<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline"><div style="text-align: center;">Day 12: Palaugrim - Luciano (night)</div></span></span><br/><br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"Ghakk!"</span><br/><br/>The last body from one of Palaugrim's royal army patrol units fell unconscious on the roof after getting choked by Guilford. They were running out of time and decided to take to the roofs on the last stretch to the central tower. The sight on the clearing before them brought an ominous air of danger when the seven knights saw what Team Blonde were fighting. The others rejoined Guilford after making sure that their share of the patrol units were out of the action.<br/><br/>"Okay, now we know where those things in the images from Santa Olivia came from right?" Vlad asked aloud and received a nod from his Captain.<br/><br/>"Well, I for one am not too keen on dancing with those things but team blonde is putting up a fight. Seeing how they're taking them out without hesitation, I would assume those things are like Pure Sinners who're beyond salvation right?" Hyuga commented while quickly scribbling down some notes.<br/><br/>Guilford scanned the clearing riddled in battle for a particular person. He saw a lavender-haired woman fighting and was just about to look elsewhere when that woman fired off one of Lethe's signature sword magic towards a penance bound enemy.<span style="font-style: italic"><span style="color: #0080FF">What the...? Lavender hair?</span></span>he asked the question to himself. Regardless, that was her, facing off against one he could only assume as his target, the one who held the strongest concentration of Sin.<br/><br/><span style="color: #0080FF">"We won't get anywhere standing here. We're moving in! All of you support the rest of Lethe's squad!"</span>he ordered and turned to Hyuga and Natalia.<span style="color: #0080FF">"I want you two to try and use <span style="font-style: italic">Vindicate</span> on one of those things if you can. Something is off with those things..."</span><br/><br/>The two nodded and just as the rest of them were about to draw their weapons, Guilford kicked off the roof and headed right into the fray. The rest of his squad only watched their Captain speeding in to his fellow Seraph.<br/><br/>"Okay, this makes it official. Our Captain is in love with Master Lethe." Hyuga joked followed by a light chuckle. "Though I don't think he'll ever admit to it." he added.<br/><br/>"If it wasn't for these black garments, I would say he's her Pristine Knight in shining armor." Georg joined in. "Just look at him go..."<br/><br/>Alfrei pulled out his pair of<span style="font-style: italic">Judgement</span>swords and took a step forward to the edge of the roof. His green eyes carried a fierce gaze, watching those engaged with the enemy. "Let the Captain do what he wants. Right now we need to focus on the task at hand. Let's move out!"<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">_________________________________________________________________________________</div><br/><br/>Bouncing off from roof to roof, Guilford then pivoted to scale the walls down to the road. As soon as he was able to plant his feet on the ground, the Seraph lunged forward with powerful strides to get a burst of speed. Several enemies tried to stop him in his tracks but Guilford simply swayed around them and continued on towards his fellow Seraph. His purple eyes were trained on the lavender-haired woman whose attack just got parried and was left open for a counter. With little to no time to react, the dark blue-haired Seraph channeled a Banish spell in his right hand and fired it at his target.<br/><br/>The woman saw the white bolt coming in fast and simply parried it with her dark sword. Guilford however was fast on the bolt's trail. As soon as his Banish spell dissipated from the woman's sword strike, Guilford was already in her face, staring fiercely back at her bi-colored eyes. He launched a flurry of kicks and punches not a second later. The woman simply swayed and danced around his attacks but backed away when Guilford drew his sword and slashed down hard at her. The attack missed but he was able to push her back and gain time for his fellow Seraph to regain her balance.<br/><br/>Guilford shifted his stance and readied his sword. He glanced back slightly and caught Lethe's blue eyes staring at him in surprise. He wanted to say something but the words won't come out. Right now he just didn't have the time or luxury of a verbal exchange because of the fierce opponent before them. Now that he was standing close to his target, it was obvious that she was not somebody who just succumbed to Sin's influence. Something was inside of her, something malicious and powerful, and it was baring its fangs at them.<br/><br/>Movement from the enemy caught Guilford's attention making him snap his gaze back at the opponent. She was readying herself for an attack which prompted a defensive gesture from Guilford. Raising his sword before him, he slowly stepped to the left side, circling his opponent.<br/><br/><span style="color: #40FFFF">"I was wondering when you'd show up."</span>she smirked deviously.<br/><br/>The words were a distraction to keep him focused on her. Thanks to the shine of his sea blue blade, Guilford noticed movement from behind him. One of the unfamiliar creatures were heading straight for him, poised to attack with that fearsome looking scythe. Timing the enemy movement from behind, Guilford steeled himself for the incoming attack while keeping half his focus on the enemy in front. The deadly sparkle of the scythe's blade twinkled from the corner of his left eye, followed by a rage-filled scream from the creature. Ducking exactly at the right time to avoid the strike, Guilford immediately spun around from his lowered stance and slashed upward at the creature. He felt his blade slice through the weapon handle and the thick plating that served as the creature's skin. The<span style="font-style: italic">clang</span>of metal falling on cobbled ground sounded right before the creature bellowed in agony.<br/><br/>Sensing movement from the woman, Guilford immediately leaped and kicked the falling dead creature hard on the chest, sending it crashing to one of the nearby households. From mid-air, Guilford spun and swung his blade around to greet a downward slash from the woman. Sparks escaped the blades of their swords as his glowing one met the raging dark blade. His eyes widened at the sheer strength of the slash that caused him to land hard on one knee followed by his left hand pushing near the tip of his blade to stop the slash.<br/><br/><span style="color: #40FFFF">"What's wrong Seraph?"</span>it mocked with those bi-colored eyes gleaming with malice.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">"Rise!"</span><br/><br/>Guilford felt a surge of holy magic fill his arms giving him boosted strength. He shot a quick look at the caster and saw Natalia's ruby colored eyes giving him a wink before she had to dodge to safety from an attack. Purple eyes turning back to meet the bi-colored ones, Guilford smiled confidently.<span style="color: #0080FF">"Don't get too full of yourself!"</span>he yelled and powered his way back up to his feet from their deadlock. Using his gained momentum, Guilford broke their clash by kicking the enemy's mid-section hard. She skidded a few feet away from him before forcing herself to a stop. Guilford swung his blade twice and took his stance once more, one arm extended to help him gauge distance. After that clash, he already knew that this wasn't going to be easy. Time to get serious...<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">_________________________________________________________________________________</div><br/><br/><br/>Alfrei danced around three of the large things slicing at him. One of them slashed at him from overhead and the knight reacted by rolling to the side followed by firing two bolts of Banish at his attacker. The bolts hit followed by a mild explosion of light causing the large creature to stagger back but the other two wasted no time in attacking Alfrei. From his squat, Alfrei leaped to the air and avoided the two scythes that came at him from both sides. He was about to feel relieved when the one he shot with magic was now coming at him from below. Readying both swords, Alfrei followed the opponent's movements closely and parried several slashes at him gracefully in an aerial battle.<br/><br/>Having the disadvantage in weapon range, the knight had to resort to finesse to find and exploit an opening. Dodging a slash by the skin of his teeth, Alfrei skillfully hooked one of his swords between the edge of the scythe blade and its pole. Using his arm strength, he hurled himself toward the enemy and slashed the head off with his other sword, a clean hit but his ordeal wasn't over. The other two was also coming up after him as he fell back down. Pulling both swords back, Alfrei channeled two full powered Banish spells to both swords and fired them towards the other attackers. A mid-air explosion filled their combat area but Alfrei emerged from the smoke landing safely on the ground, three bodies landed with a crunch behind him. However, there was no time to rest. No matter how many they take out, more appear and it was made clear that the longer they take in this fight, they will soon be overwhelmed.<br/><br/><div style="text-align: center;">_________________________________________________________________________________</div><br/><br/><br/>Natalia and Hyuga decided to pair up, focused on the extra task given to them by their Captain. What was it that tipped the Seraph off about these things? Why would he want to have them use<span style="font-style: italic">Vindicate</span>on them given the complexity of the spell and the ferocity of these things? No matter, it was a task they need to see through. Ducking, leaping, and swaying to the sides, Natalia engaged two of the creatures in a heated battle. With a sword on one hand and a whip in the other, she deflected any slash that came too close and would use the whip to grapple herself out of harm's way should she get pushed to a corner.<br/><br/>"Hyuga! Is it ready yet?!" she yelled in panic as two more creatures joined in the effort to finish her off.<br/><br/>Natalia was by no means a powerhouse. She relies more on her magic to fight and her speed was already being pushed to its limit with just two of these creatures. Now having four of them on her neck will be the death of her.<br/><br/>"Keep them off me for a little longer Nat! This isn't exactly your typical rank and file magic!" Hyuga roared back, hurrying to write the runes and complete the<span style="font-style: italic">Vindicate</span>spell.<br/><br/>Grunting to herself, ruby eyes turned fierce at the sight of four creatures coming at her simultaneously. Backed into a wall and left with little room to maneuver, Natalia had to resort to her elemental magic. First was to buy time, she had practiced Banish until she was sick of it to allow her to cast full-powered ones in little to no time at all. Aiming her Judgement at the ground, Natalia fired four consecutive bolts at the ground causing craters to slow down her opponents' advance. Then, with the whip on her other hand, she channeled and fused two compatible elements on it and cracked it once. Her Holy Whip burst into flames in response and howled with the wind.<br/><br/>When her opponents got back to their feet, Natalia swung her whip around unleashing arcs of fire that roared towards the four creatures. They opted to defend but Natalia's magic was powerful enough to blow three of them back in flames. Seeing one was left standing, Natalia immediately drew a reinforce rune in the air and slammed the rune to the ground. She then channeled her Penance along with reinforce and a runic circle glowed beneath her. With a push of her hand to the ground, several Penance chains erupted from the runic circle, much larger than the regular chains and wrapped themselves around the creature. Ruby eyes darted over to her partner silently telling him the chains won't hold too long.<br/><br/>Hyuga having finally completed the runic ritual for Vindicate, immediately aimed his right palm at the creature and fired the spell. The creature roared, its red eyes looking at the bluish-white bolt fired at it. When the bolt hit, the creature fizzled in what looked like white lightning. The miasma of Sin that surrounded it began to dissipate in dark purple smoke and the two knights had to cover their ears to shield them from a loud and painful howl. When the magic died out, Hyuga and Natalia couldn't believe their eyes. Where the creature once stood, bound by Natalia's Penance chains, now lay a lifeless man. He was wearing the standard Pristine Knight gear.<br/><br/>"Oh Light... what have they done?!" Hyuga trailed in disbelief.