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Lumine turned, "Hey, you comin' or whaAAAHH--!!"

Before she could respond, Lumine was plucked off her feet, and found her self being carried... somewhere, she was too dizzy to say exactly where. She screamed, clinging to Shen, and trying to make sense of the passing terrain as it flew past her in a quickening blur.

"Hey--Wait--Shen--Stop!" Lumine tried raising the Oni's attention between thundering steps, "Isn't--this--a bit--FAST?!" The look on her face made it seem like she might pass out!


(Eh, we'll have a bit more commentary!)

By this point, Lumine was neatly clinging to Shen's arm, holding on for dear life.

"Whatever--you say--!!"

She blinked away tears, trying to peer ahead and make out some sort of landmark to figure out where they were. It was no good. Any discernible features became lost in the rush, save for the generalization of FOREST and EARTH, and the wind rushing made her eyes sting. She finally gave up, and turned her head away from the wind's resistance.

What amazed her more was realizing this huge mountain of flesh that was an Oni was nearly as fast as Maemi was! But definitely not as cute. Well, as cute as a Tengu sidekick could be, anyway~ (Which is still pretty cute!)

"--Hey!" Lumine shouted over the rush of whipping wind and pulsing blood and thundering heartbeats. "If we find this kid--... What are you gonna do?! Like--what if she's--not what you expect?!"

Lumine climbed out of Shen's grasp, stumbling forward while she found her legs again. There was something about traveling at the speed of sound that tended to make the unprepared numb.

"Wh... what'dya mean, 'not what should be here'?" She paused, hands on her knees, and looking around. Her magical ineptitude meant that she couldn't pick up on whatever small vibrations of dark energy that may lay here.

"But if you think she's here, then we should just start looking! It's as simple as that, there's no need to over complicate things!" Lumine straightened her body and began to march forward, "So let's go!"

Lumine ran after Shen, at her own top pace but still nowhere near the Oni's unnatural speed. How could something so big be so fast?

"Natural but no life? What, you mean like... ghosts or something? Undead? Zombies and stuff?" She put a hand on her sword's sheath. "That's no problem, especially for a pure light like me! And with you as my sidekick, we're sure to win!"

She lept onto a rock embedded into the earth as she ran, posing momentarily. "Ya hear that?! Give us all you got, 'cause we're coming for you!!" And with that, she lept off and broke into a run, heading deeper towards the bandit's territory.

"Hm?" Lumine paused, turning to look at Shen. She thought she heard him say something, but the sudden rustling of tree leaves and breaking branches returned her attention to a nearby tree, eyes skyward.

"WHA--!"

With one hand already on the sheath, Lumine drew her sword with her other hand. She forgot that this sword was lighter, and as such overcompensated her own strength. In a flash she withdrew the blade, clashing metal against metal with the creature's massive weapon.

Lumine held her sword with both hands, locking blades with her attacker. Slowly she was being pushed into the ground's soft soil, but her body would not buckle. With teeth gritted, she began to push back against the blade, until the weight suddenly disappeared as Shen tore the monster apart. Lumine almost fell forward, stumbling, though catching herself before she hit the ground.

"H-Hey! He was mine, I totally had him!" She lept after the partially-rended corpse, and thrust the tip of her blade through it's skull/helm/whatever.

Lumine spent most of her time dodging Shen's attacks. He seemed pretty capable of taking these walking husks out!

"Anyone who got close--" She rolled between one of the creature's legs, slicing at one leg with her sword as she passed, "...Was probably killed!"

She clashed swords with yet another husk, before forcing the creature back and causing it to tumble into to others, knocking them all off balance.

"Hey, maybe it's your daughter's work? Maybe she grew up to be a necromancer or something!"

"Well standin' around here fighting all day won't get us answers!"

Lumine sidestepped another crushing blow, then leaped to kick off a nearby tree, and landed on top one of the creature's head and shoulders. With a swift kick, she knocked its rotted head clean off, sending it into another ghoul.

"C'mon, let's get closer and find the source! Or else they'll just keep comin'!"

As the headless corpse began to collapse, Lumine hopped onto another creature's, then another, and so on, making her way closer towards the center of the former bandit's territory.

"Tch, I could have done that too!" Lumine smirked, re-sheathing her blade at her side as she ran, having hopped off the last revenant's skull and back onto terra firma.

She darted through the woods, sidestepping or otherwise dodging an errant attack or three from pursuing creatures. For rotting hulks of bone, they sure seemed fast! Or perhaps just plentiful...

Lumine halted when, through the clearing, some sort of wall could be seen. Perhaps the wall of a fortress, a village, she wasn't sure yet, but at least she had reached something.

"Hey, inside! Inside! Maybe we can ditch 'em in there!" She began to hug the wall, searching for any passage past it...