Pentagram

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PENTAGRAM
A story of alien wizards, to put it bluntly​

@Sapphiric - Eoula
@Infinitude Cosmogenesis - Saranda Nnitra
@Kylulu - Sasson Elsu
@Ferril - Caileron Mithraxos
@cojemo - Nakir Tinuval

Feel free to either join in on the carnage or skip it. Having said that, it'd be preferable if you're all in the same sort of place and time, so we don't have to synchronise everybody's timelines.

Let the demigod-ness begin!

01:24 AM, Thursday 23 April 2026
The clanking of footsteps on the iron floor was drowned out by the blaring of a siren as red lights danced around the corridor, a shadow slinking across the dim walls.
{Honestly. The security would be a lot more effective in a lighter environment.}
Or if it was filled with ice cubes.
{Iiiif you say so.}
"I repeat," a masculine voice reverberated through the metal hall. "Intruder detected in Area 6D. Seek out and intercept. Lethal force is authorised."
{How well can you hear me, by the way?}
Loud and clear. Why?
{Just in case! Now remember, as long as you don't panic and stay calm, Lustre Devise will do all the work for you.}
I already know that. Watch this.
Shouts and clanging moved around the corner, half a dozen guards emerging to point rifles at their target.
"Holy..." muttered one of them down a radio pinned over his chest. "I... It's a girl! Estimated 18 years, appears to be an arcane! We're gonna need backup, over!"
The sound of bullets rang out from the guns, slugs flying at the girl in question, who simply stopped walking.

There were a few seconds more of rattling before the flashes died down, the sentries having run out of ammunition.
"Kudos for effort," the young woman admitted. "But mundane bullets? On a mage? Ha. My go!"
A circle of light, decorated with strange shapes and symbols, shimmered as it moved through the air beside her, summoning a shiny, ice blue spike, around three feet long, out of nothing in its wake.
"Pop quiz. If this thing was made of steel, it'd go right through any of you, no problem. So if it's made of tungsten, does that make it safer or more dangerous?"
One of the guards' eyes widened. "We need backup immediately!" he cried into his radio. "Repeat, we need backup immediately in Area 6D!"
"So, I guess your answer's 'more dangerous'? Let's see, shall we?" The girl slipped one of her hands out of her pocket, pointing it at the man who was screaming down his radio. The metal spear, as if in obedience, shot forward at an unbelievable speed, smashing through the radio and impaling the floor behind the guard. The man made a choking sound and slumped to the ground.
"Ding. Looks like you were correct," she shrugged, a curtain of thousands of small blue spheres forming in front of her as if in response. "Let's see how well tungsten bullets would work."
She snapped her fingers.

The girl walked around the corner that the guards had come from.
{That was very... creative. Grisly, inhumanly cruel, but creative.}
I knew you'd like it. Jeez, who posts a bunch of mundanes to guard something this important?
{A bunch of morons! C'mon, go get it and get out of there.}
Yeah, I'm going. It would really help if I had a map or a periscope or something.
{Stop complaining. It'll be worth it.}
I guess. What could possibly go wrong?
{...Look around, you maniac.}
I mean for me, not them.
She approached a door at the end of the corridor, which was marked by a bright yellow sign.

-BACKUP DATA ARCHIVE-
Authorised personnel only

Ta-daaaa.
{Oh, wow! Good job, Elle. You know what to do from here?}
Well, yeah.
{Then what are you waiting for?}
The girl looked over her shoulder at a young man and woman behind her, aiming handguns.
"Halt! Witch Hunt!" the man cried.
Them.
The mage-girl sighed, as if in exasperation.
"Level 8," she riposted, and a pair of tungsten spikes leapt from nowhere at the Witch Hunters.
 
1:20 A.M.
Caileron had been working for well over eight hours straight, but all of his hard work was close to paying off. Through careful manipulation of Akyromancy he and his team had managed to create a small disruption in the connection between a familiar and its master... But that research was brought to a screeching halt as the facilities alarms began to blare. The pulsating red warning lights came to life, and as they did Cail swung around from his monitor with a snarl. One or two of his fellow researcher's fell back from him with fear etched across their features, and he felt a sudden pang of guilt... But still he kept the scowl etched across his face. He hated interruptions to his research, and everyone present knew it. Professor Cheri, the bravest or most foolish of the people in the room stepped forward and placed a gentle hand on Cail's arm, her soothing voice calming his annoyance," Its alright Cail, just the alarm. Its probably nothing important..."

The large drow took a deep breath, steadying himself as he did so. The siren here sounded much like the sirens used during the wars to signal enemy attacks, and often set him more on edge than was strictly necessary. He leaned back in his chair and placed a hand over his eyes, wiping some of the accumulated exhaustion from them. Working for so long without pause was bad for him, bad for all of them, so Cail decided to take a break," All right people. We wont be getting any work done with these sirens blaring anyhow... Go ahead and take a break. I'm going to see what the fuck this disturbance is and see what I can do about it." At that he stood up and turned towards the door leading out of the sterile room. as he left he dropped his coat, and gloves into a bin and continued on, only stopping long enough at his locker to slip on his leather jacket and drop a radio into the pocket. All the higher level Arcanes in the company had one as they were expected to act as secondary security in times of extreme crisis. not that any such crisis had arisen since the company had been founded... the occasional corporate spy from a rival company was usually all anyone had to worry about, so it was quite a surprise to the man when he did switch on his radio...

"Intruder in area 6D... Lethal force authorized..."

As the screams started Cail shut off the radio and shook his head. An arcane was attacking them, and the mundie guards were being ripped to shreds. Of the high ranking mages in the building at this hour Cail himself was one of the highest, with only a few others standing above him. Depending on the strength of this intruder he might be the only one who could face them down... With that thought in mind he began to race down the corridors, and when he ran into clumps of mundie guards milling about in uncertainty he sent them to cover the buildings exits and inform any other arcanes in the building that their services were needed. This had the potential to be a very... messy situation.

He practically flew down the flights of stairs, not even bothering with the elevators. Jumping a few floors was easy for him so long as he shielded his landing, and in the end it would be faster. Soon enough he reached floor 6D, and came beraling out of the emergency doors at a breakneck pace. And abruptly came to a halt. Messy was an understatement he realized... a grave understatement. For there, at the end of the hall, were what remained of the first group of guards to come into contact with the arcane. They were, for lack of a better term, minced. One had been impaled on a giant metal spike, the spear going right through the mans hand, the radio he held, into his body and into the floor beyond. The other guards, what was left of them, looked as though they had been hit with a hail of bullets. Considering the metal spear that may not have been that far off... the amount of destruction caused in so little time suggested a high level arcane and Cail, ever cautious, proceeded slowly.
 
01:20 AM
Sasson gave a gruff sigh, letting his head fall forward into the large book he was reading, giving his eyes a well deserved break. His guide, more so an escort to keep him out of the more privileged secrets, offered an amused, condescending smile. He could just imagine the thoughts going through his head, pitying the student who thought he could understand all the technobabble that went into their research. The man folded his hands in front of himself, sobering his voice before speaking. "It is quite a lot to take in. Perhaps you should return tomorrow with a fresh mind?" He placed a hand over his heart in mock oath. "I swear, I'll remember what page you were on."

"Sixty two." At the man's look of confusion, Sasson straightened up, fixing him a bright, disarming smile. "That is the Sixty Second time you have attempted to usher me out of the building today. As I've explained each time, I am not permitted to leave until I've read even page in this book." He tapped the pages for extra emphasis, giving his eyes a rub before getting back to it. The escort let out a bored sigh, slumping back into their seat. Sasson didn't blame him for it. They'd been at this most of the day already. Of course, things would have gone much faster if security hadn't stopped and held him up for a couple hours, under suspicions. But that wasn't really their fault. Honestly, if he wasn't him, he wouldn't believe his position either. Which was why it would have made more sense for the professor to come here himself, instead of sending a proxy. Lazy bastard. The sudden siren had both men jumping, Sasson looking around confused as his escort leapt for the small radio sitting next to the wall, flicking it on.

"We need backup immediately! Repeat, we need backup immediately in Area 6D!"

The radio was then filled with nothing but static. The escort turned it off quickly to avoid frightening his charge, but Sasson had heard enough to already assume the worst. Okay, so something big was going down. Did that mean they needed to evacuate or get to a safe zone? He wasn't entirely sure what to do in this situation. The escort came up to him, the humour drained completely from his face. "I'm terribly sorry sir, but we must vacate the area and head to the designated safety zones, off the premises. Please, follow me." How professional. Sasson didn't argue, bringing himself up to his feet. Maybe he'd actually get to go home tonight. Their walk through the hall was passed in relative silence, forced to take the stairs located at the end of each floor. "If worst comes to worst, what level can you handle?" Level? Oh, magic. Right.

"I'm a mundie."

"Of course you are." Sasson shot the escort a withering look, unseen as he was trailing along behind. Why work for a company who specialized in mundie tech if you weren't a fan? The thoughts were quickly pushed from his head. They didn't matter right now.
 
The sound of a Geiger counter echoed through the dark of the room containing the backup data archive, clicking incessantly as it resounded off of the circuit board-filled walls. However, anyone close enough to see the light emanating from the master console's screen would know that there was no Geiger counter in the room at all; Elle was just a fast typer.
{Have you got it yet?}
No, not yet.
{Hurry up! They'll catch you!}
They won't. Lustre Devise will literally stop them dead. If you wanted someone fast, you should've sent Beretta or Earnest.
{I wanted someone reliable. That's you.}
Isn't it? I think I'm almost in, anyway. It's checking the first box for a Q, the second for a hash...
{One of those damned researchers is outside. He looks like a Level 7.}
Not a problem. As long as nobody is a 9, I'll be fine.
{What'd you do if a Level 9 did turn up?}
Let them do whatever. Level 9s are cheating by definition.
{...}
Elle shifted her focus, tapping a series of keys very deliberately.

Q-#-!-0-P-;-d-X

The terminal froze for a moment, as if in thought.

"ACCESS CODE ACCEPTED," the screen read. "UPLOADING FILES... systembkup_0115-23042026.arc, 0%100"
Elle grimaced at what came next.
"Estimated completion time: 33.4 sectres"
In Earth time, that translated to just over eight hours. She had no idea why every computer system was set with the Sephyrian time system. Not that she minded; sectres were far easier to use and work with than hours and minutes. Nonetheless, she didn't like the idea of having to wait around in some dark basement with guards looking for her for 33 sectres, not to mention if that scientist took a single wrong turn from where he was, he'd stumble across her, and then there'd be a fight. That wouldn't be ideal, given her aim was to be discreet.
...No. Just no. She'd strolled in and already killed almost a dozen mundanes, as well as alerting the entire facility to her presence. There was no point trying to be discreet now if she ever had been in the first place. But while a battle would keep her entertained, a duel between mages was more likely than not do level the whole building, not to mention damage the data she was trying to collect. What to do...?
Quickly, she fired a metal spike through the door, pinning it to its own frame. It wouldn't stop an arcane, but it would certainly slow the mundanes down for a while.
{...You idiot.}
What?
{What makes you think he wouldn't hear that?}
Oh. Aha. ...Crap.
Hurriedly, she calculated an Aegis over herself, using fire, earth, and air. She had no idea how much it would help, but it was obviously better than being completely unshielded, Sakoula or no. She looked back at the monitor, silently praying that the Level 7 hadn't been in earshot of her spell.

In front of the exits, a handful of people in formal suits stood, bearing handguns, the scabbards for shortswords clearly visible on their belts. One of the Witch Hunters spoke up.
"Please, everybody calm down. We know what we're doing," he urged. "You need to remain on the premises until the incident is over. Note that this will be enforced."
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stand aside," a guard insisted. "The safe zones are offsite and protocol dictates that we need to move to them now."
The Witch Hunter shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't do that. We're under orders to keep you all onsite until the intruder is dealt with, for two reasons. The first is that the safe zones still need to be inspected to check for any intruders there, and secondly, by locking down the building, we have the intruder locked in with you."
"And they're locked in here, with us! We need to get to the safety zones immediately!" protested the guard.
"I can't let you do that."
"Sir, we're the ones with the assault rifles, in case you haven't noticed! So stand aside!"
The Witch Hunter calmly raised the pistol to the guard's head, who was looking increasingly anxious, robbed of her bravado. "Do you really want to go there?" the Witch Hunter asked. "Or would you like to calm down like I've asked?"
The room was filled with a shocked silence. The guard hesitantly took a step back, conceding.
"That's what I thought," he nodded, lowering his gun. "Everyone, please remain where you are until the incident has been dealt with." And then he smiled. "Thank you for your co-operation."[/hr]
 
The closer they got to the exit, the louder the commotion seemed to become, his escort slowing his walk as they came across a group of people shouting in terrified, angry curses at a pair of men in suits. Witch Hunters. At the urging of the arcane, Sasson stopped short of the crowd, watching as the man pushed through, trying to pick his voice out among the chorus. He picked up on only a few snippets of conversation. Mundane civilian. Ah, so they were talking about him. Something about zones from the W.H., though it was hard to tell exactly what he'd said when his impassive face gave nothing away.

His escort, on the other hand, was clearly livid, his voice shouting almost loud enough to be heard over the crowd, arms expressive and flailing. Sasson caught the words outrage, breech in protocol. No rite. Probably a lot of bluster in a fool hearty attempt to intimidate the Hunter. For their part, the Hunter seemed to be handling the situation well, keeping calm and collected, even when a female security guard pushed her way up into his face. Her hands were clutched tight around her weapon, Sasson edging away. If she was idiot enough to try and use that, he did not want to be caught in the resulting fire fight.

A pistol was raised to her head, the red head moving even further should the worst come to happen. But the woman was smart, or at the very least had a strong instinct for survival, and backed off. The crowed had been stunned into silence by the display, others following his lead and backing away. His escort returned to his side, looking shocked and worried, trying and failing to hide it behind a pleasant mask. Something serious must have been going on if they weren't letting people out of the building. Were they trying to keep someone locked in?

…They were, weren't they? Hell, and now he was locked in with them, until the individual was dealt with. If they could be dealt with. The Prof. was going to get an earful tomorrow if he made it through this.
 
The sound of the sirens wailing was loud enough to cover most minor noises, and Cail couldn't be certain whether that was a gift or a curse in this situation. During the Ruin war he had been a raider of great renown, and even during the Rupture war his skills were put to good use... But there had been peace for several years now, and his skills were not quite what they had been. On the one hand if he made a mistake the sirens might cover the noise and allow him a moments more preparation, but it also masked any mistake the enemy might make as well... Or so he thought. Just down the hall he heard an amazingly loud clang, reminiscent of the sound of metal smashing together at great speeds. It took the experienced former warrior only a moment to figure out the location and origin of the sound. It had to be the metal manipulating arcane, either smashing down one of the reinforced doors or trying to reinforce one all the more. With that Cail knew there was little reason to continue his attempts at stealth. Either they knew he was here, and were even now preparing for him or they were close to their objective and had stopped caring overmuch about drawing attention to themselves. Gods this was going to be unpleasant...

With a wave of his hand he increased the strength of his Aegis using fire, chaos and air only the fire was likely to help him overmuch, but it was always better to be safe. Those metal spikes had to have been the product of earth and fire at the very least, so the use of fire as a shield might help a bit when faced with them... Probably. As he moved further down the hall he spotted a pair of mundanes, skewered by the metal spikes from before, but he noted with some trepidation that these were not normal mundanes... They were members of the witch hunt, wiped out in seconds and obviously without enough warning for them to even truly react. And as he turned towards the door across from them and noted the identification plate one the door he groaned aloud. They were in one of the server rooms, a place where the companies most secret data was stored. Data that people like Cail had been working years to gather and manage, data that could help strengthen the alliance between the three worlds... or in the wrong hands destroy it. Whoever it was behind those doors, the data here could not be allowed to leave in their hands. Better to destroy it than that.

So much research gone... Cail winced in shared pain as he realized how much work they would all need to do in order to regain it all, but he could only hope that there were backups. No way he would let someone use the hard work he and his fellows had done over the last years for anything but its intended purpose. With a final sad look at the name place, Cail dropped the last bit of his hesitancy. His face, already a harsh plane with many a sharp angle, dropped even the little bit of softness that he had been trying to cultivate for so long. His expression returned to that which had been ingrained in him so many years before and a harsh snarl escaped his lips. The researcher fell away, and again he was the arcane warrior, and a rather destructive one at that.

Before his face a large arcane circle formed, and through it the drow weaved chaos and air into his voice, strengthening it beyond any reasonable level. With a roar he released the magic, and from his mouth shot a sonic boom, blasting the large metal door inwards along with a good portion of the wall around it. Cracks formed all along the floor and surrounding walls, and through the ensuing cloud of dust Cail, the Banshee, stepped over a small pile of rubble and into the room beyond.
 
One of the Witch Hunters, surprisingly, took a small black rod from her pocket and tapped a blinking green light at the top of it. Instantly, a holographic rectangle appeared beside the shape; a Magitech cell phone. She placed it to her ear, but her face gave nothing away; instead, she slowly nodded at whoever was talking.
"Yes... Understood. Yes sir, will do so immediately. I copy, over and out."
She leaned over and murmured something to the Hunter who had threatened the guard.
He listened intently, before shaking his head. "Are you certain?" he asked.
"Those are our orders," she confirmed.
"Still..."
"What is it?" one of the guards demanded.
"Classified," the male Hunter replied firmly, but the expression on his face had subtly shifted to one with a faint trace of panic.
A magical battle on the lower floors... If this keeps up we may need to breach protocol... Dammit... What do I do in this situation?!

Elle glanced anxiously at the screen, shifting apprehensively, her face the very picture of unease. The figure on the monitor hadn't gone down at all. The silence was playing on her nerves; she knew she was getting jumpy. Did he know she was there? Did anyone? Were they going to walk right passed the room and just leave her there? Was anyone going to find out what she was downloading? The suspense was turning time to treacle.
Aaagh, why is it so quiet?! Am I gonna die or not?!


That was when the door violently burst off of its hinges, taking pieces of the wall with it. Elle immediately clasped both hands over her mouth, hoping the explosion had masked the brief sound of her scream. Through the dust, she saw a figure emerge, in the distinctive shape of a man. Quickly, she threw her hood up. The last thing she needed was for him to get a clear view of her face, but she hadn't been counting on this.

Looking carefully, she saw it was a Dökkálfr, or more specifically, a Drow. His face wasn't ugly, but it was harsh and fierce, unsettlingly so; as if he was a person that had been fashioned from a blade or a gun. But the Dökkálfar had been, Elle knew that. This man, at some point in his life, would have been a soldier. Level 7 was one thing, but somebody trained to use and abuse their power to its full destructive extent was never going to be a pushover. Combine the two facts, and Elle realised that her status as Level 8 did not guarantee victory in this situation.

Still, she was more at ease. The uncertainty was gone; here in front of her was her opponent. If she could draw him away from the servers, she might be able to keep the information she needed intact. There were backups of that data, that they knew for certain. But where was a secret and probably a lot tougher to break into that some corporate headquarters anyway. This copy was her best chance. Her nerves thoroughly ground by the explosion, she glanced up, looking the man in the eye as she clenched her fists.

"So you did hear. Not surprising, given those ears," she smirked. "You know, this doesn't concern you. You can still back out if you want. But if your trigger finger's itchy... I'm happy to help you scratch it."

She did a double take on that last line. Scratch his trigger finger? Did she really just say that? Under other circumstances, that could've meant something completely different. She pushed the thought aside. She couldn't get distracted if she was going up against someone as skilled as a trained soldier. It was times like this that the fact Aegis was undetectable frustrated her. While he couldn't see hers, she didn't know if he had one, or what elements were set on it. He could've already outmatched her, for all she knew. A lack of caution could prove fatal here. She silently began to calculate some Lustre Devises. Fifteen origination points set in a sphere around her foe. As long as he didn't see it coming, he wouldn't stand a chance at escaping it once it emerged, and could only survive if his Aegis was up.

Level 7 ex-soldier. He wouldn't be easy prey for her if he knew what he was doing.[/hr]
 
The girl's words rolled over the former soldier like water parting before the bow of a ship, flung to the side without a ripple of recognition. He had fought in far too many battles throughout the years to fall for such obvious taunting, and especially from one so young.

Rather than reply to her Cail merely smiled a vicious smile, the edges of his lips curling to reveal his startlingly white teeth. It was a smile full of confidence, and more than a little blood lust. Whether he actually felt either was debatable, because with all that he had seen of this intruder she had to be a 7 at least, maybe even an eight... the only reason he had to be even remotely confident was the fact that she had looked so young and startled at first, had even screamed as the door had first come down, and thus was likely not nearly as experienced as Cail himself. Thus, surprise would be his greatest ally. Within moments of smashing the wall he began weaving chaos and air, and with the help of the dust already kicked up from his partial destruction of the wall he summoned a billowing cloud of darkly purple smoke. Smokescreen was a relatively simple magic for line mages and any above them, and without the addition of other weaves it was harmless even to mundanes... but it this weave was thick enough to completely block the intruders view of him, and thus dampen her targeting capabilities.

Quickly he dove into a roll and moved into the room slightly to the side of the mage, hoping that whatever initial magic she might have tried to cast would pass harmlessly over him. In such close quarters one could never be certain what type of magic a mage might employ, but considering the fact that the enemy wanted the servers and their data intact they would have to use more precise attacks. Cail had no such reservations...
 
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"Are you sure there's no secret way out of this place?" Sasson asked again, as he and his escort traversed the halls, desperate to find an exit that the Witch Hunters might have missed. It wasn't looking like there search would be successful, a crowd of angry and terrified people being held in at each door they'd come across so far. "You know, just incase things like this happen?" This being held hostage in a building by the very people meant to save you, with a dangerous individual(s) they were attempting to catch.

"The answer is still the same, sir. If there is, I don't have the clearance to know about it." Right, just an escort. Just there to make sure he didn't wander into places he shouldn't. Little more than a babysitter, really. There was a horrible rumbling through the building's foundation as something went on down below, in the basement. Some kind of battle, he assumed. Maybe a few Witch Hunters had already made it down there to capture whoever was threatening the facility. Either that, or someone on the security detail had found the intruder. If that was the case, he hoped they'd be alright. You didn't storm into a heavily secured development industry with anything less than a level 4.

"Fine, then answer me this. What do you suppose they're trying to do? They being whoever is making all that ruckus downstairs."

The escort hummed in thought a moment, looking as if he was debating on how much he could reveal to the man. Which should have been an instant everything, seeing as he had clearance to know what was going on in the building. He had just spent the last day looking into the secrets of their tech, after all. "They're probably after something in the data. Nothing but servers below the first floor. Either that, or they're attempting to destroy the data to slow our work."

"Which is nonsense, seeing as you have back ups off location." So, something in the data had them interested. What would an arcane want to know about mundane technology? That would be a question to ask when they were caught. If they were caught. No guarantee that the Hunters could stop a high level. They tried their best, bless them, but sometimes you just can't compete with someone who can fling fireballs from their eyes. (That had been a fun spectacle to watch.) "Well then, let's get rid of their reason for being here." The escort shot him a look as though he had grown an extra head.

"You want to go down there and confront the mage? Are you out of your mind?"

"Nothing that suicidal, no." He answered, stretching. "They're after data, presumably. So let's go shut down the servers, cut their access. There's gotta be a way to do that without actually being in the room with them." If there wasn't, he'd like to have a chat with whoever designed their system, because they weren't really clear on a few oversights.

"That would require me letting you into the restricted areas. Areas that even I'm not meant to be in."

"Would you rather we wait for the Witch Hunt to let us go, which they don't seem inclined to do until this whole thing is over? Or wait for whatever's going on downstairs to make it's way up?" His escort was quiet a moment, a scowl set on his lips. Mumbling something about losing hi job, he began to lead Sasson, heading for the top floors.

Oh good. More stairs.
 
Elle was unsettled by his expression. A grin was fine, that meant he'd accepted her challenge. But one like that? Was he already insane or something?

Intending to finish him off quickly, she activated Lustre Devise around him, but he was faster, flooding the room with a dark purple mist. Some kind of magical smokescreen, or possibly Smokescreen itself. Acting quickly, she fired off her spell; her metal lances forming in the spaces she'd calculated, but not striking anything. Her target had moved, using the spell as a distraction.
Dammit.
But she could work this to her advantage. He'd moved, meaning he was nowhere that he could get in her way as she rushed at the door. But then what?
Also... he could have set a trap in the doorway. He stood there for long enough before that Smokescreen.
With this level of uncertainty, all Elle could do was fight in the room itself. Hopefully this damn researcher was too concerned about his data to go all-out, but then, most of the employees wouldn't know their company even had this data. On the other hand, if she stopped downloading, this copy of the backup would be gone in less than a sectre now.

She suddenly noticed him next to her, a looming figure in the dark fog. Startled, she leapt across the room away from him at a surprising speed, firing a Windblast, colouring the smoke an icy blue as the air fired itself with more force than any cannon. So that's where he'd gone.
Oh, damn! She remembered the servers. This wasn't going to be pretty for either of them, regardless of whether she hit him...


Of all people, another Witch Hunter appeared, as if to block Sasson's path. Without hesitation, she raised a handgun, pointing it down the stairs at the mundanes.
"Excuse me," she frowned. "We've already sent everyone down to the lower floors, and I'm going to have to ask you to go back downstairs too. This area is off-limits while the intruder is in here."
She spoke in a reasonable tone, reciting a legitimate request, even if an implicit threat of a headshot took it slightly too far.
But she couldn't let anyone near the servers.
"I'll escort you two back down if you like."
 
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What the hell? It was like the world was conspiring against him today or something. Or at least, every security detail in the city had it out for him, it seemed. Both he and the escort stopped mid step, acutely aware of the gun pointed at them. Trigger happy Hunter, obviously. At least she hadn't actually shot at them for being here. His escort was the first to recover from the shock, a frown crossing his features.

"What exactly are you doing up here?" He questioned, arms folding over his chest. "It's obvious whatever is going on is going on in the bloody basement. Why are Witch Hunters crawling around our upper floors?"

Well, the man was definitely braver than he was. No way in hell would he have questioned the Hunter, especially not one that was pointing a weapon at him. Still, now that the question was out there, he wanted to know as well, curious gaze flicking between his escort, and the Hunter.
 
The Hunter hesitated for a moment. She hadn't actually expected them to resist. That was what the gun had been for. Well, since it had failed, she lowered it. Still, she needed to get them back downstairs as soon as she could.
"There are more data servers up here, so when the fight downstairs wrecks all the servers down there, the intruder's next stop will be up here. If we can isolate them then they'll be easier to deal with," she explained. "Since there's a magic duel going on down there, we're having to do our best without getting near it." She glared at the guard, irritated that he'd recovered from her surprise fast enough to ask the question. "Satisfied?"
It was all complete bull, of course, but at least it was plausible-sounding bull. She just hoped they wouldn't become a problem. It would be a pain to have to call out a clean-up team for a pair of mundanes, after all.
 
Now it was Sasson's turn to interject, a cold grip of panic resting in his chest. "There's a magic duel going on in the basement?! There are still people in the building! What if it comes crashing down?!" With how much rumbling the building had been doing, that seemed a very probable outcome. Most of the people in the building were mundane, and wouldn't be able to just throw up some magic to save themselves. They'd be crushed beneath the rubble. "Forget pushing people to the lower levels. Why the hell aren't we being evacuated?! Why are we being corralled inside the building threatening to fall down on our heads?!"

And then a new thought rose in the back of his mind, an outcome almost just as fatal for the people down below. To make it to the upper servers, the mage would need to go through the first floor. There was no chance she wouldn't come across civilians, and if they didn't kill them outright, the resulting firefight between them and the Witch Hunter's would. His hands reached out to grip her arms. "Please, ma'am. You need to talk to your people, and get the staff out!"
 
As soon as Sasson made contact with her, the Witch Hunter's expression changed, but not in the way one would usually expected. It twisted and contorted into one belonging to someone who had just been stabbed. She seemed to feel like that as well, falling back and sitting down at the top of the stairs, barely stopping herself from falling down them. She clawed at her face with her nails, dropping her gun, all the whilst making an odd choking sound with the occasional spasm in her neck.

Eventually, she slowly lowered her hands from her face and wrapped her arms around her gut, looking up at Sasson with a mixture of doubt and gratitude, but what came out of her mouth next didn't really reinforce that.
"I think I'm going to be sick."
She took a deep breath in, and then stood up.
"Whatever you just did, I need you to do it to my squadmates," she said firmly, her business-like assuredness returning. "I'll start evacuating the civilians after I call in another squad to pin down mine." She produced a cell phone, apparently searching for a contact.
"And by the way, good work," she told Sasson. "I actually thought you were a mundane for a minute there."
 
Sorry for not replying sooner. I was seriously ill last night and couldn't even function enough to write >_<

His roll had been slightly miscalculated, not surprising considering how long it had been since he had been in a true combat situation. Luckily the mistake had not been a fatal one, this time, as all the enemy could manage to blast of in her panic was a windblast. Cail didn't even bother dodging it, allowing his Aegis to take the brunt of the damage as he flew back into one of the server towers and smashed it to bits. With an angry growl he climbed out of the server's rubble, pieces of electronics falling off of him and to the floor. So much for the enemy having access to any data stored in that one at least... Cail glanced around himself at the rubble, and smiled viciously. All he needed to do would be to crush the rest of these while trying his best to stay alive against this young level 8. And he was certain now that she had to be at that level at least, as her reactions and speed were far too precise to be anything less.

He glanced up at her now, the smile still in place, and noted how far across the room she had flung herself in her flight from him. She was obviously surprised to have been faced with this level of resistance, meaning that she had not expecting to face down any truly powerful enemies here in the research facility. Either that spoke of a serious lack of observation and planning... or she had had some sort of assurance that she would not face very much serious resistance. The first was laughable, one does not just attack a facility like this without expecting some sort of Arcane being involved, and the second possibility was, well, worrying to say the least. If it was the second option then any expectation of reinforcement would not be very likely, and that would mean that Cail was on his own here. The thought was not a nice one, but he didn't let his expression change to show that fact. He needed to take this girl down fast and hard if he was going to survive this encounter... Purple electricity began crackling along his arm as he aimed it at the intruder, and as he weaved air and fire together to create it he also weaved chaos, adding unimaginable heat to the conflagration. The electricity condensed into a bolt of plasma, "Time to turn up the heat girl." His voice was deep, almost commanding in its presence and timbre, but that was the least of things that the girl would have to mull over, as just then he released the bolt and the magic missile launched towards her, sizzling through the air.
 
Sasson ripped his hands back as the woman began to buckle over in pain, watching wide eyed as the Hunter ripped at her face and writhed around on the stairs. Good god, it sounded like she was dying! Unsure of whether they should try and help the woman, or take their chance and move past her, the two mundanes were shocked still. After some time, she seemed to calm down, looking up to the two of them. "…Are you alright?"

"I think I'm going to be sick."

Oh good, she was talking again. Other than a bit of heavy breathing and a bit green around the edges, she seemed to be no worse for wear. Except she wanted him to go and… touch her squad mates. What? Why? "I'm sorry… what exactly do you think I've done?" He asked carefully. All he'd done was touch her, nothing special. And yet she'd had quite the violent reaction to it. He was about to speak up and correct her misunderstanding, that he wash in fact, mundane, when his escort spoke up.

"Are there more Witch Hunters in the upper floors? The servers need to be shut down, and I'm not partial to having more guns pointed at me."

Right. The whole reason they'd come up here in the first place. Glad to see someone was keeping their cool through all this.
 
Wow. Well, I'm glad you're okay, at least, Ferril.

Elle saw the spell gathering in his hand. Lightning? She was prepared for th... Oh god, plasma. And he was still grinning like a psychopath. Frantically, she cast Lustre Devise again, slamming a kite-shaped metal slab into the ground, which caught and earthed the bolt, but glowed a pale amethyst with the heat it was now holding. The room felt like it had been raised to a million degrees, and the air carried a strong tang of ozone. She heard the bang, but fortunately, her Sakoula had dampened it. That didn't stop her ears ringing.

Looking around the room, Elle noticed that the LEDs on the servers had gone out, the terminal monitor going blank and switching off.
Of course. The building specialised in mundane tech. It was no surprise that they used old-fashioned electronic technology like this. The lightning bolt had come from a mage, so it was strong enough to disbalance the electromagnetic fields in the servers that stored the information. The data would be corrupted, and the power wouldn't be back on, period.

You there?
{I am. What's up?}
This idiot's practically EMP'd the whole building. We're going to need another archive.
{To add to that, I'm pretty sure we just lost a Witch Hunter.}
Oh, great. What the hell is going on? Why didn't you think this through?!
{I had no idea an ex-soldier was going to be here! And I don't even know what's happening to the Witch Hunters! I shouldn't lose them, it's impossible!}
Obviously not! Screw this, I'm outta here.

She made a headlong dash for the hole in the wall that used to be a doorway, dropping metal spikes in a fence-like fashion to protect her from any more electricity as she did.

"I don't know what you did," the Witch Hunter admitted. "I don't even know what happened to me. But I know I can think now." She picked up her gun, sliding it into its holster. "Either way, it doesn't matter at the moment. We need to evacuate the civilians now and bring my squad back to normal, and ponder it on the way home. We don't have time to figure out what's happening here."

"Are there more Witch Hunters in the upper floors? The servers need to be shut down, and I'm not partial to having more guns pointed at me," the mundane commented.
"...That's a good point. If I cover you," she suggested, "our arcane here can... do whatever it is he did to the others downstairs. Then they'll start evacuating everybody while we shut down the servers. Does that sound alright to you... two...?"
All of a sudden, the room was engulfed with darkness, the only light being the hologram on the cell phone, which the Hunter started jabbing at the air in front of it frenziedly. Of course, it was no use. The holograms worked by manipulating electromagnetic radiation; in this case, light. But the amount of electromagnetic noise in the building had messed it up enough to confuse the spell working it.
In short, it had frozen her phone.
"Dammit. Some kind of EMP. I guess we can't call in another team after all." She sighed. "At least we don't have to worry about the servers anymore." Frustratedly, she slipped her cell back into her pocket, producing an ammo cartridge and loading it into her pistol. "In this situation, we're going to have to stick with enchanted bullets. The pulse will have drained the batteries for the electron-fire weapons. Not," she added exasperatedly, "that either of you are armed, are you?"[/hr]
 
He really did need to clarify to her about this whole arcane business. Otherwise, he was pretty sure if they ran into any problems, they'd be relying on him to pull off some magic trick. Which would not end well, for anyone. It would need to wait, however, as the hall was suddenly plunged into deep darkness, the glow from the Hunter's phone the only source of light within sight.

"At least we don't have to worry about the servers anymore."

Right, cause the whole building shutting down wasn't anywhere near as important as the servers. Or who knows, maybe the researchers had found something so staggering that the data was worth killing for. Someone sure wanted something from them. So, a single Hunter and a pair of Mundanes were going to travel down into the dark, and attempt to fix the rest of her squad. With no backup on the way. This would end well.

Not," she added exasperatedly, "that either of you are armed, are you?"

"I'm not authorized to carry weapons on the premises."

"I could probably punch someone, but that'd be the extent of my arsenal."
 
Ha! Emp... sweet. I'll have to remember that Hephaestus's Bolt + Metal does that.

Cail cursed under his breath as she blocked his spell with her own, a sheet of metal springing from nothingness to absorb the blast of electricity. The plasma in the bolt super-heated the metal, making it glow a dull amethyst to match his own magic, but still the shield held and all his spell really did was raise the temperature in the room to near fatal levels... at least for a mundane. Thanks to his Sakoula he barely felt it, but the way that some of the floor tiles near to his enemy slowly fused together was certainly a good indication as to how hot it really was. Really, how good was this girl? He had yet to do even the slightest bit of damage to her and her reaction and spell casting times were amazing. For one so young and apparently inexperienced he had to admit a begrudging amount of respect for her natural talent.

The metal shield was still there, and the girl was still behind it as far as he knew. Either he needed to smash through the shield, cast a spell that would affect her behind it, or he needed to get around it himself... As he contemplated the problem however, she made the decision much easier for him by bolting for the large hole he had made in the wall. Damn... Shoulda left a trap there. He really had gotten rusty over the last couple of years. But why would she run when she was so close to her goal? It was only then that Cail noticed that the light hum that normally came from the servers throughout the room had stopped, all of it having already shut down... had the heat killed them or... A grin slowly spread across his lips as he realized the explosion from his bolt had knocked out the electronics in the area. The whole building may have been affected at this rate, and if so the girl had no further reason to stay. He followed her out to the hall, and as she ran down the corridor he cast another spell, weaving fire and air a few feet ahead of her. Hopefully she would charge directly into combustion's path, and even if she didn't the aftermath would at least stagger her enough for him to try and stop her... If he was lucky.
 
Well, lightning on its own is a ridiculously strong, naturally occurring EMP. Bolster it up a bit with magic, and you've got something that'll fry any circuits it just happens to be in the general vicinity of, especially if it pulls a Faraday and spreads out as an electron field.

Buuuuut that's just me being a physics nerd.

The Witch Hunter clicked her tongue, unamused. "That's great," she muttered sardonically. "Well, someone had the bright idea of making all the standard-issue torches battery-powered instead of magical, so at least if we're quiet, nobody'll see us coming. On the other hand, if this EMP spread much further than the building, there're going to be fires starting real soon unless somebody doesn't turn the lights back on." She looked at the two of them, analysing what she could see of their expressions in the dark.
"Look, I know that this is a really flimsy idea, okay? But there's no point trying to come up with some unbeatable plan because I'm pretty sure none of us even know what's going on. Plus, if having a plan ever made any difference, then that damn Ruin guy would be sitting in God's lounge instead of some glorified rubber-room. So in this case, I'd say our best bet is Redhead's magic." She glanced at Sasson. "I know it's kinda rude to ask, but we don't have time for formalities. What's your Level?"


Elle struggled to breathe fast enough through gritted teeth as she sprinted out of the room. She'd expected some kind of trap, but apparently her opponent hadn't considered it for whatever reason. Not that she was complaining, it just made it easier on her. She might escape unscathed yet with a little luck.

Nope.

She barely reacted fast enough to erect another shield before the explosion went off, but couldn't slow down at all, only just managing to turn so she slammed into it with her shoulder, wincing a little with pain as a small grunt escaped her lips as she stopped dead. It wasn't even a moment before some invisible force pulled her, smashing her back against the hot metal hard enough for even an arcane like her to feel it. Aegis had taken the brunt of the damage, but it still hurt, not to mention that if the metal she used was any less dense, it would have been ripped to smithereens by that pulling force. There had been a fiery explosion, so Elle guessed that maybe that had made some kind of vacuum that pulled things towards it.

This was bad. If she kept going like this, she was going to run out of Willpower, but any kind of injury she sustained was going to slow her down, and she couldn't afford that. If anything, Elle had apparently underestimated her opponent's capabilities. She hadn't expected anyone above maybe an untrained Level 6, but this man was strong even for a 7. There was only one way out of this situation alive, she realised. She was going to have to start fighting with her head.
 
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