It' a mad mad world [QUEST EVENT]

[Merc]

Riley let out a tired sigh as Aether's voice carried over the wind - and he was once more speaking nonsense, of course. It's not like they were trying to deal with a completely serious situation that called for the utmost concentration to help prevent further tragedy or anything quite so dire.

Oh wait, that was exactly what they were doing.

Exhaling a burdened sigh as she steeled her mental fortitude to keep herself from dropping Aether and letting him paint the forest red, thoughts of his foolishness quickly drifted from her head as the settlement came into view - and with it the heads on pikes. If it was meant to scare her, she had to say that it was doing a piss poor job since the only emotions it brought to surface were things such as a desire to carry out justice and vengeance, which were perhaps walking a little to closely together in her mind.

Despite her urge to just fly into the camp and rain hell upon the raiders, Riley instead allowed the two of them to disappear into the thick branches of a tree where she set Aether down and allowed the glow of magic to fade from her body once more. The whole place was surrounded by a bubble of magic which she assumed would alert the caster of their presence, should they enter, so she decided not to invade the area so carelessly, all things considered.

The people inside were chanting, and her half lidded green eyes stared at the walls surrounding the encampment. It looked flimsy, at best, but she wasn't sure how many allies or hostages were inside the walls so as much as she wanted to just blow it to hell and be done with it, that probably wasn't the best idea.

"The entrance should act as a choke point." She idly told him, surveying the area for things that they could use to their advantage.

[Kitty Kat Astra]

<skipping till you decide your approach>

[Eternal Mage, Aether.]

While flying in the air, I let out a small joker to try to help her mood a bit. I know the world going crazy and everyone around is dying, but even in the face of death, you should smile. Instead, Riley just let out a small tiresom sigh. Clearly, she's not amused of my shiningans. Oh well, least I tried to get her to smile or laugh. Maybe at some point when she's more comfortable or open up to me

The forest that was once so alive now chills me. Despite how peaceful and nice it would make me feel now has me uneased. The ground of these forests, formed from the remains of trees falling, in successive generations, for centuries, is most eccentric: sometimes raising itself in the shape of a mountain, to descend suddenly into a muddy swamp, peopled by hideous alligators wallowing in the green slime, and by millions of mosquitoes swarming amidst the fetid vapours exhaled, sometimes extending itself endlessly in plains of a monotony and regularity truly depressing.

The trees that sheltered so many with their spreading canopy of green and provided so much are now lifeless sticks of charcoal and vision of death. No more vibrant than the old lamp-posts in the city. If I were to close my eyes I would still see the virescent mosaic above, feel the humid air and hear the sounds of the frogs. But I won't, I can't. This reality was cruel enough with the chantings in the background preventing me in remembering how it used to be. We stand on top of a tree branch and wonder what to do next. “I'm more of a support in this situation and you've got more experience than I do in this field. I will humbly follow whatever you choose to do.”

[Merc]

Aether was as helpful as always, simply telling her that he would do whatever she wanted to do, and Riley found herself sparing him a glance before sighing softly. She was used to being in charge, but without a guild to lead the feeling was somehow different, foreign. It felt less like she should be leading this man and more like they should be conversing as equals.

Actually, given all of their interactions to date, she wasn't really even sure why she was expecting that from him of all people, given the strange jokes and... their initial meeting.

Scratching at the side of her face, she mauled the situation over in her head a few more times before rubbing her palms together and exhaling to clear her mind of all of the useless thoughts that were swirling around within it. "Alright. I'll use my gravity magic to incapacitate as many of them as possible. It probably wont be able to subdue the strongest of them because it'll exert too much magic to do that for such a large area, but it should keep the weaklings out of our way and allow us to weed out the threats." Giving another quick scan of the area she looked back to him. "Alright, here we go." Nodding to him, she gave her hands a soft clap to signify the beginning of the battle, not unlike the starting bell for a fight, and a great tension filled the air - though the center of the spell was located further away from them, somewhere within the camp, they could still feel the burden of the increased gravity even at their distance.

Waving her right hand at him, Riley once more reduced the pull of gravity on his body, allowing him to move more freely, irregardless of how everyone else in the area was hindered. With this, she slid off of the tree branch and to the ground, where she landed in a bit of a crouch and looked around to see if anyone had emerged from the camp.

[Kitty Kat Astra]

The chanting from inside certainly stopped when they cast their spells. Still, they hadn't investigated the nature of the bubble at all, and since they were still outside the camp, it was essentially a shot in the dark. With the size of the camp, being larger than they could effectively hear a guy shouting from near the middle, one could only imagine what their actions had caused to happen on the inside. Nothing apart from a dead silence.

[Eternal Mage, Aether.]

It's quiet, and I have no idea what is going on. This silence is so frail that just the smallest thing will break it. I wait for something to happen, but nothing. I have no idea how big is their camp, and I have no idea what their transparent bubble even does. Once inside, who knows what would happen so it's on rational to play it safe. However, with this silence with a shot in the dark I-we have no idea what happened inside.

Finally, I decide to break this frail silence. “I'm going to go inside and see what has happened. Maybe with that one shot, we've ended this.” It could be a small pack herd of raiders or maybe the disease has finally kicked in? I can only hope with that one spell it weakened their body to the point that it knocked them out. I jump down from the tree creating a thud noise as my feet touch the ground. I feel a small tingle in my legs from the height of the jump.

“Watch my back for me, Riley. If it works out I might be able to restore the city after this.” My hand is on the handle of my sword that lays in it sheath. To be honest, I'm quite nervous about doing this, but I don't want to danger Riley. My heart is pounding beyond normal, and my hands are sweaty. My mouth is dry and I have to pee. This silence is killing me and being dark is not helping me at all. Finally, I'm at the bubble borders, and I take a deep breath to calm myself down. I exhale and walk inside the bubble to see what is going on.

[Merc]

Not sure if she killed everyone inside the camp by accident, Riley arched a brow at the silence that followed her spell. Standing there, before the encampment, a number of things ran through her mind, but she couldn't be asked to pursue their individual thought trains as Aether spoke up, drawing her attention.

"I'll watch over you." She agreed, taking a fighting stance as she watched Aether approach the bubble and attempt to head inside.

(Sorry for shortness. D: )

[Eternal Mage, Aether.]

I'm inside the bubble and I see or hear anything for a few minutes until finally I see what had happened. I see several people gotten knock out from Riley magic. I can suddenly hear foot steps that sound like they're rushing to my direction. I get ready for combat for whatever comes at me, but as they get close to me I see nothing but people who got kidnapped and dragged here. I let down my guard as they rush pass me and heads towards back to town.

I look around, and begin to see government soldiers running in. They spread out and check the raiders who were knocked out by Riley attack and help anyone who needs assistant. “Was they hiding this entire time for a perfect moment” I can only think that maybe Riley got the boss who was already in a weaken state.

ooc: trying to get out of here asap. XD

[Merc]

Riley was surprised when people started to rush out of the encampment, not because she hadn't expected people to come running at her, but because they appeared to be the very hostages that had been drug their not so long ago.

"Huh." She murmured thoughtfully, trying to process what had happened as government soldiers started to pour in from where they had been camouflaged in the landscape - perhaps concealed by magic as she hadn't so much as detected them earlier.

"Well. I guess you don't really need to be strong to drag some officials out of their offices when they aren't expecting it..." She softly mused, sliding her hands into the pockets of her jacket and stepping aside to allow others to do their jobs. With the knights filing into the encampment to deal with things, and many more on standby to help the hostages that were in the process of fleeing, there wasn't really too much left for her to do, besides maybe giving Aether a lift back to the city if he didn't want to make the walk back. 

[Tsundere Shinzu]

Approved

+90 AP
+1000 Jewels