Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hearing how he spoke of how she made him feel caused a warmth to spread over her skin without any aid from a bandage, but the significant blush remained hidden in the low light. Mimsy wanted to pull him back to her and earn that sentence a thousand times over.

While she was always eager to fight for his attention when necessary, she was capable of recognizing scenarios in which this would be a terrible idea. His safety was important if his attention was ever going to return to her, after all.

She kept a vigilant watch on all that she could see of him, watching closely to know if he'd been struck by it. A fraction of a second after she saw it make any contact with his body whatsoever, she hurriedly pressed a small bandage in the exact location, effectively negating anything it hoped to do to him.

"More, more," she urged him, eyes wide at the sound of the infected flesh being sliced into pieces. "You're so impressive!"

Was this how they were supposed to be like as they progressed through the ranks in the months and years to follow? Nellie found herself wondering, still pretty much in a daze as she watched Leslie pause to flash the middle finger at the nearest security camera before going for another round at clobbering the armoured infected like a berserker. They should jump into the fray at some point too. Both Isaac and her. Even if their blows weren't anywhere as effective as that of the more senior Mist.

Gingerly helping Isaac with getting his weapon unstuck, Nellie gestured towards the lights that were starting to go off one by one around them. "Need to hurry. It's starting to get dark..." They probably wouldn't have any difficulty targeting the infected in the dark given its size. It was really more of what might happen thereafter that she was more worried about. It was never a good thing whenever the lights went out.

HP: 24
Damage: Here we go again orz
Charge: 1/3

Shu was the kind of person that was the opposite of intimidating, her smile was warm and amiable, just felt like a docile lovable bunny. "Buck, Linda, Josh and David, nice to meet you." Jordan's words were always that wise, the petite Death thought. He took into account not only their clandestine identity, but gave a general idea of what was happening and ended his explanation with a hidden threat.

The Sun hunter, in that way, put the concept of authority into the civilians' minds. When one's incapable, they rely to the nearest source of power. The girl smiled respectfully for how deep he had contemplated, it surely made their job much easier. "We will do our job, don't worry, Sensei."

The two Sun at the front, Shu and Roland at the back of the group and sandwiched them in between. They encircled the armless civilians, to impart a sense of safety and confidence to themselves. To ease the tensed-up nerves of the lady and her son, Shu began to chat with them, of random casual topics while paying attention to the surroundings. She was an intermediate, and the experiences built up and skills learned through the time allowed her to do so. "No idea," she whispered to Roland, head leaned over. She gave a pause, and shortly asked with surprise, "YOU didn't grab a map?" Tone unbelievable, the girl widened her eyes at Roland.

It was uneventful until -

- the lights went out, as if someone switched them off one by one, agitation gradually accumulated.

Shu was oddly calm, the basement was always so dimly lit and she wasn't afraid of the darkness. She'd being locked in a dark confined room, has some bad times and it didn't worth mentioning. Yet, it wasn't the deprivation of light that make her scared, but the status of being alone in darkness. As a Pisces, she thinks a lot; in the darkness alone, she thinks even more. It wasn't some fantasy or dreamy bubbles, they were negative thoughts immersed into her soul soundlessly sneakily.

"Shhhhh, don't scream, don't panic, okay? We need a light source, anyone has a torch?" asked Shu. The visibility was zero at that moment and it was the easiest time for people to lose control. The hand not holding the hammer tugged Roland's clothes with a gentle force and she'd walked closer to the hunter, compared to when the lights were still on.

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HP: 16/ 50
Charge: 2/3

It had not at all occurred to Mimsy that light might be helpful here, and when Robert reached to retrieve one, she felt a bit sheepish for not considering this particular need. Still, she was happy to accommodate any need he might have, and was waiting to take it from him as soon as he handed it to her. Naturally, the first thing she did was point it in his general direction so she could see him more clearly.

An expression that was 'morbid and a little horrifying' was nothing of the sort to her, who instead found the look he gave to be alluring and really dreamy.

"Yes! Yes, more! I want it!" A sound that was presumably meant to be a squeal of delight pierced the space between her cheers and the application of the next bandage, which was accompanied by a brief stare of defiance at the infected. There was no need to keep that up for long - when he struck it again she filled the air with wild, high-pitched giggling instead.

"Down this hall, to the right, and across the central atrium," Jordan answered. He led the way, watching carefully for signs of movement in the stores and decorative planters as they passed. Things rustled in darker corners, but nothing seemed eager to leap at them yet, and Jordan glanced back at the civilians periodically, assessing their mood. Shu was chatting with them, which was good; the small woman was the least threatening of their little group, and her sweet-tempered cheer might help put the humans at ease.

"A lot of observation," he replied to Ace's question, just as quietly, after a flick of his eyes back to make sure that the civilians were out of earshot. "They're terrified and they had no idea what to do, so they needed to feel like somebody had enough authority and knowledge to give them instructions, and they also needed to have a good reason to go with us."

When the lights started flickering out, one by one, he stopped, swinging Ferros down off his shoulder and holding the hammer out to the side as a signal to the rest of them to halt. Ferros's runes were lit steady and bright, but the red light was relatively dim and wouldn't reach far. "Not good," Jordan muttered, and reached into his bag to produce the small flashlight he carried and flick it on. "I was hoping to get this done before dark."

He flashed the light back at the group. "It'd be better if we could pick up a couple more flashlights. There's a sports store down the branching hallway here. There's also an electronics store along the path we're taking, but that's farther away. The sports store is closer, but it'll require a detour and it's a larger area; more likely to have something hiding in it." He looked to the other hunters. "I don't want to split up when we've got people to protect. Thoughts?"

Having his back to the dark made him nervous and he kept glancing to the corner of his vision where shadows and green eyes moved about. Lookin back to the stine he was working on, he sighed.

He had to focus or else the camp would be nothing but dull runes thanks to him.

Adjusting his glasses, he closed his eyes and counted down from 5. Even closing his eyes made him nervous and he opened them to stare at the runic only. Letting his eyes wander was not helping anything.

As he worked on the next runic, he tried not to listen or flinch at the noises around him. He tried not to hurry.

The result was a bright rune beaming back to life.