Prologue - Broken Circle


    For their sake, he thought, I''ve got to follow this lead.


    tabi, he inspected the large room for about two minutes before coming to the educated conclusion that it was safe for his less combat-oriented teammates to come in.


    mudra, while drawing on the ambient anima, and carefully attuning it to each seal. His anima-shaping done, he slammed a hand into the stone floor of the underground bunker, or lab, or whatever it used to be, which created a gust of wind that rotated about the odd device, and himself, with the engineers, scholars, and apprentice adventurers who were keeping guard outside.


    jutsu, as Far Eastern magical arts were named, the big engineer chimed in.


    more distant without anything physicaly moving.


    Hmmm...this is definitely not the Goldtear Highlands, he thought. After all, there were none of the massive crystals that grew over the lands near the Allemandian Tower. He stood up, dusting off his dirt-besmirched leggings, but on his face was a grin.


    ninjetti, the paired shortswords favored by shinobi. The two monsters - they were definitely monsters, one had some odd dark energy dripping from its fangs - halted and with a yelp and a cry like "Gloomcub!" turned their ears back and began backing away slowly. This caught Ondun''s attention, because normally monsters that caught sight of a human tended to attack. As a rule, monsters were stronger than a baseline human, but not as intelligent.


    ninjetti, only these were made of carapace with a bright white sheen to them, and were about as long as Ondun''s arms. The monster was insectoid, beyond this, a lot like the Mantises he was familiar with, only this one had two wings that looked like leaves on its back that flittered as if warming up.


    ninjetti came into Ondun''s hands immediately and he assumed a fighting stance.


    smile.


    Monsters don''t use language...so why did the Wayfarer''s Brand try to translate that growl for me?


    ninjetti diving into the chitin that encased the large monster as it cried out in pain. With a backflip, he avoided the small fire he had set and retreated into the shadows of another tree.


    intelligent. Yet, here Ondun was, fighting with one that didn''t just blindly rush and attack, but was cognizant of environmental hazards, could handle ambushes from the shadows, and was even attempting to, in its own limiited way, communicate.


    knives of all things. Incapacitate, we need to take him in!"