Leni-Aura nods approvingly, “I like the way you think,” she remarks, “If we are able to surprise them, it will be harder for them to recover.” She starts to slip into her natural thought processes of her past; Leni-Aura looks out to the cultist’s camp as Melodia begins to suggest a path for them.

The ghost suggests stealth; at first, Leni-Aura narrows her eyes in displeasure at the idea, but the longer she considers it, the more sense it makes. They’re all tired, after all; they’ve been walking through the hot sand beneath the scorching sun all day… and while the idea of risking back-up for whatever lies in the interior lingers uncomfortably with Leni-Aura, she can’t deny that fighting less would be good for them at this point.

Sleeping is not an option with the camp so close by; so to avoid the fights where they can would be their best chance at surviving this encounter. Slowly, Leni-Aura nods her agreement; Nimbus, on her shoulders, tilts his head slightly as Astrid begins trudging away. He trills softly after her, tail wagging against her shoulder when Leni-Aura starts to follow.

“Hush,” Leni-Aura murmurs, tapping Nimbus’ snout fondly with one finger; the drake snorts, but obeys and quiets down. As they reach the top of the dune, Leni-Aura settles onto her stomach to keep her body low; the natural, sandy textures of her fur blending her quite well with the minerals of the Arid Mesa. “Of course; if we are to sneak in, then we—” she breaks off when Tsarra suddenly starts throwing a fit about the change of plans.

Leni-Aura looks at her, surprised at first; but it’s clear her patience is tapering by the way her brows start to furrow the longer Tsarra complains. “Does the past matter right now?” she asks, “We have walked a long way; and to avoid some of the fight is— hey!” she hisses after Tsarra, ears flattening when the triton starts walking away, leaving her bewildered.

She pins her ears back, and Leni-Aura snorts. “Where did you find that one?” she grumbles to Astrid, looking at the girl with furrowed brows. “Unpleasant, stupid fish... She will get herself killed like this.”

… and honestly, she might just let her.

"Should we continue?" Leni-Aura asks, her voice quiet but blunt. "I fear catching up to her she will just bicker with us... and we will alert the cultists. It may be best to let her... find her own way in."

Amazingly, Astrid feels like things will go well, until Tsarra suddenly starts spewing about the plan changing. And without a moment for her or Leni to object, the fish tromps away to follow her own plan. Astrid's face scrunches up in annoyance. Fine. If Tsarra wants to go off on her own and take the more difficult path when they're all exhausted from the day, she can do just that. 

Shaking her head and huffing, Astrid murmurs, "I happened ta run inta her again on me way up here..." This is one of the poutiest faces this child has ever made. "I don't rightly like her. She's a pain in the butt. Dragged me through shark-infested waters when we coulda just walked if we waited a couple hours!" The little voice in Astrid's mind tells her to calm down, but she's pretty annoyed with Tsarra. Not that Astrid's been that much of a pleasant companion for the fish during this trip either. 

Whatever, she's leaving, and they're not wasting time with her. 

Astrid looks over her shoulder at Melodia, who looks really concerned. "Ma- Melodia, can ya figure out which of the levers inside opens the inner door?" she asks. "We'll sneak over the top."

Melodia looks at Astrid then in the direction Tsarra went. "Will... Will she be alright? What if she causes more trouble than you can handle?"

"We can handle just about anythin'," Astrid says with a mix of annoyance and confidence. 

"Right, of course, I know you can dear. Please be careful. I'll go investigate further." With that, Melodia disappears from view and heads into the temple. 

Astrid stands up and unfurls her wings half-bird, half-bat wings, then she turns to the hot dog Spicy Pawsage and scoops the unwilling hound into her arms. "Alright, let's go!" She uses a bit of magic to get into the air more easily with the extra weight of the hellhound in her arms, stepping on denser air then flapping her wings to get more height. Under the cover of dark, Astrid glides over the top of the temple to the side where Melodia said there was a damaged entrance. The broken rocks look haphazardly placed just in order to block off this side entrance. 

Setting Spicy Pawsage down, Astrid makes him stay put then observes the situation. There's a hooded figure not too far away that will notice if they're too loud. This is a perfect time to use her potion! So she pops the cork of the dark liquid vial and downs it. She carefully tests her footfalls, finds that no sound comes out, and she quickly gets to work hefting rocks away, each of them setting down to the side without breaking the silence. It's a perfect scheme, and once she clears the door enough, Astrid pulls out her hammers and starts beating on the stone door until it shatters open, still making absolutely no sound. 

The girl gives a devious look to Leni then checks to make sure the cultists haven't heard anything when she notices Tsarra not so quietly approaching the camp in the distance. Oh no. 

---

Call Ghost [2/3]
Bat Wings [1/3]
Step of the Wind
Potion of Shadows [1/2]

Tsarra climbs down the dune and sneaks about as well as any fish on land could. Which, admittedly, is not very well. She stubs her toes on a few rocks here and there, swearing under her breath and hopping on one foot as she ducks behind some larger boulders in an attempt to sneak up on the camp. 

She has no clue where Leni and Astrid are, completely oblivious to their own approach to the ruins. Her focus stays on the many cultists and weird devil-thingies outside as she peers around the boulder. 

The camp encircles a fire with some sort of meat roasting on a spit. One of the cultists retreats into a tent, seemingly settling down for the night, while the other two focus on the fire. The two hulking devils trop around the camp, their eyes gleaming out into the darkness to watch for any movement out among the dunes or rocks. 

Okay, this isn't too bad. There's what? half a dozen give or take? She can handle that. No problem.

Looking around at the surroundings, she takes note of the ground sloping away from the entrance of the temple. Perfect.

Quickly, she times a sprint for the next closest rock in hopes of making it there without being spotted. Which as Astrid notices, does not work particularly well as both the devils lock onto the movement and snarl. 

"Hey! The fuck are you?" One of the cultists shouts as the others clue into the triton's presence. 

Tsarra freezes in place and holds perfectly still. Maybe they will think it was just their imagination. 

"Get lost." The cultist starts to approach with the devils which have flames sprouting from between their teeth. 

WELP. So much for that.

"Sorry lads, smells like rain!" The triton's fins and skin begin to turn translucent, taking on the appearance and properties of water.^[1] She raises a hand up and rain begins to pour down from the cloudless sky, drenching the area and extinguishing the fire.^[2]

The devils sizzle and steam rises off of them as the rain pelts their burning hot skin. They rush forward, spitting fire from their mouths at the fish woman who dive rolls out of the way. The heat from the fire turns the rain to steam and creates a fog cloud which obscures some of their sight and buys the triton enough time to gather up water around her arms.^[3]

She draws up a wave and then sends it crashing into the cultists as they run through the steam cloud to support the two devils.

"Agh!" One of the cultists is knocked off their feet from the force of the wave while the other two just barely manage to brace against it.

The man is just about to get back onto his feet when he feels a crawling sensation across his skin. He pulls back his sleeve to reveal barnacles and little crabs crawling all over him.^[4] He screams and the other two look back in confusion as he rolls about on the ground trying to get the little critters off of him.

---

[1] Sea Avatar
[2] Drizzle
[3] Smashing Wave
[4] Sea Curse

Leni-Aura’s hazel eyes soften as Astrid pouts about the fish woman; the rabbitaur shakes her head, looking exasperated. “Her head must be full of rocks.” She insults the fish pretty simply, ears twitching backwards as Tsarra’s footsteps start to fade. The triton becomes a silhouette against grains of red clay as she creeps, boldly and foolishly, towards the cultists’ camp without backup.

Tsarra is not her problem, though.

Leni-Aura looks up to Melodia when she frets over Tsarra, “We will use caution,” she promises the elven ghost. “I will be there fighting with her should anything go wrong.” She dips her head as Melodia disappears from view, only raising it again after a moment has passed. Astrid unfurls wings— has she always had wings?— and scoops up her weird dog.

Now’s not the time for questions.

Leni-Aura blinks, taking a breath to calm herself as the gale gathers around her paws; she steps forwards and up as if ascending a staircase. The gale sweeps beneath her feet, its breath light, yet heavy enough for her to use as though it were the ground itself. ⁽¹⁾

Leaving their third party to whatever plan she’s cooked up, Leni-Aura bounds forwards and up; she uses the wind as an incline to make up for her lack of vertical mobility. When she needs the extra height, the rabbitaur leaps high into the air and lands on wisps of gale with hardly a sound— certainly nothing that could possibly be heard over the commotion that starts to rise from the cultists’ camp. ⁽²⁾

She turns to look towards the camp as she hears a shout; but it’s not directed towards them. She can see Tsarra’s silhouette; and for a moment, she faces a tiny moral dilemma— one which is quickly archived, because Tsarra, frankly, has done this to herself— and she makes for a good distraction.

She turns her head away and leaps after Astrid, slowing her steps upon heavy gales as Astrid pops the cork on a potion she pulls from her bag, and proceeds to down it. The rabbitaur watches quietly, puzzled by the lack of sound coming from Astrid; she’s never seen this before; but her ears are tilted towards the cultist camp, listening for any evidence that the cultists have discovered them.

They have not.

She shares a glance with Astrid as the girl breaks through the stone door, then looks behind her towards the camp. Leni-Aura gives a shake of her head, watching half of the chaos unfolding down there, before she turns and steps through the door— motioning for Astrid to follow quietly behind.

... She clearly has no intention of going back for Tsarra.

---

^{(1) Step of the Wind}

^{(2) Long Stride}

The chaos Tsarra absolutely brings down upon the camp full of cultists and demons provides a great distraction for Astrid to finish opening up a way inside for herself and Leni. The rabbitaur steps inside, and Astrid starts through but Melodia appears beside her.

"I think the lever on the far side opens the front door and the near lever opens the door down the hall," she says quickly. "I'll go distract them while you two try to sneak inside!" Astrid tries to speak, but the potion's effects makes no sound escape her lips, so she just nods, and Melodia phases back inside. 

Astrid finally follows Leni and finds that the only light comes from a couple of torches in sconces and- oh gods, that thing is huge. Inside this temple guarding an interior door is a particularly powerful looking hooded figure and an even larger fiend than the ones that were outside. Melodia warned them about them at least, and Astrid's clunky armor doesn't make any sounds. As long as they don't notice them with their eyes... Luckily, her Diplopia Armor's abilities are particularly effective in dark environments. 

"Hey, what's going on out there?" the hooded figure calls. With the hole in the wall opened up, the noise of the chaos reaches his ears and the fiend's. The fiend growls, a deep, low rumbling in its throat when it sees the rocks and rubble letting in light in the corner.

Suddenly, an ethereal woman manifests right in front of the large fiend, and it snarls, surprised. She rushes through the fiend and toward the other side of the room to draw it and the cultist's attention away from Leni and Astrid so they can make a getaway! 

---

Call Ghost [3/3]
Bat Wings [2/3]
Step of the Wind
Potion of Shadows [2/2]

Outside the temple, it's a mess flying fire bolts and fireballs as the cultists and fiends try to deal with the random fish in the middle of the ARID MESA. What was a fish doing all the way out here to even begin with? Her appearance and soaking of the area caught them well off guard, enough that they were scrambling to get their shit together.

The heat from the fire spells caused even more steam to form and obscure their vision as Tsarra almost crawls through the quickly forming mud that makes the ground incredibly slick to walk across. She manages to roll out of the way as the shadow wreathed claws of one of the fiends comes swiping down towards her. Gathering water from the ground and continuing to fall drizzle, she forms a whip of water between her hands and snaps it at the fiend's eyes.^[1]

The fiend reels back, hissing in pain before tripping backwards over a rock which appears out of the sand which was starting to get washed away by the rain.

This area has rarely seen any moisture, and thus the water very quickly starts to have an effect on the ground's surface. 

Pushing herself back up onto her feet, Tsarra catches the shadows of the cultists moving about in the steam cloud. The faintest red glow of some sort of magic telling her where they are and that they are up to something sneaky. She pushes her hands out to either side of her, the rain drops suspending in the air before she brings her hands together quickly, gesturing in the direction of the glow. The water droplets rush and collect around the cultists, even the steam is brought to swirl around them. The water gathers into a swirling sphere which entraps the cultists and interrupts their spell.^[2] They claw and struggle for breath as they are fully submerged in the liquid. 

"Yes! Take that!"

Tsarra is suddenly knocked clean off her feet and then slammed down into the mud by the other fiend which manages to get the drop on her while she's celebrating. The fiend digs its claws deep into her torso and presses her down firmly into mud. 

"AGH! OW! GET OFF!" She shouts and swears as she struggles under its weight. 

"Insolate fool. You know not the powers at work here," the devil hisses, fire glowing behind its eyes and deep in its throat. It raises up its other clawed hand, threatening to bring flay the fish alive then and there. 

"I said get. OFF!" Tsarra throws her hand forward and snaps the water whip into the devil's open mouth. 

The devil coughs and hacks as it inhales the water, loosening its grip enough for Tsarra to draw her scimitar and stab it into the fiend's ribs. The fiend hisses and releases her, pulling back from the blade in its side. 

Finally free, Tsarra scrambles away holding the bleeding claw wounds in her stomach. 

---

[1] Water Whip
[2] Water Prison

Leni-Aura’s steps are quiet against the stone; silent enough to not draw attention to their general direction as she pads into the opening that Astrid had created. She lowers her body, ears flattening back, to make herself as small as possible; and Nimbus does the same, coiling his tail around the collar of her neck as he melds the length of his neck down one of her arms.

Sometimes it surprises her how smart the drake actually is when he seems to lack brainpower the rest of the time. She looks towards Astrid when the girl approaches; and then looks back out towards the hooded man and the demon who are lurking in the darkness of the temple.

She waits patiently, legs bunched beneath her as she prepares herself for Melodia’s arrival. The tension settles thick in the silence, but is interrupted by the chaos outside; she turns her gaze to the doors as the hooded figure calls out— and then the fiend looks directly towards them.

Leni-Aura white knuckles the haft of her spear, hazel eyes narrowing when Astrid’s ghost mother apparates before it, quickly redirecting its attention. “What the hell!?” Weapons are drawn; the fiend’s lips curl back in a guttural snarl.

“We go,” Leni’s voice comes low and quiet; and comes just before she makes a gesturing motion with two fingers for Astrid to move forwards. “I’ll pull the lever. Cover me if needed; when it opens, go.” Without waiting for a response, Leni-Aura disappears in a blur⁽¹⁾; she doesn’t look behind her to babysit Astrid; she knows the girl has talent and wit, and she trusts her to follow directions.

Unlike the fish.

By the sound of it, she’s still putting up a fight out there; in truth, she’ll think about Tsarra at some point later, maybe, impressed by her desire to survive if nothing else. At least if the fish is a pain in their ass, she is also a pain in everyone else’s ass.

Leni-Aura reappears several yards from where she last was, dropping onto the stone floor with a slight thud and rattle of armour; as she skids to halt, she grabs the lever, thrusting it forwards with her momentum. “Wh—” The hooded figure snaps to look back at them from where Melodia has them distracted; but the lever’s already been pulled. Sparks dance across Leni-Aura's figure, lighting up the wall behind her in cobwebs of electricity; but although her stance is offensive, she remains light on her feet, ready to follow Astrid beyond the door the moment the girl passes through the archway.

---

^{(1) Bullet Dash}

Things devolve pretty quickly inside the tomb. With the fiend distracted, even for a moment, Astrid watches Leni rocket forward and trip the lever. The sound of stone grinding against stone echoes from farther in the tomb. That's their destination. They need to go! 

Glancing over at the rabbitaur, Astrid exchanges a nod with her and gathers her own magical energy in her feet, throwing herself across the stone floor in a blur with Leni close behind her. Ahead of them, a pair of stone doors opens down the hall, and between them is a strange veil of what appears to be the night sky. It's a strange thing to run toward, but there's no time to think about it. The cultist inside has noticed the two of them running ahead and shouted after them. The devil turns its attention away from swatting at Melodia and roars after them. 

"STOP THEM!" the cultist shouts. 

"Shoot! Melodia, go tell Tsarra we're goin' through a weird portal! She can get the heck outta here!" Astrid shouts back down the hall. 

"Got it! Be safe!" Melodia calls back before phasing through the wall to go warn Tsarra. She emerges amongst the chaos outside and struggles to spot the triton amongst it all, but when she does, she rushes over. "Tsarra, they've gotten in! Get yourself out of here!" 

Inside, the devil flings a fireball at Astrid and Leni, but the two deftly avoid it and phase through the strange blanket of spacetime and emerge unscathed on the other side to a scene neither of them would have ever expected... 

Tsarra was hurt and the devils and cultists were still advancing on her, though some shouting from inside the temple does draw their attention for a moment before a spectral woman appears. Melodia passes through the enemies and relays her message to the triton. 

"Huh, what?? THOSE BITCHES!" Tsarra shouts just before Melodia vanishes from sight, leaving the fish woman completely alone in this fight. 

Dammit. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

She hates this, she hates being left behind, but couldn't force her way into the ruins like this. She was still outnumbered and the cultists were nothing but angry. There was no choice to be made here. Dying wasn't an option, so instead she opts to retreat as much as it enrages her.

With the rain still falling from the sky, the triton waves her hands in a way that pulls the water into a swirling vortex of spinning raindrops.^[1] This spell was better suited for larger amounts of water where it could actually suck up enemies into the powerful current, but the impromptu cyclone would at least give her a chance to run as it blinds them with the rainfall. 

For good measure as she turns and runs away from the fight, she spills a number of sea urchins from a pouch she carries with her.^[2] The howl of a cultist as they step on the spikey little critters is enough to ensure she does not slow down in case her pursuers do manage to catch her. 

After running until her legs could carry her no further, she flops in the sand and looks back over the dunes. The night air is still, yet there is a weird energy in the atmosphere. It's heavy. Something was happening, but she would not be one to witness it. Frustrated and angry, she throws a silent temper tantrum before just laying in the sand exhausted. The pain from the wound she sustained throbs dully. 

This sucked.

---

[1] Swirling Vortex
[2] Sea Urchin Caltrops