"Heh... Demons. Pathetic creatures." Valiko grasped the handle of his blade as two steam demons flew towards him. As he unsheathed his dark sword, he slashed the being in half, and then again upwards. He flipped backwards and stabbed the other steam demon that ran towards him.
"Isn't this fun... Meh, I rather like clean-up duty." Valiko threw his blade out in front of him and held out his hand, his palm stretched open. There was a quick flash of red light around the blade and out came two more, looking exactly alkie. The dark swords floated around Vraoumori, circling him. He folded his arms and merely waited.
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"Lord Valimore has returned!" a peasant in the snowy field shouted, echoing in the distance. The people all blasted from there doors and raced to their old leader. He looked just as he had so long ago, except he was a bit wiser and a bit less intimidating. They all got to one knee in the snow and bowed their heads as Valimore stepped off the ship with Doriana.
"Heh. At least you know they still love you, Valimore." Doriana laughed slightly at her own joke.
"I guess you could say that, yes. RISE!" The people gathered around Valimore quickly got to their feet. They seemed afraid of what their leader was about to do.
"I appreciate the welcome, my subjects! You may go about your normal lives and continue whatever it was you were doing before. AS YOU WERE!" The people leered in confusion, then ran back to their duties as Valimore shouted those last words.
"Quite a nice and loyal city you've got going on up here. This could do without snow, however; this weather is bloody obnoxious."
"You'll have to get used to that fact, I'm afraid, for you are now my new apprentice."
"Apprentice is such an overused term. Perhapse I could be a mercenary instead, or possibly even an assassin, as was my job before?"
"No, that makes you sound dim-witted. You wouldn't want that, would you?"
"Then how about a student of certain lore?"
"Certain lore...? Interesting choice. It sounds good enough, I guess. So be it."
"You'd have to admit, it's better than being an apprentice of some sort, as your past apprentices either died or switched sides."
"Gee, thanks for reminding me. Let's just get to the blasted citadel and scour the library for any 'lore' I kept alive during those wretched times before..."
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"Hmm... We'll have to find another route into Tjed. Start thinking, men; that's what you're good at!" Aaron folded his arms and waited for the group to brainstorm infiltration ideas.
"Hmm," an elite began, "If one of us knows a group cloaking spell, couldn't we sneak up the mountains and enter the city from behind the castle?"
"I'm not so sure that would work, Daniel," another elite protested, "Don't you think the airships have heat sensors?"
"No way in hell, Runde," a third elite stated, "only we have access to that sort of technology. We're the only ones with the most up-to-date airship tech. I highly doubt the Dark Empire has heat sensors. Just take a look at the size of their cannon guns. You can tell they're out of date!"
"Excellent work," Aaron interrupted, "We'll sneak in behind the castle. But we aren't cloaking ourselves; the mage running it all would be flat-out dead if he tried to use that much energy. We're going to scale the mountains. Does one of you know how to create an air bridge?"
"Yes sir!" a battlemage elite soluted, "I've been making them since I was young, sir!"
"You're still quite young, Toddel..." The young battlemage paid no heed to his emporer. He was confident in his own abilities.
"Are you sure you can do it?"
"I'm damn-near possative, sir!"
"It's one hell of a long-shot, but go for it. Let's move out!"
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"You hanging in there, Rink?" Justin said as he tore appart the remainder of the netherdemons, "I think I've gethered enough energy from fighting to revive Ven! Please, watch my back!" Justin raced over to the spirit Ven and held his hands up. A great white portal started to open. It slowly grew into a larger circular portal.
"Alright, let's go back. I'll get Ven." Justin put one arm around the soldier and walked him through the portal.
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