Guild Wars III Roleplay (Rated T)

[Speck]

The Goose Juggler hovered over Haggoth's battered ship, its hatches opening on both sides. The mish-mash of crew members helped toss what were essentially rope ladders out of each open hatch. Speck descended one of them so she was just a few feet above Huntress' head.

"Hey there, cap'm," She almost had to shout above the loud hum of the Goose Juggler's anti-gravity boosters, "Need a lift?"

[Celestial]

((Mage Manor))

You're not doing anything, are you?

Celestial hissed primitively and not just because she disliked the Underdeep being right.

What do you want from me now?

Eliminate this place. Let the ooze swallow it.

No! Celestial screamed in her mind at it. The Manor was the last stronghold left on the planet. If it went down, the whole ofthe NTWF would fall very quickly.

You don't understand. Like most, I'm not asking

The dragon mage's hands rose as her eyes became fully static. She grinned maniacally and put her hands on the Manor's walls. Her feet connected with the Underdeep beneath her as she sucked power from it, combining it with her fire magic. Together, they assaulted the magical barriers around the Manor. It seemed to shout and push against her but she just pushed harder, stripping away all the magic with waves of Underdeep. But it would not budge.

Suddenly, she felt cold inside. The Underdeep had reached beyond her mind and into her soul, both human and dragon. The Underdeep plucked away at it, throwing bits into the waves of magic that she was casting. But she could do nothing but just let it happen. The Underdeep had total control of her now.

I don't want to die! she tried to cry out. The Manor's defences though were crumbling. Thanks to her souls' power it was wearing away. Finally, the barriers collapsed. Ooze surged into the Manor.

Celestial fell back, drained of her life energy. The ooze closed in around, creating a makeshift tomb.

Well, at least I won't have to bother with you anymore. You were a useless messenger.

The Underdeep flowed out of her dead body and into the ooze, coming into the Manor like a conqueror and discarding its dead host.

((I was going to make a Bokurano references but we already had one of those.

And this is all for me too. Sorry everyone, you'll have to go on without me and my snarky narration and Fourth Wall breakage but I'm sure everyone can tolerate that. Have fun with the rest of your End of the World^TM.

Byebye! ^_^))

[Ikkin]

"I've already been to my grave, darling," the Commander continued, apparently unaffected by Ikkin's last attack, "And look at what it did to me. You have no idea what I am capable of now... but allow me to put in perspective for you."

Ikkin wasn't impressed by this at all. Claiming to have returned from the grave... how original.

She did note that he'd used some kind of ability to hide the location of his voice. Oh, that was annoying.

"In less than a day, I have single-handedly conquered Tabloid Town and transformed the entire continent into my own personal playground. My power is so great that within minutes, I completely annihilated that group of worthless thugs you call pirates without breaking a sweat. Even the Commander of Spacefleet himself, who was also inside the ship, was not quick enough to stop me. And you still think that you can stand against me? Alone?"

More boasting... how terrifying. If Ikkin had any way of telling where he was, she wouldn't have let him monologue on like that. As it was, she was busy trying to figure out another way to find where he was.

She was quickly snapped out of this by his next statement, though. "You should have seen the look on that pirate captain's face...," he said, "and the way she screamed and dropped to her knees when I snapped the soft little neck of that red-caped mook. I personally brought her worst nightmare to life, right in front of her eyes, before I finally gutted her from the inside out like the animal she truly was..."

If she had any way of attacking her opponent, nothing would have stopped her from tearing him limb from limb before he even said he'd killed Rider. But, she couldn't, and it frustrated her to no end.

But then again, that gave her the time to realize exactly why what he was saying was utterly impossible. Once she realized it, she felt a bizarre urge to shout out, "Objection!" and point a finger at him, but held back, because that'd just be silly, and she'd much rather kill him quickly, anyway.

It was actually kind of funny, she thought - the Underdeep was the last thing she'd expect to be too creative. But, its messenger's need to be "impressive" about the way it killed her friends betrayed it. They were still alive when he left the ship, after all, and whatever he did to her senses happened after that.

But, he had still threatened her friends, and tried to manipulate her using them. That was unforgivable. And she was starting to get really sick of the mist clouding in on her vision.

"Oh, shut up already," she snarled, winds starting to grow more and more fierce around her as she spoke, until there was a veritable tornado surrounding her. "If you think I'd fall for your lies, you've got something else coming. Now stop being a coward, and fight me already!"


***

Sev should have known that his trick was a bit too obvious. Fortunately, his duplicate's counterattack was no less predictable, appearing behind him just as he had done just moments ago.

He turned just in time to lock the dark fire into a beam battle again, which wasn't quite enough to stop the duplicate from continuing a lunge towards him, shrieking horribly.

Well, if his copy wanted to turn it into a melee battle, he could deal with that. As soon as the copy was too close to change his method of attack, he turned his beak straight down and used his fire to help him fly almost straight upwards, avoiding the copy's own fire by a feather's width. If he'd timed it right, the copy's dive would take it straight into his flame blast before it could change its course.

[Kiddo]

<Tower, hanging with Draco>

"Wait, what?"

Kiddo just stared at Draco for a moment and then brought her sword up before her, straight vertical pointed to the sky.

"Then good work on infiltrating this place. If the Spacefleet is destroying our world, then we need to destroy them. Starting with this... Strife person. I assume you've scouted out as much as possible before the Underdeep was unleashed? Lead on. Two ninjas should be able to take out a single man."

She spun to face the newcomers, her sword still up. She smiled softly when she saw that they too were ninjas.

"Even more. Excellent. I was just talking with, uh... I can't remember his name, I'm sorry. Talking about taking out Strife. And then we'll deal with Spacefleet. I do not remember them, but I cannot bring it in myself to trust anyone who has unchecked power of the skies. And if they have the power to destroy this world... then it must be taken away. No guild should be unchecked by the others. And if the current leader of the ninjas won't bring them to heel... then I'll deal with that later."

[Huntress]

((Tabloid Town, probably somewhere in Beaver Hills))

"What's the new plan?"

Hunty leaned her back against the doorjamb, or its spaceship equivalent. "The new plan... the new plan is to go get backup from the mages."

"I swear, you just keep hiding behind backs today," Bloody Mary said grimly.

"What do you suggest?"

"We still have a ship," said the meepit. "One that can fly. And she's full of magic. She's been able to withstand the Underdeep, after all."

Hunty gave him a disbelieving stare. "I'm not going to put the Weewoo in the line of fire again!"

"Oh, sure, life would be real nice if we'd never have to stand in the line of fire," Bloody Mary said flatly. "We're just about the only people still left, girl."

Their about-to-be-a-bitter-argument was interrupted when Speck arrived, or rather dropped on them from the spaceship hovering above. "Need a lift?" she shouted.

Hunty looked back at her and a new expression slowly slid across her face. She looked around again, at the patch of free ground, and her eyes flashed.

"Zagora," she called out. "What would technically happen if Strife was to enter the area that your amulet affects?"

The witch gave it a moment's thought. "Zere's no telling. Ze Underdeep might get forced out of him, leaving him mortal once more. Or he might be immune already. Or it might kill him. I honestly can't tell, zere's no precedent for it."

"Works for me." Hunty got up. "Let's go, guys. We're going for a rematch. And you're coming along."

"Zhree hundred zhousand zhinees for ze amulet's services," Zagora said coolly.

The captain had already disappeared into the depths of the spaceship. "Three hundred shinies because it'll only be one use," she shouted from the inside.

"One hundred zhousand zhinees, zhen," the witch replied.

Hunty reappeared. The four-foot crossbow was now resting on her arm, as much as actually fit there, and the spike-studded bow along with a fresh bolt was pointed at Zagora.

"One bolt," she said.

"Zis is very stupid ov you," Zagora said with a sigh.

"I know, but I'm not the one in front of the pointies. Get on that ship."

Hunty herself was the last to climb up the rope ladder. She heaved herself aboard the Goose Juggler, nodded curtly at everyone present and took a seat.

"To the city hall, then, if you please," she said. "Time for a last stand."

[Draco]

<<THE STRIFE DOME!Floating Manor of Death>>

Draco smiles as he begins to follow Kiddo, resisting a urge to stab her while her back is turned. The smile fades a little when Gil and the NNPC come into the room.

The NNPC bows lightly to Kiddo, then stares at Draco. Gil on the other hand looks around, "Did she consider me a ninja? It is true that we must stop this Strife person, but we came to ask Draco some questions first. We believe he may be possessed, and want to make sure he is not." He turns his head to the NNPC, "How are you going to check?"

The NNPC shrugs and begins to walk slowly over to Draco, who is takes a step backwards.

"N.. Now's not the time for this. We have to deal with Strife."

The NNPC continues to walk, "Isn't it odd. All over the building are little creatures. All except for this room."

"Maybe they don't like this room? For all you know I set up wards against them."

The NNPC stops a arms length away from Draco. "We do not have any real way of telling if you are possessed or not. We can not harm you right now, because if you are not possessed we would weaken our forces. There are a number of things that are odd. First is the speed you returned from Tabloid Town after fighting Strife."

"I said I hijacked a fleet shuttle and crash landed near the Manor."

"Yes, and killed everyone on board, and returned to us pretty much untouched."

"I tucked and rolled."

"Than there was the talk at the Manor about every reason there can be that the Fleet are our enemies, and your well timed guesses."

"I'm lucky." Draco's eye begins to twitch under his glasses.

"The last thing, is the fact you are still wearing sunglasses. You rarely wear them sir. And now it's dark enough in this building to not be able to see."

Draco smiles and turns around, he takes a couple steps away from the NNPC, and begins to laugh softly, then more loudly.

"Kukukukuku. Kukukuku!"

He begins to turn around. "You're right! I am messenger of the Underdeep! And what can you do? Kill me right here? Kuku. No mere messenger, but a messenger of a man who will rule this world! He will be the law of the new world. He is justice. And I work for him. We are the only hope for mankind. This world is rotten, and it must be cleansed!" He stands staring at the group, and takes off his glasses. His cold static gray eyes stare at the group.

The NNPC stares at him, eyes unmoving. "You are nothing but murderers. Nothing more, and nothing less."

"Heh... Useless fools, as if they could ever understand." He turns away from the group again, unsheathing his sword. He turns around, his coat flapping around from the force and brings his sword down on the NNPC. Before his blade can reach the NNPC, a small knife zips by and sticks itself in his hand. Forcing him to drop his sword. He looks around to see Gil holding onto two more knives. "Gil! You idiot! Who do you think you're attacking! Don't mess with me!"

Gil stands ready to throw more knives. "I may not be a ninja, but I can throw a knife as good as one. Sorry miss, but our friend here is possessed."

Draco takes a couple of steps away from the group, snatching up his sword with his good hand. The knife in his hit hand slowly begins to be pushed out and heal.

[Strife]

((The Skies))

Ikkin suddenly interrupted Strife's monologue, as it seemed that she would take no more of his insults.

"Oh, shut up already," she snarled, creating a cyclone of wind around her body that grew more intense with each word. "If you think I'd fall for your lies, you've got something else coming. Now stop being a coward, and fight me already!"

Control yourself, the Underdeep ordered to Strife inside his mind. Do not attack.

Strife refused to listen. He was tired of this woman bending his words. She was making him feel imperfect, as though he still had the same weaknesses that he did when he was human. Well, he could take no more of that.

Strife rocketed towards his foe while still keeping the mist's restrictive force on her. His thick, Underdeep-enchanted armor allowed him to punch right through the tornado she had summoned around her body.

Then, all of a sudden, the metal maniac came up from behind her and wrapped his arm around her neck, channeling the energy of the Underdeep into her body in order to temporarily stun her. Afterwards, the mist surrounding her completely vanished, allowing her to sense his presence.

He lowered his voice to a whisper, pouring his words into the kitsune's ear as he slowly squeezed the oxygen out of her body. His heavy breath snaked around the side of her face as he spoke.

"I can smell that little pinch of fear in the back of your mind. It leaks unspoken questions into your consciousness. What if I am right, in some twisted way? What if my words had the power to bend your reality, taking your deepest and most subtle terrors and using them to transform the world around you? What if, by the very thought of losing the ones you love, I could reshape the world for the sole purpose of bringing your fear to life?"

Strife let his sword levitate behind him and brought up his other hand. As he continued to strangle her, he slid his finger up the side of her face, starting from the bottom of her neck and working his way up her cheek. When he reached the top of her forehead, he suddenly and violently pressed the entire palm of his hand into her head.

"I can crush your skull like a melon," he shouted with grit teeth. "Don't think for one second that you have any sort of power over me. I. Will. CONSUME. YOU."

From there, he continued squeezing as hard as he could. His opponent would suffocate in less than a minute, assuming she had the same sized lungs as a normal person.

[Kiddo]

"Oh," Kiddo said softly, "I see. Well, to preserve our ninja honor I am sorry, but you force my hand. Hopefully I'll only beat the living daylights out of you, but I do aim to kill. It's a matter of honor, you see."

And Kiddo ran at Draco, sword held ready. As soon as he was in range, her shoulders twitched, wrist snapping the blade at an angle towards the neck. It could be easily blocked, of course. It was the first move in swordplay anyone learned in the Dojo. But there were the follow-ups. The second blow to the leg. The feint to the head, then draw back and thrust straight for the stomach. So very many combinations... just from one starting blow.

[Ikkin]

Ikkin knew she was vulnerable as long as her senses were still on the fritz, but she had been almost positive that the high-speed winds swirling around her would have given her some degree of protection.

She definitely didn't expect to find herself captured with no warning whatsoever. Her hands flew up to her neck, almost out of her control, grasping at the strong fingers pressing into it, and attempted to use the point on the end of her handguard to stab her assailant's hand.

Before she could bring the point down, she felt something cold drain into her where he held her, a paralyzing fear that overwhelmed her, leaving her completely helpless. A vision of the Commander gleefully snapping Rider's neck and tossing her body aside like a ragdoll took over her vision, and involuntary shivers traveled through her - she couldn't tell whether it was a result of the Underdeep he'd injected into her, her own fear, or both at the same time.

She could do nothing but listen as he pressed his face close to hers and spoke into her ear, feeling the sickening warmth of his breath. "I can smell that little pinch of fear in the back of your mind," he said, and she knew he was right - she wasn't just afraid. She was going to die. It leaks unspoken questions into your consciousness. What if I am right, in some twisted way? What if my words had the power to bend your reality, taking your deepest and most subtle terrors and using them to transform the world around you? What if, by the very thought of losing the ones you love, I could reshape the world for the sole purpose of bringing your fear to life?"

At the mention of her friends, Ikkin's righteous anger started to flare up once again, a small flame at first that continued to grow as he spoke. How dare he do this to her, and to the ones she cared about? She tried to snarl out something about how she would never let him do that, but his hand was still around her neck, and nothing came out but strangled gasps.

He let his sword float up behind him and brought up his other hand, placing a single finger on the side of her neck, pressing softly as he drew it upwards and brushed it against her cheek. She shivered involuntarily again, feeling her complete powerlessness, and attempted to bring his sword far enough over to slice his hand, but found herself once again unable to move an inch. His hand continued moving over her face, the single gentle finger changing to an open palm as his fingertip reached the side of her nose. As his fingertips reached her forehead, he pressed down on her face so hard that she thought her nose would be broken, and his palm completely covered both her nose and mouth so she couldn't breathe.

"I can crush your skull like a melon," he shouted with grit teeth. "Don't think for one second that you have any sort of power over me. I. Will. CONSUME. YOU."

Ikkin still felt weak, and her head was starting to spin from the lack of oxygen, but the fire was starting to grow within her, and she was not going to let him win. She started trying to move her tail first, hoping he wouldn't notice as she fought off his control. It wouldn't move at first, but just as she felt like her lungs were going to burst, it started to move a teeny bit under her own control. And then, all of a sudden, the force holding it back snapped, and she had full control over her whole body once more.

Wasting no time, she bit down on the hand covering her face, hard. She stabbed the point of her handguard into his other hand, pulled it off with her own left hand, then let go of her wind magic for a moment so he couldn't just grab right back onto her, holding her sword between herself and him. She used her tail to turn around in midair just as she caught herself with her wind, and pressed the point of her sword forward and inwards in an arc, aiming towards the least armored part of her opponent's armor - which just happened to be right where his legs came together. She didn't pay much attention to how much the tip of her blade sunk in, because she continued the sword's arc until the tip was past him, brought it to the side, rotated it up, and swung downwards again in one swift movement, aiming for his head. Expecting him not to stay in place, she extended the arc of her sword by several feet with a sharp wind.

[Gelquie]

((In the Phantom Merc II on the Floating Tower of Strife and terror.))

Gelquie's heart sank as she watched the spider-things get all the more closer to her. She wanted to think more about how to escape the things, but that was delayed when the monsters passed through the fire illusion without any hesitation.

"They aren't even afraid of it!" Gelquie thought in panic. She brought the falcon over to her to pace in front of the entrance to the ship before she let the fire disappear; if it wasn't doing anything, no use in keeping it. Of course, she didn't think they were being fooled by the falcon either. There was some avoidance of the falcon illusion, which served her somewhat, but she knew that they would eventually breach the ship at this rate. She had to choose; death by crashing a ship, or death by being mauled by spiders...

Gelquie sighed and looked for a way to close the entrance. When she couldn't find one, she went to the side and pretended to close them as she created the illusion of a door. Very much hoping that the illusion would work, she ran to the cockpit and sat down on the pilot's seat, where she proceeded to stare blankly at the controls, and what seemed to be the steam guage... maybe?

"Um..." Gelquie trailed off. Why were there so many buttons? Why couldn't there just be an on/off switch and then direction buttons? But no, it just had to have so many unnecessary buttons. She was just having second thoughts when she looked up through the window and saw the horde of monsters surrounding the ship. Then she screamed and started button-mashing the controls.

By some miracle, the Phantom Merc II roared to life. Before anyone could understand what was happening, the vehicle jerked forward and the front two wheels came slightly off the ground. Gelquie let out a small smile as some of the monsters were flattened by being in front of the Merc, but that smile disappeared when she saw that it was rapidly accelerating towards the edge of the floating island. She gasped, grabbed what she assumed was the controls, and tried to veer the thing towards any direction, away from the edge. The Merc did indeed veer away, as well as slightly rise into the air. But Gelquie made the mistake of turning the thing to the right and directly towards another ledge. She turned again, but she only made it 45 degrees before half of the ship began to teeter over the edge. Now Gelquie's eyes went wide, and she felt herself starting to lose control over her falcon illusion, and the illusion's flight consequently became more erratic.

"Come on! Fly, fly, FLY! How the heck do you fly?!" Gelquie looked around frantically, pressing many more buttons when she found the steam gauge, which seemed to look normal. Finding a button below it, she braced herself and pressed it along with many other buttons as the Merc began to fall over the ledge.

Much to her surprise and relief, the ship only fell for a short time before the Merc's engines roared and regained flight, and the steam gauge began to rise rapidly. But Gelquie wasn't paying attention to it anymore. Letting her door illusion disappear, since it was no longer of use, she was now desperately trying to direct the merc, wanting to bring the ship up, but not yet figuring out how. She managed to bring it up the ledge she fell off of by pure luck, but now seemed to be going in random directions. It went forward, backward, all sorts of directions, then started spinning around. Gelquie eventually realized that she was heading directly towards the manor wall, too fast to veer away.

"No no no no no no no no..." she turned as hard as she could, only managing to slow the spinning. Then she heard something that made her heart sank... a popping and crackling sound. She'd been paying no attention to the steam gauge. It was now overheating, not that she knew that. Gelquie saw that she was getting closer and closer to the tower, but also saw that there was a chance she could slide down the side of the building... on top of the spiders, of all things. She took a deep breath and veered it downwards...

CRASH!

The top of the Merc collided with the side of the high part of the wall, causing the top part to start to collapse, almost hitting Gelquie. She was knocked out of her chair as the Merc finally reached the ground, breaking off the end of the wing as the vehicle ended up lopsided on the ground. Gelquie closed her eyes as everything came to a halt, not wanting to move just yet.

[Strife]

Without any warning whatsoever, Strife's prey had broken free from her paralysis. Within a fraction of a second, Ikkin bit down on the hand covering her face, stabbed and pulled the other hand away, and turned around swiftly using a sudden force of wind. Giving Strife no time to react, she then proceeded to attack him with a two-swing combo.

Ikkin's first stab managed to pierce through the weaker armor between Strife's legs - a maneuver that would have caused any living man, mortal or otherwise, indescribable pain. Luckily for him, his body was no longer in a condition to feel any pain whatsoever.

At this point, Strife snapped himself out of the shock of his opponent's surge of adrenaline, and before Ikkin's second swing made contact with his head, he rocketed backwards and upwards at the same time in an arc. There was a brief spark as his opponent's blade scraped the surface of his chest plating.

At the peak of his arc, Strife willed his sword, which was directly underneath him, to attack Ikkin. It complied immediately, lunging at her like a giant arrow of steel. It soared towards her at an incredible speed.

When the handle of the sword passed below him, Strife flipped around and grabbed onto it with both hands while straightening his body out. He then kicked his jet boots into overdrive, adding even more speed and force to the attack. His body spun wildly like a human drill.

With any luck, the massive five-foot blade would drive itself through her chest before she had a chance to recover her air supply from the strangle hold.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Strife's Tower
When Lupehunter heard the Brassport person clearly accuse Draco of being a Underdeep messenger and Draco finally revealing his true nature, he knew he had to act. He began running various scenarios in his mind until he came up with the best one.

He transformed into his human form and withdrew both of his daggers. Then he threw them up into the air, one at a time. One of them struck Draco in the shoulder, the other missing him completely.

As soon as he was finished making his move, Lupehunter move a couple of steps to one side as he summoned two more daggers, using the shadows as his cover. As far as he was concerned, he had the element of surprise for the time being.

[Ikkin]

As Ikkin's sword clanged against Strife's chest, she allowed herself a bit of surprise at Strife's complete lack of reaction to getting stabbed. But she certainly wasn't going to let the fact that he was apparently some kind of talking Underdeep zombie with no ability fo feel pain make her lose her concentration.

She stayed in place for as long as she could while his sword flew towards her, trying not to show where she'd move until it was too late for him to change its path. Right as he grabbed onto the sword, adding even more force into the strike, Ikkin moved diagonally - just enough to put her out of the reach of the sword. She struck downwards at the blade to knock it out of line even further, then immediately twisted the blade into a horizontal strike, slashing out towards his head as he passed.

[Draco]

<<Everybody was Ninja Fighting in Strife's Mansion!>>

Draco takes a small step back, and presses a hand down on his sword sheath. The sheath flips around in his belt, barely managing to stop the incoming sword with the end. Using the force of the attack to his advantage he dives in the direction it began to push him. He quickly switches the sword back into his good hand.

"Tsk tsk. You can knock as much sense into me as you wish. It's not my body to worry about. You see, the real Draco, is still in here. Tucked away in a darkened room. Watching everything that happens, but unable to do a thing about it, much like I was for years. Now the rolls have turned and I get to play."

Several more knives and a kunai fly in Draco's direction, which are deflected with his sword.

"And will you two give it a rest? Some steam tech person from another world and a nameless ninja trainee who is meant to be a red shirt of our guild? Do you really think you can live!"

He grabs a kunai from a pocket and throws it at the NNPC, stabbing him in the chest.

The NNPC, places a hand on the kunai and pulls it out.

"Nameless? My name is Toshiro Okita. I do not attend to die here."

Draco's eyes grow wide for a few seconds.

"Great, he has a name. Now he can't die for a random reason!"

Toshiro throws the bloody kunai back at Draco, hitting him in his left arm. A dagger soon follows from the air, hitting him in the same shoulder.

"Come on! What's with all the knife throwing?! And who's throwing daggers?"

[Gelquie]

((Strife's Manor, hoping Gil won't be too mad.))

Gelquie could only groan; the pain she was feeling temporarily dulled her senses to anything else but pain. In addition to a worrying pain in her back, neck, and arm, her headache had gotten much worse. She was starting to hear and see things... See and hear familiar things, places, and voices, good and bad... with the good being gone...

Gelquie shut her eyes tightly. "Don't think about the pain!" she reminded herself. Then she concentrated. She had thinking about different things. She had to think about now... Now...

Her neck, back, and arm pain didn't go away, but her headache lessened, and she opened her eyes back to where she was... Back in the ship she had just crashed. She was splayed along the side of the ship, which was closer to the ground than the actual floor now. Everything was dark, and the ship only seemed to be sputtering with life. Gelquie took a deep breath and sat up before wincing, rubbing her back and neck with her right hand. She then looked back at it.

"No blood... and it doesn't feel broken..." Gelquie sighed in relief. Sprains and sores in those areas were easy to manage, even if it was annoying. She quickly got up and went over to the control panel, pressing the button that she had identified as the on/off button, and the ship powered down. This turned out to be a very good idea, she discovered as she walked further to the back of the ship. She saw that one of the engines of the Phantom Merc had caught on fire.

"Well, it's a small fire; it'll go out on it's own," she thought, since the fire was indeed dying out. Then she looked to the entrance, where she saw the walls of the manor... and heard the scraping feet of more of the monsters. Gelquie didn't waste any time. She already felt that her falcon illusion had disappeared, so she quickly climbed up--or as quickly as she could, not realizing she was only using one arm--to the exit of the merc and looked to the nearest escape point. There was a clear path to the entrance of the manor... Well, no place else to go.

Gelquie saw that the monsters were getting closer. So she created a very quick illusion of a tiger with a multi-colored coat; she wanted to focus more on distraction than realism for now, and this illusion couldn't attack anything. She made it growl and slowly approach the creatures, trying to gain as much attention as possible. Meanwhile, Gelquie ran like heck into the manor.

Eventually, she believed she outran some of the creatures, and she let the tiger illusion disappear. It was then that she heard commotion in the distance... It sounded either like a battle or an argument. Gelquie pulled out her dagger and creeped closer to the entrance, where many people were confronting Draco. Confused, she put her back to the wall and peered out at the battle, a part of her head slightly visible to anyone who bothered to look.