Rite of blood: Drawn together- B rank mission "corrupted blood"

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma had spent days worth of his time conducting his own research. Since he and Kotone had split up to gather leads he had been looking for anything that would get him anywhere closer to his targets. Thus far he had found enough information to know that A.) people didn't like to talk about the situation on the island and B.) there was a lot more going on that met the eye. On day two he had gotten something that gave him a bit of a lead and he assumed that was as close as he was going to get and Kotone hadn't even told him who she got the job from so that was of course a problem in and of itself. Still, when he started asking about specific landmarks around the area, or advice about places to stay away from, he had gotten what he needed to figure out the general area he should be searching.

When the villagers told him about the forest from which he had just come after his bout with Koto and prior to that he had been all over that particular forest anyway so that wasn't it, or at least he hadn't seen any sign. What he had learned was beyond the forest was mostly speculation. He had asked about what was beyond the forest once and when he couldn't get a straight answer, he decided it was worth investigating... and to date it was his only really solid lead.

Finally,after a week (not to mention a trip off the island for a little bit) he had, at least he felt he had, enough information to meet back up with Kotone. There wasn't anything solid, and he didn't want to just go in and do a job by himself that he wasn't even assigned to technically. As he had planned though, he had managed to form up a few ways to strengthen himself and old man Taiga had been a great help with that, and it would help with the mission anyway. Then there was the matter of this other person that she was with. He knew next to nothing about the guy, and was unsure as to whether or not he was going to actually be any real help to them. He had his fingers crossed but had no clue whether it would work or not for them. He could only hope the others had been more successful.

Even though he wouldn't admit to it, he found himself thinking back to Charlotte and the mission they had done. He had lost control but gotten lucky that she hadn't exactly seen him in that state, but he wanted a chance to see what she was capable of too. He had fun with the fights he had been in lately, and he was starting to make a few friends, those factors by themselves were enough to ease the pain of Rhidran's loss, not to mention that Charlotte had been the first female mage he hadn't tried to pick up on, although he felt that was an error that should be corrected. Still there were two dragon slayers on this mission already and that was overkill enough.
"When did life get so complicated?" He said aloud to himself as he traipsed toward the meeting spot he and Koto had designated. He felt full, more powerful, and hoped for some kind of scuffle so he could show that off.

word count: 575/2000

[Kotone]

The young ice dragon slayer walked down a path that lead to the meeting point the group had set up that morning. She was quiet, and for once every bit as calm and collected as she always wanted to seem. Kotone was not famous for being calm, and it was quite the switch. In the last week though, she’d used a lot of her own energy to improve where she’d realized she was weak, and she even felt stronger than she had been in a long time.

Kotone blinked her amber eyes – eyes that matched the girl walking just behind her, if she stopped to think about it. She didn’t stop to think about it, however, because her mind was on other things - several other things, really. She turned her head, glancing at the slightly older girl. “So, remind me what you’re doing here, Princess?” she asked again, using Charlotte’s nickname she had given her. It didn’t seem likely that she would have run into the daughter of Argon all the way out on Galuna Island,  but she had for whatever reason. Kotone and Charlotte had initially gotten into an argument before Kotone stopped Charlotte to tell her how dangerous it was around here, if the rumors were true.

The Magic Council should know about the reports of blood mages in the area, as far as Kotone was concerned. Charlotte had wanted to help take care of it herself, though, and that had started up another round of arguing. ‘I’m coming with you!’ ‘No you aren’t! This is dangerous!’ Not that Kotone’s words had mattered. This raven-haired girl was even more stubborn than Kotone had thought. In the end, she had relented and said she wasn’t responsible for Charlotte’s safety. Not that she’d minded at all.

They were only a couple of minutes from the clearing, where Raven and Tatsuma were supposed to be waiting. Kotone was surprising everyone with her newfound confidence and lack of constant anger. She even grinned slightly at Charlotte with a grin that was neither overly cocky, nor unpleasant. She would show them all that the daughter of Krendall had come a long way in the last week. Dangerous or not, she was looking forward to this mission.

WC 373/2000

[Charlotte]

Charlotte sighed as she walked behind Kotone in silence. Two days ago, she was informed about a group of blood mages setting up a camp in galuna islands. Argon had initially asked Kai to take care of the whole matter but was later passed onto her since Kai had more important things to go on about. The irresponsible Charlotte disagreed and made it seem like a big pain in the neck of course even though the real one had gotten to know of the situation a long time ago and had been waiting for an opportunity. But what she wasn’t expecting was to run into Kotone in the islands. She took her by surprise at the beginning as the girl seemed a lot more calm and composed. She received mature replies rather than angry insults or stuck up come backs from her who had at first made her wonder if Kotone had an identical twin,

In the end, after a lot of bickering, they decided to go together. She was informed that other than Kotone, Tatsume and someone else named Raven was also there with the same mission. She remembered Tatsuma from a mission they went on together a while back and was looking forward to see the nice kid again.

“This princess is here on a job, brat,” she answered, her hands tied behind her back as she walked a few feet behind Kotone. Her amber eyes were taking in their surroundings and so far there wasn’t much other than trees and plants. Jude was right behind her, swinging from side to side. He wasn’t leaving Charlotte’s side that day…most probably because he was scared of getting lost in the forest…A forest that has blood mages running around.
“Are we there yet?” she asked for the second time that day. As much as she didn’t mind walking, the sun was shining bright and she was starting to sweat a little, she wanted to get the whole thing over with and go back to Oak. In her absence, she was sure that most of the council guards were slacking off.

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[Raven Flametongue]

Raven was the first to the meeting point. Which was no surprise, since Kotone had wanted to do a bit of wandering. He'd heard about the plight of the people and had come with Kotone. It was time to 'play hero' and earn the adoration of the masses. He wished it was easier to not be in the spot light, even if it did stroke his ego.

Still, blood mages were a huge problem. And not just because of his moral stance on human lives. It was a old, powerful magic, capable of so much death and despair. One could say the same about any magic, but blood magic was worse in his opinion. They weren't just killing people with magic like other wizards. No, they were using the blood of their victims to hurt even more people. And that had to stop.

And so he was on the island waiting for his companions. He hadn't met Tatsu yet, only seen the mood he'd put Kotone into. No doubt he was strong and stuff, but Raven found it hard to trust someone he hadn't met yet. Not that he really trusted Kotone either. But she was following him around now, and that probably wasn't going to change.

The meeting point was a soft patch of grass near the town that was, for the most part, empty. He hadn't really gone looking, so he couldn't tell for sure how many people were there and just holed up in their huts, or elsewhere. But one thing was for sure, the area reeked of fear and dark magics. The two always seemed to go hand in hand, at least in Raven's experience.

"Hello, Kotone," Raven said when Kotone showed up. Then he blinked, spotting the woman walking next to her. So Tatsu AND another companion were joining them? Raven thought a hand full of blood mages would be fairly easy to deal with. Annoying, but easy. "Who's your lovely friend there?"

(Word count 328/2000)

[Tatsuma]

The meeting spot was a little further out than he had originally planned to go. There was no way that he would have picked it if he had his choice, not because there was anything wrong with it, but because he was going to meet someone there that he didn't know. It would be nice to get some sort of diversion in case the two didn't get along or something. He was dead set on that not happening, but he had met a few people, be it randomly or through friends, that he hadn't exactly taken to.

It was as he got to the meeting spot that he saw Charlotte, in addition to Koto and the guy he had mentioned being on the island with, but before he knew what he was doing he was zipping across the clearing and flying through the air to tackle hug Charlotte. He wasn't sure what prompted it, and it wasn't exactly like they had been "bestest friends forever" but he was happy to see someone he actually knew, not that he didn't know Kotone, but she didn't have the same electrical signature the magic council girl did.
"Sooooo now that we've established that i'm happy to see you... what are you doing here?" He asked her before turning his head to Koto. "What is she doing here?" He repeated, but to the ice dragon slayer.

Now that he was thoroughly sure he had given the other two companions the wrong impression, he stood, looking at the other two and sniffing at them. Koto's bio electricity smelled different, the other guy's smelled.. the word spicy came to mind, and that was all he knew about him at this point.
"And also I think introductions are in order." He added, realizing he had been somewhat rude.

Word count: 879/2000

[Kotone]

Kotone walked into the clearing to be greeted by Raven. Tatsuma was late. Well, not late. They were all early despite Kotone running into Charlotte. Raven seemed rather surprised that Kotone had picked up another girl out in the jungle. Kotone would have been more surprised, herself, if she hadn’t decided fate was throwing everything it had at her this last week. She gave Raven a grin that just barely revealed her fangs. “Her?” she thrust a thumb at Charlotte. “It’s only ‘Princess’ Charlotte. The daughter of Argon himself,” she told him first, just to give him a quick scare. She was being nicer to him, but their relationship was still somewhat antagonistic. “Don’t worry. She’s not here for you, no matter how loud you can be. She’s after the same thing we are. Funny how timing works.”

That was when Tatsuma appeared in their little clearing. His shock at seeing Charlotte was one Kotone hadn’t been expecting. Her first thought was that he didn’t like the Magic Council, and she started to move to help Charlotte when he charged at her. She stopped rather quickly though when she realized he was actually hugging her. Hugging her? These two had met? What kind of weird world was this becoming where everyone knew everyone she knew? Aside from Raven, that is. He was apparently out of this weird loop. He demanded to know what Charlotte was doing here, but didn’t wait on her to answer. He instead turned to Kotone, asking the same question.

“Well if you’d been about thirty seconds quicker you would know,” she told him as if she wasn’t going to answer. "The Princess is here to help with our little blood mage problem. I couldn’t get her to go away and let us handle it, so here we are.” She told Tatsuma honestly and directly. She didn’t actually mind Charlotte’s company after they’d cleared up their initial hatred of each other, but she did feel like Charlotte was getting into business that she didn’t need to get into, like the Council enjoyed doing so much.

She sighed, dropping her arms from the crossed position they’d adopted when Tatsuma had hugged Charlotte. “You all know me. I’m Kotone. The pretty one with the cool ice magic,” she introduced herself first, despite knowing she didn’t need to. She said she was the pretty one just to see how Charlotte would react. It was a gentle poke. “The redhead here is Blaze. But you can call him Raven,” she introduced as if her nickname was the correct name for him. “The hyper one is Sparky, but he prefers Tatsuma for some reason. And of course, the Princess here is Charlotte Von Argon.”

[Charlotte]

As they entered the clearing, a red haired man became visible to Charlotte. ‘Who the heck is this,’
she wondered as she stood to the side with a small fake grin. ‘You gotta keep up with the act, Charlotte. You have to,’she chanted as she had decided that she didn’t want anyone else other than Kotone to know of her charade. So even though the first thing she wanted was to push and prod on who this character is, she simply stood there like an idiot and as Kotone introduced her, she sent a small glare at her direction before coughing slightly. “I am not a princess, Kotone chan!” She had to muster the sickliest sweet voice ever for that and her inner self made gagging noises.

The next thing she saw was Kotone getting alarmed about something, taking a step towards her which sent her senses on high alert as well. She was about to turn around and kick whatever it was when she found herself tackled to the ground by a silver haired boy. ‘Silver?’ she wondered as various faces went across her mind. “Tatsuma?” She asked as she looked down at the boy. ‘The heck is he doing here too?’ she shook her head, wanting to groan out and glare at the boy but opted against it and managed another grin on her face. “Tatsuma!” She hugged him as she shouted at him to get off of her in the back of her head.

After getting up, she turned her attention to Kotone who started introducing herself and then everyone else. She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes at her explanation of herself. ‘Brats be brats’she thought with a small smirk. “And everyone knows who’s the beautiful one here,” she added to kotone’s introduction of her with a genuine smile, one that most would really consider as beautiful. “Now..since all that’s done. Let’s get down to business, shall we?”

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[Raven Flametongue]

Raven’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly at the mention of Charlotte’s name. But it passed as soon as it came. The last thing they needed was someone so close to the top being around them. It was hard enough to hide that they were guildless to avoid trouble with their tendency to jump into a fight. But now with Charlotte there… Instead of worry though, he wore his ever confident grin.

Which dissolved into a more bemused face when the one known as Tatsuma tackled Charlotte. They looked like long lost lovers, despite Charlotte possibly disliking Tatsu. Raven didn’t know, but sometimes it was fun to imagine. Plus, the thought of what the other knights would do if they saw such a display was an even more amusing image to Raven. But then it was time to get serious, at which Raven’s face went back to his grin.

“The business of enjoying good looks?” Raven grinned playfully before shrugging at Charlotte’s last comment. He knew he should take it more seriously, but he didn't want this motley band of children and women getting attached to him in a positive way. Kotone was bad enough, familiarity or no. And these two looked like they’d bring even more trouble to the table.

“Fun aside,” He said before he could get punched, stabbed, electrocuted, or whatever else these people could throw at him. The last thing he wanted was to be maimed before they reached the blood mage cult place. Not that a few wounds would make him lose, right? “We’re here to stop some blood mages and save people. Do that whole hero thing people like to talk about.”

“So I guess we should start with… what do we know?” Raven asked still looking aloof. Even though it didn't look like he cared, he did care. He glanced at each of them hoping some of them turned up information that might prove to be useful. The sooner they got the mission over with, the sooner he could ditch them.

(Word count 665/2000)

[Tatsuma]

Tatsuma volunteered his information first... this was due in part to the fact that he didn't actually HAVE any information. He had speculation and ideas were based on lack of information rather than anything solid so if anyone else had anything that would be what they would be following, still it might inspire people to share. He looked at Raven and then back to Charlotte, though he was slow to get off of her, he eventually did and as he reached down to help her up he started his little verbal funeral of hunches.
"I couldn't get the locals to tell me anything major... or anything at all. The only thing I got was that they REALLY don't want to talk about anything in, or beyond the forest. Based on that I thought we could check for structures toward the back of the area, but I'm kind of reaching." He explained. There was literally nothing to the whole of the explanation and it probably could have been summarized by simply saying "I found out the people here don't like this place so let's go look", but that would have been for too straight forward and he wouldn't have been done helping Charlotte up by the time he finished.

He turned back to Charlotte once she was standing and smiled.
"Sorry about knocking you down. I was just literally thinking about you ten minutes ago and thought it was amazing that you were here... Maybe it's a new spell!" He said excitedly at the end. "I'm just going to go over here and... think about... a village girl... no worries though I'm still listening." He said as he walked over to a tree and sat down to reminisce about some of the fun he had partaken in at the village while he was gathering information.

Word count: 1087

[Kotone]

Kotone only raised an eyebrow, her arms crossed casually as she watched Tatsuma pace over to 'think about a village girl.' "And I thought Raven was a pervert…” she said with an obvious sigh as her shoulders slumped. Apparently men were just idiots sometimes. Kotone really didn’t understand their perversion, because she had managed to grow up not perverted in the slightest. “Look, I’ve been doing a lot of exploring the jungle, and there aren’t that many places to hide when you get right down to it. It’s mostly trees and rocks and the occasional wanderer I’ve encountered,” she said, glancing at Tatsuma. He was one of them, but she’d also found a couple of kids and some guy that that was obsessed with her until she’d showed him she wasn’t really worth having a crush on.

“So they must have some hidden structure. Maybe they have a magic to hide it from our eyes, but two of us here are dragon slayers,” she reasoned with a shrug. “We might be able to find something if we aren’t relying on eyes alone.” Kotone’s arms dropped down to her sides. “Now, if Sparky’s done trying to summon blind girls, let’s find them and get this over with so I can get out of this heat.”

952 words

[Charlotte]

“No harm done,” she told Tatsuma with a smile as she got up with his help. She had nothing against the guy as with the short time that she had spent with him on the mission back in Oak, she had gotten to know that he was a really good guy. The only problem was that she wasn’t expecting to be knocked down by a sixteen year old boy weighing somewhere around 190 to 195lbs.

Straightening her back by throwing her hands up into the air, she moved her hands back to gather all of her raven hair in one hand to tie it with a bun using the other. “So, let’s see…” she trailed off, her expression changing from looking bored to looking as if she was in deep thought. “So far, we have no clue as to where we can find those guys, right? And two dragon slayers?” she asked, her eyes instantly turning to Raven. She was aware of Tatsume’s and Kotone’s magic which left the red haired guy. She raised one of her eyebrows as she, for the first time after meeting him, decided to take a good long look at him, analyzing and calculating in her head before turning her head away to look at nothing but trees and rocks around them.

“I’m not really sure how we are going to find them in this jungle…but if Kotone said is right, they must be using some kind of magic barrier or something of that sort. Like the brat said, we apparently have two dragon slayers….I’m assuming your sensing skills are higher compared to Tatsuma and me,” she finished, looking around at all of them.

She tried raking her brain for any clues that her brother must have given her when he practically shoved the reports about the blood mages into her hands. Knowing him, he must have specified which area of the forest these men were sited at. ‘Think, woman! Think!’ she mentally started kicking her as she tried to bring the picture of the report she read a couple of days ago. “East!”

[Raven Flametongue]

Raven couldn't help the unapproving frown that crossed his features. Tatsu knew nothing, which was a great first serious impression. Kotone had turned up nothing... which was strange. She was a Dragon Slayer. Finding blood of all things should be easy. That's when Kotone mentioned a second Dragon Slayer. His heart skipped a beat for a moment when he felt Charlotte sizing him up.

There was no way Kotone knew he was a Dragon Slayer. Sure, by scent maybe. MAYBE. But it was subtle, and she would have mentioned it by now if she knew. No, that meant it was Tatsu or Charlotte... both smelled like lightning so that wasn't much help. Tatsu's scent seemed kind of off however. Maybe it was him?

Instead of freezing though, as he was stared at he simply linked his hands behind his head. He did his best to look uncaring and nonchalant during the visual examination. When it passed Charlotte had decided to travel in the eastern direction. The problem with this was that just wandering aimlessly wasn't going to get them anywhere.

“I didn't gather much either,” He said as he fell in next to Kotone. His hands were still behind his head, and his tone was a little less caring than the others would probably like. Not that he cared what they thought though. “Though, it sounds like this has been going on for awhile. If it's been going on for awhile, then there's got to be a lot of blood, right? I've heard Dragon Slayers have a good sense of smell. Maybe we should focus on that.”

Of course, he was one too. But, this would divert attention away from him. Which would make his life in the future easier. For now though... He couldn't use his roar. Everything else Kotone had seen, which would help prove he wasn't. Even though he was.

(Word count 918/2000)

[Tatsuma]

Despite thinking about the village girl, eventually his mind wandered to what he had found out through process of elimination. Technically if the village was hesitant about conversing about things in and beyond the forest then maybe it would be best to go beyond the forest and approach from a different angle. Not to mention he hadn't tried climbing a tree and looking from that vantage point.
"Okay Kotone can do that thing with the smell. I'm going to climb a tree and see if I can spot anything. I don't know why I didn't think to try that before, but it seems like a good idea now, especially if there's some magic field or something. I've had luck before by getting above a spell to break out of it." He suggested, remembering a field he had been trapped in, only to escape by getting above the spell's expansion radius. Still he knew there were holes to this plan, so he opted to share the rest of his own idea.


"That aside, I would suggest maybe heading to the other side of the forest. I thought about it and it seems like if someone was going to hide something I'd want it either as far back as I could possibly get it, or right in the middle. Two places people are least likely to visit, especially if they are superstitious types." He shared. Although it wasn't anything he thought anyone else would have figured out given enough time, he decided to elaborate just in case it was just him thinking about the various possibilities. He also thought about splitting up, but wasn't sure about the virtues and vices of doing so, instead he simply waited to see if anyone objected thus far.

[Kotone]

“Yeah, there’s two dragon slayers,” Kotone told Raven with a shrug as tatsu suggested he try and get above the illusion. She knew the sense of smell thing wouldn’t work already; they were stupid If they thought she hadn’t tried it in the last several days. With a sigh, Kotone raced up a tree as well. She wasn’t sure how this illusion worked, but it was certainly better than grasping for a needle in a haystack with a blindfold on.  Leave this to the dragon slayers. The “Princess” and the Ashhead could wait for a moment.

Suddenly, as Kotone reached the top of the trees, she saw what she was sure Tatsuma could see too – a break in the illusion, and rather near to them too. The scent of blood washed over her. She still couldn’t see anything, but it seemed there was a weakness at this level, a weakness that Raven and Charlotte’s noses wouldn’t have picked up. “Good thing we’re here,” Kotone mumbled as she hopped down from the top of the tall tree, landing next to Raven and using her right hand to steady her as she landed. “Good news, Tatsuma’s crazy idea worked. Now, follow us,” she told the other two, impatient to get this job over with after days of searching. She slammed a fist into her open palm, a grin on her face. “We’ve got some blood mages to take down.”

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[Charlotte]

‘I already said east, you idiots,’ she mumbled inside her head as she watched Tatsu and Kotone give ideas before the small brat raced up a tree to look for the blood mages. She crossed her arms as she waited for Kotone to get some clue about where the blood mages could possibly be. ‘Well, that’s what happens when they don’t listen to me,’ she thought with her hands crossed behind her head as her eyes followed Kotone when she raced back down the tree. “Monkey…” she whispered for no-one but her to hear although with how close she was standing next to Raven, she had a growing suspicion that he heard her as well.

Shrugging, she turned on her heels to walk just behind Kotone who was going east in direction. More or less, she just wanted to get the whole thing over with so that she can go back to the headquarters. Kai was probably waiting for her and her report too. The thought of having to write up a detailed report for him made her groan in annoyance though she figured she would get Jude to write it for her. The small fairy was glad to help her with those kind of jobs anyway.

“You know...if we are going in this direction…I think there is some sort of old ruins around here. Some of the council members found it out a long time ago. If they are as superstitious as we think, that’s exactly the place we are heading to,” she said, breaking the silence that had filled the air when they started walking. Why didn’t she think of the old ruins before? She wondered as she walked up so that she and Kotone were walking side by side leaving the boys to follow after them.

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[Raven Flametongue]

Raven went silent as people started climbing trees. Sure enough, they found the scent and the direction to go. Ruins were also mentioned, making Raven curios. Ruins could be a good base of operations, but what if there was something more to it? Old ruins, blood sacrifices, and cult of dark mages... it made sense that the ruins might be more than a mere location.

“You shouldn't talk bad about your companions,” Raven said quietly enough that the other two couldn't hear, but loud enough that Charlote could. He gave her a side long glance, looking serious for a change as he stopped next to her. Then he started walking again. He wanted to say more, but picking a fight wasn't his goal. It was to guide people... to get them to grow.

So instead he walked with his hands linked behind his head. There was a slight grin on his face as he continued forward. It didn't matter right then of Von Argon wasn't up to code. That could be sorted out later. What needed sorting out was the blood mages. And so that was going to be his focus.

“C'mon,” He picked up his pace to an almost jog. He didn't care if they complained or fell behind. It just meant more fun for him once the fighting started. And once they learned their lesson he'd hand them over to Ms Argon and let the council sort them out. “Let's get in there and have some fun.”

((1167/2000))

[Tatsuma]

Tatsu got to the top of the tree and looked out over his environment. He didn't pick up on the scent as clearly as Kotone did, but he still got enough of a whiff to catch on. As soon as he did he started to turn to go down the tree, but something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye, though when he turned to face it whatever it was had disappeared.
"HAHA I was right!" He said to himself in brief celebration as he slid himself down the tree, falling from branch to branch and using each one to go lower as quickly and safely as possible. Once he hit the ground, after Kotone shouted... and the group had more or less started off without him, he casually took up the rear. Koto and Char had the front in case they got attacked, Raven had the middle, and he was there for in case of ambush.

As they walked, he tried to think about what it was that he would do if he was aware of some people approaching his secret area. Probably nothing until he was sure they were close enough that they definitely knew instead of giving away his position. He would have spent an exorbitant amount of time setting up traps though he would set them up to throw people off of the direction they were going and maybe pull off some illusory misdirection if possible and it seemed like it was very much possible. No, he definitely needed to let the others know what he was thinking, they all seemed competent, but he wasn't sure how many thought like he did.
"Hey guys... You may want to watch for traps. I mean large ones, like the kinds one would use to distract long enough for us to get lost." He said as he started looking for trip wires, guide lines, ticklers, or otherwise seemingly inconspicuous trap triggers.


WC: 1705

[Kotone]

Kotone was already looking for traps. She knew better than to go to a dark wizard’s base without looking after her little assault in Magnolia on the dark guilds alongside Hannah and Roejaster. “None of you be clumsy and we’ll be fine,” Kotone insisted as they walked. She knew they were in the ruined buildings now. That was the only place left to check, and with the lifting of the illusions above the trees, it was the correct direction as well. Kotone tightened her ponytail as they walked, playing the loner in this little band of misfits by walking ahead at a good distance.

There were no traps to be found, however, and the girl was a good distance ahead by the time they arrived. She was tired of the heat, and unbuttoned her blouse, tossing it in her bag. She had on a tank top under it anyway, just because of this weather. “C’mon,” she told the others impatiently as they walked inside. There were several narrow passageways, but the scent of human blood could be easily picked out by the dragon slayers, and Kotone led them straight to the cultists. She stopped them as they got to the entrance to the room by holding out a hand. “Here we are,” she told them seriously, her eyes and expression serious as she listened to their disturbing chanting.

[Charlotte]

“You shouldn't talk bad about your companions,” Charlotte heard as she looked at him from the corner of her eyes with a shrug. She didn’t mean it to be seriously offensive anyway. It was a sort of unexplainable thing between Charlotte and Kotone. They got along in a not so obvious way from the very second they met. They made it look like cat and mouse on the outside while they usually traveled on the same wavelength inside. She guessed that not many could understand that strange connection between them. Heck…even Charlotte couldn’t explain that connection between them.

Nonetheless, she shrugged the thought off before trailing behind Charlotte. Tatsuma raised the suspicion of traps around the surrounding, putting Charlotte on high alert too. She hated to admit it but the possibilities of traps surrounding the obscure place didn’t cross the paladin’s mind till he brought it up. She more or less had other thoughts running around like mice inside her already messed up head.

Skipping ahead to stop about a feet behind Kotone, Charlotte was the first out of the rest to get to the entrance with Kotone right in front of her. She leaned forward to peek inside the room where several men were already in a circle making queer movements and chants. Looking closely at them, charlotte realized that the circle they were standing and sitting on were made out of blood…lots of blood. The room only had one source of light and that was coming from a very small window opposite to where they were placed pretty high. Other than that, there were only some candles lit around them.

“They are crazy with a capital C,” she sighed as she didn’t make any sudden movements. She was going to let the others start first. After all, all she had to do was arrest those idiots. No one said she can’t have her companions do the work for her.

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