Vestigial Self [Closed - Miharu]

She had no time to properly get out of the way of the blast, as the momentum of her jump couldn't be interrupted at the moment, all she could do is push ahead and hope her attack would land before it had a chance to attack properly. However, she would suddenly feel a powerful force would pull her back just in time for the Steed to attack, the power of its fire-acid attack hitting the ground and a nearby tombstone rather than her. "Grr, damn it!" Clearly, even that head on attack wasn't going to work if the Steed could quickly retaliate like that.

Trebax was still unable to move or attack due to the seal, and Carina was having no luck with Mephisto. This definitely seemed like a one sided battle, and if they didn't turn the tides quickly enough, the women might end up joining the dead in the graveyard. The Steed would attack her and Liseran again, which would make Kassandra grab on to her and leap away from the blast, keeping her safe. "Do you have anything to cancel the sealing magic? We could use Trebax's magic." It was hard for her to say this, since she wouldn't give her own Incantus the time of day, but they needed to gain more numbers if they were to survive.

"I-I can try!" Liseran said just as she dodged the fire. "But I'll need someone to cover me!"

"Leave that to me!" Carina said. "Blue-cape, you'll have to focus on the horse!"

Mephistopheles was trying to shoot more shards of light towards the group, but Carina would cast her staff and several orbs of light would surround them, trying to brush as many away.

Liseran rushed forward, ringing her bell, in Mephistopheles' and Trebax' direction. Kassandra would hear a clear ringing sound and notice a faint shimmer in the air. She'd see a sheet of marks go forward towards the two Incantus, but she wouldn't be able to discern them as being Cartic marks. They looked far different and lacked the curves and loops most Cartic marks had. Rather they were all jagged or squarish.

Mephistopheles sneered.

"Oh, no you don't!"

Mephistopheles dodged out of the way of the sheet of marks, but Trebax the binding becoming fainter beneath him. He would, also, however, feel himself getting weaker.

Meanwhile, the steed would break out of the sheet of ice. It made a harsh neighing sound as it tried to aim a blast of green fire in Kassandra's direction again, this time free to roam where it pleased.

Liseran's words gave Kassandra a little bit of hope, enough for her to not be completely annoyed with the woman, as Carina mentioned she would help her cast whatever she had in mind. With the two focused on trying to intervene between the two Incantus, Kassandra was left alone with the Steed, which managed to break from its icy prison and focused on her again.

First, she needed to get out of the way of the attacks. Mephisto's light attack was met with Kassandra's sword, as she used it to strike at the projectile itself to deflect it away from her, while she tried to jump out of the way of the Steed's green fire shot at her. Too much dodging and not enough attacking is going to make her feel too tired to properly counterattack if she kept that up, and while trying to think of some way to fight, she saw the ice that remained on the floor, and thus had an idea.

Grabbing a rock, she threw it at the Steed's head to further provoke it, and tried to make it follow her, enough for it to stand under the icy floor again. With a quick run, she went ahead and threw her body at the ice, causing her to slide along the ground underneath, her sword positioned to slide the underside of the Steed open, and then recovering with a roll to stabilize herself.

As for Trebax, he couldn't help but be affected with whatever magic spell Liseran used. He could feel the binding around him weaken, but at the same time, his body began to feel heavy still, as if to balance the weaker grip of the spell. However, in an attempt to reignite his magic, he tried to cast a fireball at Mephisto's direction. However, no fire occurred, and instead the wolf Incantus expelled a rapidly expanding curtain of smoke in the battlefield, quickly covering the graveyard.

The smoke quickly covered the field. Liseran could barely see in it, but a gust of wind would spiral around her and create a bubble of clear air. She'd vaguely make out Carina using her staff to do the same for Kassandra. Liseran focused once again on Trebax, ringing the bell a second time. Trebax would feel the dull energy pass him like a wave, causing his bindings to almost completely vanish. If he struggled enough, he might be able to break free.

It was hard to see the horse in the smoke, but as it faded, Kassandra would see it trying to circle around the three girls and create a second blast of green fire.

Seeing that the graveyard started getting filled with Trebax's smoke, Kassandra used the fabric of the cloak that wrapped her neck, and made it clung to the lower half of her mouth, acting as a sort of mask to try and avoid the more annoying effect of the smoke. Granted, seeing was still not 100% easy, considering her eye was still pretty exposed to it, but it was still better than stopping every 5 seconds to cough. Meanwhile, Liseran's second ringing caused the bindings to weaken again, which pushed the Incantus to struggle again.

However, this time around the wolf was successful, as he let out a growl that seemed to convey a feeling of success, as he made a quick leap towards the group of girls. Kassandra saw that the Steed was going to prepare a new attack, but Trebax got between it and the group, fighting the Steed's attack with a wall of fire of his own, his fur starting to gently glow a fiery red, as if his power was slowly returning to him.

Trebax's own fire proved rather successful as it singed the beast. The steed let out an agonized screech as it backed off. Mephistopheles hissed.

"Don't back down now, you fool of an animal!"

Mephistopheles was about to send an array of his light shards again, but this time Liseran was prepared. She managed to cast another protective dome to deflect them, and just in time for Carina to toss another glowing orb at him. Mephistopheles easily dodged.

The Steed meanwhile began to back away, giving a perfect opening for another attack. Meanwhile, Mephistopheles bared his teeth and started to take flight.

"He's trying to get away!" Carina said.

What Kassandra chose to focus on would most likely mean either missing the opportunity to get rid of the steed or losing Mephistopheles.

The flames of the Steed were powerful, but Trebax's on fire stronger. He wasn't some wild creature simply seeking to destroy for the sake of it, Trebax was an Incantus with a goal, with drive, emotion and nothing but pure ego. His desire was focused on overpowering the Monster, and thus he flew his embers as strong as he could, not only managing to overpower the venomous flames, but even managed to attack the Steed successfully, its form not protecting it from the Incantus' onslaught. Of course, the Monster was weakened by the attack, and backed down from the team, but that wasn't the only threat being dealt with at the moment.

Mephistopheles was not down for the count, and opted to attack them with various light projectiles, which were lucky countered by Liseran's barrier. And their directive was just as offensive as defensive, as Carina made an attack of her own while he was busy, an attack which was narrowly avoided by the Incantus. Seeing how they were recovering ground, Mephisto chose to retreat, leaving the team with a crucial choice: Give chase to the Incantus, or getting rid of the Steed once and for all. The former would become troublesome as the Steed would be on their tail, and being both in the chase and being chased would harm their endeavor more than anything. But the latter would also mean Mephistopheles would run away, rendering their search moot.

It was a hard choice, and Kassandra didn't have much time to choose. So she did the first thing that came to her mind.

Breaking into a run, the Walpurgis went towards the Steed, clinging to the side of it and doing a small leap, allowing the momentum and her own stirring to get her on the Monster back, like quickly getting on a regular horse in a hurry. However, her idea was not to just ride the Steed into the sunset, she instead wanted to make it harder for it to hit her, while she tried to quickly off the creature by plunging her sword into the back of the Steed's neck, with the full intent of beheading it.

In a clean swipe, the Steed's head came off, leaving behind what looked like a burned stump. The Steed halted in its tracks, crashing onto its legs before lying lifeless on the floor. It's body quickly started to disintegrate into embers. Kassandra would notice Liseran running past her and shooting several blasts of lightning in the sky after Mephistopheles.

"Dammit!" Liseran cursed as she and Carina threw spell after spell.

But Mephistopheles was already gone.

Liseran gritted her teeth.

"I lost him again," she said.

"Well you're not going to catch him at this rate," Carina said placing her hands on her hips. "And if I'm honest even without that horse distracting us, he seemed like something more than we could handle."

Liseran lowered her head.

"I-I need to go after him again," she said.

Carina blinked.

"Are you insane, lady?" she said. "No offense, but you can barely seem to manage your own."

Liseran sighed.

"That may be so, but I can't just keep him loose," she said.

Carina frowned.

"Well, as much as I'd like to help with that, I have a duty to watch these grounds," she said. "Suffice to say, it was interesting to see that match. Especially you, Missy."

Carina, of course, was looking at Kassandra.

"It's nice to see a witch able to use their own kind of magic," she said. "We could only be so lucky."

Liseran in turn looked towards Kassandra.

"Thank you for your help so far," she said. "I think I should go after Mephistopheles from here, though. I sense he's going deeper into the city. That might just mean blowing your cover."

And with that, the Steed was defeated. The temblors Kassandra felt from the monster telling her that bodily functions began to cease, taking it as her cue to remove herself from the Steed. And sure enough, the body was overtaken by flames that practically engulfed the body, causing her to let out a slight sigh of relief. That was one enemy down, but their main target was not out, as Liseran would charge ahead with her weapon at the ready, doing her best to attack Mephistopheles. And effort that was sadly in vain, as the Incantus would be gone before Kassandra could aid the girls somehow.

She made a small grunt of disapproval, sharing Liseran's pain in losing her prey, as Carina berated Liseran for wanting to target such a strong enemy. Kassandra merely sheathed her sword and let her neck twist a bit, her muscles easing over such a battle. She wouldn't pay much attention to the interaction until Carina would address her directly, complimenting her skills in battle. "..." But Kassandra didn't say much, her mind being focused on how the first thing that came out of Carina's mouth was the fact that she was a witch. Liseran had a method to address her concern; gray magic. And until they can end Mephistopheles, she wouldn't impart that knowledge unto her. She won't be able to help her situation.

"Don't just stand here staring at nothing, she acknowledged your prowess. You got the makings of a great witch." And further compounding that point home was Trebax, who decided the best way to take his frustrations out of letting Mephisto retreat was to further tease his contractee, something which only made Kassandra's blood boil. "... You keep quiet beast, you'll get your chance again soon enough." And with that, she moved her cloak to cover her body again, all while Trebax did a small snicker as he walked towards it, his snout making an opening for him to enter inside it and seemingly vanish from sight.

But now that everything was done, Liseran thanked Kassandra and mentioned that she would most likely keep pursuing Mephisto on her own. "Yeah, I get that. At least you know that if you need my help, you can count on it." She said, as she then glared at Liseran. "Once that monster is dead, we will deal with my issue next. Is that clear?"

Liseran flushed at the mention of Kassandra's own end of the deal.

"A-ah..." she murmured. "But of course. I never did get to fully discuss that. But I can go into it in more detail when we talk again. When you're ready to meet me again, you can just ask for me at the Haven we were at earlier."

Liseran glanced towards the distance and then to Carina. She bowed.

"Erm...thank you, too...for your help today," she said.

"Just don't get yourself killed," Carina said. Turning to Kassandra, she smiled. "Hey, if you two are ever bored and just want to hang out, I'm just at the grounds at these hours too. I might even have a favor or two for you if you ever need some extra cash."

Liseran nodded.

"Understood," she said. "I'll see you soon, Kassandra. Divines bless you."

With that, Liseran put up her hood. She then started off into the opposite direction, leaving Kassandra to her own devices.