[IC] Plague-Hunters

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire was surprised by how soft the fall felt. It took her a second to realize that she was lying on top of Nickolaus. Before she had the chance of getting up and thanking him she was pushed off which she found rather annoying.
Sapphire was left on the ground as Nickolaus moved in to attack the creature. The feeling of annoyance towards Nicklaus was quickly replaced by annoyance at herself due to her lack of reaction. While Nickolaus immediately mobilized and entered combat again, Sapphire found herself lagging behind . . . again.

She quickly stood up and with her Kris at the ready the moment Nickolaus cried out for help. For the first time since the fight began she managed to return to her usual calm self. Instead of recklessly jumping into combat she stayed back waiting for an opening to attack. She took note of the corrosive liquids that were haphazardly being flung around from the things mouth and subsequently its abdomen after being slashed by Nickolaus. She promptly made a mental remark to avoid close range combat with the creature.

After Nickolaus' second assault Sapphire realized he was open to an attack from the harpy and she swiftly took action. With a distinct hand motion a burst of air pushed Nickolaus away from the Harpy. It was obvious that the brunt of the force was directed towards the plagued entity as it was pushed much further back than Nickolaus. She then went in front of a slightly dazed Nickolaus shielding him, Kris at the ready, but she had no intention of using it if she didn’t have to. With another hand motion, a bursts of air sent small rocks and pebbles flying towards the Harpy at ridiculous speeds, some of the rocks lodging themselves in it while others cleanly passing through. The Harpy was pushed even further back by the impacts. The air burst also sent dust and dirt flying which concealed the two for a few moments giving them a few moments to plan out their next action. Sapphire used the opportunity and turned towards Nickolaus.

“We need to find the others. It’s too strong for either of us.” She said as she prepared to use another air burst to keep the creature at bay.
In the previous struggle between him and the Harpy she failed to notice that Nickolaus clutched at his hand as a result of being cut by the plagued harpy and her expression changed to one of concern as she glanced at his wound.

“Your hand.”

Before he had any chance to elaborate the Harpy reemerged through the dust trying to stab Sapphire with its bone tipped arm. She deflected the attack with a much more forceful pressure wave which didn't do much damage but instead threw the beast on its back. This however took its toll on her mana reserves, leaving her rather drained and fatigued. She knew using Air Burst was out of the question for a while and she didn't think she would be able to pull off a successful attack in her current state so she prepared to defend herself with her Kris as best as she could. Now it was up to Nickolaus to decide whether to use this chance for another attack or for retreat.

[Eklispe]

Alexander examined his naginata with a sigh of relief before examining his new pet further. As he suspected it wasn't fully grown, though it appeared he had gotten the pick of the litter, briefly searching for a name he came up with Larion. Simple, but he liked the sound of it. He turned to face the sound of a cry for help along with loud whistling sounds. "Alright buddy lets go." Alexander whispers. They make their way towards the source of the sounds and find a small clearing. As soon as he arrived he saw that Nikolaus and Sapphire appeared to be fighting a plagued harpy, and as an overwhelming stench it him he realized what it was coming from.. It was just getting up and coming back to attack them, through the fading dust. Alex quickly considered what to do, Obviously he had to help, Sapphire couldn't hold off the beast with just a knife, even disregarding the toxic fluids that were dripping from the creature.

He quickly narrowed his options down to two. Either attempt to kill it as fast as possible, or cripple and disable it killing it slowly. He quickly dismissed the idea of a fast finish, far too risky. Since he had conveniently arrived behind the creature he first dropped his pack as it would slow him down and took out his crossbow. He took a deep breath preparing himself, then fired a shot into the creatures back, nearly instantly reloading and slamming it into the strap at his side. Alexander than ran forward shouting, "Look away!" partially to help get the harpies attention and of course, to warn them of what was coming.

As soon as the beast turned to face him he would hold his hand up and feel the familiar rush of power before shouting the word, "Flare!" A blinding flash of light emitted from his outstretched palm doubtlessly causing the harpie to reel back arms flinging up to cover its eyes. Alexander dashed forward rolling between the creatures legs and slashing his weapon across the back of its knees attempting to hamstring it before jumping back from the resulting fluid landing next to Sapphire. "It should be hamstrung, bleed it out, no need to endanger ourselves going for the kill savvy?" he asked to make sure his plan was clear. Somewhat belatedly he realized he hadn't issued any commands to his pet, "Larion, don't attack!" he said, hoping that it wouldn't get itself injured attacking.

[agentmanatee]

Nickolaus cursed himself, he had let the creature get a hit on him. Nickolaus quickly ripped of his bandana, exposing his pale face in full, and quickly wrapped his hand. He looped a bit through the dagger so he wouldn't drop it. He thought about attacking again immediately but just as he did, Alex appeared and shouted at them to turn away, which Nickolaus did, seeing Alexander 's plan. As he heard the beast shout in pain he uncovered his eyes. Alex had successfully hamstrung and blinded the creature, perfect. Then he suggested retreating?

No... no, he fixed Alex with a cold stare, "A Schulze never leaves a beast while it's breathing" and with that sprinted at the disabled beast. He hopped onto the things chest, the force of his full body and momentum from the sprint hitting it. With his left hand he quickly grabbed the beasts ragged hair, then plunged his dagger into its neck, then ripping it's throat open and falling back, away from the beast in case it lived still... which he hoped it would not.

[LHG100]

Nikolaus rips open it's neck, to the point its' head is now more dangling off then attached. The Beast takes quite a few steps backwards, some how still barely alive, due to the Plague's affects on a person. It then falls to its' knees, a final death gurgle before it falls down completely. The impact severs the final connections of its' own head, making it roll away...

Suddenly, the skin of the Beast begins dissolving ever so slowly, and memories of Joshua can be heard in everyone's minds. "If a Beast was using a lot of that weird fluid... it's highly likely it'll shower you with it when it dies. It'd be best to run away when you kill one." Oh hell, it's going to explode! Everyone runs as fast as they can, towards Joshua's camp. A very notable fizzle is sensed before the creature's body finally ruptures, and a sound not unlike that of someone puking, but much louder is heard. The Hunters look back, and it seems they thankfully just got out of the blast radius, puddles of that bile dissolving everything from grass to the exterior of trees in the area. Since it was a fairly large clearing, it didn't harm too much, which is decent.

It's then fairly obvious you all should probably tell Joshua that you almost died from a Plagued Harpy revealing itself, fighting, then exploding.

[Eklispe]

Alex sighed in relief. While perhaps un-necessarily risky, it had worked out for the best. Larion nuzzled his hand looking mournfully at the bile that was all the remains of the beast. Alex patted his head, "Don't worry boy, I'll get you something to eat." Alexander grabbed his discarded pack, luckily it had been shielded from the corrosive liquid by a conveniently dense amount of forest. "Well I'm going to report back to Joshua, I might come back later and see if I can lend a hand." He would've commented on Nikolaud's good work but he expected a caustic response and decided it was best left unsaid. Alex said then began making his way towards camp. After a few minutes of searching he found some of his marks and began following them back to camp. On his way there they Larion managed to pull of the impressive feat of killing a deer from above. The poor beast never had a chance, Larion ate surprisingly fast and they continued on their way. Alex left the forest and saw the camp walking into it with the intention of relaying to Joshua the recent events.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire focused her attention on Alex as he mentioned he was returning to the camp and she continued to observe him as he walked away.

She then began walking towards what remained of the harpy’s carcass. She carefully avoided the puddles of viscous bile as if her every step was choreographed and soon her pace slowed down until she was standing right next to the remnants of the creature.

“And through death you are set free from your plague.” She whispered while her sight lingered on the beast for a moment until she turned her head to observe Nickolaus. She then took the remains into view one last time before deciding to head back to Nickolaus. Now that she no longer was in the midst of chaos she was once again able to listen to her surroundings as she walked, making sure no other threats were nearby.

“I must get back to the task at hand . . . “, She thought. “. . . A familiar.”

[M127]

Hearing the beast behind him, Iṃgor jumps forwards, both out of surprise and to get out of its range to identify it; his instincts made sure he'd have enough torque to turn around midair.
Landing in a stance for aiming and firing a bow, he immedeatly switches back to his trusty bow, lining up a shot.
Before firing, he makes sure if the creature is affected by the plague, by tracing every lifeform infected by the plague within 100 meters, he cannot afford to be surprised like this again. Since he does not expect to need magic for anything else in the near future, he keeps the spell active. He shoots.

[LHG100]

The Infected Beast is, specifically, a... just a wild dog? Well, that's going to be simple. You fire your bow, and hit it straight in the eye. Since it was running for you, it staggers a bit due to the shot and yelps in pain. Afterwards it powers through anyway and pushes you down! It's weakened but this is a very bad situation, it prepares its' jaws...

Alexander would come back to the camp while the others... were just shocked, apparently. After a few minutes he arrives, and sees that Joshua is nowhere to be found! Where he was sitting, on his little picnic blanket, there is a note;

"Junior Hunters, I'm afraid I'm in need somewhere else. I've received word that the ancient Castle Bloodleaves is in need of my attention. I can not give too many details: I shall be away for likely three days, and I shall return in four. I have decided you have that amount of time to find a Familiar, and as a group, go to Coalstrike, in the east, to meet with me and a 'Harold the Blacksmith'. It's fine if you don't have the time to find a Familiar, you can go without or just find one on your travels.

Don't die out there. -Joshua.
P.S. don't ask about his eye when you find him."

Coalstrike? That's a two-day trip. Seems like everyone will have the rest of the day to find a familiar then head out tomorrow. The day is still young, thankfully, so there's plenty of time. All that took around two, three hours?

[agentmanatee]

Nickolaus looked at Amaryllis, a cold gaze met her, "You froze" he said very matter of factly. He put his remaining dagger back into coat, reloaded his pistol and holstered it, then glanced at his wrapped hand. Again he looked at his hand and raised it in front of her, "This happens when a hunter makes a mistake, it would be far worse if I had frozen n fear like you did... in fact I would be dead, and so would you. If I had frozen like you the beast would have impaled you, and you are lucky I had decided to follow you." He turned and started to walk into the forest away from the clearing but stopped just short. "The problem is a hunter never freezes... a hunter is not afraid of death or failure... The next time you face a beast it may be alone, or maybe another person will be in danger... will you freeze then?" Then Nickolaus dived into the forest again. He had heard loud buzzing earlier, and decided to see if a suitable familiar candidate had made it, and moved to where the sound had been coming from earlier.

[M127]

Without hesitation Iṃgor forcefully shuts the dog's mouth with his hands, before any of his bodyparts get trapped between its jaws.
Unfortunatly for the dog, it fails to retract its tongue fast enough, and it ends up being pierced by one of its teeth.
Once shut, he uses one hand to reach for his knife, planning to slice through the dog's throat and neck, while using the other hand to prevent it from opening its mouth again.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire stared with a neutral look on her face as Nickolaus spoke to her about the previous event.
By now she was used to getting criticized throughout her life. At this point she couldn’t care less.
Still, as he continued she felt an urge to retort that it wasn’t her lack of action or her actions in combat that caused the wound but rather his own recklessness, his mistake. Yes, if she had intervened it might have been avoided, but it wasn’t her fault directly. In the end she decided it was better to not add fuel to the fire. It wasn’t worth it.
When he mentioned what would have happened if he had frozen a faint smile crept onto her face.

“What would have happened if I hadn’t been there in the first place?” she thought.

But in the end she knew he wouldn’t have been able to survive the fight with the plagued harpy any better than she could have if he had been alone. And his initial assessment wasn’t wrong either. She did indeed freeze.
She continued staring at him as he walked off into the woods.

“Well maybe he should think twice before following me into the woods.”

With that final thought ending in a mental sigh she started working her way through the forest in the opposite direction of Nickolaus’ heading. Vigilant as ever, her sense of hearing focused on the noises hidden in the darkness.

[Eklispe]

Alexander read the note and shrugged, he would just have to find the others and tell them. He grabbed some meat that had been laying around and fed it to Larion, then heard a loud yelp of pain. Turning to find the source Alexander began heading down the road. Perhaps it was Imgor catching his own familiar.

[LHG100]

Nickolaus would quickly find Imgor fighting, and finishing off, a Plagued canine. Imgor would be struck down, then quickly cut into the neck of the beast and throw it away, making it hit a tree and killing it from the impact. The buzzing is gone, and Imgor seems to have a notable amount of blood on him, in addition to seeming tired. They'd both see Alexander coming into view, a nearly horse-sized, six legged silvery lizard right behind him slowly eating something in its' jaws.

Meanwhile, Sapphire would hear the pained yelping of the plagued dog in the distance before it's killed by something, and feel a slight burning sensation in her chest. It would disappear just as suddenly as it happened, as well.

[M127]

As Iṃgor tried to stand up again, he noticed he didn't have the strength to do it anymore, the venom was doing its job.
He knew, that the greatest danger this venom posed was a paralysis of the vital muscle-driven organs, mainly heart and lungs.
To prevent this, he started constantly monitoring his breath and heart-rate, planning to use the levition spell to substitude when required, while also getting into the most comfortable position as possible, as it would take a while to decompose the venom.
He checked if the levition spell was somehow affected by the venom, by levitating his knife. Seeing as it was not or hardly affected, he levitated it as high as he could, planning to thrust it downwards like a guillotine on any enemy, if one dared to show up.
Noticing Nickolaus, Iṃgor reports "Was stung by one of those pesky maneater wasps, can handle, just immobilized until decomposure progressed sufficiently."

[Eklispe]

Alexander came onto the scene just in time to see Imgor throw off his attacker. Though he it looked like he had been injured, and he was inflicted with some kind of poison. "Larion look meat." he said gesturing at the dead canine and it dutifully bounded off to have a late snack. He never seemed to get full. Alex rummaged through his bag briefly, "Ah here it is," he said taking a small vial out before putting his backpack on again. "Here," he said giving Imgor the vial, "A generic anti-venom, it won't immediately remove the effects but it should cause them to go away faster."

Nick was here as well, how very convenient. "I find a note from Joshua, it seems he has been called on a trip to Castle Bloodleaves, he said we should finish up here and meet at Coalstrike and meet Harlod the blacksmith. Given how long that will take we have the rest of the day to spend here. You two can work toghether and I'll see if I can find Sapphire and give her a hand." he said and headed back into the forest, having no doubt he would be able to find the clearing ruined by the harpies's acid and find Sapphire from there. He snapped to get Larion's attention and it immediately perked up quickly following him. As they walked he once again admired his pet, he was very thankful he hadn't had to fight it, he probably would've lost.

[M127]

Iṃgor inspects the vial, it'd be hilarious of Alexander grabbed the wrong vial and it was filled with a poison, but he also suspects it being either a cocktail of antivenoms(of which most are useless in this case, and/or slightly poisonous themselves) or a hoax.
In an attempt to check, he uses the tracking spell on a range of just a few centimeters, looking for an antivenom to the venom of the maneater-wasps, also testing the reverse(looking for anything that isn't an antivenom to the venom of the maneater-wasps) to see if the spell can work with these criteria and if the content of the vial would actually help.

[LHG100]

Imgor over-thought it massively: Yes, it's antivenom. Yes, it'll help with Maneater wasp sedatives. Imgor self-applies it roughly where the Wasp hit, and slowly begins feeling a bit better. Of course, still exhausted, but better. Suddenly, Imgor would then puke up a little and feel a burning sensation... everywhere. Oh... your Exicus spell! Something's about to take the bait, you get up and begin jogging to where you left it, and soon see some sort of wolf in the distance... It sniffs your rune before noticing you and growls while backing up slowly, then darting off quickly.

Meanwhile, at Castle Bloodleaves...
"Has it pierced our defenses?", A woman in full armor, forged to remind people looking upon it of a dragon, said to her massive, yet emaciated giant friend, wearing simple, religiously inclined clothing. He breathed in, then spoke "...No... The Door is not breached. Have.. you not heard? Something... broke in, not out.". A third man quickly came into the foyer, Joshua, his wasp holding onto his back. "What the hell broke in? Who'd be interested in breaking into, y'know, FORBIDDEN Castle Bloodleaves?" "Well... I caught a glimpse of it... Before it went deeper." The two listened intently to their mutual old friend, and decided they should go deeper into the fortress themselves.

Castle Bloodleaves... the Forbidden Fortress from the first age. It's currently said to be used to store the Beasts even the mightiest hunters just can't kill. Originally, it was the center of a mighty human kingdom, before it was burnt to ashes after all of its' people fell to the Beast-plague. Their... fascination with blood didn't help curb the spread of the disease. It's told that there are still mighty artifacts deep inside the castle, yet, it's also told the most horrific beasts must be trapped in the deepest levels.

[NanoFreakV2]

Sapphire put her hand over her chest as she felt the burning sensation. As soon as it was gone she wondered what that was, but she decided there are more important things that needed to be attended to. Her exceptional hearing had picked up the faint sound of struggle and a yelp in the opposite direction and she knew she had to investigate. Despite her final interaction with the other trainees ending on a sour note she knew they were her teammates after all. And if they needed help, she'd be ready to provide it.

She backtracked all the way to where the remains of the harpy still laid in the clearing. She could hear movements just past the clearing in the forest and decided the best course of action is to remain in cover. As she observed an Ironback emerged from the woods. Fearing she would be discovered she decided to launch a preemptive strike. Using her signature air burst spell she enhanced her jump out of cover and several weaker ones were used to increase her sprinting speed but she stopped herself just as Alexander showed up next to the Ironback. Sliding to a halt in front of them she just stood there in front of the two with her Kris in the hand.

“It’s . . . his yours?” She asked with uncertainty in her voice. The mere fact that the beast wasn't already attempting to maul her was an answer in itself and she began slowly putting her Kris in it's sheath behind the cloak.

[M127]

He sighed as the wolf ran away, it'd have been nice to catch a familiar on accident.
Climbing the same tree again Iṃgor obscured the rune by partially covering it with leaves, yet again.
While resuming the wait, he used the tracking spell to make sure he was not surprise-attacked by any airborne or climbing creatures again.

[Eklispe]

Alexander stepped forward just in time to see Sapphire come skidding to a stop in front of Larion, her strange dagger at the ready. "Yes, I uh, came to tell you that Joshua left and we have the rest of the day to get a familiar. After that we need to set out for Coalstrike. Oh and since Imgor and Nick seem to be fine I was wondering if, you know I could lend a hand?" Alex inquired somewhat nervously.

Now that he got a good look at her under the hood her eyes were a startling shade of purple and he could swear that her hair was an unnatural shade of blue though it could simply be very dark black. Alexander swallowed nervously hoping he didn't seem like too much of an idiot. Larion growled when Sapphire first appeared but once he saw Alexander talking to her he eagerly ran forward to sniff her, probably a little intimidating given his size.