Click This

Edged Horizon

Charlotte didn’t need to be told that trouble was heading their way. Instead of them going to the trouble, from the pattern and noise, it was more than obvious that whatever it was was coming to them, and from the sounds and the snapping of trees in the distance, it was massive. The golden-haired girl had wished to scout ahead and see for herself what the problem was, but now, it gave her pause.

“Ah…”

Then it finally came into view. A massive, towering beast that had nothing but sheer bloodlust. A rift beast. It took all of Charlotte’s strength to keep herself rooted and facing towards the monster and to not flee. Their traveling companion had summoned her own God of War; large, but in comparison to the beast before them, it too was but a toy.

Her pale skin grew all the whiter as she gripped her blade, finally mustering the mental energy to draw it. If the rift beast had covered that much distance since they felt that feeling of dread, they would never be able to escape. In other words, they were backed into a corner. No matter how much she wanted to retreat, they would have to fight. She dropped into a defensive stance, more slowly than she would have liked.

“There’s nowhere to run. We’ll… have to fight.”

The best strategy would be to fight it from cover in the trees. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. From the short ranged distance she had, Charlotte could attack with small shockwave attacks with her sword without resorting to revealing her vampiric talents, but she didn’t want to draw attention to herself, especially with Lillet’s God of War being a viable tank.

“Lillet! Draw it to the side of the road! We’re going to need cover if the rest of us can even think of matching that… thing.”

Edged Horizon

The sense of foreboding within Charlotte returned once again, but this time it was tenfold. Racing down the dirt path and flanked by tall forest trees on both sides, they spared little time looking back. But this time, the golden-haired vampire stopped briefly in her tracks as a deafening roar welled up, cutting through the eerie quiet of the silent forest. Even the vampire’s hair stood up on her ends. Red eyes scanning the treetops, Charlotte searched in the direction of the noise but found little to see. Whatever it was, it was clearly in the direction of the ruins that the three of them had been heading towards, and not from the forest that they had been so eager to leave.

Slender fingers drummed against the silver pommel of her sword. Her own silence was her answer to Alexis’ question; she didn’t know. Charlotte certainly wanted to know, however; the presence of the roar had allayed her fear of a more esoteric or unknown entity. Could they scout ahead and see what it was? Certainly between the three of them, they could take down most sorts of beasts that could stand in their way. If they couldn’t, they still were in Illiserev, there was no shortage of mercenary bands or companies that would be willing to take up a hard mark.

It was settled for Charlotte.

“It’s from the direction of the ruins and not the forest. I think we should at least get close enough to take a look. We can easily retreat back into the safety of the woods if need be. I’m curious.” She glanced at their scholarly traveling companion for her reaction. “What do you think, Lillet?”

Q - FLUX

Arsenal let fly another string of expletives as the situation escalated at the overbearing sound of the loudspeaker announcement. With the presence of Policus, it made the battlefield all the more complicated. As much as she wanted to test her weapons against the truck and its robotic enforcers, the blue-haired girl agreed with her peers that it was far better to run at this point than to engage. Listening to the communications between the others from her earpiece, she kept the heavy machine gun mounted on standby as her eyes tracked for the robotic drones.

“Runner, hold on, but pick up the pace. I’m going to lay us some smoke – lots of it.”

Refocusing her attention down the street, a trigger appeared in her hand as the long, metallic muzzle of a 155mm howitzer barrel appeared through a portal position just aft of End’s vehicle. Merely using dead reckoning, she aimed the gun a block down, a position equidistant between them and the Policus bots.

The loud crack of a white phosphorus shell leaving its barrel led Rui-Hai to draw back under the turret as she pulled the trigger. Hitting its mark in the middle of the street, the white particles immediately began to fan out into the open space, leaving their trail invisible to the human eye, and hopefully to the sensors of the robots as well. Not wanting to get hit or taste some of her own medicine, she climbed down from the turret, closing the hatch tight as she did so.

“That better fucking work. Those things don’t come cheap.”

Shit, she was sounding like End now.

Edged Horizon

The weather began to lighten up just a bit. While the dull grey of rainclouds continued its endless existence over the horizon, it seemed like the trio might catch a break after all and miss the brunt of the incoming storm. She made a small smile more resembling a smirk in the direction of the maid-butler. Perhaps Alexa wouldn’t encounter her greatest adversary this time? Her answer was predictable. “Right then, let’s take this lull and find us a good spot while we can.”

But as Charlotte spoke her nonchalant words, a slow chill ran through the vampire’s already cold body. Deadly silence replaced the pitter patter of rain. In a forest full of wildlife, normally fraught with the sounds of birdsong and repetitive tone of incessant insects, the absence of noise was more than just unnerving; it was ominous.

And then she felt it.

A simple presence. It flickered briefly, a feeling of premonition running through her arcane circuits. Charlotte took another step and stopped, checking her immediate surroundings. Her amused expression had long been wiped off her face, replaced by one that was wary and filled with caution. The golden-haired vampire spoke at almost the same time as their scholarly traveling companion. “We should stop—Yeah, I did.” She craned her head back, giving her butler a glance as if to say ‘be ready.’

The forest continued in its silence. “Right you are. I don’t think it’s a good idea to stay in this forest; something’s definitely afoot. I hope you've still got some energy, because we’re getting out of here.” By her own estimates, if they flew with the wind and proceeded at a gallop, they might reach the relative shelter of the ruins by nightfall.

She picked up her pace. Naturally, she was curious about the presence she’d felt. It was something different. But at the same time, her instincts told her to get out.

At least the three of them were pretty good fighters, huh?

Q - FLUX

Arsenal kept vigil atop the bare machine gun turret of End’s armored personnel carrier. Hands crossed underneath her chest, she didn’t truly expect any sort of conflict with the organized crime gang. Her watch was more of a nonchalant act of people watching, given the information gathering nature of their current affair. At the sound of screeching tires and sudden noises, however, her relaxed attitude immediately seized as her eyes flicked across her field of vision, scanning for the source of the offending noise.

By the time her blue eyes tracked the five armed targets, a shielded heavy machine gun had already appeared and was mounted on the previously empty turret enclosure.

She yelled down the turret hatch. “What are you doing? Gun the motherfucker!” Relying on whoever was in the driver’s seat to get them out of there, Rui-Hai released the safety on the machine gun.

Kicking the foot pedals of vehicle’s turret, the hydraulics spun the enclosure around to track the incoming vehicles. She pressed the trigger, and let the lead fly.

The enemy fought in armor piercing rain.

Q - FLUX

Arsenal simply shrugged. They were probably right to give caution to tests like that. She was totally fine with them as long as she wasn’t anywhere near it, of course. But like a few other of her fellow Cleaners, she saw an immediate need for that phenomenon to be gone, Nightmare or not. With Cash having explained much of what he knew, there was little use in asking further questions, so she had no objections to moving on.

“What kind of shit edgy name is that, End?” Lazily on her mobile device, Rui-Hai disagreed with Josephine as she drove them back across town towards the Wirefort compound. Looking out the bulletproof windows of the armored personnel carrier for the rest of the trip, her interest was only aroused again at the sight of armed men approaching their vehicle as they approached the Wirefort’s manor.

Like everybody who was worth their salt in the business, Rui-Hai was well acquainted with both the Himuras and the Wireforts. She had, however, never dealt directly with the latter organization, so with End and Blitz filing out of the vehicle to greet their welcoming committee, Arsenal felt quite comfortable sitting within the confines of the armored car. But even then, she still wanted to get a piece of the action and listen in on the negotiations, so she jumped off her seat and climbed onto the ledge on the center of the vehicle, wrestling open the port on the top of the roof normally reserved for a machine gun mount. Climbing onto the empty mount, she stuck her head out of the vehicle, crossing her arms.

If there was any conflict to be had, what better place would there be to fire overwhelming firepower from?

Edged Horizon

Charlotte always enjoyed being out and about. The sights of people, architecture, and landscapes never ceased to fascinate her, and she always appreciated meeting the variety of people on her wayward journeys across the countryside. Even on the grounds of her estate of her quaint vineyard, she more often preferred to be out in the fields, enjoying the cool breeze of the wind against her face rather than stay cooped up in the stagnant air of an old, musty house.

That said, it seemed her recent company didn’t share her enthusiasm on the matter. A younger girl with a keen interest in antiquities, over the several days that they had traveled together, the golden-haired girl had come to the conclusion that she had little appreciation towards the life on the road. For Charlotte, at least, the inconvenience of travel was lessened this time around by the accompaniment of one of her servants.

She realized that she’d never asked Alexis her opinion on travels.

As the sky darkened and she felt the first droplets of rain against her skin, she nodded at Lillet’s observation. Pulling the cloak around her closer to her body, she wrapped the garment snugly around her. While matters of warmth affected her little as a vampire, she could not deny the comfort of a thick, insulating layer. Glancing upwards at the miserable grey sky, she called out to her traveling companion ahead of her. “If your map is right, I wouldn’t slog it out in the rain today. How about we set up camp nearby?”

Apparently the location of interest was considered to be a fairly untouched place; their purple-haired companion was certainly interested in its scholastic value. Charlotte, on the other hand, sought for a unique experience, and for a story to collect. What sort of things and creatures would they find inside? If it was trouble, she knew Alexis would disapprove, but finding and working her way out of problems came as a second nature to Charlotte.

Unfortunately, with still a little under a day’s time towards the old ruins that the trio came to see, under the prospect of heavy rain and miserable weather, it was clear they wouldn’t make much headway out on the exposed dirt roads off in the countryside. Had they been closer, they might have been able to hurry and take shelter in the ruins they came for, but it was not to be.

The disguised vampire glanced at the butler girl at her side. “Unless either of you think we should press on?” She didn’t mind. There was a certain spark of adventure in braving out a storm on the road, too.

Edged Horizon

@Polaris North

Shall I make a post, or did you want to collab at all?

Edged Horizon

@Click This

Sure, that's fine with me. Er, to PMs for the history changes?

@Polaris North

Sounds good. Drop me a PM, then?

Edged Horizon

Yeah, it works either way. If she's accosted she'd use sword arts anyway, unless she knows she's actually killing them.

Up to you, Polaris~