Sifr

Iris Ascendis

Hildegunde grimaces as she moves on her bad leg, avoiding the pursuing beast. Each swipe brings claw and blade inches closer and closer to the hunter, and Hildegunde knows she cannot scramble away fast enough to make another shot. She looks for some sort of out...

...Then there were four. Regardless of how empty Otis's threats were, backup came all the same. Hildegunde watches as Ciara and Iraleth crash upon the beast, scrambling away in the moment of chaos. Just enough of a buffer to get away and make another shot. She'd need to thank her classmates later for their haste and help - but that could wait.

"I'm fine!" Hildegunde calls out. Save for her minor leg injury, she was doing okay. She raises her rifle once more, aiming for the creature's head. The head was a smaller target, and she couldn't fire right away - not with Iraleth so close. But if she could make the shot, it would likely end things a lot quicker. If she missed? The situation was more than under control with four people.

Well, three people. Otis's answer wasn't reassuring. She was no help as a healer - surely someone out of the group would be. Or at the very least, know the way to a clinic. She could not allow Chloe to bleed out while the four of them fought.

"Someone go to the door, Chloe needs healing!" Hildegunde calls out, an unusually authoritative tone to her voice.

"Rest of us, stay!"

Iris Ascendis

@Nanaya Writing it now! Sorry, aunt had a baby earlier than expected and it slipped. Home now though.

Iris Ascendis

Posting later today, was busy with job stuff.

Iris Ascendis

@ERode@Nanaya

That was faster than expected, but Hildegunde was far from complaining. Chloe - wherever that door led - was no longer in an active battlefield. The dirt wall crumbles, and Hildegunde, not wasting precious time to escape from the blade, ducks and runs. The blade grazes her leg as her PB wavers, but leaves her in one piece. She falters in her step, but manages to stay on both feet.

Then, and only then, does she take the time. The time to think, and the time to act. The pain searing in her leg grounds her to the moment.

Otis's offer rings in her head. She wants to flee - it was nature, after all, to listen to one's pain, minor or otherwise. Moreover, she wasn't liking Chloe's chances without immediate help, and she didn't know where that door led. On the other hand, leaving this beast to roam freely was likely unwise, and possibly leaving Otis alone with it didn't bode well either.

For the moment, she would fight. That might change depending on the answer Otis gave.

It was close enough now. She would not waste her ethos yet - the beast had come close enough that missing this shot would disgrace her as a hunter, and with backup, her need to gamble was less urgent. After today's class, she had her doubts her ethos would even simplify things in this situation.

Her words are sparse.

"Chloe, healing," Hildegunde hisses, followed by the sound of gunfire. A bullet flies towards the beast's chest - likely where its heart would be, if it had one. Her eyes fixate on the beast, watching intently for anything unusual - or, if she were lucky, a body going limp.

"Will she have that?"

Iris Ascendis

Heads up, I won't be able to post for the next two days, possibly three.

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@ERode@AThousandCurses Gave Outis something to latch onto as well. And anyone else, if they'd like. Hildegunde's no healer, so even if Hildegunde manages to save herself alone, I don't know if Chloe is lasting without help. So that F may have to happen :P

Sorry that took so long X - X

Iris Ascendis

Hildegunde's head snaps back at the scream. Her eyes widen. Time simultaneously moves too slow and too fast. Her heart thumps hard in her chest, blood rushing in her ears.

Run. Save yourself. Her own inner voice. Every fiber of her muscles cries out in solidarity.

And yet something nagged at her. A growing consciousness, those little white specks of light that Ciara hungered for? Or perhaps just guilt at the idea of being responsible, even if only in part, for else's corpse in the woods once again.

She reassesses her position in that split seconds. Their pursuer is gaining speed. Could she even manage to outrun them at this point, Chloe or no Chloe? The rebound on Chloe's end didn't inspire much confidence either in how much longer her own might hold.

"Shut up," Hildegunde hisses, which was probably a mangled attempt at urging her to save her breath. As she does, she dashes towards Chloe, focusing. Pulling on the air, then the ground. The earth surrounding Chloe would dip and rise, cobblestone tumbling away in wake of dirt and debris, roughly in the shape of a C formation, trying to pack itself solid. At the open end stood Hildegunde, back to the half-elf. By no means the sturdiest of barriers, but Hildegunde doesn't have much to work with - or much time to think things through.

Breathe. Focus. She still has a bullet left. She is a hunter, damn it. Whatever was aiming at her, if it were of flesh and blood, was just as vulnerable as she was.

She just needed to spot the thing. And if she doesn't?

If she doesn't...

She unsilences her rifle and gives her Adapa a command, sending a brief, scattered message out to all her contacts.

Forest. Help.

It was a long shot, but she tried.

She peeks over the dirt tower and straight ahead at the enemy, eyes narrowed. Looking for any inkling of a paw, the wagging of a tail, the glint of fangs. Something, anything, for her to latch onto the entity that pursued her.

Only then could she identify a target.

@Psyker Landshark@Estylwen@AThousandCurses@Nanaya@ERode

Iris Ascendis

Sorry, had an absolute comedy of errors go on on my end ranging from snowstorm that cut our power in April because fuck me to health scare with my mother 's heart to my own mental health relapse to world's most awkward and sudden reunion. I still have a lot on my plate and I still don't have laptop access so I'm writing on my phone; I should have laptop access in a few hours again. I feel really fucking bad for leaving everyone hanging, shit just happened so much forever and it slipped my mind. Stuff is still happening in all honesty but I'll try to get a post up today. If I don't I urge you to skip me because I definitely cannot on Monday because I'll be busy, and you guys have waited long enough for me to go out and ask if you can wait two more days.

Extra apology to Erode because he's been waiting on me.

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Sorry I know erode is waiting on me to reply but today has been Not Good to me so I'll try for tomorrow.

Iris Ascendis

How long had she been listening? Did it matter? If Chloe wanted to think Hildegunde had seen little - had not heard her talking to anyone - she would feign ignorance. There was no need to answer her question when she came up with her own happy falsehood.

"If you say so-" Hildegunde says, but cuts herself off. Her shoulders rise and her body tenses. The sudden rustling of bushes, the tearing of vines; Hildegunde instinctively goes on the defensive, summoning her PB. By the time arrows go flying, she had begun to run; forget gracing the quip of her attacker. For reasons she couldn't understand right away, she can feel the curling lips of her Adapa in her mind.

And then it hits her.

She was leaving Chloe behind.

Why did this bother her now? She'd have been glad to leave the half elf behind yesterday. She'd have left most anyone behind then. She had thought her classmates unwell of mind for risking their safety for each other the day before. Why did that smile compel her so against her own instincts? Why was she now doing the same?

Despite all of her own logic, Hildegunde stops in her tracks, one of the obsidian arrows whizzing past her head as she does.

"The attunement ceremony will commence in five minutes. Make your way to the leyline attunement zone, where students will familiarize themselves with Wingram's leylines and declare their choice of Wund or Nero! And speaking personally, I respect, but do not expect fashionably late individuals. That is all."

The announcement gave her a moment's hesitation. She'll be late if she stops. Ultimately, she knows she won't make it in five minutes anyways.

She makes a motion towards Chloe, gesturing for her to follow. And in case it wasn't clear enough, she punctuates the gesture with a single word.

"RUN!"

Otis's message would be left unread. Her focus was elsewhere. Perhaps, if she checked, she'd have sent a distress call. As it were, Hildegunde was focused on two things: To ensure her own survival, and to ensure Chloe's. If Chloe did not follow, she would run back for her and drag her out of the forest herself.

@Nanaya