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Kirin Oshiro

"Riza...


...RIZA!"

Her eyes finally opened. She was on the floor and sweating hard, but didn't seem to have any wounds. "UUuuaaauugh..." She groaned and looked at the ceiling. "I'm beat. What happened?"

"You lost consciousness out of Mana deficiency. Hold on..." Kirin got up and looked across the room. Hera was silently staring at the scorched ground where her servant once stood.

He slowly approached to join her. She broke away from her trance and faked a scowl at him. "What are you looking at, pretty boy?"

"Well pardon me, mademoiselle, but my mage assistant has just suffered a significant mana drain. Any more, and she may have... Well, she's not very experienced, and... And she is my asssistant, and-"

"Alright, spit it out."

"..."

"Quit it with the whole stuck up pride thing. Just admit it, you were worried sick." Hera seemed a bit more serious than usual. "You do care for her, right?"

"...Yes." There was an awkward pause. Hera was making a mocking expression at him. "I do care for her."

"Reaaaaaaally? How much caring are we talking about here?"

"HEY." His face was red. "Stop making that stupid face! You know what I mean!"

"Aw, shut up and learn to take a joke."

"You ought to know when joking's appropriate."

"Hey." She sat down in a crisscross. "That's just who I am. People have different ways of relieving stress, and me? I joke about it."

"Stress?"

"Well, you are our prisoners!" She punched his arm. It seemed to do more damage than initially expected. "I didn't think Rider would go that far to suck mana out of you. I was just about to force him to stop, but well... Yeah. I was worried sick, too."

"...Ah." He laid on his back with his hands cupped behind his head. "Some noble phantasm that turned out to be..."

"Truth be told, I really hated the idea of it. Total War. The concept was that he uses bystanders to fuel his own mana supply to give him some extra adrenaline. When he went through I didn't expect you two to be caught up in it."

"I wasn't affected as much. We could tell, Riza was the one suffering from it the most."

"Damn. I'm... I'm sorry."

"She'll be alright."

"So, have you asked her out yet?"

"Enough of that!"

Anne

Well that didn't work... And I'm not exactly in the mode to be shot.

"What do you want? Because as I believe I stated earlier, I don't have a map piece on me."

It's technically true.

Jack Blair

Jack glanced at the spades behind him then to the party approaching. He holstered his gun, "Well it seems the reinforcements have arrived." Jack said as Celtchar stood up, "Have your club, if you've completed the map then this is over. Come Celtchar." He said as the lancer stood up and began walking towards him.

"Although I wouldn't expect you to be with them Oshiro. What happened to the stiff man from before? Too tight to get a drink but to switch sides? That was alright? Hmmmm you're more interesting than I thought.

Jack Blair

"One condition, I'm allowed to follow you all. You of all people should know it is of no benefit to me to kill you all at this point. You can even keep me at a 'safe' distance, but I want to see the key." Jack said, "Of course you don't have to accept at all, you'll have no trouble getting it from me either way. But do we have a deal?"

Jack

"If I may comment. The archer servant you have with you..." Celtchar said, "He's a friend of mine. He can have the poison, I trust him to use it only if necessary." She nodded at him.

Robin

Robin looked as 2 figures ran towards them all. One drew a pistol.

"Guys!"

Assasin and James

Assasin and James ran after Jack, catching up to him and realizing their mistake of them running into all of the remaining clubs. Even as Assasin drew his gun, James knew they had no chance. It was also the oppurtunity he wanted, in the very end. One of the clubs shouted a warning to the rest of them. He spoke quietly to Assasin.

"Stand down."

A confused Assasin responded with uncertanity.

"Why? I can take down a few of them."

"No point. We'll be throwing away our lives."

"Surrender?"

"Yes."

"...fine."

Assasin pocketed his gun, but from a look from James he dropped it.

Will/Nicole

"What!" Will shouted. "Are you -- what?"

Nicole smirked.

"Berserker. Execute."

The armor-clad woman materialized once more, blade already drawn. She lunged forward to execute Avery, but her strike was stopped by the appearance of a flickering golden cord, which had wrapped itself around the edge of her blade. It seemed to extend upwards infinitely, and there was no indication at all of where it was fixed -- the cord was anchored to the very sky, or whatever sky really existed in this maze.

"Not so fast." Hypatia declared. "I'd thought something was off, earlier. Possession magic? Necromancy? I sense a bit of both, but don't see how that would give a magus access to another's servant. It is irrelevant. Whoever you are, command your servant to stand down, or you will be destroyed."

Nicole merely smiled. "Bold words, caster. Berserker, eliminate her first."

The golden cord morphed into a golden serpent, binding Berserker's blade tightly. It poison to attack the rogue servant with deadly poison. Berserker merely jerked her arm to the side, evaporating it into dust.

Hypatia winced. Back in her day, there hadn't been a magus on earth capable of defeating that spell -- was this Berserker really so powerful?

"You! Avery! Get back here; this is a battle to which you cannot contribute."

Muramasa

Without even sparing Avery a glance, Muramasa pivoted to face Hypatia. As she did so, a second blade appeared in the air in front of her in the perfect position for her to grab and fling towards Avery. The flying sword entered his torso at the shoulder, and he screamed in pain. The blade, however, rather than lodging, simply vanished after cutting into him, leaving an open wound that pulsed with blood.

"I never gave you permission to leave." Nicole murmured.

Will held up his arm and launched three small teal canisters in Nicole's direction. A golem of stone immediately rose to intercept them, and the detonated in small, colorful explosions against his stone form.

The golem then lunged to grab Avery, with inhuman strength, and twist his injured arm behind his back. The boy screamed again.

Hypatia completed the ritual that she had been preparing, and immediately a soft ringing became audible. It grew in a crescendo, into a powerful roar, as a shining silver orb rose from her tome to hover above her head.

"Ha Me Pasti!"

The orb launched itself, too fast to follow, at the Berserker, and a tremendous cloud of  dust hid them from view. The sound of impact rang out across the maze.