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[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ByEk1wI.jpg?1[/img]
[sub][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whtz44p9oII]♪[/url][/sub][/center][hr][center][b]Lorentine Queen, Main Deck | Nighttime[/b]
Carmillia[@Animus] | Zarra[@BreathOfTheWoof] | Dory[@Jasbraq] | Manfred[@Force and Fury] | Leon[@Jumbus] | Seung Eun-Ji[/center]

The battle against the Traveler Agents had pretty much ended, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the defeat of the agents. The odds were not in their favor after all, considering that they had to fight against five with only two people on their side. Thus for now the threats that they represented seemed safe to ignore as Zealous lied dead, Evanescence severely injured and unconscious from Hilde's explosion, and Forceful knocked out from the kick to his lineage preserving nuts by Zarra and the kinetic strike Eun-Ji applied on him afterwards. Now, the focus of the action had shifted to the performance of Leon Solaire who emerged from the Cargo Hold as identical triplets each holding a seeming copy of the much hallowed Lyre of Ipte.

With purpose and the self-interest that had always strongly motivated herself, Carmillia moved first during the brief moment of confusion that was followed by their seeming Arcane Mage allies starting to move to chase Leon. Even before Hilde ordered a chase of the famed performer, Carmillia already moved to chase after him by her own initiative; one whom motivations were likely misunderstood by the Arcane Mages who still thought of her as their allies. She caught up and then attempted to grab the shoulders of the three Leons, only to found out that she phased right through them, her hands catching nothing but air. Fortunately, whatever magic it was that Leon had used to make three copies of himself did not come trapped like she worried of, it merely made her stumble slightly from the momentum as the three Leons continued on and on. She then saw as the Leons suddenly accelerated and moved significantly quicker as they reached the middle of the narrow passage to the back of the ship. Just as suddenly, the three Leons briefly looked back while smiling mischievously at Carmillia and the others who were chasing them.

All the while, a figure stood in the doorway leading to the Entertainment Lounge. It was yet again another Leon and he shouted to the fighting crowd inside the lounge in deepened voice; all the while the three other Leons were still moving through the narrow passage towards him. [color=fff200][b]“Ladies and gentlemen! Prepare to be amazed! By the one, the only, Leon Solaire!”[/b][/color]. Some of the crowd seemed to stop fighting as their attention was taken by the performer... And then, nothing more. Nothing, as the three Leons caught up to the fourth and they all converged and merged. The four Leons were then the one and only Leon Solaire once more.

More and more of the crowd stopped fighting, many confused and dumbfounded. One, a burly and likely drunk man with a blackened left eye, pointed at Leon with a big goofy smile on his face as if he wasn't just in a fisticuff a few seconds ago. "Heeeey, it's Leon Solaire! This the show I heard you promising, good man?"

He received no verbal answer from the man himself, instead getting a greeting towards him and the others in the crowd in the form of the performer's raised arms. Indeed, the drunk man was about to get the show that Leon had promised; he'll be right in the midst of it even, as several things happened in quick successions: Cluster of marbles apparating on the ground and then another cluster rising into Leon's right hand. A beautiful Lyre thrown from the performer's left hand at unnatural speed and against the laws of physics. Yet another Leon appearing from the left exit of the lounge, moving at unnatural speed and unusual movement pattern, heading for the first Leon. And then the two Leons bowed, their movement speed not synchronized but finishing at the same time anyhow, and all these were finished with an explosion of light and loud noises that covered much of the lounge as the bowing Leons disappeared from sight.

And thus unbeknownst to the other actors involved in the affair of the Lyre, Leon started to rest mercifully undisturbed in the relative safety of the Covered Verandah. For now.

At the same time as when Carmillia overtook the rather slow and overweight Jens Becker in her chase of the three Leons, Manfred also ended up doing something to the poor, unsuspecting Arcanist. Following his threat and admonishing of Zarra, he put his gift to good use by slamming a heavy metal cap from a fallen chandelier to the back of the heavily-built man. The man didn't even have any time except to let out a brief yelp of surprise as he suddenly stopped in his track, wobbled forward a few more steps, and then fell stomach first to the ground from the heavy concussion. It is hard to tell whether the strike had killed him or, as Manfred hoped and if Escheran truly willed it, merely unconscious. Even in the case of the latter, the man might just have to live with a reduced brain capacity... Regardless, Manfred did not stop to check on him as he moved on to follow after Carmillia and Leon.

He was standing a few meters behind Carmillia in the narrow passage leading to the Entertainment Lounge when he also witnessed what Carmillia had seen: Leon performing the finale of his show and then once more disappearing without a trace.

Perhaps it was out of a sense of urgency or perhaps it was because he trusted that a certain ally will have his back, but Manfred indeed did not linger long after taking out Jens Becker. He also did not take heed of the other Arcanist that had witnessed what happened to her ally. Hilde Arnsberg von Regensbach let out a gasp as she saw Jens Becker took to the floor after his head was bashed in with the heavy metal cap. She quickly turned her gaze toward Manfred, surmising correctly that it was the young Kerreman soldier who had performed the deed. She and her now fallen comrade had the disadvantage of not truly knowing exactly who were on which side. Regardless, she did not hesitate as she raised her hand in the direction of the Magusjaeger, ready to unleash her fury on him...

Zarra had moved to the corridor, sitting by the unconscious Dory. He was in a foul mood after Manfred had threatened him earlier, and he refused to look at any of his fellow students. His focus was entirely on to the scene happening about 25 meters away from where he sat. He could not really tell for certain that the figure standing at the doorway to the Entertainment Lounge was that of Leon Solaire, and from his location, his line of sight was somewhat blocked to the fact that at that time there were still the three other Leons moving through the narrow passage toward the fourth Leon. What was without doubt was that he was within range to hear of Hilde's gasp of surprise after Jens Becker was floored, but due to his own tunnel focus he did not perceive that the Arcanist was about to attack Manfred.

But even if he had noticed it, would he have moved to help Manfred and stop Hilde considering how angered he was at Manfred? Likely not. Indeed, it was not Zarra that ended up performing a chokehold from behind against the middle-aged Feskan woman.

Eun-Ji had stood calmly in place even after Hilde sounded off the alarm to chase after Leon. She believed in Leon, believed that the Lyre will be safe in his hands. She knew that it was not Leon that she had to keep her eyes on but the Arcane Mages that had became their temporary allies in an uneasy alliance; the alliance that seemed to be at its end. She looked on as Manfred took out one of these short-term allies, her body and mind already prepared to do what she need to upon witnessing the act. In an instant and without hesitation, the Skyborn used her gift to propel herself forward. Like a human cannonball, she tackled Hilde as she was about to attack Manfred, knocking Hilde's breaths out of her. Without skipping any beat, her arms were then on the older woman's neck, and a few moments later Hilde Arnsberg von Regensbach joined her comrade in a blissful yet forced embrace of slumber. At least for the middle-aged Feskan woman, hers was without a doubt fortunately going to be a temporary slumber.

Eun-Ji said nothing as she let go of Hilde's motionless, insensate body. Briefly, she looked back at Zarra sitting on the ground beside the unconscious Dory. She was about to turn around to catch up to Manfred and Carmillia when she noticed her fellow student starting to stir; something that Zarra would also notice due to his very close proximity to Dory.

[color=87CEEB]Excellent timing.[/color] She mulled in her mind as she calmly moved towards Dory and Zarra and then crouched in front of the former. In Eun-Ji's mind, it was really high time that they all regroup. The cost for splitting up and letting certain members of the group to do their own things had been frankly unacceptable; but perhaps they might still be able to salvage the situation if they start to actually work together as a team. A good degree of team work was the basic of every successful operations that she had went to as a Lotus Sentry, after all, and the same should apply with this ragtag group of biros.

Dory can feel a hand on her left shoulder as she started to stir awake. [color=87CEEB]"Ms. Hohnstein, you're awake. How are you feeling?"[/color] It was not an unfamiliar voice to her, although the young Feskan woman was understandable still in a haze considering the rude manner upon which she were induced into unconsciousness by her new lover earlier. She would quickly notice that things around her had suddenly changed considerably, and that she were now lying on the ground with Zarra sitting beside her and Eun-Ji crouched on one knee in front of her. Her gun was no longer in her grasp; it was somewhere around for sure but she would have to search for it.

The one other thing she can remember was that she had attempted to shoot Carmillia, and then was knocked out from behind before she can do so by someone who cannot be anyone else but Manfred.[hr]Meanwhile, the situation aboard the Lorentine Queen had truly turned for the worse. Fighting had spread to nearly all parts of the ship now, including in the now unguarded section where the vital machinery of the ship were housed in. Things were being thrown around and broken all over the ship, passengers had been thrown overboard, some in a state of lifelessness. At the current rate, it was very likely that the Lorentine Queen will be sunk before the end of the night, and only a quick and decisive action to stop the chaos will be able to prevent that. Otherwise, this will truly become the Last Voyage of the Lorentine Queen. Many lives will undoubtedly be lost and the massive crocodilian species that is only found around the Lorentine river and its estuary, the schluckodil, will likely be having the human flesh that they were quite fond of for dinner...
[hr][hider=Overview of the situation:]
1. Carmillia: After seeing the three Leons emerging from the Cargo Hold and then running off with their Lyres, she quickly reacted and followed him. She tried to grab their shoulders, but found that she ended up grasping nothing as her hand moved through the Leons without reaction from the performer. She continued to follow after, witnessing from the narrow passage the finale of Leon's performance: him addressing the crowd from the doorway to the Entertainment Lounge, and then the Lyre being thrown into the crowd followed by eruption of bright light throughout the lounge accompanied by loud high-pitched noises while Leon himself had once more disappeared.

2. Leon: Continuing his show using his Signature move, he ended things by showing that he threw the Lyre away to the middle of the crowd in the Entertainment Lounge and then causing the marbles he had put there to erupt all at once, engulfing the lounge in light and noises. Then he seemingly disappeared, although in reality he snuck away to the Covered Verandah on the backmost part of the Main Deck, a place relatively safe from the chaos of the riot. He waited there, tired from the exertion of his performance.

3. Manfred: Noticed that Leon's performance is an illusion. He firmly threatened Zarra that he will not hesitate to kill the noble Perrench boy if he abandoned Dory again. Then, he snuck up on the unsuspecting Jens Becker von Magdeburg, knocking him out cold with a heavy metal cap from a chandelier. He then strode away to follow after Leon, drawing his pair of flintlock pistols. Standing a few meters behind Carmillia, he also witnessed what Leon had done.

4. Zarra: A bit slow on reacting to the developments of the situation, he was threatened by Manfred who felt that the Perrench boy shared a responsibility in leaving Dory alone at the start of the riot. He talked back, not appreciating the threat, but still in the end decided to sit by the unconscious Dory. From his location, he was not able to really perceive well of what happened in the Entertainment Lounge. Owing to him sitting beside her, he noticed as Dory started to stir awake.

5. Eun-Ji: Focused on the objective, she did not feel the need to chase after Leon, believing that her ally will secure the Lyre as per the mission given to them. She quickly reacted and moved however, after seeing that Hilde Arnsberg von Regensbach was shocked by Manfred taking out Jens Becker von Magdeburg. As Hilde attempted to attack Manfred, she quickly took the unsuspecting Arcane Mage out of the action by applying a chokehold on her from behind. Afterwards, she stayed behind with Zarra and Dory as the latter started to wake. She did not witness of what Leon had done.

6. Dory: Not aware of what have been happening since Manfred knocked her out a few minutes back, she started to stir awake with Zarra sitting beside her and Eun-Ji addressing her. She can remember that she did not manage to shoot Carmillia and that it was very likely Manfred that had knocked her out.

7. The 4 Arcane Mages:
- Hilde Arnsberg von Regensbach: Surprised by Manfred knocking Jens Becker out then quickly recovered by trying to attack him. Not quick enough however, as Eun-Ji knocked her out in turn.
- Jens Becker von Magdeburg: As he focused on trying to chase after the Leons, he was knocked out by a surprise attack from Manfred.
- Arne Voller von Meckelinburg-Kahler and Heinrich Wengeman von Glusdorf-Brandenstrass: Status unknown.

8. The Traveler agents:
- Evanescent the Internal Chemist: Defeated by Hilde and Carmillia, she suffered from serious injury due to the explosion cast by Hilde. Unconscious, but alive.
- Forceful the Kinetic Mage: Still knocked out and likely not waking up anytime soon.
- Zealous the Blood Mage: Dead. Still decomposing slowly.
- Seer the Magnetic Mage & Firebrand the Arcane Illusionist: Status unknown.

*[b]For more details on the Traveler Agents and the Four Arcane Mages, please check the Discord server under the Mission-HQ channel.[/b]
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[hider=Critical Situation:]
It is now the final moments. If the chaos remains as it is, the Lorentine Queen will very likely be sunk, and thus one part of the team's mission objective will end up in failure. Time is of the essence, and the team does not have it on their side if they wanted to stop this from happening.
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