Ursali

"Hahh, hahh... Better run." Confident as she was in her own abilities, and even with the much more present intrusive thoughts than before, Alriana was glad the wyverns and mercenaries got the message and fled, if only for Iris and Alvira's sake. Iris turned to her, all smiles, but it was clear what had happened at the tail-end of the battle was on her mind. "We do need to talk, but not here. It's a private matter, Iris." She'd need to make sure that her sister understood that she was not to share what they were going to talk about, and here was not the place to instill that into her. Speaking of her dragon friend, however, she seemed to have near sprinted off the second the mercenaries turned tail. It looked like she was over by Versaris, though she couldn't exactly see what was happening from back here. "C'mon Iris, let's get back to the group. We shouldn't be by ourselves out here. Versaris said that Cerezia was the last place where it was okay to be out in small groups." That other group of mercenaries had been down there, as well. There could be some left, more enemies to kill... Alriana shook the intrusive thought away, hurrying her pace. The sooner she could confirm there were no enemies the sooner the voice would shut up-- There was a sudden call from the fox, a warning, but from what? Even as her mind tried to determine what she was supposed to be bracing for her body instinctively dropped low to the ground, dagger swiftly drawn from its sheath. There were more enemies... Where? Where are they!? The dagger clenched tighter in her hand, Alriana scanning the southern field, looking for any sort of indication of more enemies.

Alriana wasn't sure if it was the hit her sister, or the voice coming back and making a resurgence, but there was definitely an increase in her sister's aggression. Once the battle was over, and everything wrapped up, they needed to talk about that. For now, though, the wyverns were the immediate priority. Aly to 25, 16 wing shuriken wyvern 11.

"Everything hurts," she answered with a grunt, "but I'm fine." Dealing with pain was par for the course, though this was the first time she had ever felt it to such a degree; whatever had happened had left her feeling quite drained, as if a part of her overall being had diminished. It was probably just the exhaustion. Slowly, mainly with the support of her tail, the lizard stood up as her sister released her. "I wish something like that didn't need to happen for you to listen to me..." She had a vague sense of what had probably happened, she'd felt it for an instant in Eibar against one of the insignificant arena fighters. Though it was worrying how hazy the memories were... "That's what happens when I 'listen' to my voice, Iris. That's why you shouldn't listen to yours." Like usual, Iris was fast to rebound past any hard feelings, or at least it seemed to be that way on the surface. And there was that word again, 'love'. She couldn't return the words and mean them, but she could compromise. "I care about you too Iris, but we need to stay focused on the battle - look, up in the sky. We need to deal with them before anything else. Come on." Aly 24, 15 equip wing shuriken.

"HrgkK!" An uncomfortable grunt left the lizard as her sister wrapped her into a powerful bear hug, sobbing into her chest and refusing to let go. "Why would I, leave?" She didn't understand. "Why, would I be dead?" She'd clearly lost consciousness, long enough for Renais and the other healer to have made their way to the front to heal her... Did she lose, to this worthless riffraff of mercs? The thought was enough to get her blood boiling, her tail slamming into the ground. An unusually strong reaction, even given her temper. However, Iris' continued sobbing and clinging quickly took her focus off her indignant rage and back onto her sister. "Iris. It's fine, I'm alive..." She slowly returned her sister's hug, rubbing her back.

'Alriana' had dashed forward and tore into the first thing she collided with, cleaving her dagger through the unfortunate axeman that had been in her way. His wound resembled her own, a harsh and deep diagonal cut from shoulder to waist; though the wound she inflicted on him was much more instantaneously lethal and his death was assuredly swift. It felt like everything was in a heavy haze, her body moving with such ferocity from the simplest thoughts, if they were even hers. Another approached and she cut him down with sheer brute strength, cuts with her dagger enough to rend the unarmored fool's flesh. Another approached, mumbled some words she couldn't understand and didn't care to. She'd kill him, then the rest of them, until there was nothing left to kill. Perhaps her wounds were catching up to her at last, or the exhaustion from all the fighting she'd been doing decided to hit now, but her body simply refused to move as the beginnings of the magic spell appeared below her. The pain didn't even register, the darkness clouding her vision just another obstacle to her objective. Even as the spell faded she stayed standing and it was only when her instinct told her to lunge at and kill the mage that her body finally gave out and she crumpled to the ground as unceremoniously as a puppet cut from its string. Alriana blinked as she regained consciousness, everything a hazy blur. As the lizard blinked more her vision slowly came into focus, her sister's on-the-verge-of-tears visage taking up the majority of her sight. Her everything hurt, the wound, her muscles, everything. As though she'd just pushed herself too hard during exercise and pulled her entire body... "I, ris...?" Why was she so upset? Sad upset, not angry upset, they'd just been fighting not a minute ago. Her memory was hazy, a blur from baiting to cavalry to being on the ground; she'd taken down the cavalry, then another mercenary, then another, then blackness. "Why, are you sad...?" Aly idles.

As she noticed the rider charging her Alriana coiled her tail and took a low stance. As soon as his lance swung at her she was airborn, leaping up and crashing into the rider, knocking him off his horse as she drove her dagger into his neck. The situation with Iris really had her riled, Alriana venting some stress with the violence she committed against the mercenary. Why is Iris doubling down on this, she should just listen to me-- She hadn't noticed there was a second horseman, twisting her body out of the way to avoid being completely killed, but not enough to dodge the swing completely. "HrgHkK!" She stumbled back, coughing up blood as she felt her armor break and imbed itself into her skin along the arc of the swing. But she was alive, and it was about to be everyone and everything's problem. "GRARHHRR!" On the verge of death, in an attempt to survive, the Creation's instincts of survival flared; however, baked into her very being was the directive to kill her enemies, more so even than to survive. With another ferocious growl she leapt at the man and tackled him off his horse, dagger piercing his neck, throat, heart over and over again. Threat neutralized she stood, seeing more of her enemies approaching and dashed at them, no thought in her mind other than absolute murder.

"Rahhh! Listen to me! If only you can hear it than it isn't anything good!" Now truly wasn't the time for this, even with the temporary lull in combat. She didn't have the time to properly explain this to her sister; not without the rest of the Tigers hearing it anyway. They were her family, yes, but she didn't know how they would react to her admitting she constantly had thoughts of killing them floating around in the back of her mind whenever she was mildly inconvenienced by them; especially when tensions were already so high with the supposed thief being within reach. "Ah... Thanks." She hadn't noticed the short and quiet healer approached her until she felt her healing magic patching up her minor wounds. The situation with Iris could wait a bit longer, preferably until privacy was an option. In the meanwhile, it was time to cull the herd as they approached... Aly to 16,15 ensure Iron Dagger is equipped.

"'Doing good!?'" Now she was really confused, Iris was actually speaking with something? "Just because something praises you doesn't mean that it's good! Listen to me!" She watched as her sister dashed off, undoubtedly eager to do more 'good' by the voice only she could hear. And a good job she did, killing the target of spells without hesitation. She'd noticed it before but Iris seemed almost eager to kill, no matter who their enemies were. It was worrying, but only because Versaris had told her how dangerous such thinking was. "What did it even tell you to do?" Of course, this conversation wasn't meant for the middle of a fight, Alriana's attention focusing onto one of the upcoming axemen long enough to throw her daggers into his vitals. 12,16 Iron Dagger fighter 3.

Alriana paused as she heard something amidst the sounds battle; Iris was speaking, but to none of the Tigers. Is she...? But she told me that Del or whoever said she was incomplete. Something about not feeling things...? Either way, if what she was talking to was in anyway similar to the near ever-present thoughts that filled the back of her mind, then Alriana couldn't let her sister 'talk' to whatever it was she was speaking with. "Iris!" She shouted at her sister as she moved closer, dark magic already forming in her sister's claws. "Whatever you're talking too, don't listen to it! It doesn't say anything good!" Aly 7,16 Iron Dagger the priest.

True to her expectations, it was only one of the wyvern riders that had spotted her against the cliffside; the speed at which he swooped down on her with his mount was too fast to dodge, especially with the lack of experience she had on that front. His lance pierced her armor and cut into her side, however it was far from the worst wound she had suffered. She drove her dagger into his mount as it passed her by, leaving a harsh gash on the beast and leaving it slow and weakened. At least this dagger does was it was said it's supposed to do. Part of her had doubted it, given the apprehension of its maker, but the results spoke for themselves. Gean ran in and capitalized on the slowness of the rider's beast, leaving Alriana without another target. One of the hangers-on, one of the knights that got them into this combat, was swiftly behind her and produced a staff to heal her wound. A simple "Thanks." was all the lizard offered in return, now setting her sights on the weakest link in the mercenaries' attempt at a human blockade. Aly to 8,18, Steel Dagger Mage #1.

Alriana had spent much of the morning, and most of their journey out of Hectacia, still pondering the book she and Iris has read last night. There hadn't been time to ask Versaris anything, at least not privately, so she'd been left with her own thoughts, confused as they were, on how what had been described in the book was anything close to romantic. So distracted had she been that she failed to notice her sister chase after Ullr once he'd somehow caught a whiff of smoke nearby until she'd gotten a fair bit ahead of the others. In the very least she'd already had her armor on, no need to don it. Iris and Ullr had stopped before they had gotten to far, at least, that worry now out of mind. There appeared to be a rather large host in the area, most likely related to the thief the Tigers were hunting given the mishmash of humans and clouded everywhere; mercenaries like herself, though their attention swiftly shifted from uncertain to hostile, she could see it in their stances. Words were useless then. She quickly moved to the front, positioning herself with her back to the mountain, low to the ground, ready to attack at a moment's notice. A glance up at the sky revealed the primary threat to herself, the wyvern riders would almost certainly be able to spot her regardless of how well she hid; black armor on a white body did little other than stick out like a sore thumb without cover. She clutched the new tool she'd acquired in Cerezia, ready to put it to use... Aly to 7,22, equip Wing Shuriken.

Sister Sister: Sister Harder

"Wh-What...?" Tundyssa stuttered as Tenna called her bluff; and call it hard she did as she positioned herself right in the dragon's face, mere inches away. She didn't have an answer to Tenna's question, unwilling to do something that would potentially hurt her feelings and send the wrong message but at the same time unwilling to act on how she truly felt towards the Saintess. She had more hang-ups than what had already been mentioned, namely her feelings for Nala, yet at the same time she wanted to be greedy and have both. Something about the girl innately attracted Tundyssa, as soon as Tenna had shown she wasn't a bloodthirsty beast really, but she'd been too stuck up in her prejudice to let it influence her. Until Tenna's confession slipped out, and she was forced to confront the feelings, both about the Saintess and humans as a whole, that she'd been running from. "I... I..." She didn't have answer for Tenna here either, staring back at the girl with a small amount of panic in her eyes. What was she going to do if she didn't deny her? Tundyssa wasn't sure she was ready to find out, but it didn't seem as though she had much choice. Xetketh watched her liege intently as she realized that her star pupil's attention had been so easily torn away from her and onto the human girl merely because she had swapped her tights out for some combination of a skirt and shorts that showed off her legs. Xetketh could hardly see the appeal herself. With Miz as the only exception, knowledge took a priority over everything else for the beholder. Regardless of that, however, Seilan had very obviously earned Miz's ire, the proof was there as soon as the rune burst into a minor spark shower. Her name being said in full cleared any doubt, not that she'd had any in the first place. "It's just as plain to me Miz. Let us be off, you wanted to see the Trading Guild did you not?" Miz began making her way towards the center of town and Xety was quickly behind her until she had matched her pace. Though her liege was fuming, the beholder was delighted, more than happy to be rid of the humans that Miz had insisted they accompany, though she knew better than to declare as such when one had set Miz off. As they approached the center of town a particular building stood out from the rest, easily the largest building in town. "May I suggest we start there, Miz? Even if it's not the Trading Guild we will likely be able to learn where it is."

"Sh-Shut up!" Came the dragon's panicked response as Tenna called out the blush she knew was on her face, unable to deny that Tenna's confession had made a part of her happy; though she was unable to openly admit as such after trying to deny to princess for so long. For the first time Tundyssa truly noticed the difference in height between them, Tenna a good five inches taller than her. She could carry the girl like she was nothing, fold her like a pancake if she wanted to almost assuredly, but in this moment where Tenna had so exposed her she really felt the difference in height. "St, Stop saying stuff like that...!" Her face lit up all the brighter, finally angling her head up to meet Tenna's gaze. "I, I shouldn't, feel like this but you... You just don't know when to stop." Seilan confirmed her theory, that Changed now outnumbered man most assuredly, though with an extra bit of information that left her with a question better answered in private. Why the Changed hadn't razed a country like Coteon to the ground, when they so assuredly outnumbered them, was probably not something the boy would want to discuss in the middle of an armory, even if her own curiosity wanted answers now. As for the actual confirmation of her hypothesis, it didn't mean much without more information to base the possible effects of a mass number of lesser Changed on the world; there certainly hadn't been any adverse effects from a smaller number of more powerful Changed that she had observed in her time. Alas, it seemed that impromptu scholarly musings and debates had fallen out of style with the current generation, the boy exiting Big Bob's and waiting by the entrance. A cursory glance revealed his gaze to be over towards the girl that had accompanied them at the start of this outing, though she had split off before they entered the store; even as Miz passed the rune of a, probably now, very rare spell into the boy's hands she could tell that his attention was far from entirely focused on the rune. "If your mages were worth anything they would've kept our inscriptions the same; If anything I expect there to be inefficiencies due to loss of knowledge." There was an unmissable smugness to her voice, her ego would not be so easily checked as her power, though she wondered if the boy was even paying attention at all as the girl approached him, a few stalks swinging overhead to get a view on his expressions and where he was staring. It was clear that the girl had captured his attention, and she was perfectly fine with that if it meant that he kept his eyes off Miz; though she wondered how her liege would take such rudeness. "Gotta be in top shape at all times if you're a mercenary, 'specially when the rest of the group is older guys. Won't let you do a damn thing if they think you can't handle yourself. Don't know what kinda life you lived, but looks like you're figuring things out yourself." Ember was glad that Amera was taking things so positively, compared to the pessimistic attitude she'd had before stepping into the ring. She was doing a good job at lasting too, even if the Helhound was holding back for her sake. She could complain all she wanted so long as she kept fighting. "Hhrgh...!" Amera was quick even if she wasn't all that strong physically, the quick jab hits enough to get Ember to stagger back a step. "Hahh, got plenty of fight in you, anyway!" She wasn't being pushed to her limits like the cat was, but it was nice to get some practice in against a lithe and nimble opponent. "You can take hits, but let's see you dodge!" She lunged forward again, arriving at the retreating cat in one bound, fist already swinging at her gut.

If it weren't for the fact that Alriana's breakfast currently sat upon her tail, the large appendage would've slammed into the floor as Versaris' gaze met hers, the expression on his face enough to fluster the lizard even further. He'd kept his mouth shut, at least, but she knew that when she confronted him with her questions that he would likely immediately jump to teasing her. She couldn't help but grumble at the thought, trying to focus on her sister instead. "You can do things to pass the time. Did you even eat breakfast? You rush and jump into things so fast I don't even know if you ate." Ullr joined them shortly, also intrigued by the book. She hadn't paid much attention to him before, but he was barely taller than herself, if at all. Not having to tilt her head up to talk to someone other than her sister felt like a new feeling after all the time she'd spent with Versaris. Nonetheless, her first instinct was to tell him that it wasn't any of his business, but he was also the one who gave Iris her name and was probably the person her sister was closest with. "Iris tell you if she wants," she said with a small grumble.

Alriana didn't know what she'd been expecting Tio's response to Iris to be, but it was immediately clear that she needn't have worried about it. Hopefully moving forward Iris would be able to use her name properly; especially now that her sister had her own name and could understand the importance of being addressed as she preferred. However, in true Hyl'Sin-- Was it alright for me to give her Grelbiria's name...? Doesn't matter, she's my sister so she counts. Because I say so. In true Hyl'Sin fashion, Iris didn't know when she ought to keep her mouth shut and revealed to the whole Tigers, or at least anyone paying attention, that they'd spent last night reading a romance book far to advanced for them. Alriana's face lit up with a light shade of pink as she looked over towards Versaris, due both to the questions she had for the not-elf and to see if he had overheard what Iris had just said. She quickly turned her gaze back towards Tio and her sister, not wanting to give him more ammunition to tease her with, though their conversation had mostly finished. Iris came over to her, looking probably the most subdued that Alriana had ever seen her; her sister wasn't usually wont for being held down by her emotions. "At least you learned something, correct? You correct people on your new name so you should make sure you get theirs right, too. It's only fair." Her tailed flicked a little in annoyance as Iris mentioned the book, but she couldn't rightfully be angry with her sister when she had already apologized. "Mrrhh..." She couldn't help the sigh, however. "I'm not much better about saying what I can and can't either, so we can learn together if you want."

Between Tio and Syndra's conversation, Mikoto and Ranias' conversation, and the general rowdiness of the Tigers during meal time, there was a fair bit of noise in the room, almost so that Alriana missed Gean complimenting her necklace as she was getting her own breakfast. She paused, stopping in her tracks as she turned to one of her few senior Tiger members, unsure of how to react after receiving her compliment. "...Thanks, Gean." Was what she eventually managed to give the mermaid clouded after a moment of decidedly awkward silence. With both Miria and Saiga coming over, the table was too crowded for her tastes, especially considering Mikoto was already here. More distracting than all of the noise, however, was Iris making the same faux pas towards Tio as she had back in the tent. Though Alriana had never really seen Tio angry, aside from briefly during the battle at Liste, she still moved closer to her sister even if she had no real frame of reference for how Tio was about to react. In the very least it was simple to eat her breakfast as she approached the trio of tension, using her tail to move the food she'd placed on her plate into her mouth.

How Iris could go from negative twenty to one-hundred within the span of a few seconds still wasn't something Alriana was used, almost watching on in amazement as her sister got ready. "It does match me well. It's very pretty." She felt stronger than the word she'd assigned to the necklace, but was unwilling to give the effort of saying a more complex word. "The not-elf is also really weird." There was the slightest of smirks on her face, deriving some amusement from referring to Versaris as a not-elf given what Iris had told her back in Liste. She fiddled with her shirt, smoothing it out some. "Mhn. Book weirder than Versaris--" Was all she managed to say before her sister dashed out the door, no longer content to remain still for a second longer. She was hungry as well, both for food and for answers, following her sister downstairs in a much more mellow pace. The majority, if not the entirety, of the group was already downstairs; though it didn't escape the lizard's notice that their group had grown once again. More bodies meant a better chance of success of their next task, but also a bigger chance that they could be preemptively discovered. She caught sight of Versaris out of the corner of her eye, but was much more interested in getting breakfast at the moment.

Alriana, as usual, was the last of the Tigers to rouse herself on this rainy day. Between spending time with Sixt-- Iris. Her name was Iris now. Iris. Iris. Iris. Between spending time with her sister and reading the romance book that she had purchased, the lizard had stayed up rather late into the night. Speaking of, the book itself was rather... Advanced, for her knowledge of the subjects contained within. Words that neither she nor her sister knew the meaning of were all too common, as well as many confusing, nonsensical descriptions of gendered objects. There was mention of less advanced actions like kissing and hugging, so the book wasn't entirely worthless to her; though, the descriptions were rather verbose and overly detailed in a weird sort of way. In the very least she could ask Sari what all the words and descriptions meant; he seemed rather knowledgeable if somewhat reluctant to speak of the activities. That was probably because she called him weird all the time, but that was because he was. Iris herself was hardly more awake than she was, half-hanging off her bed and staring at her with one eye open. "Didn't sleep well?" Was all the lizard offered her half dressed sister as she herself got about getting out of bed and getting dressed. It didn't take as long as it normally did, no need for her armor to eat breakfast, though the inclusion of the necklace Versaris had gifted her really stood out when contrasted with her very simple clothing. Her brow furrowed, unaccustomed to paying even this much attention to her outward appearance.

In the entirety of her life, Tundyssa would never have thought that one word, uttered from Coteon's princess' own mouth no less, would so utterly cow her. One simple affirmation was all it took to leave the young dragon utterly gobsmacked where she stood. There was no longer anything she could do to ignore the set-in-stone fact that Coteon's princess was crushing on her; Tenna had just made sure of that. For lack of better terminology the dragon simply, stopped. She stared both down and through Tenna, mouth agape, as the princess went on to summarize the internal struggle she'd had for the better part of the last three months; much more so after the dragon's encounter with Hess in the wastes and her continued exposure to Tenna. "I... You..." Part of her wanted to lash out at her, for daring to be right, but she wanted to be better than that. Better than herself. Her self-esteem was also riding high from the princess' confession, her cheeks softly aglow. It was too much all at once, Tundyssa left staring down at Coteon's princess, mouth agape, who she claimed to hate so much while the glow on her face told a much different story. The boy's smirk was easily noticed by the many spare eyes of the beholder, the ones that did notice glaring at him while their master helped her master with the sword. "There's no reason to push yourself so, Miz. Your body's current state is, rather unfortunately, far more delicate than you're used to. I know it's not an easy adjustment to make overnight, but it is a necessary one." Xetketh purposefully refrained from mentioning how the now tiny empress felt about her situation, as well as their previous conversations on the matter; that information was privelidged, the boy would know if Miz cared to tell him and not for any reason otherwise. As the boy and Miz discussed the diminution of magic practitioners, Xetketh got to returning the sword to its proper place. "A guess is worth as much as the effort put into the thought behind it, though I do agree that speculating as we are now will only be a waste of time. However, that's not to say it would be time unwisely spent." Her attention suddenly shifted to Seilan, all nine eyes suddenly on him. "This country we're in, Hwein, was it? Supposedly the melting pot of Changed and man, correct? However, the ratio of Changed to man, from what I've seen so far, appears to be similar to Ishtaria. When it still stood it was the center of Miz's power, the capital city of her empire. The capital of the Changed, if you will." There was a small bit of wistfulness in her voice, but she swiftly crushed it. "If this country is a melting pot, then what does that mean for Vaia? How widespread are the Changed there? The country is much larger than Coteon, is it not? Is it possible that Changed now outnumber man?" Her attention was still entirely on Seilan, Xetketh managing to intrigue herself from her own speculation.

"Mhhm..." This was about the response she expected from Versaris, not that she thought it was being said only to placate her; it lined up with what he'd said at the forge. "I understand that. What I don't understand is why people would judge me for enjoying fighting." She let out a small huff, frustrated, her sentences slipping back to her normal with her growing frustration. "If people not care for fighting then should distance self and stay out of business. Not care what they think, won't change just because random person think should. Still annoying be told what do by person who know nothing." As her minor rant came to a close the pair were well into the lobby, the lizard spotting someone, Tanya, one of the cat clouded, from their group speaking with someone. They arrived too late to hear what was said, however, given where they were, whoever Tanya was speaking was likely the fight manager. Or, in the very least, Tanya would know who that would be. Never really one for tact, Alriana walked right up to them in the middle of their conversation, staring up Tanya's conversation partner. "Want fight in arena. Know who talk to?"

Somewhat ironically, given how their visit to the Iron Scales Forge had gone, Alriana had decided that the arena was their next place to visit on this test date with Versaris. She hadn't even begun to guess what today was going to be like, but found everything so far to have been mostly enjoyable. Versaris' wont to tease her anytime and anywhere was annoying, but when the not-elf was behaving himself he was decent enough to be around. As they arrived at their destination she turned to Versaris, a question from their time at the forge on her mind. "Is it really so bad to enjoy fighting? Fighting is all I know, other than my methods to pass time. If I couldn't fight, I wouldn't be able to earn money to buy food. And I'm good at it. Should I not enjoy what I'm good at?" She hadn't even realized she'd slipped into full sentences, her subconscious desire to understand this ideology so great.

Tundyssa actually flinched back from Tenna as her figurative dam burst, unleashing a torrent of bottled up emotions. The dragon didn't know what to do other than stand there and let Tenna vent at her, not daring to approach her until she'd exhausted herself and curled into a ball on the ground. "..." Even as she approached the Tenna ball on the ground her mouth remained shut, sort of awkwardly staring down at the princess for a minute or so. "I'm not leaving you here." She finally answered, pushing past the heavy weight of the silence that had overtaken them. "And you really picked the wrong person to try and make friends with. Anyone else would've been better than me. You know I hate humans." More silence followed the hollow sounding end of her statement, Tundyssa glancing aside and doing her best to not fidget in place. "It's not weird to like girls if you are one... I like girls more than guys, myself. I'm in love with one, actually." A soft blush had taken to the dragon's face, so unused to talking about the topic that even this was enough to embarrass her. "Another dragon, back home: Nala." Even if she ought to hate me for what happened to her... "A-Anyway, does what you said really mean you f-feel like that, for m, me...?" "This is just a warm up, yeah? Not like we're fighting to kill either, just having some fun." While it was true she was holding back, there was no point in just rolling Amera over with brute strength so she could say she won. When not used in self-defense, the entire point of fist-fighting was to entertain, hone one's body, or study and practice a style. Neither of them would learn anything from Ember running Amera over. "Oohf!" Ember staggered in place from Amera's punch as the cat withdrew to complain about how hard her body was. She'd purposefully left her guard open, admittedly; however, following the same reasoning as before, there was no fun in a completely lopsided fight. Amera knew how to fight, clearly, she just needed to hone her body more if she wanted to rely on her fists. "Made of fire if you believe old stories, though given what I can do they're probably not that farfetched!" She lunged forward again, right arm pulled back to punch, however at the last second she pivoted then swung with her left while still remembering to keep her strength in check. "Whatever kind it is, we appear to now live in a world with such changed as the primary demographic. It's worrying that there's so few of even the moderately magical races; not to mention that the most of them that we've seen are in this ragtag band we've found ourselves in." Xety couldn't help but sigh at their circumstances, so ineffectively powerful as she found herself. The human, this Seilan, eclipsed her current magical prowess even if he lacked even half of her knowledge and expertise. "I supposed there is some minor relief that society hasn't completely collapsed, even if it is so... lesser." As Miz approached the wall and hefted more than she could Xetketh was quick to approach, getting her hands on the hilt and lifting it before her liege was pulled to the ground under the weight of the sword. "Are you alright Miz? If you wish to observe something, I'll be more than glad to assist you."

"Still don't get why you did, but whatever... Let's go." Tundyssa started off towards the center of town, however quickly noticed the princess wasn't moving. She watched as the redheaded princess' face disappeared behind her twintails, unsure as to why she suddenly felt the need to hide her face. Then, as the word 'beautiful' left her lips, the dragon suddenly froze in her tracks. A compliment from Coteon's princess would normally be hard enough to swallow, but as she continued to speak Tundyssa was forced to confront a truth that she had been vehemently denying for a multitude of reasons. There's no way this is how she feels! She's a human, Coteon's princess, and I'm a Monster, one of Vaia's princesses! There's no way a human could feel that way about me! I know Hess wants me to somehow bridge the gap, but there's still no way! However, as much as she denied it, Tenna was very clearly, so much so that the ever dense dragon could see it, entirely serious. "I..." She was at a loss for words, unable to deny the truth as it sniffled in her face; no matter how hard the dragon wanted to. More worrying than that truth, however, was that past her hatred of Coteon and its humans some part of her was happy that someone, other than Nala, felt that way about her. Maybe it was the remnants of her low self-esteem, but it felt nice to be desired regardless of the fact that it was Coteon's princess. Yet still, she would resist. "Th, There's no way that's how you feel about me, right? I mean, I'm a Monster, you're a human princess..." Unbeknownst to the dragon her cheeks had taken on a slight pink tint to them while her tail flailed in panic behind her. Amera's lack of confidence was plain to see, almost to a worrying degree. She wasn't that imposing, was she? Sure, she was a Helhound, taller than the catwoman, and well built, but that was no reason to think Amera couldn't win. Something about the fight in a dog rather than its bark and all that. Though, maybe for Amera's sake she should hold back a little. It wasn't like this was a life or death situation, just a friendly spar to get to know the other brawler in the group. The two labyrinth dwellers were pleased to watch the soon to be spar, Amera even managing to rouse herself a bit as she entered their corner of the sparring area. "Simple's best for a warmup, yeah." Ember answered as she followed after her. The Helhound did her best to keep her gaze respectful as she gave the cat a once over, sizing her up. The woman was small and lithe, but also truly attractive. Especially so with less clot-- Ember shook her head, squaring up across from Amera. Bad. It's been a while, but now's not the time to think about that. After the sparring match at least. "Well, if you want me to go first I will. Brace yourself." With no other warning Ember lunged forward and threw a hook at the cat at about half-power. "What caused a divergence in the Changed to branch out into these new species? The lack of magic in the world? Evolution? Or would it be devolution?" Xetketh's scholarly interest had been truly piqued, rattling off theories as to the cause of these new changed as well as what sort of changed that could theoretically now exist. She made to ask Seilan another question, but only then did she realize she had been left to her own ramblings just outside the doorway while Miz, Seilan, and a third had entered this 'Big Bob's Best Buys'. She quickly entered after, witnessing the tail end Miz's debacle with he who was most likely Bob. An eye glared at him from behind her head, cowed by his stature while its master was not; the rest took to looking around his store, individually looking at weapons that caught their interest. Xetketh had no current need for them, so she let them gaze as they please. "What was it that you wanted to observe here, Miz? The quality of weapons? Or were you hoping that there would be magic weapons for you to evaluate?"

"Mhhm... Will ask Alvira to share it, then." That seemed to be the most interesting book that had been in this library, and now Alvira was in possession of it. The lizard was sure the dragon would share and with that confidence, and Versaris' interest in cooking, she was suddenly more interested in finding good cook books. Somewhere along the way Versaris had started patting her head; however, Alriana wasn't bothered by the unconsented head contact like she had been in the past, not even really noticing until he apologized for it. "It fine. Let go look at cook books. Maybe find one with churro..."