Caelum took down a few more ghouls, growing worried when Elio still hadn't returned. "Christ… this dumbass. I'm going in for him." He headed further into the forest, killing any ghouls in his path so that he could try and find Elio. Azel transformed back into a person and hesitantly approached, holding his fists up even though he knew they would do nothing.
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"Wait! You can't just-" Felix started, running after them.
Aurelius took the aura of decay off his blade and tossed it to Azel.
"Hopefully you won't need it, but just in case."
He too followed after the group, helping cut down stray ghouls along the way.
"Thanks…" Azel accepted the weapon and ran after them, occasionally swinging at a ghoul, but making it pretty obvious that he wasn't super experienced with fighting. They soon stumbled across Caelum trying to drag an injured Elio back through the trees.
"Caelum, look out!" Aurelius cried out, sprinting past Felix.
He threw out a wall of magic that shriveled everything that touched it, including a couple of ghouls that had been about to attack again. For a few seconds, he held the wall up, until he was able to determine what was past it.
"Nest. I see the edge," he grumbled, "Looks like Elio got in some damage. Felix-"
"Wait 'til we're ready. It's not going anywhere. Elio, Caelum, are you two alright?" Felix replied, keeping an eye out for any more enemies.
"I'm fine, but Eli's not." Caelum sighed and kept dragging his friend, looking annoyed and worried. "He's not conscious right now. He's got burns across his body, especially his arms, and he's got a pretty deep wound on his leg. I wrapped a pressure bandage around it, but he's starting to bleed through…"
"Burns- from his powers or something else?" Aurelius questioned, still holding the wall in place, "Did you get a good look at what was back there?"
Felix frowned and glanced back and forth between Elio and the area ahead of them.
"Do we need to pull back?" He asked seriously, "It's not worth our lives."
"Felix! You-"
"I what? If need be, we pull back, and we bring reinforcements. It would be a waste to die here."
Felix moved around his utility belt and pulled out a vial, which he then handed to Caelum.
"Healing potion. Not a long-term fix, but it'll bolster him to the end of this, unless you want him to stay down for his own safety. Then, you're welcome to use it if you need it."
"Burns from his powers. He's been overusing them." Caelum sighed, looking up from his friend for a moment. "I can see the nest a bit from here. There's some more ghouls crawling out. We'll have to destroy the whole nest to deal with the problem." He accepted the healing potion from Felix with a soft thanks and started using it on Elio. Azel looked a little uneasy, gripping his weapon tighter. He didn't like situations like this where he had to think about a solution.
"Right. This might be where I come into play," Felix said, rolling up his sleeves, "Best way to deal with monster nests is to burn them. The tunnels are too small for anyone to be inside- and even if anyone was inside, they'd be dead. Auri, watch my back?"
"Y-yes! Absolutely!" Aurelius replied, pulling down his wall and glancing back at the others, "You can help us if you want, but I think we have this under control."
Caelum nodded a bit. "We'll stay back for now. Call if you need help." He continued treating Elio, who was starting to stir. As soon as he woke up, Caelum started scolding him for being so reckless. Azel stayed back with the two of them, figuring he'd just get in the way if he tried to help.
"Got it," Aurelius replied, jogging lightly after Felix.
When he turned around, Felix had already started a blaze around the nest, which he was closing in on the monsters.
"Good god, Felix!"
"Do me a favor and pick off any that escape, yeah?"
"Of course-"
Aurelius drew a dagger from his boot with one hand and had the other free to channel magic.
From the nest, they could hear howls and screeches rise into the air as the remaining monsters inside were burnt to a crisp. Not many managed to escape the blaze, but for those that did, Aurelius waited to cut them down.
Caelum kept a close eye on Elio to make sure he wouldn't try and do anything else stupid. He was still injured, and walking hurt him, but at least he wasn't bleeding, and the potion was helping him to heal more quickly. After a bit, Azel headed forward to see how Felix and Aurelius were doing.
There was a column of fire where the monster nest had been. Felix glanced over his shoulder at Aurelius, an easy smile spreading over his face.
"You alright?"
"Yeah. Picked off everything that tried to escape. Though we might find the stray ghoul here and there, it's not going to be nearly as bad."
Felix saw Azel approach and nodded at him.
"That bit's taken care of. Let's regroup a little, and we can figure it out from there."
"Felix!" Aurelius cried out, pulling him out of the way as the ground beneath his feet started to crumble.
Felix stumbled a bit, but was out of the way. He probably would've been fine, as the ground only gave way a little where he'd stood moments before, but where the nest was, everything collapsed, not so different from what Azel had been caught in.
"There's something underground here," Aurelius said, "Ground keeps sinking in, and we know there's a strange magic source."
Felix looked back and fourth between Aurelius and Azel.
"What I said stands. We need to talk about this before we press on."
Azel shifted into a fox when the ground collapse and darted out of the way before where he was standing was able to completely collapse. He held tightly to a tree after he shifted back, hoping it would be enough to stay upright. "Uh… alright. The blond guy… Eli, I think? He seems like he's doing a little better, but I don't think he can walk. He'll probably need to be carried. I don't have any serious injuries, I don't think…" He looked himself over and noticed a large, dried patch of blood seeping through his clothes on his back, but ignored it. "And I don't think… Caelum…? I don't think he was injured either."
Felix nodded.
"Okay, thanks. Got it," he said, "Seems I have some light injuries, Auri looks alright… Let's see what Caelum thinks we should do."
"I think we should go down there, honestly," Aurelius said, "It looks like whatever caused all this is taking refuge underground. There's definitely some stuff hollowed out down there- that's why it keeps caving. But yeah, we should probably go get Caelum first."
Felix glanced at Azel and shrugged.
"Again, up to you if you want to come with us. That is, if we go any further."
Azel nodded a bit and kept following the group, his ears swiveling around to catch any sounds around them. "I'll stay with you for now. I haven't really got anything else to do anyway." He shrugged a bit.
Caelum had gotten Elio sitting up now. Elio's burns were still visible, but the wound on his leg had healed some from the potion. Regardless, he wouldn't be much help. He couldn't use his powers anymore without burning himself further, and he couldn't really walk much.
"Alright, fair enough," Felix said with a nod, "We appreciate the help."
He and Aurelius turned back to reconvene with the other two, who weren't that far off.
"Hey, took care of the nest. Looks like there's something underneath it though," Felix explained, "So, we're trying to determine whether we should check it out further or if we should get some more help."
Caelum nodded a bit, holding one hand on Elio's chest to keep him from getting up. "Alright. I'm willing to help scope things out. I can see really well in the dark, after all. Elio has to stay, though." Elio whined and groaned in protest, but Caelum shushed him. "He's injured and can't use his legs or his powers, so he'd be pretty useless anyway."
"Alright, sounds good," Felix agreed, "We should get going, then. And um… Azel, if you would like, you can stay and make sure Elio is alright. But that's up to you guys."
Meanwhile, Aurelius was paying no attention to the conversation going on behind him. He was turned, staring into the cloud of smoke rising from the sinkhole where the nest had been. His eyes darted back and forth as he tried to scope out what he could from so far away.
"I'll stay in case we get attacked. I should be able to handle a ghoul or two." Azel nodded a bit and stood beside Elio, tightly gripping the handle of the knife he'd borrowed. Caelum nodded in agreement and got to his feet so he could follow the other two over to the nest.
"Well, I'm ready to go whenever. I know I've got some more fight in me, and I'm not badly hurt yet, so I should be fine." Caelum glanced around warily.
"Same for us," Felix replied with a nod and a smile.
He was clearly bleeding still from a scratch down his arm, but he was pushing through like it was nothing. And comparatively, it really was. The bleeding was close to stopping anyway. It just looked a lot worse because even in situations like this, Felix often elected to wear white.
"Let's just hope there's nothing too crazy down there. We can always turn and run if things get rough, though."
Aurelius turned to look over his shoulder.
"What are you two waiting for, then? Let's keep going."
Felix's mouth turned downwards. Aurelius was getting too antsy for his comfort. He just hoped his friend wouldn't do anything rash.
"Alright, alright, relax. I'm coming." Caelum followed the two of them over to the nest, looking around at the destroyed ground. "I'm not sure it's safe to go into the tunnels when they're collapsing like this. What are we supposed to do if they fall on us while we're inside?" He asked, humming thoughtfully. "Would either of your powers be useful for getting us out of that kind of situation?"
"No, that's part of the problem," Felix sighed, "Aurelius can cut through rock to some extent, but it's a slow, draining process and would not protect us in the case of a full-on collapse. It's like… weathering, essentially. And me? All I know how to do is set things on fire, really. Powerful, sure, but limited."
Aurelius squirmed a bit.
"You're right, but-"
"But you're being an impulsive little shit."
"I'm worried that whatever- or probably whoever- is down there knows we're onto them, and we won't have time for reinforcements. And they're just going to escape and wreak havoc somewhere else."
"Okay… well, why don't we start by going down into the area that's already collapsed, and see if there's tunnels in the first place. Alternatively, I can send up a flare signal and hope someone takes the time to follow it," Felix suggested, "Then we just hope it's someone with a practical power to help us."
(Finished my art of Felix! :)))
(Super cute!)
"Well, I can do some with my power, but… if I got knocked unconscious or something, obviously I couldn't really do much." Caelum sighed and drew closer to the hole, slowly starting to climb down into it. "I guess we'll just have to try and be careful. I'm not sure if we've got some sort of signal for… you know… if we run into trouble or whatever. It would be kind of difficult considering our powers are all different."
"Well, yeah, but the last thing we want to do in this case is split up," Felix said, "So we definitely don't need separate signals. But I can just shoot up some fire into the sky and hope that we get the reinforcements that we need, and if they're smart, they'll find the path we cut through, run into Elio and Azel, and be able to come to us."
"Then do it. I don't think any harm could come of sending up a signal for help. And once you do, we can get going. Carefully," Aurelius replied.
Felix gave a nod. He snapped and a spark sat comfortably between his fingertips. He made a motion, as if he was throwing it into the sky, and it spread out into a signal, well above the treetops.
(Aaand I will use that to bring in another character. Haven't decided who yet tbh)
(Ooo)
"Alright. Let's get moving. Even though it'll expend some energy, I could have a sort of shadow shield above us just in case. It should keep us a little bit safer." Caelum said softly. It was almost like he was worried that the tunnels would collapse if he spoke too loudly, but he was just always a bit quiet. "It can't hurt to have the extra assurance, right? Other people could be trapped in here too. We don't know what we're going to find…"
(I'm tempted to have Ren trapped in the tunnels or something lol)
(I thought it would be interesting to have someone trapped in the tunnels/held hostage by the person??? Idk, maybe a weird sorcerer, science experiment thing going on, and they have the ghouls drag in subjects or something? But yeah, go for it!)
"True. But we should be able to notice any instability if it seems like it's going to cave, so you can save it," Felix replied, "Something tells me what we're looking for is in a pretty stable area, though. These tunnels look like they were overrun by the monsters."
Aurelius huddled close to Felix and the small glow coming from his palm, desperate to see down the tunnel.
"Well, we know something sentient caused all of this. What, with the magical plant growth and all. and it looks like these tunnels were crudely carved out with magic."
(That's interesting! That would probably work pretty well for your person aha. Ren is just real dumb and would've gotten himself stuck in the tunnels on accident most likely-)
"Right, yeah. I highly doubt that all of this was accidental." Caelum ran his fingers through his hair and tied it back into a small ponytail with a hair band, figuring he wouldn't want to have it be in the way. "I'm sure we'll find some strange things here." He carefully stepped into the tunnels and looked around, noticing that it was growing a bit colder as they continued. There were smaller tunnels on the sides of the main tunnel, and many of them had collapsed. The ice was concentrated around one of the collapsed tunnels, where Caelum could see an arm and part of someone's face through the wreckage. They were alive, but unconscious, and very much trapped.
(I was gonna have mine see the signal and follow. Figured out who I'm gonna use, I'll link her in a minute.)
Felix kept pushing forwards, occasionally glancing at one of the other two guys with him. He shuddered hard at the change in temperature, and likely felt the drop more strongly than anyone else. When he saw the ice, he walked quickly ahead of Aurelius, leaving him quite literally in the dark.
"I'm going to free them," Felix said, "I'll leave most of the ice intact so it doesn't mess with the tunnels any more, but I'll melt what's around them. Watch my back, if you would."
Felix held the flame away from the ice at first as he tried to determine the best and least invasive way to free the person frozen inside.
Aurelius nodded and stood facing the other branches of the tunnels. Not that he could see what was there.
(Cool cool cool)
"Alright… be careful. Whoever they are, they look… very young. I think they might be a kid." Caelum watched worriedly from a few feet away as Ren became more visible. He was stirring a little as more of his body was freed, starting to shiver from the cold despite being the one who had caused it. He coughed weakly, turning his ears back and struggling to wake up. Caelum was clearly antsy as he watched, not liking to see a kid in that condition at all. He could tell that Ren was injured from the blood that was becoming increasingly noticeable.
(Realized a bunch of her character sheet wasn't filled out, but I added a lot of the important stuff. For the purposes of this RP, she's got the ability to transmutate things around her into other substances and into objects, usually weapons when in combat. Septima Morning-glory)
"Hey, kid, everything's going to be fine," Felix soothed, holding Ren's body close to his own as he continued to melt the ice.
He shivered again. God, it was way too cold here for his liking, and cuddling a soaking wet kid was not helping his case.
"Hey, Aurelius. Dig through my toolbelt, I have some more fortifying potions. You know where they are."
Aurelius bent down next to Felix and Ren, and he went into one of the pouches, pulling out a vial of blue liquid. Upon Felix's command, he carefully tilted the kid's head so he could get some of the potion into their mouth.
Meanwhile, Septima was going for her daily walk before work when she saw the flare. Luckily, the path the others had cut through was right within her line of sight, and she was able to go through where they had been before. Septima pulled up on some of the dirt and rocks in the ground and fashioned herself a spear before charging forwards. Eventually, she ran into Elio and Azel.
"Did you send that flare?" she asked, her eyes darting back and forth, "I'm here to help."