Times of Darkness

*Lumyr dodges to another branch and jumps up the tree until he's right in front of her. He lunges at her with his sheathed sword.*

====

*Winston pulls the gun from his holster and reloads it, and then points it at the man.*

Winston: <Think these people are them?>

Balmung: <Probably. Do what you will with them.>

Cecenia stood there, staring at the girl's body for a few seconds. Finally, she moved back a few feet and squeezed her eyes shut as she began to pull out the arrows lodged in her body.

Outside

~Ranmaru & Cecenia~

*The guy leaps backwards across several yards, landing near Cecenia and his partner's corpse. Noticing it, he widens his eyes in shock and roars loudly, then rams Cecenia.*

=====
~Balmung & Winston~

*Razz glares at Winston.*

Razz: <This one wants to die... Allina, what are you do-->

Allina: <Not in here!>

*Allina picks up the sleeping child and angel wings of light spring from her back. She flies right through the window, shattering the glass. Razz sighs and leaps after her.*

=====
~Lumyr~

*She opens her arms and her palms are quickly covered in green goo. She grins and opens her mouth, a rapier's blade extending out of it, then jerks her head to parry Lumyr's sword with it while grabbing his hands with hers.*

=====
~Crone~

*Crone waves his hand in the air and a very long whip of light strikes at the knight, slamming him into the city walls.*

=====
~Ryzell~

*No one else's in the basement. The knights outside crouch to peek through the barred window.*

Soldier1: <Who is he?>

Soldier2: <He's... He's apparently a soldier from Helzol Palace.>

Soldier1: <We captured a soldier?>

Soldier2: <I don't know. I can't remember. I bet we did. We'll be famous.>

"I said I wanted to speak with the girl, are you morons deaf AND dumb?" Ryzell pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

---

Ranmaru wastes little time in chasing the catman down and driving his foot into the cat's side.

Cecenia was momentarily stunned as the cat-dude rammed into her, but he was chased away by Ranmaru as quickly as he had came. Still in shock, Cecenia dropped to the ground on her knees and gingerly picked up her fallen opponent's crossbow.

*Lumyr slips his hands out of her grasp before she can fully grab onto him, then jumps back until he lands on a branch nearby.*

Lumyr: [Why is this happening right now...? I was hoping to conceal my powers for a little longer, but if this keeps going the way it is....]

=====

Winston: <Hey! Wait, you jackasses!>

*Winston starts shooting in the direction they're fleeing in.*

Outside

~Ranmaru & Cecenia~

*The kick sends the guy rolling back a few yards, near the forest. Getting up, he roars at them and runs off into the forest. The girl has two little wooden crossbows, especially designed to shoot her small arrows. They're wrist-mounted in the sense that each is attached to a pair of adjustable wood and leather bracelets. Each crossbow has a long wire that ends in a leather structure wrapped around her respective shoulder, so she could trigger the crossbow by whipping her arms around as she had been doing during the battle.*

=====
~Balmung & Winston~

*Allina's landed on the desert, just a few yards away from the inn, and Razz has ran over to her. Seing Winston shoot at them from the second floor, Allina hands the sleeping girl to Razz and holds her hands out, surrounding the three in a dome of light that absorbs the bullets.*

Razz: <What am I...?>

Allina: <Oh. Hum. Just... just put her down behind that bulky rock over there while we deal with this, I guess.>

*Razz puts the little girl down behind a rock about as tall as his waist right behind them.*

=====
~Lumyr~

*What little green goo got on his hands starts sinking into his skin. Noticing this, she grins, jumps down to the clearing, and runs off with her companions.*

=====
~Crone~

*The crimson knight dashes out of the smoke weilding another red energy javelin and slashes at Crone, who sidesteps him and pushes the spear away with his hand eneveloped in light. Groaning in frustration, the knight instantly creates yet another spear and slashes with both, Crone just barely managing to dodge by jumping backwards. He then steps forward and in a split second has slashed a deep cut across with knight's torso with a light blade and is now circling around his back, swinging the blade at the knight's neck.*

=====
~Ryzell~

Soldier1: <I don't know the girl.>

Soldier2: <Me neither. Wait, should we be talking to him?>

Ryzell sighs, heavily, "Find the girl then? Its rude not to thank people for helping them even a little." He shakes his head in exasperation.

---

"Well that went smoothly."

*Lumyr looks at his hand, and watches as the goo sinks in. He wipes as much as he can off with his green cloak.*

Lumyr: <What was that all about...?>

=====

Winston: <Whatever you're doing, it means nothing before my gun!>

*Winston continues shooting at her.*

Outside

~Balmung & Winston~

*Allina's barrier continues to absorb every bullet until, suddenly, a figure emerges from her shadow and punches her back, pushing her out of the barrier and causing a bullet to shoot through her left shoulder. She groans and, grabbing her injured shoulder, and turns around to see the figure acquire colors and a more defined shape. It's an attractive young woman in silver armor lacking only a helmet, with two swords sheathed at her waist. She has brown hair with side bangs tied in a near waist-lenght high ponytail, brown eyes, and slightly tanned skin. Everyone immediately feels that she is from Helzol Palace as well.*

=====
~Lumyr~

*The forest is silent again.*

=====
~Crone~

*The knight necks and punches at Crone, his fist ramming through the mage's body and splattering blood everyone. Crone starts flickering with flashes of light and fades away, the real Crone standing several yards ahead of the knight charging a beam of light. He smirks.*

Crimson Knight: <You will pay for all evil you-->

*Crone shoots the beam, which blasts a wide clean hole through the knight's chest.*

=====
~Ryzell~

*They share confused looks before standing up. They continue to just stand there silently for the following minutes.*

"What?" Ryzell glares at their backs.

Cecenia picked up both crossbows and walked over to Ranmaru. "What now? You're not going after him, are you?" That was kind of a stupid question... she realized.

*Lumyr jumps down from the trees.*

Lumyr: <Guess I should be on my way, then...>

*Lumyr continues down the path he was one before he got attacked.*

=====

Winston: <Hey, who the hell are you?>

Outside

~Balmung & Winston~

*Razz swings a flaming knife at the knight lady which she promptly blocks by drowing and raising one of her swords.*

???: <Olympe Espada. I was sent to ensure the mission's success because there was a possibility these enemies would be too much for the assigned two man team.>

=====
~Lumyr~
*After a while he reaches the end of the woods and the kingdom on the side of the mountain I previously described. His vision is getting kind of blurry and the skin on the back of his hands is looking kind of greenish.*

=====
~Crone~

*Crone glances at the corpse and walks into the city.*

=====
~Ryzell~

Soldier1: <(He's talking to us again.)>

Soldier2: <(Shhh, pretend you didn't hear him.)>

Soldier1: <(Oh, okay.)>

Ryzell facepalms. This was a good opportunity to get into the capital and thus he was curbing his temptation to just blow the joint and find the girl himself.

---

"Of course we are Cecenia"

Lumyr: <[Ah... dammit... is this because of what happened earlier?]>

*Lumyr continues moving forward, albeit in a slow fashion.*

=====

Winston: <Well.... whatever! Let's just finish it quick.>

*Winston reloads and fires again, at Razz this time.*

Cecenia, who was almost completely out of weapons except for her sword, began to put on the new crossbow and figure out how to work it.

Outside

~Balmung & Winston~

*The barrier absorbs some of its shots before it finally shatters, which forces Razz to leap back to dodge the bullets. Olympe takes this chance to charge at him, surrounding her blades in a darkness aura. Allina stands up and grows her light wings again, darting towards the window Winston is shooting at Razz from.*

=====
~Lumyr~

*After a bit of climbing he reaches the city entrance. He hears the sound of objects tearing through air and sees a cloud of arrows raining down upon him shot by the many guards positioned atop several of the rock buildings.*

=====
~Ryzell~

Soldier1: <Aaaand lunch time.>

Soldier2: <Finally!>

*They walk into the tavern across the street. Rhea peeks from behind a few crates nearby and runs to the little window, crouching to look through it.*

Rhea: <(Ryzell!)>

He waves through the bars, "Thank you for trying to help me" his voice was genuinely sweet for a moment before returning to a more natural tone, "How do you know me?" he retrieved the silver half star pendant and held it up, "And what is the secret behind this pendant?"

Lumyr: (Shit.)

*Lumyr finds the strength to dash away at an inhuman speed behind a nearby tree.*

====

Winston: <Oh, you want some too?!>

*Winston starts to shoot at Allina now.*

Outside

~Balmung & Winston~

*Allina widens her eyes and dives down to dodge the bullets and get time to surround herself in a light barrier. She then glares up at Winston, looking mighty mad, before shooting upwards to the window and ramming her fist into his face with the raging strength of a hundred volcanoes. Razz and Olympe are locking blades-which is pretty funny to watch seing as it is two little knives versus two long blades-when the little girl sleeping behind the rock wakes up and peeks over it, glaring at Olympe.*

=====
~Lumyr~

*He's safe. For now. The city appears to be a labyrinth of yellowish stone houses and towers, with the tall palace of the same material towering over the entire city near the peak of the mountain.*

=====
~Ryzell~

*She stares at the pendant somehwhat sadly for a few seconds before sighing and looking in his eyes.*

Rhea: <...Why are you with Helzol?>

"I don't know..." he grabs his head . "My whole life, the five years I can remember of it, I've been with them. Who am I? Tell me please?" his voice was actually shaking. His composure gone.

*Lumyr looks at his hand to see how far the substance has spread on him.*

====

*Winston tanks the blow and gets sent flying backwards. However, he quickly jumps to his feet and recovers.*

Winston: (...Why didn't I bring my armor for this job? Better not be so careless next time...)

*Winston reloads his gun, then pulls out his other one and starts firing them both off at Allina simultaneously.*

Outside

~Balmung & Winston~

*Olympe slashes a cut across Razz's chest, at which point the little girl comes running and punches her, sending her flying through the air for several yards before crashing through the inn's ground floor. The floor starts collapsing beneath Allina, Winston, and Balmung's feet.*

Razz: <Ella?>

Ella: <What?>

Razz: <...Nothing. Nice job.>

=====
~Lumyr~

*His arms are literally green up to the shoulders. A few of the archers come running and starts shooting at him.*

=====
~Ryzell~

*She frowns and starts looking around nervously.*

Rhea: <...I'll he-help you get out... Please, don't do anything bad. There's somewhere I need to go, we'll talk on the way. S-S-Step back.>

*She closes her eyes and starts fading. Suddenly, a glowing orange gardenia springs from the cell's ground and an aura of orange light starts growing outwards from it, Rhea appearing within it, above the floor. Her body slowly loses translucidity as the flowers and aura disappears and she hovers down to the ground. She sighs and holds her hand out to him.*