Crisis on Tournament Isle!

Tatsuma slid his foot outward and as the wolf landed after having lunged at Verity. It was unfortunate, but he had to make his own decision. He had to protect his own pack. Bracing on the outstretched foot, Tatsuma swung a powerful kick, his shin aimed at the back knee of the wolf, the one that it used for jumping, and followed through with the attack in order to maim the beast. As Crisis aimed he chose to finish the job. He didn't like the idea of hurting a wolf, even if it wasn't ordinary. Given the smoke he assumed they were created by some sort of magic, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out what exactly would have that particular ability. Still, he raised his foot high above his head and dropped the heel of his foot directly into the back of the injured beast's head, directly under the skull, and then forced his weight downward with the kick, again following through and making sure the kick was, in actuality, aimed at the ground instead of just at the back of the wolf's head.

He shook his head sadly at the act, deriving no pleasure from it and surely feeling as if he had just given up something important. It had to be done, but that didn't make it any better. The wolves were not actually wolves, and while that helped, it didn't remove all of his sadness and doubt.
"Whatever caused this needs to be put down permanently." He growled, mostly to himself, but loud enough that Verity should still have been able to hear it as close as she was. He hadn't told her about his pack of wolves, there had never been cause for it, but he doubted it would do anything for her opinion of him to know that he was pretty much raised by a dragon, blizzardvyrns, and wolves (the blizzardbyrns only insofar as to teach him what not to do from violent action towards him).

((In regards to posting, I previously mentioned that I'm most likely unable to do tomorrow (thursday) and Friday. Friday remains so but I think I can do tomorrow. That being said, skip me just in case I don't))

Verity was half glad and half pissed that Tatsuma intercepted the wolf - glad because it could be teamwork in the making but pissed because she was sure she could have taken care of it by herself. Whatever her personal feelings may have been though, she stepped aside and watched him work his magic...or martial skills...or feral beast instincts? She noticed he didn't seem very happy at having to defeat the wolf. The girl decided the threat was over and strapped Hauskor to the insides of her jacket. It was a waste of mana having to requip it again. She had to reserve her magical energy anyways. She didn't think the boy would have suffered any damage from his encounter from the wolf but came over just to be safe. He was shaking his head as if thinking some kind of sad thought. The girl had no emotional connection to wolves and thus she could not fathom what he was thinking but guessed at one point in his life he had encountered friendly versions of these beasts (not to mention non-magical).

She was indeed close enough to hear him say whatever caused the wolves to attack needed to be put down. Put down? She bit the inside of lip. That sounded worryingly close to saying he wanted to kill someone. Death...she didn't like it. She knew some people killed; she'd heard it mentioned once or twice in the past. Vera was less inclined to do so. Whether it was a mere inadvertence to bloodshed or the idea of killing someone precious to another, she didn't know. If Tatsuma wanted to kill someone...she didn't want to think about it. She shook her head slightly and instead came over to him and experimentally poked him. "You're okay right?" she asked, trying to appear somewhat concerned. However she couldn't maintain the expression and she let her troubled gaze wander to where Crisis was. Once she spotted the girl, she stayed where she was besides the other blonde and cupped her hands around her mouth. "Hey Crisis! You can come down again!"

By the time Crisis got a bead on the wolf, Tatsuma stepped in to finish the job.  Literally, in fact, by putting his foot down on the spectral canine’s neck so hard it must have snapped right in half.  Her initial thought was that such a curb-stomping was a cold act, but a glance at his body language told her it was anything but.  It was no act of mercy, to be sure; She doubted the apparitions were ever cognizant enough to suffer.  But the look on his face and the way he shook his head spoke volumes, and what she read on those lips (since she wasn’t close enough to hear) effectively clinched it.  This whole battle was a grave offense, one for which he could not, at least at this time, grant forgiveness for.  She couldn’t discern the whys or what-fors, but she could tell that whoever was responsible for this had, perhaps accidentally, made this extremely personal for Tatsuma.

Crisis had lowered her weapons already, now that the wolves were gone, and let Verity tend to Tatsuma’s emotional wounds.  Meanwhile, Crisis herself looked around to ensure there were no other hostiles in the area.  She felt it may be in vain, however.  She couldn’t quite see the forest through the trees and even the fabled enhanced senses of their token Dragon Slayer weren’t able to detect the enemy force until it was practically on top of them.  No matter how much she tried to assure herself that it was probably all part of the game, she couldn’t shake the dread notion of an enemy that could theoretically attack from anywhere at any time with little to no warning.  If it was part of the game, then there were likely rules to keep whatever illusionist or conjurer that control those so-called wolves from tearing them apart as they slept.  But if it wasn’t, they were at a disadvantage against an enemy they could neither see nor hear, at the mercy of an untouchable foe who, thanks to whoever was broadcasting this event, could see and hear everything single thing they did.  And it could be almost literally anyone, anywhere in range of the live broadcast.

“Damn I hate cameras,” Crisis muttered to herself.

She was snapped from her reverie by Verity calling out to her.  Acknowledging the call with a nod, she holstered her gun and slid on her feet down the trash pile.

“Hell of an event, huh?” she said as she sheathed her sword.  “What a way to spice up a competitive camping event.”  She turned to Tatsuma and tipped her hat down.  “Listen, I…GYAH!”

Crisis was suddenly interrupted by the pain shooting down her left arm.  She fell to one knee, grasping the arm with one hand and gritting her teeth.  Her left arm tensed up until her hand bled through her fingerless glove.  “...Dammit…”

He turned to answer Verity's question with his characteristic smile, though he found his cover to be unnecessary as by the time he looked up she was already telling Crisis to come back down. It worked out, that saved him the trouble of having to cover his momentary outburst. That, in and of itself was enough, but when Crisis finally did come down and speak she tipped her hat and started bleeding. Something about that struck him as odd, but more over, it provided an even better cover. No one was going to bother worrying about what he was thinking or feeling when someone was bleeding.
"Are you... dying?" He asked, genuinely concerned about what in the hell had happened. As for Verity he was glad she hadn't gotten bitten. There was no telling what the wolves might have done if one of them had managed to draw blood.

Slowly he turned and looked toward the forest. Given how they had disappeared and the fact they had managed to sneak up on him he doubted there would be any footprints for them to follow, still, he waited for Crisis' answer to his question, resolving to enter the forest once he found out how she was doing. After all, they couldn't stay here now.
"We need to move before someone figure out we're here... or something. Whatever shows up next may not be so easily dealt with." He suggested to them both.

((Reminder for NOT posting tomorrow))

Verity was pretty shocked at Crisis's sudden gasp in pain. She immediately went to see what was wrong. The girl appeared to be bleeding through her left arm. Through her concerned expression she managed to through Tatsuma a weird look. Was she dying? Wasn't it obvious enough that she was, indeed, not? Maybe a little bit in pain but still not dying...at least just yet. She did seem to be in a bit of pain. She internally sighed. She didn't think the boy beside her was okay either. While Crisis was injured physically, she predicted his was more mind related which was in a sense, injured. She seemed to be only getting out of that bout not scarred despite the fact she had not paid attention twice. She bent down towards the girl and looked at her arm in closer examination. "Will you be alright?" she asked, thinking that it would be best if they took off the glove on her hand so that the area injured would get some air. She was about to say so when Tatsuma suggested they move.

She pursed her lips thoughtfully and looked up at him. "I guess we could...but where? I don't think we'd be able to go to the trees because with Crisis's arm, would she be able to climb?" she turned back to look at Crisis. "Can you climb?" she rephrased before looking at the both of them. "Cause if she can, I guess that's still an option." she said before returning her gaze to the cowgirl's arm. "Do you want to take off your glove? I'm not an expert in healing things but I think letting air into an injury is a good idea,"

Crisis probably would’ve laughed off Tatsuma’s question if her arms wasn’t in so much pain.  The pain soon began to ebb to a more manageable level and she was able to move her arm freely again.  Verity soon asked a more reasonable question as started investigating Crisis’ arm.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Crisis replied, an edge still lingering in her speech from the pain.  She rubbed the arm a little and shook it out.  “It’s an… old injury.” Possibly a lie, depending on your definition of “Injury”. “Nothing to be concerned about.  The pain comes and goes, especially when I’m fighting, but I can usually manage it no problem, and it’s not usually this bad.  Don’t usually have seizures, either, so you probably won’t see much of that.  It shouldn’t have any effect on my abilities, so no need to worry about that.”

Crisis lifted up her hand and looked at the blood curiously, as if noticing it for the first time but not especially alarmed by it.  She nodded at Verity’s request and slid the glove off, revealing the black Guild mark emblazoned on it: A boot with a skull in profile.  There seemed to be a variety of scars in that area, as if various painful ways of removing it had been attempted.  The blood seemed to be coming from the skull’s eye and mouth.

“Oh... Stigmata,” Crisis remarked in a tone that simultaneously suggested amusement, fascination, and restrained hysteria.  “That's new. Never had stigmata before.  I wonder if it means something.”

Tatsuma looked toward the forest and took a few steps forward. Survival event? If unliving beasts were going to be the corner stone of that event there shouldn't be any problems. Still, whatever was going on with Crisis was going to be something of a problem. Beasts would be able to smell the blood if there were any real ones just lying around in wait. Then there was the matter of that mark. It hadn't escaped him, that it was more or less a dark guild tattoo. None of the established guilds had a mark like that... plus it looked like something one might consider creepy, which naturally led to that belief. He wanted to call her on it, but he had his own relationships with dark guilds and with Verity there it was very possible that she would call him on that from some sort of weird coincidence since that seemed to surround her. Blood coming from the eyes on the skull also caught his attention, but right now he wanted to get away from where they were at.
"I agree with Vera, also, if you can't climb we'll figure something out. If you're bleeding I don't want to be in easy reach." He said very matter of factly as he started walking. He was over his moment of emotional instability, but he didn't want to get attacked by anything else in this kind of open area.

(Note: An encounter may be put off a post or three if it will make more sense for the story unfolding for your characters. Just make a note of it when you post.)

-ENCOUNTER-
Name: Mysterious Sighting
Type: Neutral
Info: From the corner of her eye, Verity spots a shadowy figure in a pointed hat moving across a path between the trees. Before she can see it properly, however, the figure is gone, though a few wisps of an all-too-familiar smoke rise into the air where the figure was. Was this figure an illusion... or something more?

Crisis had been a little concerned that Verity and Tatsuma might respond badly to her Guild mark when she removed the glove, but she was bleeding, so it couldn’t really be helped. If they had their suspicions about her, they didn’t mention them, although she got the impression that she may have lost a few points with Tatsuma. Her old Guild wasn’t exactly something she liked to talk about and since so far no one had asked anything about the mark she didn’t feel the need to explain it at the moment. To be sure, she did feel a little guilty about not telling them about her curse, either, but she did pretty much explain what it was doing to her already so that wasn’t a big deal as far as she was.concerned.

One thing that was bugging her was them being concerned about her climbing skill. Granted, they had only asked twice, but she felt like it might get annoying real quick. She could feel the sword suggesting she cut out their tongues if it bothered her so much, but she was pretty sure that wouldn’t be conducive to a team environment.

“Nah, nah, I’m fine,” Crisis insisted. She licked the back of her hand. The stigmata seemed to have stopped oozing, so she inspected her palm. There seemed to be a few bloody gashes from where her fingernails managed to dig into her skin. “I’m a freerunner. Climbing stuff is what I do. I can hoist myself up by one hand if I have to, and this isn’t even my dominant hand.”

((And I guess the posting other changes yet again :P Crisis, Me, Tatsu...sound familiar? XD))

Maybe it was rude, maybe it wasn't. Nevertheless, the blonde stared - and blatantly. She was in awe of the strange mark. It appeared to be some form of...guild tattoo? Except it was bleeding. Vera didn't understand why. She couldn't remember Crisis ever being injured by the wolves. And that guild tattoo...had Crisis been inside a guild before she became guildless? The girl's comment was strange too. Stigmata? What did stigmata have to do with anything? She was about to say something when Tatsuma beat her to the chase. She noted it was probably the first time she heard her nickname coming from his mouth. It was...strange to say the least. He started walking off and her attention was brought back to Crisis saying her climbing was fine. Verity wasn't convinced with her arm like that but if she felt she could what was she to say about it? She simply nodded her head before getting up off the ground to catch up to the boy. "Hurry," she said, gesturing to Crisis to come on.

The girl reached Tatsuma and fell into pace with him. "You probably heard with your dragon senses that Crisis can climb so which tree should w-" she cut off her sentence, catching something in the corner of her eye. She turned her head sharply in that direction, glimpsing a shadowy figure with some kind of...pointed hat? It was moving across the path between the trees. She squinted her eyes to get a better view when...it disappeared. Into that black smoke from before. She blinked a few times. Did she imagine it? She turned back to face the other blonde. "Did you see that?" she asked, gesturing to where she had seen the figure. The blonde then turned to face Crisis. "Did you see that?" she asked her the same question, calling a bit louder.

Tatsuma looked around wondering what she was talking about. He hadn't seen anything, but given how the wolves had managed to sneak up on him he wasn't ready to count her as crazy just yet... at least not for seeing something that he didn't. Still, he wasn't sure what it was she was referring to.
"Are.. you sure you didn't get hit? As far as taking to the trees if she can that's fine, if she can do it that works for me. As far as my senses go, they aren't as sharp as the other dragon slayers. I can detect bio electricity... I kind of compensate by putting everything together into one set of information from all of my senses." He said as he started looking for trees big enough to support three people camping in them.

After finally finding one he took a quick look around to see if there was anyone watching them to corroborate Vera's having seen someone, but he still didn't detect anything. Decidedly chalking it up to adrenaline from the earlier battle he opted to continue climbing the tree, though he tried to keep an open mind just in case, he didn't like the idea of someone sneaking up on him. Despite this, he was still concerned for his team, so after he got to the second branch he stopped and look back at them, waiting patiently for them to start climbing too, more Vera than Crisis as he wasn't entirely sure if she was a climber or not.

((I'm going to my dad's place tomorrow and coming back the day after. I can probably use his internet, but I don't know how busy I'll wind up being. Just a head's up in case I don't post tomorrow.))

Crisis was so caught up in bragging about her skills that she hadn’t noticed Tatsuma and Verity taking off without her until the other girl told her to hurry up. “Wha… Hey!” It was a bit of a blow to her ego as a freerunner to have people run off ahead of her, especially after talking such a big game. Talk was cheap, and she wasn’t about to impress anybody if she couldn’t keep up. Thus, she sprinted after them, catching up in no time.

As she did so, she thought she picked up some movement from the corner of her eye. She slid to a stop next to Verity, who apparently got a better look than she did. Crisis craned her neck to see, but nothing was there.

“I thought I saw something moving,” she replied. She produced a bandage from under her poncho and wrapped it around her hand, covering both the wounds and the Guild mark. “But that was it. Could’ve anything, like one of the Lacrima-Vision cameras that have been following us around.”

After she saw Tatsuma climb up a tree, Crisis decided to go up after him. She sprinted right at the tree and then up it practically without breaking stride. While undoubtedly an impressive sight, her momentum could only carry her so far up the tree. Just as gravity started to catch up to her, she kicked off from the tree and into the trunk of another tree, bounding back to the first seemingly on contact. She continued to ascend the tree in this manner, ricocheting off numerous trees and branches as was convenient for her, until she reached a bough above Tatsuma and perched there on all fours.

“Y’know,” she said to Tatsuma. “You can train your senses by blocking off your other ones. I knew a blind guy who could navigate by echolocation. Went skiing in the mountains every winter and loved to drag race. It really was amazing. Taught me how to do it, too, and it’s not nearly as hard as you’d think.”

One person thought she was delusional and the other person thought she was paranoid. Great. Soooo the kind of response she wanted. She pouted at Tatsuma's question and spent the rest of his dialogue grumbling at the ground. Crisis's response initially made her look up, excited that someone else had seen the mysterious figure....but her hopes were quickly dashed and it was back to saying high to the floor. As a result she probably didn't exactly pay attention to where they were going. In this sense, she would have thought it was okay for the boy be looking down for her and Crisis to make sure they were keeping up.

She continued walking while he started climbing trees. She *thankfully* didn't bump into any trees although this was probably due to the fact she was observing the ground and watching the way the earth moved. She probably would have continued onward had it not been for the massive rustling noise the tree made underneath the other girl's climbing. Realistically, while it probably looked cool, the nature of trees when someone rebounded off them was to rattle and shake, thus causing noise. In a stealth bid it was unwise. For alerting someone's attention after they've wandered off - perfect.

The blonde whipped her head behind her and realised her companions had moved off. She racked her brains to a few minutes before. Whoops. She made her way back smiling sheepishly. "Sorry!" she called up to the two in the trees before starting her own ascent. Hers was not as flashy as Crisis'. Hers was probably pretty normal. She was pretty used to climbing trees though so it wasn't like she struggled. She moved at a fluid pace, reaching the third branch sooner than later. After that she decided there was no point climbing any further. She made her way to the thicker part of the branch and leaned her back against the tree. "So...what did I miss?" she asked. She probably only missed Crisis telling Tatsu her idea.

Tatsuma closed his eyes so that no one could see him rolling them and looked up at Crisis. He wanted to tell her that humans couldn't develop echolocation because they weren't wired for it, but he was hesitant to call it because using magic it might be possible. Still, there was her matter of advisory senses training.
"Depriving yourself of one sense doesn't make the other senses stronger, it just forces you to use a new sense as your primary function. Most humans use sight as their main sense and they don't focus as heavily on hearing, smell, or touch. When you lose the main sense you simply use the other three to compensate. What I've done is put all three with sight and my natural magic to put together sensory profiles so that I can process all information at the same time, the bio electric thing I think is related to my magic but it's not exactly useful unless I'm literally right next to someone." He said, shaking his head as he spoke. He didn't really like getting training advice from people who, as far as he could tell, were not any better trained that he was. It was the primary reason why he typically trained by himself or via sparring with others.

Moving to look at Verity, he had held off on answering her question until now.
"You didn't miss anything, and there's nothing to apologize for. I'll take to the top and see if I can get some information about the layout of the island." He said before taking off.

With the branches spaced apart at this level he was not going to waste energy climbing inch by inch up the trunk. Instead, he opted to ascend by grabbing a branch and swinging all the way around so that his feet were then on the branch he had grabbed. Once he got about four feet higher up he stopped with the acrobatics, it was pointless since the branches were close enough together it would be easier to just climb.

Once he managed to make it to the top he balanced on the edge of the highest branch and looked out across the island. He searched for significantly taller trees, but there were only a few that dotted the forest at about 10 feet higher and none were very close by. It was something he liked to do whenever he was in a new forest and it made the going a lot easier.

((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_echolocation))

“I didn’t say you could make them stronger,” Crisis said as she climbed up after Tatsuma. Like him, she eschewed the fancy “wall-jumping” she had used to get to where she was and opted to ascend the tree branch by branch. Not that it stopped her from showing off. At least once, she pulled herself straight up by her arms until she could swing her legs over the bough like a gymnast on a pommel horse. “But it is possible to get amazing things out of the senses we already have. Like, read braille printed on a grain of rice, or smell how much fat is in your food. And with your already-superior Dragon Slayer senses, there's no telling what you could do with them.”

Crisis didn’t climb up quite as high as Tatsuma, but she did start scanning the landscape from her vantage point. Unlike him, though, she was preoccupied with the Lacrima-Vision cameras that were hiding from them. Wherever they were, they were very well-concealed, either by physical camouflage or mystical invisibility. Embedding them in the scenery was implausible; There were just too many trees in the way. Besides, Lacrima-Vision cameras could fly for years now, likely piloted by remote. Rendering them invisible helped keep the antics of the contests candid, unless you were like Crisis and instinctively knew when you were being watched. She knew she was probably too focused on the cameras, but they just bothered her so much that even being around them was enough to drive her up the wall. Or tree, in this case.

Verity just nodded her head along to whatever Tatsuma was saying. She didn't particularly get why they were discussing bio-electricity, she means, it was a pretty smart subject to be on about. Bio-electricity definitely sounded like one. What even was it? Was it the life electricity? Life electricity actually sounded pretty cool. A thought occurred to her. Maybe since the boy was a dragon slayer, he could eat it. If that was the case then everyone around him was practically food. Imagine walking around and being around food every day. She'd drive herself crazy if it were her. A little light bulb went off in her head. Food crazy --> Psycho behaviour. Revelation.

....

Even Vera had to admit that sounded pretty strange. She'd stop thinking about whatever they were talking about...okay maybe not. She thought she got it now if by what Crisis was saying about making his senses stronger was about trying to make him more draconian since he stated himself he wasn't as good as the others.

She watched the other two climb up the tree and scrambled up as quickly as humanely possible on the tree. She then followed after. Like Crisis, she didn't go all the way to the top as Tatsuma and instead was as near to Crisis as she could get. She decided she might as well strike up a conversation.

"Are the Lacrima-vision cameras bothering you?" she asked.

Now that she thought about it, it was a little creepy to have people watching you 24/7. However, it would be presumptuous to think the cameras would directly focus on their group instead of flitting around to the others as well. This made her think about what the other groups were doing. Were they setting up? About setting up, she guessed they probably had to do that soon or else they'd be sort of screwed for the night. There was only so much she could store in a pocket dimension if they ended up using it as a last resort for summoning things.

Tatsu tried not to listen to Crisis as he climbed. He didn't need super senses, they didn't help in combat and he was quite competent at hunting as it stood. Plus he still found her tales to be a bit far fetched. Besides that the sun was starting to set and if he didn't get enough information soon he was going to end up trying to survey in the dark, which he had found was not entirely ineffective, but it was less revealing than it would be during the daytime.

He spent a bit of time trying to memorize everything he could from where he was positioned. There was a glade (because what forest wasn't equipped with at least one), a few spotted hills, some mounds, just pretty standard forest type stuff. The smaller trees covered the majority of the forest. It was odd, there should have been more, or at least something different here. He saw some regular forest life, birds, squirrels, tree dwellers. He didn't see anything that would indicate some sort of magic ritual, the island didn't seem to be surrounded by a barrier or anything, there weren't any boats coming or going, and from the section of their former camp site he couldn't see anything other than seagulls ransacking the trash. It was all too normal for a survival game. Surely there had to be something out of place somewhere, he just wasn't looking hard enough. After closing his eyes for a moment he looked out once more attempting to see whatever it was he could possibly find.

After what he considered a failed attempt he swung down, stopping on the branch above Vera and Crisis.
"We should camp here for the night, I'll take first watch." He said simply as he pulled another couple of thinner branches to him to form a loop on either side of the one he was sitting on before pulling off his shirt and using it to tie them together and rest between them to form something of a makeshift hammock.
"You two can sleep here if you want, otherwise I'm taking it." He offered, being both nice and efficient in the same gesture of kindness. He still wore his Hakama, but his hayori and undershirt had been used in the process of making the hammock, leaving him shirtless which really didn't matter to him since it was fairly humid anyway.

Crisis had been so focused on breaking through the invisibility fields of the the Lacrima-Vision cameras that were totally there through sheer force of will that she didn’t notice Verity until she spoke up.  She was so startled that she almost fell off the branch she was perched on, saved at the last second by hooking her toes over the top of it so she hung upside down like a bat.  She hung there, face to upside-down face with Verity, her arms crossed over her chest to keep the front of her poncho from falling over her face.  The rest of her poncho and her open-front skirt were not so compliant and flopped down around her, although the leather skirt she wore under it and, strangely, her hat had the good sense to stay put.

“It’s that obvious, huh?” she sighed casually, as if she had meant to flip over and not almost fall to her death or at least dismemberment.  “It’s just… I mean… I know, intellectually, they don’t steal your soul or anything like that, but I kinda grew up with a healthy disrespect for them and I find them really unsettling to be around.  I feel really stupid being so preoccupied by them, but it’s all I can do to keep from trying to blast them out of the air, you know?”

About that time, Tatsuma had climbed down to them, made a hammock out of his own shirts, and offered it to the girls.  She eyed the hammock critically, and perhaps a tad disdainfully (though not intentionally so).  “Okay, I’ll take second watch, then, but I don’t sleep on a guy’s shirt unless he’s at least bought me dinner first.”

With that joke out of the way, Crisis promptly went about making her own hammock out of the longer of her two skirts.  It was more than long enough to serve as one when fully unwrapped, and her poncho served as a makeshift blanket.  Once it was done, she lay down on it to test it out and shifted her hat over her face.

The blonde nodded her head vigorously when Crisis asked whether her hate was that obvious. She didn't bother to hide her grin when the other girl went into more detail about why. Verity didn't harbour any of the same feelings but she admitted it was strange to be watched. Basically anybody watching could be seeing what they were doing, how they were reacting to one another. Practically if you made an enemy on the island, everyone would know about it....yeah....it was kind of creepy come to think about. Oh well. She never made much of her private life a secret. Either than touchy subjects. She hardly doubt they'd be brought up though.

She opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by the psycho sticking his head out from above. She watched as her companions respectively took first and second watch. "I guess that leaves me as third watch!" she responded cheerfully. Yay! She got more sleep first. That was probably good judging from her about-to-yawn-state.

Her mind was still in camera thinking mode, so when Tatsuma started making himself comfortable shirt pillows, she couldn't help but notice he definitely wasn't camera shy unlike Crisis. First he announces his magic as if its only them three around and then he doesn't mind announcing other aspects of his thinking process. Or something like that.

The blonde gazed skeptically at the make-shift bed he gave to Crisis and her. "I'll pass," she said before climbing down to another branch and resting there. She requipped a pillow and blanket and rested her head there comfortably. The last time she remembered using them was not that long ago in Akane Resort. She smiled. That was a good memory. She wondered how Zahn was? With pleasant thoughts in her mind, it wasn't long before she had dropped off the sleep.

(Shift forward a few days, nothing eventful happens until this encounter)

-ENCOUNTER-
Name: Swarm of Rats
Type: Hostile
Info: From the ground in front of the group, a large amount of rats burst from a smokey cloud that appears on the ground in front of them. These rats swarm the characters clawing and biting and causing painful wounds.

Once the rats are dealt with, these wounds disappear, along with any other injuries sustained in the previous encounters, and the shadowy figure from before is noticeable in the distance for only a moment before disappearing in smoke before anyone has the chance to get close.

Over the last couple of days Tatsu had taken the opportunity to gather a bit of food and even craft himself a bag out of some tendon and hide. Essentially he used it to hold meat and a couple bone tools he had crafted for the purposes of furthering their survival gear. He had underestimated the sheer amount of "bonding time" that was going to be had with his team. Vera he was used to by now, Crisis he was not, but he was getting there. Still he had managed to somehow get away long enough to hunt and had naturally shared his food.
"You know, I'm honestly surprised this is going the way it is. I mean I honestly expected to have a showdown with the other teams or something." He said, shrugging as he walked... into a small hoard of rats.

At first his reaction was "Dafuq?" but it rapidly changed to visions of electrocution. For something as small as this threat Tatsu activated his lightning storm power, his body crackled with dark blue electricity. With nothing else to say about the situation he simply started hacking away at rats, though it wasn't lost on him that the five he had killed thus far had simply whisped away into smoke. Whatever was causing them had also caused the wolves, and that meant the person at the top of his hit list was out and about somewhere.

Over the past few days, Crisis had been busying herself by, among other things, attempting to build a proper tree house. While there wasn’t much in the way of proper lumber, she at first made due by scavenging for materials in the garbage heap that was originally designated as their campsite. Aside from the door she used as a springboard in the fight against the phantom wolves, she found a few discarded planks of various sizes and wood-types, some beat-up street signs, a bathtub (“Oh. My. Gods. Who throws out a perfectly good bathtub?”), a few soiled bedsheets, some old pipes, and a section of cyclone fencing. After a bit of cleaning, she had managed to build a serviceable deck and set up the not-so-soiled-anymore bedsheets as an awning. She’s still trying to figure out how to get the bathtub up there, though.

Another thing she appeared to be doing was meditate, but this proved to be an elaborate ruse. Just last night, she managed to lure in one of the Lacrima-Vision cameras just by looking serene enough to warrant a spiritually-angled close-up, at which point she pounced on it. She managed to gut it without disabling it completely, only removing the flight mechanisms while keeping the camera Lacrima intact. It was currently tied to her head using a length of vine, squashing her hat a little bit.

She uncharacteristically let her guard down around the rats. Before Tatsuma started electrocuting them, she bent down and tried to pet one with her finger. “Hey, there, little guys. Where did you co-GAH! SON OF A BITCH!” The rat had promptly bit her finger, at which point she drew her gun and started shooting them. She hadn’t even thought about moving until they started climbing up her legs, and it wasn’t long before she was completely engulfed by them. “WAUGH! THEY’RE ALL OVER ME!”

Verity remained pretty much the same over the last few days. To her delight, nothing really eventful had happened; just a peaceful camping trip with a person she knew somewhat well and another she knew nothing about. She was getting more and more used to Crisis. Tatsuma was per usual. She liked to think she had gotten to know them better but in reality, she really didn't know. Getting used to people weren't the same as getting to know them. Compared to the other two, she felt like she didn't know what to do in a survival camp. She was getting help when she needed to but she still thought she had been standing on the sidelines, unsure of what to do...or possibly causing mass catastrophe that the other two needed to fix...thankfully that hadn't happened yet.

At the moment she was hanging on a branch upside down - much like a bat. She would have done so even if she had been wearing a skirt. Fortunately for her dignity, she was wearing shorts so she was fine for the lacrima visions.

Crisis was in the process of making a tree house and Tatsuma had just announced his departure. She had previously helped out so she was just relaxing for the moment. The blonde closed her eyes and let herself sway gently. It was like meditating - only with blood beginning to slowly trickle down to her brain. She was planning to stay like this for a while when Crisis's yell of pain alerted her. Immediately the girl sat up and looked down. Tatsuma and Crisis were both being attacked by...rats? She clambered down the tree as quick as possible and was about to jump down to help...when she figured that probably wouldn't be wise. The blonde looked up and grabbed her broomstick. Didn't want to go in there empty-handed.

By the time she was finished, Crisis was being engulfed by the rats. She didn't think twice about jumping in there. The girl swatted her broomstick skillfully at the rats swarming her companion. She ignored the burst of pain that lanced in her leg when a couple of rats leaped towards her. She gritted her teeth. She growled in frustration and tried to kick them off her leg. Once they were done with she continued batting off the rats on Crisis while trying to avoid getting swarmed by them herself.

So far, she was failing. Vera winced as a rat sunk it's teeth into her shoulder. How the hell did that get there?

Tatsuma kicked it into gear. Verity was being overwhelmed, Crisis was overwhelmed, he needed to do something about it, but he didn't have anything to cover a wider area.
"Crisis I'm going to use a spell of mine but it's not big enough to hit all of them. If one of your spells happens to have that effect throw it up. I should be able to clear them!" He shouted, trying to think of what Vera could do.
"Vera once you're clear use your flame spell that you used against me the day we met to finish the job!" He roared. It was too late now to go back, all he could do was hope that it worked out. He couldn't remember Crisis saying anything about her spells, but he hoped she had something. He had been doing okay keeping them mostly off of his, torso but he had still gotten bitten several times. A quick rush backwards managed to back him out of the rat pack fast enough to allow him to throw off the spell to save them, after that hopefully they would return the favor. With that he sucked in as much air and ambient electrical current as he could and released his spell.
"LIGHTNING DRAGON ROAR!" He growled as he held both hands in front of his mouth to and supercharge the lightning. It would cause more damage if it managed to hit them, but it covered a wider area.

As Tatsu used the spell the rats that were attacking him before caught up to him and began their assault again. This time he dropped his lightning storm spell and let them attack, trying to just keep them from vital areas and hoping his team mates would rescue him before he took too much damage.

Lightning Storm:

- spell ended (cooldown 2 posts)

Lightning Dragon Roar (overcharged):

MP- 225/290

Rats.  There were rats everywhere.  They clawed and gnawed at whatever they could get their paws and teeth onto. Her face was a bloody mess, and some of the skin there may have been torn off but it was hard for her to tell since she more concerned about the swarm itself.  Everything was rats.  Rats as far as the eye can see, although considering the number of rats on her face that wasn’t exactly a considerable distance.  She was still smacking and slashing the rats with her weapons, but it was more of an ineffectual flailing than anything else.  She nearly cut Verity with her sword when she tried to sweep the rats off with her broomstick, but fortunately the rats were off her face by then and she stopped short of it.

She figured she was free enough now, so made a quick and sudden spin to throw the remainder off of her.  Then she fired a few quick shots at the rats attacking Verity before she grabbed her and pulled her away from them.  About then, Tatsuma called out his plan.

“I got just the thing!” she replied as she gripped her sword and darted closer to the Dragon Slayer.  “Take notes this time, kid!”

Crisis didn’t need to get very close, as his overcharged Lightning Dragon Roar covered a pretty big area.  Crisis only needed a little bit of it, however, and when she suddenly found herself at the edge of the electric field she brandished her sword at it.  “GATE OF MULTIPLICATION!”  This Gate was smaller than the one she had shown Tatsuma and Verity before, being only a foot in diameter and sporting a blue “X”, but it was more than enough.  It shattered as soon as it summoned into the Roar and the lightning that hit it was multiplied, rapidly expanding from the point of contact in a large cone.  The only problem was that Crisis, in her haste, had accidentally put herself between the Gate and the rats she was targeting. It didn’t slow down the lightning in the slightest, and she considered it a small price to pay for the convenience of exterminating her enemies en masse.

MP 190/200:

Even in the midst of being gnawed and clawed by rats, Verity still managed to find her fighting spirit. She was more annoyed than panicked at the prospect of being attacked. Well it wasn't so much a prospect as it was a reality. She growled at the rates on her shoulder and was about to brush them off when Crisis came to help and shot them down. She was also pulled away too much to her slight chagrin. But mostly, she was grateful. She was about to start her attack again when she felt a tug on her hair. At this, Vera wondered what was wrong with the rat. Her hair was hardly alive, it wasn't going to feel anything. If she hadn't been so focused with fending them off she would have started to berate it.

As it was, Tatsuma called out his plan. What. That was his plan? As much as it sounded as if it would work, how on earthland, could he expect her to know which bloody spell she had used against him the first time they met. She remembered the incident quite vaguely but she didn't pay attention to what she did in that fight! So while the others got into kick butt mode, Verity got into the what-the-hell-did-I-do-those-couple-months-ago mode. Vaguely she heard the dragon slayer call out his roar. Uhh. Well she remembered her being attacked. That was pretty obvious but what else did she do? Better yet, what had she been able she do. While she thought, she continued fending off rats.

Right! Inspiration. She had used Fiera Ignis! And at that time she only had two spells she knew. She had also summoned Hauskor but she didn't think she used any spells on that...yeah, she hadn't. It was kind of hard to think when she was so pressed for time. Crisis had started to use her spell. She began to panic. It was her turn next and she was really struggling to figure out what the hell she had used. It was one or the other. Now it was really her turn. Oh screw memory. "Uhhh...ummm...Flame…Arena?" She went with the first spell she could think of. Which wasn’t even out of the two she had thought she might have used. Nonetheless, flames washed out onto the floor causing the rats to hop up and down and effectively she guessed, be beaten down easier. And then she remembered the spell she used. Burning Circle right? And she guessed her 'jackpot' way would be gladly welcomed. Now she had to remember what it was. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had used it. "Fiera Ignis…uhh burns my floor…fairly? While I sweep!” She said uncertainly before turning in circle. And with that a steady stream of fire poured out of her broom, overcharged style and started killing the rats more easily than not due to her previous spell. If she had half a mind at that instance, she would have realised that she actually never used that spell when they first met. In fact, Tatsuma probably didn’t know it existed. Since the girl was aiming her spell everywhere, she wasn’t actually sure what happened to Tatsuma and Crisis. Oops. She hoped she hadn’t burned them.

155/200 MP or  105/150 MP not sure whether to take Rank 3 or Rank 2 since she levelled halfway through (Flame Arena, Burning Circle)

((Just use rank three, I was going to use my rank 4 spell since I was technically rank 4 when we started this))

Instinctively, Tatsu wanted to throw up his shield, still he stopped himself from doing so because he didn't want to hurt Verity or Crisis. As the fire washed over the rats, some of it managed to hit him too. He wasn't particularly happy about that part, but he was happy to be free of the rats. Once the last of them was destroyed though, somehow he started to feel better, the wounds disappeared in the same puff of smoke the rats did and he looked out to see a shadowy figure. At that point Tatsuma took off running, launching himself toward the figure as fast as he could (as that was pretty fast).

He only made it half way to the figure before it suddenly disappeared and he let out a roar, electricity crackling all over his body in powerful waves that crackled off of him with loud pops and screeches. Then, all of a sudden, they stopped and while he regained his composure he turned to make sure his team hadn't come to any more harm. Suddenly the survival challenge was starting to make more sense. They couldn't afford to keep doing this if they were going to make it through.

As he calmed down he realized that the burns has actually managed to cover parts of his arms and his hayori was burned badly, with holes on the back and the bottom in tatters, one of the sleeves was gone and the other was handing on by a few bits of fabric. He simply ripped it off, placing it in his pocket in case the fabric could be used later and to make them harder to track... not that the person that had attacked them twice so far had demonstrated any problems doing that. Regardless, he was prepared to take the fight to that person's home... if he could even find it. They needed a way to track their enemy.

Fully composed again Tatsu approached Crisis and Vera.
"Well it may be a bit late now but that was an excellent example of teamwork. I think we may want to work on the delivery. If we're all targeting one person though I think Vera should attack first and we'll just call that formation 1." He said. They had made some serious headway together, now they just needed to make a little more progress. It was important, but he still didn't exactly want them seeing certain aspects of his personality.. The fit of rage being an example of that.
"Is everyone okay?" He asked.

’Was that an incantation?’ Crisis thought to herself. ’Man, when was the last time I heard an incantation sp-’ “WAUGH!”

Crisis was officially a Venn Diagram of pain.  Lightning on one side, fire on the other, rats all over, and it all overlapped with her in the center.  The lightning was one thing, she kinda did that to herself, but the fire officially made them the most dysfunctional team on the island.  It was probably a safe bet that the other teams weren’t accidentally hitting each other with their attacks.  Plus, Crisis found the incantation silly and poorly executed, but that was an issue for another time.  At least the rats were gone now, so it wasn’t worth complaining about.  After all, she’s been burned before.

She covered the left side of her face, where the rats had done the most damage, with her hand as she turned to face Verity.  The girl was probably going to be worked up enough about setting a teammate’s butt on fire without have to see what half a face looks like after a fresh rat-mauling.

“Alright, good teamwork,” she said as she wobbled a bit uncertainly.  “I see we both have some work to do in the areas of not hitting each other-slash-ourselves with area attacks, but I think we’ve made some great progress today.  So, uh, let’s take five...”  She plopped down heavily on the ground, extinguishing the flames on her backside.  Parts of her poncho still smoldered.  “...You don’t mind if I smoke, do you?”

When Tatsuma came back and asked if everyone was alright, Crisis realized she wasn’t in nearly as much pain as she was during the fight.  Feeling her face, she confirmed that it was all still there and unbloodied.  In fact, the only scars on her body now where electrical and fire burns, and even they weren’t all that bad.

“I’m fine,” Crisis said incredulously.  She stood up and did a few torso twists.  “Hell, maybe even better than before the fight started.  Maybe I should be mauled by illusionary rats more often.”  She stopped to wince and hold her left arm again.  It wasn’t quite as severe this time and ended pretty quickly.  It wasn’t even bleeding this time, though she still shook it out again.  “Okay, so whoever’s attacking us probably doesn’t want us dead.  At least not yet.  Been lobbing softballs, too, I’d wager.  We can probably expect bigger game in the near future.  Maybe even something a little more intellectually challenging.  Rule of three, you know.”