Organization XIV - The Story So Far

Jackie had managed to keep the dogs away from Dispatch and stay unharmed herself, but other than distract the dogs, it seemed little had been accomplished otherwise. Taking aim, Jackie threw the spear, dog and all, at the back of the irritated guardian before coating her hands in lightning, running faster away from the dogs. It wouldn't do to be caught now.

The spear struck home, piercing the Heartless' chest and embedding itself in the floor. Staggering, the monster found that it could no longer move forwards. The angle of the weapon it had been impaled with kept it fixed in place, unable to wrench free. The momentum it had carried into the shield, sending it falling to Dispatch's feet. The dog Heartless disintegrated on impact with the knight's head.

Frozen in place, the creature turned its gaze back to Dispatch. It had no real discernible face, however. It might not be accurate to say it looked afraid, but it certainly was.

"Nice!" Dispatch exclaimed. He'd been getting ready to do another fancy jump, so it was good to be spared the effort. The Heartless, without its shield, looked pretty sad. And unsettling. Mostly that, actually. The Saiyan remained on his guard, but decided to put the monster out of its misery, and started to hack away at it.

With the guardian pinned in place, there was nothing to keep Jackie from escaping the pit now, aside from the pack trailing behind her. The now-unshielded Heartless took a few strikes to whittle down, but it ultimately wasn't that much tougher than the fat ones outside had been. The armor added to its durability, but it relied mostly on the shield to prevent damage.

And with that, all that was left in the room were the two fighters and a bunch of yapping Heartless pups that couldn't get out of the arena.

Jackie ran towards the ledge, dispersed the lightning in her hands, and vaulted up, ignoring the pups behind her. With them out of the picture, more or less, and the big guy well and gone, Jackie strode forward, picked up her spear, and gave a small smirk to Dispatch. "I wonder how many instances of ambush it's going to take before we learn our lesson, Wild Child. It's become apparent our current weakness lies in mobility and freedom of movement: if we hadn't got knocked into the pit, we could have circled around that big bruiser and dealt with him faster. I won't advocate for the 'grab and toss', but perhaps we should come up with a solution for movement?" Brushing the hair out of her eyes, she adds, "Maybe I could learn to fly like you do?"

Dispatch raised an eyebrow. How had she known he could fly? ...Did she think his weird stunt with the fat Heartless was flight? Granted, she obviously wasn't wrong, exactly, but that was strange. "I mean, I don't see why not. But I dunno if that's really the problem here. Those things just kind of appear, no real warning. And when those two big guys disappeared, their energy went with 'em. And that means they can just decide to do what they just did and--shut the hell up!"

He slashed his sword through the empty air beside him, sending a blade of air into the pit, where the dogs continued to yap. "Agh, damned dogs! Let's just get on with this."

They were free to exit to the hall opposite the entrance. Once they got far enough, the sound of barking cut out as the dogs vanished.

Further ahead were more stone hallways. Massive, wide ones, covered in faintly-muddy footprints. Small ones. A vast number of people - or perhaps Heartless - must regularly come through this way. It was quiet for now, but the sound of distant movements echoed back to them.

So it was flight, after all, Jackie mused. After a moment of consideration, she elected not to voice her doubts regarding whether or not such an ability was locked to his species. As she walked, she paid increasing attention to the footsteps, and after a moment halted before looking again at the area in front of them, and as to where the footprints seemed to lead.

The passage up ahead turned left, while there was a branching hall leading to the right, up some stairs. It looked like there were fewer prints going to and from there. Most of them went straight ahead and followed the main path.

"Forward and onward, Dispatch. At least this room seems pretty open. Less chance of an ambush, anyway." Jackie moved to follow the main path on the left, leaving a mental note about the right hand basement.

Dispatch gave a passing glance to the side hall. If these Heartless could just appear and disappear at will like that, then why would they leave footprints? He wondered what might be up the stairs, but splitting up would be a less than good plan, and his random side-thoughts weren't a real reason to argue, especially since an open area suited him better in a fight anyway. He nodded and followed along, making sure to keep his sword drawn this time.

The hall led to more stairs, these leading down to a landing. From there, the stairs continued down in the opposite direction, leading to an even wider space than before; this was a huge intersection of this and another main hallway, with more stone landings to the sides. This little hub probably connected to just about anywhere in the castle. The footprints were too chaotic to even interpret at this point.

Jackie frowned. Naturally, more traffic meant there were also likely many places to go, but hadn't counted on the hallway being so littered with places to come and go from. Nevertheless, Jackie slid along the walls, taking quick peeks into the rooms as she walked, moving quietly as much as she could.

Endless halls. There was nothing really visible just from the entryways; either the paths went straight ahead until it was impossible to see, or sharp turns blocked the way. One looked like the top of a spiral staircase, a draft blew from one of the ones on the second level, and another one had perhaps less sign of wear.

Great. Now they were lost. Dispatch sighed quietly to himself, again tempted to just blow the ceiling off the place. But he held back again, because nothing had changed from last time. It still wouldn't do them any good to bring the place down on themselves...would it? Probably not. He shut his eyes again; maybe they'd gotten closer to the castle's master, or maybe farther away. Either way, trying to sense their target should at least tell them something useful.

A draft meant airflow, and airflow meant progress, a return to the outside, or living creatures. The one less worn might be less used and thus with a lower chance of someone being behind it, and the spiral might lead downward, but so did the other staircase they'd neglected to take. Jackie marked the wall with her spear, discharging a tiny bolt of lightning to singe and mark their passage.

The thunderous sound of footsteps began to approach, starting distant, but growing louder. It was indistinct, rather than one large creature, it sounded like a lot of smaller ones. They didn't sound particularly organized, but there were definitely a lot of 'em approaching from the hall they'd just come from.

Dispatch's eyes snapped open as the sound broke his concentration. Had the dogs followed them? They only seemed to be coming from one side, but that could change in a heartbeat. That meant they had two options: run away, or stay put. So really, they had one option.

"You want the front or the back?"

Jackie stepped out of the doorway, behind Dispatch in the hallway. Spreading her grip on her spear wide, almost like an archer pulling a bow and arrow, ready to release, she held her spear, the tip crackling once more, over Dispatch's shoulder. "I'll cover you. Stay low." With the progress they'd made, surely she could afford a strong bolt or two.

Turning the corners was a host of stubby creatures. Pale, diminutive human-like things wearing old armor and carrying bows and spears. They were unaware of the two intruders as they began to approach, then stopped when they noticed them. They certainly didn't look like Heartless.

Finally, these little goons rallied to charge at them, blades-first. They looked weak, and weren't totally prepared for battle, but there were a lot of them.

Dispatch kicked off. Heartless or not, they were hostile, and giving them the chance to compose themselves wouldn't lead anywhere good. Besides that, he was losing his patience. As soon as he was in range, he slashed at their front lines with a yell of "HA!"

Panicking, the little goblin-things went down in swaths with one slash. These things were even weaker than the dogs. Every defeated one burst into bright green flames, collapsing into ash. Still, the ones nearby attempted to stick at Dispatch with their spears, while ones in the back aimed their bows at him, firing in arcs over their allies. Some of them aimed for Jackie, as well, standing to the sides of the crowd and aiming in flatter arcs, more directly towards her.

Whilst Dispatch was preoccupied with clearing the seemingly weak and insignificant enemies in front, Jackie took aim at the ones targeting Dispatch, and ducked low to avoid the ones targeting her. A weak bolt arced out, jumping and singing the walls and floor as it passed, and then another, and two more for the ones aiming at her.

As the arcs of lightning raced across the walls and floor, one of them cut through two close-together archers at once, another hit its mark, but one of them went slightly wide and only grazed its target while the other fell into the crowd, taking down a couple of the spear-wielding ones. The one that merely grazed its target, however, immediately changed course and shot through the body of its victim, changing vectors at a sharp angle mere inches away. These things were better conductors than air, which was almost certainly true before, but now it was confirmed.

Looking shocked at the sudden, magical destruction of half their bowmen, the remaining ones redoubled their efforts to hit Jackie before she smote them, too.

Dispatch, of course, was not inclined to let them pass. With few ranged fighters to pick away at him, he was free to cut through whichever spear-wielders dared come within reach of his sword. And with the hallway being as thin as it was, it took little effort to alternate between the two sides. These guys were almost as boring as the ones outside. Almost. At least these ones had something like a formation.