[center][h2]Kochiya Sanae[/h2][h3]Aventon — Forest Outskirts[/h3][/center]
As much as she would have liked it if the creature they were pursuing was more apt to go somewhere more open, Sanae had no expectations that she could do much more than restrain the beast. That feeling only grew as the team split up; Remilia and Lewa had opted to split off, and with Joker appearing to be lost in his thoughts for a bit, it seemed quite apparent that she would be heading out with a fellow incident-resolving regular in the form of one half-ghost gardener.

Given what they could be facing, that wasn't actually all that problematic. Quite the opposite, really; a pair of swords were more likely to deal a meaningful blow than her danmaku, especially if it was someone like Youmu wielding them.

The pair-up meant that pursuit of whatever it was that crashed through the area didn't take all too long, either; between Youmu's natural agility and Sanae's ability to simply choose not to get caught up in the underbrush by flying over it, finding their mark was never a matter if [i]if[/i], but [i]when[/i].

Said mark being a rather nasty-looking boar with bloodstained tusks, however, didn't seem to shake her much at all. The state of the beast explained the state of the area from which they had begun their search, and it didn't exactly take a genius to put two and two together.

With that said, a creature like this being so close to a human settlement was naturally cause for alarm. And when something like that was turning towards them and, while staring dead-on at the pair, began to shake its head around and stomp at the ground...

Well, it was clear that it saw them as a threat, too.

"Don't think we're going to be able to scare this one off," Sanae remarked before the massive boar suddenly began to rush at them. Given how she had expected the animal to posture a bit more before anything happened, though, the only thing that she could instinctively do was dodge [i]upwards[/i].

"I'll back you up from the air!" she called out before forming a few ofuda and firing them off towards the creature's thick hide. Unfortunately enough, it didn't seem like the impact of a few bullets would do much.

...Maybe she just needed to fire more? Surely Youmu of all people could dodge accidental friendly fire if it came down to it, right?
[hr]
The boar that Remilia and Lewa had come across seemed to be far warier of their presence, especially as Lewa made himself known. Even with the latter's gentler tone and choice of action, the boar seemed to be less inclined to actually want to acknowledge his words than it did to stand its ground. Rather than back up, though, the creature chose to shake it's head and grunt at the unfamiliar being approaching it.

A closer look—or a keen sense of smell—would make the presence of wounds both new and old quite apparent now, though. A few gashes upon the beast's shoulders and an odd festering bite wound on it's rear leg made clear that the boar was injured.

It still seemed to have enough energy to fight if one broke out, though given it's current demeanor it didn't seem like such an outcome would be all too desirable to begin with.

[@VitaVitaAR][@Izurich][@Lugubrious][@EchoWolff]
[hr][center][h3]Aventon — Hunter's Lodge[/h3][/center] 
Anne's explanation of the situation left Kendrick with a rather distinct grimace on his face—particularly the notion that he or his would-be wards could be taken as hostages in order to trade for Millie's. That had as much to do with his own safety as it did everyone else's, of course; with Ywain gone, it naturally fell to him to protect what remained of Aventon. If that meant his safety was in turn tied to the kids' own, that would naturally leave him at a troubling crossroads.

It didn't help much that the village head and his wife had passed in the attack too, leaving only their daughter behind to carry on in their place. To say that this entire situation had spiraled out of control would be an understatement at this point, and heavens knew how many people wanted to try and rebuild after so much had been lost.

Hopefully the survivors would recover soon enough to make a decision on the matter, then. But that was a problem for the future.

Though he had been lost in his own thoughts for a brief moment, Anne calling attention to what exactly had transpired when the small group he had seen before—including the odd "gift" that they had received. Naturally, this was cause for concern in it's own right; the remark about "falling into hell" didn't help assuage any fears about the matter either.

When presented with the actual items within said box, though, the guard seemed to take a moment to examine each. His attention panned over towards the vial first, and after picking it up, Kendrick took a moment to hold it up to the light before popping the cork on top off and taking a quick whiff of it.

"...Mmm... There's a really strong medicinal smell to this one, but I'm not super qualified to say what it might be. Might be better to get this examined by an apothecary; unfortunately, given the situation, the one we have here is probably going to be busy for... A while," he stated before turning his attention towards the other two items.

"These, though... Call it intuition, but there's gotta be more to these things than just looking pretty," he continued before picking up the jewel and looking at it in the light in turn. "At the very least, I know that the symbols carved into this gem aren't just for show. Seen a few mages use things like this when they were passing through, at the very least, but I've got no affinity for magic so I can't help much there, either."

Naturally, that left the one object that hadn't yet been examined by him: the necklace. After placing the jewel back in it's place, Kendrick slowly lifted the necklace up and held the emblem in his hand as he checked it over. Nothing seemed to be apparent beyond the fine workmanship that had to have gone into such a piece, though, which was... Somewhat disheartening.

It was at this point, though, that the presence of an odd piece of paper that had been hidden away beneath the necklace caught his attention, and curiosity soon got the better of him as he picked it up to examine it in turn.

"Hm... Any idea what this means?" he asked before handing the paper off to Anne.

[quote]"Enshrining a god without proper precautions can lead to unforeseen consequences. Unchecked divinity can overwhelm a soul, snuffing it out like a light."[/quote] 

[@Drifting Pollen]
[hr][center][h3]Aventon[/h3][/center]
Being so high in the skies above the town would provide Rayne ample view of what the townsfolk were up to now that the battle had passed. If the situation was better, it was more than likely that she would have seen people milling about in the market square by this time of day, picking up what they needed from the vendors peddling their wares. Instead, though, everyone seemed to be on edge and still barely recovering from what had transpired the day before. Guards were still posted around the town's walls, though there seemed to barely be enough to keep watch; else, civilians who were of sound enough mind and body and not otherwise occupied with care for the injured were starting to move around town to try and start getting things back in working order.

In less vague terms, that meant cleaning up the remnants of the battle, bodies and rubble alike. It was by no means a job meant for the faint of heart, but the reality of the situation could not be ignored. The Raven Heralds had not collected their dead when they had departed, though, which left them awkwardly strewn about all over the battlefield for the survivors to handle alongside the bodies of the deceased.

In that regard, though, it seemed like a few of the more able-bodied among the townsfolk were beginning to gather the dead outside the walls therein and (very roughly) trying to sort them into two groups. The Heralds, of course, were gathered into one group and stripped of what arms they had; the deceased residents, then, were gathered into another. It went without saying that the latter were treated with far more respect than the former, but at the end of the day it was far from a pleasant task.

Those with less of a heart for matters like these, however, were busy trying to move all of the broken wood and shattered stone away from the buildings scattered about the town, slowly working their way out from the lodge where a majority of them had spent the last night. There, at least, there was less of a chance of witnessing a scene that might have left them sicker than not.

[@DracoLunaris]