The mysterious case of the broken cannon ^w^

"Just remember that a martial artist doesn't need an actual weapon to beat things up with."

Yeah, you don't say, Captain Damian Obvious!

Ariannah swallowed her remark. This wasn't the time to upset him. Or anyone for that matter. Neither was it the time to do nothing. Or time for a dramatic "put-on-your-glasses-hairflip". Well, whatever floats his boat I guess.

Whilst Damian took out an Arubi, Ariannah still watched her surroundings, now in at least mildly better lighting. Just in time she noticed a Nemesi approaching that was ready to drop a Lasher right on her head. She didn't have time to think about Nemesi carrying Lashers, or being so close to Arubis without attacking them. The only thing she had time to think about was getting that thing out of the sky. Nervousness once again lit up the bullet, providing a short look at what she actually hit. In an effort to dodge the flaming missile the Nemesis rolled over, loosing the Lasher from its grip, but still being hit in the shoulder, crashing down into the darkness with its original delivery.

This. Is. HORRIBLE!


"Tell me if you'd like to borrow a sword. I keep three around for a reason, you know."

"Keep it. Wouldn't want to ruin your toothpick. Those things are to fragile for me." she answered, before aiming into the darkness where she suspected the crashed mistlings. They wouldn't give up that easily, but neither would Ariannah.

---

((ehr yeah. fighting scene. It's something I guess?))

"Fighting and moving? Seems doable to me!" Ariannah had been to distracted by another Nemesi and his lasher delivery to listen to closely to what Damian was saying, but she got the gist of it. And that was: Move your butt. Kinda. She took the lantern and a brief moment to put one of the crashed Lashers out of his misery.

"This way!", she called over her shoulder as she ran off- if you could call it running with that hammer on her back and the state her knees were in- into the general direction of the main camp of the military and Academy.

While running and trying not to be killed by Mistlings or letting the light go out, there was not much of Ariannah's brain capacity left to care for where exactly she was going. Or what was just before her feet. Like rocks. Or bodies. Or pretty much anything else she could fall over. So whilst she was checking if Damian was behind her she tripped over whatever it was, falling and breaking the lantern.

"OUCH! WHO PUT THAT THERE?!" the redhead screamed as her right elbow caught her fall with a nasty sound and the lantern shattered beside her. "DAMIAN? YOU OK?" Yes, she had to shout. And yes, she had to ask if he was okay, while she tried to get up without cutting her hands. She needed her hands, they were her weapons after all. Especially since she kinda just dropped her pistol in the dark while falling down and didn't know where that was.
"Ugh... This is not good..." Ariannah managed to sit up, but standing up didn't seem too likely in the next seconds. Her arm seemed pretty badly hurt, but without light she just had the pain to judge from. And MAN DID THAT ARM HURT!

Ariannah took Damian's hand with her left and pulled herself up. "Matches... Er no. Broken... the lantern is, dunno about my right arm. " Ariannah tried to gesture like she normally did, cursing as she tried to lift her right arm. "Okay, right arm broken."

Then there was another one of those terrible growls. "Tactical retreat?" she asked, her voice cracking in fear. She was defenseless. Or at least she felt defenseless.  Her stronger arm was broken, her knees hurt, her weaponry was gone and she couldn't see more than a mere shape that was Damian. She felt like crying, but this was not the time to be crying or anything. This was the time to ... survive? Yeah, survival sounded good. That growl did not. Especially since it seemed to come closer. Somehow Ariannah tried to hide behind Damian, stumbling back at the same time, careful not to trip again. Suddenly her hammer clanked against something... wooden? "I think I found a building!" she shouted trying to find a doorknob and in the end just throwing herself into the door to get in. "I'm in! Damian, over here!"

Ariannah took a deep breath as she closed the door behind her companion, barricading it with whatever she could push in front of it. Which seemed to be a box, but the lack of light made it impossible to be sure.
Trying to get the hammer off her back to check what the handle was made of - she couldn't remember, of course not - , Ariannah turned in circles. "I can't get that hammer off. Could you... help me?" she asked, totally embarrassed. She really was defenseless. She couldn't even get her second weapon from her back. Not that she could use it with just one hand, but nevertheless.

"Are you insane? I'm not going to ruin your spare weapon. This hammer has a head, you know?", she shook her head and then took a deep breath - she had to do this right after all. She would have to melt away the hammer head while pulling out the wooden handle, or her future torch for that matter. And melting the hammer head would be difficult. It needed to be really hot for that. Which required all the concentration (or all the panik) that Ariannah could gather. The Arubi scratching at the door really didn't help with concentration though. Or the thought of ruining everything. Like she usually did with weapons and magic heating. Uuuugh.

Ariannah knelt down next to the hammer, took a deep breath once again and laid her hand on the hammer head.

Outside she suddenly heard a growl. A growl that sounded like the Mistling it came from was in severe pain. "What... is happening out there?", she asked. "Are they... fighting each other?" If yes - good. If not - who was out there? Should they let them in if it was someone?

DANGIT ARIANNAH! FOCUS! LIIIIGHT! NOOOOOW!

Another deep breath and Ariannah finally started heating up the hammer head. Slowly, just so it didn't explode right in her face or something. And so she could get out the handle. Because she would have to carry the torch, and the head was most definitely too heavy for her, at least to carry it one handed.

Another growl from outside, then more scratching on the door made Ariannah snap out of her concentration, which made her knock over the handle of the hammer. It wasn't out of the hammer head, but just deformed it heavily. Great! And now it was smoking and making her eyes all teary and uuuuugh. The red-head coughed, waving away the smoke and starting to concentrate once more.
"Yeah. I'm totally great at this", she said sarcastically , rolling her eyes at her own not existent talent to get this heating stuff right.