[h3][b][color=367597]Lysette[/color][/b],「Sirius」, & [b][color=d1d3d3]Vera[/color][/b]
[/h3]

Lysette awoke early the next day in time for the morning meal time. She went to cafeteria to get her breakfast, bringing along the bag of rabbits in case she could sell them off to another orphan for a meager amount. The scrambled eggs looked good this morning. A generous pile of scrambled eggs and a three egg omelette shortly adorned her plate. Seeing Riss’ bacon deployment against the crystal centipede the day before had reinvigorated her desire for meat. A generous pile of bacon was added to her tray. For a drink, orange juice! 
Her dangerously close to tipping tray is carried across the room. Searching out for a empty table, she picks the least occupied one by the back of the room. With only one person sitting at it, it was a prime target. A cloaked and pale looking girl is scribbling through a journal while munching on her breakfast. Lysette slowly slides up to the other end of the table and sits, starting on her breakfast. Over the next few minutes, she gradually scoots close and closer to the girl, sneakily glancing to her right for any signs of reaction. Within the next few minutes, the two are centimeters apart. 

“Hey.”

 “Are you trying to hit on me?” Vera flatly inquired.

“Hey~~.” Lysette winks. Poorly.

Vera flops her dragon arm on the table with a light thud, “Well. You are a brave one, aren't you,” she jokingly plays along.

“Wanna buy a… rabbit? ;)” Lysette whispers, gesturing toward her bag.

Vera, slightly saddened that the game had already come to an end, raises an eyebrow out of curiosity, “No?”

“Please I need money.”

“Don't we all. Unfortunately, I don't have any to spend at the moment, so unless you want to go out and earn some…”

[i]An offer to hang out![/i] Clearly this was an offer of friendship. A friend has been made. “Yes please come I don’t think the people from yesterday like me anymore.”

“Well then, maybe I shouldn't go hunting with you...” Vera teases, attempting to gain a little insight into this as of yet unknown person.

Lysette has no response. Collapsing in defeat, she falls onto Vera, whispering “Please don’t leave me.” Slight sniffles are heard.

Surprised Vera moves to pat Lysette’s head in a reassuring manner before pushing her off to the side, but instead, noticing the fluffy almost floofy ears is unable to resist gently scratching behind them with her left hand for a few moments. Lightly embarrassed she stutters out a response,   “...F-fine.”

Ear scratches were a new feeling, and Lysette clearly had been missing out.

“This was all a ploy to get me to scratch your ears wasn't it?” Vera questioned, pausing for a moment.

“No I want money.”

“Well then maybe you should try to get some of your,” she pauses for just a moment, ”[i]friends[/i] from yesterday and meet back here so we can go hunting.”

“Maybe I’ll go get Sirius. Sirius is always nice.” Lysette reluctantly rises from Vera’s lap and abandons her breakfast to search for him. Evidently not in the cafeteria, he was most likely in his room at this time of the day. She nervously knocks on his door and awaits a response.

Sirius opens the door and to his surprise, his visitor is Lysette [s]the abandoner[/s]. He chooses to greet Lysette cordially, despite being more wary of her. “Hello, what do you need?” 

”Hi Sirius!”  

“Um, hi? If you don’t need anything...” Sirius begins.

“No wait wait wait. Don’t move. This is important. Sorry for uh, escaping from the mines without you. And Riss. I guess I panicked and… zoned out at the end,” Lysette’s ears and tail slowly drooping throughout the phrase.

Slightly looking towards the ground, she mumbles “Will you still go out with me?”

“...”

“NO WAIT I MEAN HUNTING. HUNTING. NOT LIKE THAT NO.” 

Sirius considers Lysette’s apology. “I wasn’t upset that you escaped from the mines, I was upset because you didn’t help us with the centipede,” Sirius winks at Lysette, “I’m also not interested in any romantic relationships at the moment. But I’ll give you a second chance and go hunting with you.” 

“Yes! Thank you! You should come meet my new friend.” Lysette grabs Sirius’ arm and attempts to drag him back to the cafeteria. 

Sirius lets Lysette pull him along. “You might give people ideas about us,” he jokes. 

Lysette ignores his tease and brings him in front of Vera. “I brought him!”

Sirius examines the new girl in front of him. It’s definitely the first time he’s seen her. She’s fairly short and her complexion seemed sickly. Sirius holds out a hand to shake, “Hello, my name is Sirius. It’s nice to meet you.” 

“Vera, and i’m going to have to pass on that handshake,” she excuses herself from the pleasantry by revealing her draconian right hand emphasizing her claws.

“I can see why. What artifacts do you have?” Sirius asks, “Seeing as we’re going to fight manabeasts.”

“Just Death, this is the first day I’ve really left my room for an extended length of time.”

“Riss also is going into Death, you two might get along with each other,” Sirius muses. 

“Is he the one with [i]the room[/i]?” Vera asks not wanting to pair up with whoever needed their room fumigated.

“Yes, although he has a nice collection of plants. And a bird,” Sirius replies. 

She politely declines, “I think I’ll pass, his methods seem a tad,” she hesitates for a few beats trying to find a word to properly show her disapproval, while still keeping up appearances, “disorganized.”

“It smells like death.” Lysette wrinkles her nose in discomfort.

“I heard Lysette mention hunting? What are your plans for that?” Sirius asks. 

“Hadn't planned any farther than just going out and trying to find some manabeasts to kill and harvest,” Vera admits plainly. 

“Hmm… well if no one has any plans, I personally would be interested in a Light manabeast,” Sirius proposes. 

“Wouldn't mind one of those myself to be honest,” Vera agrees looking slightly up and to the side her mind already churning out potential uses and combinatorial effects.

“Sure! Where would we find one of those though?” Lysette inquires.

“Probably at an altar or something. There should also be an increase of Light manabeasts during the day as well,” Sirius responds. 

“You good with going there, Vera? I’m fine with it, I’ll go grab my gear” Lysette asks.

She hesitates everso slightly, “Sure.” 

“I have all of my hunting equipment ready, but I need to pick some items up from the blacksmith,” Sirius comments.

Vera rises from her seat, “In that case let me just grab a few things and i’ll be ready to go.”

Lysette heads to her room in order to prepare, first emptying her bag of the Earth rabbits and to grab her weapons. She returns to meet Sirius and Vera in the cafeteria.

Vera heads to her room and grabs the adventuring gear she had prepacked over the previous days as the mutation had slowed down. She carefully changes into something a bit more defensive and heads back out to Sirius and Lysette, once again tossing the cloak over herself and making sure to lock her door.

“Where’s the nearest altar? Do you think we’ll need to take a landboat or train there?” 

“Landboat, the area we’re looking for is relatively in the open,” Sirius answers. 

Lysette nods and says “Lead the way.” 

“Alright, if you don’t mind following me to the blacksmith.” 

[hr]
The shopkeeper recognizes him from yesterday and greets him. Sirius receives his new armor and shield and slides several coins over to the blacksmith. He tries on his chestplate and vambrace and is satisfied with the fit. Thanking the blacksmith, Sirius exits the shop with the other two trailing behind him. 

The trio then head to the land docks, and showing their crests, board a land boat.

Some amount of time later, the group arrives at a platform on a hill overlooking the expanse and disembark enjoying the view; an open field covered in swaths of tall grass blowing in the gentle breeze like ripples on a pond. At six or seven feet high, the grass could easily conceal manabeasts within. 

Lysette looks to Sirius and Vera to say “Which way should we head off on?”

Sirius pulls out a map, “We need to travel southeast from here.”

“Well seeing as you have the map, lead the way,” Vera responds. 

“I don’t have a compass either,” Lysette adds.

Sirius leads the way off into the grass. 

[hr]
As the group walks, Lysette trips on something, and is almost immediately, rapidly dragged off away from the group.

“REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” Lysette shrieks as she is pulled into the darkness of the tall grass. [i]Goodbye my friends…[/i]

Vera starts running off after Lysette, “God damnit stab the thing!”

Sirius debates whether to start weed whacking immediately, but doesn’t because of potential friendly fire. He is useless here. 

Lysette’s flailing arms catch hold to tufts of grass, bringing her to a stop. Now able to look around, she sees the vines wrapped around her legs, straining to continue retreating. “Sirius! Free me! Over here!”

Sirius starts sprinting in the direction of Lysette’s voice.

Vera comes running over to Lysette’s flailing form and taking a few more steps, slashes through the vines with her claws. 

Scrambling back from the separated vines, Lysette begins peeling off the greenery attached to her legs. Once on her feet, she creates a blast of wind, knocking back the reapproaching vines. The wind pushes a line of grass apart, revealing more of the vines further down. 

He catches up to the two of them and helps them fend off the vines by hacking them whenever they got close. 

“So do we harvest this one or just try to leave?” Vera polls the group.

“What if we let it pull Sirius this time, and follow it to the source?” Lysette [s]jokes[/s].

“I think we can tell where it's coming from,” Vera sternly interjects.

“If you really think that’s a good strategy, I’ll do it. But I’m worried about lighting the entire field on fire,” Sirius replies evenly. 

“Let's not set everything on fire,” Vera requests.

Lysette pushes the grass apart with another wave of air, clearing a path that Sirius would have an easier time moving through. Leading the way, she quickly spots the source, a large clump of vines. Reacting to the group’s entry to the small clearing of grass where it sat in, it sent several feelers towards the three. With their slow moving nature, Lysette easily slashes them out of the air before they get close, causing them to jerk back towards the vine ball.

Sirius takes the opening and stabs the amorphous clump of vines. It begins thrashing violently at the trio. 

Vera thrusts her arm as far into the writhing mass of vines as she can, grasping at whatever might be there and attempting to rip out a chunk of the beast.

Lysette takes the opportunity while Vera is reaching inside to cut down the vines that were encircling her. Once cleared away, she takes a second to apply her Death artifact’s enhancement to her sword. With careful aim, she plunges it into the center, making sure not to stab into the area Vera’s arm was occupying. 

Trying to withdraw her arm, Vera finds it is quite stuck, and instead starts carving out an area with her claws the best she can.

Sirius starts cutting things, taking care to avoid cutting Vera’s arm. 

A few minutes later the mass of vines stops moving and as Lysette and Sirius take a few steps back, the party takes a moment to catch their breath.

Vera, slightly embarrassed, breaks the silence, “So uhh...my arm is kinda, stuck,” giving a quick tug on her arm to show it is indeed trapped in the mass of vegetation. 

“Should we… carve it out?” Lysette asks.

Vera looks slightly concerned at the thought of Lysette [i]carving[/i] near her arm, “It might be best if I do it, but I can't reach anything out of my pack at the moment.”

“Here, take this knife and have at it.” Lysette passes Vera the knife.

Vera takes the knife and starts carefully cutting through the vines in order to free her arm. In an attempt to keep the others distracted she asks,  “So who’s getting this one? Or are we going to divide it up?”

“I have no interest in Nature, I’d just be selling it,” Lysette states.

Vera pauses for a moment falling prey to her own distraction, “Let's see, Nature.. No conflicts, complements with Earth, Water, and Life. I mean I could use it, but I’m not overly attached.” She then resumes freeing her arm at a slightly increased pace.

“I would be selling it as well,” Sirius remarks. 

“Lets sell it and split the money then,” Vera decides finally freeing her arm. She takes a moment to look it over before handing lysette her knife back, “Thanks.” 

Stowing away her weapons, Lysette begins to grab the loose vines and bundle the manabeast into the smallest ball possible.

“Make some surface Sirius?”

Sirius obliges and a thin light platform appears, hovering inches above the ground. 

The manabeast is quickly encircled with chalk and a reagent made of a length of vine. Lysette finishes up and indicates to the group that she’s done. “Thank you Sirius, you can drop it now, don’t spend all your mana.”

“It doesn’t cost that much mana to maintain,” Sirius replies, dissipating the light construct.

“Back to walking now if everyone’s good?” Lysette says as she stows away the reagent.

“Southeast I believe it was?” Vera adds looking to Sirius.

“Yes.” 

The group then heads off to the southeast, watching for more vines as they go. 

[hr]
The party arrives at a large stone outcropping with a marble altar in its center. The entire area is brighter than the surrounding lands and almost thrums with energy. The foliage is more lush and vivid yet tame, and the area around the altar is clear of any vegetation. A large herd of deer graze in the clearing, scattered around the altar. What is even more peculiar is that some of the deer are pure white and glowing. Interestingly enough, they also don’t seem to be concerned about the artificers’ presence. 

“What should we do about all these deer?” Sirius questions. 

“Uhhhhhhh, get a few to go somewhere else?” Vera suggests.

“Okay,” Sirius responds, boxing a deer on the outskirts of the group inside a light construct and levitating it away. The other deer thankfully don’t seem too troubled by this occurrence. 

“Look at it go. One deer away. What about the other deer?” Lysette asks.

“We could just fight them one at a time,” Vera said.

Sirius shrugs, placing the deer down in a adjacent clearing, isolated and hidden from the rest of the herd, “Better to be safe than sorry.”

“So I haven't really had that much combat experience, do we just stab it now or?” Vera inquires.

Sirius responds, “Unless you have another method to kill it, sure.” 

Vera, not confident in her abilities to avoid a counter attack, attempts to get one of her more hardy companions to start the fight, “You first?”

Lysette swings for the neck. The deer just stands there, expecting to be saved by mama deer. But nobody came... 

The deer’s head falls cleanly to the ground with a gentle plop. Blood sprays liberally.
Sirius draws a circle around the deer and converts it into a reagent.
After he’s done, another deer is spirited away by a Light box. 
The other deer watch quizzically as their second brethren is removed from the safety of the herd. Unbeknownst to the [s]evil[/s] humans, a few deer follow the pretty light box from a distance as it floats away over the grass. 

The second deer dies the same way as the first. This was [i]way[/i] too easy... 

The group of three deer that had followed Sirius’s light box emerge into the clearing and freeze. They see two dead decapitated deer on the ground amid a massive pool of blood. They see a human with blood dripping from her sword. They put two and two together, and charge balls of light in their mouths before firing blazing beams of light at Lysette. 

Sirius instantly materializes a single mirror in front of Lysette. Lysette unintentionally combat rolls away from the cover of the mirror as the beams fall upon the mirror and reflect, one beam catching some grass on fire.

Lysette saves the environment by sucking out the air around the fire, preventing its spread.

Vera makes a lifting motion with her right arm, followed by a swift gesture to the side. The two decapitated deer rise up and charge the three deer.  

Having just attacked Lysette and hesitant to attack the bodies of their siblings, two of the living deer are knocked over. The remaining deer rallies itself and creates a sharp wedge of solid light that it drops down to cut an undead deer in half. 

The remaining, mostly intact, undead deer helpfully flails about on top of the deer that it had knocked over, preventing it from getting up quickly. 

Sirius swings his sword down on the neck of the flailing live deer. The blade stops against a thin barrier of light just above the two flailing deer. After a moment, the barrier thickens. Sirius tries a different method, firing a laser that seemingly misses at first but hits a mirror that angles downward at the deer. The grass around it catches on fire, but eventually hits the deer as Sirius adjusts the angle of the mirror. The Lightdeer goes limp -- a lucky blow was struck.

Standing deer opens its mouth and preps another hyperbeam for Lysette, bothered by the blood still dripping from her sword. Lysette deftly combat rolls once again, allowing the environment to take yet another hit. Like a true eco-warrior, she quickly extinguishes this fire as well. The deer mentally apologizes to the grass.

Deer number two finishes saying prayers over its bisected cousin and wheels around to snarfle angrily at Sirius. It begins another prayer for the third dead deer of the day.

Sirius readies himself and prepares for an attack by the deer. Devout deer deploys a light barrier in front of itself and its friend, who charges smaller balls of light on either side of itself, focused on Sirius. Ideally, he wouldn’t be able to block both. So Sirius instead boxes the deer itself in mirrors. A bit miffed, the laser deer stops and forms the orbs of light outside of the box before firing at Sirius again. It couldn’t see him, but it knew where Sirius was before, and being full of light mana made him easy to sense. He dissipates the mirror box in response and sets up a mirror protecting himself. The beams nearly hit Sirius before the mirror appears and deflects the lasers harmlessly. Sirius counterattacks by materializing an obsidian spike from below the deer and impaling it through the midsection.

At the same time the undead decapitated deer blindsides the left deer bringing it to the ground. The barrier flickers and drops as the fallen deer thrashes helplessly. Lysette takes this opportunity to sprint in and stab the deer. A light barrier appears and shatters instantly as her blade penetrates the deer’s head. 

Without wasting a moment, Lysette whips out her red chalk and starts drawing a circle. Nothing would stand between her and freedom. 

Vera, after quickly checking for more deer, approaches one of the Light manabeast corpses, uses her claws to cut off a palm-sized piece of antler, and drills a small hole at the larger end for fashioning the antler into an amulet. Satisfied with her work, she sets it on the corpse of the manabeast and takes her time drawing out the binding runes and creating the reagent. 

Sirius elects to keep watch. He already had a Light reagent and isn’t particularly greedy for another immediately.

As the pair finish creating their reagents, a lone deer approaches the party. Sirius warns the group to get ready to fight. [i]It’s lucky that another one wandered over here alone.[/i] 
 
Vera’s vision blurs and heart races, eyes widening in terror as she looks to the deer, its form flawless and radiant …[i]That's not light...[/i] Her mana is quickly annihilated, rendering Vera completely helpless. The almost godlike aura of the single deer stuns the entire party as more and more deer enter the clearing, their antlers glowing a painful white. Vera, on the other hand, feels her mind being crushed into a smaller and smaller crevice. [i]We’ve got to leave it’s going to kill us… I have to run… move…[/i] Her eyes can see the deer clear as day, but to her it's muddled, and unintelligible. Unable to comprehend anything other than base emotions, she can no longer grasp why her last sliver of remaining consciousness is being reduced to a feral fear. What's left of her vision fails her as the herd unleashes a storm of light. The only sensations available to her is a throbbing in her shoulder, the slight plinking of her ring hitting the ground amidst a rain of ash, a dull pain in the back of her head, and then nothing.

Sirius sees Vera drop and immediately sprints over, scooping her up and running away. He glances back, seeing a majestic deer radiating an intensely pure aura. [i]Holy..?[/i]