The amethyst tower.

It was late afternoon the day the trio of one Asshole wizard, one kinda douchey wizard, and one fie mage dancer, became a quartet with a fourth member added, being a highly skilled blood mage, without much of a grasp of the world around him. Smoke was rising to the east on the road ahead, but the woods obscured exactly where it was coming from, but Valstad spoke up he had studied the map "There's a little village around here." He commented then surprisingly added "We should go check on that smoke." his mask of apathy stayed on even as he wished to make sure the village was alright.

Ephraim nods , yet silently notices Val's concern. Good , at least he's not a total dick right?

"There may be some free supplies to salvage, we're low on food after all" Valstad added to maintain his guise of being a complete dick.

Cerise had basically been mothering the new comer the entire time he'd joined their little posse, and had tried her best to keep the other two from killing each other. As soon as she spotted the smoke, she ran on ahead to make sure everything was okay.

(does she weigh in on this?)

(What?)

(The smoke source and all that)

"God damnit, don't run ahead you ,moron!" Valstad shouted harshly as he ran after her

Cerise ignored him and kept running, she wanted to check if everyone was okay. Evidently, she wasn't the smartest.

"Damnit woman!" The wizard Valstad regretted not charging full price as he pursued the dancer who he was meant to guard, he wasn't exactly the must Athletic sort, he walked a lot, but at a leisurely pace, and the wizard never worked out; that would be a waste of his study time. Needless to say the traveling wizard had serious trouble keeping anywhere near the athletic dancer when running. Fighting assassins was one thing, but physical fitness? He did not sign up for this shit. As they closed in they could see a small town of mostly wood hats, the huts were being burned by some sort of strange golem creature. All of the golem's were a bronze metal, about 8 to 10 ft tall, they had 8 spider like legs but a humanoid torso and head, one hand was a nozzle through which they could spew jets of fire, and the other was much like a larger human hand, their chests seemed to glow with an amethyst energy. The creatures seemed to be rounding up the terrified townsfolk in the center of town

Ephraim on the other hand had always been trained to pop in an hour or two for physical training so while he doesn't exactly keep up with the limber and light dancer ,he manages to follow her closely . As one would expect though he abruptly stops in his tracks when he sees the golem creatures .

Cerise merely slows to a steady stop when the creatures came into view. She wasn't the type to immediately judge someone, she believed there was at least some good in everyone. Still, she was wary of the creatures as they didn't look awfully friendly. She tried to search through the depths of her mind to find any information on these creatures, even in fairy tails or stories which she has heard a lot of, and occasionally acted out, but they didn't appear awfully familiar. They were rather eerie looking, with all those legs. "Um, excuse me, what are you doing?" She asked a nearby creature.

"Also can I ride you?" Malachi asked reaching the machines just before Cerise did "This is the territory of master wizard Celine Locheart vacate the area or be processed" It said in a monotone voice fortunately it ignored or did not register malachi's question

Ephraim facepalms at her complete naivete , suppose that's what happens when you live your entire life doing nothing but dancing and listening to stories.

"Why are you burning it then?" Cerise asked simply, tilting her head to the side slightly. "Would Sir Lochart not wish to have his territory in one piece?"

"Lady locheart requires these peasants for the purpose of magical advancement." The machine said, and warned once again "Move along"

"Can you not just ask them?" She said, frowning. Her naivety was emitting from her in palpable waves at this point. She ignored his order and continued: "I don't think hurting them will help your cause, please stop burning the place."

Menacingly the creature aimed its flamethrower arm at cerise

Cerise looked entirely unfazed, she just looked at the creature calmly. "If they don't want to be magically advanced, then that's their choice, please stop. Just tell Lady and lord Lochart of your predicament, I am sure they will understand."

"It's just lady locheart" The annoyed machine said roughly grabbing her, and throwing her into the circle with the town's folk

Valstad was till far behind panting a reminder to himself as he ran pathetically "Breathe... That's the key"

Cerise stumbled, fell, rolled and righted herself in a crouched position. It looked surprisingly graceful considering. She straightened and made her way over towards him again with her palms facing the creature. "Please, sir."

At this Ephraim attacks , using his magic to ignite the canister of fuel that powers the machine's flamethrower .

Do to the fact that it's magic and not a typical flammable substance the attempt fails miserably. Meanwhile Malachi attempts to jumping spin kick the creature in the head, but succeeds only in breaking his foot, and being thrown on top of cerise. with an "OW!"

Cerise tumbled to the ground, crushed by Malachi's weight. "Oof! Oh, you guys, why do you always have to react with violence...?"

Ephraim his patience tested enough by Cerise's naivete growls out " get to cover already!!!" And with a short incantation ,turns whatever the substance is into dirt so the golem can't set him aflame .