Brady Vargus, Rachael Lorelei, Balthazar, Fei Xian Zi

It was something of a surprise when the dog girl took up the argument that the gunner was apparently putting down. Didn't matter much to Balthazar, though. Someone to argue with was someone to argue with. This one was even getting amusing. Here she was seemingly trying to compare herself to him. How quaint. Still, it was fuel to the fire that Ba'al welcomed. "Oh," he chuckled as she stormed past him, "So you must be the half, then." Referring to his comment about their inexperience and general demeanors. Which would make Brady the full, but he didn't bother saying that. It was implied.

"Aye, useless. Having no use. In this case, having no use for." He defined and emphasized. "If yeh'd pay attention you'd comprehend, ye daft bint." As he said. He had no use for them. "Your capabilities and presumed experience are meaningless." That, however, was when Fei interrupted, halting Ba'al in his verbal tracks as he looked on at his partner when she walked in between he and the gunman. Her interject would have been an interesting turn of events if she hadn't implied what she did. That he somehow needed protection at the hands of Brady, or that he would bother protecting someone he quite well viewed as expendable.

It was the gunner comment that really got him however. Gunners, specifically. There was only one obvious gunman here. "Lass, what the **** are you on about? She's a sword and a bracer." His argument directed at Rachael seemingly forgotten in that moment as he spun around to look on after Fei as she walked off. He had seen her smile before. It had no effect on him or his speech one way or the other.

Then, of course, said gunner walked past him as well. Well, then.... Tossing his hands up in minor exhasperation he headed back down the tunnel a short ways and slashed one diagonal mark into the corner just before the turn. He didn't like using his sword for this while charging dust as it both wasted a small amount of that which he had charged and risked compromising the structure of the wall, but he had little choice. What choice he did have was to amend his system and only make one grating, echoing slash into each side of the corner. The ice he left behind would remain there for some time, but he'd know which way they went.

Once that was done, his head swiveled around and stared down the 'straight' option. For several moments he considered walking off and leaving them to their own devices. He didn't need them. And they could be heading the wrong way for all they knew. Innumerable threads of thought later, he settled on two things. One: he'd already made his mark indicating the path they'd chosen, and so left his own path improperly and or confusingly marked. Two: he wasn't quite prepared to abandon Fei. If she threw her lot in with them when push came to shove, he would most likely be compelled to sever what minute ties he felt with her and return to his solitude.

However, this was not that time.

Quickening his pace to a fast, long strided walk, Balthazar quickly caught up to Brady... and walked right past him.

Noticing the surprisingly, comparatively subdued beeping of the devices at roughly the same time Fei had, Ba'al's free left hand was already digging into his shirt at the neck. Unfortunately, it seemed that his selected pocket for the device was... inefficient. The thing had slid down across the metal bar that hugged tight to his chest and had settled just under his left pectoral. It took the red-head a minute as his partner spoke up-- logical and tactically sound didn't exactly describe his assessement of the bridge the other two had made, but...-- to extricate the blasted thing with an annoyed flourish and whip it open.

Taking an uncannily short amount of time to read the message, "Well it's about ****in' time." He said loudly from a few feet behind Fei, his stride having slowed to like pace with the others while he putzed with the device. "Took those rat ****s long enough ta document 'em. Looks like we were both right, Lass." He referred to a conversation they had had back in the initial tunnel whilst the silver haired girl had been sitting on his shoulders. They had been discussing the disconcerting nature with which a mole had died with little to no intervention from either of them. It wasn't a comforting revelation.... Yet another species of Grimm that was not physically imposing, but still deadly. It was beasts exactly like these eels which made Balthazar's job both boring and hazardous.

As quickly as it had been opened, the device was closed and stuffed back down his shirt with no regard for it's apparent tendency to migrate. Ba'al's pace quickened once again, and, moments later, was ahead of Fei. That, however, was when the Gunner called up from the back. An irrelevant question... but one Ba'al deigned to answer out of complete lack of anything better to do at the moment. "Aye, dozens." Was the vague answer that was left hanging in the air for a moment as he closed in on Rachael. ...Well, in terms of being in lead, anyway; he was still six feet off to her right. "****'s were hidin' in tha drink. Didn't even know they were there. Electrocuted tha ****in' water outta basic precaution. Fried up more than I cared about bleedin' countin'." His tone was flat. Bored. Simple information conveyance. It wasn't an exciting story.

As Balthazar regaled the tale of the second five minutes of his and the little woman's adventures, he would-- provided no one was going to fight him for the position-- pass by the other sword wielder and keep right on walking. If he kept up this pace, he'd leave the lot of them in the dust. Which, of course, didn't really bother him any. Being in the front suited him just as well as being in the middle or the back. All that the pole position meant was that he had less bodies to bypass when there was **** that needed obliteration. And, of course, it separated him from Brady by many yards. Apparently Balthazar Raghnall Kael was not one to be taking orders... even from someone he didn't hold in disdain. That did not bode well at all.

It was a long, horrendously boring walk. Just endless paths and branches leading who knows where? Whether those now almost out of sight behind him bothered to keep up conversation or not was of no concern to Balthazar. He kept to his twisting, twisted thoughts and the continual charging of his golden katana, the only sounds coming from him for very much of the journey being the steady quick paced steps he'd used to gain this lead and a somewhat concerning humming that seemed to be issuing from the hilt of the blade. Ba'al had never charged this must dust at once. The mounted swirling of white more than obscured the weapon, and the arm holding it had taken to being held completely away from his body while his steady walk kept him well on the left side of the tunnel, keeping the blade away from the opposite wall.

So long, in fact, was the walk... so bored was he, in the absence of anything to skewer or flash freeze, that the mind underneath that messy shock of red hair began to warp and lapse into the beginnings of a madness of bloodlust. Balthazar wanted nothing more than to kill something, anything. As the tunnel they trudged through widened, the echo of his footsteps worsened, creating a beat to which his mind began to march. A beat to which, in his ever increasing boredom driven desire to fight, a song was formed.

"Total Slaughter," He sang, low but clear, a gentle lyricism colored by what would seem to be minor insanity brought to the words. "Total Slaughter." His voice grew louder, the strange, melodyless song echoing off of the stone walls. "I won't leave... a single Grimm... alive. La di da di dai, Genocide.... La di da di dud, an ocean of blood." A grim song, indeed. "Let's begin... the killin' time." His desire to kill verbalised.

The gruesome, if simplistic expression of the scarred Hunter's boredom was most assuredly scheduled to repeat as their trek continued. Fortunately for any listening, it was headed off by a development. A doorway. A massive, open, set of doors. Which was quite possibly the most fitting and ominous structure they could have found down here. A structure that he almost immediately began laughing at. Quiet at first, merely a chuckle, it grew quickly into a raucous laughter as Ba'al stood some twenty from the mysterious doorway.

As the others would have approached from out of the gloom, Ba'al's laughter would largely abate. Turning to face them, he'd swing his arms wide, the precariously charged weapon wooshing dangerously through the air, threatening to discharge a catastrophic quantity of ice dust all at once. "Lad and lasses," He'd address with a giddy flair, the remaining mirth in his chest permeating his words, "If THAT isn't a boss room, then I don't ****en' know what is." His still empty left hand whipped back over his shoulder as it had a habit of doing, pointing to the oh so inviting open doors. He almost expected there to be a large glowing orb floating in place a short distance away.

The laughter faded finally as he'd turn to face the breech. Inhaling deep through his nose, he could smell the distinct aroma of gore mixed with ash. The scent the blackbirds swooned over: Battle. The smile stretched across his face could hardly be any larger. "Alright, listen up, yeh dry ****es." He called back to the remainder of this 'team'. "Whether you stay the **** out of me way or deign to get in it, yeh will stay out of the way long enough for me to fire this," His right arm lifted higher, the massive dust charge utterly blatant in its presence around the sword, "Or yeh will be blasted directly into the next ****in' ice age, ya ken?" Though the excitement was clear in his voice, his words were deadly serious. His sword had now been charging for what he could only guess was two hours. The entirety of the ice dust crystal in his blade would be depleted with this blast. Anyone who was caught in its detonation would not survive.

That warning established, Balthazar would resume his quick walk directly into the gratuitously massive chamber.

Head twitching left as the burst of flame was fired, Ba'al noted that aspect of Brady's gun. A note that was catalogued in two places in his brain: Potential Sicarius modifications and, the less important, Teammate capabilities. Looking up for a moment, he traced the trajectory of the flare as it arced up close to the momentously vaulted ceiling. Eyes falling onto the target as the natural course progressed. A note of approval rose from Balthazar's chest. A drawn out 'hmm'. Clearly not the salabinders mentioned in the summation files, this satisfactorily large creature was likely the other of the 'at least two unknown Grimm'. Squat for it's size. Wide. Horned. ...And rather quick. The Grimm seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place it.

Beginning to walk towards the beast-- he had stopped a short distance inside the room--, it took only moments for the other THREE of the same creature to come into sight from the far shadows of the unevenly lighted chamber. Stopping dead, the grin on the face of the man widened to it's utmost. The laughter which had died out a short while ago returned with a serious gusto. It quickly rose to a level which echoed far and wide across the domed room as the swordsman's body began to glow a rich, multi-hued gold. His aura flowed and swirled at a pace and manner that became increasingly violent as it spread outward, consuming the air around the positively ecstatic blood knight.

Cue the music.

As the laughter reached it's peak, Balthazar's battle-hungry aura flared heavily as he roared at the top of his lungs: "THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR!!" With that, he was gone. The only thing that remained where he had stood was the glowing golden wisps of aura that lagged behind in a dissipating trail as he and his magnified speed bolted off to the team's left. The first gigalizard was close at hand of the team by that time, but the luminescent speed demon was now a good distance off to its right side, somewhere between it and one of the others.

With a vicious shout his right arm lashed through the air, his weapon with it. Balthazar gave the beast no time to think or alter course. The positively mammoth charge of ice dust was launched directly at the right side of the lizard with intense speed. When it hit, the blast of arctic dust would quickly spread and engulf whatever it hit-- the massive Grimm, most likely-- in crawling ice. The entire remainder of the crystal of the sword had been discharged. Even if the creature survived the eruption that would encase the thing in a thick layer of ice, both limbs and huge chunks of the flesh on its right side would be completely frozen, straight through to the marrow. Frost bite was a gross understatement.

With any luck, there would now only be three giant Grimm to deal with. Though with his ice dust wholly expended, those remaining would be more difficult to deal with.