Daniel hadn't the slightest clue what he'd drawn out, but he had to act quickly. He lunged back to put distance between himself and the leaping hybrid, and squeezing upon the coin he'd drawn out, threw his right wrist forward to meet the hybrid before it could reach him . . .

Thankfully, the coin he drew was a merciful one. Merciful, and almost infinitely useful to boot. It bore an open book on one side and a dark city on the reverse side. Daniel didn't know what he'd drawn at first, but he felt the twinge around his wrist when he gave the coin a squeeze. It was familiar, though he'd only experienced it once or twice thus far. If had been anything else, however, Daniel would have had blood on his hands. Killing in self defense it may have been, but Daniel had taken only a single life thus far, back when he was in this dark city the first time around, and had no intentions of ever doing it again if he could help it.

In a flash of light, the hybrid would be launched away from Daniel's person, caught in mid-air and thrown back into the pile of hybrids already fighting to get to Daniel. On instinct, he'd take a quick step forward and throw his arm around again, likely to throw the whole mess of them back by another dozen feet.

By the time Danyr reached Daniel, he'd find that Daniel now held within his right hand a weapon he'd seen only once thus far. Its chakram was utterly useless, except to ensure that Daniel never dropped the weapon: a pair of horns extending down from the bottom of the "blade" and wrapping around Daniel's wrist, ensuring that even if he released his grip upon the weapon, it'd continue to hang from his hand. The blade itself was only visible in high density light or in the midst of a rainstorm-- such as now. It was rapier-thin and entirely translucent; only raindrops beating against it made it visible now.

It was one of the few weapons in Daniel's small arsenal that had literally no close-combat use. It could neither block an attack or cut an enemy. What it could do, though, was present a harsh force of physical energy against whatever he swung at, in whatever arc he chose to swing, the strength of which depended upon the power behind Daniel's swing.

Honestly, he couldn't have picked a better weapon for this endeavor.

Daniel was rather lucky. The pushing blow would be particularly effective: despite the shade's high speed, it was still very light. It would fly backwards, though it would only impact perhaps half of the oncoming group from the house. The others dodged around it, moving to encircle Daniel as Danyr let loose with an arrow, piercing one of the shade through the legs and giving the rest a second concern.

"Daniel, what the hell are you thinking!?"

It was a rhetorical question.

The two closest shades would move in on roughly opposite sides from Daniel, slashing about his midriff with their claws, as Danyr let loose another arrow at the others incoming...

"D-- Danyr?!" Daniel shouted incredulously.

It was when Danyr spoke that Daniel noticed his friend was still here. He'd been really focused on the hybrids, after all, and figured Danyr would've just gone with it like he hoped. The fact that Danyr had come back left Daniel with an even worse issue to face. Especially since Danyr was shooting. Seriously, this guy was bollocks at following command! Not that Daniel was any good at it, either, but still . . .

"Bloody . . . 'ell-- you were s'posed to run for it!"

Facing threats on either side of him, Daniel put his right hand against his left side and slash out, all the way across to his right side, an act which would effectively launch away every hybrid on his right, front, and left sides. Fortunately, Danyr was at his back, otherwise he'd probably be thrown, too.

Daniel's blast would push back the nearby shades, who began to circle around him again, this time approaching more carefully. The unique body structure of the shade-people made them rather resilient against his attacks; while he could knock them back, he wasn't really damaging them. They just landed and came at him again.

"And you weren't supposed to run off and get yourself killed like a moron!"

Danyr let loose several blunt arrows into the crowd of shades, knocking one of them unconscious, but not having a large effect overall... Aside from getting their attention. Several of them began to stalk him as well, though the blinding rain and wind made it difficult to see them sometimes...

"We can't afford to get split up!"

These things were practically coming out of the woodwork! This would've been a cinch, though, if Danyr had just made a break for it . . . Daniel now had the urge to shout or roar or something. He hadn't had that urge since the City of Shadows. But now wasn't the time to get too frustrated . . .

Instead of getting wound up and mean, Daniel took his frustrations out in a productive way. Without warning, he spun around to face Danyr's back, only to wrap his left arm around him forcefully. From there, he leaned back, pulled Danyr with him, and turned the both of them around three-hundred-sixty degrees, all the while committing himself to three wide slashes, all of which he put his full body into, stepping into a slash, turning quickly to step into the next slash, and again. The result would be . . . well . . . it was bound to be catastrophic on some level. If Daniel was throwing these things a dozen feet or more with just quick slaps of his arm, there was no telling what damage would be done by putting all his muscle into a strike.

Regardless of the result for the hybrids, he was afraid of accidentally throwing his friend way off and breaking his neck on impact with the ground or something, so Danyr had to come along for the ride, whether he wanted to or not. He really didn't have a choice in the matter.

"These things are faster than you," Daniel said calmly as he released his grip upon Danyr; he was half tempted to push his friend away to punctuate the point, but that probably would've just been overkill. All he really had to do was say this much: "But they're not faster than me. That's why you gotta run . . ."

Daniel dropped his arms to his sides. If he could've seen himself doing this six months ago, just looked at it from a third person perspective, he would've thought himself so inexplicably badass right now. Sadly, he wasn't actually trying to be over-masculine or intentionally awesome or whatnot. He was just being realistic about things.

". . . and I gotta give them somethin' better to chase."

Danyr didn't really fight Daniel; if nothing else, he was aware of just how pointless it was to fight a determined Daniel. All Danyr could really do was hang on while he was spun around in a rather undignified fashion. Of course, while Daniel wouldn't admit it, if Danyr hadn't come back, Daniel was just as likely to wander off somewhere unhelpful to the goal...

The shade-men hybrids were suitably devastated. The combination of flying sharp claws and heavy force, as well as packed buildings, made Daniel's swings effective enough to at least temporarily incapacitate the creatures. The city, it seemed, wasn't crawling; only their house had been. It would be impossible to herd shades through this weather, after all...

"You're going to hurt someone with those, sooner or later..."

Danyr shook himself off, drenched by rain and constantly being impacted by hail. He only knew the directions vaguely, especially in the rough weather, but he had a good mind for finding places. The only light came from distant and nearby flashes of lightning, which provided only a bit of guidance. The town essentially dropped into the ocean over rocky cliffs, and if they weren't careful, it would be entirely possible to walk off. Indeed, that was perhaps Danyr's biggest fear for Daniel...

"Let's go. It should be less than a mile to the tower..."

By the end of it, Daniel expected one thing and one thing only: to lead a whole bunch of hybrids through the city, wind through the streets, and reroute them safely, before bailing and making a run for the tower. What he did not expect was to completely annihilate the threat right then and there.

Embarrassing though it may have been, to deliver a sort of desperation speech only for it to be for nothing, taking out the threat now was a lot better than running through the city, that much was for sure.

"Well, uh," Daniel cleared his throat awkwardly, "Hopefully oI'll be hurting the roight person, whenever oI do?"

Sort of like he did now? Well, whatever. This threat was down and they probably weren't going to have to deal with anything too beastly in the near future. These hybrids seemed to go down with just one hard swing with the horned chakram, after all. Daniel could pretty much do that for hours, if need be. It'd be one hell of a work out, though. Maybe if the situation itself wasn't quite so dire, he'd have taken advantage of it for a less mainstream and much more efficient means of working out. Hey, it was a good and fruitful experience. After all, chances were Daniel wasn't going to be getting out of this fighting thing anytime soon. Unless something killed him here. Then he'd be out of it.

That's not a fun thought. That's not a fun thought at all.

Without further thought, Daniel began to walk by Danyr's side. Daniel had done the heavy lifting just now, though, so it was totally on Danyr to lead them off.

While Daniel believed he could have fought the shades for hours, the reality was likely somewhat less. There was a reason there were so few shades; Daniel and Danyr were soaked with freezing rain, and it still showed no signs of letting up. Danyr was already somewhat less smooth and agile than he normally was; likely numbness setting in. The rain, with its poor visibility and effects on the body, could be their biggest enemy...

"Maybe you'll hurt the right person. You're also going to be hurting yourself, though..."

Danyr, despite his past, had never actually killed, much like Daniel. That wasn't really what he had ever wanted. It was better to pity those who lived that way. People like Komodo, and Cassius, and whoever was employing them here. Monsters that would transform people into these angry hybrid monsters to some unknown purpose...

The rest of town was uneventful, besides the driving rain. As they approached the ocean, and one of the towers, the construction of the buildings changed; specifically, the buildings were becoming deconstructed. The buildings appeared to be torn apart for scraps... Places that had once appeared to channel the spirits of the living in a ghost-like state were now pieces of towers, and occasional shanties for the shade hybrids...

"They have houses...?"

Danyr appeared as confused as Daniel (Daniel's normal state, that is). Daniel had told him about roaming groups of shades and even shade hybrids in the past. But it hadn't occurred to him that any of the beings here might be intelligent enough to make or need a home...

Daniel waved off the suggestion. "Hey, oI'm careful."

It wasn't long before the weapons were withdrawn-- reduced back to the shape of coins --and set back within Daniel's pockets. To keep the rain out of his eyes, and employed the use of his hood, drew it up and over his brow, and though it stuck to his head, it at least let him see where he was going. Not that it mattered, really. He was just following along with Danyr, anyways. But still, it helped to be able to see a fair distance without wiping stinging-cold water away from his face.

As they moved on and Danyr pointed out the hybrids and their homes, Daniel found it a bit odd, too. Though, he much preferred them to be inside than outside, that was for sure.

"Habit, maybe?" Daniel said.

He didn't theorize it too much. Hell, he didn't even think much more on it after that, which was decidedly ironic, as that was likely the first sincerely intelligent thought Daniel had-- or at least vented --in a good while.

The hood would keep the direct rain and wind out, but the chill and wetness would pervade. Danyr would start to slow down noticably, his endurance somewhat less than Daniel's hard-headed and oxen-backed stamina. However, he trekked on, expecting to make the turn north very soon...

"Maybe you're right. They don't seem entirely creature-like..."

Danyr would pause, grabbing Daniel's arm for a minute. The driving rain and darkness would make it almost impossible to see the cliff ahead, a dropoff of at least a hundred feet into an inky and rocky blackness below. As they paused, lightning would strike, illuminating, perhaps a thousand feet to the north, the tower they sought. Behind it, a second tower loomed ominously, the seeming headquarters of the force that was settled in Oblivion...

"This has been a long time coming, Daniel..."

It was true. It had taken several months to get to this point; perhaps a hundred days if Daniel could have remembered exactly. And it hadn't been an easy time, either...

Indeed, this had been a long time coming, and Daniel was more prepared than ever to show the man responsible here exactly what was up. Which is to say: Daniel Kerington was ready for a war. They were going to save Zera, put the hurt on a lot of people, and take the first exit out of here that they could find. It was cold and wet, but Daniel sincerely did not care about that. He was running on pure willpower here. Right now, he was both willing and capable of waltzing through a hurricane, punching a god in the face (on principle), rescuing a damsel from a dragon large by even the universe's standards, and doing all of that all over again on the way back, without any need of food or rest. Sure, he might die as soon as he gets back, but he'd be fine 'til then.

Right now, there was an important woman to save and some (really) bad guys to foil. Bodily limitations and environmental forces were nothing compared to Daniel Kerington's current will to succeed.

He let Danyr take hold of his arm, paused, and surveyed the area to the very best of his abilities-- which were already quite minimal due to the limited field of vision they had here. They'd all but left the city, now. On one hand, that was good. As Daniel remembered, being in the city made them more prone to being ambushed. On the other hand, though, there was absolutely no hiding out here. He and Zera lucked out when they found a hiding place. Something told him that he and Danyr were not going to be quite so lucky. The plains and the cliffsides were ahead of them. From what Daniel remembered, there was enough space to fit an army.

"We gotta be careful from 'ere on out," Daniel remarked--stating the obvious, of course, but Danyr didn't know exactly what they were dealing with here. "This 'ole place can fit 'undreds. Thousands, probably . . ."

He vividly remembered hiding behind boulders with Zera, as whole armies of hybrids marched across the plains. They were lucky they weren't spotted.

Daniel's memory returning was almost as remarkable as the whole situation. Danyr couldn't ever really figure out how Daniel had found him in the first place... Considering how much trouble they had gone through on account of Daniel's memory. Now, though... They seemed to be very close. The field ahead, however...

"You're right... Listen."

Even above the roaring din of the storm, from the fields up ahead, there was the occasional issuance of noise, like the sound of steel on rock... Not in a mechanical way, but in a more... Animalistic way. Rather than knives on rock, the sound was more like talons on rock... On closer inspection, the closest were indeed worn in a way they hadn't been. Like creatures had been sharpening their claws on the rocks...

"If something happens... Meet at the tower. Don't stop for anything... Especially me."

Danyr, as Daniel had seen in the past, seemed to possess a certainly amount of subconscious skill... Danyr often appeared to suffer terrible fates, only to be perfectly fine a few seconds later...

Daniel frowned. Of course, Danyr had abilities that heavily tricked one's perception, and it sort of didn't do Daniel too well. Over time, he'd become increasingly more willing to take a blow for Danyr, as he, over time, couldn't tell if Danyr was really in danger or not. By the way things seemed to be, though, he probably wasn't going to have that option this time. There was a sound in the distance, a horrible clashing sound, and no cover. It'd all but been worn away by what appeared to be something powerful enough to cut through stone.

Really not the best of situations, to say the least. With no cover, they weren't going to be sneaking through. They were probably going to be running it.

"Meet at the tower, then," Daniel nodded begrudgingly.

He turned to face his friend. If he couldn't do anything for Danyr, then Danyr was effectively on his own out here. It was a scary thought for Daniel, but there was nothing he could do about it . . .

"That's a promise, roight?"

Danyr nodded, looking at the tower in the distance. Daniel was always so concerned about Danyr, when really, Daniel's strengths were in brute force. As soon as he hit something he could no longer overcome... Danyr was more likely to succeed anywhere brute didn't matter.

"Promise."

With that, Danyr would run forward, into the field. When Daniel had last been to this place, hordes of shades had moved in a large tide. Now, however... The shades seemed chained to the area. Dozens, hundreds, or thousands of the 3-4 foot tall creatures milled about, seeming to sharpen metallic looking claws on whatever they could find... Driven by something unknown...

As soon as Danyr moved outside, though, bow in hand, the closest shades turned in unison, stopping momentarily at the surprise of a newcomer...

This was . . . well, ahead of them were a lot more hybrids than Daniel had expected. He'd heard the sounds of scraping in the distance, but it wasn't until a flash of lightning illuminated the field that he saw just how many were out there. By that point, Danyr took off. There was no plan of attack. How could there be? This was a sizable army separating them from the towers. They couldn't sneak by and they couldn't defeat them all. They just needed to run. So that's what Danyr started, and that's what Daniel had ahead of him.

There was something wrong here, though. Something astoundingly different than the last time he was here. Daniel recognized it after a short moment:

They weren't up against hybrids anymore. These were shades. The same monsters they fought in the City of Shadows. Mindless, dangerous beasts . . .

Range would've been great. Range. Distance. Daniel needed to clear a path to run, or else he'd be quickly surrounded by the most dangerous creatures the world had ever seen.

Then it clicked. Daniel had something. He had his chakrams, each one equipped with a depression just below the bladed handguard, a depression which, when held in, caused the chakram to spin--bringing the blade along with it. And in his right hand, Daniel held a chakram that dealt nonlethal damage.

And so, Daniel held his right hand as far from his body as possible, sunk his index finger into the depression, and let forth a loud whistle throughout the field. With the blade itself barely tangible, it appear as if only a chakram was spinning--and rapidly, at that. He held his second sword, the vibrating blade he obtained earlier, over his chest, just in case, and began to run.

"'ey!" Daniel shouted as he charged in, taking a slightly different angle than Danyr, but mostly the same direction, "Remember me?!"