Stone Tower Temple [BP/Tsu]

Luna wished Phiorra would stop assuming she knew everything there was to know about the Stone Tower Temple. However, she remained calm and silent, merely looking at the statue and trying to sense the magic radiating off of it. Before the color change, she had felt little, but now that its eye was blue, she sensed... cold. A familiar type of magic radiating off of it, familiar because it was her own. "Horus," she said, "Your crossbow."

"You got it." Knowing Luna had a plan, as she always did, Horus took his crossbow to hand and loaded it up. He held it out to Luna, out of habit, and wasn't surprised to see her enchant it. She didn't have to tell him to target the eye. While not as observant as her, he wasn't blind nor stupid. Taking careful aim, he nodded his head towards Bertrand. "You're the wall. You wake him up."

Bertrand didn't protest, being used to playing this sort of role in battle. Horus' father had used him in the exact same way, so while he raised his axe in case he had to protect himself, he walked towards the statue as though he had nothing to worry about. As soon as the thing noticed him, he took a more defensive stance, but Horus' Ice Bolt whizzed way over his head and into the thing's blue-flashing eye.

As Luna had expected, the magic radiating off of the statue overloaded with her own. When the bolt hit, she felt the knockback that the statue, too, received, groaning in pain. "One more," she told Horus, "That should take care of it."

She was right. After the second Ice Bolt struck the statue's eye, it started to disintegrate quickly, leaving behind a small plaque, made of the same material as it had been. Bertrand picked it up, handing it to Luna so she could investigate it for traces of magic or other stuff that wanted to hurt them. "What's it say?" Horus asked, to which Luna cleared her throat.

"Those who step on holy grounds
Land of death’s forbidden soil
No return for thieves nor hounds
Save for those who therefore toil
Keys you will find, undoubtedly
The Stone Towers hold a total of four
He who gathers them provided will be
Access to the topmost floor

Eyegore, statue strong and tall
This hulking giant was swift to fall
Wizrobe, a mighty sorcerer wild
You’ll find, is not comparably mild
The skilful swift master of Garo
Slower yet will be to go
Gomess, master of death and keese
Guards the last of the coveted keys

With four keys in hand you’ll find
That the final trial is far from kind
For Twinmold at the top you’ll meet
To grant your wish, or fill their need…"

Silence, until Horus was the first to recover from the confusion. "Okay. What the hell?"

Phiorra raised both hands into the air and gave a shout of joy as the massive statue fell. She knew she could count on Luna to know how to beat everything in here. She must know everything about this place!

When Luna read the tablet, Phiorra bobbed her head to the beat of the poem. When Horus questioned the meaning, Phiorra raised her index finger, explaining. "Well, obviously we have to go get keys from these wizzrobe, Garo, and what's-his-name guys! I certainly hope they're reasonable and they'll simply part with the keys if we ask nicely. Should we split up to find them?"

"I got that far," Horus muttered, annoyed. It wasn't bad enough that Luna took everything literally and stated the obvious or the ominous, fate had to saddle him with a priestess that did the SAME. Were all women this frustrating? Oi... And she was stupid enough to believe that they would- "We are NOT splitting up!" Horus shouted a lot more loudly than he meant to, but cared not. There was no way in Hyrule that this girl was in the same league as his mother had been! "Did you SEE that thing, or am I the only one who can tell when things want to KILL HIM?" He pointed at the place where the Eyegore had dissipated.

"You can split off if you want to, but we're staying together." He turned to face the men behind him. "That's an order, by the way. I'm not going to risk losing anyone," he said, turning back to Phiorra and crossing his arms, "Unlike you, I know how things go in Ikana." With those words, he took Luna by hand and barged off, Luna dropping the tablet in her hurry to follow him.

Freddie followed right after them, but Bertrand paused next to Phiorra. "...that was admittedly not the smartest thing to do. Get on his nerves, I mean. He's tense enough as things are."

Phiorra frowned when Horus flipped out on her. She hung her head as Bertrand came over. “…Is it that bad that I want things to be settled peacefully? With undead and statues it can’t be helped… But if these other guardians are sentient, why should we have to kill them? We could merely knock them out, or try to be diplomatic. Journeys don’t always have to only consist of combinations of Slash, Stab and punch.”

In a huff, the priestess followed Horus, but was currently thinking of how she could help preent some of their deaths… This land didn’t need any more death.

"While I won't say it's a bad thing to be a little less volatile than H," Bertrand said, putting his hand on Phiorra's shoulder, "I agree with him that here in Ikana that's more likely to get you killed than to make you popular." He rubbed his chin a second, then turned to her. "To answer your question from before... I don't think your Lumesca would know Alison. At least, not in a positive light. You see," he lowered his voice so that Horus wouldn't hear, "Alison stepped out of the order when she got pregnant with H. She's never even wanted to be referred to as a priestess ever since then."

"I swear, I will never understand women." Further to the front of the group, Horus was lamenting his misfortune towards Frederick. The sorcerer frowned, wondering if the redhead was aware that Luna was right there next to him. "She's gonna try and negotiate with a Wizrobe to hand over the very thing it was likely created to guard. Yeah, that's gonna work! Anyone wanna bet against me how long she's going to last until the thing kills her?"

"Horus, please shut up," Frederick said. "I understand your frustration, but Lady Phiorra's ignorance of the way in which Ikana works is not an excuse to step on her feelings repeatedly. Additionally, it's pretty rude, even for your standards, to generalize Lady Phiorra's nature to all women. Would you say Luna is as ignorant?"

"No, but that doesn't mean I understand her any more than I do Phiorra. What?" His frown became deeper as Frederick landed his face in his palm. "Come on, she's not in the least offended, you're the LAST person I'd expected to take offense to-"

"Horus, be QUIET." Luna had stopped and tugged on his arm in order to force him to do the same. "There's something here. It's still far, but it moves quickly." She shivered. "It wants us dead."

"Well, THERE's a big surprise," Horus said, before turning around. "HEY! Phiorra! Would you care to try and have a tea party with- OW!" Frederick had hit him on the back of his head hard enough to shut him up. "WHAT?!"

Phiorra nodded understandingly when Alison was explained to her. That made sense, she supposed. Though, the current Lumesca had been such for the last 30 years. It was pretty likely she’d know Alison. That was something for a different time though. For now, Luna had mentioned a hostile enemy in her senses, but… Phiorra didn’t sense anything.

She looked around confusedly, until she realized that it just meant whatever foe approached wasn’t evil. Maybe neutral or just territorial. Before she could mention anything though, she heard Horus’ comment. She looked down sadly, both hurt and embarrassed. Why was she being insulted for wanting to keep as many people alive as she could? That was just unfair of him… Unfair and blind.

Bertrand shook his head at Horus' words, patting Phiorra on the back. "He gets like that," he said, understanding Phiorra's pain but also knowing that Horus did have a point. For the past fifteen years, anything that wasn't a Stalfos under the command of King Igos had tried to kill them. For Horus, at his young age, having developed the response to kill before he was killed wasn't that unreasonable.

Luna, in the meanwhile, looked up and around the room they were in. She couldn't see any enemies, but she still sensed hostile intent. It was out for blood, she sensed, and if it got even a single hit in on any of them they would be in trouble. Realizing how close the threat had suddenly gotten, she turned around. "Horus BEHIND YOU!"

Upon Luna's scream, Horus realized the breath in his neck and turned around in a flurry of red and black, using his hand to catch the sword that would otherwise have ended up in his ribs. Behind him stood a dark-robed figure, about half the size of a Hylian, with glowing eyes. Now that he saw it, he too could sense the bloodlust that Luna had warned him about before and he knew this creature was the reason for her concern.

But no one frightened Luna on his watch and got away with it. He pushed the creature back, not minding the cuts over his hands that resulted in, and pulled his own dagger out of his boot. Inadvertently he made the blade glow, which might have unnerved his foe. At any rate, he got a few seconds in which to advance and strike. He felt resistance, so his dagger must have connected, but his enemy managed to step back and jump up, vanishing.

"Everyone keep your senses peeled and your eyes open!" Horus immediately roared, although the other four could not have missed what had just happened. "We don't know how many of them there are!"

Phiorra barely realized they were being attacked by the time Horus fended off the assailant. It vanished, and Phiorra didn’t feel very safe at that point. She nervously checked over both shoulders, then took note of Horus’ hand. She ran over to him, taking his hand. “Ouch Horus... Here, wait. I’ll-“ Her hands suddenly glowed white as she touched his hand. When she finally released, the cuts on his hand were no more. On him, at least.

Phiorra looked down at her hand, seeing the cut along it. “W-wow! I can do Bladed Healing now! They say that’s one of the later learned spells as a light priestess...” She then looked up at horus and smiled, wrapping the wound on her hand. “Well, looks like you won’t have to worry about that anymore.”

"ExCUSE me!" Horus exclaimed when Phiorra grabbed his hand without asking. He saw her hands glowing white, and seconds later he realized that his own palm was unhurt, while hers had been cut open. She seemed beyond excited for it, but Horus was less so. "Yeah," he said, as sarcastically as he could. "Good thing too, since you're SO used to hard combat and taking wounds. I must thank you for taking that life-threatening wound from me." He rolled his eyes, flexing his fingers. "Really. It's not like that would have KILLED me if left unattended."

"H, seriously." Bertrand had put his hands in his pockets, Sense at ease, and sighed. "Grow up. Leave the girl alone. Don't you have some room to charge into so you can kill everything in it?"

"Easy there," the redhead said, "I still run this circus."

"It's not a circus," Luna said, walking past Horus into the corridor ahead of them. As she found herself on a bridge over a large pool of water once more, she allowed herself to get lost in thought. For years, she'd been the only female in the group, so she hadn't really had an example of how she was supposed to behave. She'd pretty much been one of the guys, except less reckless. But Phiorra... all she seemed to do was dote on Horus and insist on treating every scrape and bruise he got. Was Luna too cold and distant? Was she supposed to be more nurturing?

Phiorra ignored Horus’ comment, smiling while looking down at her hand. It took many priestesses so long to learn to do the Bladed Healing... From this young was almost unheard of. Only person to get it this early was the Lumesca herself, leader of the Priestesses. When Phiorra turned to follow the others, she saw Luna seem zoned out. Maybe she was feeling like this would be too hard...

She put a hand on Luna’s shoulder, giving her a one armed hug. “It’s all gonna work out fine, Luna!” I smile, letting go of her and looking out over the water, then motioning for Luna to follow. “Come on! If you don’t hurry I’ll have Bertrand carry you like he did for me!” I giggle, walking to catch up to Horus.

Luna stiffened when Phiorra grabbed on to her, and she realized she was extremely uncomfortable with the physical contact. Other than Horus, no one ever really touched her, so she had never gotten a chance to find out how much she hated it. Cold particles gathered at the mage's hand, and she only managed to stop herself from forming them into a Blizzard spell directed at Phiorra because the Priestess let go of her and followed after Horus, who had caught up to them by now. Luna would be damned if she let that naive little girl win Horus over, though, and she followed after the two immediately.

Horus was blissfully unaware of all this happening behind him, though, as he and Bertrand were too busy discussing the place. "That was a Garo," Horus muttered. "I thought Dad said those didn't exist anymore."

"They've never bothered us," Bertrand defended Pierce. "There was no reason for any of us to assume they still so much as existed. This does create a problem... we know nothing about them."

"Yeah. Even Luna's never seen one before, and I don't think they'll stand still for long enough for her to analyze them like she did the Eyegore." Horus rubbed the small of his neck. "What a pain in the ass. I'd ask if we're able to take them, but you don't know either, of course."

"We can try."

"At best, yes..." Horus' shoulders slumped as he tried the door on the other end of the water. It didn't open, and it appeared locked. "Oh, come on. Really Stone Tower?" He introduced the wooden door to his shoulder a few times- it was probably old and decrepit and he should be able to ram it. However, when after a few rams his shoulder hurt more than the door had been damaged, he gave up. "Bertrand, you do it."

"Not me," the blonde said, "I suggest we look for a way to unlock it, first. Let Luna take a look at it to establish whether it's magic, key, or dance."

"Dance? Please tell me you're being weird again." Bertrand's grinning did nothing to put Horus' concerns at ease, but he gestured for the girls.

Phiorra caught up as Horus waved them over, the priestess looking at the door curiously. “Huh… I assume it’s locked?” She didn’t see any spot to insert a key, so she felt along the middle of the door, eventually finding that the frame had a slight jutting spot, one that only a blade could make it into. Phiorra’s tongue was coming out the side of her mouth a little as she focussed. Summoning the blade from before, Phiorra slid in the blade, ensuring it was covered in the light energy. With a whir, she felt her blade get forcefully pushed out, and she turned back to Horus, smiling. “Do do DOO!” She hummed, the door sliding open.

Immediately as it opened though, another Garo dove through, trying to stab Phiorra in the head. She turned back, hearing a foot push off from the floor, just in time to turn her head, getting a thin cut along her cheek. Instinct took over, the girl’s blade being directed forward. It stabbed the Garo in the chest, and while injured, it was far from dead. A second one leapt down behind it, a sorry looking Phiorra taking a few nervous steps back towards her teammates, blood dripping from her Spirit blade.

Two Garo awaited beyond the door that not Luna, but Phiorra managed to open, and they didn't hesitate to attack. When the first stepped back from the wound it had taken from the priestess, the second one came forward- only to have to vault out of the way of a crossbow bolt, instead flying straight into a fireball.

On the Ikanans' side of the battlefield, Horus put a new bolt in his crossbow while Frederick lowered his arm. Both Garo were now injured, but they were still faster than the Hylians- Horus had been able to tell that much, seeing how slow his bolt had been compared to the creatures. "How do we fight these things?" he asked no one in particular, although it was Luna who answered.

"Don't attack," she said. "Let them come to us. Both times we have succeeded to wound one, it was by countering them, not by going on the offense." That was all she could tell, though, before her sense alerted her to something behind her. She turned around, but she was too slow- the Garo's swords dug deep into he sider, the impact sending her back and to the ground.

The same moment, she heard Horus let out a howl and she saw him leap forward, his rage fueling his speed and his strength such that he could somehow not only hit the third Garo, but also cleave it clean in half. As he did so, the other two stepped back further, seemingly unsettled. Luna, in the meanwhile, pressed her hand to her side, trying to see how bad the wound was.

Phiorra heard Luna's assessment of the Garo, waiting with both wrists sporting her spirit blades. One lunged for her, but she swept it's blades down, striking at it's arm, trying to scare it off. Unfortunately when she heard Luna get attacked, she realized she had to kill. With a sad face, she summoned her bow to her hands, dispelling her spirit arms.

While Garo were fast enough to dodge or parry an arrow, Phiorra used her rapid fire technique, firing arrows faster than it can adapt, eventually pegging it in the leg, then when it winced, greatly slowed down, the throat. It flopped back over, blood seeping onto the floor as Phiorra winced. But still... She had to...

She ran over to Luna, taking her hand and about half of the injuries on her sides. "There we go... It'll heal much faster for you now..."

"Do you think you can hit it?"

"Not right now. But drive it into a corner and I think my fireball should be accurate enough."

"Fair do's." While Bertrand and Frederick killed the last remaining Garo, Horus dropped his sword and slammed down on the tile floor of the Stone Tower Temple hard with his knees in his hurry to get to Luna, who had finished her assessment of her wound and concluded that it was serious, starting to get a little woozy from the blood loss.

Still, she didn't want Phiorra to heal her. She couldn't protest, with Horus holding her down against his leg and holding the hand Phiorra hadn't grabbed, but the second she felt the worst of the injury had been relieved, she jumped to her feet, ignoring the fact that the room spun around her. Horus looked up in surprise, getting up as well and grabbing her shoulder to stop her. "Wait, Luns. You're still injured."

"It's nothing. I'm not weak." She glared at the priestess, but before she could have done anything a voice interrupted her train of thought.

"Fair maidens two and gallant knights three." The four Ikanans immediately started looking around, with Horus stretching an arm as if to protect the women.

"Someone doesn't know us," Bertrand jokingly said, but the way in which he held his axe betrayed that he was paying full attention to his surroundings and his face did not share the humor of his words.

"You are well able to defeat my subordinates," the voice said, "But I fear that the key you seek will be far more difficult to attain..."

The voice had hardly finished speaking when Horus let out a bloodcurdling cry of pain, falling to one knee and pressing down hard on his other shin. He cursed the source of the voice with words that aren't fit for repeating, demanding that it show itself so he could kill it.

Luna, in the meanwhile, shoved aside the priestess who was already trying to get close to Horus and pulled bandages out of her pack, although she couldn't get to the wound with Horus refusing to pull up his pant leg. That would involve letting go of the wound.

Phiorra stumbled to the side as Luna pushed her. She fell onto one leg, looking surprisedly at the girl. "L-Luna! What are you doing? That was mean..." She looked at Bertrand and Frederick, not understanding what had come over her.

SHe looked around, still weary about that strange voice. She got up and walked over to the two Ikanans. "Wh-what's with that voice? And... Is Luna okay? Something seems wrong with her..." She said, too quiet for the ice mage to hear.

Bertrand shook his head in amusement, although his attention mostly remained on the room around them. Luna's behavior was certainly a lot more aggressive than he was used to of the ice mage, but he didn't find it worrying enough to pay a lot of attention to it.

It was hardly the craziest thing Luna had ever done- that was still the time she'd ran out of usable magic power and damn near strangled a ReDead that snuck up on Horus from behind, completely disregarding the fact that he had been the one protecting her at the time because she was injured.

"She's fine," Frederick said, conjuring up a fresh fireball. "Just try not to get too close to Horus if you're fond of your core temperature."

While the two of them looked around the room, trusting their Sense to alert them if anything changed, Luna finally managed to pry Horus' hands from his shin and took a look at the wound. It was more severe than she had anticipated, but she swallowed, slung her hair over her shoulder and set to covering it.

Horus himself blinked when he saw that pretty much half his lower leg had been ripped open when he hadn't been watching, and resumed his cussing, half because of the pain Luna inflicted on him in her attempts to bandage his leg and half because of the attacker. "Be careful, all of you," he finally managed as he ran out of swear words. "He means business."

Phiorra looked at Frederick confusedly. "Core temp-... Oh... You mean her ice magic. I... Still don't see why she's being so aggressive. I only mean to help heal him." She held her bow, worried and glancing around her. It still bothered her that this enemy wasn't being sensed by her. It wasn't evil... Maybe territorial? Or just dutiful... She wouldn't know until he revealed himself.

Regardless, her eyes kept shifting towards Horus, making sure she healed him right. "Eep... Luna, you may wa-" She was quickly shushed by Fredrick. "But sh-" Shushed again. The girl became flustered and held her breath. Alright, no advice, even if there were a few minor flaws in her technique. At the very least, the scene kept Phiorra's nerves calm. She trusted the others to be able to sense this foe if he threatened them.

Luna was not even done with Horus' leg yet when her Sense went off. Judging from how Horus suddenly looked up, the same went for him, and Luna tackled into him, pushing him back to the ground, when something fell from the ceiling, with two thin blades trembling in the ground where the two had just been seconds ago. Before their owner could pull them out of the ground, he was struck by a fireball, sending him reeling.

Landing perfectly on his feet, the assaulter was briefly visible as a Garo dressed in a long, purple robe, with a golden mask that seemed to serve as a helmet. Then, with the same swiftness as he had struck, he disappeared, leaving his swords in the ground. Well played, he said, undoubtedly referencing Luna's quick rescue and Frederick's even quicker attack.

Luna turned her head to the left. Was his voice louder from that direction...? She raised one hand, describing circles in the air with it as she focused her magic through it, cold particles slowly but surely packing together on the floor.

Phiorra didn't have the same sense as the others, and this was what disturbed her the most. This meant this foe was not evil just... Dutiful, or forced perhaps. Regardless, as a priestess she was forced to fight the enemy that endangered her comrades. She summoned her spirit arm blades onto her wrists, turning as she saw the shadow of the Garo master drop behind her, swinging at her with a fist. Perhaps it was targeting her as the most vulnerable? She didn't know, but the girl ducked under his fist and swiped low.

Only catching robe, it leaped to the left running over his swords, reclaiming the flaming blades. Phiorra immediately drew back her arm, dispelling her blades and summoning her bow, already with an arrow ready. Pulling back, she fired, drawing the string back, and summoning another arrow onto the string, releasing a torrent of arrows, all of which the Garo master dodged or blocked. Clearly this enemy was powerful and quick...