Glayp'neir

"S-SHIT, NOW YOU'RE COMING OUT THE WALLS?!" Airgetlam yells as she clambers backward. She looks behind her and stumbles toward Doc and the newcomer and readies her shortsword for combat.

"Ok, so let's make sure this isn't how we meet our end, got it?" She says, gripping her sword, ready to stab forth or slash across her field of movement. She considers something however, and recalls that they have a sort of shadowy energy about them, so it might be smart to load her crossbow. She figures she'll probably only have time for one.

She fiddles with her pockets and pulls out an incendiary bolt and pulls the sleep bolt right out of the bridge and slots the incendiary right in it's stead. She quickly aims it roughly and fires at the creature before her, waiting for it's impending immolation while still walking back to give it space to burn should it catch.

Richard consumes a bit of his sundae. "Heh, just like i thought, the big guy knows something about the eastern conflict Jian is wrapped up in it seems... Though now i'm wondering if he's talking about someone else, not Jian. He's a bit unnerving, but i'm pretty sure i can play this cool and grab some info in the process; Might be able to figure out what they're after Jian for and/or see if i can throw em even further off our trail..."

RD comtemplates as he picks up the pouch and weighs it a bit in his hand. "Hmph. thought you might have a bit more than this... but judging by ur bud's choice in threads I shoulda expected this..." He says with a bit of a sneer, ribbing at the lanky man yet again, as he tosses the pouch back onto the table "Hmm... guess i could give you a bit of info, maybe make a bit of an exchange eh? To compensate for the difference maybe huh? You tell me a bit of this eastern kid's story, why you're so set on snagging this slimeball and i'll see if i can give you a bit of a lead on where this band of thieves is currently known to roam, and maybe a few details on what to expect from em depending on how much ya let me know? Hell cut me in for some more coin and ya may just be able to consider my sword one of your own! Least til' we've located that group of cut-throats." Letting the man know that he wasn't in it for a career and would consider it as more mercenary work.

As they mull it over RD scoops a small bit of the sundae into his mouth, savoring the sweet flavor with a smile, when suddenly Sharpe pulls him away. Before he's out of earshot of the men he yells "THINK IT OVAH! I'MMA TALK BUSINESS WITH MAH PARTNER HERE FIRST!

Point-man wants an explanation, RD nods and shrugs, he couldn't blame him for being a bit pissed. He kinda winged it on this one, following a hunch without letting his wingman know what's what before acting. He places his sundae down on the counter before explaining, "Mah bad Point-man, i've been running solo so long, doing my own thang during these Jobs... I'm a bit lacking in the team-work department now it seems, so lemme give ya the low down on what's goin' down." He huddles in a bit closer so they won't he heard over the din of the bar. "Turns out that big lug over there," he gestures towards the larger intimidating man "...is on the trail of an eastern refugee. Now from what he's said so far this one was last seen heading out into the woods with a group of thieves, so i'm pretty sure he's not talking about our bud Jian. Still i'm thinking we may be able to help Jian out a bit; see if we can get a handle on the refugee they're after and we may just figure out why exactly these punks are after the eastern refugees, at the same time we might even throw them off our trail, give Jian a  bit more breathing room here in the city so he can roam around without watching his back for these thugs. Basically what i'm saying Point-Man, is this is a golden opportunity to collect some vital info on Jian's situation and lose a bit of heat if we play it right. I'm pretty sure if we skip out on this chance right now, its not gonna wait around; we'll lose it and possibly any chance to lighten Jian's load a bit, or at least give the kid a drive, a reason to fight..."

He looks his old friend right in his eyes and tightens his own expression a bit, shifting their details to let Sharpe know he's serious and wouldn't feel right with taking no as an answer. "I want to help this kid out. Hell i want to help everyone in our(?) ragtag group out. They're a bit odd so far as i've seen but they're good people. I don't think the kid deserves to be hunted down like he has been so far. He shouldn't have to hide. Jian has that look in his eyes that we've seen before, man. A look like he's lost more than can ever possibly be reimbursed and is living just to say he survived for those who weren't so lucky. Unlike the other times this man is close, at least close to the people i care for, so lets fix it this time. Lets do what we do best." He backs away to a normal speaking distance, "You got my back on this Point-man?" He juts his fist out for a fist-bump, hoping the man would return the gesture.

Jian's head fall back a bit with his eyes opening a bit wider. Quite an explanation that was given from Jack there, he has to admit. And with him finishing that it's the "best damn" fruit salad that he ever had, Jian can't help but blush a little.

"W-well... I didn't want to pry, I am sorry. I... a-am glad that you seem to enjoy my fruit salad though but I d-doubt it is thaaaat good", he says, not sure how to handle the compliment. He also can't help but feel sorry for Jack, as he has lost his family earlier than Jian did. He gets up and grabs two mugs, takes one of the containers which has a green powder in it of sorts, boils up some water in a bit of a haste and sighs. He fills both mugs with a bit of the green powder, pouring hot water over it while stirring gently, then handing Jack one of the two.

"Green tea, it helps you relax, have some", he says, smiling.

Dr. Atrium lets out a yelp when he falls down into nothing and lands on the roof with a thud. He quickly gets on his feet and looks around for a brief moment. He sees Airgetlam, then the monster.

"I'm not to sure what just happened but lets handle this first. Lox, stand to the side, you are tired from when you did the windy thing. Air! I am going to try to attack this thing straight on, cover me!"

He raises his hands and focuses on changing them into super sharp claws. It takes it a moment but his hands start to grow out and become very sharp. Doc then lunges at monster with is right claw out in front of him and aims to shove his claw through the monsters torso.

Lox gasps in surprise as he falls through the boat and into the water he closes his eyes and begins awkwardly flailing his arms and legs, trying to float to the surface of this water before falling onto his ass right behind Doc. He slowly opens an eye and peeks at the two standing battle ready in front of his before brushing himself off and rising to his feet. He heard Doc telling him to take a rest, and appreciated the sentiment, but he was starting to feel a little bit better. The scare of falling through the boat had got his blood pumping a bit, and if that wasn't enough once he got to his feet and his vision began to adjust, he immediately recognized the woman who had been tailing him. In a fit of panic Lox yanked his dagger from a side pocket in his backpack and with a reverse handed grip on the weapon quickly stepped in front of the doctor. "GET BACK DOC!" he shouted out before calming his tone a bit. "That's her! That's the assassin!" Though his dagger hand was a bit shaky, Lox still glared at the woman in a weak attempt to threaten her. "Look lady I need answers from this guy so you're not laying a..." At that moment Lox's eyes caught sight of the creatures bearing down on the trio, and he nervously took a step back with a look of terror on his face. "...Wh-what the hell is that!?" Seeing the Doc's hands transform into a pair of beastly looking claws Lox's questions only furthered, he stared at the man charging forth with a dumbfounded look on his face and simply stayed out of his way...yup...it was official...he was in over his head.

Lox stared at the creature, and the others bearing down behind it for a while before taking a deep breath and trying to steady his trembling hand, after a little while he took another step back, and put away his dagger. These creatures didn't look like anything he could go hand-to-hand with, and seeing those strange shadows pouring from it he didn't plan on it. After another moment of staring at the creature he finally pried his eyes from it and began to intently examine his surroundings. He wasn't sure about the other two...or well...at least the girl, but the only thing on his mind was how to come out on top without actually fighting. Lox sighed heavily, and then took another deep breath, then another step back. Lox closed his eyes and began rubbing his temples a bit, his mind cruising through all of the data he had memorized from his brother's notebook, and everything his frantic eyes could pick up from his quick survey of his surroundings. They seemed to be high up on a catwalk of sorts, some of the steam survived his air blasts, and the woman seemed to be in possession of a crossbow, as well as plenty of bolts to load it with. The look on his face once again easily portrayed the gears turning in his brain.

The Doc claws through the creature threatening Air, feeling a surprising amount of force. Almost as if he had just punched clean through a bunch of bricks. It didn't hurt him, but he definately felt the force. These things seem thought- or so he thinks before it falls appart before his very eyes, leaving only bones and shadowy masses. The other creatures step forward, and as they step through what once was a failed creature they begin to absorb its shadows, as it clots itself around them, making them seemingly grow larger. The Doc hadn't realized it untill now, but his claw is suddenly under great amounts of stinging pain, as left over shadowy residue tries to singe itself into his hand. The creatures converge closer, revealing a few more in tow.




Back at the Inn, the big guy raises his eyebrow as his potential informant leaves just as abruptly as he had come, and is now talking to someone else. He leans forward a bit and rests his heavy arms on the table, letting it creak under his weight. He looks at the two men, and begins assessing the situation but is eventually distracted by a man coming to refill his drink. The other man meanwhile grunts and gets up from the table, straightening his jacket. He says something inaudible to the big guy and picks up the sack of coins and makes his way to the exit, leaving the big guy and his mercs to themselves.

Sharpe listens to what RD has to say, nodding but looking at the ground at the same time whilst having his arms crossed.

"Yeah, I see what you're gettin' at." He looks up at RD and returns his fist bump.

"Count me, then. Just remember why we came to this inn. If we accept too many jobs we won't be able to do them all, but I'll make an exception for this one." he says and retrieves his beer, then stands behind RD.

"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to check the upper floor for our clients." With that he goes off searching for the staircase to the second story

Airgetlam begins to backpedal as she returns to reality, finding she has not actually fired her crossbow. She hefts it, aiming it level with the monstrosities' torsos, analyzing the situation at-hand. She looks to Doc and the newcomer with one of the more panicked faces she's experienced.

"Might one of you two have a large amount of oil or alcohol you don't care about? Just dump it on them and the ground and run like hell *that* way!" she says, pointing in the direction opposite that of the kill team. As she tells them this, she manages to slot another incendiary bolt in place of one of the loaded syringes. She brings the weapon back up to her shoulder, ready to actually fire once the two of them dowse the hostiles... that is, if they have the aforementioned materials.

RD grins when the gesture is returned. "Gotcha Point-man, i'll go discuss the finer details of this... negotiation of sorts, and hopefully you'll have found our clients by the time i'm done." He finishes off his sundae and walks back to the table with the larger man, noting that one of the men seemed to have taken off with the pouch of coins.

"Sorry about that, my partner and I needed to decide what we were gonna do about the another job we're on at the moment, he figures we should accomplish that one first, but i think you what you guys have going on is a bit more appealing... Though admittedly he's right about one thing; the other job currently pays more, so we're leaning that way... Unless you guys have a better offer, though i'll still accept the info about why ya'll re' pursuing that particular bounty, in exchange for my info on your target..." He looked around a bit to see if he could spot the man who was with them earlier. "... So... what happened to the other guy who was rolling with ya, and on that note where's the money? If ya'll are just gonna pass me up on the info i have to offer, that's fine, my partner and I will just head on back to our original job."

RD had remembered reading info on a group of thieves attacking travelers somewhat outside the city limits earlier on the bounty board, they didn't seem to be killing anyone so he didn't think they were serious enough to be a threat; hell the bounty on them wasn't particularly high either, so he had glanced it over, but didn't look into it much. Still he knew of where they frequented and used that info to give himself a rough guess as to where they would most likely strike, in case he had a chance to handle them later on, he knew where he may be attacked at. Never hurt to be prepared. But even if the info he had for them was mildly vague, It was still info that could help these goons cut some serious time off their search, and as with any job, Time is Money.

Jian sits down in front of Jack at the table again, just tilting his head a little due to the lack of response.

"Not a fan of tea...? It will help you calm and take thing at a slower pace. It would be also quite sad to let it go to waste hm? It's as fresh as it can get after all.", he says then, silently looking at Jack thereafter, awaiting a reaction.

In the time being, he thinks for a moment, then taking a sigh before drinking a bit of the tea. He gets up and walks to the window, then to the doorframe.

"I'll check on Clarent, I guess. Give the tea a try, I am sure it won't be that bad.", he says, then walking up the stairs in a rather slow and calm manner before entering the room to have a look. He looks around, it's so... quiet. A feeling he barely is used to nowadays. He steps in slowly, leaving off a mild thump with each step before sitting down next to the bed, looking into Clarent's face.

"Mhh... Poor thing. Reminds me of what happened five years ago. Don't worry, we'll find a way out, just... hang in there.", he then says with concern on his face, wiping off a bit sweat carefully.

Dr. Atrium lets out a yell of pain as he swings his claw around as to get all the residue off. He then brings his claws up and uses Protraction to make two shadow claws come out of the ground. He swings the claws at the other monster that is near Lox. The monster doges his attacks for a bit until he finally is able to get the claw to go through that one as well. Its takes more to pierce the monster. He watches the shadow leak from the monster and move to the last remaining one. Doc stops the shadow and looks at Airgetlam.

"No! Don't use fire, we don't want unwanted attention. Use a holy bolt...you did buy some right?!"

After his miniature panic attack after seeing the creatures, Lox had begun to wonder to himself. " What ARE these things? " he muttered to himself before turning his back to the creatures, and the group. He pulled out his inkwell and began drawing on the ground as the other fought. A simple circle within another circle, though big enough so even the little circle could easily surround himself, he took a few steps back and began drawing another circle all over again when he heard a body drop right behind him. He quickly turned to see once of the monsters on the ground behind him, a shadowy claw being pull out of it's body. He cocked an eyebrow upon noticing that the shadowy claw belonged to the doc, and that he was using some sort of magic to control the hands. Lox closed his eyes and shook his head for a moment, if this was going to have even the slightest chance of working, he needed to focus, although not turning his back to the action would probably be a wise move. He finishes the second set of circles and steps back even further to draw yet a third set, once he draws the third set of circles he turns to the wall, and begins drawing yet again. This time he draws the rune he had used before with the steam, a diamond shape, with the bottom corner forming into a teardrop shape. Above the top corner of the diamond he drew another diamond, this one without the teardrop and instead with a line connecting each of the four corners. He looked up to make sure none of the remaining monsters had eyed him as a target yet before drawing the final rune underneath the teardrop of one of his prior runes. Two lines, one vertical and the other horizontal, neither were connected though if they had been the horizontal line would have connected to the center of the vertical one given it's placement to the left of the vertical line. Lox let out a small sigh and stepped back, he was finally finished!

At this point he turned to the group in time to hear the doctor's request towards the mysterious woman. " Holy bolts? Assuming these beasts are driven by their shadows... WAIT!" Lox shouts out at the last second, obviously not helping their current level of stealth, he scurries forward, making sure not to scuff up his runes before looking back at them to double check them for a split second. When he turned back to the group he had a cocky smirk on his face, his eyes practically glowing with excitement. "We should find out more about these things! Their anatomy, their weak spots, what makes them tick! ...Let's capture one!" He knew their acceptance of his proposal was a long shot, not to mention actually catching one, but he was somewhat confident in his plan, and would love the opportunity to study them further. "As long as we have something to tranquilize one of them we should be able to pull it off!"

Jack hesitates. Eventually, he pours himself some of the tea and follows Jian to Clarent's room. He has always been mystified by disease because he has never gotten sick. Must have been some sort of heavenly gift this whole time it seems. He puts his hand on her forehead.

"Damn, still burning up."

Jack takes a sip of his tea, pondering what it would actually be like to have a fever.

"Do you think the doctor might be able to find a cure. I know his magic only works on flesh wounds, but he is resourceful, and I don't think any of us are able to help her. How puzzling her condition is. Truly the human body is the most complex piece of machinery on the planet. Although maybe the doctor is right, and her disease is from being possessed by Lady Dahaka and defies normal anatomy being magic based. Curing this seems quite frustrating and confusing."

The big man laughs for a short moment. A hearty and strong laugh but it stops as quickly as it happened. He then bobs his head a bit and holds his hand out to the side gesturing to the door. "He says business is over and he wishes not to share our money or information." He pauses for a moment as his new drink arrives and clasps it with both hands, looking back at RD from the table. "Maybe I don't care what he says, but he has my money now, right? So business is not mine any longer."
The man smiles, occasionally looking back at Sharpe.



The creatures continue to shamble towards them. One of the creatures in the back decides to attack despite the other creatures infront of it, lashing forward with a whip like arm as it extends and pierces the bodies of two of the other creatures and lashes out at Airgetlam, only narrowly cutting away at her clothing. The pierced creatures stop dead in their tracks while the others continue on. Suddenly they are leashed back and quickly fused with the body of the initial attacker, who has now grown almost the size of the building, with a terrifying skull staring down at the group and shadows dripping out of its eyesockets.

Sharpe finds the staircase he was looking for and places his foot on the first step, then looks over at RD, and apparently the big burly man who is glancing at him as well, albeit sparsely. He tips his hat to the man once, and walks up the stairs he had never been to the upstairs are of the inn before, not during his previous visit and definitely not before that either. The wood creaks with each step he takes, but it's a more homey creak rather than an uncomfortable, foreboding creak. He finds himself planting his boot heel on the last step and he turns to the first room and knocks.

"Hello? Someone put out a notice asking for an escort?" He asks loudly, but doesn't get a response. Either the room has someone in it who isn't who put the bounty out, or its simply empty. He moves down the hall, past the first set of rooms, and three rooms - the second on his left and the two on his right are all empty. He comes to the third room on the left-hand side and he knocks.

"Excuse me, but I'm looking for two people who put out a job notice on the bounty board, asking for an escort to a town nearby?" he asks loudly again, this time with a bit more elaboration, perhaps that might do the trick. He awaits a response at this one for longer, perhaps this'll be the room.

Airgetlam looks back at Doc, thinking back to the market. She quickly looks about her body and recalls that she did not buy the holy bolts, which would really have come in handy at this point

"Shit! I didn't!" She says, then looks back to find the thing has now consumed two more of it's kin, and She stares up at the thing in almost-terror.

"S-shit..." She stammers.

"We should run. NOW." She says and turns around, running back, careful not to step on those... drawings... the guy drew into the ground.

"Iunno about you guys but that's just too big for me, and I'm not about to bring one of these home with me! We don't have any way to contain them and they're already scary as hell to begin with!" Something in her brain snaps for a moment, and she gets an idea.

"Hey, there was a kill team a ways back that I saw, combing through here, maybe we can get them to kill this and we can run off before they can react to us!"

Without much more ado, She takes off in the direction of the kill team, staying off to the sides and alleyways when she can so they don't shoot her on site.

RD stares at the burly man rather blankly, a bit of disbelief that he wasn't the one running the show, this man looked clearly stronger and smarter than his counterpart.

"So that's it then? Hm. Ah well, i was hoping to earn a lil' extra coin on the side, but whatever..." He folds his arms and considers for a moment; he's a bit bummed that he couldn't make a little bit of extra dough but he still just might get something outta this.

"...Still I've been hearing quite a bit about these refugees so far, lots of juicy bounties getting put up for em too... Have any idea why? Sounds like something getting stirred up east-side, and there could be some serious dough in whatever's going on over there; You look like you've got it all figured out. Without any money i'm not willing to work for ya, but i'm still willing to trade info if ya like. Hell, I like your attitude a bit more than your partner's, he's just rude." RD chuckles lightly.

At this point, he's basically zoned it down to two options if he honestly wants to pursue this any further, If he gets some info from this man he could leave it at that and possibly follow up on it later if he spots them again, or just forget it for now and run the escort with Sharpe. He may run into them later or maybe not, but worse come to worse, there we're other fish in the sea, he'd pass on it and just find some other mooks who knew a bit more, he didn't want them getting suspicious and tracking him straight to Jian after all.

"This is not really a sickness we're dealing with here, at least from what I've gathered. This is more... of a state of being posessed, slowly getting worse. At least RD mentioned something of the sorts going on here. How to cure this? I have no clue sadly, but no medicine can cure it, just... keep her calm and sane, I guess.", he says then scratching his head in sadness and a bit of a disbelief

"Just like five years ago...", he then sighs afterwards and to himself, brushing against her cheek for a second, then facing Jack.

"Ahhh, I see that you decided to drink some of the tea, I hope it is to your liking, it'll calm your mind and body. At least that's how we calm ourselves in the east a lot. But yeah... I am afraid there's nothing the doc, or me, can do to get her back into the state we want her to be. Let's just hope they'll get back fine and come up with the right solution... I don't want this to end for the worst."

Dr. Atrium stares up at the monster looking down at him. He can't help feel as though this is his fault. If they would of ran after they say the first one get absorbed into one of the others, this giant monstrosity won't be here. He growls and turns to Airgetlam and Lox, his eyes shining silver.

"You two need to run and don't look back. I am going to try something but if you are too close, it will seriously harm you! Do NOT argue nor ignore me! NOW RUN!"

Doc watches Air take off and when he sees Lox just stand there, he use his claw to push him. He watch them run about three buildings away, then turns back to the monster.

"You are NOT going to harm the people in this town!"

Doc then closes his eyes and starts to focus. He pulls what little power the moon will give him given it is day, and he pulls what life is around him. He stands in front of the monster looming over there without a hint of fear. The energy that is around him is one of the biggest rushes he has had in a long him. The heat it is giving off is making him sweat a little and his heart is racing. There is a bright white aura around him that if one was to look at it, it would be like looking into a bright light. He then quickly opens his eyes when he feels the monster moving and raises his hands. His shadow behind him starts to rise out from the ground and he forms it into the biggest shadow claw he has ever made, pouring all the power he has into it. He takes a step forward as if he was going to start dashing and thrusts his hands forward as well. The giant claw moves quickly and pushes it into a building that was behind it. He then moves the claw so it is pinning the monsters arms to its sides and pins it to the wall of the building. Atrium is panting do to it being hard to keep the monster in place as it fights to get free. He then yells as loud as he can. He remembers Mitsuki telling him as they where walking that the kill squad is still out.

"There is a monster! I need help!"

What Doc doesn't realize is that he just yelling in fairy tongue, witch to everyone who isn't a fairy, just sounds like a loud roar that echos.

Having been pushed away by one of the mysterious shadow hands, Lox frowned a bit and remained in place until he became blinded by the intense light that Doc's aura was giving off. After realizing sticking around to analyze the situation was becoming less and less of an option he finally gave up and turned around to follow after the mysterious woman. Who was she? And why did the doc care about saving the woman who was tailing him for his head? After a moment of pondering Lox shook his head and slung his backpack over his shoulder before going into a full sprint until he eventually caught up to the woman. As he strolled behind her he took the inkwell from his bag and began drawing onto both of his palms as he trailed her, he knew he was probably being fairly obvious, he knew he was nowhere near as stealthy as her, or just about anyone else for that matter. Nonetheless he still trailed behind the only lead he had to the Doc right now, and with the Doc locked into the fight with the ominous shadowy creature, he wasn't about to let her go. Maybe she could lead him to the cat lady, maybe Doc would be able to catch back up with her, and then he would be right here with his questions. Either way he continued strolling behind the lady with steps that, while not at all light, weren't very heavy either, they were just somewhere in the middle.

"You won't get his head y'know...not till I'm done getting some info out of him anyway." Lox blurted out to break the silence that the pseudo-ninja was no doubt content with. Still being in the dark about her allegiance to the Doc, Lox continued eyeballing her with his suspicious gaze before shoving the inkwell back into his bag and continuing behind the woman, his arms hanging by his side and his fingers relaxed so as not to smudge the ink of the runes he had just drawn onto both of his palms.

"Did you know anything about Clarent? I just got a letter and was sent to the castle for heavens know why. You and the others were the ones who were actually tasked with finding her. Also, What happened five years ago? Was it actually something like this?...Gah...The one thing I appreciated about life before the castle was there wasn't so many questions. Question I could do nothing about but hold my breath and wait to get answered. It's so frustrating."

RD and the man sit at the table, with none of the mercenaries listening in, but instead minding their own business. As they are paid to do. The man looks off to the side a bit, not so much to look around as just in thought and remains still for a while. He folds his hands and nodds his head before returning his attention back at RD. "Yes. He's a very bratty kid, and I'll be glad not to have to deal with him anymore." he says and then leans forward a bit more. "Problem about this kind of business is that you only ask for what you need to know to get paid, and how much you'll get paid once the business is done. If she wants to retrieve her missing sheep for her petty eastern emperor that is her thing. As long as I get paid..." he takes a few gulps of his drink and puts the glass down with surprisingly gentle care, when one would have thought him to slam it down on the table like people his stature usually do. "I suppose the real information I seek is less about the boy and more about you. Most peeps would have flown away once the money is off the table. Tell me your business and I'll consider returning the favor."

The door infront of sharpe opens, but only just enough for a woman to look outside. "You're here for the notice? We don't need your help anymore, thank you." She says, her somewhat wide eyes staring at him before she closes the door.



The creature writhes and twists, trying to get free of doc's claw but finds itself stuck entirely. As the doc yells out in fairy tounge it retorts with a roar of its own, both which can be heard from quite a distance away. The creature tries to claw at the doc's shadow hand but continues to stay suspended against the wall with no visible signs of it getting out. With surprisingly fast notice, the Doctor can hear heavy footsteps of boots running down various alley ways. The Killsquad, or other Guards must be on the way. And sure enough after only a few long moments various armored guards with rifles and swords drawn appear in the alleyway to his flank. They all seem mostly surprised, except for the two captains standing at the front. Without any second questions the two give the handsignal to ready their aim "There's one! ...Ready!" they bark simultaneously as they raise their hands. The doc only gets a glimpse of this in when he suddenly notices one of the creatures limbs has managed to reach up towards the roof of the building and begun to fuse with the small shadow the roof gives. The shadowy portion of the creature disappears quickly and all that is left is the bones and small bits of discoloured flesh. Without the creatures resistance, the doctors shadow claw tears through the wall of the building, crushing the bones beneath its weight. "Fire!" one of the captains yells and the men in the alley get ready to pull the trigger.



At the house, Jian and Jack are conversing in the room Clarent is being taken care in. She is still asleep in bed, with only a light fever but nothing too serious. Jian is about to answer to Jacks comments when suddenly Clarent's eyes open and she gasps, sitting upright. She suddenly seems out of breath, as if she had been running around the block a few times and looks around the room. "Where..." she mutters somewhat under her breath and looks at Jack and then Jian, not recognizing either. She tries to get out of bed but stumbles before even getting up and falls out of it and onto the floor, seemingly in sudden distress as she clutches her chest. "Where is it..., where did I put it..." she mutters and tries to get up, stumbling at the door and pushing out into the hallway, resting against the wall. Jian and Jack are taken by surprise and Clarent carefully makes her way down the stairs, only to then fall against the front door as she fiddles around with the doorhandle.

"Uh, hey, yeah, I am here abou-" He says but is cut off by the woman closing the door. Before she does so completely, however, he props his foot between the door and the frame and leans over to look at her through the opening, only a few inches wide.

"May I have an explanation for why the contract was retracted? I'm not meaning to probe nor will i ask for refunding, just curious so I'll at least have some sort of debrief so maybe I can get my money back with the guys working the booth." He asks, his hands up, looking at her in a non-threatening way, with his hands up, so as to appear non-invasive.

"If it's too private a reason, I'll relent, just I like to have reasoning."

RD chuckled as the larger man grumbled about having to take care of a bratty kid. Through it though he could tell this man definitely knew more about his own personal job despite popping a line such as 'ask for what you need to know to get paid.' "Who is he talking about? She? Retrieving sheep for her her petty emperor? Hmm. So the eastern emperor is seeking refugees from his country in order to cover up something perhaps?... and this something is connected to Jian somehow... Dammit, i need more info, but its a good start."

"You want something on me? Heh. I'll admit i'm a bit of an oddball." Richard says as he shrugs and leans back in his chair, resting his hands behind his head, and seeming to relax a bit. "I'm just seeking something interesting to do, trying to make a bit of a name for myself ya might say. Last few jobs have been a bit tiring, its the same old same old and yanno how that gets. I'm looking for a little something to make the job interesting again, give it that spice it used to have, eh? Maybe get my name in good with some bigwig while i'm at it and move up a bit, start making some real dough. The scratch i'm making right now ain't good enough, I'm making enough to get by, yeah, but i'mma need a big gig to keep my equipment up to snuff..." RD gestures at his gear, yeah it was well maintained and could take a few more months maybe, but the toll it had taken was definitely starting to show.

"Ya see mah man," He points at the large man across the table, "some people wouldn't catch on right away and think maybe you're just after these people to punish em' for some wrong they did, and that could very well be the case, but like I said earlier, I've seen you around before looking for the same thing eh?" Richard leans in closer to the table, "You've been around a bit too long for it to be so simple. I had a feeling you might just be on a big job, something i might be interested in participating in, and you say the emperor? That means big money. Just the kinda job i'm looking for. So c'mon man, what's going on in the east? Why'd they need to send a 'Shepard to herd in the sheep'?" He then grins a big, almost carnivorous grin, "How do i get in on this?!?"

Standing there, in deep shock, Jian quickly looks to Jack.

"I think I know what she wants! Shit, this is not the right time for this to happen. God damnit, really?", he yells out at Jack, "I just can feel that it's related! Damnit, it shouldn't of been taken away, this is really bad! We got no time to lose, we have to calm her down somehow and find the doc, this is not how it's supposed to go!"

Jian rushes down the stairs, building up a sweat, pulling her away from the door, he quickly stuffs his hand into a pouch, rubbing some herbs onto her tounge in a bit of her haste, having her forcefully swallow with a finger pushing it down a bit, but not harshly.

"God damnit, this is totally not how I predicted it would go, we have to get to the doc, he has to come back fast or we gotta find him, but we gotta have one person look after Clarent... Or drag her along somehow, but it's gotta be FAST!", he then yells up the stairs, making his point as clear as possble.