The Sanctuary

[Chadwyck]

OoC: Here's the deal, guys, I don't really want to make a plot for this RP. It's a battle, straight and simple, I mostly just wanted to use these two characters in a fight and decided to RP a battle. So sorry for the lack of motive, but if you want a fight, PM me to join.

BiC:

Jin looked up into the brilliantly blue sky that seemed to just hang over the tiny, rural village that they had been sent to. The sun was bright and beating down on the mage and his companion, Ray, who looked incredibly irritated by the bright light that reflected off of his black hair, revealing a dark red gleam that hid within it, like a raven’s feather. He let out an irritated sigh and Jin just nodded. “Yeah, it is obnoxiously sunny today. Here.” He said simply as he quickly ran his finger through the air, leaving a trail of violet-blue smoke that traced the air and soon it took the shape of a magical rune. The smoke dissipated, but the symbol remained, glowing with violet energy as it rose into the sky and created a cloud cover. Within seconds a light rain began to fall.

“Show off.” Ray commented quickly and simply, always straight to the point. The young man didn’t speak much, but when he did he spoke only the bare minimum of words to convey his point.

“Yes, but rain is my favorite weather, after all. I think I’m allowed a quick spell to cover that annoying sunshine. Don’t you, Raven?” The mage was dressed in common mage robes. He had given up on attempting to be inconspicuous about his profession, to him the robes were the most comfortable attire he could wear. They were black and grey, and over the loose fitting robes he wore a black cloak that had faded and frayed from many years of use. His eyes were the same color as the storm clouds that he had summoned, and his hair was white as snow. He wasn’t an old man, at least, not in appearance. He actually appeared to only be in his late twenties. At his side hung a katana hilt and two pistols were strapped to the small of his back.

“Suits me.” Ray answered quickly, he didn’t like when most people used his full name; though he made an exception for Jin. The young man was dressed more modernly. He was wearing a white dress shirt that hung off of his thin frame a few sizes too big. Around his neck was a black skinny tie, and the shirt itself was half untucked from his black jeans. The jeans were not faded in the slightest, they appeared as black as ink. He had solid black hi-top trainers on his feet, and hair the color of raven’s feathers. His almond eyes were dark, like a dolls eyes, though not abysmally black. Around his eyes was what appeared to be eyeliner, though it wasn’t any form of make-up, just a natural black ring around his eyes, and as such no amount of make-up remover would take it off.

They had been sent to the small town for a purpose that they weren’t entirely sure of. They had learned to stop asking questions and just do as they were told; owing a debt to the company that they did made their line of work very dangerous. Of course, they didn’t have the luxury of declining or they’d end up in prison, which was one place Jin didn’t want to return, and Ray never wanted to go.

While the town itself was small, the focus of the town was impossibly huge: a cathedral at the center of town. The reason the town had never expanded, and remained small in population and building, was because all of the resources had been poured into building the monumental church. It was taller than any building either of the mages had ever seen, and it took up a huge chunk of land. “How much could they have spent on building something like that?” Jin wondered, Ray didn’t bother answering because he didn’t know the answer.

They had seen the cathedral in the distance, but they didn’t expect it to be as big as it was, hundreds of thousands of people could fill the ground floor, if not more. Whatever was in the cathedral had been a big enough deal to attract the company, so it must have been good. They weren’t exactly sure what they would be looking for, but they knew that they would be searching for quite a while.

The inside of the cathedral was even more impressive than the outside. The entire building was made of stone, so every footstep within the walls of the church were echoed through the vast interior. Stained-glass windows filled up the walls and wooden pew stretched across all of the ground floor. The arches and pillars were enormous, and there were many other floors above them that they could only imagine how long searching the entirety of the building would take.

There were men in robes wandering around, but none of them seemed to bother with the mages, they were leaving them be like they weren’t even there. That suited them just fine; better than trying to explain what they were doing there. “Well, we might as well get started.” Jin said quietly and the duo started walking into the vast main chamber of the cathedral.

 

[Sem]

"What a silly town," Sorena said as she walked past the pews. "They build this enormous church, and for what?"

"It's an amazing building," Sem replied, admiring the architecture of the structure and just how vast it actually was.

"Well, yes, but really. They could've poured their resources into something more important. Like schools, and libraries, and hospitals, and public toilets," the witch continued. There was no hiding the fact that she was a witch, the hat on her head made sure of that. Her other garments were typical witch attire as well. A black, slim Victorian-styled gown with silver trimmings and designs adorned her body. The upper half of the dress, the corset, was a coal gray in color. A black cloak trailed behind her and covered the upper half of her torso that was left exposed by the corset and loose sleeves covered her arms. She had identical rings on both of her middle fingers, silver with sapphires embedded into them, sapphires that matched the color of her eyes. Her skin was fair and pale, and she had long, wavy silver hair that trailed down her back. She possessed a refined beauty. Refined because she looked to be in her forties. Of course, she wasn't actually in her forties: she was much older than that.

Her companion on the other hand was vastly different in appearance. He looked like an otter with fins. His fur was gray, and the fins and whiskers on his body were cerulean blue. He wore a sleeveless hooded top, black in color and covered with decorative zippers and straps. Around his neck dangled a raindrop pendant. He was only three feet tall, six feet long if you included his tail. He walked on his hind legs, and usually did so unless he was running full speed. There was no way to guess his age, but he was quite old himself.

"Well, they are Galaxy-famous for it," Sem pointed out.

"That's all well and good, but you'd think they'd have a nicer town due to all the tourists..." she countered, stopping to gaze up at a particular stained glass window. "Idiots, the lot of them."

"Well if they hadn't built it we wouldn't be here to appreciate it," Sem offered, but Sorena had moved on, whining about how the spaces between pews were so tight.

"I mean, I'm not even overweight and I don't fit!" she yelled, causing the heads of some of the robed men to turn and stare. "Sliding sideways through pews is honestly one of the most annoying things ever."

To annoy her, Sem followed her, able to walk straight through the pew due to his size.

"Yeah? Well you're a shorty." she said, stooping over him. "You're lucky you haven't gotten trampled by someone yet. I mean honestly, not everyone can see you when they're walking. They would just step on you and that would be it. There goes Sem, there went his life- is that Jin?" she asked, standing up straight and putting her hands to her hips.

"...Who?" Sem asked, trying to see who she was talking about.

"There!" she exclaimed, pointing directly at the man in robes.

"Do you know him?" Sem asked, though Sorena seemed to know everyone, as far as he could tell.

"Of course I do, I don't just point at people I don't know," she stopped. "Wait, I do point at strangers actually, nevermind..." Taking Sem's hand she dragged him along, waving at Jin and his companion.

 

[Chadwyck]

"That feels... familiar." Jin said quietly as he felt an extremely powerful magical presence enter the building. It was definitely a humanoid, but Jin couldn't quite place his finger on who it was and why it felt familiar. Then a woman's voice echoed through the vast cathedral, Jin turned to see the witch and some sort of small bipedal animal approaching him.

"Sorena." Ray said simply, though obviously the witch didn't remember the shapeshifter. Not that it mattered, they weren't there to catch up on old times with the witch. As a matter of fact, the company had asked them to silence the witch if they were to come in contact with her again. An attempt to cover up the incident with a few ancient sorcerers went awry resulted in Jin and Ray being threatened with death if they didn't join the company. And Sorena was on their list of targets to silence.

"Yes, I see... Unfortunately you know what that means." Jin sighed again, he had rather liked the witch the last time they had met. Of course, he valued his own life more than hers; self-preservation was in man's nature, after all. "We can't risk her getting whatever the hell we were sent here to get, either."

"Unfortunate." Ray said with a nod, holding his arm out toward Sorena and her companion. Within a fraction of a second, black feathers swirled around his hand and were sent scattered everywhere to reveal his arm had been covered in raven black feathers, they didn't look out of the ordinary, but they were sharp as razor blades.

"Sorena," Jin said standing behind his friend with the dangerous looking hand, "I'm sorry that it's come to this, but whatever you've come for is the property of the company. You're a target to be silenced..." He hesitated, letting himself stray from his mission mindset. "Look, if you get out of here now, the company doesn't have to know you were here. We don't have to fight, and no one has to die. I offer you this out of friendship." He said matter-of-factly.

Ray held his arm steady, ready to release a torrent of razor sharp feathers at the duo before them. "Take the deal." He urged, not wanting to injure a past comrade.

Just in case the witch turned down their offer, which she may do just out of stubbornness, Jin reached a hand back and took hold of one of his pistols. Once in his grasp, runes that had been carved into the weapon began to glow violet, transforming the weapon in his hand into what was still a pistol, only several times larger and glowing with magical energy. Instead of black, like the gun had been, it was violet-red, and the runes were still glowing faintly in his grasp. In front of the barrel of the gun, a rune was floating, waiting to transform anything fired from the gun into a bullet of magic energy as it passed through the magical symbol. "We don't want to hurt you, Sorena." Jin said staring at the witch, not knowing what to expect.

 

[Sem]

Sorena cocked her head curiously as the men explained that they were ordered to kill her.

"Silence me?" the witch repeated. "I'm fairly certain I would talk even in my grave..." she muttered. "Anyway, I'm afraid I can't," Sorena continued. "I'm here to find... the..." she froze. "What are we here for Sem?"

"I wasn't aware that we were here for anything," Sem muttered as he drew his weapons, two gunblades. They looked like ordinary semi-automatic pistols, except for blades going straight through the top of the gun, so that when used like a sword the barrel of the gun acted as a hand-guard. He held them at the ready, in case worse came to worse, which tended to happen with Sorena around.

"Honestly, it's like we're in some kind of written work without a plot!" she exclaimed. "Well, there must be some logical reason for my being here, elsewise I wouldn't be here in the first place. Everything I do has a purpose, after all," she concluded with a sagely nod.

"Oh, how I wish that were true," Sem mumbled, keeping his eyes on the pair before him.

"What did you say- no, nevermind. You probably said something terrible about me, like always," she muttered. Looking back at Jin and Ray she said, "Anyway, I don't think I can just leave, so, uhm... Look over there!" she yelled as she turned around and sprinted down the impossibly long isle. As she fled Sem activated enchantments in his weapons as well, firing bursts of energy at the suspended death-feathers.

 

[Chadwyck]

"Of course not." Jin sighed before disappearing into a rune that had appeared in the ground beneath him, the exit to the portal appeared in the air several feet above Sorena. "Sorry about this, Sorena." He mumbled as he raised his morphed pistol, firing several magic bullets of sizzling energy at the witch. With a twist, he was back on the ground, not waiting to see whether or not his bullets had any effect, he quickly drew a smoky rune in the air.

He punched through the symbol, and it seemingly shattered like glass. Around Jin's fist was a dark vapor, when he opened his hand a dark fog filled the air around them. It didn't spread far, but surrounded the mage and the witch, then Jin drew his other pistol, which morphed just as quickly as the first. Then he unleashed more bullets into the smoke screen.

The bursts of magic that the small creature had sent flying were ineffective, as the feathers instantaneously formed together into a shield. The impact of the magic was enough to make several feathers come loose and begin fluttering through the air. Ray quickly sent a torrent of feathers, now no longer woven together like a shield, at the otterfish.

He used the few seconds during his attack to grab hold of two feathers that had been tumbling slowly toward the ground, one in each hand. In another flurry of feathers, they morphed and changed shape into identical blades; but not just any blades, gunblades. Ray decided to mimic the otterfish's fighting style and weapon choice. They were beautiful blades, solid black, but gleaming with a red hue in the light. Though they had only seconds ago been nothing but feathers, it was apparent that they were now very functional weapons. Ray smirked slightly as he became a tornado of black feathers, swirling around with the sound of hundreds of beating wings before dying down completely, feathers littering the ground where Ray had been standing.

With another flurry of feathers and the sound of beating wings, Ray appeared above his opponent. It happened within a second of his disappearance, and he came down with a slash that was intended to halve the small opponent.

 

[Sem]

The witch stopped suddenly, turning around on the heel of her leather, high-heeled boot. She threw her hand up as the sapphire ring on it glowed. The bullets that were fired at her were met with a shield composed of her raw magic.

“You know as well as I do that it will take far more than that to take me down,” Sorena stated as she was enveloped in a black mist. She wasted no time in changing her form, running out of the mist in the form of a black cat and streaking into a row of pews. The feline jumped onto the back of a pew and stalked down towards Jin.

As she walked her form changed back into that of her normal self. She still walked down along the back of the pew, keeping her balance perfectly. There was a flash as a sword slid out of her right sleeve. The curved blade was silver and shone slightly, and a large sapphire nestled in the guard glowed faintly. With a wave of her hand a powerful gust of wind swept through the church, blowing away the mist as she ran, still along the back of the pew, towards her attacker. She was fast, but her past experimentation with spells ensured that along with many other things. She could, without magical aide, just barely outrun a Gold medal Olympian.

Sorena flew off of the pew, spinning her body around and slashing her sword at Jin. Continuing the spin, she also brought her leg around in an attempt to introduce the mage’s face to the back of her heel.

”Copying my weapons?” Sem thought to himself as his opponent vanished. The aquamor looked up upon hearing the sound of fluttering wings and instantly throwing both blades up above his head, blocking the slash. “Is this you trying to play fair?” Sem asked in his smooth voice before throwing back the blade and rolling out of the way. “You’ll have to give that up eventually.”
One of Sem’s blades vanished, the other transformed into a different weapon. Sem’s weapons had recently adapted to act more like Sorena’s, able to transform into different forms. It was Sem’s way of being fluid and adaptable, and unpredictable – it came with being a Water elemental.

The weapon was still a blade, but had lost its gun aspect. The blade was surrounded in a layer of ice, enchanted so that it would not melt or break unless under severe circumstances, so that the otterfish wouldn’t have to focus on keeping his blade intact or in a frozen state on top of fighting. The blade suddenly elongated, breaking into segments connected by a silver chain. Because of the ice in the blade, Sem could control the serpent sword effortlessly, making it a deadly weapon. He slashed at Ray, hoping to trap the raven within the sword’s coils.

 

[Kalseng]

No one noticed him. Few ever did. He was praying in the fourth pew, towards the right side of the church. He was, in fact, pressed so closely to the wall that he was almost edging off of the pew itself. He was locked in a silent prayer to the powers that be, as he did every late Thursday. No one was ever there. It was silent. Every time except then.

Sid knew what silence was. He was used to it. He always walked silently. No sounds ever came from him. That was his skill. As a mage, he had the ability to learn any school of magic he wanted. He could never control the elements. There was something tricky about controlling them, something foreign. But the ore obscure elements, like that of sound, came easily to him. Sid was famous for his control of sound, and renowned for his ability to alter the flow of time. He was no master, but he had skill. No one heard him, they never noticed him. Weapons magic was something he forced himself to learn, to keep himself alive. His physical prowess would never help him do that.

His black hoodie made sure of that, always drawn over his face. It hung over his eyes to block people from seeing him, and to block him from seeing others. He didn't hate others, he was just a loner. The black hoodie had a pair of neon green wings on the back, centered around a neon green quarter note. His back was pressed against the pew, however, so he could hardly be seen. He wore black cargo pants in an attempt to keep functional and hidden. Similarly, his black skate shoes helped him with that. Underneath the edge of his too-large hoodie, he kept three weapons. He kept a gun on his right hip, a gun blade on his back, and a slender rapier on his left hip. These had all been stashed to his left, however, so that he could sit down. Sid stood silently, altering his sound so that he made none. He clipped his belt of weapons around himself again, and drew the strong revolver from his right hip. The cold barrel brushed his fingers as he gripped the black handle. He pulled the other gun from his back, another silver revolver. This one, however, was different. The bottom of the barrel pulled into a sharp blade, acting as a guide for the bullet, as well as a blade. Sid snaked his way silently from between the pews, and stood between the two mages.

He clung to the handles of his guns with his thumbs, let off two thumps of sound in both directions powerful enough to stop the girl's blade, most likely sending her back to where she was, as well as take the other off guard. He made a silent sprint between the otterfish and the strange creature with a feather fetish, and let off two similar thumps from his fingertips, hopefully to cancel out the otterfish's swing and throw the other one away from its target.

"Don't do this," Sid begged. He lifted his guns and used them to push down his hood, revealing straight bright orange hair that fell loosely around his neck. His green eyes were serious and determined. "If you won't," Sid lowered his posture, and aimed his guns at the two groups of enemies. "Then I'll make you stop. And I don't need more blood on my hands."

 

[Chadwyck]

"Of course, Sorena, I didn't imagine that would be nearly enough to stop you. I'm still hoping you'll leave quietly." He replied to the witch, tossing his pistol into the and drawing the katana handle. He gripped where a blade would be with one hand, a rune appearing that the handle of the katana had to pass through. As it passed through the rune, a blade was summoned into existence. It was blood red, with pale blue runes glowing along the blade. Depending on the magic channeling through it, it could be searing hot or freezing cold. The blade looked ephemeral, but it was sharp enough to cut through stone. He brought it up to block Sorena's attack, but didn't get the chance as he was knocked back by a seemingly invisible force. He regained his balance in time to catch his falling pistol and replace it in the holster on his back.

Ray held his new toys at the ready, even after the otterfish had changed the shape of his weapon. "You can shapeshift?" He asked, taking a snakelike stance, holding the gunblades loosely ready to move with as much fluidity as possible. The serpent-like sword came ripping toward him, trying to coil around him. Ray readied himself to change shape to avoid capture, when a force knocked him back. There was now a man standing between him and his small opponent. He was aiming at all four of the fighters.

Jin sighed after the man pleaded with them to stop, "This isn't what I signed up for. There wasn't supposed to be a fight waiting for us." He mumbled, switching into a low guard, his sword tip barely touching the ground as he used it to fashion a rune on the ground inconspicuously. "Sorry, my friend, but we're just here for whatever there is hidden here." He looked at Raven, who nodded and disappeared, fluttering over the fighters in another flurry of feathers. Jin stomped his foot down on the now completed rune, activating the spell. Pillars of earth erupted from beneath all of the fighters, their ends were pointed like spears, dozens of them all around the church. He kicked off of one that had began to rise below him, catching the outstretched hand of Ray, who had perched up high on one of the cathedral's arches.

The pair then leapt off of the small ledge simultaneously, Ray summoning razor blade feathers that began to float harmlessly down toward the ground, as Jin drew an enormous rune, when it was completed the rune seemed to evaporate like smoke, and a powerful wind tore through the air. The wind sent the feathers through the air, as deadly as a flurry of arrows down toward the assembled warriors beneath them.

 

[Sem]

Sorena flew back into the pews, knocked out by an unseen force. She groaned, putting one hand on her back as she used the other to adjust her hat. “Sound magic?” she muttered as she got to her feet. “Since when can either of you use sound ma- oh,” she paused once she saw a fifth person among them. “Careful, Sem! He’s trying to out-emo you!” she chuckled to herself, mostly at her own jab at the otterfish.

“Against a bunch of magicians,” Sem muttered to himself. He had a few magical items on his person, but he was still an elemental. If he wanted to come out alive he would need to make sure that he didn’t hold anything back. He closed his eyes and dove straight into his center of power, summoning all of its strength to himself. The raw power of his element coursed through him, heightening his senses and abilities.

The stone spikes rose and the razor-sharp feathers fell. Both flew straight through the creature, though he had already taken on a liquid state and was not harmed by either attack. Physical attacks were useless against the creature now, though he was still susceptible to some magic and energy-based attacks.

His form changed back and he raised his hands into the air. The necklace around his neck began to glow and in seconds a sphere of water appeared in the air. It grew larger and larger very quickly until it was the size of a double-decker bus. The necklace offered him a number of extra tricks, one of which included summoning water from another location.

With one thought the mass of water exploded, covering every surface within a large area around the fighters. The liquid instantly froze, turning part of the cathedral into an slippery death-trap. “It’s none of your business, newcomer,” Sem hissed as he summoned a powerful tendril of water, swinging it at Jin and Ray atop their perch.

Sorena spun out of the way of a spike that would have otherwise impaled her. The ring and her left hand glowed as she swiped it across, deflecting the feathers back to their sender. Her other hand sparked to life as she shot a bolt of electricity at the tendril of water, making it more deadly.

 

[Kalseng]

"I won't let you destroy my home!" Sid shouted angrily, throwing his guns into the air. He dropped both fists on to the icy ground, and a loud rumbling noise exploded from the impact. A green aura shuddered outwards, and the sound broke up the ice, reducing the entire coating of ice to meaningless shards. The feathers and wind were another problem all together. Sid snapped his fingers, altering the flow of time around him and the path of his guns to his body. His time was accelerated, moving at almost three times the speed of his normal time flow. He used this aide to catch his guns and plot a path out of the way. As soon as he was clear, the field dropped and time around him returned to normal. The feathers missed him safely, and the wind sent the ice scattering. Sid let out another burst of sound, shattering the ice further into completely harmless snowflakes, and pushing back the wind that was starting to move in on him. As soon as those threats were clear, he pivoted on his feet and turned towards the otterfish.

"How does that form hold up against massive vibration?" Sid cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, amplifying the sound through his magic amplification chamber. He shot the condensed burst of vibration and sound otterfish-wards, and retrieved his gun from his hip. He pointed it at Sorena, and let off a round, the sound of everything he'd just done, save the powerful yell, completely silent.

 

[Chadwyck]

The feathers stopped dead in their tracks and were sent back at Ray. Without hesitating, Ray held out his hands and let the feathers hit their mark, only instead of slicing into his flesh they absorbed back into it. The bigger problem was the electrified tendril coming to destroy their perch. Ray looked at Jin and quickly said, "Separate and attack," Before leaping off of the arch, free falling toward an untimely death at the hands of gravity. As he fell, his shirt tore and from his shoulder blades sprouted what appeared to be black angel wings, though upon closer inspection they were actually enormous raven wings. He let out a sigh, as he always did when reverting to his half-form, it irritated him to no end that it tore his shirt apart.

Safely out of harms way of the water tendril, he readied himself for a more drastic shapeshift. He landed a bit away from the other fighters, concentrating on his form. He seemingly melted into a pool of darkness on the ground. When he emerged, he retained no trace of his human form, now he was what appeared to be three separate creatures. Each of them was vaguely humanoid in appearance, but they were like sentient ink blotches, not having any noticeable features aside from their shapes. They were not much taller than an average sized man. One had two giant swords for arms, another had hammers, and the last simply had hands. They seemed to be individual creatures, but in actuality, they were a single consciousness connected by a single strand of energy. This gave them the ability to flow seamlessly from one form to another, and also created the illusion of three new fighters being added to the fray. However, only one could be active at a time, the one that Ray was actually controlling.

The one with hammered fists swung at the witch, attempting to crush her with one blow. Ray had gone into his full shapeshifter mode, enabling him to become anything that he could imagine.

As Ray fled, Jin simply stepped back, sinking into the wall and appearing again behind the sound mage as he attempted to harm the water mimic. "Another time manipulator is a rare find, even if you were a bit sloppy." He said with a smirk, then he drew a rune that allowed him to increase his speed several times. It wouldn't last very long, but it was only meant to confuse his opponents. The rune enveloped the white haired mage, and within seconds there were dozens of after images of Jin surrounding the sound mage and the otterfish.

Each of the images moved in unison, drawing a series of runes one after another that embedded themselves into Jin's skin. After a few seconds the after images stopped, all feeding back into the original Jin who was standing between the sound mage and the water mimic. In his hands were condensed balls of elements. He attacked the newcomer with a concentrated explosion in the form of a small sphere that would detonate on contact. As he thrust his palm toward the otterfish, what it was he attacked with was a concentration of ice energy, attempting to freeze the mimic in his watery state.

 

[Aura]

A man walked casually down the isle of the Cathedral, admiring the stained glass that seemed to be everywhere you looked within its walls. What they depicted… well he wasn’t too sure about that, but they sure were pretty. The man looked ahead, down the isle then froze, staring at the creature that was sitting cross legged on the floor, holding an ancient book in one hand. He let out a gasp of horror, before turning and running back the way he’d come, crying out in shock.

The creature raised her head from the book for a moment, to watch the man leave. “Odd.” Aura growled. “The men in robes don’t seem to care…”

Contrary to what she’d just said, Aura could understand where the man’s distress had come from. After all, she wasn’t human, more humanoid. Aura was tall, with thin but powerful legs and broad shoulders. She was covered in short fur from head to toe, black on her legs, the stripe around her hips, the kind of mask like fur markings on her face, the stripe down her mane and the three thin stripes on her right upper arm. The rest of the fur was a kind of light, navy blue. Aura’s eyes were thin slits and naturally blood red. She had a short muzzle with a dog nose, and a short blue tail. A large spike jutted out the centre of her chest, along with two smaller ones on the top of her hands/paws. Both hands and feet were clawed. She wore a simple white tee shirt with a hole cut out of it to make room for the spike, along with a short black vest and denim shorts. On one forearm was a kind of black and purple glove, and on the other was a mechanical device. Both of her large, thin ears were pieced with small silver earrings.

“Oh well.” She growled with a shrug, before turning back to the book.

Seconds later, down the other end of the cathedral came the sound of what sounded sort of like gunshots, but where different somehow. Aura flinched in annoyance at the loud sounds and dropped the book, leaping to her feet at the same time. There was a fight of some description going on. Without hesitating the slightest, Aura turned and hurled herself along the isle, trying to reach the location of the fight.

“What the hell were they thinking?!” She hissed as she leapt over one of the fleeing people. “They could kill somebody!”

Up ahead, there seemed to be a fight going on between four… no wait, five people. Five people who all appeared to have super awesome mega powers, and know how to use them. A torrent of water suddenly appeared in Aura’s vision for a moment before the humanoid found her soaking wet from head to toe. Then the temperature swiftly dropped, freezing the water that was on her body.

“So-o… cc-ol-dd…” Aura whispered, shivering violently.

She opened herself to her power, her energy, her aura. It flared into existence around her body, violet in colour. The aura pulsed outwards, fading as it got further away from her body. The ice melted from the heat that it gave off, turning back into water then evaporating.

Now there were seven people involved in the fight, although four of them really didn’t count. Three of them were just deformed black blobs in vague humanoid shapes, each with a different kind of weapon on their hands. Only one of them was moving. The stationary blobs seemed to be the perfect targets. In one quick motion, Aura formed two large balls of her own aura and hurled them straight at the blobs. As they flew through the air, the balls separated, becoming smaller and many so the chance of evading would be a lot less.

“Idiots!” Aura cried. “Couldn’t you have started a fight somewhere where there are people who can’t defend themselves from this kind of thing?!”

 

[Sem]

Sem allowed the burst of sound and vibration to hit him, causing his body to explode into hundreds of thousands of droplets. It would take much more than that. The drops of water quickly formed back together, but before Sem could assume his furry state he was frozen by an attack from Jin. The Aquamor could still remember the first time he was frozen in that state. He panicked, especially when an attack soon after shattered him. He knew better now, though.

“Freezing me doesn’t really work either,” he said. His voice was different as it echoed within the hollow cavities in his frozen body. “And if you’re thinking of evaporating me you’re wrong there too,” he continued as he took as step forward. His body clinked and cracked with every movement. Sharp sounds were heard as pieces of his body broke away, turning into a flurry of sharp shards of ice. The ice from before that had been thoroughly pulverized into snow we called to the shards, becoming icicles and other sharp objects themselves.

Sem had become a sentient blizzard of pointy objects, and he set about attacking Jin, Ray, Sid, and the newcomer, wondering how they would react to something that for that moment had no physical form – only an entity behind a hailstorm of death.

Sorena bent backwards, avoiding the bullet from Sid and righting herself in time to block a hammer stroke from a featureless blob. The blow sent her back nonetheless, prompting her to change her weapon. The sorceress’ blade morphed into a longer weapon, looking much like a spear, minus the fact that instead of a point there was a large hammerhead. The weapon was light in her hand, despite how heavy it actually looked. She had forged and enchanted her own weapon, after all. No matter the shape the weapon took it was light, to her at least. To anyone else who tried to lift it it was even heavier than it looked.

She swung the mallet effortlessly around as she flew at the blob, using her free hand to launch a ball of condensed lightning at Sid.

 

[Kalseng]

This is just bullshit, Sid thought as the mage neared him. His immediate response was a stomp on the clear ground, which created a powerful sound wave radiating outwards. The images disappeared, however, to be replaced by the mage, Jin, firing something at him. Instinct first, Sid snapped his two hands out, and created a time field. It enveloped the small orb of magic, and stopped the ball of energy. Sid wasted no time in sending a small snap of sound down the tube, exploding the or on contact. As the explosion moved outwards, Sid silenced that which came near him. Better to save his eardrums. The air, however, pushed him back. Sid was pushed back a few feet, and suddenly noticed a clicking, sputtering wave of ice coming his way. Sharp ice.

Ice that would pierce Sid's body.

And kill him.

Sid did the most reasonable thing he could think of, that being to not get hit by the ice. Because it had magically become sentient, Sid was quickly running out of options on how to avoid it. His first instinct, as always, was more sound waves. Lots more sound waves. He began to stomp on the ground repeatedly, pushing away each layer of ice that came near him. This, of course, did little. It simply delayed the ice, which pressed closer and closer as Sid stomped. Then it hit him. Expanding his range of magic into a dome, Sid covered the immediate area of the ice that was speeding towards him. He stopped stomping, and sent out his time magic as quickly as possible.

Not fast enough.

One shard of ice tore through Sid's left arm, though only nicking him through the thick clothing he wore. The area around him was frozen in time, stuck there as long as Sid could concentrate. He realized, shortly afterwards, that as long as that ice was frozen in place, the otterfish could never become whole. If that ice couldn't reach Sem, he couldn't completely reform.

Which of course gave Sid the best, meanest idea ever. Sid retrieved a metal rail spike from his back pocket, modified to hold a green crystal at the top. He placed it in the center of the dome of his magic, and flicked the crystal. The time field kept itself stable, feeding off of the magic Sid had given it. Sid then used its magic to create a time field around the crystal itself, stopping the area immediately around it in time. Anyone that went to touch it would have their fingertips, sword tip, or front-most atoms stopped. The magic would only last about ten minutes, but that was all he needed. He created a null around himself, dispelling the magics that he created in a tight field around his body. He stepped carefully through the ice field, and turned to face everyone in the Cathedral.

His first target was that annoying otterfish. His mind reached into his mental audio database, and fished around for Sorena's voice. He even found the right word. After honing in on the word, he felt around, mentally, for the perfect place to plant his magic. And all of a sudden, there was noise all over.

Sorena's voice came from a corner, desperately shouting Sem's name, just once, for help. Next, it came in waves. Sorena's screeching voice came from every wall and corner near the sentient ice flurry, bouncing directly at it to call out its name. Angrily, softly, demandingly, soothingly, sadly, everything. It was intended to distract the otterfish. Relax his concentration. Force him to divide his attention.

"My name is Sorena and I'm a huge bitch," Sid spoke quietly in Sorena's own voice, a perfect replica. Then, as soon as he was sure that the otterfish had heard his echo chamber, Sid got angry.

A primal, warrior-like, gutteral shout tore from Sid's throat, amplified incredibly by his own magic. The sound ricocheted angrily from wall to wall, with the double intention of striking people with the vibration, as well as blowing out their hearing. Sid wasn't a fan of fair fights.

Or people invading his home and causing such a god damn racket.

 

[Chadwyck]

The orbs of energy came flying toward the air at the two parts of Ray that he wasn't currently in control of, his consciousness inhabiting the blob that was currently fighting with Sorena. He was hoping that an attack at the motionless parts of him, the two other bodies, would be a little later, but he made due with what he had. Rather than attempt to avoid or block these attacks, he instead just let the two extensions of himself be hit.

Once the energy made contact with them, they were rendered useless as weapons, but upon being destroyed their energies fed into the body currently inhabited by Ray's consciousness. The creature that he was grew in size, so that now it was easily ten or eleven feet tall; the hammers on its hands shifted shape to incorporate all three of the creatures' weapons. Armed now with hammers, blades, and claws, Ray waited for Sorena to attack with her mallet. Once she got close enough, the creature spun round, knocking aside her weapon and continuing the spin to follow through with a slash.

The sentient hail storm of deadly ice-spikes was a different matter to be contended with. The humanoid blob that was Ray seemed to sigh before exploding into a torrent of raven feathers, one for every shard of ice that had been created by the otterfish. Now there were two sentient storms in the massive building, though Ray wasn't attempting to attack, so much as he was avoiding damage that could be caused by the hail storm. Of course, if the feathers caused any damage to one of the fighters during their flurry, then it would be a welcomed bonus.

Jin watched as the otterfish changed into a walking snowstorm of death. "Well, lesson learned, won't be trying that again." He muttered dryly as the sharp objects readied to tear through flesh and bone. Jin knelt on the ground, drawing a rune. The symbol expanded until it was big enough for Jin to sit in the center with plenty of room away from the edges. Jin arced his hand from one side to the other above him, and an invisible dome formed around him. The only way to tell that there was something there was a slight glow, strong heat emanating from it, and when something made contact with the shield it looked like static.

The dome gave Jin a second to breathe, the hail that came within the area got either blocked or melted before it did any real damage to his shield. Even if the brunt of the attack met with the dome, his magic should have been able to keep the shield strong enough, but better safe then sorry. Once Jin saw Ray's countermeasure in the form of another sentient storm, he decided to make his defense and offense. And not a moment too soon, the sound mage had created a time field, one that didn't appear to be dissipating any time soon, before stepping forth and unleashing a devastating screech that reached Jin's ears even through the magic barrier. The effect was filtered, but it still gave him a painful headache.

He pressed his arms out to either side of him, feeding magic into the barrier while expanding it. It was no longer meant to be a shield, but a wave of energy that would incinerate anyone that made contact with it for too long, that would hopefully do something to stop the hail from impaling him if he stepped out from his shield, and it would hopefully stop that offensive noise from the sound mage, as well.

 

[Kalseng]

OoC: I LIKE THIS RP DON'T YOU FUCKING DIE ON ME NOW

--------

Sid dropped his hands, and looked about. Yeah, this was going to be difficult if he didn't get a hold of the situation. Silencing himself, Sid pulled up his hood and made a brisk sprint towards the sanctuary doors, pushing them open and shutting it as quietly as he could, silently in fact, behind him. He looked over at a window pane, and found a few fingerholds and handholds with his eyes. He kicked up his feet onto the sill, and scaled the side of the wall. His fingers briefly clung to ledges and stone-breaks, where his feet barely pushed off against the spaces between stones. He scrambled onto the top of the building, sufficiently out of breath. He looked down the red roof, and found the large bronze church bell standing like a shimmering bell of hope. He sprinted noisily to the bell, and stood up on the stone house that it was placed in. He pushed out his magics into the cathedral, trying to summon up a magic sonic control field. When he was too far from the target, the dome-shaped field would be represented as a green shimmer in the air. He turned away from it and lowered his body before quickly spinning around and slamming the bell with his foot. He pushed his magics into his feet, and held his leg against the bell. The loud sound became a devastating roar of metallic rage, and it quickly filled the sonic field Sid had set up.

Sid turned towards the end of the cathedral, and began to stroll towards the end the door was under. Hopefully he hadn't killed them.

 

[Sem]

Sid’s attempt to trap Sem and stop him from reforming wasn’t going to work. He only required a mass of water equal to his own mass to reform, and because he had merged with the mass of water he had summoned minutes before, a relatively large amount of it would need to be trapped in order to stop him.

Then it came. He was assaulted by Sorena’s voice, which was talking only half as much as she usually did. His friend’s voice seemed to suddenly be all around him, calling out to him.

The storm of ice stopped suddenly and fell to the floor in the form of water. His liquid form rose up out of the liquid that thinly covered the area in which they fought. The transparent mass quickly sprouted fur and color, becoming carbon-based once more.

He flinched at every call of his name, though a quick glance in the witch’s direction told him she was fine, well, aside from the fact that she was in battle against a giant shadow monster.

“Oh gods,” the sorceress muttered gravely, eyes darting in all directions at the sound of her own voice as she deftly dodged out of the way of claw-slash. “Have I finally gone mad?”

"My name is Sorena and I'm a huge bitch," her voice said.

Sorena paused, giving no one in particular a quizzical and slightly hurt look. “I am not!” she said, putting her hands to her hips.

“Sound magic,” Sem muttered as the sounds finally ceased. He melded in with the water again and began to move, the only sign of his existence being a slight ripple on the surface of the supersized puddle that covered the area. He approached Ray, rising up out of the water in a still-liquid-otterfish-form. He slashed up at the man with an arm-turned-ice-sword before falling back into the water and moving around Ray, repeating the same with his tail. He continued the onslaught, rising up in random places and attacking in a way that was as fluid as the element Sem controlled.

“All right, Jin,” Sorena said, moving a strand of hair out of her face as she stepped forward. Her strength was with weather and disaster magic, and so she would make sure that her enemies saw some of it. Her sword flashed in her hand as she quickly cut a rune into the air before her. It was large and more intricate, and only faintly visible. Smaller runes surrounded the woman and one appeared underneath her feet. She chanted almost silently, calling forth the amount of magic necessary for the low-class ruin spell she was summoning. “Sound-kid will not be happy about this,” she muttered as the nearly transparent magic surrounded her blade and her free hand.

In seconds a screeching wail was heard as many of the doors in the sanctuary burst open, letting a howling wind enter. The amount of wind quickly escalated, focusing in on the area of combat and turning into a small scale hurricane that focused on the combatants. The wind was strong enough to blow people away, but not enough to bring down the church. No, she had an even more powerful hurricane spell that would do that job easily. Pews began to fly, being thrown far into the unaffected areas of the cathedral.

“Speaking of sound kid…” she mumbled, looking around for the magician. Then she noticed the green shimmer in the air. She reacted as quickly as she could the only way she knew that would offer any protection to whatever was coming. The wind focused around her, acting as she shield against the explosion of sound, filtering and distorting it. Of course, she couldn’t react fast enough and she was knocked back several feet, landing where a pew once was. “No, no, no!” she said, trying to keep control of her hurricane, luckily being able to keep it in play for it faded completely.

Sem again exploded into millions of droplets, showering the area. “That’s getting annoying,” he muttered as he reformed, glowering at Sid as he re-entered the building.

 

[Tunolipede]

OoC: First post, here I come~!

"... okay, but seriously, what are we doing here?"

"Teehee, I don't know. It's an adventure, y'know? It's supposed to be fun."

"How is coming to some random chapel 'fun'?"

"You like fighting, am I right~? Oh wait. Stupid question. I know you do."

Kaido kicked the ground with each step as he and Rui neared the old church that lay in the center of the small, quiet village. Some locks of stranded hair waved in front of his eyes as he stared emotionlessly at his feet. Of course, he wasn't actually emotionless; - in fact, he was strangely emotion-full. As usual, Rui had been annoying him and dragging him off to random places. He had no choice but to go, of course. If he didn't do what Rui wanted him to, she would normally get upset and slightly grumpy. When Rui was like this, it was wiser to leave her be. The only way to cheer her up would be to agree with her. They had already went around this whole routine; and Rui had dragged Kaido here. Oh, joy.

"Right, oh-kay!" Rui grinned as her footsteps ceased to be heard. Kaido stopped in his tracks too, before looking up. They had arrived at the doors of the chapel. "We're going in here, mkay? I wonder what's happening in here, anyways~" Rui turned to face Kaido and grinned. Her turquoise-coloured hair hung by her shoulders and her violet eyes glittered in the sunlight. She was wearing her usual; a yellow-gold tunic with a yellow-lined, green, long-sleeved cardigan that reached just under her chest. The soft wind swayed her thigh-high skirt. Sometimes Kaido wondered how him and Rui were related; they looked completely differently and acted completely differently. They had picked classes that were very far apart; Rui being a Geomancer and Kaido being a Warrior. He was wearing his usual brown tunic and trousers, which he had enchanted with a Shock-spell, so that he wasn't completely vulnerable.

"Oh, fine." Kaido sighed, shrugging his shoulders, his shoulder-armour clanking and his sword on his bag wriggling in its case. "If we've came here, we might as well go in."

"That's the spirit~" Rui grinned, as she pushed open the great, heavy doors.

Inside the chapel, loud clanks, shouts and spell-sounds echoed off of the great walls and beautiful stained-glass windows. There were many figures bashing off of each other, casting spells, drawing swords, attacking each other in any way possible. It wasn't quite clear who was fighting against who; it was like a strangely orchestrated jumble.

"Teeheeheehee~" Rui cackled, holding up her staff. "When I heard a battle would be happening, I didn't know that it would be this ... intense."

Kaido sighed and dragged his hand through his fringe. Seemingly reluctantly, he drew his sword.

 

[Chadwyck]

There was so much going on that any lesser combatants would have been overwhelmed and killed within seconds. Luckily, Ray and Jin were no strangers to combat, and were able to keep up with the antics of the battle; albeit fairly overwhelmed themselves, but not enough to be caught with a fatal blow.

The sentient hail storm of death that was the otterfish became a single creature again, meaning that Ray could reform his body without worrying about being impaled by a shard of living ice. The torrent of feathers began to mass themselves together into the shirtless form of Ray; shirtless because as easy as it was for him to form different creatures and lifeforms with his shapeshifting abilities, he hadn't gotten clothes down quite right, and his shirt was still torn from revealing his wings earlier in the battle. The dark raven barely had time to blink before he was attacked by the otterfish once more, this time in full liquid form.

The creature burst up from the ground, still in liquid form, and slashed at Ray from behind with a sword made out of ice. Ray turned on his heel and blocked the ice-blade with his forearm, now covered in an armor like plating that had formed in place of his skin. He missed the next one, however, and took a gash across the stomach. There didn't seem to be a way to hurt the water mimic, so he'd have to stay on the defensive for now.

Jin gave up on holding up his defensive dome when he saw the new assault from Sorena beginning. The interior of the church was being torn apart by hurricane force winds, pews and people alike were being flung across the expansive building. Jin pulled his arms into an 'x' across his chest, calling the energy back toward him, and compressing it into a ball in the palm of his hand. He didn't use the ball for anything other than a physical object to draw another rune.

The energy burned into the ground as Jin traced the new symbol, using every ounce of his will to keep himself anchored to the ground and ensuring that he didn't get crushed by a random piece of debris being hurled through the air. It took a lot of concentration, but luckily it paid off, and not a moment to soon as he saw the green shimmer appearing in the air. The rune burned and fizzed and suddenly burst out into a bright light that engulfed Jin completely. When the flash of light faded, Jin was suspended in a completely soundless, motionless reality. Time had frozen completely, and the effort of causing it to do so appeared on Jin's face almost immediately.

"I hate having to do this, it's so draining. Couldn't see any other way around it, unfortunately." He looked around quickly and saw that Ray was about to meet another slash of the otterfish's ice blade. He had only seconds to act before the spell would drop, and it would end the moment he activated another spell, so he had to be careful. Even drawing his sword or summoning his pistols would result in time resuming; he hadn't used the most powerful of his time magic. He walked over to Ray and took a hold of the shapeshifter's arm, pulling him into the time field.

"Thanks." Ray muttered. Jin nodded and raised his hand, ready to start drawing another rune. Ray was ready to move instantly, sprouting his wings and carrying Jin up. As they flew, Jin began drawing a new rune, causing time to snap back into motion, though to everyone else it'd look like they had just teleported. Jin drew the rune, a doorway into a void of reality, and they disappeared into it. The burst of sound passed and the exit portal appeared high in the air above the fighters, and the two mages came shooting out of it in a nose dive. Jin held a ball of fire in his hands and as Ray released him and started changing shape again, Jin hit the ground sending out a wave of fire that was more akin to an explosion than anything else, in the center of the combatants. Ray became a tornado of feathers, but they spun so quickly that it looked like a solid black funnel of death bringing feathers, that followed on the heels of the wave of fire.

 

[Sem]

OOC: Might as well reply to this. Let there be life~

BIC:
In an instant Sem was facing a wave of flame spreading across the church. He had few options with so little time to react, but he knew that if he returned to his normal state he would be burned alive. The wave of fire came and evaporated Sem immediately. Normally being a vapor wouldn't be a problem, but the force of the attack had stunned him and so he hung listless in the air, invisible, his molecules spread too far and wide for the steam to be seen. Thankfully this protected him from being slashed to bite-sized otter-pieces by a storm of razor feathers, but it would take him some time to regain his senses and reform himself. If he was lucky his enemies would think he was dead.

Meanwhile Sorena ran headlong towards the explosion like the mad woman she was. She paused with seconds to spare, the ring on her middle finger glinted for a few moments as it was infused with more magic. She stepped forward with perfect timing, swatting the flames with the back of her hand. Immediately the flames parted around her, the flames closest to her turning blue as she rushed forward. The next obstacle was sharp and pointy, which she solved by avoiding it all together. The woman vanished in a wisp of smoke that behaved in the air like dye did in water.

The sorceress appeared not a moment later close to Jin. Still having her momentum from before she teleported she continued running - heels clacked loudly against the floor as she approached as fast as an olympic runner and aimed to knee the man in the gut with the force of the strongest bodybuilder.

 

[Kalseng]

"No respect," Sid muttered, reaching for his gun. Sid picked up a chunk of a pew, and send it clattering towards the ground. He needed to blow off just a little bit of senseless steam. Unholstering and clicking back the barrel of his gun again, Sid pointed it back at the gunblade-wielding otter. This time, the gun fired with the sound of a canon, condensed into a funnel of explosive sound. Sid focused as much of the concussive sound into one burst as he could, hopefully keeping the steam-based otter from reforming.

"Destroying him again and again is doing nothing," He commented. "Maybe a more solid target?" Sid aimed his gun at Sorena, and sent a trickle of his power into the gun. Bright green, glowing lines formed on the barrel, crawling towards the rim of the gun. The light settled on the very tip of the rim, and Sid fired a bullet. It seemed to transform into a large, moving ball of green fire. It carried massive concussive force, but wouldn't burn. The water-melon sized bullet would potentially destroy clothing, but the only real threat was still the bullet. In advance preparation, Sid drew his rapier in his left hand, backwards, for defensive purposes.