Kuro Mirai

[Cernan]

Issen found himself at a loss of words when Devoe had mentioned the girl, questioning what they should do with her. His own feeling were very confused on the subject. While at first sight of the girl he had been shocked and disgusted, when the shock wore off he was more unsure of how he should feel. He of course was still sorry for the poor girls fate, but as for her body his upbringing and instincts were at odds with his conscience. He felt Devoe was right, that they should do something, but he didn't know what. He was not well versed in human death rituals. Through most life he had never been taught much about humans, except that they were lower life forms, fragile and weak and below the concern of demons such as himself. If that were true though why was he even out here, seeking revenge on the killer of a human he had come think of as friend? Worst of all though was thought, coming from somewhere deep and instinctual that the girl would make a very good and large meal. One that he should maybe stash away to eat latter. He had to shake his head to clear that thought away.

Before he could figure it all out and maybe give an answer the noise came. His ears instantly perked up and swiveled, pinpointing the source. He picked up the fluttering sound that Satoshi had mentioned before, and while he was not as sure of it's origin as Satoshi, it did pique his curiosity. Then came the tremendous almost deafening boom. The shock and pain of such a loud noise that he had not expected caused Issen to recoil back, his ears going flat against his skull, his tail once again puffing out as all his fur stood on end. He stood for a second facing the direction of the sound, his face contorted and looking considerably more canine, bearing his fangs in snarl before regaining his composure. Issen drew his sword out, watching as Satoshi dashed off towards the source.

"Trouble. I think we should follow our friend, he seems to know his way." He replied to Devoe, not turning to address him since he didn't want to loose sight of Satoshi.

[Remus]

Merissa was still away from the meeting place when the first sounds had occurred. Even from that distance she loud thundering boom that seemed to echo across the forest. She immediately went into attack mode, drawing her scythe from its strap and holding it tightly in her hands. Seconds past and nothing came. Silence crept back around her and as she stared out into the darkness she actually began to laugh, licking her lips slightly.

"Well, it looks like I'm missing out on the action. It's been too long since I've had a good fight. I just hope the others managed to find something. Whatever fate lead that girl into the woods, in the end, she should be given back to her family, or the people that loved her the most. It would be horrible if they never found out what happened to her." Merissa felt a pang of sorrow mixed with annoyance. "That idiot better not be having fun with out me."

After another moment or two, she had gotten her bearings back and chased off into the darkness towards the sound and the others.

[Mini]

"What the-- HEY!" Devoe shouted in alarm as Satoshi just went sprinting off into the woods, looking very much like a shark that had just got a big old whiff of fresh blood. "'Oi! Where do you think you're going?!" The archer looked very flummoxed as he watched the blind merchant vanish behind a tree. "Did he really just ditch us to run blindly through the forest in the middle of the-- wait a second, is he even really blind?!" the bewildered man shouted loud enough that Satoshi, wherever he was by now, probably would have heard him.

A snarl coming from besides him distracted Devoe enough to remember that he wasn't exactly alone. Issen was still there, and the fox demon was looking considerably more demon than humanoid at the moment. His ears seemed a bit larger, his canines were showing, his tail was straight out and his fur was standing on end as if both shocked and angry, and if a human had hackles, his were definitely showing. When he spoke, his voice sounded ever so slightly deeper and gruffer. He pulled out a sword, causing Devoe to blink in surprise for a moment. Demons with swords... well, it wasn't the first time, and it wasn't even all that unheard of. Devoe was just used to dealing with lesser demons who relied more on their claws and fangs.

"Trouble? Pfft. What gave you that idea? The big giant explosion? Satoshi running off like a stark raving lunatic into the woods shouting something about the killer?" Devoe grumbled, reaching up to pull his hat down and secure it onto his head. There was about to be running. Running through the woods at high speeds. Running through the unfamiliar woods at high speeds on a night so dark it was hard to see much of anything around you. Just perfect for falling and twisting a muscle, spraining a ligament, or breaking an arm or a leg. Devoe wasn't fond of running, but he had learned from experiences that it was always best to make sure one's head was secured to one's head at all times. Groaning to himself, he gestured forward with his bow. "After you, then. And while you're at it, think up a logical explanation for what made that sound."

~*~

Devoe would very soon find out the source of the sound, but likely wouldn't be the first to discover it. Far to the east of the village and north of the river, back where the woods grew especially thick and brambly, a very fierce battle had just sparked up out of nowhere. It had happened without any warning. These were dark woods that saw nary a traveler. Not even animals ventured into them, for something about them just seemed off. Tonight, however, there had been one lone stranger wearing a hooded, heavy black cloak traveling through them. This one moved with all the ease and grace of one who was used to traveling through the woods at night, and they made barely a sound as they moved swiftly and silently through the night.

There had been no warning at all. From out of nowhere, something had come flying down from the sky at an impossibly fast rate. The only noise it made was a slight fluttering sound, and it was impossible to tell if it came from wings, a cloak, a cape, or something else entirely. This sound was the only thing that alerted the figure dressed all in black below it to its presence. The figure whirled around and let out a yell, which would have been the noise that Issen and Satoshi heard, but by that point it was too late. In almost slow motion, the thing that had fallen from the sky held out a clawed hand, forming a small yellow orb in its palm. It was just inches from the figure on the ground. A single curse word slipped out from the hooded one on the ground as they turned and made a mad dash to dive to the ground.

The whole area was bathed in a blinding bright light for half a second, then static electricity exploded through the air. After that came the almost deafening explosion that sounded so much like thunder. A strong wind went gushing out from the center of the impact in all directions, tossing up leaves, dust, small shrubs, twigs, and other debris. As the dust cleared, it was easy to see that a small ring of trees had been blown away. A small crater several feet large in diameter had formed where the black cloaked person had been standing, but neither one of the two were around the crater. There was no body laying in the center of it, so it would seem for the moment that the figure in black had either been blown to pieces or had miraculously escaped a seemingly certain death.

The dust hadn't even settled all the way before there was another flurry of movement. Something dark jumped out from behind a bush and up into a tree that was still standing, and another dark shape went chasing after it. One dark shape suddenly came crashing out of the trees and went flying into another tree, but the other figure was right on its heels. There were a few desperate sounding grunts, what sounded like a devilish and hollow laughter, a low growl, a snarl, a shriek, another growl, and then a metallic clang, followed by another clash of steel. A small orb of electricity came tearing through the trees and went flying off into the darkness. Back and forth they danced from tree to ground. It was impossible to tell which was which. Another two or three clashes, a loud snarl, and then a second orb of electricity was fired off recklessly into the woods. This one smashed into a nearby tree at the bottom of the trunk and caused it to explode into splinters.

[Nayr]

(It's been a stupidly long time on my turn, and I apologize for that. Real life has been silly and it's now my honor to return to this RP. If things don't get silly again, I'll be able to be around at least three times per week and I will of course be aiming for more often than that.)

Satoshi's world was a blur of sound and silence, the wind of his passage howling in his ears and the silent call of his quarry on ahead of him. He was dimly aware of fighting sounds coming from on ahead of him, and they only added to his enthusiasm to close the distance as soon as possible. Somewhere in the forest two people were fighting, at least one of whom had their very life on the line. The one Satoshi sought clearly had some sort of destructive power, as the burst of energy that had rushed past him had not simply been riding an errant breeze away from someone who was exerting themselves in a uniquely personal way but rather the wash from a distant explosion. Just as this thought settled in his mind another explosion sounded, this one in a slightly different direction than the first. The battle was ranging about. The trees were worried, which led Satoshi to conclude that whatever destructive force this killer commanded was being used haphazardly. Excitement did so often cloud the judgment of a practitioner. Satoshi would confess to that very vice and would not even claim that there was a defense against it. All one could do was to be aware of the dangers of over-excitement and attempt to mitigate them when possible.

As Satoshi pondered what was happening he found himself pouring yet more effort into closing the distance between him and the one he sought. Nothing would stop or slow him, and whomever it was that had attracted his attention might have to be made to rue his lack of caution before the matter was done. He still wasn't sure for whom his blood sang as yet, but tracking down this killer would either answer the question or give him more information to work with to find the source of this call he felt.

[Cernan]

(Sorry fopr how long this took. I'll try to be around for a bit, so let's get this going again eh?)

Issen quickly glanced over at Devoe, then back to the forest before he lost sight of Satoshi. He was not fond of the idea of running first head long into danger, but then he figured he couldn't let the human go, so with a small inward sigh he ran into the woods following after Satoshi. As he followed Issen became distinctly aware of the two battling ahead. The ring of metal on metal, a sound he was very familiar with, the charge in the air. He could feel the malice and energy in the air. It seemed the killer who had been so elusive had whole heartedly put himself to battle.

The true target confirmed Issen dropped his watch on Satoshi. If he wanted to rush to battle so bad let him, at worst he would kill whoever it was before they could arrive to see justice done. Now in the distance through the thick woods Issen could see a clearing, new and still charged with the energy of what had made it. Issen's free hand went down to the kindjal he kept sheathed, flicking it's hilt so that it unsheathed a quarter of the way before snapping in place there. From the blade his own energy started to pour out and he dashed forward at great speed to break into the clearing, at the same time a copy flickered into being next to Devoe.

"Stay with me while I make an opening for us."

With that the copy flickered again splitting, into four. One Stuck with Devoe, one went off towards Satoshi to come out behind him, and the two others sprinted ahead to break into the clearing just behind the first.

[Remus]

As Merissa dashed through the woods away from the village and towards the commotion where the others were she wondered what she could possibly be up against. The air had a bad feeling to it, though it wasn't exactly a demonic presence she was feeling. Nor could anything that was human make this kind of feeling either. Could it be a half-demon like her? She supposed it was possible. She could definitely hear the sounds of fighting now. After the revolution in the Eastern capitol she had become very accustomed to the sounds of weapons clashing against each other. She could see light up ahead of her. Moonlight in a clearing perhaps? Or maybe something even worse. She moved like a ghost slipping between the trees despite the size and weight of zwei, and charged full tilt into the clearing.

(I'm assuming she is coming from the other direction so it would look something like this. ( clearing Issen -commotion- clearing Merissa))

[Mini]

(Think of it like a V. The fight/commotion is the center of the V. Merissa is coming from one line, the others are coming from the other.)

Jump up, flip forward, tuck legs in to avoid a nasty blade that would otherwise cleave skin from bone, flip backwards off whatever surface waited below and dive to the ground to avoid an angry, bloody set of claws. No time to breathe or think or look. Get up and spin around, sword raised to block a swing that would decapitate a slower person. This had turned from a brawl to a cold, calculated dance with death, but the only downside was that only one person seemed to have studied all the right moves. Each figure moved lightning fast, but it was starting to become apparent to any onlookers that one appeared to be ever so slightly faster. The misses started turning into near-misses. The blows, which had been evenly coming from both sides, starting to slightly favor the one in the tattered cloak. The figure in the traveling cloak was starting to wear down, evident by the claws that ripped the corner of the cloak clean off, missing a limb by millimeters. Grunting, they managed to land a well-aimed kick to the face and jump higher up into the trees.

Without warning, the figure in the tattered cloak landed on the ground. If it was in pain from the kick, it didn't show it. Its head twitched and turned, staring right in Satoshi's direction. He was still a ways off, but had made the mistake of not being as careful to keep himself concealed - probably a difficult task when one was blind. Letting out a loud screech of anger that echoed through the night, the figure held a pale, clawed hand. Electricity gathered in front of its palm. Two seconds later, a blast of electric energy tore through the woods, aimed right at Satoshi's head. Moments later, another blast came after it, this one aimed at Issen's double that had been sprinting towards Satoshi.

~*~

Devoe jumped up in alarm as another Issen appeared before him. "Gah!! Wha-- whoa-- why are there two of you?!" he yelped, instinctively going for his bow. He stopped himself before he had an arrow raised too high for it to be a real threat. By the time he turned to look at the real Issen, there were two others standing next to him. "Four?! What kind of trickery is this?! ... And can I learn how to do it? Because this is actually a pretty useful-- hey, hey, wait! WAIT, I said!" but it was no use, for Issen and his clones had all ready taken off running at full speed. Grumbling under his breath and cursing his foul luck, he sprinted after them.

After only a minute of running, Devoe was nearly out of breath. "Ugh... man... I am going to have to seriously lay off the bedtime snacking. What am I even running for? What good am I gonna do? That nutjob of a blind man is there, there's a fox demon, up against our mysterious killer and some other person who has to be strong enough to be holding his own, and I'm not exactly great in short range battle. No... if we're gonna do this, then we have to do it right," he muttered, slipped his bow back over his shoulder. "Too bad you're not here, Javet. I could use that brilliant brain of yours." He took a deep breath as he gathered his wits and his strength, then took off running not after Issen and Satoshi, but to the right.

[Remus]

Merissa burst into the clearing in the middle of a full out battle. From first glance she thought it was two humans that were fighting-until that is she saw the blood red claws of the one in the tattered cloak.

our mysterious killer perhaps? she wondered. Though they were both moving with blinding speed Merissa's experience with Raven allowed her to follow their movements. It was the human who was losing. With every move by his tattered-cloak attacker he was slowly losing ground. The other one suddenly sprang up and kicked the figure in the tattered cloak to the ground. As it was with most demons though, he was already starting to rise a solitary hand in the air above him. Lightning began to gather around that hand and shot off in the other directions.

ah hell she thought angrily. She looked at her giant scythe-blade then back at the battle. "No choice." she whispered to herself switching the blade to one hand. She raised her own palm and fire began to instantly spring and curl around her arm. She didn't know how long it would last or how powerful the attack would be, but it should be enough so that the human could gain the advantage again. Then once the demon was down she would find out. She raised her arm prepared to unleash a whip of flame...and caught sight of the others for the first time.

"Oh hell." she spat out angrily and cursed. The flames started slowly uncoiling and vanished in a wisp of white smoke. Was her cover blown so early? How could she have let herself get so absorbed in watching the fight she failed to notice the obvious people around her. Not good... her thoughts were fast and frantic. NotgoodnotgoodnotgoodnotgoodNOTGOOD

[Nayr]

Satoshi was close now. So close. Could almost feel his target coming closer. The fight he was approaching was beginning to near its end, but was still quite fierce. Nearly there. Soon he'd be able to hear them move. Would be able to feel in the air and the ground where they were and where their attacks would be. He was getting so very close to his target. A fierce blow, and his target landed on the ground. His world clouded over for an instant as the target looked his his direction. So he'd been identified. Perhaps not to the extent that he in turn had identified the one whose energy had been thrown about so wantonly, but at the least his presence had been felt as well as the speed of his approach. He could almost laugh as he felt the energy build, then rush towards him. Perhaps if he hadn't already memorized that energy the attack might have even struck him. As it was, he knew the attack was coming long before it neared him. He relaxed the muscles in his lower body in a motion so practiced that it was almost subconscious, and fell from the tree. It wasn't an uncontrolled fall, but it was certainly a sudden lack of will to remain up among the branches. He planted his right foot against the trunk and launched himself to a nearby tree, where he put his left leg and left arm to redirect and thrust toward another tree. He had a second and a half to complete an evasion of the attack, and was doing his best to both fall and move towards the figure while simultaneously putting obstacles between himself and the blast the attack would make upon impact. While he did a fair job, a second and a half wasn't very long. The attack struck the trunk of a tree just behind where his head was a second earlier and the entire top section of the tree was transformed in a violent instant into wooden shrapnel. Satoshi's rapid descent spared him the worst of it, but he was unable to put another tree between the cloud of wood shards and his body before the distance was closed. Pain flashed through his senses, causing him to misstep and fall half the remaining distance to the ground before he could catch himself and avoid breaking bones upon landing. His impact with the ground still hurt quite a lot, but the worst of the damage was the wounds from the flying bits of what was once a strong, proud tree.

After a brief moment spent surveying the damage, Satoshi stood and picked up his staff, pulling a splinter of wood from his right shoulder. The wound wasn't grievous, but it would need binding and it would negatively impact his ability to fight. He would have to end this quickly, or the bleeding would take its toll. He advanced towards his target more cautiously, reaching the clearing and standing ready for its next move. If his instincts informed correctly, the killer was about to retreat. The odds, while still in its favor, were beginning to shift. If it were him, at least, he'd be leaving to preserve his advantage and try for his target another time. Perhaps in an unguarded moment before any critical information could be shared.

[SilentSpork]

Vahn had been hiking for some time, hoping to get to the towns marked on the map. By now of course he had given up on the map makers sense of distance. Lacking good judgement of distance seemed like a crucial oversight in a map makers skill set but there wasn't much to be done about it now. He wished his problems for the night would have stayed limited to that one but that of course wasn't how the universe worked. Now he was running at what he had first thought was just some commotion but with the recent addition of the fireworks had been reclassified as a fight. It was time to get into the action.

There was very little information available to Vahn as he not been privy to any of the local rumors of murders. Recently he had found refuge from the world in a interesting little valley he came to live in. It was only at times like now when he had ventured further from that place. It had started to happen more and more frequently and had finally seemed to have landed him in some trouble.

'Judging by that explosion this isn't a time to enter quietly.' Vahn thought. Taking a moment to compose himself he quickly searched the ground he raced past and found what he was looking for. Risking the green eye illumination that it incurred Vahn tapped his power and hoisted a boulder from the ground. As the snow and dirt fell away from the roughly 1.5 meter diameter sized rock he jumped on top of it and knelt into the force of it launching straight into the air. For the millionth time he cursed his inability to detect demonic or magic auras cause that would make trying to figure out what was happening a whole lot easier. Still at least he was able to compensate somewhat using his ability to detect where things were in a general sense as long as he had somewhere to focus. The explosions weren't hard to zero in on.

As the rock made its final descent, Vahn drew his sword in preparation. It was a new sword that he, with the aid of a blacksmith he had talked into helping, had forged. Basic in design and being just shy the length of a long-sword the real power of it was in the material and crystal he had inlaid it with. As the last few meters were crossed, Vahn jumped from the rock and slowed his descent then cut his power. The boulder had come straight down roughly a dozen meters from the tattered cloak fighter which just so happened to be the one he had been closest to. Because of the vertical angle the thud and shock of the crash being so close it should be enough to grab both fighters attention.

Landing next to and just a few seconds after his ride he bellowed, "Stop! I'm trying to have a peaceful hike and your fighting is interrupting it!"

Vahn liked the obviously confusing parts of his challenge. Who would be hiking at a time like this? A person who trusts the wrong map makers that's who but they don't know that nor do they need to. Vahn stood and waited with his sword at his side for either fighter to make a move. He hadn't changed his attire much over his seclusion, just a few minor additions to the basic dark gray shirt, brown pants, and dark green cloak. The main additions were of course the sword but he now also carried two small daggers who's handles would be barely visible around the small of his back. They too were of his own design. These changes were all apart of his decision that it was better to be armed for the inevitable fight instead of just relying on latent abilities which would mean going ugly mode. Vahn hated having to do that and even though his eyes had stopped their glow when he had cut his power he had a feeling that he wasn't going to be able to hide that glow for long.

(OOC: Woo, its been a long time! So I read over the majority of the story and Vahn is currently coming in on the opposite side of the V that Mini described. So now its more like a Y though of course Vahn just jumped in so that was just roughly the path of his flight in. Let me know if I messed something up and I can edit! )

[Mini]

The figure in the traveling cloak, who was momentarily crouching high up in a large, bushy, soft needle pine tree, had taken the sudden appearance of all the newcomers as a blessing from above. Perhaps all the gods hadn't yet turned their backs on this person just yet. The creature in the tattered cloak had picked itself up and allowed itself to become distracted just long enough to shift its focus on someone running through the woods. That meant that its focus was no longer on them, and that meant that maybe, just maybe, they could turn tail and vanish into the deep woods without being followed. Let the foolish people rushing in from far off into the woods deal with the tattered cloak creature.

A moment of hesitation stopped the figure in the pine tree as a young girl came running into the fray. She looked far too young to be there, and yet here she was, ready to pull a scythe out and try to attack the thing that had just sent blasts of lightning flying off into the woods. the girl held her hand out and started to form fire. Was she some manner of demon? She was too far away to get a good look at her features, but judging from her reaction as she quickly realized there were others around, perhaps she was a half-demon and had just blown her "I'm a normal human" cover.

A loud explosion from not too far off caught the figure's attention, causing them to curse silently under their breath. The lightning blasts had shattered at least one tree, caught another on fire, and from the looks of it had almost taken off one of the figures who had both been the cause of the young girl's panic and one of the ones who had more than likely been rushing in to help with the fight. He had been thrown forward roughly enough that he could have been knocked unconscious, but a few moments passed before he slowly stood up.

"Idiots. You're all going to get yourselves killed," the figure grumbled under their breath, too low to be heard by any one of the several people around. The figure started to stand, but hesitated. Could they really just leave when innocent people were rushing in to their doom all on account of something going on between them and the thing in the tattered cloak? These people had nothing to do with their fight, and yet here they were, all coming with weapons drawn to try and help.

The figure in the tattered cloak remained on the ground, apparently waiting to see if its electrical blasts had been fatal. It both sensed and saw Satoshi moving, and unfortunately it also appeared that none of its blasts had struck the fox demon(s), either. A low, guttural growl could be heard coming from the creature if anyone was in earshot. It sounded very angry, fierce, and annoyed. There were too many other people around now, and almost all of them seemed to have some kinda of demonic power or enhanced ability of some sort. Fighting them would be much harder than fighting and killing other humans. Certainly not impossible, but hard, and more specifically, more annoying. It didn't like to be bothered with trifles like needlessly fighting multiple enemies at once, especially when it wasn't interested in them whatsoever. Killing them wouldn't mean anything. There was only one thing it needed to kill, and it was currently crouching up in the pine tree, acting like it was invisible. A twisted smile spread across the creature's face as it realized its prey was distracted. Perhaps it did indeed have time to finish the job before retreating. The twisted smile turned into a sadistic looking grin. Thunder rumbled in the sky above as the creature started to build up enough energy inside for what needed to be done...

As luck would have it, another idiot chose that moment to come quite literally crashing in, falling down from the sky on a very large boulder. Vahn leapt off the rock, sword in hand, and allowed the boulder to come crashing to the ground behind him with a ground-shaking crash. He shouted something about being hiking, which was doubly confusing because who in their right mind would be out for a hike in the middle of the woods well after midnight on a cold, snowy winter's night. The boulder's loud crash did indeed attract the attention of both fighters, which was very bad news for Vahn.

Several things happened at once shortly after that:

The figure in the tattered cloak waved one clawed hand behind them in a wide arc, sending a strong blastwave of static electricity coursing off in all directions behind them, mostly aimed at where Satoshi, Merissa, and Issen would be. It wasn't enough energy to cause any serious harm, but if hit with the blast, it would certainly throw someone off their feet.

An involuntary gasp slipped out of the figure up in the pine tree as Vahn shouted out his nonsense about this fight ruining his hike.

The figure in the tattered cloak turn its full attention to Vahn. Both hands were surrounded in glowing white-blue orbs of built-up electrical energy. It pulled its arms back and put both clawed hands together, forcing both bulging orbs of energy to compress together into one very large, very unstable looking ball of energy. The creature rolled its hands together as if kneading dough and kept pulling and pulling, causing it to grow in size. Small bolts of lightning and static energy kept shooting off in all directions from it. It grew larger and larger, until it was roughly the size of a large pig. It let out a bone-chilling screech, revealing a lovely set of razor-sharp fangs to Vahn as it turned itself around, crouched down briefly, then jumped high up into the air.

Several hundred feet away, high up in a tree, a lone archer had just drawn his bow. It was times like this when the world seemed to slow down and stop all together. His target was dead ahead of him. Sure, there might be a couple hundred branches in his way, but it didn't matter. Nothing mattered now. He had all the time in the world. Eyes squinted, feet shoulder length apart, tongue sticking out just a tad, grip relaxed, he had the perfect sniper's stance. Some people thought that holding your breath increased one's accuracy, but Devoe knew that was foolish poppycock. Holding one's breath just made someone dizzy after a few seconds.

The tattered cloak figure hovered in the air for the briefest of moments while it prepared to launch its built-up blast right where Vahn was standing.

Devoe let his arrow fly. It went sailing through the trees, locked onto its target.

"NO!" came a terrified female scream from the person in the traveling cloak. She hurled herself at the creature in the tattered cloak like a bat out of hell, apparently intending to keep it from launching its giant energy ball at Vahn by attempting to body slam herself into the creature.

The creature in the tattered cloak couldn't be more delighted that its prey had come flying out of the tree towards it, but seeing as it had been in the middle of aiming its attack, it didn't really have the necessary time needed for redirection. What ended up happening was that the girl in the traveling cloak crashed into the creature just as it released its attack. The momentum of her flying tackle forced the energy ball to shoot straight down instead of at the necessary angle it had needed to strike Vahn. The two of them became a big, tangled mass of black cloaks and body parts. At the same time, an arrow came sailing through the opening, striking flesh. There was an angry screech, a loud scream, then a deafening explosion.

The energy orb hit had hit the ground and exploded into a blinding flash, sending an incredible amount of energy and rogue blasts of lightning flying off in all directions. Since the two cloaked figures had been right over top of it, it sent both of them flying straight up into the air. One of them appeared to grab the other. There was a brief skirmish, during which a katana came crashing down into the clearing. Its handle was black and wrapped with tattered looking cloth, and the blade had what looked like 4 strange runes carved into it. The blade had definitely seen many battles, but was still impressively sharp. There was also some blood on it, and it would have two distinct scents on it to those with a keen sense of smell - one was definitely that of a human, and the other was an odd mixture of several scents all mixed together. It was very close to the odd scent that had been all over the girl's body left by the river. The sound of ripping fabric could briefly be heard coming from above before one of the figures went crashing to the ground some ways away from the clearing. It was next to impossible to tell where they had ended up. There was another odd sound, much like the flapping of a bat's wings or leather rustling in the wind, then the other figure took off zooming at an alarmingly fast rate through the sky, heading back in the direction of the village.


OOC: Keeping track of where everyone is in fun. We need a real-time map or something lol. And YAAAAAY VAHN! That's a wonderful entrance, Sporkie. xD Also OH MAN THIS POST IS LONG. I tried really hard to explain as much as I could while trying to make it make sense. I hope it makes sense.

[SilentSpork]

Crashing in had of course asked for attention but Vahn suddenly wished it hadn't been so effective. What he found when he landed was a lot to take in with several individuals in the general area but his attention, rightfully, was on the tattered cloak figure. Apparently this thing wasn't to fond of boulders because it currently was building massive amounts of energy. 'Well that doesn't look good' Vahn thought to himself as he prepared another few bursts of power. His intention was to dodge the attack using his ability to pull himself to safety. That wasn't what happened though.

The figure had launched itself into the air as it nearly completed its attack and Vahn was ready to move. That is when everything went wrong. The attack sprang Vahn into motion but a startling scream accompanied the traveling cloak figure hurtling through the air and crashing straight into the horrible creature. While it had prepared its move it had given him a lovely grin that he wasn't at all fond of. Things happened in a quick series: the tattered cloaks attack being thrown off, both midair fighters tumbling, a missile from someone far off crashing into the tumbling mess. The last was rewarded with a screech but then everything was briefly dominated by the exploding attack. While the attack wasn't anywhere near close enough to be dangerous it was still enough to overwhelm the senses briefly. Vahn took a moment to find that the two cloaked figures had actually been blown further up into the air. Before he could move to try to join the fight however an object fell from the two. As he glanced to see what had fallen he almost missed one of the figures crashing to the ground some was off and the other flying away.

Questions zipped through Vahn's mind in a quick succession. Who or what was that in the tattered cloak? What about the traveling cloak figure that had risked herself to try to save him? Why were there so many people here and were they all involved in this? The worst parts about the the whole thing was that Vahn had a vague feeling of familiarity with the scenes of the night as well as a driving need to figure out what was happening. While he couldn't explain these feelings, it was unnerving how much he knew he couldn't turn away from whatever was happening here.

Vahn made a quick decision to not immediately run off in the general direction of where the figure had fallen. Instead he sheathed his sword and moved quickly to inspect the katana, waiting to see if any of the others out that night would approach. While he wouldn't wait long, he wanted to try to enlist any help he might find in the others out tonight. Vahn could find that crash site eventually but it might be faster with someone with a bit more focused abilities in tracking. 'Hopefully they aren't on the tattered cloak side and don't attack me.' he thought to himself as he began to inspect the runes in the katana. Though the scent of blood that was on the blade wouldn't help him he did have a mind for runes. While he investigated, he made sure he kept some power on tap just in case someone approaching should be on the wrong side.

[Nayr]

His foe's first reaction was a low growl, guttural and wild. His survival had not been part of the plan, and it seemed his conclusions were right. The killer was about to flee. A quick breath, drawn through the nose, confirmed small details that told him that even were he sighted he wouldn't be able to stop what was going to happen. With that in mind, Satoshi stood his ground. Showing weakness or relaxing in the slightest in the presence of a hunter was incredibly stupid, after all. He would stand his ground and observe, thereby to catch even one more hint with which to identify and hunt this killer. His heart ran at fever pitch, his blood singing through his veins. The one who called him was here, in this clearing, right now. He was so close that he had to hold himself with great exertion of willpower to keep from losing himself in the blessed haze of his excitement. Instead, he was trying to force himself into a passive state from which to tune his senses to what was about to happen.

Thunder rumbled and the air grew a little thicker. Something had drawn the killer's attention away from its imminent departure, and another attack was on its way. The energy was growing again, as though a deep breath were being taken. He focused harder on suppressing the distraction of his blood song so that he would be able to glean as much warning as possible to enhance his ability to react to the incoming strike. Without any warning whatsoever, a loud crash sounded as a large boulder impacted the ground. A person landed next to it and yelled something about a hike being interrupted. What utter nonsense was this fool prattling on about? Satoshi's focus recovered just in time to feel the discharge of energy in a wave coming his way. From the feel of the oncoming energy there was no chance of dodging it, so Satoshi relaxed some muscles and tensed others in an attempt to brace for the impact and break his fall as skillfully as possible. Less could be observed from a prone position than from a standing or crouching one. The wave broke over him, throwing him to the ground but not hurting him in any major way. It seemed he had been dismissed as inconsequential. Time enough to deal with that later. He pushed himself up into a crouch and tried to recover his focus. He could feel the killer building up a lot of energy now, kneading it and making it grow. With a screech that was definitely not human in origin, it launched itself into the air on powerful legs.

What happened next was difficult for Satoshi to track. A female shout echoed through the winter night and the killer's target shot out towards the creature, intending to thwart the attack. Sheer madness. Did this woman not understand that she was the target? Did she want to die so badly? The impact was almost lost in the overwhelming feeling of the large mass of energy slamming down to the ground directly below the airborne melee. There was an angry screech, a scream, and the world vanished into a deafening explosion. Satoshi flattened himself, knowing that there was no chance to keep one's feet in the face of such force, and was rewarded with comparably light injury. He would ache in several spots for quite a while, and if this didn't resolve soon the wound in his shoulder would become even more of a liability than it already was. He was aware of a weapon of some kind hitting the ground directly under where the duo was yet entangled, but not very much of what was happening above it. Two sounds concluded the maelstrom: Tearing fabric and the killer's aural signature. The two were no longer locked together, it seemed, and both were now gone. Satoshi was too disoriented and bruised to discern which direction they had gone. For all he knew, they were headed in the same direction and the killer was intending to finish the job somewhere more private. In his current state, he chose not to particularly care. He was out of this game for the time being. He'd need to heal and regroup before he would be able to rejoin the hunt. He had a vague sense of the newest arrival moving to inspect the weapon, but all he did in response to that was roll onto his back and moan as the pain of the motion surprised him.

That's troublesome, he muttered to himself inwardly, This much damage and the killer didn't care about me. If I had gotten its attention, it might have killed me. I've lost a step or two...

He was dimly aware as he lay recovering that his blood was quiet now, the sound low and quiet. His target was one of the two that had left. All that remained was to discover which one was calling him and begin a hunt of his own.

[Remus]

The force of the attack knocked Merissa off her feet and slammed her hard against the tree, knocking her momentarily senseless. The world flashed blue and then dazzlingly white for a moment before she was able to regain her senses. Dimly she could hear a second crash that was Vaughns landing and sound of giant leathery wings flying away.

"Raav?" She mumbled to herself. Her head stung painfully. She pressed her fingers against her temple and when she brought them away they were crimson. The wound was bad, but she had suffered far worse before. It could be cleaned and treated when she got back. A small drop of blood rolled down to her eye and she hissed. but damn if it doesn't hurt she thought as she stumbled to her feet, staggering as she made her way to the clearing. The battle was over now, that much was clear but there was now even more confusion than there had been before. The fighters had disappeared from the clearing but they did not leave it completely empty. A katana lay in the middle of the clearing. It's grip was black and infused with strange ruins unlike any Merissa had ever seen before, and all around was that terrible aura of some type of demon or evil entity surrounding them. Satoshi was lying off to one side, having also been hit from the same force that had knocked Merissa off her feet. He didn't seem as hurt and she supposed that he too had been at a safe enough distance to escape the true force of the blast.

What really caught her attention was the new person who had seemingly landed from nowhere in the middle of the battle. He was dressed normally for a traveler, but she noted the sword across his back but didn't make anything of it. Did she not herself carry a giant scythe for "protection?"

Leaning on zwei she called out to the man who was making his way towards the katana that was dropped by the figure. "I wouldn't touch that if I were you. There's no telling what it could really be. In my experience there are only two reasons for a sword to have markings like that on them. To give it a name, or to infuse it with power." Merissa looked around at the others scattered about the clearing.

"Sorry I'm late. The guards at the village weren't too happy with the fact I had arrived carrying that poor boy in the state he was in. But it seems I didn't miss out on the fun this time!" she explained cheerfully. "And it seems we have someone new joining us."

(ooc: ugh. It has been too long since I have posted. Many apologies. There has been much going on lately and I have been pulled more and more away from the things I love to do. I cut out a lot of what happened so far in my post mainly because I don't want to rehash and rehash what has happened in previous posts. Merissa's cheerfulness despite the situation DOES mean something, I promise you all. Now if the ending of my post doesn't match what is happening -I assume right now the battle is over and people are either going to inspect the blade or the other fighter who had landed just past the clearing- let me know and I shall edit.)

[Mini]

Gods, did everything hurt.

The girl in the traveling cloak woke up to a whole new world of pain and misery like she had never before experienced. Before she could even stand up and get her bearings, she had a pretty good feeling that her shoulder was dislocated and her left wrist was either sprained or broken. Two of her fingers were numb... was that good or bad? Probably bad. Without a doubt, she definitely had some cracked and bruised ribs. Something hot and sticky was running down her face, too. A quick smack of her lips made her almost gag as a familiar copper-ish taste filled her mouth. Yep, that was definitely blood. Her head was throbbing like mad. Even the slightest movements made her so dizzy and sick that she felt like retching. Her body was cold and stiff. It was only after a lot of mental coaxing that she opened her eyes to discover that she was laying stomach-down with most of her body buried in a large pile of snow. Wincing, she used her good arm to push herself up and look around.

There was a giant skid mark in the snow and on the ground behind her, and she was pretty sure that she had made it when she had come careening down into the ground. It wasn't until she started moving around that she let out a yelp of pain. Her shoulder felt like it was on fire! It hurt so much to move, but she forced her cold, numb fingers up to her shoulder. Her hand brushed up against wood. Was there an arrow lodged in her back?! Oh, well, that was just ducky. No wonder her shoulder hurt so bad. Her hand came away red and sticky - her cloak was drenched in blood. Not good. She supposed she should be grateful that she was alive and mostly in one piece, but she was mad at the entire world for a whole lot of reasons, so instead of saying a silent prayer of thanks, she cursed every god and goddess she could think of for her rotten luck.

It was bad enough that those idiotic strangers had interfered. She could have brushed off the deaths of a few stupid wanna-be demon hunters, because there was no doubt in her mind that all of them would have died trying to fight off what she had been fighting. They had seemed like quite the ragtag bunch - that weird girl with the scythe, the fox demon, the sketchy looking guy who had been lurking in the woods, and whoever owned the bow and arrow. In fact, she had been more than content to hide up in that tree and watch them all die (especially the idiot who had hit her with the arrow - what a terrible shot!), because maybe it would have been the distraction she needed to get away... but then everything had changed. The last person had shown up out of nowhere, with no clue what he had been going into. She had reacted out of pure instinct and terror and dove headfirst into certain death like an idiot. What she had done went against all of her training. It truly was a wonder that she wasn't dead. She let out a long sigh and shut her eyes. She had no way of knowing that he would had been there, she told herself, and if everything went as she hoped it would, he would have no idea that she had ever even been there.

Whatever happens... stay safe, Vahn.

Finally, the girl in the very dirty, beaten up, bloody traveling cloak somehow stood up. Her legs were wobbling, and blood was still oozing out of the nasty gash on her head and from the arrow embedded in her should, but she had to keep going. It seemed that her "friend" was gone for now. Maybe the strangers who had intervened had actually helped scare it off. That was good, because she needed all the time she had. After checking the stars and her surroundings, she set off in what she thought was the right direction. It soon became quite apparent that she had lost much more blood than she thought she had, for her walking became slower and more erratic. Twice, she had to stop and lean against a tree to catch her breath, and once she very nearly fell into a heap for no reason at all. After a while, she quit feeling so cold. Her feet had gone numb, and the throbbing in her shoulder had almost gone away. She was just tired, and she wanted nothing more than to lay down and take a nap, but something told her that that would have been a bad idea, so she kept trudging forward.

Eventually, the forest grew less dense and the terrain grew rockier and more rugged, and she started journeying up into the mountains that few living creatures seldom even ventured to. The girl stumbled forward, breathing hard, until she finally came across a large, treacherous looking "hall" of rocks that rose up out of the ground like something from out of a storybook. It looked very much like the home of a fearsome beast or incredibly strong demon, and it certainly did not send off any warm, welcoming vibrations. There were no signs of life anywhere around.

She was almost there. Just a few more steps. Was that a door? A strong gust of wind almost blew the poor, bedraggled traveler over as she walked forward. She was so cold and miserable that she didn't even noticed her hood had blown off, revealing a tangled mess of bright blonde hair. In fact, her hair was so blonde that it was very nearly white. It looked like the hair had once been in some sort of braid or ponytail, but now it was just a mess. She was so tired, but she forced herself to keep going until she ran into the stones. Her body trembled beneath her cloak. She tried to knock on the mighty stone doors, but she lacked the strength.

"Please... b-be there," she whispered, managing a weak knock. Her forehead came to rest against the door, and without any warning, her busy day caught up with her. Unaware that she had lost a dangerous amount of blood and was half frozen to death, her legs gave out from under her and she toppled forward, but she was unconscious before she ever even hit the ground.

~*~

Devoe came trotting up out of the trees a few minutes after the creature in the tattered cloak had taken off. He scowled in confusion as his eyes focused on a man he hadn't seen before, standing relatively close to a very large boulder that had definitely not been there before. He scanned the scene and quickly took everything in. Merissa was back, but had been caught up in that explosion. She seemed to be all right, however, and had just gotten up when Devoe had arrived. Satoshi was laying on the ground, looking to be very much in pain. Devoe guessed that he had a few nasty bumps and bruises - he had been the closest to the explosion. Their fox demon friend was nowhere to be found at the moment. Perhaps he had taken off after one of the fighters? As for this newcomer, Devoe met him with suspicion in his eyes.

"Glad you're back, Merissa. You wanna go give Satoshi a hand? Looks like he took that explosion a bit harder than you did," he said without taking his eyes off of Vahn. There was a bloody sword laying in front of him. Was it his? Where had it come from? Devoe hadn't been close enough to see it falling from the sky, nor had be been close enough to see or hear the traveler throw herself at the creature to apparently save this man's life from certain death. Devoe cleared his throat loudly and took a few steps closer, crossing his arms authoritatively. "'Oi. Don't touch that sword. It's evidence," he declared rather presumptuously. "And you, sir, might just be a suspect. You wanna tell me what you're doing out here in the middle of nowhere on a cold, snowy night like this? And where did you even come from?" he asked, perking an eyebrow.