Logan recoiled as the monstrous fish signaled its final breath with a blood-curdling gurgle. The thing dispersed into a mass of bubbles and dead fish, leaving the junior alone in the apartment. The water disappeared from the room, his shield, and dirk going with it. He decided to dispel his mail as well, having no more need of it at the moment. To his immense surprise, his clothing wasn't even damp. Apparently, the supernatural water had left no trace when it had gone. He stepped from the room, dry as when he'd entered, to come face to face with Maximillian. It seemed he'd been standing there the whole time.
"Well, time's wastin'. We've got several floors to clear, so let's git movin'." Before bumbling headlong into the next room, however, he returned to the door Alice had entered with the intent of regrouping. The apartment still seemed to be occupied, so he simply stood outside and waited.

"What's it gonna be, Bubba?" Johnathan jested, noticing the growing ghost struggle to make a decision. He then looked down at his chest and noticed Arx was finally fading away. He would have to draw it again after dealing with this phantom. Or take up on Carter's offer. He then kneeled down, and drew a sigil on the ground. Quickly getting back up, he then held a long rectangular prism. He then drew a sigil on top of that. When he finished Muto, he took a look at the ever changing shape. It looked like the point was sharp, even though when he briefly touched it it was a slight dull. Still, it looked like it could do some damage. "Let me help you with that." He prepped his arm and threw the what seemed iron spear with all his strength straight at the ghost's stomach. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I guess. Time to see what this thing can do.

Carter saw John striking towards the ghost. Hmm... While he's busy with John, let's see if I can't sneak behind this little ghosty and finish it off. And he tip-toed around the room, sliding around the room and tip-toed behind the ghost. He waved at John as a sign to tell him to let him finish him off. He then waited until John has done his damage so Carter could kill this ghost.

With a quick response to the attack, Li quickly swung his left tonfa around, hooking the cane when it came around. The majority of the attack was absorbed by Li's forearm, but now he had the weapon trapped between his arm and the tonfa. Li then twisted his shoulder, pulling the can from his opponent's hand. Immediately afterwards, he let out a jab with his left arm then followed up with a kick to the stomach, pushing the ghost back.

"Eowla," Li said while walking towards the staggered ghost. "It is better to wait, then act, but also you should be quick to respond". Still moving towards the ghost, Li placed his hands together, ready to create a bind for this ghost. When it was ready to be used, Li's hands started to glow with a light green aura. With one quick dash, Li struck the frail man right in the chest.

A black lady with a parasol, calling them amateurs and mispronouncing it no less, materialised from the black mist. A poltergeist? Troublesome creatures they were, especially when he himself lacked any real way to deal with them. The can and grenade around his waist were useless, as was his weapon as it could hurt spirits but not exorcise them. He'd have to stall for time. Senior Petran of course was still indifferent to the whole affair and he was a sigil user so there was no help on that front. The others were too occupied right now. Relaxing his stance slightly as his weapon moved out of view, he retorted.

"Heh, if you were really that all powerful you wouldn't have to rely on us in the first place."

It was somewhat surprising to say the least. The mass of fish had turned into one gigantic creature and after some small exchange with Logan the large body simply came crashing down and the water vanished. Eventually Logan emerged from the door and spoke aloud.
"Well, time's wastin'. We've got several floors to clear, so let's git movin'."

"Yeah, right.." Maximillian took one more peak into the room before backing away. "Quite the odd experience."

The makeshift iron spear plunged into the chest of the enraged ghost before he could respond. He looked at the boys, before reverting to his original form and combusting into a green flame; looking longingly at his wife before he faded away.

Meanwhile, Evelyn continued to pelt the wife ghost with her energy wisps. The woman had seemed to given up on her attack, having lost her entire family, and stood silently waiting for her demise. Honestly, Evelyn was surprised that the ghost had decided to give up peacefully. She landed on the ground silently and walked towards the ghost with her halberd pointed down to the ground. The ghost lowered her head before Evelyn, and once again Evelyn seemed to tingle with emotion as she sympathized with the spirit.

"Requiem in pacem" said Evelyn softly as she sliced the spirit with her halberd. However, rather than disappear in a shroud of green flames, the woman's cartoony-curvy figure transformed into that of a regular woman and she briefly saw the images of the rest of the family without their cartoony aspects as well. A wind began to blow within the room, and the ghosts turned away from Evelyn, Johnny and Carter walking away from them and disappearing in a flash of light.

Evelyn blinked, not exactly sure what had happened, neither why that had happened at all. It was something she'd have to discuss with Miss Rachel later, though for now, they had to return to the main hall where she felt a powerful presence.

"Come on boys" she said and exited the room.
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James continued to step forward and the room further chilled as he approached Alice, though as he spoke, a questioning expression appeared on his face, as if he was wondering whether what "Beatrice" was saying was true.

"No," he said shaking his head "You left me at the alter, and I had to find you again. Now I have, and I will never let you go." A wind began to blow inside the room, and the windows were covered with frost as he reached out with his hand to grab Alice by the wrist.

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The ghost swivelled her head around to gaze at Adi with a piercing gaze of discontent as she viewed the boy. "Insolent prat!" she replied, while thunder rolled overhead "You expect I, Eudora Philomena Jameson, to remove the vermin from my abode?! Ha! A perfect example of why children should be seen and not hearrrrd. Where is your superVIsooorrrr?" She rolled the "r" at the end of the word dramatically as her body swivelled to align with her head.

The poltergeist identified itself as a certain Eudora Philomena Jameson. The name didn't ring any bells so she must have died a few generations back, at least forty years ago. He debated the wisdom of the sharing with the ghost the location of his supervisor. There was nothing to confirm whether the late Jameson was indeed behind the haunting here, though her words suggested did not.

"Our supervisor is currently busy at the moment. Would you like to make an appointment? I can imagine you'd have some trouble trying to contact a decent exorcist."

He'll settle with a compromise then, and given how she treated him, Adi afforded himself a bit of cheekiness for it. Taking the palm pad from his pocket, he prepared a message for Doctor Dawn.

Err...is it too late to join in? Sorry I'm an amateur.

ooc: omg auto hit!!!!!11!!!!

The elderly ghost doubled over and wheezed after being kicked in the stomach. Lifting his head to look at Li he suddenly grinned and said "I suppose this is what it feels like to eat my own words?" The defeated spirit watched the boy prepare his bind and seemed to understand what was about to happen. "How cruel that a refined gentleman such as myself would be given the same treatment as those delusional, stubborn monsters in the hall. Well, do the world a favor and get rid of that velvet-clad tramp, excuse my language, while you're at it."

After being struck with the bind, he replaced the top hat upon his head, smoothed over the wrinkles in his suit, and nonchalantly whistled a classic tune as his body was slowly enveloped in a flash of green light.

-----------------------------------------

The frigid air was beginning to sting Alice's cheeks and nose while her hair blew wildly in the wind. "You left me at the alter, and I had to find you again. Now I have, and I will never let you go," The ghost said as he grabbed her wrist. She tried to escape the ghosts icy grip but her hands were very numb and seemed to move in slow motion. Just as panic began to set in, one of Phora's clawed hands reached to rake across her captors face.

"You'll never let her go?" The familiar shouted furiously. "Alice belongs to me! I'm the one who will never let her go! Dead people aren't even allowed to touch her!" The girl wasn't too happy about her status from Phora's point of view. Even so, this distraction was not to be wasted, and she reached with her free hand towards her quiver to retrieve an iron arrow, then tried to drive it into Jame's arm.

Johnathan whistled, feeling the wind the ghost left behind. He had no clue about what just happened, and it seemed neither did Evelyn. However it looked like it didn't have a painful ending. But it was impressive, none the less. "Come on boys", Evelyn called while leaving the room. Johnathan nods slightly, he leaves the room to go the main hall, with every step feeling a strong presence.

"Feels like a strong one." Johnathan says to no one in particular, his voice giving no emotion, at the same time realized it wasn't any of the types he faced. He turns back at Carter and nods, trying out his new way to say good luck.

Carter tapped John on the shoulder with his hand up,"HIGH FIVE MAN! That was awesome! I promise to not run away again. And should you get into trouble, just call my name." After talking with John, he ran to Evelyn and said, "Wow, good job back there, but I noticed that you were almost sad slicing that woma- erm, widow back there, why? I mean, when you kill a ghost, don't they become released from this world's grasp? Can't they finally rest? I see it as we are doing a favour, to be honest."

ooc: A post regarding this is actually going to be written up to explain further, lol, just so that people know I'm not whipping things out of the air.

"Spirits can't be killed exactly" replied Evelyn solemnly "When we defeat a ghost, all we know is that they are gone. My father believed that ghosts were sent into a deeper part of the spirit realm and that eventually spirits defeated from before could return to the land of the living to stir up trouble again. His theory makes sense, because there have been mentioning of places being haunted, and then not being haunted, and then becoming haunted again at a much later date. However," she paused looking back at where the family of ghosts had disappeared "It's fairly well known that ghosts can be removed forever, if they've been given a chance to head to the light. This can be done by simply telling the ghost that they're dead, or by helping the ghost accomplish some sort of unfinished business.

Those ghosts we fought however, were clearly not up for any sort of discussion, so probably neither of those attempts would've worked. Which is why I'm surprised that a simply strike with my weapon didn't simply result in the ghost returning to the spirit realm and instead led to the entire family going towards the light and finding peace."

They exited the room and Evelyn was not exactly surprised to find a poltergeist making demands. The energy surge seemed to match what she would assume to be a poltergeist.

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The ghost had been clearly distracted by the totem's response to his claiming of "Beatrice", which provided enough time for Alice to jab the iron arrow into James' arm. The ghost immediately turned his attention to Alice with a look of surprise and then anger, and the temperature in the room began to return to a much more comfortable level. James began to flicker his form becoming transparent, though his face was shadowed menacingly as he continued to stare at Alice. A silvery-white mist billowed around his figure as he stepped away from Alice and green flames licked up his form until he disappeared.

____________________________________________

"Forget the note!" yelled the poltergeist unamused, "So long as you are on my property, I shall do no such waitinggg" and with a determined look on her face the ghost glided towards the stairs. "Come, come, children. We shall make ways to your superVIsorrrr and you shall slay the vermin as we go" She disappeared as she walked through the door to the flight of stairs.

August held the weapon fast as the phantom, along with the barkeeper and other apparitions, vanished from the room. The boy collapsed, exhausted, as the rapier fell from his hands and hit the floor with a dull thud. He lay there, utterly spent, but still a smile found its way onto his face. In fact, after the initial shock had past, he began to laugh. He had done it. He had come, he had stared the monstrosity in its ugly face and he had killed it. It was exhilarating. In the space of a single weekend, these... things, ghosts, by their very existence, had shattered his perception of reality and left him reeling. But now... now he had proven that he was still in control. He was greater than these phantasms, these illusions. They could come, he would end their miserable existences and carry on with his life.

The freshman lit another cigarette and stepped from the room back into the hall, lighter in one hand and rapier in the other. The other students seemed to have coalesced around a disturbance at the other end of the corridor, and a curious August set off jogging in their direction. The spring in his step was a noticeable deviance from the sullen pace he had assumed that morning, as if a great load had been taken from him. In fact, that was exactly what had happened.

Well the floor was clear, so he was going to move on ahead anyway. Behind him his juniors emerged from their exorcism in one piece. Better than dying clawing their eyes out for sure. He turned to them raising his right with his index extended and point upwards.

"You three, fall in," his index made several small circles in the air, "We're moving up."

His right hand chopped the air in the direction of the stairs and Adi moved towards it to ascend as he did so.