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Raa's heart sank. It was like the scene unfolding before him was going in slow motion. One moment, the whistle was blowing, and a feeling of dread had taken him over. The next, Ella had turned to him, reaching out to touch her fingers to his before, out of no where, something flew across her vision.

It was all such a blur. Raa was in complete shock. Ella had been knocked to the ground, screaming in agony as ... something started EATING her. He stood there, frozen. Confused. Dazed.

This was all a nightmare. He was going to wake up. This whole experience had been an awful, realistic, traumatizing terrible nightmare. But as Ella kept screaming, it slowly dawned on him that this was very, very real.

Someone running by had swung at the thing hunched over Ella, knocking it back before the student ran off again. Raa started to run towards Ella, finally coming to his senses, reaching out to grab her, the beast leaped a second time. Raa was foolish to believe that had been incapacitating.

Instinctively, Raa flared his wings, doubly his size as he reflexively turned to face the assailant. He did the only thing he could did and lifted his leg to deliver a kick straight to the gut. Raa heard something crack on contact. Was it him!? Did he break his foot!? He wasn't sure. At the moment he was too hopped up on adrenaline for it to matter.

"Ella!?" Raa kneeled beside her, keeping his eyes towards where the form had disappeared. "Ella ... Ella, no ... " Raa stood up long enough to tear the bottom of his garb, then placed the fabric to her shoulder. There was so much blood!

"Ella, can you stand? We have to get you to safety! Ella ... ? Can you hear me?" He prayed she wasn't delirious.

Aedus was seeing red, his blood was boiling when he heard Niamh cry out in pain, whatever had touched her was going to pay in pain and blood. He turned and saw her ankle bleeding "Here I am!" He called out over the panicked crowd in the bunker. "Oh, my gods Niamh." Tears ran down his face. "I'll never forgive myself I failed you." He said softly. "Come on let's try to find a bottle of water and a place for you to lay down, you libel to get sick like the others." Aedus had no choice now he would have to help the sick.

She had managed to find the time to stop and try and calm her breath after that fiasco, wishing the child would be found soon. Before she knew it she heard the sound for it, a smile finally forming as she realized they could head back. Soon she would be back in the bunker without harm and be back with Yihad. Then it happened.

No... that wasn't good. Had the threat finally made it here?! As she had started to run for safety, she found herself at the mercy of whatever had come to hurt them, managing to kick them away from her leg where she had been attacked. Despite her limp now, she ran as fast as she could possibly go, wanting to get back to safety and Yihad. It hadn't even registered to her yet that she would probably get sick like the others who had gotten bitten did. All Somansh wanted was to get out of here!

For the first time Liam was very glad that Astra was younger and smaller. He didn't even hesitate, having spotted the movement as well and not liking it. No way was it more of the search party. No one had been in front of them before to be behind them now, and people would be running down the stairs, not milling around or going up them.

He did a sharp turn to the balcony and went right over, arms wrapped around Astra to keep her secure. He held onto the banister with his tail. When he'd stretched as far as he could go he dropped Astra down the rest of the way, only a foot or two at most.

One second, Ruby was teasing Chunli over her fear of the skeleton. The next, it was chaos. She distantly heard Anabelle's whistle, but as she saw a figure creep toward her, the fallen's whistle was in her own mouth. There was a sound of crashing glass. Where was Chunli? Ruby raised her bat in defense, the bent nails sticking out of it seeming just as harmless in that moment as the skeleton which was now on the ground. "Stay back!" she yelled at the figure, the panic heightening her voice, making her sound weaker. She hated it. "I'm not afraid to use this!"

But she tried to step back, and she instead tripped over something on the floor. Skittering backwards, Ruby tried to wriggle out of the way. Too slow. She was too late. The figure loomed over her. In a flash, it had leaned over and bitten her left arm. Tore at it. Her voice broke as she screamed in agony, before she bashed the figure over the head with her bat. It reeled back in pain, or perhaps just surprise, but Ruby didn't care because she had to get out of there right now.

"Chunli!" she screamed, her voice raspy and broken from the scream. She dropped her bat on the ground as she ran. Tears were streaming in her eyes. She had tried to fight it off, she had tried to be brave, but nothing felt brave about this. She saw her Chimera partner, and when she reached her she grabbed for her like a life preserver. "I'm so glad you're okay!" But looking at Chunli, she was not okay. She was bleeding from her neck. Ruby swallowed a comment and slipped her hand down to Chunli's, dragging both of them back to the bunker.


Magician Arcana

He heard the whistle... Oh s**t. They had to get back to the bunker. But then he heard the whistle from inside the room where Coco and Eilwen were searching. AH! They found the kid! "Come on, ladies!" He called to them as they came running out of the room. Kingston was ahead of the girls when Coco cried out, having been grabbed... no, BITTEN by whatever these THINGS were! "COCO!" He spun about and scrambled, swinging the wooden plank he'd brought with him at the thing. He had to drop back when Eilwen spewed fire at the onslaught. Another creature came out of the room beside where they were. Kingston slammed the end of the plant into the thing's throat and shoved it back into the room before smacking it several times with the wood. He then returned to see Vanna...

going completely apeshit.

He understood why, though. Eilwen looked as though she'd been hurt, and Coco was hurt. Kingston slammed the board across the face of another attacker, and a second hit broke the board. "We gotta go, guys!" He saw Vanna pick up Eilwen like a sack of potatoes and started carrying her and the child. Seemed like a good idea to him! He turned to Coco and grabbed her, hefting her up into his arms. "I'll apologize for this later!" He barked and high-tailed it after Vanna.







(Ah ha ha ignore my last mule post because I didn't see the update. *Kicks phone*)

Liam lifted himself back up without waiting to see how Astra landed, though he hoped he'd been gentle enough that it hadn't been more than a slight tumble. His muscles protested, but adrenaline had kicked in and he made it back up.

"Come out," he called out to Hiroshi. The Kumiho was more of a challenge than Astra, but he just had to get Hiroshi close enough to the ground that a jump wouldn't break or sprain something. It made him grateful that working glass had built up his arm muscles though. With Hiroshi over the banister Liam held onto him and pretty much lowered him like a living piece of rope. He lowered Hiroshi as far as he could, let him go, then waited just long enough to make sure no one was in the way before letting go of the banister and dropping down himself. He grunted in pain as he hit the ground, but didn't pause.

"Keep going," he half-shouted, seeing more survivors and, with a sinking in his gut, familiar shapes coming their way. He held onto Astra's hand and put on his best speed. He'd apologize later if he ended up half-dragging her, but he wanted there to be a later to do the apologizing in!

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