[nathan67003]

Anna arrived besides her teammates and unceremoniously sat down next to them, her eyes closed out of temporary exhaustion - not that anybody could've told, since her hair was in front of her face. After hearing both (conscious) people speak, she said "I can check him for bleeding and internal injuries.", simultaneously raising her right hand. If he was alright, they'd probably have to get him airlifted out as soon as possible, since lugging a person around was kind of a bad idea.

[MonsterManic]

"Do that, Anna," Setsuna decided, "and thanks. In the meanwhile, Calen, let's go look at those hatches you mentioned." Choosing to ignore and clear Calen's frustration of impatience since a argument was the last thing they needed, he staggered to his feet with the help of his sword. "I don't think we can take on any proper fights while simultaneously protecting Taro, but we do need this mission. If there's nothing doing in the hatches, let's evacuate. Otherwise, we'll get what we can find and scram anyway." He gestured toward the darkness with his sword. "Lead the way, please."

[Kingnoname1]

'I don't think he's bleeding, we would have noticed by now.' Calen interrupted, shrugging as he walked off. Taking the light with him Calen then lead Setsuna to the closest hatch, keeping his head downcast as they walked throughout the ruins. Trying to maintain an air of nonchalance Calen began to make small talk with his team mate as they picked their way through the ruins. 'Not how you thought the first mission would go Master Antiqua?'

Bathing one of the hatches in light it become very apparent that time had not been kind. The wood had rotten, the metal had rusted over and some debris had fallen on the door holding it closed. The added leverage of being top side made both students able to shift the heavy rocks and bust through the hatch if they worked together and Calen shined the light down. The smell was intense and putrid, of death and long decayed flesh. Barely managing to resist gagging Calen gave Setsuna a forced smile and quipped before jumping down. 'Well maybe no one is home.'

Two bodies remained mostly intact, without insects or other carrion to breakdown  their flesh they remained in a horrific embrace. Other bones were littered around the room with dark discolourations on the floor, walls and even roof too random to be paint. Calen's mind immediately went on the defensive 'Oh hi Mr and Mrs Henderson I hope you don't mind us coming over so late, we've caught ourselves in a spot of bother and hoping you could help us out. What's yours is ours? So kind, we will be sure to repay you later.' Calen joked as he set the light up on a high point, managing to hide the two intact bodies in shadow before turning to search through the cupboards. As expected anything with a nutritional value was gone there still might be medical supplies somewhere.

Comparatively topside Anna 'looked' over Taro and did in fact find tell tale traces of blood coming from his nose but at least some of his aura remained. More troubling however was how limp the boy was and how he showed no signs of regaining consciousness. The noise Anna's team mate were making was attracting some attention but nothing the huntress-in-training couldn't deal with. Emerging from the darkness with it's tail fully coiled the medium sized deathstalker approached using the remains of a wall to hide the majority of it's body. Suddenly  the tail extended and tried to sting the conscious student from it's hiding place.

Grimm's Battle Data
Stinger 4%

[nathan67003]

As Anna ratcheted her semblance into third gear again, she quickly examined Taro's body. All blood flow seemed to be normal, there weren't any anomalies, apart from what could be interpreted as a few coagulations spots. Basically, he seemed to have fainted for no reason, as far as she could tell.

Right before she turned her semblance off to rest a bit more, a Deathstalker seemed to think it was a good idea to hunt the Huntress. ...In training, but that wasn't the point here.

Anna more or less nonchalantly threw out her arm, letting her chain spring out and coil around the incoming stinger, all the while lowering herself onto her back without moving from her prone position. Question now was, should she just pull and slice its stinger right off, or use the grip she had to shove knives into its face?

Nah, let's just cut the stinger off for now.

[MonsterManic]

Setsuna had to force what he hoped looked like a smile onto his face trying to reply to Calen."Yeah, well, let's just say it's gone from a mission to a bug-exterminating session." He eventually chose to return quip with quip, trying to keep his mood up. It wasn't easy, seeing the remains of the civilisation driven to ruins by the Grimm once again.

Shoving the debris out of the way, Setsuna pocketed a palm-sized slab of rock. Never knew when these would come in handy, right? His train of thought was cut short by a repulsive smell. Scrunching his face up, he followed Calen down the hatch and looked up to see two corpses, still linked together even in death. Hearing Calen simply dismiss the deaths seemingly so lightly, his face darkened and he had to turn away to attempt to hide his sudden mood shift, which was now seized with anger mainly at the Grimm, but also a small portion directed at Calen for just shrugging it off.

Trying to conceal his emotions, he set to arranging the corpses as best he could, covering them with a nearby blanket and laying them to rest. When he was done, he set off in a different direction than Calen. He needed time alone.

[Kingnoname1]

As Setsuna approached the two intact bodies he would notice a few oddities. The smaller body had something shiny in it's hand, a small metallic object rusted or otherwise turned red, probably a dagger or knife while the larger body whose arms further away looked protective seemed locked far to tightly around the smaller one's neck. Despite being protected from creatures down in the basement both bodies had still lost all their moisture making moving them far more likely to snap off whatever part of them is being pulled unless Setsuna is very careful. The basement isn't particularly large but there was a few alcoves which he could check away from Calen fruitlessly scours his side of the room.

The stinger reached just above Taro's resting head before Anna's chains sliced through it's chitin. Letting loose a piercing shriek as it's stinger was cut off the Death Stalker desperately tried to flee, crashing into wall as it went. It's cries did not go unnoticed however and soon their cave once again became alive with the sounds of scuttling converging generally on the students. Anna's finely tuned senses also started to pick up a slight clinking noise, almost like claws on ice.

Searching through the containers Setusna did manage to find what looked like it could have been medicine. Processed, it didn't look much different than similar treatments would look like from your local Vale pharmacist only different colours. The label read it as a stimulant nasal spray, only recommending a few squeezes a day. No expiry date was on the medicine which is unusual but it was probably better than nothing. Both of the students would hear the Grimm's cry and it caused Calen to drop what he was holding in his hands, a cleave caked heavily worn with rust and covered with the unmistakable colour of dried blood.

'Where I come from funerals are marked with songs and drink, which we don't have time for now. If you have anything you want to say we can wait but I feel like there isn't anything here and we better be moving on.' Calen explained turning serious for a moment as he gathering the light and made his way to the exit.

[nathan67003]

Oh great, now there was scuttling everywhere. No matter, she'd cut however many limbs off the things as she needed to make them understand that they were asking for death.

She quickly - and, as much as possible, quietly - gathered her chains back around her forearms before sitting down again and deactivating her semblance, only pulsing its third stage when sounds came too close for comfort.

Please let this not end with a headache.

[MonsterManic]

Returning to the main room, and also picking up both the medicine and the metal object, Setsuna caught what Calen was saying, and gave it some thought, before shaking his head. "No, you're right. Better to keep moving forward."

While his senses weren't nearly as sharp as Anna's, he still heard the shriek as something got sliced off and the recipient crashed into a wall. "Crap. More Grimm? We better find a way out fast." he said, drawing his sword--and coming up empty. Wait, what? Only then did he remember his sword's resting place, near where he was unceremoniously dumped on the floor. Heaving a sigh, he detached two different lengths of sword bits and put them together. Poor substitute, but it would have to do. "Let's move."

[Kingnoname1]

Rigor mortis had long set in and the grip of the smaller intact body was still tight meaning that if Setsuna did want to take the knife he would have pry open the fingers which would likely snap given how dry they are. Calen on the other hand was in a rush to get out and quickly leaped through the trap door back out into the cave and stood guard until his leader got out. They weren't far from Anna but already a small group of death stalkers where closing in, spread out in a rough semi-circle away from their team mate advancing slowly.

Some disturbance off in the far end of the cave caused Anna to pulse her semblance revealing a trio of Death Stalkers crawling through the ruined rafters to attack the huntress-in-training from above. Other Grimm where approaching the house seemingly trying to drive the students together.

Finally getting a good look of the ruins for the first time thanks to the light Calen noticed a mostly intact building at the opposite end of the cave where the Grimm seemed to be spilling out of. Pointing over to his discovery Calen called out. 'If they are coming out of there, there might be a way through. That or I hope your sword makes a good ice pick.' Finally turning to face his team mate Calen did notice that Setsuna didn't have his sword with him, grimacing Calen extends his weapon into it's glaive form to give Setsuna a boost getting out. Deciding not to risk using his knives were he might not be able to reclaim them the boy then backed away from the Grimm heading back to Anna.

Anna on the other hand had to deal with a much more immediate threat with the Death Stalkers dropping down from the roof. Two rushed the blind girl but one tried to grab at Taro pulling into the darkness. More of the creatures enter the room with an almost ordered beat swarming the unfortunate girl.

Battle Data
2x3% Death Stalkers charging Anna

[nathan67003]

Anna first pulsed her semblance, analyzed the situation briefly, and quickly took out about 3 knives, shoved Ice capsules into them, and threw them at the openings, hoping to delay the flood. She also drew two knives, loaded them with Fire Dust and propelled them towards the Deathstalkers that were currently in mid-air, rolled to the side while taking Taro with her and whipped a chain at the untouched Stalker's face.

And yes, the chains did make a cracking sound.

[MonsterManic]

Setsuna started backing up toward where Anna and his sword lay, temporary sword held in a defensive stance in case any Grimm got the idea in their heads to make a suicide jump. Preferably he'd use his semblance, but he doubted that it would last for long before he would collapse. Instead, he took his shield off the holder on his shoulder and continued steadily moving toward Anna.

[Kingnoname1]

The clicking of the Death Stalkers took on an most annoyed tone as Anna started to seal up their entrances. Leaving two of her prey as flaming husks as the daggers found their mark the huntress-in-training found herself pulled back as the surviving member of the trio of Death Stalkers grabbed the chain flung it's way. Hoping to take advantage of the students compromised position the rest of the Grimm scuttled forward in two, well claws, aiming to flank. Although the Grimm's focus was clearly on Anna they did aim for her grip holding Taro and pull the unconscious student into the shadows as they advanced on the girl.

Setsuna and Calen did have few Grimm to get through before they reached their team mate. Calen focusing more on speed than extermination only struck down the scorpions directly in his way or stunning those attacking him with quick ripostes. This left most of the swarm for Setsuna as his team mate simply running regardless how far his leader got behind. Regardless Calen did account for himself reasonably well, his experiences walking around before without a light had hinted at the better hiding spots as these Grimm seemed to use the same ambush points.

The chipping of claws on ice got louder and louder reminding the students that the swarm from before hadn't forgotten about them. As all this is going on Anna's scroll, which was still with Calen started giving off static as if it was receiving a call but was just out of reception. The damage it took when Calen dropped it wasn't helping but at this stage he was more focused on getting to Anna before they lost another team member. And get there they did, arriving just in time to she the blind girl get swarmed again by another wave of three Death Stalkers.

Grimm Battle Data
4x2% Flurry of claws at Anna as the swarm closes in.
2x4% Stings at Setsuna and Calen as they run past

Calen's Battle Data

Aura: 60%(One Sting connected)
Fatigue: 45%(No change)

[nathan67003]

Anna felt satisfied at what she'd done so far, which did succeed in buying her some time, but since dividing a very large number by 3 still yielded a considerably big number, the impact was minimal.

While a Deathstalker was trying to pull Anna back, she grabbed a knife and locked a Kinetic canister into the handle, after which she flung it right at the beast's eyes. Still holding onto Taro with the other hand, she jumped and singed out the currently free chain around a bit of seemingly solid construction, aiming to have and anchor point that'd allow her to rest a bit above the noise. If she grabbed a good purchase, she'd climb a bit higher by flicking herself, and the chain, higher, allowing the chain to slowly pivot around the anchor and more or less permit Anna to climb at a snail's pace.

If successful, she'd reward the crowd below with quite the surprise gift.

(Aura: 96%)

[MonsterManic]

Blocking both stings with his shield, Setsuna held off the remainder of the swarm that was left by Calen with a mixture of parrying and shielding any attacks, still back-stepping toward his fallen sword. Buying enough space and time for himself to reach and assemble his buster sword, he dropped his shield and held the much longer sword in both hands, keeping the bulk of the Grimm off Anna and Calen with wide, sweeping strikes.

[Kingnoname1]

Unperturbed by the verticality which Anna was adding to their fight the Death Stalkers continued to swarm the huntress-in-training. Holding on to the ruined walls and ceiling, their arachnid physiology giving them stable purchase on even the ice patches left being by Anna's previous volley.  The Death Stalker trying to pull Anna down took some serious damage from her dagger but kept trucking and even got some assistance from it's nearby swarm mates. They were however, not strong or heavy enough to stop Anna flicking herself, the chain and them, allowing for the belaying team from hell to try to sting the student a few times as they passed.

Calen was back into the room first and begun making his way to Anna as fast as he could which turned out to not be very fast at all. Aware of his relatively low aura levels Calen was hesitant to fight too riskily and instead set about an evasive dance felling Grimm with quick, precise strikes from either end of his glaive. Setsuna on the other hand had much more success once he got his buster sword operational. The sharpness and sheer mass of the weapon allowed the student to cleave through the swarm a lot faster than his team mate. This did end up making him more of a target than his mono-coloured not-quite-friend-it's-complicated as the scorpions tried to avenge their fallen swarmers and swarmetts.

The scuttling outside had mostly ceased, although the chipping at the ice continued, signifying that most of this swarm was inside the building and although there was still... well a swarm of them the students together were steadily grinding them down. For counter attacks Anna mostly had to deal with tail stings as her elevated position made it harder for the Grimm to lay their claws on her, wall walking or not. Setsuna and Calen on the other had the Death Stalkers grabbing at their weapons and charging at their feet all the while raining down a flurry of claw strikes.

Calen's evasive dance let him easily move around the charging scorpions and quickly swapping between weapon forms allowed him to shift all but the most persistent of his weapon's admirers. Still Calen wouldn't remain untouched forever, he let out a few grunts as the Grimm managed to breach his formidable guard. Deciding the defensive strategy wasn't working Calen drew one of his knives and shot through the air with a burst of his semblance. Using his knife as a handhold by embedding it into the ice Calen started focusing on the Grimm attacking Anna herself. Phenomenally Calen still managed precise and graceful strikes despite hanging upside down in a crumbling ruin.

Grimm Battle Data
4x4% stingers at Anna
3% charge and 3x2% claws at Setsuna+disarm attempt

Calen's Battle Data
Aura: 56%(Two claws)
Fatigue: 40%