The Search For Mana

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Lazaryos found Chrono's little incident to be a good chuckle, but the heat of battle was heightening in his senses so he stifled the little bit of humor. Finally, for what seemed like hours, which was only a matter of minutes, they arrived. Only on the next dune, fighting was completely visible. Dead bodies loitered the sands while hundreds of battling bodies can be seen and camp setups with powerful leaders were off in the distance. Beyond the battlefield, the lone, single lane bridge to the mountain cave can be seen. And, at the end of the bridge, was 2 dragons laying on their own pedestals, one seeming to look familiar with a small patch of chipped scales on its neck and what seemed to be a gleaming sword on its side that shined quite predestinely from the sun's reflection.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Ember may have been a short ways behind Chrono since he was the scout but she still heard his comment nonetheless. "If fire mages didn't know how to hold back then HE would be dead right now," she snapped, pointing back in the direction of Dante without looking. "And YOU would be injured as well, hatchling!" She was so riled up that she didn't notice that she had just used Lazaryos' nickname for Chrono. After that, she continued on without a word as the approached the huge battle. Once they could see the battling people and the bodies, her eyes glowed with bloodlust and her mouth opened, revealing her sharp teeth. She didn't know it, but she looked pretty dangerous and vicious at that moment. Her tail whipped back and forth behind her in an agitated, anxious way as she hunched over slightly, ready to leap into battle.

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Chrono spun back around as Ember yelled at him. "Oh come on, I only ment those fire mages in the battlefield right now, you're too good of a pyromancer to go overboard like that!!" It was a possibly pathetic attempt at appeasing to Ember's pride as a fire mage, but right now he would not want to be under 'friendly' fire while fighting through the Blue Crimson.

When he turned back to the fighting, he could make out a glimmer in the distance, and the vage shape of a sword sticking out of what he believed to be a Guardian Dragon. "Wait, you mean to tell me that thing at the Arena was a Guardian Dragon?! I want my sword back!!"

[Srgntcuddles]

"I do apologize for that, I meant no harm by it. Anyway...Given your trusting of me...I wanted to be straight with you. This truce can only go so far...That said I want to you to help me take down the others...Without killing them. I thought of your cards. In all honesty I was planning to take a few from you...But I kind of blew it. My martial arts will be ineffective against Chrono in his armor, it would be nearly impossible to hit a pressure point. That was my backup plan, to get the drop on them and try to stun them via pressure points. However, Lazaryos is quite sharp and I could only likely get one of the three. With you and your cards it would be a great deal easier. What do you say...?" Explained Dante. He hoped he wouldn't bring up how they would go about choosing between themselves after dispatching the others. It probably wouldn't win him to his side.

[Vosur Aekira]

He paused in thought, not having the want to fight the others and the eventual conclusion of the matter coming to mind as as he glanced back to the rest of the group. Vosur didn't stop walking, keeping pace with Dante, but he was silent as he heard him out. When Dante finally asked the question, he couldn't help but to ask in reply: "And how would you deal with me? I'm no push-over either, but I fight to kill when it comes down to it. There has been only one time where I've taken a life in cold-blood... and you were there to see the life fade away in agony." He pulls out one of the regular cards, allowing Dante to fully see the sharp edges all around the card and yet keeping it out of his reach. "These are lethal weapons, whatever they hit, they stab into unless it is metal. That poison from the scorpions is a numbing agent, if it gets to certain nerve tissue, it will temporarily stop it. Are you banking on me using my coated cards to disable them? And also would you heal their wounds so that when they wake up they aren't still wounded?"

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Lazaryos surveyed the battlefield only meters away, "This isn't going to be easy by ANY means. I think we should go around and find a place to create a shelter in case we can't break through today. Look at them all out there. These men and women have been fighting for the last week nearly non-stop, hiding within the sand and wherever they built a shelter to quickly hide into. All of them are after what we're after, the Mana." The lightning seemed to surge from the topaz in his hand, also coursing from his eyes. The itch of battle was insatiable, but the need to find a temporary shelter was more important. "White Mage, why don't you take the pup with you and find a place in the sand to hide and fortify it. It should be able to hold since it's so saturated with blood."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Ember listened to Chrono's attempt at an explanation for what he had said with narrowed eyes. "Flattery won't get you anywhere with me." She said flatly, looking up toward the sky. "But don't worry, I won't hurt you..." She brought her eyes back down to look at Chrono and smirked. "Yet." When she heard Lazaryos tell Dante and Vosur to go make a temporary shelter, she was astonished, though she didn't show it on her face. Looking at Lazaryos while standing right next to him, she narrowed her eyes slightly as she examined his face to find whether he meant it or not. "You're not seriously sending them off alone, are you?" She spoke in a volume that only he would hear, but her tone was slightly sharp.

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Chrono walked over to the lightning mage as he told the two tag-alongs to find shelter, and could easily hear Ember the entire time. "I'll go with them while you two start opening a path with lightning and fire; if our leader has no objections, of course." Chrono occasionally glanced to the battle-field, and moved his head backwards as another fireball came. "I'm serious though, whats with the lack of control from those mages?!"

[Srgntcuddles]

Dante sighed when Vosur asked the question he didn't want to hear. They were still a few yards from the others when Lazaryos told them to go find shelter. He didn't feel like making a snappy response to him and instead just walked off to their right. He heard Chrono's suggestion and quickened his pace slightly, when they were adequately far enough he spoke. "I had hoped you wouldn't ask that so soon. In all honesty...I was going to ask you to reconsider going after the Mana. Simple as that. At first...My goal for the Mana was to rid myself of this disease of mine...I had longed to be able to feel again. To know what it felt like to embrace a loved one...Or even pain to know that I'm even alive. But after traveling...I found that a selfish reason. I then wanted to use the Mana to increase my powers to help everyone. With such power...I could save the world...No one would suffer anymore...No fighting...Hunger...Chaos...I could turn the world into a Utopia. I also thought I could be able to help you...With your reason to obtain the Mana...Somehow." As he spoke his tone was calm. Eventually they came upon a broken down wagon, he figured that would help make their shelter but paused to wait for Vosur's response.

[Vosur Aekira]

He took off his dark-colored glasses as he looked to Dante with his red-eyes, having followed him to the wagon.. "My reason is mission-oriented and a final promise to my beloved... two-fold reason. What I would do with such power, I no longer know. I wouldn't be a Mage, nor a Normal. So what would I be? I pursue after something I wouldn't even know what to do with it, and then there's what would I do if I saw my beloved's parents with such power. I question whatever strength of heart I have leading up-to the retrieval of this Mana, if I should just witness one of the others to get it or whether I should make my mad-dash for it when we see it? In an outright straight-line run, I probably could beat everyone. But then there's the situation where everyone would be fighting each other for it... " he spoke as he started to walk around the wagon to see how sturdy it would be, shaking it about to test it's rigidity. "If we are to fight, don't expect it to be easy... but I do hope not to kill any one of you in the process."

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Lazaryos sighed as Chrono volunteered himself to leave and help the others, "Just make sure they don't pick someplace obvious. Things that aren't part of the desert are very liable targets to be bombarded by spells. Don't need that happening while we're resting." When Chrono was out of earshot (meaning he can't hear anyone whispering), Lazaryos muttered softly over to Ember his answer, "We don't need a self-righteous whack-job who refuses to kill at this point. He'll end up getting the rest of us killed instead. Besides, think about this time to be with a real man." He winked at Ember as he charged up his Majicka. Like Ember and Dante, his Majicka has increased quite a bit since the beginning of the adventure, and he can feel it. "I'll take care of defense and proximity enemies. You concentrate on bombardments. Remember, this is Blue Crimson. Don't hold back."

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Ember was irritated that Chrono overheard her question to Lazaryos but was moderately pleased that he was going to be with Dante and Vosur so they wouldn't be alone. Listening to Lazaryos after Chrono was out of earshot, she felt her cheeks heat up when he winked at her but marked it off to her majicka building up, even though that wasn't the reason. "I didn't find him useful in the first place, but then again, I wasn't the one getting injured right and left." She glanced sideways at Lazaryos. Worry was something that she had felt during those times but she had ignored it for the most part. "Oh, and I have no intention of holding back." She grinned maliciously, showing those sharp teeth of her's once again, which were about the only features of her's that made her look like a threat, and looking back towards the battlefield.

[Chrono Blackwyng]

Chrono strolled over to the other two, and kept his hand on his blade in case a straggler from the battle wanted to try anything stupid. "I hope you two don't get any ideas about any castles or towers, we would be better off with a tunnel or cave. Lets also make sure it faces away from the battlefield so they can't just toss a fireball into it from a long distance away. Ah, theres a good spot to start digging!" Chrono pointed towards a dune of black sand that was facing away from the majority of the combat.

[Srgntcuddles]

Dante fell silent, thinking of someway to respond to Vosur. But he couldn't think of something before Chrono had shown up. After listening to what he said he turned to him. "Dig you say?! By what ever do you mean?" he said in his usual joking tone. "I'm just a weak mage. I'm sure a big, strong and muscular guy such as yourself is more suited for this job." he said getting closer to him, slipping behind him to massage his shoulders. "And I even found a wagon we could use to fortify the inside of our shelter!" he said putting his arm around his neck as if they were best of friends, pointing at the wagon. "C'mon, buddy! You can do it!" he said with a reassuring pat on the back, also shoving him a bit towards said wagon.

[Vosur Aekira]

Vosur just grumbled in an exhausted manner, putting away his glasses in a one of his herb pouches as he went to the wagon and ripped off a couple of flat pieces from it to use as hand-trowels. He looked to where Chrono pointed, taking notice of the dune. "Well, let's get started. There won't be much time to bring back any hunting quarry if we just dwaddle about." he spoke as he dropped the food nearby and started digging in a rather dog-like manner, trying to avoid getting sand in food-bags as he was digging. "Hey Padre! If you can't dig, then try to smooth out the sand to make it look 'natural'!" he called out as he had already dug a decent-sized hole by now, about large enough to hide himself in, but not for anyone of Chrono's or Lazaryos's size yet.