Times of Darkness

Outside

~Ranmaru & Cecenia~

*The guy springs the sword in front of him surprisingly quick to block the attack and leaps back quite a few yards back.*

Sword Guy: <Perhaps this switch wasn't such a bad idea, ladies.>

*He removes his blindfold, and opens his topaz-colored eyes. Then, he grins, his cuspids becoming slightly longer and a lot sharper, and his pupils becoming slitted. Meanwhile, several small drill-tipped arrows are shot out of the forest's outermost trees towards Cecnia.*

=====
~Balmung & Winston~

*Beyond the village there isn't a lot more than more desert. After a while, they find an inn whose ground floor is a tavern. Just sitting there, by the road, in the middle of the orange desert.*

=====
~Lumyr~

*She smirks as four young men in simple clothing like hers each wielding two cutlasses, jump down from the trees and land behind Lumyr, pointing their swords at him.*

=====
~Crone~

*A king hurls his spear at Crone, which he deflects with a light barrier before shooting a beam of energy at said knight. The eight remaining knights charge at him and he releases an energy wave from his body, hurling them backwards through the air a couple dozens of yards. He then starts walking towards the capital in the distance.*

=====
~Ryzell~

Little Boy: <I-I-I'm sorry, sir...!>

???: <...Dominic!>

*A cute young woman runs to them and helps the little boy up.*

Young Woman: <You need to be more careful, this happens everyday.>

*She picks up the vegetables in the basket, gives it to him, and then smiles and they share a quick hug.>

Little Boy: <Thank you, Rhea.>

Rhea: <No problem, now go on, your mother's waiting for those vegetables.>

*The boy nods and happily runs off, Rhea watching him as he does so, smiling.*

Lumyr: <I don't want to have to fight... if you'd let me go, I'd be happy to pretend this never happened.>

*Lumyr still keeps his sheathed sword at her back.*

====

Winston: <You stay out of my way from now on.>

*Winston pulls out his gun again and walks over to the tavern. When he gets to the entrance, he kicks down the door and starts firing off in random directions without bothering to look at what he was shooting.*

Ryzell stares at the girl before noticing that the silver pendant slid out of his pocket when he was bumped. He goes to pick it up. It's half of a silver star pendant divided perfectly down the middle.

---

"Like should fight like, I agree" Ranmaru dashes at him and slashes again.

*Balmung walks down to the ground floor and sits at the bar*

Balmung: <Your strongest drink.>

Cecenia used the metal braces on her arms to block the arrows, then threw a dagger in the direction that the arrows had come from.

Outside

~Ranmaru & Cecenia~

*He grows a light brown feline tail that wraps around the huge sword's hilt and quickly lifts it to block the slash. His hands and feet become covered in light brown fur and his nails grow longer, sharper, and darker. He also grows two long feline ears stretched back. He gets down on four legs and growls, the tail swiftly swinging the sword at Ranmaru. An arrow shoots out of a tree and intercepts the dagger. The crossbow girl jumps down from that same tree and dashes towards Cecenia, shooting two drill arrows at her and then putting her palms together to multiply them by ten with an illusion.*

=====
~Balmung & Winston~

*Winston shoots the bartender dead the moment Balmung orders. No one else is in the tavern. A set of wooden stairs near the right wall of the room leads up to the next floor.*

=====
~Lumyr~

Blonde Thiefess: <Tell us what you want then!>

=====
~Crone~

*He arrives at the capital's wall gate, where another welcoming committee awaits him, this one twice as big as the last.*

Crone: <You have got to be multiplying.>

=====
~Ryzell~

*Rhea's eyes widen and her jaw drops. She stares at the pendant in shock for a bit before looking up in Ryzell's eyes with the same expression.*

"Eh?" Ryzell looks at Rhea, "Do you know something about this pendant? I've had it as long as I can remember but the memory is fuzzy. I can't remember the faces or the voices. Just the words." He places the pendant in his pocket again.

---

Ranmaru blocks the strike and locks blades with the werecat swordsman grinning like a fiend.

Lumyr: <Nothing that involves fighting any of you, I can assure you that.>

====

Winston: <Don't rest now, we have to keep moving forward.>

*Winston starts to walk up the stairs.*

Cecenia tried to dodge the arrows, but it was nearly impossible. One ended up getting stuck in her stomach, and the other in her thigh. Grinding her teeth in pain, she put all of her weight on the other leg and spun around to face the girl. She had run out of knives to throw, and was now left with her sword only.

Balmung: <(Hmph. So now he wants to do his job.)>
*Balmung secretly takes a bottle of something and walks upstairs*

Outside

~Ranmaru & Cecenia~

Crossbow Chick: <This battle ends here. See, I'm not a big fan of close range combat.>

*She puts her palms together and a clone of herself appears next to her. She shoots a smoke arrow at the ground raising a cloud of smoke out of which the two girls run out seconds later, each shooting two drill arrows at Cecenia. The sword werecat guy pushes his sword against Ranmaru's while slashing at his belly with his claws.*

=====
~Balmung & Winston~

*Upstairs is a long, wide hallway with three doors along the left wall and three other along the right wall and a counter at the end. A black-haired young woman is peeking from behind the counter, trembling in fear after hearing the gunshots downstairs.*

Innkeeper: <P-P-Please don't kill me!>

=====
~Lumyr~

Blonde Thiefess: <That's... that's not a good enough answer!>

*They hold the knives closer to his back.*

CutlassThief1: <Tell us what you're here to do!>

=====
~Crone~

*He holds a hand out towards the guards, preparing to cast a spell, but suddenly a handsome young man with long blond hair, green eyes, tanned skin and a nasty vertical scar across his face jumps down from the city walls and lands in front of him. He's wearing full red armor, except for his head.*

Crimson Knight: <Everyone go back inside the city. I'll handle the invader.>

Crone: <So confident.>

*Crone smirks as he watches the guards run off through the gate.*

=====
~Ryzell~

Rhea: <R-Ry-Ryzell?>

*Suddenly, she widens her eyes and stumbles back.*

Rhea: <(A Helzol soldier...?!)>

"How do you know my name? Who are you... AH!!" Ryzell grabs his head and he gets a flash of memory of a young boy and girl playing together in the woods. "W-who are you?"

---

Ranmaru breaks the lock and jumps back narrowly avoiding the claw strike.

Cecenia once again tried sliding under to dodge the arrows, as she had done with the sword guy, but another arrow lodged in her leg. Using her low position as an opportunity, Cecenia swung her sword at the crossbow chick's legs, not even sure if she was swinging at the girl or her clone.

Outside

~Ranmaru & Cecenia~

*Her legs having been slashed at, the crossbow woman stumbles forward over Cecenia while whispering something like "shit". The clone just stands a few steps away staring and looking dumb. The guy grins and very rapidly dashes towards Ranmaru, swinging the sword at him.*

Werecat Guy: <Just die already, you twit!>

=====
~Crone~

*The knight forms a jousting lance of red energy in his right hand and dashes towards Crone, slashing at him. Crone closes his eyes and shrugs, a light barrier blocking the slash and blasting the knight away.*

Crimson Knight: <Damn you fiend.>

=====
~Ryzell~

Rhea: <R-Ryzell... You don't...>

*People walking around the village start noticing him and widen their eyes, running inside their houses. A middle aged woman with long brown hair starts screaming for Rhea out a house's window, but she doesn't seem to listen, just standing there.*

"It feels like my head is on fire, please... tell me who I am?" he pleads. as more memories seem to flood his mind and he blacks out.

---

"No" Ranmaru sidesteps and drives his swords downward toward's the werecat's spine.

Cecenia stood up shakily, trying to move as fast as she could. "I won," she whispered, all of the cheerful light faded from her eyes as she brought the sharp blade of her sword upon the crossbow girl's throat.

Balmung: <Just tell me what you know about the warriors in this area.>

*Lumyr sighs upon being asked the question.*

Lumyr: <I cannot answer that.>

====

*Winston raises his gun to the innkeeper, but then smirks and puts the gun back in his holster.*

Winston: <That's enough killing for now, I guess. Just tell us what we need to know and we'll be off, starting with what my dear friend here just said.>

Outside

~Ranmaru & Cecenia~

*The girl rolls over, the blade raking her throat. She grabs it with her right hand, attempting to slow down the massive bleeding, and attempts to speak, widening her eyes upon realizing she can't. She raises her right hand and shoots an arrow point-blank into Cecenia's belly. The werecat doesn't stop the swing until the sword is above his head, blocking Ranmaru's. He then rams his left hand into his belly and bites at his leg.*

=====
~Balmung & Winston~

*She shakily points at a door directly to their right with a silver plate that reads "Room 2", then gasps in fear and ducks back behind the counter.*

=====
~Lumyr~

Blonde Thiefess: <Then we cannot let you go.>

CutlassThief1: <You are now a prisioner of Vinia!>

*The blonde thiefess melts down in green goo and the three thieves grab Lumyr by the arms, still pointing their six swords at his back.*

=====
~Crone~

Crone: <I understand where you're coming from, but maybe giving up and not dying is the wise choice here.>

Crimson Knight: <You have no idea! And what guarantees me you wouldn't kill me anyway!?>

Crone: <...You're right, and you're right. Drat.>

*The knight gets up and spins his energy spear, firing many energy needles towards Crone at high speed. Crone widens his eyes in surprise and almost fails to sidestep them on time. He smirks and several white feathers appear floating around him. He holds his hand out towards the knight and they're blown in the wind to him. He stares at them nervously.*

Crimson Knight: <What is the meaning of-->

Crone: <Shh.>

*Each of the feathers explodes violently in a flash of bright light.*

=====
~Ryzell~

*The last thing he remembers is seing her gasp and kneel down to help him, but being grabbed by some other villages and pulled away. He wakes up lying in a dark cell with a little barred window near the ceiling through which he sees two people's feet. They're wearing metal boots.*

Soldier1: <We called reinforcements to help us transport the prisioner to the capital.>

Soldier2: <Did a girl here really try to help him?>

Soldier1: <I'm sure she was just confused.>

His head spun but he gained his bearings enough to grin. Stupid. He jerked his hand and the solider's would feel a tingle in their chest before their minds went blank. Possessed by the wandering demon spirits Ryzell held under his command. With another flick the soldiers minds were cleared again as if they experienced a sudden memory loss. In reality Ryzell had glimpsed at their memories of what happened after he passed out.

"That girl... how does she know me... my head is still fuzzy."

---

"You fight pretty well but you die here" Ranmaru kneed the werecat in the jaw when he went to bit his leg and the cat's fist slammed into tensed muscle preventing his punch from doing anything but caused Ranmaru to grunt as he drove the cat's skull between his elbow and knee, likely crushing it and killing him.

Cecenia nearly crumpled as the arrow made contact with her, but managed to regain her balance in time. So she's not finished yet.

Gritting her teeth in disgust, Cecenia swung once again at the girl's neck, this time, aiming to decapitate.

*Lumyr breaks free of their grip and jumps into the air, hopping from tree branches until he stands on top of a branch 10 feet in the air above his new opponents.*

Lumyr: <This is your final warning. Continue attacking and I'll be forced to fight back.>

====

Winston: <Heh, perfect.>

*Winston goes to open the door.*

*Balmung walks past Winston to the door of Room 2 and kicks it open*

Outside

~Ranmaru & Cecenia~

*The girl smirks and closes her eyes as the blade's swung down and decapitates her. The guy spins behind Ranmaru and instead of removing his fist from his belly simply opens his hand and nails his sharp claws into it while biting at his neck.*

=====
~Balmung & Winston~

*As the door's kicked down, they see a teenage boy with short messy black hair, blue eyes, and who's wearing a long black cloak, standing in the middle of the room staring at them. A girl around the same age gets up from a small couch and points at them. She's very elegant, with blue eyes and very long blond hair tied into two high pigtails. She's wearing a white cloak.*

Blonde Girl: <Goddamnit Razz, I told you someone was coming. But nooo, "let's ignore the suspicious gunshots and receptionist shrieks", he says.>

Razz: <I didn't say that.>

Blonde Girl: <They look weird. Do you think they'll go away if we ask nicely?>

*A little elven girl is sleeping on the bed hugging a pink teddy bear.*

=====
~Lumyr~

Blonde Thiefess: <Not so fast!>

*The thiefess, jumps down from a taller tree and rapidly shoots balls of green goo at him from her mouth.*

=====
~Crone~

*As the smoke clears, Crone sighs at the sight of the knight's corpse. However, as he's walking through the gate, he hears a loud buzzing sound rapidly approaching from behind, and sidesteps the incoming energy lance just in time. The knight stands behind him, panting and bleeding from several parts of his body.*

Crone: <Of course you'd want to make sure you die. To hell with taking the chance to escape and save yourself, right?>

=====
~Ryzell~

*He sees that after he fainted Rhea was pulled away and he was dragged by the two soldiers into the village chief's house and down a flight of stairs to the basement, then thrown into a small cell that makes up most of said basement, which is where he is right now.*

Ryzell kicks the bars so they clang to get someone's attention, "Oi, where's the girl that tried to help me?"

---

Ranmaru manages to relegate the damage but his side get's scratched as he dodges and swings at the cat's head after he does so.