Kayako of Aridon, Damein of Suteron

Argilla Ruins. I'm sure you've heard from Mitsuku and Saturn on how horrible that place is. I had even heard a Nordein say that is was hell, and Nordeins happen to be pretty brave (or arrogant, I'm not sure which). And yet here I am in Argilla Ruins, looking for a party to help me kill Kargos and Knight. As a skill level nineteen Assassin, I'd have a hard time just trying to stay alive, let alone searching for where these guys I was sent to kill were. Thus, searching for a party was nessecary.

Ten minutes later, I was accepted into the party that my old friend Mitsuku had organized. Three Assassins, one Oracle, a Hunter, and a Warrior. Mitsuku introduced me to her cousin who I had already met, Saturn. The Hunter, Duister, was a friend of hers, and the Warrior, Damein, was a friend of Duister's. Although Duister treated Damein more like a slave than a friend...The Oracle's name was Eve, and she was Saturn's sister. We all had quests here, it seemed. Saturn was here for Vegabonds, as was Duister. Mitsuku needed the Evil Spirit of Argilla Ruins, as well as to kill Knight. Damein had the same quest as me, as did the Oracle.

Like I said, I had met Saturn before. She was a quiet girl, a bit ditzy and out in the clouds, but quite the perverted sadist. She was a bit voilent, and she spoke with weird and very colorful language, but she was defenetly someone you could depend on. Mitsuku was quiet as well, and would talk quietly if she didn't know you or you didn't happen to piss her off or if she hadn't considered you a friend yet. She would rely on strategy rather than brute strength, as well as speedy slashes, to get past tough opponents. She liked to train, but like me, she lacked the focus to train in one set area, so she'd search for opponents that would make her stronger. I'd heard a bit about Eve through Mitsuku. Eve liked to cast multipul spells on opponents, and took care of enenmies rather quickly. She did a pretty decent job at healing, but she seemed to prefer killing to healing. She did like to transform random people into animals, however, so she was a nuetral Oracle that probably would have liked to be a Pagan instead of an Oracle.

The other two, Duister and Damein, I didn't know two much about. Duister seemed to prefer arrows, unlike most Hunters, and seemed like an unfortunate master to Damein. Damein only carried an axe, and didn't take advantage of the Warrior's ability to have a shield.

So it was four Vail with two Nordein, with most of us being female. Yays!

We set off from the entrance and into the first room, where we were almost immediately attacked by some skeletons. But these were not what we needed, so we kept on running into the next room. The next room was filled with the Soldiers from the past room and some female Goddess Worshipper Shamans. I had never been a fan of Shamans of any race (being a close-range combat fighter, I wasn't too fond of being attacked from a distance or having my prey stolen from me), but with the Iceball spell of theirs they were twice as annoying. We could've just activated Sprinter, but we had the members who weren't Assassins with us. So we just ran on, following Mitsuku down a hallway on the right side of the room, an tried to avoid the attack the Worshippers and the Skeletons.

Eventually they lost interest, and the hallway stopped twisting andturning and showed us a room fill with Goblins, more Worshippers, and lots of hallways to chose from.

"Well ain't this fine and dandy? You lead us out of one hell-hole and into another hell-hole that just so happens to be worse. Now whaddya going to do?" Damein asked, crossing his arms and glaring at the Goblins. I would've chuckled if he hadn't been such an ass, seeing as he wasn't too fond of the Goblins. Mitsuku glared at him, while I saw the Oracle's staff hand twitch.

"Shut it, will you? You'll draw them over here." Mitsuku replied, annoyed. "We need to go this way to get to Knight, Kargos, the Vegabonds, and the skeletons that drop the Spirit I need. Haven't you ever been to Argilla Ruins before?"

The Warrior looked a bit sheepish as he said, "No." and Mitsuku grinned.

"Then shut the fuck up and follow a person who has!" Then she broke off into a run into the room filled with Goblins and Worshippers and yelled, "follow me, quickly!"

And follow her we did. She ran down a long hallway, through a room filled with Goblins and Skeletons and some long dead blood corpses, and sprinted down a short hallway that held two different types of skeletons.

"We stop here. I need the Evil Spirits from these guys." Mitsuku announced, coming to a halt suddenly. Eve accidently ran into Saturn from not being able to stop quick enough, and the momentum transfered from Eve to Saturn, who bumped into Duister. Duister glanced back at Saturn for a second, who was grinning guiltily, before turning back around to face Mitsuku. "We can kill either one of these guys. Just make sure you give the spirits they drop to me." The party of four Vail and two Nordein nodded in unison, understanding what they had to do, and then we broke off to attack the Skeletons.

These Skeletons were very different from the ones we had seen at the entrance. Instead of a long wooden pike, they carried blades and books. I suspected that the ones with the books were spellcasters, and started to attack the nearest one. As it turned out, I was right. They did cast spells, but they were nothing like the ones that the Goblins and the Worshippers cast. They didn't seem very powerful, but I suspected that was because Eve stood near the wall, keeping a lookout for enemies and healing us soon as we were injured. I killed off a few of the Spellcasting Skeletons before I cast the Dodge spell and a Luck spell. The Dodge spell only worked on me, but the Luck spell worked on al of our team-mates.

I came at a Skeleton, this time one with a long swrd and tattered armor, and slashed its at the arm holding the blade. It cut smoothly and clattered to the ground, and I smirked, feeling triumpant as I stabbed the area that would 'kill' the living Skeletons. It dropped a black orb, which suddenly started flying around my head like mad. I quickly captured the buzzing black orb in my clawed hands, and the orb buzzed angrily in protest.

"Oi, Mitsuku! I think I got one of the Spirits you were talking about!" I cried triumpantly, holding the buzzing orb in my hands above my head. Mitsuku quickly dispatched of the Skeleton Soldier she had been fighting against, and it vanished in a blueish-green light. She grinned and walked over to me and took the Spirit from my hands, grin growing ever the wider.

"Yup! This is defenitely it! Now I just need one more!" She put the Spirit in a clear case and put it into her bag before going off to kill another Soldier. I turned to go kill another one myself, grinning like mad and stabbed a spellcaster with my claws. It growled angrily before chanting words that I couldn't understand, and suddenly my whole body felt like it was on fire. I heard myself his in pain as I shook my head and closed my eyes, and I felt quite detatched from my body. I opened my eyes and noted that my vision was no longer clear, but now green. I gasped and cried, "You bastard!" and then stabbed him in the head. It died rather quickly after that, and a took a spot next to Eve and waited for whatever spell the Skeleton had cast on me disappeared. I decided that I did not like my vision being green and hope dit never happened again.

The pain slowly went away and my vision returned to normal, and with a few heals from Eve I went back into the fray. I quickly went up to a Soldier, not wanting a repeat of the last experience, and slashed its left arm off. The Skeleton growled angrily, and slashed back at me with its sword. I quickly stepped sideways, not feeling like getting impaled today, and raised my clawed hands to slash its other arm off. But then I heard a growl behind me, and turned to see another Skeletal Soldier, blade raised and charging towards me. I gasped and my eyes widened, and everything seemed to slow down rapidly...

And then it sped back up again when Damein hacked the Skeleton's right arm off. I smirked, overjoyed to be hole-free and not blood-soaked, but my pride refused to allow me to be saved by a Nordein and not make a smart remake about it.

"Not bad.." I complimented as I did a backflip, slashing off the other Skeleton Soldier's right arm as I did so. I I landed on my feet roughly, smirking as the Skeleton Soldier ran away, my body taking the jolt with ease, and stoo dup from my crouched position. "...For a Nordein, that is." I finished, smirk growing wider. Damein glared at me, and I felt myself bask in his hatred.

"What did you say, Vail?" He spat, and I grinned. Nordeins were always so fun to piss off.

"You heard me, or are you just deaf?" I replied, putting my hands on my hips cockily. The hand holding the axe tightened its grip, and my grin grew even more. I heard a growl behind me, to my left, and quickly sidestepped to my right before checking it out, which turned out to be a smart move. Had I been there a second later, I'd have been impaled. Instead, the Skeletal Soldier was headed towards Damein. His eyes widened and he cursed as he swung the axe at the Skeleton. It went right through the Skeleton's neck, which would usually have 'killed' the Soldier, but this one seemed to be of a higher grade. The skull fell and crashed into the ground, shattering, as I sped towards the Skeleton, determined to cut its arms off. Just as I slashed the Skeleton's sword arm off, Damein raised his axe and slammed it into the Skeleton's chest. It crumpled soon after, and a buzzing black orb flew out of the Skeleton's armor. Damein stared at it blankly before reaching out to grab it, since his height made it difficult for the black orb to fly over him and out of his range. he stared at the hand the black orb was in before looking around for Mitsuku. I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes, tapping my foot impatiently. Now that Mitsuku's quest was over it was time to go hunt Kargos and Knight.

A minute later, I heard Mitsuku's excited "Yes!" and knew it was time for us to head on. Mitsuku led us once again, this time down a ramp and through a long hallway. Damein ran behind me, and I felt him glaring at my back. I smirked, and followed Mitsuku, paying no attention to the Nordein.

Eventually the hallway slanted back up again, and we entered a room filled with more skeletons. I sighed, getting really tired of fighting the pesky bastards, but perked up when Mitsuku asked what time it was.

"Hmm...I believe it's about 5pm, why?" Eve asked, fidling with her staff. Mitsuku grinned, putting her her clawed hand on her hip.

"Because this is the room where Kargos spawns." I grinned madly, happy with this news. "And he forms every half-hour. But..." My grin dropped. But..? There was more? "Knight spawns every hour. We can take care of Kargos, then go to Knight's room, or we can go to Knight's room now and wait for Kargos to spawn in thirty minutes."

"What are the benefits of going to Kargos first?" Duister asked, her face looking bored but her eyes showing that she was actually annoyed.

"Well, Knight's room has Vegabonds." Saturn immediately paid attention after that, and Duister grinned. "...But getting there and back is a pain because there's a room with Worshippers on the way." And then Duister's face full out irked.

"Stay here." We all said, almost in perfect unison. It seemed that none of us wanted to deal with the Witches.

Duister shot an arrow at any Skeleton that came a bit too close, and Eve sent spells their way, trying to clear the room for the battle with Kargos. After all, no one wants to get mobbed when facing up against one of the most powerful Argilla Ruins monsters, right? So we all helped out while Mitsuku kept an eye out for Kargos on the other side of the room, near the entrance to the hallway that would lead to Knight's room eventually.

And then it came. "There's Kargos!" Mitsuku shouted, before running towards the gigantic creature that looked like a mix between a skeleton and a bug. We followed her to the left side of the room, slashing like mad at the large creature. Somehow I wound up fighting next to Damein, which irked me when I found out, but regardless I kept attacking Kargos. It was Saturn who struck the final blow, allowing us to kill Kargos. I grinned when the battle was over, happy that the battle was over, and that one of the monsters I had been hired to kill was dead. Damein looked a little less pissed at me, but then again I never really could tell with that permanent frown and those scars on his face. Oh well, I'll make sure he gets pissed off at me again later.

Duister and Saturn had both leveled in the battle, and now we were waiting for them to swap their gear for upgraded ones in the hall. They returned five minutes later, with their new gear on, and we headed off for Knight's room as fast as we could. We still had to face those damned Worshippers along the way, after all. We ran down the hall, and I couldn't help but notice that it was getting warmer, which was strange for Lailah unless we were getting near a portal. The next room we came to was filled with Skeletons, which we avoided battling. And then I saw the reason why it was getting warmer; a portal loomed down a short hallway, and Mitsuku ran towards it. We followed her, as usual, and ran straight into the portal.

When we exitted the portal there was a long hallway, and in the distance I could see a statue. Mitsuku was already ahead of us, and we followed her right past the statues. The room that the hallway exited to was full of Skeletons and Worshippers, and I mentally cursed. They chased us down anothe rlong hallway, and we finally exited the hallway into a large and openly spaced room.

"Here we are!" Mitsuku announced, but in a somewhat annoyed tone. Probably because she spotted the other party across the room. We ran over to the left side of the room, hoping to lose our previous hunters, and succeeded. But our victory was short-lived, as Eve was attacked by an Underground Vegabond, and we were forced to battle it. Duister smirked, happy that this was indeed the room she needed to be in, while Saturn grinned, her pupils in small slits as she slashed at the target. Eventually, I left Eve, Duister, and Saturn to take care of the Vegabonds and other monsters in the room, knowing that they'd definitely be enough to get rid of them.

Meanwhile, Mitsuku and I (as well as Damein, unfortunately; his master had deemed him unneeded and he was forced to follow us) joined the party on the platform. The platform had a regal-looking area that almost looked like a shrine of some sort, but when I checked it out there didn't seem to be any thing to worship. So I decided to use this spare time to get a few needed minutes of sleep.

When I woke up next, I thought i had heard Damein whining about have to go to the bathroom but not wanting to get mobbed. Then I heard some unison opinion, and was forced to hope that whatever it was, I wasn't going to get picked because I was (pretending to be) asleep. Instead, I was kicked in the stomach and my eyes snapped open to glare at Duister, who was now hovering over me. Now fully awake, I heard what she was saying and didn't like it one bit.

"So now you're going to have to make sure he doesn't get attacked." Duister finished, and I frowned while noting that the other party was laughing at my perdicament.

"No." I said defiantly. There was no way in this hell or the next hell that I was going to be degraded into something as stupid as that. Duister glared at me, but I was unfazed. Vail were highly known for not getting scared easily.

"Aww, c'mon, Kaya..." Mitsuku whined, and I glared at her. She wasn't going to get me with anything. She made a puppy dog face, and I stared at her blandly. "Pwease?"

"Hell to the no. You know those kind of faces only make me want to smack something. Preferably the person who is making them." Mitsuku stopped making the face, and crossed her arms.

"You're going."

"Why don't you go? Aren't you the party leader or something?" I asked, mildly wishing her hair would set on fire at that moment.

"Which is exactly why I shouldn't go. If I get returned to the entrance then so would you guys if you guys pass out." Mitsuku argued. In the corner of my eye I saw Damein roll his eyes.

"Why can't Duister go with him? I mean, she gets along fine with him, unlike me." And then I had both Duister and Damein added to the glare-fest. What, was it Everybody Glare at Kayako day?

"Kayako, you never get along with Nordein guys. You always piss them off." Mitsuku replied. I could feel the Nordein guys from the other party glare at me. Yup, definitely Everybody Glare at Kayako day.

"It's fun." I answered simply. Mitsuku face-palmed. I grinned.

"Just go."

"Don't wanna. I like the floor."

"It's covered in blood." Mitsuku argued, raising an eyebrow as she placed her hands on her hips.

"Point being?" Mitsuku sighed, before speaking to Damein.

"Just drag her off. Maybe I'll get lucky and she'll get killed." Damein shrugged nonchalantly, before walking over to me. I glared at Mitsuku as he picked me up, swinging me over his shoulder. I swear I'm going to kill them both...

"Ass."

"I know, dontcha love it?" Mitsuku replied, grinning.

"I hate you all."

"We know, and we don't care." And that was how I wound up leaning against the wall, waiting for that idiotic Nordein to hurry the hell up. Kayako is now beyond pissed. Five agonizingly long minutes later he reappeared and I wished that I could stab him. We headed back, him being annoyingly slow. Aren't people with lots of muscle suppose to be fast? Gah...

"So..." Damein tried to break the silence. Seemed like he was the only one uncomfortable with it.

"I like the quiet, so please shut up."

"You're really bitchy, y'know that?"

"And you're an ass. What's your point?" Damein sighed, and made what appeared to be an annoyed face. Still can't tell, really.

"Nevermind..."

"Meh." Ten minutes later, we were back. And then Duister started to yell at us.

"Where were you two?! We could've lost to those twits over there because you're so freaking slow!" She screeched, and I pointed at Damein, my face nuetral. Or at least I hope it was nuetral.

"It's his fault for walking damned slow." Damein glared at me, and I walked over to Saturn and plopped down next to her. Thankfully Saturn was quiet, and when she did say something it was usually pretty funny. I stared at her out of boredom until she started to grin like a Cheshire cat. Then I started to freak. Saturn never grins like that unless she's going to say something she knows will get her in trouble or if she's thinking about it.

"So..." She started, and I mentally wished for Etaine would kill me right then and there. I even wished that the Lightie Goddess would kill me at that moment. But alas, I was still alive to hear Saturn's question. "...How was staring at his ass?" And now Saturn has a bloody nose. Heheh...Mitsuku noticed that I punched Saturn, as did Eve, but they merely raised an eyebrow and figured that Saturn deserved it. Which she did.

"This time to battle Knight is getting near." Mitsuku announced, standing up. We all stood up at that, and I stretched. "Kayako, a Luck buff, please." I stared at her as if she was crazy, which she probably was.

"What, can't you do it?" Mitsuku gave a sheepish grin as she shook her head. I turned my gaze to Saturn, who shrugged sheepishly. "...You guys are all useless." I set up the Luck buff while Eve set up the other buffs. We crowded around the altar-like thing, all waiting to help our party get the experience and credit for killing Knight. And then the ground started to shake, and golden light swirled around the altar as Knight appear with several Skeletal Soldiers. We charged immediately, weapons ready to strike. Sadly, I was the first to srike Knight. Which meant his attention was focused on me. He slashed at me with his own gigantic claws, and I barely dodged it by jumping. I slashed at his arm a few times as I fell, and he howled out in pain. Then the room suddenly got much hotter, but I didn't know why I as my attention was focused on a Skeleton that had decided to attack me. This one was quite a fast striker, and now I had to deal with both Knight trying to kill me and this Skeleton. I had just dodged a powerful smack from Knight when Damein randomly tackled me, and all I saw next was red, then black.

I woke up groggily, a bit sad that my dream had ended because I was in my own personal horror story, which didn't bother me in the least. Wait a sec, I didn't remember falling asleep. Crap.

"Nn...What the hell happened?" I asked, not really expecting a reply but getting one. A very angry one, at that.

"Stupid little Vail! You almost got me killed, that's what!" I was no longer drowsy. Instead, I was angry. I looked for the source of the voice and found Damein leaning against a tree as his backrest, looking very beat up. I, on the other hand, had been deposited on a pile of rocks near a stream. A sat up, crossed my arms, and glared at him.

"Why did you try to save me if you hate me?!" I snarled, glaring daggers at the Nordein, who was glaring them right back. It was awfully bright here, and I didn't like it, so I channeled my dislike for that as well as my hate for him towards Damein.

"I was saving my own skin! You know how ticked Duister'd be if I had the chance to save you and didn't?" Damein shot back, clenching onto his axe like it was a lifeline.

"Hah! You really fear her, don't you?" I taunted, snickering. Damein's glare seemed to intensify, if that was even possible. He seemed to be glaring at me with all his being.

"Damn stright! I have no intention of getting myself killed because the only Assassin with the Luck buff croaked!" My eyes widened slightly, before I chuckled and closed them.

"...Ah, now we're getting somewhere." I said as I got up, opening my eyes. Damein gave me what I assume was a confused look, which I ignored. "Well then, I suppose your little Duister wouldn't be too pleased is the only Assassin in our party with the Luck buff quit the party, would you?" His eyes widened, realizing my plan.

"You little bitch!"

"Calling me named isn't going to help you. Tell Mitsuku I got a bit preoccupied." I replied, stretching before I started walking along the river. Strange, I don't remember being here ever...And wasn't I inside last time?

"Oi, where do you think you're going?" Damein shouted, getting up quickly. Or what was quickly for him, I suppose.

"Away from you." I shot back, wishing for the hundredth time that this armor set had pockets.

"Oh no you're not! You're staying right here!" I snickered as I kept on walking.

"You seem awfully attached to me. "I tuanted, and I could practically hear him seething.

"You need to get some sense whacked into you! I am not taking the heat for losing you, espically in Teos!" I froze in midstep. Suddenly it was all pieced together for me. Knight had opened a portal, and as I was dodging an attack from Knight a Skeleton had attacked me, or tried to, and Damein had shoved me out of the way and into the portal. We must've landed in Teos, which explained why it was so damned bright compaired to Lailah and I didn't recognize anything. And we must've been discovered by those Elven or Human freaks with the incredibly pale skin and they attacked us, which is why Damein looked so beat up.

"How long have we been here?"

"Day or two."

"I take it we were discovered?"

"Numerous times."

"You try searching for a portal?"

"Yup. You're fat."

"I'm going to ignore that comment. So basically the only way we're going to get to Lailah again is if we cross the border?"

"Basically."

"We are so going to die."

Gods, this took forever to write. I'm actually surprised that this came out so long. But don't expect all my chapters to be this long, or else I'll go crazy. What is even more surprising is if you type "Shaiya" into the search bar that the only story that comes up would be one for InuYasha. Anyways, I've had this idea in my head for a llloooonnngggg time. You are now free to flame.