The Crucible: Part 1 [Mission] [Akemi|E&E|Kath|Sasha]

Oddly enough Sasha could almost feel a wave of relief washing over her as she held the bow once again, almost as if a part of her that had been missing had just been found. Something that would no doubt alarm her in any other situation, but right now?

All she cared for was putting distance between her and Akemi as she readied yet another arrow in her windy weapon, power slowly building up in her fingertips. Nothing else mattered, not the pain in her feet from the costant running, nor from the superficial but still painful injuries received.

Hell, she barely seemed to register that the ceiling had collapsed, or that some of the rubble had been dangerously close to squashing her flat, nor that someone else had appeared along side the falling debris. She gave them a quick glance as she ran pass them, but didn't really had the time to stop and talk or even double check if this was, indeed, Elsie. For all she knew it was this place pulling tricks on her again, so she kept focusing on her current plan: keep her distance, and ready the mother of all attack swith her bow.

    One should really expect to fall through a floor, after actively trying to break it. Really! They should! Did Elsie, though? If anyone could see the distressed expression on the teen's face as she began her 'descent', they would be well aware that she hadn't thought this far into things!

    ...Why did it seem like she always fell through the floor?

    Without having enough breath to let out any sort of panicked scream, the teen would land on her back, in the rubble, with a squeaky heave. Graceful. Yes. This must be the sort of person deserving of some fancy, ancient weapon.

    But, once she had properly gathered her bearings again, the wild-haired teen bounced to her feet. Or, bounced as well as someone who had the wind knocked out of them could! And, there didn't seem to be time to think. People really did need help, didn't they? Somehow, Sasha had a bow and... was that a knight-thing version of Akemi being crazy? Maybe they were both being crazy.

    Maybe it was just Elsie being crazy. Did boredom make her hallucinate all of this? It was starting to feel like it. "Oh my god, what even," the blonde mumbled to herself, not even finishing whatever she was saying before she broke into a run.

    She wasn't really sure if this entity charging at Sasha was actually Akemi, or not. This place was weird enough, as it was. It was probably some sort of trick, right? The only thing that seemed certain was that this fight needed to end somehow! Before someone got hurt! Unless they were all a really vivid hallucination. Then, it was just before Elsie would end up hurting herself! Either way, as she gained on the strange Akemi-being, she raised the morningstar once more. As soon as she'd get close enough, she was sure to swing it at Akemi!

    The question was, would that actually do anything? And, what kind of situation had Elsie just fallen into?!

The amount of things that happened in such a short amount of time were almost enough to throw Sasha for a loop: the ceiling collapsing, Elsie appearing from the rubble wielding what looked like a huge spiked club of some description and coming to her rescue by swinging it at the pursuing Akemi.

It was enough for her to stop in her tracks and look back at the scene in honest to god and complete stupor. "What even" indeed.

She was forced to snap back to reality however as the clash of metal against metal signaled the fact that Akemi had finally changed targets! Despite the armored guardian having seemingly shrugged off most of the attacks fired in her direction so far she didn't seem too keen in letting that morningstar hit it's mark.

Leaving her shield away from her knee. Leaving her one weakspot unprotected at last. As the blonde russian aimed the charged bow in the direction of Akemi's glowing knee, she knew that she wouldn't get a better shot than this, she didn't even have time to let Elsie know. She could only hope she wouldn't get in the way of her shot.

Now.

As she let go of the string and could almost feel herself be pushed back by the accumulated force within the weapon, she could only pray it her attack would hit.

Hopefully for the last time.

    Was the battle looking up? Certainly! The distraction that Elsie had caused was enough for Sasha's arrow to sail true, and hit Akemi directly in the designated spot. A burst of light enveloped the armor, followed by deafening blast that pushed Elsie back due to proximity.

    That was the last thing Sasha would see before she collapsed. The stress of the fight, plus the bow's whispers had done her in; consciousness left her shortly after. At least, it would be a temporary slumber rather than a permanent one, so there was that.

    Likewise, Akemi would find herself collapsing on the floor as well. Before her consciousness left her, a brief moment of clarity would give her back her real thoughts. Would she say anything about her previous condition before passing out? The only true fact was that she had bitten the dust as well.

    So, what would Elsie see? After the blinding light coming from Akemi's defeat, Sasha fell unconscious while the shorter girl's armor clattered to the ground, leaving the girl's usual attire exposed. And, just like the older woman, she seemed to be out cold.

    What would she do? At least, initially, she had more things to worry about; before she could do anything regarding the current situation, the girl would feel a sharp stab on her side, accompanied by an unnatural amount of heat and a rather unpleasant sizzling sound. Elsie probably didn't have any experience with medieval medicine, but it was almost as if her wound was being cauterized! Sure, it hurt like hell for those brief seconds, but once the pain was over, she'd find that the only evidence of Akemi's thrust was the rip of Evie's her clothes. No wound, no scar, nothing like that. Convenient, and maybe worth the temporary agony!

    Now, what would she do regarding the two unconscious girls? Or the new situation she had found herself in? Would she try to advance on her own, or maybe try to wake the girls up? No way to know.

---

    Once those events passed, Katherine and Anzu would find themselves in a now-empty room, with a slight twist when compared to the previous moments. Suddenly, and without any prompt at all, a blue light began to expand and elongate, taking the form what looked like a portal. It stood there silently, almost as if it had been there the whole.

    Was that their escape route, or yet another test for the two to face? Could it be that their time in this weird room was at an end? What would they do about it?

“Eventually, time is only an adventure. Sometimes slow, like a rock sinking.”

Her eyes widened while the battle reached an end and the room she and Anzu were in turned to white again, all of this before changing shape. These words went through Katherine’s head, over and over again. She could not help but think all of this was some sort of recreation of something that had happened in the past, or simply the will of ancient beings dragging them around. But… why? What did any of this have to do with Kara-nam as a settlement inside the Dark Area? Why were they trying to tell them? Was this group still a thing, even?

The curly haired girl could not help but feel all of these answers were not only far more complicated than what she could imagine, but they were also too far from their grasp right now. As a matter of fact, it was likely they were leaving this place without fully understanding what was going on. She didn’t like that. Not one bit.

A sigh.

“Let’s go.”

Slowly, she walked towards the portal, being followed by Anzu

    Saying that things were going well was probably a bit of an overstatement at the moment. Yet, considering that nobody was mere moments away from dying right now was a vast improvement compared to some seconds ago. The bad side? Akemi and Sasha were still unconscious, and Elsie looked like she didn't want to move an inch until she got at least some sort of reaction from them. An intelligent decision, probably.

    For now, Neither woman showed signs of waking up; it seemed like the fight and the foreign influences on their minds had caused too much exhaustion to them. Maybe there was something the blonde could do for them? Considering that most of the room was extremely plain at the moment, that seemed to be really unlikely.

    It was quite a sudden change of atmosphere, all things considered; the sounds of a rather brutal fight, followed by the occasional quip from Elsie and the faint sound of flowing water at the distance. The newfound silence was unsettling, to say the least.

---

    Or would be, at least for a couple of moments. Past the portal, Katherine and Anzu —suddenly back on her Tsukaimon form— would find themselves on a dimly lit passageway; wide and long enough for the duo to be unable to discern pretty much the entirety of it of it, the only object able to catch their attention was the faint shimmering of crystal clear water emitted from a two-tiered fountain, practically next to them. At its apex, a polished, silverish object rested, even if its actual shape couldn't be discerned clearly.

    Maybe some light would help in a situation like this one? Could either of them provide with some? Access to it would certainly help

---

    Elsie couldn't explain it, but she felt a disturbance coming from beyond the far end of the room. She didn't know why, but she certain that somebody was there now.

    What would she do with that piece of information? Would they be friend or foe?

She did not think it was going to be like this but... actually being unable to see Akemi and Sasha, was even more unsetting than seeing them. Which was quite surprising, considering the latter was a task that could even be described as exhausting. What could be happening to them right now? A bit worried, the curly-haired girl kept moving through the portal, until she reached the hall with the water fountain. Could this be related to that sound of water they had heard before? She was even having trouble to remember what that meant in the previous room. Probably a consequence of how grinding this whole ordeal had been.

"Sure." Katherine issued a small nod towards Anzu, lighting up the screen of her digivice and pointing it towards the fountain, after getting as close as possible to it. So... what was lying there? Whatever it was, Katherine was not picking that up just yet.