Wingram, Leyline Attunement Zone
@Nanaya, @Psyker Landshark

---

Boiling.

Her blood was boiling.

Valen dared to associate her with Umbralists. Again.

”For one of your ilk, I would advise a search for inner peace.”

She blinked, before her anger dispersed in the face of confusion, and fear.

“The Abyssal One knows we're here!”

Ciara gritted her teeth. “There's no way it knows, it only saw how you were divided in controlling my actions.”

“It knows you exist conflicted, and not in control. That is enough for us.”

“I'm completely in control, I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Your attempt at a lie is cute, little Hunger, but we know you better.”

Ciara listened as Valen offered to duel them when they were finally worthy, and she snarled, her disgust evident on her face. There can't be that wide of a gap, can there? He has to be joking.

Before she noticed the ping, and her eyes widened.

Hildegunde.

Iraleth moved faster, her light shining bright as she activated her Ethos. She was on the same wavelength, and when she turned to Ciara, Ciara could only nod her head.

“Count me in.”

Her glare settled on Valen and his lackeys before she extended a hand to Iraleth, the one she was fated to duel that evening.

Fates were interesting, weren't they?

“Let's fly.”

@ERode@Nanaya

That was faster than expected, but Hildegunde was far from complaining. Chloe - wherever that door led - was no longer in an active battlefield. The dirt wall crumbles, and Hildegunde, not wasting precious time to escape from the blade, ducks and runs. The blade grazes her leg as her PB wavers, but leaves her in one piece. She falters in her step, but manages to stay on both feet.

Then, and only then, does she take the time. The time to think, and the time to act. The pain searing in her leg grounds her to the moment.

Otis's offer rings in her head. She wants to flee - it was nature, after all, to listen to one's pain, minor or otherwise. Moreover, she wasn't liking Chloe's chances without immediate help, and she didn't know where that door led. On the other hand, leaving this beast to roam freely was likely unwise, and possibly leaving Otis alone with it didn't bode well either.

For the moment, she would fight. That might change depending on the answer Otis gave.

It was close enough now. She would not waste her ethos yet - the beast had come close enough that missing this shot would disgrace her as a hunter, and with backup, her need to gamble was less urgent. After today's class, she had her doubts her ethos would even simplify things in this situation.

Her words are sparse.

"Chloe, healing," Hildegunde hisses, followed by the sound of gunfire. A bullet flies towards the beast's chest - likely where its heart would be, if it had one. Her eyes fixate on the beast, watching intently for anything unusual - or, if she were lucky, a body going limp.

"Will she have that?"

Monstrous.

It was a creature designed with murder in mind, a great wolf formed from shadow and mist, cleaving through the air with a bladed tail while shards shot out in rapid succession, so powerful that they sunk in the dirt entirely.

And it spoke too, a thoughtful rasp that didn’t match its savage attacks.

“Adapa,” Otis spoke, springing up from the dive-roll he executed to avoid the arrows, “record.”

The Door remained present, a perpetual escape route that would be a death sentence for any enemies to enter, and his Personal Barrier would ensure that he’d be able to absorb at least a few hits if he had to. Information, then, was what he wanted. The arcane tome opened up beside him, burning with that heatless flame, as Hildegunde’s own bullet cracked through the air.

“Only if we leave,” the Strigidae replied, chambering his firearm with ensorcelled bullets. “Watch your eyes.”

The trigger was pulled, and essence-imbued steel flew through the air, the heat generated by air friction triggering a particular reaction mid-flight as it exploded in a blinding flash of light. It was only a distraction, a pause that’d allow him to break up the flow of combat as he aimed his gun skywards next, sending a second bullet upwards past the canopy. That one exploded too, a burst of brilliance to serve as a signal.

“Best to surrender now!” he called out to the shadow-wolf. “Wouldn’t take much longer for Alto to arrive. And amongst the student population, there’s at least ten who have Ethos specialized in hunting and tracking, so it’s a waste of effort to try escaping.”

Lies, all of them.

If conflict could be won with empty threats though, that would be for the best.

@Sifr@ERode@Estylwen@Psyker Landshark

CAMPUS GROUNDS, FOREST

Thwack.

The sound of impact against flesh rang out as Hildegunde's bullet pierced through the shadowy chest of the beast. It didn't seem to react to this, and its exterior showed no signs of damage - or so it appeared, at least, until blood trickled through the hazy coating of the wolf. Its grey orbs studied this for a moment, bearing its fangs as it acknowledged the liquid life exiting its torso, before turning its attention upward towards Otis. Dashing to the side closer to Hildegunde to avoid the Strigidae's bullet, it stopped in its tracks to look away when the flash of light struck, growling. Reacting with split second timing, it burst into pursuit the moment the flash had faded enough to give way to vision once more, galloping towards Hildegunde to swing its blade at her while once more firing black arrows from its torso towards Otis that seemed partially coated in blood from its wound.

"Surrender? Escape? Hah! The fleeting reverie of youth is surely the sweetest salvation. Green gills breed ills."

Were Otis to defend against the arrows, he would find them breaking apart against his barrier with some kind of dark liquid beginning to burn at his barrier like some kind of acid. If he dodged, he would find this same process occur to the first thing that the arrows would hit instead, coating parts of the surrounding area in a dark acidic substance.

The beast would continue to hungrily pursue Hildegunde with slashes of its blade and swipes of its claws as its blood leaked onto the soil. It hadn't seemed to register its own impending danger should others acknowledge the beacon, entirely focused on its prey as it pursued the hunter and shot at the owl.

---

@AThousandCurses

CAMPUS GROUNDS, LEYLINE ATTUNEMENT ZONE

"My thoughts on 'em? Well, er..."

Emelie turned to observe the duo's standoff against the Leuvalt heir, trying and failing to conceal and remove a look of pity and concern for Chunji in the process from his story. She gazed at each of them for a moment, furrowing her brow, before returning her attention towards Chunji. The pitiable look was still there, but she cocked a half-smile to further hide it, since it appeared her fellow occultist had no intention of acknowledging it for the traumatic experience it was. Indeed, a diversion of the topic proved the best course of action, most likely. She wasn't a therapist.

"We've been acquainted, if ye could call it tha'. A minor kerfuffle here or there, but nothin' to where I can say anythin' special, o' course. Lotsa special folk here, can't remember every gosh dang one, y'know? But..."

Trailing off, one hand gripping her cane tighter, she looked off towards the situation between them once more.

"Wish I could be more like 'em, I think. Walkin' up to the big weight-thrower himself and pokin' noses. It'd be nice to have the courage to poke noses."

After another moment, it all happened so fast that it nearly made Emelie's head spin. The activation of an ethos and the duo taking flight caused shrieks and screams to appear from nearby students in the clusters gathered, including a few of Valen's own semi-circle, observing them shoot into the distance to another part of campus further north. Some whispered about disrespectful delinquents skipping the ceremony, while others gazed on in concern as if wondering if an emergency came up. For Emelie's part, she hyperventilated for a moment on uneasy legs before returning to regular breath, a hand on her chest as if to steady her very heart. She'd turn to Chunji, pale as a sheet.

"Speakin' of, what was tha' all about?! Your friends got summin' goin' on that requires that blitzin' speed? I near took a tumble!"

She leaned on her cane and sighed, concern once more taking over her features. Nearby, another student among a group could be seen taking to the skies, albeit with a much softer exit to avoid startling others around him, and began flying in the direction that Iraleth and Ciara had hurtled towards. He was much slower, however. If Chunji had spared a gaze, Rio could also be seen nearby walking away from the ceremony grounds, though not in the same direction as the airborne students.

The take-off made Chunji's bangs flutter. Chunji looked up to see the disappearance of two classmates and a third who had decided to follow. All attention to their idle chatter disappeared. "I received a distress message from one of my classmates. I now know I wasn't the only one who received it." Principal Raja most likely wouldn't be pleased by the turn of events. She was watching everything unfold, which was fairly odd, though she must have some sort of invisible automaton following the situation. Her inaction spoke volumes to Chunji.

"Ms. Nachtnebel's message was sparse but conveyed a clear message. She was in the forest, and she needed help. I assumed she only sent it to my classmates as all except me were recently absent from the ceremony." Rio and Chloe weren't unaccounted for, however. Davil was still in the infirmary; Hildegrunde followed Chloe, but Rio...

At that moment, Chunji spotted Rio moving further away from the crowd. Chunji's eyes held perplexity as Rio was going in the opposite direction of the discord. Where was he going? "It seems today will be more troublesome. Please inform Principal Raja about what's happening and tell her I will be late in attendance. My classmate seems to be directionally impotent." With that, he got up and sprinted after Rio.

Why was Rio heading in the opposite direction of the commotion? Given the sparse contents of her message, Hildegrunde must've sent the message to everyone she was associated with. Rio must've gotten the message, but he didn't care enough. That or he wasn't aware that Chloe was currently in danger.

If he were to catch up in time, Chunji would've called out to his peer. "Rio, the attunement ceremony is going to start. It would be impractical to miss an important event." Chunji was on guard at the time. Hildegrunde had been attacked on school grounds. Now that the academy's security was questioned, he needed to be on full alert.

Iraleth heard the gunshot before she saw the confrontation. The Inheritor glided down towards the source of the shot, increasing her speed as she saw Hildegunde and Otis under attack from some sort of shadow wolf. With Ciara on her back, her angle of approach was limited. Stopping to let her off was out of the question at the moment, so she'd have to make do.

"Dismount if you can! Otherwise, hold on tight!" Iraleth shouted to the witch on her back, tucking her wings and limbs in to further the speed of her plunge. It wasn't going to be a smooth landing. The paladin grit her teeth beneath her conjured helm, her shield braced out in front of her.

The paladin came in from a nearly-horizontal angle, taking the beast from the side as it tunnel-visioned on Hildegunde. Several hundred pounds of warrior, Ethos-conjured plate, and magical shield rammed straight for the creature's flank at high speed, intent on shattering it with sheer force and velocity.

@Sifr @ERode @Estylwen

Wingram, Leyline Attunement Zone
@Nanaya, @ERode, @Sifr, @Psyker Landshark

---

The speed at which they soared across the sky was breath-taking, and Ciara had to hold on for dear life. She saw from her peripherals the bright flash of light, and listened as the light gave her instruction.

“I have an idea.” Ciara grunted out against the wind, and gripped once before letting go, free falling on her own through the sky now.

Shadows crept up, wrapping around her legs to sprout off at her back in wing shapes, catching the wind and slowing her descent. From a snapshot bird's eye view, she saw the battlefield spread out before her. A beast attacking the dark one and Hildegunde. Iraleth's tank-shot impact against the Beast. Ciara watched, tilting the shadows she glided on so she was falling on top of the Beast. And, at the last minute, she dispersed the wings, gripping the dark one's sword firmly in her hands as an aura of shadows crept around the blade.

With a hiss of air through her teeth, she brought the blade down on top of the Beast, the blade causing an arc of shadow to cut through the sky. The impact would be enough to create cracks in the ground and send up clouds of dust.

After the impact, Ciara would flip back in the air, landing cleaning a few feet from the Beast. Her eyes would land on Hildegunde immediatly.

“Are you okay?”

Hildegunde grimaces as she moves on her bad leg, avoiding the pursuing beast. Each swipe brings claw and blade inches closer and closer to the hunter, and Hildegunde knows she cannot scramble away fast enough to make another shot. She looks for some sort of out...

...Then there were four. Regardless of how empty Otis's threats were, backup came all the same. Hildegunde watches as Ciara and Iraleth crash upon the beast, scrambling away in the moment of chaos. Just enough of a buffer to get away and make another shot. She'd need to thank her classmates later for their haste and help - but that could wait.

"I'm fine!" Hildegunde calls out. Save for her minor leg injury, she was doing okay. She raises her rifle once more, aiming for the creature's head. The head was a smaller target, and she couldn't fire right away - not with Iraleth so close. But if she could make the shot, it would likely end things a lot quicker. If she missed? The situation was more than under control with four people.

Well, three people. Otis's answer wasn't reassuring. She was no help as a healer - surely someone out of the group would be. Or at the very least, know the way to a clinic. She could not allow Chloe to bleed out while the four of them fought.

"Someone go to the door, Chloe needs healing!" Hildegunde calls out, an unusually authoritative tone to her voice.

"Rest of us, stay!"