Slipping down the stairs and into the halls of the underground hideout, Zarius moves as quickly as he can without making any noise, fully knowing that Astrid will likely immediately jump into action once Melodia gives her the go ahead. Thanks to Melodia's intel, he knew what to expect in each chamber of the hideout and what he was up against.

The first major obstacle was in the immediate chamber down the hall from the stairs. A guard dog with a keen sense of smell would likely pick up on his intrusion immediately, so he needed some way to deal with it and its handler before either could alert the rest of the guards. 

Luckily dogs also had better hearing than most. Using the same trick he did for the guards, he peers through the passageway into the first room and focuses on the room which Melodia saw the rat in. The sound of wood clattering to the stone floor and alarmed squeaking catches the dog's ear and it darts over to the door with a low borf.^[1] Begrudgingly, the goon gets up and goes over to let the dog into the room. 

It hadn't bought him much time, but Zarius does manage to cross the room over to the left door and he times opening the door at the same time as the goon and slip inside as the dog scrambles forward to corner the poor rat. He was in, but he still needed to be swift. The sleeping bandit didn't stand a chance as Zarius quietly makes his nap a permanent slumber. While assassination was much more up Caedes' alley, the tiefling had plenty of experience under his belt. 

One down, three - technically four if you included the dog - to go. 

---

[1] Minor Trickery

With one bandit guarding the entrance knocked off his feet, frosty, and electrified, his cuirass crushed against his chest. He's down just for a moment, so she takes the moment to look at the other. The bandit can't decide between helping his friend or attacking the kid, so he decides attacking the kid is the best option given the circumstances. With his scimitar, he swipes at Astrid, but the afterimage left by her Diplopia Armor makes her incredibly hard to target.

Dodging under the swipe, Astrid follows by bashing him in the chest too. Cold and electricity creep across his chest as his cuirass crumples as well. But he's not off his feet, and the other bandit recovers and swipes at Astrid's leg. The blade strikes against her greaves, and Astrid looks down at him. "Oi, don't do that! Those are me ankles!" Dropping her battle hammer from her hand and catching the cord, she spins the hammer then slingshots it down into the grounded bandit's chest. This time his armor cracks apart annnd maybe his ribs too. He goes unconscious from the impact of the icy silver hammer. 

The bandit still on his feet looks between Astrid and his unconscious buddy with panic on his face. He starts shouting. "There's a kid out here! She's a menace! Back up! I need back u-" 

Astrid reaches out and casts magic against his cuirass, electrically charging it and dealing a moderate amount of lightning damage to his system. He crumples and falls, needing to recover before he can attack again. Satisfied, Astrid smirks and twirls her hammers in her hands. "Might wanna stay down, buddy." 

On the edge of the courtyard, a few branches of the surrounding trees move. 

---

Greaves - 1 hit prevention
Charged Object

The ruckus from outside draws the attention of the dog and guard in the main room just as Zarius is about to come out and deal with them. He pauses by the door as the thug shouts and the dog barks before the sound of footsteps running across stone echo into the hallway and up the stairs. Well, hopefully they wouldn't catch Astrid off guard. The best way he could aid her in this situation was to make sure the remaining two bandits didn't get outside. 

He quietly sneaks out of the room, the veil of invisibility keeping his form hidden from sight. It sounds like one of the bandits is making their way to the main room from one of the branching hallways. Situating himself at the opening of the left hallway as the footsteps rapidly approach. Just as the bandit who was cooking crosses the threshold into the room, Zarius sticks out his foot to trip them. 

"Wah!"

The thug falls forward only to have the tiefling catch the back of his shirt and slam his head back into the wall. The bandit slumps to the floo, knocked out. 

Another set of footsteps rapidly approach from the opposing hallway and the last bandit appears with his weapon drawn. 

"What the hell?" He comments, only seeing his unconscious comrade laid out on the floor. 

The bandit approaches cautiously before a shiver goes up his spine before Zarius grabs him from behind and jams his fist into the small of his back.^[1] Gasping and crying out in pain, the bandit crumples to the ground. Zarius reappears over him and raises his boot before stomping his heel into the man's face.

---

[1] Back Stab

Feeling satisfied with how easily she dispatched the two guard bandits, Astrid is just about to skate/run/hop down the stairs when she hears shouting and a barking dog. No, not the doooog! She'll have to scare the hound off. Sliding away a few paces on a path of ice, Astrid readies her hammer for a good solid fling. 

The dog emerges first, viciously barking and ready to attack. It briefly sniffs the two downed guards while his master rushes up. Nearly slipping on the ice, the bandit looks around at his allies laid out in various states of consciousness and pain levels. "What the..?" is all he manages to get out before the sound of arcing electricity catches his attention. Astrid released her hammer full force, and with it being hard to see, it's also kind of hard to dodge. It konks the bandit dead in the head and knocks him down. 

"HAHA!" Astrid cheers. The hound does not. Its claws scrape across the icy ground while it snarls and barks and finally finds enough purchase to lunge at the girl. "Nope, nope!" Astrid gasps, trying to back off. Don't bonk the dog, don't bonk the dog! Instead, she just... skates away from it as fast as she can across the courtyard. With her attention pulled away from what's ahead of her, she doesn't notice the movement from above.

Just as she's looking back towards the dog, a big, lumbering, four-armed gorilla creature lands heavily. It narrowly misses her and startles the dog. The hound yelps, but the grumbly beast grabs it with one of its massive hands and lifts it into the air. Canine squeals erupt from the dog, and Astrid, still reeling from this Girallon's sudden appearance instinctively slaps the back of the beast with her hammer. The silver and ice burn, and it drops the dog and turns around to roar in her face. The hound scurries off with a limp, and Astrid decides now is a good time to get away. 

Digging the toe of her skate into the ice, Astrid darts away from the beast with inhuman speed. Good thing she did because two of the Girallon's arms swatted at her. Now that she's out of its range, it beats its chest and gives chase. Now Astrid sees more movement above the first. A second emerges and drops down.

Uh oh.

"ZARIUS!!"

---

Battle hammer - silvered, ice rune
Bullet Dash

Astrid's shout does not go unnoticed. It was lucky that Zarius hadn't gone back far into the hideout, otherwise he might have not heard her or the bestial roaring. Either one of the bandits was a werecreature, or there was something else going on above ground. 

He races across the room, down the hall, and up the stairs back out into the open courtyard. Seeing Astrid was being pursued by a gorilla-like creature with multiple arms was definitely not something he expected, let alone a pair of these enraged creatures. All the bandits were down, but now they had to deal with these monsters before they could search for clues in peace. 

Maybe Veliky's luck, or lack there of, had worn off on Astrid. Seemed they were both very good at getting into increasingly worse situations.

No time to worry about any of that now. Astrid was able to outrun one of the creatures, but a pair would be able to corner her if he let things progress on any further. 

Zarius places his fingers to his lips and lets out a loud piercing whistle to draw one of the girallon's attention towards him. The creature turns to face him, its nostrils flaring and its large incisors bared.

Almost immediately the tiefling regrets that decision as the beast charges on all sixes in his direction. Outrunning the thing wasn't an option, so instead he braces himself and digs one heel back against the edge of a stone sticking up proud of the ground. 

The girallon barrels forward and rears up on its hind legs with all four arms raised to slam down on the tiefling before it. Zarius sidesteps the first two swings before interrupting its combo by catching onto its third fist and rotating his weight around to throw the beast over his shoulder.^[1]

The creature was not expecting to be tossed off balance and slammed against the ground, it snarls in protest as it wrenches its arm free from the tiefling's grasp. Zarius retreats quickly, his muscles also protesting at the exertion of throwing such a heavy creature, but he managed to buy himself a little bit of time and also has now put the creature into a less reckless state. 

---

[1] Reverse of Momentum (1/topic)

It's been a while since Astrid's seen any feats of strength from Zarius, but seeing him turn a girallon over like a grilled cheese certainly catches her off guard. Her footfalls slow while she takes the moment in only for the creature behind to her roar and swipe at her, which gets her moving again, full speed. With a quick dash at inhuman speed, Astrid whips around on the ice. Now that she has some space, she can make a move. 

First, Astrid starts with ol' reliable: Lightning Armor. Magic thrums in her hammer, then electricity arcs from the weapon along her armored form, wreathing her in protective lightning. Satisfied with this deterrent and with the beast gaining on her, she throws her war hammer at it. The heavy hammer slams into the beast's chest, charring its tough skin with lightning and marring it with frost. The hammer clatters to the ground, and the beast seems only annoyed. 

Astrid's expression falls as she realizes rather suddenly that this thing is tough as nails and is quickly closing the gap. She turns back around to get moving again, holding her hand out to recall the hammer. It clatters against the ground and flies back into her hand just as two of the girallon's arms swing at her with powerful swipes. The first misses because of the Diplopia Armor's effects, but the second catches her cape and slams her down hard against the frosty ground. She feels the metal crack beneath her from the impact. 

Luckily, the girallon doesn't hold on long as lightning bites out at it and sends immensely painful signals down the arm that made contact with her. It falls to the beast's side limply, but this won't last long. The monstrous gorilla snorts and snarls, slamming its other fists into the ground in a fit, intelligent, angry eyes biding their time. 

---

Diplopia Armor - 1 hit prevention
Lightning Armor [post 1/3]

The Girallon rises to its feet and fists with a huff. Being thrown by such a small creature was not something it wanted to repeat. It circles around the tiefling more cautiously this time, clearly trying to gauge how to best approach another attempt at attacking him.

Zarius takes note of its hesitation and quickly becomes invisible once more.^[1] The creature is visibly confused and its nostrils flare as it tries to discern where its prey has disappeared to. It doesn't take long for it to realize that the distinct scent of smoke and brimstone is right next to it as Zarius reappears and slams his fist into its knee to cripple its movement.^[2]

It howls in pain, but it manages to reach out with one of its four arms and grabs onto his arm. Zarius immediately has flashbacks to when he fought a yeti as the Girallon lifts him off his feet and whips him around and slams him into the ground. 

The air is knocked out of his lungs and there is a shooting pain throughout his body as he's slammed down repeatedly. Not again. Not again.

The Girallon slams him into a broken pillar, but stops when the tiefling's body goes limp in its grasp. It drops him onto the ground. Huffing and puffing, the creature roars and beats its chest in triumph when it sees there is no movement from its foe. 

Darkness takes Zarius' consciousness for a moment. Though deep from within that darkness there is a heat that rises and a faint blue light that flickers into view. An echoing chorus of voices, dissonant and unfocused become clear and commanding for a single word that resonates through the tiefling's dwindling consciousness

Fight.

Blue flames suddenly wreath his body as a pair of flaming wings sprout from his back.^[3,4] The Girallon stumbles back in alarm, its stunned leg slowing it down. Slowly, Zarius pushes himself back up onto his feet as the flames lick off of his skin and he exhales a plume of smoke. His eyes flicker from gold to blue as his attention locks on the creature. 

---

[1] Invisibility
[2] Stunning Strike
[3] Abyssal Infusion (1/topic; 1/3 duration)
[4] Harbringer of Fear (1/topic; 1/3 duration)

Luckily, the girallon seems smart enough not to strike at the girl again after being shocked by her protective spell. Astrid takes advantage of this to get to her feet and back away slowly. The beast lets out a low growl, approaching her slowly, each massive fist stepping ahead and advancing the monster, never leaving more of a gap than an arm's reach.

This situation is a bit much. Astrid expected bandits, not seemingly invincible gorillas. How is Zarius doing? She dares to glance over and sees him getting pummeled. Her confidence falters again. This is bad. This is bad. But she's not going to let Zarius get pummeled, and this big monkey jerk is being cautious. Now's her chance.

Her toe digs into the ice beneath her skate, and she suddenly rockets across the courtyard towards the other girallon. This time, she's not powered by magic, but pure brute strength. In this short moment, Zarius recovers, brimming with fire, and the girallon stumbles back. The tiny charger suddenly slams, full force, into the girallon's back, her lightning-wreathed body the weapon in her attack. Lightning leaps out from her armor and strikes out at the girallon, sending shocks and pain throughout its back and knocking it down with her tumbling over it. 

"Ya alright, Zarius?" she asks through a tired huff, pushing herself up before the shocked girallon can recover. "Ya look alright. This is a toughie." 

The other girallon, who had been chasing Astrid, couldn't keep up with her charge, but it still comes barreling across the courtyard, infuriated by her turned attention. 

---

Rushing Charge [2/topic]
Lightning Armor [post 2/3]

Zarius was...not okay.

There was no time to realize that though as the pair of girallons were still a very present and persistent threat to their survival.

The tiefling takes a shaky breath, exhaling more smoke before his wings flare and he suddenly propels himself right at the charging girallon. The creature skids to a stop and rises up on its hind legs with a roar to try an intimidate its challenger.

This hardly deters the tiefling as Zarius slams his fist wreathed in dark flames into its gut.^[1,2] The sound of fragmenting ribs is audible across the courtyard and the girallon coughs up a smattering of blood across the ground.

It swipes angrily at the tiefling in retaliation. Zarius catches its fist in his hand and tightens his grip enough to break the bones in its digits.^[3,4] Its other hand sweeps over from the side and grabs onto the tiefilng's shoulder, but the tiefling does nothing to shake it off.

Instead, the wings sprouting from his back flare again, spreading wide before taking a flapping downwards, propelling both the tiefling and the girallon locked in their respective grapple attempts up into the air.^[5] Surprisingly, he's able to lift the massive creature off its feet as fire burns through his veins and grants him unnatural strength.^[6]

It's not the most graceful flight, and he only manages to raise the dense, heavy creature girallon up a dozen or so feet due to its thrashing. Its own grip on his shoulder is enough to crush it, but he endures and surges upwards one more time. Now hovering a few stories up in the air, the tiefling suddenly plummets straight down towards the ground at an incredible speed with the girallon between himself and the rapidly approaching ground.

Being locked in the grapple works against the girallon as it is unable to free itself or maneuver in the air. It slams down into the stone which cracks and shatters beneath it from the force of the impact.^[7]

The beast's eyes roll back into its skull as its jaw is locked open in a soundless gape of pain. Its body slowly falls limp and its grip on Zarius goes lax. Zarius steps off of the creature, shrugging off its large mitt before turning his attention to the next nearest threat. 

He is but only partially conscious of the world around him. Layers of whispers drown out any sounds around him and wafts of smoke cloud his vision behind the flames that lick off his skin. He both is and isn't in control of his actions, something else's will drives him forward, fueling him with adrenaline and a vicious survival instinct. 

This was new yet oddly familiar. It's both terrible and oddly comforting. He exhales another plume of smoke, the taste of carbon burning his throat as his blood boils beneath his skin. 

It is an unfortunate stroke of bad luck that at this moment in time Astrid was between him and the other girallon that was just now getting back on its own feet. Telling friend from foe was something beyond the tiefling in his current condition. 

In a matter of seconds he has closed the gap in between himself and Astrid.^[8] She would only have the briefest opportunity to evade or block the right hook aimed right at the side of her head. 

---

[1] Abyssal Darkness
[2] Art of the Burning Fist (1/3 duration)
[3] Hands are Weapons
[4] Iron Grip
[5] Harbringer of Evil (2/3 duration)
[6] Abyssal Infusion (2/3 duration)
[7] Guillotine Drop
[8] Dashing

At first, the wings and smoke and blue flames are really cool to see. The ease with which he absolutely destroys the charging girallon gives Astrid a moment to catch her breath and get back to her feet. When he lands, crushing the creature beneath him, the girl grins, more confidence flowing through her. They can handle this. Things will be fine. 

"That was really awesome!" she exclaims, full of renewed vigor. "I didn't know ya had wings! I didn't know ya could do cool stuff like that!" 

The tiefling looks up at her, but there's no recognition on his face as he stands.

"Mister Zarius..?" 

Still nothing. There is something wrong with Zarius. Astrid's expression drops as the tiefling suddenly comes flying at her. She's seen how powerful his fists are. He's faster than she expects, so the only thing she can do is pull the arm with her buckler up to try to absorb the impact. His fist strikes the metal, leaving a dent in it, and it absorbs the physical impact, but the flames and dark energy emanating from him push through her defenses. Her own magic leaps out at him, lightning arcing out and striking the tiefling's arm. 

This is bad. Astrid doesn't want to fight Zarius. She might have been a pain in the butt, but she likes him! Now the big monkey is getting up right behind her. If Zarius focused on that, he could probably kill it easily, but how does she take his attention off of her? What if she... Oh, that's a terrible idea. She's going to do it.

With a quick cast of Bullet Dash, Astrid's form blurs and she appears on the other side of the rising girallon. "Sorry big guy!" she says, slamming both of her hammers into its back. The girallon gets knocked forward, right into Zarius. Astrid uses the distraction to quickly get the heck away. With another cast of Bullet Dash, she disappears behind a broken wall to put some distance between herself and the very angy tiefling.

---

Lightning Armor [post 3/3] - This armor will shock anyone who touches you while it is own, numbing the body part that it struck. If someone has a limb shocked, that limb will go limp for the next post. Deals lightning damage (master level)
Boomer buckler - 1/2 hit preventions
Bullet Dash

The arcing lightning ripples across the tiefling's skin and the muscles in his arm seize up. Zarius grimaces, conscious enough to feel the pain followed by the numb tingling as his arm falls asleep and hangs like a deadweight off his shoulder.

The whispers echoing in his ears are deafening, disorienting him and making it hard to focus on his surroundings. This gives Astrid enough time to dash away without him being able to swipe at her a second time.

He shakes his head to try and silence the layers of incoherent voices all trying to speak over one another. Smoke still streams from his mouth and his eyes flicker with the eerie blue light. Movement to his side catches his attention as the shadow of the girallon suddenly looms over him. 

It was as smart plan. If Zarius were in his right mind, he would have been impressed with Astrid's quick thinking given the unfortunate circumstances. At this time though, only one thought crossed the tiefling's addled mind. 

Fight.

And he does, as the girallon slams into him, he manages to dig his heels in and skid back a bit. His nails dig into the girallon's flesh and sears the skin, the awful smell of burning musky hair wafting into the air.^[1,2]

The poor creature is heavily injured already, and howls in pain as the tiefling takes a page out of the girllon's own book and starts whipping it down and slamming it against the ground with the unnatural strength granted to him by the blue inferno burning through his veins.^[3] Zarius repeatedly slams the creature as it writhes in a futile effort to free itself form his iron grip.^[4]

He doesn't stop the brutal beating of the creature until its body stops putting up a fight and the air is knocked from its lungs. The tiefling's wings flicker before burning out, the dark flames that had consumed him slowly receding and flickering of in a sluff of ash.^[5]

As the girallon falls limp, Zarius suddenly drops to his knees and coughs up plumes of smoke. His skin is darkened, as if charred from the magic that had given him so much more strength and speed than he normally had. 

The whispers eventually quiet themselves as Zarius regains his senses and bearings. His head still hurts like crazy, and a trickle of blood runs down his face from the impact which had sparked this whole mess. He presses his hand against his hair and feels the stickiness of his hair. Pulling back his hand, there's a signficant amount of blood seeping through his hair. 

Shit. 

He looks around for Astrid but doesn't see her in the immediate area. Did she die? Damn. Cantio and Veliky are going to kill him if she is. Hell, Veliky would probably take him to court over even going on this quest with Astrid in the first place. 

Sitting back on his feet, he coughs some more. His through felt raw and the sting of smoke lingers in his lungs and nose. His mouth tastes like ash and iron. 

"Astrid!" He calls out, not quiet able to push himself back up onto his feet just yet.

---

[1] Abyssal Darkness 
[2] Art of the Burning Fist (2/3 duration)
[3] Abyssal Infusion (3/3 duration)
[4] Iron Grip
[5] Harbringer of Evil (3/3 duration)

The crunching of bones and heavy, wet slaps of the bloody, broken girallon body against the ground finally come to a stop. It's replaced by a chorus of coughing from the tiefling. Astrid is cautious about peering out from her hiding place, but when things stay quiet, and she hears her name, she peeks out carefully. Zarius seems... mostly normal again. He lacks the wings now. The smoke and fire and brimstone lessened, but this could be a ploy for all she knows.

So she cautiously calls out, "Zarius..? Ya back ta yer senses now?"

She can see a wave of relief wash over the tiefling's face and he nods. "Yes, I must have hit my head but..." he looks about at the dead girallons, "you seem to have handled things."

Astrid also looks around at the dead girallons, both of which Zarius took out on his own. She makes a face, an unsure cringe at the situation. "Well, I wouldn't say that..." she says, finally stepping out of hiding. Her dwarven instincts keep shouting at her for being a coward, but her survival instincts tell her that hiding was necessary. Otherwise, she would look just like the ragdoll monkey on the ground. 

Making her way over, Astrid sets her war hammer down and hooks her battle hammer on her belt. "What the heck happened?" she asks, pulling her dented buckler off and dropping it beside her hammer so she can dig under the neck of her cuirass for something. "Ya were fightin' a big monkey, then ya suddenly were all covered in smoke and blue fire, and ya had some spooky lookin' wings." She decides not to tell him that he probably would've beaten her to a pulp if she hadn't rushed off.

From beneath her cuirass, she produces a small silver pendant and offers it to him. "Here," she says. "This'll heal just about any of yer wounds. It's got magic water in it!" The gauntleted hand holding out the pendant shows the scars of dark magic and fire on it, but she doesn't seem to mind it much. She can buff it out. Probably.

---

Essence of the North - A necklace made of cold iron with whorls of silver detailing. The pendant can fracture down the middle and release a couple ounces of sparkling water. This ice-cold liquid has powerful healing properties and with direct contact it can mend all critical wounds, scars and disfigurements currently on your body. Can only be used once per topic.

Zarius furrows his brow. What was Astrid talking about? He knew about the smoke and blue fire but...wings? He doesn't have wings and he's certain he would remember something like that, yet his memory is hazy after he blacked out. What he does remember is smoky shapes and shadows flitting across his vision and the deafening number of hushed voices crowding his mind. 

Looking down at his hands, the hair and blood of the girallons stuck between his fingers and the knuckle knives. He takes the weapons off and lays them on the ground for a moment, still trying to remember just what happened. When Astrid hands him the necklace, he hesitates. He stares at the scorch marks on Astrid's armor and then glances at the dent in her shield. That wasn't done by the girallons, so her words must be the truth. "If you need that, you should use it. I will be fine."

The tiefling tucks his weapons back into his pockets, some ash sluffing off his skin as he moves. He manages to get one foot firmly on the ground, pausing crouched on one knee to take a deep breath before he pushes himself up to stand. Looking back down at the closest girallon, he clearly is trying to remember what had happened. The scent of smoke sits heavy on his tongue. 

"I am sorry, I do not know what happened," he says quietly.

Not remembering things clearly is a huge concern to him. Whatever this power-- this thing-- is, it has more of mind of its own than he previously thought. He doesn't like it. He doesn't like knowing there's something that can take control of him and possibly hurt someone. Judging by Astrid's arm, it clearly doesn't care or can't tell who is friend or foe. It's deeply upsetting and unsettling. All his hard work to gain allies who trusted him wholeheartedly could go up in flames if he couldn't get whatever this thing is under control.

He takes a breath. "We should finish up here and leave quickly before any reinforcements show up." Searching the base for information on the Clasp and its leader would at least keep his mind from mulling over something he couldn't do anything about in the current moment. 

Astrid purses her lips when Zarius refuses the treatment as if he doesn't have blood running down the side of his head. "I'm fine. It's nothin' that won't buff out," she insists. Without much warning, she reaches up and grabs Zarius by the horn and pulls his head down to her level. Then she squeezes the magic rock until a couple of drops of shimmering blue water pool and drops them on his wound. The water touches his skin, mixes with blood, then the wound glows a bright white before stitching itself together. Satisfied with this, she releases his horn so he can stand and hangs the pendant around her neck again. 

"There," she says, crossing her arms. Without realizing it, she's mimicking a very Veliky disapproving expression and pose. "Did ya happen ta find any clues about Miss Athena while ya were down there or should we go lookin' real quick? I can have miss Melodia watch the entrance fer us an' warn us if anyone's comin'." Given how quickly Zarius went down then emerged, she would be genuinely impressed that he managed to find them any good information in that short period, but today the tiefling has been full of surprises.

"Ack!"

He wasn't prepared for the young half-dwarf to yank him down in order to drip the healing liquid onto his head. He's nearly pulled clean off his feet by her unexpected strength. She kept on surprising him at every turn. Resigning to his fate, he lets Astrid use the contents of the necklace on his wounds until she finally releases his horn and lets him stand up straight. He rubs his head once the magic has finished repairing the physical damage. "Thank you."

The next thing that Astrid surprises him with is her stance and disapproving look. Gods, Astrid is just going to be Veliky's protégé it seemed. "No, I did not have a chance to search. Having Miss Melodia keep watch would be very helpful."

He starts back down the stairs and goes about searching the rooms for any papers or ledgers that detail just what the Clasp has been up to and if they have any information on what happened to Athena.

It takes some time and Zarius is having a harder time focusing. He pauses and leans back against a wall in the hideout to just try and center himself for a moment. While his wounds were healed, the lethargy from the fight still lingers in his muscles and there's a cloudiness in his mind. It wasn't a pleasant feeling and it was not one he was used to either. He looks at his hand and notices there is a slight trembling in his fingers. Overexertion or anxiety, he couldn't discern which was responsible for his current state.

One thing was certain, he was distracted to a point of barely being able to think clearly. Hopefully Astrid was having better luck finding something noteworthy on her side of the underground space.