Extermination (Xaldalneir and Lani, Rating Pending, PM to ask to Join)

August sent his fangs flying towards the lone kishin, spearing it and lifting the thrashing form into the air. With a thought, fire sprang from the dragon's mouth that stood in place of his left hand, engulfing the kishin. The kishin soul drifted down in front of him, and he snapped the dragon's maw closed, engulfing the soul and taking it's power. "Fourteen." He mumbled to himself, looking up at the moon through the Minnesotan woods, already bored with the lack of challenge.

"Twenty-one!" a voice rang out some distance to the side, followed by a whirl of wind as something seemed to have fell from a tree. There was little indication of who, or what, had occurred, though it was certain enough that August would know.

August couldn't help but roll his eyes at her taunting voice. "And of course you need to make as dramatic an entrance as possible. Did you find a way into the caves beneath us?" He asked, shaking his left arm and causing it to change back to normal.

"Not yet!" She called, all but skipping into the open area he occupied, grinning from ear to ear, bouncing curls seeming to have life all their own. "We probably won't find any 'til we're closer to the mountains though, Auggie."

August ran his eyes up and down her form, and then pulled his collar tighter around his neck, shivering despite the fact that it wasn't below fifty degrees. "We should head towards those hills. There's gonna be a way down around those. And don't. Call me. Auggie." He said in a blase tone.

She waved a hand as if to dismiss his words, turning on her bare heel, flinging the side of her skirt wide as she set about towards the direction in question. "We'll find a way, Augs."

"Don't call me Augs either." He said as he followed behind her, slipping his hands into his pockets as he walked. "And it'd be easier to 'find a way' if we knew how to get into the caves."

"That's the way we're looking for," She stated, as though such a fact was obvious. Turning her head to look at him, she raised a brow, seemingly unaware of the face that the almost tavern wench top she wore seemed to be fighting a losing battle to keep her body contained the more that she moved. "Do you have a better idea, Augustine." By this point, it seemed to be a game.

"Eventually you're going to run out of parodies of my name, at which point I hope you stop because it's no longer fun." He said with a groan, pushing ahead of her and pulling his left hand out of his pocket. They were entering a denser thicket of trees, and as they lost the light of the moon he turned his hand back into a dragon's maw, using it as a torch.

Seemingly almost put-off by the behavior, she made a huffing sound, stepping up her pace to match his, walking alongside him while her eyes and ears keyed onto their surroundings, as much as she could seem to manage such. "Not gunna stop, Augustus."

"I guess I'll just have to live like this like I live with everything else." He said with a sigh and and roll of his eyes, though he stopped as he heard a rustling in the brush ahead of them. The jaws of his weapon hand closed, causing the light to vanish as he braced himself, ready to both defend against a blow and strike first, depending on the situation.

Both of her arms shifted instantly, the left into the blade and the right into its sheath, seeming to detach from her body, bound only by near-invisible threads. They seemed to float in the air, but her concentration was hindered, mind muddled as the beginning onsets of withdrawl tried to take their hold, fought down only by the thrill of adrenaline.

A few moments later a doe burst through the bushes, looked at them, then ran away from them. August let out a sigh, taking a deep breath. "Alright then..." He said, starting to move forward again, his weapon's maw opening again to give them a guiding light.

Vanja took the queue to slowly shift back to normal. Smiling shakily, awkwardly, she followed along behind him once more, seeming to be zoning out far more than she should.

They pushed into the hills, coming across only local forest creatures, and not a single kishin. Soon enough, they found a craggy hole into the ground, and August looked towards Vanja. "Shall we?"

The weapon nodded, transforming her arm and letting the pale glow of her blade light the area directly in front of her. "Ready when you are~"