Dreadlords Graduation

[Luthen]

Gold
Houri | Livia Quinnick | Silas Artesto | Lumen | Zinnia | Thraah

An odd Arcane symbol flickered just over Luthen's left eye as he squatted on the tallest tower remaining within the city. The crumbling ruin had barely been standing when he'd journeyed to the city last week, though now it stood as a bastion carved with dozens of runes and wards. Each one more intricate than the last. Strengthening the stone and steadying it's fall.

Through the magic he had conjured, he watched as the first group of Initiate's began to approach. His lips turning to a smile as he recounted each of their names and magics in his mind. Good.

He thought to himself as he inwardly praised the ambitions of those who had come to take him on. A long breath drawing into his lungs as his gaze flickered, and his 'view' of the Initate's changed. Moving so that he could now witness them as they approached the entrance to the ancient ruined city.

"Lets go."​

Luthen heard Houri said, and slowly he stood.

The rain continued to patter down in steady beats, puddles beginning to form in the streets. Obscuring the road and what may lay beneath.

As the group of Initiate's stepped into the city proper. They would find the air suddenly filled with an ambience of magic. The saturation of it upon the walls, roads, and even in the very air itself making it almost impossible to find out where it was coming from.

Let's start off easy. Luthen thought with a smile, the symbol in front of his eye watching as the students entered the city, and the ground beneath them began to move.

It did not quake or split, it did not shift or begin to open. Instead, the cobbles themselves seemed to come alive. Each one stepped upon by the group of Initiates found themselves suddenly wriggling, and then popping up and out of the sand and dirt they had been buried in for so long. Within seconds, they grew legs; some six, some eight, some only three.

A face and eyes came next, and without hesitation, the cobbles threw themselves at the students who had stepped upon them. Each biting, slashing, and grabbing hold of any Initiate they could find. A strange red ooze dripping from their mouth as the gnashed their teeth in an attempt to sink it into flesh.

 

[Thraah]

GOLD TEAM

"Yaknow, this isn't sooooooWHAAAAT THE FUUUCK IS THAT SHIT?"
The ground had come alive, like a hideous fucking nest of fucking rock beetles or some shit!
Thraah kicked the first one away and sent it sprawling onto its back but there were more, more and more and fucking more!
"FUCK!"
She hit the next with a gout of fire but there was one on her leg now.
"AAAAAAGH! FUCK!"

 

[Zinnia]

"I'm with you, Zin. Houri,"

Lumen had been gone for so long that Zinnia had wondered if she'd ever come back. Seeing her at the start of the final exams made her heart soar. Kristen might have left, gone to serve her god atop some distant mountain, but another of Zinnia's closest friends had returned. Not a moment too late, either. The gold-eyed girl gave a confident smile and nod towards Lumen. This was it!

It was...rather unfortunate that Livia and Silas decided to tag along. Blegh. She didn't much care for them being sappy in her vicinity, either. And as usual, as Zinnia could overhear, Houri was at least considered while Zinnia's very presence was ignored. Some things never changed.

None of that mattered. Zinnia wasn't here for them, she was here for herself and those who had supported her. She rolled her shoulders and bounced on her heels.

"Ag-greed," she replied to Houri."Time to get moving."

---

GOLD TEAM

A whole ruined city as the testing and hunting grounds, huh? Zinnia marveled at the place. It was hard to believe that Vel Anir had such incredible resources that they could afford to just let an entire city fall to this state of disrepair. Then again, Vel Anir had always put an incredible amount of stock in ensuring that Dreadlords were as well raised as possible. Minus the abuse and ritual killings of the old ways, of course.

The group had only just began to wander in when the first trap was sprung. The cobblestones sprung to life in horrific fashion--was this the work of Luthen, or something the proctors had set up? Or perhaps the reason why the place was abandoned?

In a flash, Zinnia took up her hammer and began smashing away at the ravening creatures. Every step seemed to accidentally conjure more, though. The only guarantee of safety seemed to be in stepping where the stones had already pulled themselves to life.

Then Thraah began to scream. Zinnia hopped from one open patch to the next before leaping past Thraah, taking a croquet swing at the stone-bug on her leg. She landed on a small dirt patch, turning on her heel to try to pick out any more of the gnashing beasties.
"Step l-lightly everyone!"

 

[Aelita]

BRONZE PARTY​

Salak | Mieri

"But I think he'd probably leave the pins inside."

"Hmm, now I kind of want to know what happens if all the pins are lost," Aelita said almost underneath her breath.

As Mieri continued to describe her idea of how to go about assailing the cave, Aelita's eyes squinted - face scrunching.

"Hrm," she hummed.

With a gesture to Mieri, Aelita said, "Alright. Quietly, and carefully! The Dreadlord looked goblin-like, and they like to make pits with shit-covered spikes as traps! He's definitely chosen this place to get us with tricks and traps, somehow."

Aelita drew her staff and gave it a wave as if testing something - a shimmer of light followed. She then motioned toward the cave entrance.

"You first, of course!" she told Mieri.

 

[Salak]

BRONZE

Like any good predator Salak knew the instant his lair was penetrated.
Green eyes flickered towards the locked gate of his sanctum through still wet locks of his unnaturally grey hair.
Slowly he closed the book and took a sip of his tea.
"Hmm."
It was a little sweet for his taste but warmed him well enough. Whoever had entered the cavern had succeeded in the first task though they might not have known it.
They did not try to smoke him out.
Two possibilities, either they decided against it because they knew he would either leave the pins or die inside with them, making them harder to retrieve or they failed to have the idea entirely.
Either way he was pleased. Failure to have a bad idea was no crime to his thinking. The world had enough already.
He waited for them to stumble about in the darkness of the earth and to the pit of hallucinogenic spore releasing fungus. His immunity to poisons was the only thing that helped him get through. The spores, once inhaled, began to create dizziness and nausea then bled vision and blurred sounds. The world melted into swirling vaporous shapes. Finding ones way would be next to impossible even in regular light but in the darkness of the cavern reality became a nightmare of jagged rock and piercing echoes.
He'd have a better idea of who had followed him when they started to scream.
"Let the games begin!"

 

[Silas Artesto]

Hesitation danced at her lips, her eyes staring forward as she walked alongside Silas as they trailed slowly. Livia had kept up her training, and sparred plenty with Amelie seeing as it was Erodin that had sworn the oath to keep her safe. Amelie was a decent teacher, learning some new tricks, but none she could really explain to the boy she was in love with. Instead, she shrugged. "I learned so much... and still am. There are some places I have been to where I get to work more with the corruption magic... and I am barely scratching the surface that Henk helped me reach when..."

At this point, she picked the end of her braid that fell over her shoulder and gave it a wiggle to show the silvered locks. Corruption had leeched it of the dark brown hue the Quinnicks were known for. "Funny how things have changed since the dance... for us and my magicks." Back then, she would have settled for Proctor Salak's challenge and gone for bronze...

Before being one of the conditions to the negotiations Erodin and Amelie asked for, Livia would have settled for silver.

It was only this morning she felt confident in both of her magical powers that she could do this. That... and spite.

"Houri is going for gold. You sure coming along is a good idea?" Livia now turned to look at Silas, brows furrowed slightly.

Silas Artesto

"You're not shaking me off again already, Quill." Silas answered almost immediately, stepping forward with nary a glance in her direction, a steel gaze of determination set towards the path before them, towards the Dreadlord carrying the prize meant to be theirs."I'm sticking with you, no matter where you go." He wasn't giving her much choice in the matter.

In his frustration with her, perhaps he felt as though he couldn't. Irrational though it was, Silas feared the next time he turned his back she'd be gone again. He wasn't prepared for that, not so soon. If she tried to leave again, he'd just have to chase after her.

They both knew who'd win that race.

"We're already lagging behind. Come on, we've got to get to Tollif." Houri and the rest of 'gold team' had set off ahead of them, and Silas doubted many of the people in that group would be keen on helping him after that debacle in the kitchens a while back. No time to kick himself now. Reaching out and grasping Livia's hand, he offered as much of a smile as he could muster in the situation.

"Come on, I'll give you a lift. For old time's sake?"

With Silas' unmatched speed, they caught up to the rest of Gold Team in no time at all. When finally they crossed into the city of Tollif, however, part of Artesto wished they hadn't. Tollif had been a veritable ghost town even before Luthen had his way with it, but the pittering rain, eerie fog and magical pressure in the air only served to turn an unsettling place into a downright frightening one.

"Dropping you here." Silas said, only a few seconds into the city. He zipped over to the crumbling remains of what looked to be an old prison and gently placed Livia back on her feet. "I'd bet my ass they've got this place littered with traps. Can't risk running over one."

A clamor up ahead of them drew his attention and he squinted to peer through the mist, only barely making out the figure of Houri and a few she'd taken with her battling... something?

"There's some kinda battle up ahead... what the hell?"

So baffled was Silas, that he didn't notice the rising cobbles behind him, sprouting legs and features as they readied to attack him.

Livia Quinnick

 

[Livia Quinnick]

If Livia was to be truthful with herself, then she would care to admit that Silas Artesto knew her well. He would know she would not deny herself to be close to him, to be held in his arms as he whisked her away to catch up with the group setting out for Tollif. He knew that sentimentality in the words 'for old time's sake' would have her melt and agree to anything he said.

Once she was set down, her magic instantly have her balance as she whirled her head around to gather her bearings, see what were in their surroundings.

Traps indeed.

Livia had not said anything in the few seconds of arriving, but her magic tore her gaze to look down at the cobbled ground, jumping with surprise at what she saw.

"Shit!" She cursed aloud, pulling her magicked bow from the fastening at her back. It became her go to bow as of late, only requiring magic for a taut string to loose the arrows from the unique quiver she had brought with her. The arrow heads were fashioned in a way that they would do damage when pulled out. But for now, she used her arcane bow to swat away the horrors that came to life beneath their feet. "This is Luthen's doing!" She gritted her teeth.

Quinnick could sense him, his whereabouts clouded heavily in a haze of magic that she was unable to pinpoint his location. Clever man.

Silas Artesto

 

[Zephyrine]

Wordlessly, Ivan and Zephyrine exchanged looks before nodding. It was her way to tell him good luck, but she knew she did not need to voice it. She knew he was capable of holding his own, but the ruined ship was a vast vessel to explore. In order to work quickly, they would need to split up and find Zola and those silver pins.

She watched as Ivan went ahead, giving her a moment to assess what she could from the dock.

Dead eyes bore into her, and she turned her gaze to see bleached skeletons of Dreadlords punished during the Revolution.

"Care to give a hint, friends?" She mused aloud, smiling to herself before testing her weight against the ship brow, ready to repair it's strength at a snap second if the need called for it. It held, and to her great relief, so was the upper deck. Zephyrine walked slowly, getting a feel for the terrain up here before deciding to look for a decent way to head below deck. It was dark, and what sunlight filtered past the overcast sky barely lit anything of note in the holes of the deck.

She thought against calling out for Ivan, but Zephyrine stilled.

She had thought she heard something, and stayed quiet a moment to hear it again.

Zola

 

[Mercer Alwin]

Going for Gold

Mercer had continued to stand silently as most others paired up, she had always been a lone wolf and it didn't surprise her that she was one now. It didn't matter, she would pass or fail on her own merit. She trailed behind the other initiates as a large chunk of them broke off to head towards Luthen's domain. She would have her work cut out for her.

As her slow approach brought her to the city proper, she could feel the magic saturating everything around them. It would make Luther untraceable. Her chinned lifted as yells broke the still air, and she quickened her pace to see many of the initiates fighting already, and she cursed under her breath as she watched the street come alive.

She ignored Quinnick and Artesto, her thoughts only on aiding Houri and Zinnia. they were both classmates she could actually respect. She barely registered Thraah in the mix as she hastened her step to help rid them of the cobbled creatures. She barely heard Zinnia's warning, but it had been enough for her to consider her path carefully. Long swipes of her weapon flung the creatures widely but was nowhere near as effective as say a hammer.

Zinnia Houri Thraah

 

[Lumen]

Gold
Houri | Livia Quinnick | Silas Artesto | Lumen | Zinnia | Thraah | Luthen

She sensed him. The heat of his body. Golden eyes flickered through the rain and ruins of the city and focused on a tall tower in the distance.

There.

Arm straightened and her finger pointed ahead to Zinnia and Houri. Thraah would see it too. Even as Thraah started screaming. The ground rocked beneath her boots. She could've sworn Silas shot by them carrying a girl.

A small smile tugged on Lu's lips at another sighting of one of her friends before her attention shifted back to the cobble-stone vampires.

"Nice one Zinnia!" She yelled at the other girl even as she stepped in to block one of the abominations from her friend's back with her circular, golden shield. The streets were wet and filled with puddles. There was a slight slope that went downward, deeper into the city and toward that tower.

With a breath, the air just ahead of them began to drop in temperature. The puddles around them began to flash-freeze. She wondered if it would be enough to keep any more of the cobbles from breaking into life upward. Keep them frozen and locked down. While also...

"What do you guys say about some sledding and skating?"

 

[Houri]

Houri let the creatures crawl up her silvery armour without so much as a flicker of disgust crossing her face. Indeed, she just kept walking, as though the creatures were nothing more annoying flies swarming about her face. When nearly every inch of her armour was covered there was a sudden crackle and satisfying pop as lightning travelled down her body from head to toe. Where the creatures had latched attempting to gnaw through the metal to the skin beneath, they fell off as nothing more than dark, singed corpses. Once the lightning had passed through her it spanned out to cover the square on which she stood, clearing it of the nasty creatures.

"Do you want snow?" she asked of Lumen at her suggestion, one brow rising. She preferred the rain herself but it would not take much, especially with their combined magic to turn it to snow.

 

[Mieri]

Bronze
Aelita | Salak

"Right! Because I can dodge the traps." Mieri said, snapping her finger in Aelita's direction and grinning.

It made sense, really.

Finishing up the last of her of her stretches and ensuring that both of her wraps were nice and tight around her arms. After, she bent down and checked her shoes, taking another five full minutes before she finally stood back up and bounced back and forth on her heels.

Seemingly satisfied, the young girl smiled and finally said; "Lets go."

Then, as though it had been Aelita making them wait, Mieri darted forward. She moved into the cavern with reckless abandon, leaving the light of the world behind and leading Aelita in. Her eyes shifting almost immediately as the dark abyss around them took hold.

"Wow! Sure is dark in here." The Pugilist commented, a hand reaching out to gently prod at the wall to be her guide. Moving further and further in until the tunnel entrance disappeared. "Hey, can you give us a little light Aelita?"

Mieri asked as her boot squelched something underneath her food. "Shit- what was that- do you smell that?"

She asked, her nose crinkling as spore dust flew into her nostrils. "Oh my god, that's awful."

The Initiate said, half horking as she covered her nose.

 

[Luthen]

Gold
Houri | Livia Quinnick | Silas Artesto | Lumen | Zinnia | Thraah

Luthen watched as the Initiate's quickly began to dispatch the cobblestone pirates, amusement flickering over his features as dozens of the tiny creatures were quickly felled. None of their poisonous bile touching any of the students. A little too easy.

He noted, his hand gently shifting, searching for something upon the tower.

After a moment he located a stone, upon it scribbled dozens upon dozens of tiny runs. His finger reached out, gently brushing over one of them as he added a line within the chalk. A trail left behind, and then another spark of magic erupting out.

Livia would feel the slight pulse of origin, not enough to find Luthen, but enough to narrow the search at least. Though the pulse of magic came first.

It rushed through the city, underneath the stone and brick work, under what was lost to earth and plants. Then suddenly erupted beneath the cobbles and dirt the Initiate's were standing on. A spark that flickered upward, and into the odd creatures attacking them. Almost instantly they shifted, moving not towards the Initates, but each other.

Coming together like clacking assembly parts. Building standing figures within seconds. Dragging the corpses of their fallen brothers to construct Golems made of living stone. The earth shook as the cobbled-men pulled themselves together. Their rock flesh split and marred by the strange red bile seeping at an almost constant rate.

Without hesitation, even as the pieces were not fully together, the Golems charged. Intending to smash, hack, and break whatever lay before them.

 

[Silas Artesto]

Silas felt the rush of wind whizzing behind his head as Livia's arrow shot down the little cobble beast lunging towards him. Instinctively, he ducked forward, tucking into a roll and retrieving the dagger from his hip. By the time he'd readied the small blade, three more of the little shits had already sprouted legs and started skittering toward him.

"What in the--" He swiped at one of the creatures, cutting off its legs before it could sink its putrid teeth into his flesh. The other hand quickly raised to send a burst of vibration toward a second, sending it flying back into a building. "Goddamn rune magic!" Silas spat, loathing how impossible to predict the medium was.

"Just don't let them bite you!" He warned his partner, as he backed towards her, keeping low to avoid her volleys and wary of the chompers on the cobble-mites. This wasn't anything they couldn't handle, save for sheer numbers. Silas had an inkling they were far from finished, though.

Sure enough, more and more of the earth started rising and coming to life, weaving together like muscles and sinew tying into limbs and bodies. The red bile hardened at the joints, and what had been small stony insect-like biters now were massive golems standing at the height of seven men.

It would have been fascinating if it wasn't so damned intimidating.

Intimidating, and more than they could handle through sheer force.

"I have an idea..." He muttered quickly to Livia. "Can you keep them distracted for... twenty seconds?"

He'd be helping Houri, Lumen and the others too, though he doubted they'd be particularly thankful for the assistance.

 

[Thraah]

Thraah was getting frustrated with all this rock shit and she felt it might not be able to get when Zin leaped past her.
"Fuck!"
She kept blasting the little shits even as they turned into big little shits.
The sight of these new cobblestone men did not calm her down at all in fact she felt her body temperature rise to almost combustible levels.
"Whatever, snow, Ice, fucking ice cream just get us a way out of this fucking shit!"
Calm under pressure was not her.
She focused a blast of concentrated white hot fire on the nearest golem thing until it lunged for her and her hands met its, the stone glowing hot at her touch.
"Fucking! Fucking hate this test shit!"
Within a few seconds it was starting to melt and her eyes began to flicker with small embers.

 

[Aelita]

BRONZE PARTY​

Salak | Mieri | THE GREAT AND POWERFUL MAP

Aelita gave a twirl of her staff.

"Lets go."

"Let's!"

And into the cave they went. Aelita marched right behind Mieri.

At the request of some light, Aelita snapped her fingers. A little ball of light materialized on her fingertips. With a small push, Aelita sent the ball forward - allowing it to slowly drift into the cave entrance.

"Ta-dah!"

The light revealed a downward slop from the cave entrance. Their little "lamp" gave only just enough light to know where to walk and the general shape of the tunnel before them.

As they progressed deeper into the cave, Mieri reported a strange smell. Aelita arched a brow as her own nostrils flared. Once Mieri looked as if she was to go into a coughing fit, Aelita took a step back.

Aelita groaned. She gave a flick of her staff. The ball of light intensified its luminosity. Mushrooms and a purple haze filling the air reflected off of Aelita's eyes. They stood in the middle of a cave chamber with a rope ladder on the far end from the entrance.

As well as the iridescent swirls of the cave walls. At least, in her own eyes.

 

[Salak]

"Hmmm."
The sound of voices traveled to him, the acoustics of the cavern were handy like that. He could't make out what was being said but that hardly mattered. It was time to begin the real attack. The one that he would tell himself was ultimately necessary.

Thankfully he was a good liar.
Slowly he put the book down and stood up. The short climb up the stepladder to the tunnel entrance of his lair hurt his leg more, he would have liked a longer rest, perhaps he would have liked nobody to come at all but that was fiction now. A hypothetical that was disproven.
At the locked gate he stood with his lantern in hand, not that he could see very far beyond it.

"THAT IS A NASTY ONE!"
He spoke clearly and let the cavern carry his voice.
"HAHAHAHAH!"
Pretending to enjoy it would make it easier.
"THE FUNGAL SPORES ARE ALREADY WORKING ON YOUR BRAIN. ONCE IT SETS IN IT WILL BEGIN TO GESTATE. LOOK DOWN, SEE ANYONE FAMILIAR? HAHAHAH!"
He knew of the spores would be messing with their vision. A little suggestion and the long shadows of the cavern with whatever light they may have scrounged would create something worse than he could ever hope to describe. Despite the fact that he knew well the spores did not in fact gestate within the brains of people, he was confident that no Initiate would know this. Such things were large gaps in the curriculum. He would have to talk to the other Proctors about this later.
He could not help but remember Trelain then, the boy he'd killed during his time at the Academy.
He knew the dead boy was behind him, before he looked he always knew.
"You're dead, go away."
He did not check if it was gone, he only stared out into the dark of the cavern and waited for the panic to make them turn around and abandon the search.

Mieri
Aelita

 

[Livia Quinnick]

Rune magic.

Hearing Silas point out the obvious clicked something in her thoughts, an easy way to win herself a gold pin. Her corruption magic was not at all under the control she would like, but she knew how to utilise it well enough. Prior to her unlocking the deep well of power, she had been unable to use runes or have them used upon her without the magic in them become frantic or unresponsive. She could exercise her corrupting magic and render the runes useless. She could dismantle it's effects, she could---
Silas' voice brought her out of her thinking, reminding her of the reality they now faced.

"Can you keep them distracted for... twenty seconds?"

"Twenty seconds?" Livia repeated, trying to keep the doubt out from her tone. She thought on it a second later and shrugged.

Perhaps she did not need to use her magic at a larger magnitude. No, she wanted to fight her way to Luthen, to earn that gold and make the people counting on her proud. Drawing up her magic, she kept a small window of corruption crackling from her as she ran for that weak beacon she felt when the stones came to life. It might not have been Luthen, but it was a direction that lured her compass magic. She could not make it there in twenty seconds, but running that direction would buy Silas enough time to do what he needed to do.

Stones threw themselves against her legs, dazed momentarily before striking up their chase once more. The force in which they threw themselves were hard, enough to knock her off course if her feet did not fall the right place against the dirt path she now ran.

 

[Zinnia]

GOLD

"Th-thanks!" Zinnia hollered back to Lumen, then noticed the timely defense her flaxen friend provided. "And thanks again!"

A tall figure stepped in to help as well--Mercer? Goodness, so many classmates that she hadn't seen in so long! Zinnia gave her a confident smile and a nod before continuing to swat away at the stony pests. Things quickly got worse than just pests.

Golems now, too? Crap. What exactly was Dreadlord Luthen's magic? Zinnia hadn't heard of him before the tests began, and she had no idea what he was capable of. Did it have something to do with the ooze seeping from these ravenous constructs?

Silas shouted something about rune magic, but was that it? Runes, perhaps mixed with whatever this strange red substance was. Zinnia didn't have the luxury of being able to put it all together in peace. Instead she would simply act.

Zinnia's head whipped towards Houri and Lumen.
"D-do what you two have to! I'll r-run defense with Thraah!"

Then she rushed forward, dipping her fingers into the volatile jet of flame Thraah was firing. As she did, her hammer's head ignited with that same heat, and she smashed it with all her might into the golem's ankle. The thing went down to one knee but remained active--even still, Zinnia hoped it would make Thraah's current task and smelting it down much easier.

In the meantime, Zinnia had noticed a second stone behemoth lumbering in. She'd do what she could to hold this one at bay, starting by blocking a heavy fist barreling towards her with her shield, then smashing into the monster's chest with her burning hammer.

 

[Lumen]

Gold
Houri | Livia Quinnick | Silas Artesto | Zinnia | Thraah | Luthen

"Do you want snow?"

"Yes."

Lumen's tawny eyes tracked the stones as they suddenly shifted and pulled together. The temperature on the ground was rapidly decreasing. The water began to freeze beneath one of the golem's feet. The one that wasn't currently being melted down for scrap. Lumen shifted her attention to super-freeze the golem's feet that Zinnia just slammed in the chest.

It worked for a little bit.

Chunks of one golem's feet broke off and stuck to the ground only to have other parts on the body re-form. Raising her hands, she directed her magic to try and encase the air around moving parts of one golem like a shell to freeze it in place until it was super frozen.

"Quick someone smash it!"

It was ripe for shattering just like an icicle.

 

[Houri]

Houri tracked Zinnia along with Lumen and understanding of what the latter wanted to achieve dawned on her. She would have preferred to light the whole field up but there were too many of her classmates to bring down lightning strikes at the intensity they needed to hurt the golems. If bringing the temperature down and giving Lumen snow allowed her to hurt them in another way then...

"As you wish," it was a lot easier to take a supporting role in this round of attacks than it would have been a year ago. A year ago she would have chafed and gone off on her own, cared little about who or what was hurt in pursuit of her aim. Now she could see the benefit of a team - enjoyed it even. When people didn't stab her in the heart.

She let the sadness creep in just a little and the world plunged ten degrees. Her eyes clouded over and with a deep breath.... snow began to fall. A sprinkle at first then thicker and thicker clumps until the ground vanished.

 

[Silas Artesto]

Livia charged forward, her body crackling with energy. It wasn't the magic Silas was used to feeling from her, though. No, her compass magic was auxiliary at best, not nearly so powerful that he could practically feel it in his bones. This was... different.

He had some idea of what it was, a memory of a story Livia had once told him about her past. Is that what she'd been off doing? Tapping into Gods know what to make herself stronger? What had happened to the reserves? To parading around the noble ball events and securing her spot?

Questions for later; His twenty seconds had started and while Lumen, Houri, and the others seemed to have things somewhat in hand, the least he could do was make their lives that much easier.

Taking a few steps back, Silas spreads his arms out and builds up a steady vibration, the lines that define his shape seeming to blur as the minute movements of his body grow faster and faster. Artesto had only ever done this in training exercises, and not nearly under this much pressure. Still, if there was going to be a first time to pull a trick out of the bag, why not Graduation?

Once enough kinetic energy had been built up, to the point where the boy had to wince through the pain of his very bones shaking against his muscles, he zips forward at a blistering speed, stopping after a few feet and changing directions, running at the Golems in a sort of zig-zag pattern.

With each sudden shift in direction, Silas left a fuzzy image of himself, an echo, that mimicked his movements as it followed behind him. Whereas there'd only been a small group of the students for the golems to deal with, it now looked as though a horde of a dozen identical blonde men charged at them from different angles.

Despite the attacks being launched from the others, several of the golems found themselves distracted trying to swat at Silas, their massive limbs passing through the echoes.

 

[Mieri]

BRONZE PARTY
Salak | Aelita

"Oh." Mieri said, a slight frown pulling at her lips as she looked down and noted the slight purple mist hanging within the air. Her head slowly turning towards Aelita, her eyes doing their best to focus as she noted the blondes now warping face.

"Well..." The Pugilist began as she felt her head swim ever so slightly. Frowning as she watched Aelita's eyes begin to swell and shrink repeatedly. Becoming larger, then smaller, then larger again out of sync with one another. "This is going to be challenging, but not that ba-"

As she went to finish, Salak's voice suddenly broke out into the cavern. The hint of his lantern's light reaching barely through the darkness as his shouts echoed.

Panic drawing over Mieri's features at every word he said.

"IN OUR BRAINS!?" She shouted, snapping in an instant to stand in front of Aelita. Grabbing the other Initiate's face. "There's spores in our brains!??!?!"

She demanded. "Fuck! OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK! Wait!"

Mieri said, her voice going at the speed of sound. Every word seeming to spill from her lips almost at the same time.

"There'snowaytheywouldpoisonusandnotgiveusachance!" The Pugilist reasoned, not quickened by any effect of the mushroom, but he heart pumping out of control with sheer panic. "There has to be a cure, he's keeping the cure in the cave. Probably secretly somewhere, there has to be a passage. Somewhere we're not finding. Maybe right here!"

Mieri continued in her panic, suddenly letting go of Aelita's face and whirling around. Her fist crashing into the cave wall, magic bursting through her muscles as she sundered the boulder there. Shattering it into a thousand pieces, and sending a quake through the cavern.

 

[Luthen]

Gold
Houri | Livia Quinnick | Silas Artesto | Lumen | Zinnia | Thraah

Luthen watched the Initiates with a smile on his face. It seemed that all of them had some mettle to them after all.

For the last fifteen years he had been a squandering in the drab Dungeon of the Radiant Church. He'd returned to a wholly different world. Vel Anir had a different government, a different face, a different army, and a very different Academy. A part of him had thought that without the edge of their upbringing the Initiates would falter, but this crop was doing well.

It pleased him to see that, but none of what they had encountered yet was any sort of true test. He was sure that within a few moments they would break the golems. He was sure that they would push into the city, and he was even sure that they would weave their way through the other tricks and traps he had left behind.

Which was why he had prepared their actual final test.

Glancing over his shoulder Luthen smiled, counting out seven of the ten crates that he had prepared.

Glad I added the other five just in case. Luthen mused to himself before he slowly stood. Blinking as he kept track of both the Rune over his eye and the crates in the corner of the room. He stepped to them quickly, each of the strange wooden boxes covered in thousands upon thousands of runes. Each one seeming even now to shift and scrawl as more runes carved themselves into the wood.

The Dreadlord watched for a moment, and then nodded to himself, reaching to his belt pouch. From there he withdrew seven gold pins, and one by one placed each of them into the one of the crates. Lifting the heavy wooden top, inspecting what was within for just a brief moment, and then placing the pin within. I wonder who will get theirs first.

Luthen mused as he closed the final crate.

 

[Thraah]

Gold

Zin's helpful knee smash made quick work of the golem and freed up Thraah to take on other opponents. In fact she scarcely acknowledged it save for a grunt towards Zin as she scanned the melee to hunt for other targets. Her blood was well and truly up.

"RRRRUUUUUAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Thraah's cry rang out long and strong as she landed a leaping strike on the brittle golem Lumen had prepared. She was a visage of hot fury. Her hair and clothes floated up on the radiant heat waves and bits of the edges of her clothes started to singe in the heat.
Eyes glowed as if they were alight and she had abandoned the use of her sword instead wrapping her fists in her chains which she used to punch any golem she could reach.
The snow sizzled about her, refusing to stay on the ground.

"FUCKING, GOLEMS!"

She continued to beat the pile of rubble into smaller smouldering bits with her flaming fists, punctuating each strike with an insult at the golem's master.

"FUCKING, COWARD, BASTARD, MOTHER-FUCKER!"

Before the stone had started to cool she was on another one, cuffing it from behind with a two fisted hammer blow.

"RAAAAAAAAGH!"

Houri Lumen Zinnia Livia Quinnick Silas Artesto Luthen