[SEASONAL EVENT] Diamond Dust

what. Ronin gritted his teeth as the icicles and mounds of snow continued to batter against his shield, and he managed to force them a few steps back where the barrage wasn't so forceful, but it far from stopped. He felt tears prickle in the back of his eyes at the sheer force of will to stay conscious with the noise of it all. Then the peal of that single, awful note pierced through his ears and he swayed on his feet, the shield flickering. "Go," he managed to say to Remi, giving the alchemist as good a shove as he was able to in the other direction as if that would help him to run. In the meantime, he turned to face the banshee, shaking out his free hand and the blades he knew lay in the knuckles. With the scream pervading his thoughts and causing his body to shudder and rebel, Ronin ploughed forward in a motion more clumsy than it was intentional, aiming to slash at the banshee's face in the hope that it might shut her up.

They were nearly hers. All hers. The sensation of their bones crunching and splintering beneath her bony fingers was near tangible, her wail melting sanity and willpower to nothing. Nearly, just a little longer--

Then a body lurched out from where snow and ice was supposed to be burying them. Assured of her victory, the creature had not expected this, and the hot strike of blades against her face caused her screech to grow tinny and quiet - quieter than it had since it had begun, at least, buying them a fraction more time.

She was knocked to the side with the force of it, thrown off balance.

Remi the Alchemist "these mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb" Go? Well that wasn't quite the answer the alchemist expected. They were either staying or fleeing together. No force to be reckoned with was he, but Remi had a few tricks up his sleeve. Enough that he didn't think he'd be putting Ronin in danger by staying, anyways. Staggering beneath the weight of Ronin's shove, Remi felt a sickly and cold sensation grip the back of his neck. With a horrified shutter, the alchemist watched as Ronin moved towards the creature even as her wail continued to encapsulate them both like some sort of audible straight-jacket. The temporary respite when Ronin struck her was like a blow in and of itself. Remi's ears rang, and like Ronin, he could feel something gooey and warm trickling down his neck. With a grunt of effort, Remi yanked once again at the earth beneath the creature's feet hoping to upset her balance. If this was a fight they were going to engage in, better that Remi give Ronin the best chance he could.

what. Like his friend, the temporary respite was almost as jarring as the scream; luckily (or perhaps unluckily) for Ronin, something peculiar happened in that moment. As he managed to rake the blades of his glove across the banshee he felt somehow rejuvinated... angry, even. Even the quieter sounds of the shriek grated on him, in fact, Ronin's gaze darkening and his hands balling into fists. Blood pumped, hot and heavy, through his veins - he could taste it even, but he'd probably bitten his lip somewhere back in the chase. Growling something under his breath, as Remi fought to unbalance the witch the guildmaster was on her in an instant, gauntleted fist slamming into her skull while his free hand fought to grasp one of her wrists to prevent her from getting too much of a grip on him.

Unsettled by the sudden shift in the ground beneath her, the banshee flailed, arms flying for purchase and finding only Ronin's waiting hands. As he touched her, her scream erupted into needle-precised shards that hit the back of their eyes and ears. The blow to her skull was devastating and her scream was cut off into a wet choking sound.

His hand around her wrist would feel like so much loose parchment, and yet there was strength there, resisting and fighting him equally.

Her face was a broken landscape of angles, broken and stretched skin, and teeth. Like a ravenous zombie she clacked and snapped at him, her bulging eyes in their sockets laughing and mocking.

what. The mockery and the laughter only served to further enrage the suddenly volatile ex-captain, and as the banshee's scream cut off into a choking he let out a roar of rage and anger himself. As she resisted him he slammed down again with his gauntleted hand, the other joining soon enough when he felt her wrist finally go limp. His exposed fingers, unfortunately, met eager teeth, and Ronin was damned lucky that she didn't bite one of the digits clean off. She did get a decent hold on him, though, blood spurting from the two fingers caught in her maw, before he finally lurched away and rolled to his feet. A well placed stamp of his boot and the creature finally stopped, twitching and spasming, but silent at last. Ronin tottered on his feet, letting out a breathless laugh (and finding himself suddenly free of his fury, but utterly exhausted) and tumbling back into the snow.

Remi the Alchemist "these mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb" The sound of the squelch of her bone matter against his boot and the snow made something in Remi's belly curdle, but what was perhaps most worrying was how the captain seemed to teeter and then just let himself fall after a shaky laugh. Immediately at his side, Remi noticed the tributaries of blood slowly bleeding out into the snow from where she'd bit him. Inhaling swiftly, he conjured a swath of cloth and quickly wrapped it around the bitten digits. "If it is not your toes getting chewed on, it is your fingers." Remi grumped, but there was the start of a smile on his lips. Glancing over Ronin's body to where the banshee lay motionless in the snow, he scowled slightly as his body instinctively wanted to shy away from the sight of it. "I can see why the luxere ran." He mused darkly. "Do you know what that thing was?"

what. Later Ronin would be amazed at Remi's incredibly swift recovery from their encounter - and worried, too. He imagined it was probably down to the number of horrifying and traumatic things that had happened to the alchemist lately, and that was nothing to be proud of. Distantly, Ronin set a reminder for himself to check on Remi more regularly, to make sure his friend was doing okay. For now, though, it was all he could do to sit and let his head pound and his ears ring and his stomach churn. He barely heard the other man's words, a smile sort of twitching at the corners of his bloodied lips, and as Remi wrapped the cloth around his hand he would probably feel Ronin's trembling. "...I don't know," he managed, shaking his head. "Dead now, though."

Remi the Alchemist "these mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb" At the conclusion of Ronin's words, as if his body had been waiting for the all clear, Remi turned away sharply and vomited spectacularly into the snow. Indeed the force of his contracting muscles dropped the alchemist to his knees, bracing himself with one hand against the knotted trunk of a tree. Forcing himself to gasp through his spasming to try and get air into his lungs, Remi's fingers tottered as if with frustration on the tree, just waiting for his body to be finished. Once he was, for now anyways, Remi turned and leaned exhausted against the tree, taking a breath and fluttering lashes now moist with tears. Groaning he swiped at his eyes and flashed Ronin an apologetic smile. "Some bounty hunter you are." He managed finally with a weak smile.

what. "Oh," Ronin said as Remi turned away, the guildmaster half propped up by the snowdrift he'd collapsed into and not feeling as though he was in any position to help, even if he wanted to. The world kept swimming in and out of focus, and as Remi's words filtered in through his ears (ear, rather, he was sure one had a ruptured eardrum) he couldn't help but let out a weak cough of a laugh. "Oi, it's dead isn't it? What more you want?" he asked, rubbing at his eyes and finding them wet with tears as well. "Fuck," he mumbled, as though that adequately explained how he was doing. "We... we need to get out of these woods, Remi. Thanks for your help back there, by the way... and for staying." He tried for playful reproach in his last words, given that Ronin had told him not to.

Remi the Alchemist "these mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb" "I don't know...its name...what it wanted from us..." Remi said, feeling as though he should probably be able to list more things given his criticism of his friend, but finding his mind shockingly blank. Grinning at his friend, though finding the smile hard to keep on his lips, Remi nodded. "That was what you wanted, was it not? When you said go, you meant go and yank at the ground so I can pummel this thing with my—" Pausing, Remi nosed towards the monstrosity on Ronin's hand. Or so it looked to him. "What is that that you used?"

what. "Remi, at any point in our encounter did it look as though it wanted to answer questions?" Insofar as Ronin's version of events, the only thing the screaming witch had wanted was to completely ruin their hearing and sanity and then probably kill them for good measure. Eating them was still on the table, but he wouldn't put it past her. He let out a shaking sigh, knowing they ought to get out of the Woodlands but finding himself utterly bereft of the strength to move. Snorting at Remi's comment, Ronin held up both hands. "Which one?" he asked, flexing the hand with the gauntlet on it. "This was a gift from Safrin. I still don't know all of its properties, but it seems to be able to shield us from damage at times." A smile flickered across his face before it was gone again. "This, though..." he murmured, holding up his injured hand and the strange, fingerless glove with the blades in the knuckles. "I got it from the creature on the Bone Bridge, the one with the box." He shook his head.

Remi the Alchemist "these mountains that you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb" "No, but I had thought knowing things about creatures like that came with the bounty hunter territory." The alchemist rolled his eyes, before looking across the snow to where the battered and bashed remains of the banshee lay. "Will you want to bring her back? Is that something bounty hunters do?" Wanting to come up with some kind of quip about just how bountiful Ronin's weapons suddenly were, the smirk on his lips dropped off entirely at the mention of Safrin. He still had not yet met the goddess that so many were seemingly devoted to, but if others were allowed to be worried about his mask from Ludo, surely some of that skepticism was applicable here? "Well it was certainly helpful this time.." Remi said with a non-committal sort of shrug. Widening his eyes, Remi fell silent, chewing on his lip and nodding gently. "That....was certainly a strange encounter. You were not there, but a group of us fell through the ice one day, and there was a creature below. In the ice. Not trapped...it was as though she could move through it. She asked us all sorts of questions just like that creature did." Pausing, Remi sighed a bit wearily. "This is certainly nothing like Northaven." He added after a moment.

what. "Well, now that I have encountered this creature precisely more than zero times, perhaps I will be able to take some notes and enquire with the Naturals about it," Ronin said with a smirk, rolling his eyes right back at Remi and following his pale gaze over to the banshee's remains. He wrinkled his nose; he knew Remi was right but he really didn't want him to be. Eventually, with an exhausted sigh, Ronin levered himself to his feet. He still felt sick and his head was pounding, but yes, it was usual protocol to bring the remains back as a 'trophy' if nothing more. He tilted his head at Remi's somewhat unsure response to the God Hand gauntlet he wore, but he couldn't really mention much on it. Ronin hadn't seen enough of Ludo's mask and what it could do to offer scepticism, but if he had he'd probably understand his friend's reaction a lot more. Hearing Remi out as he spoke of the ice nymph, Ronin managed to lash the banshee's clawed hands together, allowing him to drag it through the snow. "No," he agreed. "It certainly isn't... but I think Northaven could be just as horrifying."