Dark Age Legends

[Drannic_Lord01]

"Hmm..." Justin looked back at the party. It would probably be best if Doriana and Valkio stayed out, since they can hide themselves... He would go, along with Jacobie. It would be a good Idea for a Lizardman to go into a city filld with more lizardmen, especially with his captain's armor.

"I'll go. Jacobie and I. Valiko, you and Doriana can stay invisible for quite a while, and Tibbs... Well, you could transform into a Wyvern and fly around south for a while. We shouldn't be long... say, five hours, at the most." Jacobie stepped forward behind Justin.

"I've got some bad news. This armor is from back when I was with the Crimson empire... not the Dark Empire."

"You're an A-class Lizardman. I wont be that tough to talk to the lower class lizards in the city."

"True enough. Let's go."

"Well what about me?" Dranniconias asked.

"Just stay here with Doriana and Valiko. We'll be right back, so just chill for a few moments."

------------

[Coriko]

The remaining mage slowed down his chant. He was considering what to do. He knew beating Druid was a not possible, so he lowered his hands and stopped chanting.

“Good boy.” Druid put his hand on the mages shoulder. The two made eye contact and then Druid sent a large pulse of shadow energy through the mage killing him instantly.

[Charging: 1625]

[Trent]

"Excellent..." He rose and headed for the exit. He was probably getting ahead of himself, but he didn't care.

--- --- ---

//I hope you don't mind me using your soldiers, Ein. Razz

A hooded being has arrived in the icy country. He's here... This time... I'll get him! The hooded being removed a scimitar and headed towards the mainland. It was soon stopped by three soldiers.

"Hey! What are you doing?!"
Words were spoken, without any voice. "I'm not here for you. Get out of my way."
The soldiers were obviously frightened out of their senses by that little show. "You won't harm this country!"
"Fools..."

The hooded being glowed a bright purple. A surge of energy shot through it as it became incredibly pissed at the soldiers.

"If you insist on fighting... Then I'll stop you here! Indignation Judgment!!!"

A huge sword shot straight down from the sky, piercing into the icy ground, separating the soldiers from the hooded being. A large circle of bright purple runic glyphs appeared on the ground around the blade, glowing fiercely. Lightning shot down from the sky multiple times, surging through the sword and fiercely electrocuting everything in the circle. The sword and circle then vanished completely, leaving only a trio of dead soldiers.

The hooded being walked by the corpses and headed toward the capital. "Forgive me. I will not let anything get in my way. I will destroy the Zerobi no Anti."

--- --- ---

Anti had suddenly come to a halt...

[Dude Man]

"Well, I'm afraid that scroll is of no use. None of the Velkens can betray Retan, if they do then he'll lift the spell keeping their world together and it'll be destroyed. Also, it's not a portal we need it's a way to get the Velkens through the portal without Retan noticing, and that Velken told me that the emperor has a very strong connection with their world, because of that spell."

Duilin rubbed his lower lip.

"Maybe if we worked together we might be able to either make a spell that's strong enough to hold Welken long enough for them to escape. Then again, I'm sure Retan must be using a lot of power to hold that world together, so that wouldn't work at all. Well, unless we found a way to like, take control Retan's spell or something."

Duilin shook his head.

"I think the best way would be to perhaps just go in the portal, the emperor will hopefully won't suspect anything from us, since he doesn't know we know about the situation with Welken. If worse comes to worse we can lead him to belive we either stumbled upon the place or perhaps we heard from intelligence reports that the 'fox-men' came from North Point and we think it's the 'source' of were they're coming from and we want to 'exterminate their source'."

Duilin smirked. "Or something to that affect. Besides unless Retan or one of his personal officers are hanging around there and want to interrogate us, then we won't need to explain anything." He then stretched his arms. "Okay, so you ready to go?"

[D. Ein]

//No problem.\

A soldier was watching the hooded creature intently from a nearby bunker. Another one came up behind him.

-"What do you figure that was?"

-"No idea. It killed Luke, Frank and Nick like they were nothing. You think we should try our luck with it?"

-"Hell no, I don't get paid enough for that. Why don't we just tell someone?"

-"Good idea."

--- --- ---

-"Well, that's that, gentlemen - the exit is just downstairs, the glyph on the floor. It will teleport you right below the Citadel. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have certain matters I must attend to."

Two of my undead guards escorted Draven and Anti to the portal room.

I left the throne room, and went into the portal below. Recognizing me, the glyph teleported me not to the portal outside the fortress, but one below that, to an underground bunker. Damien Roth, the Colonel, and Cain Ryleh were all waiting for me.

-"Let's get started. First order of business: our magic power. Or rather, the lack thereof. I want mages in training as soon as we can get them. I'm mainly looking for strong, advanced Necromancers. Astral mages couldn't hurt either, and make sure to train some ice warlocks as well. The cold atmosphere of Gros Morne should be helpful to them, and they could act as a safeguard against Draven."

Cain took out a little book, and scribbled something in it.

-"Noted," he said.

-"Alright. Next item: KAF equipment."

-"I'm listening," said the Colonel.

-"Good. I was thinking - right now my powers and the KAF are way too separated. What if I could create military-oriented unlife constructs, such as a heavily armoured crawler-type thing, from which your troops could fire? Another idea was to put Necromancers with bodyguards into Marcher constructs, creating a way to quickly resurrect both allies and foes on the battlefield."

-"A list of suggestions will be ready for you by tomorrow, Sovereign."

-"Excellent. Now, the last thing I had in mind. Damien, right now the Stalker program only trains melee troops, correct?"

-"Yes, sir. We have a total of five Stalkers deployed, and another one just finished his training."

-"The next batch of Stalkers will be armed with spear guns. No ordinary ones, either. I want you to think up something so unfairly powerful that our enemies will hang themselves if they realize what they're up against. The batch after that will be magic-oriented. Am I making myself clear?"

-"Of course, sir."

-"Good. Everyone's dismissed."

-"Uh, sir," Damien interjected. "Just prior to my coming here, I was informed of an unknown entity entering Gros Morne. It killed three of our soldiers."

-"*groan* Three more? What the hell is this, a meat storehouse? Damien, go put it back in its place."

-"Yes, sir."

The shape of the High General blurred, and he turned to dust."

--- --- ---

Damien rematerialized in front of the hooded being.

-"Listen, buddy - you don't just waltz in and start killing people just because you feel like it. I don't care if you're on some crackpot mission to bring down the Sovereign or whatever it may be. Surrender now, or die."

Three clicks marked spear guns being loaded. The three recently deceased soldiers arose, and were pointing their weapons at the intruder.

[Trent]

The hooded being stared the man down. The voiceless words emerged again. "I'm not here for any of your country. I apologize for the-" It glances back at the resurrected soldiers. "-not loss of your three soldiers. They freaked out and charged me. So I dispatched them, admittedly a little excessively. To get back to the point, I am here for the Zerobi no Anti. Though I mean no harm, I will not hesitate to knock down any barrier that prevents me from getting to the Zerobi."

--- --- ---

Anti was suddenly snickering. "One of the flyboys came back. May even be the flygirl. They're probably here for me." He looked to Draven. "Go ahead and head for our destination. I'll catch up with you after I crush a pair of wings." Anti walked onto the glyph and was teleported outside. He then took his time walking in the direction of his soon-to-be adversary.

[Drannic_Lord01]

"I'm ready... one more thing before I go. Rink, give this to the owner of this household." Ben took off his pouch of coins and tossed it at Rink. It was pretty big, and there must have been over 200 pieces.

"Tell 'em thanks for the trouble. Right, shall we be off?"

[Xorlak]

(Lizard Men were never part of the Crimson Empire.  During that time, they were all in Mizar, a.k.a. The Lower Dark Empire, growing the bulk of the Dark Empire's current reptilian forces and awaiting Retan's return.)

Ven lead the two warriors deeper and deeper into the drainage pipe.  After a while the smell became bearable.  The water trickling past wasn't wholly repulsive because it was treated with some sort of chemical (or perhaps magic) before being dumped away from the city.  Ven didn't really know the details.

After a fair amount of walking in the cramped pipeline, the passage opened up to a larger underground brick room with a stream flowing through the middle.  If it weren't for the occasional torch, they'd be in complete darkness.  Suddenly, a pair of glowing white eyes flashed across Ven's path.  He stopped.

"Oh, blast..."

His blade was out in an instant, and he cleaved a blurred form that attacked from his left.  Two dead lumps of meat fell to either side.

"I forgot to mention the giant sewer rats..."

"SQUEEEEEE!!!"  The noise came from all around.  Dozens of dirty gray furred rats scurried from cracks and pipes in the walls, moving around the trio.  Some were as long as four feet from head to tail...

----

Draven exited the glyph and folded his arms as he watched Anti walk off.

"Tch, suit yourself."

'Flyboy'?  Did it really catch on?  He smirked.

With that, a dim red aura surrounded him and he blasted off though the sky southward, towards the northern reaches of the Dark Continent...

[Dude Man]

"Alright, let's get going." Duilin said clapping his hands together. He had his mace strapped on to his back so he wouldn't have to carry it around in his hands and the Iduran was in his sheath. It would take a little while for him to get used to the slight extra weight.

"Oh and thank you kind sir for the money." The woman said to Ben. "Hopefully you guys will be able to free us from the empire so I'll actually have a use for this."

"Okay, well let's go then." Duilin said to Bjendell. "Wish us luck." He said to the others.

Belle went up to Duilin, hugged him and have him a kiss. "Good luck."

"Thanks." Duilin smiled.

Belle went up to Ben. "Oh, and I'd like to thank you for helping Duilin save me and Rink, earlier." She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Good luck."

Rink fluttered over to Duilin and Bjendell. "Good luck guys. Don't die on us." He said with a smile.

"Hah, we'll try." Duilin laughed back. "Okay let's go Ben."

The two exited the house; Lagart was standing outside looking up at the airships in the sky.

"Me and Ben are going out for awhile. Keep an eye on everyone, while we're gone."

Lagart nodded, and the 'flyboys' made their way through the town.

"So yeah, I guess the sewage system would be our easiest way out." Duilin said, as he led Bjendell towards a quiet roadway with an opening to the sewage system, covered by a metal plate. Duilin lifted the metal plate and slide it aside. He grimaced and drew back his head

"As smelly of an idea that is..." He then looked around to see if any lizard men or anyone was watching.

"Yeah, the coast looks clear." Duilin then folded his wings around him as he slipped through the hole and landed in the smelly drainage pipe, it wasn't nearly as roomy as it was smelly. He stepped forward to not be in the way of Bjendell when he came down; he looked up and waited for him to come down.

[Drannic_Lord01]

"Ugh... as rotten of an idea this is... it'd better be worth it to get out from down here..." Ben slid down the sewage hole and placed the metal grate back on top of it.

"Well... after you..."

------------

"Sewer rats?" Justin managed to stab about four or five of them before more of them scampered from the darkness and attacked. Of course, they were only rats, and most of them were cut down easily.

------------

[Dude Man]

“Sure.” Duilin replied. He started trudging through the sewage. He lifted his shirt over his nose the stench was nearly unbearable, but he grew up in a village without a sewage system. One could image how bad that place smelled.

In the distance he could hear the slight sounds of rats squeaking, he rolled his eyes he never liked rats that much, especially the big ones that bite people.

“If any rats come and bite you just try to not use any attention drawing spells, we don’t want anyone to figure out were down here. Those Velkens have pretty good hearing.” Duilin warned. He then thought he could hear voices. “I think some other people had the same idea, because I believe I hear the echoes of people speaking. Hopefully they aren’t with the empire.”

--- ---

“Hey they’re coming back!” Firstman called as he saw the wyverns fly back towards them.

Suddenly the two wyverns crashed into each other and Marshall and Wilham fell off one and the count fell of the other, they all lay on the ground and the wyverns flew back and started clawing at each other as they circled twenty feet over them.

Firstman went over to Marshall who was on the ground. “Hey, kid. You alright?” He asked shaking him.

Marshall groaned. “Quit shaking me, I’m fine.” He then got up. Wilham also got up, but Vandrin was still on the ground. The three of them then stepped towards the count laying on the ground.

“Is he dead?” Firstman asked.

“No.” Wilham replied. “He’s just unconscious.”

“No you are!” Suddenly Vandrin sprung to his feet and shot a barrage of small sedative magic blasts, there was a cloud of cyan mist surrounding the entire group and when it settled Vandrin was standing over three who were unconscious. The count then glared his eyes as he looked at Coriko.

“Let’s see how quickly you’ll go down.” Vandrin hissed he then shot a poison blast from his hand at the archer.

[Coriko]

Coriko saw the dart flying at him. He slid to left of the dart so it missed him and then fired a ball of fire at Vandarin.

"How are your reflexes old man?"

Coriko then summoned his bow and pulled out a shrapnel arrow from his quiver.

---

“You said you would spare him!” A general yelled at Druid.

“No I didn’t! Now continue the ritual or you will suffer the same fate as your fallen allies.”

The general stopped and returned his attention to the ritual.

“Good, and pick up the pace. I know what you were doing earlier.”

Slowly the spiral descended at re-opened.

[Charging: 1725]

[D. Ein]

-"I don't see what Kandarin has to do with the being you're hunting down. If it is inside these walls, you are not to engage it until it leaves our premises. Otherwise, I will be forced to kill you, and trust me - I will."

Damien took out his staff.

-"Even then, think about it logically: outside of Kandarin, it is only the two of you. If you will try to attack it inside, you will have it to deal with, as well as me, the Kandarinian Armed Forces, and the city itself. The buildings aren't what they appear to be, you know."

-"Now," Damien drew a line in the snow with his staff. "I suggest you leave. If you cross this line, you will be declared a trespasser, and you will be put down accordingly."

[Xorlak]

(Elder, if you're having trouble keeping up let me know and we can work something out.)

Anslem hovered over a metal grating in the city's center square.  A group of Lizard Men were busy tying up a mob of humans who didn't want to go so quietly.  Everyone cleared away when the Velkens floated onto the scene, though.

"This looks large enough for a human to fit through."  Anslem mused, rubbing the underside of his long chin.

Renard landed next to the drain and extended his hands.  The metal began to bend upward, as if drawn to them.  He clenched his teeth.  "You wanna give me a hand with this, Helix?"

Helix landed next to Renard and performed the same gesture.  "Ugh.  I can already smell it..."  The metal grating warped quickly and the bars snapped, then folded outwards.

"It's just a water drainage pipe, Helix."

"Yeah, but you know they're connected somewhere down there.   I mean, if it smells this bad at street level..."

Renard shrugged.  "Humans just stink, Helix, they can't help it.  I guess that's why they have such underdeveloped noses.  They smell better than Lizard Men at least, I think."

"Heh, I guess so."

Anslem pointed to a group of passing Lizard Men.  "You there.  No one enters or leaves this hole but us.  Understood?"

The lizards nodded and Anslem leapt down, followed by Renard and Helix, who held cupped a hand over his nose.

----

"Hyaahh!!"

Ven's blade glowed a bright white and he slashed a giant rabid rat with so much force that his blade continued until it hit the stone.  A brilliant flash bathed the entire room in a intense glow, revealing no less than a score of eyes.  This startled the creatures, and the retreated back to whence they came.

Ven stood up straight as the light from his sword faded.  "Huh.  Scared 'em off."

He sheated his sword and continued walking.  "Be on the lookout though.  They'll probably be back to harass us again."

They were leaving the collection chamber and approaching the city limits now.  The hallways becoming narrow once more with large pipes connecting them.  Many pipes had water rushing out of them so they could not be walked through, but Ven found a dark corridor for maintenance access that seemed to lead towards the center of the city.  If he wasn't lost, that was...

[Dude Man]

Vandrin wiped out his katana and slashed at the oncoming fireball knocking it off course. He grinned showing his poison stained teeth.

"They're perfect." The count retorted. "Let's see how yours are." The count dashed towards Coriko and swung a horizontal slash aiming across his waist...

--- ---

"Yeah I definitely hear other people." Duilin stated. They continued their way until they reached a dark corridor, where Duilin saw a group of other people. It was a little dark, but it seemed that Ven was leading the group.

"Ven? Is that you?" Duilin asked as he stepped forward at a slightly quicker rate.