Soul Academy RP

Rei nodded. "Ok." She led Lily to the checkout and bought the item. Smiling, Rei hugged Lily. "Let's go find Jason."

I walked out of the shop with Rei, and spotted Jason talking with someone I didn't recognise,
"Over there," I said, nodding in his direction.

Past Izumi, I saw Rei and Lily walking out of the store and heading for us. "Oh, there's my friends now. I should probably get going, but it was nice talking with you Izumi."

"Same to you Jason, I'll see you around!" She answered, waving as she disappeared into the crowd of people.

I walked over to Jason as the girl disappeared into the crowd,
"Friend of yours?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"Uh..." I said, as I felt a small blush creep to my cheeks. "Not really, just a stranger.......but hey, maybe we'll meet again. You two shop okay?" I asked.

I held the bag up to Jason,
"Yes, Rei wouldn't have left otherwise,"

I eyed Rei with a look of disbelief. "Seriously? How.....how do you expect us to even carry all that stuff, considering.....well, you know." Shaking my head, I just turned to walk for the north gates and hoped they followed. "I mean we've still got a lot of walking to do, think your arms are up for it?" I made sure to avoid talking about my meeting earlier.

"It's a single bikini Jason...its not like I bought half the store." Rei retorted.

Well if I was starting to blush before, then I was certainly blushing now to the point my face heated up. "Okay......not sure I needed to know that bit Rei."

"You're blushing," I pointed out to Jason, "I should be fine carrying this, and I'll find somewhere to leave it before we arrive,"

I tried to hide my face, albeit unsuccessfully. "Yeah well.....not sure I needed to know you bought a bikini. I've seen how small those things can get courtesy of those advertisements."

"Do you think I'd let Rei convince me to wear one of those?" I asked, "We should hurry to the gate,"

Nodding, I led them over in the direction of the gate.....then I realized we were one short. "Hey, where did Adhiri go? Think she got lost?"

I shrugged as I walked alongside Rei and Jason,
"It's not our problem, she'll be able to get back to the academy later,"

"Seems a bit cold," I said. Granted I didn't want her coming to begin with, but still. "What if she rats us out in retaliation? Hate to use the term around you two, but they hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

"She'd have a harder a time proving it," I said with a wry smirk, "Rei and I went shopping," I finished, shaking the bag I was carrying as I said it.

"True.....and I did handle my own stuff," I said, still leaving out the encounter with the gang. Ashiri would no doubt be pissed but.....she did walk away from the group. Once that happened, it was guaranteed that she'd be lost. So as we continued walking, I pushed her to the side of my thoughts, and the north gate came into view. "Well, that's where we need to go. Any last minute stops?"

I scanned the area around the gate, and behind us. Seeing no one, I whispered my answer,
"No, we need to hurry," I pushed the gate as soon as we reached it, finding it chained, but there was a small gap.  "Can you fit?" I asked, being the smallest, it didn't matter if I could get through if they couldn't.

"Yeah, I'm good at squeezing through tight spots," I said, crouching low and going first through the gate.

=Ashlands=
Nick was running through the broken buildings. From the Demon whose sleep he had accidentally disturbed, by falling on it. The ground he had been walking on, by the demon lair, had given way, and in the mini-landslide, he landed on the beast.

He ran through the old homes and collapsed shops, until he reached a point where he thought he could get the upper hand. Peering over his should, he made his judgement, and took to the second story ledge. Avoiding, by a hair, the demons' claws. Running from rooftop to tree branch rooftop is no easy feat, and no doubt slowed him down, but it kept him out of the demons' reach. At least until he saw an opening, which he leapt upon with great energy, in the demons' defenses.

With his pugionis in hand, he sliced at the creature with dual intensity, hoping to leave a mark, a sign that he had hit the creature. Though painful, as Nick looked back, the wounds looked no better than paper cuts on the beast, and only seemed to irritate the creature so. He took to running again, There was no way he could take on the creature head on.

Seeking to lose the demon in the wasteland, Nick ran in an elaborate, at least in his eyes, pattern in the abandoned streets. After much running, and hiding, he eventually fell into a buried building. He was running along what he thought was an ancient sidewalk, but the ground gave way beneath his feet and he fell ten feet into darkness.

"Well, that was a bust." He joked to himself. "I suppose next time I should just dig holes around the creature, and fall into one of those instead."

Rei slipped through after them. "I wouldn't try to make Lily wear a tiny bikini. I'm not into death. I'm totallly ok with p-" rei shut up and followed silently.

might as well just try and find the thing on my own since they're not coming

=heads north to the city edge=

As I waited for them on the otherside, I took a brief look around. It was quiet where we were, and I was surprised we weren't seen.

I slipped through the gap after Jason, now that we were on the other side, I suddenly felt nervous,
"Hurry up, Rei,"

Rei was literally two feet behind her.
"Um. I'm right here."

I started walking away from the wall, at some pace, headed further north. As the ground slowly turned from grass, to dirt, to ash, I turned to the others,
"We shouldn't be far now,"

"Wait, the demon was right outside Pendragon?" I asked as I followed, somewhat surprised.

"It is, but 'right outside' can mean different things," I said, looking over my shoulder at Jason, "Compared to Pendragon itself, it's really not that far,"

"Oh," I said. "Hey, when am I going to learn how to fight? Thought that was something we agreed on?"

"Whenever you want to," I said, still walking, "But after we're either back at the Academy or out of sight of the wall,"

"Well.....doubt I'll learn fast enough now before we face this thing. So guess when we get back to the Academy."

I nodded, we were getting quite far away from the wall now, thanks to the pace I'd set. Around us were signs of buildings destroyed in the war, broken and hollow. I felt a shiver run down my spine as we passed through them,
"Imagine what it must have been like during the war," I said, stopping and running my hand along the half destroyed wall of a building.

==Academy Dorm==

=AJ could feel the wetness of the paint on his face as he opened up his dorm window, allowing a light breeze to roll in. Moving over to his desk, he draped a large cloth over the surface, black with pink embroidery around the edges, and placed a wooden bowl in the center. From this bowl he retrieved a pinch of powder, a sparkling substance which was mostly white, but glittered with every color the rainbow could conjure, and he proceeded to rub this dust between his hands before putting them together in a prayer. Silently he stood for a few minutes, head bowed and eyes closed, mouthing some incomprehensible words. When his recitation had completed, he parted his hands and with his right, made a sign: thumb, index, and middle fingers extended, ring and pinky folded down. With this, he gestured to his forehead, then forward, and finally upwards, his lips forming three final voiceless words before he opened his eyes again. Turning back towards his bed, he reached for a glass bottle which contained a clear fluid, which he raised to his mouth to uncork with his teeth before taking a swig of it, the bubbling liquid burning somewhat as it went down. Quickly he re-corked the bottle, placing it onto the floor as he began to clean up, moving the bowl to the bed and carefully folding the dark cloth into a neat little triangle before placing all three items back onto the desk next to each other=

Wicked shit.

=With that, he grabs Miracle from its resting position against the wall and clips it into its holder on his back before heading out the door...=

Stopping to look at the building, I couldn't help but give the question some thought. "It must have been hell back then. But I think.....I think we should keep moving Lily."

=eventually makes it to the gate and see's the small gap and sighs=

well guess there's no other way

=goes through the gap but receives a small cut on her cheek causing her to swear briefly=

great now i just gotta find the dam demon

I turned away from the wall and back to Jason and Rei,
"You're right, we need to hurry up," I started walking again, still staring at the buildings we passed. "It must've been unbearable. Imagin-" I was cut off by several falling bricks and dust, which missed me by a few inches

I looked up in a panic, expecting to see some kind of threat up where the bricks and dust had fallen. But there was nothing there. "Wow, talk about close calls," I said.

I'd thrown my arms over my head when the bricks had fallen, I slowly lowered them, shaking slightly from the sudden rush of adrenaline. I nodded to Jason,
"We should be careful near these buildings," I said, moving away from it, "I think the demon should be somewhere around here," I walked forwards again, and paused, there was something wrong with what I was seeing. There was a building, a storey taller than the ones around it, with the top portion of the wall and the roof missing, and a lot of smaller buildings around. "I think this is a residential area," I said, "See? Those are hous-"

I was cut off again by a huge cloud of dust and debris, turning me completely blind and deaf.

Whatever the hell it was, it had me flinging one arm up over my face and the other reaching for my soul. I couldn't see or hear a thing, but that didn't stop me from shouting....and getting a mouth full of dust. "What the--" I coughed. "What's going on?"

Coughing, I tried to see through the dust. There was a shape, bigger than a man, but still vaguely human. It took me a moment to realise and reach for my soul, I'd already dropped my bag in the dust. I tried to shout to the other two, but I couldn't find my voice. I pulled my soul from the saya shakily, and raised it, slipping into a fighting stance.

Still uncertain over what was going on, I managed to get my soul out, but I didn't know any decent ready stances. All I could do was hold still, and keep my soul in front of me.

Rei had taken the initiative. As the dust fell she reached out with True Aura - the huge blot of nothigness was her target.
With her Soul out, she slid in front of Lily and Jason, she blocked a swipe. Using her aura to choreograph her dance of defense, she was steadily pushed back.
"HEY! RECOVER ALREADY! I'M BARELY ABLE TO BLOCK WITH MY SOUL ABILITY!" she shouted.

=heard a fain sound in the distance that sounded like something crashed so she sped up her pace and took off in sprint in the direction of the sound=

does not sound good

When the dust cleared I ran to Rei's side, slashing my soul at the demon. It blocked it with its wrist, barely leaving a scratch. Its claws came down next, barely missing my face, but leaving a jagged line in my shoulder.
I screamed a little in pain, it burned more than anything I'd ever felt, even Rei's soul.

With Rei too close to claw, the demon used its elbow to strike her in the stomach.

I heard Lily scream in pain, and when the dust settled......I saw the demon. It was tall, taller than I ever expected, it's arms and torso rippling with muscle, skin a shade of grey I'd seen for the dust and ash around fire-pits. Its mouth was open, showing blackened teeth, some of them even missing, as it snarled at the three of us, crimson colored eyes almost gleaming as they focused on us. And I felt myself become very afraid. Holy shit, what the hell are we doing here? This thing.....it's going to kill us. Kill us and no one will even know about it. So paralyzed by fear was I, that I couldn't even move until I remembered the sound of Lily screaming, her pain. My friends pain......and suddenly I felt the same stirring inside me that led up to when I first used fire. It burned away the fear inside me, bubbling up from a place that must have been linked to my soul, for the blade was soon covered in red flames, radiating heat of such intensity. And then I swung upwards, the fire-blade hitting the arm of the demon used to elbow Rei, hitting the space above the elbow. I wasn't sure if the blade even cut or not, but I did know the flames seemed to spread, as if oil had been drawn along the line of where I cut and set on fire by my sword. Was it enough?

Hit in the stomach, Rei was thrown back. She struck a tree and slid down, still. Her soul still in her hand, Rei was a bit winded. She winced.
"Ow..." She swore one of her ribs was cracked, maybe even broken.

The fire only seemed to make the demon angrier, and it turned its attention to Jason, swinging its claws at his stomach. I pulled my hand away from my injured arm, it wasn't bleeding too badly, and the pain was duller. I took a deep breath and swung at the demons back with my soul. It cut it, but not deep enough to even make it flinch, although its claws did miss Jason. I was thrown onto my back again, this time unable to get up.

The claws missed me by a hairsbreadth, and I felt a chill creeping up from within. I'd need to wait a bit before using the fire again, so this time.......I decided to do something stupid. I ducked under the arm that took a swipe for me, getting inside the Demon's space. His legs were before me, but I figured the knees and thighs would be too well protected, so I aimed for somewhere a little bit......higher. Thrusting my sword up, the tip went up and into where on a regular man, his danglies would be. I prayed that if the demon had any, that they were hanging out and vulnerable.

The tip of Jason's sword barely managed to draw blood before the demon caught him with a backhand swipe, sending him falling away from it, but the tip of his sword was still inside the demon, and was ripped out, making the small stab wound much bigger. The demon roared, and it made my eardrums shake. I was filled with dread at the noise, part of me realised I was probably going to die, while the other part realised I'd dragged Jason and Rei down with me.

Well, that was something. Getting backhanded by a demon hurt like hell, and it knocked the air out of me. My chest hurt, possibly because he either broke or cracked something. But as much as I wanted to curl up and hide......my flight or fight instinct began to kick in, and I'll let you guess which one 'F' I picked. Getting to my feet and ignoring the pain, adrenaline pumping through my system, I just screamed at the demon, not caring what it could do to me, and ran at it. He snarled, and tried hitting me again, but this time I ducked under the swing and rolled onto the ground. Ending up on my back, I had a clear view of the spot where I stabbed the demon, and saw that there was a hole from my attack. So I took my soul, and aimed the blade straight up and reached for the same fire inside, not caring how cold I was about to get. "Fire in the hole," I whispered, and let fly a stream of fire straight up at the demon's nether region, the flames impacting the hole I carved.