Enemies in the Midst

Elliot looked to Joseph and Rurei as he scoffed lightly, not wanting to tell them he had just been watching and using them as bait in case well, this happened. "Just stand back, neither of you are going to be much use here." He said as he pushed them aside, seeing Damien preform his diversion as Elliot sent tendrills across the surface of the water, all of them intertwining and forming a a mat, the texture and properties of which were similar to the sphere he trapped himself and Kira in before when she wanted to hurt him. "Neither of you are going to hit the water!" He called out, raising it so it was well above the water, the transparent violet surface basically a giant rubber band to cushion their fall and catch them.

In the meantime the Mermaid growled, looking over to shore as she dove deep into the water, planning on ambushing the people on shore, they seemed an easier target, and they are unable to escape her grasp, she didn't want to mess with the pyromancer, somehow his fire burned her while she was underneath the water, and she wasn't going to tolerate that. Focusing on the woman on the shore she smirked, deciding she was lunch.

Rurei knew now something was up with Elliot and she didn't like it. He was saving Leila and Kira though so there was nothing she could complain about now but she would be telling leila later this was not a good person to be working under. She didn't notice the mermaid look at them before it dived she was too focused on Elliot.

Leila frowned at her new landing spot. While it would protect her from any damage, the Fairy knew that there was no way Kira would be able to get out unscathed if she landed on it. Currently, Leila saw one of two things happening. Either she would end up landing on the bag and crush anything inside it with her own weight, or she would avoid landing on the bag, only to have the bag land on her. While Leila knew that she was softer then the ground, she also knew that at this speed, anyone tiny landing on her might still get hurt, even if they had a ton of blankets and pillows to protect them. "Kira, I'm pulling you out of the bag and unshrinking you! I hope you're ready, because I don't have time for an answer." She pulled Kira out of the bag and unshunk the neko so that they were falling together. "Sorry about this Kira, I just really don't want to take the chance of landing on you. I'm not fat or really that heavy, but I don't want to take the chance of accidentally crushing you when we hit that thing Elliot created. Well...that and I won't be landing on it. Hope to see you soon Kira, if not, it was nice knowing you."

Leila warped herself to where she was over the water, falling down towards the Mermaid. "Hey," she called, "hey fish-face! Think you can catch a meal in mid-air, cause I bet you can't!!"

"It is about fucking time!!" Kira shouted as she grew. She wouldn't notice at the time the profit of three inches she gained from the rushed ordeal. She didn't get a full grip of what was going on before Leila warped away, and she headed down to her landing on Elliot's energy net thingy.

The mermaid ignored the fairy, focusing on the human girl on the shore as she got within arms reach, her hand exploding violently from the water and rocketing over to Rurei as he tried to grab the girl, planning on swallowing her quickly before anyone could come to her defense.

Elliot's eyes widened, unable to help Rurei since he had to concentrate to make sure the net he had for Kira didn't waver in the least, all he could do was scream. "RUREI DIVE!" He screamed at her, water splashing over the shore.

The water hit Rurei in the eyes and was hard for her to see where she should dive to! She tried to run to the right hoping she wasn't running int a hand quickly she reached into her bag and pulled out a container hopefully she wouldn't need it she thought.

Leila reacted in the only way she could think of. Using her teleportation magic she swapped places with herself and Rurei so that it was she who was going to get eaten. "Sorry sir, wish I had a better plan then this...don't interfere..." She held her arms out wide, closed her eyes, and waited to be grabbed.

"What the?!" Rurei said seconds before she found herself in the water. She sank quite a bit, the former Tiny never had reason to swim much so the experience was altogther rather new. Her pack didn't help with swimming either. Frantically she tried to rise to the surface and when she hit it, she gasped for air loudly. Rurei looked around trying to find her orientation or even what had just ocurred.

(Sorry if this is posting too much but I figured I should at least describe how Rurei is like in the water ^^)

(Will post when Nyaha says he has safely landed so I Elliot can actually react XD

Kira was already charging her Lightning Arrow spell as she fell. Just before hitting Elliot's net, she thrust her fingers forward and loosed a bolt of blue electricity at the mermaid's outstretched arm, before landing on her back in the purple energy. It wouldn't be powerful enough to affect Leila if it hit the mermaid's elbow where she aimed, but if it hit her hand Leila would probably take some damage at least. As long as it made her let go, Kira would be happy.

Just as the mermaid grabbed Leila in her hand and tried to bring her to her mouth she felt the spell strike her wrist as she screamed out, in a great deal of pain as she dropped Leila to the ground and held her wrist, sitting above the water as she looked down to the humans on shore, then back to the neko who was being moved forward towards she shore, the man with the purple hair seemed to have created it, and was capable of moving it across the air as he was right now. "Why is it so hard to eat a group of people now a days? Everyone is a mage, and the people that aren't are very well protected." She said looking down to them, very angry, but unable to fight effectively with one hand.

Damien crawled out of the water onto the net that Kira was in, not wanting to risk swimming the rest of the water to shore as he winked to the neko. "Awesome day huh? At least kitty didn't have to get into the nasty water." He said snickering lightly, not being mean, just loving to pick on people, he knew she didn't have a very.......developed sense of humor so she probably wouldn't find it funny, but he didn't care.

Leila yelped as she was shocked a bit and dropped to the ground. When she landed she stood up, dusted herself off, and grew to her giant size as the mermaid talked to herself. "I assure you Mermaid, your day is about to become much worse." She grabbed the mermaid by the wrist and the pair teleported up into the air. To anyone on the ground it would seem as if the pair were just a speck in the distance. "I had hoped that you would be able to hold onto me long enough for me to teleport us. But no matter, me holding you is good enough." As the pair began to fall the mermaid would probably notice that the only thing below them was cold, hard ground. Leila had a cold look on her face as she continued talking. "You attacked me and my friends. For that, I sentence you to death. I was originally going to shoot you, but falling to death is far better, don't you think? Now die, and may we never meet again." Leila warped back to the ground, leaving the mermaid to her fate.

Once on the ground Leila turned to Elliot. "Sir, if you could remove the safety net we can leave. That mermaid won't be bothering us anymore."

(I do hope I didn't just do something OP...and if anyone is wondering, the reason why Leila had to be touching the mermaid is because it's far more difficult to teleport larger things/creatures, especially when they aren't touching you.)

"Seriously? What the hell, Leila?!" Kira exclaimed. She liked a good kill as much as the next person, but seriously?? For such a dumb reason?! She had really thought Leila was better than that. Without waiting, she gathered strength in her legs and powerfully leapt back to shore, hitting the ground in a roll. She got onto her knee and looked at the fairy.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Leila?!?!"

Rurei finally found out where the shore was and began to swim for it. 'where did the mermaid go? No concentrate on swimming!' she thought as she struggled through the water. She looked half drowned when she got to shallow enough water to stand. Rurei panted exhausted and waded further towards the shore.

Leila looked over at Kira. Her own expression was emotionless and cold. "I removed a threat and sent a message. That mermaid was going to eat everyone, so I did my job and neutralized her. I won't lose another group of friends to some hungry predator. I won't fail my job again and fail to keep them safe. Especially not to a mermaid." Even though her tone and expression looked emotionless, a single small tear slipped down her cheek. "I promised to protect you all, and I swear that I'll do it."

Kira looked back at Leila with a frown and a furrowed brow - a light angry expression for her. "That's all well and good, but killing people for doing what comes naturally to them isn't the way to go about it. That's like if someone killed you for being protective of your friends - that wouldn't be fair, would it?"

Kira knew what she was saying was probably pretty harsh, but it didn't matter. She had to stand by the belief taught to her by her best friend.

Leila looked Kira in the eyes, and hung her head. "Y-you're right Kira...You're absolutely right..." She looked up at the mermaid who was getting closer and closer to the ground. "There's still time to save her...I can warp her into the water where she'll be perfectly safe...Do you think I should?"

Kira just looked at Leila. She knew what the answer to that was and Kira knew it.

(OMG sorry for the two-player back and forth guys! DX I didn't mean to let it get out of hand! Is it okay or should we delete some to let other people have a chance?)

(No it is fine, the conversation wasn't a bad thing, I will actually wait for Nergal to post once more before continuing)

Leila looked from Kira up to the mermaid and sighed. "You're right, of course. I'll be right back." She warped back up into the air next to the mermaid. "Listen, I'm gonna give you a chance to survive. If you swear not to attack my friends again and agree to warn any near by mermaids not to attack us, I'll save you. If you refuse, I'll leave and let you figure a way out on your own." She shrugged. "Who knows, you might be able to learn how to fly in the next 30 seconds, but I doubt it. So, what do you choose?"

(I found the back and forth stuff appropriate for the situation as it needed to happen quickly, so no worries guys )

Elliot looked to the Mermaid as he made his net vanish after Kira removed herself from it, walking over to the shore as he looked up into the two rapidly falling individuals, shaking his head as he bit his lip softly, strangely worried about the mermaids life, but not the tidal wave he knew she would likely cause.

"I will give you a ride to shore just don't let me die!" The mermaid screamed, freaked out about the possibility of losing her life to the ones she was trying to eat in the first place as she looked down to the water.

Joseph ran out into the water when he saw Rurei stand up, running to her as he smiled softly. "I couldn't see you in the water, I was so worried you'd drowned, let me help you to shore." Joseph said softly, looking to the human sized tiny with a kind smile. "Sorry, I should have jumped in after you, I still have to save your life after all, I owe you many times over." Joseph said as he lifted her up, carrying her to shore. "No reason for you to get all sandy, I personally hate it, it gets everywhere."

Damien rolled his eyes, preferring the mermaid dead but he knew Elliot and Kira were of another mind. He let it go quickly, moving his concentration to getting across the large lake.

"Thanks Joseph." Rurei replied returning the smile. "Don't feel too bad about not jumping in after me. It would be a waste for us both to die." Something else occured to her. "OH NO! NO! NO!" Rurei got out of Joseph's arms and searched her pack. She held nothing but soggy bits of papers that once depicted her fondest memories, and maps. "M-my drawings..." The large tiny tried to hold back her tears then sighed. "Well...no use crying over spilt milk I guess." The saddness masked, Rurei smiled to try and shut out any doubt that she was upset at all.

"I still have this one." Joseph said softly, pulling out the drawing that she drew him, looking to the soggy bits of paper with a sad expression. "This is just to sad, they were amazing drawings........" He sat down in the sand as he shook his head, feeling bad for her, despite the fact she seemed rather cheery, but he was skeptical. "There will be plenty more opportunities to draw new pictures at least...."

"Ha, Joseph has anyone ever told you, that you're overly sentimental?" She teased. "The drawings are still up here!" The tiny pointed to her head. "As well as the maps, and as you say I can always make more." Rurei hugged Joseph tightly closing her eyes. Very quitely she whispered in his ear. "Put on a brave face Joseph, don't show them that you are so easily upset. I don't trust Elliot or Damien. Something was off on how they were here already. I think they are the type to get rid of anyone they don't see as useful. We must not let them see us as weak." She stood up and offered a hand to Joseph. "Thanks anyway Joseph, but as you can see I'm alright." Her pain was masked behind her smile it would take someone who knew her very well, or someone skilled in empathy to tell she was heart broken.

As Kira stared upwards, waiting for something to happen, she entertained the idea of tossing on a couple extra strength enhancers and catching the mermaid in her arms like a strapping hero. Fuck that'd be hilarious. But probably painful also. She smirked, from both her silly idea and the fact that she convinced Leila to do what she thought would be the right thing. She thanked her friend in her thoughts for teaching her that lesson so long ago.