He is worried for a moment that it would cause more harm than good, feeling his own breath catch in his throat as he watched the air around Rue get sucked away. But the fire went with it, dying out with the lack of air to sustain itself. They let out their breath. Onyx-Three was unsure of how to respond, choosing to accept the thanks with a slight tilt of the head.

Their attention returned to the fungus, reaching out to slash at it with a dagger. The clump came off with a clean cut, falling to the ground in a tangle of white. He stomped on it. It felt spongey beneath his foot. From the corner of his eyes, he watched Rue absorb some of the life from the fungus. That was an interesting method of killing it. "You feel better?" he did not know how badly the fire affected them. If they were badly injured still, Onyx-Three considered using magic once more to help.

@Rue

With an awkward stretch that hurts more than it ought too, Rue tests the extent of their wounds. The pain screams like hell, but it does seem to be mostly surface level... so maybe they'll be fine.

"It's fine," they mutter quietly, slinking a bit further away. They're not exactly sure how to react to the Onyx's concerns, with how genuine it seems. Perhaps they've simply gotten to used to some of the other Forge members' distant demeanors.

With a huff, they turn back to the fungus, calling on their magic. What's the worst that could happen?

...well, nothing isn't the worst outcome.

@V-Onyx-Three

He just nods, unsure how to interpret Rue's words. But he wasn't going to go after them, seeing that they stated they were fine, and returned his attention to the fungus. They had made enough progress with their cleaning now that it was harder to find any clumps that could be considered low hanging fruit in this area. He had to stretch now to knock down a clump, nearly losing his balance with the height. Onyx-Three was just glad that this task was something he could do, in comparison to his incompetence in dealing with magic. It was something he should learn perhaps. Mastery was not necessary, but some ability in it would be helpful for future situations. Even if it scared him. A bit.

@Rue

That was the thing about magic - it was fickle and wild. The corruption of Chaos, even more so. Rue was, by definition, playing with fire.

"Don't get hurt too much. Vargas won't like it if the new blood gets all banged up," they say, trying to sound aloof - Rue seem to be his teacher in this excursion, with The Sentinel simply watching and the others scattering to sow Chaos elsewhere. Though, pot calling the kettle black...

They turn, focusing their magic on an offending piece of fungus. BEGONE FOUL ORDER! they glare, only for the message to burned into V-Onyx-Three's mind instead of on the Order in front of them.

Whoopsies.

@V-Onyx-Three

Onyx-Three stretched his limbs, giving them a break from the strain. He caught the irony in Rue's words, though decided not to comment on it. "I will be careful." There would be steady progress if he continued to stick to ripping away at the fungus rather than using magic to blow it up or something like that. Though he did realize that they preferred the latter- something he was wary of.

He turns to rip at another piece of fungus, but it quickly interrupted by a very loud mental 'BEGONE FOUL ORDER!' What was that? Who said that? Onyx-Three whirled around, ears rotating as if it had been a voice rather than a message in his mind. The message had obviously not been directed at him. He knew he was not Order after all! That was a scary thought. Rue was staring at a piece of the white stuff, which may have been what was the intended recipient of the message. This then made him question then if it was possible to speak to fungus. "You can speak to Order?"

@Rue

Well, the very intent glaring at the fungus had not caused it to burn, or explode, or spontaneously pop out of existence, so they were about to turn away with a huff. Of course, that's when the Onyx speaks back to them. "Stupid magic. I didn't want to talk to you. I wanted to burn this stupid white stuff," they spit, not mad at their companion but just about everything else.

Why couldn't their magic work? Why couldn't the fungus just vanish or something? stupidstupidorder.

With a hiss, they claw at the white-coated ground, trying to get their anger out somehow. As they do, their magic sparks up behind them, consuming a patch of the Order. Results, at least.

@V-Onyx-Three

Onyx-Three felt a bit stupid in that moment. Of course you couldn't speak to order! So they just nodded in response, and ducked their head in embarrassment, returning once more on the task before them. But something goes wrong. It could've been lack of focus, or it could've been that they were too preoccupied with trying to dispel their own silliness form their mind. They slip on a piece of discarded Order fungus that was lying upon the ground, and end up not removing any fungus at all, coming away with a slightly sore tail.

Maybe he should follow Rue and try using more magic to deal with this issue, but maybe only if this continued to go badly. After all, he was not specialized in such things, nor did he want to be.

@Rue

It honestly seems like both Rue and the Onyx are bumbling through this whole... cleansing business. It's a miracle they hadn't attracted unwanted eyes by now. Watching V-Onyx-Three fall over would've been funny if wasn't the umpteenth time something had gone wrong on this VERY IMPORTANT MISSION.

With a flick of their ears, Rue turns back to the icky grossness. Very Icky. Very Gross. Very Not Lighting On Fire, Come On!

@V-Onyx-Three

He was glad Rue didn't seem to notice the unfortunate accident, getting back up and shaking his fur. The clump of fungus that they chose to target was particularly tough, and their claws get caught in it for a moment before breaking it free. Perhaps all the loose fungus was already cleared from the area, so what was remaining was trickier to get rid of. It takes a few more swipes to completely clear away the clump, which he tossed away to where the others had been collected.

@Rue