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Tyler was already in the midst of turning back when he heard Lucas fumble, but his announcement made the Templar's blood run cold. Ulysse? Dead? That was impossible; these apostates were relentless but nowhere near the caliber of combatant needed to take on the storied Templar of Lightning, no matter the numbers advantage. His earlier thought must've been accurate. Captain Dickless wasn't the only elite stalking the battlefield. Tyler found himself unimpressed by the man's performance, but his opponent had admitted to his miscalculation - without Lucas as an unknown factor, the other Templars might not be so lucky.

Circumstance left him little time to panic, as the ballroom descended into darkness again with an ear-splitting shriek. His helmet adjusted to the new lighting just in time to see an armored man rush at him, and his blade grated along Tyler's armored breast as he narrowly avoided a piercing thrust. He hooked an arm under the outstretched thrust and latched onto his attacker's bicep, connecting it to his core to hold the man in place and plunge his own sword into the man's gut while he struggled to get away. A gunshot behind him, far too close for comfort, turned him immediately, only to see Lucas nearly using a corpse as a blanket. 

The admission that followed from the prince would've shocked him, had he not already resigned himself to believe that anything that could make this situation worse could happen at this point. The explosive arrival of reinforcements was a small blemish on an otherwise perfect record for Team Sheolbound, but Irina's orders at least gave him an objective beyond 'survive'. Turning to Lucas, he knelt down to help him up to his feet and experimentally tugged at the flow of time to ensure he hadn't met the same fate. To his delight, it answered, and with Irina's men evening the odds, he had no reason to conserve energy anymore.

[color=00ccff]"You weren't doing anything with it anyway,"[/color] Tyler muttered as he changed his level to put his weight under Lucas and swung an arm between his legs, [color=00ccff]"Hold on and don't puke on me."[/color] With about as much delicateness as he'd tossed Lucas around earlier - which was to say, none - Tyler hefted the prince up and propped his body across his shoulders, ignoring the way his injured arm throbbed under the weight. Once he was reasonably balanced, Tyler fed Lucas' arm to the hand supporting his leg and, with his now free hand, ignited his manasaber again.

A quick scan of the room didn't highlight any obvious escape routes; the Templars of Fire and Metal had both opted for the window, though their Scions hadn't joined them. Tyler briefly feared they were both in pursuit of successful kidnappers, though both Scions were accounted for and not in imminent peril upon further inspection. They must've been after Nadine then. Reckless, but admittedly a weight off Tyler's shoulders. The window's use as a point of escape was hindered when Edmund followed in hot pursuit, drawing gunfire the whole way. No way was he going to drag Lucas through that.

His sigil flared and unrelenting chaos of the room slowed to a sloppily correographed waltz. The crowd shifted as seaweed drifted in a gentle current, nowhere near fast enough to close the now-evident gaps through the ballroom's residents. With magical stamina to spare where his physical endurance began to wane, Tyler broke into a brisk stride as he crossed the room, steering clear of opponents where he could. Charitably, he made it a point to cross under the chandelier, where the men hounding the Templar of Gravity had begun to react far too late to Tyler's advance. His blade slid cleanly across the throat of the first, though the second managed to shift his gun in Tyler's general direction during the delay. He stepped aside and flicked his weapon upward, severing the hand at the forearm before whatever delayed signal his brain must've mustered in realtime could reach his trigger finger. Blood squirted from the remaining stump with surprising speed, enough to paint a red stripe across Tyler's body (and Lucas' unfortunate leg), though the man was dispatched before his hand even managed to hit the ground.

With Maya and Edmund's immediate predicament averted, Tyler continued toward his initial destination - Dame Irina. He picked up his pace into a light jog as he neared, not stopping until he was behind the Veradian defensive line.

[color=00ccff]"Irina! Ulysse is-"[/color] Tyler cut himself off as he remembered he was likely talking too fast for anyone to parse and let his magic fade, resuming as soon as the present caught back up with him, [color=00ccff]"Ulysse's dead, Nadine might be compromised, we need search parties out there [i]now[/i]!"[/color] His arm flailed toward the broken window frantically, though he remembered to dispel his mana blade after the first hazardous thrust.

[hr][@Hero][@webboysurf][@Obscene Symphony]