Kyras stared at the source of the explosion as he recovered from it. White light coming from the arms of men. He hadn't seen that before and part of him was frightened by them. So upon hearing Dalrel yell asking what to do he froze up momentarily before yelling "Run!" This was his clearly reward for showing mercy. There was absolutely no way they were going to be able to kill them all. He'd create a barrier with his fire and the fires around him and in the streets and try to block or disrupt the attacks of the men in the street while he waited for Nettil and the Hunter to climb up, and then he'd start running across the rooftops towards the towers. There was a way to another world there, one far away from this if he was lucky.
Trahaearn sniffed as he recovered from the wild-haze; something which cropped up every now and again. Apparently it was the spirits of the slain beasts trying to possess the warrior via their melded limbs, or the deadly forest of Trahaearn's home Horizon trying to do the possessing, but who knew if there was any truth to those claims? Regardless, it was a sign that he needed another limb or additional alchemy to keep 'em there. Trahaearn frowned. The simple job had gotten complicated and was pretty much lost if their employer was scrounging about for clothes and gold. Luckily an escape route offered itself in the form of a torn wall. After looking to the others and shaking his head, Trahaearn took it. He was done with this.
Gi did as Lucia instructed, raising her hands in a passive manner to whatever may come through the door.
The footsteps grew louder and Gi heard mumbling. shit!
Ice bolts flew as Gi threw the floor up from under her. A new wall sprouted between her and the arrows as the armoured snow elves ran through the doorway, two Pikemen sparred with Raj and his spear, while an archer aimed for Alex' head. Meanwhile, a snow elf continued hurling ice shards at Gi, pinning her behind cover.
------------
Cisk fumbled with a map detailing the city "I only know two Herbologists by name- Gyandris' and Nettil's." After some consultation, they knew where they were headed, and how.
Cupboards were cleared of anything Bead cared for, while a cabinet full of drugs and herbs were wrapped haphazardly into boxes. Zuria and Des moved into the narrow backalley as a loud explosion could be heard from the port, followed by yelling.
"Right, that's everything. Lead the way you t- where are they?" Exclaimed Bead, hurriedly dumping sacks and bindles full of valuables onto a a small cart, towing it behind her.
"They're gone" Cisk explained sombrely. "After we saved one of them?" Bead only grunted while they continued down the alleyway.
------------
Dalrel clumsily got to his feet behind Kyras as he ran, and the bandits gave chase.
Trahaearn and Nettil bolted through the hole in the wall and into a new building, as sparks flew and the kitchen exploded behind them. They continued down the long corridor and up a ladder to to rooftops.
"Run!" howled Dalrel, hobbling from his sluggish position behind Kyras. Nettil grabbed him by the scruff of his shoulder as they jogged along the tiles. Their attackers dotted the streets below, as the blazing inferno loomed only a few houses to their east, with the Towers to the north.
Nettil slowed down after they turned a street. "Hold on," She began, analysing the dust cloud at their destination, and counted. there's only five towers "Oh s-" suddenly a flash of light zoomed past her head. Another one of the lightning mages was taking potshots from the ground alongside an archer and a fire slinger, while two more propelled themselves upwards to meet the four of them on the roof.
------------
After an eternity of running through the dank backalleys, the streets had mercifully opened up, as the two of them had stopped somewhat close to their destination. In the distance were quick flashes of light that danced behind the row of buildings in front of them.
In this deserted avenue stood a woman, Kes
But before either could call out her name, she had moved around the corner.
Zuria is directly below Kyras, Nettil et all, so the reason for where she's going could be because she saw the other group, or she saw the lightning, or a combination, really.
The mages that are attacking the other group were the ones setting off the lightning. Zuria could see them, but Kes and Des couldn't because of where they were situated.
Feel free to chase after each other, or intervene on the other group's part. This is where the teams begin to clump together.
Keep in mind though that the lightning mages are formidable. They can blow up buildings.
------------
"All clear" came a voice. She moved swiftly up the marble steps while someone explained the situation. "Brass went down as planned. Ivory is shaky, but shouldn't collapse for another few days" the guard stated.
They walked briskly through the lobby as other troops mopped up the scene, and finished off any wounded. "We can take this Tower up to the higher floors, then get to the Empress via one of their bridges."
"Good." their leader finally retorted, her torn dress gliding up the steps, along with a large contingent of troops.
Des noticed Kes, yet, as she likely hadn't seen them, she kept running.
"Wait, Kes!" Des said, ignoring anything else and running after her. It was getting more difficult to do so, Zuria was surprisingly heavy, and they -or rather, he- had been on his feet for quite a while now.
"Kes, you're fine, right?" he called out, again, hoping for a reply. He had been worried for her, more worried than he had been for most other women, and he was sort of hoping he could ask her to carry Zuria for a while. Because, while she was a female, he also knew that she was strong. Besides, even if Des was not very fond of Zuria now, he still didn't think himself capable of being actually mean or strict with the woman, and something told him she might need it.
Is it mean to ask Kes to yell at someone?
He pondered, Kes wasn't mean either, but if she saw it as a necessary evil, then she'd probably make it happen. If nothing else, just seeing Kes, unharmed and well, was worth running for, even if he had to keep carrying Zuria.
Also, we're not interested in linking the RP with another, Mr. Dev, should've asked before posting in the thread.
The archer aiming for Alex was of course the first thing to catch his attention, he replied by bringing up his own crossbow, which he'd kept loaded and ready since they began their push upwards, and firing the bolt into the man's gut. It was possible he'd survive given medical treatment, though not especially likely, but more importantly it caused him to double over in pain, ruining any shot he had at Alex. He forced his expression into a wild grin as he tossed the bow aside and raised his sword, eyes darting about for a prime target. The mage. Magic might not draw illness and calamity as it did in his own world, but it was dangerous nonetheless, certainly worthy of his attention.
"Isep be merciful!" he yelled as he charged "I certainly won't!"
He hoped that his invoking what was to them likely a strange god in a battlecry, combined with his intentionally wild grin would intimidate and throw some of the foes off guard. If not then his run turning into a deliberate slide on a patch of ice certainly would, especially for the mage who stood at the end of his charge, and who now faced the end of his sword.
Kes rounded the corner into a rather odd situation. First and foremost, the obvious. In the street were a number of people with some sort of magical or physical ability which they seemed to be using to destroy things. More specifically, there was a person firing lightning, another person slinging fire, and an archer of some sort. Following the arrows of the archer, it was clear they were aiming for people on the roofs though she couldn't tell exactly who said people were due to the backlight from a rather large fire in the distance.
In any event, they didn't appear to be firing at her and she had no way of telling their intentions. As such, she didn't do anything immediately; there was no sense in making enemies if she didn't have to.
That was when she heard someone call out her name "Wait, Kes!". turning around, she saw Des - still carrying Zuria - round the corner. She'd likely not have noticed if she hadn't stopped due to the mages and if not for Des calling out her name. For her part, Zuria was awake but didn't look to be in good shape. Des seemed to be struggling to carry her. "Kes, you're fine, right?" Des asked, drawing a nod from Kes. "Minor wounds; nothing serious" she replied. Zuria continued "Thank you both. Is it always like this?", drawing a shake of the head from Kes. "I should be thanking the both of you; those people would still be in chains if not for the to of you." From there Kes glanced back at the battle going on down the street. "... slow day actually." she added in monotone; hiding the fact it was a joke.
As Alex dealt with the Archer and mage, Lucia darted out of cover on spread wings and crashed shield first into one of the men pushing Raj back, crashing them into the walls, while Raj used the brief distraction to run the solider through the neck, Lucia pulled back just long enough to bash him in the head with the edge of her shield a couple time before just letting him drop to the floor.
She took only a quick glance at Alex to see if he needed help, as she grabbed the spear of the man she just killed and readied to throw it at the mage in case it was needed.
Raj ducked as Lucia made quick work of his opponents.
"Thank you" he blurted, as his three allies readied themselves against the ice mage.
It dodged Alex and unleashed a flurry of icicle shards at him.
Meanwhile a swordsman nearby ran for Gi. Gi drew up a stone column under her feet, readied her bow, and loosed an arrow into the swordsman's neck.
One of their opponents grabbed a knife from one of the tables and ran for Lucia, Raj dropped his spear and performed some quick acrobatics before a tempest of wind caught the assassin and shot him through one of the windows.
The group now had the mage cornered, but then they heard more footsteps coming from the same corridor, accompanied with shouting.
What now? Do you try to leave through the bridge as before? Or stay and wait for the next group to enter?
You have no way of knowing if the next group is friendly or a foe, but you have very little time to decide.
------------
Dalrel did his best to conjure up a fireball, but the bandit deflected it with ease. With wobbling legs and a pain in his side, he unsheathed his sword and readied himself.
The two lightning mages landed a steady distance on opposite sides of the group, one floated on the stream of light behind them, and one in their way, his arms glowing.
"Fuck." Nettil mouthed. There were no plants nearby, the fire was getting nearer, and the only people harmed by her manipulating the roof would be them. She was powerless. So instead she darted an eye from Trahaearn and then to Kyras, as if to make them do something. At least the ones on the ground won't be our problem. she thought in futility.
- - - - - - -
Their reunion was short-lived as a fireball zoomed Zuria's head. In the distance they had caught the attention of three bandits, while their archer took aim, and the fire and lightning mages readied themselves.
Des smiled when Kes noticed them, and walked over to her. He was more than willing to let Zuria know when she asked to be put down, and he examined Kes as he did.
"Minor wounds; nothing serious"
"Are you sure?" Des asked, sounding worried yet relieved. "If you'd want me to, I could--
"Thank you both."
He turned to Zuria, who had spoken. It was good to hear her thanks, perhaps it was more the situation than a fault with the woman herself.
It would make sense.
Had he misjudged her?
"You're welcome," he replied, and looked to Kes, who replied in a different way.
"I should be thanking the both of you; those people would still be in chains if not for the to of you."
"It's fine, really," Des told Kes. "I'm just happy to help. Although; I wonder where the others are." He tilted his head, questioning, though he quickly became alert when a fireball almost hit Zuria. Looking into the disance, he noticed the archer and the mages.
I suppose I'll have to fight.
Taking his dagger out, he ran towards the archer, hoping to get the attention of both the archer and the mages.
Kyras felt panic as the two mages appeared. He started to realize that he was probably going to die here. And those who were with him were going to die if nothing was done. What was he to do? He had thoughts, none of them good. So he went with the most panicked one he had. He might die, but the rest of them could live if they ran.
He enveloped himself in fire, coating his form in it as he charged at the one standing on what passed for solid ground on a roof. He felt a ball of the lightning hit him before he could reach the man. He went blind and hit the roof face first before he felt his body spasming and locking up from the jolt. Realizing that his plan if it could have been called a plan had failed, he did what he could by throwing flames from his body out towards where he believed the mage he had tried to charge was at.
The arrow zoomed through the air, past the charging Des and straight at the Lightning mage.
Quick as a flash, she drew up some sort of electrical barrier that the projectile was deflected against, instead killing the archer to her left.
However, the discharge from the barrier ran up the mage's arm, stunning her for a moment, while her fire mage companion continued shooting fireballs at their opponents to prevent their advance.
- - - - - -
Nettil could only watch as the Lightning mage struggled to regain his balance from deflecting the fire targeted at him.
Kyras lay writhing on the floor, an arm over the edge of the roof, and loose tiles falling out of place.
Nettil couldn't even pay attention to the battle in front of her or below her anymore. Her gaze was fixated on the black slate tiles that they stood upon. I'm an idiot. she thought in a short moment of glee.
Lightly moving up her arms, she drew up numerous tiles that lay in a floating belt around her waist.
She kicked one of Dalrel's legs out from under him and as he fell shouted "Duck!" to Trahaearn, unleashing a flurry of tiles in all directions.
The floating mage behind them took off, distancing himself considerably from the tiles and began to glide overhead.
Meanwhile, the mage in front was now completely off guard, much to Nettil's satisfaction as she drew up another belt of tile shards.
Lucia turned toward the sound of foot steps "Of course ..." she took a quick glaces at the mage and and the bridge. "Kill it and lets go" She said as she grabbed her spear that Raj had dropped and headed for the bridge.
She had no intention of running from them for ever, but she did need a suitable place to lure these re-enforcements, and the bridge seemed to be a good place to funnel them.
Des just sort of stopped as he realized that the rogue had been... taken care of? To be completely honest, he wasn't at all sure of what was going on, the fire-mage was still up and shooting, and that was the only important thing. Well, it would have been the important thing, if he hadn't recognized the others there. Well, not exactly there, but he could see the group that had left first on the roofs, and yelled to get their attention.
"Oh, hi---" he shouted, addressing Nettil, but trailing off as he realized she was busy. He waited for her to throw her tiles, before asking again. "Where's the rest?! Everyone sort of got... separated."
I'm not even sure who we're missing now.
Alex, right? And... Lucia, the dragonborn woman.
He glanced over at the fire-mage, honestly, the demon wasn't too eager to get closer, he had already gotten burned -literally- in the last horizon, and he wasn't sure how close he could get with a dagger either way.
Alex caught the rain of icicles with his coat sleeve, a few piercing deep enough to draw blood. In response his manic grin widened and he threw out two seemingly wild slashes to drive the mage back. In reality they were quite controlled, he wasn't about to leave himself open but he needed to throw the mage off guard and keep them too distracted to work more powerful magic.
"Ah cold, reminding me of summers back home!" he yelled, feinting another slash and then lunging forward as the mage tried to get out of the way of the slash, driving his blade home in their chest before kicking them off of his sword. The moment they fell lifeless to the ground his expression became weary and he turned to removing the shards of ice from his sleeve.
"More footsteps coming," he noted aloud "we should make ready, I'd rather not have them chasing us across the bridge if they're hostile."
With that he walked over to where his crossbow had fallen and picked it up, carefully reloading it and checking it for damage.
A Loud Darkness surrounded Kyras. His vision was still frozen from the shock, but he was apparently alive. Alive enough to hear something. He wasn't sure what it was with everything going on but he heard something. Unsure of what to do he shunted the fire he had covered himself back down into the streets where he remembered the groups of bandits sitting. How effective it would be he didn't know. He'd probably be stuck like this until he made himself mobile again and with the day going as it was he'd wait until he knew whether or not it was worth expending the effort with how tired he was becoming with all the magics he was using.
As Lucia headed towards the bridge and Alex recuperated, shouting and banging of shields was heard as the footsteps arrived. A contingent of black cloaked soldiers entered, one with ruby studded armor preceded them, however these weren't Snow Elves, in fact the majority were human. Tan skinned and a few were Beastial, but primarily human.
"Raj?" asked one of them, confused, as the strangers lowered their guards to inspect the group's handiwork.
"I'm impressed," stated their leader, long blond hair flowing down his back, "Seven to four- Wait, how are you two still alive? The Empress-" "Took the emergency shaft up, we stayed downstairs." Raj interjected cheerfully, with the expression upon Gi's face hinting that there was more to it than that.
The officer then continued, "Well, at any rate, surviving the initial attack down below was quite a feat, even for Her Excellency's guards, and then fending off seven of them? At this altitude?"
He smiled and then looked around, judging everything from the furniture to the construction.
"This is Floor.... 43? She's 10 floors up from here. Come on." He stated, moving towards the bridge, scanning Lucia before motioning past her along with a dozen or so similarly armoured soldiers.
"Oh, and bring these two, assuming they can fight."
------------
The Snow Elf glared down the slanted corridor, ignoring the heeding of her assistant and instead focused on the Auditorium, now rife with the stench of death and stale food. "We must climb faster My Lady, the Empress could be escaping as we speak".
The bodies remained strewn through the room, with the necessary bolts and arrows still on them. The bodies lining the hallway had been rolled to the side and out of sight, but that didn't make it any less gruesome. One that stood out was a Snow Elf, with two bolts in the back, but no weapon of his own.
The Auditorium was a convenient nexus to get the party to the right tower, having discovered Ebony Tower's stairwells had been all but obliterated. Thankfully Ivory's had not been, and that's where they were headed.
The Snow Lady strolled past her assistant briskly, as they apprehended one of the lifts, "Fill it with the bodies. Destroy the walkways into the Auditorium. Then we should collapse the ceiling. It would be more fitting as a tomb than a theatre." She said with a hint of remorse, as they scaled higher through the Tower.
EDIT: As of January 11th, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! 1 year and still going.
We've turned this disgusting bedridden forum into a cornucopia of filth.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
