[center][b]Scipio - Chapter 1: To Drink from the Fountain[/b][/center]

Having already brandished their weapons before Scipio even arrived on the scene, so there was little time to size each other up before blades began to charge. The foremost man took a few steps forward, brandishing an eerily silver blade, twisting it around his hand with flair. Edith stirred slightly on the ground, coming to from the shock of being pierced by Scipio's infinitely thin arrow, thoguh none of the guards -luckily- took any notice.

"I really hope we can do this with you alive, my fancy friend. Might we shake on it? On keeping this civil?" the man questioned, only ten feet from Scipio. He stopped the spinning of his blade and stopped in a readied position. "I'd like to keep all my parts as well."

Scipio stood up a little straighter as he got into his killing stance. Eight sharp spider legs curled around his human-like body, for an entirely opposite reason they might have done so on a normal spider. Scipio looked out from his cage of limbs and said, "There are things we all would like to happen. Unfotunately for you..." Scipio channeled the Rusher aspect, and time around him seemed to slow to a crawl. He pushed off from the jungle floor with all ten of his empowered legs, shooting over the head of the man who lacked a heart at impossible speed and landing heavily on the side of a massive tree.

"... your request is especially unlikely." Thin strands of silk connected the distance from where the Drider had been and where he was now. Channeling the Changer aspect, Scipio made the weak silk strong and sharp, eight hair-thin strands of razor wire lying on the forest floor, all around the feet of the heartless man. Scipio pulled the threads tight.

In an instant the fibers became taught, slicing into the man's body like a folded belt snapping together. The strands buried themselves within his flesh, rending his arm off and nearly severing his entire torso in two. Still, he stood.

The man laughed heartily, unfazed by the normally fatal attack. No blood seeped from his wounds, and the color of flesh was nonexistent. Turning to the face Scipio, the man stretched his arms out as if to greet him with a hug, though one of them was missing.

"Quite fast! But all too inneffective," he chuckled. With ease, the man stepped to the side, sliding out from the entanglement of threads as if made of liquid. Slowly, his vacated wounds repaired themselves in a sludge of metallic liquid. "My turn."

With lightning speed, the man threw out his sword, somehow extending his arm to Scipio's distance without moving his own legs. The sword, his arm, and the armor around itself melded together in a mix of liquid sheen, wipping across the jungle in an arc. The tree trunks were cut into like butter, though were not fully severed from their bases.

"Not bad," Scipio admitted truthfully, standing just a foot to the man's left. If he hadn't been channeling the Rusher aspect, that might have been close. Scipio brought his left arm up, his hand held in a loose fist. As he swung, a white blade wove itself into existence in his grip: a rectangular butcher knife. The back edge was still forming as the sharp edge cut into the undying man's extended arm. 

Scipio had already taken what he'd learned from his first attempt and adapted to the situation. Cutting the man, or whatever type of being he may be, was not enough; the wound would simply close. And so, the butcher knife, with a flat blade thicker than the man's arm. But after seeing the man's ability to close wounds, Scipio felt that it would not be unrealistic for the man to also be able to simply reattach a piece of himself even if is was completely separated from his body.

Which is why, the moment the sharp edge of the white knife passed through the limb completely, millions of white threads from the blade and also from the Scipio's other hand and the ends of his eight outstreched legs surged outward like waves, crashing together around and over the unnatural man's head and merging into a perfectly smooth sphere around where he stood. "But not good enough either," the silver-eyed Drider said to the white tomb. The severed stump of the unnaturally elongated arm hit the forest floor.

The metal, once a softish material, flopped to the ground with a slap, becoming instantly more liquid than solid. It looked a bit like mercury, though was colored too strangely to be such a simple metal.

The other four men took a step back as they saw their best so easily entrapped, still, they didn't seem to be so quick to flee. It couldn't have been impossible for them, right? Edith stood herself up with a grunt, clutching the tiny wound in her chest.

"What the hell man!?" she cried out, "You didn't even give me anything as a warning. Not even a look in the eye!" Despite being somewhat still stunned, she grasped the hilt of her sword knowing quite well that the danger hadn't fully subsided. Only a passing glance was given to Scipio's work. At that point, it wasn't all that surprising.

All four of the remaining soldiers dashed towards Scipio, and for all their original cowardice, they appeared skilled enough. Their bodies did not shake or falter, and their stances were synced, well-trained. They weren't simple peons.

Two swung their swords from opposite angles at Scipio with a yell while the other two circled around. One seemingly took notice of Edith and broke off, heading for her instead.

"Oh come now, you are perfectly unharmed. Would you prefer to still be the hostage? If so, there are five lovely gentlemen right here who would be happy to play to your strange fetish." Scipio stopped channeling the Rusher aspect as he saw that it was not needed against these enemies. The three Maker aspects would be more than enough.

Two ineffective blades bounced off of the Drider's protective cage of legs, but his legs were not merely for defensive purposes. Channeling the Seer aspect, he could feel each of the attackers' heartbeats inside their chests at such close distance. Scipio Wove a short cylinder in his hand and then rapidly added length to it from the center, causing the cylinder to extend rapidly in both directions into the shape of a long staff. The soldiers on either side of him were thrown back as the staff punched into their armored chests.

The Drider swung the staff to the side and some of the silk fell away, reshaping half of the staff's length into a viscious long sword. "Hey Edith, whoever takes out more of these guys doesn't have to pay for their next meal," he said. Since he was the one who already paid for most of the food she'd eaten in the last week, the seemingly fair wager was really just a jab at her being a mooch. He wanted to see if she could actually do anything.

"Guess we're even then!" she shouted back to Scipio. A quick glance back confirmed it; the man that had approached her was already upon the ground... in two different spots. She held nothing in her hands, the sword was still in its scabbard upon her back, and yet there the knight was, cleaved in two as fine as a sliced cheese laid upon a royal's cracker. The three knights surrounding Scipio did not let up. As soon as they regained their composure and the grips on their swords, they swung back in, this time with a tad more tact.

The knight to Scipio's right eyed his legs and threw his sword slowly, anticipating a block on his part. If he slowed it down enough, he could redirect the swing midway and avoid Scipio's legs. The other knight however offered a more brutish approach. With his forward leg he kicked out and Scipio's knee and drove the sword forward as a thrust, hoping the narrow blade could escape past anything Scipio threw at it.

The third knight prepared to swing upon Scipio but hesitated, he heard Edith approach from behind and turned to face her.

Scipio struck to the right, reaching out to grab the soldier's sword with his hand and pull it and its wielder towards him. The soldier fell to his own comrade's blade. Scipio didn't even bother looking behind him to make sure. The sound was enough. The second attacker's head rolled down its body's back and landed on the forest floor. The white long sword dissolved to threads and then to nothing. The drops of blood that had been on its edge fell to the ground. He turned and asked, "Hey Edith, you do-"

It was blindingly quick, too fast even for Scipio to truly consider what had transpired. Only a few brief flashes of steely silver and the final knight was dismembered at both arms. He fell to his knees with a scream, blood seeping from the open flesh. In seconds he succumbed to the pain alone and fell unconscious, soon to die from the unending blood loss. The blade was in its scabbard.

"Three to two, right?" she asked, looking over Scipio's handiwork. Edith growled and her tail twitched. "It'll be a cheap meal." The girl patted her hoodie's pockets, seemingly judging the amount of change still available without looking.

Scipio sighed. "Actually, it's two to two. The guy in the cocoon over there isn't dead. I honestly have no idea if I can kill him to tell you the truth. Cutting certainly doesn't seem to work." Edith turned to the cocoon, eyeing it for a second before approaching carelessly. Observing it, she walked around once then touched it lightly. With a grunt, she threw her weight into the side, and it rolled over just enough to reveal a hole in the bottom about the size of her torso. The ground beneath it was unmarked.

"Well that answers why he seemingly gave any care to your cocoon," Edith said, looking down at the ground. "I knew someone invulnerable to a blade wouldn't be held so easily."

Scipio raised an eyebrow. "Hm, how did that happen?" He turned and walked over to the tree he had climbed before the men had shown up. Once he got his bearings again, Scipio pointed in the direction he had seen the... whatever it was. He wasn't too sure, but it was the only place around. "Ready to go?"

Edith gave one last look at the hole before responding, "Yea, I suppose. Where are we going? What did you see?" Edith stepped up to Scipio's side, rubbing her shoulder tenderly. Moving the cocoon wasn't easy.

"When I climbed that tree, I saw something in the distance. I'm not sure what it is, but it was the only thing other than more trees that I could see." He stopped short. "Oh, I almost forgot." Scipio turned and spread his fingers, and a wave of white silk spread over the forest floor that had moments ago been a killing ground. The silk covered each of the bodies completely for a moment and then returned back to Scipio's hand, shaping into a fist-sized ball. He tucked the ball inside his jacket. "Okay, I don't think there's any reason to stick around here long. That uncuttable annoyance might return with backup. It's best we get moving."

"What did you just do?" Edith sounded astonished, as if Scipio's actions were questionable. It was magic of some sort, clearly, but the fact that he did it to some dead bodies made it seem a bit more sinister. If she was working with a necromancer... she might have had to split up.

"Nothing much. Merely searching the bodies. The dead very rarely need the useful things they take with them to the grave." He kept walking. Scipio could practically feel Edith leering at his back, even past the mask. Still, she said nothing more, and followed suit.

"If every rich guy could fight like you, our leadership could fight wars alone."

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Scipio and Edith treked over countless roots and brushes, sweeping aside walls of vines in their faces and batting buzzing insects. The ground slowly elevated upwards, eventually becoming a rather steep climb using the vegetation as leverage. They had reached the mountain, but had yet to see any sort of civilization.

"Say, where did you ever learn to fight like that anyways?" Edith commented between grunts as she climbed upwards. "Never would have attributed to such skill... though it seems [i]magic[/i] plays quite large part in it."

"No, I do not use magic," Scipio said, "And it was Kyarian who taught me everything I know. That I now have to search for him should tell you enough about whoever it was he was hunting. It would not be easy for someone to give him trouble." Scipio almost came out and said 'for someone to have killed him', but he stopped himself. He didn't know that for sure yet.

"So then you spider people just do that stuff naturally? Scary," Edith said, shaking her head, "If he was your tutor though, I can't imagine what kind of warrior he was. It's beyond me." There was hint of sarcasm in her voice, Scipio could tell, like she was aware of some skill matchup that shed light on Kyarian's abilities.

Scipio considered if he should enlighten his companion about Drider abilities but decided not to. If she wanted to think that his abilities were the standard, he would not say otherwise. Even next to Kyarian, Scipio was in a league of his own. No, other Drider weren't like him, but she could believe that if she wished. So he remained silent and just continued walking upwards. At one point the ground beneath his foot slipped and he was forced to catch himself with his spider legs. He wondered if it was difficult for Edith with her two arms and two legs to climb like this.

"I don't suppose I'll meet this guy?" she proposed. Edith reached for an arcing vine half-buried in the ground and yelped. The root was rotted, separated from its host body. It was only seemingly rooted to the ground, but as she pulled it, it was simply plucked from the earth, leaving Edith to faceplant into the dirt. She grumbled and brushed her mask as best as she could without looking upon it. The minou grabbed something else and continued hoisting herself up.

Scipio left the climbing for his eight spider legs as he flipped himself around to look at Edith. "Maybe, maybe not. It depends." He raised an eyebrow as the minou almost fell back down the hill. He wasn't about to offer her help though, not unless she asked. "So what led you believe that our target came to this particular Sphere?"

Edith remained silent, suddenly refraining from grunting either, though she still climbed just as vigorously. "A little bird told me," she responded.

Scipio almost smiled, almost. "Ah, a bird. I guess I should just trust your lead then. Birds do not speak lies, and they do not speak to those they cannot trust." Scipio looked at the eyes of the mask. "To hear a bird's voice is truly a special gift," he said somberly. 

"Not as much as you'd think," she responded solemnly. The mountain flattened out, and Edith took the moment to rest on her back with a sigh. The trees still obscured whatever it was Scipio had first noticed, though the area seemed less dense with foliage. The rest of the way would be easier, presumably.

"How close are we?" she asked, huffing.

Scipio looked at the area around them. "I don't have the slightest clue," he said cheerfully. "Though I expect us to be quite close unless we somehow were turned about in the underbrush and we have somehow been walking in the completely wrong direction for the entirety of this trek." Just judging the distance from where he had first seen their destination in the tree to where it had been, they would likely walk right into it in another few hundred yards. Scipio's sense of direction wasn't bad enough to let a couple of trees turn him around.

"I hope not. Climbing this mountain for nothing? I would strangle you," she jested. Edith picked herself up from the brief rest and grunted, as if charging herself with energy. "Let's hope this is the right way. It was atop a mountain, [i]right?[/i]" Luckily the rise seemed to have petered out at last, no longer a steep climb through underbrush. Eventually the trees had become sparse enough that Edith hesitated to step further; any more and they might risk detection. From what, though, she didn't really consider.

In the distance, it had become clear what Scipio saw; a short but wide fortress with smoothed and angled outer walls. Edith rested her fists on her hips.

"Is this it?" she asked. Edith stared for a tad before continuing, "You think it's occupied? Could be the base of those knights we slaughtered."

"I certainly hope it's occupied; it would be a complete waste to have come all the way here only to find a completely empty castle." He shook his head. "Truly, who would abandon a perfectly good castle? I suppose there is only one way to be certain though in this situation." Scipio strode forward towards the fortress. "Knock on the door and see if anyone answers." 

Edith seemed poised to push Scipio aggressively, but she merely scoffed instead. "And ask for what? A warm bed and some chow?" Edith shifted her voice to that of mocking an older man. "Hey, what's with the blood little miss? You in danger?"

"No, I just massacred a squad of your men and wanted to take their beds!" she said normally. "They're empty now anyways, why not occupy them?" Edith scoffed again and followed Scipio. "I don't even know where a door is. It looks like one big wall of grey to me."

Indeed, it did seem like the fortress was lacking in entrances, at least from the angle they approached. Buildings within peeked out from behind the massive angled walls with few windows, but as far as they could discern, there was no way in besides scaling the wall.

Edith broke off from Scipio's path, wandering to the side with no warning. She approached a sword embedded in the ground, quite out of place and far too large for either one to carry with both hands. "What's this?" she questioned, shouting back to Scipio.

The massive blade stuck into the ground, seemingly halfway in but already taller than Edith. It displayed a brilliant sheen of silver and blue, seeming almost slick in certain areas.

Scipio looked at what it was that had stolen Edith's eye. It looked like a sword embedded in the ground. "I believe it is a sword embedded in the ground," he yelled over. "Do you plan on pulling it out?" Why she would pay any attention to a sword embedded in the ground if she didn't plan on giving it a tug was beyond him. Though judging from the workmanship of the blade and the fact that no one had already taken it, Scipio assumed trying to take it from its place would prove futile. That, and the fact that it was much to large for the tiny minou to possibly handle.

"Funny," Edith mumbled. She wouldn't lift it, surely, but it seemed quite peculiar several hundred yards from the fortress, clean as a whistle and big enough for a giant to be proud. Edith reached out to touch it, finding the surface quite smooth and cold.

Then it unwraveled, becoming a storm of metallic tendrils spinning about the blade. Edith was knocked high into the air with a grunt, and sent sliding along the wet ground to Scipio's side. Like a tornado, it spun and spun for a brief second. Converging together, the material shaped itself into a grotesque form.

It lacked legs, instead being stood up by a tapered torso that slagged to the earth like a heap of viscous slime. Its body was misshappen, made up of asymmetric structures. A ribcage on one side, scales on the other. Its arms were long, bulky in random areas as if the muscle had been scooped up and pushed into a single area.

At the top, it's head was sightless, though it seemed attentive enough. A grin made up of golden, thick teeth greeted them. Edith stood herself up slowly, struggling on occasion. She gripped her chest tenderly and coughed, spitting up a bit of blood in the process.

"Saved me a bit of hauling, you two. Now we're this much closer to the party," the metallic creature said with a vibrating, phlegm-filled voice. The creature brought its arms together, and both shaped themselves into blades. Like a cricket playing with is wings, the creature unleashed a deafening sound with its arms. The sky rang out, sending birds into the sky and undoubtedly revealing their location.

"Hopefully I don't embarrass myself and let the others take you down before I do."