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One moment she was sleeping. Drifting. Speaking to him. Barely there. Then... there. Fully there. Her. Color seeped into her, bit by bit. Black and purple, ink and paper. It felt like she was pulling her skin back into place. Wings flicked and membrane stretched, dark claws flexed on hands and feet, a long tail lashed and coiled. Horns pierced through her forehead, curved back over her skull. She felt contained. Not complete, not whole... but more solid than before, certainly.

She'd reveled in the sensation, enjoyed being herself again. More than before. She'd let the echos of her name slam around her systems and felt at peace by it. She knew her name. Her identity.

What else could she possibly need to seek he--


"Haha! Fell asleep there, eh?"

A shutter jolted through her, violet eyes wide as her head was thrown back. She stared around herself, taking in the fact she was on the back of some beast, that someone's hand was on her shoulder. Her first thought was why she wasn't flying. Questions of where she was, who the heck was touching her, and why did she give a hoot about where they were going tumbled into place only after this first, most important, question.

The figure beside her was shadow bound, though she could still make out the grin. "Come on, it's not that far now. We'll be able to get this all sorted out soon." Someone else was speaking. She glanced over towards a second figure, but noticed they were more speaking to... someone else?

Seven figures of shadow rode with her. Four more figures in color and shapes she only now could comprehend joined. Two sparked memories. Agsilved drew up straighter in her seat, a smile flickering across her dark lips. "Zanna? Andie?"

The names she could identify them by alone.

The third figure gave her a small start, taking in the exposed muscles and tendons and bits of bone. Not enough to make her cringe. Not now anyways. She recognized him. They'd just fought together... hadn't they? She wasn't sure any more. She at least managed a smirk towards the half-corpse. "You alright riding that thing?" It could at least move faster than he could.

One she could not place made her frown, though she felt the expression melt away quickly enough. They were going towards the same goal. Wasn't that all she needed to know? "I'm afraid your name escapes me for the moment. Must have hit my head when I was out." Had she really forgotten who she was traveling with? She shook her head. Had they all joined together with the shadow riders..? Must have. How, when, why..? Those just gave her a stinging headache to ponder. "Can someone tell me why I decided riding a beast would be preferable to wind--"

She didn't get much of a chance to finish.

The shriek. A shout. The slicing of an arrow through the air, through flesh and sinew and a wind pipe. The gurgle and slosh of breath mingling with blood. Agsil let out a snarled hiss, not wasting time before she was off the creature and in the air were she felt more in control. "Where did that come from?" Cover? Cover from what? It was quite apparent by how she hovered off the ground, wings beating furiously, that the dragon woman had no intention of ducking down.

Aiden blinked awake at the prodding and the laughter. He sat up and looked around, noticing first the four in color and then the seven shadow people. He looked down at the, horse?, shadow beast he was riding in confusion then looked back up to his companions when Viae spoke. "Actually I guess Andie isn't my name, it's Aiden." He corrected with a small grin, confusion on what they were doing here written on his face.

He looked at the shadow people again and some vague sense of familiarity and a vague idea of what they were doing came to mind. Just in time for one of them to take an arrow to the throat. He let out a breath that sounded like a hiss in displeasure then looked around for where the arrow had come from, hand going to his staff.

Thump Thump Thump Thump
The sound of trampling hooves racing across rocky earth. Or was it the back of his head slamming against the hindquarters of the beast?

Merkily his vision came through as he sat up on his saddle-less mount, a rattling in his ears from the bumpy ride. He had an eerie feeling like he'd woken up like this before, not so much on the back of a shadow beast but just in general having no clue where he'd come from or how he got there.

"You alright riding that thing?" A ghoulish voice called to him.

"Now that I'm conscious--I think so" He turned to see a familiar face - pale and fleshy and full of ink.

Looking around he noticed a gang of others had joined them, some shadowy and, vaguely familiar and a few alive and in color - more or less like himself. Some seemed to be acquainted but many were strangers as far as he could tell. Before he could gain his bearings much further he noticed what they were headed for - a strange opening in the mountainside ahead.

They were looking for something--- that's all he could remember. Together. They were there to find--something.

And apparently they weren't the only ones, either.
As the entrance drew near Chains watched as an arrow speared though the shadowy throat of …that guy he thought he knew. And just like that, he fell to the ground. Dead and gone.

Not so much fear, as adrenaline kicked though his long since dry veins as the others shouted for cover and dismounted their beasts. The ink-dragon, Ag..Agsil he remembered calling her, stood her ground in front of the oncoming assault while others looked more or less like ducking for cover first.

Probably a smart idea, if only until he could see what he was up against. Agsil being a bit swifter than he, if he recalled correctly, could afford to prance about in the open. But not his slow a** self. Putting the boar-like mounts life second to his, he ducked behind it's shadowy girth and watched to see what- or who - would emerge from the line of fire.

There was joy in her to see the figures she knew. Could recall memories of without feeling that painful, nagging sensation at the back of her skull. She wasn't the only one to remember, either. Zanna, Andie, and Chains had all responded to her, recognized her.

Andie had corrected her--Aiden? Ah. It made sense. She was no longer Viae. Then Zanna was not Zanna? Was Chains Chains? Must be. He didn't correct her. So who was the pale pink ghoul with the tail?

The one that urged her to get out of the way. "I don't run from a fight," she snarled towards the direction the arrow had come from, eyes flickering this way and that to try and find the source. "What good would hiding do?"

Double-edged blade, that. Not being hovering in the air likely would have kept their opponent from spotting them. Or at least her.

The black blade sliced through the air before she even fully realized the damn thing was there. Her arm had come up in time with her wings propelling her backwards, taking the blade to her forearm as she kept herself from further harm. For the moment. In a flash, her fan was in her uninjured hand, slashing at what she hoped was a weak point in the knight's armor.

"And I'm not Viae! I'm Agsilved!"

"Good to know!" Aiden said when Vi-Agsilved corrected her name. He held his staff up and kicked the sides of the beast so it when charging at the Knight. When he was close enough he stung his staff hard at the Knight, then steered the beast to move farther away.

Chains waited in the wings -- semi-literally between the body of his mount and large dragon wings of Agsil as blades and magic wrought all manner of violence against the iron clad soldier's attacks.

He was hardly among any rookie crowd, he thought as he waited for his opportunity to strike. He would only have one chance-- his weapon was ironically slow and heavy to move and with no real swiftness in his own body he knew timing would be everything.

An opening came when he realized the knight may just be too preoccupied with the other fighters to notice him creeping low to ground around him.

He wound his arms back as far as he could propelled his axe across the knights armored legs from behind. The shock of metal on metal sent him flying backward, reeling. When he looked up however, to his surprise the iron giant had fallen to his feet.

Seiana_ZI

Kaiyumi

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OOC

Name of character: Chains
Damage done: 10
CURRENT HP OF BOSS: 0/50
Current HP: 35/40
Special ability: King's Regret: Once KOed, regain half HP. Only auto attacks allowed after use.
Species Ability: Undead: Heal an opponent for your attack dice roll once PER battle encounter. Once you equip a weapon this is invalid.
Current weapon equipped: Simple Revenge, roll: 2d8 -6
TARGET: Boss

"Great work every one." Aiden cheered when it went down. He gave the guy, Chains was it?, a pat on the back when Agsil helped him up. "S'alright Aggy, you were just being yourself." He grinned at her. "And I guess so. Only thing we can do." He said and scooped up one of the items.

Loot:

Traps.

Why were there traps?

You'd think someone with wings could just... fly on by. You would think that, wouldn't you? No. Apparently they were so pressure sensitive they could feel the brush of her through the damn air above them.

One had knocked her senseless, another had left burning gashes in her left thigh. She was lucky her wings were still mobile, though some new inky-bloody tares had definitely popped up. A nasty gash just below one of her horns leaked ink into her face, making her rather pissy as she tried to put pressure on the wound. She... wasn't positive her wounds would clot up. She didn't have the same ability to block them up. Still, she managed to warp some of the ink in her shallower cuts, slowing the ooze.

Sort of.