Into the Demeter Woods

Ferro wasn't there. That moan could mean only one thing. He was being seduced by a Midara.

Almost immediately, the Space Marine took off in the direction they had come from, sprinting through the treeline despite his armor. Head swiveling back and forth as he tried to find their missing compatriot.

With the group panicking and working together too search the trees for Ferro, they were quick to finally find their comrade, being blown by a lamia. By the mere shake of the tree branches, she could tell she'd been found out. Just before addressing the rest of the group, she deepthroated her prey one last time before pulling away. "Sorry, little mouse, we'll have to enjoy ourselves later. Just stay there for now and I'll get right back to you."

Search - 71, 44

Ferro: 12 + Incapacitated
Dixi: 20 (Ki: 4)
Barchiel: 20
Ryofu: 18

"S-S...S-S-S-Snake...!"

"Of all the rotten luck..."

Just like she had thought, Ferro had been snatched up by something outside of their notice. And that something was what she was dreading most of all. A woman with a long torso, that had Ferro wrapped up and entirely caught. He looked dazed and out of it, and clearly she was toying with him quite a bit.

She instinctively took a few steps backward, the fear written all over her face. Her breathing was erratic, and she was as shaky as a leaf. She couldn't take her eyes off of it, and it was most likely not the reaction the lamia probably expected.

"D-D-Dixi...! R-Remember what I said, earlier...?!?" Her body was screaming at her to run, hide, do anything, but it didn't want to cooperate.

(Skip Action)

The moment Dixi saw the snake woman her gaze quickly turned to Ryofu and, just as expected, she was already frozen by her fear of snakes. As someone with fear for some type of creature. "Don't worry, I'll handle this."

Stepping in front of Ryofu, Dixi focused her attention on the snake woman. "You better let him go. Now!" With a swift movement, Dixi launched forward towards the Lamia.

(Basic Attack)

Barchiel's response was rather quick. Stepping in front of Ryofu, his Bolter was raised. He would not allow the snake to approach his ally. "WHORE SPAWN OF SLAANESH! YOUR DEBAUCHERY ENDS HERE! FOR THE EMPEROR!"

The Bolter let out a flurry of bullets as he attempted to gun down the Lamia.

(Bolter)

Getting nailed by a bolter shot angered the lamia, hissing viciously below the treebranches at Barchiel before getting a fist in the gut by Dixi. "Well, it looks like we have some volunteers!" she snapped. She tugged on Dixi's arm before she could retreat back and pulled her in for a deep kiss, her long tongue invading the girl's mouth as poison began to spread through her body.

Basic Attack - 34
Bolter - 66
Naga's Kiss - 96, Crit (Extra Damage, 96)

Ferro: 12 + Incapacitated
Dixi: 16 + Stunned (Ki: 6)
Barchiel: 20 (Bolter: 3)
Ryofu: 18 + Scared

Lamia: 12

The Bolter fire continued, the Space Marine undaunted. Rage was beginning to build, but he kept himself focused. He couldnt risk losing control. Not right now...!

"Ferro! Snap out of it before I ram my Chainsword up your rearside and rev it! And you, snake! Come down here and fight me, you fool!"

(Bolter)

"Take that, you- Mmfhp?!" Dixi tried to push the snake back but the poison made her feel sluggish and slightly weak. She cursed to herself for being unable to muster the strength to fight back.

Ryofu could only watch as it lunged for Dixi, trying so hard to get her body moving. Her heart was pounding in its chest, and she was sweating just from being that close by. It felt like her entire body was in indecision, wanting to help her friends, but also pulling away from the snake person out of genuine fear.

"C-Come on...move, dammit...!" The poor girl shook violently, just being this close. Just looking at her threw up flashbacks...horrible, horrible flashbacks, all at once. They needed her! She knew that! So why didn't her body realize that?!? She was trying so hard to get her body back into the fray, even as her senses were flaring with warning signs so hard it was getting harder to push back with each moment...

(Shake off Fear)

"Ryofu, what is going on?" Luna called on the intercom towards Ryofu's earpiece. The moon rabbit mission control wasn't exactly liking what she was hearing on her end.

Barchiel nails her with another bolter shot, making her let go of Dixi for a moment, the girl almost falling off the branch. Catching her with a section of her tail, however, led to her coiling Dixi up in what part of her tail Ferro wasn't stuck in. "Don't go just yet, we still have much more to do."

Ryofu, in spite of her deep-seated fear and scarring, with a moment to gather her courage, she pulls herself together and climbs up to engage the lamia and help out.

Bolter - 13, 76
Shake off fear - 38
Snake Wrap - 42

Ferro: 12 + Incapacitated
Dixi: 14 + Bound (Ki: 6)
Barchiel: 20 (Bolter: 2)
Ryofu: 18

Lamia: 10

Barchiel let out a snarl, amplified by his helmet as he continued to shoot at the Lamia. "IF YOU DONT GET DOWN HERE, I'M DRAGGING YOU DOWN HERE BY FORCE. SAME GOES TO YOU, MONK."

Ryofu held her hand over her ear when she heard a familiar voice, her gaze still trained on the snake person. "I...I'm freaking out! My body won't move right, and...and..." Luna would definitely be able to hear how erratic her breathing was. She was clearly not in a great mindset right now, and it was easy to tell just from her panicked tone.

"One of them is in there, being held by it! I should be helping...b-but I can't focus...feels like I'm fighting myself just to stay put..." Ryofu was close to hyperventilating, just from the sight of this thing fighting against her friends. It hadn't even done anything to her yet, and it just being there had reduced her to this state.

It lunged for Dixi, wrapping her tightly in her coils, and something in Ryofu had a moment of deja-vu from the sight of it. She'd watched so many other people in that same situation go through so much worse...if only for a moment, it was like she was looking at her face, one more time. And Dixi was...

"Yes! Harness that! You know what that feels like! Don't let Dixi suffer that, too! Take it out on her! Right now, you HAVE to!"

"...I'll call you back." She let her hand drop, all of that fear suddenly turning to anger. She wasn't letting Dixi suffer that too. Finally, her body was listening to her, Ryofu's force of will growing stronger than her deep seated trauma. She crouched low, and then bolted for the tree, moving up branch by branch at lightning speed.

"YOU'RE NOT TAKING HER TOO!" The first thing the snake woman saw right after hearing that was an incredibly fast leg coming directly for her face, fueled by an absurd amount of force.

(Basic Attack)

Luna remains quiet afterward, not wanting to interfere what is going on less she accidentally distracts Ryofu. It seems that Ryofu was facing another of her troubles, though far less in need of her personal help.

Dixi finally managed to shake off the numbness from the poison. She was now trapped on the snakebcoils but she wasn't about to let the snake do whatever she wanted with her.

"Sorry scaly, you not my type so..." Gathering her Ki on the palm of her hand, Dixi created a ball of energy and detonated it on her hands, blasting both, her and the naga, freeing herself from the woman's coils. "Not... Gah! interested!" She managed to grab a branch and stop her fall.

With an agile swing, Dixi jumped back up, standing, once again, next to her allies.

(Blazing Spirit - Self Detonation)

Dixi's body burst with an explosion of ki, forcing the lamia off of and away from her, causing a nasty sting to the both of them. Just as she was intending on going back in after her, a Bolter shot nailed her in the side, making her growl viciously, but turning back to the others just in time to avoid an attack by Ryofu.

Managing to snatch the green-haired woman, the lamia looked straight into her eyes and began to work her magic, spirals of mesmerizing color dancing across her eyes, before becoming reflected in Ryofu's. "I've had about enough of the tin man, you underssssstand?"

Blazing Spirit - Self Detonation - Auto
Bolter - Auto
Basic Attack - 77

Hypnotic Gaze - 10 (Use White Wolf Strike on Barchiel)

Ferro: 12 + Incapacitated
Dixie: 14 (Ki: 5)
Barchiel: 20 (Bolter: 1)
Ryofu: 18 + Hypnotized

Lamia: 7

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!"

He was getting angry. And desperate. Tearing off his own helmet, the Space Marine took a deep breath, before spitting towards the lamia. A small green glob flying outwards towards the Lamia.

(Betcher's Gland.)

She got Ryofu now but instead of forcing herself on the girl, she was hypnotizing her. Dixi managed to hear the snake woman and immediately realized she was ordering Ryofu to attack Barchiel.

"Like hell you will!" She wasn't going to wait and let that happen, lowering the weight of her legbands, Dixi darted towards Ryofu, hoping to intercept and restrain her or, at the very least block the attack with her own body.

(Free Action: Intercept Ryofu.)

Her act of desperation went clear over the snake woman's head, Ryofu's balance thrown off entirely and leaving herself very vulnerable. The lamia was quick to take advantage of it, as well, as she grabbed the green-haired girl and started her own spirals, boring into the girl's mind with precision.

"A...Ahh...." She didn't have any time to prepare for the mental onslaught, as her body went slack. It was a state that was different, but familiar to her. It didn't hurt, like it normally did. Her mind had expected it to, though. For the few moments she had before it completely overtook her, she was a little relieved that it wasn't a bite waiting for her.

"O...Okay..." Her body seemed to move on its own, freeing herself from the woman's grasp, and turning on her heel, facing the larger man with ki coursing through her hand, readying herself like a spring lock.

(White Wolf Strike on Barchiel)

Dixi launched herself off the branches of the tree towards the ground to intercept Ryofu's attack, sadly failing to block it in time before the orb of green ki blasted the space marine back into a thick tree before he could let loose his corrosive loogie. With all that now out of the way, the lamia drew herself to Ryofu once more, commanding the martial artist to her side. "Good girl, now, before you go coming down from your little high, why don't you make yourself useful and give me a massage. A girl with hands like yours must be very talented, right~?"

Ryofu, still recovering from her bit of hypnosis, complied and gave the lamia quite an effective treatment, relieving quite a bit of the pain the party had thus far inflicted on her. "Mmm~ That's felt amazing! If I had money, I'd have tipped you handsomely!"

Free Action - 55
Betcher's Gland - 17
White Wolf Strike - 90 Crit

Relaxing Massage - 42 (Rolled 5 HP healed)

Ferro: 12 + Incapacitated
Dixi: 14 (Ki:5)
Barchiel: 17 + Stunned (Bolter: 1)
Ryofu: 18

Lamia: 12

Ryofu's body moved on auto-pilot through the motions, still dazed and out of her own control. It complied to the woman's words dutifully, letting her hands cross over her scales in a precise manner. She was already skilled at the act, knowing various pressure points on the body by heart. It was one of the many things drilled into her against her will. It wasn't even a conscious act, but pure muscle memory. Her body responded to quick, sharp commands out of instinct...and fear.

Her mind was starting to rouse from its catatonic state as she pulled back, finishing her task. She couldn't really remember what she was doing at first, and the first thing she saw as she came to was...

Coils

Her blood ran cold as she stared down it, her gaze slowly going up to the main body and letting out a little shriek as her body retracted away from the snake person. The fact that she had been this close to her without even realizing it terrified the girl, and right now she was stuck on the branch with her in tow. Her mind locked up right at that moment, shivering like a leaf, cold sweat running down her face and with her back pressed against the tree as her heart rate continued to rise extremely quickly. She could feel it pounding in her chest out of raw fear, a thunderous thump going incredibly fast. Her eyes even started to water a little, unconsciously out of the building dread.

"W...W-Wha..." Her thoughts were still catching up to her, trying to piece together the last few moments that clearly had some holes in them.

"Ryofu, you have to move, NOW! If you don't, you're an easy target! Please, Ryofu, do som-"

Her body wasn't listening to her, even though she tried to go somewhere, anywhere that wasn't here. She was between a hard tree and the snake person, and the terror was written all over her face. She couldn't think, like a cornered animal. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know if she could do it even if she could think of it. It was too much. It was too much!

(Skip Action)

Dixi cursed herself for not being able to stop her in time but she wasn't going to let that stop her, she needed to act and fast. Sparks of Ki started to appear around her body as she launched herself against the snake woman once more. "Let her go!"

(Basic Attack)

A grunt erupted from the Space Marine as the orb of Ki hit him, causing him to stumble forward. As he turned, he noticed the strange, glazed look in Ryofu's eyes. Shr seemed to be under some subliminal control.

With a growl, he charged forward, a quick command to his Jump Pack giving him enough momentum to try and slam into the Lamia.

(Steel Ram)

"I didn't-- AH!" The lamia was surprised by just the sheer level of anger being aimed her way after what, to her, seemed like just normal Midara things to do. She did note the sudden fear the green one showcased after she came down from her trance, did that have something to do with it. Either way, she'd just barely avoided Dixi and the Tin Man's attacks, but in turn didn't have time to retaliate at all. "I didn't even do anything bad!" said the snake that tried to kidnap and fuck their friend.

Basic Attack - 51
Steel Ram - 61

Naga Peck - 77

Ferro: 12 + Incapacitated
Dixi: 13 (Ki:7)
Barchiel: 17 + Stunned (Bolter: 1)
Ryofu: 18

Lamia: 12

Slamming into a nearby tree, a snarl erupted from the Space Marine. "Enough of your tricks, hellspawn! I won't put up with your ilk any more!"

A loud whine erupted from his fist as he charged it once more. Launching forward, he swung the oversized fist at the Lamia.

(Power Fist.)