Dark Age Legends

[Coriko]

//Sorry DM, I wasn't thinking Sad Please forgive me\

"Alright, let's head out. No better time then the present right? McNeil, do you want to show us how to do it before we go so we know how to afterwards?"

McNeil took the needle and stabbed Coriko in the arm.

'OW, you son of a ...'

"I'm sorry i didnt tell you it was gunna hurt, but you may not have done it. Coriko is done, Wilham shall i show you?"

---

Kain had been walking for only a short time when he saw what could possibly be buildings to the east.

"Well I'm at least I am on the correct path."

Kain continued towards the buildings.

---

"Why whose asking?"

"Yeah, you looking for an early death buddy?"

Five guys emerged from the shadows in the rooms left corner. A total of twenty people were in the inn. The others remained in their seats, but shuffled around to see who had disturbed the dank and dreary hangout. One of the big drunks charged at Baird. The drunk swung a heavy fist at Baird. He easily ducked the blow, and then Baird punched the man right in the gut. The man gasped as Baird's hand passed through his stomach and then spine. The other four stopped dead. Baird stood up lifting the man off the ground and flung his corpse into the wall. Baird looked at the other men in the tavernish inn. He picked up a cloth from a nearby table and casual wiped the blood off his hand. Still looking down and very casually Baird said, "Now, who wants a job?"

---

Druid was sitting on his thrown, with Onan standing guard on his left. He had sent Yuri to think of strategies for war. He was not going into battle unprepared.

"Now Onan, what do you wish to do?"

[Xorlak]

Valos' punch hit the dragon Vraigus square in the nose.  The blast was so intense, the flesh was blown clear off his face, revealing a sneering draconic skull with crimson orbs deep within the pits of its huge eyes...

"Demon?  Oh dear... you are very, very mistaken..."

He flapped his wings back one huge stroke, and Dark Thunder began to rain from the clouds, tearing the terrain to shreds.


Retan flew right under Beta Vraigus and Valos, a sonic boom in his wake.  Pointing one finger forward, a trio of black orbs appeared before him as he flew, circling slowly.  Shadowy bolts of lightning congregated about the orbs and swelled in the center of the three, and a huge blast of snaking shadow magic flew at the fleeing burning man in the distance.

"Blast it!" Draven swore, ducking and weaving as blast after blast was fired at him.  He surged ahead, rocketing through the air.  Up ahead he could see the cliffs where the Dark Continent ended, and the ocean began.  If, perhaps he could lure Retan off the continent, he would be far enough away from The Tower of Heaven's Bane to actually hit the freak...

----

"If you can do it while I distract them, then yeah, go for it," Renard replied to Duilin.  He looked around.  "Maybe charge in that corner over there, so the lightning isn't in their line of sight.  Then you can drop down behind them..."

Renard grabbed the railing and jumped off the bridge, landing a few hundred feet in front of the guards.

"Hey!" Once hissed.  "Who are you?"

Renard brought the cowl closer down over his face.  If he revealed himself to be a Velken, they would kill him anyway, as the portal room was off limits to them.  So he just stood there.

"Answer!"  One of the two huge lizards lumbered over to him.

Blast it!  Only one!  The other stayed put right at the entrance.  Shoot... they were smarter than he thought.  He had hoped they would both approach him, so Duilin could jump down behind and take them both out.  But now one was leering over him, right under the bridge, and the other stood a hundred feet back at the door.

He braced himself as the lizard rose his gigantic sword...

----

"Don't point!"  Virmir whispered.  He immediately grabbed Riuki's hand and pulled it down-- not with his hand, though.  He used a form of levitation, an invisible tendril of magic which he could use to move things with his mind.

He leaned in close, beginning to fly faster.  They overshot the meeting spot with the other Velkens on the ground and began a wide circle around the castle.  "Don't let them know you can see them...  You have the Sight... and you can learn to control it with time.  But I cannot teach you-- not just yet.  I do not wish... certain individuals to know that we have it.  For now, simply focus on what is in your immediate vicinity."

[Dude Man]

Valos was blown back several yards from the gust of Vraigus' wings.

"Mistaken!?" Valos sneered. "I am not mistaken! Demons are freaks, just like you. So back to hell with you, demon!" It was almost a strain for him to say that word 'Hell' the word brought back so many painful memories, and he's been so happy to be out already. But happiness is for the weak, he needed to get angry.

Valos clenched his other fist making another gauntlet of ice. He gave out a loud roar as he flew forward avoiding the oncoming dark lightning. He zoomed over the dragon's skeletal head and slightly slowed down over the dragon's back and smashed both of his fists onto its back.

--- ---

Duilin swiftly floated over to the obscured corner, and began to charge up an orb of lightning energy, which began to make some slight crackling sounds as it grew bigger. He leaned his head around the corner to see if it was time to throw it.

Duilin gave a looked of unpleasant surprise as he saw only one of the lizards walk towards Renard with his sword ready. It didn't look like the Velken was prepared to block it so Duilin dashed towards the lizard man, holding the stun orb in his left hand, he jumped over Renard and landed in between him and the lizard man and blocked the sword with his mace.

"What the?" The lizard man snarled seeing Duilin jump out of nowhere.

As quick as can be he smashed the stun orb right into the lizard man, who was completely motionless for several seconds and blue streaks of electricity shot through him. Duilin pulled his hand away and the lizard man fell onto the ground, motionless.

"Okay, that didn't go totally to plan..." Duilin said softly, noticing the other lizard man was still there...

--- ---

It was quite and calm in Lizaberg, save for the grunts and yelling of lizard men fighting over food and other random things.

Gorus was outside, using his pickaxe to smash away at the outside of the mountain. Since he was young he enjoyed doing commoner work, despite the fact he was always with the upper class. He spent a lot of his life with the lower class lizard men, his other generals and the Prime Minister were the only higher class lizard men he ever spent time with.

A couple of his generals had just returned from a few short battles that had trouble co-operating with the Empire. Gorus had just got back from the Vandrin County, and felt like he needed a short break. There was something bothering him, that human he fought earlier, he wasn't weak. He a human, no magical enhancements, just a human. But he was actually able to harm him. And how the Count was able to get away, likely still alive. He was convinced that he just got lucky, however. He continued picking away at the rock with his axe, trying to get his mind off of it.

"High General Gorus?" A lizard man said from behind him.

Gorus stopped, and looked at him, it was Xarn.

"What?" He asked bluntly.

"May I have permission to speak freely to you about something?" Xarn asked.

"Granted. Speak."

"Earlier, when you were telling me about Vandrin escaping you and that Kandarinian human you fought, are you...well...Is it bothering you?"

Gorus grunted. "No." He then continued smashing away, with his pickaxe.

Xarn could tell he was probably hiding something, he knew Gorus a lot better than the other generals did. He was in fact on a 'best friend' basis with him before he became High General.

"Well, I was thinking. Perhaps if we requested that we attack the Kandarinian Sovereignty, we could prevent anything like that every happening again."

"Prevent what? We won that battle." Gorus replied.

"Listen Gorus, you got wounded." Xarn said stepping closer. "And you had a human get away from you. That's never happened before. It's either you or these Kandarinians."

Gorus snarled and stepped right in front of Xarn, pointing at him. "Are you saying these 'humans' pose a threat to the Empire?"

"No, I'm saying they're a bit more difficult to kill. Listen, I know you Gorus. You've always been used to running into battle and slaughtering your enemies without even taking a breather. These humans weren't even as strong as that army of mole people we fought back in Mizar, except the Kandarinians. Frankly, Gorus I'm worried about you."

Gorus growled. "Xarn, please...Don't get all caring on me. I hate that, and my father hated that. It's a sign of weakness."

"Well, all I'm saying is that we need to attack the Kandarins."

"Well, perhaps. But I'll think about it, before I approach the Emperor about it."

"Good, because I don't want you to get too unhappy."

Gorus roared. "Xarn! Shut up and go to your quarters, or else I'll shove my arm down your throat, grab you by the inside of your tail and turn you inside out!"

"Uh, y-yes sir..."

[Drannic_Lord01]

"Heh. Don't worry, I'm prepared for whatever the hell you've got. Nice hair, by the way," Valiko said, smirking as the dark Anti blocked his attack. He shifted to his side, grabbed his sword, and pointed it at Anti.

"Bring it the hell on, fool..." A small area around Valiko turned pitch black. It was as if he was absorbing the light around him, as if fueling him. A ball of pitch black energy formed around him, holding him within, and as soon as it completely covered him, it exploded with an extremely violent force. Black surges of energy could be seen flying around the Draken as he readied his blade. "Your move," he said, almost insultingly.

------------
//Not much to say about the three whom I haven't updated until now... but it'll get better soon... hopefully.

"Where the hell are you guys going!?" Tiberius asked as the three shot off in Anti's direction.

"Hmm... Something big is happening. Let's follow them and see what's going on." Ben, Tiberius, and Jannis all followed quickly after Xenai, Aura, and Tsu.

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

"Alright sir! What's the plan?"

"Well, now that we're in... Hmm... you five! Take up defensive formations at that balcony! I want three of you guarding the door! John, Marrik, you're with me." Aaron lead two Drannivolkan elites through a door that lead to some sort of dungeon area. The stench of dead lizardmen begin to creep upon them.

"What do you think happened here, sir?"

"I don't know, John, but who ever did it is long gone."

"Yeah, they've got to be. Look at the bloody footprints on the floor!"

"Something isn't right here... the cell door is unlocked, and one of the lizards is missing a weapon."

"Yeah, and there's also two sets of footprints! Somebody must've armed a prisoner down here. I hope he's with us..."

"Good thinking, Marrik, but don't keep your hopes up. Let's follow these prints and see where it takes us. MOVE!"

[Trent]

Xenai looked back towards the three following them. "Thank god you guys decided to come; We'll need all the help we can get! Can you feel that hellish energy? The Zerobi no Anti has powered up. Who knows what he's going to do in this form? We're going to do all we can to distract him! Hopefully, we'll stall him long enough that Retan gets away and isn't worth chasing after. He should, at that point, power down, say something badass to us, and take off." He'd thought this through, obviously.

--- --- ---

Anti smiled. "Thank you. You yourself look like you're going to be a fun opponent."

Faster than a blink of the eye, he'd appeared directly behind Valiko, and he was swinging a kick up at the back of his head, while meanwhile charging a ball of energy in his opposite hand.

[D. Ein]

//@Jenia: Baurus? heheheh. \

-"Traveling together? Like, you, and me?"

Who does this child think he is?

-"It would appear that you didn't quite grasp what I told you before. I'm a ruler of a nation, Akran; I have no time to be running across Terian with would-be adventurers. In fact, the only reason you see me now is because I was out on a stroll, taking a break from ruling Kandarin."

The advantages, though... the advantages...

-"However, I suppose I could get an extended vacation for now. I'm sure that my Scribe of Unlife is handling things well back home."

--- --- ---

-"Impossible, Mr. Eldridge? They said that bringing back the dead was impossible, and yet, there's our Sovereign and you yourself. However, I think of myself as a man of reason; and this project just may be the key to bringing Gaian to its knees. There can be no mistakes made in its production."

Cain pulled up a chair, and seated himself opposite to Vincent.

-"So what obstacle is so thoroughly daunting to make such a simple request outright impossible, especially for a man of your talents?"

--- --- ---

"I scratched my chin. Funny; even in phase-shift, basic bodily irritations often took place.

-"I suppose I can allow you to stay with me... for now, at least... I do have one question, though. You said that you were born infused with the power of light. Tell me, then: how is it that you control both light and darkness?"

[Drannic_Lord01]

Valiko didn't even move at the sight of the kick. The Zerobi hit the back of his head, but did no damage. "Nice kick. Unfortunately, you're dealing with more than you can handle... TAKE THIS!!!" The Draken thrusted his blade forwards at break-neck speeds at Anti, stabbing thousands of times in the air. The question was... did it hit?

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

"Wow! You two learn pretty fast for lizardmen. I had to go to an academy for some years before I was able to cast anything! I'm going to head inside. Lagart, see if you can teach them some attack moves or something." Jacobie opened the door to the home and walked in. On the floor, he saw Rink and Justin, lifeless. Just then, Justin gasped, apparently awakening from that trance... as did Rink.

"So... Did you cure Ven yet?"

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

[Xorlak]

More of the dragon's flesh blasted away with the punch, but the yellowish skeleton underneath was unharmed.

"The Thanatos plane is merely a collection of weaker souls.  Celestial leftovers.  A place where inferior, non-draconic entities attempt to convince themselves they have power by torturing things that have already died."

A dark surge of blackness emanated from his body, stabbing in all directions.  The mountains below trembled as chains of Dark Thunder raged across the landscape.

The half-skeletal Vraigus wrapped around Valos in an instant, his tail and limbs forming a cage around him.  He lowered his huge skull-like visage into his face and sneered... "You have no idea what the true hell is like..."

----

Retan missed as Draven ducked away.  The shadowy blast struck a cliff and the mountainside that was once there was no more, a huge plume of ash rising to the heavens like a volcano had just erupted.

Blast it... almost there...  Draven ducked low in his mad dash towards the ocean, the waves splitting in half as soon as he blasted over the water.

----

"Shoot."  Renard's ears perked under the cowl.  The bulky lizard charged, screaming as he raised his mammoth battle axe.  The Battle Mage zipped straight at his adversary and flew into his chest, stabbing the creature with another quickly forged icicle in the neck.  The lizard gagged and keeled over and died quickly as the first one.

"I hope no one heard that..."  The cloaked fox said, hopping off the monster's chest.  Not wasting any time, he floated over to the doors and pushed them open, revealing a room cast in a blue iridescence.

In the center of the room stood two pillars, rising some twenty feet into the ceiling.  On either side of the pillars stood what looked like golden orbs attached to posts rising from the ground.  Renard landed before the pillars, casting away his cloak to reveal his silver furred head and tail.  It would do him no more good.

"I think..." he scratched behind an ear, "those orbs need a power source... I know the protal's programmed not to react to my aura, though..."

----

"Calm now, Mr. Ryleh.  I was talking about your ridiculous time constraints and deadlines, not the limits of my genius," Vincent took the odd device off his head and set it upon the table.  Dr. Smizleworf, seated next to him, buried his face in his hands.  Vincent was plainly irritated.

"Look." Vincent pointed at the model upon the table. "It is perfect.  It will fly.  But these..."  He pointed to one of the three smaller structures circling the base that resembled half-airships. "These will be modified airships of my design.  They run on a power core-- a flight crystal that gives them lift.  However, the crystal works by distancing itself from the planet.  The effect is weaker the further it gets from the ground.  This thing will not reach 12,000 feet.

"According to my calculations, we will require some sort of downward thrust to break this barrier.  Something huge.  Explosives maybe, but at a constant rate of fire.  Airship technology is not applicable. In fact, I doubt there is any air at all where we intend to send this thing...
"So, Mr. Ryleh, unless you have a ready-made propulsion system in mind, we will have to design our own.  And that is going to take a bit longer than an hour, I'm afraid..."

[D. Ein]

Cain wiped his palm down his face, looking to the heavens.

-"The propulsion system... Gaargh! Couldn't those idiots come up with some magic trinket to fly the damn thing?!", he yelled, shaking a gnarled finger at the other scientists.

-"However," the Scribe said, after pausing to calm down, "the deadline was not the only reason I came here. There are several things I have to make sure are completed."

Ryleh got up and came closer to the table, gliding around it and studying the contrivance residing there.

-"First, you have to make sure that the ship is as stable as a rock. An altitude, latitude or longitude variation in as little as five meters risks the whole craft being obliterated by the Hammer.

"Secondly, the projector prisms themselves must be many, and must be able to rotate. While the weapon itself is powerful, it lasts for a mere ten seconds; twenty if we are blessed with a solar flare. After this, it needs to cool down from the intense heat. However, even though the beam is less powerful after being scattered, the individual rays are still hot enough to vaporize almost anything in moments. If the turrets are fixed, then nine out of the ten seconds of the Hammer's duration will be wasted scorching empty ground. I'm sure you already compensated for the problem, though.

"Thirdly, keeping in mind the short duration and the long cool down of the Hammer, it would make sense to put additional weapons on board. If I insult your judgment by asking this, then do tell which ones you already included in the design.

"Finally, I hope you understand how important your creation will be, Mr. Eldridge. Our Sovereign would definitely not be happy if it was gunned down by a rogue spear thrown by a primitive savage. Coat it with the toughest compound you can concoct, draw wards on the hull, put magical stones inside to shield it from the elements, and so on. In fact, don't worry about the stones - I'll get our mages to work on that."

[Trent]

"I could say the same to you!" Anti grinned maniacally while dodging all the thrusts with little effort. When the last one had past, he pointed the energy ball he'd been charging up at Valiko's face and cut it loose, firing it at point-blank range.[/RonWhite]

[Drannic_Lord01]

Valiko's head was thrown bac a bit after taking quite a bit of damage in his face. The hit sent him back with a large force, causing him to stumble backwards a bit before catching balance again. A red mark appeared on Valiko's face as he placed one hand over it and rubbed it slightly. "Meh, not bad at all."

Valiko didn't even show any sign of pain, though it did take him by surprise, which was something he hated. He took his sword and threw it into the distance. "Well, since you have no weapon other than yourself, let's just make this a bit more... honorable."

The Draken folded his arms and rose up into the air, staring at Anti. He then held both his hands above his head and prepared a small orb of dark energy. He knew he could only pull off this move if he was on Terian, for some odd reason. "Soon, you will feel the wrath of my power!"

- Blood Cannon, 11% charged -

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

"What's going on over there...? I can feel a great deal of evil. Ben, are you sure about this?"

"I'm possative. It's partly the Draken we all thought was on our side. Turns out he was just playing us for saps. He's a clone... of Jayce."

"WHAT!?!?!?"

"Yes, it's true. Down in that crater, some crazy alchemist must have created another Draken. He's considerably weaker, and cannot even go into dragon form... yet."

"That's bloody insane! I can't believe I trusted that guy!"

"Hey, you guys! Could one of you tell me about this Anti-guy?"

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

[Dude Man]

Valos glared right into the dragon's eyes "I'll give you true hell!!"

He was going to kill this thing. He knew the odds were against him, but he was determined. He knew a few things about these types of dragons, he believes that most magic projectile attacks couldn't harm its skin, but then there was the bone. He wished he studied more about dragons, and less about demons.

There was no way he could beat this thing without his sword. He hated that sword now, but he needed something. Draven could probably beat this thing, normally Valos was physically stronger than Draven, but he had his strength enhancement spell.

His ice gauntlets then became thicker and covered almost a fourth of his arms. He smashed his fists all around him at the dragon's tail and limbs hopping to nearly fully skin the parts of Vraigus caging him.

--- ---

"Sure, go ahead." Wilham said. McNeil rolled up Wilham's sleeve and injected him. "Doesn't hurt that much."

"You've probably had worse then."

"I have." Wilham replied. "I'm a Grand General, back home. I lead an entire army. It's not very big however, a bit over three hundred I think."

"That's more then we have left." McNeil replied. "Well, enough chat, you two better get going."

McNeil lead them down a short hallway with a large metal door at the end. It had a pannel with a few buttons on the end, he pressed a few of them and the door opened, revealing a small room with another door on the end. Wilham (and probably Coriko), put on their gas masks.

"Okay, wait in there, until the other door opens up."

The two went into the room, and the large door closed behind them. After a few seconds the door on the other side opened up.

The outside of Skaro was grey and rocky and all around was a multi-coloured fog. There were ruins of advanced looking structures that looked like they have aged hundreds of years.

Wilham stepped forward and into the wasteland, he looked behind him and upwards and saw the entire Kaled base was inside a mountain, reminding him of the Dark Empire's mountain fortress back on Gaian.

"Well, let's get going." Wilham said to Coriko.

--- ---

Duilin followed Renard into the building. He remembered he was once here, but it has entirely changed since then.

He looked at pillars and the golden orbs, automatically assuming that was the portal into Welkin. He set his mace head down on the ground and lightly leaned on it, to take a second to look at unopened portal.

"Hmm. Well, I guess I'm going to have to charge them then." Duilin stepped towards one of the golden orbs, and set his mace on the ground. "Well, I'm just gonna go ahead."

He was pretty good at 'charging' magic into objects like his weapons, so he assumed it would be the same thing. He set his hands onto the gold orb and then pushed his magical energy into the orb.

[Ted Der]

“Yes, very observant,” Akran grimaced. “I do have the power to manipulate both light and darkness. The only way someone who is born with a Majeuri spirit can gain two, is by killing another with a spirit. As you may have guessed, I did kill my brother, but that was because he was turning insane!”

Akran sighed and sat down. He hated to talk about this. The act of killing his brother tormented him. Many nights he could not sleep, for it gave him nightmares. Akran wiped his forehead with his hand and leaned forward on the chair. There were more pressing matters.

Ruler of Kandarin eh? I guess this Kronos character is a big cheese after all. Why are they always so self centered? Akran was annoyed.

“Oh, and I guess traveling with a lowly Majeuri Spirit Bearer like me is unfitting for such an important person?” Akran shook his head. He realized he had had just about enough. “Well listen for once. If you want the Majeuri Spinel so much, then you’ll need me. Kraaz obviously hid the stone with the power he had at the time.”

Akran stood up again and absentmindedly scratched his scar that ran from his right thumb all the way down to his elbow. Akran cleared his throat and continued, “So let us think for second. What powers did Kraaz have at the time? Oh yeah! He had the power you’re so desperately lacking. What was it? Creating demons from ashes? Is that what you’re missing out on huh? Well, you will probably need your necromancy skills to get to the Spinel. Also, Kraaz specialized in manipulating darkness. Guess who’s got that power now? And it’s different than dark magic by the way.”

Akran smiled and calmed down a bit. “So, basically you got this choice: treat me as a companion, not as a slave, and we can find this Spinel together, or forget it and try to find it yourself. I’ll be gone in a flash. So, what's your choice?”

[Trent]

Anti crossed his arms, smirking... and WAITED.

//See the signup thread, Drannic...

[D. Ein]

-"I see. That's how it's going to be, hmm?"

I looked straight at Akran.

-"Fine. I'll do it. However, I would still like at least a general idea of where to go or what to do with my Necromantic powers."