Illegal Authority [Isolde]

[Deleted]

"Well, it is quite difficult to get around without the support of a Persona." she responded as she continued walking. The venom in his first response was somewhat there. She figured that he must be a little annoyed by now. The skills that a Persona possessed imposed a limit on their body which made them tired to a degree. Exhaustion was something that she was used to, but she felt a little tired after casting that spell. Perhaps, she should use her weapon instead as she needed to conserve her energy.

[Vice Ysal]

"Quite."

Vice continued marching on, his feet finding purchases on dry land as opposed to the increasingly damp and pooling areas of the floor. Slowly though, the young man had to come to a stop as his eyes caught just what was in front of him. Whatever it was, he wasn't quite sure but the overflowing amount of purple water around the area didn't really look all that inviting.

"We have to turn back. Not gonna get anywhere with that lake in front of us."

The red eyed civilian sounded off, a little bit miffed that he'd have to backtrack. Nonetheless he did so and as he turned around, just in the peripheral of his vision, there was a figure that had begun to move.

"There's something here. Eyes open. Probably a hostile."

[Vice Ysal]

The feeling in the air became heavy, the fear of the unknown adding more to it than it was supposed to. Carefully, Vice moved on ahead to much drier land as he tried to spread his awareness to a bigger area around him. Unfortunately, it wouldn't have been enough as from a direction neither Blue nor Vice could predict from or even see, a mass of shadows threw itself towards the unguarded Civilian. A strike to the left shoulder and a consecutive tackle to his chest had forced the older of the two explorers to be thrown back from the force whilst getting the shadows to stay on top of him.

There was no shout, and Vice didn't even bother struggling free the moment it happened and instead chose to unload two bullets into the thing. The opponent flinched for a moment, the pain that registered into it making it hesitate for what it was going to do next. Thankfully that moment of hesitation gave Vice the much needed time, and space, to push the disgusting thing off of him and towards the purple puddle that had been on his side.

"Kill it!"

Vice ordered as he rolled out of the way from whatever area of effect Isolde's Bufula could cause.

[Deleted]

"All right, then." she responded as she saw a Shadow in the purple puddle. It was her Persona's time to shine as she was more than ready to kill that Shadow that had attacked Lazarus earlier. She spoke as she used a flourishing gesture on the Shadow, "I summon thee and command you to cast Bufula." The iron-masked queen manifested yet again behind her and summoned a medium-sized ice crystal which encased the Shadow in ice and thawed out, causing its body to dissipate into the air. She was more concerned about Lazarus's safety as he had been attacked. She asked, "Are you all right, Lazarus?"

[Vice Ysal]

"I've been better."

The civilian grunted as he pushed himself up into a much more dignified position. Patting down on his knees, waist, and shoulders to get some of the dirt that could have clung on his clothing, a habit if there was anything to call it, Vice then proceeded to turn around to look at the vanishing remains of the shadow.

Unfortunately, and much to Vice's chagrin, the attack had been launched and connected long before he had been able to gather his wits about in order to observe it. Then again, it was normal for him to get rattled when a bloody blind sider managed to get a lucky strike in. Annoying as it was, the young man couldn't do anything about it now and decided to just make sure that all of his items were still with him.

"Were you able to get a good look at the shadow? Determine what type it was?"

[Deleted]

"Yes. I suppose it might've been a Maya." she responded. At least, he was all right now. Just a little messy from that attack from earlier. She'll have to be on her guard if she wanted to avoid sneak attacks like that. She had encountered different types of shadows so far including Mayas, cupids, tables, and the like and one boss during that full moon if that counted. She wondered how many more types of shadows are there. And it seemed as if she never encountered a wide variety of shadows, considering the number of hands and tables she encountered during her explorations.

[Vice Ysal]

"Might have been?"

Vice's voice was a bit incredulous at that. Was this woman not watching or was she just impudently blind at the important things at the current time and place? It was beginning to wear Vice's patience thin with how little the amount of anything he was getting out of this particular exploration. He could have probably gotten a few more grammatical advancements in terms of figuring out the speech patterns required for the evocation of a the spells used by both the shadows who are capable of speaking and the suers, it didn't weigh out the annoyance that was building up at the back of his head that could have been steadily growing due to the presence of his apparent assistant.

"We're heading back to the junction we passed half an hour ago."

[Deleted]

"I'll follow your lead, Lazarus." she responded. She figured that he was annoyed by a lack of answers. She did get a good look at the shadow before the ice attack had connected and destroyed the shadow. If the shadow had managed to hurt him, it would've hurt a lot. She was kind of glad that she had saved his hide at least once. Actually, it was dark outside, so she could only make out its mask. It was possible that it might be a Maya of some sort. She wasn't sure where it came from, but it just manifested right there in front of them.

[Vice Ysal]

Soon enough, the duo would reach the junction that they had passed by. It was as barren as before, then again it wasn't like a lot could have happened in some random spot in the span of an hour. Give or take a few minutes.

"Well, we've got two other choices to go for if we ignore the road back home. I'll let you take the lead this time, Blue. See what you can do when you're up front."

Vice informed as he 'leaned back' into nothing and still somehow managed to pull of the biker image in its fully glory despite the obvious lack of props.

[Deleted]

"Well, all right. The first order of business will be to explore, Lazarus." she responded. She wasn't sure where to explore in this barren junction, but it'll be something different than seeking out shadows to fight. She walked around, trying to find something interesting to take a look at. Only piles of junk were present, but something had caught her eye. It was a journal of some sort, probably someone had left it there or they just threw it away. She turned the pages and read silently to herself. It recounted how the Shadows had attacked people from the abandoned
buildings which she could tell that they didn't survive the attack. She figured that the Shadows had gotten to the staff too.

[Vice Ysal]

At the proposed plan of action, the young man simply nodded without any other peep as a sign of his consent to the decision made by the current party leader of two. Walking behind Blue, a few paces behind to avoid bumping into her if she were to suddenly stop, the young man took it upon himself to act as the sentry. Not like there was much to do at the moment besides take note of where the hell they were anyway.

Not too long, the girl seemed to have picked something up from the ground and began reading through the rotting leaves of the book. Not really quite interested given the girl had yet to say something out of the blue, the red eyed asian simply continued his diligent work of looking out for anything that could potentially harm them.

[Deleted]

After she had read over its contents, she put the journal back into the junk pile where it belonged. Her partner acted the part of sentry as he kept watch for anything that might harm them. There were piles of junk everywhere in sight and some of them had something that caught her interest. Most of the junk she passed by and looked at were mostly old coins or antiques that old people usually liked. She figured that she could analyze those junk for later until she or her partner found something. The piles of junk were probably where some of the Shadows were hiding. If a sneak attack happened again, she was ready for it.

[Vice Ysal]

"You find anything interesting?"

Vice called out as he eyed a particular pile of junk that just made him uncomfortable. He had walked towards it, not really minding Isolde for a bit, and checked the pile out. Swiping the bottom pile a bit with his feet, clearing some things just to see what was there, the young man came back with nothing on his hands to talk about.

Returning to Isolde's side, the asian's red eyes managed to catch a glimpse of a shadow this time. Some kind of dice with a ring around it. He'd face them down before, but not to the extent that he'd have memorised the abilities to bring them back at a moment's notice.

The Dice just floated there, looking around as if it didn't even care. It didn't even look malicious with how it was just wobbling around in place with the weird dots on its sides looking over at Blue. Briefly, the young man wondered if this thing could talk despite not really carrying any kind of 'status' in the pseudo hierarchy that the raiders have more or less established.

[Vice Ysal]

"You know, people usually do something when they see a shadow rather than just stand there, Isolde. And seeing as you're currently bearing the leader status of our little exploration team, I'd have thought you'd have done something by now."

Complete with exasperation and annoyance now evident in his voice, Vice readied the revolver he had in his hand and made sure to prepare the next round properly.

"Now are you going to do something or are you going to be as infuriating as you've been all day today?"

The harsh click of the revolver into its firing state echoed out after Vice's words finished. His gun raised and aimed, primed up for a good shot at the floating dice.

"I'm going to kill it and leave unless you try to actually take the lead for once, Isolde."

[Vice Ysal]

Vice sighed out loud. It was, at first, a sharp intake of breath before a rather haggard exhale allowed the air to make that exasperated noise that just reeked of such disappointment at his target of annoyance. Vice knew he shouldn't hope. Hoping often brought disappointment…but after so long of actually just being a normal human, of not having any kind of thing to truly separate him from the crowd, seeing someone who had the factor to be better than the rest and not use said factor to its fullest potential.

Well, it was pathetically disappointing at the very least.

At the worst, well, Vice wouldn't go that just yet.

"Just. Sit down, Isolde. Now."

And back was his commanding voice. Screw talking with nobility, the girl probably wasn't even one. Right now, she was being a peasant about things and it was irritating as all dodge the hell out of it.

"Tell me. What the hell is wrong with you? If you refuse to speak, fine. I can just leave you here and since you apparently have super powers, I'm pretty damn sure you'll be fine on your own. But like this, when you have someone else on the team? That air headedness of yours, the lack of actual care, you're gonna get someone killed."

Face palming slightly before transitioning the move into combing his long hair back, god did he need a trim, Vice once more crossed his arms and looked at the girl in question contempt in his eyes.

"I don't see what your Knights see in you."