Chasing Legends

**Date Started:** September 15, 2021
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Users Involved:**User:Ash9876, User:ComicMaster619, User:Njalm2, User:Siver-Haired Seireitou
**Setting:** Whisker Peak
**Monsters Involved**: Coeurl
**Characters Involved**: Sadul, Axle Strider, Seina Shiramiya

## The Mystery at Whisker Peak

Whisker Peak loomed beyond the terrace of the elderly Madame Ozmonte, an heiress to a vast fortune she had taken it upon herself to collect magical paraphernalia and materials from all manner of magical beasts throughout her blessedly long life and her collection was almost complete! All it lacked was various assorted body parts from an elusive Coeurl who sometimes appeared in those mountains, she had waited her entire life for this moment, and her heart skipped a beat when rumors abound of one of those incredible creatures having surfaced within the crag.

Supporting herself on her cane she slowly turned away from the sight, as if fearing that it might all vanish into dreams and myths yet again the moment she left but her butler had told her that the mages she had called for were starting to arrive one by one.

Descending the grand black staircase she placed her hands on her cane as she awaited their arrival in the lobby, a spectacular room with black pillars wrought of smooth ebony and with a floor carpet made by a legendary tailor, one that depicted a variety of mythical creatures, including the majestic form of the Coeurl.

It was a large cat about the size of an elephant with whiskers so long that they ran the entire length of its body, and it was those whiskers she most desired. "Send them in as they arrive, Humphrey! My life is nearing its natural end and I will see the completion of my life's work till the end even if it kills me!" the small elderly woman practically shouted with excitement.

Sadul entered the incredibly grand manor. He was a Mage of Spartan Way who specialized in monster hunting. He was genuinely surprised at all of the mythical creatures laid out on the floor beneath him. As someone who understood mythical creatures greatly, he found it marvelous that this individual had knowledge of such a wide array of creatures.

He had heard several rumors of the Coeurl and its incredible power. He wished to see it for himself. In actuality, his purpose was not merely to hunt it, but to seize a portion of its strength for himself. Sadul could not do so without the permission of his employer. He knew that the Madame wished for its whiskers, and that's where the power of the Coeurl lied. If he could not have its power, then so be it. But the Spartan Mage had to test his might against the beast without fail, for it was said to be one of the strongest magical monsters in history.

Walking past the market place, Axle took in the scenery from the side of the street, walking at his own pace as he looked for the house matching the description on the job on the poster, keys jingling around his waist all the while reaching his destination. Greeted by large doors, it quickly became evident that the nature of the job wasn't so cut and dry, witnessing all manner of bits and pieces of magical beasts loitering the building, the sight churning his stomach somewhat as he felt a little out of place, taking a moment to compose himself and push onward to where the client was.

From his own personal experience as a martial artist, Axle learned to emulate the animals he saw and incorporate them in his own way of fighting, what started out as simple emulation soon grew into gratitude to the creatures that helped him become strong. But Axle recognized that he wasn't a hypocrite, as he wasn't above killing one if it meant defending himself. A job was a job, and he had the professional courtesy to see this through regardless of personal feelings, but hoped it could be avoided. From what he had heard about the rumored beast's strength and fabled status, he was a bit flabbergasted that it wasn't rated higher, maybe around S-Class given the fact other mages were participating aside from himself.

"Old hag, for someone so rich, surely you could afford something stronger than this?"

A melodic yet subtly fierce feminine voice lulled from the hallway connecting to the grand hall that was the manor's lobby. As if she naturally belonged like the owner herself, a woman with flowing silver hair strutted out toward the lobby, holding in her hands what appeared to be exceedingly expensive bottles of rare wines. Shaking one of them, her attention turned toward the elderly mistress of the manor, a narrow look of discontent thrust in her direction. "Are there any cups or something? I couldn't find any in the other room. Damn place is like a maze. Have you any idea how long it took me to find the booze?"

Perhaps stranger than her tone or her mannerisms was... how did she even get here? And undetected, at that. Certainly one of the many attendants who served Madame Ozmonte and cared for the manor would have noticed her, and alerted the mistress at once, right? At least one of them. But it was like she walked out from the void, rendering herself existent the moment her voice rang down the grand hall.

"No? No cups? Well fine..." Helping herself to one of the expensive liquors, she opened the top, letting it pop off somewhere, and began to partake right there in front of the madame herself, and those who were present for the coeurl job. Presumably, that was her true reason for being here, besides to ransack the liquor cabinets of the wealthy contractor.

"Hah..." Having taken a good swill of the liquor, she turned her sharp silver eyes toward the madame. "So, are you the one who posted the job?" Seina remarked, turning her sights on those who had arrived, before looking back at Ozmonte.

The servants that stood lined up by the walls looked as though they were ready to burst into action to rescue the fine vintage from the clutches of the unusual newcomer, undoubtedly they feared for their position and failure to protect her liquor cabinet. Madame Ozmonte gave no immediate reaction, her weary eyes coming to rest upon Seina and what followed was a short smile, as she recognized the woman and was happy to see her.

“I see that you have helped yourself to some refreshments I see, suit yourselves and share in it. I lost my sense of taste several years ago after all. Seina Shiramiya, what an unexpected but welcome surprise, with you here I feel much more at ease about this mission.”

Tapping her cane against the floor to call attention to herself the elderly heiress regained control of the conversation.

“Yes, I am Tilauna Ozmonte, and I summoned all of you here to fulfill a lifelong desire of mine.. I require the following from the body of a Coeurl, whether alive or dead; the whiskers, the eyes, the hide, the tail, the teeth and its claws. All of these materials are priceless in their own ways but I chiefly require them for my personal collection, my final magnum opus and the thing that will ease my passing when that time comes. Regardless of how you succeed the pay will be worth it for I am willing to offer you half my fortune, and should you succeed in bringing it back alive at all odds, safely sedated I might add then an item from my personal collection will be yours.”

"That woman is...!" Sadul thought to himself. He did not expect to see Seina Shiramiya here. But he kept his composure and listened to the madame intently.

He had to hide his irritation by clenching onto the hilt of his blade. All the parts that possessed magical significance, the madame desired it all. It was unfortunate. He was also a collector of beasts in his own way.

"Understood, Madame Ozmonte." Sadul bowed as his stature suggested. He did not have the reputation to be able to look at the elderly woman as an equal.

"Even in your advanced years, you're still a sly old witch, aren't you?" Seina mused, pleasantly surprised that of the memories one at that age would expect to suffer from the weathering of time, their chance encounter long ago still held some life to it in her mind. Upon listening to her explain the details of the job she intended to hire them for, the silver haired woman's casual look darkened ever so slightly yet its presence could not be mistaken. "A coeurl, huh..."

Seina was no spring chicken herself, despite her youthful appearance; a consequence of her travels, experiencing the very boundaries of this magical world. And yet for all her experiences, a coeurl was rare even for her. Even such a meeting, were it to have already happened, would have lasted only a moment. Those creatures which stood at the forefront of magical conception were like a flicker in this mortal existence, and even for someone of Seina's caliber, such a meeting was naught but limited to a sight akin to observing the flash of lightning in a transient storm.

Intrigue filled her expression. Enough so that she placed the bottle of liquor she held down onto a table and gathered herself.

Turning away from Ozmonte, Seina approached the mages who had also come seeking to join in the hunt. "The circumstances have changed. I was going to simply remove you all from the vicinity and take the reward for myself, but now that I know a coeurl is involved, I may actually need some assistance in taking the creature alive. I trust you all will bring your very best to the table, but I'm not expecting much. Just try not to get yourselves killed until I've secured the coeurl alive." she boldly declared.

Taking in all the details of the mission from Tilauna, Axle found the idea of taking on beast with such mythical status intriguing, but the cusp of the challenge being in capturing it alive, requiring a very specific set of skills to accomplish between three mages who, before today, had never met before. Catching the swordsman from the corner of his eye, from what he could make out on a first glance, the man wasn't that nervous or at all worried, if anything, exasperate. A particular detail that immediately caught his eye was his breathing and the ever tightening grip on his sword as subtle as it was, giving him some indicators the man was more than he appeared.

His train of thought however immediately reared itself somewhere else entirely after finally coming face-to-face with the noisy girl, her snide remarks failing to inspire any confidence that proved her point otherwise, Axle simply standing there, glancing at her with an indifference that treated her as if she were some kind of oddity, entertaining at first, but too tedious to look any further. "Pssshh, spare me. Its not so much as a question about bringing it, but whether or not you can match the ante that he and I are putting up."

Axle inhaled deeply through his nose, exhaling past his lips as he looked to the side, averting his eyes as he gave the mage a small nod, "excuse me," scooting a couple paces past the female wizard so as to introducing himself to his employer. "I can't speak on how It'll go Tilauna, but we'll get as much as we can from coeurl, no guarantees until after we start fighting it. But that kinda' begs the question where exactly we're supposed find such a legendary creature?"

The elderly woman turned towards Axle, affording him a long curious glance for a moment before she answered the question that lingered in the air. "Whisker Peak lies beyond the forest that surrounds my mansion, all you need to do is to venture there and you shall undoubtedly find the Coeurl at the heart of the crag; the Coeurl have reappeared there for centuries, and many a great battle has been fought for their treasures at the slopes of that mountain, hence its name. It is not known why they take so readily to that specific location but one has never failed to show, it was in fact there the Coeurl was recently sighted."

"..." Sadul wasn't particularly inspired by what Seina was saying, but he couldn't help but agree. Seina was far more experienced than either Axle or himself. It was only clear why Seina would be willing to put herself above her teammates in this situation. What interested him more was what Madame Ozmonte stated regarding the Coeurl's appearance.

"It is unfortunate." Sadul stated with a sad tone, looking at his Vahana. He clutched it tightly once more. "For the Couerl to appear in one place for centuries without fail..." Sadul began, almost wavering considering the client in front of him. "Perhaps it is waiting for someone to reach it." Sadul looked outward in the direction the Madame highlighted. "With every resurrection, it is brought down by humans lusting for its power. But nobody has once sought to ask what it desires."

Shaking his head and reorienting himself. "I can't be asking these things, not when I have a Job to do." Sadul bowed. "I apologize for that. Let us make a move on, then."

## Meeting Legends

The trek to the foot of Whisker Peak went through meandering trails through the undergrowth of the forest that sat at its base, as the group grew closer the bizarre shape of their destination became all the more pronounced for it looked as though some great hilltop had suddenly sprouted a crown of earthly spines that stretched for hundreds of feet in all directions in diagonal patterns, and at a slightly bent angle besides, obscuring what lay beyond the stones and what one might assume was the likely lair of the beast they were presently pursuing.

Undoubtedly, there was something distinctly off-putting about that peak, it did not feel rightly natural in a way that was hard to place, as though it was simultaneously *more **and** less than* the surrounding landscape, a figment of an overactive imagination or a delusion conjured by some fever dream. Yet at the same time, it seemed almost *too* real, as if the rest of the world around that peak was the bleakly colored background in an otherwise outstanding piece of artistry.

If there was a place where one might encounter living legends, surely it would be there, and sure enough it did not take long before it showed itself. For the next moment, it was just there.. upon the outermost-facing spine of rock that jutted out from the mountain, the one directly facing the direction of its hunters.

As the moonlight shone, it reflected off its coat, which sparkled in the night like a bed of fallen stars, its long whiskers unfurled and its head held high. For a moment it looked down at them, and then it growled.

Barely audible though it was, the air seemed to thicken with the stuff of magic at once, heavy and uncomfortable like the atmosphere before a thunderstorm. Breathing became more difficult as oxygen thinned, dispelled by the raw energies that began to suffuse the grounds.

Then its whiskers twitched, just slightly, and the woodland turned against them, as the five largest trees in the clearing they’d just entered tore free of the ground of their own accord and began to drift about in mid-air before swooping downwards towards the group in succession, sweeping back and forth if able to repeatedly batter and crush its hunters into submission, as the Coeurl wielded the megaflora as improvised clubs.

"Already!?" Sadul gasped briefly, breaking his calm. He took a breath and tried to control himself once again. The megaflora around the three Mages was ready to strike them at full force. They weren't prepared for a confrontation this early, but that didn't mean that Sadul couldn't adapt.

"Mustaka!" Sadul announced boldly, as magical energy flared from his blade, the Vahana. A grey magical energy covered his blade. As the trees were about to smash into the Mages, Sadul leaped upwards and pointed his blade downwards.

"Follow up after me, please!" Sadul announced to his companions as the magical energy surrounding his blade suddenly took on a tangible form. It expanded almost instantly and reformed itself into a gigantic version of the blade, with the exact same features, being a completely grey blade of magic that was double Sadul's height.

Without delay, he forced himself downwards and stabbed the blade onto the ground, releasing a shockwave of such proportion that the ground was upheaved, sending several rock formations flying outwards from just beyond Sadul, Seina and Axle's immediate vicinity. They smashed directly against the trees, adding into the potency of the shockwave formed by Sadul's blade, pushing back the trees from immediately striking them and giving them a brief opening to destroy them in one fell swoop.

Although Sadul prepared for the possibility of having to deal with the trees himself, he waited briefly to see how his comrades would be able to handle a situation of this caliber.

"Right." Without any further delay, Axle leapt off the ground, racing after the trees that had momentarily stopped in mid air from the shockwave, sprinting on the ground before reaching one of five structures, his pace accelerating before running across the long slender bark of the tree on all fours, the agility and nimbleness applied reminiscent to that of a feline. Outstretching his fingers, magic quickly began to gather alongside the edges to form claws, imbedding his fingers into the oak to cut up the structure, quickly darting upward in circles to race his way to the top of the tree.

Shredding the tree into multiple large sections, Axle followed through by delivering a combination of kicks to them in mid-air, lunging the large pieces against one of the other trees suspended in the air, smashing directly into it with such force that it sent it, alongside the cut up pieces, into the other trees, creating a domino effect that knocked the trees against one another off to the side, bunching them up together to be destroyed all at once.

"Seina, you're up!"

"No, I don't think so."

Seina responded without missing a beat, her tone sharp yet casual. She seemed unconcerned with the situation, even as the trio were ambushed by the magical creature. So much so that she turned away from the coeurl, bending her knee to pick up one of the tiny fragments of flora that scattered across the battlefield. She seemed to inspect it before turning back to look at the two mages.

"You two need to hit it harder. Stop pussyfooting around and bring out the big guns. Force the coerul to fight back as hard as it can."

Making a wide sweeping motion with the hand which grasped the twig caused it to ignite into a bright white flame before vanishing. *"This won't be easy, but at its core, the coeurl is a creature like any other. Driven by its instincts. If we can back it into a corner..."* Seina crossed her arms underneath her chest and kept her eyes fixed on the other two mages, wondering how they will respond. It wasn't that she was intentionally being difficult, but she was not the type to rush into a fight. No, she planned to observe. To study.

But she didn't plan to leave her teammates empty-handed. Raising her right hand in their direction, the two mages would find a white hue draped around their shoulders. To her, it was a simple enchantment, and to them, it would likely feel as a simple enhancement. But there were subtle complexities to this enchantment. Ethernano was what powered magic in this world. When the magic power within a mage's container emptied, the ethernano in the atmosphere would flow into the mage to restore their power. It was a standard principle of equilibrium between a mage and the world. But with enchantments, this equilibrium could be manipulated. Controlled. This was one such enchantment Seina cast. Her spell drove the ethernano equilibrium in the direction of the mage, causing ethernano to flow into the two mages at a considerable rate without requiring them to empty their reserves first.

Seina’s assessment was correct, as one would expect of a mage of her extraordinary background, the coeurl was despite its incredible magical abilities ultimately a beast like any other and that was the primary thing that made it distinct from dragons. Yet even if this was the case, the particularities of its core ability, the unique magic of Arcanametry ensured that its intelligence was nonetheless difficult to pinpoint for its instincts often mirrored those of the legendary mages it mimicked.

It was this animalistic cunning combined with an instinctive if incomplete knowledge of the intricacies of deeper magics that drove it to act in a way that seemed almost strategic, for whilst its pursuers were dealing with its preliminary attack which was not even a proper spell at all, merely an expression of its psychokinetic abilities it's slitted eyes of gold were watching each of them in turn.

*Memorizing* their spellcraft, understanding it, and assimilating it in simple ways, the magics used by the two male hunters did not interest it much but when it witnessed Seina’s act of magic, its whiskers began to billow and flutter as if in the wind as silvery light shone from the appendages, spreading throughout its body like a dim white flame. Replicating the effects of Seina’s enchantments, for as its eyes remained fixed on her it could even peer into her mind, scooping relevant information about her spell and thereby improving its use significantly.

It then heaved backwards, its whiskers beginning to move in erratic patterns as it from its vantage point almost a mile away made its next move. Its most unusual features began to shimmer with emerald light, dancing and twirling about it, gathering screeching ribbons of dark energies that only rose into a deafening cacophony of screaming voices. The coeurl’s body was illuminated in effulgent light that cast a ghastly sheen upon its otherwise pristine silhouette, then the whisker convulsed, crackled, curled and snapped forwards with a thunderclap as thousands of screeches were unified into a singular force.

It exploded from the empty air, as though expunged from the darkest corners of the netherworld itself, it was an army of ghastly green skulls, that flew down the sides of the hill towards the three invaders and sought to sweep over them, tearing, nibbling and eating away at their flesh, and hoping to fill their spirits with overwhelming dread.