3b.) Arthur

Alan was the first to wake at Tesla and Erik's camp; despite his wound, he seemed ready to take the trek to the nearby village.

" Ah, these humans and their notions of leadership. DaCre's understand that more then anything, or at least, they used to, else we wouldn't be in this mess. Right, Alan? "

Echo was also up, well.... upside down, in D rank. Her wings wrapped around her bpdy as she stared at the strange tamer. " I understand this may be hard but, what was your DaCre like? And.... how did it feel? I mean were there.... Physical effects? Of... you know, the split between tamer and DaCre?"

~ Oh I hate being subtle! ~ Echo screamed in her mind.

Tesla stood up slowly and stretched for a moment, yawning, prompting Erik to do the same. He hadn't gotten much sleep during the night on account of his stomach bothering him. The truth was that their short food supply was already dwindling. Hopefully they'd find more food at the village.
Erik gave Echo a short glance at her question, feeling sorry for Alan.

Alan sat there as Echo asked the question, his expression visually becoming slightly more depressed as she asked the question. "Taeko was... a beast DaCre in the shape of a lion... so prideful... being seperated from him wrenched me both physically and mentally... I will admit, the first thing I wanted and achieved then was revenge... I was... so distraught..."

Echo glanced over at the giant sleeping Alex. Knocked out on the floor even though it was a cold, hard rock. " Yes, I couldn't imagine being seperated from Alex, even though he is a little simple. "

~ More like an imbecile ~ Echo quietly thought to herself.

" Well, we should get going! " Echo sang, letting go of the cieling. She landed on her feet, making a thud that made Alex jump from his sleep. " Oh, we're leaving? "

" Yep, now let's go, I don't like this form, it makes me feel vulnerable. "

Echo began to rank up as Alex held down the button, managing to concentrate even though he was yawning.

Erik stifled another yawn. Tesla looked a bit sheepish, and Erik realized that she'd fallen asleep on the watch. He visibly shrugged, it hadn't been a big deal. Erik shouldered his pack, then turned to Alan.

"So...Uh...Do you know where we're headed?" Erik asked, intending to change the subject to a more neutral one, having seen Alan's depression.

"The village towards the sunrise... apparently," Alan said, repeating what had been told to him by Tesla and Erik. Standing cautiously, easily gaining his balance, he looked outward, seeing the sun over the horizon.

"Shall we be off, then?" Alan asked, taking a step forward, moving out of the cave... no fear, a steady pace, like a man with nothing left to lose...

((TS))

When they arrived, they saw, within the desert, another oasis, this time more populated... it would seem. Several in-tact dome-like shelters were here, with roughly paved streets... however, this place seemed more abandoned than anything else...

Alan looked down at the ground, spotting tracks... faint, but visible, like sand kicked onto the road in variable foot-sized clumps.

"Well... it seems those here have taken to hiding..." Alan started, before being interrupted by another voice: "Alan?"

Poking his head out of one of the dome's openings, a blue, rabbit-like humanoid DaCre could be seen emerging. His legs were bent like a rabbit's, the rest of his figure shaped to that of a human, save his face and hands. A blade was sheathed acrossed the back of this relatively short (five foot) figure.

"Ah..." Alan smirked. "Arthur... I haven't seen you in ages..."

"Its hard to believe your still moving, with that kind of wound," Arthur remarked, crouching and examining the blood seeping through the jacket.

" Water! " Alex cried, running past the bunny to the oasis. He could be seen dunking his head into it as if to see if it was really there. Echo face palmed herself and asked the Alan. " I see this is an old friend, do you know this village too? Or any other info that might be helpful? Like, a way out of the desert? This place is dangerous. "

Erik smiled slightly at seeing someone that Alan knew. A few vague thoughts ran through his head about the boy they knew nothing about, but nothing coherent formed before Tesla interrupted his thoughts.

She had taken a few quick strides up to Arthur, then stopped a few inches from him, uncomfortably close. She simply stared for a moment, as if sizing him up. Then she spoke.

"We were told that there would be...something here," Tesla hissed, not unlike the snake that told it to them. "from the way you've gone into hiding, I assume that this is true?"

Arthur looked over at Tesla, nodding. "However, this is not the time to talk about this," he said, gesturing over to his shelter. "We need to get Alan into proper bandages... come quickly, before we are spotted."

With that, Arthur helped Alan over to the dome that he had come out of.
-----------------

Inside this dome, however, was an intricate underground neighborhood, with a cafe and many dwellings, as well as an emergency clinic, which is where Arthur led them first. A variety of DaCre lived down here, but they all seemed to accept the group, a few nodding at Alan, who nodded back.

"This is a key stronghold to the resistance," Arthur explained, "which is close to being intruded on by two DaCre named Triumph and Catastrophe, the creator and destroyer... however, we are barely low enough in the ground to be outside of the range of his aura and sensing, as long as we remain hidden."

" The creator and destroyer? " Thought Echo, scanning her memory.

" I thought they were myths, last time I was in this dimension, the lords were just legends and gossip. Are you telling me that all this darkness and evil that's happening is really the fault of this powerful Lord DaCres? Then that means that Yitur must of been a lord too. But we defeated him...... How long exactly have I been gone? When did these lords rise to power? "

Echo was confused, how long was it since she was last in the DaCre world? Did time somehow travel faster here? Or did the lords really conquer the realm in the months she was gone>?

~Who or what are we fighting now?* Erik thought, completely lost.

Erik glanced at Echo, then back at Tesla. There was a worried look in his face, there was apparently some new horror that they were going to have to go through...Erik thought mournfully of his old life for the first time in weeks. Once again, though Tesla brought him back to his senses with another query.

"Who exactly are Catastrophe and Triumph?" she asked, tail twitching slightly.

Arthur first looked over at Echo. "Multiply the time you've been in the human world by sixty. That's how long you've been gone from this world."

He then looked over at the other pair. "Triumph and Catastrophe are a knight and sword type, two seperate DaCre. The knight, Triumph, has the power to reshape anything Catastrophe, the blade, destroys. Instead of absorbing data, he creates armoured zombies..."

Alan seemed to be drifting from this conversation, as if it were redundant for him to listen.

" My goodness.. That's five years! Oh well.... So Triumph and Catastrophy, they're.... worse? Then Yitur? Oh that's just great.... I hope they have some sort of weakness that you know about? "

Echo hoped that there was, this was bad. Unlesss she spontaneously became A rank she wouldn't be able to defeat such strong DaCre that could eliminate data and use it against you.

"I can see why you needed to hide from being sensed now," Tesla snorted. "And here I thought you actually fought, or had plans to."

Tesla looked slightly aggravated as she glanced from each face to the next. Erik sidled off to a corner, predicting what was going to happen next.

"I'm sure you could defeat him! Look at all the DaCre you have here! What exactly are you hiding from?" Tesla shouted, frustrated. She knew her own powers were a good level below even those who she'd traveled with, but she'd still fought.

"You could stand to learn from him," Tesla said, indicating Alan, although balking slightly afterward, remembering what had happened to him.

"We... used to fight..." Arthur started, looking around at the crowd Tesla was addressing. A female, C-ranked rabbit DaCre was clutching a D-ranked bunny in her paws. She looked distraught and frail, but seemed content to be safe.

An elderly DaCre, sitting in the corner in some decrepit fur, merely raised its head, and hung it again... his age was not an effect of natural aging, but rather battle...

A similar crowd looked onward: peaceful, kind DaCre, all being oppressed, with no way out of this hole.

"You have to see..." Arthur explained, "its my duty to protect these people... if we expended our remaining army against those two, we'd lose our only method of defending them... can we truly put all of these lives at risk?"

" He has a point, I'm sure legions of DaCre have risen against these Lords already. If they hadn't people would be this afraid of them, taking extreme measurments such as literally hiding underground to defend themselves. It's gonna have to be us, DaCre and their tamers, the people of this world have already fought, and are hanging on to survive. It has to be us to fight, and win. " Echo addressed this all to Tesla mostly, turning to her in her 9 foot C rank form. Alex nodded too, standing beside Echo.

~ I feel like such an idiot right now, I'm a wonderful and beautiful singer! Not an inspirational public speaker... ~ Echo kept the thought to herself, not wanting to ruin the moment.

"Of course..." Tesla and Erik said at the same time, in the same depressed tone. They had not fared so greatly in their previous battles, so what use was there in fighting DaCres that even an army would barely stand a chance against?
Still...As Erik looked around the many faces, he realized something.

~Oh goddamnit, we're supposed to be the heroes.~

"It is true," Arthur said, in a matter-of-fact tone. "You are one of the few spots of hope that we've seen in ages... many depend on you partnered DaCre to do something for this world... us here, the serpents, and countless others who don't want their friends' losses to be in vain..."

He sighed. "It is a huge burden to carry... but, tamers and DaCre... can we entrust all of our hopes to you, so that the innocent here can once again live in daylight?"

"You can," Tesla replied, almost before Arthur finished his query. She suddenly turned business-like. "However, we're going to need some help...Everything you know about the neighboring geography, the darkness, Catastrophe and Triumph...And some supplies to make it wherever we are. We'll need all that."

Tesla opened her mouth as if to add one last thing to the list, but appeared to change her mind. Instead, she merely nodded at Arthur, prompting him to speak.

"Of course," Arthur replied in an approving tone. He started by explaining the geography of the area: it was a solid desert, this area being on the north end. Heading south would lead them, after about a half a day, to the trek that Catastrophe and Triumph were taking.

"Fortunately, they move slowly for their thoroughness, and are not actively moving in this direction yet..." Arthur explained, showing why they were not yet concerned about the two evil lords. "Aside from that... if you were to seperate Catastrophe from Triumph by more than twenty feet, Triumph remains as a simple DaCre... physical A, but something that can be freely attacked at a distance... if you can manage that, destroying Catastrophe will be simple, provided it can't move by itself... I am uncertain what that DaCre can do by itself..."

Arthur thought for a moment. "You mentioned 'the darkness'. That term is more familiar with the dragon types, who are nomads by nature... all I know is that it involves corruption of data and travelling shadows..."

After saying that, he asked another DaCre in the area, who happenned to be the female rabbit described before. "Lily, what provisions can we spare for these four?"

"Whatever they can carry," Lily responded, a slight excitement to her voice... it had been a while since they had something to hope for.

" I can carry two humans worth of stuff, maybe more, what can I get with that? " Echo asked, she needed to carry plenty of provisions for the group, knowing travvelling through the desert was just as perilous as fighting Yitur was.

" Arthur, how many lords are there? And can you name all of them? And are they ranked? We defeated Yitur, but I'm guessing from the power of Catastrophe and the other lords, he was the weakest. "

"All of the Lords are ranked A, but they differ slightly in power, based on their usefulness," Arthur started. "From memory, I can recall Volgan, Yitur, Tridara, Catastrophe and Triumph... however, I'm not sure of the condition of anyone but the last two, nor am I absolutely certain of any of their abilities. Suffice to what this blade shows, I'm ... not the sensing type..." Arthur said, a small chuckle at the '...'."At any rate, we'll be glad to watch over Alan... you don't need to worry, he'll be safe here with us... well, safer than at the front line..."Alan looked over at Arthur, and smiled slightly, showing his thanks.

Tesla nodded as Arthur gave the party advice on how to fight Catastrophe and Triumph, although she looked slightly concerned when Arthur didn't seem to know what exactly the darkness was. She could catch flashes of it in her memory, but no more than that. When Lily made it clear that they'd have plentiful supplies, she seemed to relax a bit, although her tail still twitched back and forth in the same slow pattern of a pendulum. She seemed to be ready to go at any moment.

Erik, however, was not. He still looked slightly shocked by how quickly things were moving, and seemed to need clarification on something:

"So, wait, wait a sec," Erik said, slowly holding up his hands in front of him. "you seriously expect us to just leave and intercept these two...A-rank DaCre by ourselves? When we've only just gotten here?"

Tesla sighed, but Erik looked pleading, looking for direction.

Arthur thought for a moment about what Erik had asked... it seemed to be a deep thought, as if an important decision was being made in his mind.

"Well... would it be better if I went with you?" he asked; he had barely finished the question before he was interrupted:

"No!" Lily protested, as Arthur said this. "You're the one that founded this underground establishment... you said that you'd always be here to keep us safe!"

Taken off guard, Arthur didn't know how to respond immediately. "But... this is the best chance we've got..."

"You'll die without a tamer's spirit! You're no greater than a C-rank! Please... don't throw your life away like this!"

Closing his eyes, Arthur thought this over once more... it was a longer thought than expected, but the result was what could be expected. "Alright, Lily... for your sake, at least..."

Turning, he faced Erik again. "I can't really see another option... does this concern you? Do you fear your power lacks?"