castleinthemist | 02

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02 - open

Toph knew she found the courtyard through various senses. She could smell the fresh air, hear the birds, and feel the warm sunlight and cool breeze. The hard stone from the castle faded into softer walkway stone as she moved out into the yard. When her feet touched the grass, she smiled to herself. No longer was the resonance of vibration from the earth surging out and back at her with all its strength. Instead, it met resistance and the grass muffled her senses as it tickled her feet, creating a sort of static for her until it gave way under her soles to let foot meet soil and allow the reverberations communicate to her nearly half a second later than solid ground.

It was a strange sensation, but she welcomed it. It calmed her, and she continued to smile while she moved to what she thought was a nice spot.

She breathed calmly and evenly as she took her stance. One move, another, and then a third, and a perfectly shaped chaise rose up from the ground. She felt proud of herself as she moved to it and lay down, body lying comfortably against the contour of the grass-covered reclining seat.

Once decidedly comfortable, Toph pulled a flask from her belt and took a drink from it. Nice, cool water. She'd stolen the idea from another castle inhabitant and had made one out of a chunk of metal ripped from her bed frame. He used his for naughty juice; she used hers for water.

Toph felt a little guilty. Most of the castle was trying to figure out how to get out of there. She, though, wasn't putting so much effort into it. Sure, she wanted to leave, but what could she do? She'd promised a new friend that she wouldn't go far without eyes to help her spot the monsters she couldn't detect. While she wanted to do her part of the exploring and searching for a way home, she didn't want to be useless in a fight against a flying shadow with claws.

There were very few times that Toph would admit her blindness to be a hindrance. A skirmish against the monsters that moved without contact or sound was one of those very few times.

"I'll just wait for a friend," she told no one before closing her eyes and laying her head back against her arm.

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That would be convenient as hell, and the thought actually earned a smile that unfortunately Toph couldn't see. His double always seemed to be just slightly ahead of him in thought, but age likely had a factor in that.

"Any way to get 'round this place would be better than what we got right now," he added in, making a mental note to look for other places that Toph could use her power to that effect.

Toph shook her head as she approached the wall in question, fists clenched at her sides.

"Y'know, I'm beginning to think you only have me around for my Bending," she said, smirking to herself.

She shoved her hands against the wall, feeling the vibrations shoot out and then back to her. Palms flat, she dug her fingers into the hard stone like it was damp ground.

Without much more effort than that, she pulled hard on the wall. A slab of stone followed her, and many others ran parallel to it until she indeed had formed a set of stairs leading to the next level.

She smirked wider and leaned an elbow on one of the stairs.

"There. How's that?"

Duo didn't acknowledge that comment from Toph, glancing back at his double to nod in fragrance. He was quick to think, but it was weird that his double was much better at spotting the puzzles than he was.

He watched the little bending master do her thing. Now this room was easily navigated and no more running from shadows from far off places only to have to climb down that chain in a hurry.

About to speak, he backed up suddenly from the left. "Shadows! Over there!"

He drew his club and pointed over to the shadow portal. He was ready this time. Felt much better with a weapon.

"Noooo... it's your winning personality. I swear," Duo said with an even bigger grin at Toph. He was impressed with her skill, but that didn't leave her free of his occasional teasing.

And then Duo called out about the shadows. At least they were ready this time.

"Damn bastards don't waste any time, do they?!"

Teasing was just fine with her. In fact, she would have teased back had she not forgotten all about it to give her attention to where they were pointing instead. She turned, a fighting and Bending stance ready and waiting.

"Wait, where are they?" she asked, actually surprised. She knew Duo had said that the monsters were probably more dangerous to her than others, but she hadn't quite believed him. Hey, a lot of people thought a lot of things were dangerous to her.

But this...

... this made her incredibly uncomfortable. But she wouldn't let that show.

Duo glanced between his two companions and started moving forward, taking point. "Straight ahead of me, Toph."

Why couldn't these things be the ones that made noise? Rattled chains? Scruffed up against the floor so she could hear them?

One of the shadows charged at him and he took a big swing of his club just as it neared him.

Duo stayed close to Toph since his double was taking point. He knew he was lacking in hand to hand skills since it wasn't something he practiced on a regular basis. Thankfully these things weren't so much skilled as they were quiet and hard to hit.

"Portal's right in front of us, about twenty feet," he answered Toph, twirling his scythe-like weapon. "Just stay by me, I'll direct you if any of 'em get close!"

The small body clenched tight and she glared unseeing eyes in the direction they were telling her.

"Just tell me where to hit," she told them.

She didn't need to close her eyes to increase focus, but she did, anyway, perhaps out of instinctual reflex. She concentrated on the boys, more importantly their heartbeats and movements. She could tell if they were hurt and if anything was too close to them for comfort.

Maybe she couldn't be the main offense against these baddies, but like always, she made one hell of a supportive defense.

His shadow took the hit and turned back around with a back hand to his chest, claws nicking his chest and tearing his shirt. He jumped back from another strike and swung his club again at what had to be the thing's head. That knocked the other thing back, but his club smacked into the wall, wedging into a little nook with one of it's stylish edges. It was stuck for a moment and Duo was about to take another hit when said defense came right up out of the ground.

A slab of stone between him and his enemy. Gave him time to get his weapon back.

"Thank!" He said with gratitude, tugging that thing out only to dash forward when the slab fell to beat that thing into the ground.

Meanwhile Two more were heading for the other Duo and Toph. One flying above.

"Up! Right above my head!" Duo called out to Toph, swinging his own bladed weapon at the other that was directly in front of him, already reaching it's smokey claws out to grab. The blade seemed to cut through it like so much mist, but even though he felt little in the way of resistance, it still reeled as though it had been struck hard. He swung again, and it stumbled away from him, eventually jumping back several feet as if it needed to recuperate from the blows.

Toph didn't like this. While she could somewhat determine locations by proxy of the guys, she couldn't tell where anything was in relation to her. She couldn't hear the shadows. They made no contact with the ground. There was no wind movement when they'd pass by. They didn't even smell.

At one second, she felt the hair stand on end on the back of her neck. With quick reflexes, she ducked under a surge of ground spikes. Quickly, whatever she'd hit moved away from her.

Her focus went back to the others. She moved the ground under one to pull him out of the way of a perceived attack. Two slabs jutted between the other and two shadows, forcing them away from the man.

These boys seemed to have serious situational awareness, so it wasn't much of a problem for Toph to respond to them and send Bending help in their general direction with hopes of at least hitting something.

She was quiet through the whole ordeal. Her focus was on reading the boys and responding, but she also, for once, didn't have anything to say.

That slab under his feet made him lose his balance, falling to his knees briefly before jumping to his feet. He jumped off the slab and moved to another, slamming his club into it's side. No over head swings, left him too open. He wasn't an excellent fighter by no means, but he wasn't going to make a mistake like that after already having his shirt shredded, three red lines scratched on his chest. He ignored the pain, and just hacked away best he could at that, taking the front line in defense against them.

Meanwhile, a shadow monster swooped over head and came in from behind, grabbing at Toph to swipe and grab at her. Take out their defensive tank and the other two will fall.

Duo took notice as he swung again, spotting the shadow creature drop behind Toph. "Toph! Bro! Behind you guys!"

And his shadow swiped at his club, forcing it back before hitting Duo square in the jaw.

Too late. Two seconds too late. Duo wheeled on his heel to help Toph, but the shadow was already on top of her.

"Fuck! Get away from her!" he screamed, trying to swing at it but reluctant to get close. He didn't want to hit her on accident, but that damn thing was making it hard to aim.

Too late indeed. While preparing a response, she felt the claws dig into her skin, mostly around her clavicles. That hurt! But she could let the pain hold her back for long. Before her toes left the ground, she summoned a great deal of earth and covered herself in it and pulled herself back down.

It was a tug-of-war between the shadow's pull and Toph's bending that eventually swayed into the young girl's favor when she swatted at it with a rock-coated fist. It fell back, leaving gapes in her armor from where its claws had caught her.

Adrenaline was surging at that point so she couldn't feel the pain just yet, but there was no doubt that when everything calmed down, she'd be incredibly uncomfortable. After that, she decided her coating wasn't going anywhere, and continued doing her best to protect the Duos.

Duo recovered from that blow to the face and got back to his feet, grabbing his club from the ground he rose to his feet to swing once more at that shadow in front of him. Finally it knocked back into the wall and seemed to dissapate. It only took him five minutes of wailing at it!

He turned back to his double and Toph, heading over to swing his weapon at the one attacking his bro.

Duo had been so focused on Toph that the one attacking him had gotten the upper hand, and by the time Toph had broken free from her own attacker Duo was overtaken by his. It had tried to bring it's claws down on his head, to which he could only block with the hilt of his weapon at that moment.

Thankfully his double was on the move and coming to his aid. He really wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be able to hold out against this one.

A thick wall shot up between the younger Duo and the monster attacking him. It curved around to protect him, but had an opening big enough for the other two to join him.

"I think it's time we rethought our stay and play strategy," she told them with a slightly shaky voice as she dropped her armor. Clearly these things had the upper hand.

He swatted the the shadow monster before the wall rose from the ground, and when Toph jumped into the circle he followed suit to join her. Regroup? Yeah, they needed that. It was going about as well as it was before the last time he faced these things. And damn, that slug to the face was probably gonna bruise, wasn't it?

He made it inside the circle and stopped, bending over to lean his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

It just takes way too much effort to beat those things back!"

"Last time..." Duo huffed now that he was free of the damned shadow, his wrists bruised from where it had tried to grab and drag him away.

"Last time I knocked 'em off a high place... don't got that advantage here. Might need to run..."

That caused a smirk to come over Toph's face.

"A high place, huh?"

It didn't take much effort for her to drop the barrier. She continued her movements and the ground beneath them parted in a perfect circle around them. Another motion, and they were soaring up as a pillar lifted them up and away from the shadows.

The pillar was big enough for them to have some fighting room. It wasn't a lot, but surely a pair of talented pilots could pull it off, right? That was IF any of the shadows decided to follow them, or just give up and save their energies for the next batch of explorers.

"That better?"

"I agree. Running is goo-" Oof! Okay. The ground was moving under his feet, and he hadn't braced for it. Dammit Toph!

The ground shot up beneath them and he caught his balance just in the nick of time, looking down towards the shadows below.

"They can fly, Toph! What's this gonna do? We gotta get down to the platform we came from."

"Yeaaaah this might not be the best thought out plan..." the younger one said as he looked down at the shadows. So far they were still disoriented from the suddenly rising platform and apparently hadn't caught on to where their prey had gone, but it wouldn't take long before they figured it out.

"Any chance you can get this thing movin'?"

Toph turned towards the older, pointing to the edge of the pillar.

"We have the higher ground. Our enemy can only come from one direction, and when they're within range to strike at us, they're also at the perfect level for us to hit their weak points without them being above our heads. Don't you know an advantage when you see it?"

She thought that was plain as day, but perhaps she'd just been hanging around Sokka too long.

At the other's question, she hesitated. Her shoulders hurt bad, and while most of the Bending was done through pure energy, there was still a level of physical pulling involved that strained her injured muscles.

But hey, these two had taken a good socking and hadn't complained yet. Why should she?

"I can move it. But where? If these things have any intelligence at all, they'll be trying to block our way out."

He stood up and looked down at them, listening to Toph and trying to think. Think of something. Hmmn. He bit the inside of his lip as he formed the scenario in his mind, looking back to Toph. It was a gambit.

He took his club and etched into the ground.

"There's one of them right below this angle. Bend a rock at the top and drop it onto it." If falling from a height was enough to take it down, then maybe using gravity a blow like that would knock it out!

It took a few seconds for Duo to catch on to what his double was getting at, but when he got it, it was like a light going on in his head.

"Hey! Yeah! Give it a shot, it's better than nothin'!"

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