OOC: @Infinity and JC I did not grant you your weapons, so you don't magically get them on your own. There are going to be times in this RP where some people get stuff, and others don't, you don't make yourself have something when the GM hasn't granted them to you. If there were weapons lying about on the ground I'd say otherwise, but that was not the case. I'm just going to let it slide this time for the sake of flow, but don't let it happen again.

In a flash of light Akira gained the brace armour matching that of Jack's, though on top of being yellow in colour, hers had streaks of electric blue engravings and the depiction of an armoured fist. Armoured gauntlets materialized on the girl's hands as she too was granted her weapon and abilities.

Kayla looked in the direction of a shout as she watched the young woman whom she had thought escape from the arena, appear out of nowhere carrying a giant mace of bramble above her head. Once again she had to consider whether this truly was some sort of fantastical dream, or a hallucination, maybe she inhaled some sort of mold? Whatever the case, she did not intend to die, be it a dream or otherwise, in the even that this was possibly some sort of alien abduction.

The beast tackled by Pierre toppled to the ground, not expecting the man to actually make an attempt to physically assault it. It roared confused and a troupe of four of the creatures headed in Pierre's direction brandishing clubs wildly. Three of the creatures that had been in pursuit of Hayden and Akira stopped tentatively after witnessing what had happened to the last time one of them were burned by the twister of fire, though once the shield of fire was destroyed by the air blast they resumed their hunt and jabbed at them with wooden tridents.

The root creature that had targeted Zane dodged the mace, given the opportunity to anticipate it as the boy had taken a picture of his new weapon with his cellphone, and took the opportunity to counter by swinging in turn.

All the while, a growing chant could be heard from the watching crowd "Champions! Champions! Champions!"

Zane, not paying attention, takes the attack with full force, blowing him back a bit. Just ignore it, Zane. Focus on your enemy. He tried to assure himself. He could feel the pain dancing all across his chest. In the background, he overheard people calling them champions. Right now he didn't feel like he was basking in the limelight. He still had his weapon, but he didn't have any armor like almost everyone else. He unleashes a quick roundhouse kick, still feeling the full intensity of the root's prior attack.

"Seriously?" Chris thought. "Stupid of him." Chris ignored the crowds as he dashed towards the root creatures approaching the boy who has just blew his way out of his flame ball. Unsheathing his hook swords, Chris summoned all of his physical strength to run towards the root creatures, and started slicing through them with elegance. To him, it felt normal, as he had done it before. To the onlookers, however, they saw a young adult pull off an advanced ancient Chinese hook sword routine.

As Kassidy neared another of the root creatures, she brought the large mace around for a mighty swing. The attack was cut short, though, as the plant easily caught the end of the mace in its hand, seemingly unharmed by the spikes. Kass released the mace and jumped to the side as the creature brought its other weapon to bear against her. She drew her baton once again to confront the monster, which now wielded two weapons.
Outlooks weren't particularly favorable.
Alright then. How about… Cat-o-ninetails? She thought. Suddenly, a long line of water formed at the end of her scepter. The stream then split into nine, creating a tangle of razor thin lines. No longer able to be surprised by anything in this strange dream, Kassidy flicked her baton in the direction of the plant creature. Nine jets of water pierced its torso, then spread out until its body was ripped asunder. These snakes of water seemed to have lives of their own.
Kassidy paused for a moment to gather her breath. Even in a hallucination like this, such exertion left her rather drained. As she stood, she noticed four of the plant beings closing in on an older-looking gentleman. She didn't worry too much though. Between him and the rest of the figments of her imagination, she was sure they'd be able to handle it.

It went down as a human would, and hopefully it would react much like a human did if Pierre were to try and wrestle the weapon out of it's hand. He grabbed the wrist that wielded the weapon and twisted it as he got up, sending his foot in to the creature's face as he twisted the limb back and forward violent.

Having pulled the roots off of him, Jack looked around for any of those things that might want more of him. Instead, he saw that everyone who had previously been in the room with him was now fighting these things along with those who had decided to run at first. He had also noticed a crowd somewhere was chanting "champions", "Well I sure feel like one" he replied toward the crowd. He turned back his attention to the others and saw that most of them were doing fine but then he noticed one old man in particular fighting with one of the root people on the ground, he was also being approached by four more of those things. He walked toward them chuckling and murmured "Stunning Glance" while looking at one in particular. One of them seemed to stop in its tracks becoming immobile, he took opportunity and dashed toward it yelling "Thunder Hammer" again and he promptly swung the axe as it charged with electricity upwards toward the creatures face. Yet again, there was a booming burst of lightning and the creature was no longer there. He looked to the next root creature and charged this time swinging the axe at the creature's chest.

The crowd cheered frantically with every move performed, and then suddenly the ground began to rumble violently once again. The root creatures who were not in combat with anyone in particular backed away from the group, while those that were presently in combat simply ceased all movement. The ground continued to rumble as the root creatures were absorbed back into the ground, unwinding the various intricate shape of their being; appearing once more as a mass of roots.

The arena was quiet. The people who had been watching them earlier seemed to have disappeared and once again, a pathway was opened in the gnarled wooden wall. Various small flowers bloomed on the ground leaving a distinct trail indicating that they were to go through the doorway.

Strange. The crowd stopped cheering and all the root creatures receded back into the earth. At first the crowd went crazy over them, like girls screaming at a concert. And all of a sudden *poof* Gone. Whoever is behind this madness really made it clear which way they should go next. His gaze shifted from the roots to the path of flowers leading to their next destination. He would have asked the group what they think, but his first encounter with them clearly showed that would be a bad idea. Without saying a word, Zane heads towards the doorway.

Pierre soon found himself wrestling a knot of roots. The noise was gone, no raucous cheering, no panicked cries of battle. Nothing, just silence as he finally let go of the the root creatures. Instead, once again, another side door opened up and this time it was lined with flowers. So this was all some sort of test? Hopefully there weren't fae creatures awaiting him past the doorway. Another boy before him started towards the portal and with an audible sigh, Pierre followed.

"And as usual, no one ever exhibits prudence in these situations." Chris thought, comforted by the fact that at least he had some physical abilities to defend himself should he need it. "It could all be just an elaborate ruse to eventually lead us to our deaths, but then again, I have powers, and the fact that I was physically damaged must mean that this isn't a dream/afterlife.""Wait up!" he cried out, just before running after them.

Just like that, the root beings were gone. The chanting from a crowd was also no longer heard. Having swung his axe into nothing, Jack picked it up and looked toward the others. A few were already headed through a door lined with flowers, Jack saw no other option but to follow, and so he followed them.

((Can we all just leave without having an individual post from everybody?))

OOC: lol Was debating it actually, didn't want everyone to feel like I was just dragging them along, but it seems like I shall have to do so.

The group walked through the opening which they had no choice but to go through. Kayla in particular remained on guard, having a weapon and magical powers may have granted her relative assurance, but that didn't mean that these things could disappear just as quickly as they had come. Various scents, some familiar, while others unusual, wafted from the opening along with the sound of music and jovial celebration.

On the other side of the entrance they were once again in a great open space. The suns shone warmly onto them and a great bonfire burned in the middle of the area, around which various tables of wood were arranged. On one side of the area was an elevated long table in front of which stood a podium. Musicians played woodwind and stringed instruments that seemed reminiscent of those on Earth, though strangely unrecognizable. Likewise, the food that was being placed on all the tables seemed familiar, though in some cases, like with the meat, there were a few legs too many, or in the case of the fruits and vegetables, their pigmentation was starkly different, if not an unusual fluorescent colour. Many of the locals sat at the various tables, or dancing while the musicians played. They were dressed like medieval peasantry, though much of the clothing had distinct gold embroidered designs sewn into their garments.

As they realized the appearance of their guests, all music and laughter stopped as everything fell to a hush. The locals all turned to look at the group, staring at them with enough force to bore holes through them. Their faces were awash with differing expressions, some with excitement, some with joy, others with hope, and a few with an unmasked doubt if not contempt.

Eventually a young woman walked up to the group, "Excuse me" she spoke shyly, refusing to look any of them in the eye "if you could please sit" she said while leading the group to the elevated long table that had yet to be occupied.

Once everyone had taken their seat, a man who appeared to be in his late 20s wearing what looked like a nightcap, walked to the podium facing the group. He smiled charismatically, though his eyes looked weary as if he had not slept for weeks.

"People of Bregora" he said while turning to the locals who had still yet to break their stare with the group of newcomers "I present to you, our saviours, The Champions of Estaria!" Immediately they all stood and began clapping enthusiastically, whistling and shouting joyously. He turned back to the group, with a questioning glance then smiled with a look of dawning. "Ah yes, Champions, you can put away your weapons by sliding your hand over the engraving on your vambrace."

"Hol'lon" spoke up Kayla "What the hell do you mean Champions of Estaria? I'm no saviour." she said with her hands on her hips.

"Ah, but you are here are you not? I am unsure how you choose the warriors of your land, but the Ageless Ones deemed you worthy to defend Estaria and save it from falling into the clutches of darkness. Why else would you have come here, and you clearly have your vambrace, you are definitely our saviour, Champion of Wood"

"No, no, no," she corrected "I was kidnapped, abducted, or whatever," she waved her hand at the others "We all were" she said looking at the others in the group as well for someone to back her up.

Jack didn't understand what the hell they were talking about, champions? Jack just fought to live, running would have been useless back there. He noticed one girl that had been in the group spoke with the man. She seemed to speak for the group in general and Jack agreed with much of what she said so he spoke up and said out loud "Yeah pretty much what the girl said, I didn't want to f*** come here and I sure as hell didn't go willingly. I'm pretty sure no one else here came here willingly either. Oh, one other thing, how are we saviours? Man, I was just fighting to survive out there, I didn't fight to save nobody."

They were declared champions of an unknown land and as far as the others could tell it was all some kind of sick joke. Pierre was still torn between being abducted so and the parallel the situation had with some of his fantastical games. There was nothing to be done about it now but he was still suspicious of these people. Thankfully they spoke in a language that he could understand. A shame that he couldn't speak his native tongue.

The man with a nightcap mentioned the vambrace on his wrist. Supposedly the stored weapons. Pierre knew his was that of a gun but he was also made aware of the abilities he now seemed to possess. There was of course one way to test them out now. He moved silently past the girl arguing with him and placed his hand on one of the decanters of wine on the table. Then he saw it, the make, the material, the history but more importantly the liquid it held inside.

Turning to the others as he lifted the decanter up to his face, he spoke in his accented English.

"No poison. Not this one."

Then he sat himself down and poured himself a glass, inspecting the food with his utensils before finally coming to the conclusion that though they were strange and foreign ingredients, none of them were poisonous to him.

"Bon apétit mes amis."