Dark Age Legends

[Zeros']

Zeros' nodded at Draven's inquiry.

"Yes, indeed. It seems he thought our hate for each other would lead us to fight, and eventually kill one another, leaving him alone to take over the world. I would admit, our friends and allies are powerful in their own aspects... but I don't think they are simply strong enough. Even we may not be strong enough to permentally defeat this... monster," said Zeros' neutrally. "But, it seems he has underestimated us once again... and yes... it seems out alliance must be held, once again."

[Xorlak]

Draven noticed the piece of paper and plucked it from the air as Zeros' spoke the last sentence.  He read it with interest, but his face glared with annoyance halfway through.

"Azure, blue... green...?  You pompous...  God, I hate that man..."

When he was finished, he flew closer to Zeros' and handed the note to him so that he could read it.

"You wouldn't happen to be able to stealthily follow a flying note now, would you?"

He searched in a small pouch attached to his belt and took out a quill that he happened to carry around (obviously the magical kind, that doesn't need to be dipped in ink and can even write upside down).

While Zeros' was reading, he turned to his fortress in the distance and noticed there were at least two battles going on, judging from the multicolored flashes of light produced by the spells.

"Your friends were snooping around my fortress, weren't they?  *Sigh*"

----

The water mage took a few steps back, but then retorted with an intense blast of ice particles from his open palms.  Behind, the air mage struggled to his feet and flew up into the air, enraged, sparks flying about him.

"THEY'RE MINE!!!!"

But at that moment, a telepathic message was broadcasted through the air (meaning everyone can hear it).  It was Draven:

"Cease all attacks on those in league with the winged one, Zeros'.  This includes another winged man, a small red imp, a man with teal hair, and a man with blue hair."

The bodyguards immediately ceased their spells, eyeing the red imp.  What could this mean?

----

"Hehehe... from a distance, we shall watch them die!"

"Definitely too crowded here.  'Till next time!"

The gray robed figure leapt off the tree branch into the underbrush.  Mavas took off into the forest as well.

"Blast it!  No you don't!"

The distraction made Ven fail to notice the zombie to his right, which grabbed his arm.  He kicked it off and it stumbled far enough away for him to swing his sword...

Blade fully charged, he brought it to his side and sliced the zombie in half with a huge arc.  The energy continued on, catching six more zombies.  The white light burned their flesh off and the skeletons stubbled around in agony, the silver energy still engulfing their bodies, until they vaporized.

By this time, the three things were fully out of the ground...  they were mid sized dragons, some ten to twelve feet long, undead with partially visible skeletons.  Each one lunged at a warrior...

(Remaining zombies: 22, Z. Dragons: 3)
(Haven't done this for a while.  Heh...)

[Zeros']

Zeros' nodded.

"Yes. I have... several techniques I can use to follow the note," he said as he read the note. Halfway through, he chuckled where Draven grew annoyed. "Yes. Haraldur has a warped sense of humor," he said amusedly. But, as Draven did his own telepathic message, Zeros' did his own as well, so it seemed it wasn't a trick by the Crimson Empire's leader:

Stop your attacks on Draven's forces. For now, we are allied. It seems Haraldur wanted us to destroy each other. We need to work together... for now. Zeros' telepathic message ran clear. He also broadcasted the message to Duilin, who was farther away then the bodyguards, Rink and Marshal.

He turned towards Draven and chucled humorlessly.

"They may be rash at time, but they are some of the most powerful people on this world. My friends are the only ones that can even stand against Haraldur for minutes to hours without being destroyed," he said.

[Dude Man]

Marshal sighed "Just as soon as it was getting fun." He stopped summoning and then stood up.

Rink, crossed his arms and chuckled. "Heh, so apparently we are allies now."

-------

Valos lowered his sword. "Draven and Zeros', wish us stop fighting."

Duilin narrowed his eyes, and twirled his mace. "This isn't a battle between sides." Duilin stepped toward Valos. "I don't care what they say. You have stocked me long enough."

"Hahah! Your demonic side is takeing over, good." Valos laughed "But, we can no longer continue this battle, at the moment. They are not letting us, we could be punished if we do. Haraldur, wants us to destroy each other."

"So...perhaps we should aid Zeros' and Draven, to improve the chances of destroying Haraldur." Duilin replied as he holstered his mace.

"Yes, my friend, yes." Valos, holstered his sword onto his back. "Let us go." He covered himself in a dark purple and red aura, and levitated himself.

Duilin blasted on his firey yellow aura. The two rivals fly off towards the area were Draven and Zeros' followed Haraldur to.

Duilin sent a telepathic message to Rink 'Rink, I am going to assist Draven and Zeros' with Haraldur. Perhaps you should stick with Marshal untill Aminaga comes back. Then come to were I am.'

[Trent]

Zion and Xenai watched the dragons emerge. And there were still yet more zombies.

"Great," said Zion. "Is your experiment gonna take care of all of these?"

"It might, it might not. We need, for one casting each, to modify Omni so that they are cast synchronously. The outcome, we have no clue, but we gotta make sure it doesn't hurt you, me, or the shiny guy over there." In reference to Ven.

"On 3... 1... 2... 3!"

What came out of their mouths seemed to be modified...

"Consume all, flash of annihilation! Omni+!"

The black stream of non-elemental energy shot forth out of the ground, straight up, for the entire distance that a zombie could be see. The only spots from which this energy did not erupt were those where Zion, Xenai, and Ven stood. The energy shot up high enough for most to see, including...

--- --- ---

Tsu halted, watching the spell being casted. Aura was catching up now, and she could see it too. Tsu took off in that direction. Aura watched him. "What's up with this guy?"

[Dude Man]

Duilin and Valos landed about 10 feet away from Zeros' and Draven's postion.

"So, apparently, this Haraldur has some sort of plan." Valos said

"Yes, last time he wished to complete his vengance. He nearly destroied the world. He had us belive we were on the same side, I accually trusted him." Duilin replied as he began walking

Valos followed "You shouldn't trust anyone. Even if they are your closest friends."

"I'm sertainly not trusting you right now." Duilin snapped back. He then, stood a couple feet away from two. "Zeros'." He said in greeting. "Draven..." He said in a more annoyed tone.

Valos grinned and bowed "My lord." He said to Draven. He then looked at Zeros', narrowing his eyes and grinning "Heh, nice wings..."

[Xorlak]

Still in the sky, Draven glanced at Duilin, but didn't say anything.  He replied to Zeros'.

"Excellent...  If you could find the location of this 'nation' and report it to me, it would give us quite the advantage, especially if he is unaware that we know..."

He took the letter back and began to write on the back:

"Ragnar,

I hereby recognize your nation's existence.  I hope as leaders our interests will not conflict and our two nations can peacefully co-exist, standing side-by-side as pillars of virtue in this glorious world of ours.

Crimson Emperor Lars Draven I"

A smirk across his face, he looked up at Zeros'.

"I leave the rest in your hands."

He released the letter, allowing it to fly under its own power.  Draven then turned and flew a bit lower.

"Come Valos.  We have a war to prepare for..."

A crimson aura engulfed the man and he took off back towards the capital...

----

The bodyguards mumbled to themselves.

"Since when does he make alliances?"

"Seems kinda fishy."

"I hate fish."

They took of into the air and began looking for their leader.

----

"Whoa!"

Ven remained still as the darkness engulfed the area around him.  One step would pull him into the effect of the spell...

The zombies moaned in pain around him, and were pulled back into the ground and crushed-- all of them.  The larger dragons seemed more resistant.  They tried to trudge forward under their much increased weight.  Their skin and muscle was eventually completely pulled off, and the three skeletal dragons marched on...

[Haraldur]

The red letter flew south-east for a while, before burning up.

___________________________________________________________

Haraldur smiled as the reply was telepathed back to him from the letter.

Obviously we would be under attack.

He floated down and arranged for the people to prepare escape routes. There must be preparation for guerrila warfare, and the nearby mountianous landscape would be perfect.

[Trent]

The spell died down, and Zion and Xenai turned to look at the dragons that were still there.

"Well, we did SOMETHING to them," said Xenai.

"The zombies are nowhere to be seen," said Zion.

The two warriors split up, each heading for their own dragon.

[Zeros']

Zeros' watched them go and cloaked himself in the Umi-Sen Ken and followed the letter's direction stealithly, his figure and aura complete obscured. As he follow the direction the letter, he mentally calculated the path it was taking.

After a few moments of following the letter, he saw it burn and cursed to himself.

The letter is going the opposite direction from the ruins of the old Vikingagarð empire. He narroed his eyes in thought. So... he's going home... or he's trying to confuse us... Well then... Zeros' turned in his cloaked flight and spead back off towards the Crimson Empire with the new information.

[Haraldur]

//Er... Zeros'... the letter was going south-east, while Haraldur is to the north west.//

[Zeros']

//Er.. EDITS POST.\\

[Xorlak]

Draven landed at the gate of the capital and marched in at a quick pace.  Soldiers and workers were busy at the other side of town cleaning up the results of the explosion.  A meek luitenant aproached the emperor.

"Damage report."

"My lord, much of the prison block built upon the silver mines has been destroyed along with several civilian dwellings.  One of the twelve city wall gun turrets has been destroyed, and hole blasted in the northern wall.  Casualties are estimated in the several hundreds to low thousands range..."

"And the Crimson Fortress?"

"The fortress remains untouched."

"The aerial shield?"

"Still fully operational..."

"So in other words, no significant damage..."

"Huh?  Well, I suppose..."

"Tell me lieutenant, why did the 500 wyvern riders perched atop our walls, the two operational crimson death turrets at the north end, the 10,000 able bodied men posted within the fortress, and the 500+ men positioned at random intervals outside the city walls not stop these 50 some prisoners from escaping?"

"Uhh... well... there was a lot of smoke... I guess..."

Draven extended his left hand and pointed at the luitenant's head.  A bright red laser emitted from his gloved fingertip, piercing his head and causing it to explode.  The lifeless body fell to the ground.

----

Ven brought his blade up and deflected a claw swipe from the dragon skeleton.  He parried a second blow, and retaliated with an arc of his sword, lopping off the skeleton's left wrist.  He took a step back, charging a silver glow to his blade...

[Haraldur]

//Er... the prisoners escaped from the south side, opposite to the explosion. This is because of the fault beneath the city in which there were seams of silver, which caused a hole to open up in the south.//

[Zeros']

Zeros' arrived at the Crimson Empire capitial, just in-time to see Draven blow the man's head apart. He let go of the cloaking technique and folded his wings behind him and chuckled.

"Really, Draven.. You need to learn how to control your temper. If you keep blowing apart your soldiers heads, you'll soon have no one but yourself," he said amusedly. "I followed the note as far as I could. From what I could find out, it was heading to the south-east... The strange thing is, though... It was the opposite direction that I thought Haraldur would be heading, towards the Vikingagarð ruins," he told the fire mage.