Iron Oak and Yokai Leaves

With their supplies gathered Sophia and her husband Haru ventured out of their house in Antegria before taking the ship towards New Alteros, from where they left towards Yokai forest, going after few materials and ingredients the Witch needed, mostly after Iron Oak and the leaves of yokai tree, both needed for her tasks she planned to work over in next few years.

Once reaching the forest her eyes began to glow as she fueled them with magic, scanning the path ahead with more serious expression as she addressed Haru with her hand extending as she formed a blade around her right hand made out of her blood. "We are at the area we needed to enter...be on your guard Haru...we need to find a yokai tree and iron oaks...we need to move closer to the Citadel..." she said with uneasy tone, not knowing what to expect on path ahead.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru, with his wits intact, began his adventure his his wife, Sophia. Sophia had to he idea of spending more time with Haru and it seemed to be for a round of material gathering, though he ouldn't complain. It had been years since they last did something together. Compared to the last time Haru spent time with Sophia, she was in bed with him talking for a few hours. Of course they didnt do anything strange, though it had been a few weeks prior to today.

With the mission on point, Haru was holding on to his sword on his back as SOphia exclaimed to be careful in the mist of danger they were about to find themselves in.

It wasn't very long that a few noises come out of the Yokai woods. The woods were creepy and Haru could hear alot more then what Sophia could since he was an ookami. Haru took a deep breath trying o ignore the outer noises and attempted to pay more mind to the ones closer.

They were here for two things, Iron oak and a Yokai tree, which both seemed to be equally important.
(Haru Allmiker)
The woods appeared oddly calm with them stepping through, perhaps due to Sophia picking routers that helped them with avoiding most of the yokai packs, letting them wander deeply into the hostile teritorry before ending up spotted by a larger group of yokai, led by what appeared to be an terrus kaor who alerted the horde with its booming roar, resulting with it surrounding the Witch and Ookami.

She cursed under her nose just as she drew her blade, sighing loudly before smiling towards her husband. "Well here goes my attempt to lead us without having to fight anything Haru...I hope you can lend me a hand here? I wouldn't mind fighting alongside my ookami." she inquired with a smirk before exhaling as the hilt she gripped in her hand covered in blood, forming a long and pulsating blade.

Her eyes narrowing as the horde quickly closed its distance, leaving her to swiftly count their numbers before exhaling loudly as 10 lessers, 4 megas and teras, two elmentals and one kaor surrounded them, threatening to tear them apart as their meal.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru's eye began to narrow down slightly as he heard a large amount of Yokai in the distance. So much for the save routes, but you can never be save when your in the din of the Yokais.

With their cover blown, it was time for an attack. It wasn't everyday where you can fight something on the side. Haru began tow atch Sophia as she handled her blood sword and rushed toward the enemy. It wasn't the best thing to do, but she did look cool while doing it.

Haru looked and watched Sophia as she took on 5 of the lessers and 2 Megas and teras. The same number of enemies approached Haru, though he pulled his sword from his back and sighed.

"When I got up today.....I assume we would sit back and relax all day....but thi is fine too"

Haru smirked a bit and began to hold his blade toward the horde and rushed toward them.
(Haru Allmiker)
The lessers and megas quickly fell to the couples blades, both of them slashing through the group with ease slashing through them all without problem, giving themselves more space and possibility to deal with the elementals and the kaor, leaving the them with their opponents with Sophia looking towards Haru before exhaling.

 "So how do we split them up? I can take the kaor and elemental if you want me to...but please make sure you can deal with other elemental if you feel we should this..." she explained calmly before looking towards her Husband and soon siphoning the spilled yokai blood.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru began to slowly think about the whole situation. The situation itself called forth two elementals and a Kaor. Haru knew that  Sophia was definiately strong and powerful. Haru didn't find any question in her strength, though after a few moments Haru came to a conclusion.

"Well in all honesty I think I can try and take on two elementals. You can solo the Kaor if you want. I might not look it but....I fought a few strong people.....I can handle myself for a bit...."

Haruw as sure he ould take them, though The elementals took the same time and rush toward Haru while the Kaor sat back and waited for Sophia.
(Haru Allmiker)
She listened to Haru and smiled before giggling and lowering herelf as she exhaling loudly before deciding to smile and giggle as she winked and blew a kiss towards Haru, inidcating in her own way she trusted his own judgement before approaching the kaor with a smirk.

 "Alright then hun, I will handle the the kaor alone then, lets go and clear the path towards the trees so we can move towars getting you and Liluna your arms, you two deserve it." she said calmly before exhaling loudly as she placed her mask on and soon licking her lips as she prepared to face her opponent, eager to steal their blood.
(Sophia Rockbell)
With the formalities out the way and the exchange of trust Sophia showed toward her husband, Haru was set on clearing the way to help his wife venture furth to reclaim the items she needed to get his and Liluna's arms back.

With the two Elementals charging toward him, Haru watched as they tried to use a pinch formation to be both in front and behind him at the same time. Haru didn't know much about 2 on 1s but he knew how to fight. At least he though he knew.

With the Wolf-like Elementals charging at him from the front and back, he wasn't really on his toe for the battle. At first the winged elemental seemed to be specialied in Occultic magic with gravity on its side as it attempted to last at Haru with alot of force and the field around its paws shifted and changed, but he didn't know what kind of attac it was. It was only when it was close that the ookami ducked under the beast and dodged it.

When he beast missed and hit the ground, the ground beneath its paws began to shake wildly only effecting the ground beneath the paws, though when it lifted its paws, the ground stopped shaking and it showed that te earth around it was shooken and even broken to have several cracks and soon after, a small crater.

The second Elemental saw Haru's confusion as an attempt to attack, though when Haru looked back he saw the yokai leaping toward him with tundrils of vines aimed toward him.

Haru lifted up his blade with his right arm and tried to block it all though with the force pushed through, Haru was dazed slightly, but was able to hold his own.

"You know how to pack a punch.."

Haru was slightly disarrayed with the tundrils pulling back toward the yokai with its body waving in the wind. Haru looked at the two yokai and began to hold his sword tightly. He was trying to think on how to disable their teamwork in order to take them both out, though Haru wasn't much of a strategist.

When the time came, Haru looked at the yokai that had the wing and thought about cutting the wings, though it didn't seem to fly and just use them straight for cosmetics if that was even a thing.

Haru looked toward the Yokais and frowned heavily, though he took a deep breath and began to hold his sword out toward the two yokai.

"Im going to prove one thing today.....and that is I can hold my own....even against you two...."

Haru began to rush toward the winged yokai as fast as he could so he could attack, but with its gravity magic it was about to propell itself away from him  making its escape more seemable then ever.

Haru tried again but toward the next elemental, though the elemental attempted to block the sword with its tundril vines, but Haru dodged them and cut half of them.

With half of the yokai's tundrils gone, it screamed in subtle pain only to grow angry toward Haru.

"Well....thats one way to piss you guys off"

(Haru Allmiker)
With Haru dealing with the elementals her eyes locked on the kaor before her, staring at it with a smile before dashing forth, observing as the beast followed the suit striking at her with its claws, which she blocked with ease, soon fading away before appearing at its side before slashing with her blade from the side.

To her annoyence the kaor blocked her strike, forcing her to jump back before landing on her knees before exhaling loudly and slowly work towards finding the soft spots of her opponent, trying to ensure she was going to see how to defeat the yokai.
(Sophia Rockbell)
With her focusing on the open spots in kaors defence, soon observing as it jumped at her, smiling as she simply jumped aside with a giggle, avoiding the claws and blade with her fineze and time magic, landing few feet away before vanishing and appearing above the kaor with her blade above her head as she tried slash it against its back.

Without realization she found herself in position where she was without any defence, her blade struck but got blocked by the tail which had enough momentum saved up to send her flying against the nearby tree, leaving her to groan loudly as she hissed loudly before slamming against the ground, staring at the kaor with annoyed expression as she held her side, feeling sore from the strike.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru wasn't in the best of moods though the Elementals werent either. Haru had already cut off half of the nature Elemental's tundrils. when it looked at the nubs that was its tundrils, the yokai began to speak.

"You are going to pay boy........you dont know what you just did.........You will feel my paws on top of your dying corpses!!"

Haru looked at the yokai with uncaring eyes, almost like he has heard this speech before.

"Yea yea...and then your going to drink my insides like it was wine........gosh you people and your un believeable speeches. I might be a caring person, but I dont much care for the chit chat from people who want to kill me....."

Haru didn't really care for chatting andheld his blade up high and pointed toward the yokai duo.

The winged Yokai looked looked at Haru and began to chuckle.

"Do you really think that you will defeat us? Its 2 against 1. Your odd are out and soggy...."

Haru looked at the yokai and smirked at them

"I might be outnumbered but your out matched......"

The winged yokai began to pounced toward Haru with increasing speed wit its gravity magic, though Haru was a moment ahead of the Yokai as he ran backwards trying to lose it in the trees. At first it worked wonders, the trees were to close together for the Yokai to keep its speed up and to close together to caught up to Haru. When the yokai finally caught up, he jumped behind a tree to trick him and lost the yokai in leaves.

Haru was successful in his manuver and climbed one of the trees to get a vantage point. It wasn't until he felt something small touching and curling around his leg. Before he could realize it, Haru was already pulled down from the tree onto the ground below.
(Haru Allmiker)

When Haru looked around he saw the nature elemental staring at him with its mouth open wide. The yokai was planning to eat him.

"I am going to eat you whole you worthless-"

Before the yokai could finish, Haru began to see the winged yokai pouncing toward him un able to see the tundrils or the nature yokai, though he yokai pounced at him with full force. Haru saw this as an opprotunity so he began to struggle like he was trying to get out of the tree but when the winged yokai got closer, Haru threw his sword at the nature yokai making him spring its jaw closer to Haru. At the same moment, the other yokai punced at Haru only to jump ono the elemental pushing it away and releasing Haru.

With the nature yokai down for the count for the moment, Haru took the moment to regrab his sword and aim himself toward the winged yokai. In the stunning event, Haru was able to get close to its blind side and slashed at its back making blood appear and gashing it across the ground.

Haru huffed at the sudden change of pace, but soon after the nature elemental comes to and growls only to send out the remaining of its tundrils. Haru sees them and begins to block but thinking back, Haru began to slash at them, cutting away at the roots and making the nature elemental volnerable.
(Haru Allmiker)
Her eyes narrowed as she got herself up to her feet, gripping the blade with both of her hands as she growled loudly before dshing forth with her eyes glowing in rage as she grabbed and squashed the blood marble in her hand, forcing it to turn into blood glob and form around her arm like armor. It bloke the kaors swiping strike just as she slashed her blade against its side, cutting it shallowly yet deep enough force it to bleed, giving herself a chance to back away to catch her breath.

Bleeding wound forced the kaor to back away, leaving each of them staring at one another as each waited for anothers move before kaors sight shifting towards one of the fallen elementals, forcing her to smirk as she knew her husband dealed with one of their opponents, giving her time to take a depp breath and prepare to strike the kaor again.
(Sophia Rockbell)

With the kaor distracted watching the figght between her husband and an elemental yokai, the blood witch decided as it was perfect opportunity to land another strike towards her opponent, exhaling quietly as she narrowed her eyes towards open spot on the enormous beasts body before dashing forth with her body surrounded by time flow accelerating her movement to nearly inhuman speed.

In less than split of a second the witch was next to the beast and even with it noticing her actions the claw it brought got easily deflected after multiple failed strikes from both sides, leaving Sophia to roar as she thrusted her blade straight into the exposed front leg, cutting in deep before pulling out and away, avoiding another strike with ease, giggling loudly in the process.

Her breath remained loud as she went after catching her breath while observing the kaor with her blade lowered and prepared to swipe once more even if only to stop it from striking her out of sudden.
(Sophia Rockbell)
With Haru panting for his life, he was certainly tired from the wound he recieved. Haru smelled his own blood. It had a strong scent that Haru knew would lead the yokai toward him.

As he said that, the winged yokai saw the body of his comrade behind him. The yokai began to growl loudly and pounced toward Haru.

"Your going to die today. You one of us....we only grow stronger!"

Haru wasn't losing alot of blood though if he kept moving he would lose more then he should. With that, the wolf kept pouncing toward Haru and eventually got close enough to either eat him or push him with its gravity magic.

When the yokai got close enough it held out its paws and blasted Haru backward into the nearby tree breaking it in half and making Haru breathe heavily.

"I told you....you are going to die today..."

With Haru on the ground, he tried to lift his sword and attack the yokai, but it was easily dodge and the yokai placed his paw on Haru and blasted him again.
(Haru Allmiker)
Haru Allmiker: 9so fail
The kaor didn't wait for her to recover and instead rushed with its claws prepared to tear her appear, only to end up being  stopped by her blade and blood before rolling aside to gain some space for herself and to gain as much momentum to strike back.

She roared loudly with her arms moving diagonally downwards with only to end with her blade being deflected by the creatures claw, forcing her to jump back as she groaned loudly and stared at her opponent, hearing that Haru was slowly dealing with his elemental yokai, bringing them closer to finishing the creatures they fought.
(Sophia Rockbell)
With the battle heating up, Haru was trying to keep his head on the situation that now he was being cornered by the winged yokai onto a nearby tree, the tree was dark and smelled like boar. It was probably just a coincedense that a boar was behing it, though it quelled away.

When Haru looked at the yokai, he groaned slightly, feeling as if this was his last day on this planet. The yokai was feirce, deadly and most of all, serious. The way the yokai spoke to Haru made him feel like he was incredibly serious on the topic of killing him, though to simple matter was that Haru wasn't "afraid" of that he was in the capacity to die, but what would happen to Chole, Gillies, and Sophia if he were to die. They would have been left alone, desilient and heartbroken. Sophia would marry Luthar and the kids would grow up without their real father.

Haru began to grind his teeth looking out into the distance, not even looking at the yokai but coincidently looking in the direction of it. Haru couldnt and shouldnt  have believed i that kind of future. The future where he wasnt there and his family needed him. His pack needing him. Even though, one come could still happen.

Haru began to imagine the worst of the whole future, the part where Sophia, Nyx, and Liluna were alone with that 15 year old bachloer. Haru began to breathe heavily and slow. His rage began to form slowly around him, eluping hi, consuming him.

Haru growled under his hiphened breath and clinched his sword tightly.

"You think you can beat me by getting upset? Rubbish...."

Haru began to show signs of depravity around him as his hate began to consume him, though the hate began to form into desire.

"I am.......going to beat you.......im going to kill you.......im going to defeat your leader....with my wife......and i am going to sow her that I can hold my own!"

As Haru shouted, his black hatred aura began to flutter only to turn back into that dark navy blue color.

Haru began to roar loudly as he began to stand and pushed against his wound heavily to force more blood out so he could move, though immediatly after, Haru ran toward the yokai and threw his sword, though he missed.

"Hmph as that suppose to it me"

Haru smirked before jumping up and landing on its back and pulling against its wings, though Haru was inraged, he began to pull on them and began to hear flesh tearing.
(Haru Allmiker)
With her focusing too much on Haru the kaor took its chance and dashed at her with loud furious roar,giving her only enough time to duck and suffer minor cut across her chest, forcing her to growl loudly as she jumped back and reversed the time around her wound to avoid anything serious, leaving her observing the opponent in silence as she prepared to strike once more.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru was still ontop of the yokai grabbing hold of the wings of the elemental beast, though as he yanked harder, he began to get more and more engulfed by is desire to kill the beast and reclaim what he wanted, to show forth his power.

Haru began to grow stronger by the moments goign by as the force he was pulling began to tear the wings more and more. The yokai began to force himself into the air using his gravity magic and tried to oreientate itself toward ground with its back facing the floor along with Haru still on its back.

"I am going to squash you into a flapjack!"

It was strange how a yokai knew the existance of a flapjac, but the matter still startled Haru. He didn't have much time as the elemental began to force itself down. Haru didn't have much power with the increasing forced pushing him ont the back of the beast.

Haru began to gasp as he tried to secure a moment for him as he climbed from the beasts back onto its chest and forced his elbow into the yokai's neck. The increasing forces were to great for the yokai to control on his own. The force was great enough to make a sudden clash in the air like a barrier had been broken.

Haru firmly place his elbow on the beasts neck only to help with the force as he wrapped his legs on the beasts sides only to secure himself onto the beast. With the forces almost ready to pop, Haru smirked at the beast as they fell only to release his legs and elbow letting the beast fall first hitting the ground making a large crater. The beast was still alive of course, but Haru was still in the air falling. Haru tought quickly and used the chance to force himself lower and attack the beast but he didn't know how to do that, but with natural gravity, Haru was falling either way. When Haru got closer to the ground, he was able to thinkof what he was doing before, s just before he hit the ground he moved his elboy over the beasts head and kept falling.

When Haru landed he blacked out for a small moment, though he when he woke up a few minutes later, his elbow was hurting but the yokai beast was dead with its throat smashed.

Haru couldn't believe that he was able to kill two elementals on his own, though he smiled viggerously, though only to disappate when he looked toward his wife. Haru sat down slightly and reached into his back to grab a medical salve and began to place it on the bite marks and clean it with an antibacterial substance and gazed it up. It would take a bit to heal up, though Haru wasn't concerned for Sophia just yet.
(Haru Allmiker)

With her eyes flaring up once more as her rage grew more from how presistent the kaor was, forcing the witch to vanish as soon as the claw went flying again at her, only to materialize above her opponent with blade below her aimed straight down against the kaors spine, giving it little time to react and soon cutting through its flesh, wounding the giant abomination.

Wih that she jumped back before chuckling loudly as she looked towards Haru for a brief second, her eyes flaring in rage, with her expression appearing odd, different to her usual one even when angered. Her hues filled with void and bloodlust, with her grin showing off teeth reasembling fangs all pointy and simply waiting to pierce the skin. It was what she hid form him in most of situations, her more feral and serious side, developed as side effect of her mutations and corruption.

As much as most of her body appeared human her mind and head began to reasemble something more that was common to beasts and yokai with black veins spreading widldly underneath her skin all around her body just as she dashed forth, pepared to strike the kaor once more, wanting to finish it off for good.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru wasn't in much better shape, though the salve was working wonders. Haru was able to feel it slowly help him gett better though he knew it wouldn't instantly heal him like Sophia's treatments she did to him all those years ago, though with the amount of fighting going on, Haru knew he had to be in top form in order to help Sophia right after.

So, Haru laid on the ground almost napping as his body began to heal from the medical salves.
(Haru Allmiker)
In her current state her own body moved inaturally fast thanks to her time magic, swiftly nearing the distance with the distance with the kaor before blocking the flying tail with her blood surrounded arm, soon grabbing it to gain momentum to slash her blade against the creatures left side, watching as it barelly blocked the strike with its massive claw, forcing her to jump back.

Her current tactic proved to be far more reckless than her oirginal one, leading her to being far more open and direct in each strike, leaving her to more insane attacks than before in cost of risking of ending up wounded on her own.
Though despitte all of that she appeared to be agile enough to avoid and strike with critical precision, making it clear that she was a serious opponent if she found herself in need of removing her own mental restraints and letting the instinct to take over her each move.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Boost:  -15vit +30will +15force -15agi
Wit he salve working its magic, Haru was awakened a few moments later then normal and feel slightly refreshed, though Sophia was already finishing up her fight. Haru grunted as he attempted to stand but after a while he was able to get up with out help.

"Well.....looking like Sophia's fight is going well."
(Haru Allmiker)
 "This is where you see why no one dares to piss me off...I will feast on your blood, fiend" the witch spoke with her lips barely moving just as her voice vibrated and echoed in the air similarly to giggle she let out a moment later, a loud, sinister and spine chilling one, making it clear how serious she was.

With that her body lowered itself to the ground before dashing forth straight at the kaor, she easily avoided the claw, nearly instantly warping her legs around the legs, using whatever of momentum she had to twist it around, breaking the bone and tearing the skin before jumping off towards the breasts head. In matter of seconds she vanished in the air with a fading chuckle, only to re appear few feet above the head with blade already swinging towards the neck.

In matter of seconds the blade, magically accelerated by her time magic sliced through the skin, cut through bones and flesh of the beast before allowing her to regain control over her movement, sending her flying towards the ground with the her blade dissapearing and her landing softly on the blood stained soil, along with the yoka icorpse beside her, finally bringing their struggle to an end.

 "We are done here Haru...lets head for the iron oak which you will gather...while I will go after the yokai leaves...we are here way too long..." she explains bluntly with her face becoming normal once more with her voice turning to her usual one as well.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru watched as Sophia finsihed off the beat of a Kaor and ripped off its flesh and killing it. Haru sighed slowly as he walked closer to his wife,seeing he desilient corpse behind her.

When he battles were over, Haru heard Sophia speak to hi telling him to find the iron oak and she would go for the leaves, though Haru didn't know what Iron Oak looked like.

"Sophia....what does Iron oak look like persay?"
(Haru Allmiker)
With her husbands question and her blade dissapearing the witch simply exhaled loudly before deciding to roll her eyes and soon rub her forehead, annoyed by forgetting of explaining to her husband what they were after exactly. She looked at him before deciding to address him with a calm voice.

 "Alright...you are looking for tree with oak similar to one of th oak but with much darker wood color, you want to chop off few bigger branches since the entire tree will be too tough to cut and I don't want to waste precious material like such...and we need just enough to make arms for you and Liluna." she explained calmy before deciding to take out a runed jar with odd oil inside of it, most likely substance needed to preserve the leaves she was about to collect.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru began to rub the back of his head when his wife was sort of using her calm voice which meant se tried to explain to Haru what they were looking for, though Haru felt moderate stupidity when she said those kind of things and felt like he was an idoit.

Though he thought he was an idoit, the ookami smiled when Sophia meantioned a oak tree with a darker look.

"Oh, I see that kind of tree. I just passed it. All you need is a few large branches right?"

Haru smiled before walking toward his sword that was indulged inside of a normal oak tree, and pulled it out.

Haru was overjoyed to have known what tree Sophia was talking about, though he grabbed his sword and held it as his side as he looked for the tree again.
(Haru Allmiker)
She gave haru a nod before making her way towards one of the twisted trees in the area, clearly sensing of corruption, reasembling the description found in books matching the yokai tree. She stared at it for am oment before deciding to summon a water bubble and use it to slowly collect the toxic leaves with them, avoiding the direct contact to ensure she wouldn't waste any of the precious substance they held.

Each of the leafs ended up in the jar, sumbering them in the oil to preserve their porperties to use them later in the lab, she didn't plan to waste any of it for sake of her mutagens, wanting to deal with the obstacles she dealt with before in order to move on with her work, wanting to complete it for her own and others sake.
(Sophia Rockbell)
She gave haru a nod before making her way towards one of the twisted trees in the area, clearly sensing of corruption, reasembling the description found in books matching the yokai tree. She stared at it for am oment before deciding to summon a water bubble and use it to slowly collect the toxic leaves with them, avoiding the direct contact to ensure she wouldn't waste any of the precious substance they held.

Each of the leafs ended up in the jar, sumbering them in the oil to preserve their porperties to use them later in the lab, she didn't plan to waste any of it for sake of her mutagens, wanting to deal with the obstacles she dealt with before in order to move on with her work, wanting to complete it for her own and others sake.
(Sophia Rockbell)
Haru looked around for the tree he needed to find for his wife, though the oak tree its self looked pretty sturdy. With the right swing, Haru thought he could take the whole tree but thinking back on it, that would have been bad since they only needed a few big branches.

Looking at the tree, Haru saw that the biggest branch was a few feet high and the whole thing was just covered in smaller branches. Haru looked up and then grabbed his side. He didn't know if he could grab the big branch at the top, though he was determend to at least try.

He would have placed his sword on his back and began to climb the tree. Before long, Haru was as the top of the tree looking down. Haru was excited to finally help Sophia out and spend some time with her.

"Sophia! I almost got it!"

Haru was hatching away at the iron oak.only to make the whole branch break and fell on top of him, making him fall and forced Haru down. The sheer pain from the fall was painful, but which the iron oak ontop of him, Haru wanted to puke. Luckily for him, he frown from the pain and kept it all in, though he was certain he was hurt a bit.

"Got...it...."
(Haru Allmiker)