Lukos was gripping onto Rosette's arm that was wrapped around his neck, digging his special claws into her arm. It was becoming harder to breathe, and he also took noticed of the silver-tipped ballista. However, the person behind the ballista seemed to be dumbfounded at something... or rather, someone. But then he heard a small crash, and looked towards a new figure, someone who looked like he had a broken arm, but it then appeared to heal itself.
Lukos eyes widen as his senses started to return to him, due to the wound he suffered from the spikes, along with Rosette choking on him. Now is not the time to be acting on instincts... I need to shift back while I still have some control...
Taking advantage of the delay in actions, Lukos barely raised his hairy hand, that had the mystical bracelet on, and made an odd gesture. As the bracelet gave off an odd odor, Lukos' muscles began to shrink, his hair retracting back, and his bones cracking and twisting, all reverting back to their human origins.
"Gotta love a bracelet that's able to give off an odor similar to that of Wolvesbane just like that... I do apologize for my rather... Barbaric behavior, but I am a Lycan nonetheless, and I cannot control myself oh so well. Now, if would you be oh so kind to unhand me, I'd truly appreciate it!" squeaked Lukos, now in his human form with bloodied and full-of-hole clothes, as he squirmed in Rosette's choke hold, trying very hard not to waste his oxygen supply.
edited 21st Sep '11 1:02:29 PM by Wolffang
"What the hell are you doing?" "I'm playing a role, sir, what are you doing?"Oh, wow... I have just bore witness to a flesh transmutation... Well done, sir. Well done...
Suddenly snapping back to his senses, he continued to man the ballista while leveling his gaze at the newcomer.
"Lemme guess... You're gonna attack us, too." Then a pause.
"Look," he sighed. "It's been a rough night. All we," he said, motioning to the girl with the guitar, "wanted to do was investigate the explosion."
edited 21st Sep '11 1:33:47 PM by KarlKadaver
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.Rosette let out a little girlish growl as she felt the werewolf's claws digging into her shadow arms. Thankfully those hurt less than other transformations so she was able to continue her hold until the man returned to his human shape.
Once he was that way she loosened her hold and eventually let him go while breathing a little heavily from the struggle.
"Thank you very much Rosette," said Lukos as he rubbed his throat. He looked at the man who smashed through the building, and simply gave off a shrug to him, clearly not finding the newcomer all that interesting compared to his animal user companion.
"Rosette," spoke Lukos as he turned towards the girl, "It would appear we have found the source of all that racket," and pointed towards the man manning the ballista and the girl who's holding onto a guitar.
"A rather rude source if I do say so myself... pointing a giant weapon at people and what not..." said Lukos with a small grin, clearly dismissing his previous actions. He then perked his ears as he heard the man behind the ballista say the words investigate, and explosion, "Did you happen to find anything on your investigation?"
edited 21st Sep '11 1:48:23 PM by Wolffang
"What the hell are you doing?" "I'm playing a role, sir, what are you doing?"Electing to keep the ballista in between himself and his companion and the others, Kenneth sighed and brushed back his short, spiky hair with his gloved hand. "Just a Shadow Imp."
"I had wanted to look at the thing, the source of the explosion, myself." He grinned. "After all, spell failures are always a pretty spectacular sight!"
Noticing the remants of his flashlight and his pack, he mentioned to the former wolfman. "Mind kicking that stuff over here? It's pretty much all I got."
edited 21st Sep '11 2:00:01 PM by KarlKadaver
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.Arianne fell back when the werewolf, spitting saliva at her. At the gorilla thing pulled the werewolf back, she stopped playing for a moment to wipe her face furiously with her sleeve. Disgusting. She was going to have to burn this jacket when this was all over. She started to play again, when yet another person entered the building. This was getting ridiculous.
But, just as quickly as the fight began, it ended. The werewolf shifted back to his human form and the shadow girl thing let him go.
So, we aren’t fighting anymore? That's great. She switched to a lighter, uptempo song and neglected to mention that she was the one who really spurred the whole thing on. She also chose to ignore the werewolf referring to her music as a racket.
When her companion mentioned the imp, she'd remembered what happened from earlier. My harmonica! I think it dropped it around here. It was still too dark to go digging around for it, though.
Lukos looked down and noticed what the man next to the Ballista was referring to. He picked up the pack, gave it a quick look over, and threw it towards the man.
"I apologize if anything is broken inside," Lukos then turned towards the girl whom he splattered his saliva towards, "And I apologize for that mess of mine... I'll make it up by finding your harmonica."
"But before that, I suppose I should properly introduce myself," Luko gives off a bow and a rather large grin, "I am Lukos Alabaster, a natural born Lycan, and it is a pleasure to meet you," Lukos then turned towards the newcomer, "and you I suppose."
edited 21st Sep '11 2:57:38 PM by Wolffang
"What the hell are you doing?" "I'm playing a role, sir, what are you doing?"Once Lukos was clearly under control Rosette did her best to get a hold of herself. She stepped back until her back hit a wall and concentrated on dispelling the gorilla arms. She kept the cat ears and eyes to help her in the dark, but the with the arms on top of those she was starting to feel too lightheaded for her comfort.
Once she heard Lukos introducing himself she did the same while taking deep breaths to calm her racing heart, one hand touching her forehead with the tip of her finger with the rest of her hand over the right side of her face "I'm Rosette... both of you are alright?"
edited 21st Sep '11 3:32:13 PM by daltar
Matthew walked over, looking at all of those others. Investigate the explosion, huh. It...actually didn't seem all that unlikely. And besides, in situations like this, there was strength in numbers.
"My name's Matthew Streika, and I came up here to find out more about whatever was going on here. So, do you guys know anything about the Shadow Imp thing?"
Well, thanks. It’d mean a lot to me if you found it, Arianne said to Lukos, starting to play a mellower song.
She turned to the new guy, Matthew. The imp screwed around with us for awhile. You know, the whole scary faces and screeching deal. But it disappeared. She shrugged and leaned back against a machine. I'm Arianne Levin, by the way.
Kenneth caught his pack and gave it a quick shake, rattling the contents within. Then he grinned. "No worries, Luke. It was all broken when I got it."
He then nodded in respose to Arianne's (Huh. Nice name, he noted.) explanation of their experience with the Shadow Imp. "She pretty much nailed it."
"Oh, and my name's Kenneth, by the way. Or Ken, if you prefer."
Then remembering that he was injured, set to work on creating for himself a proper bandage from some scraps of cloth from his pack.
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway."Heh, so you guys really were the ones being taunted by the Shadow Imp..." said Lukos as he gave off a small laugh.
A odor filled his nostrils, cutting his laughter short. Looking at Ken, he smelled fresh blood. He was sure that he didn't harm him whatsoever as a wolf, and since he never gotten this tense when he smelled his own blood, it didn't add up.
"How did you get wounded?" said Lukos in a rather serious voice, unlike his usual carefree attitude.
edited 21st Sep '11 7:33:27 PM by Wolffang
"What the hell are you doing?" "I'm playing a role, sir, what are you doing?"Kenneth chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, heh, the Shadow Imp made me drop my flashlight and, stupid me, I groped in the darkness for the pieces to transmute it again. I found a shard of glass. Hence the..." He held up his still bleeding hand.
"Yeah."
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.Kicking a nearby stone, Kenenth remarked, "Bummer. So it was just a meteor or something. Ah well..."
He looked around at the general carnage they had collectively caused. "You guys go on ahead. I'll clean up here." He spit into his hands and rubbed them together. "I'll have this place fixed up in no time!"
Give the world the best you have and you will get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.So, it was because of him that I got into a frenzy... Jeez, I'll have to be more careful next time I go Lycan... I doubt I'll be able to regain my composure next time...
Lukos shook his head along with his thoughts, and turned towards Ken, "Hold on, shouldn't we find Arianne's Harmonica first? It may get caught in your alchemy or whatever that you're about to do."
"What the hell are you doing?" "I'm playing a role, sir, what are you doing?""W...where...?"
He found himself in dense fog; to be more precise, it was a fine mist upon taking a closer look at it, though it still obscured everything from common sight. After remaining motionless for a time, he then found the sudden urge to go further and further into the mist. As he walked, he tread carefully, always keeping one foot straight in front of the other, lest he fall to a premature end. But as he continued making his steps, he began to hear... a voice. At first, he was unable to make out what it said, but the voice nonetheless sounded...familiar. After a time, he began to be able to make out what it had to say... and who the voice belonged to. "Raymond...Raymond, you there?"
"Selene?" Raymond quietly said looking up towards where he seemed to hear the voice coming from. And then another voice rang out. "Ray? Ray buddy, where are you?"
"Max?!" Raymond yelled out, lacking the composure he usually held in great pride. "Where are you?! ...Max?" The voice didn't speak again. "Selene?" asked Raymond to the fog, but again, no answer. And it seemed as though they were gone. Again. But then another sound started, only this wasn't one a voice. It seemed quiet at first, a sort of... beeping. But then, it steadily grew in intensity, growing louder and louder, with each passing moment, until...
"GAHH!" He sat up in his chair like a lightning bolt, rising to the height of the chair's backside in seemingly no time at all. He sat there then, for what seemed like forever... but soon, let out a deep breath, and lay his forehead down in his right palm. "Damn it...," he muttered. "When is it going to end?" He had just asked himself the same question he had first uttered said 6 months. It was the same dream, and he had kept having it every now and again. Only, it was just that more recently, the occurrence of said dream had started to heighten in frequency. But, considering what had happened 6 months before the dream even began, perhaps there was good reason for this.
It was then, as he was sitting there, deep in thought, that he had noticed the reoccurring beeping noise, coming from behind him. Turning around, he saw what looked like a small mirror with a white frame, and a stand attached to it's backside, situated upright upon his desk. And it continued to beep. "Cassandra...," he muttered under his breath. He then reached over to grab the mirror from behind him, without getting up out of his chair, and then touched the mirror, for exactly one second. The glass shimmered and shifted, and before he knew it, the face changed from Raymond's own staring at him, to that of a rather beautiful black-haired woman in her 30's. And one none too pleased.
"So..." she started to say, looking down and placing a cigarette into her mouth, appearing rather off-put, "I see you finally answered my call."
Raymond simply smiled, planting his legs onto his desk. "What can I say, Madame Beliux? Some of us do need our sleep, you know."
"Not at this time of day you don't.", she said, lighting her cigarette with her lighter. "What have you done lately anyway to deserve a nap anyway? Wasting money at the Casino's? Spending all your time at 'Devil's Corner'?"
"Now now, Madame Beiliux, — May I call you Bel? — surely you know about my personal policies?"
"Yes, yes. No liquor, nor cigarettes."
"Or cigars, for that matter."
"That still doesn't change the fact you've spent more time then usual there latley. And don't tell me you just 'enjoy the atmosphere'."
It was true that he had a more ulterior reason for heading to the 'Devil's Corner' bar. It wasn't just a bar, but it was also a hotspot for juicy information, helped in good part by the owner's personal policy that anyone, be them human or otherwise, could relax and enjoy themselves, so long as they payed their fee. And seeing as it resided in a pocket dimension, the authorities were none the wiser. But of other reasons as to why he went there, he thought that he could use all the information he could get, in his... search. And, he also had more then a passing interest in the owner...
"But enough of that." said Cassandra. "It's time we got down to buisness."
"Yes," replied Raymond in disdain, "I'm sure that you have great pleasure of making me do more of your dirty work, would you not?"
Cassandra's eyelids lowered, her face expressing no pleasure from that last comment. "Raymond, I trust you haven't forgotten our agreement."
"Yes, yes. I do the odd job for you every once in a while, and in turn, you leave my little business alone, is that all correct?"
In truth, Ms. Beliux was in charge of an organization called I.M.A (Independent Magic Affairs,)that could be classified as a sort of independent policing force concerning magic. Originally involved in Paranormal business before the advent of the 'Age of Magic', they used the many, many new potential opportunities available to expand their operations, and they generally dealt with situations they personally considered potentially disastrous, be it a major event happening in the here-and-now, or something that could eventually create problems in the future. And it just so happened being an independent PI, and one not only very capable, but rather experienced with magical-or-otherwise-strange occurrences, that he could take care of smaller situations — or ones that could draw too much personal attention to them — and in return, he'd get a nice big check for his services. And in addition, seeing as he could be rather... unpredictable, to say the least, this also allowed them to keep some sort of tab. Ever since 1 year ago however, due to... a lack of resources, Raymond hadn't gotten many calls, so this one was something of a surprise.
"Yes, that is all correct, Raymond. But if you'd like us to 'scratch your back', so to say, we'll be wanting you to scratch ours. And I daresay, given that your... capabilities have been reduced to a 5th of what they used to be, and your lack of work in turn, I'd suggest you take what you can get."
"Madame Beliux," said Raymond, his eyes closed, his mouth in a frown, "need I remind you that you could have contacted me more often if you had wanted. And yet, for some reason, just because I have been reduced to one individual, you deem me suddenly unworthy of your praises, only seldom giving me work, and thus not only potentially bringing me to the brink of becoming bankrupt, but also deriving yourself of one of your greatest independent agents."
"Look here, Raymond!", reprimanded Cassandra," You're also a 'P.I'! I shouldn't be responsible for giving you every single scrap of work, and because for some reason hardly anyone else has come to you, you should get our priorities straight, and stop sitting on your bleeding ass!"
There was a moment of silence, the two of them both stunned in a sort of awe, before Cassandra responded back, in a softer tone. "I... I'm sorry, Raymond. You... you should know, I am sorry about your—"
"Save it.", Raymond snapped back, his eyes closed again. "You have your have your job to do. And you're right. I... I guess, ever since then, I... really been sort of lax." He paused for a few second, before reopening his eyes once more. "So... what's the job?"
"Very well then," said Cassandra, shutting her eyes, then opening them back up again, regaining her strong presence. "Your offer is this; not long ago— I mean, as in today, — some sort of strange meteor, or stone, or some-such fell straight to the ground. Using our instruments back at base, we determined it to be... indeterminable."
"Come again?"
"What I'm saying is that we were unable to confirm just what what thing was, — what it is, what's it's made of, where it came from — unless we can obtain a sample; the only thing we can say for sure it's no ordinary 'moon-rcok'. And seeing as to how this particular object could be capable or virtually anything — or virtually almost nothing, we don't know, — we need someone to... check in."
"Could you not just, I don't know, obtain the object for yourselves?"
"That's the thing;" said Cassandra, "someone got there first."
"Well... who?" said Raymond, his left eyebrow raised.
"The Academy."
"Oh. Huh..." said Raymond, scratching the right side of his head, "Well then..."
The truth was that Raymond didn't know much about the Academy; he had been too wrapped up in his own affairs, especially before one year ago, when things were... considerably more eventful for him.
"So then... you want to me to... steal it, is that what you're saying?"
"Not necessarily. First, we want you to check in on the Academey; we'll send you the proper data files on them. Once you have them, look them over. But the point is this; it doesn't matter to us who else has it; our method of 'safeguarding', as we call it, is to keep as much as we can to ourselves. Doing so allows us to contain some level of control, and considering recent occurrences, such as the lack of gryphons and dragons for one, we think it's more important then ever to keep things under a tight leash. And considering your current financial affairs, I think that, in regards to helping us in this current affair, you don't have much of a choice."
Raymond thought about it for a moment; perhaps they did have something of a point, but they didn't exactly have the brightest track record either. But he did need the money...
"Here is my answer, Ms. Bel. I'll go over your files, and I will look into the Academy myself, but I am not stealing anything, until I know more about this 'Academy'. Once I do, I'll be sure to let you know of my response."
For a moment, Cassandra paused, but ultimately responded, albeit not without a tinge of disapproval in her voice. "That... is acceptable. We'll give you 24 hours to look things over yourself. But Raymond... if you don't respond to us by then, the deal's off. Are we clear?"
"...We're clear.", said Raymond.
"Well then... I guess that will be it for now. Till then..." The mirror then shimmered and shifted again, until it was once more just a regular mirror. Raymond then took a moment to look around his office, before getting up. It was sort of a small space; mot much room, with only one shelve for files, books, and other important things, and a desk in front of the windows in the back, with a chair behind the desk and a coat&hat pole to the side. He then looked down at his attire; his white dress assemble was all in order, and looking at the mirror, his eyepatch seemed to be fine as well, as it should be. He then took his hat from the pole, before looking at the mirror again. It now glowed a bright blue, emitting a soft noise that sounded like the tapping of raindrops on a windowsill — if that particular sound was rather muffled. And in big, yellow letters, —or as they big as they could get on that mirror — they spelled out 'Files Sending'...
edited 22nd Sep '11 7:30:18 PM by kkhohoho
Only Raymond can see these, but most of it is common knowledge.
The files quickly load and appear.
-THE ACADEMY OF MAGIC-
-Established nine years ago, the Academy of Magic, referred to by the public as The Academy, is today the foremost institution in magical research. Founded by Darren M. Cooper 'The Golden Sage', the Academy was originally open to the public so that any seeking assistance with magical matters could attend. It was here that such prominent figures as Reginald Drake and Nicholas Faust came to public attention. A year ago, The Council of Nine, the ruling body of Laputa, seized the Academy and restricted public access. Individuals can still join the Academy for academic pursuit, however, many of the facilities therein are now restricted and are considered federal institutions. Common speculation follows that the Academy is used to store and research dangerous relics, however no evidence exists to support these rumors.-
-RELATED FILES-
-DARREN COOPER-
-A very prominent magic user devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, Darren Montgomery Cooper established the Academy of Magic is said pursuit. Known by his peers and the public as the Golden Sage. He mastered the use of words of power, a common innate magic, as well as a magical perception unique to him.
Current Status: Missing-
-REGINALD DRAKE-
-A very prominent member of the magic community. He supported Darren Cooper during the founding of the Academy. Is considered responsible for the initial appearance of dragon-kind. His magical fire is attributed to drawing them back from the Earth, where they say they were sealed away.
Current Status: Abroad-
-NICHOLAS FAUST-
-FILE MISSING-
-Current Status: ERROR-
edited 22nd Sep '11 7:20:21 PM by Zeromaeus
As Raymond read the files, he noticed several rather intriguing aspects of the document. First off, it seemed that this 'Council of Nine' ended up taking control of the Academy some time ago, and had restricted access from the general public, as well as closing off the faculties to the the students. There was also the rumor that they had been investing in the buisness of collecting and researching artifacts. Seeing as how they had taken that mysterious object earlier, there might have been more to that rumor then mere speculation.
But perhaps what would interested him the most were the last sections, about 3 particular individuals. The first one, Darren Cooper — the founder — was deemed missing, and the second person named Reginald Drake, a supporter of Darren, was — according to the data — traveling abroad. And finally, there was the last profile... which wasn't even actually a profile; Mr.Faust's file was missing. All of this put together led to something that seemed to be very peculiar; it might actually be something he'd be willing to investigate on his own, though if he could a get a paycheck, even better. Still, there was at least one more thing he felt he should do before deciding whether or not take the case. After all, you can't always rely on just one piece of information. And Raymond knew of the perfect place to get more information.
Making sure he still had his hat firmly on his head, he walked out of his office, into the fallway. There were two doors he often in that building he was that were of particular interest to him. One was in his office; the other, the one that he would be using now, lied in the outlying hall to his office. Specifically, it was the 13 door. Making sure that no-else was around to see, he reached into his pocket, pulling out a special golden key; the doorway was a shortcut to that 'perfect place', and far easier then to trying to cast some cockamamie spell. Despite all of his experience in the supernatural, the magical, and the just-plain-strange, as well as his own unique abilities, he could never quite get the hang of traditional magic. So, the key was the next best thing.
He gently placed the key within the keyhole, and then turned the key very quickly and violently, like a man with a mission... which coincidentally, he was. And so, upon turning the key hole, he quickly opened up the door. If the normal residents of that room, or anyone else for that matter, opened the door, all they would see would be a normal room. But with that key, the doorway became the entryway to a pocket dimension. Raymond then proceeded to dash his way through the entryway, only to dash right back to the entrance, and slam the door behind him, so as to make sure that no-one else could see the realm he now found himself in. This... was Devil's Corner.
It wasn't exactly a tremendously large bar, but it wasn't small either. It had plenty of space, with what Raymond considered a classy color scheme; across all the floors, walls, counter, and tables, everything was white as snow, with thick black lines striped diagonally across. And on every table in the room, there sat humans and demons alike. In normal circumstance, they'd be be at each other's throats, but the bar was designed from the get-go to be a realm of neutrality. You sat down, enjoyed yourself, and behaved, and in return, you get to enjoy some of the finest brew in all of known the dimensions. But if you didn't do so, caused a ruckus, and — most consequently — killed one of the other patrons, — especially if the victim was a member of another race opposite to yours — you would literally be booted out of the bar, and literally unable to go back, ever. This was all in no small part possible thanks to the owner, and Raymond didn't have time to chat with the owner right now; rather, it was to do some digging.
Surveying the room, he saw a table that looked particularly interesting; it contained an even mix of 2 humans, and 2 demons. One of the humans seemed like a knowledgeable scholar. The other looked a as though he were member of the criminal underworld, decked out in a classy black and white-striped zoot-suit, with a slicked-back hair-do, and a none-too-friendly disposition, though perhaps with information he could use. As for the demons, one seemed to appear to be a giant parrot, (or a least, giant compared to a normal parrot's size,) and Parrot Demons were some of the smartest and most knowledge demons of all. And the other appeared to be... bloody drunk. He might be a problem, but hopefully, he'd be too blasted out of his skull to really do anything. And so Raymond made his way over to the table, though not without fixing his tie.
"Hello there," he said to the Patrons upon sitting down at their table, flashing a toothy grin. "I noticed that you four appear to be most a enjoyable quartet, so I would be delighted to accompany you in your drink." He looked towards the counter, where a balding middle-aged human was there to prepare the drinks. Holding up two fingers, he yelled out "Hey, one drink please! Water, if you please!" Raymond had been a regular customer, and while he never ordered a single drop of alcohol, he had done other services for Devil's Corner over the years, so when Raymond ordered a drink at Devil's Corner, you gave him his drink. "So gents," said Raymond turning back to the four patrons, "any news you'd care to share? What's the talk of the town, hm? I would be particularly interested in hearing about this mysterious object that fell from the sky today, as well as this 'Academy'. And I've also heard of rather important missing personal. Now now, don't be shy; if you simply share this assuredly harmless information with me, I'll order you all drinks. And all alcoholic. So, does anyone have some sort of useful tidbit of info for me? Hm?"
edited 23rd Sep '11 7:24:13 AM by kkhohoho
The shifty looking man ribbed the scholar, 'Yeah. Can't you tell us what's going on?'
The scholar sighed and laid his head in one of his hands, 'Just because I go to the Academy doesn't mean I know anything about the incident. We've been restricted to just under half of the facilities. I wouldn't be surprised if I went back tomorrow just to find the Great Library under lock, key and gargoyle. Yeah, you heard me, gargoyle.' He picks up his drink and takes a swig. 'They never would have done this with Dr. Cooper...'
The parrot demon chimed in, his voice an octave higher than what was physically comfortable,'Dr. Cooper? You mean the sage? I heard he died, or that he had done something that would make the council want him dead.'
The scholar flashed an angry look. 'Lies! Lies and slander!'
'Calm down, guy, or you'll wake our friend here.' The shady man mused as he motioned toward the drunken demon.
The scholar sank back in his chair. 'Dr. Cooper's only pursuit was for knowledge. Everything he did was for that pursuit. If he stepped on some toes, then it was the council that was at fault.'
The shady man laughed. 'No arguments here. I can point out a number of...'
He stopped as the scholar glared at him.
'Yeah yeah. So golden boy was perfect and the council was all big and bad. What's new?'
"It is the opinion,' the parrot chimed in, 'of many an individual that power corrupts. In fact, there are a number of sects in the Circles that go about corrupting the innocent, as it were, with promises of power. Though, aside from a few new rather restrictive policies, the Council have been received quite well. Their names aren't exactly chanted back home.'
The server comes around and replaces the drinks. He sets Raymond's water in front of him and quietly says, 'I hope you find what you're looking for.'

Matthew wound up crashing into the area where the fight was going on when he felt a strange pulse of energy inside. It felt like something was going on in there, a battle of Mages. The mana was getting weird, though. It was like the natural mana of the area was becoming twisted up and manipulated by something that was distinctly not a Shadow Imp like he had heard from someone earlier.
He saw Lukos and the other ones, a gorilla armed woman and some other person. The werewolf looked the most dangerous. He had a broken arm from the crash...he just concentrated power into his other arm and forcefully realigned his bones and rejoined them. The pain was something fierce, but he'd been hurt worse in the past.
"What is going on here?" It looked like there were a lot of spikes coming out of the ground, some of them red with blood.