open The Circulation

[Azura 1,107]

Hikari watched everything play out as the girl that was hiding away from Misha revealed herself and fixed his phone. The girl that the man in gold pointed at asked her name, and even though she didn't feel like singing her name to strangers, she replied her briefly by saying "It's Hikari." Before she looked over at Zeke and said "We didn't come all the way here to bump into a bunch of hunters. Turn this cave upside down for any clues." before she headed deeper into the cave. As she made her way down, she saw two pathways. She examined both of them and decided to down the one on the right.

Edited April 19, 2014 by Azura

[Chickey 383]

Misha thought for a moment before nodding. "I have indeed noticed quite a few people with phones since I arrived here. Far more than I see back in my homeland. I have access to most of this stuff easily myself, however expensive toys have been much more of my forte compared to techno toys." He explained. "I suppose they don't call me Misha von Zoloto for nothing. It roughly translates to Misha of Gold over here from my knowledge." He finished as he walked off deeper into the cave with motives of finding the hunters that Zeke described earlier. He put his hands in his pockets and whistled a tune to himself as he strolled through the cave. 

[Octavia's Bow 2,035]

Zeke wasn't sure exactly what it was that made him feel off about the little brown haired girl, but he felt as though she was playing it thick with the little girl routine. Zeke pulled out his phone again, pointing the phone LED light at the girl. This time his gun wasn't being pointed with it, and instead was at his side.

 

"Don't get me wrong, I am not one to beat up little girls or anything. But I once met an esper who was a, 'little girl', and she sent me flying through three concrete walls. So, I apologize if I am being a little cautious, but how do I know you aren't going to attack us?" Zeke said with a trepidatious look on his face.

This time, her voice whispered in his ear, "Little girl? Flattered, but I'm eighteen. And you are standing on my bed." A relatively flatter bed of rock laid along to a rock. An assumably stolen blanket lay underneath it. "I'm not going to attack you for plenty of reasons, on of which being that I don't just randomly attack people." She smiles at him and gathers up her mana in a ball in her hands. She puts the ball into the doll and whispers to it. The doll quickly grows, it's wood changing to ice until a Japanese-looking fellow with a katana kneels to her. "Hey Aki! Can you look around for other people? There should be four..."

 

"You said you would go home."

 

"I will. Eventually."

 

"You're family worries. They-"

 

"They should've let me be me. It's no longer a request; search the caves, it's a matter of safety. You may use half the battery." The swordsman grimaced as a scroll on his belt flashes.

 

"As you wish." He wanders off as she casts a sad look his way.

 

"It must suck, being bound to my family."

[Samurshy 708]

Eighteen...? I had heard about scientists experimenting with gene codeing to change a person's DNA to allow their appearance in age to remain adolescent throughout their lifetime. However, somehow I feel that this girl doesn't have a scientific background. Is it possible that she was just born that way? Or maybe it is a spell her father cast on her so that no one would ever think of dating her just by appearance alone. Either way, it gives me the creeps. Zeke thought.

"Well, anyways. I am just going to walk over here" Zeke said as he began walking. He noticed that he was walking the same way that the man clad in gold accessories was walking. Zeke kept walking forward with his LED phone light to guide the way. He kept walking, about 100 yards forward until he stopped 30 feet behind a large male with black hair, who had a broadsword attached to his back. He had his ear to the wall, balling up his fist and knocking on it periodically as he walked down the wall. His back was turned towards Zeke and MIsha while he was doing this. 

Zeke drew his Beretta and aimed it at the stranger, but the stranger was so absorbed in what he was doing he didn't realize there were even others behind him. 

Zeke tried clearing his throat to make a sound so that the man could recognize there was someone behind him. But he just continued knocking with his ear up to the wall.

[Chickey 383]

Misha stopped his soft whistling as soon as he saw the man knocking on the wall. He waited for the man with the broadsword to turn around but was sadly disappointing for now. After growing impatient he simply walked over to where the man was standing and started to knock his hand against the wall repeatedly. "Yep... still a wall." He commented. He placed his hand on the Bowie knife sheathed on his belt in case the man attacked early. However this did give it away that he had intentions of attacking. "So what brings you here neighbor?" He asked with a grin.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Pumkin

[Octavia's Bow 2,035]

Akira accompanied the other two silently. Where his feet touched, the ground would freeze. When he left, it would melt. He seemed a bit troubled, but was otherwise engaged in carrying out Sayaa's orders. He waited to see if this new figure was hostile.

[Samurshy 708]

As soon as their group arrived, Jon had been instructed very clearly by his girlfriend's sister that the key they were looking for was behind a false wall. October, the archeologist, told them all about how her ancient scrolls that she found upon expeditions through certain tombs told exactly where the next clue in the hunt for God's Hand was. Jon wasn't one to argue with October; Nay, his girlfriend, was the more even tempered one out of the two. If something went wrong, either Jon or Monty was instantly blamed for it. Even though October was violent in nature, she never could raise a finger in anger against her sister. All anger disappeared when Nay entered the premises. 

Even though Jon found it tedious, when October told him to knock the wall to listen for a false hollow sound, Jon didn't argue. And so there Jon was, knocking against the wall, like an idiot. Even though the party suspected there would be competition, Jon thought they would be safe. What kind of sane person goes to a cave in the middle of nowhere? Jon thought. But again, he was proven wrong; there they were, the intruders October was so worried about. 

Jon chuckled, "Heh, Yes... yes indeed it is still a wall..." Jon decided that lying at this point was futile.

"The reason why we are here, is the same reason you guys are here. Most likely. I am sorry, but, I was told to eliminate all competition regardless of who they may be or what their... obvious sexual preferences are." Jon said as he looked at the flamboyant gold-clad man. 

Jon quickly jumped 10 feet backwards and unsheathed his broadsword from his back.

"I am sorry. But as it is, I must tell you my sorcerer name. And you should know, that once a sorcerer tells you his name, he must kill all of you. My sorcerer name is Abeo237" Jon said, channeling his mana into a blue aura around the blade. He then shouted, "Harvest Blade!", as he slashed outwards sending a mana blade in the direction of the golden intruder. 


October thought this expedition would be rather easy. In the scrolls she was studying that she had taken from the tomb of King Suman, it stated very clearly where he instructed the key to be placed after he died. However, either the slaves he had did not put it in the correct spot, or the cave had geoformed within the last few centuries. October, Nay, and Monty were all in a round room within the caves. The room was quite large, about 300 feet around 100 feet tall. October was currently sitting on a large bolder, her scrolls sprawled over the boulder as she searched for the answer she was looking for. Meanwhile, Monty, and Nay were knocking on the walls of the room, searching for the false wall that was supposed to be there. October sent Jon to search for it, somewhere where he couldn't hurt anything. October liked Monty, but she seemed to have taken issue with Jon. The main reason she didn't like Jon was that, in her mind, somehow, he had tricked her sister Nay into falling in love with him. But she never would admit to that. She found Jon very brutish, and idiotic. Everything he did irritated her. If she had it her way, she would just kill him, but she could never do it. If she did, her sister would be devastated, and that was out of the question. 

October continued to look through her scrolls to find the answer.

Zeke didn't like the vibe this guy was giving off one bit. But try as he might, Zeke was unable to activate his powers. He just stood back, and watched as the blue slash of mana energy sliced through the air towards Misha.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Samurshy

[Chickey 383]

"What's wrong with gold man? Come on.... But seriously, numbers in your name? How tacky..." Misha retorted back as he watched the man swing the broadsword at him and the magical attack approach. He didn't seem to even be all that surprised as he simply held up his palms to the attack as it came closer and closer to him. The runes on his hands lit up as two powerful blasts emitted from the runes and collided with the Harvest blade before it could hit him, stopping the attack mid air before it could do any damage.

 

"You seem rather confident, lets see if we can break that will of yours by the end of this." He commented, his voice sounding much less silly now and more malicious then before. The tip of his index finger lit up with golden light as he drew a quick rune in the air. He placed his palm up to it as it lit up, firing out a thick beam of gold energy with a bang straight towards Jon. The beam itself would explode on contact.

[Samurshy 708]

Jon turned the his blade so the flat side was pointed towards the golden beam. 
"Thy sword is thy shield!" Jon chanted his incantation, a blue barrier emitted from the sword. Even though the barrier did a good job in mitigating the damage, the beam exploded after hitting, sending a shockwave that disoriented Jon.

The damage he sustained was minor enough to shake off after only a few brief seconds. 

"Don't be ashamed. There is nothing wrong with love, no matter what the gender. I am not going to judge", Jon chided with a smirk.

"But unfortunately" Jon said as he dusted himself off, "You won't be around to feel the emotion of love for much longer." 

Jon then pointed the tip of his sword at Misha. 
"I call upon the power of thee, sword of light. Excalibur!" He shouted. His sword began to amass particles of yellow mana until there was a golden orb of light at the point. "EXCULPATE!" Jon shouted. At that moment the golden orb turned into a beam of powerful light energy that raced towards Misha, burning the air and releasing the scent of ozone as it flew forward. The spell was a laser of holy light that burned and melted almost anything that it touched, especially if it was demonic or undead.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Samurshy

[Chickey 383]

"I can't quite tell if you're a fighter or a comedian yet funny-boy. Though I'm starting to lean towards the latter." Figuring out that Jon clearly wasn't at any range disadvantage, Misha started to rush at the sorcerer. He began to immediately trace a few runes in the air as soon as he saw him charge up a spell. Just as it went of Misha finished his runic circle, he placed his hand up to it and pointed it at the attack. As soon as he did so a large golden shield of energy appeared, blocking the spell just barely in time before it connected. Afterwards the shield immediately broke.

 

"Such a powerful attack, I'm flattered. However I hope that wasn't the best you got." Misha said as he fired off two explosive blasts from his palms aimed at his arms. He figured if he could disarm the man or damage his arms he could render him much more useless. He knew that even if they were blocked, vision would be a bit hard for Jan due to the smoke. So he spun and sent a roundhouse kick at him in advance, the tip of his boot aimed right at his head.

[Samurshy 708]

Sensing the two blasts heading towards him, he quickly turned sideways just enough for the blasts to whiz right past him, exploding on the wall behind him. The blasts shook the cave a bit, some debris falling from the roof, but the cave remained intact. Jon thought he had dodged the attack, but was immediately wrong as he took a boot straight to the temple. Everything turned black and fuzzy for a moment as Jon struggled to regain his balance and remain conscious. He fell to his knees briefly, his sword stabbed into the ground as he leaned on the pommel. 

"th-thy sword is thy shield" he stuttuered, A barrier erected around him as he tried to shake off the boot kick he took to the head.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Samurshy

[Chickey 383]

Hoping to pierce the shield and end the battle here, Misha began drawing runes in the air with his finger as he watched the man try to regain his focus. "Ain't so confident anymore are ya funny-boy? What happened to all the remarks?" Misha asked with a smirk. He took a bit more time now and the symbols he drew were in a larger quantity then before. Once he was done he drew a circle around the drawing to finish it off and placed both of his palms up against it. The whole thing glowed bright golden yellow as energy began to swirl and form into one big ball in the middle of the rune whilst creating a screeching like sound. Right when it swelled up to the size of a football, the spell stopped growing and screeching, falling dead silent. "Now, perish!" Misha snarled out with a grin as the spell erupted, shooting out a much wider golden beam of light with a bang loud enough to ring someones ears directly at Jon and his shield. 

Edited April 21, 2014 by Pumkin

[Octavia's Bow 2,035]

Akira looked on at the battle, somewhere between uncomfortable and unsure. "Hmmm... I thought this location to be a formidable point for hiding, but aparently it's a point of interest."

"It's okay Aki," Sayaa comes to stand next to him. "Go home. There's to much energy flying around; I don't want you to get hit." She held his shoulder as he reverted back to the doll state. She hugged it  close, before sealing off the battle's visuals and noises from alerting their presence. Anyone looking on would see the man with his head againt the wall, knocking. If they weren't in the area circle, that is.

[Samurshy 708]

Jon wasn't sure what to do. His head still in massive pain from the kick he took. But he could feel the energy that Misha was gathering, and he knew that if he didn't act fast, he would be nothing but a scorch mark on the side of the cave wall. Jon shook the pain from his head momentarily so that he could concentrate on casting a spell that would get him out of this mess. Jon continued to grasp his sword that was stuck in the ground, with his right hand, as he amassed enough mana, in his left hand, to cast the spell he was about to do. 

"FAERIE BLINK!" Jon shouted as he snapped his fingers. The instant he snapped his fingers, he disappeared, the golden blast creating a crater in the ground that he was just kneeling on. Faerie blink was a lower level spell that allowed the user to jump from one place to another place within a 30 foot radius. 

Jon jumped closer to the chamber that his group was in and began to run towards them. It only took him 20 seconds to make it to the chamber where the others were. 

"Guys," Jon said with a panicked tone. "There are others here. And they are strong. Well... at least the mage I fought was."

Monty and Nay instantly stopped their search for the false wall and rushed over to Jon.

"HONEY! Are you okay!?" Nay said in a concerned tone.

Jon nodded. Nay took a damp cloth and dabbed it on the bruise that Jon had. 

"It's amazing how you can't do anything right." October scolded. "Well, did they follow you here after your escape or did you manage to get here without leading them all to our position?"

"I... I don't know." Jon said, "But I don't think they chased. I think they went back to regroup with their other members.


Zeke stood in awe of the power that Misha wielded. Even though he had seen a saint, Raiya, use magic before, this was still pretty impressive. Raiya's abilities were on a whole other level, but Misha's abilities were still amazing in their own right.

"It looks like he got away, he is probably already back with his group. I know you probably don't like the sound of this, but we should probably regroup as well. Chances are they are prepairing for a counter strike right now, and we need to warn the others. Plus, I doubt, even with your powers, that you can take all of them on at once." Zeke said as he holstered his Beretta.

 

[Chickey 383]

Misha gave a groan and he ran his hand through his hair once he saw that Jon has escaped. "How disappointing..." He commented "I was hoping to have more fun with him." He finished as he walked over and passed Zeke with a grumpy look, going back to regroup with the rest now. "Yeah, I tend to only stick to fighting one on one. Past that things get tedious with all those other variables in play. Besides It's much better to savor all their expressions as they realize there is no one to save them, realizing how alone they really are." He continued as he reminisced on.

[Azura 1,107]

Hikari heard noises coming from deeper within the cave. She decided to stop her search and ran towards the others where all the commotion was coming from. Hikari saw Zeke and Misha. "What's going on over here? I heard someone shouting." She asked no one in particular. "Is it the hunters?" Hikari added.

Edited April 21, 2014 by Azura

[Chickey 383]

Misha nodded, his hands in his pockets now. "Yeah, one of them was knocking on a wall over there. He seemed to be looking for a fault somewhere in the cave. Used a broadsword to channel magic." He said as he pointed to where Jon was. "I fought him and the coward teleported away when the going got tough. Presumably back to his group." He added as he looked around. 

[Azura 1,107]

A fault hidden within the cave walls. She pondered upon the thought of hiding a key within a secret room that lies behind a rock wall in a cave located in the middle of three mountains. "He can't be far. Lets stick together and start searching for them before they strike first." Hikari suggested as she took out her dagger and silently crept deeper into the cave.

[Samurshy 708]

Monty loaded his AK-47, pulling the action back and pumping a round into the chamber. He then passed a belt of frag grenades over to October, who then strapped them around her torso. Nay began to set runic traps around the room, the first of which was a trap right in front of the entrance to the chamber they were currently in. The trap was triggered if anyone were to cross the boundary from the tunnel to the chamber. And if it was triggered, it would immediately constrain the individuals with tendrils of light, rendering movement impossible. 

Zeke nodded to Hikari. It would be for the best if they could stick together. But Zeke couldn't help but wonder where the techno female and the little girl went off to.

"At any rate we need to be careful. It would be stupid for them to not be preparing for an ambush right now. So if we are to confront them again, let's try to do it in a smart manner." Zeke said

[FractalMoon 378]

Lily, who had been standing there silently since the conflict had began, pipes up, "If there's anything I can do to help, just ask. As you noticed, I'm not much of a combatant, but I can try to distract them a bit... The key is supposed to be behind a false wall right? I think our best bet is to find it straight out and leave before they have a chance to attack us, but if you guys want to attack I'll do my best to support you." She whispers.

Edited April 22, 2014 by FractaLuna

[Azura 1,107]

Hikari has never been in a real fight before. Instead, she has only fought against other espers around her level, which has limited her tactics to only fighting against other espers. Even though the powers of espers and magicians were similar, it was only to an extent. Hikari has no idea what they're capable of doing, and after what Misha said about a broadsword user using his weapon as a way to channel magic, she decided to stop and wait for them to make a move. 

[Chickey 383]

Misha followed Hikari, uneasy about how this was going to all unfold when they reach the rest group of Hunters. He looked over to Lily. "Causing displacement and confusion once this begins will be key. There's no doubt they'll be waiting for us now. And seeing at least one of them we know possesses magic, they will have traps. If you have anything that can help, it would be critical." He explained as he continued. "Anyone got a plan besides that? Or shall we just be blitzkrieg'ing them? Judging by the skills of the first guy if we can pass their first line of defense it should be a slaughter." He finished. 

[Samurshy 708]

"As it stands, we don't know where the key is. It could be in the part of the cave with them, and they just haven't found it yet. And since we don't know where it is, we would be searching, leaving ourselves exposed, hoping that it isn't in the part of the cave they are in, and hoping they won't just ambush us anyway. I say, we end this. If we can incapacitate them, then we can do all our searching without worrying about a fight..." Zeke stopped himself and realized what he had said. Was he really serious about working with these people he had just met? Of course, there is only one of God's Hand. So even if they were to team up together for now, they would still have to fight each other when it came down to it. But, as Vern said, it is a bad idea to go it alone, and Zeke could use all the help he could get. So finally, Zeke had made up his mind.

"I know this is going to sound insane. We all just met, and some of you I don't even know your names. But right now, we got a group of powerful people here together, no doubt. I think... I think we should team up together from here until we find God's Hand. I know I don't look like much. I haven't displayed any powers to you guys, and I have only pointed my gun around at people. But I promise you, I have power, and I can pull my own weight. So... what do you say?" Zeke finished, as he looked around the cave at all the people he was trying to band together.

Edited April 22, 2014 by Samurshy

[Azura 1,107]

@@Samurshy, 

Hikari wasn't sure if she could trust everyone just because they all had the same goal, but there is no choice. She didn't really feel comfortable grouping up with others who might use the God's Hand for evil, but until they get anywhere close to the God's Hand, she will make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. "I'm in." She replied with uncertainty. 

 

@, 

She was unsure if planning our attack out would help, and having a very brief idea on how capable each of us are doesn't really make it any easier. "We could either charge in all together or force them out of their little hiding spot." Hikari suggested, wondering if anyone in the group had an explosive charge of some sort to toss further into the cave. "

[Chickey 383]

Misha thought for a moment, wondering if he should accept Zeke's offer or not. On one hand, due to a rather completely bad track record of interactions with others, he didn't want to. And in the other, he probably needed them if he even wanted a chance at this artifact. In the end he figured they might be at least entertaining, so he simply uttered. "Seems worth a shot to me." as he continued down the hall towards where the Hunters should be. 

Edited April 22, 2014 by Pumkin