Dark Age Legends

[Dude Man]

- Ye Forest -

Sienna seemed to move like a blur right out of the way, of the kamas and reappeared behind Sigrun.

"Leave this woman alone and run home. Now." She said pulling out a card from he her deck. "You want to try me?"

"You think a girl is gonna scare me!?" Sigrun sneered turning around and swinging his kamas.

Sienna sighed. "Have it your way." She swiftly leaned backwards to avoid the swinging blades, and then swung a kick tripping Sigrun off his feet. Before he fell to the ground, she kicked him again causing him to fly into a near by tree, cracking the bark.

"You little bitch!" Sigrun roared, and then ran back at her.

Sienna's hand holding the card glowed a dark violet, and she tossed the enchanted card at the oncoming fighter, the card shredded right through him.

Sigrun was petrified suddenly blood started to gush out of the left side of his chest, and he fell lifeless to the ground...

--- ---

- South-Eastern Kandarinian coast -

Marshall rode toward the ship on a Wyvern he summoned, trailing not to far behind Duilin.

Lagart, Zimmerman, Vaughn and the others ran along with Ein.

"I dunno why we have to run." Vaughn sneered to Ein. "And I especially don't like our general taking advice from some Aspye who just shows up. I got my eye on you, barbarian."

Lagart noticeably rolled his eyes.


Duilin arrived at the ship. "Get ready to head back to Helternia." Duilin hollered to the sailors on board. "We're making a retreat." He stepped onto the ship, he dusted himself off, and waited for the others to catch up.

Marshall arrived quickly, he hopped off his wyvern which returned to it's magical blue fog state and then was sucked back into Marshall's sapphire.

"You're friend seems interesting." Duilin said to him, leaning against the opening doorway of the ship, with his arms crossed.

"Ein? Yeah, he's a pretty great guy." Marshall replied walking up the docking board.

"I'll be the judge of that. He's a very good fighter actually, maybe some day he might get better than me."

"Really?" Marshall stopped beside Duilin.

"Yes. I remember fighting him those few years ago. Although I could have killed him, he put in a lot of effort. He indeed has some of my respect. But I don't trust him."

"Fair enough I guess. He doesn't trust you. I'm sure he hates you actually."

"I don't blame him. I'm not fond of him either. But regardless, I see a lot of potential in him. Perhaps you could persuade him into sticking around with us for awhile."

"Yes sir. I'll do that."

"Thanks. Now get in the ship."

[Mikado]

~ ~ Tnguasdbge Forest ~ ~

Puco screamed and hid herself under her arms instinctively. The blade hit hit her arms... and shattered. Two of the four blades were in pieces.

- Why you-!?" Ludvik yelled and tried to hit her once more.

"Or right, the powers..." She smiled a little embarrassed forgetting her strength. An another attack flew at her head, but Puco jumped back and countered. She ran along the handle towards the face of the man and caught it with both her hands.

"Now I can test this little new thing..."

She froze all water inside his body... and controlled it. The result was devastating.

With enormous speed hundreds of Ice spikes pierced the mans skin from the inside. They grew around him, changing him into a huge spikes ice rock.

Puco jumped back and looked at the man. "Wha...."


~ ~ South-Eastern Kandarinian coast ~ ~


- "Easier said nisz done..."
Czernn sighted and run higher on the hilltop trying to catch the situation.
So basically on the huge field, remains of dead necromancers were fighting the little bit of soldiers left. Most of them were withdrawing, but organisation of a huge army is hard, so half of the soldiers were being panicked or going berserk.

These soldiers were weak however, at least they looked that way. The strong looking ones were all close to each other, retreating near a ship. Some thunder crap was there too, but that would be taken care of by Ekaterina, so Czernn didn't bother about them.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. So the weak ones are still fighting, while the strong guys are fleeing?
This is one heck of a crappy situation...

Czernn searched his jacket for something, and took out a small bag full of green seed.
Joseph was near so Czernn had a excuse for his loud thinking.

- "This jest Nasienie Martwych, simplified, seed of the death. Moze a obvious and unoriginalne name, but effective, very effektivne."

He raised his hand trying to feel were the wind came from. From behind, into the field. Not bad.
He threw the seed into the field, and the wind let it fly. The seed shone with green light in the air.
People began to get confused, what was this?

- "Anyone who has the nieluck breath it... will change into a unlife under moja kontrola."
Why bother casting spells, when you can use already prepared ones?
On the field, people began to change into unlife, three on five to be precise. Chaos broke out, and people started killing each other not knowing who is who.
- "To takes care of them...ale maybe some unnatural power will let those stronger ones nie sneeze it? Doubt it. But kto knows... ja mean that guy has wings. So... now to destroy that ship then..."
The bird on his shoulder screamed.
"Swietnie [great]"

The bird rose and flew at great speed at the ship. It didn't attack it or anything but it dived into the water...

- "Ja can control undeath with unlife. There must be some death guys pod water..."

Slowly, old slimy tentacle looking things began to rise from the water...

[You can have you character miracously not sneeze the shit, but if you want to kill off someone, go ahead, make them undeath.]

[Xorlak]

- Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia -

Kelmarr timidly stepped up to the large globey thingy, scratching the back of his head as he studied the swirling mists around it.  He didn't quite want to touch it, but Lefina said so...  He didn't want to irritate her any more than necessary.

He pushed his black furred hand through the mists and rested it upon the warm surface of the orb, clenching his teeth as he tried to focus his attention on an image of that child-like demon on the boat.  He wasn't sure how it worked.  Probably some residual magic left from the two coming in contact was traceable or something.

Images flowed above the orb, melding together into a bird's eye view of the former island of Romme.  The view zoomed in near the central western coastline, off the shore a ways in a thick, lush forest in the shadow of the mountain in the center of the island...

[D. Ein]

- Forest -

As both the soldiers lay dead, the girl finally began to regain consciousness. Tilting her head just a little upward, she mouthed the barely-audible word:

-"Wa...t..e...hh..."

- South-eastern Kandarinian coast -

Ekaterina continued clobbering both the Malanos and the retreating troops while Joseph decided to give up. Ekaterina was using too much unlife for him to get any anyway, so he quietly walked back to Czernn, with nothing to do.

---

-"Okay, guys, seriously, this is no time for heroics," Ein shouted. "Don't try to retreat to fight that thing there. The thirteen Necrolytes combined were nowhere the strength level as the one... the one in the distance..."

Ein felt a chill ripple through his heart as he recalled seeing the accompanying Necrolyte's dead, expressionless eyes.

-"Just get on the damn boat and run the hell out of here!"

[Dude Man]

- Le Forest -

Sienna took off her mask, and returned to normal. She pocket the mask and took a deep breath. She then noticed the girl trying to talk. She knelled down and held her head up, and she began to regain breath.

"Are you okay?"

--- ---

- South-eastern Kandarinian coast -

The rest of the crew boarded onto the ship and it took off, through the water. Back on Helternia.

"General, may I ask you something?" Vaughn said stepping towards Duilin.

"What?" Duilin responded.

"What are you listening to that guy for? How could you even trust him?"

"I don't, exactly. But he's friends with Marshall, and Marshall is with us, so it's clear he's not going to try anything." Duilin answered. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"No sir." Vaughn shook his head, and then went back to the group.

Marshall sat down next to Ein. "It's good to see you're still alive." Marshall said. "I was unambiguously apprehensive about your whereabouts."

[Drannic_Lord01]

- Terian southeastern coast -

"Damn, I guess the best thing to do is retreat. Follow along, Karma!" Jacobie boarded the same vessel as did Duilin and his team. He sheathed his katana and ordered Karma to do so as well. She politely slid the enchanted blade back into its sheath and handed it to Jacobie, who then placed it on his tasset.

"So, Duilin. I know this seems a bit forward, but... do you think Karmandalla and myself could join forces with you and your squad? My entire army was killed during the battle before and well... What's a General without an army?" Jacobie then bowed quietly to Duilin and Karma did the same.

"We are both pretty good fighters," Jacobie remarked, "and it would be nice to join up with an elite squad rather than a regular army. So then... what do you say?"

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

- Dranniville, Stronghold -

"How is the barrier comming, captain?"

"It's slowly starting to form around the edges of the stronghold. In a few more minutes to an hour, it will be inpennitrable."

"Good, carry on then."

"Yes, my leige."

(barrier at 40 %)

[Ted Der]

//Mikado, which ship was being attacked by the tentacle thing?\

- South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -

The Shadowshot crashed through the waves in its hurried retreat. From the deck of his swift ship, Captain Akran Drennen could see that the battlefield was in chaos. He could barely see who was fighting who as a couple surviving necromancers, soldiers, and a giant bird all fought against each other. Akran considered for a second that he should try and save the last remaining soldiers (they seemed like the 'good' side to be on), but as soon as the thought flickered through his mind, the large beetle creature started to move again. There was no way he was going to try now. His crew couldn't afford any more casualties.

Akran scanned the deck. The few who were injured were injured pretty badly. He had lost two great swordsmen and an archer for their limbs had been shot off with lightning from the Malanos. A harsh as it sounded, Akran had to agree with the rest of the crew: this was a considerably small price to pay for the rest of his crew's lives. They all wondered how they had gotten away so easily with their lives. The Malanos were deadly creatures. It must have been all of the confusion, Akran told himself, that had let them escape.

"Oye, Akran!" Martin called from the prow, "We're catching up to another small ship. I think it's the ship that you told us Ein and that winged fellow escaped on."

"Great, follow it." Akran replied, "Also put up the white flag so they know we are not a threat to them." The young lad up in the crow's nest instantly obeyed.

He had been considering for the longest time which side he should join. While it might be an easy decision for most, he had a difficult time with it. The main reason was because he had met Kronos a while ago and, for some reason, felt a certain connection with him. Kronos hadn't treated Akran with the same disrespect that he treated most people he met. He also couldn't hide the fact that if he joined the Kandarinian Sovereignty he'd be closer to Gwen... (Oh yeah! Hadn't he had a dream that she was in danger? It all seemed somehow less important now.) In the end though, he decided that he had to deal with his twisted brother, Kraaz, and the only possible way he could think of how to do that was to join the Gaian Federation.

Akran paced the deck glancing up at the ship they were following. He wanted to find out if they could help him.

Then something caught his eye. He looked around. Had anybody else seen it? Splash! There it was again! This time he could swear he saw a tentacle of some sort splash in the water ahead of them. Not another monster.

"Signal the ship up ahead," called Akran to the crow's nest, "I think we may have company!"

The young lad in the crow's nest waved a large red flag as a warning. (Or however ships usually communicate. I think smoke signals are a little dated, even for this time period.)

[Mikado]

// Both >
~ ~ South-eastern Kandarinian coast ~ ~

Two ships were remaining... All of the other soldiers were being infected or dead.
So what was left... chasing the other two, right?
- "Hej Joseph, ty see the ship that hasnie went away yet? //Ted der's\ Go near its water... there are allot, and ja mean allot, of unsmierc under the woda (water). Use ich to halt the ship, the statek. Ja will take care of the other statek..."

Right. So the commanders didn't even notice his attack. Leaving the other ship for Joseph to handle, the water around Duillins ship began to move... something was underneath it...

- "Ekaterina! When ty finished the few remains of the field, come i help mnie take care of this statek. Albo help Joseph. Wszystko jedno. [here: it doesn't matter]"

He ran towards the closest coast towards the ship...
Flash.

Suddenly a few green tentacles thick as a tree grew out of the water. On closer inspection one could see that they were made out of ... death bodies. The green was the color they gained when they were rotting on the bottom of the sea.

The skulls and half rotten faces were laughing at the members of the ship, and the ship was surrounded from both sides.

Meanwhile, troops that fled during the battle in other directions were teared apart by several undeath wolves...

~ ~ Church of death ~ ~

"Yes indeed, we have came for your what ever is called..."
The men entered the church. The place had over nine hundred men now.
"Give us... the human offers..."

[Ted Der]

//OK, I'm getting confused. Does someone think that the Shadowshot is a threat? Even with it's white flag? And what is a statek? ...an unsmierc?//

- South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -

WHAM!

The tentacles hit the side of the ship making it rock violently. Akran had to hold on to the side to keep from losing his balance. Very funny indeed.

Splash! The young man who was in the crow's nest just moments earlier fell from the jolt of the ship. He was now at the mercy of the beast.

Not Jimmy, anybody but Jimmy! "Use your arrows lads!" Akran yelled in frustration to his crew, "Shoot their funny little heads off!"

Akran took out his Raven Bow and started to shoot beams of light and feathers at the twisted smiles. The arrows didn't seem to do much damage, but it make the tentacles retaliate, thus slowing them down. Hopefully this allowed for enough time to escape.

The Shadowshot was a small, narrow vessel, and Martin sure knew how to handle it. The boat dodged in and out between the larger tentacles to avoid damage. Everyone got drenched as water splashed over the sides from the constantly rocking ship. As arrows flew around him, people screamed and water clouded his vision, Akran wondered if the other ship was being preyed upon like they were. Slowly, but surely, he could tell they were getting off track.

"Keep up with that ship!" Akran called to Martin, "We can't lose them!"

"I'm a little busy, if you haven't noticed," came Martin's reply.

[Dude Man]

- South-eastern Kandarinian coast -

"Well..." Duilin looked at Jacobie and his friend. "Well, I've heard some good things about you two. Plus I saw you in battle during the fall of Retan, Jacobie. So yes, you may join." Duilin clasped his hands together. "Now then..."

Suddenly the boat began to shake.

""

Duilin then rushed up the stairs onto the deck to see what the matter was. On the deck and all around the ship he saw the strange undead tentacles.

"Tentacles!? Gah, I HATE tentacles!"

Duilin drew the Iduran, which began to glow with a white light. A tentacle then landed near him, barely missing him. A half rotten skull on the tentacle began laughing at him. Duilin gave a horrified looked at it and then slashed the sword down on the tentacle.

"Everyone! Get out here and help me fight some tentacles off the ship! They're slowing us down!" Duilin shouted down the stairs to the others.

[Mikado]

// Statek = Ship, unmartwy = undead

~ ~ South-eastern Kandarinian coast ~ ~

The tentacles reacted at the moment they would get hit, but it stunned them for a short while... for if you killed on piece of it, an other head came instead of the death one... they looked ... infinite.

Czernn was standing at the coast with Joseph next to him.
"Aha... can ty summon some unmartwi? I'll control te little tentacles some..."

The tentacles bashed at the ships, and they moved dangerously. Now tentacles were blocking of the front as well the sides...  the only way out would be the rear, but what ship would possible ever move backwards? The heads began to eat the wood... eat the blades of those who attacked them... eat the men.

The tentacles in front of Duillin splashed in two... or it seemed that it did... quickly several heads connected each other again, and the tentacle flew right at his face.
What wasn't noticed that an another tentacle from behind was about to eat his back.

[Jenia]

~Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia~

Indher smiled.

"I see... So he made it after all. Perhaps that shadow was his spawn? In any case... Kelmarr, I thank you for your cooporation. Please remain here until he has been dealt with..."

She sighed and began formulating a plan.
Should they move to kill?
No.
Why kill when one can capture and study? And if someone dies in the process, she could just revive them again.
Won't be a big deal.

"Echo Elphos... The thing is near the west coast, in the forest. Do try to bring it alive if it is reasonably practical!"

She snickered at what she had just said.

"Echo Shuichi... A demon thing was spotted near the west coast, in the forest. I know you like to study that stuff, so get to it! Elphos might need help."

She put her hand away from the orb and sat down.

"Now... We wait."

-----

~Throne Room~

Kerig stood up as Kronos had materialized the binding glyph for him.

"Hey, it really is pretty! But there are some many excess parts here that aern't even used for actual binding but-"

"Who cares! Just reach out already!"

Kerig sighed and reached out with his blackened hand.
Dense, black mist began to pour from within his sleeve. It circled around the hand and then floated towards the glyph, eventually enveloping it.
With the mist now connecting Kerig to the now hard-to-see glyph, Kerig pouted.

"...And?"

"I'm done. What did you expect, a light show? You'll get plenty of it when I fire. Speaking of which..."

Kerig turned to Kronos.

"Yes, that's right! When does Welly start sucking the-"

"FIRE! When do I FIRE!"

[Mikado]

~Glimmer Spire top, Spire City, Phoenicia~

Shuichi tilted his head.
- "Hey, you don't need to use that sphere if I'm standing just behind you! Anyway, why should I go? This is more your case than mine, so you not going must mean it's dangerous. I'm not going if you won't."

Demons... he had enough data on them anyway. Come on, almost everyone is a demon or something.

[Ted Der]

- South-Eastern Kandarinian Coast -

Suddenly the Shadowshot halted. Everyone was flung to the floor. Silence followed as Akran's crew slowly got to their feet. A weird gnawing noise was then heard.

"W-what's that?" Martin stuttered. Akran looked over the side. The tentacles were eating his ship!

"Ahhh!" Akran yelled, "Shoot the tentacles! They're eating the ship!"

A bunch of men rushed to the front of the ship and started to hack away at the slimy creatures. They retaliated quickly out of harms way. Fortunately this let the ship move forward a bit. The crew, now realizing how they could escape, all took their swords and waved them from the sides at the tentacles. Many of them were hit, but had to regrow their heads which gave the Shadowshot time to move.

"HA!" Martin shouted in victory as he took the wheel and swiveled it around breaking free from the remaining tentacles, "On our way then, aye captain?"

"Sorry, a little busy at the moment!" Akran countered, shooting away with his Raven Bow. At last! They were finally getting away from the South-Eastern battle. Hopefully the ship ahead knew what it was doing and where it was going.

[D. Ein]

- South-Eastern shore of the Dark Continent -

-"Goddamnit!!", Ein shouted. "Why won't these people just let go?! It's all your goddamn fault for provoking the Kandies! Be thankful they didn't send a captain your way, or else we wouldn't even get this far into the water!"

He threw his weapon on the ground, focusing on his skin-carved glyphs instead. Swiping his hand over several of them, he conjured a fairly well-formed (for Ein's standards) fireball, blasting off a tip of the tentacle. The tip regenerated near-instantaneously, sprouting several other tentacles from the breach.

-"This is going to take forever," growled Ein while tracing his central chest glyph over with his finger. "If we're going to do this at all, we'd best do it right. I'm going to get rid of these things so we can finally move on."

With those words, Ein lunged for his weapon, hastily drawing a spear out of it while narrowly avoiding a squirming tentacle. He fought the perverse-looking thing off, forcing it to withdraw and attack another target. Using the time he'd been granted, he quickly created another glyph on the wooden floor of the ship. After crossing the final circle of the symbol, he collected a glowing orb just off the wooden surface. It looked to have been made of the same substance (?) as the spear he'd inbued to kill the Necrolytes previously. After a quick stretch, Ein threw the orb at the tentacle.

The whole squirming contraption suddenly fell to pieces, releasing the ships - while Ein fell to the ground, bleeding from his chest... again. The bleeding stopped a lot faster this time, allowing Ein to remain conscious. After dusting himself off, he rushed to the back of the ship.

-"Finally! Now, we have to get away from here as far and as soon as possible! They can still send a captain!"

With those words, he leaped over the edge of the ship, diving underwater.

There, he found the keel of the ship. After several minutes' worth of work, and a few quick dives to the surface for air, he covered quite a large area of the rudder with his glyphs - which immediately started taking on the colour of the deep greenish blue, same as the surrounding waters. Seeing this, Ein rushed to the surface, and climbed back aboard the vessel.

A strong jerk from underneath pushed the ship forward at a scary speed, cracking the masts almost to the point of breaking. Quickly, the continent was finally out of the view...

Bit more relaxed, Ein made his way up to the cargo compartment, where he threw the previously unconscious Necrolyte... who was currently trying to scratch her way through the hull with her nails.

-"Alive and awake, I see." Ein's quiet approach made the Necrolyte spin around in surprise. "Good. Don't worry, you don't have to escape like that... We're going to take you back there anyway. Whether it will be in chains or in several boxes is up to you - just answer a few questions for me."

- Forest -

The girl coughed a few more times, gasping for air. From her incoherent whisperings, it seemed like she was asking for water...

- Throne Room -

-"Ooh, heheheh, an active one, aren't you, Weloss?", I giggled in a completely unmanly way. "Unfortunately, I can't fire the Hammer several times in rapid succession. Wouldn't want it to break. Although... We could fire off a smaller beam, just to see how it works... What sayeth thee?"