[Team 3] Protect and Destroy (Hero, Garnet & Emperor, Song, Yuzuki)

It was a wrathful sight from afar. That only promised little to no good as the gloomy place in the distant north-west of this land came closer and closer along the way. It started reminding him of the Spooky Forests from Fiore, but to compare it with another landscape with such little knowledge and experience in the new area was an unnecessary action. Besides, unlike the Spooky Forest, Mura had never felt a forest booming and blooming with so much magic power before. He didn’t know better now, but he was easy to compare it to another magical shrubbery in his memory - that of Tenroujima.

This region, however… it wasn’t like Tenroujima. Not at all.

The first thing that any traveler with a decent eyesight and spatial awareness would notice would likely be the magical walls made up of several magic circles embedded in strange symbols unlike any other magic circle that Mura had ever known. It was unfortunate to be unaware of the purpose of these barriers, because with how quickly that the shaman and his team approached the place, fate would tell that the lot would cross the line at one point or another. Even the path that could lead them to the front of these magical walls was starting to hoard up woods and vegetation with each branch praying thankfully that they would not be part of the unholiness behind the walls. Mura felt a dread in the air, but it didn’t stop him. Rather, he knew how important caution was today.

His choice of gear for this mission was routine; his classic Toad Sage Gi and the quite short, sand-colored cloak combined with his samurai boots would provide for physical protection against weather and indignity. His weaponry consisted of Harusame and the Futsunomitama Blade, each strapped onto his left hip. He also had his WristLac turned on to save the directions that they may take - just in case if they get wild. He was more than confident that his team had prepared themselves for today’s mission.

His team was to consist of powerful, renowned wizards from the three guilds that made up the large alliance of Silver Moon Fairies; one from the West Fiore Trading Company, two from Silver Wolf, and a small, brave friend of his from Fairy Tail. Mura made sure to ensure his mind that when they gathered up near the barrier, he would greet and introduce himself. For now, though, the two ghosts accompanying Mura everywhere made most sound throughout the woods that only spirit-meddling wizards or other Fairy Tail Wizards could hear.

“6 or 5 warriors?”
“6, I tell you - 6! All at once, I’m genuine…!”
“HAH! That’s such a low number of targets! But I guess you humans are unfairly treated with your dwarven biology compared to me…”
“There’s a clear difference between slapping 6 people with a hand and cutting 6 enemies as big as yourself in one move.”
“Do you think that I care about your little time-killers with inexperienced branch-holders who knew nothing about you? Tell me some of your greater battles, those that truly made everything feel critical!”
“*sigh* As you wish, my friend… hmhh… ah, yes, how can I forget my old friend-“

“Okay, we’re here,” Mura cut the two ghosts off short. He stood face to face with the magic circles that were held up to form a long, tall wall. From here on, it was at their own risk. Every move was to be accounted for due to their own choice of entering this place.

And so, Mura turned around to face the group that he was going to lead. He leant his left elbow on the scabbard of his katana and bowed to them all.

“Hehe, It’s nice to be in a subtle team in these cases. I hope you feel the same,” he greeted with a pleasant smile and without a care about formal etiquette of some noble whose title he lacked so goddamn much, “So I’m Mura Kensho. I’m an Ace of Fairy Tail, and I’ll watch over this team.” His thumb pointed up at the cyan Fairy Tail Crest on his right side of his forehead.

Unaware of it, he was among strong wizards. And as a wise man once said ‘power cancels power’, but also ‘power triggers power’ could be used here. A dark silhouette was formed behind Mura, resembling a large titan-like phantom with neutral intent and an absent presence in the physical realm. Mura also felt the magic powers of each individual, and he breathed out in relief.

”You can call me Kyuken,” Kyuken exclaimed to the group, unaware of the conditions, “The very Heaven-Earth Swordsman in your presence! I’m honored to meet you all-“

“Only Garnet can hear you.”

“-…”

“By the way, this place hasn’t been explored before in Tolgalen. And with those magic circles around, I’d almost bet that there’s something special with this place,” he explained, “Whatever it is, it’s probably best if we found out - but we should quickly take care of it if it turns out to be harmful or wanting to harm us. That way, the people of Tolgalen won’t have anything to fear.” After gaining input from the group and their names, Mura would see how it would go when they all were to pass the barrier and enter restricted terrain.

WC: 897

Song was a very young girl that didn't have a lot of world experience. It would probably take a lot to get the desert arachne to fully comprehend how serious the situation really was. One bright side was that her guild was giving her more experience. It was one thing to hear about something dangerous, but if you don't jump into that danger than it becomes harder to get a full grasp on what danger really is. Her life had been full of a lot of bewares, but the Young Talea had only really started walking to real danger after joining her guild. It made danger warnings a lot less scary, jobs with difficulty warnings easier to apply and run to do. It didn't help her be weary when the youth had been trained for a large portion of her life to charge towards danger rather than away, to fight without considering alternatives. The concept of danger had only really started getting more of an understanding during the light where there was no light. That was probably the first time where she had felt fear for something unrelated to hunger and food. The winter job where she and some others tried to stop santa had given her more of a grasp on danger. The wounds were not as serious, but there had been more enemies, many of them firing long range attacks. Those were the sort she had issues figuring out were coming, making them a lot harder to avoid. People also got hurt, one person even lost their clothes! The child clearly didn't have a full grasp on the concept of danger yet. A better grasp on the concept was still preferable than having barely any at all. It wasn't enough to make her stop taking dangerous work.

Then again, the blond girl was also starting to realize how hard it was for her to work in a way differently than her training. Or perhaps it was her magic that caused her to crave battle? The blind person wasn't really a deep thinker though, not normally. All of this was likely what had lead her to signing up for such a dangerous job. This was how the spider girl ended up on the country of Tolgalen for the first time to meet up with a group of different people to deal with something that was apparently very dangerous. She knew of two people that would be in the team, but barely. One had been in the same winter job as her, the other was in the same guild. It almost felt like running towards working with a group of strangers. She didn't really bring much, for she had no unique equipment or weapons. She didn't pay attention to who came first, or if she had been last or not. What was more vital in her mind? When they would get down to business. Her pale pupiless foggy colored eyes looked over at the team leader as soon as he started speaking. She had no idea of the argument that had happened, which isn't surprising since she knew nothing of spirits. The girl gave an energetic wave to Mura after the fairy tail ace introduced himself. A smile crept on her face, even at the less than energetic sounding greeting from Zhuu to the group. Then there was the silent person. What was his name...? Well, she should introduce herself too. "I'm song Talea from Silver Wolf! I was born with a magic that trades sight for enhancing other senses, so I can feel out stuff very well! I can feel somethings weaknesses when I touch it."

She didn't want anyone to get any wrong ideas. Something Song had started to notice was important to bring up was her blindness. She couldn't expect people to automatically know, and the child got around well enough that it seemed not everyone noticed. Everyone could tell in her hometown because they were all the same species, so knew what traits to look for. Well, the ones that could actually see knew what to look for physically. Training around many like her had taught her how to spot those with her magic, but that didn't help spotting any outside the desert arachne race with blindness. But having eyes she couldn't see out of didn't make her helpless, the child was proud of her strength. She briefly thought of saying more but for once decided not to. If she wasn't a capable person than the young Talea likely wouldn't have been allowed to apply for the job in the first place, let alone be standing here with this group. She wasn't the most wise or knowledgable, but those were things she would get more of with time and effort.

Words: 794

(OOC: As said in discord, skip me for this round as I am currently unfit to post. I will be back for the next round however. Mura, you can add some dialogue in for me in your post if you want. Hero has a very neutral tone in his voice so keep that in mind. Sorry guys.)

So, the greetings began, and Mura could remember their names for reasonable reasons that could be reasoned with everyone. First name spoken up was Zhuu of Silver Wolf, the raven-haired little girl with a dry voice and rather laid-back, Mura-like taking of things. If it wasn’t for the fact that he had grown a little, he would reason with her in a sense. Would you think of that, he actually thought that he was older than her. The poor Midian knew nothing. “Hehe.”

Garnet was recognizable from miles away. The small Inkling had very Inkling-like features, but it was mostly his eyes that set him apart from the rest of… the Inklings that Mura had never met before. Surprisingly, he was accompanied by a blonde-haired, small dude who appeared to be an Inkling too. He remembered of his name being spoken back in the guild hall when Garnet introduced, a formal gentleman named Emperor. “I hope you’re ready for today, Garnet and Emperor,” he greeted back to them, figuring that Garnet usually flashed a screen up at him to communicate.

The tall baldie was way too present. His tallness was intimidating and gave off a devastating aura, and his shining skull of a bald head shone brightly through any obstacle even in the gloominess of the present atmosphere. Mura’s eyes were about to burn just by looking at it, in which he showed his awe to the lad. “’Sup to you too, tallie,” he blankly greeted.

The last in the group was a young girl with eight legs resembling a spider. That was a new one, he hadn’t met a spider girl before. Despite that, his face didn’t show too much fear akin to an arachnophobe; rather, it showed satisfaction and interest. Kyuken’s eyes were sparkling by the cuteness of the sand-colored spider girl, but before any ridiculous cases would unearth themselves from his surface, Mura wiped his hand around what appeared to be an empty spot in the middle of the air where Kyuken’s spirit head was pushed away… maybe he should inform them about that.

“I’m accompanied by two ghosts, a samurai pervert and a green dragon - don’t mind them,” he warned them in a slightly awkward fashion, “-ANYWAY, let’s just make sure that anyone can enter these areas without getting mauled by anything living, okay? Song, since you can sense out stuff well, you should help us guard our backs.” With that said, the shaman approached one of the wall-like paintings of magic seals in order to try and enter the untouched realm. He walked with caution, not sure if the slightest step into this area could contaminate him and set him up for life in the bad way.

The spirits had begun blabbering… Garnet and Emperor could likely hear them…

“I call suicide.”
“Why do you call suicide?”
“Because the entire place might be one big smoke of death! At least wear masks-“

Mura’s hand was already transcending the barrier. No effects grabbed or attacked him for the moment… it gave him green light to inform the others. “Alright, it should be easy to enter-“ Mura stated as he stuck his head in only to realize that the area in front of him was like a maze of fresh air and dark, green fogs.

“We should do something with the pollution…” he spoke up. He held a palm up and threw an ember at one collection of green fog. To his surprise, it didn’t explode like he felt it would… it just dissolved. The pollution must have been susceptible to heat. “That’a do it. Okay, guys, grab a torch.” From his sleeve, five torches were sent out under the control of his Onmyōdō to land firmly on Garnet’s and Emperor’s small hands, Hero’s large-but-humble hands, Zhuu’s loli hand and Song’s humanoid hand. “We’ll start by removing the green pollution. Just point at the fogs and let the fires do the job - please don’t inhale it, too… who knows what seizures you can get from these.”

WC: 671
TWC: 897 + 671 = 1568

Song felt energetic and prepared to take everything on. If she saw how young their leader looked than she might not judge in such a way. This wasn't something a blind girl could exactly do without touching. Do you grab all over your team leader to see how they look though? No you don't. She was starting to realize that the male was a bit weird though. A samurai pervert and a green dragon? Two ghosts. She couldn't feel them at all, so of course couldn't even imagine them in her minds eye. There had to be a way to fix that though, right? She would find out how, but that would be later. This was not an hour where the arachnid could scurry away into the library. It was an important mission where they were supposed to go in and fight a lot. Things such as learning how to sense ghosts somehow could come later, at least now she knew they were more than mythical beings. A dragon one was sort of exciting, but not much since she couldn't interact with it. Also, green was a pretty useless word to her. What was green? One of those color things she hears so much about. It meant as little as red, black, and any other word that referenced something that words cannot ever describe nor allow her to visualize. Why did he hit the fog? Was there something special about it? Was what the sickness came from? Though she was sure that books had said that sickness wasn't something you could see in the air. Could you see some? Well, she wasn't a doctor, nor the leader. Fog would be useful to seeing to part of her didn't want to grab the torch, but it didn't stop her from walking over and taking one.

If the child was anything, it was good at taking orders. She was raised to be obedient to those in charge, even if the two worlds she was in also challenged that. The reason for that back then was the higher ups that gave orders that always went against what his family told him, a difference that eventually couldn't be tolerated or ignored. That issue wasn't in existence here. No, this was an important mission, not even her first job either. It wasn't her first one with a 'leader' either, though this was a lot more important. Having one leader, no matter how unusual, was definitely a nice thing to have. It felt a bit strange to have had nobody tell her what to do for as long as it had been. Yes, it wasn't her first mission with a leader in it., nor would it be the last. All the rest of the time though the Talea was left on her own, and figuring out what to do next without an order to things still felt weird. It shouldn't, the girl knew how to fine, but that was still how it was. She also wasn't good at figuring out her role in a group without being told. Without the current leader of this jobs group, she wouldn't have realized what a good idea that was. She was naturally difficult to notice and the way she saw? She couldn't see things shooting in the air if there was no sound, nor facial expressions or even colors. A good thing about her senses though? Bushes and trees weren't really a thing that got in her way of seeing. Tall objects don't block sound from existing behind it, nor in front of it. Smells also still travel fine.

"Okay, I'll alert anyone if I hear, smell, or feel anything and where it's located if I notice it first." Everything would work out fine, that was her thoughts as she moved to the back of the group, holding the torch with one of her hands. The heats dance was interesting to watch, even with her blind senses. This wasn't what she was here to do though, thus the arachnid didn't allow herself to get distracted by it. So they were to burn the pollution as they go? Well if she was at the back then wouldn't she see the least amount of it? But the desert youth still complied, holding the fire towards it whenever it became close. So far nothing approached, but the area wasn't exactly empty. "Should I set up any traps?"

Words: 735
My Total: 1529

Hmh… it didn’t appear to be related to the disease directly. The gas, that was. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. Mura wanted to find out if it was a product of some kind of organisms, since he had encountered smoke-breathing creatures back in the day. Diseases couldn’t be visible in the air, anyway… or could they? He wasn’t an expert in that area, to be completely fair. Maybe he should have read a little more up about that subject before determining to lead the group, but… he was sure that they could get through all of this. They just had to be cautious.

“Yes, that’d be a great help, Zhuu,” Mura replied to the smol fire wizard. Her fires were… unusual, alive and aether-like. A path to walk through would decrease the chance of getting infected by the poisonous gas, and it would increase the chance of finding the source of this gas. He was assured that it came from a physical source, and since they were here to clean, whatever produced this dangerous gas would be put down. Now, about danger… he couldn’t help but sarcastically think that there weren’t any dangerous animals here, eh? It was a necessity, almost. A place like this would rapidly affect plant as well as animal life, so what and how would the disease have caused the multi-celled organisms?

Some of the greenish pollution faded away and revealed a large oak tree. It wasn’t identified as one directly by Mura, because this particular tree was covered in black spore-like mushrooms. The effects from his magic as well as Zhuu’s concluded that they were able to eliminate the pollution with fire magic without unfortunately spreading the pollution like spreading smoke from burning wood. The spores were most likely susceptible by fire too.

“If there’s such a large tree here… Song, we’ll need a trap right here,” he commanded the spider girl, “Trees and other large shrubbery are favorite resting and hiding places for monstrous beings.” He was eager to find out what she possessed in magic that would allow her to put up traps, because Mura’s magic was generally used like ‘throw-wait-throw’ and not in a ‘ticking bomb’ like fashion.

He was still worried about his own magic’s effect on the spores. What if burning the spores just released all the smoke at once? “Zhuu, I believe your fire magic is different from mine,” he spoke to the short elf, “Could you get rid of the spores completely?” While asking her to do so, Kyuken and Zirconis were soaring around Garnet and Emperor, kind of seeing parallels of themselves in them.

“So… twinsies?”
“Twin…sies?”
“Yes, twinsies. I heard a couple gals scream that out as if they staffed themselves.”
“…”
“… Oh, no, don’t give me that look. See, I’m trying to integrate my vocabulary and all, making an effort to blend in to society-“
“What kind of society makes up those words?”
“Fiore.”
“Can’t you just talk Midian? You and Mura speak the same language, after all.”
“Yes, but I’m showing my affection for this particular country that I happen to live in- not live-like live, but be in, and I’m strengthening my relation to said country through learning their language.”
“… J-Just, why even…”

Zirconis tiredly soared behind Emperor’s back in embarrassment to his spirited partner. That was also when he spotted that some kind of vine was approaching Garnet from behind - a relatively small one, but it was alive and moving towards them. It had an appendage on its end that looked like a hand with claws, and Zirconis quickly flew down and entered Garnet’s foot. It would be felt soothing, like having water poured onto your foot, but the result was a greenish spike ball that hurled the vine creature away.

“Everyone! Enemies approaching!”
“Everyone! Enemies approaching!”

Zirconis’ voice reached Mura’s ears, and thus the shaman delivered the message to everyone around him. From down the tree to crawling up from the dirt came weird, root slash bush creatures that looked like amalgamations of several plants and vegetations. Soft but sensible footsteps from one large bastard in the distance could be detected by those nimble on their feet, too. It was far away, so Mura only detected the 4 Rotting Maws and 2 Plague Bugs near the group. A Plague Bug jumped towards Song as Mura’s katana was swiftly unsheathed and stuck into the dirt, releasing spikes that immobilized the creature for a brief moment. They looked recognizable to regular species, but their textures and skins were far from normal.

“Alright, everyone; protect and destroy!”

WC: 767
TWC: 1568 + 767 = 2335

(OOC: Due to IRL problems, Hero is out of the Guild-Scale - he gives his apologies, and so will I. Sorry for the long wait, but let's keep the post time limit from now on <3)

The spiders pale yellow irises looked over towards the tree. Put traps on that? But her nose told her that it wouldn't even be smart to go near. Whatever had engulfed the 'tree' made it not feel like a tree anymore. To the young girl, it felt like a husk that at one point held life, but now only held death all across it. Her pupils were cloudy, looking non existent, making her distrust of it less visible on the young face that still had some baby fat on it. Nevertheless, she was told to put a trap on it and she was not the type to disobey a team leader. A good leader's orders are supposed to give everyone a part in getting a specific task or tasks done. Thankfully it seemed the tall dead plant wouldn't need close approaching anymore, not by herself anyway. The burning from her fellow guildmate was appreciated, though not spoken out loud. Song feared that saying that out loud would sound rebellious, which isn't something you should sound like on a serious mission. "Okay Mura Sir. I'll put traps on ones that don't have the spore things, or fire." The spore things were probably good to avoid and their weird feel to them made it easy enough to find.

The girl wasn't fireproof either, so avoiding things that were burning just seemed natural. The younger Talea couldn't see color, the shapes he figured things were was very basic without touch. She only had a better area of appearance after getting her hands on them, feeling all the weaknesses within it. The desert child now set off to work, quickly moving along. Her mind was in a rush, trying to skip unnecessary steps. This was how she accidentally skipped the head movements the girl normally did to mimic looking around. It wasn't something she did on purpose  anyway, just one of many sight related reflexes that for some reason never fully faded. How did they even get there when she was always blind? Maybe the other senses being enhanced confused her system on how to act? It felt a bit like that sometimes. Song herself wasn't always sure how to react all the time herself. One would think that it would get easier with time, but the desert born girl wasn't that sort. The child was impatient and liked things to occur as soon as possible. She was next to a bush, weaving sand colored threads into a diamond shape. It was also during that time that the enemies had been announced by their leader.

That fast? Before she even set down her first spell? That certainly seemed to be the case. The arachnid placed the trap down around a bush, blending into its surroundings as soon as it was placed. But she couldn't help but frown when a bug was hit from near her, she hated it when things were in the air. It was harder to notice anything that didn't give her a way to find it. Maybe if she had stayed behind, that wouldn't be a weakness for her. She knew the adult fully trained and seasoned ghosts never had that issue. Feeling her frustrations ebb though, the child quickly wove some white threads, the shape creating a spell. The spell changed into the shape of a small blade, one that was quickly propelled at the stunned plague bug. Another spell was quickly woven up, her frustrations making the nimble fingers go faster. "I hate when enemies use the air! I'll kill them all for taking advantage of it." She was fed up with any enemies that used the air, all of them, each and every single one. Her blind eyes moved when a rotting maw set off her trap, shadows beginning to coat the area and slow enemies down. At least that would slow them down for awhile...

The girl scowled a bit, weaving more white threads for her next attack. This time the spell formed around one of her hands, shaping into spiked bronze knuckles. Rage clouded her thoughts, but thankfully she decided to go after and punch the nearby rotting maw, not the thing that could have burst into a flesh melting acidy mess.

Words: 706
My Total: 2235

[OOC side note: Different font=Inkling language]

The mutant bushes were easy to take down… or so it appeared. Zhuu’s silver-white flames mauled a bush of living vines, while Zirconis managed to save Garnet from an ambush. He had a lot of action to take himself when a bug lashed out its pincers towards him. It was a bad choice, because it appeared to hit an invisible wall on its way midair to flop on the ghost mage, following up by suddenly splitting up in 72 rectangular pieces. All the pieces were trapped inside a steel ball that surrounded it in an instant after splitting up by what appeared to be Mura just holding the handle of his averagely long katana. The steel dome heated up and shrank in size, giving Mura time to find out if it leaked any detestable acid blood.

It didn’t. Good.

He would release the steel dome and reveal dust particles hitting the ground in front of him. The particles were caught by the shadow that coated the floor beneath all the fighters, and Mura had trouble realizing that it was from Song’s magic. He didn’t expect her to utilize shadows like that. “These insects don’t release anything dangerous,” he informed the group, “So make sure to burn their remains, but watch out for the mushrooms!”

The mushrooms still emitted that greenish smoke like earlier. And since Zhuu was busy incinerating some living maw, the greenish poison - which was likely filled with its own bad effects - slowly spread out on the field. Mura lifted both hands up towards it in order to enclose the space around the mushrooms and the tree, thus preventing any more acidic smoke of many unknown dangers to spread. However, from the corner of his eye, he saw another vine approaching Song from a higher angle, and he quickly manifested an iron spear that quickly impaled the vine with precision. Then, having either defeated it or given Song an opening for the finishing move, he capsuled the entire infected tree and its black mushrooms in another steel dome. A seal appeared on the metal saying ’Infected Tree - Black Mushrooms’ for possibly later plans to deal with it.

Their battle must have been loud up until now. Mura assumed that some other dangers were out in the Pathogen Area, having heard their battle and probably heading towards them. And the shakings in the bushes around them confirmed that. “How many are there…?” he mumbled out loud. He couldn’t sense any magic from the figures, so he decided to expose them for the group. There were bushes and other shrubbery around them, and the enemies seemed to like the advantage that it gave.

So Mura pushed the bushes and branches aside to reveal… fleeting figures? They were faster than he expected, and they instantly dashed away into the shadows of the forest. Crooked, bellowing sounds echoed towards them like those from a horror movie, and Mura wasn’t liking it any bit. “Can’t let them run around-“ he warned the group as he invited them to follow him. He floated above the surface and flew past Song, quickly commenting to her: “These don’t appear to fly.” He would need her spirits to rise, so that she could give it her best - especially if their next monsters proved harsher than the bugs and plants.

Upon following the movements from the insanely fast entities, they would arrive at a fairly sized lake. Given its location, there was lots of open space at the shore, and the sky was exposed. Not only that, but the water of the lake wasn’t far too different from any other lake. And luckily, the conditions allowed Mura to see the entities that they had been following - humanoid, zombie-like forms that blew the norms with their iron armors and long sable swords. There were four of them waiting for Mura and the others, and they appeared to reach for the water - a thing that Mura wouldn’t let them do.

Therefore, he swung both arms forth and pulled the earth, allowing the fleshy knights to gain more and more distance from the lake. “That lake appears a little too clean, so don’t let them touch it,” he commanded his group if they got here in time.

WC: 712
TWC: 2335 + 712 = 3047

Burn the remains? Were they going to burn everything? Did the fire just involve dangerous things? How could something dead be dangerous? It reminded song a bit of one of the things she was told while being trained in their home country. Their magic may be common for their people, but it was something they had worked for. If you knew you were going to die away from a base, a 'desert ghost' was supposed to make sure their remains would be too destroyed for enemies to find out how to duplicate creating the magic. Was there something dangerous about leaving a targets dead body intact? Of course, it wasn't her job to question why they did things. This wasn't just a normal job where she could touch and ask to her fullest desires. There was certainly more order than the girl had really dealt with since leaving home. Off the job, her activities usually involved reading, or training. Nobody set her bed time but her, nor the time her eyes shot open in the morning. Her thoughts of wonder were not connected to even the slightest thought of not obeying, for she was an obedient soldier when it didn't go against her morality. One of the things that made her so curious was a lack of understanding of the world of sight. Color was a concept she would never understand, making terms like 'yellow' or 'red' pointless to her. She couldn't see just how warped everything looked in Tsak Ordahic. While she could smell things, the fire and smoke from that fire clouded it here, making it harder to feel how tainted the area was. The very thing she had thought of using earlier to help her see was one of the layers of poison and infection from this land.

It was hard for her to understand how dangerous the poisons were, despite having read about the mission and the things they would run into before hand. If she did comprehend it, then she would have better understood the burning of the tree, why it had needed to be sealed after, and why their leader had told them to burn the corpses of their enemies. This made it a very good thing that the younger of the two Taleas was the sort to always follow orders. She didn't need to fully comprehend just how much deadly poison was around, nor understand just how dangerous and warped everything truly was. She was raised to not question or think deeply on a lot of things. For military training that was to lead her towards obedience, but at the orphanage it was to protect her from realizing just how terrible the world was. There was a strength in that, making her less afraid to jump towards danger. What would happen when something happens to make her realize just how deadly the world could be? That hadn't happened yet so far, so there was really no way to tell. She hadn't taken the finishing move on the beast that had jumped at her and been attacked by Mura. Why? To her, your prey was your prey and taking it from another was undermining them. It was a strange unspoken thing that she shouldn't have learned from her military training, but had. As desert ghosts were trained to take each enemy they took down without aid. What good was an assassin who couldn't tell what's flying at their face, hide in the sands, and take down their target on their own? But she was still a child, one that never took on the training that would have completed her transformation.

She might have been more strong then the current her if she had, but it also would have meant the removal of identity. In any case, she burned what she had killed, watching the heat of the embers creep and move across the corpses. "Why are we watching out for mushrooms?" The young girl asked, fully intending to obey the call. At least what she could make out wasn't limited to where her eyes could gaze, even if it didn't involve all the detail in the world and having holes. "How dangerous are they?" It felt weird calling mushrooms deadly. They were normally only dangerous if you were stupid enough to try to consume a poisonous fungus. But she was starting to get bothered a bit by how much she was missing, it was frustrating and upsetting to be caught off guard as well as not understand something, especially during an important job. She was more than okay with going after the fleeting figures with their leader. It shouldn't have improved her mood when 'not flying' was mentioned, but it did a little. The figures had been easy enough to follow, though the talk of a lake distracted her. A lake? She sniffed the air, trying to get an idea for where it was. Would she be able to tell what part of the landscape the 'lake' was? The air was stale, giving no breeze that would have helped make the water move enough for her to tell... Then again, shouldn't a 'clean' lake not look clean? In her home, it was said that water was rare, and any bodies of it should be treated with caution.

At the least, a clean lake in the middle of an infected area made no sense to her. Should she attack the figures? They were enemies, so why not? It wasn't until Yuzuki spoke that the arachnid started to realize their leader had meant that the lake was fishy. "The most effective traps are ones that are hard to spot, then the targets walk to it without knowing. Fresh water in an infected area really seems like it would be a worse sort of trap than any of my spells if it is one." At least none of her trap wouldn't make people believe there was safe water and hope where there wasn't any at all. What should she do to help? None of her spells were really good for tossing at an entire group and stopping them. Her traps were traps, not bombs. Bombs would be cool though? She needed to learn how to craft bombs, or make spell versions of bombs. Thats right, if she could explode them then they wouldn't be able to get to the water. The leader had the cool earth shake stuff, Yuzuki had that beam thing, but song just had a lot of single target weapons and traps that needed to be set, thus could not be tossed. Maybe she could throw weapons? That's right, a few good hits might make them less eager to try to get in the water? But would it be bad if they got in? Where did the lake start and land end? She stilled her eight legs a bit in frustration a bit, tapping one foot a bit before taking out white spider silk then weaving it into a spell. The sharp star was tossed at one of the enemies. Being unable to see them, she had no idea of their decayed state. To her, it looked much like attacking a strange acting person that used no words.

At the least she was aware that normal people didn't act like that, so the enemy wasn't that. The small flat bladed star shaped holy spell exploded on impact, though not a strong enough explosion to hit more than one at a time, nor to blast them into literal pieces.

Words: 1,254
Total: 3,489

[OOC side note: Different font=Inkling language]

“There’s a black-greenish smoke escaping the mushrooms, Song… urghh, it just screamed ‘inhaling me is worse than cracking down on drugs’, so burning something that emits smoke would only let the smoke spread out like a wildfire,” he explained to Song, “It’s like a smoke-bomb; it just reeks with a little smoke by now, but when it opens up, it just covers the entire area… or so I believe. That would be enough to be wary of them.”

Yes, Fey was right about the water’s appearance and smell. It was likely a trap, since mutagens and pathogens didn’t exactly need conscience to pull such a feat off. It was proper evolutionary theory… that Mura had yet to learn of; something-something survive longer by having certain traits that suit your eco, thus allowing you to pass on those traits to ensure the survival of other generations over time. The zombie was quickly beamed down by her silver fire while Mura held it still, and he would reply but had to listen to Song’s explanation. She had a good point; the fact that the water was so darn clean was difficult to take in, and it would likely be a trap set up by the zombies. Thankfully, one of the dying zombies were put to rest (as if they were truly alive to begin with… or were they?) by the torch thrown to its torso by Garnet. The torch emerged its flame and covered its body, not leaving anything but its armor behind.

Two other zombies had then emerged from behind them, coming from the shrubbery as they were hiding away while the others led the team of wizards to the lake. Their strategy did point towards the water being not so friendly as it looked. Mura grabbed the base of his katana and slowly released an inch of the metal off its scabbard, which merely resulted in a flickering appearance in his contour that signaled his sudden acceleration. In a blitz, both heads from the couple of undead knights flew up in the air with little to no blood escaping their necks, then crashed on the ground like dried apples while Mura returned to his previous position as if he never left it.

“Okay... the water must not be safe to touch. It really does look like a trap hiding in plain sight,” he explained to the group. He approached the shore, but simple nervousness and uncertainty about the waters’ safety kept him at bay. And yet, it was so clear… it even reflected his image. But why was it that the water was all fine and clean in appearance, yet everything else reeked with ‘deathness’ in smell, sight and hearing? If the water itself wasn’t infected… then perhaps the creatures lurking deep beneath the surface were? Mura could sense them just fine; a dozen of large creatures floating with the small ebbs of the lake, almost as if they were hibernating. The lake itself had a silent, unmoving mirror of a surface, as if nothing had moved it in a very long time. All these gave out bad omens.

In a grand display, both arms stretched out to the lake. His hands were wide-open, and he lowered them slowly as magic flossed out of his very fingertips to entangle the water particles. Then, in an act of authority, the Onmyōji rose his hands and let the surface rise as well, holding what looked like a huge pillar of water above the surface level. In that sapphire-blue pillar of liquid, two entities were spotted… two huge ones. They looked alike, too; a pair of shark-like creatures with blocky appendages and characteristics that made them look like stone constructions were simply floating in the pillar. They looked at the wizards with their huge, ruby-glowing eyes by moving their large, torpedo heads to the side in very hostile intentions. They opened their jaws and revealed long, broken, fossil teeth, and he came to conclude that they were affected by the pathogen or the mutagen as well. This did confirm the unsafety of the water.

One of the sharks wouldn’t keep floating in the pillar. It basked its huge tail fin furiously, causing the water to pour off the pillar and ensure their escape at any time soon. “No you don’t!” the shaman rebuked them, clapping his hands together and changing the very setup of the particles that made of the water of the pillar. With this, he exchanged the hydrogen with extracted oxygen, first by breaking the bond between the two hydrogen atom with the one oxygen atom then simply increased the heat. All this made the water surge into a smaller dome above the surface, transforming into a fireball that was intended to burn the sharks down.

But it proved little. Because the sharks had managed to hide their vulnerable parts like a turtle by imploding behind their boulder-like skin appendages to be used as armors. They emerged from the fire and charged down to the lake, wanting to have the element of the diseased water and surprise to their advantage like actual apex predators. Mura swiped the drops from their descent away with one hand, not missing a single drop of water likely contaminated with the diseases.

“Guys, on your guards… the stone things on their bodies are hard to crack,” he warned the group as he whipped out Harusame to point down diagonally to the right as it rested on his right hand, “Aim for their soft spots when they charge up again. I’ll push them up and give you time to strike.” The sharks could easily just hide underwater for days or more, tiring the group and ensuring their victory. Therefore, Mura held both hands towards the dirt beneath his feet, ready to shoot the sharks up in the air like a game of whack-a-mole.

“Garnet, blondie,” he spoke to the two Inklings, “Use Kyuken and Zirconis. Use them like energy balls.”
“W-We’re not mere energy balls! Use me like a death ray!”
“I-I’m a hammer of destruction, just launch me at their eyes…!”

WC: 1016
TWC: 3047 + 1016 = 4063

Song made a face after their groups leader started talking. Some people might have worried about how they sounded, but she wasn't one of those. The young spider girl was as honest as they come. "Why are you expecting a blind person to understand color and how it affects your judgment?" Saying a color made someone think something didn't tell her what that color was. Knowledge of what green was didn't magically appear in her mindscape. The entire areas air was polluted with deadly stuff, so what made the mushrooms like a smoke bomb? Smoke bombs clog sight and smell. She had no sight, true, but her sense of smell hadn't been affected. "I don't think the smoke bomb thing works either? I could smell just fine this entire time." While she wouldn't doubt an assigned leaders skills at leading, she was starting to wonder if he was good at describing things in ways that didn't involve sight. Maybe if she could see than his analogy with the color or the smoke bomb would have made more sense to her? The magic that made her blind was specifically designed to make her capable of 'seeing' in areas that people had trouble with when relying on their eyes.

There may have been some downsides to this, but her magic definitely had a large upside that she would never give up or away. It was something that made her feel less individualistic, but it was also very useful. In any case, it seemed the enemies had been stopped from entering the waters by all of them. Why more fire though? Why always fire? It wasn't something she was used to yet, outside of its function to cook something, or warm yourself with. This slight confusion over weaponizing fire made some sense, considering her background. So many things were dry there that thieves didn't even use it as a tool to help in stealing, as it would risk destroying everything they wanted to take. Even with plantlife, those very plants were one of the few sources of both food and fluids at that place. The struggle with resources was why the homes there had been made of clay bricks and stone. The storms had been why tents wouldn't have worked, wood being a rare and lavish item being why that wouldn't have worked either. The scarcity in such a thing also meant that things that could warm one up at night were best kept for use at night.

Part of Song kept expecting the fire to spread on the grasses or other small plant lives, though it seemed to not have. It was strange to witness plantlife to have any durability at all when it came to fire. This was a normal thing for non desert areas when the flora wasn't dried out or dead, but she wasn't really fully aware of that. 'I need to ask someone later why it's not burning.' she thought to herself, though was quickly distracted by what their leader did next. She wasn't sure why he had kept looking at it, but the arm movements was certainly something she wasn't used to people doing towards areas that looked empty to her. She had briefly considered maybe he was doing something to check for traps. This thought had quickly been pushed out after a fair amount of water had arisen. The way it had moved, it had to be a liquid. This also made her more aware of where the lake had been, though did that matter now? She wasn't sure, just as she wasn't sure what he was doing moving large amounts of water around. The surprise had kicked away what rational thinking the youth had developed over her short time of living.

She hadn't spotted the creatures that had been within the water, but it didn't stop the blind girl from trying her best to 'watch' whatever was going on. It was something involving the 'clean' and 'clear' lake. It was only more clear to the youthful Talea that there were enemies in the water after the fluids clean look had broken. Her eyes widened when Mura had changed the mighty water pillar into a giant fireball. The desert arachnid felt very small in power and experience at that time when confronted with something from someone else that seemed such a mighty feat. What she didn't expect was for the beasts to make it out of the fire alive. At least the lake the enemies had landed back into had much less water than before? That's what the Silver Wolf guild member would have thought if their leader hadn't moved the water. Muras magical abilities were mind boggling to her. This was one of the rare times she wondered if she could fight something. This wonder was wiped away after they were told how to attack. Aim for weak points? How would she do that if they were planning to hit them in the air? She wouldn't be able to tell where their weaknesses were without touching them.

But Talea wouldn't argue with an order. Her being bad with telling weaknesses from a distance was only her flaw, as was not being able to really see things in the air. Maybe she would get lucky and the air would get misty or windy enough for her to figure out where to aim? No matter what she would attack when it was time though, even if there was a large chance she would hit armor plating.

Words: 919
My Total: 4408

Mura couldn’t help but hold his lips firmly and look at Song with a face full of awkwardness. He could’ve worded his explanation better given that she clearly stated her blindness to him a while ago, and now again… but she did mention that she could smell just fine this entire time. But that was because they were avoiding the green toxins, silly… or was he the silly one here? Had he been unclear in his explanation? That unclear? Did he really suck at this?!

He genuinely felt like owing her a better wording later… perhaps along with an ice cream.

“… Y-You know, like this,” Kyuken tried to explain to the two Inklings by manifesting two arms and doing a throwing action, “Like throwing a rice ball… or a shuriken.”
“Or literally what you can imagine; just some projectile attack-“ Zirconis added up, and before he finished, Garnet and Emperor poked the two ghosts simultaneously. It resulted in the two spirits merging into their hands to then be launched towards the upcoming shark. First, only one shark managed to be hit by the cylinder dome of rock that rose up from the bottom of the lake. The shark’s ascension pushed water off, and due to his own paranoia of the unique ‘germs’ that they were dealing with, Mura kept all drops of water away from the team. No way was he going to get even a single one of them infected.

Oddly enough, even with Garnet’s and Emperor’s spirit attacks hitting the soft spots between the shark’s plated skin, it just wouldn’t die so easily. However, the impact did throw it off its charge, and due to its shaking movements in the air, it braked in its acceleration as crashed down on the shore next to them. The crash did push a lot of dirt back, but with a quick ‘push’ forward by Mura’s hands, he braked the dirt’s advance towards them. The shark was shaken by the spirit attack, but it kept wiggling like any fish on land. Its shaking kept pushing dirt and sand around, and Mura was getting impatient with its struggles, so he literally clenched his fist and turned it into a metallic alloy, then stretched his fist towards its skull only to see it protect itself by closing its gapes like an armadillo.

Its shaking and wiggling kept crumbling down the earth around it that Mura tried to use to contain it. “Let’s quickly trap this one, Song,” he asked her, knowing that she possessed a type of string magic that would be handy to contain it. String was already as durable as steel as far as he remembered, and her string must’ve been much more than that. As the first shark was about to be handled, the second one leapt up from the lake in an attempt to charge down at the group like a diving eagle.

It managed only to land on top of its friend, however, and the sharks were at quite a disadvantage over the surface of their watery habitat. Mura would attempt to bury them in a mound, because at these positions, they would let go of their defensive stances with their plated skins pressed together to protect their vulnerable parts. It was very difficult to contain them, for even with his earth magic, their vile physical strengths only increased the longer they stayed on land. Was it also an effect of the disease? It literally made them stronger?

But their souls were faint… so it really was a self-harming disease like any other. Yet the strength they displayed was enough to let the top shark swing its tail furiously towards the group in a horizontal swoosh. “GET BACK-“ Mura shouted to the others as even he was caught off guard, having to block with his bare arms as he just got to turn them into steel. The swing was hard enough to send him off towards the woods, crashing through a couple trees and grinding through the ground once landed. The sharks now felt a little more free of their grasps for a brief moment, and while Mura’s magic was still trying to grab their backs and tails, their jaws opened up wide to devour the wizards in front of them. Only a pole of iron spawned just in time provided the rest with time to evade.

“K-Keep a distance, they’re crazy strong…!” he warned them as the sharks wouldn’t let land prevent them from wiggling and flapping towards their prey…

WC: 753
TWC: 4063 + 753 = 4816

Enemies:
2x Bone Sharks

Song didn't know that mura knew so little about threads, nor a lack of understanding for how her magic worked. Even if it had a few unique traits, it was still a type that couldn't easily be used for random and quick creative ideas. The spells themselves had to be woven. The shapes they were woven into didn't typically equal how it would look after it activated. It was something that had been forged through generations in a culture. Even after training she still had a lot to learn, the majority of that being found through research. She couldn't go home, so that involved a lot of books. Perhaps that was one of the reasons why Yuvon had managed her magic during the snow job, he read so many books. Her magic could be used to set up traps. The threads she used were strong, but none of them were like steel. The closest to that was her healing magics threads that could be used to repair magical and non magical items. That could also be theoretically used to build on the item or change it, but it would all be the same material as the item in the end. Her red threads weren't magical, but they were strong.
Anything her threads could do without magic took time to set up. Her magic was built around fighting, stealth, and traps. This meant that anything built to stop or slow enemies were typically set up beforehand, not on the fly. If she had more time in her life to soak the concept that those in charge weren't always right, then maybe she would question what she was told to do. The majority of her experiences with leaders had been to obey, only doing otherwise once in her life. She was still capable of not listening, but the Talea was a very stubborn child. She wanted to do well, especially for an important job. There was also a powerful want to try to prove she was strong. Despite how old her magic type was, it did have differences from others with it. In some ways that made it less effective, like her need to touch people in order to see their weaknesses. Another however was something good, her threads themself. The spells using threads were still old and complicated, but being so useful outside of spells? It wasn't normal at all. The higher quality of silk a spider person had, the more they stood out in her original home town.

This made it another aspect that contradicted the basics of what her ancestors had designed the sand ghost magic for. It was meant to blend into the sands and attack at a distance, as indistinguishable as one speck of sand is from another. This was something she never considered though, the idea that she was unique. Song couldn't see, so her red grain in a desert of pale greyish yellow hues was lost to her. It was an irony, for she deeply wanted to feel more like an individual. But what would she do for this moment? "I never learned what shape would create a spell that would stun or entrap the enemy, or what thread to use. What do I do?" This was the first time she had ended up in a situation that training didn't get her ready for, a situation that couldn't be planned out or calculated. Still, her traps only had to be thrown to be set. The spell had to only be woven into the right shape to become a spell, right? The girl didn't run when the beasts neared closer. Warm colored young fingers quickly wove a sand colored ball shape. This won't be as long as speedy steps, but it might help in figuring out a way to stop these monsters.
The spell was thrown, landing in stepping distance of the enemy. It didn't take a genius to tell the direction they were heading. Song was still scared, being steeped in an unpredictable battle wasn't something she ever expected. How do you predict an enemy that seems unbeatable? A seemingly countless number of needles released upwards after the trap was activated. Eight legs quickly started moving her backwards What to do now? For now, maybe make silk. She wasn't sure if any of her attacks could do anything, but maybe the silks could hold them if there was enough? It was better than just trying to temporarily slow it down. Would her red silk really hold? It was better than just backing away, tossing a trap and wondering what to do. This was why the young girl had started rapidly creating red durable silk threads. What would she do with all of this? She had no idea. The young girl was really starting to feel her inexperience in battle and it was an uncomfortable sensation. "That trap should slow them both temporarily. I don't know what to do to trap an enemy that isn't set up in advance!"

What if she failed? What if the enemies ate their leader? With how badly those water found creatures went against their groups leader, she didn't see herself as standing a chance. "My clear threads can only fix or add to something that already exists, even if its amazing at fixing! My red threads not magical, but maybe it can be used for something? It turns clear when my magic is put through it, i don't know if it would change if someone elses magic went in it?" What calm she had captured for herself was withering away with her backwards steps, the senses all focused on the scene before her. She was starting to realize how little sense the strict rules to her magic made when not being used for military purposes. Did it even work in that case? Of course, so many had used it before her in that exact way. But this wasn't the desert, nor a military setting of a well oiled team made to all work like cogs to a machine. She had wanted freedom though, hadn't she? Song had to pay the same toll as everyone did eventually when deciding to hold onto her individuality.
The desert arachnid had to face situations where things couldn't always be predicted. It was a situation she couldn't figure out or smash out though base information. The last time such revelations such as unpredictability in combat and difficulty had threatened to come crashing on her, Inkormine had been there to help knock her out of that. "What can I do?" She asked herself in a whisper, blind eyes fixated on the two large and dangerous enemies.

Words: 1,110
My Total: 5,518