We Are Our Avatars VI (Closed for Good)

[Drakmorg]

Jessica's pulse was weaker than normal, on account of having been struck hard in the head twice. She didn't make any sort of noise or movement as the Rookie picked her up and heaved her up onto his shoulders, instead simply getting blood on the back of his armor as it leaked from her nose, which had been broken from her fall.

 

[Kirke]

The Rookie eventually found a grove, and set down Jessica against a tree. He then tried to wake her up by splashing a bit of water on her, keeping his pistol aimed at her.

 

[Chungus]

When the shards of the domes he had created flew towards him, Valentino gasped, but was ultimately relieved to find them to be blocked by a barrier, not made by any of the guards, but his elder brother, Alexander.

"How nice of you to join us." Valentino indignaltly remarked.

"Mind your words, brother. You'd be dead now if it weren't for me."

Being more resistant to damage then a human was, only two of the knights fell under the salvo of gunfire, disappearing in a wisp of smoke once they did. The damage of the fireballs the Xiphatian zombies threw was mostly negated by the knight's armour, and having no actual physical pressence, the heat didn't bother them. The lightning bolts didn't fare much better. When the shield was raised infront of them, however, 38 of the 50 knights smacked into it, the remaining 12 knights engaged the nearest zombies, swinging their greatswords around visciously, with little to no concern for friendly fire.

Still unable to get closer to Valentino, Loki remained where he was.
[hr]
Sixty of the palace guards had arived at the door leading to the hallway the battle was taking place and began removing the barrier the earh magic using zombies had created.
[hr]
Freed from Loki's mindcontrol, when Jessica would wake up, she would have a migrane, with the brightness of any lights she would see intensified greatly.

OoC: Enemies: 15 guards. 48 ethereal knights. Valentino. Alexander.

 

[DotSlash]

Seeing the plethora of knights lined up in front of the barrier, Ness took time to move herself to an advantageous position to the side of them. As she aimed, she focused herself and channeled her own light magic into the bullet before firing it.

Titania Cannon... Don't fail me now. The bullet would work almost like a beam, tearing through the line of knights before planting itself into the opposite side wall and causing a small explosion on each impact.

 

[Furioso]

Rita was getting impatient with Valentino and co. She conjured a whirlpool of water up, surrounding the two brothers, and anyone else who might be next to them, that would attempt to pull them down, but wouldn't have that deadly of an affect other than getting them wet.

 

[Drakmorg]

Several zombies were cut down by the knights attacks as they were too sluggish to make a retreat back in time.
This is becoming irritating. Nybeth reached into his robes and pulled out a few bits of what were once people, a pair of salted brain lobes. "Pain to the living, succor to the dead! Droplets of crimson darkness!" He chanted, causing the lobes to rapidly degrade into dust. At the point where the knights were engaging the zombies in melee, a massive black cloud appeared in a burst. As the gases of the cloud touched the knights, they would be corroded and damaged by the smoke as if being broken down and dissolved by it. The zombies on the other hand, were rejuvenated by the gas, having their wounds close up rapidly and making them feel stronger than they did in life. Though some zombies were completely destroyed by the knights attack, a few were recovered by the gas and started fighting back.
The lightning Xiphatia, seeing its magic attacks have little effect on the knights, ran ahead and began engaging the knights in melee along with the other two Xiphatians to keep them from advancing into the Legaian zombie ranks. Meanwhile, the Legaian zombies backed up, not being able to fire terribly accurately into a melee. One of them tossed a grenade into the midst of the knight horde, attempting to thin them out a bit.

OOC: 40 Legaian zombies still up.

[hr]

Jessica groaned as she was splashed with water and shocked back into consciousness. She tried to open her eyes, but a combination of dizziness, nausea, and the effects of having Loki's mind control being broken made that a far more difficult task than it usually was. Her head lolled from side to side as she had a hard time balancing herself. With her vision being blurry and her migraine amplifying the perceived effects of light for her, she only managed to get he eyes open to a squint, which if the Rookie looked close enough, would show that her eyes had returned to their usual green color.

 

[Kirke]

(To Jessica: Don't make any sudden moves. Tell me, who is your master?) - Tophat sent to Jessica, using a harsher tone than it used to.

The Rookie kept aiming at her, but passed the bottle of water.

 

[Chungus]

Breaking down the barrier the zombies had created with minimal effort, the sixty guards stormed through the door, where four began moving the rubble out of the way the zombies had created by collapsing a portion of the ceiling ontop of themselves. Ten others launched ice spikes at the zombies, while others stayed back.

While he couldn't hear them bust through the door, Loki did see the reenforcements arive from his periphal vision. Silently cursing, Loki reached for his pendant and contacted his subjects. Reinforcements have arived, posibly with more on the way. Stand down and await further orders. Having said that, Loki climbed onto the wall Rita had created earlier, but stopped when he saw Rita had conjured up a whirlpool behind it.

The barrier the Xiphatian zombie had created already weakened by the knights constantly pushing against it from the moment the barrier was created, Ness' beam-bullet would have no difficulty passing through. Once it did, the beam-bullet would pass through eleven of the knights, and once it imbedded itself in the wall and exploded, wounded a guard.

The two brothers were swept off their feet by the whirlpool, as were eight other guards, which in turn bowled over the other guards at their end of the hallway. Alexander eventually used his water magic to make the water go around him, and Valentino used earth magic to raise a portion of the floor, to which he held on with strength enhancing magic. Five of the guards emulated these tricks, some with greater effectiveness then with which the brothers preformed them.

Once Ness' beam-bullet did its work, the knights began spreading out more, and by doing so, some were spared the fate of being disolved in Nybeth's gas cloud. Elenven still were, however, going up in wisps of smoke like others had before. The knights that remained continued their assault against the zombies, seemingly not noticing a majority of their fellow knights had fallen, or not caring. As the zombies now outnumbered the knights, three more fell.

OoC: Enemies: 75 guards. 22 ethereal knights. Valentino. Alexander.

 

[Furioso]

What? I almost had them, what are we doing now? asked Rita when she heard Loki's command, and climbing onto the wall to avoid any crossfire.

 

[DotSlash]

Ness calmly teleported herself onto the same wall as she watched the reinforcements roll in. ....Are we pulling out then? She telegraphed to Loki, sounding a small bit annoyed.

 

[Drakmorg]

Having been at the back of the zombie horde, Nybeth was also threatened by the ice spikes that were launched by the zombies, and being taken by surprise one managed to lodge itself in his shoulder. He cursed to himself and prepared to retaliate, but heard Loki's orders and grumbled to himself. He made to press himself against the wall, unable to regroup with the rest of his allies as they were opposite the melee of knights and zombies from him.
Nybeth's Putrefy spell had revitalized the barrier zombie, who simply created another barrier when its standing one was broken, having to back up a bit to keep the knights from swarming past it and into the bulk of the horde.
The melee zombies focused on their role of keeping the knights at bay, while the Legaian zombies began taking slow, carefully aimed, precise shots at the knights to avoid hitting other zombies.
The Garzic zombie moved to the back of the horde and began launching lightning bolts at the guards who had broken though the barricade at the rear of the battle.
The zombies at the back of the horde were relatively unaffected by the ice spikes lodging themselves in them, as they weren't terribly damaged otherwise. Roughly half the horde turned around and opened fire on those who attacked them from the rear.

[hr]

...Huh...Wh-What's going on?...Where?...What?... ...Who?... Jessica's thoughts were a jumbled, unfocused mess for the moment due to her multiple cranial injuries. Her head lolled forward and started swaying from side to side, as she had lost the ability to keep it held upright. Though her eyes were barely open, they rapidly moved around to examine as much of her field of view as she could, as she was confused about her situation and was desperately trying to rectify that.

 

[Chungus]

Even if our targets parish now, and there is now certainty that they would have, with the multitude of guards there, our means of exit will be blocked off. Loki telepathically answered Rita and Ness, pointing towards the place where Jessica's portal had been. Seeing Nybeth being struck by an ice spike, Loki adjusted the shroud on him so that it covered the spike as well, then addressed all his subjects again. For now, we will stay silent. I will enlighten the summoner and have him force back the guards. Nybeth, Vanessa, when this happens, aid in this. He then looked back to where the two brothers and their guards were. Then, Rita, you are to dispatch of them. Any but the summoner, naturally. He telepathically said, adding the last part for clarification's sake. Having said that, Loki hopped off the wall once the whirlpool disipated, slinking into a corner.

Valentino, Alexander and the fifteen guards stood up. The guards moved infront of the wall in preperation to hold the zombies should the knights fall. Alexander stood by and looked around for who could have created the whirlpool.

With the combined efforts of the melee and ranged zombies, the majority of the knights were felled, leaving only eight. Despite their losses, these eight relentlessly kept up their attack.
The baricade broken into smaller pieces by the earth magic users, these pieces were launched into the zombie horde, while ten other guards fired lightning bolts.
Three guards were stunned by the Garzic zombie, and subsequently gunned down by the zombies. From the rear, four guards raised a barrier around the guards.

OoC: Enemies: 72 guards. 8 ethereal knights. Valentino. Alexander.

 

[Furioso]

Alright. responded Rita before focusing her magic. On the ceiling a blade made of electricity appeared, plunging into the wet floor. It began to hum, louder and louder for about 2 seconds before bursting into a wave of electrical energy, its power greatly amplified against anything her whirlpool had gotten wet. This did not affect anyone considered an ally to Rita, which in this case included Valentino and Alexander.

 

[DotSlash]

Alright... I'll wait on you, sir. Ness responded as she waited for a moment, seeing Rita already shock a large portion of the room.

 

[Drakmorg]

"Very well then." Nybeth replied to Loki, somewhat displeased that he had been ordered to lay low for the time being, as it meant he simply had to suck it up and deal with the pain of having a spike made of ice lodged in his shoulder instead of being able to do much about it.

The melee zombies, barrier zombie, and 10 of the Legaian zombies began pushing back on the knights, having finally thinned their numbers enough to be able to do so.

The zombies at the rear were relatively unaffected by the bolts of lightning, but the chunks of barricade proved to have a decent effect, occasionally dealing enough damage to outright kill a zombie, and even failing to do that still knocking them over and into each other due to the constraints of the corridors. A handful of zombies were still capable of firing, including the Garzic zombie, but the majority had to attempt to regain their stance and footing before attacking the guards pushing up from the rear.

OOC: 35 Legaian zombies still up.

 

[Chungus]

When Rita created the electrical blade and plunged this into the soaked floor, two of the guards climbed on top of the wall. The others, however, weren't as lucky, and were electrocuted once the electricity discharged fully.
Loki was surprised to find the electricity not harming him, having barely noticed this when it happened at the temple. Not thinking on this too much, he quickly moved towards Valentino, who was just as surprised to find he still lived. When near enough to do so, Loki placed Valentino under his control, then revealed himself to Valentino, without actually lifting the shroud. "Say nothing." Loki began, although his pronunciation was odd, given that he couldn't hear his own words. "Direct your thrall to attack the guards."
Valentino nodded, and dispelled the eight ethereal knights that still stood, then began channelling the magical energy needed to summon a new batch.
Loki reached for his pendant to contacted his subjects again. Now, continue the attack. Vanessa, kill the two that had escaped electrocution first.

Alexander too was surprised to find he had survived the electrical onslaught, but didn't linger on it, and instead attempted to go for higher ground, this being the wall on which Ness, Rita, and the two other soldiers. Before he could reach it, however, Loki fired a explosive bolt at him, this severely injured the unsuspecting prince, barely leaving him conscious.

As they were protected by the barrier, held up by four people, the majority of the attacks thrown at the guards simply bounced off. From time to time, a few bullets came through, but these had their velocity decreased so that they then failed the penetrate the armour of the guards. Seeing as lightning and ice spells were virtually ineffective against the zombies, and not being able to pull out more portions of the wall without risking the floor above collapsing on top of the current one, the twelve guards at the front row unsheathed their swords and slashed the air in front of them, sending an equal amount of vacuum slashes towards the zombies.

OoC: Enemies: 62 guards.

 

[Furioso]

Rita summoned a long dragon made of flame that pursued and passed through guards as it traveled, running out of fuel after a few seconds of travel.

 

[DotSlash]

Ness calmly complied with Loki's order, firing two sniper rounds into the skulls of the two guards on the wall. She then teleported behind the barriers the guards set up and fired at the four keeping them active.

 

[Drakmorg]

"Heartbeat of life, gossamer wings, return to roost, to me!" Nybeth chanted, casting his Drain Heart spell. He drained the life of the nearest enemy solider he could see, making them feel weaker while rejuvenating his body. As he did so, he yanked the icicle out of his shoulder, letting out a deep, pained grunt before the life he stole worked its magic and soothed the pain by fixing the wound.

Having been free of the knights, the only enemy that stood before the zombies at the north end of the corridor was Alexander, most of the zombies went towards the southern end of the hall to regroup with the bulk of the zombies. A small handful remained and fired their rifles at Alexander.
Being informed of the vacuum slashes by Nybeth, the barrier zombie quickly erected a barricade in their path. Though the barricade broke due to their being a massive amount of force pushing against it and having had to erect it quickly, it still managed to stop a few of the vacuum slashes. The others however tore through the zombie forces. The Garzic zombie was hacked in half at the waste, and many others were cut apart in similar fashions. Some who were still regaining their bearings managed to avoid getting hit entirely by virtue of crouching or still being laid out on the floor.
Those that survived retaliated once again, open fre at the guards at the southern end of the hall in an attempt to whittle down their defenses.

 

[Chungus]

Loki would have finished off Alexander himself, but when the few zombies did this for him, went to check to room at the end of the hallway instead. Finding it to be empty, and expecting the guards to be pushed back soon enough, he reached for his pendant and attempted to contact Jessica, although since Rookie was holding her pendant, he would 'hear' instead. We are all but done here. Open the portal. Having said that, Loki walked towards the wall, firing two explosive bolts at the barrier to weaken it.

Rita's fire dragon collided with the barrier, but as it was more of a continuous stream, rather then a single hit, greatly weakened it.

Ness two shots killed the guards on the wall without effort, the second one dying before even fully registering the first was dead. As the barrier surrounded the guards entirely, rather then be focused on a single direction, the majority of Ness' shots were also blocked, although the final one broke through and killed the guard the bullet was intended for.

The guard on which Nybeth had used his Drain Heart spell fell to one knee, falling greatly fatigued after a large portion of his lifeforce was stolen.

Seeing how the guards were all clustered together, rather then summon a horde of ethereal knights, he summoned the Black Knight, the giant suit of armour barely fitting in the narrow hallway. Not having the room to make a full swing, the knight held the elbow of its sword arm against its side, and made a small swing, the swing, however, was still wide enough to hit eight guards.

OoC: Enemies: 51 guards.