BoZV - Arc 2

[Bloodbane]

After receiving thanks for the healing, Rion nodded and smiled back to Silver as the group approached the main cavern. Almost immediately, Rion could feel the dark presence of the crystal, though much like he would feel a lesser effect due to his element, if what Silver and Celestrus had done was truly effective then he hoped the effect would be a lesser degree to the others as well. "We're close..." He said, before looking to Silver as she explained the process would be the same as before. When she approached him, he looked about as concerned as Enfurnus did; this crystal appeared to be a fair bit larger than the previous one. Soon enough he nodded, however. "Yeah... let's take this thing out and get out of here." He said, still feeling confident in Silver's abilities as the two made their way down. With the others beginning to assist in fending off the enemies, Rion formed a blade of light in his hands once more, using it to slice at the zombies that happened to be in front of him. He looked back occasionally at the others as they fought, but it seemed everyone was holding their own. Suddenly, a crash caused him to turn as he saw Terra's fireball cause a collapse; while it was rather effective in dispatching their enemy, it also sealed off their exit for the time being.

"W-well..." He chuckled, turning and grasping hold of one of the zombies, a bright flash of light energy surging into the blighted creature before it fell to the ground in a heap. "Guess there's no turning back now... Get going, Silver!"

[Arashi]

Enfurnus smiled a bit at Aqua. He didn't really expect her to say that. It was a nice gesture.

"Thank you."

Silver simply nodded at Rion's words in acknowledgement. This would be okay. It had to be.

~

Silver chose to fend off enemies by relying on her blades, this time using both at once. She slashed through the blighted monstrosities as they approached her with blades crackling with electricity, not letting a single zombie get close. She mostly aimed to remove their legs or heads in clean strikes, incapacitating them enough to make them pose less of a threat. She relied mostly on Rion's light magic killing the zombies so easily; she wanted to save her energy for this one.

Though as they got closer, she was soon startled by a crash, making her jump a little bit. She turned for a moment to see the cave collapsed in, effectively sealing them in the cold, dark cave.

Great.

However...the cave crashing in did effectively prevent any more reinforcements from entering, meaning they would only have to fight what was left. That was probably a plus.

"Oh...r-right." Silver looked at Rion as he said she should get going. Now or never.

She approached the crystal as quickly as she could; she put away her weapons and threw both her hands on the crystal in one quick motion. It was relatively quiet around the crystal now, as Terra, Aqua, and Enfurnus distracted and took on most of the enemies in the back lines.

This time, at least, she knew what to expect.

Silver closed her eyes and began to focus on the crystal. Much like before, her hands took on a dark blue glow; but faster this time. The glow extended up to her shoulders, covering her arms in the dark energy. Silence.

While it seemed quiet...it wasn't. Out of the dark cave walls near Silver and Rion, a strange being began to materialize....and soon took the shape of a....blighted beast? But, this one was much bigger; around 8 feet tall, and seemed to have four arms. It must have been a last-attempt guard for the crystal.

The beast immediately charged towards Rion and attempted to swipe at him with two of its four arms in a very quick motion.

And that small moment of distraction was too much.

Not long after the distraction and quite suddenly, Silver shifted to her dragon form....in a flash off peculiar dark blue light. Once shifted, she looked....different. Her entire body had a very faint dark blue glow to it, and large, deadly looking spikes made of the same coming from all directions off her back and tail. Her claws appeared longer; looking similar to any blighted creation. Occasionally, the spikes on her crackled with lightning. Oh boy.

She stared blankly at the crystal for a few moments, no expression in her eyes, and no pupil visible because her eyes glowed a deathly dark purple. The crystal seemed to be deactivated; it looked just like the one she had deactivated before. However, there was no explosion of energy this time...it went...somewhere else.

At this point, Enfurnus had caught up to Rion and Silver; though he still kept some distance from them just in case she needed the space. He came within earshot of them, though.

"How's it-why's she in dragon form..?" Enfurnus said to both Rion and Silver as he approached a little bit closer, slowly. "And...why is she...glowing like that?" He looked only to Rion now, with an increasing concern in his voice.

It seemed Enfurnus talking seemed to snap Silver out of her trance, because suddenly Silver snapped her body around and snatched whatever was left of that four-armed blighted thing in her jaws and tore it in half in one quick motion, making it look like some sort of ragdoll. She dropped its...pieces in a thud and turned her head towards Enfurnus, staring at him with cold, wide eyes. The way she was holding herself was a bit frightening; she held her head low and her legs slightly splayed out as if she was some rabid feral animal.

She opened her mouth in a snarl as purple ooze dripped from it from her victim.

"Silver...come on..." Enfurnus held a hand out to her, while taking a few steps back. He was attempting to snap her out of it, but that was apparently not accomplishing anything, as Silver took a few slow steps towards him, her mouth still held open.

Without any warning whatsoever, she lunged at Enfurnus, jaws ready to clamp down on whatever they managed to grab.

Good thing this cavern was of decent size.

"Ugh dang it! Get out!" Enfurnus shouted. He shifted in to his dragon form before Silver could land a hit on him and aimed his metal arm (though, now turned in to a dragon leg) towards her mouth. She latched on to it, falling for the bait...and having no time to really change course. The clumsy dive caused her to land on her side, sliding across the ground a bit.

Taking the brunt of the hit caused Enfurnus to get shoved back a few feet, but he managed to stay stable on 3 legs with his 4th one...being torn at. Silver shook his metal front leg violently like a dog trying to kill its prey. It was clear she wasn't all there. Enfurnus took the opportunity to pin her by the head to the floor with his other front leg, effectively holding her down to the ground, and forcing her to keep a grip on his metal leg. The rest of her body thrashed and squirmed about like a trapped beast. He wasn't sure how long he could hold her down like this; while blight would likely fog her brain function, he was entirely sure she would figure out any minute that she could still use her claws. He didn't want to take a hit from those as they were at the moment.

"Rion...!" Enfurnus squeeze out as he struggled to hold thrashing Silver still. If they didn't do something soon, she could potentially collapse the entire cavern without meaning to. Enfurnus thought that maybe Rion's light magic could help her...

[Sorrum]

Aqua had slammed another blighted drone across the head when she heard the crashing of rocks. She looked back to see Terra dropping the ceiling on a mess of monsters, then moving to their position. She couldn't help but think that was an in the moment decision, since that attack destroyed the way out of here. "Uh..well.."

There was hardly time to focus on it though. Before she noticed, a new monster had rushed Rion. It was away from her position, and frankly, she was already dealing with monsters herself. But losing one of their fighters here was potentially fatal. Aqua fell back to aim Sharksbane's hammer end at the beast, who was bigger than most and might shrug the attack off even.

Before she could fire, Silver turned and ripped the monster in half in her dragon form. "She transformed? In here?" The crystal now seemed dull, but Silver seemed to be pulsating with it's energy. Aqua felt the charm around her neck quiver as Silver moved toward and attacked Enfurnus, who was also now in his dragon form.

"What's happening-" this spectacle was enough for a blighted drone to approach Aqua. It swiped overhead with it's right claw, slamming across Aqua's helmet and shoulder pad. Aqua fell to one knee and dropped her staff from the shock of the blow. The next hit was coming though, so she quickly rolled forward to get out of harm's way. The drone's next swipe only hit air as it stumbled forward. Aqua had recovered and already thrown her bolas at the monster, freezing it in place as the weights spun around it's legs.

Aqua looked back briefly as the two dragons attacked one another. The process must have failed, since Silver was acting like one of those monsters now. Aqua grabbed her staff and focused on the situation. A thrashing dragon could bring the rest of the cave down, as did Terra's fireball from earlier start the process. Two options here were to recover Silver, which she did not have the power to do, or look for a way out. She chose the latter, and turned her helmets light on to max. She started skimming the walls, floor, and ceiling to look for a possible escape route they might have overlooked.

[Swim]

Terra skated down toward the rest of the party, taking advantage of the slight ramp to build up speed. She ducked under a monsters flailing arm and swept its feet out from under it as she passed. While it was down she pinned it to the ground with her legs and positioned herself to snap the monster's neck but abandoned the endeavor as she noticed more creepy red eyes bearing down on her. It was time to move.

Terra struck the ground creating a circle of fire which spread out around her. It wouldn't stop the blight monsters but it did knock them back long enough for Terra to flip to her feet and roll off again. The brief flash of light had also given her a better sense of her surroundings and an idea for getting out of her current predicament. She skated at full speed toward the outstretched arms of the nearest group of monsters and at the last moment shifted her wheels onto to the cave wall and right over their heads. She didn't have the balance to keep the wall ride going for long, it was probably only thanks to the occasional spurt of flame from her gauntlets that she was able to perform the feat at all.

Rather than wait to fall she used her momentum to kick off of the wall and into the general direction of her allies.. In the darkness however she didn't see the stalactite until she crashed face first into it... The rock formation crumpled on impact and both Terra and the stalactite crash landed onto a blighted beast that was creeping toward Rion and Enfurnus' backsides. As the dust settled Terra got to her feet and found the pointed end of the stalactite buried in the monster's neck. "Nailed it, totally calculated," she muttered gently touching her face and finding it scratched and hard as the wall she'd just struck. "But ow though."

At that point several things happened at once. In the semi darkness Terra could make out Silver kneeling next to the crystal doing... something. And then a giant four armed beast just... materialized. Seemingly out of nowhere. Quick as it appeared Silver shifted into a dragon and ate him for lunch, but Terra could tell there was something off. She didn't look the way she did before when she'd carried Frida. Enfurnus also seemed alarmed by her transformation which concerned Terra more than anything. He tried to reach for her but the reaction was immediate and primal. "Ugh dang it! Get out!" Enfurnus shouted, shifting into his own form in response and accidentally knocking Terra back to the floor.

The dragons began to struggle with each other, and combined with the fighting from before a cave in was looking more and more likely. "Damn, this isn't good," Terra muttered looking around. She'd lost sight of Rion in the scuffle but the light from Aqua's helmet caught her attention. "Frida!" she after the elf dispatched another blighted drone. "I'm going to try and stabilize the cave, I need you to cover me." Once she'd ensured that monsters wouldn't get the jump on her Terra knelt down placing both palms flat on the dusty cave floor and began to channel her earth abilities. Stone shifted and the buckling cave walls grew less shaky, the rocks themselves becoming more dense. But the cave was quite large, much larger than the portion they'd explored so far and there was no way she'd be able to hold on if the fight became prolonged.

[Bloodbane]

With the cave collapsing, any other blighted creatures were left unable to reach the crystal. The crew would likely have to deal with them after the fact, but for now it was safe to assume that if this was all that was left, then Silver would have the crystal deactivated in no time. The imposing presence of the crystal appeared to lessen as Silver began to take in the dark energy. "Keep it up, Silver, feels like it's almost finish--" Rion's statement was cut off as a blighted creature suddenly rushed from seemingly nowhere. Almost immediately, he stepped back, being forced to bring up a formation of light energy in the form of a barrier that took the brunt of the sudden force but still forced him away from Silver.

"D-dammit, Silver watch--" Rion paused as suddenly the beast was torn in two by Silver, though she no longer looked like the dragon-form of Silver he had recognized before. "... Silver...?" He appeared uncertain of what to do as she stared Enfurnus down. They were friends, this was something Enfurnus had some sort of idea of how to handle, right? After a few seconds of seeing the two dragons wrestle around, Rion shook his head. This definitely was not part of the plan, and it looked like even Enfurnus was unsure what was going on, as soon Rion heard his name being shouted as if perhaps he had some kind of answer.

"Tch... there's not much choice." He muttered, hoping that what he would need to do would not do much harm to Silver. "Try and keep her steady!" He called out to Enfurnus as he approached, quickly moving around toward Silver's back as Enfurnus began to hold her down. Once he reached what appeared to be one of the larger blight spikes he took hold of the spike, a white glow spreading from his fingertips as he attempted to drive out the dark energy like he had before. It appeared to work at first, but the longer he maintained this the more he noticed Silver beginning to thrash even more wildly. The process, as it was currently, was simply taking too long, even as he began to channel more energy, a more noticeable glow of energy being visible from underneath the plated gauntlet. "C'mon Silver, fight this...!" He yelled out, though unlike before it seemed there was enough energy still around to fight back against his own, even as he continued to push through. To push an even higher level of energy at this point would be to risk causing an effect similar to what he did to the blighted giant before.

"Really not giving me any other options here, huh..." He said somewhat jokingly, before giving a sigh. The energy he was channeling was still fighting against the dark energy contained in the spikes, but soon the presence of dark energy that Silver drew out would actually begin to decrease, with Rion appearing to grit his teeth as he tried keeping steady. "Come... on..." He grunted, eventually seeing results as the dark features of Silver's transformation began to revert, at which time the energy he was channeling appeared to push through and begin forcing out the dark energy much like it had before.

"How's... she looking...?" Rion asked Enfurnus through somewhat labored breathing, the process appearing to wear on him as he continued to keep an eye on the transformed Silver.

[Arashi]

Enfurnus struggled to hold Silver down as Rion approached. She was moving slightly less for now, but still squirming about, and it was wearing on his strength.

"I got her...for now...hurry..!" He replied to Rion with a grunt, his voice strained a bit.

At least now they didn;t have to worry about the cave collapsing in on them, but if they couldn't get a handle on Silver, there would be far worse things to deal with. He knew this was a decent possibility with her condition, but...he never saw it for himself; he only had dealt with the aftermath. If he wasn't trapped in this cave, he would've grabbed everyone and ran.

Enfurnus watched as Rion took ahold of one of Silver's spikes. Bold move, he thought. However, he noticed that whatever Rion was doing...was causing a reaction. Silver began to thrash again, with even more intensity. He began really struggling to pin her at this point.

Her impaired senses finally began to work, though. She slashed at Enfurnus's arm with her claws and managed to graze him, leaving a decent cut on him. Luckily her blind rage made her not so good at aiming so she didn't connect a hit that could have potentially been a lot more fatal if she hit his neck. Surprisingly though, he took the hit without moving; he kept his arm in place on her, holding her down, like nothing had ever happened; besides a small grunt of pain. He bore down with his weight, bracing himself as much as he possibly could with his back legs, as blood dripped down his arm.

He couldn't really afford to pay attention to what Rion was doing at this point, so he hoped this would be done soon. He knew enough of light mages to know that this would most likely work eventually...

Fight....fight it...The words echoed in Silver's head as the fog of blight slowly began to clear from her mind.

And Enfurnus was right. Silver's thrashing began to slow down considerably now, and the aura of darkness began to ease off, ultimately fading away. He pulled his metal arm out of her jaws and stepped off her, carefully. Whatever Rion did fixed her up, which was impressive; she had to have a considerable amount of blight in her for this sort of thing to happen. Usually, it had to run its course and wear her out, but this time...with the extra blight, they may have not happened.

He looked at his injured leg, then looked at Rion as he asked how she was looking.

"I..think you did it somehow. Are you alright?" He asked Rion, taking notice of him being a bit worn down.

At that moment, Silver shifted back in to her human form and lay on the ground, motionless.

Enfurnus lowered his head down to hers and listened for breathing. He heard it. She was certainly alive. Good.

"...I'll let you deal with her. I'm useless." Enfurnus looked at Rion and shrugged his broad, winged shoulders. The last time he tried to talk to her after this sort of thing happened didn't exactly go well for either of them. He was well aware she saw everything.

He then turned to Terra and Aqua, limping over to their general vicinity.

"We're done here...don't hurt yourselves. All we need now is a way out..." He seemed a bit tired as he spoke, but otherwise was his usual self. He licked the blood off his front leg wound, then shifted back to his human form to fit in the cave system better.

[Sorrum]

Aqua guarded Terra while she held the cave stable. She couldn't tell if the girl's magic was enough to hold this larger space open, as with Silver's thrashing fighting it. They were going to have to flee. Aqua looked over to the caved in tunnel they had taken in here, and wondered how much rock had fallen down. "Terra, the room's going to collapse! We need to open the tunnel and get out of here!"

Aqua did a quick look around and saw there weren't any more blighted creatures to attack them. They were still in danger, possibly more so, by the walls caving in around them. There wasn't anything she could do here, though she must do something.

Enfurnus appeared before them both without her noticing. His presence brought back her clarity for the moment. "We need a way out of here. This place isn't safe." She looked at his wounds and winced. "And we need to get your bleeding to stop, too." She looked over at Silver, who was now unconscious. Rion didn't look much better, either. Things weren't looking good for a quick escape.

Aqua grabbed Enfurnus by his weak side and tucked herself under his shoulder. "Here, we're going to have to move fast and you'll need the help.." Without many other options and the cave out of her hands, she could help her allies to safety at least.

[Swim]

Now that the dragons were done fighting it was time to find a way out of the cave. Terra was pretty turned around and didn't exactly know which side of the mountain they'd come out on, but she could feel which direction had the least amount of obstruction between the party and the outside and that was good enough at present.

Everyone else seemed pretty beat up, or else was supporting someone else who wasn't looking great. "I'm going to make a way out of here," Terra announced loudly as she strode over to her chosen wall and began feeling around for the edges of loose stones. "I can't promise nothing will fall on us while I do, so keep your eyes up for any boulders that come loose." She'd have to trust that if anything did fall down that Frida, Rion or Enfurnus could protect the others.

Terra seized on a large slab of rock and cast it aside. Driving her hand deeper into the crevice her hands found a plate, roughly four feet long and hurled it out of the way. The next piece wasn't quite so willing to budge, so she slammed her fist into the rock wall as if blasting it with TNT. Now she was getting somewhere. Terra drove both hands into the wedge she'd created and willed the stone to separate and little by little the rock wall gave way. It took her quite awhile to tunnel out of the cavern, but in a short time she'd created enough space that there was at least an outcropping for the party to stand under while she worked.

Not that she even registered them behind her though, Terra was now utterly focused on the task at hand. She slammed her fists into the stone again and again, not even registering that her hands had long since grown numb to all feeling. Then she finally struck gold. Or to be more precise, a ray of sunlight pierced into the tunnel, and that was good as gold for Terra. She stumbled forward, crashing through what remained of the wall and falling to her knees with exhaustion in the soft grass outside. She exhaled a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding and when she filled her lungs again she noticed that she was lightheaded. Her arms felt heavy, she tried to flex her fingers but her fists held stubbornly now. And they were soo dusty, the same grey color Terra noted briefly, as the rock she'd smashed through... "Oh, but that sun feels nice though..." she muttered before passing out in the grass.

[Bloodbane]

Rion continued focusing on what he was doing, even after Silver managed to land a cut on Enfurnus. It wasn't long after that before Silver ceased thrashing, even going as far back as returning to her human form although she had lost consciousness. "I'll be fine... How about you?" He asked, now taking note of Enfurnus' cut. He seemed somewhat hesitant as he approached the dragon, but decided to take the moment that Enfurnus was checking Silver to purify the wound and prevent any lingering effects. He was a little surprised, however, to find Enfurnus asking him to deal with Silver, at which point he put a hand to the back of his head.

"I'll see what I can do." He said, though before he could pick Silver up a jolt of energy sparked violently from his arm, bringing him to a knee. "D-damn... was hoping that wouldn't happen..." He said, remaining prone for the moment as the pain from the rebound lingered, leaving a burning sensation followed by a sense of numbness as he got back to his feet, his armored arm appearing to hang limp. When the others took notice, he simply shook his head. "Nothing to worry about, it's not gonna last... sometimes that energy bites back, is all." He explained, feeling that was as good an explanation as he was willing to give; he had indeed done a fair bit more than simply use his light magic directly on Silver, but given the situation it was likely best for people not to know the lengths he took to help her this time, at least for now.

As the opening was made in the cave and the party left, Rion carried Silver across his shoulders, looking around the area before seeing Terra fall, exhausted from her efforts. "W-well... maybe not the cleanest execution, but the crystal's gone, and that's what counts. Looks like we'll just have to take a breather for a bit." He explained, before a passing shadow caused him to look upward as a winged creature passed overhead, appearing to simply pass over the area without any change in direction. 'Another dragon...? Huh.'

[Arashi]

Without even looking, Enfurnus replied to Rion.

"I'm good...I lost an arm. A scratch here or there isn't that big of a deal..."

Enfurnus didn't even notice Rion using light magic on his injury as he checked Silver over; he was focused on other thoughts right now. Like how much danger they had all just been put in. Was this really the best idea..?

~

Enfurnus watched as Rion...and tilted his head as he appeared to be affected in some way. Enfurnus was going to ask if he was okay, but Rion seemed to shrug off any concern the others had over him. Enfurnus was still concerned though...what Rion had just done, even with his light magic, could not have been even remotely safe. He had recalled the Shining Swordsmen being unique and powerful, but...drawing blight out like that couldn't be good for anybody.

He sighed, standing there quiet for a moment, a small bit of blood still dripping out of his armor. And then, Aqua said something about his injury and grabbed on to him, as if to help him walk. This seemed to make him slightly flustered.

"W-what-"

He had managed from far, far worse so he would have been fine on his own, at least in his mind, but...he certainly appreciated the gesture. He was rather used to being the one doing the helping, not the other way around. It was almost strange for him and he didn't quite know how to react.

But before he could really say anything, he was interrupted by Terra literally punching the cave. And it was working. Extremely well. She had managed to make them an exit...it was easy to say that this was pretty impressive, though he had to kind of wonder how much strain that would put on her.

~

Soon, they would walk outside; Silver being carried by Rion, and Enfurnus being helped by Aqua.

Enfurnus watched helplessly as Terra fell, wondering what they would do now.

"Terra...gah."

He wouldn't be able to carry her right now, so...there would need to be some other option. The area outside the cave that they ended up in looked pretty safe though, so hanging out there for a short bit would be okay, and he imagined the next town over wouldn't be too far from where they were now.

He looked at Rion.

"...Yeah, that's all that matters I guess." The dragon was a bit more quiet than normal. He was left uncomfortable by how deadly that encounter could have been to the innocent members of the party.

He was quiet as the shadow passed over them, though he did look up for a moment. He was used to dragons being overhead so this wasn't something really new to him, but...what would another dragon be doing in this location?

[Sorrum]

Aqua suggested Terra open up the tunnel again, but instead she make a new tunnel in awesome fashion. Aqua looked on, speechless as the woman tore apart cave wall with her bare hands, hardly stopping for a breath. Amazingly when she first saw sunlight, she heard an inhale coming from Terra. Like she literally hadn't stopped to breathe that whole time. She then promptly fell face first onto the ground. Out cold. Aqua looked up at Enfurnus, who's expression matched hers. She pursed her lips and looked for a spot to set him down.

"Let's check that wound real quick. I don't want to have to worry about you bleeding out on us." Aqua stated clearly. She helped Enfurnus over to a nearby tree stump that was covered in overgrown vegetation. She inspected his leg and found it was bleeding more than she thought it might. "Okay, sorry but I'm gonna have to take this off and get a better look at the damage." Aqua grabbed Enfurnus's leg and yanked it up unceremoniously atop the trunk, swiveling him around as she did so. "S-sorry." She made a mental note not be rough with him.

Aqua unstrapped the leather plates from Enfurnus's leg and pulled them away tenderly. There was a nice gash into his muscles, and blood was leaking forth slowly. It had definitely slowed down from the walk, but it needed to stop. "This is going to sting." Icy energy chilled Aqua's hands as she pressed down on Enfurnus's cut, putting pressure down and reducing swelling together.. She held it down until the wound stopped bleeding, for a rather awkwardly silent few minutes.

"Now that that's done, this is the last step." Aqua reached up for her hair tie and pulled the cloth loose. She bandaged his leg up and inspected her work. She sighed, looked up at him briefly and smiled. "You're a good patient, thanks for sitting still."

Aqua looked around. The party was wiped. Silver and Terra were unconscious, Rion and Enfurnus were injured, and she was.. fine. She hadn't taken half the damage everyone else did. "We didn't find the mage after all.. I don't think we can stay here, if that's the case. Not under these conditions." She said to both Rion and Enfurnus. An idea struck her. Something that she hadn't done since she the snowy seasons as a kid. A smile came across her face. The idea was so silly, but it would work out fine.

Aqua stood with glyphs appearing and disappearing around her as magic flowed through her body and soul. Orbs of blue light shimmered and coalesced from the air and from her body into the shape her mind conjured. Unlike the times before when she had created structures of ice, she was building defined shapes and function this time around and was fully concentrated on the task. The world around her fell deathly silent as she worked. It was interesting, she thought, how warmth is stolen by the ice and kept inside, that the magic she used would dull her senses to the world around her. Magic felt so strange, but comforting. The emptiness of this cold, dark world she found herself in was eerily more familiar everytime she came. All her attention snapped forth when her spells completed. In a flourish, she expelled the charged collection of mana, energy and intentions into a children's spell.

From the ground rose a tornado thick with ice and snow, rising and blowing away dust and debris in its wake. The mass of wind was overwhelmed with the sound of ice cracking, as it moved forward slowly. When it was finished, the tornado dispersed, leaving behind a large structure. A sled made of ice, large enough to fit everyone on it, with thick pillars of ice to support the weight of the group. It only lacked space, as they'd soon be sitting really close to each other.

Aqua exhaled. "Still got it." She pumped her fist triumphantly. She turned to Rion and Enfurnus with a wide grin on her face. "So we'd ideally leave the extra space to our two unconscious allies, sit up front and try not to hit any trees. I'll make us a smooth path with my magic to glide on, and we speed off to the nearest town. Sound good?" Aqua took a step onto the sled and then turned back around. "Maybe I should help get those two on first." She stepped back off the sled and headed over to Terra and Silver.

[Arashi]

Enfurnus looked rather confused as Aqua helped him sit down on a nearby tree stump, after she said she wanted to check out his injury.

"I'm fin-" Before he could finish his sentence, Aqua began to look at his leg. He was used to just being healed by light magic users, or dealing with his own injuries or other peoples' injuries.

And then Aqua yanked his leg up, which caused him to wince a little bit as he was twisted at a weird angle. He kept quiet though, for now, watching what she was doing. She seemed to know her stuff. Where did she learn that?

As she carefully removed the plate of armor from his lower leg, he blinked a few times. This felt weird, having someone take off a piece of his armor. He found himself feeling just...strange, as he watched her work, quietly still. Soon, she pressed her cold hand against his injury and left it there for what felt like forever. It did sting, but his face certainly didn't show it. Instead he looked away and just had a strange expression on his face. It was hard to place.

Then she removed her hair tie to bandage his leg up. Enfurnus looked at her again as she seemed to be done and pleased with her work. She looked different...her hair looked nice down like that...and then he realized he was kind of staring at her for a moment as she thanked him for being a good patient with a blank expression, gave her a bit of an odd look, and quickly cleared his throat and looked away a bit.

"O-Oh uhh...thank you. And thanks for patching me up." He finally spoke, snapping himself out of it. Come on, you're on a mission here...stop being weird about it. He reached down and put his armor plate back on, noticing that his leg did feel quite a bit better.

He stayed quiet as Aqua began making something with magic now.....and when she was done, it turned out to be...an ice sled? He listened as she explained her plan, and then she proceeded to step on to the sled.

"...I don't mean to question your judgement, but it won't melt, right?" Enfurnus smiled a bit and scratched the back of his head. Then she was going to drag their allies on to the sled.

"Wait. I'll do it." He said as he quickly stood up from the stump he was sitting on, kind of forgetting his leg was injured. He winced a small bit again, but otherwise ignored it. He walked over to Terra and hoisted her over his shoulder...and quickly realized she was really, really heavy for some reason. Weird. Oh well. He struggled a small bit, but managed to carry her over to the sled and put her in to the back. He looked at her for a few minutes, trying to figure out what in the heck made her weigh that much. He was glad he was pretty strong, even for a dragon.

He looked at Aqua again now, and then to Rion.

"...I swear she weighs 5 times her weight or something right now. Any clue what in the world is up with that?" He paused for a moment, then added, "And Rion. You mentioned Eulene. Are we close? I've lost my bearings."

[Bloodbane]

Rion watched as Aqua moved to tend to Enfurnus' wound, a light smirk coming over his face as he watched the way Enfurnus seemed to fluster just a bit. By the time they were done, the smirk had left his face, though it appeared that Aqua wasn't done showing off her talents with ice magic after deciding the group couldn't simply stay here. "I suppose that is cause for concern... this was definitely a larger crystal than before." He said, wondering if that meant they were getting closer to coming across one of the mages. Before he knew it, a sled made entirely of ice was sitting before the group. "W-wow... that's something, all right." He noted with a grin, before looking to Aqua and nodding. "Should have no trouble getting to Eulene with this!" He stated, making his way over to the sled and helping Aqua with getting Silver onto the sled with Terra.

After a few seconds, he looked to Enfurnus, before looking around. "We're pretty close, yeah... in fact..." He said, looking in the direction he had seen the dragon flying and relating it to where the sun was in the sky. "Eulene's actually in this direction." He said, pointing in the same direction. As far as Terra weighing even more? "Beats me. Hopefully that won't mess with the sled too much."

[Arashi]

Enfurnus nodded at Rion saying Eulene was close...and in the same direction that overhead figure was going.

"Good. Shall we head there then? I think we could all use a nice rest at an Inn or something...besides Terra and Silver...who need to wake up..." He smiled a bit. His expression quickly changed in to one a bit more serious though, as he stepped in to the ice sled and took a seat in it, ready to go.

"...However, I'm having second thoughts about this. Is this really a good idea? Silver doesn't mean it, of course, but...when she snaps like that, it's pretty dangerous...and I don't really want to see you innocent people get injured by that...nor do I want her getting herself hurt. I...don't know the solution, though. Maybe Celestrus could take her..." He then sighed. "Sorry, I'm just being honest." He seemed to be mostly addressing Rion, but he made no effort to keep his words a secret of any sort, so Aqua would have heard him too.

He kind of had a guess at what they would say in reply to that, but he didn't like hiding his thoughts from the group.

[Sorrum]

"Melt? No, it's fine. I used to create sleds like this back when I as a kid, this is just big enough for more people." Aqua said confidently. "We'll be at Eulene soon, then we can take care of Terra and Silver.
I think. Not so sure what happened to Silver, actually. Terra's just exhausted." Aqua paused for a second, then looked at the two bodies laying in the sled. "Might try to get there before they freeze to the sled, though."

Aqua sat at the front of the sled and grabbed hold of the handle bars. With everyone on, it was time to go. Glyphs appeared before her hands and around the sled's runners. Ice formed on the ground in front of the sled, exactly where the runners would ride along. Aqua pushed her palms forward against the bar, and the sled was in motion. Ice continued to form from glyphs directly ahead of the runners as the sled picked up speed. The wind was soon rushing past them as Aqua maneuvered the sled through the forest, over streams and between trees, into a clearing and up and down hills. This was all exciting to her, albeit a drain on her mana. As the sun slowly made it's way across the sky, she could feel her power starting to thin.

~

Before long, Aqua saw the outline of buildings on the horizon. She picked the sled's pace up and headed toward the city, cutting through the wilderness and into the farmlands and outskirts. As the sled neared the town, Aqua pulled her hands back and slowed down the sled's pace. It slowed down gradually and stopped just ahead of the town's gate. "Here, finally.. I think I could use that rest now.." Aqua spoke between breaths.