The Eastern Forest [POST HERE FIRST]

Abby was trying to make her way through the forest along the rest. She had soon had to tie her soaked hair into a knot as it kept getting stuck behind branches and leaves. Even though she wasn't feeling as fearless as she might have expected from herself, she was doing alright.

She had taken her eyepatch off for the time being, noticing that her scrying ability had some effect on the mist around her. It might not make everything clear to her, but at least the first few meters of her sight became much better when she used her special eye. Now that she left the patch off for longer, a few weird shining lines could be seen in her iris. It was subtle, but it was the thing that made her able to use the ability.

She knew that she had to pay attention, she couldn't lose the group now. This was an important mission, the first time she felt like she could actually be valuable to anyone in her life. She had to do this right.

After Karath had spoken she immediately turned to the sound and moved closer to Karath, the person she most trusted. "W-what was that?" she said, obviously a bit shaken from the sudden interruption.

As his companions readied themselves against the unknown, Kane mumbled repeatedly to himself, each whispered word causing the runes in his necklace to glow again and again as a blue aura surrounded the close knit party. A light magical shield, it's circumference was enough to cover them all but it was very brittle. The second Kane dropped his focus or something hit it with enough force it would surely shatter. But the shield would give them enough time to react and provide a sense of security.

As everyone readied their weapons, Abby took her whip of her hip and lashed it once to roll it out. She wasn't scared! Or at least she would never admit it. Ever so slightly the eletrictity in the whip could be seen as the blue gem lit up now that she was handling it.

She was happy to wait to see what  the threat was exactly, especially now that Kane's shield was protecting them against the first blow. 

Zero would stumble on through the woods for a long while, just looking around and generally checking out the area. He found the forest to be quite nice, with it's green trees and overall peaceful atmosphere.

Eventually, he would stumble upon a rather peculiar scene. He would appear out of the bushes just a bit a ways from where the feline creature appeared. Zero would notice Karath, Abby, and Kane seemingly getting ready for a battle, though his attention would immediately be taken by the creature. Zero seemed to quite impressed by the creature.

"Woah! I've never seen anything like that! It kinda looks like a cat..."

Zero had seen a couple cats before and would attempt to approach it to pet it, he had pet a few cats before and they were quite soft. He appeared to be unarmed and unarmored, wearing only some pants and nothing else, not even shoes for that matter. 

Karath rose his sword, positioning to deflect its tentacle by the edge of his scimitar should it puncture through the barrier. Just then Kane said to cover the eyes, and to this he instinctively shut them, hoping that the beast was deflected by either the spell or his blade. This left Karath also oblivious to the entrance of Zero, who walked nonchalantly up to the beast and tried to pet its fur.

From a safe distance, Skarlet raises her left arm and points at the beast. As soon as she willed it, two of her fingernails fired like bullets, enhanced by her magic. She watched to see if her shots would hit their mark, since this was her first time doing this, she needed to calibrate her aim. Her index and thumb now had no nails attached to them, but no blood came out since her heart does not pump on its own. Three nails left on this hand and it would take maybe half a day for them to grow back.

((Her nail projectiles would have the similar effect as a shot from a lower caliber gun))

Zero frowned in confusion as his hand phased right through the fake cat, and he felt nothing but air. A moment later, however, he was blinded by Kane's spell unexpectedly.

"Ow! What the heck was that?!" he called out in surprise, blinking rapidly. He was a bit panicked now, perhaps the cat wasn't friendly after all? He was still recovering his vision, which was all still a white blur when he heard the growl somewhere behind him. 

Zero didn't think after that and instead acted instinctively, impulsively.

"HRAAH!" he yelled, swinging his arm and open hand through the air much like he was slapping someone with the back of his hand as he turned around or fanning the air, but much more violently. 

His yell paled in comparison with what came next, as his strike at the air was incredibly fast and powerful. There would be a loud explosion-like sound in the same moment he swung, followed by a blast of rushing air in a cone towards the general direction he swung his hand towards. Trees, shrubs, everything in the resulting air shockwave's path would go flying and/or be torn to pieces. Even ancient trees over fifty feet tall with their deep roots would be torn from the ground and blown away. The attack would leave a small clearing in its wake consisting of broken tree limbs and other debris. More debris would fall from the sky a fair distance away for a good few seconds before everything settled completely. 

Zero's hand, now letting off a cloud of steam but otherwise unharmed remained still for a few moments before he would shakily lowered it. He did not know if he actually got the weird evil cat in his attack but he did regret destroying those trees.

"Oops..."

Only then it clicked with her what exactly she had been seeing. She thought her vision had been blurred from the explosion from Kane's barrier, but it shouldn't have. For a moment she closed her normal eye and now she could see the beast standing clear, meters away from where the others thought he was. She moved her eyepatch to her other eye, closing it off. "Don't attack! He isn't there! It is an illusion!" she shouted to the others right before Karath told them all to run.

She didn't hestitate for a second. She was small and because of that she was very fast and had no problem keeping up. "I can see him Karath, I can see through his illusion." she then told him followed by a shout to the whole group. "If i tell you to dodge, dodge! Even if you think you arn't going to be hit do what I say!" She then moved in behind Karath, making sure she could follow a path that he was creating and keeping an eye behind them so she could warn anyone of an attack of the beast.

"Hm." She didn't expect they would hit anyway. Since the decision was made to withdraw, she would run with everyone else. While running she turned toward where the beast was and leaped backwards so that she was still moving away. Skarlet then raised her arm, steadied it with her other hand a fired her thumb nail. While still going through the air she waited to see where it would hit before turning around again to resume running.