CLOSED SIGNUPS Amulets of the Elements (Roleplay)

[StarlightStarbright]

Amulets of the Elements​

Heliodoro, the capital of Opalia, holds the pinnacle of Opalian culture within its bustling business-laden streets. The fashion, the architecture, the trends and mannerisms of the commonfolk; all of it displayed the posh and elegant atmosphere of the rich and influencing country.

One of the most popular banks in Heliodoro: The Starlight Credit Union, was going about business as usual. Statements were being delivered and taxes were being payed.

Everyone in this bustling bank had a reason to be here. A young couple with a small child asked to deposit some coins at one of the front desks. A group of dark-clad figures sat patiently at their seats, having waited for so long that some wondered if they were inside the bank for nefarious purposes. None dared to vocalize such a thought, however.

There are four specific people here today, four important figures that will change the very course of history. Be it destiny or sheer luck, these four individuals have all gathered to this same bank at the exact same time, each for their own purposes.

But what are each of these four hoping to achieve at an establishment such as a bank? What has brought them here?

 

[Lesbingus]

Badr Abd al-Majid was, at best, unaccustomed to the inner workings of a city the size of Heliodoro. At worst-- which was what she felt like-- she was completely lost. Swept up in the chaos of bustling streets, nearly deafened by the hubbub of chatting passers-by and hollering street vendors, Badr had obscured herself beneath the huge travel cloak she had taken to wearing, crossing her massive arms and praying she would not jostle anyone. Unfortunately, a woman of her size tended to unintentionally push others out of the way.

Her entrance to the bank was met with severed hollered admonishments, and she met those with apologies growled from the shadowy recesses of her cloak's hood. The gladiatrix looked down at the coin-purse clutched tightly in one scarred, calloused hand. Her entire life's savings, and it was scarcely more than the average worker's monthly salary. Badr had been told, quite firmly, that setting up an account with the bank was the correct thing to do, and she was intent on listening to the woman who had told her that. She had precious few friends; preserving that relationship by taking her advice was the least she could think to do.

She eyed the dark-clad figures warily. Badr was, above all things, a warrior. Her instincts had been honed to a razor's edge. To be alert was to be alive, and everything about the mysterious group screamed danger. Shifting in place, she pulled the hood of her cloak back in order to keep them in her periphery. The line inched forward, and Badr let out a long sigh. She had never been the patient sort. Idleness did not befit her. Her heavy, steel-shod boots made contact with the tiled floor, each footfall echoing like a thunderclap in the quiet of the bank's packed lobby.

A lone, mountainous island in a teeming sea of humanity, Badr kept her eyes to herself as best she could. There was a variety of people in this place unlike anything she had seen. She had faced her fair share of unique and interesting warriors in the arenas, but even that selection paled in comparison to those she just observed walking by. Swallowing thickly, Badr took a deep, steadying breath.

Center yourself. You're not fighting anymore, Badr.

The line moved forward, and so did she. Ever forward. That was what kept her alive. Keep moving forward.

 

[StarlightStarbright]

The door of the establishment creaked open slowly, and in stepped Yuca, clad in an extravagant gown of pale yellows, peach oranges, and soft salmon pinks. In her arms she carried her latest work: a skillfully sewn apron with detailed embroidery styled according to her tribal customs.

Most within the bank stopped to admire Yuca's ethereal beauty, even the shady figures briefly glanced at her. She was like a living, breathing, doll; her skin was as pale as porcelain, and her hair was as white as snow. Her facial features were soft, but surprisingly androgynous. If she wore a fine suit instead, many could mistake her for a young man.

Most would assume Yuca to be of noble blood, if it weren't for the gem-studded collar signalling her status as a slave.

As Yuca took a seat at one of the chairs, her eyes scanned the room patiently. It was rare that she had to present a commission while the client was at work, but her master's pride in his business would not allow tardiness in their deliveries. Normally a servant would be right at her side, but her and that servant got separated while traveling through the crowded streets. Luckily, Yuca found the bank on her own. She had asked around and was lead in the right direction, despite the many miscommunications along the way.

One of the front desk attendants eventually spotted Yuca at her seat, and left her station enthusiastically. "Ah! Is this what I think it is?" The bank attendant twirled on the spot when she was given the apron. "It's beautiful! As expected from the Del Rosario Family!" The bank attendant exclaimed cheerfully. "Here! Your pay, as was negotiated with you master."

"It was a pleasure doing business with you." Yuca's soft voice carried a heavy accent that made some of the words she spoke nearly indiscernible. She did not know the meaning behind what she said. She was told to say these unfamiliar words after delivering a product.

Yuca walked away from the attendant with a heavy coin purse in her hands. She payed attention to little else expect this coin purse on her way to the exit of the bank; her master would be very cross if she lost this sum of money. Alas, as she wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, Yuca bumped into someone and fell to the ground. Her coin purse left her hands, and the gold and silver inside scattered across the floor, making a huge mess within the bank.

Yuca whimpered, faint bruises already forming on her elbows, and propped herself up. She slowly but surely began the process of gathering the coins that had scattered across the floor.

 

[Ariel]

The slightest of frowns crossed Nasika's face as she felt someone bump against her elbow. Heliodoro was so very different from her quiet hometown of Kythera. Here it was so crowded and busy that nobody apologised for jostling another person - because otherwise you'd never be able to take more than a half-dozen steps from your door. For all the elegance and wealth of the Opalian capital, Nasika already missed the polite dignity of Temulean society.

That same courtesy, though, meant that even as these thoughts crossed her mind she was already bending to help the girl who'd knocked into her. She was pale, delicate, richly dressed - and marked by a slave collar.

Nasika started. Slavery was not unknown in Temule, of course, but they were used as common labour, to do the sort of work that would cost too much to pay free folk to do. The gemstones on the collar glittered gaudily; they seemed a cruel joke to Nasika.

She crouched down next to the girl, and began picking up the coins as well.

"Not hurt, are you?" she asked softly. "Just take a seat for a moment and check that you're all right. I'll get the rest of your coins for you."

 

[Queen Sonia]

Alessandra looked up from the rickety chair she decided to sit on. In front of her stood a tall and much bulker woman. She couldn't help but almost let her mouth gape. Her size alone was impressive but what really made Alessandra curious was how she presented herself. She looked like a nervous wreck and Alessandra was almost tempted to go up and comfort her but had to stop herself when she remembered that she was here for, business. She had travel quite far from her home in Visnenza and was visiting the beautiful capital. She hope to one day perform here as she knew the culture here would be respected and admired. Hopefully with this discussion about a bank loan Alessandra would have enough money to travel and produce her own show. She was planning to hire her own dancers and put out dances she came up with herself. Introduce a whole new genre of dance, it was something she was dreaming of.

"Alessandra Hope" a male voice spoke out causing Alessandra to pop up almost breaking the already worn out chair. "You can call me Sasha" she nodded polietly seeing how the bank teller was dressed seeing that she may have underdressed. Clearing her throat she went to follow the man when another person or more specifically a child came in. She paused to look at the young one noticing many eyes drawed towards her. Alessandra held back her tongue as she felt it was inappropriate how some of the people stared at the child before her. "Miss?" The man spoke to her causing Alessandra to turn, "Ah, yes my apologies" she smiled following the man to another room.

 

[StarlightStarbright]

Yuca, now sitting in front of the blonde stranger, barely understood most of the words that left the woman's mouth. "...Jok?" Yuca's native tongue left her own lips, but she covered it with her hands as soon as she realized what she said. Her master told her not to speak in her native language; her wrists would be smacked with a baton every time she did so.
Yuca didn't want more bruises in case someone found out. "S-sorry." She tried to formulate the words that she knew in English. "Don't know English. Speak slowly?"

While these events were unfolding, a man heavily clothed cautiously entered the bank. His face was covered, making it impossible to distinguish his identity. He tip toed around Yuca and Nasika, cut past Majid, and presented a package hidden in his long coat. A great sum of cash was given, excusing him of cutting past the line, and the bank attendant reluctantly accepted his bribe.
One of the shady figures sitting with his posse stood up the moment this strange man entered the bank; trying not to attract attention, he shuffled his way to the man, gripping something tightly in his pocket.

 

[Lesbingus]

Badr tensed as the masked man slipped past her, and the tension readily apparent in her body language only grew more obvious as one of the shady figures moved in his direction. She was moving before her mind fully caught up to what it was she was doing, interposing herself between the two.

"Let's not do something you regret," she said softly, to the cloaked figure. Her amber eyes bored through them, as if she did so with the intent of starting a fire with the intensity of her gaze. She was stiff with the promise of explosive movement, jaw set and back straight. Her cloak had shifted aside as she moved, revealing the mountain of muscle beneath the weathered fabric. Her tattooed arms rippled with muscle, and the interplay between those internal mechanisms was visible beneath her skin as her free hand formed a fist.

"What's in your pocket, friend?"

Her Kvra-Visznan accent was as thick as syrup. Combined with the deep, threatening timbre of her voice, and the fact she stood far taller than almost anyone, her question had the evident implication of a demand.

 

[Ariel]

Yuca, now sitting in front of the blonde stranger, barely understood most of the words that left the woman's mouth. "...Jok?" Yuca's native tongue left her own lips, but she covered it with her hands as soon as she realized what she said. Her master told her not to speak in her native language; her wrists would be smacked with a baton every time she did so.
Yuca didn't want more bruises in case someone found out. "S-sorry." She tried to formulate the words that she knew in English. "Don't know English. Speak slowly?"

While these events were unfolding, a man heavily clothed cautiously entered the bank. His face was covered, making it impossible to distinguish his identity. He tip toed around Yuca and Nasika, cut past Majid, and presented a package hidden in his long coat. A great sum of cash was given, excusing him of cutting past the line, and the bank attendant reluctantly accepted his bribe.
One of the shady figures sitting with his posse stood up the moment this strange man entered the bank; trying not to attract attention, he shuffled his way to the man, gripping something tightly in his pocket.

Nasika nodded and smiled at the girl. "Sorry," she said, careful to speak slowly and enunciate clearly, punctuating her words with simple gestures. "You go and sit down. I will pick up the coins." She placed a hand on her chest. "Nasika." Then indicating the girl with an open hand rather than pointing. "You?"

Of course. An outlander as well as a slave. And presumably she'd never been taught to speak the language of the land aside from the bare minimum to function, so that she'd have a harder time getting away if she tried to run.

Nasika fought to keep the disdain from her face, lest it be misunderstood - but she certainly felt it in her heart. People could be cruel, that much she knew - but just how cruel, she was only beginning to find out.

But even in her quiet fury, Nasika hadn't lost sight of her surroundings. As the confrontation began to unfold, she shifted subtly; first so that she could keep an eye on all the parties involved, and second to place herself between them and the slave girl, just in case a fight broke out.

She may be a woman, and thus thought unfit to become a knight - but her father had taught her well, and she knew better than most how to take care of herself and those around her.

 

[StarlightStarbright]

…Oh! Yuca understood now! "…Yu…Violette. Name Violette." That was a close one, her master hated her birth name; she's not allowed to speak of it.
Yuca would have done as Nasika said, but the commotion between the suspicious figure and a large, frightening woman drew her attention. She didn't understand what was going on, but she had a feeling that something bad was about to happen…

Yuca would be right about her fears. The shady man, in response to Badr's demand, grumbled something unintelligible. Meanwhile, one of the other hooded figures snuck past Badr and his comrade, reaching his destination; the mysterious patron.
The patron was an observant one, and his ears picked up the arrival of the stranger behind him. He turned around, and then flinched, backing up to the counter. "Sh-shit! You found me-"
The patron found himself choking on his own words as a knife dug into his throat. The hooded figure threw the convulsing body to the floor, splatting blood across the room, and tried to knab the package the patron had brought into the bank. His fingers were clumsy from the adrenaline, however, and he accidentally tore the package apart.
Four amulets fell out of the torn package and scattered across the room. Two landed in front of Yuka and Nasika, one landed by Badr and the other hooded stranger, and the last one landed in the hands of the bank teller who had been doing business with the mysterious patron, who rushed inside the private room where Sasha and her negotiator were with a frightful scream.

The entire bank delved into complete chaos. Those within the building tried to escape through the front door, but found themselves blocked by a handful of similarly hooded criminals.
"Take the Amulets and kill the witnesses!" The murderer screamed at his comrades. "We leave one fucker alive and The Scarborough King will decide it's off with our heads!"

 

[Ariel]

Nasika's gaze flicked from the slave girl to the hooded killer, going from kindly to hard.

"Well, that makes things crystal clear," she said to no-one in particular as she scooped the pair of amulets off the ground. Standing, she threw off her walking cloak to reveal a set of practical traveling leathers, as well as a baldric from which she drew a short sword with a wicked forward curve.

With a flick of her off-hand, Nasika wrapped her cloak around her forearm - an old warrior's trick for when you were caught without a shield. Angling herself towards the leader, she hissed to Violette, "Stay behind me if you want to live!"

 

[Queen Sonia]

Alessandra was seated in the office about to start to state her claim when screaming came from outside the room. "Now, what in the hell is going on here?" the bank teller grumbled walking towards the door and opening it. As soon as the door opened another teller ran into the room screaming and holding an amulet in his hands. Alessandra immediately stood up grabbing her bag and wrapping it around her arm. There were some heavy items in there which she could use to make her hit hurts more if she had to fight. The only time she heard someone scream like that was when big trouble was occurring. "They got a knife! They're killing people!" he shouted looking beyond terrified. "Close the door!" the man shouted causing the other teller to close the door the look of fear already settling. She was already on her feet heading over to the door and pushing the other man aside. "Out of my way, no way am I staying in her to die" she responds stopping when she was just about to open the door seeing the amulet in the other man's hand. For some reason she reached out snatching from his hand. "Might need this" she exits the room seeing the bloody man on the floor as well as the great warrior woman protecting the girl from before. "Oh hell" she takes a stance ready for whoever might come to her. She wasn't a strong fighter but her dancer physics helps her with being flexible and nimble.

 

[Lesbingus]

Badr grimaced as things devolved. She was far too used to blood for it to bother her, but she had come to this place to avoid such things. So much for that.

Her eyes flickered to the amulet that fell between her and the other hooded figure. Their eyes met. Badr shook her head slowly, but the man had evidently already made up his mind. He drew a knife, as his fellows had, leaping forward with a cry. Badr's fist whipped back, the fabric of her cloak snapping from the speed of the motion. Her fist drove into the rushing man's face, pummeling him into the ground. He hit the tiled floor hard enough to bounce, and he did not rise from where he slid to a stop.

"Don't really feel like dying," she rumbled, stooping to collect the amulet, pocketing it.

Badr advanced on another one of the cloak figures, weaving to the left to avoid a blow from his knife. She grunted as his offhand blade found her side, the small blade burying itself in the soft flesh. Her eyes drifted to the wound, before she reached out, grabbing him by the throat. She squeezed.

------

The harsh crack! of breaking bone rung out across the bank's lobby as Badr tossed the hooded man aside. She didn't bother to address the dagger still sticking from her side. It hadn't hit anything vital, so far as she could tell.

"Come on, then!"

She growled at the ringleader, goading him on with a gesture.

"Pick on someone who can fight back, little man."

 

[StarlightStarbright]

Yuca was frozen in terror at the events unfolding before her. It was happening again, blood was being spilled in front of her again.
For a brief moment, Yuca saw not the enclosing of the bank, but the wide snowy field on the mountaintops she was born in, razed with fire and filled with ghastly screams. Soldiers were everywhere, killing, killing killing.

Yuca survived because she didn't run, and didn't put up a fight. Being meek and subservient to the harsh world before her had always been how she survived. Therefore, she didn't need Nasika to tell her to stay behind her. Yuca just did what she always did when the stress became too much to handle: she chanted her tribal hymns under her breath, and let the spirit world take her.

Her brain fell into a haze, and the world around her slowed to a near stop, each second feeling like minutes at a time. She did not mind this feeling, although it was disorienting, such dissociation was comforting, almost, and let her process the events at her own pace.
Of course, the consequences of separating her mind from her body were not convenient for her situation. As one of the hooded men rushed towards Nasika and Yuca, Yuca found herself fighting to move an inch of her muscles to dodge the incoming attack. As the blade krept closer and closer to her chest, Yuca felt the primal urge to flee.

And then a miracle occurred.

A gust of wind, unorthodox in such an enclosed space, flung the hooded figure to the wall opposite of Nasika and Yuca. One of the amulets in Nasika's hands, the one embedded with Amethyst, Flourite, and Lepidolite, was glowing a strong purple hue. Glowly tattoos of flowing, delicate design spread throughout Yuca's body in the same moment. The shock of what just occurred was enough to bring her back to reality.

The commotion was not unnoticed, the hooded killers ceased their slaughtering, the victims stared at Yuca with a mixture of confusion, awe, and fear.
"…Holy shit!" The killer knocked against the wall gawked, and pointed at Yuca. "She's the Child of Air!"

The leader of the posse, his eyes now thoroughly drawn to Yuca, completely ignored Badr's taunts. It seemed he had his priorities straight. "…Change of plans! Keep that slave bitch alive! We're taking her with us!" The leader ordered directing some of his men to follow him and snatch the albino. "If she dies, another Child of Air will take her place! We can't have that!" Under his breath, the leader muttered about how lucky they were to find the amulets AND one of its wielders.

Yuca didn't know what the men were saying about her, but she didn't have a good feeling. She inched herself closer to Nasika out of fear.

 

[Ariel]

Nasika could almost feel Violette edging closer to her as the gang leader ranted. She brought her machaera up, ready to strike the short, lethal blows that were its stock in trade, while she shuffled subtly to keep herself between the killers and the slave girl.

"Child of Air or whatever you think she is," Nasika hissed, "You'll have to go through me first."

One of the killers lunged towards the two of them, yelling, "Have it your way, bitch!"

No-one would ever know if he had had time to feel any regret, as Nasika side-stepped his clumsy charge and slammed the heel of her left hand into the side of his head as his knife stabbed nothing but air. As his head snapped to the side, it exposed the side of his neck, and Nasika's machaera chopped down, cleaving flesh and sinew and arteries. Blood spewed everywhere as the man went down, butchered like a goat for a feast. He twitched and thrashed and voided his bowels and bladder, his spirit and his filth leaving his carcass at the same time.

Nasika felt her heartbeat pounding in her ears, behind her eyes. She was heaving painfully for breath, as if she'd been punched in the chest, although she'd not been touched. For all her bluster, all the cocksure confidence she'd sought to project - she'd never been in a real fight before, never seriously faced the prospect of killing another person. And now - even before she'd had time to think about it, she already had.

In times to come, she'd think back and give thanks to her father for all the times he'd drilled her with sword in hand and without.

In times to come, she'd think back and shudder at the thought of what else might have happened.

But these would be times to come, and she was in the present. A present in which she heard herself saying, in a voice so shaky and hoarse she almost couldn't recognise it as her own, "And there's more like that for anyone who tries to lay a finger on this girl!"

 

[Queen Sonia]

The smell of blood was strong, it was sickening and a bright red color. What looked like pails of blood surrounded the floor as the fighting continued between the unfortunate group. One of the hooded bandits came towards Alessandra noticing that she held an amulet in her hand. "Give that back you whore!" the man screamed causing Alessandra to flinch back barely missing the tip of the blade. Gripping the amulet in her hand her senses changed. She no longer smelled the blood but instead it was replaced by the smell of wet earth and cut grass. The earth around her invaded her smell and suddenly Alessandra was back in the forest collecting wildflowers with her mother after an early morning of practicing their dances. "You! You're another! The earth child!" the man shouted snapping Alessandra back to reality. She stared down at herself noticing just like the young girl, marking appeared down her arms. They looked like vines with thorns and they glowed green. Alessandra felt a power in her, one she had never felt before. She smirked holding her hands up, "Come and get it shit brains!" she shouted at the man who rushed towards her. He slashed at her with his dagger, each stab was dodged with a quickness and swiftness that only a dancer of her level would be able to achieve. If it wasn't for the blade it would almost looked like the bandit and Alessandra were dancing.

"Stay still you stupid bitch!" the man shouted causing Alessandra to laugh as she found herself enjoying the movements she made to dodge him. Feeling frustrated the man moved more eradicate. One wrong move and suddenly the blade slashed against Alessandra's face who yelped feeling the blood pour down her cheek and onto her neck. She felt anger rise in her chest and she reacted upper cutting the man but instead of her fist connecting to his face the earth underneath her move and a pillar shot out instead shooting towards the bandit's head. A loud crunch was heard as the man's skull exploded on the impact made with the earth. Alessandra's blinks the blood of the man spilling on her. She stood shocked but only for a second as another bandit came behind her tackling her down. "Shit!" she yelped feeling the wind knocked out of her.

 

[Lesbingus]

Air, and Earth.

Badr watched the two younger women snatch up the amulets, and looped her foot through the chain of the one on the floor before her. She kicked it up, catching it.

Heat.

It blasted out like the backwash from an opened furnace, blanketing the chamber. Badr strode forward, slamming her fists together as another one of the cloaked henchmen rushed her, directed by the leader. The man was practically in a frenzy, whirling his arms as he directed his subordinates, eyes wide. Whether it was from glee or madness, Badr couldn't tell-- nor did she particularly care. Not now.

Badr's tattooed arms glowed like a stoked fire. The inked renditions of chains appeared as if they were red-hot, fresh from the forge, and the mountains needled across her broad shouldered smoldered, akin to dormant volcanoes roaring to life. She exhaled from between clenched teeth, steaming billowing outward.

She intercepted the man directed towards her, who was swiftly joined by another, then a third. The massive woman was evidently a prestigious fighter, but even she could not take on three people at once and come out unscathed. Badr swung a fist, pounding the first man across the face-- his jaw shattered with an audible snap, and he fell to the floor. Yet, even as she did so, the second and third came at her from the side. She caught the first blow on her forearm, the blade sinking deep, whilst the other got her through the leg, bringing Badr to one knee.

The heat intensified.

Fire poured from the fresh wounds, billowing over her attackers;. One of them fell back, engulfed, his screams echoing throughout the bank's interior. It had been quick for the thieves brought low by the children of Air and Earth-- not so much for the man who had struck the Child of Fire.

The other, singed yet otherwise okay, leapt at Badr once more. She rose up, painfully, her stoic demeanor cracking. She slammed him in the gut with a fist, and stomped down.

Over, and over, and over.

"Who's next, then!?" She roared, embers drifting from her mouth. Flames licked at the corners of her eyes, and poured from her open wounds, like a vent into hell. She was in rough shape, that much was apparent from a glance. The woman was covered in multiple deep gashes, where she had blocked blades with a forearm, or a shoulder. The blade that had still been embedded in her side clattered to the floor, glowing red-hot. She shifted her posture to favor the leg that hadn't been nearly hamstrung.

 

[StarlightStarbright]

The criminals' numbers were thinning; the handful of shady figures left shouted panicked commands to each other, trying to take down the remaining witnesses with their teamwork. Most of the civilians in the bank had been "taken care of" at this point, all except Badr, Nasika, Alessandra, Yuca, and a couple cowering bank tellers were still alive. Blood and corpses littered the floor; even if the murderers were dealt with, the lives they took were overwhelming.

Yuca, still standing behind Nasika, stepped on a corpse's bloodied hand with her velvet flats, staining the orange fabric of her shoe a deep red. Yuca winced as the crunching of bones assaulted her eardrums. All she could feel was horror, terror, and the tiniest bit of self-pity. Yuca truly was a cursed child if such tragedies as this occurred in her presence. First she killed her parents, then her tribe, and now she had doomed the lives of these innocent people, now lifeless on the floor.

Feeling herself a danger to everyone else, she unconsciously backed away from Nasika. One of the hooded killers took note of this and decided that Yuca was an easier target than the rest, and so with his gifted swiftness he dashed and pulled Yuca away from Nasika and towards himself, threatening his knife close to Yuca's throat. Yuca's other hand clasped onto a fancy porcelain pot on a pedestal filled with fresh drinking water. Out of desperation and panic, she slammed the pot against the attacker's head, shattering it to pieces and splashing the both of them with the water inside.

The attacker wasn't completely knocked out, however. Despite the gash on his head, and although drenched in blood and water, he quickly recovered his senses and charged at Yuca, attempting to steal away the girl once more...

 

[Ariel]

Nasika felt her heart fall out of her chest as Violette pulled away from her and made herself a target again. Why couldn't the girl have stayed put like she'd told her to? But at least she'd had the gumption to crack her assailant over the head with a pot -

A sudden thought flashed across Nasika's mind, and in the moments that followed it was as if she was simply watching herself act while someone - or something - else set her body in motion.

She felt herself bend, her arm extend; she watched as her hand reached out and down; saw her fingers close on the last of the amulets, set with a large sapphire that glittered like the seas of the Temulean shore.

Was it only her imagination that felt a thrum of satisfaction pulse through the amulet as she brought it to her breast?

And then the blood and water that drenched Violette's attacker came alive, became tendrils of fluid that wrapped around his limbs and squeezed. The man suddenly found himself bound, tripped, and held to the ground.

Of course, Nasika thought, looking at Violette. Child of Air.

The lithe, olive-skinned girl. Child of Earth.

The dark giant. Child of Fire.

And herself, Nasika daughter-of-Lysandros Aletheia. Child of Water.

 

[Lesbingus]

Badr moved slowly, but inexorably. She was wounded, heavily in fact, but that didn't seem to both the giant woman in the slightest. She raised a smoldering palm to a gash in her bicep, and cauterized the wound with nary a flinch. She moved to stand before the remaining bank tellers.

"Keep at least... once of them alive," she growled to the elegant woman with the air of a duelist. The Gladiatrix's smoldering eyes bored forward towards Nasika, but she averted her gaze, hissing as if struck.

Fire and Water-- not a good mix.

"I'll give you once chance to run," Badr huffed to the remaining assailants.

"One chance."

She held up a finger, which glowed like an ember at the fingertip. Badr exuded a constant plume of smoke, smoldering like a funeral pyre. The open wounds that vented heat like the veins of a volcano began to slowly close, pressing into thin lines that glowed from within. It was a temporary solution, but Badr felt out within herself-- harnessing the mysterious power the amulet had granted. It was in her left palm, the chain that it dangled from wrapped between her fingers and over her wrist-- seared there, held in place like a brand.

Badr turned her head to face the bank tellers.

"Stay behind me."

One of them made a sign of warding in the Child of Fire's direction, whose only reply was a snort of derision before she turned back around.

 

[Queen Sonia]

The man who had tackled Alessandra was soon on his feet, the woman of fire seemed to have caught him off guard. Her voice was powerful and it seemed to shake the man down to his very core. This gave Alessandra the chance to regain her computer, using her reflexes as a dance she whirled her body around and used her legs to sweep the man off his feet and onto his behind. Then she lifted her fist which felt heavy like a boulder but she had the strength to hold it up and with one quick movement she punched a hole through the man's face, his blood spraying on her face as his body fell limp. She blinked once again amazed by the power she felt within the amulet she held in her hand.

Upon hearing the flame lady talk about leaving one of the men alive, Alessandra looked around her. No other thug tried to come towards her, in fact most of them laid dead as well as many other bodies of innocent bystanders. "I don't got a live body with me anymore. Anyone else?" She asked flaying her hand, the blood on it staining her fingers.