Isidora didn't respond to Kou and Kaito's bickering, simply holding out a reprimanding hand. "Both of you, be quiet. They're fighting. And I want to watch." Eyes almost glowing, the Headmistress watched, and made a couple of notes.
The Beowulfs went down easily, and then the climbers followed, though they required a bit more of a fight. The cavern was silent once more. Very, very distantly, the sound of flowing water could be heard.
[TOP SECRET]Underground
As the horde of Grimm finally dwindled down in number, Lina gradually slowed down her performance until the sound faded out. She played one final high note, then killed the sound, slinging the guitar back over her shoulder again."Hell yeah, we rocked!" she exclaimed. She let out a satisfied sigh, and then looked around the dark chasm. Yep. "Now just to figure out where to go...."
She slapped Sini on the back and gave her a thumbs-up.
"You're a real go-getter, thinking up what to do there, Blueberry!" she teased Sini.
Initiation
Lighting A Candle
He finished the last straggling alpha beowulf, weakened by the shock that destroyed its lesser kin. Drinking deeply of the fallen grimm, Forrest was strong and the beowulf was not. It swung at him and Forrest contemptuously batted the strikes away with Bite, slicing off its paws at the wrist and then the elbow.
So disarmed, Forrest transformed Bite into Bark and blew one of the beast's knees away before holstering his weapon. He grabbed the larger monster's jaws with both hands and yanked, ripping its lower jaw and much of its throat off. He threw the dying creature to the ground and turned away. As he walked back to the rest of the group, the dying beast's ashes followed him, slipping through his armor and into his aura.
He looked to the Samurai as he approached the others and said with a mollifying tone, "It worked."
edited 6th Mar '18 2:03:49 PM by God_of_Awesome
Operation: Success
"My name is Si-"
Sini stopped herself there with a sigh, realizing that no matter what she said this girl would keep coming up with nicknames.
"Oh, never mind."
Still, her plan had worked! The Grimm were weaker than she had expected, being wiped out by the electric burst.
"Now, we should probably get moving and stay together."
Observation
Kou shrugged at Oleander — after all, he knew her for long enough that he'd probably not actually bother to try to convince her to change her teaching style — but said nothing, honouring the Headmistress's wishes. Instead she looked at the students.
On empty crossroads, seek the eclipse -- for when Sol and Lua align, the lost shall find their way home.Initiation
Lighting A Candle
"I guess that sounds like a plan. I mean, that's why we're down here, right?" In general. Forrest couldn't shake the feeling that he was down here to murder all of the grimm, ever, forever. That didn't seem productive to longer term people survival though. "Does, uh... anyone have anything to carry water in?"
Underground
"Didn't bring a water bottle because it was supposed to just be a test," Lina replied to Forrest. "If we start getting thirsty, freeze up some ice with dust and melt it or something.""I don't know about you guys but I want to get the hell out of here and back into civilization. So if we can just hold off on the freezing up or spazzing out completely until we're not in the middle of a shitload of Grimm, that would be good," she added. She held up her guitar and started to stomp forward. "I'll go up front, put the humans in the middle since you can't see as well. Sini, can you float one of those orbs of yours up in front of me?"
She gestured towards Forrest. "Horns, think you can point all of... that back the way we came and keep an eye on our asses if anything followed us?"
Initiation
Lighting A Candle
Forrest tilted his head at Lina, looking back and forth, over all his gear. He tapped at the visor off his helmet and grunted, "Use a lot of chain gun ammo for the fall, but I still have some. That's good for rear action, right?
"I tend to be grimmbait though. Lots of... negativity. S'what I work with. That gonna work?"
Isidora glanced fondly at the two squabbling teachers, not saying anything, just smiling. Then, she looked at the students below, and promptly facepalmed. "I hope that she realizes that we wouldn't let them die. Also, entirely missing the point of the activity. Again."
The cave went quiet. There was no sound, except from the students, and no movement in the shadows. In the distance, they could see light glinting off a reflective surface.
[TOP SECRET]Initiation
A Light At The End Of A Tunnel?
Forrest had some screaming heavy metal in his helmet, somehow blasting while at low volume at the same time. The fury and the anger of the music made it so harder for him to be angry in the moment which, probably, ruined the whole grimm-bait thing he was insisting he was but this is what he was used to outside of fighting.
He noticed the group had seemingly... had they stopped? I'm gonna say they stopped. You all had stopped. Frozen in spot for a month, in fact. Forrest caught up with everyone from his rear position and tried to catch what they were all looking at.
Looking between them behind his visors, he shrugged and proceeded forward, hefting Bark. "Alright, let's see what this is." He clicked his visor, turning off his music and imagined if it were some sparkling sort of grimm. He let that old rage fill him at the thought of a monster hiding in the dark and it gave him a savage glee to hope his anger would lure it out of hiding.
Still Underground
"Can't tell for sure what it is at this distance. It could be the water we're looking for... or it could be a Grimm with a big shiny rock on its back," Lena said, hoisting her guitar at the ready."Think one of your blue b... orbs... can light things up ahead for us?" she added to Sini.
Joe kept up his position amidst the group, hefting his weapon and looking around for any hint of more of an enemy presence. It seemed the test was over initially, but he remembered that these kinds of things had a habit of suddenly picking back up.
"Yeah. We need to see what's going on - really doubt this test is done."
The Deep Down Dark Deep Down
"Yes, that's probably a good idea, thought the Dust reserves are limited."
With a swish, a flick, and a snap of her fingers, one of the Wisps bwhen to shed light like a giant lightbulb, slowly circling around above the group.
"Now, do we have any plan at all other than 'wander aimlessly until we find what we're looking for'? I'm taking suggestions."
edited 10th Apr '18 11:34:10 AM by UndyingPhoenix
"You know," Isidora commented idly, "we've never had someone try to blow up the pool before. I doubt it would have the effect they expected." She smiled, looking down. "Ah, now they're getting it." She facepalmed at Joellen's comment. "Did he just completely forget what I sent them down there to do?"
She watched as Sini began to light the cavern with a soft smile on her face.
The orb lit the cave, reflecting on the Dust crystals, which revealed a pattern of spirals that led to the light in the distance. It was the pool, deep, dark blue water that rippled and reflected. The orb's light danced on the surface, making the pool look almost ethereal. Above it, a single Dust crystal, a dark blue, dripped water into the pool, one by one.
The cave was silent, the only sound the rippling water, and the drip - drip - drip of the droplets from above into the pool.
edited 10th Apr '18 5:43:19 PM by secretlyasuperhero
[TOP SECRET]"Ugh, if I had brought a water bottle don't you think I would have had a sip of it by now?" Lina said. "I thought orientation was just going to be... something simple, not throwing us into a stupid hole with a bunch of stupid Grimm so that we can find some stupid water!"
She shook her head, half in anger, half in disgust.
"I'm not failing this just because we don't have a dumb bottle or bucket or anything else we can buy at the supermarket. I'm gonna get this water back even if I have to... carry... it."
She snapped a finger and spun her guitar around, stepping towards the edge of the water and strumming on the strings. A trickle of dust fell out of the guitar's body, down into the water below. Ice dust, specifically, so that it could turn a relatively small part of the pool into ice.
"And it's a hell of a lot easier to carry a big chunk back if it's frozen!"
THE RONIN
Sighing in frustration, the samurai took out a wooden canteen, unplugged it before dumping the rest on whoever was near her, sniling faintly at their reaction as she knelt down and filled up the canteen. She still held her sword as she lowered her hand into the water, prepared for an attack.
Good to be backWaiting and Watching.
Giving a slight nod in response to his fellow teacher's shrug, Oleander simply folded the page from his book into an origami crane. ...If he was bored or annoyed, the man was masking it well. "...Well, then, they don't need a nudge in the right direction just quite yet. But...potential property damage, well, that's...thinking outside of the box, I suppose."
Hope you weren't expecting anything witty here. Maybe some day.

Observation.
Oleander simply exhaled, somewhat exasperated as he pressed a button on the spine of his tome, causing it to slightly hover in the air, arms folded once more.
"...Perhaps. But then again, that doesn't mean it might not aid a leader who does happen to possess the right attitude. And by the looks of it, some of them are starting to get the hint on working together. But having said that...you can't exactly push them too hard, even with the circumstances." He curtly remarked to Kou's statement, lightly tearing a loose page out of the floating tome.
"After all, if you're too harsh, you'll simply make them less willing to listen to your lessons at best...or leave them bitter and vengeful, leading them to quite possibly join those dark forces you mentioned at worse. And you'd be surprised how much strength a grudge can give." Oleander replied, watching as the ink on the torn page faintly glowing red.
edited 13th Feb '18 4:41:02 PM by TheRealWren
Hope you weren't expecting anything witty here. Maybe some day.