[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/wCtYMQg.png[/img]
[u][h3]Buildings near the Academy - Academy District[/h3][/u]
[@----------][/center]

Poor choice.
Xerxes could see the gears grinding in the Archer's head. He could see those eyes looking up at him. He was ready. There could have been words between them. Maybe a hello. No. That was out of the question it seemed. As the archer was preparing to raise his bow... The dragon dived. A flap of the wings, the body twisting in the air, and... 

The arrows missed Xerxes completely. 

In the moment those arrows had begun to leave the archer's bow... In the moment he'd taken aim and let his fingers loose... No matter how fast he was, the king had already been ready to act. He had already known how to react. In that moment the dragon began to move, Xerxes had slipped down into the depths of his dragon. The soldiers moved aside, they parted to give him space. He was suddenly surrounded by his army, and they would protect their king. 

The three arrows, that had been aimed at where Xerxes had been, simply could not hit the king, when he was no longer standing where they would have struck. The dragon though, had its sights on the archer, and was soaring down at him. Its mass plowing down upon the cat boy, but it was not the singular dragon that came crashing down upon Parthenopeus. A single dragon was too easy a target. Rather, it was already breaking apart. 

What came crashing down was almost fifty soldiers. Large men with shields, smaller skeletons with swords and spears, others that carried chains that lashed at the air. They all came crashing down upon Parthenopeus, and the king? 

He landed, but not as one man, but surrounded by several shielded guards. 
[color=f7941d]"Boredom? You attack out of boredom? Perhaps I am the one who was bored of poor showings from others around me. And right now?"[/color]

Parthenopeus was being attacked from all sides. Skeletons swinging their swords, others their chains to wrap around a limb, the shield wielding men would swing their shields forwards and knock aside any arrows he might try to fire off into the crowd. And the crowd was growing. More and more. Till a hundred soldiers where striking at him from all angles, even covering the nearby rooftops.

[color=f7941d]"I am still bored of you."[/color]

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[@Gracefully]
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[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/SvOYJne.png[/img]
[u][h3]Shinto Town - City Streets[/h3][/u]
[@Parallel Hearts][/center]

Eesh... It was a bit hard watching Caster flirt. She wasn't bad at it or anything, as far as Ariadne was concerned. Maybe a bit forward? Not that it mattered much. Just watching was good enough for Ariadne. She kinda wished that Caster had left 'Lord Apollo' with her, so she could feel safer out in the open like this, but it couldn't be so bad in the end. After all, Caster probably spied ahead if there were any assassins. Can she do that? She'd have to ask. 

Either way, Ariadne watched from a nearby alleyway. A bottle of wine in one hand, and a charm in the other. The plan was rather simple, people were more willing to talk if they were drunk. She just had to get him drunk, from a distance. Not hard. She did it all the time. In fact, as she removed the cork, she was doing that right now. 

The smell of wine drifted away from her, and onto the street. That scent of fermented grapes struck the air, and lingered. An intoxicating scent that would surely start to erode the wills of those in the street beyond her alleyway. She raised the bottle to her lips, and took a swig. The taste of wine poured into her mouth, and a wave of karma pulsed outwards. It was not a curse, merely a bacchic rite. 
[color=a187be]"I call upon loud-roaring and reveling Dionysus. Primeval, double-natured, thrice-born, Bacchic lord."[/color] She chanted softly, and let the scent of wine drift further through the air. [color=a187be]"Taste, and drink. Party and revel. Let fears burn away, and see beauty in all life. Free yourself from the cage of mankind's will..."[/color] She took another sip, and brushed the charm against the bottle. 
[color=a187be]"Hearken to my voice, O blessed one, and with your fair-girdled nymphs breathe on me in a spirit of perfect agape."[/color]
The people on the street outside, those who might be stumbling back from work, or merely out late on a walk, could feel the spirit of revelry in them. Feeling it push out their woes. They laughed louder, they told their secrets, and they saw beauty in the world. With luck, the master her servant had found would be one such man. 

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[@Scallop]