Life Stone

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Thanks to Suzumi no longer boosting Kiana's arrows, it became easier to deflect them, but then there was the issue of the magical needles. He cursed aloud as he swung his whip as fast as he could. Most of the needles were deflected or embedded into the whip, but the few that passed merely missed him or scratched him. With no current target, the cockatrice noticed its master's injuries and was enraged, charging straight towards Suzumi. At the same time, the baby dragon became equally as pissed off seeing its master being double-teamed and rammed right into the two lynxes. Right before impact, the baby dragon glowed in a brilliant light and grew into an adolescent dragon at 2 meters on all fours. Because of the growth, his head's impact wasn't as strong, but because of it growing a long neck from it, it launched the two felines into the air. As the light faded, the dragon's scales showed a brilliant purple, a thunder Dragon. It let out a loud roar, a glow in its masters wounds now healing her, and the skin being partial scales before it turned back to regular skin. Korius and the wildman were temporarily blinded by the light of the growing dragon, and when they recovered, the black wolf's eyes narrowed as he grit his teeth. I guess I really have no choice... Korius let out a loud howl as he let his rage take over, his eyes glowing a deep red. His figure began to bulk up a bit and roared as he hit the wildman with the broad side of his sword, shattering the halberd and launching him into his amazon teammate. The two tumbled a couple meters and got entangled in his whip, being a large wrecking ball that knocked over the beast tamer in which the cockatrice tripped over.

From there, the berserker turned his attention to the dragon tamer, but her dragon was already aware of him. The dragon roared and fired off his newly acquired lightning breath at the charging black wolf. He blocked with his sword, but it was enough to stop him from running and roared as the electricity coursed through his body. Quickly, the berserker tossed aside his sword and continued to charge forward. The dragon took a deep breath to charge another shot, but as it shot another volley, Korius had already punched the top of its head, its muzzle digging into the ground as it shot its breath into the dirt. The dragon tamer tried to come to the aid of her pet when it was hit, but Korius swung over with a backhand. The rapier pierced through his forearm, but the impact from his swing didn't lessen and sent the dragon tamer flying a few meters.

After his swing, Korius's line of sight was now on the archers, exhausted Mage and the two downed felines that landed near him. He was foaming at the mouth as he slowly picked his sword back up, ready to strike his new targets that were in sight.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana watched the action that unfolded before her as she was shooting arrows at the Beast Tamer. When the cockatrice refocused its attention on Suzumi, she decided that was going to be her next target. The howl from Korius changed her mind though. She watched as he attacked everyone in the other group, including the dragon which had grown. Considering the fact that the cockatrice tripped over the wrecking ball that was the Wildman and Amazon, she definitely knew it wasn't a problem at the current moment and her attention remained on Korius as he foamed at the mouth and found his new targets in them, particularly the lynxes who were the closest to him. "Please let me have one more arrow..." She thought as she reached back to her quiver again. She did indeed find an arrow there with her hand, just one. After she pulled the arrow out, she grabbed the bottle Korius had had her take earlier from inside her cloak. She quickly dipped the arrow into the liquid while trying not to drop the bottle. Replacing the cap, she put the bottle back in her cloak and then notched the arrow on her bow. Taking aim at his right side that was towards her, she let the arrow fly. She wasn't too worried about him deflecting the arrow since it seemed that he wasn't worried about being hit. "Please let me be right..." She muttered.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius had turned to Helios and Leo with his sword and raised it over his head. Before he struck down, Kiana's arrow struck him in the rear since they weren't boosted, and he was further away from her than the beast tamer was. Korius roared and turned to run towards her, but he didn't even take 2 steps before he stopped and knelt down as his body shrank back to its regular size, and his senses came back.

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

Helios sighed heavily looking around at the ground that was littered with bodies. All four of the hunters struggled to move, the male cockatrice was in enough pain for the whole lot, and Helios wasn't even completely sure that the dragon was alive. "H-help please..." Helios wasn't certain what happened after that, his wound although clotted and the blood stopped he had already lost too much and blacked out.

[tangletail]

Leo had been caught completely unaware, and found himself cartwheeling through the air and hitting the ground hard shoulder first. Once his body bounced back into the air, he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder before landing once more chest first with no further momentum. He groaned heavily with the acheing pain that he was left with. He tried to move, but found himself struggling with it. He felt blood run down his body, but he didn't care to check from where. Each limb hurt, his arm in particular felt absolutely horrible. He glanced to it through squinted eyes, but saw that it wasn't broken.

 
However, he flinched after hearing the growl ring through the air. His eyes widened and his fur now stood on end. He heard screams now joining the cries, causing him to look up to now see his teams leader looking to them with foam seeping from his mouth like a rabid animal. Leo's breathing hesitated only momentairly, a sour taste now filling his mouth as he quickly reached out to grab Helios and pull him back while the thief shifted onto his feet. “RUN,” Leo hissed in a fear filled tone, “RUN!”

If helio's didn't bring himself back to his feet in time, the cat would try to pull him onto his shoulder and run and hop off to the side to avoid the first sword strike. However, once he saw the arrow nail the berserker square on the cheek. He hesitated for a moment to watch him collapse to the ground. “... Someone.... please... tell me... wh-what just happened.”

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana actually smiled when the arrow connected with Korius even though it didn't hit where it had been aimed. She watched him turn towards her a second guessed the power of the sedative for a second but was reassured when Korius ended up falling to his knees and going back to normal size. Hearing Leo hissing at Helios to run, she directed her attention to the lynxes and saw Helios wasn't conscious. "Seriously?" She said, raising an eyebrow at him not noticing what happened, but then it seemed that he at least realized that Korius was down. "He's sedated. He gave me a bottle of stuff earlier for Karina or I to dip our arrows in and shoot at him if he went berserk." She gestured towards the kneeling Korius with her free hand. "And I don't think Helios is going anywhere anytime soon since he's unconscious now." She would have taken that moment to try to kill the female cockatrice while it was down, but she didn't have anymore arrows. Instead, she started walking around to collect her arrows that were all over the ground. She went for the arrow in Korius last. "This probably won't bother you right now, but just a fair warning, I'm pulling the arrow out." She said to him as she grabbed a hold of the arrow, yanking it straight out a second after she finished talking. After that, she remembered how beat Suzumi had looked before and turned her gaze towards her. "Are you going to be alright, Suzumi?" She asked.

[Suzumibachii]

Dropped down even lower as a sharp pain shot through her entire body, her nerves working overtime as she cringed and slammed her fist into the dirt once. Biting her lip hard as she tried to remain focused the sight of Korius going bezerk was quite a fearful sight indeed even more so when he turned around and looked at the group. Suzumi tried to pull herself up to run or hide but her body currently refused to move at all. She heard the sound of a arrow being notched and shot from close by but didnt realize what it was until Korius dropped down and slowly returned to normal.

"Are you going to be alright, Suzumi?" Suzumi glanced up at Kiana, a few drops of blood dripping from her nsoe before she nodded and weakly reached up to wipe the blood away. "Yeah... I should be fine, I just pushed myself a little too far with that last spell." Slowly standing up she took a few deep breaths as the pain subsided the nearly electric buzz in her mana channels dulling and eventually dissipating. "Lets not try that spell again...well at least while I am at this level." she said with a soft giggled in her voice.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina was stunned at the events that just happened in front of her: first seeing the defiance from the dragon tamer to the point where he was risking his life, then the dragon changing barreling the two lynxes out of the way with ease, but lastly and most importantly was the change in Korius and his take-down of the thunder dragon. It took her a few seconds to come to before she realized he was charging at them but when Kiana had hit him with the sedative arrow, she let out a sigh of relief when he came to his senses. With the fight done and all that was left was the female cockatrice, she started to gather her arrows that weren't close to the cockatrice that could be salvaged, then she looked to the plumed bird-like creature and drew back her notched arrow while looking at it, aiming straight for the eyes to go for the kill. She was in quiet hesitation though, never actually having killed a female one before, so she didn't know if it would work or if it would just anger it before she let her arrow fly from her bow.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius panted as he finally reverted back to his old self and slowly got up. He then let out another howl as Kiana pulled her arrow out of his ass. As a berserker, he was used to being stabbed and cut and crushed by many things, but that was usually against the armour in his legs or across his upper body, including his head, but not once had anything hit him there, before. After a few seconds, he started moving again, walking towards Karina and the female cockatrice. He lifted up his sword and just let it fall, crushing the giant bird's windpipe with just the weight of the weapon, "No need to waste possibly breaking an arrow on this one." Since no one paid it much mind, the tamed male cockatrice took the opportunity to lunge at them. Korius turned in time to jump back with its momentum and grabbed its neck, cradling its head against his left hip and fell on that side, merely knocking the thing out. It was quite a shocker, to say the least, but with this combined with the fight, the black wolf remembered that even previous members of his party forgot he only had one arm after a fight like this. Quickly, he gripped his left shoulder and rolled around, "My arm!! That bastard ----- clipped my arm off!"

[ShiroTenshiRyu]

As Helios came to moments later he looked around to see a dead female cockatrice, a panicking Leo, a dazed Karina, a concerned Kiana, and a crazed Korius. "My arm!! That bastard ----- clipped my arm off!" Once more Helios began to laugh, but quickly became light headed. He held his head to stop the swaying, his head pounding. He used his sword to prop him self up then watched as Korius ran around like a cockatrice with it's head cut off and raved about his arm. Perhaps he was delirious from the lack of blood, but he could have sworn Korius never had a second arm.



"Korius," he said between wheezing. "I do believe you've gone mad. I thought you never had a second arm." Turning to Kiana he smirked. "And it would seem you've been watching all the wrong parts on Korius." He gave another laugh this one bringing up some blood. "Though I do thank you for sedating him when you did." Helios began to attempt to stumble towards the group, almost falling multiple times.

[Vee Katame: His Wolfy]

Kiana cringed when Korius ended up howling when she removed her arrow from his rump. "Okay. We didn't need anyone dying already." She said after Suzumi answered her then chuckled a little. She looked over in Karina's direction to see that she was going to kill the female cockatrice, but then Korius moved over and crushed it instead. After that, he ended up knocking out the male that tried to attack him. At the end of all that, she was confused when Korius started raving about his arm. She had seen his right arm get stabbed through with the rapier, but she was 99% sure that he had already been missing his left arm. Opening her mouth to say something, she closed it when she heard Helios' voice addressing Korius and mentioning the whole arm thing. When Helios turned his attention on her, she crossed her arms and scowled. "Not my fault he moved after I shot..." She muttered, turning her gaze to the ground and feeling her face heat up slightly. She wasn't used to blushing either since she didn't usually embarrass herself in front of others.

[tangletail]

Leo listened to the explanation, his body twitching with each and every breath he made, even though he seemed to have calmed down. His ears were rotating a bit restlessly now as he watched Korius scream something about his arm. He was about to make a comment, swearing that this arm was gone well before he even met the man, until he felt Helios writhing in his grasp, which he then lowered carefully back down to his feet. However, mid process he had to immediately let go after feeling a sharp burning sensation in his shoulder. He yelped a bit, and quickly looked back to his own body, noticing the blood that had ran down his shirt.

“How the....” he began in surprise, till he noticed his dagger only a few feet away from him. The ground underneath it had been torn and sprinkled with blood. The cat gritted his teeth when he quickly moved a hand over the wound to apply pressure. His gaze looked to Kiana, who seemed to have been the key blame for the potshot.

“Oh don't worry about it Kiana. Saved my life, Helios' as well. He will just be walking a little funny after this night, though you'd expect something like that involving a bed somewhere.” Leo hissed through his teeth and shawl. He gave his head a light snake to toss the darb off his muzzle, and allow it to land back in place on his chest, “besides, at least you can't gut yourself with your own damned weapon.”

He'd shift forward a few paces, and slowly crouch down, being careful not to move his arm to much to pick up his bloody dagger with a shaky hand.

[Suzumibachii]

Stood up and slowly walked towards a tree to lean on just outside of the range of most of the groups vision although if anybody was paying attention they would see her. Pulling off each of her gloved and placing them in her pocket she looked at her hands with a frown on her face, small scorch marks marred her scales each originating from the place where the gemstones rested in her gloves. She knew full well her particular style of wielding magic had its costs but she didnt expect that forcing a higher level of spell would do that much damage to her body. Pulling the gloves over her hands once more she wrapped a extra strip of leather over teh gems to keep them hidden for now before looking at Korius raving about his missing arm. Suzumi wanted to comment about there not being enough blood around to justify his arm being missing but  Helios was way ahead of her.

[Vosur Aekira]

Karina looked to Korius, not amused with his current antics before she turned away from him. "We better head back to the village. We have a female cockatrice and a fair amount of males. It would be wise to cash-in before the sun sets or you are out of luck in getting a good turn-around." she spoke as she looked up to the sky. "Though... that trick only works if you didn't already have scar-tissue on your long-since-missing arm." she noted out as she inhaled a bit, then did a quick-check on the stock of arrows she had, which she could only recover about one-third of her total quiver-size due to the amount of damage her arrows suffered from all of the fighting. "With all of that screeching from earlier and the fighting we had with the other hunters, we're bound to have either drawn attention or scared off more potential prey." she spoke as she looked back towards the village.

[Shinzuu Katame: Her Tolfy]

Korius stopped after a little bit and let out a face, "You lot are no fun." He sighed as he got up and went to retrieve his sword. After doing so, he opened up the little satchel and retrieved their catch. From there, the black wolf went over to check on the injured for both sides. The opposing side seemed fine, just minor injuries and unconscious, nothing life threatening. Korius then checked on his own party, picking up Helios and slinging him over his shoulder, "Such a light weight. Your injuries aren't even that serious, you drama queen." He then looked over at Leo, who seemed fine on his own, then to where Suzumi and the archers were. "You girls take Suzumi with you. We're heading back." The wolf dragged his sword along with Helios on his shoulder, leading the group back to town and towards the butcher's shop. There, he handed over the satchel. He put Helios down onto the ground, giving the lynx a good kick to the legs, "Wake up, you whimp! You've stopped bleeding 15 minutes ago!"