[Quest] When Shadows Speak And Sometimes Scream

[Shai]

On account of keeping each of her items in specific, designated pockets her reordering was quick. She pulled out both fans and her three knives; the knives were tucked into the back of her pants, the crimson fan got tucked up her long sleeves, but the indigo cold iron war fan stayed in her right palm. Tugging at the cloak ties fastened near her neck the spider simultaneously flicked open the fan in her other hand which made an a heavy clack as all of the struts struck home. The cloak dropped down into the snow behind her, a gentle tinkling of metals betraying the remaining contents. As much as the thief was loathe to leave his tools behind, she couldn’t risk one of these creatures snagging the fabric and using it against her.

The choice seemed clear to her, Antar’s confusion was only an annoying distraction. Usually the rogue kept a calm head but apparently he was too distressed to keep it together. If Shai knew more about magic perhaps this scene might have struck her with the same pause as it did the more mystically experienced assassin. As it stood though, she knew little to nothing about magic and was willing to accept that anything ridiculous could be chalked up to the phenomenon. Not usually the good samaritan of any group, Shai was certain this time it wasn’t a matter of racial prejudices. From the few actions she’d witnessed from these creatures they must be magical and that was enough for her.

Clearly calling out against the rising noise the Symenestra woman answered both voices directed at her. “Antar make a path to the woman!” It never even crossed her mind that he might not listen to her instructions. The rising sun gave her an idea, if they could only stall these creatures perhaps the terrifying blue behemoths would awake and come to their aid. Surely they would attack a threat in their own city? But before that could ever happen the woman and child needed to be rescued and so Shai advanced. "And stall them!" she added hoping he might come to same conclusion as she did.

Unlike the strangely hued woman with the mace, the delicate spider kept her distance. Her main attempts at the creatures were swips with the sharpened tips on her fan’s slats. She could use the fan as a distraction for more precise claw attacks if they were focused on her, but if they continued after the woman then such a tactic wouldn’t work. Although she wanted to help, Shai remained careful always ready to jump back or throw herself into a tumble away from the creatures. She was simply too fragile to take on unknown enemies with abandon, but she would still lend aid as she could.

[Antar]

He was out of his element for a few heartbeats of time.

That much was true.

Who wouldn’t be when seeing something he couldn’t necessarily explain?
First, there were the shadows, moving by themselves, twisting to form a protective skein over a woman that vanished at the barest touch of the morning light. Then there were these creatures, from hazy forms, which mirrored ghostlike images they now seemed far more... feral and corporeal then he thought a ghost should be... but he could be wrong. He didn't have much experience with ghosts, only knowing that if in trouble from one of them, he had heard the rumor that they could be burned by reimantical fire.

Were these ghosts as well... would djed fueled fire even damage them? Or would they only be strengthened by any source of light? Antar didn’t have any way to answer these questions himself. All he knew was that there was only one way to find out what might hurt these things.

But what about the women?

Any attack could endanger all three of them; Shai, the blue skinned one with white shimmering hair, or that dark haired one with piercing eyes that seemed to shout for him to act as she drew the form of a child protectively to her breast.

Even now the blue skinned beauty was surging forwards to attempt to batter her way to the chocolate eyed one taking a motherly approach to the girl. Taking a risk, his mind sent the fireball at a clipping angle, aiming for a target on the outskirts of the pack as he rushed forwards to come beside the akontak. His tactical nature assessed the possibility that the most efficient way forwards into the mass to get the girl was if he could deal with protecting Raiha's flanks from those creatures that would swarm her sides. This would leave her able to push through, and if he was careful with his strikes momentum would bring them both through to the center where Cailet and the child lay.

It was possible if that momentum could be continued, if the ones on the outskirts were distracted for only a second then they'd continue forwards enough to clear a path for Shai to cover them. But that was alot of ifs that might require a good streak of luck.

He wasn't a miracle maker. No matter what skills he possessed he was only a single man. They would have to work together. Though somewhere in the back of his mind he wondered if the others would instinctively come to the same understanding, and to call up enough Res to make any truly effective attack work would take too long to cut through towards the one charging the chocolate eyed one, no... No that wouldn't do.

The rogue’s thoughts had become action and actions had spurned words, and words were shouted above the keening of the creatures as the hand with his kukri snapped back to swipe sideways at an opponent on the left as his gladius sliced towards an opponent on his right.

His dashing slices were in hope to bring him just a pace or two behind the Akontak, and if he reached that far he would begin protectively weaving about himself a series of flurries as his voice lent credence to his thoughts above the ever present din of the howling things of light. Yet these words came out stunted through his lips, "Move quickly to break through or they’ll swarm and overwhelm us!! If we can get the other woman and the kid; then we should put some distance between us and these things. If we can't we won't even have a chance to find someplace for a real defense! We should fight later when it’s on our terms after the kid is safe!!! By the gods, push through damnit!"

Even so, the djed began to make the Res weep from Antar's pores, building a small reservoir of the translucent up close to his skin as it began to split into a grapefruit sized ball ready for his use... enough for another distraction, nothing more.

Yes, for his use, but not necessarily for him.

Shai wanted the child protected, so as soon as possible he sent the Race to race towards the chocolate eyed woman. Hoping it would intercede itself quickly between her and the largest of the gold hued monster in time, his thoughts praying it would reach there fast enough as he'd will the outer layer to spread, and transmute to form a small waist high buckler of djed infused earthen spikes for the creature's momentum to drive itself into.

If Antar's attempts amidst his flurried struggle could stall the creature even momentarily, he'd hope it might be enough for Raiha's frenzied assault to break through... Muttering softly as he swung his blade again at the nearest creature to keep it at bay he'd hiss,"Help us if it all comes down to luck..."

No matter what, the rogue only have a few seconds to decide whether to split off from this blue skinned woman to make a retreat if they weren't capable of piercing through the enemy's formation... it seemed the most tactically sound decision after all if their efforts seemed to stall.

[Sterling Brody]

It was as if chaos had begun to erupt all around him. The child ran to the dark headed woman, who scooped her up in a protective, maternal grasp. A blue-hued woman struck out at the glowing monsters. Shouting, a man manipulating djed, a sinisterly graceful woman, screeching. Whatever was happening, Sterling chalked it all up as danger, and his heart began to pump nervously. Here he was, out in this strange, new city full of blue men and other strangers, and everything was turning to mess. He patted his jacket frantically, but there was nothing on him to aid him in the struggle. His bow was back in his room, and had been the last thing he would have thought to grab before departing for a simple walk. He looked around, messy chocolate hair flying about. Someone shouted about the child, the little transparent being in the arms of the young woman. Fear radiated from the pair, and in a desperate attempt to contribute to the nonsense taking place before him, he sprinted towards them. The object appeared to be to protect the woman and child. Rather than standing around, wasting time and staring like a fool, he made his way to the pair and grabbed the woman’s arm.

”Look, I have no idea what’s going on, so if you do, you’d best speak up! What are those things, and what do they want? How do we get rid of them?!” He looked back over her shoulder to the evil things and the people banding together as one to protect and serve. Whatever was happening was beyond him, but he had stumbled into the scene at the wrong time. He’d involved himself, and he couldn’t consciously just run and leave them to whatever fate should befall them.

[Cailet]

It was simply chaos.

Try as she might, Cailet was unable to see much past the hulking human-ish forms that surrounded woman and child. If those she had seen respond to Amanda’s cry had leapt to action, she could not tell.

A solid sounding thunk drew the Shinya’s attention first, dark hair flying as she whirled to face the sound. The pale shapes of the monsters seemed to shift away from something, the clear sound of impact repeating in a steady rhythm. From between the monsters forms, Cailet could see the strange blue woman whaling away with a club, her face set with a look of determined sort of pleasure.

Taking a few steps in that direction, hoping desperately that this woman would be able to clear her a path out, Cailet let her guard drop slightly. It was only the nervous twitter of the shadows that still lurked amongst her hair, the responding prickle as the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end that saved the pair. One of the monsters, bolder than the rest, had drifted closer the moment Cailet turned her back, using the woman’s distraction to its advantage.

Without even taking the time to turn and spreading her feet to fighting stance, Cailet tightened her grip on Amanda and focused her full attentions on her arm. The projection was far from perfect as she ripped the astral arm away from the physical; the former immediately went numb, as if the muscles and nerves just ceased to exist. The limb slipped from around Amanda’s waist, flopping uselessly down against her side as she gave an irritated grunt.

“Shift to my hip,” The order came out distracted, a mumble that the child nonetheless obeyed, moving so that Cailet was able to grip tightly with her remaining useful limb. Using the shift in balance to rock her self onto her back foot, using the momentum of the motion to make the connection between her mind and the djed she had used to force a projection of her arm into existence.

The monster that hovered over her shoulder didn’t even see the fist that clocked him in the side of the face- literally. Extending further than Cailet could have with her real arm, the phantom punch sent the monster reeling away. Knowing that such a tactic wouldn’t last for long, the woman spun to face the thing as she gathered her magic to strike again. It was sloppy, at best, given that she had no time to finely detach and prepare the strike, but it got the job done. Grunting with the effort of her concentration, divided between pelting the monster with sharp jabs at his face with her astral hand as she dodged around it’s form, all while keeping Amanda in her arm, Cailet barely noticed Shay as she flickered around the edge of the attack.

The fireballs, however, she did notice.

“Holy Petch!” The curse ripped from her throat before she could even think about what she was saying, brown eyes flitting to the source of the magic. Antar whipped his magic around like he could do it all day. Tired and with half of her body useless, Cailet couldn’t help but feel a surge of anger at the show. “Magic.” Spitting the word like it burned her tongue, the woman could no more ignore the opening the man was making via distraction than she could blame him for using the tools he had at hand. Forced to learn Projection in order to join the Shinya ranks, Cailet resented the practice and went out of her way to avoid using what she learned.

It was tiring, dangerous and not to mention annoying. As if to mock her, the useless arm flapped against her side.

Recovering from the invisible attack, the monster that had sunk up on Cailet looked around for its lost prey. Woman and Child had barely gotten a dozen steps away before it lunged, roaring it’s anger. This time, Cailet really wasn’t ready.

Dodging the first few monsters simply by sheer luck and the element of surprise, as apparently neither of them had expected her to try to escape, Cailet headed for Antar. Raiha and Shai were continuing to cause havoc on the edges of the mob, effectively sending them all into a fury. The result was impossible to navigate through, a giant mass of pale, glowing, ghostly, forms that dashed and darted and swerved from the various attacks.

Using her numb shoulder to ram into a monster that stumbled back into her path, backing away to avoid another of Antars attacks, Cailet pressed through to what she thought was freedom. At some point, a shield sprang up around Cailet, it's appearance startling the woman to the point where she almost dropped Amanda. At the same moment, a monster that Raiha had previously thwacked stumbled into the Shinya's path, growling and flailing in apparent pain.

Dirt flew as Cailet desperately back peddled, determined not to trip over or even touch the thing.. That was all her persurer needed. It had caught up as Cailet paused, roaring with excitement as his prey fumbled to a stop. However, Antar's magics had done it's job. The beast ignored the shield, focused on the stumbling woman and child, running directly into the spikes.

However, a heavy weight slammed into Cailets shoulders, sending her flying face first into the ground. Though Antar had managed to stop the first, another of the creatures had joined the sprint at it's companions roar. When the first one fell, the second launched itself on Cailet. Amanda flew from her good arm while the woman loosed a cry of pain; she had lost her hold on the projection, the attachment process happening automatically in her moment of weakness. With her arm now bursting with what felt like millions of pins and needles, Cailet didn’t even have a chance to push herself to her feet before the monster was on her back.

Looking to Amanda and where she landed not a few feet away, Cailet’s eyes widened in fear. There was more commotion in her peripheral and Cailet whipped her head around. The woman who seemed to dance as she fought and darted around was there, flanked by the exotic blue creature. Her good arm whipped out, pointing at the pair as she glanced back at the transparent child, gesturing her towards the safety of the women.

“Run Amanda! RUN!”