Titanomachy Rebirth (IC)

[Katie]

Eleanor Lansing
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Abode of the Endless)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

The thick stench of blood. The corpses piled high, like a mountain. It’s a sight that would make ordinary students lose their mind. Eleanor doesn’t flinch. Instead, she scowls, the incandescent mourning in her heart growing with every second. Even when her body fails to respond, fails to move, that feeling burns ever brighter, ever stronger.

Such a tragic loss of life. What an inhuman beast in front of her.

Long ago the sight before her would have driven her to tears, but it has all been replaced by a blinding hatred of the injustice and cruelty in the world. That anger, white-hot, consumes her every action. Running has never been an option, and though she wills her body to move, to strangle the beast before her, nothing happens. More fuel to the fire.

“Get out of my sight,” Eleanor forces out. If she is helpless, just like before, she doesn’t want to see it.

[Bloble]

Jordan J. Jones
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – 4th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

There were many things Jordan J. Jones didn't understand.

Blood and guts, for one. The fact that - if his eyes weren't playing tricks on him - at least two students had been reduced to paste in this room. He didn't understand what had happened to him or the school either. Indeed, the situation as a whole had only splashed against his confused mind, and all the implications had yet to sink in; he was still confused and unsure of pretty much everything.

Only now, with a sleeping girl in his arms and a screeching slime thing giving chase, he did understand one simple fact: Something out there thought it could catch up to the Zeus Olympians' fastest running-back.

"Aw hell no!" In response to the slime's screech, Jordan broke his silence. He tightened his grip on Adelyn, trained muscles holding onto her with less trouble than a normal student would have. This was nothing compared to when Coach Phillips had them lug tires across the field at top speed. Something about simulating having someone hanging off of you?

In an instant Jordan was off, zig-zagging down the hallway. Whatever that thing was, he wanted nothing to do with it. Wary of possible projectiles, he ran after the other girl at speeds that would make most students dizzy. If a little muscle pain was the price to pay for not getting the Nickelodeon treatment, he'd happily buy that!

First Gear Stance Entered

"Smell ya later, slimeball!"

Wise Up

Name: Jordan J. Jones
Race: Human
Attributes: Human, Unbound
Spiritual Rank: 1

Stats:

STR: 14
AGI: 21
EVA: 21

Perks:

(Focus) Xth Gear
A circumstantial ability to enter the 'Zone beyond the Zone' at will, overriding one's limits at the cost of wearing out the body faster.
[When activated, enter First Gear stance and get +5 to STR, DEF, AGI and EVA. However, for each turn it is active, you lose 5 HP and stamina consumption is increased. Reaction speed to unexpected changes in situations is increased.]

[Frantic Author]

Johnny Justice
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Zombie Jamboree
Turn 2

"Haaaaah?" Johnny sighed, rolling his eyes as he cracked his neck at the other boy's words. "Don't fight girls, eh? But they're dead, see? Totally lifeless! Not even really people anymore, right?"

He waggled his free arm, and rolled his shoulder several times as he tried to break free, before rolling his eyes and letting out a sigh.

"Still though, not my party, not my house, yeah? Do whatever you want, big guy! But first... Let me show off a little!"

He lowered his centered of gravity, pulling the boy upwards with his free hand, and he scanned the decayed boy's face, searching for some sign of life in the corpse that had once been a classmate.

"Hoooo~ Don't recognize you, but to be honest neither me or Cy ever paid much attention to most of our classmates. So if I don't know you, maybe you should have been a bit more interesting, right?"

God rolled his dice, picked his players, and some people came up snake eyes, while he and Cyrus came up with sixes. That's the way the world worked, in the end. That's the way reality works. It's stagnant, unmoving, and unchanging.

But Johnny was always the type of person to play dice with the devil and win. To go up against the impossible and make it possible. So when he smiled at the dead boy, he lurched. His body twisted. His form slipped. The normally 'strong' and 'agile' body became a decrepit corpse that happened to walk. But his arms--!!

"Haaaaah," he let out a long breath, and grinned like the devil at the corpse in front of him, "Gonna have to thank you for this one though. Some lessons--" slipping inside one of their guards and gripping onto him with an impossible amount of force--!!

[Technique Activated: Lesser Strongarm - Target: Decayed Schoolboy 3]

"Need to be taught," he drawled as he lifted, dragging the other boy upwards as he took in a deep breath, "With a bit of force--!!"

He heaved the boy over his shoulder, throwing him directly at the Big Guy who'd been helping out.

"Yo Big Guy!~ Heads up! Make sure to make this one a homerun!"

Wise-Up!

Spoiler:

Johnny Justice
Stats
STR: 22
AGI: 22
DEF: 15
EVA: 19

Perks:

[Focus] Rules of Nature
Johnny has the innate ability to understand any kind of physical movement the first time he witnesses it, and is able to instantly replicate said movements without a thought. As the person born to be the King of the Concrete Jungle, Johnny’s nature is inherent, a core part of his person. Any sight that falls under Johnny’s eyes, he can recall with perfect clarity, a third eye embedded into his soul. Johnny is capable of instantly replicating any physical ability that he witnesses.
[Johnny is capable of recording the Techniques he witnesses as well as ways of fighting. He is capable of immediately using any Technique he witnesses in a reduced capacity, and can invest time slots in training said Techniques to improve them to normal, or may use them continuously to improve them to normal. He can invest time slots to train into passive fighting styles he witnesses and incorporate them into his own amalgam fighting style, if he’s capable of replicating it with his body. Enemies have +1 to the difficulty of precision rolls against Johnny. When fighting an opponent he has faced before, Johnny obtains +2 to STR and AGI.]

Techniques:

[Strongarm - Lesser]
If the Decayed Being manages to somehow grab or get a hold of a victim, the spirit animating the decomposing body will be possessed by an unholy fury towards the living, causing it to ignore the limits of the body. STR +10 for one turn. Can be used once every four turns.
[+5 STR during grappling checks. Cooldown of 4 turns.]

[Eru Erufu]

Aaron Arturio
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Detached Building – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

A member of Zhongli's gang. The words turn over in Aaron's mind as he tries to reconcile a noble spirit that defended him in his moment of weakness with a foul legion of evil that the Queen of Darkness herself rules. Aaron knows: knows from his features, his tone of voice, how he treats the younger Marie (of whom he backs off, allowing Willow to handle the girl. Familiarity in unfamiliar times is good for one so young), and above all his burning, brilliant spirit of justice. So Aaron Arturio knows. Knows that this must be a good soul led astray by darkness. By evil. A good soul that Aaron can bring back to the light.

So, hearing absolutely none of what the reporter girl had said in her explanation, he pats Jason on the shoulder. "Fear not, my prodigal son! For the light of the Lord is within you yet! We shall defend these women with our lives, side by side, and battle-brothers we shall be! Now-" He turns on his heel, heading to inspect the makeshift barricade of the door. "Impressive, very impressive, but staying here will avail us not! I, Aaron Arturio, will free us from this place and bring us unto safety." With a flourish of his unseen cape, he attempts to drag Jason over to the window so that they may look out of it. "Now look, Jason, and tell me what you see! Is there aught we could use to free us from our present circumstances?"

[RacingeR]

Neru Sune
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Twisted Classroom – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Cracked. Broken. Shattered. Ruined.

The sky was wrong.

Theskyiswrongwrongwhystheskywrongwhy.

You blinked.

This was not your world. A look at the sky was enough to communicate that fact. Black, entirely black, but for the cracks that covered it, the cracks from which that unearthly, unhinged teal light filtered through.

And there was a faint sense of familiarity to it. You couldn’t remember seeing this broken sky in your nightmares… and yet, there was the feeling of having witnessed it somehow before. The strangest, weirdest sense of… not exactly déjà vu, but something akin to that uncanny feeling.

“Neru Sune it is, then.” Rosalin said. “Well, I’m Rosalin Lovell. This jackass over there is Nico Stockley, a recent transfer. And of course, you know Lizbeth Moores.”

She waved her hand at the others. “These guys are Boris, from the Martial Arts Team…” a rough looking blond youth, a year younger than you. “John, and Emir from Track.” John was a nerdy looking kid two years younger, and Emir a fit, middle-eastern-looking boy one year younger than you.

“The girls are Hong, from Arts…” A tiny Asian girl, probably two years younger, “and Matilda from the Swimming Team.” A fairly good-looking, slim and slightly tan girl waved at you.

“That should be it for greetings. Can you move? I don’t want to spend too much time in the same place if possible-!” Rosalin started saying, ignoring the way Nico was glaring at her, when the sound of glass crashing against the floor and breaking reached the room. It came from one of the sides of the classroom’s hallway, and everyone tensed up.

In the sudden silence, you heard two… three sets of shuffling steps approaching.

“Shit. Here we go again.” Nico muttered.

[arkturus]

Olivia Reeds
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“-ake up!”

Huh? What’s that noise? So loud…

“Fucking wake the fuck up already! Fuck!”

A high-pitched shriek combined with several kicks to the torso finally roused Olivia, who rose to her feet with a yawn.

“Alright, alright. I’m up.”

The red-head started screaming something again in response but Olivia elected to tune her out as she took stock of the situation.

This certainly wasn’t the same hallway she fainted in. She cast her gaze at the hallway walls. The door she had exited just before fainting was not to be seen. Among them were the red-head, who she remembered to be Cecily “Bitch” Ridley of Zhong’s gang, a guy in a baseball cap with a sharp glare that she had never seen before, and a few other people she recognize. Neither Ida nor Kyrstine, who she had been speaking with not too long ago, were not among their motley crew.

Come to think of it, how long had she been out? It must have been long enough for her body to have been moved.

The eerie blue light shining through the series of windows that lined the hallway didn’t reveal the time of day. Instead of the boundless blue sky, she was greeted by what seemed like a piece of tinted reinforced glass pierced by sniper fire, the teal light reminiscent of harsh light of artificial spotlights at night. It certainly was an odd of weather phenomena they were experiencing.

Was this…normal in this part of the world? Glancing around at the others…apparently not. Everyone’s face and body language betrayed their shock. Cecily also had the look of someone who had recently gone through combat: her clothes were torn, scrapes and cuts all over, what looked like slash wounds on her side, and what smelled like burnt flesh. And her eyes, wide and wild with adrenaline, darting to and fro, eventually settling on…something.

It was when Olivia decided to follow the redhead’s eyes that she finally saw it.

A giant gelatinous object was slithering towards them. Such an absurd creature had to be a joke, a fantastical creature that belonged in the realm of those fantasy stories, but the corpse that floated in its body of acid asserted the very real danger it posed.

“Come on, Bitch. Enough alarm clock duty. We gotta run. And unless you feel like taking chances with the window, there’s only one way to go.”

The boy in the baseball cap, pushed Cecily towards the open end of the hall. But was the hallway truly the best choice? The floorplan of the school seemed to have been warped somehow. There was no guarantee that this hallway didn’t lead to a dead end, like a barricaded door, or perhaps some other hallway-shaped slime approaching them from the opposite direction.

Olivia glanced out the window. They were on the second floor.

A survivable distance.

“The window doesn’t seem like bad idea. The sooner we get away from that thing the better, right? I think our chances in the open are better as opposed to being trapped in this hallway.”

With that she opened the window, took a few steps back, made a running start, and dove out the window.

[RacingeR]

Ishmael Freeman
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

The girl remains silent for a moment, staring at you with a slight frown on her face. Something about your words, and perhaps your appearance, seemed to have confused her. In fact, she was staring at your eyes with quite the intensity, as if something about them had called her attention.

Then she shrugged, and finally answered. “Zeta. Witch Zeta. Thanks, I’m proud of my hat. You have a very pretty knife.” Was this… sarcasm? Her tone was so dry and her expression so… minimal that you had a hard time telling, but she was pointing out that she’d seen your weapon. Perhaps hiding it had made her a bit warier of you than she’d be otherwise, but she also wasn’t reacting like she was in danger at all.

“This is not… the August World, whatever that may be. This is the Warped World.” She said. She then looked at your eyes again, and finally took a look at the rest of your body, or rather, what you were wearing. “That seems like a school uniform. So, I’m guessing that this place is, or rather, was a school, and you were a student here. Are there others around? No, silly question, the building is so big that there must’ve been others that fell with you…”

The witch’s out-loud thinking was interrupted, rather dramatically, by the noise of wood creaking loudly, as if a wooden floor had been stomped into, or as if a wooden door had been opened forcefully.

The noise came ahead, in the direction you’d been heading to. You wished it wasn’t so damn dark here. You could practically see nothing outside the spots directly illuminated by the lamps. The darkness was so thick it felt almost like a physical coat of paint superimposed atop the world.

You had a very bad feeling about this.

[RacingeR]

Lorelei Weber
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Twisted Classroom – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“A phalanx, huh? Seems a fitting enough tactic to deal with this enemy.” Nives nodded, and she watched your preparations with vague interest. It was a sort of odd detachment that you weren’t quite sure of how to place.

She had seemed disturbed enough by what she’d seen, sure. It wasn’t entirely cut off from normalcy, to a certain extent of normalcy, but she also looked like… she just wasn’t quite entirely here. At least until she talked and acted, then she seemed at least as alive as you were. It was just when she hanged back, silently, that you just felt that strange sense of disconnection between her and the world.

“I don’t think that a nightmare can be fixed. I doubt that the actions within a dream truly matter. But doing something is better than sitting back without doing anything.” She readied her makeshift ‘spear’ with trained expertise. “Let’s slay this thing.”

At your third count, the both of you barreled out of the classroom, and charged towards the slime.

Slime Trouble
Turn 1

The thing reacted just as you had expected. The moment it detected your presence, it spun towards you, the greenish mass vibrating and producing a loud, headache-inducing screech. Two greenish whips protruded out, and it charged over towards you maw-first, half-digested cadaver within and all.

And it was fast. Hellishly fast. You barely had time to bring up your makeshift shield before the thing reached striking distance.

But Nives’ spear came first, coming from your right in a two-handed thrust so fast that it became a blur in your eyes, hitting the side of the slime with unerring accuracy.

Battle calculation

Nives’ Speed.
-23 (Nives’ total AGI) > 15 (Green Slime’s EVA)
Nives’ Attack.
-23 (Nives’ total STR) – 5 (Green Slime’s DEF) = 18 damage.

The spear left a streak of emptiness on the slime’s side, blowing away a big chunk of the acidic matter that composed the creature’s body. Another loud screech assailed your ears, as the creature seemed none too pleased at being hit by the attack. You saw the spear, sizzling as your companion retracted it.

And then the full weight of the slime’s charge reached you, and two green whips smashed against your improvised shield.

Battle calculation

Green Slime’s Speed.
-Enemy not dodging, attack granted.
Green Slime’s Attack.
-26 (Green Slime’s total STR) – 24 (Lorelei’s total DEF) = 2 damage.
Lorelei’s HP: 150 – 2 = 148 HP.

The impact rocked you on your heels, pushing you a step back as the sheer weight and mass of the attack crashed against you. But that was all. It hurt a little, and your arm felt sore, but you shrugged the impact off, lowering your center of gravity to avoid being pushed back any further.

Your shield shattered on impact. It was in contact with the acid a bit too long, and being hit with superhuman strength directly, with all of the enemy’s weight thrown into it, snapped it apart. You threw the remnants aside before the acid could reach your hands.

It was a shame, but it had served its function, to keep the acid away from you, and it had given you the chance to get in an attack of your own. You grasped your weapon firmly, and smashed it down into the monster before it could withdraw away.

Battle calculation

Lorelei’s Speed.
-18 (Lorelei’s total AGI) > 2 (Green Slime’s AGI/2)
Lorelei’s Attack.
-24 (Lorelei’s total STR) – 5 (Green Slime’s DEF) = 19 damage.

Your attack was a smashing success. The body of the slime shrunk under the weight of your powerful blow, more acid splashing down on the ground, followed by the corpse it had been eaten as the slime’s mass was unable to keep it within its ‘stomach’. The monster didn’t exactly recoil, you weren’t sure it truly felt pain, it was more like it was thrown back by the strike.

Looking at it, it didn’t seem like it’d be able to maintain integrity much longer, almost falling apart at the seams. Your strategy had been perfect for dealing with it, and as a result, it was now close to death without having inflicted much damage to you or your partner.

You could at least feel some satisfaction about that. For at least five seconds.

Before the sound of aggressive sizzling forced you to turn your head to look back.

A second green slime was rushing towards you both, having come from the other side of the hallway. It stopped at a bit of distance, two whips already extended and ready to attack.

Encountered Green Slime

Nives clicked her tongue. “Must’ve come around after I passed through. So, if we’d tried to run for it, we’d have run into it, huh?” She held her spear with both hands, and faced the already weakened slime.

“Try to keep the newcomer busy. I’ll finish this one off.”

Codex update

Name: Green Slime
Race: Slime
Attributes: Slime
Spiritual Rank: 0,5

STR: 22
DEF: 5
AGI: 22
EVA: 15

Perks:

Acid Constitution [Slime Trait]
As creature composed by acidic slime, touching it without care can be very perilous. If touched by bare skin, the slime will cause a violent burning pain. 5 HP is lost regardless of DEF when touching the slime, and repeated contact with it may disable a limb, or destroy a non-magical weapon.

Slime Manipulation
Ability to manipulate its own monstrous shape. Many things or shapes can be created out of the acidic slime.
[Slime Whips - Spiritual Ability. Creates a maximum two whips of acidic slime that augment STR by 2 each. Acid Constitution applies to them. Costs 5 SP per whip]

-------------------------

Name: Nives Armonni
Race: Human
Attributes: Human, Unbound
Spiritual Rank: 1

Stats:

STR: 16
AGI: 20

Perks:

(Focus) ???-Style Spear-wielding
An unknown spear-focused style employed by Nives, that puts a strong emphasis on speed. Details unknown.
[+6 to STR and +3 to AGI when fighting with a spear. When Nives’ AGI is superior to the enemy’s AGI by 5, +3 to STR. Allows creation of two Spear Techniques. Other details unknown.]

Observer
Details unknown.

[Vorbis]

Lorelei Weber
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Twisted Hallway – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

HP: 148/150

Nives' oddness was not unnoticed by Lorelei. It was as if she was, disconnected with herself in a way that was hard to describe. Lorelei was one who had an eye for behaviors, and it felt more Nives was, present via proxy rather than truly, here. But there was a great deal of weirdness like that at Zeus.

Especially, paling in comparison with the active combat they were throwing themselves into. The slime was even faster than Lorelei had feared it would be, and in a whir of motion Nives' strike found it... and it found Lorelei's shield. Its whips slapped against the shield, burning the wood away as her adhoc protection fell to the ground in a clatter of ruined wood. But it had done its work. And now there was one thing to do.

Making no noise except the thwip of her weapon's aim, Lorelei stabbed the slime with all of her might, able to use the balance that the beast had thrown off against it. She threw her full weight behind the attack - and almost killing it on the spot.

As it ejected its stomach contents she gave a disgusted sneer as the smell of acidified corpse now filled the air. But there was little time for disgust; another one closed in.

Without a shield, those tendrils were likely to get her directly. And she didn't like the level of causticity they seemed to have.

"Right. They're too fast to leave alive. They both have to die if we're going to move on." She turned, back to back now with the spear wielding girl. She flicked the acid from her makeshift weapon, gritting her teeth.

It was going to burn. It was going to hurt.

But it wasn't going to kill her. Not here. Not now.

She stepped forward, ready to employ the same strategy. Having dealt with their speed once, she knew there wasn't a chance of her dodging these beasts.

[Makeshift Spear]
[Martyr's Syndrome]

[Lorelei: +4 STR, +3 DEF/AGI/EVA.]

But they were too dim to do anything but attack.

Just need to endure the pain, and retaliate. Endure and retaliate.

Lorelei's eyes narrowed, and absent of any implement to protect her, she braced her own body for the oncoming lash of whips.

[TARGET: Green Slime B: Prepared Counter]

[Machine Girl]

[+5 to STR when performing Prepared Counter]

"Come on then. Do your worst." She tensed, gripping her spear in both hands, ready to stab as soon as it closed - even if it meant it would shoulder check her.

She would question Nives' strangeness later. Right now, she just needed to keep the pair of them uninjured.

Or at least, as uninjured as possible.

Hopefully the acid didn't sting too much.

[RacingeR]

Masaki Tomomi
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Twisted Classroom – 4th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“Stace?” Zhong looked at her subordinate, then gestured with her head towards you. Stacy nodded, and then tossed your phone towards you.

“We’ve confirmed that Petrova’s at the dorms, so she should be safe and sound.” The smaller redhead said after a moment. “Hanson seems to have taken over as a sort of leader figure there. Regarding Raeburn and your brother, there are no news, but people seem to appear in the school at different timings.”

Looking at your phone, you could see you’d had a bunch of messages from Gennadiya, all asking about your safety, and indicating that she was indeed at the dorms. It was always a shock how expressive and cutesy her messages were, normally, and the lack of flair to hers now truly drove the gravity of the situation in.

Hanson… that was the religion nut, you thought. You knew her name and reputation, but had never run into her before. It was surprising that people were willing to obey her.

Your other acquaintances… Rachel and Shelia had sent no messages. Neither had the twins, your brother’s kouhai of sort. Neither had your brother. Ominous, but there could be any number of explanations.

“… agree with her. In any case we’ll want to keep going down, so raiding the cafeteria is our best option. This said, I think that if we find a way to go lower before we run into the cafeteria, we should take it. Strange beasts aside, most of our enemies don’t seem the type that get tired, so we’re at a heavy disadvantage in a protracted battle. Getting to safety should be our first priority.” Stacy was talking with Zhongli meanwhile.

“Yeah. Fuck, we ain’t got no way to break the vicious cycle, huh? Well, I never was much for playing defense, anyway.” The gang leader stood up and stretched, her back creaking slightly. “That’s it for the break, everyone. Get your asses ready.”

People groaned and muttered subsonic complaints, but the students started to pick themselves up and getting ready to march. Zhong, meanwhile, walked up to the unconscious blond girl.

“Guess since you ain’t waking up, we’re going to have to leave your useless ass behind. Can’t have us carrying around dead weight, you know?” She spoke clearly enough to be heard by the whole room.

“Wait, wait, wait!” The blond girl suddenly opened her eyes and sprung to life. She waved her hands in a panic. “Okay, okay, I’m awake! Geez, you can’t fault me faking being asleep when the whole situation’s this strange, you know? I mean, zombies? Monsters? What kind of survival horror scenario is this? I don’t recall there being a Resident Evil escape room or something happening inside a school, so-“

“Oh, shut up.” Zhong interrupted her, and pointed towards the classroom’s windows, where that strange teal light filtered through. “You, and Pintsize too while we’re at it, should go take a look to the sky while you can. That ought to prove things to you better than any talk.”

You looked up from your phone with those words. And noticed that Stacy had approached you. A complicated expression appeared briefly on her face, before she schooled it back into her usual mask. One hand was on the lollipop still on her mouth, but in an incredibly rare gesture, she extended her hand for you to take.

“Finish up with your phone and come with me. It’s… better this way, some people get a bit, too shocked when looking at the sky the first time.” She explained.

Well, this was the one chance you’d have to do stuff with your phone before you started travelling with your improvised party, either way.

[Tobias]

Neru Sune
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Twisted Classroom – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

It had been a long time since Neru felt the creep of fear that slithered up his back. Oh that was not to say he was unused to fear Of course. Far from it. In a very real sense, it was his default emotion. However, it was this very specific type of fear that was unusual.

Neru had forgotten the fear of the unknown. He had spent so much time in his own nightmares that he while he never lost the terror precisely (After all, thanks to his curse, if he dreamed of being flayed, he got to experience that in exactly the same way a poor sod awake and living through the torture would) However... these days, through painful experience, he may not like the clowns, but he knew the circus, more or less. The spiders are worse then the cannibals, the snakes were in the caves, and it didn't matter what else you were doing, always, always, always give Daisy a wide berth.

This was different.

"Yeah, no worries. I can stand."

Its not like he was hurt or anything. His body felt weird and his head had the strange fuzzy sound, like his brain was on dial up, but standing didn't require much effort.

"And yeah, at your service and what not. I don't really know what's happening, but I feel like I should at least say I'll try not to slow everyone dow..."

It was then the situation changed. Was it more, or less normal? oddly, it almost felt more familiar. Neru didn't know how he knew, but there was no denying that old feeling. Something was hungry. Something was hunting.

And like always, it looked like he was on the menu.

This part at least he knew. Time to run. At least he wasn't to bad at that. It didn't really matter what was coming, it was time to go. Fighting never worked anyway, and he didn't have a prayer what with how his head kept buzzing.

Wait a minute, I know that sound...

Vertigo chilled Neru's blood. And then a strange feeling of relief. As odd as it was, maybe nothing really strange was happening after all.

...Am I really just having another nightmare after all? is this really all just another dream?

It didn't feel like it, but how else could he explain what he felt, what he was hearing.

As whatever it was approached, even the blue haired boy himself didn't realize the little tune he was singing till he had already finished.

"Three eyed Ann is a lovely soul~
She'll give you a bath if you're feeling low~
When she gets excited she jumps to and fro~
But if she offers you a hug then it's time to go!~"

It was only when the skinny boy shook himself out of a half daze and saw several pairs of eyes looking at him he realized he hadn't kept that inside.

"Oh...sorry. God I know its pure doggerel. in my defense I never thought anyone would hear that trash. But weird as it is...I Keep hearing Ann's voice. It feels like she wants to play."

...Even Neru knew how weird he sounded. But on the other hand...

This wasn't a nightmare. It wasn't a bad trip. And it wasn't mass hysteria. Maybe all that left was...

...Maybe this was what it felt like to finally go insane. Honestly, he was surprised it had taken this long.

[Vritra]

Ishmael Freeman
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – ??? Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“Zeta. Witch Zeta. Thanks, I’m proud of my hat. You have a very pretty knife.”

“Ah…”

A complement, for my knife?

“A ha ha…”

A compliment, for my knife. That’s, new…

“Mm, yeah, yeah, I suppose it is a rather pretty one? I’ve had it for a long time at this point.”

My smile trembles and falters as my mind accelerates. Why? A compliment, a placation, words are easy, words are empty, why? Fear, confidence, apathy, something else? Why, is there something about it? Is there something about her? What does she want? Who is she? What is she like? What can she do? Where am I? I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I, don’t, know.

Shifting it in front of me I re-examine it but the golden eyes that look back hold no answers.

“Ten years, maybe nearly fifteen? It was gift, it helped quite a bit and if you took the person who gave it to me at face value you’d probably think it was a pinnacle of human achievement, heh. Legendary weapons, one of a kind, Y’know that sort of thing.” Would she know? What knowledge do we have in common? “They always exaggerated everything, really, not sure it would have ever been a good idea to trust what they said that much. So…”

Words, words, words, something of importance, nothing of importance, was there a point, was there meaning? A shade from my memory berates me for words it sees as pointless.

“Uh, ya, y’know… Its, uh, mmmm… A bit hot in here now that I think about it.” As if searching for an escape my gaze roams, as if hoping for a shield my hand rises in front of my uncertain smile and a crimson stained face betrays me. “T-t-thanks …Sorry, not really used to getting complimented like that. And, Uh sorry I was being, uh, poetic, not, literal. Y’know talking about stuff in a fancy manner, exaggeration for effect, rhyming and all that? D-don’t worry about it, the, the important part was that I’m… we’ll I’m kinda lost and probably not from around here, but you seem to have noticed… Guess the teal, darkness and world crumbling away wasn’t just in my head. Shame.”

Schools, school uniforms, what other things is she familiar with, why is she familiar with them? Why, why, why, why, why. At least I have a name, ‘The Warped World’ how cheerful sounding, it fills me with hope. Not.

That noise doesn’t fill me with cheer either. Wood and force, the floor, something else, can’t tell can’t see, its dark, its not supposed to be this dark. Something feels wrong, when isn’t something wrong. Always assume the worst, hurray for optimism. Run? Stay? Or…

Well, might as well try one last thing.

Eyes frantically searching, ears straining for any hint of what might be, I slowly begin to slip back into the shadows.

“…Psst.” My voice is a whisper as I call out once again. “Hey, I know this is a bit rude to ask someone I’ve just met but, uh, could you lend me a hand? Doesn’t need to be for long or anything, although long would be appreciated, just some help, or even traveling together? If everything came with the building there should be a couple thousand others around but, uh, we seem to be alone and while I don’t think I have anything I can really offer at the moment. Unless you had something specific in mind, I could owe you one? I’m pretty capable, sometimes, and I bet I could be really helpful to you!

…

Please?”

Maybe my instincts are wrong, maybe at least it’ll be something that can threaten someone who is only here in proxy (?). Ishmael Trip report - first entry, this place seems like it, as one might say B L O W S. Side note, punch the principle if at all possible.

[RacingeR]

Aaron Arturio & Willow Durand
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Detached Building – 2nd Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“Far as we know, there’s a lot of people in the main building’s lobby, and they’ve managed to get the place fortified and safe. And the dorms are entirely untouched, the monsters seem to avoid them entirely.” The reporter informed. “I can’t say that I’ve confirmed the safety of many people, everyone’s confused and I think some people have began losing their marbles…”

She’s interrupted when her phone vibrates on her pocket. She takes it out, and you can see her expression brighten, and then her tense body relaxes slightly as she starts writing messages on it at a fairly impressive speed. Guess one of her friends replied her messages, after all.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the room, things aren’t going very well, in comparison.

“Oi, you bastard, lemme go! You haven’t listened to a single thing she said, haven’t you?!” Jason clearly had no idea of how to react to Aaron’s shenanigans, letting himself be dragged halfway towards the window, before suddenly resisting and slipping out of his grip.

“Hell no, you look out there if ya want, but no way in hell I’m- no, I ain’t looking at that again.” He said, suddenly nervous, and taking some distance from the window and the strange teal light pouring through it.

So, you look out the window, and what you could call ‘reality’ hits you like a hammer to the cranium.

The sky is not the sky you are accustomed to. The sky’s wrong. You don’t remember the sky being black. Or the sky being run through by cracks that emit teal light. This is not your sky at all.

This is an eldritch sky.

The window you’re peering through is small and narrow. Perhaps Marie could slip through it if she tried hard to do so, but the rest of you wouldn’t be so lucky. Still, it is enough for you to look below and notice how much everything has changed. How much the school has been warped by the event you experienced.

The terrains have always been wide and expansive, but you don’t remember them being this wide. You also don’t remember the grass looking slightly wrong, or the veritable labyrinth of thorny bushes around and the brutal-looking trees.

Not that you can see very far. An overwhelming pail of darkness encroaches over everything, and you can only see perhaps fifty meters beyond or so before your vision peters off, becoming inform and grey, and eventually drowns in dark.

“The plan so far is to try and make it to the main entrance from the outside once we manage to find the building’s front exit. I don’t know how much the general layout may have varied but they should be fairly near each other.” Bryanna was talking once again. “That’s as much as we can plan ahead, either way, this labyrinth’s been painfully confusing, and disorienting as hell.”

She looked towards Aaron, and sighed.

“How should we deal with this guy? And what’ll happen once Jason notices… ah well.” She muttered to herself, then shrugged. “Anyway, if that’s all, we should get going. Now!”

The thumping had been heard all the way through this moment, followed by the sounds of objects being broken and shattered. You could see that the door had been ripped to pieces already, and whatever was coming through there was steadily working on the debris. It had been piled up so tall and thickly, however, that you couldn’t see the thing very well. Clearly, Bryanna didn’t want to waste time and bullets fighting this thing when they could make a speedy exit.

[RacingeR]

Aster Hunter
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Broken Rooftop)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Even as you near his behind, the zombie doesn’t notice your presence.

You are lucky. If it had been wandering around aimlessly like at the beginning, or alert to the presence of an enemy, approaching it in such a place with little cover and with decent enough illumination would’ve been impossible.

But right now, the corpse is too busy devouring another corpse. It doesn’t seem to regard the crows, and the crows probably don’t care about yet another corpse as long as it doesn’t move around too much, you think. But you can only guess, at this stage.

After all, the situation is too strange and too unexplainable.

You notice the crows growing more and more restless, and you know you cannot delay any more.

You move in a flash. Before the zombie notices it, his ankles have been grabbed and pulled, making him fall face-first into the cadaver it was defiling. You then dragged and lifted him, beginning the circular motion to throw it.

The creature’s reaction is instantaneous bloodthirst, lacking in any confusion, just instantly launching into a frenzy going for the kill. But you have him completely dominated, and there’s not much he can do about the situation.

Still, doing this is far harder than you’d expected. Sure, he’s heavy, in fact heavier than he should be, perhaps that accounts for the inhuman strength he is demonstrating as he attempts to pull out of your grip with leg strength alone. If he was intelligent, then you’d have had a fairly hard time out of it. Thankfully, although he has the strength, he is feral and almost mindless, and doesn’t know how to utilize it.

You don’t build up as much momentum as you’d have wanted, but you manage to throw him straight to the nearest fragile section of the railing. The crash is noisy and thunderous, but with the motions you’ve executed, you’ve pretty much given up on not alerting the crows of your presence, which at least some of them would’ve discovered anyway.

The railing creaks and bends and breaks in many places, some even shattering entirely. The combination of your strength and weight is too much to bear, and the upper part of the railing breaks away entirely.

Still… the zombie hasn’t fallen through, as the section of the railing didn’t break entirely. Shame that, but you’ve more or less accomplished your objective anyway: the monster’s been impaled into a few of the twisted pieces of railing, and although still ‘alive’, he is now struggling like hell to get out of the impalement.

He’ll do so eventually, you think, he’s simply too strong, but that will keep him out of your way for a time. You note he doesn’t seem to feel pain at all, might be useful to know later.

But now, you have a new problem.

Four crows take flight, eyes focused fully on your figure. The two at the back are too far away right now, but the nearest two are already flying straight at you like arrows, monstrous beaks ready to tear into you.

You only have time to brace yourself.

Battle calculation

Mutated Crow A’s Speed
-25 (Crow A’s total AGI) > 7 (Aster’s EVA)
Mutated Crow A’s Attack
-19 (Crow A’s total STR) – 12 (Aster’s DEF) = 7 damage.
Aster’s HP: 100 – 7 = 93 HP.

Battle calculation

Mutated Crow B’s Speed
-25 (Crow A’s total AGI) > 7 (Aster’s EVA)
Mutated Crow B’s Attack
-19 (Crow A’s total STR) – 12 (Aster’s DEF) = 7 damage.
Aster’s HP: 100 – 7 = 86 HP.

The beaks tear into your torso as the feathery projectiles crash against you, drawing blood as they dig into your flesh, scratching bloody lines into your sides and tearing through your shirt as they go past you, stopping their flight there, and turning towards you.

These are trouble. You don’t know that much about them, but you are simply going have a very hard time hitting a flying target, especially when they have so much space to move and just fly away from your melee strikes.

At least the way to the exit is open now, if you can deal with these pests enough to get through there.

[RacingeR]

Alexandra Gray
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Courtyard – Tree Garden)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Wronger Neighborhood
Turn 3

Time slows down for a brief moment.

You fly in the air, and then you flip. Adrenaline pours through your veins as you float in the air, a nightmare-like world painted in harsh teal around you. Between the canopy of leaves, you manage to peer through and briefly, in the span of a second, see the black sky sundered by the teal cracks.

Then your body arcs through the air, your kick heading for its target like an executioner’s axe. And like such, it hits the crow straight in the neck.

Mutated Crow A has been slain

You don’t even need to look to know. You feel the bones of the crow shatter, the feedback of your kick going through your leg and letting you know that your prey has been slain. And then you began to fall back to the ground as the world accelerated around you.

Too fast the enemy comes. The beaks tear through the air while you are still falling. It takes all your concentration to move your struggling improvised shield and take the first of the strikes with it.

The beak of the third crow tears through the body of its companion, splashing you with blood and innards as the poor creature is annihilated. The impact sends the corpse off your hands and makes you spin around, but doesn’t harm you otherwise.

Mutated Crow B has been slain

The second attack hits you head on.

Battle calculation

Mutated Crow’s Speed
-25 (Mutated Crow’s AGI) > 14 (Alexandra’s EVA)
Mutated Crow’s Attack
-14 (Mutated Crow’s STR + DF) – 14 (Alexandra’s DEF) = 0 damage.
Alexandra’s HP: 46

Fortunately for you, you have grown accustomed enough to these crow’s shenanigans that even caught mid-air, you manage to avoid any harm coming to you, parrying the beak somehow, only earning one further rip on your already ragged and dirty clothing.

Unfortunately for you, the impact of the attack is transmitted fully to your body, and sends you flying away from your intending landing zone. You lose any sense of orientation for a brief moment as you spin through the air, and then land roughly on the ground, your body rolling a few meters more due to sheer inertia before you manage to recover your bearings.

At least the ground in this forest is quite soft.

Alexandra takes 2 damage due to the fall

You cannot afford to be prone for long, and you will yourself up despite the increasing number of wounds in your body and the bothersome pain that doesn’t let up. And then you find yourself pale.

Encountered Mutated Tree x2

You’ve been thrown smack into the territory of not one but two of those damned monster trees. You see them shake, as their branches move threateningly, and vines creep out of them. Not only you, but now the crows, in hot pursuit, have intruded into their territory, and you suspect getting out of it is going to be harder than entering.

Loud cawing announces the arrival of yet more crows. Three crows appear from the other side, the one not already blocked by the presence of crows or trees, some with their beaks already slick with blood.

Your eyes focus on the object of their pursuit, an Asian-looking tallish girl, younger than you are, who’s wielding a thick branch on one hand and looks quite ragged herself.

Encountered Mutated Crow x3
Encountered Komiya Rumiko

The girl sees you, and then sees the trees. Her steps stop for a moment.

“What…?” You hear her utter.

And then the orgy of death and violence got itself going as trees, crows and humans fought it out in the middle of the forest.

[RacingeR]

Eleanor Lansing
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Abode of the Endless)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“Interesting.” The creature examines you closely now, apparently having their interest attracted by your reaction. They then look around at the corpses strewn about, and then back at you.

“You do not know these people. You don’t know who they are and what their purpose was.” They affirmed, and as they spoke, you heard the crackle of static. Visually, you saw it as what it sounded like, TV static that surged out of nowhere and crawled around the figure. “And yet their fate upsets you.”

The static crackled once again, covering the blood that stained the suit, and then disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving the being’s clothing entirely clean. Their eyes looked at you fixedly, and you then realized they weren’t blinking. Or perhaps had forgotten to blink, rather.

“Why?”

[RacingeR]

Cyrus Ferdinand
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – 2nd Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“Don’t call me that!” She shouted in a voice that was shrill with panic. “It is Cecily!” She’d probably have clocked you if she wasn’t too busy considering the little issue of a murderslime rapidly approaching.

So, your lot employed a strategy rather popular in the mean streets where you’d spent most of your life, and legged it the fuck out. One of the other men stuck around with you, while the other followed the bi-color hair girl through the window, and at that point you couldn’t bother with their fate as you ran for your life.

The slime was ridiculously fast. Had it not been half-busy digesting that corpse, you suspected it’d be even faster. You realized you weren’t going to outrun it.

The hallway was unusually long and strange. Most of the lamps were out or inexistent in the first place, so other than the light of the windows the place was soaked in darkness. You surmised the hallway probably ran the length of the whole building, although your lack of reference points made it hard to confirm your theory.

Finally, you saw a light at the end of the tunnel… well, hallway, and reached the end of it, well illuminated by the light of intact lamps. You’d rather not have seen what you were seeing, even accustomed to the violence and bloodshed of the gangs as you were.

People had died here, students, by the marks. A torso with an arm and a leg still attached remained there, along with traces of blood and small body parts unidentifiable without closer examination.

The hallway at this point split into two. The right side ran perpendicular to the one you had traversed, and although it lacked windows, it was intermittently illuminated with lamps. You could see a few entrances to classrooms on the northern side (relative to your position) … but you could also see what looked like a rotted corpse on the floor not far away, very roughed up and with plenty of bones broken.

The left path, however, curved around gently, making it hard to see much of where it went and what awaited there. However, you noted that as the path went on, it rose ever so slightly. Perhaps it connected to the floor above?


Olivia Reeds
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Courtyard – East Side)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

Even prepared as you were, a jump like this one was rough. However, you’d kept your body trained, and you were athletic enough to stick the landing, especially as you’d had time to brace yourself. You hit the ground almost elegantly, then rolled to disperse the momentum, and quickly made way.

A burly boy followed after you, jumping and barely managing to not hurt himself in the fall as well. He rolled aside a lot less elegantly, and also made way… but nobody else followed.

“Well. Seems like it is just us here. And here is…” You and the boy looked around after taking a moment to recover.

You were disoriented as hell after just waking up like that, and you had a painful lack of reference points, other than the fucked-up sky above, the school building behind you and a nonsensical mess of yard in front.

To make matters worse, you couldn’t see as far as you should be able to. It was as if, at a certain distance, your eyesight just stopped working and ran into an impenetrable wall of darkness.

For no reason at all, you felt a chill as you considered this phenomenon.

“We’re at the east.” The boy said, and pointed to the front, presumably eastwards. “See those building outlines over there? Those are the sport fields, pool, locker rooms, all that outdoor sports stuff. This is the east yard.”

You squinted, and could indeed see what he was pointing at. Useful to know.

You took another look around. North, you could see nothing particularly special aside for a few of those gnarled-looking strange trees and a bunch of bushes and whatnot.

South… there was a wall of tall bushes that cut that side off and expanded out in a line until it disappeared into the darkness. You noticed a rather bad smell coming out of the bush wall, one that turned your stomach once you caught a whiff of it. And some of those bushes, and the lesser cousins strewn around, seemed to tremble suspiciously once in a while. There was no wind, at least right now…

It was at that moment that you noticed the noises. It was a vague cacophony of screams and fighting noises and vague running sounds, all curiously muffled, all impossible to even trace and follow. Your fellow students, your teachers and the school staff were making merry acquaintance of the new and improved fauna, it looked like.

“Name’s Jack.” The boy, looking quite pale, presented himself. Jack looked rather jacked. Going by his build, he was either in the martial arts team, or in the boxing one. “And you are? Think you gotta be new, would’ve noticed a girl this cu- I mean this, noticeable, before.”

[Katie]

Eleanor Lansing
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Abode of the Endless)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

“Is there a reason not to be?”

Eleanor hates this thing already. If it cannot understand basic human empathy, then it isn’t worth talking to. But she does not have a choice, so she may as well voice her own opinion.

“They had lives, like anyone else. People struggle and toil for their right to live, and yet here I see it all extinguished. Does it matter if they were ‘good’ or ‘evil’? Life is inherently precious. There is value in mourning its loss, even if the person who it belonged to was nothing less than despicable.”

“But really, what is more likely is that you have slaughtered more genuinely good people than those of ill-intent. That I firmly believe.” Eleanor says those idealistic words with the utmost confidence. She loves people, even if they are liable to betray her.

[Erlkonig]

Masaki Tomomi
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Twisted Classroom – 4th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

"Thank God..." Tomomi wasn't a believer, but she could've become one as she read through the messages on her phone. Her fingers sped through the key presses, quickly typing a message to Gennadiya confirming her safety. "A moment please, Tirrel. I need to send some texts."

She quickly forwarded the exact same message she'd sent Gennadiya to all of her contacts: informing them of her current location, that she was working with a group of students to reach a safe place (she made no mention that they belonged to Zhong's gang and their leader was amongst them) and that she wished to know where they were located so that she could either help or go to them. The message was sent to Rachel, Lavrenti, Shelia, her brother, every Student Council member she had on contact and the Komiya twins.

"Done." Tomomi pocketed her phone and took a moment to look her savior up and down.

Stacy Tirrel. The two had never interacted up close, though she knew of her reputation and evidently she did hers. She was soft for a gangster, slender and delicate with with curves in all the right places. Zeus students were generally attractive but Stacy herself could have easily stood out as the centrefold of a photoshoot. Her dainty hands didn't look like they'd ever been so much as stung by an insect.

Yet she was the second most dangerous person in the room at any given time: if she didn't beat Zhong, that was.

"'Some people?' Did it affect you too?" Tomomi asked, surprised by the moment of empathy and wondering where it had come from. "If so, I'd be surprised. I never thought either of you the type to be fazed by anything. Though I'd like to say that strange aeons and nightmarish landscapes are hardly as frightening as a zombie in your face... I'll take you up on your offer."

She clasped the gangster's hand, smiling with the barest of politeness. "I humbly place myself in your care."

For now.

[RacingeR]

Kaguya
Location: Sea of UNKNOWN – Warped Zeus (Distorted Hallways – 6th Floor)
Time: Day 1 – Afternoon

BAM!

You pile up the rubble desperately as the first hit causes cracks to spread through the door and nearly sends Hiyori back reeling. The girl somehow manages to keep herself on her feet and brace herself for the next impact.

As you work, you can notice how the door is actively rotting in the places where it has presumably been in contact with the monster.

BAM!

The second impact causes one of the hinges to be ripped apart from the frame, and a hole opens in the place where the Ghoul’s fist impacted. By now, the creature could probably stick its claws there, and pull and rip until the door is torn apart. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t need to bother doing something that’ll take so much time when one more hit will do the job. The door is only still in place because Hiyori’s keeping it there.

You’ve created a small field of rubble that covers a whole strip of the hallway meanwhile. You have no idea of what use this will be, given that you think even a child could get through this with no issue, the biggest piles of rubble at the front barely reach the height of your knees, but you’ve ran out of time anyway. Hiyori counts silently to herself, then makes a gesture for you to be ready to run.

Then…

“Now!” She shouted as she jumped away from the door and scrambled towards you as fast as she could. The very moment she jumped away, the third impact ripped the door asunder, showering the passageway with fragments of wood.

The creature stepped past the boundary with a violent motion, scanning everywhere until he found you, already past the rubble you’d piled away and running, and then he came at you like a whirlwind of death and rot, the absolutely vile odor preceding him as he went.

He was as fast as always, and yet… the moment he reached the piles of rubble, well… the zombie didn’t come to a stop, but you and your partner sneaked puzzled glances as you saw the Ghoul awkwardly move through the obstacles, as if it had a hard time not tripping over them.

That, at least, was bound to slow it down. It was an odd sight, almost like the zombie was less a, well, an actual creature, and more like a vehicle piloted by some sort of will instead. That was the only way you could mesh that almost graceful agility and surprising speed with his evident lack of coordination.

You kept running, entering the darkness of the hallway. By the time you went past it, you knew well the monster was past your little trap and making up for the lost time.

And finally, you found the source of the scream.

There were bodies in here. Two that looked rotted, like the zombie pursuing you, one with his brains bashed in, another lying face up with her face cut up into an unrecognizable mess.

A fresh body, that of a girl with her eyes wide open and her torso torn apart, who had evidently died only minutes, perhaps seconds ago. Her expression conveyed fear and plain disbelief.

The last one was still breathing, but you knew just with one look at the arm barely hanging on his body and the horrible holes all over his body, that he was already dead. His hair was dyed red, which indicated he was part of Zhong’s gang. And talking about Zhong’s gang…

There were two other girls here, alive albeit wounded and looking like they had just finished a fight. Both of them redheads.

One, armed with an improvised club, was kneeling at the side of the dying man, silent and listening to what to you seemed to be incoherent talking. The other, armed with a switchblade, had been about to jump at you until she saw who you were.

Encountered June Blumen
Encountered Camila Shane

“Jesus!” Camila let her arms fall and leaned against the wall, wincing at her own word as if she’d said something particularly dirty. “You scared the shit out of me.”

Both Hiyori and you had stopped for a moment, both to recover your breath and take into the scene. But it seemed that there was no rest of the wicked. Already, you could hear the pounding steps of the Ghoul, approaching your position fast.