[center] [color=4BE2A3][h3]Naija[/h3][/color] [color=4BE2A3]Lvl[/color]: 2 [color=4BE2A3]Day[/color]: 1 [color=4BE2A3]Location[/color]: Forest surrounding the Demon lord's Castle -> travailing towards the abandoned castle ahead of the boss [color=4BE2A3]Mentions[/color]: Mario[@Holy Soldier], Fox McCloud[@Etherean Fire] [color=4BE2A3]Word Count[/color]: 1,285 [color=4BE2A3]Seed statuses[/color]: Napple Seed(18/18): two napples collected. rest of Napple seeds now wasted [/center] The Phozons raced along ahead of Naija as she soared through the forest towards the Napple Seed, making for an rather beautiful if morbid display as the winged Mithalan giggled and did cartwheels in the air followed the glowing sparks. Naija caught herself laughing at the display and quickly shut this off in distaste, she hated that she did that, that she took joy in killing things. Certainly they were corrupt and dangerous and she was justified on putting them down, but to feel such catharsis from doing so was a demon she had wrestled with for a long time. The Phozons were absorbed by the plant which, having collected the requisite amount of life force, bore two napples as fruit which she harvested as she flew by, the bind song plucking them as she had reaped so many of the wild plants of aquaria for cooking ingredients in the past. Then she weaved towards the forest towards where Odin and Mario had landed as the two napples where stored in her inventory. Naija was not acquainted with the concept of fall damage as it was not a thing in her game and had not thought of the consequences of Mario falling back to earth. Thus she expected to have found the gigantic legend battling heroically against the Valkyries. Instead she saw in the distance was mario battered and bloody, the Valkyries swarming around him like carrion birds. The plumber spotted her and called for her to stay back, but Naija completely ignored this demand, she had healing items, she could get him out of there and have him fixed right up. She redoubled her efforts, her new wings pounding as she zipped through the forest but the black and corrupted hord closed again, tearing at his flesh, the Mario who was relieved as they parted could barely stand, blood seeping from his many wounds. The plumber, sensing the end was near called out one last time for them to leave him to his fate, to go warn the others as he made a final stand. [color=4BE2A3]No! She was almost there, she could still...[/color] The mace falls, and the plumber is no more. The order is give, the murder of crows leave. And for what feels like an age Naija just stares. Lost. Her only thought is a hazy confusion as to why she could smell the sea again. That is until she hears the rapid pounding of footfalls coming through the woods towards her She is shaken from her paralyzing shock as panic, shame, horror, guilt, misery and a million other emotions engulf her, swirling and wrestling for dominance of her psyche. It was all her fault, she had allowed him to go against the plan, to take them on the boss alone and just assumed from his confidence and legend status he could handle himself while she bailed out Fox. If only she had gone to him first, this wouldn't have happened. If only she had stood up to him in the first place! Naija despaired, for despite her life in the graveyard of civilisations, despite her violent bloody existence, she had never experienced the loss death brought first hand. For a moment, she considered giving up, what was the point, what was she even doing here, what could they even do against that monster. But by the time Fox has arrived all here emotions had submitted to the oldest and strongest of them all. One that had seen here through so many dark places full of nightmares and abominations. A ceaseless, all consuming burning anger. Mario might have been kind of an ass, but despite the short amount of time they spent together Naija had actually cared about him. As with all times something she cared about was taken there was only one course of action. She would kill them, she would kill them all. With here stolen wings she rose from the sorrowful collapse to the floor she had not realized she had taken. She slowly turns to the approaching Fox. Her fists are clenched, her breathing ragged and harsh, her eyes are hard and burning with anger and tears streak her face. Her original curious and carefully cheerful demeanor replaced by a barely contained rage and bloodlust. [color=4BE2A3]”They killed him. That's not going to stop us, we are going to kill them all. but first we need the others[/color]” She says flatly, struggling to contain her emotions as she flaps into the woods. The bind song can be heard once more, and though the notes have not changed they reverberate through the forest, imbued with with all her sorrow, and the woods sing in kind. She swears it will be the last break in her resolve before the monster is dead. She returns with another log. [color=4BE2A3]”Hold on to this Fox, we’re going to fly to the abandoned castle”[/color] This one was from a tree that had been split vertically down the center, so that there was a flat surface upon which Fox somehow managed to perch himself. She had expected him to cling to it for dear life, but it looked like he had done something like this before and so instead easily balanced on the object, weapon at the ready. There wasn’t time to ask when he had flown like that before, so she took off after the dark flock. Najia, with fox in tow, flew in a long wid arch around the flock in order to stay out of range of whatever they might have to throw in retaliation till they were flying some distance ahead and straight towards the castle. Naija was relieved to find that the speed the enemy group where flying at was not anywhere close to how fast she could go with her Valkyrie wings. With this information and Fox’s dexterous balancing act she came up with a plan. The plan relied on a few facts. First because of how the bind spell worked what she was carrying did not slow here down at all, thus she had the same flight speed as the Valkyries and could thus stay ahead of them indefinitely. Second, unless the valkyries had some hidden tricks up their sleeves they only had throwing weapons/vials as ranged attacks, she thought that if they had the ability to shoot they simply would have decimated the forest with fire upon the first attack. Thirdly, foxes laser pistol had a better range than thrown objects and the shots were very quick, thus they could safely and effectively fire on the valkyries from a distance further than they could retaliate. Finally, if she had missgudged the distance and they could attack her and fox, Naijas was from a place where all the wildlife had ranged attacks, dodging projectiles was her forte. Thus the plan was to stay just ahead of the enemy and hopefully out of weapon range while Fox lay down a massive unending barrage of laser fire upon them, massacring them as they were unable to retaliate. This gave the Valkyries 2 options, stick with their boss or give chase. Either way they could not catch the duo and thus would suffer attrition along the entire flight to the abandoned castle. If they stayed they would suffer more, if they chased they would be split off from their boss, letting the heroes deal with the army and him separately. She relayed most of this thinking to fox. [color=4BE2A3]”Blast them fox, make those bastards pay for every mile!”[/color] She soared on, checking over her shoulder for incoming, but mainly focusing on maintaining a constant speed and level flight path, letting fox get the best shots he can before the inevitable attempted response.