Dark Age Legends

[Dude Man]

-- Helternia, Rivertown ---

Duilin appeared walking throw the smoke, dusting himself off. He looked around and gave Repins a smile. "Glad you're on our side."

"Agreed." Valos said also walking through the smoke shortly after Duilin. He looked at Repins and smirked. "So, shall we continue hunting down these things?"

"Yeah, but I have a feeling that there might be more than these guys around." Duilin replied. "Let's go Repins. But next time warn me if you're going to use another one of those things."

The two fighters went off, hopefully with their gunner friend with them.

[Mikado]

~~ Helternia, Rivertown ~~

Repins smiled.
- "Ahah, yes sir!"
He saluted quickly and re armed his gun. Now he was determined to finish everything off that would stood in his and his generals path.

He followed both preparing himself for the unpreparable.

- "Don't worry sir, that attack wouldn't be able to hurt you. It only damages people with impure intentions!"
Even Repins himself didn't know whether that was really to safe himself, or to test his fellows.

[D. Ein]

- Helternia, Rivertown -

The fleet of undead wyverns closed in with surprising swiftness. The abominations rained on the battlefield, shattering as they hit the earth. About 40 soldiers dropped on the ground from the disassembled wyverns.

Knowing that her arrival was no secret, Eris yelled to her soldiers:

-"Engage the enemy on sight! Stalkers, circle around them, sabotage the ships by the shore! Go! Go! Go!"

The troops rushed forward, save for the five fleeting shadows which appeared to have taken a route around the battle. Eris herself took off her modified protection amulet, and felt its back with her nimble fingers. There - a small latch clicked, releasing the purple jewel from its hold in the amulet. After eyeing the area for a few seconds, she threw the gem off to the side into a nearby ditch. Seemingly satisfied with the gem's location, she placed the amulet back on her sternum, the ornament's three gold claws digging into her skin right away. She barely even felt the pain anymore, having done this procedure many times before. With a confident look on her face, she strode forward to the heart of the battle, her gauntlet crossbow on the ready.

[Xorlak]

(He he he, works for me, DM.

I intended for the elemental warriors to be human, Mikado, but don't see why we can't throw some monsters into the mix as well.)

- Helternia, Rivertown -

Draven dodged the tentacles with a series of elaborate jumps, landing with a flourish.  Something flew overhead and he was momentarily distracted.  "The stench of death... So the Kandarinians join the fray.  Interesting..."  

Snapping his attention back to the shelled creature, he whipped his right palm above his head.  A blaze a crimson swirled about, condensing into a fiery disc with jagged edges.  Arching his arm back, he threw the spinning blade right at the creature's head, tearing through the air like a buzzsaw.

[D. Ein]

- Helternia, Rivertown -

It wasn't long before the Kandarinians realized how utterly useless their attacks were against the green Elementals. Driven half by fear and half by desperation, most of them fled from the battle and regrouped behind a hill. Having seen this, Eris just spat on the ground.

-"Damn warriors... They calls themselves Kandarinians... Wusses is what they are! I'd kill them myself..."

Her bloated arrogance was soon humbled by a dull *clunk* that her crossbow bolts produced when they came in contact with the Elemental's skin. The green humanoid turned around, and charged at Eris with a sinister scowl. That only served to double Eris' amazement - being invulnerable is one thing, but proper battle tactics should come above all else. The Elemental did appear to have eyes, so couldn't it see that Eris had the tactical advantage? How thick can this thing be?

As soon as the enchanted warrior was just in sword-swinging range of Eris, the latter leaped into the air, landing on the Elemental's shoulder. Giving it no time to realize what's going on, she drove her boot's heel at a high speed right into the back of the warrior's head. The Kandarinian captain somewhat relaxed, hearing a definite crack, and lightly hopped back down on the ground. Damn, those things were difficult! At least this one was dead.

But the Elemental didn't share that thought.

Before Eris could walk away, the humanoid was already up on its feet and charging at the captain's back. Eris made a move to turn around, but tripped: the metal heel on her boot was broken. Seconds later, she felt the coldness of the ground slam into her back. She was quick to get up and compensate for the circumstances, only to be checked by a devastating body blow from the Elemental. Her thin figure was thrown several meters forward, and the force of the attack was enough to dislocate several joints. Just before breaking her neck on a quickly approaching rock, a string of thoughts crossed her mind: it's time for a strategic retreat.

A dark purple cloud was all that remained of Eris after she quickly incited the recall spell. Her body turned into a blob of pulsating energy, rushing as if along a thin string right back to the little gem she discarded moments earlier.

After rematerialization, the first thing Eris tried to do was to breathe - a sad mistake on her part, as it turned out. Two broken ribs immediately let themselves be known, sending a wave of white pain across the captain's chest. Being an agile fighter more than a brute head-on one, she wasn't used to the agony of several broken bones, letting out something of a pained wheeze. She quickly reminded herself of the situation, and set her thoughts in order, taking short, shallow breaths. It was only then that she noticed that it wasn't just her in the ditch.

-"...Einherjar?"

[Dude Man]

- Helternia, Rivertown -

"Oh?" Valos replied, to the comment that the explosion would only harm 'evil' people. "Heh...well, I guess there ya go Duilin." He smiled at his brother.

Duilin thought. "Hmmm, well, we will see about that." Suddenly he turned around and noticed more attackers. "Kandarinians!?" Duilin exclaimed in frustration. "What they hell are they doing here? Okay NOW I'm pissed off." Duilin dashed off towards the docks, leaving Valos and Repins behind.

The general had the Iduran out, glowing with fire magic. "I've had it with you people!!" He shouted.

--

Meanwhile the shellsquid Marshall summoned was spilt in half by Draven's fire blade, and the two sides dried up, leaving only a dried up pile of goo and a broken shell.

Marshall finally finished summoning his large beast. The large creature was yet, his big burly Minotaur.

"I warned you Draven. You're gonna pay now." Marshall stated.

The minotaur swung it's hammer through the air, and then roared at Draven. After the beast finished it's angry war call he then smashed his hammer down at the fire mage.

--

Duilin noticed the large minotaur from where he was, and thought he heard Marshall's voice. He then went over to investigate, slashing away at several enemy soldiers as he made his way through.

[Xorlak]

- Helternia, Rivertown -

"Oh dear..."  Draven smirked as the hammer surged toward him.  He folded his arms behind his back and leapt backwards, evading the shock wave resulting from the mighty impact with the ground. "... such a clumsy weapon.  Tell me, gun-boy, do you not have any strengths of your own?  Or do you rely entirely on weapons and minions?"

Draven evaded again as he brought a clenched fist forward.  Pausing a moment in mid-air, he thrust it straight down, the impact with the ground resulting in a gushing spike of flame erupting from under the beast's hooves.

[Dude Man]

"I've heard that before." Marshall retorted. "To be honest, no not really and I don't care."

The minotaur's hooves were burnt, by the flame spike, but it didn't seem to even notice. It simply stepped forward through the fire and then smashed it's hammer on the ground, projecting a shock wave that flew towards Draven, lifting up parts of the ground with it.

"And frankly it won't matter once your dead."

Meanwhile Duilin appeared not too far away from the scene.

"Draven...so he's behind this."

He noticed Marshall was fighting him. "Think I'll see how he handles him, this might be interesting."

[Xorlak]

- Helternia, Rivertown -

"Charming..."

Draven danced out of the way of the impending shockwave, flipping backwards and kicking off a wall before it crumbled to dust.  He landed deftly upon the hammer's shaft, and proceeded to run up the handle and the creature's arm.  Rearing his foot back as it burst into flame, he aimed a fearsome kick right at the minotaur's temple...

[Dude Man]

- Helternia, Rivertown -

The minotaur was struck, it's head flung back and the mighty beast fell to the ground. The minotaur was breathing deeply. Marshall had a worried look on his face. However the minotaur slowly got back, looking like it was totally dizzy and unaware of what was happening, when all of the sudden it thrusted its hammer at his attacker...

[Mikado]

~~ Helternia, Rivertown ~~

Repins dashed after Duilin. The general was kinda on a rage here, but that would endanger him greatly. He would cover his attacks from behind! He swiftly pulled out a hand gun and pointed it at Draven. He looked at his General as he seemed to halt and watch the battle.

- "General Duilin sir! I'm sorry to intrude but shouldn't we also fight, sir?"

He still was pointing his gun at Draven, but he probably didn't notice it, for it was a small gun.

[D. Ein]

- Helternia, Rivertown -

Sometime between being crushed by the Elemental and unblinkingly watching the unconscious Ein, Eris noticed that her ribs were not hurting anymore. Of course - the high recovery serum that Vandrin commissioned for all individuals lieutenant- and captain-level was taking effect.

Ein, however, did not have such an advantage. The skin on his charred hands had deep cracks, showing bits of dark red flesh. It would be sad to die in the middle of nowhere, especially for one who is, by definition, a Kandarinian Stalker - even then, how much damage could Ein possibly deal in this battle, against five other Stalkers and one captain? Thinking back to the old days at the Stalker Academy, Eris smiled and pulled out one of her crossbow bolts. She used it to prick a point on her wrist, and watched the thin streak of blood turn into crimson droplets as they disappeared in Ein's blackening wounds.

---

Ein awoke some time later, only to find that his injuries completely vanished. There was not even a trace of burns anywhere on his body. The fleeting thought that the fireball was just an unpleasant nightmare was quickly cast off as Ein noticed that his clothing was, indeed, riddled with holes with a dark outline: he definitely was burnt, but somehow recovered. But fate did not leave Ein wandering for long, as he found his fist clenching a very short bolt with an obsidian tip. The kind of bolt that would fit in a small, gauntlet-mounted crossbow.

---

Wiser with experience, Eris definitely did not want to charge into the battle head-first. This time, she watched the band off to the side, seemingly lead by some freak with wings (probably an indecisive angel) fight the Elementals. For some reason, they did not have half a problem killing the warriors. No... this won't do.

After another quick scan of the area, the captain dashed through the battle commotion. The Elementals noticed her, but were too slow, and gave up chasing her after it became clear that they would not be able to catch her. She arrived behind another building, and silently watched the fight between the earthen warriors and their opponents from a much closer distance.

[Xorlak]

- Helternia, Rivertown -

Draven sneered and raised his fist upwards to meet the hammer with a resounding crack.  The ground shook at the flash of crimson from his hand, and the hammer head feel to either of his sides, split in half.  "Such a low-leveled beast," he yawned.  "I've enough of this trifle."

His form blurred and he appeared at the side of the monster's head opposite to what he kicked, his palm extended just inches away and a menacing smirk upon his face.  Crimson flame cumulated around his palm and the minotaur's noggin, his aim obviously to summon a burst of flame inside the monster's head and blow it clean off...

[D. Ein]

//Xorlak: how many green guys are there?\

-=Helternia, Rivertown=-

It wasn't very long until Eris figured out what all attacks against the Elementals had in common: they all had the distinctive appearance of earth magic conjurations. Naturally, this posed a bit of a problem: as a Stalker-based captain, Eris knew a million ways to kill a man with steel, but she had absolutely no talent in any sort of magic. Her squad did have a few mages, but they were Cryomancers. In the extremely unlikely event that they would know earth magic, the power of their earthen spells would be laughable, at best. Perhaps it is time for another strategic retreat?

---

Recovered from his daze, Ein took time to reflect on what had happened. The sort of power that he was blasted away by was immense. There is no way that he could stand up to it with either his now-missing arbalest, or even much of his Astral glyph magic. Draven's current musings with the already nearly dead minotaur only further drove Ein to the brink of collapsing and just waiting for the end. But of course, there is always something to be done.

With a definite look on his face, Ein dropped to the bottom of the trench and began charting a medium-sized pentagram in the earth. [13]

[Drannic_Lord01]

- Helternia, Outside of Rivertown -

And at the very edge of the town, an angelic figure appeared as if from nowhere, though his ship on the coast seemed to say otherwise. He folded his arms as his aura glowed a majestic light blue, almost cerulian, as if wave after wave from the sea splashed around him. He folded his arms and extended his angelic wings violently, loose feathers flying in all directions, Merely observing the nearby town. He grinned with an utmost disturbing malice, but seemingly playful, and sincere.

With a flutter of his wings, he burst into the firmamental sky, flying down and landing just before Duilin... Ben smiled.

"Guess who's back!"

//Hope that post makes up for my absence. It'll be just Aaron for a while til I get my head straight...