Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): Monster Academy - Chapter 7: End of Term [complete]

[Kyradathea]

The dragon followed, looking concerned, her friends were in danger, friends were a treasure, a treasure belongs in one's horde, one's horde was to be protected, and here they were going into danger, not out of it. Normally her instincts would be easier to control, but with her inhibitions lowered, It took all of her willpower, and the knowledge that her friends were in greater danger if matters were not dealt with in order to allow this.

Tasting the air a moment like a snake might her head twisting around one way and then another, she kept a sharp eye on the dryad, Yuuki was the one who needed the most protecting at the moment, perhaps even from herself, but she also kept an eye on the others and when Kyohei asked her to keep her senses alert for danger, she nodded even as she screamed inside, she was having to split her attention to many ways.

When Yuuki said she had to stay behind, every instinct in Kyra rebelled. "No.. we are being hunted here.. " She was fighting not to roar a challenge to whoever was hunting them. "Not leave just one alone, must have at least one to guard the one to trigger the ward."

[Justin OOC]

The remaining circuits were found, seeing the entire group spread out. Yuuki and Kyra; Darrik, Aria, Skye and Delilah (That took a ton of convincing, and a promise of compensation later.) And then Kyohei and Rubi, who found the master sigil. Small piles of stones were used to indicate the locations, and just as the five groups were going to reactivate the sigils, the chamber shook, with a mighty roar. From the center of the lake a great creature emerged, looking like some sort of terror from the depths.

Rubi and Darrik, along with Kyohei knew instantly what they faced... A Spectral behemoth, a life eater."

"This is going to suck."

(Initiative and actions please.)

[Karren Gaunt]

"Finally. Took long enough for something to happen," muttered the Dryad with a sigh of relief as she looked at the monster in the midst of the lake, not even rising to her feet as she ignited in a burst of light and sound that echoed across aural and mystic senses, a deep throbbing like the heartbeat of the world, a private snowstorm of etheral cheery blosoms bursting into being around her.

The glowing Dryad tucked the keystone into her pocket and fished out an accorn, about toss it over her shoulder and create an ally to dwarf the lakeborne monster, reaching into the depths of her power with a whispered apoligy and...

Nothing. A blockage. Some kind of force keeping her from tapping herself so freely. A ward connected to the thing keeping the walls so sterile? Some field projected from the monster? Impossible to tell right here and now and... Annoying. That could have really helped her get back to her Tree.

Oh, well. Plan B then.

The accorn was tossed, magic fed into it, but instead of the inspiring monster of a tree she was planning on, a merely impressive oak took root in seconds, it's trunk lit by her aura and growing massive kanji. 'I'm going to trigger my circuit in 10 seconds. So, be ready.' they proclaimed before starting to countdown towards the time in shifting wood.

Yuuki hoped her body could survive that long a delay against this thing. Her Tree needed her after all.

Okay. Actions: Activate Plant Control, Activate Forcefield (free action), and try to use Plant Control to create the signal tree counting down to next round.

[envoy] 12:35 pm: alright die rolling time for ma.

[envoy] 12:35 pm: intive.

envoy *rolls* 2d6: 3+2+6: 11

[envoy] 12:36 pm: meh.

[envoy] 12:36 pm: plant control roll

envoy *rolls* 2d6: 2+5+8: 15

HP: 125, EP: 145

[Katrina DeWitt]

Initiative

Kamiko *rolls* 2d6: 5+6+8: 19
[Kamiko] 5:49 pm: 19! 5 from mind, 3 from lightning reflexes
Kamiko does a victory dance
[Kamiko] 5:49 pm: Witness?
[Jeremy] 5:50 pm: ta

Katrina heard, sees and knows that thing was no good. She keeps her hidden position, readying for a first, decicive blow, her staff at the ready her ears flick back and she pulls her goggles down. The blood was gonna fly.

She takes her time for the moment to observe it, to see exactly where to place her first attack. She resisted the urge to say something. It was focussed on the others, and she was going to use that to her advantage.

When the openeing was obviously there before her, she sighed and lept into action, striking twice with her staff, and making every attempt to land in cover when she was done.

Attack Rolls, first Attack is a Leaping Attack

[Kamiko] 5:16 pm: And it'll be two attacks. Kamiko *rolls* 2d6: 4+3+11: 18
Kamiko *rolls* 2d6: 2+2+11: 15
[Kamiko] 5:16 pm: Spending a divine on the second.
Kamiko *rolls* 2d6: 6+6+11: 23
[Kamiko] 5:16 pm: OH
[Kamiko] 5:16 pm: OH
[Kamiko] 5:16 pm: OH
[Kamiko] 5:17 pm: Makign a statement opening round!
[Kamiko] 5:17 pm: I need a witness and a C&P
[Kamiko] 5:17 pm: I just hope the first one hits or my defenses are at -3...
[Kamiko] 5:17 pm: But it was WORTH IT.
[Kamiko] 5:19 pm: Oh and witness?
[Malachite] 5:21 pm: witness

2 Divine Enterventions Left

[Delilah Synn]

Delilah tasted that sense of hunger grow closer, then gagged as the Spectral Behemoth (not that she knew what it was) breached the surface of the still lake. There was a sharp snap, her wings biting the air as she launched herself up and forward.

"Ugh! What, by all the Heavens and Hells, is that groody thing?!" Delilah cried out as she dived-bombed the thing, her voluptuous figure suddenly sheathed in coruscating, crackling flames of gold and crimson.

"What doesn't it like? Does is not like fire? Like, a lot?" she yelled, trying to rake its back with her obsidian nails before it had a chance to react after rising to the surface.

Initiative and Actions

Initiative: 2d6+11 = 20

Action 1: Changing HellFire into ForceField 10 (Offensive, Regenerating)

Flux Roll: 2d6+12 = 18 Passed

Action 2: Attacking the Spectral Behemoth (Dive Attack, Critical Strike), using Weapon 7 (Penetrating 2)

Dive Attack: 2d6+12 = 24 CRITICAL! (I wish I had pumped up this attack!)

Defense Rolls: 2d6+12 = 20, 2d6+12 = 22 (Reduce by 3 if attacked by Range)

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik pulled back as soon as he saw it. Oh, Champions, Hells, can't we just be allowed to get this over with?

Trying to keep his voice calm, he shouted out an explanation. "Spectral behemoth! Magic and magically-enhanced attacks can hurt it, nothing else! It really doesn't like holy magic!'"

OOC

Initiative: Jeremy *rolls* 2d6: 2+6+5: 13

Full Defense for Darrik

[z-Skye Angelus]

Initiative

Carver *rolls* 2d6: 6+2+6: 14

Skye had enough. Whether it was enough hiding and having to pretend she was a demon or whether she was just tired of the bullshit with the virus, it was hard to say. But she grabbed at the chance to do some real damage to something.

She didn’t care who saw as she yanked the Crescent Moon Shard out of her clothing. Holding the curved crescent-shaped piece of rock, she drew on its power. The stone became steel and changed into the holy sword of Tsukuyomi. But she wasn’t done yet as she extended a hand toward the creature.

“KAMI TSUKU!” The words were enough to freeze any demon in fear: Divine Fire. Above the monster, a swirl of white fire gathered and grew, starting to form over its head.

[Justin OOC]

Alot happened at once. Fortunately any magically enchanted weapon would hurt a spectral behemoth, so Katrina's attack was enough to garner its attention. Delilah's fire magic enhanced attack tore a large chunk from it's flank, the combined effect getting the massive creature to bellow and send up a ten foot wave of water around it as it rolled and thrashed. Skye's attack brought another howl of rage, as the Behemoth was hit with holy magic, one of it's major vulnerabilities. It began to move to face her, buying a momentary respite, as it's eyes began to glow. Clearly it was powering up for some sort of attack.

Knowing he and Rubi still had stones, and that the closest other than the master sigil was too far away to run to, He ran towards the oncoming water, his eyes focused beyond the wall of water to the behemoth, and Katrina atop it. With all his might, powered by his partially recovered spirit, he heaved his stone. It was a mighty toss, and using a technique he learned from Karona, he timed it so that it would hit Katrina's staff as it swung up from her mighty blow, angling the force and tossing the rock onward in at a different angle, hopefully it would hit the water in time with the others.

With nothing more to do he pivoted and dashed to rubi's side, Even as she finished a repair to the master sigil. Wrapping one around her and pulling her to him tightly the other he looped in a control handle for the control console, hoping the deluge wouldn't over power him. Then, everyone on the shoreline was swallowed up by the tidal waves the behemoth caused.

50 damage from buffeting water against the rocks everyone made the defenses so I halved it You may move and drop the stones the next turn automatically, but it will be at the last initiative, giving the monster a chance to attack, OR you can all act independently and try killing the behemoth and dropping the stones independently.

[SalmonMax]

Turned upside-down by the wave, Aria manages to flip herself back over, and then catches sight of Yuuki's message.

"I can't hurt it!" she calls, "I'm going to activate a sigil!"

Then she's scuttling into the gloom, eight feel splishing in rapid sequence through the shallow water around the sigils as she gets into position to drop...

[Karren Gaunt]

Yuuki was slammed backwards into her oak, and winced as the air was driven out of her lungs and the smell of sawdust cut her natural scent. Oh, World take all of them. She glared at the thing which had attacked her, fished out her stone, and footfalls counting out the final seconds of countdown emblazoned on her oaken ally, went to chuck her stone as the timer hit zero.

Forcefield knocked down to 44 soak, ep: 145/145, hp:123/125, going for the end of round triggering.

[Katrina DeWitt]

CURRENT CONDITION

Health Points: 130/180

Energy Points: 165/165


Divine Relationships Left: 1[/code]




There were thing that were guaranteed to rustle Katrina's jimmies. The Behemoth attempting to drown and crush her was the culmination of them all.



[b]"Good move, Kyohei!"[/b] Katrina shouted. A devilish grin on her face. She knew her first two blows got the Behemoth's attention. Yeah... it smacked her good. It just reminds her of the costs of failure. Luckily she was wearing her wetsuit.



[b]"Guys! Focus on your Sigils! I'll make sure Kyohei's stone gets to the water at the same time as your efforts!"[/b]



She was intentionally yelling. [b]"Okay FAT BOY! Time to run you ragged!"[/b]



She strikes once for it's mid-section, keeping an eye on Kyohei's stone. It was a classic Alley-Oop if she needed to time it right.



[code]Holding one of my Actions

to ensure Kyohei's stone enters the water

at the proper time.

One Attack

11 Melee ACV

[Kamiko] 8:18 pm: Making my attack roll.

Kamiko *rolls* 2d6: 3+4+11: 18

"No one meddles with MY school!!!" Katrina shouts on her swing!

[Kyradathea]

The wave smashed against the dragon doing only a small amount of harm but also angering her, Kyra was distracted by the threat to her friends, but once she was attacked and her friends were attacked, she moved to attack the behemoth that had risen from the water.

Rising in the air and putting herself between the creature and Yuuki to protect her dryad friend and treasure, she breathed fire over the beast, attempting to burn the creature and distract it from her friends while they placed the stones.

Iniative: Krul *rolls* 2d6: 3+4+15: 22

Breath Weapon: Krul *rolls* 2d6: 2+4+9: 15

Defense Roll: Krul *rolls* 2d6: 2+1+7: 10

[z-Skye Angelus]

Skye cursed viciously as she activated her sigil, “Way to wait for the fucking signal, guys!” This whole operation had felt like a cluster from the start. Of course, it probably felt that way because these were a ragtag bunch of teenagers who were individualistic at best. Being damned yokai probably didn’t help their cohesion or group mentality, either.

Tossing the sigil into the air so it would hit the water after a slight delay, the avenging half-angel called down another gout of holy, white fire on the monster before them.

[Delilah Synn]

Flying above the Spectral Behemoth, only spray from its big wave hit her, flashing into steam as it contacted the flames sheathing her. Her purple eyes blazed as she shrieked in fury. She didn't have a sigil or stone to worry about and she was a creature of desires. And right now, what she desired was to tear this Spectral Behemoth to pieces for harming her friends, and especially her Mate of Fate.

"Holy Magic? I can do that!" Delilah crowed, note thinking what that might mean to other monsters that might have heard. Instinctively, she began to sing, a celestial cadence spilling from her lips as silver-white fire spilled from her eyes to race across her luminous, coppery skin and dance along her pearlescent horns.

The AngelFire concentrated in her hands, beginning to glow with an almost painful brightness. Pure white flames licked up her fingers and forearms as her obsidian nails turned a perfect, incandescent silver that made razors seem dull.

Once more, the half-angel succubus dive-bombed the Spectral Behemoth, the crackle of holy flames wreathing her hands - as bright as suns - sounding like a celestial paean. "Bring it, bitch!"

Actions

Action 1: Converting AngelFire into: Weapon 6, Flare 3, Incurable 1, Irritant 3, Penetrating 10, Targeted 3 (Holy attacks - Evil Creatures), added to her Claws (Weapon 7, Penetrating 2)

AngelFire Flux Roll: 2d6+12 = 21

Action 2: Clawing Spectral Behemoth's face off (Weapon 13, Penetrating 12, Flare 3, Irritant 3, Incurable 1, Targeted 3 (Evil Creatures))

Attack Roll: 2d6+12 = 20

Defense Rolls (Reduce by 3 for Ranged Attacks): 2d6+12 = 17, 2d6+12 = 18

[Toby Lupin]

The wave left Darrik battered and highly drenched, and at the moment he was very frustrated. Hopefully the dropping of stones would be in time and order, since Yuuki's idiot panicking had ruined that patience needed. And he couldn't really do anything, here... except...

Rubi had taught him the basics of Pure Good and Evil magics, but not a spell... there was still tricks of drawing on his own mana and ambient chamber mana, even though the shadows were denied him. But if he overloaded, burnt out his stores, the damage to him could be lethal.

So he wouldn't deplete it then. He'd keep a small reserve, and if that didn't work to finish the Behemoth.... well, damn then.

Darrik focused carefully, and the mana, clearly being visible as gathering Holy magic, glowed on his hands and above his head. That clump formed a great spear, blazing and dangerous to the Spectral monster. "Celestial Javelin!"

And the Holy Magic spear blast shot forward at the Spectral Behemoth...

OOC

HP: 85/135

EP: 60/130

DR: 2/4

Full turn for the rudiments of the Holy Magic.... having spent 70 EP to power the spell.

Attack Roll:

Jeremy *rolls* 2d6: 3+3+10: 16

Divine Relationship, taking the better of the two rolls

Jeremy *rolls* 2d6: 2+1+10: 13

Defense Roll:

Jeremy *rolls* 2d6: 1+1+10: 12

Again Divine Relationship use

Jeremy *rolls* 2d6: 1+5+10: 16

[Justin OOC]

Nothing really seemed to go the way it was supposed to. The Behemoth was hurt by everyone, but it wasn't until Darrik did as he had in the past, and simply turned the chamber in its ear. The uncontrolled Holy spell gathered mana from the chamber itself as it streaked into the behemoth, blowing everyone else clear of it. There was a blinding flash of light, and at that moment, all the stones touched the water. Rubi, blind and annoyed still had the sense of self remaining to initiate the complete magical restart and reset of the chamber on the master Sigil control.

There was a massive roar as the the light orb above flashed so bright it hurt and the lake drained.

Of the Behemoth was no trace. It took fifteen minutes for the lake to refill, and for any of them there to awaken.

Kyohei was first, waking up to find Rubi passed out at the console. He prodded her and she stirred. "Did it work?"

"I'm not a yokai, It wouldn't work on me regardless." He cupped some with his hands and brought it back to her, "Drink." She blushed, and nodded, drinking from his hands.

She stood up after that, and smiled. "Oh yes, that is good."

She made a symbol and four sets of raven feathered wings sprung from her back, "I'd say it worked. "Come, let's wake the others and have them drink to be sure." She set off one way and Kyohei the other to wake everyone and help them drink.

Kyohei will wake Delilah Kyra, Yuuki, and Skye. Rubi will wake Katrina, Aria, and Darrik. Order doesn't matter, you can have them wake you and help you drink however you like. once you drink the refreshed waters, you find you are able to resume your human forms and your base instincts no longer hold sway.

[Katrina DeWitt]

First the battle, then the realization that she was at the ground zero of some sort of magical tac-nuke.

...

Katrina awoke to Rubi offering some water. Katrina's growling protest to her injuries stuck in her craw as she took a drink. She hesitated for a moment. Her nature unrestrained felt narcotic. But she was a hybrid, the Cheetah and Lion blood in her only conflicted and deep down the real Katrina was there, screaming to be free.

She took her drink and felt the chains of the illness break. Her hair returned to it's blonde state and everything slackened with her. Her body still ached from her damage she took against the Behemoth, so she took a drink of milk from her backpack to kickstart her healing.

"Alright..." She said as Katrina once again looked human. "...so the kids upstairs drink the water and our school isn't the madhouse? Sounds nice to me. Once we get up there we'll have to see where there are any injured and help those helping the hurt."

She stretched out. "We could speed up the process of reversion by causing the sprinklers of the school to go off... That water supply is connected to this supply, is it?"

She ties the now empty tail-sleeve of her suit around her waist. "Would reduce our contact with potential hostiles."

Her thoughts then took to looking to see who was alright. "Okay, gang, roll call!"

She particularly looked for Skye... she was a close friend, after all.

[Toby Lupin]

Darrik tossed over, caught up in some very pleasant dreams as he foggily came back to awareness. "Mmm... that's a good neko. Mew for Jez and I, mew." Then his eyes fluttered open and he saw Rubi with water in her cupped hands, waiting for him.

"Ha. Hello Rubi." With a slight bit of embarrassment, he drank the proffered water. Then it all really came back to him, and when he waved his hand, the shadows responded. "Yes, finally!" Popping up to stand with exuberance new-found, he caught her gaze. "Ok, I should have warned you. Even those rudimentary manipulations have such power though..."

[Karren Gaunt]

Sudden light. Soothing oblivion. And then a hand gently shaking her back to consiousness. Yuuki blinked blearily up at Kyohei with glowing eyes, thoughts turgid and slow. Her brow twisted in confusion, the tempo of her awareness pulsing back up to her previous cold frenzy as the pilot light of fear for her Tree's well-being reignited. In less than a minute, she'd be back to willing to kill every living thing on the campus in order to breach the shield and return to her Tree.

Nothing else was more important. Obviously.

But here and now, helped upright by someone who made her heartbeat speed up with something other than fear, it was kept at bay long for her to listen when Kyohei said, "Drink." The water was cool and clean and... and... And then the fear scatted like smoke on the wind and the young Dryad remembered everything that happened with a clear head.

Oh Tree.

Oh Tree.

Oh Tree damn her.

Features locked into a porcelan non-expression of interwardly directed horror and loathing, Yuuki remained sitting by the lake, repeating something along the line of 'You have others to help. Go, Kyohei-Kun.' over and over until he seemed to get the point and left.

Oh Tree. Was she really so weak?

[Delilah Synn]

Delilah had been tearing at the Behemoth with her incandescent claws, so when Darrik's spell hit the creature, the blast hit her hard, throwing her into the wall of the cavern. Though her fiery shroud cushioned the blow, she was still dazed and knocked unconscious.

She woke to the taste of Kyohei's concern and love for her as he gently picked her up in his arms, a bit awkwardly due to her tail and wings. As he carried her to the lake, her modesty barely retained by her torn dress, Kyohei felt Delilah's arms tighten around him as the flames of HellFire and AngelFire wreathing her slowly faded.

"Told ya I'd get 'im!" Delilah boasted with a drowsy grin as she leaned to give Kyohei an ardent kiss, his desire and love already soothing her and aiding her to recover. "Let's make out until we feel better." Her tone was insistent as she made a suggestion that would only make sense to a succubus. Her tail ran enticingly up his leg. "Screw that! Let's screw instead."

"Here, Dee, drink," Kyohei urged, trying to retain his sense of decorum as he knelt next to the lake with Delilah and held up a cupped hand full of water. "This will make you feel better and feel yourself again."

"I don't wanna drink!" Delilah pouted, turning her face away, her tail moving higher and her hands arms starting to clutch him tighter with strength that was more than human. "I wanna fuck!"

"Please, Delilah?" Kyohei asked softly, trying to keep the strain from his voice. Delilah was a passionate woman, but he had to remember, she was a succubus too, and usually wanted her way.

"Oh, fine!" Delilah relented, giving Kyohei a seductive, narrow-eyed glance as she turned her hand and lapped the water from his hand with a long and agile tongue. As the curative waters cursed through her, Delilah gave a delicious shiver, languorously pulling on her Mask. "Oooooh! I do feel better!"

Delilah twisted athletically in Kyohei's arms, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders, her over-abundant breasts pressing against his chest. Over his shoulder, she gave Yuuki a warning glare before smiling up at Kyohei. "But I still wanna make out. And more"

[Justin OOC]

Kyohei took pains to extricate himself from Delilah's embrace. "Look, We've got to get everyone back to normal. "Once we do that, I'll stay with you tonight if you like, or you can stay with me."

It was an offer he'd regret in small part, as two other women shared his dorm, or Aria would have to listen to this. Maybe he could offer her his room, so if nothing else she could have some peace.

He sighed, and moved on, heading to Skye and Kyra, to rouse them and cure them too.

Rubi chuckled.Moving on to Aria. "Indeed. You all did well, even if you nearly botched it."

[SalmonMax]

Still woozy from the blast, Aria woke confused. Something large was nearby, and there was water all around...neither was pleasant for a spider. Without thinking she was scuttling away from Rubi, first legs held up and out in an aggressive 'warding' display even as she sought distance and a way out of the water. It might have gone badly from there, except that there was a reason spiders did not like being near water. They breathed through small holes in their shells, and unlike a human couldn't easily plug those holes up if they were, say, underwater. To be in water was to court death by drowning.

When she'd gone unconscious, water had gotten in. Not enough to drown her, as she was very large for a spider, but enough to scare her on awakening. Also enough, however, to take effect, once it had sloshed around a bit.

Rubi, concerned, let Aria back away, but followed at what seemed like a safe pace. "Aria," she called. "Wait...the water, it will heal you!"

But Aria had already stopped...the confusion clearing from her mind. "I still can't turn back," she said in a quiet voice, as she allowed Rubi to again close the distance.

"Why not?" asked Rubi, her initial relief now turning back to worry. Had the cure not worked on Aria?

"I...didn't bring my clothes with me when I changed," Aria replied. "I couldn't. That's too advanced a technique I guess...for instinct."

Rubi laughed and produced a shirt. It was long enough that it would provide some modicum of modesty, though not a great deal. "Will this work?"

Moments later, Aria was back in her human form, wearing a shirt that managed to make it halfway to her knees and looking ill at ease. "Thanks." She looked over at the others. "So what now? I'm...pretty sure that ghost monster isn't the one responsible for this. It was just a guard. How do we make sure this never happens again?" She stressed the word 'never,' just a little.

[Justin OOC]

Rubi looked to her and shook her head. "I don't know. a Spectral Behemoth isn't some crackerjack toy. That thing took major power to bring down here, there are few who could master such a beast."

Her eyes narrowed and she looked down. "Had the defense barriers not held within here, had it escaped, it could have killed everyone on campus. It was weak, it had been starved long, otherwise it easily could have killed us all. It didn't even try to eat us. I think it was just annoyed and wanting to escape."

She sighed. "That's probably what happened to the guardians of the lake though.. Nothing can live long around one of these creatures."

[Karren Gaunt]

Yuuki, uncaring and filtering out the chatter great and small, managed a sigh and Masked herself. She was tired and sore and sick and ready to go to bed. She'd have apoligies enough to make tommorow, tests still to take and duties to carry out... So many many duties. Was that it? Why that was it was so... easy... to surrender a thousand complicated responsiblities for just one obvious one?

She loved the Clan, was grateful to it, but sometimes it was just so hard to...

Yuuki buried that thought firmly away for another time. She rose to her feet, looked for the hole where the signal oak had been, and began telepathically calling for the accorn that it would be by now. The minuiate of searching for her ally in the torn up stone conforted her in it's normalancy. At least *it* sounded okay by it's lazy murmurs. That was *something*.

[Katrina DeWitt]

Rubi looked to her and shook her head. "I don't know. a Spectral Behemoth isn't some crackerjack toy. That thing took major power to bring down here, there are few who could master such a beast."

Her eyes narrowed and she looked down. "Had the defense barriers not held within here, had it escaped, it could have killed everyone on campus. It was weak, it had been starved long, otherwise it easily could have killed us all. It didn't even try to eat us. I think it was just annoyed and wanting to escape."

She sighed. "That's probably what happened to the guardians of the lake though.. Nothing can live long around one of these creatures."

"So, we got enemies... lovely. If the Shinigami weren't enough to worry about we got someone leaving monsters of mass destruction under our campus. Wait... Aria... how did you get the information on how to fix things down here?"

"Whoever did just became our prime suspect."

She sighed. "We should see if there's anything left of the guardians... they deserve some peace."

[SalmonMax]

Aria gave Katrina a little smirk.

"The headmaster. Perhaps if we post his face around the campus, someone can give us a lead on where to find him."

[Katrina DeWitt]

Katrina blinked. "The... Headmaster?"

She crossed her arms. "Then perhaps we should find out who told him... The Headmaster can be vouched for, right?"

"Our school is under attack... we need to know as much as we can so we can defend ourselves." Katrina said with a sigh. "There goes my time-off plans..."

Although having her plans change might have been a good idea... they included at least one illegal BASE jump. Although the thought of risking her life for the school was more exhilirating.

"That's okay though... gonna get in trouble one way or another."

[Karren Gaunt]

Success! Yuuki nealt down and shifted a few rocks aside to reveal the small form of the accorn she had been searching for. Soaked and dirty and tired, the young Dryad managed a smile, whispering heartfelt nothings to the seed that had helped them. She chuckled under her breath at it's irritated murmurs and tucked it back into a hidden pocket, brushing a lock of hair out of her face.

She looked over her shoulder at the gathering of her classmates and decided in one heartbeat, she wanted nothing to do with anything more ambitious than returning to her dormroom. She started picking her way back to the elevator, ready to wait for the rest of them to decide to get moving again. Yuuki was done.

[Kyradathea]

When Kyohei came to give the young dragoness water she was mostly unconscious but she slowly came too as she instinctively drank the water. Suddenly the dragon came fully awake with a roar, looking for the beast in the water, but she noticeably calmed when she realized that it was gone. Starting to change back into human, she remembered that she was naked, sense her dragon form was entirely too large for human clothing,

This actually didn't bother her all that much, but from what she had learned it wasn't really appropriate to be such in mixed company, so she stopped her change about half way though, ending up looking as a mix of dragon and human that was entirely her.

Looking around and making sure that all of her friends were fine, once that was confirmed in her mind, she turned her attention to Yuuki, the one she had been protecting. As Yuuki began to pick her way to the elevator, she was glomped by the young dragon princess. "Dryad needs a regular guardian, Kyohei is often busy with Deliah, will be living with me now." Her tone was like she had already made up her mind.

[Justin OOC]

Skye was the last to be woken up, and Rubi called the Elevator, now that her magic was restored fully. Once upstairs, they found Aki gone, and Miss Nekomone, Kuro, Mystel, were all asleep when they returned The Kuro was still a cat, but the others were in their human forms. Miss Nekomone was in her bed, tucked in snugly. A note from Aki was left. "Congratulations, you did it. Now I can continue my mission. Sadly I cannot let you see me, so I will be gone when you return. I'm very proud of all of you, and hope we can meet again at last, in better circumstances. I have already Alerted the Headmaster, who has triggered the school's sprinkler systems, as well as issued a mandatory order for everyone to drink."

Outside the window they saw that the school was once again blanketed with Ice and snow, but that the sun was shining now in a clear azure sky.

Two days passed, while the school was brought back to normalcy. It was only after that, that everyone was certified as cured that it was found no students were missing, or even really harmed beyond some bruising from the discipline squads.

The Newspaper club was summoned to the Headmaster's office, and sworn to secrecy regarding the underground lake, and told that it was for their protection as much as everyone else.

The Headmaster took responsibility, but a combination of factors prevented his replacement. The faculty overwhelmingly supported him, stating that things could have gone so much worse if not for his quick thinking, and skillful use of personnel. The Lords split 4-2 with one abstention, the vote to replace him. Many voiced displeasure, but no students were pulled out, as many valued the school's accredation, which was of high caliber in the human world, opening many doors otherwise closed to Yokai.

Finals soon fell upon the student body and Faculty with a vengeance, and thanks to some very last minute cramming for some, the Entire club passed.

A month break was set for the Spring, and classes were officially dismissed. Some Students stayed on campus, most returned home to their parents. Many made plans for the next year, and no small amount of seniors were planning to avail themselves of the new college curriculum being offered.

One thing for sure can be said, The New Term would be a whole new beginning, for everyone.

(15 cp)