Nine Swords

Elaina hits the ground with a large thud, blood trickling from somewhere between her face and the hard New York City pavement. Her eyes are still open as she obviously fights to keep from passing all the way out. Her legs kicked instinctively spinning her body around slowly on the hard ground.

Alexander's perception's shift to the world of auras and energy. The figure near the entrance to the loading docks is surrounded in black swrils of animal, mixed with redden plasma. He could see the warm animal being stripped from Elaina's body as she struggled on the ground, being drawn to the attacker's body. Was that a smirk on his face?

Tom's phone clicked, as Volen's voice comes over the connection, "Hey there! Long time buddy. Savoy? Wow, not that is odd. I've been trying to track that guy down for days. Do you might telling why your interested in him?"

Kleopas, Isabella and Jennet don't react, as they stand there - seemingly frozen in place by the scene before them.

Kleopas was just about to reach the group, smiling and feeling jovial about the meetup when Elaina hit the ground. He winced as he heard a large thud, he thought her head may have just become better acquainted with the concrete pavement.

He quickly covered the remaining distance to the group, dropping onto his knees next to Elaina's prone form. Quickly attempting to wrestle the flailing woman into the recovery position whilst examining her for clues into her sudden condition.

"Ouch she hit the ground harrrrrrddddd" exclaimed Miranda, who was now casually looking over his shoulder.

"Not helping M" he growled as he struggled to pin Elaina's legs down and not get kicked in the face whilst doing so.

Kleopas looked up at the rest of the group, Arc was busy staring at something, Tom was too busy on his phone and the others were just stood there watching.

"Hey folks does she always do this? Also not wanting to sound needy but a little help here?"

*

Many things went through Elania's mind as she struggled to retain consciousness. She had been subject to mental attacks before, she knew what they felt like, and she also knew if she lost consciousness, her fate would be in the hands of her attacker. Death, enslavement, all of these possibilities ran through her mind as the edges of her vision began to go dark, and the noises of the city around her began to sound muffled, as though she were underwater...

When Kleopas reached her, she struggled with every ounce of power she had left in her, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him between her, and her attacker's line of vision, keeping Kleopas' back to her attacker, yet breaking his line of sight to her, hoping this would give her time to recover.

"Well, I'm sure you have your reasons." Volen continued as he spoke to Tom on the cell phone. "All I know for sure is that he and two other friends won a week at a dude ranch somewhere in the States. He loves horses, though I've seen him ride when we lived in Arkansas, so I'm not sure why - he isn't that good at it." Volen laughed at what must have been an inside joke. "I'm not sure where though... I wish I knew more."

The next moments would be critical. With the assailant's focus on Elania, Alexander shut his eyes, pushing out into the psychic plane. His aura mingled with random bits of information, giving him feedback on the temperature, wind direction, and many other seemingly useless pieces. Even the radiant thoughts of others flowed towards him, emotions tethered like heavy weights. He collected the information, storing it within his mind for its true use.

Moments later, his eyes shot open. Within the realm of auras, a spike of energy shot forward, towards the enemy. When it hit, the man would experience an intense wave of thoughts and information, all gathered from the surroundings.

>81 DEGREES CELCIUS< >WINDSPEED 10 METERS PER SECOND NORTH< >SCOTTISH TERRIER< >THIS FISH IS DIGUSTING< >BUT I LOVE YOU!< >ACT NOW!<

Tom had looked up from the phone when there was the meaty thump of a body hitting the ground, followed by Kleopas calling for help. "Sorry V, stuff came up," he sputtered quickly into the phone, almost cutting off and missing Volen's reply. He jammed the phone into his pocket, not bothering to take the time to shut it off. If Volen felt like listening to the action from the other end of the line, Tom didn't care. He wasn't going to waste precious seconds fiddling with the device.

He turned towards Elania and Kleopas, then looked at Jenn, "Jenn," he said, tugging her a bit and nodding in the direction of the fallen Templar. Tom was no healer, he would be of practically no assistance to Elania in that regard. He moved over to her anyway. He couldn't see any overt threat, maybe she was just ill? The only other person that seemed to be around was some asshole standing around and not doing much of anything.

New Yorkers.

Jenn's fight or flight had been busy screaming 'flight' at her from the moment Elania hit the ground. Luckily, her instincts as a medic kicked in harder. She wasn't so much distracted as scribbling invisible glyphs on her forearm as the rest of the team addressed Elania's flailing and searched for a cause.

Opening herself up to the blood magic, Jenn let it coil with her anima and flow into the inivisible tracings on her skin. The glyphs flared to life with a bloody glow, revealing trails of heiroglyphs... or, as Tom would have it, snakes and birds.

When Tom propelled her, she skidded over to the fallen woman and dropped to her knees. Jeans that probably cost as much as Tom's first car scraped to threads on the pavement beneath her knees. She let the healing magic flow out of her, first moving to form a thin shield of anima-laden plasma between Elania and her surroundings.

If Jenn's blood magic found anything familiar in the way the man was pulling Elania's anima from her, Jenn would be likely to notice the flow as soon as she released her own magic.

"Elania," she said, softly, "it'll be okay... shhh..." Inane sounds, but Jenn wanted to soothe the woman while she checked for physical damage.

[Round 4]

Kleopas supports Elaina, as Jenn's shields flash and then collapse. Elaina's body calms, and her eyes pop open as she returns to full awareness [[Elaina has taken Damage but is not currently under any other conditions (may take actions).]]

The figure that has been stoically watching, literally growls now showing contorted anger in his face, this time directed at Alexander. Taking a step, the man holds out his hand as a long spear-like rod of blood-red energy appears. He immediately tosses it with the form and commitment of an Olympian. It hits Alexander full in the chest. Alexander's body reels in response has be clutches the dissipating spear. [[Alexander has taken Damage. Alexander has the conditions immobile and hapless.]]

Tom hears sounds coming from his pocket. That isn't what gets his attention.Tom senses more than he sees, a figure moving from the loading dock around, some 10 meters away from the attacking figure.