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Iren Loun

Shalrien and Shade
Guard and unofficial guard of Squad 4

"Yeah, Shade's a one of a kind mount." Shalrien laughed. "But her speed and flexibility work better for me than a horse." She said as she looked back over at Shade. "I understand. Don't worry, Shade won't eat you. She's more partial to deer. And the occasional deatheater." The woman said with a slight smirk. Shalrien enjoyed killing deatheaters more than anything, but she hid that from her friends pretty well, but the beasts deserved it, and Shalrien was always sure to give them exactly what they deserved. Rolling her head to look at Shade, Shalrien sighed. "Oi, time to get going furball." She called, though everyone knew the woman only teased the cat. Shade was the most important person to Shalrien, but they were able to joke. Shade got up lazily and trotted over to Shalrien, the girl hopping on the cat's back immediately, patting Shade's side.

Amaya
Squad 12's Vestec


When Rosa came and saved her, Amaya just dropped to the ground, laying there as she finally came to her senses. Slowly she pushed herself up on her knees, her arms hanging by her sides. She watched her friends risk themselves yet again to save her, but when Senel drew the deathwalkers back towards him, the vestec's eyes widened. She looked around frantically at her friends to see if anyone could reach Senel in time, but it was obviously no one would. Gripping the grass with her fingers, Amaya only thought for a split second before she intentionally let out a large amount of energy. The energy would distract the deathwalkers in small bursts, but in a large burst it could at least hurt them, maybe even kill a few. The only reason Amaya never used this technique, was that it was deadly to the user 90% of the time, and even then the user had to be a seasoned veteran. However, Amaya didn't have much of a choice at this moment. A blood red aura began to whip around the vestec as she focused, already getting the deathwalkers attention as they turned back towards her, only a few understanding what was going on. Those that did began to run, but the ones that didn't approached Amaya. When she looked up, her eyes were glowing red, then she only smirked, the blast of energy killing three of the deathwalkers and severely wounding the others. Now that the deathwalkers were confused and distracted, the squad had a chance to escape, but Amaya quickly passed out in the grass, unable to do any more for her friends.

Gondin
Squad 12's Guard




As soon as Amaya had gotten the deathwalkers attention Gondin had launched back up to his feet. However, the deathwalkers almost immediately recovered their senses and he had to waste a precious minute in an entirely defensive battle as he struggled to regain his center of focus and balance from his trip to the ground.

He heard Senel's shouted challenges to distract the monsters, and Gondin knew just how over his head the young man was getting. He wanted to get to him to cover at least one of his flanks, but at that point he had only just begun to mount a counter offensive against the ring of monsters.

Gondin fought well and again began to drop his foes around him, slowly but surely shuffling the fight out in to the center of the street to avoid another aerial attack. He had no chance to even see the progress of his friends until he felt a wave of strange energy pulse from behind him. He immediately recognized the sensation as similar to the power Amaya always used to help them see. Some of the monsters that he had already crippled immediately exploded in to vapor, and the rest suddenly looked as if they had been hit over the head with a chair in a bar fight. Gondin took an instant to notice Senel on the ground, and Amaya only better off in that she wasn't bleeding.

He noticed how thin the enemies numbers had gotten. The majority of the ones that remained were around him, playing their little circle of death game. Rosa called out to him and began gathering up their fallen companions, moving towards the trees lining the edge of town.

Gondin snapped a little seeing the young man bleeding so profusely. He could very well die from such wounds. Gondin felt like he had failed them all. They were grown and capable silver guards, but the age gap hit him at an instinctual level. He had sworn to maintain his mentality of equality. To never allow himself to think of them as any less capable than him, no matter what their age. But now he just felt like a grown man watching children die. Children he should have been protecting.

As Rosa began hauling the two away, the deathwalkers began snapping out of their strange concussions and started on an unerring course towards them. Gondin roared a battle shout, and began a full massacre, charging through them to get between them and the retreating Rosa. This time, he really was berserking. He disregarded defense entirely, which wasn't actually too big an issue with how intent the deathwalkers were on catching up to the prone Amaya.

Faster than most, Gondin managed to slice a path through and end up behind Rosa. But rather than a complete retreat, he turned and began cutting down the monsters as he backpedaled to the trees. there were only a couple dozen of the creatures left chasing them, and Gondin stopped them.

Whatever Amaya had done, it seemed to have broken something inside the creatures. Only moments before they had been smart, using tactics and defensive strategy. But now they were like savage beasts, intent only on the blood of the young woman unconscious with Rosa. In their single minded frenzy to get at Amaya it was like lumber through a sawmill. With how many came in such a short period of time he had to push himself to the limits to cut them down fast enough. His arms suddenly felt like they were on fire as his muscles ripped with the strain of his speed.

After the last deathwalker burst in to ash from being cleaved in two Gondin sheathed his swords, pulling out both knives. In all the struggle he had used up so much energy that he couldn't even maintain his earth magic, and his muscles were too exhausted to even lift his swords. Even the daggers were more for show at this point. He would be surprised if he could lift a piece of paper once the adrenaline wore off.

He only dimly noted that he had cleaved neatly through a tree that had been close to his right. Luckily it had fallen towards the forest rather than the town. He would have hated to be responsible for damage to someone's home.

Gondin started jogging after Rosa, keeping an ear out for any of the creatures he might have missed and praying his team mates would be alright.

Once she heard movement, she glanced back to see that Gondin was with them, ignoring some of the stitches in her side from running so much. They couldn't afford to stop now.

She finally stopped a short while later, once satisfied that they were far enough into the trees to not be detected or happened upon. Her arms were shaking from fatigue, gently placing down Amaya on the grass before she turned her attention to Senel. s**t, he was bleeding a lot. She didn't have time to build the fire, but cauterizing it would be best at this point. At least he'll stop bleeding. Extending one gloved finger, she took a deep breath and heated it up to the point where it should have the desired effect, apologizing in her head.

She steadily pressed her finger to each of his deepest wounds, grimacing at the smell of burning flesh, wiping her brow with her other hand. It didn't take long for her to be done, allowing herself to fall backwards on the empty grass behind her, panting. Ok, now her body was allowed to collapse. "Ok.... lets not do that again...." She muttered, for once lowering her mask so she could breath easier. There was a brand burned into her cheek, the symbol unfamiliar to most dialects. She had never let down her mask in front of the others, until now.

Staring up at the sky, she lay there, feeling heavy as lead. At least the grass was cool and felt nice to her skin. Minus the slight throbbing from her shoulder and the small cut on her arm. She probably wouldn't be able to use her magic for at least a day or so considering how much she had used already, glad that they could rest for the moment. She knew she probably should drink some water, but right now, she was reveling in the fact that she didn't have to move.

All set to go. Mayu glanced to her teammates, and smiled to herself, taking a deep breath. She did notice that Lux was supposedly fine, but she didn't quite believe the smile he gave. Maybe she should tell him about what she would be doing in another day or so. Nudging the sides of Marianne, she started off, hoping that this mission would go a lot better. She was sure the others were itching for some payback to the Deathwalkers.

Later that evening, they were about halfway there, the moon shinning bright and full in the sky. Taking a deep breath, she glanced around at the others, stepping away from their campsite. She hoped they wouldn't really notice. It was something she didn't think they would want to see. No need to add to the depressive air that followed Lux and Shalrien if barely noticeable. She had her bag with her, the long tresses of her hair pulled back into a complex, but beautiful style.

It didn't take long for her to find a good spot, setting down her bag to open it up. She put the crystal earrings on, the stones beginning to glow faintly along with those on her necklace. Taking a deep breath, she let her cloak fall away, the way her skirt was wrapped was different, allowing for more leg room and flexibility. Then, she pulled out a flute type instrument, ignoring the chill of the wind. Inhaling, she put her lips to it, and began to play. It was a sweet sound, bright but melancholy. Reflective.

Then her body began to move. She arched, curved, her legs stepping and bending. The flute died away as her voice began to join the wind, the words lost to the majority of the population. Only her people would know, or scholars that studied their language. She danced a dance of the things that were now lost, of lives, of dreams, of hopes, and everything. The song mimicked this, mourning the loss of her friend and their teammate. Normally this would be done to dedicate one of her people to the Gods, but she knew that they would believe her action to a good one. Others might refuse the fact that she was doing this for someone who wasn't of their own. She didn't care.

Good question...