[h3][color=666fff]Alyona[/color][/h3]
The oil-slick goop that Alyona recognized as the 'Sea of Death' seemed more active than her memory of the myth led her to believe. It was said that the Sea of Death once crawled over the lake of the Tsar's capitol, as a grave punishment for his crimes against the gods and spirits of the land, and to this day the lake bears no fish or life.

Or that's how the story went. The shifting muck seemed to be sprouting distorted hands, legs, faces... poking out and then falling under its surface. Like it was trying to grow something new entirely. That unsettled Alyona just as much as being close to a giant spider.

Alyona crashed to the ground as Kiwi pushed her clear of the way, the spider-girl somehow finding a way to trip despite having so many extra legs. Alyona's aura certainly worked quickly. "[color=666fff][b]Spider! Are you...[/b][/color]" Alyona couldn't think of what to say. Dead? Able to speak? Even here anymore? The lack of response made her give up on finishing her sentence. "[b][color=666fff]Oh well.[/color][/b]" She got to her feet. She was back to being alone. Same as usual, then. She took off in a run, wanting to put as much distance between her and the goop as possible. 

As Alyona reached the stairwell, she realized that it would not be so simple. The stairwell was dripping with the same black mud, as if it was coming from the top of the stairs, or the roof itself. '[color=666fff]Great.[/color]' Alyona began to turn when she realized that there was something following her.

It was a black, dripping mockery of a human form. The same kind that she saw morphing and rising from the onyx slime. It seemed that they were becoming more advanced by the second. And it was shambling towards her.

Alyona looked around for a way out. The nearest window, labelled for a fire escape, was past the ambling muck-monster. "[b][color=666fff]So be it.[/color][/b]" Alyona muttered to nobody in particular. The fire escape wasn't her preferred option, but she was used to being forced to pick the worst option in any given situation. It was better than jumping to the ground from the window.

She took a breath, watching the thing's movements before it was upon her. Just like her mentor taught her. Learning how to fight was one of the only pieces of solace she had back where she had previously lived. A way to escape her twin, the gossiping nobles, the worried look of manor servants. She hadn't taken much interest in learning what her gift - as silly as it was to call it that - was capable of until she had laid out a manor guard with a single stroke of a black lance. Through a stab-proof vest, even. Most just dismissed the case as the cursed girl claiming another victim. The same guard took her aside later and demanded to know what she had done. And from then on, she stole away from prying eyes, learning bits of how to fight from the man. The guard was stunned at her lances, weapons that passed through armor and clothing only to hit living things. Alyona remembered what he called her lances when he learned what they could do, "A weapon worthy of the Tsar's Assassin!" Alyona had always liked the sound of that. It could never translate outside of her mother tongue, of course.

That was all behind her now, of course. The manor, its mercenary guards for oligarch drinking parties, her [i]sister[/i]. What lay before her was Rhea, a land where she could start fresh. Or so she thought, until the Sea of Death seemed to follow her. The lumbering humanoid figure had gotten close enough. Alyona would stop it, one way or another.

Drawing from Alyona's finger like a drop of pitch-black blood, another lance manifested from her accursed gift. As the monster lurched towards her, she gave an experimental toss of the lance; spearing the monster right through the torso. Yet it still lumbered forward, only slightly impeded by the lance of dark energy that seemed to burn the ooze where it touched.

'[color=666fff]To be expected.[/color]' Alyona knew that wouldn't stop it. But she wanted to be certain that it wouldn't be able to absorb her negative energy... since Alyona felt an uncomfortable familiarity with the black mud.

The next lance she drew out was more fitting of the title, and one she shaped for a well-known task: Charging. She had to get past that thing if she was to get out of the building. It was simple, then. Bracing the lance, she took off in a sprint towards the clumsy figure. Spearing it through the chest, she drove it to the ground. It mindlessly grasped for her before being too drained to keep its form, reducing itself to a puddle of black goop once more. The slight hint of energy that Alyona managed to drain felt... odd. Alyona felt a little gross absorbing the thing's energy at all, but it was just what her lances did. No way around it.

Unlatching the window, Alyona crawled out to the fire escape. But of course, nothing would be that easy. Rattling the metal stairs from below, more sludge-figures were one level below her. Whatever was going on, the sludge seemed to be coordinating, at least in some rudimentary way. The clumsy slime monsters were having trouble navigating the metal mesh of the fire escape, but they were doing enough of a job deterring her from descending. "[b][color=666fff]Up it is then.[/color][/b]" Alyona groaned to herself. She never liked going up. Increasing the potential for her to fall was never something she wanted to do.

Alyona hopped from the metal fire escape to the much sturdier floor of the rooftop. She was just happy that the metal stairs did not somehow decouple from the building and end up falling. With her luck, anything was possible. The fire escape had led her to one side of the roof, covered by air conditioning units. She took a moment to catch her breath. She didn't have a plan on how to get down, but the slime monsters seemed to be moving extremely slowly due to oozing through the metal grating stairs.

She peeked around the air conditioning units and froze when she saw someone there. A normal person, even. She nearly called out, but something Cel had said rang in her mind. The ooze had a source; someone had caused it to happen. And the stairs were out, completely covered in the sludge. She kept an eye on the person, taking her moment of peace to prepare to confront them.

'[color=666fff]Just my luck. I run into the culprit and everything. I should have just kept walking home.[/color]' Aly mulled over what she was going to do as she spied on the figure on the roof.