Strange grey cat (OniKirin [Open to Bounts])

"Curiosity killed the cat." The hollow muttered as he landed softly on the roof. Indeed it was curiosity that had brought him here. For some time he had noticed an odd signature. At first he thought it was a shinigami, but it never pursued him. Then he though it to be human, but there was something odd about it. He kept his distance and observed a signal disappearing when the other was present. Was it a hollow? His stalking finally bore fruit; he traced it back to this area. More specifically to the large manor that sprawled before him. Such a huge place. He reached out with his senses again, faintly he could feel something, but not completely. He suppressed his energy, and crept along the roof. There were windows he moved closer to a portal to look inside. It was too dark to see. "Curiosity..." he muttered once again, with a clawed hand he smashed the glass as quietly as possible. If there was someone inside he didn't want to alert them. Whoever lived here could be a hollow; perhaps another alliance could be forged. But if it was a human, he didn't want to scare off his meal. Through the window he climbed and into a semi-dark hallway. He sniffed the air, the building was old. There was a old style elegance to it. Quality workmanship in the woodwork and the crafting. Why would anyone live in such a huge place alone? Walking softly through the hallway he moved to the first door he saw. It was awkward to manipulate the handle, but he open the door. The room was empty, the hollow sighed as he glanced down the hall. There many more doors.

Hania had been heading back home with the other two Bounts in tow, to show them their new residence. With the three of them, they might be able to make a community for their kind, after all. Slowly, but surely others would flock to the Mansion to live in peace. Hania was determined to make it a place for his new Tribe, a Tribe of immortals like him who needed a place safe from shinigami, quincys and Corrupted Totems (Hollows).

Coming up to the doorway, he turned to the other two and spread his arms wide, a smile upon his face. "Welcome to your new home. As I said earlier, feel free to make use of the grounds as you wish, so long as it does not draw attention to us. Inside, you can pick whatever room you wish to have as your own."

He turned and pointed at the upstairs portion of the mansion. "Just be careful, since I have not yet had the time to straighten everything up. I have not even ventured upstairs yet, or the basement. I've been busy with the main floor."

Hototo was still walking near the other two Dolls, her tail wagging, until her nose picked up something that made her tail stop, her muzzle turning from a smile into a fierce snarl. She growled loudly at the scent, sending a dreamlet into Hania's mind...

There is the scent of corruption here...

Hania frowned slightly, reaching behind him and drawing the long knife he always carried with him. He focused a bit of his spiritual energy into the weapon in order to fight this Corrupted Totem.

"My friends, it seems we may have a bit of an unwelcome visitor in our home. Let us properly greet them, shall we?"

As they made their way up to the building, Sirene suddenly grabbed Akira's hand tightly. He glanced her way and recognized the alerting look on her face that was a silent signal between them meaning something was amiss. She'd heard something in the building that betrayed the presence of another. Their suspicions were reinforced when Hototo's attitude changed from her happy appearance to the fierce growl. Hania seemed to be ready to fight, and Akira was just as willing. Most likely it was a hollow...the beings he hated more than anything.

"How do you guys feel we should proceed? I think we should try and lure the intruder outside so that all three of us can deal with it."

Akira had proposed this plan while looking at Dalrag's immense size. They didn't want to cause unneeded damage to their new home after all. The grounds would be the perfect place for all three dolls to cooperate and overpower the foe.

OOC: Since there are 3 of you I will be replying at points to avoid a string of attacks should they arise.

Eight rooms and still nothing. He marveled at the size of the place. Perhaps once he killed the occupant he would take it for his own. As he chuckled at the thought he felt the new presences arrive. "Three of them!?" he had observed only one person coming and going from this place. Now there were three? He had broken in from back of the house, the signals came from the front. If he could ambush them somehow. But that might not be possible, this was their house. They probably knew the layout better than he did.

Isaac was wondering what the place looked like, but something else caught his attention"a hollow"isaac said to himself as they approached the large mansion."so how are we gonna approach this situation" isaac said to his new comrades. Isaac wasnot going to use dalrag in the house so the courtyard would be the best area for them to fight this creature."you want me to just destroy the place isaac"dalrag said to isaac."no dalrag why do you have to always go the destroy this route"isaac sighed as he waited for a response from his comrades.

Hania nodded to both of them. Indeed, their plans were good ones, yet he wondered if staying out in the open would be as good of an idea as they originally thought. Looking to the left and right, he saw that things could indeed get a bit hectic here in the next few minutes...if they fought out in front of the mansion, then it was highly likely mortals would see the strange occurrences, making their safe haven useless...

Hania pointed towards the back yard, which was far more secluded than the front. "We'll attack from behind. That way we can use our full powers with less chance of being seen by the neighboring houses."

He looked at both of his fellow Bounts and spoke to Hototo. With a nod, the wolf looked at their companions and spoke to them all in a dreamlet.

Do not be alarmed at what you believe you are hearing. This is to prevent our enemy from overhearing us...I need you both to show me, in your current daydream, what powers you possess to utilize a proper attack against our enemy

The wolf stayed there, watching them, concentrating on her quick dreamlets, as Hania kept watch. He twirled the long combat knife a few times, his hunter instinct taking over. It had been far too long since his last battle..he was getting excited. He always wondered if it was possible to take a Corrupted Totem's mask as a trophy...he'd never had the chance. if he could, he would definitely claim this one's and mount it upon the doorway as an example to other Corrupted Totems what happened when you messed with a group of Bounts...

Akira and Sirene shared a passive glance between them after hearing Hototo's explanation. The truth was that their power was not that strong yet, and that their strength in battle depended on versatility and amazing teamwork from the two. Akira held out his hand and let Sirene take hold of it. They found it easier to sych their minds when in physical contact with each other. Therefore, this was the easiest way to give the best daydream demonstration to Hototo.

Akira began a quick mental battle in his mind's eye, taking place at a quincy stronghold. Approaching the wall of the building the quincies were in, he directed Sirene to use an amplified screech to weaken the stone wall and shatter a gaping hole in it. The quincies inside reacted quickly, forming their bows and preparing to draw back. Another screech from Sirene caused their heads to ring with pain and their concentration to falter. Many of their bows dissolved from the distraction in concentration. Akira took the opportunity to dart forward and begin a physical assault on the group of them with quick and precise kicks and elbow blows. As one final quincy too far to reach in time pulled back on his bow, Akira grabbed Sirene's hand and lifted her into the air. During this ascension, her body transformed into a beautiful longsword that resembled a giant feather. Flinging this new weapon like a frisby, Akira managed to slice the quincy in half.

Akira remained silent to maintain their stealth planning, and asked Hototo in his mind, hoping she could hear his thoughts as well as see his daydream, "Is that enough of a demonstration?"

Isaac heard the voice of Hanias doll"so you need a demostration of me and my doll, ok here you go". isaac invisioned himself walking in a forest chasing after a large hollow that killed a human, this hollow looked like a minotaur. Isaac encountered the hollow in a clearing in the forest, but this hollow had companions with him. one was a snake like one the other was like anteater. Isaac summoned Dalrag to deal with the larger one while he dealt with the hollows companions. Isaac ran at the snake like one barely dodging its strike then grabbing it by its end of its tail then putting his foot on its head then isaac pulled seperating its head from body. As it dissolved in his hands he saw Dalrag grab the minotaur like hollow by the arm and tearing it off, before he could rip off the other one it rammed dalrag pushing him back, hahaha dalrag laughed as he focused on the stone underneath the ground and forcing it up, dalrag lifted the stones eye level with him and then tossed them at the hollow, it hit it in the face crushing it and making it dissolve. Isaac stopped watching dalrag and focused on the anteater, isaac rushed it and grabbed it by its tendril like snout and then started to swing it above his head then tossing it towards dalrag, dalrag grabbed it and crushed it. Isaac made the battle end in his mind."so is that a good demostration of my powers"he said to Hototo.

Something was wrong, the three signals at the front of the house hadn't moved. If this was their home, why would they not enter. He started to move toward the front of the house. From an upper window he glanced outside. He saw the several figures standing there. What could they be waiting for? Perhaps there was a way to set and ambush. He found the stairs and moved toward the front door. Stratus proceeded to spray the area with his sticky slime. Anyone walking in would be captured. As he thought about it there were also too many windows to enter through. Grinning to himself he began to spray all the floor below the windows with slime. He quickly moved along the ground floor covering with sticky slime. Once complete he climbed onto the ceiling. His gray body hidden in the shadows.

Hototo nodded to each of them in their dreams. Indeed, these skills might prove to be very useful...combining Hototo's Dreams to make their enemy hallucinate, followed by the screams of one doll to disorient the enemy, followed by the other doll's powerful crushing blows, they could make short work of their home's invader.

Now all that remained was to draw the enemy out...

He hated to do it, but the house might have to take a bit of damage in order to save the majority of it. Seeing Akira's Doll in the dream use her ability to destroy sections of a wall and disrupt spirit particles, Hototo forwarded the information to Hania in yet another dreamlet. With a smile, Hania pointed at one side of the wall and spoke to Akira.

"Use your Doll on that wall on the left. We will have to do some rebuilding, but that's a small price to pay."

If the enemy was there, then the scream might hit it and start them off with an advantage. If not, then they would have a much easier time seeing into the house for any sort of ambush that might have been set up. Plus, if the enemy used attacks that used spirit particles, Akira's Doll would neutralize them, giving yet another advantage...

((Not sure if the slime is made of spirit particles or not. Here's hoping! :3 ))

Akira nodded slowly. He was not bothered by this move. Sometimes, sacrifices were required in order to bring about better results. Standing behind Sirene, he placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face the wall Hania had indicated. Focusing both of their powers together, they readied themselves for a furious preemptive strike on the mansion's interior. Akira synced their power timed with Sirene's attack by signaling her like a music conductor.

"One, Two, Three, FOUR!"

Sirene's cry burst out of her in an intensity that would likely knock out any normal human from the sudden shock of the volume. The sound slammed into the mansion, instantly shattering the wall's windows. Mere moments later, the inner stability of the wall was broken and fell to the ground shattered, leaving a large hole in the side of the building. Some of the inside furniture had been disturbed by the initial force of the sound waves and laid scattered around on the floor. Akira kept his eyes locked on the room inside, watching for movement while Sirene listened closely for any sounds.

(ooc: unfortunately, Sirene's screams can't directly neutralize spiritual abilities. She can only disorient and break people's concentration, thus disturbing any ability that requires focus.)

There was a piercing noise and the wall wast torn to shreds by an invisible force. Was it the wind? Stratus could only guess what had happened, but it became clear; they knew he was inside the mansion. From the ceiling he had a decent view of the newly made entrance. The slime he had put on the floor was now covered with debris and dirt from the shattered wall.
"Great..." he sighed. He inched is way long the ceiling to position himself above the hole. Hanging by only his feet he created two blades. He arched his head back so he could see directly below himself. As soon as someone came through he could drop right upon them or drop behind them.

Isaac saw the decimation of akiras doll"not bad" he said as he prepared dalrag for the coming fight, but something was off the hollow didnt come out of the mansion could it be planning an ambush."wait before we go in, im gonna send in dalrag to see if its a trap" isaac said to his allies. As isaac said that dalrag walked to the hole in the mansion and stuck his head in, dalrag saw something perched on the ceiling and reached for it, to throw it out of the house.

OOC: Dood, zero subtlety.

A large shadow appeared and then an odd shape entered. From his current angle it was hard to make out what it was. But there was no doubt it had created the shadow he had seen seconds ago.
"What the hell is that?" he whispered. Almost on cue the large shape shifted upward, and he locked eyes with whatever it was. Another shape came through the hole, this time it was obvious what it was. It was a large oddly shaped hand reaching to grab at him. As the fingers approached Stratus lashed out with his emerald weapons. Rather than being rewarded with a fount of blood there was the familiar sound of stone being broken by his swords. The crystal ate at the stone hand, but did little to halt it's advance. Before the hand could close on him and crush him, he released his grasp on the ceiling. The hand closed but only had air. The gray hollow dropped directly on the creature's massive head. He drove his weapons into the large eyes, and leaped backwards into the mansion. There was no way the creature could fit into the building, he figured a retreat was best. He climbed the stairs back to the second floor.

Hania smirked at his ally's initiative. He was about to suggest sending the sturdiest Doll in to investigate: glad to see he had others thinking along the same line as he was. Watching the large stone Doll head into the house, he looked over at Akira and nodded to the man, pointing at the upstairs portion.

"Target the upstairs this time, just to be certain. I want to keep this thing from finding any decent hiding spots."

As he gave the order, he placed a hand upon Hototo, looking down at her with a smile. "You are going to charge in and assist the Rock Totem. Whatever is in there should be susceptible to your nightmares. Give the large one some sort of support as it-"

His sentence was cut off as whatever was in there attacked, severing a hand and driving its weapons into the golem's head. Hania was unable to get a decent glimpse of what it looked like, simply a streak of gray and green. Swearing under his breath, he drew his knife and dashed inside, running alongside his wolf companion. He shouted behind him to Isaac and Akira.

"Akira, keep shooting at the house. The walls can be easily repaired, lives cannot. Isaac, get in here. It's time to hunt!"

Akira understood Hania's orders, but decided to improvise on them a tiny bit. Blindly attacking the walls outside the building would do little against the foe if they moved deeper into the mansion. Rather than cause such foolish damage, he wanted a clear shot at his enemy to try and disable them so that the others could finish them off. Dashing forward after the leader and his wolf, he called back to Sirene to give her instructions. "Stay close behind me Sirene. We're going to try and get a better shot at the intruder!"

Sirene obliged and began soaring after Akira at shoulder height. They reached the hole made by her previous attack in time to see a tall humanoid moving away from Dalrag and up the stairs to the second floor. Though they only got a quick glimpse, Akira distinctly saw the hole in the creature's chest. It was a hollow! He pointed at the top of the stairs and gave his order.

"Fire in that direction! Use a lesser frequency that will just confuse it!"

Sirene obeyed and rang out a scream just as loud as the one she'd used on the building, but she amplified this one in a different way so that the stairs wouldn't be destroyed by the sound. They needed to preserve them so that they could give chase.

As he raced up the stairs he felt himself stagger. Something was wrong, his sense of balance began to warp. He looked down towards the hole in the wall as smaller figures entered this time. He leaped over the last few steps to the second floor. He shook his head and stumbled along the hallway. He turned to the stair he had just ascended and fired a sheet of slime across the opening. He shakedly reached forth and forced his energy into clime. It became crystal.
"That should slow them down." he uttered, still shaking his head as if to rid it from some odd thought. He was feeling dizzy. There were stairs on the other side, so all he had done was buy himself some time.

As isaac saw dalrag get injured but quickly healed from it, but before he could check on him isaac heard hania tell him to rush in with him. As he was running with hania he saw akira run by and let his doll use her powers on the hollow. As isaac made it in he saw the stairs covered in a crystal like straucture"you think thatll stop me"isaac yelled as he ran at it and punched it shattering the crystal into pieces. Isaac looked at his hand his knuckles were slit and blood dripped down onto the floor"that stuff is stronger than i thought"isaac said as he ran after the hollow, it looked like a humanoid one but grey and it also had hair"how odd, never seen one look like that"isaac said as he approached the stumbling hollow that seemed still affected bt akiras dolls power. The hollow was in a hallway that was preety long but he needed dalrags hand with this one"sorry for the damage im about to cause"isaac shouted to hania as he called dalrag"yo dalrag come through the other side" as issac said that there was a huge rumble and a hole appeared at the end of the hallway and dalrags upper body came in and saw the creature that injured him"there you are, you think im going to let you get away with the injury you caused me"dalrag said as he reached for the hollow.

Hania watched as Akira instead ran in with him, rather than fire at the outside of the house. The scream his Doll emitted made him a bit woozy, but luckily it had not been aimed at him, but rather their intruder. Now that the six of them were inside, fighting this Hollow could be done a bit easier, since they were not drawing as much attention from the outside world.

He blinked as Isaac suddenly ran right past him and up the stairs, shoting something at the top of them that Hania was unable to make out. He saw Dalrag shove it's regenerated rocky fists up through the ceiling to try and grasp hold of the Hollow. With so many enemies, the creature was surely going to either wear itself out, be captured, or flee their home, all of which were good ideas to the man. Until something came to mind...

One of them had called the Corrupted Totem a "Hollow"...he had heard such a phrase from past enemies, be they shinigami or quincy. If they were enemies of this creature, then perhaps the enemy of his enemy could be his friend...

Slowly walking up the stairs, long combat knife in hand and Hototo at heel, the native american made his way upstairs, looking down at the shattered crystals and blood spots from Isaac's earlier punch. Raising his voice, he spoke.

"Isaac, hold. Now that we have the creature's attention, perhaps we might make this enemy into an ally...I have heard that Hollows despise the shinigami and quincy as much as we do...perhaps an alliance of sorts might be a better option than gaining yet another faction wishing for our destruction?"

Looking around for the Hollow, he spoke loudly once more, keeping his knife at the ready. "Creature of Corruption, come out where we can see you. Perhaps we can end this without any actual bloodshed..."

The hollow sneered beneath his mask. He laughed aloud at the man's proclamation "No, there will be bloodshed, your blood human." The cattle was putting on airs since they had the upper hand. This wasn't looking good. From behind and in front there was an attacker. He was shocked the stone creature wasn't dead, but since it was stone he wondered if it was truly alive. He pushed such thoughts away. He had to get away from them. He spied a window and ran, before either the huge hand or man could reach him he dove through the glass head first. Stratus quickly viewed the outside. The large stone man stood hunched over the building. Coming outside he'd have to face that behemoth. Already falling mid air he half turned, he spied another window below him and shot a strand of slime a the outer wall. The green fluid struck and held, he swung back at the building slamming heavily against it. Slowly he lowered himself to the new window. He smashed the frame and broke the window and the woodwork around it, he landed in a puddle of his slime and we hopped back inside.

For a second he forgot he could free himself from the sticky puddle, there were afew more puddles in the hallway, he made a note to avoid them. Suppressing his energy the gray hollow walked down the hallway then stopped. A devious thought had worked into his head. Stratus created a small bit of crystal on his finger. He held it close to a pile of slime and snapped. A small spark flew from the slime and hit the puddle. The emerald liquid ignited instantly into flames. The fire ate at the floor and ran to the next puddle, and then the next. In a matter of moments the hallway was ablaze and a thick black smoke filled the air. Stratus coughed on the foul air as the smell struck his nostrils. Like a living creature the fire now spread from the puddles to the rest of the building licking way and jumping across the floor. In a matter of moments the whole bottom floor would be consumed by the fire. "Let's see if these chickies can fly!" he cackled as he made way to the front of the house.

What was Hania thinking? The mere thought of allying himself with a hollow made Akira sick to his stomach. The memories of that night they killed his master still burned in his mind as fierce as ever. Even still, he wasn't willing to break a newly made friendship with his own kind over this one misguided consideration. If the hollow acted like its kind usually did, Akira had no need to worry. Rather than wishing to ally itself with them, it would only be seeking power and violence.

Akira and Sirene watched from the bottom floor as Hania and Isaac made their way up to the second floor and followed the hollow. Soon after, he heard the sound of breaking glass. Several moments later, he smelled the smoke and felt the heat of the fire the hollow had started. It was large and spreading throughout the first floor fast. They had no way to fight it and there didn't seem to be enough time for the others to get back downstairs and escape before it covered their exit.

Akira dashed over to the foot of the stairs and called up to the other two. "Don't know if you guys are aware, but the hollow has set the place on fire! I recommend immediate evacuation! Can Dalrag get all three of you out?"

As issac was about to approach the hollow to end it, but he was halted by hanias voice"whatever you say"as hania called to it the hollow ran out the window"not a very chatty one is he"isaac said in a sarcastic tone. As isaac was about to comment on another thing he heard akira say the the little bugger set the house ablaze."dalrag can you please grab us"isaac shouted as dalrag shoved his whole body in the house and laid his hands down to pick isaac, hania, and hototo up.

Flames had now consumed most of the floor. Stratus encased his legs in crystal as he walked thought he blaze. His legs felt warm, but didn't burn. Still no sign of the other from upstairs. He could hear shouts coming from the current floor. Was someone still down here? He moved out of the burning hallway toward the stairs. He peeked around the corner, there was a man standing there. One stayed below, he should take him down before the other could join him. From the hallway he charged to the foot of the stairs to pounce on the solitary human. His claws glistened in the dim light.

Smoke was beginning to thicken as the flames spread further and grew in intensity. Akira wasn't sure if the others had heard his warning. The roar of the flames had grown to an annoying crackle that made hearing things on the second floor a bit difficult. But he had to worry about himself and Sirene now. The flames would soon block their way back to the hole in the wall and cut off their escape.

"Akira-sama, watch out!"

Sirene had heard the sounds of the hollow's charging footsteps and warned Akira so he wouldn't be struck down by a surprise attack. He wheeled to face the foe, the flames reflected in his eyes magnifying his hate filled appearance for the creature. Widening his stance to meet the hollow head on, he said one word to let Sirene know what to do. "Schlachtruf!"

Sirene stood behind Akira to not get in his way as he fought the hollow. Singing out with a few scale notes, she used her schlachtruf ability. The sounds of her voice carried her spirit power down into Akira's brain and triggered a mental release of normal muscle limiters. Just as the hollow slammed into him, his body grew slightly more bulky in appearance as his muscles all flexed with intense strength. He grabbed hold of the hollows wrists to prevent its claws from reaching him, knowing that he'd be in big trouble if the large things got a clean slice on him. He then proceeded to grapple with the hollow, trying to force it back away from him. This close together, he couldn't have Sirene blast the hollow with a scream since it would likely stun him too. Pain shot through his arms as he tried to hold the hollow back, a result of straining them at this level of strength. His muscle fibers wouldn't hold for long at this pace. His eyes glanced in all directions, looking for a solution. Finally, he rested his gaze on the ceiling.

"Sirene! Blast the ceiling! Bring it down on us!"

The young doll didn't understand Akira's plan, but obeyed his order without hesitation. Her scream shot up into the soot darkened ceiling and caused it to fracture the same way the mansion's wall had before. Akira gave one last burst of effort and shoved himself away from the hollow as a large section of ceiling came crashing down on the spot they'd been standing. He grabbed Sirene and began dashing through the crumbling room, narrowly avoiding more falling debris. The ceiling's broken materials buried the flames blocking the hole in the wall, allowing Akira to carry his doll back out in front of the mansion. They both waited for their allies, knowing that the hollow wouldn't have been defeated by such a simple trick.