• Our software update is now concluded. You will need to reset your password to log in. In order to do this, you will have to click "Log in" in the top right corner and then "Forgot your password?".
  • Forum moderator applications are now open! Click here for details.
  • Welcome to PokéCommunity! Register now and join one of the best fan communities on the 'net to talk Pokémon and more! We are not affiliated with The Pokémon Company or Nintendo.

Aerion [IC] Rated M

Xlugon Pyro

Dragon Tamer
308
Posts
16
Years
XEYE ANASTASIA ZXKOL
THE BLUE WILDCAT

Cloaked Guy responds to Xeye's inquisition, "Umm, yes. I am here to dispense the funding and relay any other information to yourself and your group, once the rest of them appear," he states before continuing on to ask Wolf Pops about the remainder of their gang.

Nonetheless, the group had assembled quickly thereafter, including even Apples who always seems to be either crazy or drunk. Is there a difference? Xeye wouldn't know. She doesn't know what being drunk is like. Wolf Pops greets Apples by shoving bread down the red-head's throat.

"That's... odd!" Xeye contemplates to herself, dumbfounded by the exchange of her fellow mercenaries.

Wolf Pops wastes no time getting to business as always, consulting with Cloaked Guy who hands the highman a smaller sack of what turns out to be coins out of the larger sack that Cloaked Guy keeps to himself. Counting the coins to himself, the two men confirm the contents to each other as Cloaked Guy begins to distribute the coin sacks to the other mercenaries. The odd man walks up towards Xeye, returning his gaze with her own puzzled look before he drops the sack of silver coins in her hands. However, the bag slips her grip, crashing into the ground and spilling its shiny contents.

"Noooo!" she screams, falling to her knees as her hands reach out for the fleeing circles. "Come baaaaack!"

Scrambling for her runaway coins, Cloaked Guy finishes distributing the coins and calls out to the mercenaries, "If you would, good Sers, gather around."

"No-no no no no, WAIT!!" Xeye yelps, scooping up the last of her coins before depositing them in her pouch. "Don't start without meeeeee!"

The discussion of the assignment begins promptly, forcing Xeye to stumble and scurry over to the assembling gang as they meet around Cloaked Guy.

"Here we have our current location at Dalenham," states Cloaked Guy, dragging his fingers along some map he has laying across the ground just as Xeye joins her gang to see what the man's instructions are.

"Over here is Curilan," Cloaked Guy continues, sliding his finger across the map that Xeye recognizes as Eveamoor when her eyes fall upon his finger pointing at the city's location.

Doing her best to catch up to the details she missed, her eyes dart across the map, finding the map's compass, key, and the aforementioned Dalenham before returning her gaze swiftly to the city Cloaked Guy called Curilan which she spots to the north. moving north to point to the city on the map.

"The fort is about four kilometers west of the city," the hooded man informs before he goes on, "It was once a heralded fortress under the control of the Eveamoorian government, but as the economy declined, many forts like this one were abandoned because of the impracticality of maintaining them."

"How many men are we expecting inside?" Wolf Pops inquires from Cloaked Guy whose expression begins to depress before he relays the bad news to the mercenaries.

"About twenty, maybe as many as thirty," Cloaked Guy pauses, his gaze glancing over Xeye briefly, but her response is blank as if she's daydreaming or, most likely, not paying attention.

"Anything special about these bandits? Do they have an affiliation or benefactor?" Wolf Pops presses further.

"To my knowledge, they are simply a group of brigands from around the area. Nothing remotely special about them, as far as I hear. The only problem is their number, and fortification."

"Alright. We'll get it done," Wolf Pops assures the man who has assigned them the risky rescue mission.

The two men exchange words briefly. Wolf Pops receives what appears to be a marked map and the Cloaked Guy gives the mercenaries instructions on where to meet him should they succeed in their mission. After exchanging good byes, Cloaked Guy departs on his horse, and Wolf Pops wastes no time addressing his band of mercenaries of the work ahead of them.

"Right," Wolf Pops begins, scratching himself briefly but quickly gets to his point, "Seems fairly straightforward. We go in, clear out the fort, and rescue the daughter of the fat one."

"Heeheheeee!" Xeye giggles like the little girl that she should've outgrown long ago but has yet to make that effort. "You called him fat! Funny! Heeeheheheheehee!"

"Before we move out though, I've got a few words to say, since this will be our first job as a group. The Sabamin orcs don't count. We operated separately, and I was mostly intent on seeing if you could handle yourself," he pauses, glancing over his colleagues.

"Wait, slaying orcs doesn't count?" Xeye interrupts in confusion. "I worked -VERY- hard to kill those orcs! They -SHOULD- count, meany!"

"Now, we are a team. I care not what opinions you reserve for each other, nor do I care of your opinions of me. I care not what you fight for, be it gold, gods, guidance, or glory. Nor do I care where you hail from. When we carry out a job, we will watch each other's backs, and we will work together. We won't charge ahead shouting of foolish pursuits of glory and honor, especially if it were to endanger one of the others in the team. Likewise we won't do stupid, reckless stunts unless it is necessary."

"Well -that's- no fun..." Xeye mumbles to herself, upset that Wolf Pops essentially condemned her battle strategy.

"The job is the most important thing, followed by the team. Everything else is trivial. Should you work together and follow my lead, everything will go smoothly. If not, you can tell your gods I said hello. If you've got any inquiries, now is the time. If not, we'll be off. There's work to be done."

"Wait... so... where are we going?" Xeye stares at Wolf Pops blankly, hopelessly clueless on the mission that was -just- told to them.

"Okay, let's go! Who cares!" she bursts aloud, jumping to her feet and throwing her arms into the air. "Let's do this! Aaaaaaadventure time! Yaaaaaay!"
 

Nomsammich

The Cleric!
41
Posts
11
Years
Heva Azcadelia Jade - Xin Kou, Shingou - Northern Villages


Heva, a wandering mage and mercenary, had found herself in the northern villages of Shinguo, a couple miles from the nation's capital, Zhongshen. Heva had been drawn to this island nation because of legend she had heard from the mainland.

As a traveler from the mainland nation of Ethora she was greeted with mixed signals. Possibly because she was sporting mage's robes and an over-friendly attitude, but she didn't take that into consideration. Heva, with her squat healthy merchant build, had been studying the legend of the Necromancer that was sealed inside the mountains just a few miles north of the villages she had been hopping between.

Nearly every day she was in a new village that had called for assistance; the villages were under attack by the Necromancer's conjurations. These conjurations were fueled by dark magic and held even darker attitudes towards mortals like her. There was an unnatural stench about them, they smelled like the essence of anger, hurt and hate itself. Heva had known that mage's magic could be affected by how they felt at the time of casting the spell. By the way the conjurations were tainted with the stench she could tell the feelings of the fabled Necromancer -- that was turning out to be very real.

Heva had recently taken up station in the village of Xia Kou. She was greeted by warm faces and white teeth. All the good feelings soon turned sour when the taint of the tainted conjurations began to attack the village, again.

~~~

"Here they come!" one of the village lookouts had yelled, the villages in the north established lookout to warn of the impeding danger. Heva was eating a rice dumpling when her call to action was heard. She took up her staff that had been leaned against the table she was eating at. She was in a small family's home; they housed her since she was fending off the unknowing assaults of the Necromancer. She wobbled her healthiness to the door, a rice dumpling jutting from her oral orifice.

"You get 'em, Heva," a small girl called out as Heva left. Heva scarfed down the dumpling as she made her way for the north gate of the village. There she met a small minute men force, which the town had thrown together from its farmers and merchants.

"C'mon, boys," she said, waving her chubby, sausage fingered hand for them to follow her through the gates. The minute men force was a rag tag group, to say the least; they were only equipped with the stereotypical pitchfork and occasional spear. Heva on the other hand had her staff; hand crafted from the wood in Ethora, encrusted with a jewel, a jade, from her father's business. The jewel itself was enchanted with magic properties to empower her spellcasting.

On the northern horizon the tainted creations started to come, a hoard. "Brace yourselves, boys!" Heva yelled out, her voice hearty. The jade in her staff began to glow as the magic flowed in Heva's squat figure. Her eyes turned from emerald orbs to icy blue radiations. Her hands began to glow and warm, fire soon igniting on them. "Charge!" her voice rang out, battle cries from the men soon voicing off in unison with her own. Heva had turned them simple farm folk and honest merchants into a fighting force, a small battalion.

The tainting beings and mortals engaged in a melodramatic combat, the occasional sharp shank of a spear piercing through the creation. Heva had led the 'front line' into battle. She used her frenzied casting of small chunks of dangerous fire into the 'ranks' of the Necromancer's creations. The battle was a small war in her eyes. Heva held her staff in hand, swinging it in between her quick, fluent spellcasting, to knock the Necromancer's minions down a notch.

With each sling of a spell, whack of her staff, spear of a minute man and the lunging of a pitchfork the minions went down fairly easily. This lulled the men into a false sense of security. Soon after one minion would fall two or three more would take its place. It was as if the Necromancer himself was summoning them there in the exact location.

Heva, unknown to conjuration magic, didn't understand what was happening. For three days she fought these hellish minions from village to village; never had they gotten this heavy in numbers. Soon she and her squadron found themselves outnumbered three to one. They had lost ground and now were at the very gates of the village. The assault was relentless. So much so that Heva had witnessed her first casualty: the death of a young man, no older than twenty, who had fallen one of the more eviler minions.

"I think," Heva looked to her men, who now cowered in their boots, "we may have taken on too much." She laughed nervously, unsure of how she was going to get out of the situation. The minions kept spawning, as if breeding like rabbits. "Inside, men, inside!" she barked out an order. They hurriedly made their way inside the gates of the town. The wooden walls would have to hold. The town of Xia Kou was under siege.

"What are we to do, Heva?" one of the men pleaded. Heva shook her head unsure. She had been the sole protector of these lands. The Shinguo army had yet to arrive after much pleading, by herself and the villages that dotted the border before the mountain range. There was still a glimmer of hope: she had caught word that Knights from Ekilore had landed on the island that day. Hopefully, they would get here soon. Or an entire village of citizens would be slaughtered.


((OOC: Too much? Not accurate?))
 
Last edited:

CarefulWetPaint

Doctor Lobotomy
1,193
Posts
12
Years
Auden Radke and Tamor Bellfiend
Shinguo
The ever vigilant Roland Grey stepped forward from the Knights' group, much to Auden's dismay. Apparently he had taken it upon himself to be the group's leader, even though they weren't that type of group. As long as this idiot doesn't do anything stupid he can handle the talking. Roland began to exchange pleasantries with the man who was surrounded by the "elites". Instead of paying much attention to the conversation between the two, Auden began to survey the surroundings, taking in the number of villages that were around and a general idea of the land's topography, well, at least the area that he could see. Tamor was still clinging to his robe, clearly nervous from the size of the group that had gathered and the arguably intimidating bodyguards of their "friend" from what he had heard. Tamor wasn't sure what was happening, but everything was going on so fast. Uneasiness settled in after the way that Yoshuro referred to them as "such foreigners." Auden's mind began to wander and soon he was thinking of the joy of slowly gutting the Shingou's elite guards in front of the villagers, before realising that their group had began walking, with Tamor guiding him, possibly picking up on his drift into fantasy. Tamor heard the sound of wings flipping before her much missed companion landed on the worn material that made up her robes. Her face formed a feature that it hadn't in quite a while, a smile. She instantly let go of Auden and began to focus her attention solely on Niolas, who cawed loudly if Auden got within touching distance of Tamor.

The walk was very serene, with the exception of Tamor's hawk, which had beginning cawing regularly at Auden on the way to the man's, Yoshuro, estate. Farming fields expanded to the edge of a large mountain range which encircled the small port town of Duānkǒu. Thick woods grew up, which covered everything in dark green, from the base of the mountains that had low clouds hiding the top of the mountains. Auden thought it was a fairly impressive sight to behold, as if the clouds were swallowing the mountains which were in turn swallowing the town,with the only thing that could make it better being if the clouds actually did swallow the entire town, killing everyone there slowly and painfully. The time that it took to reach the estate pleased Tamor greatly, she wasn't ready to walk a long journey just quite yet. It also pleased her that she was able to soak in the nature that Tella had created as well as that peace that came with it. She wished that her and Niolas could take flight and leave behind the retched world that she had become so entwined with.

Though beautiful, the walk was fairly short, with the group stopping outside the largest building that Auden had seen in Duānkǒu. The over extravagant building stuck out like a sore thumb in the town. Must be our rich friend's estate. He thought, following the group as Yoshuro lead them through said estate. The manor was filled with rare art, and tapestries, even fine linen decorated the rooms ceilings and windows. A manor that was worth burning down and destroying were the first few thoughts that Auden had, suppressing the urge to start burning it down out of boredom. Their tour of the manor was cut rather short, much too Auden's delight as Roland and Yoshuro began conversing once again. Auden, still lost on how Roland had been nominated the Knights grand leader, had began casing the library like room that the guards had been ushered out. It was clear their was little trust on delicate matters between Yoshuro and the Shingou elites, which lead Auden to doubt how much they could trust Yoshuro's word on the location of the shard. Tamor listened as Roland, their new "leader", and Yoshuro spoke about The Dragon Stone or this orb that were apparently significant to their group. She laughed as Percival spoke, he had mentioned that somehow he knew that none of them were from Shinguo, which was funny because she hadn't known his name or Roland's name until they had spoken them just now. In fact, they hadn't even had proper introductions, but she kept to herself because who was she to correct him, the brother of their leader? Yoshuro launched into a story, full of interruptions from both Roland and Percival, which irked Tamor to a certain extent.

Why are these two idiots the ones who are being spoken too? They do understand this isn't the kind of group that would have a leader don't they? Though a bit frustrated at the fact that Yoshuro was only really addressing Roland and Percival he allowed Yoshuro to complete his story, something that the two brothers seemed hell bend on interrupting. "..If you truly wish to claim the Dragon Stone or the shard of the Orb of Ardor if you prefer, you will have to find the temple, cleanse it and defeat the Necromancer. Do that and you will have not only the shard, but a legacy in the land of Shingou. Of that, I can promise." Yoshuro finished looking over the group. Tamor waited until the conversation finished before she returned her attention to Niolas, it was as if Roland and Percival were the only two that existed. Were they truly going to be a part of a legacy, Tamor clutched her clothing and wondered what she had to offer to defeat this Necromancer.

"Sounds simple enough. Tamor and I can handle this ourselves if you two want to continue to appreciate the artwork and books here. Let's go Tamor." Auden replied as Yoshuro's gaze fell on him. There was clear confidence in Auden's voice, though he did have to dip into his years of experience to hide the excitement of killing, and hopefully torturing. Slowly he looked at the brothers before turning for the door, ready for the job that he'd just accepted. If the hood hadn't obscured her facial features Tamor's shock would've been well known. Instead of questioning Auden she simply went along with his grand exit and hoped that Roland and Percival would soon be right behind them.​
 
5,114
Posts
17
Years
  • Age 30
  • AU
  • Seen Feb 18, 2023
>> AVA
>> The Gates of Dalenham, Eveamoor

"Nice bow there, a little typical don't you think? An elf with a bow?" Alys made a laugh at her, noticing Avangeline's new purchase. She giggled at her companion in reply, patting her direwolf so he would whine for affection as opposed to softly growl.

"Thank-you! I know very little about shooting arrows, I was wondering if you could perhaps school me at a later date?"

"Hi Puppy Lady! You ready to kick some butt!?"

"I sure am!" Avangeline punched her other first in the air, keeping her other hand preoccupied with patting poor Nem. Cass soon joined the group, as well as Evelynn. When it was confirmed that everybody had arrived, the merchant got to business. He passed out the pay, Avangeline's chinking as it was placed in her hands. She quickly counted the insides by feeling the weight, which, judging by the weight of the bag, felt like 35 silver pieces.

"To each of you, 35 pieces of silver handed out now, and the remaining 35, as well as the 200 surplus, to be given out once my daughter has been returned to me," she nodded as he opened his map and began to explain the mission and when asked, leaned in closer to look. "Here we have our current location at Dalenham. Over here is Curilan. The fort is about four kilometers west of the city. It was once a heralded fortress under the control of the Eveamoorian government, but as the economy declined, many forts like this one were abandoned because of the impracticality of maintaining them."

"How many men are we expecting inside?" Varian asked. Avangeline wouldn't have bothered with the question, confident she could take down an entire army of useless brutes. She listened to the merchant's response anyway.

"About twenty, maybe as many as thirty."

"Anything special about these bandits? Do they have an affiliation or benefactor?"

"To my knowledge, they are simply a group of brigands from around the area. Nothing remotely special about them, as far as I hear. The only problem is their number, and fortification."

"Alright. We'll get it done."

"Excellent! I cannot thank you enough, Sers," the man seemed pleased that they had said yes. Had he asked others before who had declined? He then passed the map to Varian. "Here. I've taken the liberty to mark another area on the map, on the outskirts of Curilan. When the job is complete, proceed to the inn there, known as the 'Strutting Stag'. I will be awaiting your arrival with the remainder of the payment, in full. Good luck, and may the Nine watch over you."

With a bow and and a stumble over to his horse, the man left them to the mission. Avangeline waved the man off, beaming at him as he rode far enough away that Avangeline couldn't be bothered focusing on him. What a wonder! Such great payment for a task that could arguably said was easier than yesterday's! Avangeline clapped her hands together excitedly. Varian spoke first though.

"Seems fairly straightforward. We go in, clear out the fort, and rescue the daughter of the fat one. Before we move out though, I've got a few words to say, since this will be our first job as a group. The Sabamin orcs don't count. We operated separately, and I was mostly intent on see if you could handle yourself. Now, we are a team. I care not what opinions you reserve for each other, nor do I care of your opinions of me. I care not what you fight for, be it gold, gods, guidance, or glory. Nor do I care where you hail from. When we carry out a job, we will watch each other's backs, and we will work together. We won't charge ahead shouting of foolish pursuits of glory and honor, especially if it were to endanger one of the others in the team. Likewise we won't do stupid, reckless stunts unless it is necessary. The job is the most important thing, followed by the team. Everything else is trivial. Should you work together and follow my lead, everything will go smoothly. If not, you can tell your gods I said hello.

"If you've got any inquiries, now is the time. If not, we'll be off. There's work to be done."

"Wait... so... where are we going?" Xeye was first to ask. What a silly girl. Though it was fun to be silly, one should always be informed! Even Avangeline remembered that it was a fort in Curilan. "Okay, let's go! Who cares! Let's do this! Aaaaaaadventure time! Yaaaaaay!"

"I have no questions," Avangeline raised a hand, a bright smile across her face. "I am very much ready to save this man's daughter from these awful men. The princess from her tower. Plus, I get to try my bow and arrow! This is going to be fun!"​
 

Legend

Kingslayer
1,308
Posts
15
Years

Percival and Roland Grey- Xin Kou, Shingou- Northern Villages


"The village of Xin Kou should be over this hill if I am reading this map right," Percival said as he looked up from his map purchased from the port town. It had been two days of traveling on horseback through the hilly countryside of Shingou. The Knights of Ekilore had kept quiet for most of the journey, with only Percival and Roland ocassionally arguing Ethorian politics to pass the time. "Well, it could be Xia Kou. My Shingouese is not very good to be honest," Percival joked, of which only Roland could roll his eyes to. Yoshuro had pointed Percival to the village of Xin Kou, saying it was closest to the relative location of the Necromancer's lair. Also, the village had experienced a recent surge of raids by the creations of the Necromancer, having been the victims of all sorts of unspeakable creations. Percival had spurned his horse to a gallop taking a more dramatic lead. In a few short moments, the Knights found themselves on the afoermentioned hill, overlooking the objective of their journey.

Sadly, Xin Kou was not as homely as Percival had hoped for. From the vantage point, Percival could see the ruins of a once peaceful rural village. Black clouds of smoke rose from the burnt rubble of small homes and huts. The surrounding farms drained from any life. The dirt roads that Percival followed to the center of village were soaked with blood. Bodies littered the streets. Some were of once living people, many clearly lacking the noble birth that Percival and Roland were blessed with. Others were of monsters. Things that Percival believed only lived in fairy tales. Progress had been replaced by ruins.

"Gods, what has happened here?" Roland muttered under his breath, as he pulled into the village, even his horse giving some resistance to enter.

"Something tells me I do not want to find out," Percival said to his brother, barely hearing his brother's remarks. And something tells me we will find out anyway, he thought to himself.

As Percival dismounted his stirring horse, he saw a small crowd of villagers with pale faces covered in blood, sweat and tears. They were barely armed, carrying rusty tools and weapons. If one could even consider a pitchwork a weapon. In a panic, they swarmed the arriving Knights, screaming in Shingouese with the occasional broken attempt at Ethorian. Roland reached for his sword, preparing to pull it from his sheath and cut down the first one of them daring enough to make the first move. Percival stepped in, motioning his brother to stay his blade.

"No reason to cut down scared villagers. I can try to translate with what little of their tongue I can understand. Perhaps I can learn what happened." With a breath, Percival did his best attempt to speak the strange language, his Ethorian accent that blended the Bludrock and Elysian accents butchering much of the Shingouese. The villagers laughed and smiled possibly for the first time in days, which allowed Percival to feel at ease. After several moments of conversation, Percival turned back to his peers.

"Well, we are in the right village. This is...or was Xin Kou. They have been fending off the 'monsters' of the Nercomancer for days now. An 'outsider' that supposedly looks like Roland and myself has been helping them fend them off the best she could."

"Hmm...interesting. She could be useful. Ask them where she is." Roland demanded, his eyes scanning over the area of the town, making sure nothing dangerous was around. Percival rolled his eyes at his brother's command. Each and every time Roland opened his mouth was another reminder of why Percival left to join House Welm. Percival asked where the outsider was rather easily. Basic questions were easy. Understanding the quickened response in the roused villagers was hard.

"Last they remember, she was in the northern part of the village. That was the last place to be heavily attacked. I think," Percival said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"We should probably seek her out there. It's obvious this...thing needs to be destro-"

"AAAHH!"

Various cries and screams echoed in the gentle winds of Xin Kou. The words were difficult to understand, probably even for native speakers of Shingou but it was easy to know why. "The villagers are telling me there is another attack coming at the north gate. Let's go!" Percival sprinted forth, drawing his mace to his right hand and equipping his shield on his left. Roland followed swiftly behind, unsheathing his sword and putting on his helmet over his head. The north gate was a short sprint through the ruined village, the damages becoming even more disheartening with each step. It was abundantly clear the northern quarter had experienced the worst of the attacks.

Percival took a stand in the center of the gate, swallowing his nervousness. He was never fond of fighting but was capable enough. It was the mystery of what he was bound to encounter that unnerved him. The large wave of beasts came forth. And Percival's mouth gaped open as the creatures approached. Dark, hideous, hellish creatures marched forward. Undead humans slid their decaying feet across the ground, with all kinds of rotting flesh pouring onto the ground. Large imposing ghouls with sharp fangs dashed on all fours at the head of the pack, while skeletons of former warriors with rusty blades brought up the rear. Strange abominations with body parts of various creatures and monsters blended into the army. Seemingly leading this pack of creatures was a fat monstrosity with bloody fluids spewing all over the ground as he dragged his giant body around. With a roar of the vile beast, the entire army charged forward.
 
Last edited:

SV

See You Space Cowboy
3,393
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2022

Varian Sigmund- Outskirts of Curilan, One Week Later


It had been a good seven days of travel across the flat plains of Eveamoor, not much in terms of scenery other than a few hills and green plains. Their path took them along one of the main roads north, a dirt road which was often the path of traders and other merchants seeking passage between Dalenham and Curilan, and so it was unusual to see a few of them along that route. Varian figured it would be best to stay along the road for the bulk of their journey, thereby avoiding any unnecessary squabbles that would undoubtedly happen should they stray too far off of the roads. After all, poverty brought desperation, and though he didn't fear the low-lives who would try to put a sword against him, neither did he wish for such an altercation. Besides, the trade route would likely have brought a chance to do business. Varian managed to deal with a trader a few days back, picking up a few commodities for a cheap price. It was one of the few things you could expect in Eveamoor: you may not acquire items of quality, but you're sure to get the cheapest price around.

But eventually, as he followed the marked map of the merchant, they found taking the last leg of their journey off of the road, and into the green plains, as they made their way to the fort located a ways west of Curilan. Eventually, Varian signalled for a halt of the company, double-checking the map once more as he climbed the hill in front of him, falling down to his arms and knees, and crawling to the top, to keep cover. He motioned for the others to do the same. Varian crawled to the top, the blades of grass scratching at his elbows with each push, but doing nothing more than tickling him as he passed over. When he reached the top, he saw it.



ajOuV7K.jpg

In the valley below, an old fort stood at the corner of a cliff, and below the cliff the lush valley of the Eveamoorian countryside was in full view. The bandits had certainly picked a nice spot to nestle up. But the condition of the fort was another matter. Moss had begun to cling to the sides of the ruined fort, and parts of the building had already began to crumble. The front gate was either destroyed or had been removed, and wood was supporting a few of the walls to ensure it didn't collapse. Observing the immediate surrounding area, there wasn't many places to hide upon approach, besides a few large rocks and perhaps one side of the fort which might be a partial blind spot. But that might involve stepping to close over the cliff. Varian double-checked the map once more to be sure this was the place, but he was fairly certain: this was the bandit fort.

He scanned over the ruined hideout. The bandits seemed to hide their presence fairly well, obviously intent on not attracting attention to themselves. The positioning of the fort, and the fact that it was so far away from the main road meant that few people would travel far enough to tell if anyone inhabited it. For those who did, they would likely not venture inside, for fear of the collapse of the building on top of them. But he and Cass had some experience in forts. He could tell the signs when people were around. For example, the woodwork that was placed on the sides of the fort was recent, to ensure that the wall did not fall. This meant someone was intent on keeping it that way. Certainly the Eveamoorian government didn't have any more use for the thing. If any more proof was needed, Varian squinted his eyes and managed to see the figures of men patrolling parts of the fort. There didn't seem to be many around on top, which led him to deduce that the bulk of the 20-30 bandits were inside, underground. That probably was where the daughter of the merchant was being kept as well.

Varian turned over on his back as he addressed the other mercenaries laid out next to him. He spoke in a hushed voice, to avoid being heard by the bandits. "Looks like five, maybe six scouts outside. Anyone with bows or long-range take them out quickly and quietly. Then we storm the fort."
 

Miss Doronjo

Gaiden
4,473
Posts
13
Years
tethys.gif

Evelynn
Outskirts of Curilan

It has been quite a while since Evelynn had journeyed a quite amount of time, especially with a colorful bunch such as this. Eve, all the while, still had her eyes set on Varian; the handsome, yet strong man that she had encountered... With his cool, yet brash demeanor... ah, how Eve cherished all her time admiring him from a distance. She danced for him, but, while it was out of love in admiration, it was also from a requited perspective. But, she was confident that she would someday, prevail.

Walking 7 days on the old dirt trail made Evelynn thought of the gentlemen that were up ahead. Her blade was just as hungry for a dance of the bloods as she was, and it was time that Eve had fed it proportions that will last for years. However, she knew about blades -- from the touch of blood, they will weep for more of an appetite. It was up to Eve to deliver. Soon Eve found herself climbing a steep hill. While it wasn't dancing, climbing was certainly quite a pleasured challenge for her. The blades of grass could only tickle Eve's kneecaps on the way up, for the cuts and bruises she felt deep on her skin had much more of an impact of her memory. She danced for those days too.

Pretty soon after the climb, the target fort was in her sights. The colors it radiated; a deep gray, and... more grey, held a more impression for her than any ol' grey wolf she had combatted with. Oh, now she can wonder how many bandits inside she can dance with; hopefully hundreds will watch her performance, as her applause would be the screams from the bandits as their own blood pours from their ears! How appropriate! She can only roll around the grass thinking about that time... it was going to be the dance of love.

Evelynn then noticed Varian as he then turned over on his back as he addressed the other mercenaries laid out next to him. He spoke in a hushed voice, to avoid being heard by the bandits. Evelynn longed to hear his voice once more, so she turned for attention. "Looks like five, maybe six scouts outside," said Varian. "Anyone with bows or long-range take them out quickly and quietly. Then we storm the fort."

"Hmmmm, if only Evelynn was worthy of such the task laid out by fair Varian..." Eve said in a quiet, yet disappointed tone. "I curse myself for not learning bows. My apologizes."

 
Last edited:

Nomsammich

The Cleric!
41
Posts
11
Years
Heva Jade - Ruins of Xin Kou, Northern Shinguo


Heva and the makeshift warriors had stood valiantly in the face of danger. The storm, the hurricane of undead and ghost manifestations pounded the walls, ripped through the barriers, slaughtered townsfolk. A bloody and gruesome scene indeed. Heva had failed her Shinguo dependants, they had depended on her for protection and she failed them. Now she sat under the rubble of a fallen tea house, waiting for her own rescue.

In the depth of battle, after the Necromancer's scourge had broken down the Northern walls, she had led the bulk of the scourge onslaught towards the north-western end of town. There she held a final defence. Heva took as many as she could, hoping that her men had fled with their families by the time the scourge had killed her. Unluckily the scourge didn't kill her, her actions of mixed physical and elemental attacks weakened the infrastructure around her causing the buildings to collapse in on her.

Heva had put up a barrier around her hefty figure. She sat in the dark panicked and scared. Outside the scourge, that had once been trying to gnaw her leg, had turned their attention on the townsfolk. The town's people's screams of murder and redrum; death and ending. Then silence. Heva had collapsed on her knees weeping. The town had been exterminated, destroyed, decimated. Her mind raced with images on how the town looked now, ruined and barren. Now she, too, was ruined and barren. The darkness of the collapsed buildings was a bright light compared to how heavy her heart had felt that day.

Two days had passed since the incident and Heva had turned in on herself; she sought out comfort from her discipline, which she had learned from studying under monks for a time. Heva sat, in the darkness, her butt resting on her heels, her knees on the ground and her hands folded calmly in her lap. The mage had kept the barrier up for so long through deep meditation and channelling of her energies. Her red hair swirled around her head in a static mess, from bending the will of her magic for so long, her eyes were open, stark, not blinking an icy blue frost emitted from them. The barrier gleamed yellow, strong against the rubble.

Two days, she had been in this state. A state of extreme meditation, extreme concentration, extreme dedication; nothing could budge her. Nothing but the calls of an ally, an all clear signal; just something to restore her morale.
 
1,176
Posts
15
Years
  • Seen Jul 18, 2016
Tamor Bellfiend and Auden Radke
Xin Kou, Shingou

The trip had taken a toll on Tamor, two days of nonstop traveling through the hills of Shingou with only Niolas and Auden to conversate with. Percival and Roland never paid much attention to the duo, instead they chose to bicker with each other. If the group dynamic was like this when they weren't in battle, how were they supposed to fight together? Still they had yet to have formal introductions, Tamor rightfully blamed herself, why should they care about her? This first fight would most certainly be her last because as of right now her death was imminent even with Auden's sworn protection. Tamor usually wrapped her arms around Auden's waist and held on tightly, Tamor wasn't fond of horse rides. Fortunately Tella's remarkable beauty had transferred to the nature and that gave Tamor something to look at when her face wasn't buried in Auden's robes, which had a perculiar but pleasant smell.

Somehow they were to get to a town Yoshuro called Xin Kou, the Necromancer's liar was the closest to this town. Tamor was scared, here they were the Knights of Ekilore off to battle on horseback to slay a Necromancer and his army. One thought was constant, why had the monks chosen her? The most she could do was heal her comrades, well, at least that's the only thing she had mastered. Divine magic was a tricky subject, Eislynn had taught what she knew before she passed. Most mages she met were Arcane magic users like Auden. She hadn't sought out another teacher because she wasn't worth it, she wasn't good enough.

"Can you use your divine magic offensively?" Auden inquired, not taking his eyes away from the road. He had been thinking over her divine magic since he first learnt of it, and from what he had learnt in his time in the Magic Corps. It could be used offensively, with him making an assumption it'd probably work rather well against undead creations.

"O-o-offensively?" Tamor asked then wondered why had he taken a sudden curiousity in her magic.

"Yes, I've actually watched divine mages use offensive magic like holy bolts, though they weren't that strong I'm fairly certain that they'd do a lot of damage to dark magic, such as the magic the Necromancer is using." He replied, this deduction seemingly fairly logical with his knowledge of magic.

"How was it summoned?" Holy bolts, she was fairly sure that wasn't the technical term for them. Eislynn had mentioned the effectiveness of divine magic against the undead. "I c-can't do it."

"I'm not entirely sure, but my guess is you would have to envision your faith being able to banish the evil.. or something along those lines. Even if you can't do it now, it might serve you well to think about it encase you're forced to defend yourself." He was rather gentle as he tried to explain it to her, though he didn't really have any idea how it worked. His reply was also to let her know that there is a chance, albiet small, that he could die in the upcoming battle.

"I can't fight, I won't. I don't know how to," Tamor quietly admitted, more to herself than to anyone else.

"As long as I'm alive and you stay by my side, you won't have too so don't worry." Auden turned and reassured her, caressing her cheek as he did so, slightly surprising himself, I really treat my toys well, don't I?

Reaching the top of the hill Percival stopped in his tracks, causing the whole convey to stop, much to Auden's aggitation, though he did see why someone would stop at the sight before them. The village that they were meant to be going laid in ruin in front of them, with the shapes of bodies lining the road they would soon be travelling. Sighing, Auden continued onwards only to have the two brothers spur ahead, once again taking the lead for no apparent reason. Indeed the shapes were bodies, though they weren't all human, some being the disfigured creations of the necromancer, interesting enough, I've never seen creatures like these before. This should be fun. Every now and then the ground would squeech beneath the horses weight, indicating a pool of blood that had yet to seep into the earth or dry out, a wonderful sound to Audens ears.

The small group of knights entered the city, the sight was apparently a shock to Roland even though it really shouldn't be. A crowd of villagers quickly gathered around them, they looked as if they are been dragged through the blood stained Earth surrounding the village, and no doubt some of them had been. Tamor's heart ached for them she felt the need to heal their wounds and to show them the kindness that others had not. For once she could do something, be a better mage and use her magic, but was she good enough? What if she promised to heal them and her divine magic decided not to work, what if this was against Tella's wishes? So, instead of leaping off the horse's back Tamor stayed put as tears welled up in her eyes. Not surprisingly, Roland, the hero, went to draw his sword at the villagers, before being stopped by his brother whom began comminucating with them. Clearly great leadership material sire knight. At least your brother has sense to talk to them first. Auden thought as he looked around, surveying the area for future reference. He was hoping they wouldn't have to defend the village, but wasn't counting it out as an option.

Suddenly a scream rang through the air, that brought joy to Auden's ears. It's starting, I can finally let off some steam. He thought as he dismounted his horse before gentle letting Tamor down, whom had been holding onto him rather securely since they reach the top of the hill. Percival suggested they go to the northgate, and though Auden wasn't to happy with being order around by a fellow knight he followed after the two, now sprinting, brothers with a casual walk and Tamor in tow. Halted by the sight of the destroyed village Tamor was left frozen before the gate. Niolas had already spread his wings and soared ahead of her, even her own bird was fearless. Tamor knew that this was her job, this was the quest but her body felt numb and didn't respond to the weak commands she ordered to it, not like she wanted it to. Once she stepped foot inside of that gate she must fight. The other Knights would've known she was absolutely useless and abandon her altogether. If she stayed here perhaps she had a chance of still living or keeping the villagers alive.

"Not coming? Hmm," Auden's voice sounded like he had already known she was going to do this. He drew his blade and geared himself for battle, this was the moment for which he had been waiting for for two days.

"I-I-I-" Tamor's voice had failed her just like her body.

"Here's the best defensive ward, it'll protect you from being hurt physically for at least a minute against these monsters," Auden casted the magic over his toy, the least he could do was spare her life for a couple minutes. So that when he got back to her hopefully she wasn't dead, he still had a lot of planned for her. He resheathed his sword and pulled out a cylinder, about thirty centimeters in length, with a string on the end. "Also, a magic flare. If you get in trouble aim it to the sky and pull the cord and I'll come rushing to you. You are my toy, you are not allowed to die, if you're in trouble just use the flare and run."

"T-t-thank you," Tamor smiled weakly, because that's all she was, weak.

Auden patted her hooded head before he took off toward the action, which left Tamor all by herself to soak in the screams like the ground had soaked in the blood of the villagers. "You'll be fine, I won't let you die or be hurt as long as I'm alive. Cya."

Staff in hand Auden continued his casual walk towards the gate, seeing the two armor-clad brothers backs first, and then the wall of undead monsters a in the distance. As he got closer the monsters began their charge, with a big fat monstrosity who could barely hold in his own bodily fluids leading the pack. Auden almost laughed at the sight of the two armor-clad knights standing alone in the middle of the gates against the massive approaching army of dead. Nonetheless he continued walking, waiting for the the monsters to get into his casting range.

Closer the army came, unknowingly making life a lot easier for Auden, whom was now only about 20 metres behind the two brothers. This should do. Raising his free hand and pointing his staff forward Auden began, releasing two massive pillars of fire through the gates, one pillar a side, the flames close enough so the brothers would definitely feel their heat. Within about ten seconds of being released the pillars hit the first line of undead, spreading out wide and incinerating almost everything they touch, leaving a wall of fire or walking fireballs. Walking calmly passed the two brothers he continued onwards, with monsters pouring through the wall of fire, the large one who was leading before was still advancing, though now he was spilling fire with each step. Finding his target in the biggest undead he could see, his path was set. Magic erupted from him as he walked towards it, allowing few undead in his vinicinity to continue their charge on the village.​
 

SV

See You Space Cowboy
3,393
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2022

Roland Grey- Xin Kou, Shinguo


Roland took his place beside the other Knights in front of the northern gates of Xin Kou, as the horde of creatures fast approached them. A chill ran down his spine as he saw the monstrous abominations sprinting at them. They were beings the likes of which he had never seen before, and some he couldn't even hope to describe in words. They shrilled and screeched and screamed their way towards the gates with sounds that would have made any lesser man soil themselves and run for cover. Had the knights not been who they were, they too may have ran for cover. It was the very image of these repugnant beings that caused Roland to stay his ground. He almost felt as if this gateway was the representation of the very gates of Infernum, of which these vile creatures were trying to cross over to Aerion, and he, a warrior chosen by Fortis, was to shield the people of this world from their evil. So here he would make his stand, smiting these creatures as a service to Aerion and his gods, and send their broken carcasses back into the hell the Necromancer dragged them out of. Blind romanticism of an otherwise dangerous situation perhaps, but this fusing of overconfidence and narcissism continued to serve in his advantage. One day, perhaps, it would get him killed. But not today.

Fire rose to meet the horses of Infernum. The creatures burned and screamed as the flames passed over their bodies, leaving many to suffer the blaze of Auden's magic for the remainder of their lives, while others would fight through the pain and continue on to meet the other knights. It certainly didn't help for the sickening smell, of which the odor was foul and potent enough to pierce even through his helmet. He ignored it, as his first opponent approached him, a half-burnt creature, standing about the same height as he, but with flesh which was peeled long before the fire had reached him. Bones stuck out from parts of the monster's body, so distinctly so that the ones that protruded from his arms, he chose to use as his weapon of choice, a bone sword in place of an arm. Though he found the demon disturbing, he did not flinch in meeting the beast's first blow, clashing his strike of his 'arm' with a blow from his sword. Unfortunately for the abomination, the knight's blade proved too much for his bone, and the collision resulted in the blade slicing clean through the creature's arm, and without relenting for a second, continued down to slice the demon cleanly in half. The two portions of the demon made no more movement as it fell in pieces onto the ground, with Roland stepping over it and awaiting his next enemy.

Two smaller demons sprang at him, their claws and teeth sharp, blood and bits of leftover flesh could be seen in openings between their sharp grazers. But Roland would probably consider them the equivalent of dogs. They were hellhounds, glorified wolves, and though their appearance would strike fear in many, he only saw wild beasts, and struck at them with his sword. The first hellhound bit at Roland's sword, grabbing hold of it with his teeth and held it in place. This allowed the second one a chance to encircle the knights and attempt to pounce at him from behind. Attempting to release the demon dog's grip on his sword, he tried to kick the beasts side, which caused a yelp, but didn't release his weapon. The other hellhound took his position in the back of the knight, ready to pounce. In a desperate effort, he decided to push forward with his sword instead of reaching back, causing the blade to pierce into the hellhound's mouth, cutting his jaw open, and then reaching further inside and effectively slicing the head of the beast in half. The hellhound behind Roland sprung at him, his teeth making contact with the knights armor just as he made a turn at the hound. The strength of the beast was remarkable for its size, causing the two of them to collapse onto the ground. He struggled to get the hellhound off of him, already seeing that the puncture managed to draw some blood from his arm. Their teeth were sharp, and the stinging pain he felt gave Roland the sense that maybe the beast had reached deep into his arm. With a swing of the sword, he smashed the hilt of his sword onto the back of the dog's head, finally managing to get it off of him. He quickly rose himself to his feet as the hellhound followed suit, and took his stance just as it rose up to pounce at him once more. The blade made direct contact with his stomach, puncturing through the beast with ease. Blood sprayed from its mouth, and it lingered on its now shaking feet for mere moments longer before it fell with a thud on the ground. The moment the thud sounded, Roland heard the sound of another abomination screeching behind him, his war cry the signal of an oncoming attack. He had not time to think, but his reflexes kicked in to bring his sword up and quickly spun around to aim for the target's head. The quick motion must have caught off guard the demon, as the blade connected with the being's head, removing it from its position and sending it flying through the air. Roland smiled at his work, but the smile lasted mere moments as he witness the form of the monstrosity in front of him, a man-sized demon riddled with all manner of spears and weapons through its torso, and not one, but too heads upon his shoulders. The second head, which had a sword protruding from the front, eyed the empty spot where the other head once sat, and angrily screeched the knight who had removed it. In a move Roland perhaps did not see coming, the fiend charged forward, prepared to impale the knight with all of the weapons that have already been impaled inside the demon. Not wishing to become a bloody order of swiss cheese, Roland broke into a run, trying to make some distance between the demon and himself to give himself a chance to bring out his shield he carried along his back. He noticed that the hellspawn was fast, and was mere moments away from overtaking him, just as the knight turned, bringing up his shield to block the demon's thrust of his body while also piercing at the creature with his longsword. The impact of the shield met the torso of the demon, but Roland's sword also penetrate right through the second head. Though he did not realize, the demon was dead upon his shield, his full weight upon it as it no longer had the life to stand. Roland pushed it off of his shield, and stood up. He admired the once-beautiful shield which bore the sigil of his House, but which was now dented with half a dozen hits of demon's weapons. He stared down at the hellspawn on the ground, and had to admit the idea to send at him, in essence, a porcupine abomination was quite clever. The 'design' of this creature was, in fact, so compelling, that even Roland himself had to stop for a moment and silently praise whoever (or more likely whatever) had the ingenuity to invent this bizarre being.

"Not bad, ser knight." A voice called to him. Roland raised his head from the demon whose blood he had spilled on the ground to the source of his voice, seeing before him one of the other knights, Zara Serena Freya, smiling at him. Around her was three unique creatures that she herself had successfully slain with her own longsword. Roland's eyes went between the young woman and her own creatures sprawled on the floor. Though he had not seen her slay them herself, the thought that she had the capability to kill these creatures (and as Roland could attest to, it isn't easy) put him at ease over the capability of the Knights of Ekilore as a whole. Though he wasn't one to offer praise, he gave the woman a nod of the head, his signal of respect among the battlefield.

Unfortunately, that 'tender' moment lasted mere moments, as in the next second, a large, monstrous brute of a demon swooped in. He came in with speed that certainly didn't match his size, which was probably twice the height of Roland, and probably thrice his weight. It's skin was partially charred from the effects of Auden's blaze, but that seemed to hardly deter him. All across its body, it had rotting or charred flesh. When it's mouth opened, Roland could a few teeth that remained, rotten to the core, but sharp like daggers. However, the most profound part of it was what it has in replace of an arm. Attached to its left hand was a large club, with spikes and nails protruding from it. The club was large, the size of which probably led Roland to deduce that would have likely not been able to wield a weapon of that size. It was only in the last minute that both he and Zara saw the demon, and so Roland was powerless to stop what happened next, as the demon swooped in and brought the club in a direct hit on Zara. The club connected directly with the knight, Roland hearing the sound of bones crunching, and caused her to ascend through the air, before coming to a large crash at a small home. The side of the home crumbled on top of Zara, and the demon now stared at Roland. While he was momentarily caught off guard before, he quickly formed a stance, his sword hanging at his side and his shield brought up in front of him, separating himself from the large demon. Without a moment's hesitation, the demon charged forward at Roland, and the knight ran forward to meet his charge.

The demon swung wildly with his club-arm, matching each swing with force and speed. Roland kept his distance letting each swing carry full force across before trying to close in any distance. He tried to time it so that he would be able to land a blow just after the demon missed his, and then back away before the next strike from the club came upon him. It was a tricky maneuver, but he remained confident he would be able to pull it off. The demon swung once wildly trying his best to decapitate the knight's head with the pure strength of his swing. Roland backed away and narrowly avoided the swing, then quickly stepped in to slice at the demon. A swing of his sword connected with the abomination's stomach, and a large gash was formed, causing the demon to bellow in pain. Roland stepped back to avoid any additional attacks, but was upset that the hit he landed did not manage to be a finishing blow. He decided to try again. Again, the demon swung at him, and again he backed away to narrowly avoid. Swiftly, he stepped in and swung at the demon again, and landed again with a large cut across his chest, this time deeper than the first. However, as the demon's swing came around for a second time, Roland was unable to back away far enough to avoid the club. In a last ditch effort, he brought his shield up to protect against the swing, the club connecting with the steel of the shield, but the force of the hit caused him to fall down hard onto the floor, and the shield to develop an enormous dent on its front.

But from behind his shield, he could hear a large thud, as he noticed the demon fall to the ground dead, the last wound Roland gave him being the icing on the cake, and his last swing he had tried to land on him was merely his final effort to do damage to the knight. Unfortunately, he had only partially succeeded. He could feel a crack in his arm, the same one which the hellhound had punctured early, as a sign that it was now perhaps broken. But for the purpose of appearances in front of the others, he acted as though he was perfectly fine. Rising now to his feet, Roland strode to the place where Zara had been hit, lifting up the loose rubble that littered her body to observe the extent of her damage. He finally reached her body under the rubble, examining many puncture wounds across her face, torso, and arms, all causing her to bleed out badly. He noticed a few large holes in her throat and chest, probably reaching her lungs, as she was barely able to keep on breathing. It didn't take much for Roland to realize that she was obviously in extreme pain and hardly able to keep breathing. She would not last long, and her last moments, if gone unchecked, would be painful, and cold.

Through the eye sockets of his helmet, Roland stared down upon her broken body, and decided out of respect for her status, he should give her a merciful death. He sighed, dropping his shield to his side before gripping his sword with both hands, and flipping it upside down so that the sharp end pointed directly into the chest of Zara. "Pray to whatever gods you cherish, ser knight, for their kingdom is now open to you." A few seconds later, Roland brought his sword into Zara's chest. Her eyes momentarily widened from the impact, before she exhaled her last breath of life, and closed them forever. He gave her one more lasting glance, before turning around, picking up his shield, and returning to the battle.
 
Last edited:

Nomsammich

The Cleric!
41
Posts
11
Years
Heva Jade
Ruins of Xin Kou, Shinguo

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Silent thoughts of home, life, sweets, pie, loves and companions had been flowing gently through Heva's mind as she waited calmly inside her rubble prison. Through meditation she had brought peace to herself, her heart no longer was heavy with the lives of other men. Her mind no longer bogged down with guilt. The men, women and children were at peace now, in the arms of the gods they believed it.

The golden barrier around her hummed quietly, white noise to her meditation, replacing what would be a waterfall or babbling brook. Heva's eyes emitted mystical blue light that swirled in the same pattern as her auburn red hair. Aside from the occasional rumble in the distance, all was calm in her mind. Heva was at inner peace, singing and dancing with the goddess of magic. Through her meditation she had been praying for strength, guidance and advice throughout her life. The goddess hadn't answered directly but Heva knew she was listening, knew that she wanted Heva to guide herself through her own trials and tribulations.

Heva's amulet of Makara glowed brightly around her neck, the glow was green, not blue like the light from her eyes. The rumbling she had heard subconsciously in the distance grew louder, more urgent, it was another battle. Had the Knights finally come? There was only one way to find out. Heva's barrier humming grew louder, turning into a large roar as the rocks around her began to shift under the expanding barrier. The golden bubble exploded, causing the building rubble around her to jet into the air and fall around her, crashing into the decaying town.

Heva stood slowly, the magic in her amulet, eyes and being coursing through one another singing out in perfect harmony. The battle was coming from the North Gate, the gate she and her men had made their last stand. The gate that led to the decimation, declination and extermination of the village. No time to dwell on the past, Heva, she thought to herself. She needed to use her burst of power now before it faded, this was a gift from Makara, a temporary redemption.

Heva launched herself off her heels and sprinted, guided with magic, towards the Northern Gate. In the distance she saw a party of people, donned in armour, the armour of the Knights. A small joy filled her but she had no time to express it. The mage approached from the west and slid on her heels into the opening of the gate, before launching herself again, this time into the battle. Heva's large figure blurred past a Knight kneeling over a body, Heva past it too quick to take in a description. The heavy woman ran headlong into the next rank of Necromancer's demon spawn. There she stood in front of the charging demons, calmly. She raised her staff above her and it lifted into the air, levitating magically. The jewel that was perched, locked, into the centre of the wooden, warped wood began to glow. Heva raised her hands above her, as if she was cupping something, and a surging green light appeared in the palms of her hands. The world around her seemed to hum in charging energy. "The Great Goddess Makara guides me!" Heva roared in a dialect enchanted and distorted by her power. The mage finally released her power. A slashing, destructive, yet rejuvinating beam of mixed emotion flowed calmly from her hands. The staff's light grew brighter as the wave of the Necromancer's army was wiped, banish and obliterated from the dust covered battle ground. The purplish, undead, half-dead, limping, gargantuan abominations evaporated from the gust of elegant energy. The energy flowed to completion of the rank of undead before disappating in a quiet woosh.

Her redeemed power spent Heva's nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Her staff came down at a dangerous speed and stuck, stiff in the ground beside Heva. The squat woman leaned over on the staff heaving in breaths, exhausted. She turned to the Knights behind her and yelled, "Get your bloody arses up here! The next wave is coming soon!" Her final words before all went black and she collapsed with a thud where she stood, a dust cloud puffed up around her fallen body.
 

Xlugon Pyro

Dragon Tamer
308
Posts
16
Years
XEYE ANASTASIA ZXKOL
THE BLUE WILDCAT

"OOOOOHHHH- KAAY!" Xeye screams across the valley, causing her booming voice to echo off of the rolling hills of their new location.

"We're here! WHOOOOOH!" she cries again, pointing across to the abandoned keep that Wolf Pops identified as the bandit hideout.

Scrambling up to the top of the hill, she takes the initiative, unlatching her left axe and throwing it over her shoulder to rest.

"Have no fear! I will take them all out with a single blow!" she hollers again, focusing on the bandits' hideout before her.

Unhooking her other axe, she leaps forth and positions herself in front of the gang, her pale silver eyes fixed on the rundown fortress in front of them. Wind currents begin to pick up gradually, swirling around the energetic half-elf and in particular, her matching weapons. Concentrating enough twisting wind currents wrapping around her weapons, she throws her arms forward with incredible force, letting out a high-pitched grunt that sounds more like a squeak. Her bladed weapons cross, the right axe passing over the one held in her left. Her arms unleash in a sudden, loud burst a gust of cutting winds, but the energies begin to rapidly destabilize, causing a small whirlwind to develop in front of her.

"Huh?" she perks up, her face growing more grim as the whirling winds begin to backfire.

"N-n-no! Not whaaat I waaaaanted!!!" she bellows as the small twister scoops her off her feet, blasting her several yards back behind her, just over the hill where the rest of her gang lays.

The half-elf woman's body collides with the hard, grassy earth, sliding a bit from sheer momentum, dislodging her leopard scalp bandana from her head. Xeye slows to a stop, her body falling limp onto the earth. Her eyes, opening slightly, appear dazed, looking up into the sky above her while her mouth gapes open slightly, moaning. Her wild blue hair is sprawled out over the ground below her, dirtied up by her rough landing. Despite her best efforts, the winds were not at her back. Or, perhaps she didn't actually know what she was doing. Whatever the case is, she paid the price.

"O-ow...." she utters softly, lying mostly immobile across the ground. "Why... didn't it... w-work?"
 

Swolligator

Butcher of the Sands
1,955
Posts
14
Years

Victoria "Alys" Taimor – Outskirts of Curilan, Eveamoor


It took them a week to travel from the dry, flat plains of the Eveamoor Prairies surrounding Dalenham to the more verdant rolling hills that surrounded the nearby city of Curlian like waves. While she wasn't one to marvel at the scenery, it was always nice to notice the kind of environment they were in since several factors could inhibit the striking of targets when it came to using bows. When she had first started off using the bow, Victoria found it difficult to hit a solitary target, much less a moving target, but with a lot of trial and several errors, she soon learnt how to properly use a bow well within a year. Now, it was almost as natural as walking or striking with her fist.

Crawling over the hill the now lay sprawled, she watch Varian intently as he scanned the fort, "Looks like five, maybe six scouts outside. Anyone with bows or long-range take them out quickly and quietly. Then we storm the fort."

Looking down, she could confirm the presence of the guards, yet she was the only one who could use, successfully so, a bow and soon she felt the weight rest on her shoulders. Before she could do anything, Xeye launched over the apex of the hill before landing on her backside. Victoria cursed under her breath at the stupidity of the girl, wondering even why someone like her was even in this group much less made it as a mercenary. During their trip here, Victoria had found her frustratingly annoying, wanting to strangle her neck at several points with her childish antics. If Varian wanted them to work as a team, then he was definitely pushing it if he wanted her to work with this child that followed the like a sick puppy.

Spying a rocky outcropping a couple of metres to their left, she turned to Varian and the others, "Hold tight, I'll head over to that outcropping. You'll be safe to head down when the last one is taken out; I'll meet you all at the gate." After talking to them, she gave Castiel a piece of meat before the falcon left its perch on her shoulder, soaring high into the heavens on an updraft.

Not wanting to waste time in case the guards rotated on a timely basis, she moved off to her left, moving around the hill in a wide arc before moving forward to the outcropping. Hiding behind a large boulder, she took a peak over the top at her targets below.

Notching her bow with a simple flint-headed arrow, she lied in wait for the moment to strike. A dark figure in the sky shot through the air, heading straight for the fort, flapping above the heads of the guards before soaring back into the air. Victoria let the arrow fly, striking a guard near the back of the fort while the others were busy being flustered by Castiel. The arrow struck true and the man clutched at the arrow lodged in his chest slightly above his right lung before tumbling over the fortifications to the ground below.

Notching two Direwolf tooth arrows now, she followed a pair of guards as the continued their path along the fortifications of the old, abandoned fort. Castiel struck again, this time disrupting the group of three guards that seemed to be arguing over how better to fight the 'monster of the sky'. As the pair turned to survey the commotion, they both doubled over, blood pouring from their stomachs as two pale white tips protruded for the ripped skin and tissue. Together they slumped to the fortifications, alerting one of the other guards.

After some brief, heated discussion, one of the remaining guards went to check out what the commotion was. As he arrived on the scene to find the two bleeding bodies, he didn't have a chance to yell before another direwolf toothed arrow scored through his throat, flooding his oesophagus with gurgling blood.

Castiel landed back of Victoria's shoulder as she notched another two flint headed arrows; aiming high into the heavens. Letting them fly at the two remaining guards, she watched them sail high in the air before raining down on the unsuspecting guards. The first arrow struck true between the shoulder plate and helmet, causing the guard to fall to the floor in spasms as the second arrow struck the other guard in the back of his head as he removed his helmet.

"Head shot!" she congratulated with Castiel as the falcon squawked. Feeding him another piece of meat, Victoria waved at Varian, signalling for him and the others to join her at the gates to the fort.​
 

SV

See You Space Cowboy
3,393
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2022

Varian Sigmund- Outside Bandit Fort


"What do you think you're doing!?" Varian hissed at Xeye, who was making it very hard to catch the bandits off guard, her voice echoing across the valley, and more than likely reaching the ears of at least one of the bandits there. He was about to pull her down below to the lay on the ground with the rest of them, before she started summoning some sort of magical spell on her weapons. However, the spell appeared to backfire, causing her to be knocked off her feet a bit of a distance below the others. The Highman immediately crawled over to her position. He reached where her body landed, just as she muttered something softly to herself. He crawled up beside her and grabbed her firmly by the shirt and lifting her off of the ground to meet his gaze.

"You remember what I said before about doing stupid things?" He asked rhetorically. His quintessential cold stare covered his face, but mixed with it was also an expression surmounting close to anger, though not quite at that level yet. It was more of irritation. "Well this would probably constitute as something stupid. Don't pull that kind of sh*t again, especially when we're trying to get the jump on someone!" He stared her in the eyes for a few more moments, hoping she had gotten the message, before loosening his grasp on her and releasing her back onto the grass below. Varian began to crawl back next to the others just as Alys spoke to the rest of them.

"Hold tight, I'll head over to that outcropping. You'll be safe to head down when the last one is taken out; I'll meet you all at the gate."

"Alright, hurry. They may already be on alert." He replied, just as the woman made her descent for a cover of rocks. He observed her methods carefully from his position in the grass. She was smart, using her pet falcon as a distraction in order to get the jump on them, and then quickly began picking them apart one by one with remarkable precision. Varian wouldn't often be the one to give compliments. But he had to hand it to the woman: she was a good shot. Beyond good. She was a deadeye. Just as the last of them hit the floor, Alys shouted in victory before motioning the others that it was safe to proceed. The Highman mercenary leader took the silence as verification of that, also noting that no commotion on the inside probably meant that no one on the inside had been roused either.

"Come on." He motioned to the others, pushing his body off of the ground with both hands before proceeding swiftly down the hill and towards the gate of the bandit fort. While on approach, Varian removed both of his axes from their holsters on his back, and gripped each one tightly in his hands. He moved as quickly and quietly as he could, a sort of middle ground between a full on sprint and a silent approach. He had become quite good at these, and despite his height and the reputation most Highmen got, he was rather successful. "Right," He began as he reached the gates of the fort with the others. He peered quickly inside the open gates to see no one else in sight, before returning his attention back to the others. "Let's split up and check on the bodies real quick. Make sure they're dead. See if we can salvage anything useful off of their bodies." He proceeded into the interior of the fort, the building looking as crumbling and ruined on the inside area as it did on the outside. He made a left, and climbed on the staircase leading to the outer wall, where he expected to find the bodies of the bandits Alys had killed. While he moved up, Varian noted a rather large door on the far side of the fort, one that led into a passageway of some sort no doubt, and possibly underground. He was certain this was where they would have to go once the bodies were secure.

He reached one of the bodies, and approached it. An arrow was lodged right in his chest, a perfect hit probably right into the man's lung. He stared at the body intently, not actually looking for anything in particular like he intended, but instead gazing upon his appearance. There was something off about it, something peculiar. The dead bandit had worn what would appear to be hunting attire, a sturdy pair of brown boots, and brown gloves to match. He worn a similar-colored brown leather armor, of which an arrow stuck out over it and blood still flowed from the wound delivered. This was over a white shirt and pants that also matched. The clothing was somewhat worn and torn, as expected from a bandit. By all accounts, this was in fact, the dead body of a bandit. But as his eyes fixated on the weapons he had, it made this seem a bit more than that. The bandit was a scout, so he carried a bow as well as arrows. His collection of different arrowheads was somewhat various. He saw a few Direwolf tooth arrows, a couple of Raelusian pyre arrows, and Falkan wood arrows, and a few flint arrows. It was a collection somewhat similar to Alys's. The bow itself was a fairly decent one too, made most likely out of some elvish wood.

And there lay the problem. The collection was too nice, and the bow too finely crafted for any normal bandit to be carrying. Sure, it was likely that he could have stolen the set off of somebody, a well-traveled hunter of some sort, but what was the likelihood that these bandits would have found someone like that way out in this wilderness? The merchant himself had said they had been holed up in this fort for quite a while. Varian looked over at another body Alys had shot down close by this first one. He too was a hunter-type bandit, and though his collection of arrows weren't as vast as this first one, there was still a degree of variety and craft that one wouldn't expect such 'simple' bandits to have. He was getting the feeling that there might be more to this that what they had been told. He decided for now to keep quiet about it though, seeing if any other unusual signs would pop up before he'd share with the others. Besides, he figured by not telling, he'd see if any of them would be able to pick it up themselves.

Varian knelt beside the fallen bandit, re-sheathing his axes across the holsters on his back. Grabbing the arrow lodged into the man's chest, he pulled it out, before rummaging through the man's pockets for anything else that may be useful. He then walked over to the center of the interior of the fort, where the others would be after some went to check on the other bodies. He tossed the Direwolf tooth arrow over to Alys as he approached the doorway he noticed before. "This must be the way in." He unsheathed his axes and gripped them firmly in his hands once more, before slowly opening the large, creaking doors, which led down into an underground path below. The air was damp inside, as the stairway led down into the darkness below. He took a look at the others, his eyes passing over all of them for a few moments, lingering on Cass the most as he exchanged a customary look with her which meant to be on the lookout (though she would likely not care either way).

"Remember what we're here for. The girl. Weapons up, eyes and ears open. And for the gods sake, try not to alert every damn bastard in there that we're here."
 

Legend

Kingslayer
1,308
Posts
15
Years

Percival Grey- Xin Kou, Shingou


Percival was never a great warrior. From his birth, he had always a better mind for the court. For the politics. For the games that tested a man's intelligence and ingenuity rather than his skills with a blade. But now was not the time for regrets. For questioning why he was here. For wondering if death was coming for him. In some ways, he was already in Infernum. The flames of Auden rose from seemingly nowhere, blasting though much of the throng before them. The stench of burnt rotting corpses filled the air, carried by the wind to the nostrils of Percival. He had closed his eyes to try to imagine a better place at a better time. The salty air of the city of water, Dinas, was a good place to Percival with fond memories of spending time with Elizabeth Taimor, now the head of her family, and her siblings during the visits he had when his mother brought him south to the Golden Islands. Those were times in which the harsh realities of Aerion were nothing more than topics and problems reserved for adults. In this brief fantasy, Percival gained a clearer mind: That fantasy was Astrum. But where he was, with the deathly smell, the wailing sounds and horrifying sights; that was Infernum.

The first demons of the Necromancer that braved through the flames lunged forward for the Knights. The sliding of the rotting limbs awoke Percival. He took a deep breath to gain his composure, to remind himself that what he was fighting already had a chance at life. That the creature before him was awaiting a second death, a release from its life of undead servitude. In Percival's self righteous mind, it would make facing the hard truth that Percival would have to kill much easier. He opened his eyes to see decaying bodies of flesh and bone slide over to him. Once humans, probably farmers, the only remains of their past life was their stature. Their faces were rotting away, with flesh and bone exposed, hair falling to the wayside with each weak step. The skin was pale and peeled away, revealing muscle tissue and the occasional bone piercing out. It was an unwelcoming sight to be awoken to after such a pleasant day dream. The first undead creature, resembling "Zombies" from the children's literature he read as a child, lunged forward at Percival and he batted away the creature with his shield. As it collapsed to the ground, Percival stomped on its head, with its insides spewing all over the ground in a juicy explosion. The second felt no fear or remorse and attacked Percival in a similar fashion, clawing at the armored knight before him. Percival swung his mace at the zombie aiming for the head, disposing of the creature in a single strike. A third zombie flanked Percival, but he used his shield to block the attack. He pushed the creature back and struck the creature in the torso with his mace knocking the beast down to the ground. However, Percival's mouth fell in shock as the zombie rose from the ground gingerly, lacking the proper muscle definition to lift himself with ease. "That strike would leave any man in need for a healer," Percival said to himself. Angry, Percival slammed his mace down on the head of the zombie as it rose to his feet, causing the monster to collapse into the dirt.

"The head seems to be their weakness! Everyone aim for the head!" Percival called to all those around him. As he finished calling out to the others (making sure to repeat himself in his best Shingouese), a hellish hound-like creature tackled Percival, bringing him to the ground. Barely managing to put his shield up to protect himself from the gaping jaws, Percival realized far too late that he was separated from his mace. The vile breath from the hound made Percival light headed and produced a weak illusion of a beast with three heads ready to make Percival a delightful meal. A cracking of a rib brought him back from the brink of death. The hell hound was a large imposing beast with red eyes, sharp fangs and vile breath. It pressed on Percival's shield, the only thing keeping it's drooling mouth from consuming Percival like a smoked ham, as it snapped many times. Percival barely managed to keep himself alive, but with a sudden surge of defiance he shoved the beast back, throwing it back enough of a distance for Percival to climb back to his feet. He rolled over to his mace as the hell hound chased him down and with a quick spin bashed the beat in the face as it leapt in midair. The hound coiled back, jaw dislocated, but Percival charged forward beating the beast down in cold blood.

Percival felt blood run down his head and breathing became ever more painful. Crap, my ribs must be broken, Percival thought to himself as he grimaced in pain. He had to reason with the pain, as another group approached him. Walking skeletons. Just what Percival needed. The group attempted to surround him, but Percival was running on fumes. He swung violently, the mace crushing the heads of the various skeletons before him. One after the other, the mindless grunts fell before Percival. But fatigue soon had its way with him. Out of breath, Percival barely dodged the slash of a skeleton, his face ultimately scarred on his right temple. Blood clouded his vision and he fell back, losing his once impressive strength. The skeleton stood over him, spear drawn back. Percival tried to lift his cumbersome shield to defend, but he had no strength. No more resolve. All the self doubt that gathered over his life amounted to this moment of weakness. This moment of defeat. There was no hope to come back from this. Percival had met his end. At least, he would die in battle. Maybe in Percival's death, his brother would finally miss him.

But then again, as if Andal himself willed it, the skeleton froze and crumbled into a pile of bones before him. Percival willed himself up to a seating position, confused at what had occurred. "Strange that a 'damsel' would save a knight in this situation," an elven focus said from behind.

"I owe you one…Crystia."

"You can repay me later," she replied coming to his aid, helping the wounded Percival up.

"That is assuming we can get ou-" Percival's quip was cut off by a vicious roar. It was the lumbering beast that led the horde. If he could afford to be sarcastic for another moment, he would. But fear had other plans for Percival. As the creature brought with large fleshy arm down for a crushing slam to the ground, Percival pushed Crystia away as he fell back, clumsily dodging the attack. The beast towered over them both, with Percival's fair sized stature barely coming up to the beast's waist. He was a giant, but slow. Maybe that could be their advantage. "Crystia what spells do you go-" Percival was knocked back the fat beast with utter ease, his equipment luckily enough falling only a few feet beside him. His vision blurring and his body battered, Percival was conscious enough to bear witness to a tragedy. Crystia did her beast to fend the beast off, using all forms of magic to slow the monster down. The beasts strength was too vast, able to resist the power of Crystia with seemingly great ease. With a straight shot due to the body of Crystia, the fist of the beast impaled the elf mage, ripping her entrails out of her body. Crystia's body limped to the ground, nothing more than a bloody mess for the monsters to clean up.

Percival struggled to bring himself to his feet, for both physical and now emotional trauma had affected him now. He had witnessed the death of a comrade and the realization of facing a powerful beast in his condition planted a great fear in him. Not to mention, the wave of beasts that had surrounded him and his comrades were undoubtedly having their way with them.

But then a wave of energy swept through the battlefield. Many of the creatures were turned to ashes, utterly obliterated from the spell. Percival was confused, bewildered. He turned around to see what was the godsend. It was a woman in the distance. She appeared to be larger than most, but Percival's vision was weakened from the blood loss. Her faint voice filled the air: "Get your bloody arses up here! The next wave is coming soon!" As she collapsed, Percival turned around and saw the fat beast that had killed Crystia still standing before him. The great wave of magic slowed him down, but could not kill such a great monster. It roared again and the woman's words were true. Another wave was upon them. Was the fat beast leading them here?

"ROLAND!" Percival called. "We need to take down the fat one! Get over here! NOW!"
 

SV

See You Space Cowboy
3,393
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2022

Varian Sigmund and Cassandra Alexander - Bandit Fort, Eveamoor


The group descended down the steps of the dark fort, creeping ever slowly into the dungeon. It was what you would expect from a place that had been supposedly abandoned for so long, forgotten by its owners years ago. The steps were creaky with stones crumbling beneath their feet as they passed over. Walls were eroded away by time as cobwebs, dust, and dirt littered the area, with not much signs of maintenance or restoration. The foundations itself appeared ready to sink into the ground at any moment, unable to withstand the weight on its old shoulders. Little light was able to peer throught the cracks, leading to Varian having to collect a torch at the beginning of their descent down, and lighting it aflame with the assistance of a big of magic from Xeye. Indeed, to the untrained eye, it would appear that no man had been down here in years. Fortunately, the Highman had managed to pick up a few tricks on tracking through his years. There were subtle hints of intrusion, a vacant holder along the wall where a torch would have been placed to light the path, a broken set of cobwebs, freshly made as something, or rather someone passed through and disturbed the design. Varian also managed to see a dead rat, the kill still fairly fresh. The rodent died by a stabbing wound, not likely the work of a bigger animal. It was to clean cut for that. He was certain the bandits were here now.

"Varian," Alys hissed under her breath, "the bandit back there, he had a pretty intensive quiver back there. Not something most bandits would have..."

At some point, the group reached a fork in the path, two separate direction they could go in search of the daughter. The left path took a much narrower road, but even through the bit of light emitted from the torch, he couldn't see beyond a few meters. The right path was a bit wider, but still fairly narrow as it would take the group deeper down into the ancient fort. They would likely have to travel in a single file on the left side, and possibly only as wide as two-by-two on the right path. In the long run, he thought these narrow paths would actually be beneficial, especially since they didn't quite have the advantages in numbers. Varian gripped his axes tigher in his hand as he pondered their next move, though it seemed pretty obvious. "Right. Cass, go take the left road. The rest of you lot, follow me down the right." His voice echoed ever so slightly, despite his best intention to keep a hushed voice.

"Oh yay! Sending me all alone~" Cass asked as she moved over to the left road. "You sure you okay with me having all the fun?" She cared not for the volume of her voice, secretly hoping it echoed through the hallow walls.

"Cass. Remember what we talked about. Don't go slaughtering all of them randomly. Try to get some information off of them first. Remember what we're here for. There's a lot of money at stake here."

Cass giggled. "You really think these guys are going to bother talking? You saw their equipment. I don't think we are dealing with your everyday group of bandits. Dare I say, they are 'professionals.' Hacking them into pieces is far more efficient."

"Ah, you caught that too..." Varian muttered in his characteristically stoic tone. "It could just be a few brigands who got lucky. We can't be certain of anything. Either way, try not to turn this into another bloodbath, alright?"

"Silly Varian~" Cass said nudging her old friend. "It is likely to get worse from here."

"Trained or not, we can handle thirty men. Watch yourself."

"Your face can handle thirty men," Cass said as she moved over to her path, stumbling a bit as she took a whisk from her flask. "I can handle a whole lot more. Whoa- there's a step there."

Varian shook his head as he watched his drunk friend stumbled down the left path. He looked back at the rest of the group. "Don't worry, she'll be fine," He reassured them, as he lifted up the torch in front of him to light their path down the stone steps of the right path. The path took them down a winding staircase of steps, before proceeding down a few dark corridors here and there. The site produced no combatants, nor any other significant sites. Varian felt his grip on his axes momentarily loosen as he felt the repetitive look of the begin to somewhat bore him. He was beginning to wish that something would happen. Anything.

His grip suddenly tightened again, and he focused himself once more as he heard something. It was faint at first, but after a while, he heard it more clearly. It was men, quite a few of them from the sound of it. Varian motioned to the others to follow behind him, but quietly. He moved closer to the sounds of the hearty men as their laughs echoed through the fort. The path took them down a few more steps, and through a hole-like passage. The sounds of the men grew with each passing step. They were getting closer, each step brought an ounce more of noise, until the level was high enough for Varian to deduce that the bandits were in the next room. A closed door was between them and their target. On the other side, Varian heard the sounds of laughter and yelling, the bandits likely partying in some way or another. It was the perfect moment to catch them with their pants down. They may not get a better chance at it, in fact. With numbers likely in their advantage, a shot at a preemptive attack was the best option.

He inhaled a deep breath, and then exhaled. "We take them out...quickly. Go in fast, and give them hell." He said to the others, looking at each of their faces to make sure they are in compliance. He walked over to the door, lifting each of his axes up to prepare for combat. He broke his foot through the door, knocking it off its hinges. The door flew forward, and made a loud thud onto the ground as it shattered on the ground. Varian rushed inside, axes raised and a scream prepared as he made his way into center the room. There was much more light inside this one provided by the number of torches hung on the walls, and as his eyes had to adjusted to the flood of light, he took in his surrounding for the first time in search of enemies. However, what he saw inside was not at all what he was expecting.

"Well...f*ck." He spat, taking in the astonishingly large amount of bandits. Larger than anything they were led to believe. There wasn't twenty, nor were there thirty. There seemed to be well over a hundred, and then some. Ever corner of the room had some bandit in it. Some were eating. Some were drinking. Others were simply socializing. But once the small band of mercenaries entered the room, they were all staring at them, a bit surprised by their sudden appearance. Varian was equally surprised, and the two groups shared a brief moment of shock as nothing was said or done. However, that quickly ended as a larger man stood up, encased in dull gray steel armor fresh from the forge. The metalwork was made by a veteran with few impurities in its compostion and craftsmenship. On his head was a steel helmet, with his dull brown eyes barely peered through. Engraved on the chest of his armor was a symbol, one that the people of Eveamoor (and the mercenaries too) know all too well. It was a sketch of a black safe with the letters "SS" etched in the heart of the safe. It was the emblem of the "Steel Safe" guild. A large, imposing weapon laid at his side: A hulking, silver circular mass of steel attached to a chain made of black iron. A ball and a chain.

"Looks like we've got a few uninvited guests, lads. Let's welcome them to the party."

In near unison, the 'bandits' rose, drawing their swords in one smooth motion. Clearly they were trained, disciplined, and organized. With seemingly no other options in front of him, Varian did the only thing he could, turning around and breaking into a sprint. "Fall back!" He yelled to the others, but it was too late. Varian shifted back and made a break for the door, but with the sound of rusty lever being pulled back, a small portcullis came crashing down, trapping the mercenaries in the room.
 
Last edited:

Xlugon Pyro

Dragon Tamer
308
Posts
16
Years
XEYE ANASTASIA ZXKOL
THE BLUE WILDCAT

Wolf Pops' complaint wasn't heard by the distracted half-elf, ready to try her hand at a ranged attack. To her dismay though, she lacked the skills to propel a blade of wind through the air, or to even generate a blade of wind in the first place. It was a dud, and it landed her on her ass.

"You remember what I said before about doing stupid things?" Wolf Pops angrily lectures Xeye, taking her by surprise as her body is suddenly taken into the air from the highman gripping her shirt, which is barely a shirt at all to begin with.

In fact, his hand grips her along the top rim of her shirt, gradually causing her bosom to sink towards the bottom rim of her garment, nearly exposing her bust during her confrontation with Wolf Pops.

"Well this would probably constitute as something stupid. Don't pull that kind of sh*t again, especially when we're trying to get the jump on someone!"

Her response is a wide, childish grin, doing her best to relax the situation. "S-sorry!"

She giggles for several seconds, embarrassed by the failure of her technique. Despite Wolf Pops' uncanny knack for instilling intimidation in anyone, Xeye merely laughs off his words as if the words were mere jests. Perhaps she's too brave or carefree to feel intimidation, but most observers would probably suspect the reason lies in her thought capacity. Nonetheless, the highman makes his point and drops the small woman onto the green earth just before her breasts can fall out from under her slim, belly-exposing shirt.

Over the next minute or so, the group watches their lone archer go to town on the bandits on guard. Adjusting her shirt back into the proper position, Xeye pucks her lips and folds her arms, pouting like a toddler over the ordeal. One might not even take her expression seriously given how absurd she looks, considering she's a grown woman and not a small child. For an obnoxious young half-elf, however, what she looks like is a lesser matter compared to her expression of discontent. Bow Lady is doing the job she wants to do, but because she messed up, she has to sit and watch. Unfortunately, her previously perky attitude is replaced with a constantly sour, over-exaggerated frown displaying her state of discontent and being horribly outclassed.

"Come on," Wolf Pops gestures to the group after Bow Lady finishes her work. Xeye, still pouting, finds her feet slower than the others and sourly trails the group as they approach the fort to investigate its contents. As they wander up to the door, Wolf Pops takes the lead and examines the fort cautiously before returning his focus to the rest of the group. "Let's split up and check on the bodies real quick. Make sure they're dead. See if we can salvage anything useful off of their bodies."

Spilling into the fort to investigate, the mercenaries scatter their presence throughout the fort's outside, turning over the freshly slain and collecting data or just looting them outright. Xeye, contorting frown and all, trudges inside, slightly hunching over while her arms are still folded below her breasts.

"That... jerk..." she sourly turns her lip up at Wolf Pops whose ascending a case of stairs to investigate the fallen bandits. "Stupid... dummy! Why can't I do stuff? That... meany..."

Nonetheless, she begins wandering the fort on her own, scouring around for data or unslain bandits. And she finds one. Sleeping. Drool trickling down the side of his plump cheeks, his snore cracks through the air loudly, throwing Xeye to her rear with a yelp in shock.

"A fat guy!" notices the half-elf, pushing herself back up to an erect stance. Approaching the slumbering oaf, she takes a few quick strides in his direction only for the visage of grumpy, gruff Wolf Pops to interrupt her actions, bringing her to a sharp stop.

"Oh, yeah... right. -Quietly-..." reminding herself stubbornly, still mad at Wolf Pops. Unfortunately, sneaking around despite what her figure might suggest is far from her specialty. She carries around two relatively large axes for a reason. Xeye slips on a loose stone underfoot just as she finds herself before the man.

"Wo-woa-woah!" she wobbles back in forth, struggling back and forth to maintain her balance. Instead, however, her body hurdles towards the sleeping bandit's beer belly, slamming into his gut hard face first.

"YIIEEEEEEEEAAAOOOOOOWW!!!" the man roars awake after taking an accidental blow to his belly. He hastily stands himself up against the stone wall he was sleeping against, glancing down at the mysterious thing that woke him up. On the floor, Xeye's face is planted on the rock hard cobblestones of the fort's surface. The bandit's sudden erection left the poor girl's face to fall off of the man's bouncy belly, smacking into the stone hard surface beneath her.

"O-OWWWWWHH!!" she bellows in agony, scrambling on the ground as her hands reach for her face. "It HUUUUURTS!"

"Wha- what the -HELL-!?" the startled man loudly confronts the woman, "What are others doing here!?"

Without hesitation, he pulls out his scimitar from its sheath and thrusts his arm upwards, aiming his blade's edge for the woman's neck. The sharp weapon barrels down towards the ailing woman, optimizing his opportunity to take her out. With impeccable speed, the blade crashes into the stone ground before him, creating a loud clank that reverberates across the fort. The man's eyes widen in shock, finding his victim vacant from the area that she was laying across moments earlier. Goosebumps race up the man's neck in an instant, his head smacking into the cold stone wall behind him. His neck begins to permeate a thin line of red fluid that quickly begins to build up and flood down over the man's tunic. The bandit's eyes are stuck wide open, frozen in the position as his life has just been snuffed out. Moments later, his body stumbles onto the ground, motionless as gravity claims his body.

"Awh, what!? It works -NOW- but not earlier? That's lame..." Xeye complains, inspecting her axe and her kill, slowly approaching the man's downed body and kicking him over so that she can inspect the corpse.

Earlier, she managed to spot the woken bandit's attack, rolling over to her right and speedily finding her feet all whilst withdrawing her right axe from its latch. With a quick, reactionary swing, her weapon hacked through the air in an arc aimed at the bandit. Before he even had a chance to notice, the blade of wind executed the man silently, unbeknownst to him.

"This guy's got some pricey stuff!" Xeye claims loudly to her companions, digging through his belongings, sometimes in very questionable places. Pieces of gold, a half eaten sandwich, various emblems and trinkets that meant nothing to the unsuspecting half-elf, and even a map and a lengthy letter Xeye finds, throwing them to her side before she finishes her work. By then though, the remaining mercenaries have gathered around a large doorway at the center of the fort.

"This must be the way in," alerts Wolf Pops as the doorway opens.

Xeye hurriedly gathers up the loot and stuffs it into the animal-hide sack tucked over her shoulder with a strap, tossing the man's sandwich aside after grimacing towards it with disgust. The young half-breed speeds along, turning the corner to her right and finds herself back in the company of her allies. Just arriving, they begin to head inside the dark passageway. Xeye sheaths her axe and promptly follows them, only to be stopped by those in front of her as Wolf Pops pauses, turning his attention to the mercenaries behind him. Her leg collides with Furface's short stature, smacking into his rear and bringing her foot right up into his nether-regions, effectively assaulting them with a clumsy foot. Yet again Xeye's ass collides with the ground, this time being a much harder landing due to the stone ground.

"Yie-ow!!" she yelps, leaning over to her left while her right hand reaches back to rub her ailing rear end.

"Remember what we're here for: the girl. Weapons up, eyes and ears open. And for the gods' sake, try not to alert every damn bastard in there that we're here," Wold Pops promptly and sternly reminds the group, but lending special attention to the absentminded half-elf at the party's rear, giving her an especially cold glare to be sure his point is made.

Xeye's eyes soon fall upon the highman's glare just as he begins to retract it and continues down the dark passage. Her face immediately contorts, eyebrows drooping and angling while her lips pucker and her arms fold across each other. "Meany-head..."

The mercenaries nonetheless descend down into the dungeon. Wolf Pops grabs a torch off of the wall and stops the company before they continue. "Xeye. Light this," he motions to her coldly.

"Hrmph..." she grunts quietly to herself, dragging her resistant soles across the dank dungeon path up to Wolf Pops and the torch. Her eyes scan the torch's surface, observing the terribly aged item she's supposed to light. In fact, it appears to be on the verge of complete disintegration into nothing but a memory. Hopefully it would be adequate enough to illuminate the way until their business in the fort is complete.

Xeye's right hand reaches out over the torch, scraping the surface of it where her fingers meet the ignitable area. Lifting her hand slightly into the air above the torch, her index finger begins to slide quickly across the surface of her thumb. In very little time at all, sparks begin to fly from her hands in a display of an otherwise abnormal circumstance for the average person. After the fifth try, a small inferno erupts around her palm, setting aflame the torch... and also Xeye's arm.

"OOOH! HOT, HOT!!" she yelps, quickly creating an o-shape with the digits on her left hand, blowing into the finger-hole strongly to put out the fire. Fortunately, her magical attributes can also act as damage control, whisking away the flames across her hand near-instantly before serious bodily harm can develop.

With their light source set, the gang continues down into the dark dungeon for several minutes, moving along cautiously and quietly. Sour Apple split from the group at a fork in the path per Wolf Pops' orders. Naturally, Xeye worries little of the fate of their often-drunk red-headed companion. She glances down the path Apple takes, stumbling with every few steps but catches herself. Xeye giggles quietly to herself, amused by the woman's demeanor.

"She's funny!"

The mercenaries continue along deep into the dungeon with one less person to face any threat down the line. Not that it matters much to Xeye, who tries to stifle her agonizing boredom, running her fingers along the creases between the stone walls before finding sharp edges that force her to retract her fingers and suck on them to alleviate her pain. Routinely, she cocks her head way back, glancing up, around and behind her to check for something interesting. Trudging along with nothing to do, the girl begins to grow dreadfully bored.

"Does anyone want to carry me? I think I could..." she yawns, interrupting her request, "Use a nap... Y'know, until we find these bad guys we're supposed to beat up..."

However, new sounds begin to reach her ears. The sound of men shouting, echoing faintly throughout the dungeon towards their location is heard. The crew naturally hastens their pace, reinvigorated by their closing in on their targets. This news gives Xeye a much needed second wind as well, causing her face to light up with a gleeful smile, one of excitement.

"Yay!" she blurts quietly in the back, skipping along with eager abandon, anxious for action.
 

CarefulWetPaint

Doctor Lobotomy
1,193
Posts
12
Years
Auden Radke,
The Undead Battle Field.

Theme

Blades of air, pillars of fire and walls of earth began to systematically erupt from Auden as he calmly walked the battle field tearing through any undead monster he could see, almost like a blender that spewed fire and guts. With each of his steps his magic pulsated, causing a trail of bones, burning rotten flesh and blood to follow his path. The undead were clearly mindless as they continued approaching Auden, even as they watched their fellow undead getting turned into puddles of blood. The smile on Auden's face was slowly growing wider with each body he disposed of, his joy gravitating on bodies that were exploding or being disemboweled, causing the creatures to trip on their own entrails. Deciding to experiment with some he allowed them to get closer before cutting their limbs off, laughing at the one zombie-like on that continued walking without a head or arms, a great sight he thought. In all the fun he realised that he had forgotten about the massive monstrosity that he had first decided to approach, and when looking around he realised he could no longer see it. "Hmm, looks like I got side tracked playing with these little ones.." He spoke while tapping his staff to the ground, causing spikes to impale 5 approaching undead through their heads, sending brains and blood into the air. Another tap of his staff and a pillar of earth rose beneath him, bringing him above the hordes and allowing him to survey the battle field, a dangerous action in a battle with living enemies but this brainless army was much less of a threat.

As blades of earth and air spun around the bottom of his pillar, creating a death saw for anything stupid enough to approach it. The blood splatter below him, some splashes reaching his feet while he surveyed the battlefield, seeing one of the iron-clad brothers and the young elf fighting hell hounds together. Shooting balls of fire into the onslaught he watched in interests as a large demon with a club like hand charged at them, apparently without them realizing as the demon's club struck the elf square on, sending her flying into a ruined building which soon collapsed in on her. That bastard.. he thought to himself as he began tapping his staff on the ground, causing spikes to explode from the ground and puncture some ghouls that had ignored his pillar... I wanted to kill that b*tch.

Slightly annoyed he decided to continue to his survey, soon finding the other iron clad brother being slightly overwhelmed. Feeling overly generous Auden sent a pillar of fire to wipe out a group of ghouls that were approaching, that the mace wielding brother had clearly missed as his attention was with the skeletons surrounding him. With magic still pulsating from his body, the corpses began to build up around the bottom of his pillar; a blood mist now forming. Auden's interest in the elven mage kept his attention as he felt her magic rise around the mace wielding knight. "Well her magic doesn't seem like its very good offensively, especially with the undead." He told himself while he watched her expend much more magic then needed to disperse the skeletons and save the knights life. With his interest starting to wane, he finally saw the gut spilling monstrosity again, and it was approaching the two warriors, whom were seemingly chatting happy together. With a blood curdling roar it charged at the two with surprising speed, its bowels contents spewing out with each step it took. Humorously Auden watched as the two clumsily dodged its first strike, which left a dent in the ground, which soon filled with stomach fluids. As the elf began throwing her weak magic at the beast, though the most it was doing was slow it down slightly, it knocked the knight away with ease, before turning its attention at the annoying little bug that was buzzing around it. Though the elven mage continued to bombard the creature with her magic, to no avail. Tilting its head slightly it shot its fist through Crystia, before removing it, with her guts in tow. Even more frustrated now Auden watched the elf's lifeless body drop to the ground, another person he wanted to torture to death being killed by someone else. Sighing he tapped on the ground and his pillar began to retract back into the ground.

Suddenly, he felt a building magical power to the the west, where he saw a larger looking lady holding a staff to the air. Watching her lips move he slowed his descent, wanting to get a good look at her magic. It was a fairly impressive display of power, wiping out a large portion of undead that were in the woman's vicinity, much more impressive than the now dead elves magic. Stepping off his pillar just before it fully retracted he could hear the faith screams from the direction of the woman, probably shouts for help but he didn't care much for it. Drawing his sword he faced the woman, whom fell to the ground sending up a small cloud of dust, and chanted before swinging his sword horizontally. The wind blade that shot out level with his swing rushed towards her, as another wave of demons pour over the hill, with many rushing for her fallen body. As they reached the peak of the hill, so did Auden's magic, slicing a large majority of them in half, spraying blood upwards like fountains as their top halves fell to the ground. The edges of the waves however were not in the range of Auden's spell, and they continued onwards at the now dwindling number of knights, completely ignoring the large woman's motionless body. Unfazed he turned around and began towards the large monstrosity as it stood overwhelming large in comparison to the knight who stood preparing to fight it.

As he approached, the monstrosity noticed him, shoving its own hand into its gut. Curious, Auden continued onwards as it ripped out its own guts and threw them in his direction. With a flick of his sword blades of air shot out, blasting away the guts before finding its place again in its sheath, once again making up his staff. "Ah, what was that?" Auden asked himself as he felt a burn under his cheek, before wiping off the beasts guts, which now burnt at his fingers. Pulling in water vapours he washed away the guts to find his hand slightly eroded and burnt, much to his interest. Slowing momentarily he saw that indeed, the ground around him where he has dispatched most of the guts was also eroding. Very interesting.

Frustrated the monstrosity threw its hands down and smashing the ground just in front of the knight before picking up the elves limp body. Ignoring the knight within reach, the beast threw the dead body in Auden's direction, the moment causing more of its stomachs contents to escape and begin eroding the ground around its feet. Uncaring Auden tap the ground with his staff as the body got closer, skewering the head mid air, cause blood to spray forward just in front of Auden, creating a red carpet of blood. Happily Auden walked along his personal red carpet, his blood starting to boil at the thrill of fighting such a strong opponent. With surprising speed, the gargantuan raised his hand and then brought it down at Percival. Quickly, Auden tapped the ground with his staff, creating a fairly thin earth wall to Percival's side as he brought his shield to the same position, though the wall barely stopped the slap, as it sent Percival flying away to the side, and denting his shield.

"Lets do this fatty." Auden declared to the oozing monstrosity looking as their eyes lock, though the beasts eyes were half falling out. With a swipe of his staff a pillar of fire flare up engulfing the beasts face in flames, releasing the stench of burning rotted flesh. Grunting the started hitting itself in the face, causing the flames to go out and reveal, barely any significant damage besides the beast popping one of its own eyes and charred flesh. "Well.." Taking a step back Auden watched as it began raising its hand again, this time jamming his staff into the ground a much larger wall formed at his side as he braced himself. This time the wall held up much better, but couldn't stop all the monotonous strength in the slap, sending Auden along the ground and causing his head to start bleeding. Pushing himself up he looked up to see the beasts hand coming down towards him, causing Auden to hastily roll out of the way, barely avoiding the crushing strength. Using the motion as he rolled he smashed the bottom of his staff into the ground, allowing himself to stand up and causing a spike to come up through the ground into the creatures foot, holding it in place. Jumping backwards, air blades began shooting out from Auden, battering the monstrosity sending its ooze out behind it, eroding everything it touched.

Stuck on spike, it struggled, not able to break away it let out a gurgled roar. Standing in front of the undead mutation, swiped his staff through the air, causing a ball of fire to shoot out and hit the mutation in its belly, causing the rotten flesh to burn and let out a horrid smell. Taking no notice of it's burning belly the monstrosity looked around before it began throwing boulders and bodies at Auden. Using all his experience he dodged the projectiles before slipping on a crushed hound head. Hitting the ground hard he coughed as he tried to regain his breath, before staring at the massive brute whom had its own hand deep within his gut. Clawing at the ground Auden tried his best to pull himself off the ground. Frustrated as he was not getting anywhere he threw his hands in front of his face as he pushed himself to the side, feeling intense pain starting to form on his right arm. Regaining his breath he stood up and jumped backwards as he ripped his right sleeve off to reveal ooze burning his arm. Quickly he pulled water in and cleaned his arm off, clenching his fist before sending a small pillar of fire at the beast, grazing the side of its left arm.

Taking another step backwards Auden shot another pillar of fire at the beast, whom caught and snuffed it out mid air, though it did char its hand fairly badly. Still unable to move it jammed its hands back into its guts before throwing its oozes at Auden. This time drawing his sword Auden traced a circle in front of him, causing a huge pillar of fire to come and burn up most of the liquid. Though an intense inferno, the ooze was vast and some made it past Auden's defence, eroding his robe and adding a few more burns to his face and arms, causing him to flinch from the pain of his skin being slowly eaten away. Wiping off his face he stared down the beast as it's muscles tensed and pulled its stuck foot off the ground, spike and all and began rushing Auden. Swinging his sword many blades of air shoot out, landing continuous blows to the left arm of the beast, cutting it off before it had a chance to hit Auden. Not daunted the beast swung its right fist at Auden, catching his legs as he attempted to jump out of the way, causing him to spin uncontrollable into a ruined wall. Coughing blood, Auden struggled to push himself up as pain shot through left his arm. Cringing he tried to ignore the pain as the beast turned to face him once again. "Lets do this!" Auden declared to the monstrosity as he fell to one knee and his jammed his sword deep into the ground as the disgusting brute charged at him. Two massive hand like shaped walls erupted from the ground on either side of beast, and closed in, trapping the beast from moving as it tried to brace itself with one arm, its ooze dissolving the ground under its feet. Pushing harder, the walls slowly closed in on the beast, crumpling its arm under the pressure before slowly crushing its body. With one last strong push into the ground the walls quickly crushed the beast sending its bodily contents spraying all over the area, eroding everything it touched, including the roof of earth that Auden had created to shield himself since fire and wind had both failed before.

With chunks of earth falling around him, Auden stood bleeding, his left arm hanging my his side. Clenching he pulled his sword out of the ground and watched the walls of earth that had killed the beast dissolve around a pile of guts, blood and ooze. Wiping his face he felt a surge of magic; the flare magic and looked to the sky to see the flare he had given Tamor shooting into the sky. Don't die. He thought as he began running towards where the flare was, ignoring all the pain his body felt he began using all his magic to accelerate his travel and destroy anything in between him and Tamor.
 
Last edited:
1,176
Posts
15
Years
  • Seen Jul 18, 2016
Tamor Bellfiend
Xin Kou, Shinguo
Theme Song: Hear Me
The battlefield had come to life; the Knights of Ekilore had sprung into action, well, except one. She stood frozen in fear before the gate; fear had got a hold of her and planted its roots deep down that brushed Tamor's soul. Her golden eyes followed every movement, they whisked from scene to scene, on the battlefield like a hawk. Almost as if he had overheard her thoughts Niolas soared from her shoulder into the carnage filled land. Guilt stained her emotions, now, even her damn bird had participated in the fight that belonged to her. Niolas's broad wingspan assisted him into gaining more altitude, once the sleek, dark brown raptor reached the right height he swooped down with talons stretched out. Several of the necromancer's creatures lost patches of rotten flesh as her avian companion moved in and out the waves of the undead. Soon a realization dawned on Tamor; the acceptance to the Monk's perilous quest was now an absolute joke, before, in the tower, Tamor had been readily eager to accept it. To be the very first one to speak those words but now she was the last to step foot onto the bloody battlefield. In her case, and her case alone, Tamor's brave words spoke louder than her poor actions and for that she was overwhelmingly ashamed. A shifted focus led her to see the field set ablaze, Tamor knew that was the handiwork of, and she was reluctant to admit this, her closest human friend who was a deranged, sadistic pyromaniac. The deadly flames, which leapt from creature to creature, would reflect in his lifeless brown eyes, she imagined that a smirk had followed.

Her thin, bony fingers trembled underneath the tattered robes that clung to her body somehow Tamor was able to regain control over her body, thank Tella. What if Fortis had been her primary God that she loved and worshipped every dawn until the sun rose? Would she certainly be planted in this position like a tree that had laid its root? The tremble had spread from her hand up through her entire arm through the rest of her body. Tamor bought her hand to her face, the process was slow almost too painful to watch and luckily no one had been. One by one each muscle in her hand moved each finger downward until it formed a fist. Surely the other knights must have noticed her absence on the blazing field, would they ask her to resign from the prestigious group?

**

"Tamor, you're not trying hard enough," She could tell by his voice he was upset, but she was giving it all she had. "This is pathetic. Stronger! Faster! Sharper!"

She breathed heavy, an evident sign that she wasn't prepared for this type of rigorous training. In her mind she knew that whatever she decided to do she most certainly couldn't give up now, he was counting on her. Tamor gathered her remaining energy and threw herself full force at the man in front of her, but he had already seen through her movements like any logistical person would. She leapt off with her domain foot, her left arm held out straight behind her while her right one wrapped around her body so that it did the same. In a single motion she brought both her arms forward and around her body in an almost 360 degree swipe. The brute of a man charged forward, his long brown hair flowed with every step. As speedy as she could Tamor jumped to the side then wound her fist and stuck with all her might. His hands sprung from his side and tightly gripped onto one of her thin wrists he then spun her in a semicircle before letting her go, which caused her to slam into a nearby tree.

"You're dead," He whispered in ear after he planted a kiss on her cheek.


**

That temporarily flashback had cost her a few seconds, but it was an important moment in her life. The left side of her chest ached every time she recalled a memory about him especially now that he had disappeared, she had been hesitant to even believe that much. Tamor rapidly blinked her eyes prior to when she returned them back to the field in time to see comrades being cut down. An unidentified blur struck down into the earth a few feet in front of her, which upon a closer look she noticed the brown wings that spread out and touched her boots. In that short moment Tamor's breath ceased as her eyes failed to focus on the dead creature that laid crushed at her feet. These were Dabel's creatures; the monstrosities that he had taken pleasure in crafting, the Necromancer had done his bidding and now she would rid Aerion of them. Her psyche had already started to shatter with the apparent loss of her avian companion. With Tamor's thoughts becoming increasing erratic there was only one clear thought that was broadcasted, kill. Each step she took left a deeper impression on the dirt ground that she walked on. The mumbling she had began to chant were the hymns of The Nine and the instant activation of her healing powers. Power flowed within, through, and almost around her if only she had the immense ability to do that. It granted her momentary immunity, any minimal attack would automatically heal while it was being dealt as long as Tamor's divine magic flourished throughout her body. A more severe attack would take several minutes for her to direct enough energy to that spot.

The more steady steps she took the closer Tamor got to the deadly action. A loud shrill from a heavyset human girl caught Tamor's attention as the girl then proceeded to collapse on the floor. As Tamor approached the fainted girl she lowered herself onto one knee and softly pressed her dirty fingers into her neck right where the pulse could be felt. Magic transferred from Tamor's body into girl who was blacked out, its healing properties were so strong that it would not only zap the girl into reality but heal all inflictions she might have gotten or will get for the next few moments that it coursed throughout her body. Before she knew it she had wandered aimlessly into the midst of the next wave that proved that Infernum had made its home here. The heat that came from of the half-burned monsters increased as they surrounded their newest victim. A low-toned moan escaped the first undead's charred mouth, or what was left of it. Due to Auden's flame magic half of its body was burnt beyond recognition. The smell that wafted from its mouth threatened to leave third degree burns on anything it touched. Puss oozed from beneath its flaky, scorched skin. Some of its movements were fast; the creature, which stood a few feet taller than her, threw himself at Tamor with its arm wide open to give her death's embrace. Tamor called upon the Goddess Tella to guide her, and the rest of the Nine to give her the much needed strength and energy to conquer the enemy. In the very next instant the wicked creature erupted from the inside out, its guts spewed all over her clothing.

The attack replayed in her mind, Tamor had become a blur to the human eye. Energy sizzled inside of her and begged for an outing, which Tamor had given it in the form of the now dead being. Even more unseen was the way Tamor had reshaped the energy that emitted outside her body into a deadly weapon. It presented itself in a glowing yellow-gold color that outlined her entire body and also caused the air around her small silhouette to shimmer. Another undead beast sauntered in and took its place in front of her. The beast resembled an overgrown cat whose burnt pelt was slowly peeling off to showcase its bare bones underneath. It sprang forward with its claw unsheathed and bared the teeth it had left, consequently its rotting head slid from its shoulder exploding like the previous being. Tamor now stood behind the being where previously she had stood before it. Her hand met her hooded face and felt the claw marks where it had raked its sharpen claws against her cheek. By this time the defensive ward Auden had given her had promptly worn off now she must rely on her own abilities. The headless body landed with a thud on the ground behind her then sprung back into action. As silently as she could Tamor twisted on the heels of her shoes and engaged in battle once more. Divine magic, Tamor recalled what Auden had said to her, was the perfect offensive to the Necromancer's battle strategy. The energy that encircled Tamor's frame was her divine magic; it was the energy of The Nine. It became an extension of limbs that Tamor manipulated into thin, sharp, flexible blades that were able to cut into these creatures. Heavily breathing Tamor kneeled in the dirt she hadn't trained herself in this type of magic in awhile.

Four demons besieged Tamor; they each wore a skull on top of their head. Where the retrieved such skulls she didn't know, possibly the skulls of villagers that had strayed too far away from camp. Their disgusting pointed teeth held remnants of their last meal, flesh, and blood. Thordain would approve of her next set actions; she twirled around with both of her hands in the air, each spot where demons tried to land an attack Tamor's energy cut straight through them. All of the demons perished as they made contact with her blades of energy. For the second time Tamor touched an already healing cut on her face somehow one of the demon's limb still managed to land an attack. Tamor's movements had to be stronger, faster, and sharper if she were to ever conquer her restless enemies. An eager Tamor threw herself back into battle she was vengeful for retribution. These creatures slaughtered her longest companion and she was ready to kill everything on field for it. Creatures mindlessly stepped forward to replace their fallen comrades; there wasn't an end to them. They fought on, similarly to how both the Elven and Dwarven races fought against the dragons, but these beasts would fall in battle today. In order to make her movements faster Tamor, without hesitation, ripped off her overly worn robes, from the bottom up. Fasten in same place it had always been was her Mage's hood that kept all her braided hair and face from being fully revealed to Infernum's demons as well as to the rest of the Knights of Ekilore, those that had survived.

Stronger. Another beast made its way to Tamor by crushing its fellow hell raisers; it was almost as large as the monstrosity that she had seen several of the other Knights taking on. The immediate conclusion Tamor drew was that it must be the vice-commander, second in charge and that it wanted her intestines for a meal. This beast was foul in nature and in appearance, a sight Tamor was overjoyed to erase from existence. Its front two teeth were half the size of her, they were shaped like a half-circle, they were flipped versions of the other. Wings sprouted from back, but they were only for show as all that remained left was the bones, which a majority of them were snapped leaving asperous edges. The seared skin seemed to bubble as if there were an unending amount of creatures prisoned beneath its shifting skin ready to be birthed into Aerion. Apparently the Necromancer had been quite hasty when crafting this particular horrendous subject. The being leaned hunched over on its front two limbs as if it were some sort of primate. Tamor stood erect in the face of danger her personality had dramatically shifted after the death of her dearest friend. She stayed focused on adding more to her energy giving it more power, juice, force behind her movements as the beast made its final steps.

Faster. It painlessly tore one of its front teeth out, and dug it deep into its knuckle before it repeated the same pattern with the other tooth. On one of its oversized fists the creature now had two seemingly razor sharp teeth implanted as some sort of weapon. Tamor braced herself; their eyes met, and she foolishly launched herself by first digging her black boots into the dirt. The detestable monster raised a single fist and backhanded Tamor as if she were a pest, not a real opponent, which caused her to go flying back down into the earth. Before the dust had a chance to settle Tamor was on her feet and in the air; her body a blur to anyone that watched her. Her speed had not came from air magic as she had seen arcane mages use rather perfectly time boosts of energy that sped her through the air and at her primary target with ease. Thank The Nine, as Tamor increased the amount of energy boosts she used the more time she had to dodge the tooth fist that came her way. It almost began to appear as if she was teleporting around this creature but it had managed to track her every move. Each time she landed she was almost sideswiped by one of its massive fist, the toothed one had come exceptionally close to beheading her instead it left an already healed scratch.

Sharper. All Tamor's time thus far had been spent twisting, jumping, and turning to avoid the beast's coordinated attacks on her, she had yet to launch her own. Upset at the fact that she hadn't landed a single blow on her opponent and was already out of breath Tamor paused where she was at. A game plan was needed if she was going to continue this fight without getting slaughtered along with her fallen comrades. The blades of energy that she used had to be sharp, her father had taught her had to forge but she had failed at that as well. Thordain, the Father of Dwarves, would be so disappointed in her as well as Tella, the Mother of Elves, because even now she couldn't make them proud. Taking advantage of Tamor's frozen state the beast threw both fists down in unisons, the final blow. She threw up her hands and started to create much sharper, longer, more flexible arc-shaped energy blades. A barrier was created over her entire attack range as her hands kept making the same motions over, and over again. The motions she made with her hands were blurry; it looked as if she had a multitude of hands by the speed of her movements. Unable to stop its attack the fists delivered the crushing blow right on top of the golden barricade, the repercussion came soon after, the beast's entire body's flung back and landed on its backside several feet away. A smirk appeared at the corner of her mouth, she had now learned to utilized the offensive powers as well the defensive just like he had taught her.

The bellow that left the now livid beast's mouth was surely deafening. It was noticeable that one of its weapons-teeth had been knocked loose as a result of its previous failed attack. Tamor had already lowered her self-made shield and launched herself at an extreme speed forward. She stood on the belly of the fallen beast as it was regaining strength, which was evident by it clenching the dirt next to it. Palms out, where Tamor stored built up energy, she thrust them through its damaged skin. The puss was like acid and ate away at her own flesh, Tamor tried to ignore the alarming amount of pain it caused her. As quickly as she could she released the pent up energy in random directions throughout the Necromancer's creature's body. It seized, while Tamor leapt backwards away from her formidable enemy. By chance she looked down at her hands, up to her elbow the flesh had been eaten away. Her flesh and muscle were gone in some spots to the point where she saw the bones that connected her fingers to her hands. Blood spilled from the spot where the acid had stopped eating her skin down onto the ground and onto the rest of her filthy clothing. She already knew the healing process had begun but it wasn't fast enough as the monster had already regained itself and was currently on two feet once more. She exclusively relied on the teleportation-like speed to avoid the abundant amount of attacks it aimed at her. Its single "claw" raked into her several times before Tamor had gotten the hang of her advance, god-like speed. Without her two hands it was beyond difficult to move herself from one place to another. The Necromancer must have created these being with some sort of intelligent as the beast instantly picked up on this fact and delivered a strike that pierced Tamor through the stomach with its one tooth claw onto a boulder. Struggle was all she could do but nothing freed her from where she was trapped, the jagged tooth had created a gaping hole from below her breasts down to her torso. Pinned in place Tamor had run out of plans, her magic was on overdrive trying to heal two severe injuries, one life-threatening. Tears welled in her eyes, was this her final goodbye? Her eyes caught a string that hung out of her pocket, the flare that Auden had given her! Hooking her slow to heal fingers around the string she brought it out of her tattered pants and followed the instructions Auden had given to her. The bright colors of the flare made Tamor smile, at least she had gotten to see something beautiful at the end. Through teary eyes Tamor saw something pestering the beast hence why it hadn't finished her off yet. A sole bird was circling the creature's head diving down every so often to pluck flesh from its face, Niolas! Tamor violently shook her head; he had died right in front of her, hadn't he? Life flowed back into Tamor, she slapped both of her hands on each side of the tooth that held her in place. The remaining bits of energy flowed into her hands, she gritted her teeth as she applied pressure to the tooth. Crackling and sizzling the energy of The Nine zapped through the tooth and created cracked as it went. With one last push Tamor caused the entire thing to shatter in tiny pieces, which returned to her the ability to move. Something else, not her avian friend, had caused the destructive beast to pause its movements, but that was all Tamor needed. The flesh had almost fully returned on her arms, hands, and fingers but the gaping hole in the middle of her body had only started to heal. She sped forward, faster than any speed she had gone, front flipped and landed with her feet on the standing creatures belly. The momentum she had gathered was enough to give her strength to pass through the creature. At the very moment she passed through and was in the inside the belly of the beast Tamor released thousands of miniature energy bolts that immediately pulsed through it. Its body exploded into a dazzling light display taking some of its fellow demons straight to Infernum with it. Tamor landed on her side, hands pressed up against her stomach, the entrails of the stomach still leaked out of her. The back of the hole had already healed while it was taking much long for the hole in front. Hands flipped her over it was a man with shaggy, brown hair who held her in his arms.

"Niolas, I did it," She slowly reached up with her shaky hands and stroked his cheek as tears cascaded down hers, had her former love come to take her off to Astrum to be with him?​
 
Last edited:

SV

See You Space Cowboy
3,393
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Feb 7, 2022

Percival and Roland Grey- Xin Kou, Shingou


"I'm a bit preoccupied with the little devils!" Roland shouted back after his brother called for aid against the big monstrosity. "Hold the fiend off! The Gods know you've at least been trained to do that much, brother!" He teased at his brother, while two more hellbounds approached him.

Roland concentrated on the foes in front of him now, figuring his brother and the others should be able to handle the larger beast. He may publicly joke about Percival, but he knew he was capable enough to handle himself. Auden seemed to be competant too. The two hellhounds circled around the knight, Roland holding his shield in front of him as he followed their movements, never allowing himself to have their back to either of them. However, that proved to be difficult as their distances from each other began to widen, and they were soon on opposite sides of each other. At this point, the hellhound directly behind him pounce for attack, his deep growl and indication of his incoming pounce, which gave Roland a mere moment to turn and block the beast in time. He brought his shield up to his body, the impact of the pounce of the demon dog meeting the steel of his barricade, and the two bounced off each other, the hellhound momentarily backing off to shake off the hit it took to the head. However, the second hellhound didn't stop to give Roland an opportunity to recover, attacking him while his back was turned, and biting into the knight's leg. A grunt of pain escaped Roland's lips, as he looked below to see the giant beast attacks to his leg, and biting through the metal to the skin, and into that as well. He tried to shake it off, before realizing the stubborn monstrous dog was far too attached to be willing to be shaken off. He brought his sword up above his head, and brought it down right on top of the hellhound's head, impaling it straight through and coming out the other end. The other hound had apparently recovered from its headbutt with the shield and prepped for another attack, doing so immediately, but Roland made a quick spin move and brought the bloody sword in front to meet the dog's pounce, and cutting at the beast as it struck through the air. The body fell into the ground, now split in two, bleeding profusely from the open wound, but no longer attacking.

Roland breathed heavily, examining his leg to see the blood staining his colored armor. As he tried to put weight on it, he felt a stinging pain escape it. He knew it would probably have to be examined thoroughly, but he also knew the demons wouldn't give him that luxury. Seeming to take advantage of the situation, three more monstrous demons of all sorts surrounded the wounded knight, and began to encircle him. He brought up his sword and shield to protect himself, still retaining his mask of confidence, yet on the inside, he knew he was in a vulnerable position.

But then one collasped like a rock and behind it stood an equally wounded knight, breathing heavy, barely holding on to his mace and shield. "Looks like we need to work together for once if we want to live to see another day." Percival turned to another monster, bashing its repulsive half decayed face with his mace, bringing it down to the ground with sheer force. Putting all his strength and weight in the blow proved to be reckless as Percival fell to his knees, gasping for air. The broken ribs were weighing him down, weakening the knight with every movement.

The outstretched hand of Roland met Percival's arm, tugging at him with all his remaining might to bring him back to his feet. "I have no intention of seeing any of the House Grey fall before foes so foul. Come on." He panted heavily, and turned his attention back to the demons, just in time to see on right in front of him, about to bite into his face. Though he didn't have enough distance to slash it, he brought the hilt of the sword to the demon's face, repeatedly smashing into it both as a tool of pain and a means to bring enough distance to the two of them to initiate a strike of his sword. Punch after punch came from Roland as he continued to exhaust what little energy he had to create the distance, before leaping backwards and bringing his sword behind him, and striking forward, impaling the demon directly through. If the demon had a heart, he knew he would have struck directly on it.

A somewhat larger demon approach the two knights. Roland gazed upon it, the pain still coming from his fresh wound on his leg, but also his arm, which held the shield. He turned to Percival, giving him a slight nod of the head, hoping he gets understands his intention.

"We are going to make peace with it, right?" Percival said with sarcasm. Roland rolled his eyes, and the demon attacked, bringing his right arm, which seemed to be about twice as large as his left down upon the pair of knights. Roland jumped out of the way, narrowly avoiding the attack while feeling the sting of his injured leg. Nevertheless, he fought through the pain, and mustered all of his energy to cut at the arm of the demon which now made contact with the ground. A clean slice was made, slashing through its arm from right below the shoulder, the large arm of the monstrous demon falling onto the ground, which caused a roar of pain from the being. As the arm crashed to the ground, Percival charged forward throwing his shield into the head of the monster, splitting its head open. The creature fell back, twitching and Percival walked over to its head, removing his shield and crushing the head like a watermelon with a single stroke of his mace.

Roland, still panting heavily, examined what was left of the demon after Percival was through with it. He nodded at the remains, impressed with his brother. "You know, for a Welmian cur, you sure fight like a northerner. It's good to see you haven't tainted all of your Grey bloodline just yet."

"Thank you?" Percival said, not sure how to take the compliment. Or insult. "You almost seemed rusty today. I wonder how the head of the Lionguard would react."

Roland let a small chuckle escape his lips. "If I have my way, he shall never hear of it. Imagine what he'd say when he finds out I fought side by side with an elf!"

"Heh. That's true," Percival smiled. A pleasant exchange with Roland? That was a first. "Let's check on the others. I trust they are still alive after all those magical explosions."

Roland nodded, checking around to see the conclusion of Auden's fight with the enormous and monstrous abomination. Apparently, he had managed to defeat the thing, before taking off. "That Auden fellow seems to be quite capable. I do not think the monks chose foolishly with him." His thoughts suddenly went back to his mercy-killing of the other knight. "That other elf, Zara. She has fallen." He said, observing around the area to see what other damage was caused.

"As did Crystia," Percival said, staring at the ground. It was littered with bodies, but the waves had ceased. The villagers and guards taking out the stragglers and any other weak monster that the Knights had missed in their crusade. Percival walked back to the gate, remembering the figure from earlier that had agruably saved his life with the wave of magic released earlier. It was a short, wider woman with fiery hair. She was unconscious, having blacked out from the sudden release of magic. Percival knelt down beside her, gently shaking her.

"Milady, wake up. I have some questions for you."
 
Back
Top