Within nature's hold (Fantasy, adventure!O/A)

[Dusk_shock]

Whistling while approaching the castle Dusk had a smile on his face, or that sly expression that he always carried of course. Unlike most of the people who had gone to the castle he had a good reason to come here. After all he had heard his old pupil was here, and he wanted to see him after so many years of being away. Things had changed though and some would say for the worse others for the better but who knew.

For example that spear on his back was never there before, and in addition it didn't have a steam injection near the blade either. Yet that didn't really matter because for the most part Dusk was still and always would be Dusk in personality of course.

As he got to the castle he could not help but notice a guard being lifted in a manner that could not have felt too good for him. To this Dusk gave a long whistle and said with his low voice that always made it sound like he was trying to steal something or someone's attention. "I do hope he deserved that one." What else could he say since it was not his business.

To this he also noticed the woman crawling out of the water: a woman which he walked over and helped up. Unlike his pupil he didn't have a problem helping people at random times for no money. After which he didn't really say anything to the woman or the other male instead he just leaned against a wall, folded his arms and waited for everything to be resolved before he would introduce himself. "ho-hum..." He said softly under his breath.

[greenelizabeth]

Tsukasa decided he'd wait for them outside. He pulled out the ocoraina and gave adeo a questioned look before he disapeared. When he reapeared the ocoraina shattered. Tsukasa sighed as he looked at it. "Whats his deal?" He asked himself. He sat on a ledge with his staff next to him. "He probly doesn't think I could help her." He suggested to himself

[chaosdaae]

Alex's eyes widened as her opponent drew a second blade. She struggled to bring her blade away from his first scimitar, but knew she wouldn't make it in time to block the second thrust. Instead she did the best she could to angle her shoulder away, causing the blade to glance off her armor.

That strike avoided, she lifted a foot and aimed it towards his midriff. Whether it connected or not was not really a concern of hers - its main purpose was to help her be able to pull her own sword free and give her some space to jump backwards from Diago.

Once a decent yard or two away, she adjusted her stance and held her sword ready. She hadn't expected two blades, so she took another moment to size up her opponent, looking for any other weapons he might pull out.

"Stand down," she ordered. "You won't make it out of here on your own."

[Diago Tasume]

Is sadness all there is in this life?

Diago Tasume the Ranger

Diago jumped backward feeling a small sting on his stomach from the kick, but he just laughed. His blades then started to give off a greenish hue. He swung his blade up and across the ceiling. The ceiling started to bubble and turn green and started to crack and fall. He started to climb the step but stopped. He walks back over to the part of the ceiling that was green and stuck his blade into it again stopping the ceiling from falling. It might have killed them all in here. He looked at the woman right in her eye's. Then he shook his head and started to walk up the stairs and put his swords away.

No, there must be more, and i shall find it.

[Lance Tristram]

It was a marvel to see one's own reflexes in action sometimes, in one instance Fang was laying on his face in the street, watching a man walk over his body like it was a dream. The next he was standing on his feet his fist smarting from striking the man's groin and then skipping past that and smacking straight into his skirt guard. His head throbbed slightly but years of meditation and single minded focus allowed him to dull it in the most minor of senses. The other three men stood a gasp for a moment, the only sound the high pitched whine coming from their commanding officer who was laying on the ground and holding his jewels. Then the three rushed him, a common manuever when one was armed and thier opponent was not.

Fang allowed the first to pass by him, his hat was cleft in twain for his trouble but his leg snapped out and caught the guard on the knee, sending him sprawling. The second two came in with measured thrusts and feints driving Fang back against the circle of people and then back around to the fountain. A stranger was helping the woman out of the water, getting her back out of the fighting ring. It was strange that Fang noticed it at all, normally one tunnel visioned in these circumstances and ignored their surroundings.

As the three men danced and dodged about the street Fang spied an opening and took it, catching one of the guards hard in the nose with a haymaker and crunching bone beneath the meaty blow. The man's eyes teared up and his face shot red with swelling and spurted crimson across his breastplate. The last one though brought his blade across Fang's stomach, opening his shirt and his flesh with the strength of a mad man. The monk reeled from the blow and called out in the sudden flush of pain. Again reflexes honed from years and years of training kicked in and Fang felt the ki gather within him. Bending elements had never been easy, even for his late master, but Fang was finding that difficultly is sometimes just a matter of perception. He hand shot forward in blinding speed, ignoring the open wound on his stomach that threatend to burst open at any moment, a sound eminated from his motion, like the wing beats of great and ancient wyrm rising up like the thunder bird himself. There was a crack as stone split beneath his effort and the guard was thrust back and down into the street where his armor dented and deformed around his torso and his sword snapped in half. The guards ears popped under the din and animal in the street reared back and gave protest to the sonic boom that came and went like a passing storm.

Fang stood there for a moment before whispering to no one in particular, "Heaven's whisper crushes the forge." Before dropping to one knee and holding his stomach. Pain flooded over him and the first two guards, whom had by now recovered, stumbled over to him and hefted him up by the shoulders. "It'll be the axeman's block for you peasent." One said as they tried to half drag him toward out of the circle.

[The Crimson Redemption]

With Tsu vanishing and Alex in battle Adeodatus took Cere's hand and began to lead her out of the dungeon. When he saw Alex take her stand he muttered something to her under her breath."She will be outside, do what you need to do if it gets to that." He knew Cere would hear him, but figured she would have no idea as to what he was talking about. As such he thought it would be safe to say what he did.

Now while leading Cere out of the prison area he said to her. "Do you know why we need to go with you Cere? I assure you I'm no hero, but I can't fight their wishes either." Adeodatus was a bit confused by all of this and soon understood that this was far to early to ask her such a question especially considering what just happened. "I'll keep you safe through this though I promise." Pausing for only a moment he corrected himself. "We will keep you safe through this I mean. All of us." With that being said he lead her out to the area in which they met up with Tsukasa.

[greenelizabeth]

Tsukasa saw the two figures approach. "Only two people short, not bad Adeo your not completly hearless." He said and then paused. He wasn't sure why he said that. They were his feelings but they were also mean. He turned his gaze over to Cere. "Are you alright?" He asked looking her up and down. She didn't have and injuries but, she was with adeo so you couldn't tell.

[dragonhunter1011]

Alexander stood outside the skirts of the castle, for reasons unknown to himself. All he knew, that whispering voices told him to wait, not to move. He had always trusted the whispering, it had kept him alive all his life, since birth. 'Silence, watch, listen, hold still, your task starts here' It whispered to him, hurting his mind, but calming him. He twitched his finger on his scimatar hilt.

[chaosdaae]

"Coming from you, convict?" Alex replied to Adeodatus, smirking slightly. "Fine - looks like I'll have to leave the princess with you. But if I find one scratch on her, I'll have your head. Now get out of here."

She gritted her teeth when Diago refused to listen to her and took to the stairs. Why did she even bother talking? They never listened to her. She started after him, but looked up in surprise when the ceiling started coming apart. Not without a small amount of panic, she avoided some of the chunks that started to fall. Suddenly, he stopped the ceiling from falling.

Alex stared back in confusion as he looked at her. With him on the stairs, he probably could have made it out if the ceiling had collapsed - why did he stop it?

Even as he put his swords away, she knew she couldn't let him escape and took after him, sprinting up the stairs behind him.

[Dusk_shock]

Watching all that transpired Dusk opened his mouth and made a yawning motion while running his fingers inside of his ears. "By what means..." He stated open endedly not really finishing the statement. Thinking that now would be a good time to step in Dusk walked over to the group of guards that were pulling Fang and waved his left hand twice. Once to force the blood that was running down Fang's body to stop and begin to close the wound up by forming at the opening. This was a form of healing, as for the second wave it caused the blood along the fallen knight to form at his face and change the appearance. In fact it matched the color and everything, since Dusk was a master at what he did this was no hard task at all.

Reaching the guards he tapped one on the shoulder and said "What do you think you're doing!? This man just saved your princess!" He said pointing down at the guard who was dead but also looked like a completely different person now at least in the face. "This was no real guard but a spy who got away from me that I tracked to this exact location. We were aware that he was after CereCere but had no idea he would get this far! You should pay him a bit of gratitude. Did you even wonder why he didn't use such a skill to take the both of you out!? Yes such a man could, and should have in my point of view! You are both fools now drop him at once or I will report you to the princess by the authority given to me by king Kendal himself."The fact that he knew the kings true name and pronounced it with such authority should have been enoughand he was hoping that it would be.

[Diago Tasume]

Is sadness all there is in this life?

Diago Tasume the Ranger

Diago looked back noticing she was still following him and sighed. Why does it have to be like this. It all becomes very sad when families get the notice their loved ones are not coming home but are in fact getting a new room 6 feet under ground. He plunged his sword into the ground and it started to turn green and started to bubble like the roof. He waved to her and started to walk off and stopped and sighed again. He turned around stabbing his sword in again stopping the bubbling. He then continued to walk off. Why couldn't he bring himself to hurt her? He couldn't figure it out.

No, there must be more, and i shall find it.

[Candy Flavored Succubus]

Cere slowly looked up to Adeo as he spoke. Gently, she shook her head, "No.. I'm sorry.. I wish I could be of more help.. They haven't returned to me just yet... I'm sure they will though..", she faded off, still a bit saddened. She smiled weakly as the man continued on, "Thank you Adeo.. but I don't want anyone to die for my sake... I don't want anyone to die.. anymore..", she whimpered, as they approached Tsu. Just as she was about to turn her gaze back to the earth, she noticed him, and gave a smile in his direction.

"Yes, I'm fine, all because of Adeodatus and Alex..", she said, nodding slowly to Tsu.. Looking at him, she noticed something, no.. someone, a bit in the distance.. Were they waiting for them. "Hey.. Were... any of us expecting anyone?" ,she asked curiously, extending her arm and raising her hand to point in the man's direction.

Her other hand was still against Adeo's as he was still leading away.. There was something familiar about his warmth.. Something familiar about the situation..

(Edit: Ack! I hate when I forget a word or two, and then it makes things a bit awkward.
xD It confused meeee. DX ! Fixed though. biggrin )

[The Crimson Redemption]

Expecting the woman to shoot her threats at him after all it was her job to do such things he didn't really make much notice to her remark. Instead he focused on getting outside with Cere and keeping her save: not because he was told to but at this point wanted to. Adeodatus had not even realized he still hadn't got any honey like he was suppose to. Regardless of that he took her to meet up with Tsukasa knowing she wanted him around for some reason.

When the young man spoke to Adeodatus he gave a remark that might have not been expected. "You'd be surprised how cold hearted I can be." Obviously he wasn't offended by the comment at all, but honestly responding to it in a way that he felt was more than natural. Before he could really listen to anything else Tsukasa had to say he was being pulled along by a inquiring Cere. "I'm not expecting anyone, I don't know about Tsukasa, and you're more than enough help" Adeodatus added this at the end knowing he forgot to address it earlier, but didn't want her to feel bad or that she was useless. In truth none of this would be possible without her.

[chaosdaae]

What is with this guy? Alex grumbled mentally, fighting to catch up. It's like he can't decide whether to stay and fight or not! And what the hell kind of sword is that, anyway??

"Hold it!" she yelled after Diago, knowing she was wasting her breath. Part of her was telling her to throw her sword at him, but the logical part of her squashed that idea almost immediately. There was wishful thinking, and then there was stupidity. Luckily, he was walking while she was full-out sprinting. It wasn't long before she caught up with him.

"Drop your weapons!" she ordered - only out of force of habit now - as she finally got in range. She raised her sword to block any attacks he might throw her way - and swipe at him if he refused to listen to her warnings.

[Lance Tristram]

Fang felt a numbness wash over him as his stomach seemed to stitch itself back together, for a moment he thought he achieved the seventh level of Kali and his body no longer suffered the ill effects of the weapons of men. The thought however quickly vanished from his mind when he saw what could have been the second most intimidating man he'd ever laid eyes upon. He'd certainly been the one who used the healing technique. He listened and tried to appear confident in what the man was saying, he was lying to protect him but it was more than Fang had expected from the strangers looking on.

The guards looked down at him and Fang tried to give them a hard glare, something that said "let go of me naives" without actually saying it. They then looked to each other, a certain revoultion coming to their eyes and then one of them nodded in accord to the stranger's wishes. They released Fang and dropped him to his knee, Fang then made his way over to the stranger, rubbing one of his wrists and taking on his own authoritative stance.

"Next time try and give the city guard a little heads up the next time you pull this cloak and dagger stuff. Agent of the crown or not you need to keep us 'little' guys in the loop." One of them scoffed as they went to retrieve the second body, the one which had been accused of being a spy. As the two dragged him off Fang turned to his savior and nodded his thanks, "I appreciate what you did for me. I'm a stranger to this. . . this place. I hope I didn't distract you from any real mission you were involved in." He said, trying his best to sound humble and thankful at the same time.