Heaven's Spire

Sparrow's face lit up in response to Uldrix's thanks, just as it did many times before. There was nothing that made the glimmer more happy than doing a good deed. "You're welcome!" he happily replied.


The glimmer's smile grew even wider when he was presented with more seeds, his eyes flickering with light. He tucked the seed into his bag adding to his collection of bird feed.

Sparrow spent the rest of the night quietly observing his friends. Whenever he noticed one need help with anything; small things such as refilling a glass or fetching something, he would be more than eager to do so with a bright smile. When the sun began to rise on the early morning and the birds began to chirp, Sparrow quietly tiptoed out to the front of the inn, sitting down out the way and setting some bird seed out before him. By the time the rest of the group had made their way outside, not only had he drawn a small congregation but he had even managed to get a few to rest on his shoulders and palm.

Sparrow then journeyed with the group over the wall. He had never even heard of such a thing before today, so he had no clue what lurked on the other side. When he was met with the ruined village, a look of sadness and confusion crossed his face. The glimmer had never encountered something so... devastating before.


Sparrow cried out, instinctually putting a barrier up to protect himself. The Barrier heated and warped, but gave the glimmer just enough time to scurry away. Sparrow watched with confusion as his glass barrier bent in half and toppled to the floor like putty, the reaction dumbfounding him. He had little time to process, however, as small lodestone creatures began to close in on him. "Stop!" the glimmer yelled.

Sparrow looked to the crystal formations on their bodies, which even seemed to give off light. "Are you like me?"

A fire ball was shot in his direction.

Sparrow put up another barrier. The underlings were much weaker than the mother, and his barrier had managed with withstand the blow. However, this was not the answer he wanted. "I'm crystal too! You can do good!"

This was a dangerous mission, and the man did not have a way to attack? It seemed like a foolish venture to join the quest if he couldn't aid in that way. Though as Pumilus thought more about it, the more he liked the response. A healer who doesn't like violence. Of course this would be the case. He was a healer, a noble man who sought to help others. Perhaps he had only joined to make sure they all survived? That would have been truly remarkable indeed.



"Tools?" Pumilus repeated quietly, more to himself than to Murm. If the blades were tools then surely he'd use them in battle, or so he thought, so the clarification only served to confuse him. Pumilus looked back to the creatures as he continued to listen to Murm explain himself.



Pumilus's eyes widened a fraction not only when the statement hit his ears, but when another fireball was sent their way by one of the smaller creatures. Pumilus quickly jumped directly in front of Murm as he set up his water shield to protect the two of them from the attack. With a bit more of a drive than his usual dry tone, he spoke.

"If that is all you have," the fireball sputtered out of existence and he paused for energy's sake, "then I shall be your defense."

Uldrix had been enjoying himself in his own little section of the battlefield, far away from his teammates. He figured they would only get in the way and, in a worst case situation, he didn't want to attack one of them by mistake when he was running mostly on instinct at this point. A familiar white hue, however, drew him out of his battle mode for long enough to turn towards it. It was, of course, the glimmer. Who else would be foolish enough to try and reason with the enemy?

Uldrix bolted over to where Sparrow was, a blur moving swiftly across the ground as he shot out a few sound waves in front of him to clear whatever was in his path. When he reached the glimmer, he grabbed the lodestone creature by one of its limbs and screeched before digging his teeth through its arm, snapping the appendage in half. He pushed it down and screamed directly in it's face. At point blank range, it shattered into a thousand pieces, turning to dust.

Uldrix looked over to the ticking sound being produced by Sparrow's clock and blinked at it. "You cannot save them." He said, his voice harsh and feral. "They are the e n e m y. You do not show mercy when fighting those that oppose you."  

Monaiya was about to thank Uldrix for the help but she was too late when he was fighting another monster.

"Well, looks like he had fighting the one I was fighting."

The was another one of the weaker monsters heading towards her.

"Ah, screw you monster!"



Monaiya summons two windballs and thrust at that crystal of the monster. She repeats the pocess multiple time, while trying to sheild herself from the fire the monster was shooting.

Freyja created nearly a hundred small rocks around her and began to twirl her hand around, the stones following its lead. Within seconds, the stones were spinning at such an incredibly high velocity that when one of the lodestone beasts approached her, it was sawed in half. The body collapsed, revealing that they had no insides, and seemed to be made of a clay-like substance. This grossed Freyja out a bit, but it didn't matter. So long as they got nowhere near her, there wouldn't be an issue. Freyja danced from lodestone beast to lodestone beast, letting the swirling ring of stone saw each beast in half, her herself not really needing to do anything. She seemed as though she was enjoying herself, until the beasts learned.

Several smaller lodestone beasts shot fireballs at her, to which Freyja brought the ring of stones in front of her and formed them into a shield. She then sent the stones hurdling towards the three culprits, entering their bodies like bullets. They did not collapse, however, and simply hummed, monotonously. Was it because of the lodestone frequency..? Do these beasts act on a different frequency than normal lodestones? She didn't have time to dwell on this, when she heard cries from another member.
"Gods damn it." She muttered to herself as she forced her fist through one of the beasts. "RORY!! GET IT TOGETHER!! THESE GUYS AREN'T AS TOUGH AS YOU THINK!!! YOU'RE MORE THAN ENOUGH TO TAKE THEM ON! LOOK!!" Freyja picked one of the lodestone beasts up by two of its crystals and tore it in half. "IF AN OLD HAG LIKE ME CAN DO IT, YOU'RE MORE THAN ENOUGH TO HANDLE THEM!! SHOW THEM WHOSE BOSS!!" And with that Freyja turned her attention back to the monsters around her. An arrow of hardlight was sent hurdling past her, skewering several of the smaller creatures on its way to the Mother. Freyja was amazed at this spectacle, and she turned to see Limarah was the one performing it. She was awestruck at this woman's power, and would definitely have to commend her for it later. However, that would have to be much later, as the Mother let out a roar, and Freyja looked on in horror.

---

The Mother had been watching as its fireballs failed to make contact with the members, the beast growling in retaliation. A bolt of lighting, thanks to Kyana, was sent down upon the mother, but merely bounced off of the surface of the crystals. The beast seemed to not be phased by this at all, but the light arrows were a different story. Four arrows of hard light were sent flying towards the mother, three of which shattered upon making contact with the crystal growths. The last arrow, however, managed to jab straight into one of the Mother's legs that were unprotected by the crystal growths. The beast began to roar once more, as it slashed away at the arrow, shattering it. With that, The Mother summoned enormous pillars of fire from the ground, shooting sporadically near each member. This wasn't all, however, as the Mother noticed Freyja rapidly approaching, and started barreling towards her, as if to try and ram the bounty hunter.

Myrri spun around to see fire erupting from the ground. She leaped back and fell. As she struggled to her feet, she felt the ground beneath getting hotter. She pointed the gun downwards and, in an act of desperation, shot a blast from her gun. She was thrown backwards and out of the gyser's range and she stumbled as she felt her energy dropping. She turned and aimed her gun at the closest lodestone beast, she shot struck it. She waited for a moment to allow herself to recover, then watched with pleasure as her target began smashing other lodestone monsters, as her hallucination spell had made it believe that all the lodestone beasts were humans. She turned and shot one more hallucination blast at the Mother.

Pumilus did not find the exaggerated bow very amusing, and was about to take a step in the direction he wanted to go when a pillars of fire started shooting up from the ground. Pumilus was startled by the one in front of him and he jumped backward, taking a few stiff steps before bumping into the man behind him. He muttered a soft apology as he noticed Murm seemed to be quite afraid of the situation at hand, judging by his expression.

"Do not worry, I am able to counteract these attacks." Pumilus once again went to take a step towards some of the clusters of trees to not only hide from the attackers, but try to help destroy the beasts from the shadows. He now knew they were made of clay, meaning he didn't have as much of a problem fighting them as before. He was still a bit wary of it, but would not regret ending their existence later.

Before he fully started his advance to the position he'd wanted, he stepped back and tugged on the man's red coat. "Come now, this way."