Fantasy Swords, Sorcery And Whatever That Monster Torching The Town Is

[Juju]

(Sorry, im on mobile.... at my brother's graduation ×_× halp me haha)

Yuki's shoulders tightened at the mention of Yakul. She knew it was only a matter of time before the crone's words sparked questions.

"Yakul isn't just a tree, its the Tree of Souls. The essence of the Faelands itself. Without its magic the surrounding forests will die, and without the surrounding forests Yakul will die. And with it the forest spirits will fade. I'm sorry, it is hard to explain in your tongue."

Without turning to face Kuto, she continued. She didn't want him to see the sadness on her face. "Yakul has existed for as long as there have been forests, as it is considered to be the first tree. There was a time when all wildlands were connected to Yakul, back when it was worshipped as a god. But now it is forgotten."

Yuki flattened her ears. "Only a handful of mortals remember the great spirits you call 'old gods'. Even fewer can speak their language. That woman for instance..."

Gohan510

 

[Amaya Himura]

Because camp was destroyed on some parts and others only had minor things happen to them, she was very relieved that the bathhouse wasn't too torn up. It was a circular tent set off to the side away from camp and was barely touched by any damage that was done. She walked inside and saw the contents of the little area: a small crate made to be a table, the tub, and a fire lit to the side to heat up the water which gave off a soft glow. Rinzler took a quick bath, coming out as soon as she walked in. Thankfully, as someone who can preserve resources and is able to manipulate water, she's limited herself to quick cleanups. However, it didn't mean that she didn't enjoy long baths, she thrived in her element really. After changing into her clean clothes, Cypher waved her hand slightly as if swatting away a fly, and all the excess water that resided in her damp hair was now gone.

Feeling cleaner than before and smelling much better, Cypher walked out into the chilly air. She breathed out a sigh and saw her breath form a little cloud. It was so small and lasted a short time, but she knew that even a little so-called insignificant breath of air can change the course of tomorrow.

She knew she wasn't pondering away about this little puff of air, no. She was thinking about a fellow Knight who may not have been able to show off his skills today with overly extravagant forms of explosions, but she knew that she'd made the right decision in recommending a the name of a certain beastfolk to become the Knight of Seven.

Heading to her tent, she'd noted that Kai was asleep on a log. She'd figured that he'd wake up and go to his tent soon enough, so she walked into her own tent and went to rest for the night.


Rinzler awoke to some voices outside. She adjusted her sword to her hip, just as any other morning, threw on her jacket and boots, and quietly stepped out of her tent. No one else had woken up besides herself and Kai, or at least they didn't come out of their tents. There were two people who were speaking with Kai who was still at the log for some reason. She noticed that one was a swordsman and the other a woman around her own age, holding a staff. Cypher heard them speak and it was the female's voice that intrigued her, not that her own worry and vigilance didn't keep her away from approaching the Knight of One.

The swordsman presented a scroll that was sent to him by Izuru; she'd seen the royal emblem pasted on by wax stamp. The woman introduced herself as the "Healer of Dying Dragons", and Cypher cocked her head to the side. She knew that title... it belonged to an individual she'd met a few times in her many stays in Alkosh, her second home. Rinzler stood just a few steps behind them.

Crossing her arms, her face expressionless, she cleared her throat to make her presence known and to spook them a little, "Ahem."

RatKing StrayTheCat Ixacise Gohan510

 

[DarkstarUchiha]

Lucas nodded as he started to have Snow land in a forest. Lucas hopped off as soon as they hit the ground and looked at Snow. "Thanks pal." Snow licked Lucas's face and rubbed against him. Lucas than looked at Skyler, "So what do you think we should do from here?"
RubyZoo

 

[StrayTheCat]

Erina nodded, and tapped her staff on the ground, causing the protection spell to dissipate. "I can and I've done it before. Why, is there one who needs my help?" She asked nonchalantly, as it had been several months at least until she'd done any healing for any dragons. "It might take a while depending on the damage, but as long as something is still alive I'm pretty confident I can bring back to good health again." She added, before looking the man up and down. "I could also fix up any injuries you have while I'm at-"

She stopped herself to look at who it was that just joined them, and her face furrowed for a moment as a twinge of familiarity hit her mind. Erina went to speak, but stopped herself, and went to speak up only to stop herself again. Letting her mind take a minute to rummage through her memories, it took a bit for it to sink in. "Don't I know you? I feel like I know you. R-Something. Like rain-something. " Her patience with her memory was wearing thin. "Argh, look I know-RINZLER!" Erina shouted midsentence once she remembered, and rushed over to give her old friend a hug. "Its nice to see someone actually important around here!" She said with a smile.

Gohan510 Ixacise Amaya Himura

 

[Gohan510]

Kai nodded as the barrier faded actually he was quite happy to see it was down, more the less now he can move. He stood on the log and vowed for the mage that broke the seal in thanks. “Well... my dad...” he paused hearing Rinzlers voice. The healing girl directed her attention to Rinzler. “Hey! I’m just as important as she is you know!!” He stomped his feet then stopped recognizing they were friends. He shook his head in a nodding motion as he watch their settle moment. ‘Of course Rinzler knows everyone.’ Kai thought to himself while watching. “Sorry for not introducing myself its, Kai! Kai Ace Takeshi, Knight of 1.” He reached his hand out to the man that was with the girl. His eye shifted back to normal as the corruption no longer was in affect.
(I’m on mobile typing at work so sorry for the small post)
Amaya Himura Ixacise StrayTheCat
—————
Yuki’s voice shakened up from the question though it didn’t bother Kuto he needed information. More understanding of this world benefits Kuto in any way. As she hinted about her own death it made Kuto flinch a bit. He looked out th peep hole again listening. “Is there a way to save Yakul then? What exactly poisoned the tree?” Kuto asked the girl behind him. He knew this was hard for her to speak about but it was a must. Better understanding of his companion would be best. “Another thing what was those things she gave you? I’d also lije to learn your language.” When he told her about the language he had walked over to her crouching down low enough for him to rub her head. A tear dropped from his cheek, to even know this girl was going to sie if Yakul did crushed his spirit, he’s had her for a whole now, she was such a lost homeless hungry child at the time and she’s slowly starting to grow up to the adult he can respect. Yuki was like in a sense the only thing Kuto considers “love”. Hakai warchdd Kuto but didn’t bother to attack Yuki as himself was worried for thr girl despite their disputes. The tear dropped to the wooden floor beneath them. Only thought that went through his head was save Yakul at this point. “Me and my... Kai were never raised to believe in gods. We believe in ourself, our one wisdom abd strength. He’s over confident with his power while I’m more settled I guess you can say.” He stated to her. “If that is what you were protecting from the kingdom then I will not rest until Yakul is safe, it’s in our best interest.” Kuto’s voice was serious yet he waa sincere.
Juju

 

[Ixacise]

The reunion between the two friends while surprising, did not hold any particular value to him. He merely just let Erina speak to this woman that appeared. He also watched this man, who turned out to be a knight act jealously over the attention of the Erina was getting at the moment from Rinzler. The knight Kai, introduced himself with hand out. A moment passed before he extended a hand out halfway only to pull it back and slick back his hair. He then turned to Rinzler and said, "I don't mean to get in the way of friends reuniting but, if you could tell me where I need to go for the night and the meeting sport for tomorrow's duties that would be great and I'll be readily wiling to leave you all alone to catch up together."


StrayTheCat Gohan510 Amaya Himura

 

[Gohan510]

Stomping his feet in the snow he looked at the guy refused his polite gestureas his facial expression was agitated and his shoulders stood up while both arms were bent downwards. “Hey you freaking cool guy! You and that wizard of whatever already pissing me off! I’m just expre-“ The guy seemed content with what he had to do, so Kai left it at that. He folded his arms together and sat on the log, there was no need to argue. The only ones he gotten along with was Cypher and Sept. Other then that it seems everyone is section in different groups. Actually were was the knight of six even at? Also five?! Kai thought to himself as he hasn’t even seen those two.
Amaya Himura Ixacise StrayTheCat

 

[Zerohex]

After deciding to pointedly ignore the royal children strolling in like they owned the place, seeing them as more of the same stock as the boy king, and feeling Rinzler needed her rest and was doing the best she could with the cards she'd been dealt, Mickey sent the girls off to get cleaned up and rest and took the chance to unwind and do his workout. Time passed, night fell and more and more soldiers gathered to watch the massive man, who went through the motions with trance-like purpose. Standing start, squat with hands on the ground, kick the feet back to plank the body, pushup, return to squat, explosive jump up, back to standing. Repeated thousands of times, nonstop, no words, no distractions.

Some of the soldiers sought to imitate the Knight of Two and promptly gave up the difficult exercise, others cheered and jeered and light-heartedly tried to break his focus with food and drink, others set up bets and games around how many repetitions he would go through and how long he would go and the rest simply marveled at his astounding physical prowess, and for some this provided a welcome break from the rage and dread of the day. The merriment continued even once Mickey finally completed his regular set of callisthenics, when he took a deep breath, blinked and smiled openly as he finally seemed to notice the crowd that had formed around him and cheered him on.

The Champion of the Highland needed no words to retain the attention of the crowd, acknowledging them along with a firm, simple gesture that he was not done was enough to keep them glued in place. Sometimes the quiet was better, it built expectation, and this was one of those cases. The soldiers' gazes remained fixed on the man-mountain as he walked towards a large rock formation nearby and murmurs spread about what he might do next, some recalling the incident with the tree. Curiosity and disbelief fed the spreading whispers as Mickey grabbed firm hold of the smooth stone, and the whispers exploded into cheers as the islander's exposed muscles strained and pulled and ripped the formation clean off.

Mickey was still not done. Soaking in the adoration from the crowd he held the rock aloft with great ease, and with equal ease he brought it down. Rather than smash it to bits, however, he placed it upon the hard floor with a degree of control that seemed impossible from such a man, and once on the ground the showcase began. Mickey worked all over the stone, smashing his bare chest down on it and grinding it on the hard surface as he transitioned positions and retained controlling posture, grabbing a variety of holds and at times lifting it clean to once again place it down and start a new sequence. The soldiers could identify the motions, it was basic solo wrestling training. The type they had done with bags of sand.

Though he had only gone to get in his usual training, it had turned into a show and Mickey could certainly accomodate for that. He had something of a showman in him, and the gods knew these folks needed anything to get them to relax and boost their morale before they blew up and tried to kill eachother. With a triumphant shout, the Breaker of Bulls cast the rock high towards an empty area and bowed to the viewers as it came crashing down and exploded into a hail of fragments that the resulting ovation drowned out almost completely. Mickey had to admit to himself that he loved that kind of reaction. "ALRIGHTY THEN TROOPS! WHERE'S THE FOOD AT?". The cheers and laughter echoed in the night.

_____________________________________________________________

As he was up since the break of dawn, needing little sleep for peak performance being an aspect of his monstrous stamina, Mickey was there when the wannabe emperor strode in with his troops that had somehow completely dissapeared from the camp the prior day. Didn't seem like anyone missed them. The Knight of Two didn't join in with the jeering but he also did absolutely nothing to stop it, and as he was still not dressed given he had yet to find an appropiate piece of fabric he made for quite the noticeable figure amongst the crowd. To his great amusement many seemed to expect him to challenge the boy again, but he was in a good mood this morning and breakfast came first anyway.

The train of prisoners behind Izuru elicited an obvious reaction from the men at camp: more distrust, more resentment, more anger. The boy king had probably gone off on another killing spree, they figured, off to hunt dissidents. Many of those who received the passed around wine looked at it with distrust, carefully smelling it, suspecting foul play of some sort. And even if the 12th was not held in high regard, dragging off the soldiers that had taken the frontline in the attack on Grigori to another battle with nary a moment to recuperate was foolhardy at best, downright monstrous at worst. Men needed physical and mental rest from battle and to deny them this risked breaking them.

Shaking his head, with his own ideas as to why the boy would take his troops but not any of the Knights, so-called finest men and women in the land, Mickey went off to get himself some bread and was only just taking a bite when the storm began. An exasperated hrrrrnnnn f'ckin sentries th'fook y'doin, was what went through the wrestler's head rather than any kind of great alarm. Dammit he hated being interrupted during a meal. As the winds began picking up, however, bringing with them rain and thunder and devastating the surroundings as the monster advanced, he kicked into high gear. Because someone had to and it simply would not be the boy. This much was clear to him.

As the soldiers began filing out in high alert, quickly strapping on the equipment they'd left at the ready out of trained habit, Mickey took a deep, deep breath and strained his powerful frame to boom what came to mind over the noise: "DO! NOT! CLUMP! TOGETHER! LOOK AT TH'SIZE OF IT, YER OFFERIN A BIGGER TARGET! GET TH'BOY'S MEN AWAY, THEY AIN'T EVEN RESTED! MAKIN EM FITE TIRED'S FOOKIN STUPID!".

It was the best he could do, and at least the men seemed to recognize him and listened which gave them something to focus on other than the panic. Mickey wasn't, never claimed to be and never wanted to be a commander of any sort, his thing was breaking faces by his own hand. Fortunately, he was pretty sure he had a way of killing two birds with one stone and it also involved taking care of about the only decent people he'd met so far and hopefully spare them what had happened to him: "SERA! TRIN! SAINT! WHERE YOU AT! I THINK IT'S ONE OF EM SATAN FOLK AND WE GONNA KILL IT!".

Freshet KnightOfNight Amaya Himura RatKing Gohan510 Gaius Danius Griinia Blood Born Angel

 

[Freshet]

Trinity Tercet Thricecoined was quite frankly glad that the day had finally wound down to a close of sorts. It was a busy day of killing zombies and burying their dead and she smelled like if a wet dog died. And so from her own desires, and of course Mickey helpfully insisting it could be done now, made her way to the bath-house to finally clean herself off which she had been wanting to do for what seemed like hours.

...After drying off and changing into a new, comfy, and more importantly dry dress -which she was glad she packed along now- she exited the bath-house with gleaming both from joy that she did indeed bathe, but also still from a bit of the water still present. She began whipping her unbound hair, which made those large pig-tails she had seem quite handy, back and forth to remove whatever excess water she had and frankly because it was fun to do. With that completed she began bunching her hair back and placing them into her bright red ribbons.

Grabbing the reigns of her alpaca she brought the two of them towards the back end of the crowd, partially out of respect for not making the soldiers dine with an animal, but mostly due to the fact that the crowd was thick ready to watch the sight of a performing Champion of Brumm. Trinity began hopping up and down as she tried to watch what was going on, but to no avail she didn't quite make out the feats being performed.

With her stomach grumbling incessantly about wanting food, she proceeded to grab a few of the rations they had and plucked her mug from Augusta and poured herself a drink. Trinity began tearing into the meal like a wild animal, while tossing good chunks of it towards her beast friend who was happily eating it. Of course this was followed by quaffing her mug down and wiping off the suds before noticing other soldiers were doing the same.

It was time for the game of drink!
---------
Snoring loudly, with her head rested upon her alpaca steed, Trinity was tossing and turning as somehow she had managed to keep a large snot-bubble going as she slept. How she did was a mystery, but what she did know was she won that game of drink handily.

But despite these factors, Trinity was still well in the land of delightful slumber. Of course that was about to quickly change due to an incoming storm. As thunder crackled and rain began torrenting down her face, Trinity slowly shook her head and wiped the now pierced snot-bubble from her face.

"Eee-h, I'm up. I'm up." she mumbled as she began rubbing her eyes and reaching to stroke her alpaca which was shaking due to the events that were occurring. "Sssh, it's okay. It's-" As more wind began blowing even harsher, and as multiple soldiers were dashing about in a mad panic to try something, Trinity realized a few things. First off, things were not okay. Second was pitying these soldiers for having to deal with this not even a full day after dealing with the zombified dragon.

Lastly was that this was not skirt weather.

Trinity's eyes darted as grabbed a hold of her sword and shield as she mounted her alpaca. She heard the booming voice of the Knight of Two shouting out some advice and she figured she should try to offer some. But Trinity was used to dealing with things in the ground, not angry skies. So she simply rode her steed off towards Mickey.

"HERE! HERE! HERE MISTER MICKEY!" She yelled out as she began waving her buckler shield in the air, and as soon as she was close enough she stopped her alpaca near Mickey. With a bit of a quivering lip she looked around to anyone who could help provide a bit of reassurance.

"W-we can punch and stab it right? I've, I've never ever dealt with angry air satans before... Why couldn't they be rodents of unusual sizes?!"

KnightOfNight Amaya Himura Zerohex Gohan510 Gaius Danius Griinia RatKing Blood Born Angel

 

[KnightOfNight]

When Mickey sent Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov XXXVII away, she considered protesting but decided against it. Being around people for so long today was exhausting even if she did enjoy their company, so she wandered away from the main area of the camp and set up a perimeter with her homunculi so she could meditate in peace. However he plans didn't last as she was soon bothered by the sound of cheering. "Cheering?" She thought to herself. "What do these miserable brutes have to be excited about? Rapidly approaching death?" Having amused herself with her joke, she headed off to the direction of the uproar to see what stupid thing they were bothering her with.

The sight left her breathless. It was Mickey showing off amazing feats of strength, endurance, and control. For just a brief moment the Wizard Of Wizards forgot to maintain her levitation and almost fell face first into the snow before catching herself and retreating behind a nearby tree. "Impossible. How could a normal human be so strong without magic?" She wondered. "Perhaps the end result of Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov XIX's experiments in eugenics? No, his journals only mentioned frogs." She peeked out from behind the tree in time to watch his act with the boulder.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dawn came and the Wizard Of Wizards was glued to where she was from the night before, eyes still wide open. Luckily for her, one of the many useful items her homunculi carried at all times were eyedrops and kept applying them throughout the night. What finally snapped her out of her hypnotized state was the rumbling of her stomach and the sight of the colorful cakes that were quickly presented to her by a homunculus. Easily her favorite part of being an unparalleled genius, besides the being a genius part, was the immense sugar intake her brain required, and having happily eaten her breakfast she set out to find Mickey and Trinity. However before she could begin her search, she caught sight of the returning boy king and remembered she had originally came to this hellhole to see him about something, but it must have been unimportant seeing as she forgot why.

The Wizard Of Wizards then proceeded to drift through the camp hoping to stumble upon either of their tents without having to ask for directions and in a way, it managed to work out. Mickey's voice boomed over the howling wind, issuing orders that were common sense. "More like uncommon sense." She thought to herself. Truly her jokes were the pinnacle of comedy which only made sense considering she's read and memorized all of the most popular humorous stories. The Wizard Of Wizards quickly scribbled a message and showed it to Mickey and Trinity upon reaching them. "This is dumb and I hate it. Why are we bothering with this?"

She glared in the direction of the massive, no, collective cloud satan and wrote another message. "This is REALLY dumb and I want to hate it to death." Now, being the greatest wizard in all the land, she could easily hate it to death with a wide selection of spells, but did this Venti- no, Trenta, really warrant the use of even one of her near infinite spells? Trenta, now that was a good one, she made sure to remember that one.

Zerohex Freshet Amaya Himura RatKing Gohan510 Gaius Danius Griinia Blood Born Angel

 

[Gaius Danius Griinia]

Izuru took one look at the approaching Ventus and knew exactly what to do. "Jacob, we're in no condition to fight this. Plan Alpha Gamma Sigmund Freuda Beta Theta Bacon Washing Teakettle" He said to the Standard-Bearer. Immediately Jacob began gathering the Barrier-Mages and the Legion split up into multiple smaller groups which took positions at key points around the camp. As the gale-force winds of the Ventus beat against the magical enchantment protecting the border of the camp. As the monster roared with all the power of a raging storm, Izuru noticed the enchantment begin to tear itself apart. Raising his golden sword, Izuru gave the signal to Veronica, the Twelfths Strategist. She used her Archive magic to give the signal to the Barrier-Mages. As the compounded winds broke through the protective enchantment, the Barrier-Mages threw up a glittering barrier of silvery hexagons. The moment the magical attack connected, it reflected right back at the Ventus, knocking it over.

Izuru then watched as it got up and tried to attack them again. Izuru just used the same tactic to knock it over again and again. Every time the Ventus fell down, it took longer for it to recover. Izuru then began the second phase of Alpha Gamma Sigmund Freuda Beta Theta Bacon Washing Teakettle. The Barrier-Mages weren't going to be able to continue reflecting attacks forever. So now Izuru had Veronica appeal to Chiho's better nature. Her mastery of the 24 Runes made her one of the most powerful spellcasters in the land. Izuru hated manipulating his sister. However his need to evacuate his Legions to safety outweighed the possibility of his sister hating him. Chiho walked outside and stared at her brother. She seemed to be under the protection of a group of her patients. Pulling out a couple of whitewood runes, Chiho threw them at the base of the mountain.

 

[ColdCash]

"Looks like rain, eh Jackie?", the blonde escort said, squinting upwards at the gathering storm that shrouded the mountain's peak.

"Jackson, ye twit.", The stocky man replied, foul-tempered from a lack of sleep.

"C'mon, Jackie! I said you could call me Ben, didn't I?"

"As I recall, ya asked me to call ye that an' I told ya no, Benedictus."

"I can't believe I'm best friends with such a buzzkill."

"We're not friends."

The pair had been following behind the Saint's caravan through the night, stumbling blindly through ill-maintained game trails and collectively cursing the boy king's insistence on using the notoriously unreliable Sumarian Warp Gates for troop mobilization. Sure, they got you where you needed to go, but what good was being able to mobilize if the whole army had to find their way back to the capital on foot after every sortie? Even a blind man could see the obvious strategic flaws.

Luckily, they had managed to hit upon a mountain stream as nightfall approached, stopping to water their horses once it became too difficult to see. The escort rested for a mere three hours as they waited for the sky to clear, the faint glow of their commanding officer's armor the only thing visible in the pitch blackness. As the stars became visible and the twin moons rose fat in the sky, Rosario roused the men to readiness and ordered them forwards. If there was one small blessing, it was that the undead horde that had occupied the mountain had long since purged it of all threatening life, allowing them to move without fear of attack. All told, they had made excellent time, reaching the foot of the mountain at the approach of dawn.

They'd been following the river for the better part of the day, one of the vanguard escort having the good sense to bring a spyglass they had looted from Grigori's fort along to check their route. Furrowing his brow, the vanguard wedged the spyglass between his legs, wiped the sleep from his eyes, and checked again. Passing it to his companion with a mumbled 'Francis', he pointed to a ridge, several miles west of their trail.

The second vanguard's face split into a grin.

"Fuck me, Heinrich... I'd kiss you if you weren't so ugly!"

Pivoting himself to face the rest of the unit, Francis thrust the spyglass into the air as if to proclaim their collective triumph to the world.

"Better get religious real quick, cause we found us a fucking monastery, boys!"

 

[Amaya Himura]

Rinzler uncrossed her arms as the female released the barrier over Kai and addressed her. It has been too long since we've last seen each other that she struggles with my name. Once recognition hit her and a hug followed, Cypher wrapped her arms around the Healer of Dragons and said quietly to her, "Lovely to see you again, Erina. But of all places for us to meet once more, you end up here on a mountain, far from Alkosh." Glancing up to the swordsman, Rinzler asked her, "Who's your friend?"

As the sun had peered over the horizon once more, Rinzler felt a bit uneasy. They needed to leave now. Their mission for the day was getting everyone to the capital, collect supplies, and get to the Cloud Satans.

Her tone became a tad worried as she whispered, "You shouldn't be here. There's a danger of Venti attacks, and we're leaving this morning for the capital for supplies. You may join us if you'd like, but you need to get somewhere safe." She let go of Erina and took a step back. Her brows scrunched together in concern. She knew that Erina was a healer not a fighter, but here she was. She needed to get to the somewhere safe so that if a battle does break out, she will be available to help.

Just as her sentence finished, her stomach did a flip. She'd heard the metal footsteps of soldiers approaching, and the grumbles of the men who barely stood on their legs. Looking around, she saw that on the outskirts of the camp came the Twelfth Legion. What the--? They were all so dead in their eyes, and because they were the "cowards, delinquents, arrogant scions and snarky intellectuals," she began to worry even more. Why were they so battle-worn? Had they not slept? Eaten? What was the boy king doing to them?

Her heart skipped a beat for nearly no reason. She took a step back, trying to see what else came with the men, she apologized to the three people near the log. "Kai, you are just as important if not more so, and for that, I need you to wake up Septimus and find the other Knights. Get ready for something big. Sir Lance," she noticed his name written on the parchment he still held up. "Please hold onto that letter and get it to me later. If you'll excuse me..."

She didn't care if they followed her or not; she only cared if they didn't get hurt.

She ran in the direction the soldiers came. The Knight of Zero got closer to the men, some even brushing shoulders with her; when she stopped her feet, her vantage point gave her a view of the mountainside, the valley and across the land. The wind began to pick up and this bright morning soon turned sour with rain pouring down and wind whipping across the mountainside. Her hair followed the fast moving air and partially obscured her vision. From behind, the booming shouts and orders that came from Mickey, and the urgency and panic of the soldiers who were gearing up made Cypher's eyes widen. Trinity the alpaca rider rushed to his side, and Rinzler knew what was occurring as she looked up. Storm clouds were approaching. No, they were charging straight for them.

A large form began to appear in the midst of the clouds. It was too large to be a Venti, but it was of the same creature origins. It too fed off of the fear that these people had,and it grew in size as the screams and shouts echoed from the mountain. Rinzler knew that something extreme needed to be done. These men needed to not fear it, but when she looked at their eyes, the only thing she saw was fear. Fear of this monster, fear of death.

She rushed over to Trinity, Zharkov, and Mickey. Waving her arm once over her head, she used the falling rainwater to create a sort of umbrella like barrier. It was large enough to cover herself and even a handful of soldiers as she passed. Once meeting up with the other two Knights and the Wizard of Wizards, she gathered more rainwater and made her liquid umbrella large enough to accommodate herself, the Master of Homunculi, Trinity, the alpaca, and Mickey's larger frame. "OI, MICKEY!" she shouted over the wind and thunder. "The Venti feeds off of fear and cowardice. These men are full of it. They need to be more calm than their fear of this thing! Hell, they just need to fear something more than they fear this stupid puff of water vapor."

Trinity's lip quivered which made the Knight of Zero's heart sink. Even this knight is a bit afraid. "Trinity! I need you to breathe. Please, calm down. That right there is something we can't punch and stab just yet, it's too high up for us to get a good hit on it. If even one person out of all these men calms down, it'll help a ton!" Rinzler took a deep breath, her tone calmer than this morning's weather (pre-disaster), and soothingly said, "I promise you, Trinity. If anything bad happens to you, I'll be there to catch you."

Turning to the Zharko, Rinzler asked as kindly as possible among the chaos, "Zharkov, if possible, and if you'd allow it, can you do something to help calm these idiots down? Also, I know that you're basically omnipotent with that library of yours, so how do we actually go about defeating this thing? If we can calm the people down, what do we do next?"

StrayTheCat Gohan510 Ixacise Zerohex Freshet KnightOfNight Gaius Danius Griinia Blood Born Angel Noct

 

[Ixacise]

"I'll keep that in mind. Anyway, night." was all Lance said to her. He then left Erina, Rinzler, and Kai to do whatever they'd do and gonfind a place to sleep and get up early for work. Something big happening? All the better to get some shut eye.

Lance's sleep was interrupted by a strong sensation of cold and wetness. He woke up to see his tent blown off by the wind and himself rather drenched by the cold rain. The scene around him was full of din and mayhem. People were running around with plenty looking scared, and there was plenty of shouting to go with it.

Quickly he grabbed his sword and took another look, with his gaze floating upwards to the sky. There was a massive cloud formation and it looked humanoid. It then dawned on him that it's a huge monster. "Well she wasn't lying about something big happening." Lance said to himself as he ran looking for a group assembled to fight it.

Conveniently enough for him, he spotted a group that had converged around to the threat. He calmly appraoched them and said, "Alright so what's the game plan you all have set up if any?" He then took another quick glance at the thing before looking back at them. His hand rested on his blade, eager to draw and defeat the oversized thundercloud. "Mind you I already got something in mind, but I figure it's best to hear from you guys first." He added.

StrayTheCat Amaya Himura Zerohex KnightOfNight Freshet

 

[StrayTheCat]

Erina's heart warmed to the words of her friend. How had it been since she had seen any of her friends or family, months? Years? She always spent her time either in the capital or on the move, always either busy with jobs or getting jobs. Erina laughed when Rinzler asked about Lance, referring to him as a 'friend', and was about to make a joke to her when she whispered something which had a twinge of worry. Erina's gut feeling about this place had been right, and for a moment she considered actually running away. Those thoughts were burned alive when Erina considered if Rinzler would be fighting, and likely would already have been, she set her mind on track. When their embrace was done, the expression on Rinzler's face almost scared her, as this was one of the strongest people she'd ever met. And that list of people included dragons.

Erina can't fight. Her protection spells were pathetically weak , even laughable to some mages, while they were hard to actually get rid of. She knew it would only hinder everyone if she entered the fray, but that wasn't her place regardless. Her place wasn't on the frontlines, it was away from the danger, making sure those who are doing the fighting can keep living to fight another day. She was fully aware of how weak and useless she was in a fight, but having a friend who was strong made it hard. It made her want to just ignore everyone and put all of her magic on Rinzler, so her friend could fight without having to worry about any injury, but this was her whole job. If she did that, it would be a disgrace to everything she stood for and everyone that helped her get this far in life.

With her heart settled, she turned to see a large group of soldiers who looked like they were about to drop dead. To be entirely honest, Erina actually thought they were zombies at first and took a step back before realizing it was people who had been through hell. When Rinzler issued out orders and went to them, Erina followed but instantly regretted it when the weather changed, and her body felt as though it was imploding unto itself when something from children's tales appeared. Venti, but this one was much worse then the ones from the stories parents used to scare their children, it was something that made her shiver both inside and out. The rain and wind was nothing compared to the horror of this thing. Her thoughts snapped when she could hear Rinzler yell something, but it was hard to make out. Something about cows? The men were full of cows? It seemed important, but she decided it was best to get out of the way.

The Thing was too high up for anyone to attack with weapons, but the more distance between her and the enemy the better. As she ran pas the soldiers, it was as though everyone was in a horrible waking nightmare. Once she positioned herself with most of the forces between her and the Thing, Erina began her chants and channeled her magic to as far as possible. Slamming the bottom of her staff on the ground, a wave of green erupted from Erina, healing as many people as it could. She didn't waste too much mana on this healing spell, but it should be enough to at least them feel better about the hell that was to come. Mana wasn't something to waste on the start of a fight, especially if you plan on using such powerful healing magic to actually help a whole army of people.

Amaya Himura Gohan510 Ixacise Gaius Danius Griinia KnightOfNight Freshet Zerohex (and anyone else that is there pretty much)

 

[Gohan510]

Kai scratched the back of his head as he heard that Izuru finally appeared. “Soldiers?” Then he got the command to awakening Septimus he nodded jumping on the log and flash stepping off deep to the camp were Septimus rested. As he ran through the camp there was heavy rain and wind Kai covered his face with his arm and slid into Septimus’s tent. “You Sept get up!” He walked by Septimus side and crouched down shaking him a tad bit to wake his friend up. “We got some demon thing attacking the camp! It’s super cool! I want to fight it partner come on!”

Once he had successfully waking up his partner Kai nodded standing up. “Currently the winds and rain is going out of control.” He could hearse Mickey’s voice which said it all, the battle was about to begin. “They’re waiting on the two strongest knights.” Referring to himself and Septimus jokingly, as he held his hand out to help his partner up.

Once getting Septimus they would both run to the scene with everyone else. “I hope we weren’t late to the party!” Kai looked up and his mouth drop. “ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO HIT YOU IF YOU’RE WAY UP THERE COWARD?!” Kai stomped his feet in the snow as his eyes seemed angered at the demon and he pointed at it doing all these motions while talking at the same time. Kai was about to unsheathe his blade, but he stopped seeing the soldiers scared.

Even the knight of three was panicking? Damn this is pretty bad then huh? Wait I remember that demon! Dad told me about it once, one that feeds off of people’s fear to gain stronger and because people are panicking it’s getting stronger. This is a crazy situation indeed. Kuto used to read books all about demons and tell Kai about them but this one was only told by his father to keep away from.

Kai gripped his fist looking at the situation at hand. “Yo Sept what do you think we can do?”
RatKing Amaya Himura Gaius Danius Griinia KnightOfNight Freshet Zerohex Blood Born Angel Noct

 

[Zerohex]

Erina's curative magic was a welcome reprieve to the bitterly embattled men of the 12th, something to help ease their minds and bodies from the brutal wear and tear of being dragged through the frontline of three engagements with nary even a night's sleep. It could not, however, replenish them fully and the strain of holding back the creature was proving devastating to the legion, a rag-tag group that was only sightly above a penal regiment and whose members were not cut from the same cloth as other dedicated professionals. Before their scrambling compatriots could aid them more and more of the half-trained sorcerer-soldiers of the 12th collapsed under the giant's assault, some bleeding from nose, eyes and ears, others visibly withering from the drain on their lifeforce.

Of course the boy king did not seem to notice how blatantly moronic it was to strain his own men to the breaking point, watching the creature do its work against the barrier before conferring with his sister with little apparent rush. If the demon fed on fear it was being helped to a goddamn feast here, and Mickey seemed to be at the center of the group actually trying to organize a coherent attack with people looking to him for answers. He wasn't a commander dammit, he was a fighter. He had exactly one answer, but he was not afraid. In fact, he was smiling that toothy, animal grin of his, so much like a predator flashing its fangs and licking its chops at the smell of prey, because his one answer had worked all his life. He had made it work and it had made him who he was.

The massive, mostly naked wrestler took one more deep breath and, stepping forward so that he'd be clearly visible, boomed his lungs once more with arms raised high at the sky: "WHO! TH'FOOK! IS AFRAID OF SOME CLOUDS! BOYS WE DUN KILLED OURSELVES A DRAGON! A DRAGON! AND WE GON BAG US THIS SUM BITCH TOO, 'CAUSE IF WE DON'T THEN WHO WILL? SO WHO'S WITH US! WHO WANTS TO SHOW THEIR STUFF! WHO WANTS TO BE A MOTHER-FUCKIN LEEEEEGEEEEEEEND!".

A rousing battlecry surged from the soldiers who heard the rallying call. They shouted to push themselves on and in so doing each helped push eachother forth in turn, they shouted to push away their fears and rouse their fighting spirit, to get back into the organized fighting mindset that had been drilled into them. If Mickey knew one thing it was that a heroic figure, a symbol to get behind, a champion if you will, could and should drive men to step to greater heights, to challenge themselves, to be better. The good will and recognition he had garnered amongst the men and his easily identifiable figure played in his favor, the troops easily rallied behind the astonishingly powerful warrior they knew to be one of their best, one of the Knights they were supposed to look up to.

"Thas 'bout all I got", he said, shrugging and turning towards the other knights and adventurers near him. He was still smiling brightly. Now he just had to figure out a way to introduce the satan to his fists, and it was game time. "I ain't the type t' organize folks, I take care of problems m'self. Ordering the troops should be the boy's work but it's gon have t'be you Rinzler. Y'gotta step up. And uh, take the lad and his friend with", he continued, pointing to Kai and Septimus who he had never interacted with and barely seen before. He didn't know if he could trust em and Kai's childlike temper tantrum in the situation didn't inspire any kind of confidence. He then turned to Zharkov Etc. the Wizard of Wizards, Trinity and the new arrival who he didn't know but who at least looked and acted something like a warrior.

"Toldya I was gon do it and now I get to show ya, Sera. I dun care fer magicks, I only trust mah fists, but you get me to that big fucker and you'll see why when I tear it a new one". The boast, if such a statement could be called that coming from Mickey, was accompanied by the loud pop of the wrestler cracking first his his neck and then his knuckles, in preparation for one of his favorite things in life, and when he was done with that he put an encouraging hand on Trinity Tercet Thricecoined's shoulder. "And yer comin with, lass. Ya dorfs are tough and I'm sure yer lil punchy diggin glove can hurt it. Y'heard Rinzler, she'll catch ya if we mess up and we won't. We gon kill it. As fer you, new guy, I dunno what y'can do so ya best show yer stuff real good if ya got it or help camp if ya don't".

Freshet KnightOfNight Amaya Himura RatKing Gohan510 Gaius Danius Griinia Blood Born Angel StrayTheCat Ixacise

 

[RatKing]

Septimus watched Kai walk off as he finished his meal and began to think about what the Knight of 1 had said to him. Maybe I should just accept Kai’s thank you. I mean...I guess he’s right I didn’t have to go along with Rinzler to check up on Kai, but I did it anyways.

Now having completed his soup Sept returned his empty bowl back to the wagon before making his way to his tent to sleep for the night. It had been a long and crazy day that had contained within it the inauguration of the new Knights of Sumaru, a fight against a necrodragon and its undead army, a confrontation with two criminals, the arrival of an individual with an incredibly long name, and Sept making a friend amongst the knights. And tomorrow was likely to be just as crazy with the threat of the Venti approaching.

Removing his armor and setting it down next to his sword and shield Sept opened up his bedroll and curled up in it before falling asleep.

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

As the sun arose as a new day began Sept awoke to the Knight of 1 who was telling him to get up while shaking him and explaining that one of the venti creatures that they were told about last night had made its way to the camp. Taking a moment to register what was just explained to him Septimus quickly took Kai’s hand and climbed out of his bedroll and then started donning his armor.

“I wouldn’t consider myself the strongest knight here, but I'm glad everyone waited on us to arrive before taking action” he said as he finished putting on his armor and grabbed his sword and shield.

Outside his tent and running alongside Kai to meet up with everyone else Septimus saw just how chaotic things had gotten. The winds were picking up as the rain started coming down harder which was melting the snow on the ground. In the distance a swirling mass of clouds in a humanoid shape was tearing a path of destruction as it sucked up trees and whatever else it got too close to as it floated its was toward the camp.

This must be a Venti...quite a lot bigger and more intimidating than I expected he thought as he looked around to see how the other knights, adventurers, and soldiers were feeling about the looming threat. Most, including himself seemed uneasy or just unsure how one could even fight such a thing, others like Mickey and Rinzler didn’t even flinch at the sight of the creature and were trying to keep everyone calm and focused, then there was Kai who was mostly just frustrated that it was still so high up and far and thus not able to be attacked.

“You could have Mickey throw one of us at it so we can try to attack it” he jokingly answered Kai who had asked what they could do about the creature, though he quickly realized that his joke idea could very well be something that may just be tried. “Just to clarify, that was a joke. Don’t have yourself thrown at it, you don’t want to fall from that kind of height"

Gohan510

 

[Juju]

[OMG it feels SO awkward to post this in the middle of an intense action scene. WAHHHH I'm sorry, I'll go back to my corner in a moment ༼ つ ಥ_ಥ ༽つ]

Was there a way to save Yakul? It was something she had asked herself countless times before, but when Kuto said it every word bit into her like a knife. She didn't want to talk about this right now, or anytime really. That's why she didn't respond immediately and instead let his questions wash over her, as if by ignoring them they would disappear. Unfortunately she knew better.

After a long silence she finally spoke, but the voice did not belong to Yuki. The sound was broken, a far cry from the stubborn determination she usually had, and as soon as it started everything poured out at once, like a storm kept in a bottle. "One of the emperor's wizards had a staff with a terrible power that could corrupt life and bring decay. He twisted forest spirits and used them against us, against Yakul. When Izuru killed him he gave it to me and..." suddenly her voice broke and she had to take a shaky breath to steady herself. "It's all my fault. I should have turned him away. They're all dead and its because of me. I shouldn't be alive..."

Yuki grit her teeth, a pained expression washing over her face like the fresh tears but there was nothing she could do to stop them now. At least her back was turned to Kuto so he didn't have to see how pathetic she was. "I don't know what the woman gave me... I don't even know if there is a way to save Yakul..." she said flatly.

All the pent up sorrow was making her shoulders shake, but as soon as Kuto placed a hand on her head she went completely still, save for a single shiver that ran up her spine. She didn't know why, or why she suddenly sprung up to hug him, but it all happened too quickly for her to think about it. "Diola lle, Kuto. Thank you." she said. Then, as quickly as it had happened, Yuki withdrew. Her ears were pinned back, as if she was scared Kuto would get angry over this, and curled up into the corner of her bed furthest away from him. She wrapped her tails around herself and hoped he wouldn't say anything.

---- ☼ \[T]/ ☼ a new day of bloodshed and carnage! ----​

The morning sun streamed in through the broken shutters, igniting the stray motes of dust that hing in the air into specks of molten gold. Yet despite the light of day Yuki was still asleep in her bed. Her fluffy white tails were wrapped around her in a fuzzy cocoon and in her sleep she had grabbed onto one of them, clutching it tightly in her arms in the same way a child might hug a stuffed bear. She looked so peaceful, though it was not destined to last.

Gohan510
Gaius Danius Griinia (mentioned)

 

[KnightOfNight]

The Wizard Of Wizards enjoyed the attention and allowed a smug grin to take over her face, especially when Rinzler called her omnipotent. She then looked down at her slate to try to write a new message and saw it was now soaked from the rain, considering it now useless, she tossed it back over her shoulder and tapped her throat like before. "Rinzler, there are two issues with what you've said to me. The first, that is not my full name. The second, I am omnipotent everywhere, not just in my library. But you tried and that's all I can really expect from people that weren't gifted with intellect like my own. So just this one time, I will do more than tell you how to handle this situation." Her low, husky voice from before returned and somehow pierced the sound of the wind and rain.

She then placed her hand on the head of one of her homunculi and focused, it was then as if her mind was far above the battlefield and she looking down. During this, time seemingly slowed to a crawl and she took count of all the panicking soldiers. For someone not named Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov, her plan would have been impossible. Back where her body was, she remained motionless but the homunculus in her grasp was trembling as a thin trail of blood ran from its mouth.

After what was merely a second for the people watching the mighty Wizard Of Wizards, her eyes opened and the soldiers that struggled to find their courage suddenly dropped, and with them, the homunculus. "Don't worry, they're not dead. The men are just dreaming of alcohol, women, and no knights or kings to give them orders." Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the sleeping soldiers get blown into one of the logs they sat at during meals. "Really, it's fine." With the first part of the problem solved, she turned her attention to Mickey. "Get you to him? As impressive as your muscles are, that 'big fucker' is literally wind and vapor, you can't punch it and... You're not listening are you? Fine, but I'm only doing this as a learning exercise for you." She then approached Trinity and gave her a hug. "Close your eyes."

Before Trinity could say anything, she was launched at a high speed just past the Trenta and the Wizard Of Wizards quickly placed a finger against Mickey's lips. "I know what I'm doing, I just hope you know what you're doing." And then the giant of a man found himself flying towards what would be the chest of the Satan. The Wizard Of Wizards quickly took the head of another homunculus in her hands and once more she found her awareness far above the the area. Luckily for the army, only a small handful of soldiers could be described as harmed by her spell seeing that the sudden drop in fear caused the Trenta to hesitate. Pushing the welfare of the soldiers to the side, she focused on her goal. Trinity had seemingly gone far off the mark, but this is where she needed to be for the plan to work. Through gentle manipulations of the girl's momentum, she managed to swing her around and aim Trinity for the back of the Trenta's 'head'.

Back where her body was, the homunculus dropped like the one before and was quickly replaced by a new one without their master ordering it.

Zerohex Freshet Amaya Himura RatKing Gohan510 Gaius Danius Griinia Blood Born Angel Ixacise

 

[Gohan510]

“Maybe we should try that then, huh?” He caught his own fist listening to Septimus’s suggestion, Kai noticed Mickey but didn’t really care about the look he gave. He was irrelevant to the situation in front of them. “If i find it’s weak point though while up there wouldn’t that help us? We can’t leave everything to Izuru!” Kai looked back up at the beast as he noticed it was relatively high. “So if it’s affect by barrier magic can’t that one girl with the wand be useful?” He noticed her standing by Rinzler, but he remembered she said she was a healer, meaning her offensive and maybe defensive spells weren’t the greatest. Scratch the thought, they could launch all their spells at it, but it won’t take out the demon. “What actually hurts it..?” Kai was thinking for once about a battle plan instead of rushing in.

It didn’t matter though trinity and the other guy were launched off at the demon as he stood there and watched thinking him and Septimus really couldn’t do much on this one.
RatKing
———
Kuto listened as she was trying to force the words out of her mouth he did not care that it hurt her, he needed information. Understanding it was hard to say he was patient in her pausing though he has unanswered questions. Finally the girl continued, but yet she seemed embarrassed of the whole thing. No matter he was still paying attention. A staff? What in the world? How could that even be that a staff had so much power to corrupt a tree of so much magic?

He was about to stand up till Yuki had hugged him, but it was obviously too short to react to it. He accepted the gesture and nodded. Standing up finally he let her rest off knowing she was tired. Hakai landed on his shoulder as Kuto walked out the door of the cabin. “Scout around for any outsiders.” Hakai nodded flapping his wings soaring through the sky. This weather was getting out of hand. He walked back into the cabin after releasing the bird to do its duties and stayed awake half way through the night.

Once closing his eyes the memories began. The first flash of ws him sitting in a cell. Looking around confused he shifted his sight down to his wrist as they were changed up. A horrific sight for a child. “Let me out!” The young Kazume screamed to the top of his longues. “Let me see my father!” “Shut up kid! You’ll be down here for as long as the Emperor wants you to be. You’ve caused enough trouble around here. You’re mom should be ashamed of you!” “I don’t care what she thinks! She doesn’t matter to me! She let my father get captured by you freaks!” The guard had enough of the kid as he opened the door to the cell and walked into it beating the kid with his armor covered fist. The kid was left on the floor bleeding with bruises all over. “How could you do that to a poor kid?” A women cried out in the cell across holding onto the bars that kept her separated from them. “You lock us up as if we’re animals!” “Shut up before me and the other soldiers do you in.” The women looked scared and sat down. “Exactly, this kid deserved it.” Walking out the cell he closed it locking it back up. “Silly kid.” “Bro didn’t the emperor say to not touch neither of them?” It was another soldier that walked into the room. “Keep it between us, you know you want a crack at her, go ahead if you’d like. The other men already have. These people that are locked up in this room are the definition of, treason.” The room was circular as the steps were the beginning of a ring of cells. There were one or more prisoners in each cell. A person was taken out for a hanging. As today it was an old mans turn. The prisoners screamed bangs the bars to stop the soldiers from taking the old man but they continued up the stairs closing the door behind him. The kid opened his eyes barely in time to make eye contact with the old man. The eyes of sorrow and gried were in his eyes as the kid shed a tear unable to move from the beating he’d received.

Finally the flash back ended as the voices of kids running around the town awoken the suffering sleeper.

Kuto awoken from his sleep from the voices as he was looking around as he fell asleep in a rocking chair. His center of attention wss the ceiling as he shifted his neck off the too of the chair and looked at the fire still going. Cracking his neck from the unusual discomfort from sleeping in a weird position.
Juju

 

[Ixacise]

Lance listened to the others speak out of deference from being the new guy onboard. Mickey's attitude and enthusiasm for kicking that giant thundercloud's ass was both endearing and invigorating. "Well that takes care of one part of the problem." He said in response to the sleep magic employed by Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov.

"You know what, getting up to it and hitting it isn't actually a terrible idea at all." He said drawing out his sword as he scratched and etched the surface with a series of lines and stab marks. "You see these lines and dots represent the various pathways of magical energy and certain reservoirs or places where it's really concentrated. By severing these connections or altering the flow, as we all destroying or subverting these channels and reservoirs one can cause great harm to the being. The reason being that it is wholly unnatural as they are actually from several different entities all fused together somehow. While it is' currently holding together it's not exactly secure."

He then took a pause as he cleaned the sword of the mud and pointed it dramatically at the monster. "The short and simple of it is this! Hit those spots until it dies and don't get hit!" He then watched Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov use her magic to elevate Mickey and the girl into the air. With a flick of the wrist he threw his sword into the air and then jumped onto it and flew up into the sky towards the giant cloud satan.
The wind and torrential rain had no effect on him as he flew straight and true and even executed unnecessarily graceful whirls and turns as he spun drilling into the body with enough force it temporarily distorted the body. He then jumped stepped off the blade and did a flurry of rapid stabs and cuts around the creature's left leg. The flurry was enhanced by his own inner energy fueling the blade's edge creating an almost flower blossom like pattern of motion and residual aura energy.

The cloud satan's massive leg was completely destroyed as the lines and reservoirs were all skillfully hit causing congestion and severance of energy throughout that afflicted part. The area began to warp and distort as it glowed with its energy going rampant and creating more damage. Lance appeared on the ground hopping off the sword as it entrenched itself into the earth. He picked up the blade and shook the mud off. The leg exploded into what looked like harmless little wisps of clouds. This however was proven very very wrong. The little clouds soon reformed into a handful of tiny cloud satans ready to make landfall and wreck even more havoc. Lance looked up dumbfounded and said, "I knew I should have thrust, thrust, slice instead of cut, thrust, slice."

 

[Gaius Danius Griinia]

From Chiho's portal came an army of seven foot humanoids with blue skin and fierce expressions. Wandering over to Rinzler, one of them takes off his helmet and waves at her. "Hello, you look like you're in charge here. We were called by Lady Chiho… to fight whatever that is I assume? My fellow Frost Giants and I would like it if you could inform your soldiers that we mean no harm to you" The Frost Giant introduced himself as Olaf. Olaf took one look at the threat and shook his head. "Alright boys, our objective is clear! We must destroy the Wind Beast!" They all slapped their chests and raised their iron weapons. Running at the creature, they were waved off by a happy Chiho. Chiho then looked at her mystified brother and gave him the finger. She wouldn't listen to him as long as he acted like an ass. Rinzler was the most level headed here so Chiho would defer to her for orders.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now a towering colossus of mist and cold wind, the Ventus took in a deep breath. Exhaling at the camp, the attack was reflected right at it. It growled angrily and began to look for chinks in the magical armor protecting these pests. The experiments performed by Stormageddon may have been Hell for this Ventus. Though they had given it the ability to think. Its repeated attacks weren't working. They would always be reflected back at the Ventus. Upon closer inspection with its superior eyesight, the Ventus noticed that the people were both panicking and many were tired. Especially the ones holding up this reflective barrier. If the Ventus could have smiled, it would have. Pulling back its arm, the Ventus strikes the barrier with the collection of storms that comprise its fist. While it is pushed back, it isn't knocked down. Deciding on this new tactic, the Ventus decides to use its hands to wear down the defenses of this group of pesky troublemakers. Each punch may push it back, however it also gives it a shorter recovery time to try again. Striking at the barrier with all its might, the Ventus notices it starting to crack...
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Izuru quickly felt the loyalty of the people fall to others. Then everyone went to sleep because of some strange magical presence. His plans and commands are falling on deaf ears. Even Chiho, his own sister had abandoned him for Rinzler. Rinzler had put him in a corner like she always did and Izuru was sick of it. He was also sure he had heard soldiers proclaiming that one of his Knights or even Rinzler herself should be the monarch. Just like the Northern Rangers, Izuru was chewed out for not being better at his job. Everyone would prefer someone else on the throne. Izuru thought his journey had changed him, however it seemed that he was still just the Emperor nobody wanted anything to do with. Part of Izuru was tempted to just abdicate and let this crackpot of a country burn. Part of Izuru wanted to kill everyone who tried to take the throne. However the rest of Izuru was still convinced he could make Sumaru a place where everyone wouldn't have to worry about bullies. "At least I have my allies in the Twelfth" Izuru muttered under his breath. Your Majesty, I have need of you! Jacobs voice echoed in Izuru's mind. It seems Veronica had used her magic to transmit Jacobs voice again. This surprised him as everyone was supposed to be asleep. Reaching out to Rinzler, Izuru told her to keep the formation going until the Ventus was taken care of. They had too many injured to just pack up and move.

Landing on Ghost, Izuru walked into a secluded corner of the camp. Looking around for Jacob, he searched around for the Standard-Bearer. Suddenly, Izuru felt over a million volts course through his body. Looking down, Izuru saw familiar scarlet electricity coursing around his body. Falling to his knees, he sees soldiers from various Legions step out of the shadows. All of them are armed with sharp blades. "The standard you gave me is quite good at negating certain magics because of its materials. I've seen how you absorb magic, Majesty... so I've gone with the safer option of steel" Jacobs voice was unusually cold. Izuru was brought to his feet by the Standard-Bearer. A young Light Elf stabbed him in the gut with tears in her eyes. "My brother died in your stupid battle with Grigori". "You have proven yourself unworthy of Queen Izanami's blood" A Demon with large horns shoved his knife into Izuru's chest. A Blonde Human Male stabbed Izuru in the stomach twice "I'm going to have fun with your sister~". Izuru managed to scorch his throat before running out of energy. The attackers descended on him with their knives. "Devil King!" "I've lost so much because of you!" "Its all your fault!" "This land is better off without you" All of them said their curses as they stabbed their Emperor. Izuru tried to defend himself, though to no avail. Finally, Jacob picked him up and held him close. "We won't allow another Tyrant to ruin this country" Jacob said bitterly before slashing him across the throat. As his blood turned the snow red, Veronica opened a small portal beneath Izuru. Falling through the opening, the Emperor was taken care of in their eyes. Closing the portal, the group covered up the murder scene and used lightning magic to incinerate the body of their dead conspirator. Scooping up the ashes, they checked in with their lookout. He made sure no one heard or saw what happened.

Running over to Rinzler, Jacob appeared teary-eyed and heartbroken. He held ashes in his hands. Fighting back tears, he told her what happened. In his version of the story, Izuru had heroically taken the brunt of an attack from a Ventus. The ashes in his hands were all that was left of their great Emperor.

Amaya Himura

 

[RatKing]

Witnessing the soldiers around them suddenly collapse into a deep sleep and soon after the Knight of 2 and 3 being rocketed toward the Ventu all from the magical power of Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov made Septimus both fear and respect the wizard of wizards. Surely she was worthy of her long list of titles, but at the same time she was not one Septimus would ever want to get on the wrong side of.

Looking up at Kai, Septimus saw that he clearly wanted to take part of the action and assist however he could but with their enemy just above the tops of the trees and beating down on the magical barrier it seemed that all most of the knights could do was either watch from below or have the wizard of wizards launch them at the creature. And as unfulfilling as the former option was, the later option wasn’t particularly one Septimus was keen on taking as it was not only the exact thing he had joked about not doing with Kai but there was also the fact that falling over a hundred feet or so wasn’t the most ideal situation to be in.

Luckily though it had seemed that one of the new individuals who he had not quite caught the name of, had with an impressive amount of balance and timing manged to toss their sword into the air and hopped onto the blade before miraculously flying off to the creature. Where does one even get an enchantment on their sword for something like that? In a graceful dismount from his weapon the swordsman sliced up the cloud creatures leg which while at first seemed like a devastating blow to the creature turned out to be more or less ineffectual as the severed leg converted into multiple smaller Venti.

“Well looks like we got lucky Kai” he said pointing at the small cloud satans descending to the ground “Though I’m still not sure how we’re gonna put those things down for good. Slicing them may just make more and I’m not sure I can put out enough fire to deal with them”

Gohan510

 

[Freshet]

"Wh-" was all Trinity could get out before she found herself skyrocketing through the very air itself, and inadvertently dropping her shield and sword. She damn well hoped that Rinzler, or rather anyone, could catch her when she inevitably made her descent back down. Because while she couldn't see, considering she took the Master of Homunculi's advice, she was pretty damn sure that she was much higher than she was when dealing with the zombified dragon.

Meanwhile back on the ground, her loyal steed began making a series of gurgling and snorting sounds as she stomped her front feet as if they were guarding these objects until her owner returned.

"WAAAAAAAAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~" shrieked out the girl, who had loads of tears rolling down her face, amidst a continued torrent and howling of thunder. She damn well kept her eyes closed, as the sky was generally a pretty devious thing, not wanting to realize exactly how far up she was. At this point perhaps Trinity would've wished she was among the soldiers who were sent to slumber to avoid having their fear harnessed. Perhaps she would've wanted to stay on the ground with the others, including new giants. However there is one thing that the Knight of Three knew intensely. It was something that no one or thing could take away from her or convince her otherwise.

She hated this. She loathed the fact that there was a giant cloud satan, she was angry that it was the cause she was up here. Well technically it was the work of Zharko Serafim Bogdan Miroslav Kostadin Gerasim Vaska Trajan Apostol Zharkov XXXVII that sent her into the air, but she wouldn't have needed to if there was not a cloud satan.

This Ventus, was going to be on the end of a major ass-kicking. For Trinity hearkened back to the words told to her by Mickey, that her artifact could probably hurt it. And Trinity Tercet Thricecoined was going to believe in the her that believed in herself!

"HATEHATEHATEHATEYOU!" she shrieked out in an attempt to hype herself up as she directed towards the back of the creature's head, as the Wizard of Wizards planned. "HAVE MY HATRED! THE HATE OF THE PEOPLE!" she swung her arm as the artifact made its distinctive orange glow and whirring noise. She began punching even faster, as the whirring intensified as did the glow, "I WILL DRILL TO TOMORROW!"

"AND I WILL PIERCE THROUGH THESE HEAVENS SO THAT OTHERS MAY HAVE THE DREAMS OF TOMORROOOOOOOOOW!" And so the light and sound reached a mighty crescendo as The Knight of Three delivered a haymaker, the most exaggerated and forceful thrust, to the back of the stem of the Ventus' head.


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