Big Eyes, Small Mouth (BESM): In the Shadows of the City - Chapter 4: The Training Continues... [complete]

[Justin OOC]

Kaori shook her head to answer Kohaku. "I do not feel anything, no be quiet, we're being hunted, just as we hunt them."

Amara definitely felt something. but it was faint, only a pooling of the malice more in one general area, it fell to her to Indicate that they should move north towards what she felt.

Sachiko didn't have the wasiest time keeping pace with Galiana, but she was however able to sense a pooling of malice to the south of them, which was easily communicable.

Both Ayami and Shinji could feel it now, the pooled malice, West of their position. Tezara, still unsummoned, spoke. "This is not going to be easy." She already knew what was there, and Shinji could feel what was actual aprehension. "I hope there's not more than one of these out here."

[Karren Gaunt]

The Yakuza Heiress didn't think she could shout up to her Gaijin friend where her 'feeling' was pointing her, so she did the second best thing.

The pillar of fractal energy melted into a wedge pointed firmly north, singing out like a bell as it blasted it's way north obstacle by obstacle, it's creater firmly in it's center with one hand on her blade hilt. She didn't want to wake it up, not yet. But hopefully they'd be able to see it coming soon enough to get the first swing in. Her lips set in determination, footfall a steady jog.

[Fiona Warner]

"You're incredible, you really are, you know that..." Anne thought, seeing Amara's brilliant use of her force field of doom.

Then Anne snapped into realization that if she is picking up on something, she isn't... and she is flying 100 meters up. Not that a parachute would help at this height, but her not bringing it in the first place rendered that moot. She has worse things to worry about than being shot down. She didn't like having her fate not fully in her hands. It almost seemed like this was a set-up...

She started watching the sky... she fully expected that the target would pick her first. She brings up her force field. It didn't work very well the first time but it gave her that edge to remain concious after that last fight Amara and Anne teamed up for.

The hexagonal field comes online, with a momentary blue field before it fades as nothing was interacting with it.

[z-Galiana]

Sachiko’s orders/suggestions to Galiana were promptly ignored by the werecat. Sachiko’s wagers, rambling oddities and inane comments were likewise ignored. Gali spent most of her time out of sight of the young woman anyway, drifting into sight only to verify to Sachiko that the werecat was still around.

When her ‘partner’ sobered up and became serious, Galiana allowed herself to drift into sight again. “To the south,” she said softly to Sachiko. She didn’t feel the demon; she could smell that something was wrong. Her hackles rose and she began to stalk her prey.

Soul roll: Carver *rolls* 2d6: 3+2+3: 8

Tracking roll Carver *rolls* 2d6: 2+6+5: 13 spending 10 EP to bring the total to 14.

[SalmonMax]

Sachiko chuckled good-naturedly and patted Galiana on the shoulder.

"Good guess, but it's actually that way." She pointed towards the strange sense of wrongness that was the demon. It was also due south, but she didn't seem to realize that.

"Follow me," she went on, laying her bat over her shoulder in preparation of a Casey-like swing. "I'll take us right to it."

[Justin OOC]

As they moved towards the concentrations of malice, the feelings became more intense, and the forest began to seem to grow together more, blocking out the moonlight, and even the starlight. Darkness closed around them, and perhaps even worse, Silence. Not even wind blew through the forests.

It was as though only they were truly left alive...

[AceWildcard]

Kohaku felt useless. He was not afraid per say. Yet surrounded so so much lack of intel he felt like he had lost his senses. That annoy him. Yet he could not tell where he was now, which also anger him. He yells out his partner name to see if the person would hear him. He needed to know if this was not just some sort of spell.

[Fiona Warner]

Anne keeps on the alert, looking for any abnormal movement in the air. She was sure that Amara would do something loud and obvious to draw Anne's attention if the enemy was on the ground. The thing that bothered her though, was that how was Amara so sure of where their quarry was?

[Karren Gaunt]

As they moved towards the concentrations of malice, the feelings became more intense, and the forest began to seem to grow together more, blocking out the moonlight, and even the starlight. Darkness closed around them, and perhaps even worse, Silence. Not even wind blew through the forests.

It was as though only they were truly left alive...

The glow of her soul dimmed but not extinguished by the... evil pressing in from outside, Amara's gaze shifted around her with every destructive impact on her shield, trusting that Anne was still safely above, but unable to tell. First thing she was getting this group, assuming they survived the next three weeks, was a collection of headsets. Comunication was key to any battle, and a fighter alone was a fighter who made mistakes.

But she wasn't alone, not completely, not if the... anger she felt whenever she woke up her weapon was real. Living swords were the stuff of myth and legend, weren't they. Her fingers tightened their grip on the hilt of her bokken, hoping it'd help her again tonight.

[Justin OOC]

Galiana smelled it first, the reek of blood. The came upon a scene of carnage, an entire pack of wolves, slaughtered and strewn about a clearing. Their only warning a pair of huge spines sticking into the ground right where they would have been had they continued forward. Above them, something began to chitter unfolding to reveal itself, It was a twenty foot centipede, with spines along its back. It chittered, almost happily. It's real prey had arrived.

(initiative and actions)

Shinji and Ayami were startled to see a naked human emerge from the woods, looking timid and scared. "it's out there ya gotta help me!" The man was hysteric, and covered with small lacerations.

The sword pulsed in Amara's hands, whatever it was was near, and Anne was out of sight. This would be difficult.

[Karren Gaunt]

Out came the bokken from it's sheath into Amara's hands, held firmly before her as the forcefield contracted into a simple dome three meters across and snaking under her feet.

"Please help me defeat our eniemies, Twilight's Edge," the Yakuza heiress entreated softly, smiling as the blade faded from view and a familar wash of frustration whispered across her thoughts. Fear and darkness, hair standing up on the back of her neck, she couldn't help but be heartened by that. They could do this. And even if they couldn't, she was unlikely to be so outmatched as to prevent her from running to allow one of the others a try at their foe.

[SalmonMax]

On seeing the giant centi-demon sprawling and chittering, one might have a moment to reflect that it was sometimes a good thing Sachiko was not always 'in touch' with reality. In reality, a sane person would take a look at such a thing, then turn and try to flee. Such a thing is not to be fought under any circumstances in reality, by the sane.

Sachiko left herself no time to think about this, and other sane things. On seeing the demon her body hurled her into the fray without checking with her brain to get the 'okay.' Enough adrenalin to kill a moose sent her barreling towards it at a senseless sprint...bat cocked back to swing, and her watch; now in the shape of some weird sparking prong, held out before her.

"Sachiko lightning and thunder! GO!!"

She ran under its bottommost coil and shoved her watch's lead ends against the plates there, discharging an astonishingly LOUD electric arc that twined and twisted around its body. As the demon reared away, she brought the bat around with all the strength in her arm, back and hips to smack boldly against the chitin she'd just electrocuted!

Init: 21

Tesla cracker attack roll: 14

- Does 16 damage and Incapacitate 5

Baseball bat attack roll: 16

- Does 20 damage

Defense 1: 17

Defense 2: 15

SalmonMax *rolls* 2d6: 6+6+9: 21

[salmonMax] 4:41 pm: Hee

[salmonMax] 4:41 pm: Pity that wasn't an attack

SalmonMax *rolls* 2d6: 5+3+6: 14

SalmonMax *rolls* 2d6: 5+3+8: 16

[Kamiko] 4:41 pm: Hihi Jordan!

SalmonMax *rolls* 2d6: 6+4+7: 17

SalmonMax *rolls* 2d6: 4+4+7: 15

[salmonMax] 4:42 pm: Nice

[z004]

Ayami was terrified already and having a naked screaming man barrel out of the woods at her did nothing for her nerves. She started, nearly dropping her sword, stumbled back away from him.

"B-but w-we're the only one's here!" she stammered, staring at the man with saucer-sized eyes.

Mechanics

Initiative:

Malachite *rolls* 2d6: 5+5+10: 20

Derped on the addition, it should be just 5, so Init is 15.

Action - Not fall over or drop her sword.

[AceWildcard]

Kohaku felt like his senses were gone. He could not do any much right now. He could not even see his own hands, none the less where he was going. Worse he could not hear anything, not even the sound of his own footsteps. He lost the track of his partners a while ago. He tried to find it, but could not. He could not smell anything to indicate a presence nearby. He was grateful that he at least knew that he still fell. He touch himself to make sure that he still had them. He uses his hands and feet to make sure he did not trip or fall into anything.

He felt like he was on that trip... No that was different. Only his life, and maybe his soul was in danger. In both cases dark forces stalk him. Yet even then he had something to help him, to guide him. In his current situation he had nothing to guide him.

Kohaku mind goes to focus on her. A person from his past. A figure he felt he let down. Yet how could he when he had not even care to know her. Kohaku laughs to himself at that. He did not care if anyone heard. He felt life was a bit too ironic for him to not do so.

Then he heard it. His own laughter. Soon a thought came into his mind. He just hopped that it worked. It was risky, but Kohaku had no choice. He had to make sure that the other survive this night. If he did nothing it was the same as if he died.

"Heh, all demonic pieces with shit for brains! I am here, and all alone! What are you waiting for, your mother to come and help you? Such cowards, afraid of a mere human! I wonder what your pathetic excuse for a species calls such wimps such as you?!" Kohaku yelled at the top of his lungs.

[Justin OOC]

Nothing answered Kohaku's taunts and challenges, nothing save absolute silence and a seemingly endless darkness. No demon sought him, no beast crossed his path. Considerably later in the evening, A faint glow Emerged from the woods, and more than that, he could hear someone breathing, in pain.

Anne lay on the ground, bloody and barely conscious. She seemed to have been through one hell of a fight.

[Karren Gaunt]

Meanwhile back at the cabin...

There was a pop and a displacement of air within the main room, and Amara appeared, clothing stained with her own blood, bruised, and visibly exhausted. She dropped to one knee, glancing around the chamber, green eyes looking for anyone to have finished before her or their hostess.

"Anyone here? I got my and Aceworth-San's target. Don't know where she is, but hopefully she's alive... Anyone?"

[AceWildcard]

"Anne!" Kohaku said as he runs towards her. He goes to check if she was still alive. Once he did he goes to grab her items so he could break it for her to get out of there. Once she was sent back to the base he goes back for looking for any more demons.

[Justin OOC]

Anne vanished in a flash of light, reappearing in the kitchen area. She moaned incoherently, which brought Sayoko moving quickly. "Amara, get me some clean water from the bathroom at the end of the hall and some towels, we need to clean her wounds." The other "Student" knelt and began examining the now unconscious Anne. "Damn, I was afraid they'd go this route.."

[Karren Gaunt]

A grunt of exertion and a rummaging search later, Amara limped into the kitchen with the supplies. She dropped to Anne's side across from Sayoko with a grateful exhhalation, favoring her own wounds.

"What route? It doesn't look anyworse than what my opponent tried to do to me. Aceworth-San is still alive, so your... trigger condition hasn't occured yet," the Yakuza Heiress offered, frowning as she considered what worse could be going on with her Gaijin friend. When, if, Anne recovered, no more spliting up. Not again. Not with so many lives on the line.

And Amara didn't have enough friends for them to be getting themselves killed stupidly.

[Justin OOC]

"Two of them worked together. I can only feel one left, so Anne got the Shrieker, but I imagine there's still one after Galiana and Sachiko." She shrugged as she began cleaning the wounds. They seemed to heal as she did so, but anne remained unconscious. "Kohaku and Kaori must have found her."

[AceWildcard]

Kohaku was still exploring the area. He had to be sure there was no more threats in the area. He was not sure if the others were done or not. So he went to look for any of the others.

[Karren Gaunt]

"Two of them worked together. I can only feel one left, so Anne got the Shrieker, but I imagine there's still one after Galiana and Sachiko." She shrugged as she began cleaning the wounds. They seemed to heal as she did so, but anne remained unconscious. "Kohaku and Kaori must have found her."

"You did summon more powerful demons this time around. Such inteligent tactics would seem... obvious if you told them the terms of their release and our destruction," Amara offered bluntly before looking down to Anne and looking forward to telling the other girl she did well when she got up, "May I have some healing after you stabilize her, too? Just in case we fail to kill the fourth demon, I'd rather not spend my last hours alive in pain. Die on my feet hunting till your deadline."

The Yakuza heiress gave a grim smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, a rebuke nipped to it's core in her tone.

[Justin OOC]

After Anne was saved, Sayoko did the same for Amara healing her wounds. It felt alot better once she had, and then she looked to her. "Bring her to her room and let her rest. We'll just have to see if she recovers."

At the end of it, she shrugged. "These aren't even the most powerful minions you'll face, Amara, they're still somewhat weak."

[Shosuro Toshi]

Shinji stumbled in, in front of Tezara and Ayami. Derflingr was not out for now, but as the door to the cabin slammed behind them, his anger was present in his demanding yell... "Sayoko! Where are you?!"

[Justin OOC]

"In the back, healing your Compatriots." Came her call, she could tell the young summoner was angry, but so far she'd done nothing wrong, at least in her mind.

[Karren Gaunt]

The Yakuza heiress smiled at Shinji's angry declaration, stretching out her healed injuries and nodding graditude to their hostess.

"Congratulations on a successful hunt, Marasaki-San," she called, "Or if not... I'm good to go help you try and take down the last demon, tired as I am."

[AceWildcard]

Kohaku looked out at the sky. He did not know if they won, or it did not matter. Even so he decided to still look around just in case. He did not know if it was a ruse.

[Shosuro Toshi]

"Healing." Shinji wasn't in the mood to let her up. "Yes, patching us up so we can continue learning to protect humanity. Except what you do very much throws that into question... HOW MANY PEOPLE DID YOU ABDUCT AS FODDER FOR THAT DEMON?!"

[Justin OOC]

She looked at him. "None. those were the people it killed the night before we came here. I happened upon that demon while searching for those to capture for you to hunt, and convinced my allies to trap it while it slept."

She shrugged. "They're rare, but easy enough to beat if you're ready."

"You're still standing here, intact, so I don't see the point in your anger, Shinji."

[z004]

Ayami had shuffled in after Shinji, her head down and her eyes still red and puffy from crying. She didn't wait for the shouting or even really care where Sayoko was; instead she headed directly to her room. Once there, she stripped out of the gore-drenched closed, kicking them into a smelly heap in a corner of the room. She scrubbed as much of the blood and dirt off her as she could in rakes of her nails that left red welts in their wake, then crawled into her bedding to hide under the covers and do her best to convince herself that all of this was just some coma nightmare. That she was really in a hospital somewhere and someone had accidentally left the TV on through some awful anime or horror movie.

It wasn't helping, but she kept hiding anyways.

[Shosuro Toshi]

Shinji sighed, then shook his head. "Fine... tell that to Ayami. SHE couldn't handle it."

[Justin OOC]

"She's alive, you all are. Things will be worse back home Shinji. There won't be just one of those things, and there's still worse than them. At least when you kill those you free the souls."

[z-Galiana]

“She’ll get better.” Galiana had proceeded to settle into a bath as soon as she gotten inside the building. There would have a been a time that she might have taken this somewhere private, but she’d lived, eaten and bled with these guys. They were a bit beyond the point where watching her lick herself in cat form was going to upset them. Or at least, she assumed that was the case. No one was complaining.

Now that she was done leveling her words of wisdom, Gali rose and stretched deeply before sauntering off to the bedroom. Ayami was huddled under the covers, horrified out of her mind. Gali paused a second to consider whether this was a good idea or not. Self-doubt and deep contemplation were not her “thing” so the werecat paced over to the bed and hopped on top of the covers. Grumbling to herself, she walked to the edge of the covers and nosed her way under the fabric. After a few moments of wiggling and nosing, the big cat was huddled next to Ayami, between the emotionally fragile girl and the door. Gali’s body language was clear: she was here to both comfort and protect.

[Karren Gaunt]

Amara sighed and settled down on a cushion near Anne. Her friend would want to wake up to a familar face, and the Yakuza heiress wanted to see the dawn anyway. She felt like she had earned it tonight, much as she had failed by not keeping Anne closer.

Next partner she wouldn't let fight on her own. Not again.

[SalmonMax]

Galiana was, effectively, Sachiko's herald...the annointed one who's coming presaged her return.

"Hi hi!" came the clarion call as Sachiko poked her goofily grinning head around the corner and waved at Shinji and Sayoko. "We got our demon no problem! I shocked it a couple of times, and then Galiana blew it up or something." She shrugged, unconcerned with this minor detail.

"So I guess we didn't come in first, huh? Second place?"

From Sayoko's expression, Sachi intuited the worst.

"Well, we won, so everyone's a winner! Yay!" She pumped her fists in the air. "We'll definitely come in first next time!"

Planting those fists on her hips, she asked, "Where's everyone else? We should celebrate!"

[Justin OOC]

Kaori and Kohaku are still hunting, they'll return later, or at sunrise, when they realize you've all succeeded." Sayoko looked at Sachicko and smiled. "You all did very well. Better than I had reason to hope."

,,

She started to leave the room. "Tomorrow, there will be no hunt, as I ascertain what will happen now." She looked to the young girl. "Get some rest Sachiko, Tomorrow will be a new day."

[AceWildcard]

Kohaku was still searching for any threat. Yet for some reason or another he thought he was being stalked. He figured it was the demon he was to hunt. Yet when he thinks he has found the source, it vanishes as quickly as he thinks he finds it. He was wondering if his foe was taunting him. Either that or if something else was going on. Kohaku did not know for certain.

[Justin OOC]

Soon enough the sun rose, and when everyone was still alive, Kaori and Kohaku returned, knowing the group had succeeded. The training continued for the rest of the week, though Anne did not go out, and Sayoko didn't really let anyone see her. She simply smiled, and all attempts to open the door to Anne's room failed. The demons they fought grew more difficult, but few were as intelligent as the one Shinji and Ayami fought.

,,

(10cp)