IC: Sanctuary REVAMPED

[WriggleRid3r]

Mysterious Garden | Pine Grove

---

"O- okay!" Lavender smiled, firstly because of her fuzzy pal returning to her shoulders, and secondly because of the rabbit girl's intentions to help Lavender. Dropping the short sword and a leather backpack to the ground, Lavender quickly followed after the bunny girl to the shrine.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Mysterious Shrine | Pine Grove

The rabbit lead her inside a small shrine with two sets of bunk beds, a small kitchen area and what looked like a bathing area. She turned to look at Lavender before speaking. "Please sit down, you are a guest here." she said before turning back around and preparing a small meal for the girl. It wasn't much, just a humble bowel of rice with some beans mixed in for flavor. She also gave her a pair of chop sticks and a small wooden spoon just in case she didnt' know how to use them. Tewi knew from talking to her little rabbit friend how far the girl had came and she knew that she must have been hungry after all of this. Tewi also got some lettuce leaves for the rabbit to munch on while it's new owner ate. "Here you go, You must be starving." She said as she sat on the opposite side of the table from her. My name's Tewi by the way. What's yours?"

[WriggleRid3r]

Mysterious Garden | Pine Grove

---

"I... I don't remember." Lavender confessef as she held the bowl. Unfortunately she didn't know how to use any of the tools given to her, so she just held the bowl on one hand and scooped the rice with the other hand to eat. A scoop later, Lavender stopped and replied, "I had an old Master, Master Jeremy, who gave me a name before he went missing when the house went on fire. Then I had another Master who named me Lavender. So I think you can call me that."

[Tewi_Inaba]

Mysterious Shrine | Pine Grove

The rabbit girl didnt' know what to think of this strange person. It was almost like talking to an infant or something, but she was quite clearly a full grown woman. "mm, here use this." She said as she got up for a moment, placed the wooden spoon in the girl's hand and guided her, helping her pick up rice with the spoon and leading it close to her lips to make sure she got the right idea. "We use spoons so we don't get our hands dirty."

[WriggleRid3r]

Mysterious Garden | Pine Grove

---

With the help of Tewi, Lavender was able to proficiently use spoons to finish the bowl. The food was delicious and savory; even if Lavender as a homunculus seldom requires food, it still is a good experience for her to taste different things.

"Thank you for the meal!" Lavender smiled widely. "I heard I need to give thanks to those that give me food. Master Jeremy told me."

[Tewi_Inaba]

Mysterious Shrine | Pine Grove

"It seems your master has taught you well." She said reassuringly. She then pulled out a wooden ches from under one of the bunk beds that contained a number of different things. She opened the chest and pulled out a kimono and a pair of shoes that looked like they ould fit the girl... She wasn't sure if they would but they looked about her size. "These used to belong to my mother. If you're going to Sanctuary you'll need some clothes. Otherwise people might get the wrong idea."

[WriggleRid3r]

Mysterious Shrine | Pine Grove

---

Clothes?

---

Lavender remembered one day in the test tubes asking her old Master Jeremy what the little textures on his skin was. Apparently they were called clothes, and that regular humans are required to wear them. They came in many different versions; from frilly dresses of bright tones to dark leather garments that religious figures used.

"But you will seldom wear them." Master Jeremy said to her with a stern face. "Your job, child... as much as it pains me, is to serve as a pleasure toy for men. It is... often times not required for you to wear clothes. In fact I believe those despicable clients you will be serving have asked me to keep you permanently enslaved... thus I will have to forbid you from wearing any clothes... hopefully you won't feel the despair and the ugly truth of this world by doing so. Understood?"

---

"I'm sorry, but my old Master Jeremy told me that I am forbidden to wear clothes." Lavender refused. "He said something about "clients" and "enslaved" and "pleasure toy". I don't know what any of those words mean, but Master Jeremy seemed serious."

[SUSTIC]

Pine Grove | Chronomacer's Tower

As Braum's planned seem to have worked with him having garnered Seki's attention for a minute with his full frontal charge, Braum found that he was now able to strike Seki now that she is focusing her attention on whoever is behind her. Or... is trying to at least. Either way this leaves her quite vulnerable from the front. As such he looked back at Zena who was still trying to fend off the golems, but thankfully she was being helped by Zero... at least a bit. Seeing that Braum took a deep breath as he grabbed the tentacle made of darkness with his hand and pulled with all his strength. Thanks to Braum's strength and a few yanks on the tentacle, the dark magic appendage finally let go. With his leg freed he grabbed his giant stone shield and came back to a stand. Finally standing again Braum readied himself and began charging right at Seki head on again, this time hoping that with how she is distracted with Azeruk he will actually be able to get her.



Pine Grove | Bone Dragon Fortress

Meanwhile up on the fortress on the Bone Dragon's back, Saru was in mid combat against a swarm of skeletons. He had taken 2 femurs from a fallen skeleton and were using them as small, short clubs against these undead freaks as he fought his way through the tower.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Mysterious Shrine | Pine Grove

Hearing this was a disturbing revelation to the little rabbit. Whatever this girl was, she was still a living being with emotions and feelings. From the sounds of it, her former master was a rather twisted and perverted man. Tewi cold only imagine the unspeakable injustices he must have done with the girl's body. It honestly broke the little rabbit's heart to think about such things. She kept trying to think of some way she could help this girl, save her, protect her, but he knew she was no match for any potential hunter or predictor who would seek her out. If she stayed here, they might not ever find her, but if they did then there would be nothing Tewi could do to stop them.

The little yaju thought it would be best if she took the girl to Sanctuary and sought out help for her there,but that was a risky move as well. Tewi didn't exactly have any pull in Sanctuary and Lavender couldn't just walk around there in the nude either. Somehow she had to get through to Lavender without scaring her off. "You said your master told you to go to Sanctuary right? They wouldn't let you in as you are now, they have a very strict dress code that says you can't walk around naked. I'm sure your master wouldn't mind if you wore them for a little while until he came back to the city to get you. After all if you don't make it to the city, he won't know where to find you now will he?" She said as she tried to reason with the girl in a way that wouldn't seem like she had a distaste for the one Lavender called Master Jeremy. As much as she would have loved to have found this master of hers and give him a swift ass woopin, she suppressed these emotions for the girl's sake. At the very least if she could cover up the strange marking on her chest, it might help hide her from her perverted master.

Pine Grove | Chronomacer's Tower

Zena was getting desperate to get rid of the undead golem she was fighting. She had an idea but it was very risky. If it paid off though she could at least be able to help the others fight the necromancer. Zena still had a small power boost from the undead she had slain earlier, using the last of that power, hew sword glowed brightly. She charged head on at the golem. The golem tried to crush her, but she swiftly moved her body out of the way, using the enchanted blade to try and cut through the fiend's leg. Surprisingly she managed to succeed in doing so. he cut clean through the leg in hopes of causing to to lose it's balance.

She would have gotten away with this, except the golem was smart. It managed to shift it's weight and cause itself to fall backwards instead of forwards. This woudl caue the sword in it's back to push all the way through it's armor but he would also be landing on the elf paladin. Zena was quick but not quick enough, the golem managed to fall on the lower half of her body, pinning her to the ground and possibly crushing some of the bones in her legs. "AHHHHG!! n-nn!" she cried out in pain as she tried to pry the being off her body.

Meanwhile Seki made a second attempt to stop the charging man, this time with several tentacles of dark energy. she summoned about 12 of them to come out of the walls floor and ceiling to grab the man's limbs. If she managed to grab him they would suspend him up in the air before throwing him further back in the cave where he would be behind Zena and the fallen golem.

Pine Grove | Bone Dragon Fortress

Saru's attack would go well for a while, however the bone clubs he was using wouldn't fare very well against the armored units. What was worse is the amount of caster undead that were now casting fire down the long hallway towards the monkey boy and covering the ground in ice to make him slip and lose his footing.

Nera would find any chance of stealth she had before was now out the window thanks the the invading apex. Undead were running a muck all over the fortress and everyone was on high alert. At this rate you would have to fight through an army of. skeletons just to get through one room.

[Zekai]

Pine Grove - Chronomancer's Tower

Zero kept trying to get up but then heard Zena yell in pain and looked over to see that her lower half was buried by the golem. "Body, move damn you." Zero thought as he forces himself up and runs to Zena. He takes his claw and claws the golem apart and tosses the parts off of her. "Zena, I won't ask if you're ok cause I know you're not but......." His conversation got cut short due to him over doing it. Even with the help from Bayuu's apple, Zero is past his limit and gis body is screaming in pain.

[S121]

Pine Grove | Chronomacer's Tower

"DUCK!", Azeruk's old mentor screamed into his brain as one of the lasers flew straight after Azeruk.

On command, Azeruk bowed down as fast as he could, just barely ducking under the laser as it made its way to the wall behind, blowing a small chunk out of the wall and stirring the dust resting there. Azeruk's armor may have protected him from the blast if he would have been hit, but after Azeruk rose, he could see why his mentor warned him. The battle was not going in their favor. Azeruk was pristine, but one man was unconscious, one was crippled, one was tired, and the other was barely holding his own against Seki. Azeruk would need to play a more active role in the fight if he wanted to stop Seki and protect the others. With that in mind, Azeruk shouted out loud, as loud as he possibly could as he then clenched both his fists.

"Guardians of this tower, you are called upon to protect your home! Come forth and protect what is yours!!!", Azeruk shouted as a golden light and what looked to be sand swirled around his clenched hands and lower forearms. It was time to put his training to the test. All those years of harsh, grueling physical and mental anguish would now play a part in this battle and give Azeruk the strength to do what needed to be done.

Just then, Azeruk stomped his foot against the ground as he threw his arms out to each side, and the world around him seemed to slow to a crawl. Azeruk took a moment to quickly assess the situation, a single instant from everyone else's perspective. He knew that he still had one guardian slowed, but it needed to be dispatched. That would not be difficult, but then he NEEDED to help the elven girl and the Jin boy. If not, then this battle would take a toll on Azeruk, and there was not a guarantee that he would be able to win. Once they were rejuvenated, Azeruk would have to face Seki and get her attention for long enough for the two to regain their bearings and join the battle.

In that single instant, Azeruk took action and was off, darting towards the slowed guardian in a flash of golden light. As he approached the golem, Azeruk pulled a golden orb out from a pouch of his backpack and pressed the button on the side. Right after, Azeruk ran to the golem's hammer arm and jumped onto the low hanging weapon before grabbing one of the piston's on its bicep and pushing off the golem's forearm with his legs to launch himself to the guardian's head. Once there and anchored with his free hand, Azeruk stomped one of the steam vents located on the golem's shoulder, causing the valve to bend open. He then threw the orb inside before jumping off and focusing on the golden ball. As Azeruk landed, he had sped up time for the orb, causing it to detonate inside the golem and causing the explosion to be much more severe, due to the explosion being accelerated to such a degree.

After that, Azeruk immediately sprinted off towards the other two, pulling a healing potion out from his travel pack as he approached. As soon as he approached, Azeruk placed the bottle on the ground beside Zena and looked over to Zero before reaching into his pack and pulling out a vial of green liquid. It was not much, due to Azeruk not thinking that he would get tired during the trip to Sanctuary, but it should help the Jin boy recover faster than without the drink. Azeruk quickly placed the vial in the boy's hand before then sprinting off in Seki's direction, still moving at close to 200 mph as he pulled out both his scimitars and readied himself for battle.

[Kristia]

Pine Grove | Bone Dragon Fortress

(Something got them alerted, using the shadows will be next to impossible) the yaju thought as she barely evaded a patrol of skeletons by hiding behind a curtain. Nera could fight the hordes of undead, but it would take too much of her time to exterminate them.

Sighing, the monochromatic vixen took her oong sword and made a leap to the next patrol, her blade slashing to their limbs to at least make the undead lose their weapons or the ability to walk properly. She had to be precise with each attack because she was running to the next room, sliding from the battle axe of a skeleton guard and punching its joint to make the rotten bone fall from its socket.

[Cucoo5]

Chronomancer's Tower

Suddenly, time froze. Aion appeared, standing and seemingly conscious, between the group and Seki. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and his breathing seemed ragged, as if he was more gravely wounded than he appeared. He didn't seem himself as he turned to Azeruk who was still moving slightly. "Enough." He released time for the group but not for Seki. "We can't win this fight like this. We have to fall back. Now." He used his sword to open one last rift between them and Seki because he knew he couldn't hold her for much longer. "We don't need to do anything more here."

---

Bone Dragon Fortress

Achlys reached the battle surrounded by her own army of skeletons. "Tch, this is going to be messy." She ordered her skeletons to fight back the skeletons fighting Saru. For a moment, the chaos that ensued was confusing because even she lost track of which skeletons were hers. "Uhh... this is bad..." Suddenly she saw the Bubble she summoned and had an idea. Let's turn all their heads into Bubbles. With a snap of her finger all of her skeleton's heads were ignited with necromancy. When she saw how many she had left she came up with another idea. I need to replenish my army... let's take the fallen and add them to my ranks. Now she saw things working out better than it was. "Ok! Now to find some gold..." She called back some of her skeletons and hid among them. "Saru! Keep them distracted! I'm going to see where they keep the gold!" It wasn't until after she yelled out the plan that she realized the error she made. Frict. Time to move quickly.

[SUSTIC]

Pine Grove | Chronomacer's Tower

Even though Braum had gotten freed from the first tentacle from earlier and was already in mid charge, Seki had seemingly summoned another series of tentacles to grab Braum again. However Braum did something unexpected. The large man took his foot and stomped it on one of the tentacles and with surprisingly enough strength to get one of his feet lodged into the ground, essentially rooting him in place. Doing this he then planted his shield on the ground in front of him with one arm to further anchor himself into the ground. He then took his free hand and began grabbing and pulling at the tentacles. At this point he is literally just serving as a distraction against Seki. Not even paying attention to anything else happening in the area around him.


He was even seemingly ignoring the others except he did hear something about 'falling back' or retreating. However he wasn't able to hear it in full as he continued to pull some of the dark tentacles from the walls.


Pine Grove | Bone Dragon Fortress

Meanwhile Saru was busy fighting the horde of skeletons in the fortress to pay much attention to anything going on. All he barely heard was something about that other girl going off to find some gold or something, while he also took notice of some skeletons with what seemed to be their heads aflame fighting the skeletons he was fighting. This confused him but he was too into the fight to care as the bones he was using finally snapped, leaving him without weapons. Hell the ground turned to ice suddenly, but that didn't stop him from quickly jumping onto a skeleton's head before jumping off to hang onto a chandelier hanging from the ceiling. From their he then quickly grabbed the chain the chandelier was hanging from then kicked the chandelier itself with both feet until the chandelier finally broke off and fell to the ground below, while the chain was still hanging from the ceiling. Now holding onto the chain Saru grinned as he began to slowly swing back... and forth... back... and forth before finally jumping and grabbing onto another chandelier.

His goal. Get each chandelier in the room to drop to the ground to crush skeletons below while using the chains to swing across the room.

[Tewi_Inaba]

Pine Grove | Bone Dragon Fortress
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZhS61hQzcI
Despite the large numbers the skeleton army possessed, The little monkey man managed to not only hold his own but defeat large quantities of them at a time. However, as Saru went from chandelier to chandelier and killed off mrore of the skeletons. He would start to notice that their numbers never decreased. Any skeletons that Achlys didnt' take control over imminently upon it's death would simply reform itself. Not only that, but the fortress itself seemed to repair itself given enough time. It was as if the whole fortress was alive and watching. The eyes in the ceiling watched the three intruders like hawks, giving away the position.

While Nera had taken down Mr. socks, but there was still one other powerhouse skeleton roaming the fortress. A Heavily armored undead worrier, covered from head to toe in armor consisting of hundreds of bones and many many skulls. the eyes in all of the skulls upon his armor had greenish yellow lights shining from within their eye sockets that allowed him to see. The magic radiating from his body was immense and twisted to the point it was almost sickening to anyone who felt it. He had a rather large blade placed upon his back and two glowing white lights for eyes that could be seen from his helmet.

The ortress was under attack. The worrier knew this and so he did what was necessary to protect it. First order of business "Orgok... ""Orgok...." He colled out as the dragon seemed to respond. It moved for the first time since it's master had left it, raising it's head and screatchingloud enough to badly damage the ears of anyone who was close to it if they weren't prepared. But more importantly, loud enough to alert it's master. "Take flight" he commanded the dragon as it spread it's wings and took to the air within moments. The undead dragon and the fortress on it's back would be high in the air in a few moments, preventing anyone else from getting on as well as stopping anyone from leaving. If anyone managed to destroy the dragon or cause them to fall then they would all die together.

Now that, that was taken care of, the skeleton turned his attention to the three intruders. One was traveling on her own in an attempt to feed her greed. One was fighting in the hallways of the fortress and the other seemed to be making her way deeper into the fortress, but for what reason? The powerful undead manipulated the layout of the fortress by moving it's very walls around. He did so in a way that the elf girl wouldn't' be able to see it, however she would end up walking in circles in an ever changing fortress. Normally she might have been able to hear the walls moving themselves, but this wouldn't be possible s o long as the dragon was roaring and causing lots of noise. The fox woman was already injured and therefor would be a much easier target for the rest of the undead. With that in mind, the dark worrier turned his attention to the monkey boy and began walking to his location.

Nera would find herself back in the room with the blood fountain. There were three doors not counting the one she had just came out of, two to the sides and one on the opposite side of her. Things were getting dangerous.

Pine Grove | Chronomacer's Tower

Down in the cave, Zena managed to get to her feet after a few moments. She hadn't' taken any potion yet, but she was able to stand by holding herself up with her sword and putting as little weight as posible on her feet. "D-don't worry about me, i'm fine." She assured them as she tried to catch her second wind. She was in no position to run flee or fight, but the healing potion should have helped at least. "We've gotten ourselves int a real mess huh? Can you... can you hand me that potion Zero?" she asked as she was unable to bend down to get it herself. Despite the pain she was in and how bad the situation looked she was determined to see it through.

That was until Aion suddenly appeared and stood up. Zena was confused, but it seemed he wanted them to fall back. Zena wasn't willing to listen, but she might not have much of a choice at this rate.