The Land of the Dead (Vash/'Guo/Rin)

[Zhen Anguo]

"Don't worry about it!" He said with a warm smile. "If need be, I'll carry you!" He closed his eyes as his smile spread into a grin before slipping Vash's arm over his shoulder, taking most of the weight off of his feet, whilst he picked up his dropped halberd and held it lightly in his free hand. "Can't have you all tired, can we? We're gonna' need ya'!" He gave him a wink.

"Someone's gonna' have to hold me back from these guys!"

Don't inflate his ego too much, please.

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

"Right," I said. "Just... keep doing what you're doing. Kerrian will take care of the rest."

[Zhen Anguo]

"Got it! Doing what I'm doing is what I do best!" He paused for a moment, trying to think if what he had just said even made sense... He eventually gave a firm nod "Yeah! Yeah it is!" He grinned as he looked down at his halberd with a sense of resolve. "So..." He said "How far away are they..? The closer the better right..?"

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

"Not too far," I said, looking ahead. "The pillar is getting closer as we speak... it's distorting things, so we can't see how close it really is, but it's there. Very close. We'll be on them soon, so we'd best prepare for that."

I took a deep breath. "I might have to drop the bindings on my cross," I mumbled to myself. If I didn't, I wouldn't be in any shape to fight.... but if I did, my energy would start to riot. A lose-lose situation...

[Bast]

"I hear something!" Bast called back to Monthu. "Sounded like something fell - gonna go check it out."

Slipping quietly into the background, she started forward, through the distortion and out onto the road...

And saw what it was she was looking for.

They were close, oh so very close; three figures. A cripple girl, a young man, wearing green, and leaning on him, a pathetic, thin man in a long red coat.

That man looked up, straight at her, and suddenly, she realized, maybe he wasn't so pathetic after all. Some kind of power, one just out of the range of her senses, like those mosquito ringtones, washed over her, and suddenly, she was visible.

His eyes widened, seeing her, she realized, for the first time. He'd looked pained before; whatever power had stripped her of her disguise, it wasn't conscious on his part - or it wasn't his.

Her own eyes widened dramatically. There was a long pause where no one moved, nothing stirred...

Then she rabbited, as fast as she could go.

"MONNNTHUUUU!" she yelled. "WE'RE ABOUT TO HAVE COMPANY!"

[Monthu]

When performing a stoop, the Peregrine Falcon can reach speeds of up to 250mph in a low altitude flight pattern, 100mph more if it's a high altitude. Unfortunately, Monthu couldn't fly, so he had to settle for one massive jump, still, at speeds of 250mph it only took him a few seconds to reach Bast. He burst past her and leaped out of the trees, soaring above Vash and the others, he had his bow drawn, releasing, a huge smoke bomb hit the floor, before he landed on a tree branch, and leaped again, back towards Bast.

Landing in front of her, he held a finger up to his own lips, signalling for silence. He closed his eyes as he perked his ears, trying to pick up the slightest hint that the enemy knew where they were. His breath was held as he silently, slowly nocked another arrow, this one explosive as he nodded across at Bast.

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

Smoke exploded around us, blinding me and likely my companions as well. This wasn't going to be good.

I sighed, resigning myself to the inevitable - I dropped the bindings around my cross, releasing hte extra power stored there into a barrier, ivisible in the smoke, against whatever they were about to throw at us. It also cleared the smoke away from us, clearing the air so we could breathe, get ready for the upcoming attack.

[Bast]

Bast darted into the smoke, pulling the illusion around her again, attempting to penetrate the defenses of their unknown enemies.

Every side... every angle. She sliced forward, but each time, she was blocked by that shimmering barrier of light.

She retreated backwards, tapped Monthu on the shoulder.

"Some kind of barrier," she said in his ear. "You may need to use that shot of yours just to get through..."

[Monthu]

"One arrow...?" He looked down at his hand before slackening his tension and reaching to his back, sliding the arrow back into his quiver, he grinned. "We're going to need more than one!" He re-tightened his grip, before pulling out three arrows, one between each finger. With a big smirk, he nocked and pulled, before launching all three explosives towards the barrier.

[Vash, the Angel's Moon]

Shaken as I was, there was a limit to how strong I could hold that barrier.

The explosion shattered it, sending fragments of wisps flying through the air, helping to clear the smoke from the original shot but nowhere near completely getting rid of it. As soon as the barrier was down, I felt an attack on my flank - probably the woman whose invisibility had been overwhelmed by my power earlier. I pulled the remains of the wisps from the air, loaded them into my gun, and fired in rapid succession at the invisible presence and the archer firing at us.

"'Guo, see if you can short-out her invisibility; let me take care of the archer!" I called. "Rin, back me up!"

[Zhen Anguo]

"On it!" He said with a firm nod as he closed his eyes, he'd been practicing extra after Mr Horo's sessions. He'd found that his ability to absorb excess mana also allowed him to detect it in the air, everyone's was different. He saw his own as a pale green, Rin's was a steely grey, Vash's a whimsical spectrum of colours. He concentrated, trying to pinpoint any that he didn't notice... To his right he could make out a new shade, black with hints of blue in it.

"Got ya'!" He cried as he suddenly flipped his halberd round, so that the flat of the blade came first. He spun around and swung the weapon, aiming to catch his opponent in the gut. As he swung however, a new shade suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision, as if hiding... Dark purple, full of evil intent... It's coldness shocked 'Guo, and he could feel his aim swinging slightly off course.

[Bast]

The strike just barely missed her, causing Bast to skid slightly as she was making her attack. She dropped, sweeping a kick across the ground, trying to trip the green-garbed fighter while he still couldn't see her.

[Zhen Anguo]

Something collided with the back of his ankle, 'Guo swiftly brought his focus back on to the black and blue aura. Eyes still closed, he reached out with a palm as he fell backwards and firmly planted it on the floor before pressing off of it, flipping up and onto his feet. Swinging his halberd above his head, he brought all of his attention onto the invisible figure.

He made a display of looking around, as if he couldn't see her. "Come on out!" He cried "And try that again!"

[Bast]

"Make me!" she called, laughing, changing positions before swiping at his flank with her knives, aiming to tear a gash into his side with them.

[Akira Satou]

"I don't really like this place, Kel. Everything is just... dead. Makes me wanna drown in booze." Akira mumbles, looking down to her left at the small girl who walked beside her. She was always dressed for winter time, regardless of location. Her red eyes mimicked the one underneath Akira's eyepatch. Unlike her uncovered orangey-red eye, the one underneath the eyepatch was a strong and solid red, with a strange, unnatural decal in the center. It had a crescent moon in a strange design. It was almost white in its blue tint.

"It's okay!" The young girl jumps and spins, like she was in a field of flowers. "We're just passing through! I wanna go see Ignis, and you wanna see everywhere! Just deal with it~" She almost sings out.

The sound of an explosion stops them both in their tracks, their eyes pointing directly at the light pillar. "Vashy?" The little girl questions, beginning to walk in that direction.
"Eh? Kelcia, get back here. It's not a good idea to move towards explosions."

She doesn't turn around to respond. So with a sigh, Akira begins following her "imaginary friend."

There was five people. A quick count proved that. A red-coated man, a young woman without... arms? Strange. A green-clad warrior. A woman attacking him, and an archer. Without truly realizing what she was doing, Akira lifts her arms in a swift moment and clenching her fists. A pillar of ice erupts between the woman's knives and the man's side. 'Damn it, what am I getting myself into...?'

Kelcia runs over to Vash and touches his shoulder. "Vashy? Are you okay?!"
Akira reaches her hand out limply, an annoyed look in her eyes. "Kel... Nobody but me can see you. There's no point..."