6893/Lohengrin Castle Rescue

Lohengrin Castle Rescue
Date of Scene:	06 November 2019
Location:	Lohengrin Castle, Legram, Erebonia
Synopsis:	During one of Class VII's field studies, the gang goes to rescue some missing children from a haunted castle.
Cast of Characters:	Rean Schwarzer, Athela Valemore, 7002, 6802, Yang Xiao Long
Tinyplot:	Trails of Cold Steel 1

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Rean Schwarzer has posed:
You all arrive at the lakeside village of Legram, where there is a motorboat waiting for you if you need it. Otherwise, you can just fly over to the opposite shore if you're capable of that. After all, it's hard to miss the glowing medieval castle. There's three members of Class VII already waiting for you when you get there - Rean, Laura and Emma. The glowing appears to be from some sort of shimmering effect around the building.

You all go inside, and almost immediately, the large wooden doors slam shut. Uh oh.

Athela Valemore has posed:
Boat? Where we're going (over to that island) we don't need no stinking boat!... Well, at least Athela doesn't. Because she just rides on the back of her Samurott as an aquatic steed. Enjoy the view of a large sealion-like beast in metal armor cruising across the lake like an organic jetski.

On the opposite shore nothing stops them from heading inside, but once they are the castle doors slam shut. And Athela doesn't even flinch at the thudding sound. "That was expected." She would be more surprised if they didn't get trapped in side. Though locking them in? May be the biggest mistake the culprit made. Resolute Blade remains resting against her shoulder, but her grip tightens noticably around the long hilt to keep ready. "Be on thy guard. We still do not know what opposition we may face." Lancer gives a snort of agreement, rising on his back legs and drawing the dual shell-pommels from the armor on his forelimbs.

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
Mikoto takes the speed boat, because of /course/ she does.  Ending up on the other side, she jumps out and yawns, stretching her arms out before walking towards the students.  

"Yo," She says to them, casual because at this point she 's become very friendly with them.  "Cool glowing castle, so I guess we're going inside?  I wonder if the door will slam on us."

Once inside, the door slams on them, "Awesome!  I wonder if it's actually haunted, or if there is some guy controlling it from somewhere deeper in.  Alright, let's go explore!" Mikoto chooses a direction at random.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
Normally, a random castle would have flown under the radar for Jeanne. What makes this one different from any other one, then? For starters, the strange occurrences and reports of demons. Next, the missing children (even if she'd never admit it). Third...

Her wyverns have been getting lazy, and she hasn't caused a real ruckus in a while. This is the perfect opportunity to do so, and what better way to do that than to arrive in style? The motorboat is ignored in favor of flying over with a squad of wyverns, standing atop one's back in the lead while the others trail behind hers. Upon reaching the castle, she directs the other four to keep an eye on things outside, then heads in with one hovering ominously above her like a big floating decoy.

"Hmph. They must be afraid if they're relying on parlor tricks so soon." She smirks as she does't give the closing door even a passing glance, marching forward steadily with only a large, inconvenient banner shouldered on one shoulder. "Let them come if they want. If our guard is needed at all, then they might actually be worth something."

She doesn't know where she's going, but straight lines are usually a good indicator of where to go.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Well, Yang could be persuaded to try leaping from one shore to the other, but time seems pretty limited, so she takes the guarenteed option that won't result in her getting all soaked. "Hey!" she offers to the locals, and those she recognizes.. which is Athela and Mikoto.

    When the group enter and the doors slam shut, Yang turns and in the same motion deploys her gauntlets. "Great... and I was hoping to avoid any Geist-types..." She goes to try and open the doors again, but likely finds them unwilling to budge even to her impressive strength, and thus goes along with the group, lifting one arm and igniting a shell on slow burn to act as a makeshift torch.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Mikoto wanders off into one of the side rooms, where there's a sort of spiral ramp leading further downwards. Jeanne wanders off in the opposite direction into a similar room, but the ramp is going upwards. Both of you encounter red skull monsters with blue flames coming off them. These are probably the demons. Or some of them at least.

Yang finds that yes, she can't just bust the door down. In fact, doing so just makes a spell circle pop up every time you hit it.

Seeing as those are basically the only other doors in here than the one that's locked, Rean and Laura split up and go into Mikoto's door, with Emma following Jeanne. Athela and Yang are free to go with whoever, but there's only one way forward.

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
"See, I hadn't even started to get nasty and the ghosts appear!" Mikoto says, as there is a flash of green and ~Sparkles~.  In front of her, a jade crystal bursts out in front of her, as it shatters into her sword.  Drawing the weapon up she looks over the demon ghost thing.  

"Alright, time to get going downstairs!" she says, and charges, aiming to swing the weapon upwards, and through the demon in her way.  "I swear the GHOST THAT INHABITS THIS PLACE IS SUCH A GIANT NERD!  I BET IT CAN'T EVEN PROPERLY SPOOK A SMALL ANGRY CHILD!" Mikoto says, even as she's stabbing another monster.

Look, nobody is saying Mikoto doesn't have issues, nor does she have sane role models.

Athela Valemore has posed:
On one hand, they shouldn't get too divided. On the other, splitting up is the best way to check all the rooms and make sure they don't miss anything. Rean and Laura go after Mikoto, so Athela opts to follow Emma after Jeanne, with her pokemon bringing up her rear. Though unlike the impulsive girls the young knight's pace is measured and wary, she's on alert for the first sign of danger.

Like flaming monster skulls. Yeah, that fits the bill of threat. If they're demons or some other kind of monster doesn't really matter in the end. "Lancer, watch our backs", Athela commands even as she uses a burst of water to launch herself forward at one of the creatures, pulling her weapon from her shoulder and immeadiately into a downward slash. Her pokemon does as he's told, remaining by the doorway they came in and creating two elemental blades in his forepaws to strike anything that tries to get past them, or come in from behind the group.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
Finally, an obstacle! They don't strike much of anything into Jeanne, though, beyond disdain and the slightest amount of pity. She does notice that Mikoto's gone off in another direction, but she doesn't appear all that worried about the girl in favor of just glowering at the skull monsters.

"Tch... Fine, you'll have to do." Pointing her flag at another creature that Athela isn't already dealing with, Jeanne conjures up multiple spears that circle around behind her, igniting with dark flames as a trio of them launch towards the unlucky target with clear intent to impale it terribly.

Her gaze, however, falls on the creature to the side. "You there. Bring us to your leader. Don't waste our time, or you'll suffer the same fate as the others!"

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang frowns at the door, giving it a final haymaker just to make herself feel better, then finds out she's been left alone in the entryhall.

    "Okay then..." she heads off in the wake of Rean and Mikoto, rounding the corner only to find a party already started. "Huh... okay then, you guys want some help?" she asks, fists raised defensively, in case something tries to come after her, but Mikoto seems to have the spooky ghosts in check for the most part.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Jeanne's Group: The skull ghost gets impaled and fades away, and the other one just...chatters at you, before it lets out a ghastly cry. Emma wavers on her feet upon hearing this, using her staff to keep her self upright. Some sort of sleep-inducing sound? Still clinging to her staff, Emma is surrounded in a ring of blue light, before a burst of warmth surrounds her, Athela, Lancer,and Jeanne, raising their strength. There's a loud clanking noise as a suit of possessed armor comes clanking down the ramp to join the skull ghost.

Mikoto's group: Mikoto successfully bisects the skull ghost, but is greeted by what looks like a pair of spiked cannons on spiked chariot wheels. There's also some floating swords with it. It charges up the ramp, straight at Mikoto. Like, ungodly fast. Those spikes look like they'd hurt a LOT too. The swords meanwhile gun for Rean, Laura and Yang, swinging as swords are wont to do. Both Rean and Laura parry the ones gunning for them with their own blades, with Laura basically slamming the sword attacking her into the ground with her greatsword.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang uses the strikeplate on the outside of her gauntlets to crossguard against the phantom sword. Sparks fly from the edge of the blade, and the metal of her gauntlets, until she shifts one arm away, turns the blade aside then slams her other fist into the side of the ghost sword, firing her gauntlet shotgun at the moment of impact. Hopefully that shatters the thing, or at least does significant damage to it.

    "You've got some really weird monsters in your world Rean." she mentions conversationally.

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
The ghost goes down easily enough, "Like I said, A gia-oh no," She says as the spiked cannons charge at her.  She blocks with the sword, but the force of the blow sends her flying backward.  She hits the ground at a weird angle and rolls but manages to flip to her feet just moments later.  Ending with her sword in the ground she looks up, narrowing her eyes.

As it charges at her, a magic circle appears below her, as a giant elephant charges out of the ground, aiming to try and knock over the chariot with its own overrun manuever.  The two collide, sparing Mikoto, and attempting to in turn return the chariot's attack.

"Like I was saying.  /Giant Nerd/!"

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
Jeanne sighs as the skulls give a grand total of zero answers, then flicks her wrist to draw a darkened blade out of the air in front of her. "Good help is so hard to find some days... You're not even going to listen, are you?" She glares daggers at the possessed armor coming to join them, rolling her shoulder a few times and taking note of that lighter feeling in her arms.

"You should be more like... This one here." She gestures vaguely at Emma for a brief moment, then charges at the armor. "But you... If you can't even listen to a simple command, then I have no need for you!" She rushes for it with a broad slash down the middle, definitely not going for one of those samurai-like running slashes before sheathing her blade at the end.

(She totally is but she's using a long sword it doesn't really look the same with that.)

Athela Valemore has posed:
Athela Valemore shifts her attention at the sound of armored footfalls, eyeing the armor clonking down from the stairs. Ghostly armor? It's no Golurk but not really a surprise considering it's a haunted castle, either. "Let no fiend stand in our way!" she calls, channeling some aquamancy through her weapon and causing the glaive's blade to glitter as if reflecting light off the surface of water. Then grips it in both hands and swings, throwing herself forward with the arc aimed at the impending armor with all the force of a torreting stream of water behing her strike, aiming to come in right after Jeanne's charge to hopefully catch the foe on the rebound from that attack.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Jeanne's Group: Jeanne's definitely not weeby sword strike slashes across the armor's chest, staggering it a bit with Athela's strike fully knocking it to the ground like a heap of metal. Ir rallies, though and quickly rebuilds itself, swinging its arms at both women. Also that skull is still here, but Emma's got it, surrounding herself in blue light again and piercing it with a series of ethereal blades. Like the one before, it vanishes.

Mikoto's group: "I'm pretty sure these aren't normal monsters..." Rean says, bisecting the sword that was acosting him. Like the skulls, it vanishes. Same goes with the one acosting Yang as she shatters it. Mikoto's elephant rams the chariot, and the chariot spins its wheels for a while as it tries to charge THROUGH the elephant. Meanwhile the other chariot fires at Yang with a fairly large cannonball.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang spots the incoming cannon shot, and braces. She extends her right hand, palms the cannonball, then turns with the momentum. Aura flares across her body as it absorbs the impact, and as the blonde turns and redirects the shot's momentum, it pulses and covers the cannonball with a golden light. "As a wise man once said." she grins. "Skadoosh."

    Yang then hurls the cannonball straight back at the chariot, with all the momentum, plus some extra force added on top, thought her Aura evaporates briefly after performing that little stunt.

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
The elephant and the chariot clash.  Both pushing against the other as they try and gain better footing against the other.  There is a moment when the Chariot might look like it was winning before the elephant released a mighty elephant noise and put it's back into it.  

However, Mikoto was not going to stand still, running on top of the elephant's back, she runs to the head of it while looking to Rean and Laura.  She nods to them and leaps from its head.  They have to move in sequence, aiming each strike to try and weaken the chariot, before she comes down in a hammer blow.

Aiming to bisect the monster in twain.  

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
When the armor goes down, Jeanne scoffs once more as she swings her blade downwards at her side to flick off the nonexistent blood. Before she can finish, however, it pulls itself back up faster than Jeanne would have expected it to.

"Oh? Maybe this won't be a complete waste of time if these minions can take one hit." Grinning a little bit more, she draws her blade up once more to block that swing, holding it there for a second to get a better look at the armor before bringing her armored boot up to punt it back. "But I'm getting tired of this... Show yourself, master of this castle, or I'll burn this entire place to cinders!"

And as if on cue, that floating wyvern finally makes its move. It follows up on Jeanne's kick by spitting flames at the armor, distinctly more red and orange and looking much more like normal fire than the Servant's.

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
    A shout from the other side of the house asks a very important question to Jean, "HEY JEAN, ARE WE BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE NOW?" Mikoto asks.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
There's a brief pause before Jeanne answers. It's not the pause of someone hesitating, but the pause of someone weighing her options. "It'll be a good plan B!"

On one hand, castle. On one hand, burning things. Decisions, decisions.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
On their respective sides of the castle, Emma and Laura both say, "Please don't" and "This place is a part of my family's heritage, I'd appreciate it if you didn't do that."

Athela Valemore has posed:
Athela Valemore's divine intuition sparks as the armor reconstructs itself, giving her just enough split-second warning to step back and bring her weapon up into a defensive stance. The swinging arm slams against Resolute Blade, shielding her from harm but still hitting with enough force to make her slide backwards.

They don't have time to waste dealing with every minion in the castle. "Lancer, lock it down."

"Samurott!" The large pokemon moves with some considerable speed for his size. There's a kick and fire to knock them armor over again, and he goes to drive his two icy blades into the armor's arms in an attempt to pin and freeze them to the floor. So even if the armor does just get back up, it will be, shall we say, disarmed, and unable to stop them so easily.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Jeanne's Group: The armor is incinerated and pinned to the ground, basically now just a pile of old burned metal and no longer ghostly. Emma lets out a sigh of relief, and starts down the path again.

Mikoto's group: The chariot gets dunked on, with the cannonball going straight back at it and exploding. Rean and Laura come at the stalled chariot from both sides, with Rean doing a definitely weeby sword run with his actually weeby sword and slashing one wheel and Laura basically smashing off the other. Mikoto comes in with the coup de grace, bisecting it from the top.

For both groups the way is clear now, with a glowing orb waiting at the bottom / top of the path respectively. On Mikoto's side it's yellow, and on Jeanne's it's red.

Also on Mikoto's side is a large door with a familiar looking flaming flower pattern.

"...Doesn't this look like that door from the Old Schoolhouse?" Rean notes.

Jeanne's side has a much smaller and plain looking door with a spell circle on it, almost identical to the one that appeared when people smacked the front door, except orange.

"...May I?" Emma says, taking the red orb and holding it up to the spell circle. The orb vanishes, and shifts from orange to yellow. "Is there a yellow orb on your side?" She asks the other group. "Can you bring it over here?" She's oddly calm about this dungeon puzzle.

Once the groups reconvene and hand over the orb, you all pass into a larger room... where there's two boys being accosted by a bunch of those flaming skulls. One of the boys is crying, and the other is alternately panicking and trying to act tough. Laura immediately draws her blade and charges in, slamming her weapon into one of the skulls. Emma and Rean follow suit, slashing and blasting one each.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Simple enough puzzle, the locals are handling that part at least.

    When the missing kids are found being accosted by more monsters, the blonde is quick off the mark. She jinks around the group with a shot from her gauntlet, then fires the other to redirect the momentum and launches herself clear across the room. Mid-flight, she brings her left arm around and aims to clobber one of those skulls with all the boosted momentum from her launch, and a blast from her shotgauntlet on impact. "I've got a bone to pick with you lot." she quips, landing with a skid and interposing herself between the boys and the skulls.

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
Mikoto looks at the sigil, "Huh...it's the same." She says, with a thoughtful look.  "We should check out what this means later.  First killing the bo-I mean rescuing kids.  She says, remembering her priorities.  

Walking through the door leads them to one kid trying to act tough, and the other pissing himself.  With a burst of speed thanks to Nanoha's flight and speed, she soars ahead, aiming to crash into the flaming skulls and put herself between the innocents and the monsters.  

"What, picking on something your size and power too hard?  It's ok, I'm a bigger fish than you anyway, so it's not fair for you either.  The bigger fish eats the smaller one and all," she says, with a grin.  Her head turns back to the other two, "You better get behind us, leave this to the professionals."

And then a skull gets blasted by a buckshot.  She gives Yang a thumbs up, "Nice shot."

Athela Valemore has posed:
Magic door lock puzzles. And the 'keys' are apparently at opposite ends of the structure? That's actually clever, so it's apparently a good thing they went both ways at once with two groups, and takes less time to get the right door open over all without as much running back and forth. Others are already working on doing that so Athela will leave the puzzle to them.

That just means that she's already ready to go as soon as they can make their way into the other room. There's the kids, and more ghosts. "Rear guard, make sure we have a way back out." Her pokemon again waits at the doorway to do just that.

While Athela herself gets into the action. "Back to whatever cold nether spawned you, fiends!" She leaps forward while raising her weapon and then swinging down with it, a cluster of jagged snow and ice manifesting with it to come smashing down onto a demonic skull, her version of Icicle Crash.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
Jeanne is more than willing to let Emma handle the orb, still visibly distracted from the merits of burning the entire place to the ground. That earlier request not to burn it down does have her pausing for a moment, but more out of amusement than anything else.

She opts not to set more fires for the time being.

When the groups converge, Jeanne's already moving ahead and letting her banner flap above her from the light winds provided by her wyvern follower. When the group encounters the skulls, she doesn't lift a finger to strike at those skulls. There's plenty of firepower between the six other people charging ahead.

Instead, she starts taking stock of the room they're in. Obvious entrances, fancy places to sit, signs that someone else might be here besides the minions. "Now where is the lord of this castle? Surely you've got some interest in this place beyond terrorizing some pissant children, right? Come on out, or I might have to do something a little more drastic."

Fire may be involved again soon.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
"Whoa..." The cap-wearing little boy that was trying to be tough says as people start jumping into action. The other boy stops crying and looks up at the group, specifically Laura. "Lady Laura...?" They both then skitter behind Yang and Mikoto, letting them handle the skulls.

Eventually the skulls are all gone, and Laura sheathes her sword, turning to the two boys. "Are you alright?" she asks.

The boy in the cap nods. "That was so cool!" he shouts, a huge grin on his face. The other boy nods. "Y-yeah..."

Rean chuckles. "Looks like they're fine."

Laura nods, and then says, "Do you understand how worried everyone in the village is? Not only did you steal a boat, but you both could have gotten hurt."

After some stammering, both boys apologize to Laura, and she gives both a gentle pat on the head.

Jeanne will notice that there's only one way forward- A long staircase spiraling upwards out of this room.

Emma looks up towards the ceiling, and then closes her eyes, as if listening or waiting for something. And then with some hesitation, she says, "...I think whatever is keeping us here is on the floor above us.  It feels like a mass of powerful energy..."

Rean raises an eyebrow at this, and then takes on a similar pose. "...Yeah. " He says, opening his eyes. "Do we want to split up? Some of us watch the kids, while the others deal with whatever's upstairs? Or do we want to take them with us?"

Athela Valemore has posed:
"They shouldn't be endangered in the fighting, but they cannot leave until we get the gates decharmed, either." Athela turns to look over her shoulder, and her Samurott nods his head. Turns back to the group. "My pokemon can guard the children so we can focus on whatever fiend is behind all this."

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    "More monsters could spawn while we're gone." says Yang, turning to kneel down in front of the two boys. "As long as they stay out of the way, I say we take'em with us." She gives them both a big, reassuring grin, and ruffles them both.

    Then Athela mentions her pets, and the blonde brawler shrugs. "That'll work. too, I guess." she remarks, then stands and adjusts her jacket. "I'll take point. My Aura should protect me from the worst of whatever it can throw at me, I'll bait it out, you guys follow up and pound it flat."

    With that, she sets off toward the spiral staircase, bounding up it two steps at a time.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
Right. The kids. Jeanne lets out an irritated groan as she keeps moving towards the staircase, not answering Rean at first as she starts heading up right away. After the first few steps however, she beckons her wyvern decoy over and jerks a thumb backwards. It takes a few moments, but the wyvern soon joins the Samurott in keeping guard over the children whether the stay behind or join the group.

The good thing about being able to command her wyvern wordlessly like so is not having to verbally acknowledge the need to protect them further. Plus, it lets her yell up the stairs for speedrunning the castle. "This place could do with some cleaning up... I think I'll take it from whoever had the bright idea to bring me here today!" She's starting to sound a little more excited with the prospect of getting into a fight again, too.

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
Mikoto thinks about the situation until Athela come sup with a solution.  "Works for me.  The sooner we kill whatever is keeping us here, the sooner they're safe.  Anyway, let's go beat up a giant nerd," Mikoto says and walks towards the way up.

Mikoto can see the way forward, so of course, she starts moving to try and find the giant source upstairs so she can punch it into submission.  Her jade sword in hand as she gets ready for yet another fight.  After all, it's always another fight.

Athela Valemore has posed:
Samurott raises one seamitar in a salute to the party, then settles in place with the wyvern to watch over the kids. It's almost like having an actual knight and dragon as bodyguards, if the knight was also a exceptionally large sealion.

That's one less concern to distract them in the coming fight. Athela shoulders her weapon as she follows the others up the stairs to their next confrontation, keeping her grip ready on the hilt to draw at a moment's notice. Time to put an end to this matter at it's source so they all can go home.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
You all continue up the staircase, where there's a large room with an orb lying on a pedestal in it. The orb seems to have some sort of pale energy floating in it, and it looks like a bigger version of the key orbs from earlier.

Jeanne's comment about "taking the castle" strikes a nerve in Laura, and she draws her sword again. "Absolutely not." Laura says, "This castle was given to my ancestor by the great Lianne Sandlot, and neither fiends nor outsiders will take it from us!"

"Uh, Laura? I think you should work that out /after/ we finish up here..." Rean says. "Besides, she's probably joking. I think."

Assuming that someone decides to punch the orb, whatever attack gets thrown at it is deflected by another spell circle barrier. Then the orb starts rumbling, leaking out energy until it becomes a giant, skull faced ghost holding a large staff.

The boys hide behind Samurott and the Wyvern, and the rest of Class VII gets ready to fight. "A Nosferatu?!" Emma says, beginning to cast. Rean glances at his classmate, before settling into a fighting stance. She oddly knew a lot about what was going on here, didn't she? THere's not really time to think about that though.

"Right, let's wrap this up and get out of here!" Rean shouts.

((Boss: https://i.imgur.com/zYyiTUB.jpg  BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1bNrqTXacU ))

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Rounding the top of the stairs, Yang just racks the slide on her gauntlet, and fires at the most obvious thing in the room ahead of her. The Orb.

    And that releases the boss monster. "Uuuuh... you're ugly. HEY!" she bellows, slamming her fists together and taking a pose, her hair billowing out as she charges her Semblance. "Yo mama was so fat she sat on a rainbow and candy popped out!" she goads, then sets her feet, fires her gauntlets behind her and launches at the things face, aiming to give it a good solid punch rush while the others catch up and get ready for battle.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
Jeanne's getting fired up as she progresses along the stairs, grinning just a bit more when Laura shows some hostility. "Is that so? Well, if you can prove to me that you're worthy of it, I might let you borrow it after we're done here." She turns towards Laura with a hand on her hip and a shit-eating grin on her face, only frowning when Rean interrupts with that pesky logic and reasonable behavior.

"Tch. What's wrong with skipping to main event? But if you insist... Wouldn't want anyone to interrupt us." Rolling her shoulder, the Dragon Witch turns towards the orb once more. She smirks once more when the monstrous skull ghost appears following Yang punching the boss fight orb, then draws her own sword while raising her banner.

"So you're the one that claimed this castle... Will you serve me, or will you die with nobody to remember your existence? Speak now before I get bored!" Spears begin to form around the tip of the Avenger's flag as she advances towards the skull, launching the whole lot of them at it in a massive shotgun-like spray of... Well, spears.

Spears that catch on fire on impact.

Athela Valemore has posed:
A larger version of the previous orb empowered seals for the main gates. Makes sense. Something about this room was making her skin crawl. Samurott seems to sense it too, his whiskers bristling as he steps partway in front of the boys protectively.

Sure enough, as soon as someone tries to break the lock so to speak, the monster behind it reveals itself. "So this is the one behind the disturbances." She is entirely unsurprised by seeing Yang get literally in the necrotic creature's face right off the bat. The young knight stops, planting her forward foot to the ground. "Trespass and abduction; come face justice for thy acts, fiend!"

As Athela grips Resolute Blade with both hands the weapon starts to gleam with elemental cold, giving it a frosty sheen. "Have at thee!" She lifts the weapon from her shoulder and swipes out with it, the channeled cryomancy sending several sharp icy shards hurtling at the monsters with surprising speed and accuracy!

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
Mikoto gets up, but Yang just flies by and punches the orb directly in the...orb?  Shrugging, she just swings the blade onto one shoulder to watch the transformation.  Of course, it being IDed by the girl causes her eyes to narrow a little.  Better to not think about it right now, but it's far too much of a mystery for her to pass up.

She swings the blade in a circle around her, as a magic symbol appears in the ground below her.  The blade goes down as from it raises...well a monster.  Its face is a mask of stained glass, with arms far too long by half.  Various faces appear in those arms.  Faces familiar and unfamiliar, with two hands ending in the hands of shifting animals.  The body created from various jewels, but Jade featuring prominently.  

Though in the center, the heart is empty, so much that you can see through it.  

The two disappear, as portals of darkness appear to take them away, and then right behind the monster.  She swings the blade in a wide arch, aiming to cut through the creature, while the creature behind her releases a wave of dark elemental energy in a wave in front of her, trying to blast the creature in sequence with the sword strike.  

"Hey look, I was right.  It /was/ a nerd."

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Everyone's hits strike true in an explosion of attacks, With Laura and Rean slashing the thing as well. Emma's spell loads, and a burst of fire erupts from beneath the ghost. The Nosferatu turns and makes a wide swing with its staff, aiming to hit Mikoto.

It then lets out a screech, turning it's head in an inhuman angle to look at Yang. Yang might feel something tugging at her very soul, as well as pulling her towards the thing physically, possibly INTO it.

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang launches herself backwards from the thing, landing with a skid after her beat-rush. She purges the spent shells from her gauntlets, the empty casings clattering onto the stonework. She reloads, toissing a pair of fresh clips into the air, then slamming her arms into them, making the chains wrap around. The slides crank back into place, loading the new shells in.

    Then something weird happens.

    The usually invisible Aura that surrounds her begins to flicker and flare, bending out toward the Nosferatu as it does whatever it's doing. It takes a look as if something's grabbed onto it, and is pulling the woman closer, while she struggles and flails. "Get your grubby mitts off my Aura ya freak! I'll break you in half, then feed one half back to the other!"

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
The staff swings towards Mikoto, and her sword swings to try and clash with the thing.  The two collide, and while the force is powerful and sends enough of a shockwave through her to make her hands numb up a little, she manages to hold her position.  Launching herself away, but as she flies back...

Several spears just fly out of nowhere, aiming to repeatedly impale the creature before she lands.  Mikoto's sword comes up, and then out towards the creature as a wave of fire, akin to a dragon's fire breath washes around her, directly towards the spirit.

The entire world becomes an inferno around the creature for a moment, aiming to try and completely burn the creature away.  Fire purges, as Athela says!  Jean will likely recognize this attack.

Athela Valemore has posed:
"Do not give it time to adjust to multiple attackers! Limit it's focus!" is the tactical advice Athela has to offer in the moment. Boss monsters tend to have nasty area effecting attacks if they get a chance to concetrate on them in her experience.

A plume of water erupts behind her to boost Athela into the air. She uses the launch to catch her feet against the wall of the room and kick off from it, changing the angle of her actual attack to come from a different direction than she started in. She's essentially diving in on the Nosferatu from above... but her attack isn't aimed at it directly.

Rather she aims for the creature's staff, trying to catch it in the snaring prongs of her own weapon. Then twists mid-air to come down on her feet and yank in an effort to lock up the staff in an awkward position so the fiend can't effectively attack or protect himself with it.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
"Hmph! So you can't even speak, then... What a waste." Jeanne sounds increasingly annoyed as she marches steadily along. Her sword bursts into flames as she takes her time to walk menacingly at the skull-headed monster, raising an eyebrow as Yang yells at it from way too close up, Mikoto does something strangely similar to her own techniques, and Athela recommends holding the monster's attention.

That seems easy enough to work with. "Well, if we're just going to obliterate it, then we should do it properly!" Jeanne cackles as she lunges forward suddenly, thrusting her blade straight at the Nosferatu's center mass while flames continue bursting forth from the weapon. "At least one of you knows how to use fire a little bit."

She doesn't look at Mikoto, but she's totally talking about Mikoto. She even sounds more smug about the fact that Mikoto's using something so similar. What Jeanne doesn't seem to care about as much, though, is how Yang's that close to her flames. That, or...

She could be doing it on purpose. Someone has to put the 'friend' in friendly fire.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Rean clambers up onto the pedestal to get some height, and tries to tackle Yang out of getting sucked in...And misses, hanging off of Yang's leg. "...Crap." Then the fire and spears burst through, nearly singing him as he hangs there. "Whoa, watch it!" he shouts.

Athela successfully hooks onto the staff, bending it back in an awkward position. This distracts it from trying to eat Yang and Rean, releasing both of them. Rean lets go of Yang's leg, rolling on the ground for a moment before getting back on his feet.

Emma, meanwhile holds her staff out in front of her, as the hook shaped implement on the top glows green. After a moment, she shouts, "Well, it's not weak to fire. In fact it resists it a little. But Earth does well against it, and...It's affected by the higher elements! That's Space, Time and Mirage, but I think we can short hand that to include light and darkness...not sure how that works with magic from other worlds."

Yang Xiao Long has posed:
    Yang is slowly being pulled in, but that's fine by her. Jeanne's flames lap about her as the Servant uses her attack with little or no regard for the possible safety or lack there-of of the blonde brawler. But that's also fine by her.

    Rean tackles her leg, knocking her off balance, but she just rolls with it, putting her even further into the lashing flames from Jeanne.

    Emma says something about resisting fire and being weak to something blah blah blah, magic nonsense. Yang only knows one magic spell.

    As she gets herself back up, digging in her feet and pulling back away from the boss monster, she lets the damage wash over her, flames singing her flesh, burning her outfit completely away in places, but you can see a pattern emerging here.

    Yang's eyes flick from lilac to red between blinks, and as she's nearly absorbed into the Nosferatu, she explodes, a wave of force rippling off of her body as her Semblance peaks, and her hair begins to glow gold. "I." she states with a growl. "CAST." fists clench, shotgun slides rack in preparation. "FIST!" Yang rocks back, and starts whaling on the Nosferatu with explosive punches, tearing up the stonework from the blast waves from each gauntlet.

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
"Well, I guess fire wasn't that effective..." She says, with a frown.

Crossing her arms, however, darkness elemental attacks charge up in the arms of the strange monster behind her, and come down in a massive wave of energy trying to blow through the defenses of the monster.  

"Seriously, how does darkness relate to time?  I have no idea.."

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
"If you're worried about getting incinerated, you should have thought about that before bringing me here!" Jeanne continues cackling madly as the flames from her sword intensify, pouring even more mana into it when Emma notes the creature's resistance to fire while spouting some other stuff she does't quite care about.

"Darkness? Heh... Then this should work just fine!" She draws her sword back as her banner catches on fire, twirling the thing about and readying it in front of her like a giant burning spear with a flag stuck to it. Mikoto's question gets a brief shrug from the Avenger as she thrusts her flaming flag forward, then starts stabbing at the monster repeatedly. "Magi have strange ideas of how things work, but who cares as long as it works?"

Yang's apparent powerup has Jeanne raising her eyebrow slightly. "... Like that. Is that your magic's name? Shouldn't it be more long-winded than that?" That's... Something of a compliment? Maybe. Another shrug, and then Jeanne gets back to stabbing and slashing with both flag and sword, each of her weapons hot enough to burn through steel and bone.

Athela Valemore has posed:
Athela Valemore raises a brow briefly at the mention of Space and Time as elements. Tch, shame Palkia and Dialga have not been seen active for literal ages. Then Yang literally lights up, and channels all that fury in soaking up the flames towards a fist in the fiend's face. "I swear, that woman posesses Moody ability."

But the Huntress has the right idea, at times like this it is best to stick to what they know best and strongest instead of concerning over if a certain weakness collaberates or not. Athela thrusts Resolute Blade overhead, channeling more aquamancy into the artifact weapon. Elemental energy radiates briefly at the point of the blade, then spreads in a spiraling cascade downward until she's entirely engulfed in the rippling water-like aura. "The currents of Justice shalt wash way this foul presence from the land!" She lowers the weapon as she spins around, thrusting it out towards the Nosferatu as she turns to face it again. As she does there's a raging roar not unlike that of a great wave crashing upon the shore as the elemental charge is released and Athela is hurtling towards the monster, the full brunt of her aquaphilic force on the point of her weapon like some massive elemental lance.

"TIDAL BREAKER!"

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Yang gets all fired up and casts fist, punching the Nosferatu right in the face. Its head tilts back from the force, staggering it a bit. Mikoto's shadow guardian does its shadow thing, slamming right into the ghost's back, while Jeanne comes at it from the front. And then Athela's attack comes crashing down on it like a giant tidal wave. Laura jumps in as well, her greatsword blazing with light as she slams into it with as much force as she can muster.

The Nosferatu lets out one last wail, and then fades away, collapsing back into it's orb form.

"Did we beat it?" Rean asks, but almost immediately it starts glowing again, outputting that soul sucking force.

And then in an instant, a silver lance pierces the orb. It instantly shatters, filling the room with a brilliant blinding light. If you manage to look in the direction of where the lance was thrown, you might see a silhouette of an armored woman, absorbing the blue light that once was within the orb. But she's gone as soon as she came. Probably just another ghost!

Athela Valemore has posed:
"Don't let it respa--" Athela is cut off by a lance smashing the orb, and the one that threw it disappearing before so much as a thank you or questions can be given. "--Nevermind." Pause. "At least it didn't Self-Destruct like the damn Golem cultists."

The mysterious helper is gone, but what they came to do is done. Athela gives her glaive one twirl before resheathing it to her back and walking over to her pokemon and they wyvern still guarding the kids. "Let's get these lads home before the families worry farther."

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
Most people would sit around after that wondering what happened...

Mikoto was anything but normal.

Covering her eyes, but managing to catch a glimpse of the source of the spear, guardian and Mikoto faded into a portal of darkness, only to appear right where the woman was to try and chase.  Between this and Nanoha's superior speed, she hoped to discover the source of the spear.

And it's kill stealing wielder.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Mikoto catches a glimpse of a blonde haired woman in silver armor, but she's pretty damn fast for someone in armor. She drops off a nearby balcony facing the lake, and it's hard to track where she went.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
Jeanne grunts in irritation as the monster is destroyed, orb and all, and she watches as the ghostlike figure flees with Mikoto giving chase. The Avenger doesn't bother going after her, instead turning her attention back towards the people that had called the Elites here to begin with.

More specifically, she turns to Emma as the apparent brain of the locals. "You. Can you sense anything else here thatneeds killing? Because if there aren't..." She glances around a few times before resting that banner on her shoulder, the flames flickering out slowly aside from small embers still coming off the burning fabric of the banner. Jeanne starts moving again, parks herself on a throne, then crosses one leg over the other and grins at the gathered crew.

"Take the brats and get out of my castle. Or clean it up before you go. I don't really care."

Sumiko (7002) has posed:
    "So who's going to cook for you if you live here?" Mikoto says, dropping down from the higher level area near Jean.

Rean Schwarzer has posed:
Laura glares at Jeanne, then sighs. "If you wish to live here, then I should probably get my father." She ushers the two boys out of the room.

Jeanne Alter (6802) has posed:
"I never said I'd live here. This place is a dump." Jeanne wrinkles her nose while glancing around again, then turns back to Mikoto and Laura with that same shit-eating grin she had earlier. "But it can be fixed up. It's mine now, so I'll leave that job to the people that used to own it." She chuckles briefly, leaning into the throne for a few seconds before getting back up with another sour look on her face.

"... This throne is awful. Replace it before I come back." She says to nobody in particular before magicking her sword away into the ether and making her way back out. She gestures at the wyvern to follow, the beast lingering for a moment longer before it and its brethren rejoin her.

At least she didn't try to burn the place down.