[color=bfffc7]    “Silver stag? Oh, you mean the jerk guy. Also considering the context of the story and the fact we’re the side characters that usually for the best. It usually ends up in some tragedy where nobody listens to the ‘fool’ or ‘prophet’ character despite them being 100% all the time when talking about characters other then themselves. If I had to say it was like a story or something, I guess I would bring it closer to the marriage of the moon daughter and the demon price or something along those lines. Although probably best not to talk about that one, considering the way it ends but it’s the best that comes to mind right this minute.” [/color] Paine tried not to envision the somewhat brutal ending to that tale. 

	[color=bfffc7]“I guess there’s also the wise man, but they tend to know things that the protagonist would figure out on their own anyhow given time to use their own cunning but that’s more in some ancient myths rather than modern story telling.” [/color] Paine would scratch at the back of their head and stick their tongue out, trying to concentrate or change topics a bit. 

       That was when he noticed Enzo testing the water. It didn’t seem like something to be approved of, though in small doses it probably wouldn’t make someone sick or have parasites, Paine hoped. The worried expression on Enzo’s face put Paine on high alert, although he was already in a state of worry and caution to begin with.

[color=bfffc7]“mambabarang? That sounds vaguely familiar and pretty bad. Feels like it’s connected to baba yaga somehow. Oh!” [/color] Paine’s face briefly shown worry, but not for himself in particular but for the others around him. The expression didn’t last long as an excited grin was creeping onto his face at a fair paced crawl, it was clear he was trying to fight it but his curiosity and interest was getting the better of him overall.

[color=bfffc7]“Nea-, I mean oh no there’s a witch. Reasonably that is a terrible, terrible thing and can put many lives in danger and the like.” [/color] Paine nodded along, trying his best to sound worried and or scared. It was probably coming a lot more as faked overall, since his voice was warbling a little and struggling to maintain a constant emotional tone. 

[color=bfffc7]“Well, if they learned how to disguise themselves, maybe it’s a spy, maybe it’s just a rogue student who’s actually evil, perhaps they managed to get here from the ocean and used other smaller demons to hider their scent, perhaps they turned into a fish and swam and blended in.” [/color] Paine would respond to the question as to how a witch could have possibly made it close to academy grounds.

[color=bfffc7]“Maybe someone ate or got infected with other demon stuff and turned into a witch. Okay, that’s the last one I got there.” [/color]

Paine noticed as one of the attacking Kappa got relatively close to them. They had just briefly focused their barriers in front of them to observe and block the attack, but the situation was already handled by a suit of armor appearing. None the less interesting, and all four barriers went back into their main defensive positions.  

[color=bfffc7]“Well that’s pretty neat, probably has plenty of uses I’d think.” [/color]

[color=bfffc7]“Oh, of course the pond is off limits. It’s already been infested by demons, I don’t think there would be much more need to close it off than that outside of whether or not it was a training practice. Also, I’d recommend a thrust to the head if at all possible, or straight through the center perhaps to break the spine. It may keep less bugs from spilling out and shut down the body from moving, but it also may not but worth a short instead of having to cleave through an entire body and possibly deal with bug…. Bug spray.” Paine laughed. “Bugs spraying on you.”[/color]

Paine turned around briefly to help Rei, although by this time. There was already blood mixed into the pond water and Drakus had shown up to pull her out. Great, the less he had to deal with the both of them. That being said, there had to be something that had caused her to bleed initially or attacked her in the water, and there was no particular time to hesitate on the matter. 

[color=bfffc7]“Enzo, don’t get yourself infected while my back is turned. If you need help just, scream.” [/color] Paine said as he proceeded to sit down and curl up. He was able to thicken his barriers further from taking up less space himself and giving full coverage for the time being and adding an additional barrier above his head that was more sharp than it was thick, with just enough room for additional oxygen and maybe something the size of a finger squeezing in. A monster who approached carelessly would probably get a good cut or hopefully held off. It did take a second or so to set this up though. 

He turned the handlebar into a thin (by his own standards) but rather sharp blade and began moving it at a diagonal angle in order to try and cut through whatever was near the blood pool. The now blade was extended to be roughly 9 and a half foot in length, and about half a foot in width. It would be moving about as fast as a standard sword strike and would be as sharp as one too, seeing as Paine’s focus was more on moving and attacking whatever was in the water, rather than Enzo’s situation. It would be rather uncomfortable to maintain this position for long though.  

   The attack would slice into the Witch's back and keep moving forward. It was likely going to either cut her in half if she wasn't able to get free or leave a nasty scar.
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