches to a small-caliber round, firing a rapid stream of small bullets along the dragons' wings. The whole point is to keep them from escaping, right? Even regenerating, maybe if she can shred those wings that will keep it grounded. At least it means she won't have to try to engage with her limited fuel.
Velvet Crowe	Oscar is more than glad to have people at his back. Nevermind how awkward it looks to have Gawain there. The praetor shakes his head, regains his composure, and points his blade forward. "That daemon woman was freed by a traitorous malak. Everything happening here is her fault! Bring her in, no matter what it takes!"     "I have a NAME," Velvet barks. "It's Velvet Crowe. And when you see him, tell Artorius that I'll devour everything on my way to him! Daemon, exorcist and malak alike! I'll devour them all!" The dragon. It might be her best bet. Charity wants answers? She can have them, sure. Velvet yanks Charity by the arm-- using her human arm, not the big glowing people-eating claws. She dashes for the dragon. She hops onto it, while it's still reeling from its eye injury, from its wings getting shotgunned through wildly, forcing Charity on it too.     "FLY, DAMNIT!" She plunges her red and black arm into the back of the creature's neck. It roars in pain, it takes off, by instinct. Rapid regeneration of its wings drains its energy massively. There's no control going on here. Taming by pain. The dragon flies away, towards the-- front docks? There's cannonfire. Spells being flung at it. Velvet clicks her tongue. As the beast flies over the warpgate, it gets skewered and blasted by all manners of defenses, including Samantha's turrets. It's too weak, so Velvet does what she does best. She eats it, straight up. Her arm just consumes the entire dragon, blasting it into a fine mist that dissipates, and leaving its passengers freefalling.     Barriers. Barriers around the warpgate. Velvet's arm remains lowered, suddenly invoking a blast that resembles the very dragon she just disposed of, and she smashes through the barriers. Velvet and Charity fall through the warpgate rather ungraciously, and that's the end of that chase.     Back with the group, Oscar sighs. "This is bad. A daemon like her loose, she's could kill thousands before we even find her. How many exorcists died today just so she could get out during the distraction... thank you. I'm sorry you all had to see this. I'm Oscar Dragonia, praetor-rank exorcist for the Abbey. I'll make sure you're all well fed tonight, at the very least."
Gawain	Well, Gawain thought that things might be peaceful, because no one was fighting - the woman getting smashed was strange and alarming, but he had no ocntext. But Oscar quickly gave context, and Gawain pointed his sword. He moves to say something and attack the dragon...but it's too late. Velvet escapes on the dragon with one of their fellow Elites, and then eats the dragon. By the time he could move to react, they're already through the warpgate, and could be anywhere. So the Knight of the Sun just sighs softly and gives Oscar a light smile. "Sir Gawain, Knight of Dun Realtai and Paladin Warden. It's a good thing we got your call, these daemons are incredible, and not in a good way!" He turns to face the warpgate, before turning back to Oscar. "Don't worry. Your Abbey will have full support of the Paladins in capturing Velvet Crowe. But for now, I believe it is best for people to tend to their wounds, especially see if you have any, Sir Oscar, and calm this storm. Food would be excellent!" Poor Oscar. He doesn't know how much it takes for Gawain to be 'well-fed'.
Sanary Rondel	"Huh. So that's what happened..." Sanary murmurs to herself after Oscar's explanation and Velvet's retort. Before she can respond herself, the clawed woman takes off with Charity and the dragon in tow! The healer doesn't even have time to get more than a few yards off the ground before the barriers are broken through, and she floats back down with an unsteady thump on the ground before sighing.      "Well... That happened. Er. Sanary Rondel, pig wrangler." She rests her definitely-not-pig-wrangling gunaxe on the ground while turning to Oscar as well, an awkward cough leaving her before she speaks up again. "If she's that dangerous, then... Yeah, gimme a call if you're willing to pay. Food, money... Both is good, too." She chuckles lightly, then pauses for a long moment.      "... We /are/ getting paid for this, right?
Samantha Middleton	Aaand... she kidnaps Charity. Unbidden, without realizing how it could be taken as a pun, Samantha says, "That woman took Charity!" Fortunately she can clarify it. "I... uh..." She is surrounded by Paladins. "Thank you, sir, but I think I will just pick up my turrets and be on my way back. My ally was just kidnapped, and I'm going to need to report that." It's pretty important! Then she thinks. "... actually I'm not sure who to report it to. And if you're going to get her back maybe I should be in on that?"     If Charity was RIGHT and the woman was innocent, it'd be good to be in on the planning session.     The hatch opens in Fido's amor, and the clockwork cyborg teen hops out, breathing hard and bruised after the battering the suit took. "But something to eat would be great."
Xiaomu	Even when there's still a vague chance of stopping Velvet from escaping, Xiaomu doesn't look overly enthused about bringing her in, much less 'no matter what it takes'. Admittedly, most of that is because she's still recuperating from what she had to go through to GET to the docks ... Actually, no. ALL of it can be traced to that, directly or indirectly. But she's not going to challenge Oscar on that right now - if Xiaomu doesn't have the oomph in her to leap into another battle right now, she certainly doesn't have the emotional wherewithal to argue about the nature of daemons with somebody who's native to this world and probably legitimately knows more about them than the sage fox does. And for all Xiaomu's newfound insight into daemonology ... Well, kidnapping a dragon for a ride is one thing. Consuming it whole and weaponizing its very essence to punch your way through a sorcerous barricade? That's an ENTIRELY different matter, and definitely not one that Xiaomu's equipped to confront tonight. She settles for introducing herself, "Name's Xiaomu, handling monsters is a specialty, glad to be of some assistance. I've got a malak who needs to be re-partnered with one of your surviving staffers .... and I'd be interested to read up on your exorcism methods if there's an opportunity to do so. In the meantime, I could use a good meal, so thanks for offering~."
Velvet Crowe	"Thank you, Sir Gawain," Oscar says with a polite bow, as he remembers to sheathe his sword. "We'll cooperate with you to ensure this ends well."     He also nods to Sanary. "Of course. I wouldn't expect you all to have taken these risks for free. We'll set you up with whatever you need."     Sam gets the same answer, though Oscar asks her to stay. "Please, at least for a meal. You risked your lives for me and the exorcists under my command, the least we can do is a meal. Once we're done cleaning up. Shouldn't take long."     To Xiaomu, he nods. "Oh! You saved one of our malakhim? That's good! Malakhim whose vessels die have a tendency to die as well. It's a symbiotic bond that way. You didn't take a long-term oath with it, right?" The malak, then, pops out of Xiaomu, a sphere of light that reforms into the man in exorcist armor, with brown-ish accents to indicate he's an earth malak. "No, we didn't. The oath was to reach you. I'll need a new vessels now, praetor." Oscar nods. "I lost one fighting that woman, so..."     That's solved, too.