Lucia looked over at Khast to see if he was able to grasp anything that the crazy old man had said, for she certainly hadn't. Well, rather, the only thing she could grasp was that they were on the wrong side, but how could that be? Hadn't they taken the same flying floor that his master had? She had never been one for directions anyways, so it all flew over her head.

Erratus tried to puzzle together the gibberish coming out of the man's mouth, but it was hopeless. Catching Lucia's eye, the thief shrugged. He was as stumped as she was, but it didn't really matter.
"Well, show us the way." he commanded, exercising his new found influence over the man. If his instructions were too incoherent to follow, he could just as easily show them the safe way down.

OOC: and still we continue to use the mentally imbalanced nutt as a guide. Brilliant.


show us the way, that's all the man needed to hear before he rushed back over to the window and leaned his body out the opening once more. Recklessly, he brought one leg over to straddle the window sill before he pulled his whole body across the ledge, leaving only his upper body arched over the sill and leaning inside the academy. "Keep up!" he called out to the pair as he slowly lowered himself down to a full hang. Once he had achieved his hanging position he released his grip from the ledge and began a hard fall towards the roof. With a thud his feet slammed against the angled covering, though the shock of the fall coursed through his body causing his legs to immediately buckle. Whilst trying to regain his footing his legs seemingly gave out under his weight and his body slipped forward on the wet tiles causing him to immediately begin to slide down towards the ground in an uncontrollable fashion. Thankfully the tiled roof began to push apart and eventually it formed a broken and cracked barrier between his body and the next ledge. Luck seemed to be shielding this poor individual, but for what reason... well it was anyone's guess.

After a few moments of simply being splayed out across the broken roof the man began once more to pull his body over the edge. If Lucia and Erratus didn't hurry after him he would surely drop himself into the front yard of the academy and into the way of damning danger. There were still husks roaming around the yard and with all the high grass which stood between the front of the building and the gate it was impossible to tell what else the imbecile could possibly get into

Intrigued, Erratus watched as the man jumped heedlessly into danger. He couldn't help but feel that his behavior was somewhat familiar. After watching for a few seconds, he decided that perhaps he ought to stop him.
Grumbling under his breath, he pulled himself through the window and dangled from the sill before dropping down onto the roof. He landed on all-fours, distributing his body weight to avoid the same precarious slide the man had taken. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to meticulously make his way down to the ledge. Instead, the thief relinquished his grip and began to tumble down the side of the roof. Following the man's example, he quickly righted himself and braced his heels against the surface, causing the uneven shingles to break off and pile up below his feet. He stopped just short of the edge and reached out. He managed to grab hold of his would-be guide's wrist and hauled him bodily back onto the roof.
"We shouldn't go down there quite yet." He panted and recovered to his feet, taking great care not to lose his balance. "Let's see if we can't find that ladder you talked about." Erratus then turned to the window he had just come through.
"Can you make it down?" He called to Lucia.

Lucia watched incredulously as the deranged man ran out the window and nearly fell to his death. She blinked vacantly as Khast followed him out the window and nearly fell to his death as well. She continued this as he asked her to follow them both onto the level of the roof that they were both now on. She shook her head and stepped away from the window.

"You're both crazy!" she said, her voice once again rising just a bit above its usual soft tone, the entire ordeal had truly been quite vocally strenuous for the woman. "Even if I do manage to make it there safely, who's to say that the rest of the roof is stable, or that it's stable enough to hold the weight of all three of us," she turned her attention to the magic box that they had been tasked to carry, "And then there's this blasted box, which will probably fall straight through the roof into the depths of the school and swarmed by husks" normally she was quite agreeable and a lot more optimistic, but their situation seemed quite dire, if not insane. No, she would not be quick to fling herself to whatever life she was to live after dying that Gonye had explained earlier. Oh why did she have to go into that room that time ago? That man who had told her to enter had truly ruined her life. He'd be the first one she ate, or do whatever husks-who-were-not-quite-husks did.

"So, no. No I do not think I can make it down."

"I got it! Found it!" Just over the opposite ridge of the roof the strange man appeared with a rickety wooden ladder just barely balanced over his head. At some point after being told by Erratus to look for the ladder he had discreetly vanished from his side and wormed his way around the building to procure what he had been 'ordered to find'. Pushing the ladder towards Erratus the man stood proud and nodded his head as he pointed up towards Lucia.

"Now she can come!" he declared, "I did good, yes?"

To anyone with half a brain and the ability to estimate a measurement it was clear the ladder was too short to reach the window. If they were to use the ladder Lucia would have to hang from window's ledge just to get her feet on the top rung. This was beginning to look... tricky.

Kechts realized young Nero was far too pressured by their predicament. The boy would die if he didn't help him soon.
Thus, Kechts grimaced as if he were about to do something unpleasant. He then lurched forward and bellowed such a primal roar that it seemed his jaw unhinged. However, this was not for intimidation, nor for distraction. His harsh, piercing howl resonated so fiercely against the cracking ground and walls that it was as if an invisible force scratched and clawed across them. An old man with the densest ears would have gotten a stroke. Nero would also probably have a breakdown, but - at the moment - saving him was more important than his feelings.

Lucia sighed, it seems the crazy man had brought over a ladder in order to help her down. Looking down at it, she could see that the ladder still didn't quite reach the window. She definitely did not feel safe with the way things were proceeding, but it seemed like she did not have a choice in these matters any longer. She looked over to the box that they had been tasked with finding and with another drawn out sigh she dragged it to the window, lifting it onto the ledge with a groan.

"Khast!" she called out, while trying to peer over the box to see if she was aiming it correctly below, "I'm going to toss this below, be prepared to catch it. Ok? On three. One" she peered to the side making sure he was in the correct position, "Two," she lifted it higher as she prepared to tip it down, "Three!" she groaned as she shoved it over the edge. She immediately peered over the edge to see if he had caught it, or at least prevented it from smashing through the roof and into the depths of the academy below.

Erratus positioned himself under the window to catch the incoming cargo, bracing for what would undoubtedly be unpleasant results. The box landed squarely in his arms, but the momentum brought his hands to the ground, squashing them under its weight. The thief let out a yelp, instinctively yanking his arms out from under the container.

"Augh! Was that really the best way you could think of to get it down here!?" He complained as he nursed his throbbing hands, failing to notice that the box had begun its descent down the slanted roof. As the crazy man brought the ladder over for Lucia to climb down, Erratus bent down to make sure the box was undamaged only to find that it had made a break for the ledge. With a loud curse, the thief dove after it. By the time he managed to grab onto it, however, he was rapidly approaching the drop-off. Thinking quickly, he drew a dagger and dug into the tiles. With a jolt that nearly tore his arm from its socket, the thief lurched to a stop, his legs dangling over the ledge. With no little effort, he managed to haul himself and the box back onto the roof. This sort of thing was happening more often than he would've liked.

Nero covered his ears in an almost immediate reaction to the terrible sound that was escaping Kechts' mouth. Vibrations of pain and numbness quivered through his body as Kechts continued to howl. It was terrible knowing there was absolutely nothing he could do relieve the pain. His eyes closed tightly, his body inched and squirmed about and his teeth violently pressed down against each other. Every possible motion or reaction the human mind could fathom for such a moment, just short of the most extreme, rolled through Nero's system until the sound eventually passed.

Is it over? Nero's body fell limp as his tightened muscles collapsed against the stone paved road of the street. He felt exhausted, but he had to see. He had to know what became of his attacker and the information broker. Who had survived? Was someone wounded? Was he himself even actually alive?

Nero's eyelids carefully lifted apart, and though his vision was quite cloudy, almost as if he had just awoken from a deep winter's rest, he could still just barely make out a single figure looming above him. Light, a flaring, shifting light. Fire, the fire lithely danced about in the air- and a shadow. A shadow contained the fire, it burned forth from his hand and bent to his will. The Mageslayer had endured.
______

The Mageslayer seemed completely unaffected by Kechts' attack. The man simply stood seldom and silent in the torrential rain as it swept by his soaking feet. He had not moved a muscle since Kechts had launched his 'counter-attack'. He simply remained like a statue with his burning sword balanced lazily in his hand and his body turned towards the downed and vulnerable Nero, and he remained in this position for sometime before c*** his head in rightward direction, towards Kechts. From where he stood the old warrior could just barely catch a glimpse of his opponents features, his missing right eye did him no favors in seeing within his tremendous blind spot.

"That's it?" a deep, calming voice slipped forth from the mageslayer's lips. "That's all you're capable of?" Beneath the nonchalant overtones of his gruff voice a hint of unsatisfied curiosity was evident. "You feel wrong. Being around you, so close to you- you feel like him-" A deafeningly loud blast of thunder erupted just then leaving the rest of the man's words unheard. Following the blast an awesome stroke of lightning filled the sky and with it came a light that revealed, through the darkness, that Kechts' attack hadn't been completely ineffective. Blood was trickling forth from the slayer's ears, and veins and muscles in his neck seemed to have tensed up and bulged forth immensely. It was near impossible to determine just how much damage the warrior sustained from Kechts' attack, but it was safe to assume he was still able and willing to fight.

"Wait! Stop!" Quentyn's voice echoed forth from the alleyway which he had vanished into not long ago. "Kasakili Kariya!" His voice echoed out once more as he rounded the corner and halted himself to catch his breath. "You're Kasakili Kariya, right? You fought with Andreu Armonte, Gonye Sarlacruz and Barassius of Trenam at Highhearth 25 years ago!" Quentyn was now panting uncontrollably from running such a distance and quickly belting out words and names in rapid succession wasn't quite helping.

Quentyn's garbled words did seem to pull the mageslayer forth from his battle trance though as he turned himself away from both Nero and Kechts and began walking towards Quentyn.

"I'm right? Right? You're Kariya, the brilliant swordsman who fought with my commanders and captain?!"

"I am who you say I am, but much less. Who are you, and who are these people?" By now the fire that had been violently glowing about the old man's sword was beginning to wane and the rains were quickly working to douse and wash away the remains of the resin he used to set his sword ablaze.

"That's all a bit hard to explain, sir." The young sell sword exhaled a deep breath in an attempt to compose himself. "We're in a bit of a predicament and we were sent by our captain to find you, and while looking for you we worked our way into another predicament. It's all very confusing and hard to explain without being given ample time, and well, I'm not quite sure we have that time. There's a kidnapping, this storm, him," Quentyn motioned towards Nero who was arduously pulling his battered body from the ground. "and many other things that just keep getting in the way of what should have been a very simple thing." Quentyn would have continued hopelessly blathering to the man had he not be interrupted, once again, by an attack on the group. A wave of arrows rained forth from the compound ahead of the group. Quentyn, upon seeing the incoming attack, called out for his comrades to 'take cover' before he himself moved back into the alleyway. Thankfully due to the wind the arrows were mostly knocked into the ground early or tossed about into buildings. Up ahead, at the arched entryway which the group had originally convened at a group of 10 lightly armoured men armed with bows and swords had gathered and were preparing to attack the group. There was no doubt they were guards who were alerted to the fight by Kechts' roar.

Lucia winced as the great box fell more or less onto Khast as he caught it. She half expected the box to then slide off the roof as it slid down away from Khast, and she all but gave up hope that their mission would be a success. However, contrary to what she had expected, Khast managed to only just stop it as it reached the edge. She realized that in those few seconds she had stopped breathing, and she sighed relieved.

Seeing that the box had survived the ordeal, she decided it was for the best that she stop holding up the proceedings. Lucia looked down at the ladder skeptically. It was much too far for her to reach comfortably. Lucia had never been a woman of religion, but she looked up to the sky and offered a small word of favour to Erus. This was by far, one of the riskiest things she had ever done, excluding the making of her lightning silk of course. Sure, she had fought monsters, and enchanted knights recently, which she personally felt was quite uncharacteristic of herself, but this was an acrobatic feat much greater than she would ever have dared to accomplish in the past.

Gathering her courage, she made sure that she had all her belongings, and that nothing else had been left behind, for she would have thrown those too out of the window. She slowly climbed out onto the sill and looked down. The task seemed ever daunting.

"Please make sure that the ladder stays in place...and catch me if I fall" she called out weakly. Once again, she offered a prayer to Erus for favour, at this rate she may as well have joined the order. She positioned herself so that she could feel out with her feet the top of the ladder. There. Her toe brushed against the top rung, it seemed like it was farther than she had originally anticipated. Her arms were quickly becoming weary as she hung to the sill, unaccustomed to such work, and she pressed her body as close to the wall as possible as she tried to position herself accordingly. She let go.

Her heart leapt into her throat as she felt herself fall for just a second. Her feet had missed the top rung, though she quickly grabbed onto it with her hand as she passed it. She felt a pain sear through her arm and up into her shoulders, but she clung to the ladder like a frightened cat. She had survived. She closed her eyes with a sigh of relief, and then opened them once more as she descended down the ladder. She massaged her sore shoulder with her left hand while looking at the others, her face pale with the recent fright.

"Sh-Shall we continue?" she finally said.

Kechts observed the blood from Kariya's ears, in surprise that he could actually hurt his seemingly invincible body. However, he quickly shook off his awe and declared a truce.
"I suppose     both of us     lost interest in fighting each other. We are no mages by your definition, merely retainers     crude tricks and remnants of magic." He hoped his reasoning would quell the old man's wrath. "They     looking for someone, though you seem to be important     as well," he continued.

Kechts turned to look at the guards, unfazed with his usual bizarre stoicism. Bows and arrows would lightly graze him at best in such weather, and the swordsmen weren't nearly as frightening as Kariya.
"Since we no longer need to be covert, we     as well pry open every building before     gets any more unsavory." He directed his speech to Quentyn and company.

"Aye, I'm about ready to get out of this place." Erratus responded, an edge of fatigue in his voice. "It feels like we've been here for months."
With that, the thief made his way to the edge of the roof and looked at the ground below, scanning the yard for a place where they could safely climb down.

"It's no good." Kariya lightly groaned. "I'm not quite as spry as I used to be... Turning sixty-something does that kind of thing to you." As Kariya spoke he carefully moved himself into the alleyway that Quentyn was using for cover. "I just need a moment to catch my breath. I overexerted myself crossing town and combating the two of you-" Kariya paused to release a deep breath before he reached into the right sleeve of his tunic. "It's shaming to know you weren't even the people I thought you were." From the depths of his wide sleeves Karyia's hand reappeared, and clutched tightly in his palm was a deep blue resin. "Here, take this and my sword." he reached towards Kechts with the resin in one hand and his sword in the other. "The sword is heavy, more than likely it'll be too heavy for you to properly use with one hand, but the resin... it's fairly pure. It's nothing compared to what a proper alchemist could cook up, but it should do the job. Just apply it across the blade, it should freeze over fairly quick. You're a mage of some sort, from what I can tell you don't have an elemental affinity but this won't require you to be some gifted elementalist. It's an essence of ice crafted and distilled to its most basic form. It won't freeze the blade, but it'll freeze anything it comes into contact with. You should be able use some of your own energy to bend the ice the blade creates to your will."


Whilst Kariya had been instructing Kechts on the proper procedure for using his equipment, Nero had uneasily worked his way back up onto his feet and was preparing to gather himself at Quentyn's side when, without warning, the guards who had gathered at the top of street began to charge with sword and shield in hand towards Kechts and him.

_______


As Erratus scanned the perimeter for any husks or other unknown threats that could have been possibly lurking about, he began to hear noises coming from directly beneath his feet. The noises started off faint but gradually became louder and louder as the group listened. Wood, it was the sound of wood splintering and cracking. As each second passed the sound grew louder and louder until finally it sounded as if a battering ram was being pounded against the doors and boarded windows of the academy. Perhaps all the noise the trio had created on the roof hadn't gone unnoticed by the husks within the academy?

As the intensity of the noise continued to grow, husks began to appear from numerous places all about the yard. From the high grass which concealed their mangled bodies to sides of the building where they gathered in large groups, the husks were beginning to emerge from every crevice and recess one could imagine. Within a span of only a few seconds, hundreds had started to rise up from all about the academy's artificial grounds. It was do or die or now. If the group continued to wait they would surely be encircled and overrun by the mass.

OOC: Now to get Gonye to appraise our loot!

Lcuia's eyes widened as the husks seemed to scramble about the academy like bugs crawling out from a disturbed log. If they waited too long they would be quickly overrun, or worse. She didn't want to think about what worse could possibly mean. Without hesitation, Lucia pulled the ladder down from the wall, the warm throbbing of her sore shoulder only getting worse as she moved it, and placed it over the edge without leaning it to the ground. There was no way that she was going to let things end the way they were now. They were so close.

As she rummaged through her bag she spoke to the other two men, though mostly Khast, for she did not know whether their crazy addition to the team would be able to comprehend their situation.

"Alright, I'm going to try to clear a path for us" she said as she brought out a few of the pages from the tome on magic that she had briefly studied earlier. The story of the mage who had been consumed by his own fires was enough for her to consider being cautious when practising any magic outside of her inherent spell-weaving. Thus, she thought a brief refresher on how to properly attempt magical feats would be more than acceptable for what she was planning to do. So far, she had only been able to conjure short bursts of winds, what she was attempting did not seem to be much more complex, simply on a grander scale, and so, she had to be efficient with her energy.

"Once the winds begin to blow the husks away from our exit, we'll need to run through as quickly as we can," she of course wasn't confident in her abilities, so she further added "Should...Should I fail, use the resins on your weapons and fight your way out." She did not bother to tell Khast to forget about her, she didn't really put it past the man to go out of his way to protect her should things go awry. Which she felt that they most certainly would.

"Get ready," she said as she closed her eyes and began focusing inward, concentrating on the magical potential energies around her and within her. Once again she found that place that Gonye had introduced her to, though she did not feel the growing sense of weakening or sickness as she drew on this energy, perhaps it was a sign that she coming to terms with the "second gate". She raised her arms upwards until her hands were facing the skies, the pain in her shoulder only a dull throbbing in comparison to the magical sensations she was feeling. A wind began to stir along the academy grounds and the air grew tense with magic.

As she opened her eyes, two great gales of wind blew down from the gate that they had entered, rolling up on either side and blowing across the field in either direction, leaving a path for the trio to run. Lucia smiled, elated, though she before she could set the ladder down and begin their run for freedom, she had to run to the side of the roof and threw up what little food she had in her stomach, coughing violently as she put her hand on her stomach.