Tayro's Elemental Burst rockets forward, hurtling towards the first of the two remaining Creeper Infernas. The fiery creation attempts to dive down into the ground, but its speed is no match for that of the young Mage's assault. It manages to avoid the brunt of the attack (19+5[Roll+SPI]), but even as it passes by its target the Burst erupts outward and washes over it. Even without the main force of the attack, however, it's just enough DMG (exactly 7 DMG, actually) to finish the Creeper off for good. And as the water splashes through the air, the other Infernas loses 2 HP of its own

Sensing a chance to finally end this, Alpha darts forward, staff in hand and swinging wildly as it approaches the last remaining creature. His staff crashes downward once he's in range, tearing directly through the center of the Creeper (9+6[Roll+AGI]). Its flames vanish into the air as it too feels its last little bit of pain, courtesy of Alpha.

The Sheikah looks past the last remaining embers as they vanish, gazing directly into the room where both Raven and Pyre have disappeared to. Not even saying anything to the others, he darts forward to confront the impostor Wraith once more.

Creeper #1: eliminated
Creeper #2: eliminated
Creeper #3: eliminated

Pyre: 33 HP, 15 SPL
Alpha: 37 HP, 39 SPL
Dogura: 33 HP, 17 SPL
Tayro: 33 HP, 21 SPL

Unexpectedly for Raven and Pyre, Wraith's shoulders slump as he lets out a sigh of regret. "Oh, darn. My Creepers are all gone now . . . what a pity. And I was just starting to enjoy our little conversation here, Raven." He picks himself up, leaping backwards towards the middle of the three doorways in the room, nodding towards the thief. "We simply must continue our talk some other time."

Abruptly the fiery hand holding Pyralin up dissipates into thin air, allowing the Ranger to fall five feet to the ground. The circle of fire on the ground surrounding Wraith condenses, growing ever smaller and approaching its creator. "Can't exactly make this easy for Yuenbri, now can I?" he calls out to the two as Alpha himself enters the room, crimson eyes falling on the Assassin just before the flames leap up and swirl around Wraith, shielding him from sight.

The flames spin around for several seconds before spurting out in all directions, revealing Wraith covered entirely in red fire . . . and two more beings that look exactly like him. "Learned this one from watching that Goldforce Power of your master's," all three say simultaneously. As one, they each turn to one of the three doorways and leap through it. "Come and get me!"

~The hylian fell roughly to the floor, the suddeness of the release surprising him. He was on his knees when Wraith made the duplicates and the ranger simply stared at them dumbly for a moment. He continued to stare even when the copies rushed out of the room. Only when he heard "Come and get me." did his body respond. He jumped up, dagger at the ready and looked at Alpha. "What are we going to do?"

Pyre decided that he would follow the sheikah's lead. That's what had gotten him to this point, and he had a feeling that if he followed this "Yuenbri" he would meet up with Wraith eventually. As he waited for a responce, he looked around at the others. It seemed no one was particularly wounded, and he allowed himself to think that things would go as planed.

Then he remembered what Alpha had been like just as they broke away from the other group. The recollection was a little unsettling. It seemed that this was far from what was previously planned. Both for Alpha and for Wraith. Who knew what they might do to put things right. He didn't think that Alpha would harm any of them, but he might take other drastic measures to.... remove them.

The hylian shook his head, flinging the dark thoughts aside and concentrated on the current situation. He would need to be alert if he hoped to live through this encounter with the deadly assasin.~

'Yeah, some other time.' He watched intensely as he covered himself in fire and produced two clones in a similar state. No doubt made completely of fire. Seeing if there was anything that made the original stand out from the copies. (Awareness Check)

As they all went their seperate ways, lighting the corridors with their flame covered bodies as they ran down them. Walking down from his platform, down to the floor, as if he was walking down a invisable staircase he met up with the others who had entered the room.

OOC: Just so you all know, I was actually hoping someone would pick a path . . . I mean, you guys can't expect Alpha to make all the decisions for you. Cause he won't, you know. He's not that nice.

IC:
Alpha draws back as three different impostor Wraiths appear before him, along with the notice of having learned it from observing Master Zaris. The fact that he even knows about Zaris causes the Sheikah to increase his mental ranking of how dangerous he perceives Wraith to be, and the manipulation of flames into a mimicry of the Sheikah Goldforce, while almost certainly not as effective as the original power, still shows him to be skilled at fire control.

The former and true Wraith glances into each of the three doorways, trying like Raven to discern any kind of difference between the three copies [Awareness Check]. Of interest to him as he glances through the doorways is that each of the fire Wraiths has come to a stop in the center of the areas beyond the doorways. The two side doors lead to small square rooms of their own, while the center door only has a long tunnel that would have been dark if not for the Fire Wraith.

Raven's Awareness Check fails (7+3[Roll+INT]), while Alpha's succeeds (16+3[Roll+INT]), allowing him to notice a very interesting observation. Though all three of the Fire Wraiths seem to be perfect copies of one another, some very odd things are happening in the two side rooms. Each one has multiple candles positioned on the wall, lit to give light to any passersby. However, in the room to the left, the flames of the candles on the right have suddenly begun to dance wildly through the air. The same can be said of the right room's left wall.

(((OOC: XD. Double XD. Fine, I won't follow Alpha, and I'll chose the right path just to find out what happens if we're wrong...)))

~Pyre frowned, looking between the three entrances. It looked like they would have to guess which path was correct, and then chase after the Wraith. The hylian wasn't sure if they chose wrong. It could be that they were just misled, but there was always the possiblility of a trap. Pyralin thought that he had both bases covered, and whipped out one of the most basic traveler's accesory in Hyrule. Farore's Wind (not sure if I'm allowed to do this, but since that one "strange man" in the castle said I have it, then by golly I have it.)

The hylian tapped into the magical energies of the crystal, attuning it to where he stood, and then nodded to the others before making the plunge. Straight into the right hand corridor. As he ran after Wraith, he couldn't help but notice the activity of the candles on the left hand side. That wasn't a good sign, and the ranger had a sneaking suspicion that he had chosen wrongly, but he had chosen his path, and he wasn't going to stray from it.

(((Not much else to say except welcome back Alpha, I'll get to OtT by the LATEST tommorow evening.)))

Slighty frustrated at not being able to determining which Wraith was which he let fate decide his path. As Pyre took the route to the right he took the decision to take the left path leaving the centre path to Alpha. If all three took a path then at least one would find him.

Not thinking about the consequence of taking the wrong path or simply choosing not to he strode forward and made his way down the left path.

OOC: Okay, fine then. -_- Be that way. It's you guys who have to pay the price, of course.

IC:
Alpha's eyes dart across each room even as Pyralin and Raven rush forward to the opened doorways. 'Wait a second,' he thinks to himself as they pass through the entrances. "Hold on you guys, it's obviously the one -"

"Your friends aren't incredibly bright, Yuenbri," the fiery Wraith in the hallway says without warning. The flames around him suddenly vanish, leaving standing there none other than the Assassin they've been chasing all this time. His stance is not the one he's been having all this time, however; instead of being ready to fight, his right gloved hand has reached up to scratch his head, displaying the perplexed state of mind that matched how his voice had sounded. "Hm. I'd have thought better of Raven especially; that Pyre I could see falling for such a simple trap, but not such a well known thief."

He shrugs. "Oh well." His right hand rises from his head, and his fingers snap.

Raven and Pyralin find themselves within two very similar rooms, consisting of only a few bookshelves and a sitting space, probably meant for some private reading time among the castle staff and/or royalty. With the thickened walls standing directly between the warrior and the true Wraith, they would have to have some very good hearing to be forewarned that the fiery beings that each of them face are the impostors.

And it isn't like such knowledge would be able to help them anymore, either. Upon the snapping of Wraith's index finger with his thumb, a wall of fire erupts in the doorway, trapping them within the room with the fire clones. In the split second before it happens, Raven and Pyre would probably become curious as to why the man standing before each declined the chance of drawing a weapon. But that is only a split second, and hardly any chance at all to defend against the oncoming onslaught.

With a massive BOOM! echoing outward from each room, the two incarnations of pure combustible energy explode, unleashing every ounce of inferno within them upon their victims. Both are fortunate to survive the blast, but should not be surprised to find that their health has been drastically reduced - a full 20 HP was just stolen away from them.

Were any of the other four beings not caught in the infernos still looking, they'd have seen Wraith turning and darting out of sight, and Alpha charging right after him.

Pyre: 13 HP, 15 SPL
Alpha: 37 HP, 39 SPL
Dogura: 33 HP, 17 SPL
Tayro: 33 HP, 21 SPL
Elenina: 30 HP, 54 SPL
Raven: 11 HP, 6 SPL
Kasei: not replying. How rude

OOC: ... sorry, Alph, I got no notifications of this, it was only thanks to Sovelis that i'm here. If ya don't want me to be here, PM me and i'll delete this.

IC: Kasei snapped out of whatever he was doing, as it was probably uninportant, anywhay. There was some talking from Alpha and Wraith, and then some explosions, the mercinary looked up as Wraith fled, and Alpha gave chase. Kasei stood, and attempted to follow.

OOC: Okay, so maybe i'm not cut out for FOG anymore...i'm gonna take some time reading through this topic to see what happened, and maybe I can edit my post. on another note, check my profile for my stats, I don't think the ones in my sig are correct...

OOC: I was going to take the correct route but then I though that since Raven didn't notice anything only Alpha. Also it felt like the natural thing to do, Pyre takes the right Raven takes the left.

IC: As Raven ends up in the small reading room he suspects he has taken the wrong path. The silence in the room apart from the flickering sound of the the flames of the fire wraith also seemed uncharacteristic of the Wraith he faced earlier. Before he could attempt anything a wall of fire blocked the door and as he turned the fire wraith explodes with such it blasts him through the fire which barred the door. Causing him to land smoldering several feet from the now charred room.

OOC: Aw, don't worry about it Kasei. Jump back in if you ever feel ready to do so.

IC:
The hallway is dark . . . the candles have all been put out along this path. Whether this action was done long ago or is even now occurring up ahead as Wraith charges through the hall cannot be known, but one thing Alpha knows is that he has to stop this man, defeat him now - before anything more is revealed. While the Sheikah has no way of knowing that the impostor has been speaking freely with Raven, there is also nothing to suggest that he would refrain from saying such things, and for that Alpha knows he must be silenced. Immediately, preferably.

And so, he makes his way through the darkness, not caring about the fact that he doesn't hear anyone else coming in after him. Actually, he rather prefers it, and hopes - probably in vain, he realizes, but still he hopes - that no one will get gutsy enough to give chase as well. He'd rather finish this Assassin off on his own.

Dragging himself up from the floor, his ears still buzzing, he slowly made his way back to the corridor entrance. As he did, he wished he knew a healing spell to cool his burned flesh and relieve the pain that each step took as the slightest touch of fabric caused the pain to flare.

(((OOC: Oh no, Alpha, your not killing him on your own. We're coming, that's why were here, to bother you. . (That was addressed to your character btw, not you...)

Also, hell yeah, it was the natural thing to do Raven. Suicide Vagabonds for the win! Down with mages and others that want to do it the easy way (particularly mages though)!!!!!!)))

~Pyre was not suprised that the Wraith he had been chasing had dissapeared, he had only had a one in three chance of guessing correctly in the first place, but only now did he think about the consequences. What was the deadly assasin going to do to punish those that chose wrongly. He had a feeling that he didn't want to find out, but he did; and all too soon.

The next thing he knew, for the second time that day, all was fire and pain. Just like the previous time, when a stream of lava had crushed over him, his scream was cut off by the wall of red, and soon, he forgot he even existed. He didn't have a body, he didn't have mass, he couldn't see, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't hear. The only thing he registered was a weight in his pocket, the farore's wind that he had recieved at North Castle and that he had just used a few moments before.

In strength born from desperation, his hand slipped around the tiny jewel, and he willed it to activate and wisk him away. And then suddenly, he was himself again. There was only one thing different from the last time he was facing the choice of three hallways. His thoughts were being torn apart by pain, his skin burning, both figurtively and literally and he was on the ground writhing in agony. Like always in such a situation, his mind shot out to heavans, in a prayer for help. He wasn't sure that Din would favor him twice, in such a short time span, but the prayer was intuitive. It seemed impossible to go on without healing.

Slowly however, the pain lifted, and he rose to his feet shakily. His prayer to the goddesses didn't stop, but this time he offered a bit of his magic power along with it as an offering for a return to vitality. [Favor of the Goddess]

Only then did he start to take stock of what was happening. Raven was just returning, seemingly having met the same fate that he did. It seemed there was only one choice for Wraith to have gone: the middle passage. He began to limp in that direction, trying unsuccessfully to push the pain out of his thoughts, and desperately wishing that healing would come soon. The ranger would need his full power to be able to fight against Wraith.~

Pyralin's luck doesn't fail him. After allowing him to escape the potential death that the explosion held, his lucky streak continues as the goddesses appear to hear his cry. An aura of three colors, interwoven and blending in magnificent ways that are a wonder to behold, descends upon his form and shrouds him like a mist, blanketing him in a healing energy that restores half of his health to the Hylian (14+7[Roll+INT]).

Pyre: 34 HP, 15 SPL

'Left now,' the voice of his master whispers to the Assassin as he treks through the halls. Not arguing against his involvement, for once, Wraith leaps in that direction, diving into a hallway even as he hears Yuenbri darting behind him, moving with such great speed that he actually overshoots the unexpected turn and stumbles forward in the dark hall. This battle of speed is beginning to wear on the impostor, and even if it was not doing so he'd have had a disadvantage, seeing as he is not of the Shadow Folk like his 'predecessor'.

A grimace forms on his face at that thought. 'Predecessor . . . how on earth did I allow that wizard to convince me to refer to Yuenbri like that?!' Likely the sorcerer in charge of him considers it a motivational tool, a subtle reminder that he never was good enough. 'Number 2', 'second to Wraith', 'second best' . . . ever since that fight in the Demon Tournament has he been subjected to such insults and treatment as an insignificant wannabe. Only by being the top dog can one hope to achieve anything in the criminal underground.

And then Wraith had vanished, rumored to have done so after meeting with the person that even the criminal masterminds had referred to as 'The Master'. And so the Assassin had never had a chance to redeem himself, to have a rematch. He would forever be second in the rankings - and thereby, a virtual no one - unless he could slay the best and take his rightful place. And he would, most definitely.

His thoughts turn back to his own 'Master'. The strange warlock who had approached him little more than three months ago, offering him that strange item that had unlocked a new world of power for him. And all the man wanted in exchange for absolute mastery of the fiery element that he already wielded so well was a couple of jobs. The promise that Yuenbri would be involved at some point was all that he required to accept it; he would not even have needed the power as payment if the mage hadn't informed him that Wraith had the same kind of item.

'Where now?' he calls out into the night.

'There is a stairwell leading downward, second door to your right. Take it down, then go left again. Two rooms later you'll enter a large storage chamber, one that lies directly beneath the throne room.'

'A storage chamber? What're they storing there?'

'Oil.'

Already entering the doorway downstairs, the Assassin's grin widens.

(((OOC ...... more pain coming up i guess.........)))

~As soon as the healing light shot over him, he could feel the pain leaving his skin. His muscles unclenched, and grace returned to steps. It didn't take much longer for him to get to top speed, sprinting down the hallway after the faint sounds coming from ahead. He didn't think anyone else had gone this way yet beside Alpha, who he didn't see back in the first room, so he was going to be one of the first to finally corner Wraith.

A kind of excitement that always filled the ranger in the middle of the hunt rose inside him. He picked up in speed, and while he couldn't match that of the shiekah and the assasin, he still moved with the speed typical of vagabonds. The ranger's speed increased even further as he felt that they neared the end to this deadly chase, even though he still couldn't quite see the two men ahead of him.~

He ahead his way back to the entrance of the corridor just in time to see Pyre be granted the favor of the goddess who replenished his health. He cursed his own lack of healing magic once again as Pyre left. Unfortunately for him he could do little else than force his body to move and block out the pain the best he could.

Not wanting to be left behind, not when it's a chance to once again meet with Wraith, he took a deep breath and readied himself for what was to come. After a couple more breaths he planted his foot and pushed off in a torrent of pain as he too ran down the center corridor.