Quest for the Spice

[Midnight]

Joseph scrtached his chin as he thought on the story. The spice he described certainly sounded like the perfect gift. Yet, what did he mean by 'the god who had placed this bowel there had also seen to it that only the one who comes for the spice, but refuses the bowl may take it.' It was a riddle obviously. Could it mean, that one had to give up trying to get the spice before they could get it or...?

The gunmage nodded to the monk. "Thank you sir. Do you have any clue as to where we can find this...Astrarian?" he asked leaning forward slighty. They had been lucky that there existed a legend of such a spice. Now the hard part would be finding it.

"Oh that's the easy part." the headmaster said with the wave of a hand, "We have a map to the cavern here in my temple. The hard part is getting the spice. As I'm sure Kinchi explained to you the Yakuza have been frequently sneaking into our school. You see two weeks ago one of their agents had snuck into this temple to steal the map. He was caught and is currently held in a secret prisin within the Monastery. Now his comrades keep coming to retrieve him and steal the map. It is quite possible however that they have already taken a photo of the map and no longer require it. As such they will most likely be an added obstacle to you."

Joseph thingyed his head. "Added obstacle?" he asked in obvious conclusion. The bald man nodded, "Of course. First you will have to deal with the cavern's guardians, then if you can defeat them, you must solve the riddle of the bowl, or you will be turned into the death spice like so many before you."

[Ziare]

Ziare exhaled a deep breath.

"Looks like this will be quite the trek." she said turning to Joseph. "Tal better fall in love with all three of us..." she joked trying to make light of the situation.

She looked at the shelf behind the bald man seeming to stare at the glass bottles filled with who knows what but she was deep in thought.

The Yakuza wanted this map they wanted it to get the spice. But what did they want with the spice. And the riddle, one who only wants the spice but not the bowl. What the heck did that mean. It couldn't be as simple as only taking the spice out of the bowl, could it.... Ziare's brow furrowed in thought.

The guardians what were they...what kind of guardians. She decided she had a question of her own. She looked up at the man still sitting calmy.

"What does the Yakuza want with the spice? Can you tell us anything about the guardians what are they?" Ziare asked. She wanted to leave with as much information as possible.

["The Priest"]

All of this was stored in The Priest's brain. He remembered everything the man said, including the prisoner. He then listened about this cave, and thoughts immediatly clicked into his head.

Monk. Chef. Whatever the hell you are. I've heard tales of this... cavern. You aren't telling us something.

What of these.... Spice Men? I've heard tales while travelling around, about people who have tried to garner the spice, which is why I kinda pointed these two in this direction.

The lost warriors become the spice. Spice Men, no? Correct me if i'm wrong, but thats kinda skeevy.

The Priest's eyes never left the Monk's...

[Midnight]

Joseph winced at his friend's disrespect, but the monk paid no heed. The old man nodded, "Indeed those who seek the spice and fail are forever traped in the death spice. Their spirits form their former bodies with the desert of spice when a new seeker arrives. You must make your way across the desert that is their domain to the bedastal's base, once there, you must solve the riddle, lest you wish to join the spice."

[Ziare]

The old man turned to Ziare his face looked worn and tired.

"The Yakuza want this spice for it's properties. It seems though only legends exist, that it will extend the life of those pure at heart. No a long time no... nothing can do that I'm afraid but it can extend it slightly. So naturally the Yakuza want more time to live and become more powerful they feel that if they consume it all then they will live a very very long life." The old man ran his calloused palm over his bald head.

"But as I've said that is rumor and I'm not sure if it really has those properties or not. No one that has ventured into the caves has come back alive so no one can tell you if the rumors are true."

Ziare nodded and looked at her companions and shrugged her shoulders.

"I can't think of any other questions at the moment." she said. "I'm ready I suppose. Though we might need some provisions for such a journey."

[Midnight]

(Great God of plots leans back with a yawn. Grumbling, he picks up his remote and clicks the fast forward button. The images appearing on the pool of water before him begin shooting ahead until he pressed play once more. "Ahh, the good part. Finally" he says pulling out his bucket of popcorn once more.)

Joseph skidded to a halt underneath the shade of a gigantic tree, breathing heavily. Whoever this Yakuza Shinobi was, he was damned good. He'd already seperated the gunmage an the ninja girl Rei from the others. Joseph found himself wishing that Kinchi and Rei hadn't decided to assist them, now the girl was laying against a tree wounded badly. While Midnight was busy just barely dodging each stealthy attack thrown his way. If he could only defeat this guy he could get back to the others. Then they could finish off these Yakuza bastards and proceed into the nearby cavern.

Why did the old monk have to be right about them? The Yakiza indeed had taken a photograph of the map. As such they were already here sending in volunteers to get the spice. Apparently it must not have went well since they were down to these last few warriors engaging the students. Rei and Joseph ended up battling this shinobi, Priest was off occupied with some guy who was a master of razor edged wire, and Kinchi, halbert in hand was defending Ziare while her summons kept three flying swordsman occupied.

With Rei down Joseph had one chance of getting this guys. He pulled his necklace from out of his suit and used it to enhance his focus through his emblem. Shutting his eyes he called to his bonded tech spirit, so that he may use the Probability Sight.

[Ziare]

Ziare had not truly expected such a all out fight. Truthfully she had expected to get the spice from the academy and go home. But no luck wouldn't have it that way. It seemed she kept being thrown into battle lately.

Ziare brought her concentration back to her targets. Three swordsman flew above her. They were grotesque in the way they were marred and scarred from previous battles and experiments. But Ziare was not worried about their physical appearance she was worried about their sword abilities. Kinchi was behind her and she wasn't really even thinking about him she was trying to stay alive because as it had been well proven Ziare was quite susceptable to physical attacks.

Do no worry I can sheild you. the foxman's voice rang out in her head.

"Great, mind getting that going?" she asked not meaning to be harsh but admittedly her attention was elsewhere. She heard a small chuckle in her mind and she laughed with him.

She summoned quickly calling forth both Armenius and Sheeta. Both could fly and that was going to be important during this battle. As almost a after thought she summoned Noxanna. Perhpas she could put one to sleep or at least paralyze him til later.

The fairy flew up and circled around the middle swordsman her light rain falling down upon him as he tried to swat at her like a bug. Too many hits in the head these guys had taken they were a trifle dull. His wings stopped moving and the last thing that moved were his eyes wide with fear as the paralyzing spell took hold. He plumeted from the sky his other two mates shreiking in fury. The winged man fell hard on the ground. Ziare had no time to see if he was dead or not the two left in the sky were coming for her.

Armenius screamed and fire flew from his mouth into the sky. It scortched but did not kill either. Though from their terrifyingly high pitches screams you would have thought them dead. Ziare was a wizard summoner she could take these guys out.

Sheeta flew over to the fallen one and with the sharp end of her spear she impaled him through the heart and once through the neck. There was no way that guy was ever getting back up. He was surely dead now.

Ziare dismissed Noxanna and as her attention was turned away for a moment one of the swordsman flew at her with speed and his sword ready to impale her as she had impaled his buddy. But suddenly he was stopped. It seemed as though he had run into a glass wall. He impacted hard sliding off the surface of whatever it was and fell to the ground still dizzy. Sheeta took this moment at Ziare's work at hit him hard on the head with her staff.

"Thanks." Ziare called back her attention still on the battle.
My pleasure summoner.

The second flying swordsman fell back knocked unconscious by Sheeta's powerful blow. Ziare smiled this was turning around to be in her favor. She hated killing but to save hers and Kinchi's life she would do it.

Only one remained. Ziare readied herself and told Armenius to go for it. He turned his head and blew flame out at the same time that Ziare released her flame arrow spell. Small flaming arrows pierced through the swordsmans wings and chest. Twelve in total as he too finally fell from the sky in a heap. Ziare sighed and turned to look at Kinchi.
She winked.

"Seems we make a good team."

Aye that we do summoner.

["The Priest"]

As the other two battled, a single man was facing off against The Priest. He whipped around a razor wire, two different kinds. One was made for stealth, and choking people. The other, was litterally razored wire, a steel wire that was enchanted to bend, that had small razor edges on it.

The man whipped it, and it buried itself deep into The Priest's arm. Using the same hand that the razor wire bit around, he grabbed hold of it, as it seered into his flesh, creating pockets of blood to spring up in his palm.

He pulled out his pistol at the same instant, and shot the man. As time seemingly slowed, the man ducked too late. Aimed at the point just under his nose, it impacted him square inbetween the eyes. As the bullet bore through his head, it erupted out the back, along with a cone of flesh, skull, and brain.

The Priest, at the same instant after the bullet hit, pulled the wire, and ripped it out of the man's hand. He coiled it up, and hooked it around his totem. *Who said this can't be a treasure hunt as well?*

Using a small healing spell, his wounds were healed, but he was still hurting. The pain went mostly away, but his left hand hurt pretty badly.

To compensate, he picked up his dead adversary, and dragged him over to Zaire and Kinchi.

Pool these men together, and rearrange them in a Pentacle (An upside down star). We won't even have to fight the Spice men... Lets just hope these guys are somewhat good dead, as they were alive.

Arranging the four men, they waited for Midnight to drag over the fifth. The Priest also readied a healing spell, incase of injury incurred on Midnight, or Rei...

((Yeah, thats right, we are bringing back the dead...))

[Midnight]

Joseph leapt hard to his left as he heard a rush of air behind him. He hadn't sunken completely into the Probability Sight yet but he was pretty sure it had been an attack from the shinobi. The man would have missed then gone right back into hiding. There is was...he began to see shapes- symbols in the darkness of his closed eyes. More and more began to flow into existence. Mathmatical equations. Numbers, symbols, runes he'd never seen before. All of them formed a sort of landscape curving in every direction as mathmatic probabilities determing every last atom's fate.

Under normal circumstances (however normal this could be considered) the human mind would not be able to comprehend the probability sight, and it would lead to a total shut down of the nervous system. However it was thanks to joseph's bond with his weapon that using this sight became possible. His bonded tech spirt not only let him see the probability sight, but also acted as a dampener.

Curretly a single line of equation flowed toward him and into the web of mathmatics that comprised his body, approximately where the heart would be he guessed. Following quickly behind it was another web of equations. Though all of them seemed to be turned ont heir side making it difficult to see them. Thankfully there were so many it was pointless for them to attempt stealth. Very calmly, without even turning, he stretched out his arm and pointed his revolver down the path of the equation. A shot rang out, with a resulting spatter sound, then a thud.

Midnight breathed deeply and opened his eyes. The mathmatics lingered a moment, meshing over his natural sight, then faded away. The gunmage peered in the direction the equation had come and found the shinobi laying dead on the ground, a large bullet hole in his neck. He remained standing there a moment, staring at the dead Yakuza. Had he really predicted the future?

Then his mind suddenly snapped back to reality as he heard a femanine cry. "Rei!" he yelled as he ran back to where the girl lay proped up next to a tree. Her hands were clenched over a blood wound on her stomach. "Hold on. Priest and Ziare can heal you." he said desperatly picking her up in his arms. She'd gotten that wound protecting him. He couldn't allow anything bad to happen to her now. He was in debted. As such the gunmage charged back in the direction of the others, holding the girl tightly in his arms to prevent her from falling.

[Ziare]

Ziare helped Priest drag the bodies into the shape he had indicated. It was hard dragging the lifeless bodies around but she got it done minus one that she hoped Midnight would bring. She looked up from placing the last body and say Midnight practically running with a limp Rei in his arms.

She ran over to him meeting him half way. The girl was hurt badly and Ziare ran over to him.

She took inventory of the wounds and looked up at Joseph.

"This is going to need Priest." she told him.

Kinchi ran over and looked worried about Rei's condition.
She is badly hurt and has lost much blood. he said worried.

"Yes, Preist is a healer she should be up in no time." Ziare said with a reassuring smile.

["The Priest"]

Priest saw the girl not so long after she had finished speaking her first line. He walked over, finishing the spell, the words *Healimous* echoing around them.

His glowed a bright white, and beams shot out his fingers. His hard ruffled behind him, and he placed his hand over her head. As he transfered his own energy, the girls wounds began to shut, the blood receding back into the wound. It scabbed, the sealed, and all that remained of the seemingly fatal hit was the blood drenched clothes.

She wasn't perfect, but she was as close as one could be from taking such a hit.

Dragging the last body over, the Pentacle was made. The participants heads were touching each others, and their arms were at their sides.

The Priest stood at the 'top' of the Pentacle, inbetween two legs. Issuing forth the dark energies that slowly corrupted his body, 5 swirls of black light issued forth from his mouth, eyes, and hands. They swirled above the pentacle, then shot straight down, each into the mouth of their victim.

The bodies writhed grotesquely on the ground. Bones were heard snapping as their convulsions took grasp of the slowly fading brain neuron traces. As the last of the convulsions stopped, the sat up straight, almost too slowly, and then began to rise.

The baddest hurt, the Shinobi that Midnight's revolver plugged a whole straight through the head, was last to stand, but the strongest of the bunch. Comparitively, they were all roughly the same, but that wouldn't matter.

They'd die again before they knew what happened.

The Priest finished the spell, by pouring a drop of some fetid looking liquid on each beings head. When the last was finished, the Priest visibly shuttered. The first time he had shown pain the entire day. Regaining composure, he shook it off.

We've just doubled our ranks...

[Midnight]

(Ok one of you two can more us in the cave, for some reason I have writters block. Just take us into the cave and start the crazy fighting.)

Joseph stepped back slightly disturbed at his friends abilities. He'd known Priest was a necromancer, still...seeing his powers in person was unsettling. The group of Yakuza they had just worked so hard to kill, now stood before them as slaves. Still, Priest was his friend so he forcfully shrugged off the feeling. Plus he had used his powers to heal Rei. "Alright then. It's about time we took the last leg of our journy."

["The Priest"]

((aight, i'm on, and I've got a good idea...))

The Priest pointed forward, and the Yakuza members walked, no, shambled, forward. Grotesquely, a part of one of the members, the one that Ziare's fire summon had killed, lost an arm as he took a step forward. It fell off, and immediatly began to decompose, the forces holding it together having bein severed. Ironically, the Zombie seemed to become more attentive, having more of Priest's energy available to use.

The Priest made note of this.

As the 5 zombies, and the 5 members all walked forward, The Priest drew out his pistol. Suddenly, the First zombie fell, in two pieces. As the final traces of blood left in his bodied erupted violently across the walls, another Yakuza member, with a standard katana stood, covered in his previous allies blood. He was breathing hard, showing that he was fatigued, as he probably had been trying to flee.

The 4 remaining Zombie's mobbed him before his first strike was finished. They immediatly tore both arms from their sockets, as loud pops and the tearing of flesh, followed by a grotesque scream, washed over the 5 living beings. As they began to feast on him, The Priest called them off, and put a bullet square between the dieing man's head. Not bothering to gather this one, he kicked the body aside.

Horrific... Beautifal.

He then infused something into each Zombie's body. It was his killer spell, the Dark Energy explosion, and the Zombie's bodies gave off a visibly aura of steam, they charged down the hall, moving as fast as their living counterparts. The Priest followed them in close pursuit...

[Ziare]

Ziare watched horrified as the dead boddies of those slain rose up from the pentacle. She watched trying not to throw up as the first zombie's arm fell off turning to ash on the ground. It took all her strength to not turn away. Thanking any higher power that she had not eaten this morning she walked along towards the cave. But a sudden movement behind her caught her attention and she turned. She would forever regret turning. She watched her eyes wide in horror as the four zombies literally tore apart the one that had fallen on the ground.

She heard Kinchi next to her and the unmistakable sounds of his vomiting. Ziare almost lost her entire non existant stomach's contents from the sound and sight alone. She turned concentrating on walking and of course not vomiting as she trudged along going through a dense patch of trees before seeing the mouth of the cave. She almost sighed at the thought...almost done she said to herself. She wrapped an arm around her stomach and concentrated on breathing hoping to calm herself down before she had to see the zombies again.

[Midnight]

Joseph shuddered at the sight of the undead. Though he did not wretch like the foxman, his stomach did churn. He strolled up to Priest with a pitiful look on his. Rei followed close behind, obviously freaked out as well. The gunmage placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and shook his head. "Priest, I love ya. I mean you're my buddy and all but...you creep the hell out of me." he said peering over at the living dead, "Come on. Let's finish this."

Not waiting for his friend to reply Joseph and Rei made their way after Ziare, though the ninja girl did stop to help her partner up. It was an odd sight. Kinichi was so composed...seemingly unphasable. Yet, for an couple moments, he was more vulnerable than the rest of them. Still, the gunmage wasn't about to doubt his abilities. The foxman had proven himself incredibly skilled, and they'd need him inside.

Swallowing down all sickness the group proceeded into the cave. With his insistence, the undead Yakuza went first followed by Priest, then the rest. It wide passage which gradually sloped down into the darkness. Though there were no torches by any means, everyone had their means of seeing. Priest with his dark arts, Joseph's Probability Sight, Ziare with the aide of a summon, and the two Monastery students apparently had learned their own talents against lack of sight. Joseph didn't think it mattered to the zombies, they were led by Priest's will anyway.

After a while the passage turned into a spiral. The walls still surrounded them, but now the floor circled downward. They walked on in silence, unsure of what to expect. Mainly they were busy thinking on the Death Spice, and the cavern guardians. Their silence went on a long while as they proceeded, but finally broke as they came upon a large opening through which was a gigantic chamber. It was large enough that Joseph didn't doubt that Arcane Academy could fit comfortably inside with just a tad of Babylos as well. The high ceiling was lined with proportionately gigantic fungus which glowed a dull white. Their phosphorescence lit the entire chamber.

The students found themselves on a great stone boulevard which extended out over none other than the desert of spice. Laying one's gaze down the long stretch of aloft road, one could see a large pedestal along the far wall of the chamber which gave off a lavender aura. The boulevard itself only stretch about a third of the way across the immense chamber, then simply fell off into the desert.

"That's it. The Astrarian ." the gunmage reported as the group continued forward on the stretch of stone, "Keep on your guard. Even if they aren't up here, the spice men definitely will be down there on the Death Spice." No sooner than he finished his sentence than there came a rumbling. Heads darting around, the students saw four humongous geysers of the spice burst upward from the desert. For several moments it rained the gray powder down on top of them, coating the boulevard in a thin layer. "What's going on?" some one called, Joseph thought it was Rei. Then it stopped and the geysers receded back from whence they came.

Joseph drew his revolver. "Be ready," he said, his voice tight, "It's about to start." There was a tense silent moment as they watched the spice begin to writhe across the stone. Without warning, several figures suddenly rose up from the spice. At first they were roughly shaped but quickly coalesced into warriors of varying types. Joseph took note of a samurai, a pirate, and what appeared to be a U.S. soldier from world war two holding a bayonet. They didn't attack at first, as hundreds upon hundreds of their fellows emerged from the spice as well, lining the very stone ton the very edge. The students were left in a small halo of temporary safety.

"Well," Joseph said with a deep breath as the first of the spice men stepped forward, "Talbot better appreciate this."