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Aliyah was surprised when the lion leader managed to inflict some damage on Orion and from what she could hear, was making its way up to her. "Wasn't expecting that but I can work with this." the witch muttered before she positioned herself near the edge of the roof, facing the stairs.[break][break]

She sent a message to her 3 summons, changing a few orders as the sound of rushing footsteps drew closer to her. All 3 of them acknowledged her orders; King began to rise into the air as Orion took his place in harassing the lionesses. With his defense increase, he had much more luck in getting in close; taking his self-proclaimed role as a knight. The lionesses were surprised at this, leaving themselves open to being batted about by Orion, lining them up perfectly for the grand finale.[break][break]

By this point, the sound of the leader had finally reached the top of the staircase, and with a bang, joined her on the rooftop. It released a fierce roar, no doubt trying to intimidate her but with her high willpower proved ineffective. "Come on already, I want to go home." she taunted, sounding nonchalant.[break][break]

The leader lion grew enraged at this, leaping toward her which was just what Aliyah wanted. With a flap of her wings, she activated her raven cloak, falling backward as she activated her third skill, activating all 3 of her subclass abilities. The surrounding 51 meters transformed into her labyrinth as she and her birds disappeared from the sight of the big cats.[break][break]

The leader didn't get a chance to think much about this change as his mind was assaulted with sharp pain, distracting him and causing the cat to fall from the top of the building; landing harshly 5 meters on the ground. This fall was quickly followed up by an avalanche of falling debris as King used his Crashing Descent.

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"Wow, I wasn't expecting them to go down so easy." Aliyah muttered from her hiding spot. Most of the lionesses were on their last leg and would fall from one more attack with one of them even being dead. The leader had taken a substantial hit from the attacks but seemed to be going strong if the angry roars she could hear were anything to go by.[break][break]

Granted it had taken a majority of her summons' abilities to get them down to this point but King still had another aoe attack that he could use. She'd be keeping that one on hold, just in case, but she doubted that she would need it. "King, Aquila finish up with those lionesses. Orion, time to put that cat out." Aliyah said, all 3 birds cawing their approval.[break][break]

Orion flew down, the sound of his wings sounding in the dying storm though he had to dodge a flamethrower from the male lion; having managed to pick up on the raven's location. Aquila had better luck, killing another lioness before his lightning ran out. The 3 remaining lionesses had managed to group up and were taking swipes at King to keep him at bay.[break][break]

Seeing that the leader was distracted with aiming at Orion, Aliyah took this moment to launch her ice beak attack at him, surprising the lion and piercing his shoulder though it did alert him to another enemy in his midst.

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The male lion lazily turned his head, gazing across his kingdom. He had originally been confined to that small place where those strange creatures feed him. He figured that they were offering him some form of tribute and so decided against maiming any of them since they knew their place.[break][break]

However, that soon changed one day when he awoke to find that the hairless monkeys had disappeared and his luxurious mane had caught on fire. His lionesses had also gained increased strength and size though naturally, he was the most powerful. At first, he had remained in his home alongside his 4 lionesses but soon it became apparent that they would have to go hunting on their own if they wanted to catch their own food.[break][break]

It took little effort on his part to break them out and soon he stumbled upon a group of those hairless monkeys and roared at them, demanding his tribute. He snorted as he remembered how those foolish creatures had dared to attack him and his. They soon learned their lesson as he tore them apart. After that, he decided it was time to form a new kingdom and teach these foolish beasts who were the real king of the jungle.[break][break]

The king was soon pulled from his thoughts as the skies began to grow dark; powerful winds and lightning sounding around them. The wind seemed powerful enough to pull the dust from the ground, forming a cloud as far as he could see. This seemed to be unnatural to the king but he didn't get time to think of it as soon he and his lionesses were letting out howls of pain as lighting wracked his body, locking his muscles in place.

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"What? No. I've had Aquila since I went through my tutorial." Aliyah said, sounding confused at Hana's question. That got her thinking, had she never summoned Aquila in front of Hana before? "Well we've only met like 3 times so far I think and of those only one was a battle."[break][break]

As the pair made their way toward the staircase to the next floor, Aliyah listened as Hana explained what she had learned about the ratmen. "A magical building that can create illusions and even real illusions as well." the bird user muttered. Just what was the mystery of this building? Who built it and for what purpose?[break][break]

As the pair moved up the stairs, Aliyah decided to take the time to explain to Hana about her new subclass ability as well as introduce Aquila to the Musician who was busy admiring Orion's increased size. It wouldn't take long for the group to arrive on the second floor, seeing this time that they were surrounded by a maze of storage units.[break][break]

"First office building and now storage units? What's next?"

[attr="class","landtag2"]Hana Sakuyuki [TAGGED]

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"I'm not sure either; probably another mystery that we have to solve." the witch stated, launching another ice beak into the previous ratman target. With the reduction in speed and general chaos on the battlefield going on, she managed to pierce right through its skull, killing it.[break][break]

Getting some room to breathe, Aliyah took the chance to glance around and take stock of the battlefield. It seemed she was just in time to see Hana go through a magical girl transformation sequence using a song from Hikari Utano to power herself up. Aliyah was captivated by watching the slightly older teen smash her way through ratmen, even as Orion and Aquila continued their assault.[break][break]

While she was assaulting the ratmen with her fist, Hana noted that its eyes seemed to glow the same color as the room had before the illusion set it; a bubblegum pink.[break][break]

She was roused from her admiration by Hana encouraging her to finish off their remaining enemies. "Right! Aquila! Orion! Time to finish off these bozos!" she called out, taking off into the air to avoid another swipe from a ratman. That one paid dearly for that as a frost-covered wing from Orion knocked its head clear off while the last remaining attempted to escape, only for Aquila to set upon it. The death sequels echoed for a little while before cutting off with a wet gurgle indicating the group had won their battle.[break][break]

With the defeat of all five ratmen, the surrounding crystals would cease their glowing, returning the room to its previous appearance with only the corpses of the five ratmen surrounding them. From her position in the air, Aliyah would be able to spot the path leading to the next floor, pointing it out to Hana as another illusion kanji appeared, this one in her left eye.

[attr="class","landtag2"]Hana Sakuyuki [TAGGED]

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Aliyah absentmindedly heard Hana's question about what her sub-class contained as she scrolled, her mind buzzing with the implications of her ability.[break][break]

"So I'm basically a walking dungeon then." she mused before going over the different abilities granted to her. "The Prodromal phase looks like the one that I'll be using the most. Acute phase would be great in a pinch in case of AoE-type attacks."[break][break]

Finishing her inspection, Aliyah was about to begin her explanation when she noticed a ratman approaching Hana, aiming to strike at the musician with a bolt attack. Thankfully, her warning arrived in time and Hana summoned a shield, blocking the attack as a melodic tune rippled out, disrupting the illusions and sending the 5 ratmen stumbling back.[break][break]

"Pretty much, though I wonder what they're doing here." the witch muttered, summoning Aquila to join the fray as Hana tossed 2 daggers into the chests of the 2 ranger rats who let out squeaks of pain as their comrades drew near, 2 of them targeting Hana while another went after Aliyah.[break][break]

"Ice Beak!" Aliyah screamed out, shooting out the beak of ice from her right hand at one of the approaching ratmen. It attempted to smash the attack but failed to overpower it, instead getting pierced through the shoulder and sending it stumbling back. Aquila launched his static wind attack and though it failed to do any damage, it hit all 5 of the ratmen, lowering their speed by 20%, electricity dancing along their limbs.[break][break]

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Aliyah shuffled her way through the paperwork, looking for the folder that the lead engineer had indicated to retrieve. It should be easy to identify since she had labeled it but it was clear that the engineer was a messy woman. There were old food wrappers and various stains all across the desk.[break][break]

She had just found the folder when Orion sent out a warning note and she froze. Listening, Aliyah could hear the heavy footsteps of a robot approaching. The witch didn't even hesitate to transform back into her owl form, shoving the folder into the vent and rapidly making her way back through, Orion leading the way as Aquila helped her carry the folder.[break][break]

No sounds of alarm reached the trio as they eventually exited back on the roof. They fly over to join King before the vulture acted as a rear guard for the group as they returned back to the teleportation circle, making sure to avoid the area where they had battled the death knight.

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