Investigate The Castle [Sakura]

[Battler Myrddin]

SPOILER: Click to show

Name: Investigate the Castle
Rank: C
Objective: An ancient Castle has been found floating above a lava pit, looking quite ominous. The castle has been seen in extradimensional space in the vicinity of Adonis Village. Requests have been put out to investigate it. Explore it thoroughly and retrieve any treasures possible. If needed, clear out the monsters found to allow later exploration teams to investigate.
Reward: 150J and a single-use mini robot that can fight another robot. When a robot wins, it spawns 200J.

Battler walked in the direction indicated by the mission flier. Alongside him was Sakura, and they were currently earning funds for a future goal that the red haired man was planning towards. Since it involved a lot of funds, he needed to start from the bottom and start earning something. Since he was in the area, he decided to grab the current mission which was an investigation of a Castle that apparently appeared in the area of Adonis Village.

If it hadn't already been pillaged bare by the Dark Guild, there was still a chance of finding something interesting inside, maybe something he could even take advantage of. It would be much obliged. Stopping for a while, Battler observed where he had arrived. Just like the request said, it was a castle floating above a Lava Pit. Now, how exactly were they to enter? He could grow wings, but he hasn't attempted doing that before. Probably wouldn't work either. Looking around it, there was no obvious entrance.

"First obstacle. Sakura, do you have wings? If not, I'll toss you from here."
Despite his serious and cold tone, those who knew Battler would know he was just playing around. Mostly. Probably. Maybe half serious?

---

Erosion Level | 0/100

[Noire Strife]

Sakura gazed up at the castle. Despite being to Adonis many times, she had never noticed this giant castle just floating in the air. Above a lava pit. Sakura wondered if it was very hot up on the castle, or if there was some sort of magic protecting it from the heat. She knew she could feel the powerful heat from where she was standing. Sakura wondered how she could have missed the giant. fucking. castle in the middle of the lava pit. Some questions just remained to be unanswered. "That won't be necessary." Sakura said in a monotone voice, taking Battler's hand into hers. She pulled him closer to her. "Stay close." She took a step forward, black shadow gathering around her feet in about a five foot radius around her. She took one step forward, so that she was standing solely on her shadow and not on ground. She turned back to Battler. "Or don't stay close, and die. Though I'd prefer it if you did not die." She said dryly.

" "

[Battler Myrddin]

Taking Sakura's hands, Battler was thankful that she wasn't clinging to him. It was hot enough around the lava, and they were about to go over it. Hearing her say not to stay close and die, he was tempted to let go and lean back to see how she would react. In fact... Looking at how she was meaning to fly, couldn't he do the same? His own magic created a miasma around him which he could compress to the point he could hold it. So if only for a short while, he could technically stand on it. Though it would probably require a lot more power later.

Activating his miasma at his feet, he let it solidify under the soles of his shoes to the point he was standing on it. Making sure it could hold his weight, he created around eight of them, four for each foot. Doing so, he made a makeshift stairwell and starting walking towards the castle. It was taking a lot of concentration to manipulate his miasma so intricately, but it was good practice. Getting use to it, he started a light jog and looked back at Sakura.

"You coming or not?"
He couldn't help but smirk a bit. Continuing his jog upwards, he wanted to reach the castle quickly. Despite his confident looking appearance, he was getting nervous and feeling the pressure and strain from doing this. After reaching the top of a wall where there looked to be an entrance, he set himself down and dispersed his miasma. I don't have enough control or energy to use that often... Need to get stronger...

---

Erosion Level | 5/100

[Noire Strife]

Sakura watched with mild curiosity as she observed Battler create his own shadow steps. Yes, that was right. Battler also used dark elemental magic, so that meant that Battler could do most anything that she could do. She turned away from him and casually let go of his hand. Without turning to look back, she continued forward until they reached the castle. She turned back to talk to him when they were on the floating stone of the castle. "I don't really care what our client wanted us to do. They're here in Adonis, and chances are, since Reika was away for a bit, they haven't paid their taxes." She looked over to him, noticing that he was struggling a bit with his magic. She did not exactly know what was wrong, but she guessed that it had to do something with the tie they were apart over the last three years. She never did get his story. She made a mental note to ask him later. "Kill them all."

" "

[Battler Myrddin]

Hearing what Sakura had to say, Battler nodded as he drew his sword and began lightly jogging inside of the castle, scouting out the different rooms as he went on. After going by a few used bedrooms and a bath, he figured that they were in the residential area of the castle and judging by the beds, the live-ins had woken up a short while ago. That said, they should be in something like a mess hall by now. Continuing down the hallway further without a word, he found someone with their back turned.

Without even a change in expression or a hesitation in his movements, Battler came upon the guy within seconds with barely a sound, sliding his single-edged sword into the torso of the man where the heart would be, covering the mouth as he did so. Like this, he silenced every individual he came across. Eventually, he came to a spot where there were three people. It wouldn't be so easy this time. Instead of silencing them, since he couldn't be bothered with something time consuming now, Battler charged forward.

With well-aimed slashes, Battler cut down the first two before they could react, parrying a strike from the third who called out Intruder. Killing the third guy, Battler sighed.
"Could have saved a lot of time if I had let them call out for friends in the first place..."

---

Erosion Level | 4/100

[Noire Strife]

Sakura followed closely behind Battler, making sure to cast frequent glances behind her. She wanted to keep watch just in case someone suddenly appeared behind them, and then called in reinforcements before they could react. Sakura was fairly sure that they could handle the peons that lived here, but she was not so sure about whatever was holding the castle up. Was it a powerful mage, or just some lacrima? Sakura was not sure. There. a guard rounded a corner and spotted the two from behind. He looked confused for a moment, and then he turned tail and jogged off. Sakura breathed in, drawing magical energy to her mouth, forming a dark ball of light where the energy created a void of light. Then, she breathed out in a mighty roar, letting a mighty stream of black energy hit the man square in the back. The magic blew off his left shoulder, and the force propelled him into the lava below. He did not even have the chance to scream. Sakura looked over the edge, watching as the man dropped lower and lower in the mouth of the volcano, until his body hit the lava with a little plume of smoke. His skin instantly melted off, but his skeleton remained for a while, floating on the denser, molten rock. Sakura looked back at Battler. That man had been her first time killing a human. Sure, she had injured people before, but... killing? Sakura had never done it. She sighed and caught up to Battler. No matter, the deed had been done. It would only make killing the rest of the men easier. "There shouldn't be very many members of this guild. We-- I mean, Phantom Cloak taxes all the dark guilds very heavily, while at the same time only letting the particularly strong members into the guild. It encourages the strong mages to join, while at the same time giving an incentive to the weaker ones." She looked around, spotting another guard. She took a break to blast him off the side of the castle like the other one. When she was finished, she turned back to Battler. "So What I am saying is that there are only weak mages here. I'm guessing that this place is levitating in the air because of some sort of lacrima. We find the lacrima, we find their leader. Then, I'm sure that even members who did not hear that one guy call out will come to their leader's aid." She turned and started to run away from the approaching enemies. "Let's find the control room."

" "

[Battler Myrddin]

Hearing Sakura's input, Battler just nodded and followed her in the search for a control room. Every now and then, there would be someone walking by, but not much of a threat. Though eventually, turning a corner, Battler could see several guards outside of a door. "Bingo. There's our target." With that said, Battler hid behind the corner again and looked along the floor. Finding a suitable sized rock, he took aim and tossed it at the first guard, luring him to their location. Of course, the other three guards with him were on alert because of it, but they remained where they were.

The moment the guy popped his body around the corner, Battler lodged his sword in the torso of the guy, grabbed his head, and twisted it with an almost inhuman force as a loud crack was heard. Following this, he pulled his blade out of the body before it fell, and heard the footsteps of the other guards approaching. As they were a few meters away, he leaped out from the corner and dashed into them, glancing his blade against one and striking the other with a fist, leaving both stunned as he rushed forward. The last guard was missing, most likely going to warn the rest of the others.

---

Erosion Level | 3/100

[Noire Strife]

Sakura watched as Battler slaughtered the guards ahead of them, standing with her hands behind her back and her scythe behind her. She tipped forward and backwards, seemingly completely relaxed. Blood splattered up against her and battler, and the cut up bodies were a gruesome sight, but it seemed as if she did not care. She was completely unaffected, really, if not slightly happy. "Leave some for me!" She giggled, teetering forward so that she was standing beside Battler. "Oh, here they come now~" Her purple eyes darted towards the sides of the hallway as angry guards flooded in from both sides. "You take that side, I'll take this one." Without confirming her plan with Battler, she threw her scythe into one group and ran towards them at top speed, giving a roundhouse kick to the first guard's face. He fell back with the scythe landing parallel against him, knocking back the wave of guards behind him. Sakura only giggled. "Bye bye~" she said, breathing in and letting out a beam of magic energy.

»»Dark God's Bellow

Level: A
Range: Within Reach
Description: User breathes a massive stream of darkness at the target. The stream is about 15 ft in length and reaches as far as 25 ft.
Drawback: High chance of ally getting caught in stream. 5 individual post cooldown, reset at the start of a new thread.

[Battler Myrddin]

Following Sakura's opinion, Battler turned to face the opposite direction while glancing back at her progress. Since he was forgoing the use of spells, he was reduced to just his sword which would be difficult to gain the upper hand with. However, his main advantage was the fact he was a lot more experienced as he could tell from a glance. Not a wasted movement on his own side, even in his seemingly casual walk, whereas the several guards were running up to him with no form or guard. They did not even perceive the guard he had raised.

Quite simply, the reason he walked at a casual pace was because that was the fastest he could walk while keeping his senses honed on his surroundings and in a posture suitable enough to dodge, block or counterattack whatever may come his way. With seven guards coming at him in a staggered formation, he proceeded to take them one at a time as they approached. First person was sidestepped and their leg left with a deep gash in it. The next was parried and struck in the temple by the backhanded fist with the knuckle striking first. This repeated until he had stunned or disabled all of his opponents.

With seven people laying on the ground or unstable on their feet, Battler wasted no time using two hands on his one-handed sword and dashing back to where he came from, piercing their Vital points or leaving fatal wounds. One of them was even beheaded on the spot. Opening his magic eyes, he looked around for any source of magic. There was none from his direction.

"Finished over here."
Turning back, he caught the aftermath of whatever Sakura had used. He was sure even he would have a tough time negating the effects of that to something he could endure.

---

Erosion Level | 2/100

[Noire Strife]

With all of the guards effectively wiped out on her side, Sakura turned back to see how Battler was doing. He was still fighting them by hand, something that was very impressive from Sakura's point of view. She grinned behind him, ready if he needed any help. He seemed to have had it handled, though, so Sakura stayed out of the way. By now, both of them were covered in blood, though Battler moreso because of his melee range. Sakura looked down at her clothes. "We need to bathe. I think we killed everyone. Or, if we didn't, we killed enough of them. Let's report back to our client." She walked into the room that the dead guards had been guarding. A magnificent fountain full of crystal-clear water greeted them. "Excellent." She mumbled, and then headed into the room. //end

" "

[Rii <3]

Approved.