"Oh, right!" he said, realizing he could still use his magic. Soka summoned the blade he had been using to fly toward the Vine Blight that Hayato had just hit. The blade slashed three times at it. He hoped at least two of the slashes would connect, as he tried to finish it off. Soon the Needle Blight had launched its needles and Hayato was hit. Trembling in anger, Soka glared at the Needle Blight while more of his metal slipped out of his sword case and into the air. He was using 50% of the metal he had wth him now. "Metal... Whirlwind" he said quietly, still glaring at the creature. His previous blade and the new mix of metal formed into four long daggers. The blades rushed toward the Needle Blight, before beginning to spin in a wide circle toward it. The blades moved at high speed, the small-scale whirlwind of knives cutting viciously toward the Needle Blight.

Winnifred made her own trip to the armory to fetch what she'd require for the mission. Not a terribly long list by any means, as a firearm, a revolver specifically, and ammunition were the biggest priorities of course. Following it was her favored combat outfit. Thick clothing that was lightly armored for the sake of not sacrificing any mobility, topped off with boots and protective gloves. Once she had her gear ready, she made her way to the teleporter room to meet with her allies. "Alright, I'm ready," she announced as she walked in and saw the others. "And I'm assuming you're all ready to go too?" She was a little nervous about taking on a creature capable of turning her and her teammates to stone as her first assignment of the school year, but tried not to let that fact show in the way she spoke or the way she carried herself as she walked. With the team setup as it was, Winnifred figured things would end up more or less alright.

While the implike creature managed to him three times with its claw, John was determined not to let go trusting the Cactus-Cat to deal with its opponent and then with the creature he was distracting before he got seriously injured. Still he wasn't stupid enough to let himself get hurt all the time and tried to grab the Twig Blight's free arm as well.The feline Ex-Beast meanwhile just barely dodged the Needle Blight's attack.Still unharmed the Cactus-cat attempted to once again knock it's enemy backwards with its branching tail.

Within the entrance lobby of the main school building were 5 seats, placed adjacently to one another in a perfect row. They were clearly intended to be used by students to sit on, however, they were being put to other uses by a particularly odd individual. A young male was currently using at least three of these seats as a makeshift bed. Despite this, he wasn't sleeping; he was facing the ceiling, staring at it with a single eye open, and had been doing so for quite some time. This individual was none other than Taeion Kanjuro, recently dubbed "The Indolent Ninja" due to his lax personality, he had been 'waiting' for a good time to look at the holo-board. In reality, Taeion was simply mustering the willpower to stand up and go and look at the holo-board himself. He would have to do it eventually, so why not now? He rolled off of the seats he originally rested on - not even bothering to try and prevent his minor fall that followed, and stood up as if nothing had happened. He walked over to holo-board to take a look at the current jobs available. From what he could see, many of the ExBeast hunting jobs were few for the moment. It made sense, some new students were confident in their abilities, and were eager to try fighting the creatures they hated so. Taeion was not very fond of assignments which did not involve combat in some way, although it seemed as though he would have to pick one. At that moment, a he noticed a Special Assignment which did involve ExBeasts. Clearing out a nest of Fire Rats. It was a D Rank job which was seemed fairly straightforward. Taeion pressed the Assignment in an attempt to accept it. He was still not entirely sure as to how it worked. He then walked through the central hall. Entering one of the many teleportation rooms. He paused for a moment, trying to recall the coordinates he was supposed to put into the the holo-board. He entered the coordinates, albeit slowly, in order to prevent any...undesirable repercussions. Finalizing his entry, he sat down on the teleportation pad, awaiting to be transported to his destination.

As the telepad was activated, the sigils shifted into place and the magic rune began to spin. In a brief flash, they found themselves on a small island consisting of a statue of someone who looked like a businessman from the early 1900s, a single tall oak tree, and a couple of flowerbeds. The little isle was surrounded by curb, and smack dab in the middle of the streets that formed the town square. Old shops, many of them closed down and some obviously rennovated several times , their signs painted over and various parts of the buildings replaced, lined the small roads. It was like they had stepped back almost fifty years in time, in this quaint "small-America" town. A small blue orb with green runes floating around it was hovering between the group. A human voice tinged with a mechanical sound spoke from it. "Telepad activation successful. Location does not possess telepad; Sprite will remain for 48 hours if not activated. Students, when you have finished your assignment, activate the Sprite. If the time limit has elapsed, call the Academy via phone or use another contact method. Failure to report within twice the time limit will prompt a search-and-rescue team dispatchment. Good Luck." The Sprite dimmed its glow a bit, and remained floating at about head height. Suddenly, a car horn honked. Someone had stopped their car not too far away, and was trying to get the group's attention. "Hey! Y'all from that fancy magic school? If'n yer lookin' fer that thar bird, it was runnin' through the corn fields south'a town this mornin'!" As Taeion's telepad activated, he too was gone in a flash, and appeared at a large dock area, where cranes were loading cargo onto ships or carrying it off, and a dockworker on a forklift carrying a large pile of boxes slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting the boy who'd appeared out of nowhere. "What the--where'd you come from!?" the man said. Just then, a Sprite floated out behind Taeion. "Telepad activation successful. Location does not possess telepad; Sprite will remain for 48 hours if not activated. Student "Taeion", when you have finished your assignment, activate the Sprite. If the time limit has elapsed, call the Academy via phone or use another contact method. Failure to report within twice the time limit will prompt a search-and-rescue team dispatchment. Good Luck." "The hell?" said the dockworker, jumping down from his machine. "Is that...some kinda magic thing? Are you from that academy we sent the message to, about the Exbeasts?" He pointed over to a warehouse that looked like it had just recently been burned, its roof collapsed in a heap of blackened plaster and concrete. "Those Fire Rats were in there yesterday, but the fire departmen's water hose must have scared them off. There's a good chance they've holed up somewhere else nearby, though--look for their footprints. The little bastards don't just leave a print, their claws actually burn into whatever they step on."

Winnifred listened to the sprite's instructions as the group arrived at their destination. She tucked some hair behind her ear and double checked that her revolver was loaded, ready to fire whenever she spotted her target. She looked around the town and studied her surroundings, keeping her eyes open for the sign of anything amiss. The sound of a sudden car horn startled her and she flinched slightly, whipping around to see the car before regaining her composure a second later. "South of town... Corn fields south of town, got it." she mumbled to herself after listening to driver of the car. Winnifred looked back at her allies and gave a brief nod, saying, "Well, sounds to me like we know where to look first, eh? With any luck, we'll have this thing taken care of in record time." She started walking in the direction that the driver had indicated, trying to spot the corn fields.

Taeion nodded slowly towards the dockworker. His task was fairly straightforward: Go to the burned warehouse, and search for footprints. The sooner he did so, the sooner he would be able to find ExBeasts. He stood up and stretched, despite the fact that he had not even been sitting for longer than 3 minutes. It wasn't worth questioning anyway. He began to make his way in the direction of the warehouse, without uttering so much as a single word. When Taeion had reached the burned warehouse, it became clear that these rats posed a serious problem, had the charred walls and feint smoke not already signified this. As he approached the entrance, witnessed debris fall from the ceiling. Pausing for a moment, he decided that it would make more sense for him to travel around the perimeter of the warehouse to look for footprints, rather than going into the warehouse to do so. With that decided, he began to walk around to the back of the warehouse in search of footprints. Hopefully he would be able to locate them soon - he didn't want to have to call the Academy by being too slow.

The creature rose again, and Hazel's frustration became visible. Damn thing, just die already! It launched another wave of needles, which Hazel once again dived out of the way of. She tumbled, rolling and then coming to her feet in one motion. "This time I'll kill you!" She shouted, raising her sword. She mounted what she had now determined to make her final charge. I don't even need my finisher to take out this pipsqueak! She raised her sword above her head and slashed downwards, this time intending to cut the creature lengthwise.

It was hard understanding the farmer, he guessed, at first. He spoke in an accent that was rather misleading, but it seems Winnifred understood the stranger likely because she was caucasian herself. He nodded along affIRming that they got the message. One perk of being a student at the academy was that travelling around the world was part of the curriculum, without the cost and the long lines. Of course, you had to risk your life but Ryouta liked looking at the silver linings of lousy situations. With that thought he started appreciating the atmosphere, the simplicity of things here - he had seen the place somewhere before, that statue particularly, but it did not come to mind where. Then as they headed to the direction they were given, he had almost forgotten something. Turning around, he reached foR the sprite and gently plucked it mid-air to keep it in the small pouch on his right leg. There would be no going home without it.

As Joe threw Twig Blight A into the path of the Needle Blight attacking Hazel, he not only helped her dodge it but did some more damage to the enemy. The Twig Blight squealed as its comrade accidentally pelted it with needles. [Twig Blight A's HP is low!] Though he took a bit of damage himself, intentionally getting the monster's claws stuck in his clothing and flesh, Joe managed to wrap the creature in a bear hug. As he attempted to squeeze the life out of it, its body crackled and popped. However, it didn't seem like he was quite strong enough to just utterly crush it. His secondary plan of striking with his knees while clenched, however, did a similar number as his low kicks had on the other Twig Blight; the woody creature's legs began to give way under repeated strikes as it squirmed and dug in its claws wherever it could, trying to get away... Soka's attacks on Vine Blight A were vicious, and the metal edges bit into its form as easily as Hayato's sword had before. It screeched as its lower body was nearly severed from its torso, and it quickly began to sprout new vines to replace the old ones. As Soka turned to attack the Needle Blight, the Vine Blight lashed out at him with its upper limbs. Vine Blight B did the same; while Soka was entangled, his ability to move was severely reduced. [Vine Blight A's HP is half-gone!] The Needle Blight, meanwhile, was able to leap out of the way of the cutting whirlwind, avoiding it with a woody cackle. Then it noticed Hayato bearing down on it with a fury. "Blade Trail!" A blue line tinged with black slashed across the Blight's remaining leg as Hayato dashed past it, again severing the limb. Without any means of locomotion, the creature dropped to the ground with a squeal. [Needle Blight's Speed reduced to 0! As a result its Evasion is halved!] The Needle Blight was again struck by the Cactus Cat's tail, knocking it off balance, but it managed to raise both arms, pointing its claws at the Cactus Cat. It let loose a hail of glowing needles at the animal with a crackling near its mouth that could have been a smirk. [Needle Blight used Needle Spray! Its HP is 1/4th gone!] John managed to grapple the Twig Blight and stop its attacks, and just like its brethren had against Joe, it found itself somewhat helpless. However, the Summoner wasn't as strong as Joe was, and sooner or later the Twig Blight would probably manage to break free... With the bit of unexpected help from Joe, Hazel was unharmed by the Needle Blight's attack. It, however, was not so lucky. This time her strike was true, with nothing in its way, and the Needle Blight squealed one last time as the blade cleaved through its head and deep into its body, splitting it open all the way down to where a human's pelvic bone would be. If it had possessed any innards, they would have made quite the mess, falling out of an opened up ribcage. The branches that made up the creature's body gave a shudder, and a soft green glow seemed to dissipate from them. Then the Blight fell, dry and lifeless, to the forest floor. [Enemy defeated! Hazel's free to help comrades or engage another Exbeast!] Taeion's investigation of the burned warehouse soon turned up results; along one side, near a dumpster with a corner of its base melted and burned away, were the remains of what looked like a campfire. More than likely, this was a Fire Rat's nest at some point. There was a hole burned into the warehouse here as well, and from the look of some smeared, sooty paw prints, a large group of the creatures had been here at one point. Further sprinkles of black ash and a few sear marks continued on across the docks, even at one point melting through a tall chainlink fence that separated the rest of the area from the shipyard, where numerous workers and machines were putting together a huge metal ship with a great deal of noise. At the back of the shipyard were several crates that had once been used to hold or deliver parts for the ships, several of them wooden and many of them now filled with trash. Taeion could already smell something burning...but, anyone who's ever had a mouse in their house knows that rodents are cowardly little critters, fast, and good at finding new hiding spots. How could he lure them out, or otherwise attack without scattering them across the docks...?

Hazel's strike was true, and the creature fell. "First blood for me, of course!" She bragged to the rest of the group, still engaged in combat. She quickly assessed the various fights around her, but opted instead to go after the Joe threw in front of her. "Thanks for giving me another!" She called to the striker. This one was still on the ground recovering from the unfortunate case of ExBeast friendly fire that occurred. She was quick to prevent it from rising, digging her boot into its chest. She raised her sword, bringing it down to hack at the twig-creatures neck in an attempt to disenfranchise its head from its body.

"I didn't give- Oh nevermind", Joe laughed. That twig blight still wasn't killed? They must have more health than he thought someone with their speed, he expected something more shade type and that's why he tackled their legs first. "I'm willing to get hit for this son. You're not getting out." , he taunted. When he made sure that his opponents leg would be close to unusable or at least easy for Joe to get to he would grab one hand on it's neck and the other one on an arm. From there on he would push his opponent to the ground and fall with him. Putting them in a mount position where Joe could ground and pound easily. From there on he would literally just load hits until his opponent got knocked out cold. If that succeeded he'd give a nod at Hazel. From there on he would make his way to John. "Need help with that?", he would grab the twig blight, put it in a Collar Tie clinch and load kneestrikes until it legs gave out. If this succeeded he would grab it by it's leg and run to the needle blight that attacked the summon and literally just viciousoly slam the twig blight into the needle blight repeatedly until they both gave out. Not giving too much about the damage he was potentially receiving in the process.

Stepping forward towards the telepad after Winnifred’s arrival, Rian brought a hand up to shield his eyes from the flash that accompanied the teleportation spell. Dropping his hand away after the bright light had subsided, he took in the group’s new surroundings. It was… quaint, that was the best word he found for this small ruralistic town they’d arrived at. He didn’t spend too long dwelling on their immediate surroundings as it seemed safe enough, and looked to set off in search of the locals for information. Thankfully that part of the mission seemed to handle itself as a driver pointed them in the direction of their target. Returning Winnifred’s nod, he followed after the blonde with his eyes peeled; if the Cockatrice got the drop on them things would go bad fairly quickly. His staff left small holes as he used it like a walking stick, driving its butt into the soft earth underfoot. The length and heavy head made it somewhat unwieldy to carry about and doing so made his life somewhat easier.

It didn't take long for her team to arrive at the meeting point in one of the magic teleportation rooms. Haruka waited for them all to get on and activated the device. The scenery changed in an instant as the wind softly blew against her skin. They were standing outside all of the sudden and appeared to be in a small town far away from school, most likely. A sudden honk of a car sounded close by them, one of the locals was sitting in the car. A middle aged man likely to be in his 40 started talking to them about this bird, indicating that the bird was close to the cornfields this morning. It wasn't so hard to make out what he was saying to them but she herself didn't hear these kind of accents a lot around. She gently smiled at the man and follow the others towards the south. Walking towards the cornfields only took around 15 minutes by foot but the next thing they needed to do now was find the bird somewhere around here. Haruka reached both arms into the air and stretched her back, she dropped her arms down and began talking while walking over to the fence surrounding the cornfield "We should head into the cornfield, its most likely eating all the corn and try to lure it to an open area." She jumped up one of the fence posts with relative ease and scanned the area around them "Maybe two try should try to lure him and the others set up a trap or defense." She turned around and jumped down from the fence post to face the group "I can't find it, maybe a little on ahead"

Taeion followed the smell of burning to one of the larger crates. There was a medium sized, charred hole in it, which had smoke coming out of it profusely, he also thought that he heard some kind of squeak, although that was likely just his imagination. Taeion blinked once, and slowly crawled over to the hole, ensuring that he did not make a sound in case there were truly fire rats in there. He was not very accustomed to fighting such creatures. In fact, he couldn't really recall ever seeing one. He was not too sure of how large they really were, or more importantly - whether they could breathe fire or not. He looked around; maybe he could find a stone to throw into the crate? A few seconds of searching yielded no results. Taeion sighed, digging into his pocket, and pulling out a shuriken. For some reason, he stored a lot of his throwing weapons within his pocket - not a very good idea considering how sharp some of them were. He would end up cutting his hand or something. Still, now was not the time for him to be assessing his storage choices, and he quickly tossed the sharp object through the hole in the crate. At that moment, it occurred to him that if there were in fact fire rats inside of that crate, they would likely scatter. The less likely scenario would be that they would all team up on him and attack at the same time. Both scenarios were fairly bad in their own right. Still, it was slightly too late to simply take a different approach, as the shuriken had already hit the inside of the crate. Clink. Taeion took several steps backward and awaited some sort of reaction.

"I've got just the thing," Ryuota said in response to Haruka's suggestion of luring the creature out, looking at the surroundings befoRe he turned back to them to continue his sentence. The corn stalks were tall, almost as tall as them even. It was hard trying to peer through them and every so often a breeze would rustle the fIelds, causing a small racket. This could be a problem - If the monster was shorter than them, but he had doubts it would be. According to ancient accounts, that is. Was Ryouta ready to bet his life on old housewives' tales? "We should probably get into formation first." He remarked. Even for a Rank D mission the senior seemed not one to go easy. "Haruka-chan, this place looks perfect for hiding though." While he knew little about shades and how their techniques worked exactly, he knew that they were experts at taking their opponents by suprise - and the corn fields seemed very much brimming with such opportunities. So he thought. "I'm going to try lure it out to the very edge of the fields so Haruka-chan won't loose her advantage, yet where Miss Winnifred can still see us and back us up from afar." He recalled Winnifred mentioning that she was a sniper, glancing at the weapon she carried had confirmed his guess. "And Rian could start casting when it is in view, I'll try to keep it off everyone. I'm going to use," He touched the screen of his watch and a hologram appeared, on it was the illusion of a speaker phone with the title reading "Rooster's Crow". "-This." He shrugged. "I heard it reacts badly to this." According to text, the crow would kill it outright. Maybe even completing the job! Despite his often relaxed composure, Ryouta seemed to know his lore. "Is this good?" He asked everyone, wanting their opinions. Then only when they all agreed and were ready, would he play the sound.

While John finally held the Twig Blight in such a way that it was unable to harm him, he could tell that he wouldn't be able to to hold it very long. He didn't like the idea of it breaking free and either attacking him again or teaming up with it's thorny friend against his partner.Jon also didn't think he could throw the plant imp far enough to get it out of his hair, instead he only saw only one solution."Hey guys, I have a problem here!" The Cactus-Cat meanwhile was doing decent against the Needle Blight, which was exactly why it didn't expect to get hit by a bunch of glowing needles. Luckily generations of slashing cacti gave it great defense against thorns of any kind and it didn't take any damage, but it was still angry about the attack. John however lacked his Summons specialized defense and while he tried to use his captive as a shield he still got hit by the needles. In his case though his clothing prevented him from any damage. Still the Cactus-cat was angered by both the surprise attack and the fact that his Summoner could have gotten hurt and tried to impale the Needle Blight on the thorns sprouting from it's hind legs.

When everyone had readied themselves in position and given Ryouta the signal, the rooster crow recording rang out over the field. About a hundred yards to their left, near where the fields met a treeline, there was a response. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZc62IAucCc Something huge began to run towards them through the corn, though at the moment it was hunched over. All they could see was a flame red crest of feathers, the edge of something black and scaly, and the occaisonal whip of a long, snakelike tail. Again it screeched in rage--then it jumped into the air, giving the group a full view of what they faced. From head to toe, the creature had to have been at least seven feet tall, though the curve of its neck and the way its body sat made it appear smaller. The bulk of its fowl body must have been in excess of four hundred pounds, and its tip-to-tip wingspan was somewhere around thirty feet all the way across. The snaketail at its back was at least the creature's own height in length, if not more, and lashed up and down angrily like a living being in its own right. It came down towards Ryouta, the source of the painful sound driving it insane, and began lashing out wildly with claws as sharp as any sword... As Taeion tossed his shuriken, there was a cacophony of squeaks and squeals, and a group of bright red bodies, about one and half again times the size of a normal rat, surged up through the burning trash. Upon spotting Taeion, five of the rats turned and scampered off, one group of two to the north and the others to the west. Two remained and hissed at him, before both launched a ball of fire from their mouths that flew towards the ninja with an angry flare...

Rian’s head snapped towards the treeline as soon as the roar reached them, bringing his staff up to bear with a smooth spin. Noticing the rustling of the corn stalks as something began to charge towards the group, he began to backpedal away from the others, intending to spread out so the creature couldn’t simply charge in amongst their group. Without waiting for it to reveal itself, he began to gather the mana and concentration needed to unleash his spell. Lowering the staff so the tip was pointed forward and aimed towards the cornfield, he began his chant. “Weakness revealed, vulnerabilities exposed, Frailty of Movement and Toughness.” As he muttered the chant quietly, a dark glow began to gather around the staff’s head, streams of darkness swirling around the two prongs. Thrusting the staff forward when the ExBeast finally revealed itself with a jump, the gathered glow streamed forth to surround and envelop the Cockatrice. Even mid-air, the creature seemed to immediately falter as the curse took hold, sapping it of its agility. --- (OOC: Speed, Evasion, and Defense for Cockatrice have been reduced to 0.)

"My, my." Taeion mumbled. The young ninja stepped to the right to dodge a single fireball - the other had already been way off-target, has their attacks been more accurate, Taeion would have needed to put more effort into dodging. He was surprised at the size of the creatures, although it was to be expected; ExBeasts tended to be bigger than their earthly counterparts. As he expected, some of the rats had fled from the area. He would have to catch those later. Hopefully they wouldn't burn anything else while he dealt with the two braver enemies in front of him. For now, dispatching of them was the priority. It was at that moment that Taeion's attitude shifted. His half-closed eyes fully opened, and his stance changed to that of someone who was about to strike. Pulling out his ninjato, he prepared to attack. "Deft." Taeion said, activating his ability. He dashed towards the duo of mice, aimed for the one on the right, and attacked with the intent to stab the creature brutally.