AThousandCurses

Iris Ascendis

So, that was what the working of the mannequins were like. Chunji took note of this as he withdrew his sword from a now immobile wood doll and looked over towards the mage. Well, the former mage. After it had been hit by a bullet and beaten down by the charge of the winged knight, it crumbled down onto the ground. It struggled to get up, as if it were human, the stone that operated the mannequins appearing within to cast one last spell. The wishes wouldn't be granted as it fell back down lifeless, the magic that sustained the movement of the mannequins cracking and ceasing to exist.

Chunji eye's lingered on the broken doll, before turning towards the pathways. They were all swarming the entrances similarly to what happened at the bridge, but now they were relatively doing in a 'peaceful' way. Peaceful as in chaotically trying to push each other to get through the entrances. How inconvenient. Chunji took a glance around and shifted to the building. His ethos enabled to observe all parts of an object. The sections of a building were no different from a skeleton and a bone. Chunji used his ethos to identify which room was the auditorium and which path was the quickest.

From what he understood what an auditorium was, it was mostly a big space with chairs lined up for many personnel to sit down on. There was also a stage at the end of the room.

Upon locating the area that fit the description and memorizing the path, Chunji deactivated his ethos. Now all he needed to do was get there. The problem being was how. Before he was disabling people left and right since it was chaotic, but now everyone seemed to form a truce amongst each other and head into the auditorium. Though the answer was right in front of him.

Walking up to Iraleth, he extended his hand out to the taller knight. "Fly me to the auditorium. I know the general layout of the building and I will restore your strength." The words sounded commanding, but the tone behind them lacked any emotion behind it. A mixture of monotone and disinterest could be heard in his words. As he waited for Iraleth's response, Chunji tried to formulate the correct incantation for his spell. Sheep was the correct spirit for the incantation, if he believed. It was a spirit of gentleness and calm and a symbol of rejuvenation from rest. He would use that spirit as the basis of his next spell if Iraleth came to accept.

@Psyker Landshark@Sifr

Expedition to Isekai

Shun relaxed as Sasuke convulsions started to cease. Letting go of Sasuke, Shun got back up and stretched her arms and legs. "Not even close," She said. One problem had came and one problem had been solved. The energy, the thrill of the situation permeated her body. Asahi had started healing Yuki as well, so that meant he was going to wake up soon. All they needed to do was watch out for monsters and-

"Eh?" Ayana's voice reached Shun's ears. What was she saying? Confusion came in to replace the enthusiasm inside her as she looked at her blank faced friend. "Ayana?" Was all Shun could whisper. The girl's rambling continued and her words intensifying at every syllable. Shun didn't know what to do about this. Everything seemed to slowly click into her as she fully turned to face Ayana.

She kept on going on something a rock and how they were all blind to the things that she saw? Concern started to grow, but as much as Shun wanted to stop Ayana from spilling out those words, she couldn't. What should she do? It was clear even to Shun that this was an abnormal event. Watching as Ayana balled herself, Shun moved up.

She had to do something. Even though she couldn't offer much, Shun would at least try to offer the same comfort Ayana had before. Though she even unsure herself if her words can reach through whatever Ayana was going through. "Ayana," Shun said as she headed towards Ayana. Gulping down the hesitation that she didn't know she had, Shun tried to comfort Ayana.

"I don't know, what's going on with you, but please tell us, Ayana." Shun didn't know if she was doing the right thing. Shun had half considered knocking out Ayana, but would that even be the correct move. Unknowingly even to herself, Shun too grabbed a rock from the ground. Maybe an a subconscious attempt to calm herself down, but it didn't change the fact that Shun was now armed.

Iris Ascendis

To Rio, Chunji merely moved away from the elf once he had Rio's confirmation. No words were given to exchange with those that came Rio. All Chunji did was turn around and dash towards the enflamed entrance by the time Rio started talking. As Rio had said before only thirty-minutes remained before the deadline. Chunji was going to be the one to miss it. While the fires seemed intimidating to most of the crowd, Chunji had no such fears found within him.

"透过现象看本质!" His pupils started to dilate and shift. Now, Chunji was seeing into a different world. The flickers of the fire that danced were mesmerizing. It was hard to determine where would they move and where would burn. In the world Chunji was seeing, Chunji focused on the flames. Find an opening and exploit it. At the first flicker of an opening, Chunji threw himself through the gap. His clothes were singed and his unprotected foot grazed the flames. Just barely making at the end, Chunji found himself rolling on the ground to put out the flames, sword still in hand. He looked up.

His eyes shifted targets.

Iraleth would soon find mannequins that attempted to prevent her from getting to mage disarmed in the literal sense. Chunji weaved by through the wooden mannequins and cut down those who tried to obstruct him. His eyes were now focused on the internal workings of the wooden automatons. While his opponents were humanoid, they lacked the blood and bone of one. His knowledge in magic was also lacking, but he was aware that even cutting their head might not disable them.

So, he looked into them with his ethos. If there was a core that controlled the puppets, he would have stabbed through eacn and one of them. Regardless, these puppets had the ability to move which meant he could still cut through the joints. A flash of iron cut through as Chunji made his way to kill the puppet mage in the back.

@Psyker Landshark @Sifr

Iris Ascendis

Going wait on my response since Chunji is going to enter in a new scene soon. I'll let Psyker and Sifr post first.

Iris Ascendis

Poor Chloe. Who would do this?

Edit: Might have messed up. Oh well, let's see whether it is instanteous or not.

Iris Ascendis

His attacks were clean and quick. The strikes cut clean and true, yet despite the inflicted injuries the boy didn't crumble. An answer immediately was supplied into his mind. Magic. What type of magic was beyond him, but it was clear that it prevented him from crumbling. Just as Chunji reached to his opponent's blindspot, his opponent turned just in time to retaliate. Chunji exhaled and strike true to his intent. The blade met flesh and a fist was met into his chest. A sharp pain and Chunji was sent skidding back. The soles of his shoes screeching until he finally came to a stop.

That attack was a long stronger than he had anticipated. He removed the grip from one of his hands formed a variety of hand signs before pressing it against his chest. "龙雨洗刷苦难的罪孽." While not exactly flashy, Chunji felt the pain alleviate from his chest. How insufficient. For the first time emotion graced the stoic face. A frown that expressed frustration. Though that quickly faded when he looked back up to his opponent. It didn't matter now. While mediocre, it was sufficient for the current situation. What he had to do now was plan his next action.

Whatever technique or magic his opponent did made him ignore the weight of injuries. No doubt his hamstring was cut, which made it a abnormal on how he was still standing. Was it some sort of body enhancement? The shield thrown earlier had decent weight, but it cracked against the boy's fist. Regardless, it'd take a lot more resources to defeat the enemy in front of him. Something that Chunji didn't want to use early on.

While the boy seemed impervious to lethal wounds, his body still ran on blood. If he cut more injuries onto the body eventually he'd collapse. The only thing Chunji needed to do that was to expend a little more energy on speed. He was initially caught offguard because the boy didn't finally immediately, but he wouldn't fall for it again. However, this came with the drawback of not knowing what else his opponent could do. If he pulled out another trick, then both sides would incur injuries again.

There was another option. Running away. With how everything was position, he could easily run down the bridge and make inside the building. From there he'd use his Ethos to locate the auditorium and find his seat. However that was idealistic. Even if he did run away, it didn't solve the problem of having to fight the boy throughout the building. Not only would he have to focus on running, he'd still have to deal with his opponent. It did not help that there was some sort of commotion happening behind him.

Then there was that. In one quick movement, Chunji jump backed from the battle. Before Chloe could react, he knocked with a quick kick to the head. With the all the injuries she had sustained (having a dagger thrown into her back, getting hit by rays of light, getting hit several times from what Chunji assumed was where her brain stem was, and finally crashing down into the bridge,) there was a high chance she would be out for a while. Her Ethos wasn't something Chunji didn't concern himself with. To begin with, Ethos required conscious effort to stay active. If she was knocked out then her aging ethos would be canceled out. His foot and shoe might have to sacrificed, but it couldn't be helped.

Standing next to the elf's body, Chunji lowered his sword to her neck. For the first time he spoke. "Forfeit and cancel your Ethos." The implication of what he would do as clear as his cuts. If the he made a move, or Chloe, Chunji would make sure to inflict fatal damage to the girl's body. Perhaps this was dishonorable, but that word wasn't in Chunji's vocabulary. The only thing he had to concern himself with was the success of his current objective. Get into the auditorium.

Iris Ascendis

It is time to unleash Chunji's secret technique.

Iris Ascendis

Direct hit.

The dagger planted itself into the elf's back just as he had intended. What he did not foresee was the fact the dagger started to deteoriate into nothing more than dust. It was definitely an ethos in play and the chances of being time related were confirmed. Unfortunately, the injury didn't seem to cripple her given the fact she was still standing. There were still plenty amount of weapons from their deprived owners, that he could throw at the elf.

Chunji's made no effort to acknowledge the girl's compliment, but took note of her. How was a girl with a lame leg able to get this far? It made Chunji wary of her, but his attention was drawn elsewhere. A sudden gust of kicked through the bidge. Chunji stood his ground and witnessed one of the elf's, Chloe her name was, back her up. Accompanying the elf's peer was a strange armored abberation. Despite consisting of the torso and up, it possessed a strong build, and was armed like a fortress. Impregnable would be one word to describe it.

It seemed he was to be his opponent now. Chloe, the elf, flew off to confront someone in the sky. Chunji observed the situation. His opponent got into a fighting stance. The abberation above him was seemingly on the lookout for outside interference, but there was a possibility that it could intefere when he made the first move against his opponent. The crowd behind him seemed more or less content in watching the battle.

There was pause in the battle. Chunji only stood there with his hand gripped onto his sword. Then a flash of light radiated above them. In that instant, Chunji dashed towards his opponent armed to strike. Before he reached there, Chunji grabbed a stray shield and tossed it like a disc at his opponent's head. It was nothing more than a momentary distraction as Chunji started to circle around his opponent.

When it came to martial artists, their stance were crucial to fighting. The same logic applied to swordplay. If Chunji broke his opponent's stance, then he'd have the momentum in the fight. To this effort, Chunji swung his sword. First swiping his sword against his opponent's legs, he then brought down his sword to strike down his opponent's shoulder.

Expedition to Isekai

Shun sat there in stunned silence as her tongue processed the unique golden fluid in her mouth. There wasn't even an attempt of resistance from her as Duncan roughly tugged her for her eccentric act. This taste it was.. it was... "Wow, Duncan. You taste bland." There was no trace of taste whatsoever. The only thing that even registered was a sudden spike of energy in her body, but it wasn't an exciting feeling at all. Shun could only give a disappointed look at Duncan, but that changed as Duncan dropped his golden fluid into Sasuke.

Quickly, things changed. What was once a blessing in disguise soon became that Morpheus movie with the red and blue pill. To be, or not to be. It didn't make sense to her, but what didn't alarm her was the amount of black goob that was emerging out of Sasuke's body. It was disgusting to look at, but Sasuke was still her classmate. "That doesn't look good!" Immediately, Shun rushed over to Sasuke's side.

Asashi was doing his cable magic, but Shun was there to make sure Sasuke wasn't going to choke on whatever he was throwing up. Just like she did with her dad, Shun held him up and tilted him off to the side. That way at least the substance wouldn't clog up his throat. "Asahi, can you do something?" Shun said unhelpfully as she tried to keep Sasuke still. The rancid smell was terrible, but she had to keep her convulsing classmate still.

Iris Ascendis

Don't worry. She's built different. Trust.