Fantasy The Translucent Rose

[Status Undead]

They are known by all, as the Roses. A group of champions who have protected the planet since time immemorial. They are chosen only from the best, based on skills, personality, and gender, fr the variety is what allows them to look at all possible angles in the toughest of fights.


The world is lush, full of rolling hills, leafy forests, and desserts populated with oases. Though it's not all, perfect, there are several patches, where demons and monstrosities are summoned. The Roses have figured out the pattern, an have been holding their battles at these locations to keep the monsters from spreading out and attacking innocents. These battles tend to leave a large circular field of burnt, frozen, scorched, cracked, torn, pulverized, and otherwise destroyed earth.


No one knows how, or who opens the portals, though no one has ever been able to go through one. No one seems to know how or who makes the Roses appear before their chosen champion, not even the chosen Rose themselves.


The Roses spend their life traveling the path to the next patch, waiting for the portal to open and the monsters to flow. The Roses got their name from the roses they carry. Roses don't grow on the planet, and they can not be made, no matter how skilled one may be. The roses are also magically bound to it's owner, which is given when they are chosen, and destroyed if it's lost or the owner is killed, only to be returned, or to find a new owner. These roses only find the most skilled people on earth, and enhance their powers even further, making a single Rose member able to take down an entire city army alone. The group is capable of defeating any creature imaginable.


Roses are by no means immortal, and many have died, most by old age, and a few even in battle against particularly powerful foes. They embody protecting the planet, and in many millennium, there has never been a Rose who has worked against the side of good. Though, like everything in life, all things must come to an end. This story begins just before the group's final battle before things change. 
Another clear sky on another wonderful summer day. The group is headed towards their next battleground, minutes away from it coming into sight. This area was once the battle ground for an ice witch, a strong one. Even through twelve summers, the ice is still caked on in patches and stalagmites. Even though they will be arriving shortly there's still several hours before the portal is scheduled to open. Earal, often called Eerie for short, is carefully making her way among the knee high grass to the site, careful to not trip and make a fool of herself, though it'll probably happen anyways.


As they reach the battleground, the group sets up camp a short ways off, where they can eat before hand and rest afterwards, before moving on to the next site. Earal watches as the Sun sets, not being allowed to tough camp equipment, she always enjoyed night battles, though this one will probably be over before it gets too dark.


Earal enjoys food, drink, and conversation while the minutes whittle down until the portal is scheduled to open. She laughs and trips and gets laughed at, as the group usually got along. Though time was nearly here, she would try to focus so she wouldn't make any mistakes, though no one in the group can remember the last time she had a battle where she didn't mess up and some laughed in reminiscence.

 

[Yanipurr]

Orga wasn't with the rest of the group as they ate, drank and conversed with each other he never has been one to just waste time. He was training and getting himself ready for the upcoming battle as he normally would before a battle or was that just so he could get away from the conversation since he seems not be able to hold a solid conversation with them.


He finished up his training and headed back towards the rest of the group and saw them laughing he didn't know whats going on so he just sat down. He began to eat and drink but held off on the conversation. Orga looked up and caught the last glance of the sun setting it was a nice sight one that would seen be forgotten because of the battle but that's the life of a rose.

 

[Soviet Panda]

Conner kept his distance from Earal. It wasn't that he didn't like her, it was just that she was a bit clumsy, and some of these chemicals didn't like to mix for to long. As he laughed with the rest of the group, he was making one of his rather favorite concoctions. It didn't look like much, just a sphere. But on the inside, it was three layers of Sucrose, liquid potassium chlorate, and good old gunpowder. See, when the sphere impacted with an object to hard, the sucrose, or sugar, would mix with the liquid potassium chlorate and produce a violent reaction that causes flames as well as heat. The flames would ignite the gunpowder and create an explosion, the casing also worked rather well to make shrapnel.

 

[Hoax]

Finn lounged comfortably against a tree, a jumble of metal and wires stuck firmly in her hands. "Come on..." She muttered, the tool in her hand gently clicking a few pieces together on the inside of the chaos. "How do I...?" She broke off, mumbling to herself as she closed her eyes and thought for a moment.


"OH!" Finn gasped, her fingers flying over the metal and twisting it around a few times, occasionally jabbing it's innards with the thin tool. After a moment of this, she went back to pure confusion. This process continued in loops. Mostly confusion or stumbles, then a sudden dawning of idea, and slowly the jumble starts to take shape of something partially recognizable.

 

[The Doorman]

Ambrose stayed with the group, but kept an equal distance between him and each of the other Roses, he still hadn't talked to them, as he wasn't sure what he'd say if he did. He tinkered with one of his pistols, which had become jammed during the last battle, his skill with technology had become more than useful since the Roses found him in the desert. He looked up, the light nearly blinding him before he looked back down to hid gun to find a way to remove the bullet. The brunette dropped his bag onto the ground, rifling through it's contents and quickly finding what he was looking for . He looked around at the others, who were all doing their own thing, contemplating the consequence of speaking up before he decided against talking, returning to his tinkering.

 

[Soviet Panda]

Finishing his work on making the chemical grenade, Conner ever so gently sets it to the side, nit wanting it to go off. Now what was he to do? He could get the magneseam strips ready and set them up so they can burn and blind whatever showed up, if it had eyes. But he needed something with more of a bang to it. Not a bang like a uranium atom splitting, something more like a steam pipe bursting while under strain. Hearing the sound of realization dawning on something, he looks around and spots Finn tinkering with something. "What you doing?" he asked, slipping into the local dyalect where he grew up.

 

[Hoax]

Finn looked up, her eyes struggling to focus on the one speaking. "Huh? Oh, here." She said, clicking a few things into place and then releasing it from her hand. It was a mechanical bird, colored bronze with bits of silver from the wires and metal. It jumped off her palm and flew around Conner's head, landing on his shoulder. "It's a bird, if you haven't already guessed." She grinned, the bird making little whirring noises beside Conner's ear, almost like cheeping.

 

[Soviet Panda]

Conner jumped as the mechanical bird landed on his shoulder. "Now that you mention it, yes I see it." he replied, trying to wave it away without being rude. "How does it work? Is there a copper and some sort of acid creating an electric current that inturn powers the bird? No, that can't be it. Electricity can barely do anything let alone power a small bird. No, it must be something that produces heat to turn liquid H2O into it's gaseous state that in turn pistons or something of the like that power the wings into motion. Some of that steam could also come out to make noises somehow, not sure how though, not my field of expertise."

 

[Hoax]

Finn smiled. "You don't even know how happy that just made me. It's comforting to hear someone speak like that." She clicked her tongue and the bird flew back to her, to which she proceeded to begin to dismantle it. The bird's wings flapped uselessly a few times, before making a sad, drawn out squealing sound. "Sorry..." She muttered, patting the bird. "I make birds and such when I'm bored... Keeps my hands busy so I don't explode." She said, turning her attention back to Conner. "What are you up to? I saw you with a few things in your hands as well."

 

[Soviet Panda]

I was making a Sodium Chlorate and Sucrose grenade. Very handy when in a pinch. All you have to do is throw it, and the sucrose, or sugar, mixes with the liquid soduim chlorate and produces heat and the occasional flame. From there, it ignites the gun powder and the whole thing explodes. It's all rather simple really." 
(Made a mistake. It's potassium chlorate. So replace sodium with potassium in your head.)

 

[Status Undead]

Ahh, the time was nearly here. Energy began to surge around the center of the battleground, marked out by the destruction of thousands of battles in the past. As this happened Earal sat down, beginning to gather her own energy while she chanted, hoping to bring something big out early on. The air begins to in a reddish hue as energy starts to form the portal. Seconds later a very large portal opens, different shades of red swirling in a menacing fashion as the group waits to confront whatever comes out. Almost a minute passes and nothing seems to happen, then a seemingly invisible enemy knocks Earal over, in turn opening up her portal prematurely. Her portal is a bluish color, as per usual, and screams and grunts can be heard from the other side. The group needs to come up with a plan for dealing with an unseen enemy. To make it even more difficult swarms of ravenous demon hounds and goblins emerge as well, followed by three massive thirty foot stone golems. This was sure to be an interesting battle as Earal tries to take control of her portal.

 

[Yanipurr]

Orga could tell the time was upon them hence the energy surge in the center and Earal opening her portal. When Earal was attacked Orga let out a little laugh 'its not like she needs much help in messing up anyway' he thought to himself. He had two options he could either charge into the battle without a vanguard or protect Earal who could make a vanguard. He made his decision and quickly rushed over to protect Earal while she was trying to take control of her portal. "I'll protect you just make it something big and helpful would you." He said watching the surrounding area but that unseen foe would be a nuisance but he had a plan to stop him from attacking them two for the time being. He stood directly behind Earal and closed his hands and began to gather his energy releasing it in sudden burst of his black lighting to create a dome of lightning but missing the part of the dome where she was sat before forcing the lighting to rejoin after it was passes her the dome continues for about 5 or 6 meters in all directions.

 

[Soviet Panda]

Lucky for he, for everyone, made those grenades. Almost as soon as he finished the last one the portal began to open. And, almost like clock work, Earal's portal was interrupted. He wasn't sure if it was something he couldn't see, or just her being clumsy, but things needed to be done right then and now. So, he took flight with his grenades and a satchel of something he picked up before taking off. The golems he couldn't do anything about, but just about everything else he could. And like a bomber, he dropped his grenades, aiming for clusters of baddies. He didn't have his exoskeleton on, and was already beginning to get tired.

 

[The Doorman]

Ambrose was still not entirely used to this whole... Rose thing, so as per usual he lagged for maybe one... Five minutes before he even realized the portal had opened. He pushed his goggles back onto his forehead and watched for a moment before he began to process what exactly was going on, but even then he was left with some confusion, he was considering being helpful but the last time he'd tried he screwed up and shot someone in the foot, Wouldn't want a repeat of that, but I really should be helping... The half-elf observed for a few more moments as everyone else joined in, Wait... What are the- oh, okay. Yes, it would be best if he stayed out of the way for the time being, oh, no, likely a bad idea. He looked up at the faces of the golems, he had some experience with this particular type, so he knew it would take a bit for them to go down.


He would fight, but with his luck he'd shoot the darn thing in the leg and it'd crush everyone. Ah, bad luck, no one wants it but everyone seems to have it, how lucky.

 

[Madi]

Bianca jumped from her place by the fire as soon as she noticed the whole commotion over the two portals. She immediately tore a potion and emerald-colored stone from her satchel, quickly consuming the vial before clapping her hands across the stone. The green rock had now disappeared, and Bianca was now infused with the ability of flight and levitation. She soared at an amazing speed, tearing up chunks of icy rock along the way and carrying them close behind her. With an abrupt stop, Bianca faced the mass of foes and, one-by-one with a throwing motion, hurled the chunks of icy rock at the enemies.

 

[The Doorman]

Going against his better judgement, the brunette shot one of the burly rock monsters in it's leg, the bullet exploding upon impact, destroying it's mineral limb. Ambrose watched as the beastly golem fell to the ground and landed in a heap of stone and pebbles, narrowly missing the girl flying around the horde of hostile creatures that had appeared from the portal. He quickly moved away from where he stood to avoid being blamed, though he was very obviously at fault, he simply hated the idea of anyone knowing that he could be clumsy, which was the very thing that irritated him most about himself and others. Ambrose was too focused on his pointless thoughts to notice the hounds that had begun to appear around him, yet another stupid mistake that would bother him later.

 

[Status Undead]

Out from her portal appeared a head, a big, mean, red, dragon head. It's horned head and long neck barely fit through the opening and Earal rushed to the portal. She braced on leg against the neck of the beast, using her hands to try and pry the portal open to let her monster loose. "Ugh, why does this always happen?" As she began to work on opening the portal further she felt the invisible creature brush past her, now convinced the first trip up wasn't her fault she shouted to the rest of the group, ignoring the hounds and goblins about her, confident the group can handle it, "There's an unseen creature here, be careful!" The group has never fought anything before they couldn't handle, and the only hard part of this battle would be the invisible one.


Earal can hear explosions in the background, followed by the crumbling of the first golem. As her own portal grew bigger, revealing more of the bipedal dragon, so did the other, revealing a large ten foot tall eye, no doubt the finally to the event. Though with the pace the group was working at, all the evil creatures will be dead by the time the giant comes through, allowing plenty of prep time for it's swift execution.

 

[Soviet Panda]

"On it." Conner shouted, and from the hydrogen in the air created a powder. As he took a pass at a random area, he spread the dust around, letting it fall through the air. It coated everything in white, choking those with open mouths and blinding if it got in their eyes. Anything in any eye was rather unpleasant, but sulfuric powder was rather nasty.

 

[TheJipan]

Karin Ukitake saw the monsters begin to appear and ran towards them, shuffling her pack of playing cards as she went. When she felt the deck was shuffled enough, she picked up the top card...


[dice]824[/dice]


It was the Jack of Spades! She charged it and threw it up into the air, summoning an ethereal living suit of black armour with a spade emblazoned on its chest and a sword with a purple glow. It started slashing the surrounding goblins, being controlled by its summoner, and throwing off the occasional hound that jumped at it. 
Aster Orihara was flying around 100 feet in the air, looking for the monsters. He had been tipped off by an old monk about monsters that were going to appear in the area... Lots of them. As he flew, he considered the possibility of the roses being there first, and wondered what their reaction might be when they saw him. It was surprising that they hadn't seen him sooner... They were both doing the same thing, after all. He guessed that the ones he usually went after we're either too small for them too worry about, he got there before they could, or they were simply the ones that got away. He didn't have time to ponder on this further, because he saw a portal, some giant rock monsters, some goblins and some hounds down on the ground. And fighting them were the roses. He sighed, gliding towards the ground. Now was as good a time as any for them to see him. Just before he hit the ground, he snapped his wings out, pulling up at the last minute to land safely on his feet and draw his sword, beheading a couple of nearby goblins in one swift movement. He smelt a hound behind him, and threw out an arm in its way, hardening the skin painfully into scales just before the dog bit it, then growing a spike through the hound's skull, killing it before he threw it off, simultaneously bringing his sword around to drive it through a second hound, which he threw into a few charging goblins. It didn't look like there was going to be an end to this any time soon, and his eyes began to turn red, the vampire in him coming to the fore at the sight of all this blood. As he caught a goblin by the neck and slammed it into the ground, he willed the vampire back down again, knowing that it would weaken him because of the sunlight. And so the fighting continued.

 

[The Doorman]

Ambrose suddenly saw a group of canid beasts surrounding him, doing a quick spin and shooting them in varous parts of their bodies, head, chest, throat. each shot lethal to the beasts. He took a look around and up at the golems faces, it was then that he saw something... Someone? In the air above, his first instinct being to shoot at it, that was when he realized this was, in fact, a someone and was instantly filled with regret. Though he wasn't the smartest, he had nigh perfect aim, even with a flying being he was very likely to hit whomever he'd shot at, this was unfortunate. He glanced over at the others, even Earal didn't fuck up this badly, and he knew it. The brunette just hoped he didn't actually hit the poor guy, whoever he was.


(Sorry, muse isn't the best and I'm fallin' asleep.)

 

[TheJipan]

As Aster swung around to lop off the heads of a few more goblins, he felt a sharp pain in his right leg, in the inside of his thigh. Blood was gushing out of a bullets wound in his artery at a deadly rate. But he hadn't heard a gunshot... So it just have been when he was flying! If he didn't do something fast, he would pass out from blood loss and, soon after, die! He grimaced, weighing up hi options as he impaled another goblin on his sword. It didn't take him longer to realize that he only had one option. He had to eat... He could have tried drinking, but that would let his vampire out and then the sun would get him... But if he ate, then... No, he couldn't afford to doubt it. He didn't have time to. He grabbed the next hound by the neck as claws began to grow, his teeth growing longer, scales painfully manifesting on his skin and his bones beginning to shift painfully around as he transformed. By the time he had slammed the hound into the ground, to kill it, the transformation was complete and he roared at the lifeless body of the hound before throwing it up into the air and catching it in his mouth, swallowing it whole. Now he wouldn't turn back until he grew tired, full, bored or any combination of the above. A gold star to anyone who can guess what he turned into. 
(If you hadn't shot him... There wouldn't now be a Dragon on the loose. Also, he is no longer operating on his own consciousness.)

 

[The Doorman]

Ambrose sighed, he'd created a monster, hadn't he? He dare not let anyone know he was at fault, and had he moved just a bit faster this guy wouldn't have transformed at all... Or girl, he wasn't sure. He didn't know what to do, but the others were already so busy, he was so useless... The Rose couldn't just kill him, that'd be wrong! "Oh... Dammit..." The half-elf breathed, shooting another golem in the chest this was the best he cold do right now, all he could do was explode shit. Ambrose cursed something in elven tongue before he returned his focus to the dragon as he swallowed a hound whole, this was insanity, dragon people, goblins, golems, hounds, and one invisible fucker to top off the oh shit sundae, oh how he wished it was just a sundae, then he could just return to silently tailing the roses, you'd think that being the eldest would make him wisest but no, he lacked common sense, how was he supposed to be intelligent without this simple survival skill, h groaned and looked around once more, finger pulling the trigger to shoot another hound. 
(Blast this healing power of his, Ambrose is failing to carry out a simple taaaaask.)

 

[TheJipan]

Aster Dragon roared, smashing one giant paw into a group of goblins with so much casual force they simply exploded into blood. The Dragon was 10 feet tall and 20 feet from snout to tail, with paws big enough for a dwarf to disappear into. It bit forwards with its mouth and caught a pack of hounds all in one go, squealing as they went down into his stomach. It roared again after the mouthful, then reared its head, light beginning to emanate from it before it threw its head forwards again, blasting a few dozen hounds and goblins with white-hot flame. Thankfully, because there were so many of them, the roses were to far away to do anything. As it shot its head forwards for another snack of goblin and hound, it felt something small and sharp slash through its snout, leaving a 6 inch deep gouge along it, steaming from the dragon's hot blood. As the cut began to close, the dragon whipped its head around, trying to find the person who would dare try to injure him! 
Karin heard the roar of something large and turned quickly too look at it, jaw dropping when she saw the Dragon laying waste to the monsters. Where had it come from? It couldn't have come from the portal, or she would have seen it. She didn't hear it fly in. Where the hell did it come from? Leaving her autonomous ethereal knight to hold off the goblins for her, she turned and shouted, "Hey! Big and scaly!! Over here!!!" realising that it wasn't working, she drew a card from her deck...


An ace!! Yes!! She charged it an flicked it at the Dragon, aiming for the snout. When she saw the spurt of blood, she gave a whoop of joy. Then she saw the wound close as the Dragon turned towards her. It saw her and roared, charging blindly through the army towards her. "Oh shit." she said. Then she began to run. 
(Now you've done it...)

 

[The Doorman]

"OH MY GARGON, KARIN, THAT'S A PERSON!" Gargon? Really Ambrose? That weird puppet show character? Fine then, at least any non-elf doesn't know about Gargon or you'd be really embarrassed, you dingus.


Ambrose quickly switched his ammunition out, this could tranquilize the dragon within five minutes, or kill him within five seconds, he hadn't gotten around to labelling potion and poison between nearly dying in the desert and shooting some guy out of the sky. His arm quickly moved to point the gun at the dragon's shoulder, which was damn huge, he couldn't miss it, it was literally impossible to miss a fucking dragon, the half-elf's scarred index finger quickly fired two shots before jumping backwards, the dragon was simply too close for comfort. Searching for Karin, to make sure she wasn't dead, and thankfully, she wasn't, he backed into the rock solid leg of one of the massive 30 foot golems, the last of the three. It's glowing crimson eyes bore deep into the back of his head as it glared down at him, and as much as the man wished to ignore his presence, he couldn't deny the fact that he was thoroughly fucked straight into fuck this land. With the gun in his right hand he shot blindly at the living boulder with yet another explosive round of ammunition, glad he didn't swap that for whatever he'd shot the dragon with a the rubble fell down around him, nearly giving him a concussion in all of the madness he'd caused.

 

[TheJipan]

(woah... Better hope they were armour-piercing rounds...)