Li quickly reacted to the frail man dashing towards him. He quickly summoned his tonfa and raised them above his face and got into a defensive stance. When the man's cane clashed with Li's tonfa, Li let out a light kick while imbuing his shoe with energy. With the ghoul pushed back into his room, Li slowly walked inside, in a defensive stance, ready to take on a fight.

Before long, the phalanx of fish began to feel the effects of the holy water. They quickly coalesced to form a larger, much uglier beast. Logan grinned.
A single creature would be a much more practical target than dozens of smaller ones. He called upon his weapons and armor as the thing approached him. Immediately he felt himself being dragged to the floor by the weight of all of his armaments. Able to do little but flail around, the junior stood his ground and waited for the beast to make a move.

The lanky ghost dodged deftly out of the path of Adi's weapon and laughed thinking it had gained the upper hand as it swung out with its arms elongated unnaturally towards the youth.

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The ghost girl that had charged at Johnathan met its end. It looked down at the billhook that had plunged into its chest and its reddened glowing eyes faded to a shocked yellow. The ghost then screamed horrifyingly, it's voice echoing throughout the floor as it spontaneously combusted in a green fire that flickered into nothingness.

The other little girl ghost, turned her attention away from Carter to Johnathan, her eyes changing from a threatening red, to a frightening black. She screamed agonizingly, in a pitch that nearly shattered glass.

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The door to the lower levels of the apartment complex slammed shut in Carter's face. A shadowy mist began to creep about the floor around his ankles, as well as the ankles of Basil and a chill could be felt in the air.

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"Ha!" replied the barkeeper "Ain't that a kicker! Ya know what, you only live once, have some gin and tonic on the house, junior." And the barkeeper began to poor a drink while August turned his attentions to the laughing man.

After August asked the question the ghost stopped laughing and raised his head from the counter, revealing an emaciated face with a missing nose, and eyeball and severe burn scars. He then began to laugh again as the barkeeper slid a shot glass down the counter. However before the youth could get a taste of the ghostly ale, the laughing ghost put his hand in his pocket and flipped his other eyeball into the drink as if it were a coin, and began to laugh even harder. They eyeball in the glass moved of its own accord until it was facing August. The man's laughter died down, and became heavy breathing.

"FIRE!" exclaimed the man getting up from the ghostly chair with enough force to knock it over "I HATE FIRE!" exclaimed the ghost. "GET IT OUTTA HERE! I CAN SMELL IT ON YA!! FIRE!!!" The ghost reached towards August in an attempt to strangle the lad.

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"Ghosts?" responded the woman with the glowing fireball eyes "What nonsense!"

"Why yes," replied the knitting ghost "Quite absurd!"

"Did that little girl say...mother?" gasped the card playing ghost.

"Oh my..."spoke the first ghost who had called Alice into the room. "B-But Beatrice, what about James?!" she exclaimed "He loved you! You can't expect a man such as him to marry you if you've already been with child!" All three of the ghosts grew quiet and they slowly looked to the door. "James won't like this..." she said solemnly.

It was then that all the furniture in the room fell to the ground, and all previous existence and presence of the ghostly old women was gone. However the temperature in the room began to descend rapidly, so much that Alice could see her breath condensing in the frigid air.

"Beatrice" a deep voice spoke "I've been waiting for you. Why?" A man in a British WW1 uniform of a decorated officer stepped into view. A bleeding bullet wound could be clearly seen from the man's forehead as he approached.

"Oh, no this is bad..." Carter said out loud, looking at the black mist. Carter closed his eyes, holding onto his crystal and focused. "Separation!" He yelled, making a layer of energy around his feet, and he started to run towards his group, hoping that the layers of energy would protect him.

Li blocked with his tonfa just in time. The sound of wooden materials crashing together echoed through the hallway. The ghost received a kick to the stomach for his trouble, sending him reeling back into the room. Almost instantly it tried to rush the third year again, but he had already taken up a defensive stance causing the attack to be blocked once more. Now the civil-looking ghost seemed to understand that brute force wouldn't cut it when dealing with a disciplined fighter.

"Ah, if only I had my rapier, I'd show you a thing or two," He wheezed. With a disappointed sigh, the spirit eased into a balanced fencing stance and waited for Li to act.

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The monstrous creature bumbled along clumsily towards Logan. Its low roar was quite hard on the ears. When it came within a few feet of the student it opened its maw again expelling a swarm of bubbles and more dreadful sounds. The inside of the fish's mouth appeared soft and delicate, in contrast to the rough-looking scales covering its exterior.

A smile would have lit Johnathan's face, but he had the other ghost to deal with. I killed my first gh- That thought was soon cut off by the other ghosts earsplitting scream. Now focusing his attention towards Lady Loudmouth, his hands quickly depart from his once covered ears.

Not letting that scream phase him, he finds himself face to face with the ghost girl. He leaps backwards so he can attack, and takes his left billhook and swings it straight across the girls chest. At the same time, his right billhook raises above the girls head as he slashes it vertically down the ghost. He brings the left one across quicker to avoid his billhooks from colliding with each other. He didn't know when Arx would wear itself off, but hoped it didn't fade out now.

Logan got a good look at the inside of the monstrous fish's mouth as it bore its teeth at him. The thing's soft, fleshy gums practically begged him to bury his dirk in it. It was by far a preferable alternative to trying to compromise its relatively thick scales.
The junior stood his ground, waiting for the beast to close the gap between the two combatants. Moving around was extremely difficult in the water, so best to let the fish do the work for him. He didn't feel the slightest tinge of fear, though. It was common knowledge that sharks couldn't bite through chain mail, and this thing wasn't likely to take exception to that.
Once the creature was near enough, Logan quickly shoved his shield into its mouth to keep it pried open. At least, as quickly as he could given the circumstances. Once the creature's jaws were locked open, Logan reached in and plunged his knife through the roof of its mouth.

Carter, feeling the rush of danger knew he should help John. He pulled out his daggers and held them with the point facing down, he ran and jumped, thrusting his arms down onto the ghost's head, he repeatedly stabbed the ghost's head with as much power as possible, "AND THAT'S FOR NOT DYING THE FIRST TIME!" He screamed. He looked towards John. "Hump. I couldn't leave you! Oh, not to mention the fact some black mist is gunna most likely kill us all. Cheers!"

The lanky ghost dodged deftly out of the path of Adi's weapon and laughed thinking it had gained the upper hand as it swung out with its arms elongated unnaturally towards the youth.

Too bad that it had fallen exactly in to Adi's trap, the spray doing its work he felt the brief but cold touch of the ghost before they could do him harm. He could feel his heartbeat faster. It was just adrenaline he thought as he scanned the rest of his floor before a scream entered his ears. Covering his ears as fast as he could did not help much at all, momentarily overpowered by the sensory overload.

Scanning again, the two juniors with no experience had dealt with their troubles and were chattering needlessly now. He moved towards them shouting.

"If you two don't have anything better to do go help St. Augustine," then he saw the dark mist forming around senior Petran's ankles who was still indifferent to it, "I'll handle that mist."

Startled, August tripped and fell backwards in an attempt to avoid the ghost's deadly grasp. The phantom came crashing down on top of him, its hands firmly clenched around his throat. It was the most painfull sensation the freshman had ever experienced. The ghastly flesh was cold as ice, but it burned like the heat of a blazing furnace. The nails bit into his skin like steel teeth. August screamed in agony, his cigarette falling from his lips and hitting the carpet below. The foul hands squeezed ever tighter as the boy writhed, trying in vain to break free of their cruel grip. In a final effort, he brought his knee to the ghoul's stomach as hard as he could. The blow had little effect, or so he thought. For at that moment, a jet of flame burst from the smoldering cigarette butt, provoked by his desperate attempt at survival. It licked the ghost's skin, sending the thing reeling, clutching at its face. August wheezed and tried to sit up, barely able to cough "ad... amar." Gripping the summoned weapon with both hands, he grit his teeth and thrust the blade into his attacker's chest with as much force as he could muster.

Johnathan blinked when he saw Carter. "Hump. I couldn't leave you. Oh, not to mention tne fact that some black mist is gunna most likely kill us all. Cheers!" Johnathan opened his mouth to respond, but another voice chimed in.

"If you two don't have anything better to do go help St. Augustine."

He turned around and nodded at Adi's orders. Motioning Carter to follow him, he turns in the direction she headed in and goes to help her.

Li kept his cool when the ghoul let out his first words. He was a bit surprised he spoke with some class. While trying to think of a plan, Li took a quick scan of the room around him. It was a fairly low lit room that was furnished like a regular apartment. Knowing his opponent won't give him a chance to create any sort of binds, Li decided he would have to stun his opponent for a moment before he binds the spirit away. Moving forward with caution, Li started to close the gap between him and his enemy.

Carter winked and followed John. "Hey, make sure you're ready to do some killing, and if there is a black mist... Just tell me and I'll protect us with a nifty trick.

The ghost screamed out in pain and horror as the flames lit up his ghostly form and he batted at his face in an attempt to put out the flames. This provided a wide opening for August to plunge his weapon into the ghost's chest. The one eye in his head rolled back as he staggered backwards with his hands clutching his chest as if he was bleeding. The various bar furniture items and the barkeeper faded away as the ghost began to light up in green flames still clutching at his chest and he faded away into nothingness.

August found himself in the living room of one of the apartments.

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The lanky ghost reeled backwards as the holy spray landed on its body and it flapped about wildly as if it were burning him, eventually it succumbed to the pain and disappeared in a fiery green cloud.

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Evelyn swung her halberd deftly to the left and then fired two wisps at the ghostly couple from the right. She was pleased when they split from each other's side and she flew towards the woman while rapidly firing a series of wisps that pelted the trophy wife ghost, who retreated away from her as she approached and further led her away from her ghostly husband.

The ghostly husband on the other hand had its attentions set on Johnathan and Carter. His face turned red, and his round belly and fat-laden arms immediately bulked up and the ghost became much larger. He growled at the boys menacingly, choosing whether to attack the boys or to go save his wife.

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The black mist became much more concentrated and it began to spiral in the centre of the hall; lightning running through the mist as it coalesced like a sentient thundercloud. There was no sense of evil, neither was there any sense of good emanating from the mass, if one were empathetic, they would feel impatience and displeasure. Eventually the cloud began to take form revealing a woman in a long black dress, and hair done in a complicated style. The stern face of a woman who was not elderly, though showed signs of age were shaped from the cloud. Unlike most ghosts who seemed to have an almost translucent air, or a feeling of not being there entirely, this woman's presence was solid, as if she were a living person. This was no run of the mill ghost, she was a poltergeist. She closed a black parasol she had raised above her head, letting the hooked handle rest on her velvet gloved wrists, and looked at the children who remained in the hall with disdain, her nose crinkled and raised upwards slightly.

"Useless children" she stated "Such amatouuurs," She had a distinct pronunciation of the word, "Get these vermin out of my apartment building at once!" she commanded. The lights began to flicker violently throughout the hall.

"Hi Mr. James!" Phora said cheerfully, oblivious to the ominous atmosphere. "Did you know that you have a hole in your face?"

Alice's track coat did little to fend off the cold in the air, which was an obvious indicator that the ghost was not only unstable, but powerful too.
"Ad Amar." She said flatly, knowing a fight was now inevitable. Her bow and equipment appeared right where it needed to be. Magic is pretty helpful, she thought, and made a mental note to study it more closely in the future, before addressing the business at hand.
"I'm not who you think I am; Beatrice has probably been gone for a long time. It's not fair that the world left you behind, but the fantasy you've built for yourself can never replace the life you used to have." Alice knew her attempts to reason with ghosts were doomed to fail, but she still felt they deserved the sense of closure that came with it.

As the girl nocked an arrow, she noticed that her hands were beginning to shiver slightly. It would be difficult to aim properly, but the sounds of some commotion could be heard from the hallway, so she prepared to fire anyway in hopes of ending this quickly.

Phora tugged lightly on the cuff of her sleeve. "Hey, lemme get him," the familiar said excitedly. "You're shaking too much to hit him anyway." She was right. Alice's hands were already becoming numb, and while she was skilled with the weapon it would take lots of luck for her to get a good shot.

"... Fine, but wait and see what he does first. No use getting wiped out instantly." Alice replied. "And don't look so happy about killing things. It's disturbing."

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With its mouth now pried open by the shield the fish could do little but struggle as it was stabbed through the roof of its mouth. It emitted an earsplitting grumbling sound before exploding into a swarm of bubbles and small fish, which floated to the ceiling belly-up. As if sucked up by a storm drain the 'water' in the room began to empty into nowhere in particular. Steadily this grew into a large whirlpool that pulled in dead goldfish as well. When the water was gone all that remained in the room were a handful of fish strewn about, flopping on the ground before vanishing in sparks of orange light, and Logan's equipment which had been pulled towards the center of the room by the cyclone.

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The ghost with the cane observed Li's movements, shaking its head in disapproval of his choice of tactics. "What a shame. I expected you to take the initiative. That's the problem with today's youth -- You all lack guts!" Apparently this ghost didn't fall into the same delusions that most did. It stepped within striking distance of the boy and lashed out with practiced speed towards his stomach, seemingly having decided that Li wasn't worth his time.