Fantasy Are you tired of sipping Crab Coladas? (Pirate RP) (Always Open)

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Fergie​

A few rounds were popped into the skull of the last bear until it shattered, leaving Fergie to check her surroundings for any stragglers before holstering her gun. GodsDAMN, you're sucking at this right now. By the looks of it, the resulting injuries and casualties had been minor, but it was still a dent. Maybe if she'd gone for a purely ranged offense, they wouldn't have had to face the bears head-on at all. Her crew was versatile, but it was an unnecessary oversight, especially to assume undead were naturally weaker. Well, actually, they WERE, but when summoned by some low-rate Necromancer, not a fucking demon.

And now that fucking demon had decided to go spelunking. Great. "Anyone upright, start headin' towards the forest line to the Vanguard! Get ready to cockblock this motherfucker from reaching the city!" The healers were going to have to act quick, because she wasn't sparing a moment. She couldn't count on Mozza granting any, and expected this lull period to be short and anything but sweet.

She wasn't sure how they hell they were going to stop a huge-ass dragon demon from going where he pleased, but the rough and rooted terrain here would make a decent obstacle. As for what she could do, they might as well recoup on their way to the forest line in preparation, while she thought of a plan. "Fergie to Adonis--" ye dumbfuck, shithead, asswipe-- "Requesting ammo and mana resupply." It had been a decent ammo expense, and she wasn't unaware that Fatimah's magic attack had been a hefty one. They would need more time to regenerate, and time wasn't something she could count on right now. "Fatimah, how're your troops holdin' up?"

Bogrum Mazoga​

Arnold's words didn't offer a lot of solace to Bogrum, but the despair that was starting to build was halted. He didn't know WHAT he could do, but he couldn't do nothing. If anything, he could continue what he'd been doing, protecting the men under their charge and reducing losses. "How deep do these walls go underground?" He couldn't imagine by much, but he needed to have an idea of what sort of resistance Mozza would face. Looking up at the walls now, he didn't have much faith in them in general. It was a strong material, but he could see the cracks in its frame, jagged scars from battles prior filled in but betraying that their fortitude had peaked before now. They had magical protections to make up for this, but it wouldn't be enough.

However... "If the demon nears the Church, it puts him at a disadvantage as well." But if he got IN the city, that would be offset by the souls he would start collecting in the carnage. So that meant there was a point where he was closest to the Church, while not having restored his power. A sweet spot to exploit right before he seized the city. But how?

If Mozza couldn't be stopped, then maybe they could slow his progress. "Commander, what if we distribute Holy magic into the ground here?" Like drawing salt to keep out spirits, a barrier of Holy magic would make it HURT to try to burrow through. If he was trying to flee the Vanguard, then he was already in a notably weakened state.

Nancy Noi​

Spoiler: The Truth Revealed

Warm relief upon his prayer being received turned bitter cold as he was, again, submerged in his Goddess's realm. This time, it wasn't those frigid waters pricking him with ice. His Goddess wanted to reveal something regarding Vespera? He knew she could be secretive about herself, and while he often did wonder what it was she kept hidden under that cheerful face, he respected her privacy. For his Goddess to deem it necessary to reveal such things put icy dread in his veins.
Wait. Please don't--

Before his eyes received anything, he was hit with a feeling, one that immediately permeated deep to his core.
She's trapped.
He saw Kraiven, but not as HE saw it. A floating prison without bars, the abyss below warning anyone who sought freedom... a warning that became a tantalizing solace. For days, those eyes peered down into the nothingness, because looking upon that great, restored city in the epicenter brought more pain than any fear of death could. The epicenter of the struggles; nights spent racked in tears or sweating in feverish dreams, days spent gritting her teeth in a forced smile in the face of her kingdom. "Her kingdom"...

Why are you showing me this...
This land hated her. He felt her anxiety during job after job she took, worrying if her clients would spit or belittle or threaten. She hated herself. Every morning that she saw herself in the mirror, that internalized disgust tore deeper lacerations into her self-image. The people she loved, and she knew loved her back, were out of reach. Countless, countless letters that would never be answered. Day after day, year after year, the hope that she'd see her family again waned and waned until it was only despair that was rooted in her heart.

The isolation, the loneliness, the hopelessness... all for different reasons, but they were all emotions Nancy knew very well. Between the flashes of visions, he was brought back to when he was a child in the Springs. Years of study in an art he'd never succeed in, and the palpable, crushing disappointment that permeated off of his sire when he turned out nothing like his accomplished siblings. Then, it was like he hadn't even existed, the family was so determined to pretend the shame he brought was a fleeting rumor. He could have been dead in that study for days, and they wouldn't have noticed... did they even notice when he finally wandered off into the deadly woods? The fact that Nellie came with him turned that decision into an attempt to better his life, rather than to give it to the beasts.

How-- how could I not tell??
Nancy could smell the dissatisfaction in her pheromone signature, but Ves was the only vampire he knew, and had no one else to compare with. She smelled so distinct from the humans and other races, it was like trying to learn a whole language from one singular book. So when he asked if she was okay, what she said had been harrowing, but in comparison to THIS, it was surface level. Didn't she trust him? Didn't she want relief, someone to confide in? Why didn't she tell him?

The same reason you never told her.
Vespera was always this way. A shining example of determination, even if that meant a determination to settle her own issues as to not burden her friends. But the price of that was carrying a burden the weight of this whole damn rock on her little shoulders. It wasn't fair. It WASN'T FAIR. The Darling of Toron, and this was her reward?! To be spat on by enemies and allies alike?!

When it was anger that coursed through him now, Nancy realized that he was back in the corridors. A sting of burnt smell in his nose, face cold and wet with tears. He must have been crying during the entire vision, and when he registered the Deacon waiting at his side, he began drying them away with his sleeve. "She-- She did. Thank you. Both of you." He took in several deep breaths, loosening those tightened muscles in his chest. "I'm sorry to put you in harm's way. I just... I needed to do this."

Forgive me, Goddess. I don't mean to act like I'm above it all. When he considered even the Holy flawed, it wasn't out of a presumption that he'd do better. It was just... impossible. Fixing this was impossible. A great leader could do everything they could to help their citizens, but someone was still getting screwed regardless. That was why there was a church full of Blighted children, and a king who allowed it to protect the rest of his people. It was why saving that unborn child meant leaving the nun to continue wandering the Spirit Sea. And it was probably why Karma was about to be collected, at the expense of everyone in radius. It wasn't fair... but when was this world ever?

I understand now. Why you showed me. Nancy couldn't deny that among all those faces that had flashed in his mind, fearing for their lives, not one had been of someone who had been cruel to Vespera. If he saw their lifeless statue by the end of this, he wouldn't give it a second glance. Suffering was to come, but also catharsis. This was Kraiven's judgement, for better and worse.
I'll stand beside her before I will this kingdom. Thank you for making me realize. Toron had been good to Nancy, accommodating more than most places would. But they accommodated many, many non-humans. While people made plenty of judgements towards him, at best inappropriate and at worst hurtful, it was bred of ignorance and simply not knowing what to make of a Locathah. But when it came to Ves, a being who challenged the core of their Holy beliefs, they bared their teeth brazenly. What did that say about them? When they felt they could justify their malice, they gave it heartily. These pirates were eager to cause harm, and would if it felt justified... so how different were they, really?

... He was still mad at them, of course. But now he was mad at everyone, and while he never could handle his anger well, it was better than falling into despair in this moment. Noticing the Blighted children being herded to safety, he asked, "Are we clear, or are there still more undead to come?"


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Elaina Melora
Toron- Roaming the City​

"Elaina to Vespera."
"...........Vespera speaking. Demestral said you needed to coordinate taking out the undead in the graveyards around the city."
"Indeed. When we are done with the current graveyard, I require of you a map of the city so we can stage the town guards."
"King Hemhart has a special force of soldiers. Shouldn't they be out?"
A scoff from Elaina's end. "Those special forces are hunkered around the castle's guardwalls and the bridge let up to prevent entrance or exit. Local town guards are the only option. King Hemhart will let this city burn and save his own ass again."
"HE didn't let this city burn. Our enemies burned it down and through him we rebuilt."
"Your king was a coward who didn't fall with his empire. He made FOOLS out of all of you in having you believe that the Empire lived on while time has gone on without it"
".............."
"And now karma is coming to collect and rather than fall trying to protect his capital city, he hunkers down in that castle with 100 of his most elite soldiers while the undead run rampant coming after YOU." The drawbridge was indeed let up and Ves saw it herself on the way to the graveyard with a small team of guards. There was no access to the castle. No matter what, no matter how Vespera hated to admit it, Elaina was correct.
"We don't have time for this," Ves said, weak and over this by now.
"Exactly, so bring me the map so we can work this out."

The connection petered out. Elaina knew from the moment she laid eyes on Ves. Vespera was mentioned, described, and a pics of her were in books written by the Seyres Family. And said books were few of thousands in that library. While making her squirm by mentioning her family would've been fun, Vespera was right in that they didn't have time for that. Plus, Vespera came off as someone who would stand there submissively while she gets berated to her face (so long as you don't insult her family), and there's no fun in berating the already weak and submissive.

Elaina got back to popping skeleton skulls with her rifle at the first graveyard. These were heavily armed, but all they had to do with pop them in the head and destroy the gem. Precision shots were easy for her, especially since she was floating in the air on her alicorn taking her shots far out of melee distance. It quickly dawned on her that there were simply too many.

The undead were loose around the city. The town guards were not prepared, King Hemhart and his Elites were bunkered down in the castle instead of staging guards. If Elaina had a choice, she would give King Hemhart a well-deserved bullet to the head


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

Church​

"Ya held up well watching the fireworks," the Deacon said to him, immediately seeing the anger leaking from the Locathah. "Guess the Goddess gave you the truth. That's anger. Ignorance is bliss because the truth is only pleasant in a utopia."
But there was business to handle. "Church crew to Elaina. How ya holding up?" The sounds of gunfire rang over the line.
"Killing." she said, obviously concentrating on shooting. "We arrived too late and the undead are spilling out. We'll stick to the Church."
"Accomplished. All undead killed and cremated."
"Are those children still alive?"
"Yup, the kiddies look like a bunch of freaks, but they at least have sense." The Deacon really feared that he would've put the some of the children down, and then have to talk down a wrathful pair of angels.
"Alright. Reload and standfast on guard. The undead are numerous." Looks like she didn't have this under control. Then again, it was a whole-ass graveyard all risen at the same time
"Shouldn't the Church be protected?"
"Not from the Demon, and that's the biggest deterrent if he makes it to the city. We need Nancy's Coin placed in an alter and prayed to. Then that turns the City into an actual danger."
"I'll get that done."
"My thanks. Have him pray for ENFORCEMENT, not protection, not salvation or any of that shit. We need OFFENSE."

He turned to Nancy as the connection severed. "She was on speaker. Since the demon burrowed, we gotta do this now not later. We don't give a shit about anything that's not headed to the Church. That's other people's jobs." he leaned in, eyes narrowed. "We will not be playing the goody again. If they make it to the Church, fine. I'm not going out of my way to play hero though unless the God commands it." Nancy's request was a one time thing that they followed, but it put their lives in danger to save a fetus. While the Deacon understood the point of dedicating an innocent unborn. He himself had done it quite a bit. This just wasn't the circumstance to be doing it


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

Fatimah
Forest​

Fatimah's troops did use a lot of magic. She herself was fine, but her troops were tired. "We can't do another magic blitz for a while. I'll add Stamina Potions to your request. No action needed on your part." Mages being tired was different than most. They needed stamina because if they were too tired, they could cause a misfire on advanced spells.
"On your feet, mages. Conserve magic and switch to gun and blade. No using tons of magic on weak enemies."
"Aye!" they yelled. This shouldn't have had to be said, but she saw it happening yet couldn't say anything about it since she was magically ripping to shred that Alpha Stag.


"Holy Magic users that aren't medics, we are creating an Anti-Demon Field. If that demon slithers within it, it'll hinder his healing." She would've said Sanctified Holy Field, but they needed a strong offense, and this would hinder that head regeneration factor as well as constantly burn it, cauterizing its wounds. On top of that, any holy weapons did even more damage. "If you are a Creature of Darkness, I suggest drinking the Anti-Holy potion I gave you." There weren't that many overall. Most of them were serving on the ships, since this had to be a Holy Fight. Still the few that were down here were too good to keep on the ship.

While they got to work crafting the circle for the field, Fatimah noticed that Fergie's crystal had gone unanswered. This was a problem, and one that they definitely shouldn't be having right now.
"Fatimah to Adonis."
"Yes, Fatimah?" An immediate answer
"I know you heard Fergie's request yet I didn't hear a reply. Where are our munitions?"
"It is being taken care of by Avery." So not only did he not give receipt of acknowledgement, but he pawned it off on the literal raid captain. However, she knew Avery's work. The MOMENT he was given a task, he would've completed it, especially in this case where he had something to prove. In Fatimah's mind, Adonis called Avery into his office and is currently waiting to give him the task.

Fatimah took a deep breath. "Avery is the Raid Captain," she said calmly, "He is giving orders, giving and receiving reports, and managing the fight overall, and doing so with expertise." Her temper was wavering. That was what was annoying her. Avery literally doesn't have time to be doing that shit. Unless he was running a Spec Ops operation, he was inundated with commanding. "YOU are the commander of the Reinforcements Air Support and you chose to do what you wanted contrary to YOUR ASSIGNED RAID CAPTAIN, and then put the ship in a useless position." Then she just let him have it in an explosive burst. "GET ME MY MUNITIONS and MOVE THAT BUCKET INTO A USEFUL SPOT!!" she shrieked, her body crackling with anger. "MY TROOPS WILL NOT HAVE THEIR LIVES PLAYED WITH BY A LAZY-ASS INCOMPETENT FOOL!!!" While one could debate on if Fatimah meant the specific troops that made up her squad, or the reinforcement troops in general, it showed that Fatimah, friendly as she was in general, was definitely the no-nonsense type. Being in Adonis's Inner Circle, she had no qualms on verbally lashing him. The line shut off without any acknowledgement. Maybe this was a one time thing, or maybe this was one of the common trends of dissatisfaction with the Basenji Master Captain.

It didn't take much longer for the munitions to drop, and then the ship began to move. It moved into a prime location to where it would give them firepower both to the front of the forest and to the back of the forest.
"Sorry you had to see that, ladies and gents," Fatimah said, calm now, "I don't have time to argue about basics." She turned to Fergie, able to sense that the Anti-Demon Field (ADF) was charged. "On your mark, the Anti-Demon Field is ready to cast."

The munitions came late so they would be losing more time than needed to reload and resupply, and it made Fatimah scoff in annoyance. Demi gets requested of something and she is a whirlwind of movement to get it done within 60 seconds, be it an attack or a resupply. Naka speaks and her lizardmen move with such an unrivalled precision and efficiency that adding an outsider to her crew literally makes them less efficient. Naka got her resupply request fulfilled in a whopping 15 seconds from acknowledgement to fulfillment. Adonis? Apparently can't be fucked to tell the ship he INSISTED that he commands to fulfill the resupply order.


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

Arnold Asella
Gates​

Arnold thought for a second after hearing Bogrum's point before reaching his conclusion. "I see your points. Our wall was our strongpoint. I have no doubt that it will hold up against one or two attacks from something like the demon." It was a STRONG wall. The timelessness prevented any sort of natural wear and tear. While there are battle scars, the wall was still sturdy. Not enough to last long against a literal Ancient Demon but........come on, it was unrealistic to expect it withstand that. Still, they could delay the demon even more. "I say we Enchant the walls with defensive magic to make it withstand more, and since we don't have much Holy Magic, your troops can focus on sanctifying the grounds and the wall." Better not waste their mana on their paltry still-returning Holy Magic, and better to use different stronger magic that they've actually had and been using the entire time



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

Unearth the Worm........​

Anticipation began to build as everyone did as much prep as they could within the time. "Be advised all units!" This was Avery's voice. "We're extracting and he'll be near the forest! Vanguard will make their way to surround and flank! Gates! Be ready at the last line! SEND IT!"
"Vanguard, into the forest Quickly!" Evangeline landed near the forest where the tremors were strong. Back to the forest and her facing the embattled and destroyed battle location, her sword already drawn and blazing as it's been doing with Holy anger. The dead bodies that littered the ground were sanctified to prevent Necromancy and the undead cremated to do the same. So much holy cremation made the grounds a huge deterrent for undead. Looking down to the ground, she smirked with the usual Evangeline maliciousness. She was eager, but allowed the Vanguard to enter the forest behind her. "I'd like to see you TRY and escape this," the woman said darkly.

She stuck her holy blade into the ground, all the way down to the hilt. "Sword in the Stone!" she called out before grasping the hilt and beginning to pull her blade out. It was as if all of the earth in front of her provided resistance, and every inch she pulled out uprooted the earth in front of her in a 45 degree cone-wide devastating earthquake in front of her. It was like the earth was being bombed from underneath with holy TnT telling as to how the cracks in the earth were accompanied by holy flashing light as if being lit from underneath. This attack was, in typical Evangeline fashion: Devastatingly powerful and blindingly flashy.

The sound and tremors could be felt by all, especially from those close to Evangeline. Even from the Gates, the tremors could be felt and it was about as bad as those from Mozreliun burrowing. The move ended with another explosion underneath, that literally the Gates from far back could see the demon burning as it achieved some quite floaty airtime for a beast that size, and then fell again, its landing causing even more damage

The spell Sword in the Stone, inspired by the story of the legendary King Arthur and the legendary sword Excalibur, was one of the powerful Earth Spells out there. Before such a spell, the earth stood no chance. Made more powerful by the God power Evangeline wielded, even a mountain would've bowed. This was the power of a magnitude 8 earthquake condensed from 360 degrees into 45 degrees, amplifying that already devastating power by 8x over. Evangeline was a terrifying woman of terrifying power and terrifying eagerness to use it. In one fell swoop, Evangeline had terraformed the plains that the Vanguard started this fight on into a destroyed craggy mess. Even the ground that weren't hit by the initial earth-shattering was destroyed by the final explosion. A lot of the rest of the land was now littered with the results of that destruction. Rocks, dirt, boulders, the bodies of any bigger creatures underground and the squirming of surviving unearthed worms, grubs, and snakes remained

Then Evangeline knelt in exhaustion. She put her all into the move and the results showed. Mozreliun was missing 3/10 heads, lots of scales busted, and currently overturned. Normally this wouldn't happen to a serpent, but flipping over was made difficult by his 10 heads. "Returning to ship," Evangeline said weakly before flying swiftly to the ship and damn near crash-landing on The Canine up above.
".............Naka will take Evangeline to Medbay." Naka advised all units.

The serpent was back and in a bad place thanks to the angels being empowered by their Gods and unleashing these preemptive strikes. Now with the Vanguard and Reinforcements confronting the serpent in the forest, could they keep that pressure? Could they win this fight here!?

Sebas took the initiative and charged. Orabelle unleashed another smiting attack from underneath the demon, trying to bust the back scales which were usually where they were the hardest, while Sebas leaped onto the beast overturned body and used another slug from point blank range to bust belly scales. He needed to carve his little girl out of there and STAT. Ash jumped in and, with a move driven by pure bloodlust, drove her Holy Water splashed axe into one of the necks. It didn't quite sever it, but it was spurting demonic black blood

From the Demonic Black Blood now saturating the ground, new undead were summoned. These skeletons had noticeably thicker bones and ALL of them were armed with mostly swords and maces. There were some armed with Tower Shields and others with Warhammers. Since the undead weren't DEMONS, the ADF didn't affect them besides Holy Weapons doing more damage, but the difference in power was VERY noticeable from the last wave to this wave

Result:

• The preemptive strike has bought Bogrum more time to heal/resupply/prep by delaying the 2nd wave at that distance.
• The Demon is now at the entrance of the Forest
• The Demon is really injured. Waves will be stronger, smarter, bulkier, and more numerous
• Evangeline is temporarily out of commission due to draining every bit of her vast mana pool making that attack strong.

WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Nancy Noi​

Anger? How could he tell? Locathah body language was hard to decipher for the unfamiliar, unless it was overt--
Nancy heaved another sigh, the chest tension still refusing to unravel. It certainly was overt, he realized. Nerves tingled with adrenaline his blood rushed to provide, hands trembling and facial fins flushed hot. Barbels curling tightly to his upper lip let him know that this wasn't his usual, anxiety-fueled panic. Though he was anxious that he'd bared his teeth in front of the pirates. Not that they'd care, but it would have been uncouth of him.
... Not that they'd care about THAT, either.

Nancy heard the exchange with Elaina. So she wanted offense? Yeah, she was getting offense. The pain he'd felt in that vision, though familiar, was on a scale he'd never known before. Just like the Blighted children, Vespera's two century life here had also consisted of little more than agony. That sort of suffering demanded more than relief.
Save some for the rest of us, Holy Angels.

When the Deacon made his boundaries clear, Nancy didn't protest. "Understood." From now on, the only life he was going to put on the line was his own. And it had to be for a damn good reason. If the Coin was to be expended, it had to be in saving the bulk of civilians, not less than a handful.
I guess this is what Nellie meant when she had to make hard decisions in the fight. Not just decisions of who to kill. Who to save, and who to let die. He'd done just that in these chambers, and it wasn't a good feeling.

But what would feel good right now? Turning this city into a Holy furnace. Nancy didn't wait longer, heading up the stairs faster than his short legs usually allowed. Concentration kept his steps precise and mind focused. Elaina made it sound pretty bad out there. Too many undead in the city alone? It made sense; they had recovered many souls from the Spirit Sea, but plenty had either Ascended, Descended, or were flat out gone. He didn't understand the process, if some even outright refused to be resurrected or if there was a choice in the matter--
Nancy shook that distraction out of his head. He had to find his words again for this next prayer. But there was still something off about the fact they were being overridden so quickly.

Bogrum Mazoga​

"Agreed." Giving the wall another look-over, it was almost pristine despite the repairs. Only 200 years old in a sense, it was as if it had been just repaired. Bogrum still didn't have much faith in it, but he trusted what Arnold knew about his own land. It wasn't like they'd planned to prevent an ancient demon from attacking them, but they'd done well enough so far. But the coming wave would put that to the test.

"Holy Mages, I want these grounds and the city walls here sanctified." Sebas came on the line, then the rumbling grew, almost in bursts. If the Gates were going to have to deal with Mozza, it would be a very pissed Mozza. "Quickly! Troops, get into formation! Have those guns ready!" Magic pooling into defenses, for offense they were planning for ranged. As for melee, that would depend on what sort of wave that was coming.

Fergie​

The longer Adonis gave her radio silence, the more Fergie wanted to reach through his projection screen and strangle the life out of him. The hell was the hold-up? Quit drinkin' yer old-ass grape juice!

Watching him get chewed out and do nothing about it was always satisfying, but from Fatimah! She whooped his ass like the disobedient child he was, and set him straight in a way not even Fergie dared to try. And he shaped up so quickly, too. "What a pathetic man," she said as she watched the main ship sulk away into position, emboldened by Fatimah's furious display and disregarding the apology. "He's throwin' a damn hissy fit 'cause this didn't go his way." Sebas had ruined his plans, and good fuckin' riddance. Adonis ought to be thankful that they were risking THEIR lives fixing HIS mistake, but eh. Dude was basically a wayward aristocrat, he probably expected everyone else to fix his problems.

Satisfaction aside, this wasn't good. Adonis had wasted what little time they had, and her crew were scrambling to stim up and reammo. "Double time, folks! Ye's heard the man!" Sebas's warning had come through, and she could see Evangeline's Holy glow lower into position for her final attack. That final attack? Something Fergie only thought possible in those embellished Bible stories. The ground that the Vanguard had scourged with battle was now being liquefied, waves pulsing through as if stirred by a billowing storm. Had that power been turned to THEM, there wouldn't have been a man or woman left alive, or the very least in one piece. It was a good reminder why Fergie ought to avoid pissing off Evangeline or her Goddess. Insane power, held back by insane restrictions.

When Mozza was finally flung out from hiding, collapsing in a writhing heap that shook the ground in one final tremor, he looked about how she would have expected. Crushed all over, scales crunched away and exposing vulnerable skin that begged to be pierced by a blade. He was at his worst yet, but Fergie knew what that meant. They were about to GET his worst. "A beast's at its most dangerous when it's cornered and injured," she warned her crew. "Real shit's now! Splash those blades!"

Just in time, too. More undead were advancing, and they were looking hella intimidating. Armed to the teeth, and bulked up on calcium, Mozza was sending out a real fight now. No playing keep away this time, since they were with the Vanguard, they were going to fight like the Vanguard. "Fatimah! Wait for that demon to come to us, then activate the field!"


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Church​

The Deacon and the Shotgunner followed Nancy to back to the main church, to be greeted with urgency by Mariah. "The undead are trying to attack the church!" This was made evident by mostly broken windows and floors littered with ice shards, rocks, and arrows. It looked to be ranged attacks. "Elaina is meeting with Vespera to stage the town guards, but we have to hold out until she gets back!"
"Great," the Deacon said sarcastically, "Guess I'm in charge til then. Get me a shotgun." One was swiftly passed to him and he stepped out and blasted the first skeleton he saw. This motherfucker had some THICC-ass bones, bones looking like they belonged on a damn Orc or Giant, but the size was clearly human. It took a second shot to put down. "That demon's enchanted them," he said before stepping back in the church. They weren't exactly sitting on bottomless mags here.
"Hunker down folks and pull out your blades," he said, pulling out his blade. "We're in for it. We earn our pay here today." He had the ability to enchant their weaponry, which he did promptly. "Holy weapons. Ya got 'em now. Use 'em."

Refugees were starting to run into the Church. They needed to make this a bastion of Holiness against the incoming horde. Until then though, they'd need to do it the old fashioned way. Problem was they had a small force. The Deacon wanted to break out the salt, but that only worked against weaker skeletons, whose spirits were separate from their bodies unlike something like zombies. These empowered skeletons wouldn't be deterred. "New hands, board those windows up."
"My God will protect me!" Someone yelled in defiance, "I won't move until my God orders me to."
The Deacon smacked him down with the butt of his shotgun. "Shut the fuck up and board those goddamn windows. Unless your God descends from the heavens and saves us, I will toss your dead-weight ass out to those undead."
Mariah tried to intervene. "You can't be throwing people out to die, Steven!" she pleaded. The Deacon's name was Steven but I will keep referring to him as the Deacon since I don't feel like keeping up with yet another name
"You're the new Angel bitch, right? Save it," the Deacon said, "Unless you're a child, if you're gonna be in this Church, you're gonna pull some fucking weight."
"I'm pregnant!" a woman spoke up. "I can't strain myself!"
"Tough shit, lassie," the Deacon fired back quickly. Merciless and straight for the jugular, "If you die, our fish homie here will dedicate your unborn baby to a fish Goddess then we will cremate your body to keep you from rising as undead, so shut up and pick up a plank." Crude and vulgar as it was, it wasn't like the Deacon was lying. Another unborn? The Deacon assumed Nancy would be on it. The Deacon wasn't about it though. "I'm not arguing with you noble fucks. If survival ain't worth the work for you, I'll happily employ you as bait." It really was a room full of nobles. The main church in Toron was in Noble district afterall. The Deacon didn't have an issue with Nobles per se. People seemed to think that bad things happening to the rich was justified, but innocence was innocence and guilt was guilt. The issue that struck the Deacon was entitlement, and them not being able to even wipe their own ass without a maid/butler there.

Thoroughly intimidated, the people in the church got to work with a pep in their step. "Do your thing, Nancy," the Deacon said. "I'm gonna hit up Doc about treating those kiddos. Feel bad about locking them underground in that cursed ass room but we can't bring 'em back up yet while they're all freaky. You got Jack (the Shotgunner) at your command." Theoretically with others, but Nancy knew for a fact that the Shotgunner was under his command. Yes, I will keep referring to Jack as the Shotgunner. Same reason as the Deacon

"Gotcha fish," the Shotgunner said, holding a cheeky thumbs up "Let's gut 'em like a fi-" he caught himself, blatantly trying to cover it by fake-clearing his throat. "..............Err...let's get 'em." At least he had a bit of sensitivity in his speech.


Twin Tails Library

Spoiler: Finally Some Progress (Final of this little side series of dialog)

Vespera brought Elaina the map as requested. "My thanks," she said
"My pleasure. Anything else?" Ves asked sarcastically
The duo found themselves in the Twin Tails Library, which remained in pristine condition. Reason? The beautiful Kitsune Twins were effectively keeping these streets clean. Still open for business, they and their parents right across the streets at the Roasted Bean Cafe (also open for business) started and stopped at defending their business but did so with such might that Elaina couldn't help but be impressed. As such, those places became places of refuge for people whose lives were in danger.
"Aye, I require your help."
"I will help you only if you apologize for your actions towards me. I didn't do anything to those kids."
"Oh?" Elaina leaned in, a smirk on her face. "Honey, I did that because of your sarcasm and disrespect. Never did I think you were guilty. Nancy maybe for his complacency, but not you. YOU are a Creature of Darkness in a Holy City. I'm surprised you didn't off yourself."
Ves grew dark at the mention. "I thought about it. A lot," Ves said darkly, "Those Holy in faith hate me even though I did everything I could for this city."
It gave Elaina pause. "Then why bother protecting this city?"
Ves shook her head. "It's not this place per se. It was that the Toron before the war and Toron in the Godless Realm were 2 different places."
"Was it really? Or did things just exacerbate when faith was tested?"
"............." WAS it really that different of a place? Knowing you have no connection to your god anymore would make people try to compensate in different ways.
That gave Elaina her answer. "After all this time and work, you can't see it destroyed even if it's cost you your sanity and treated you like garbage," Elaina continued
"Are you done psychoanalyzing me like some test subject?"
"But I'm not incorrect, am I?"
"FINE!" Ves yelled, "You're right. I get it. I'm nothing, I'm garbage, my existence is evil, I'm some blood leech, I deserve to die."
Elaina sighed in exasperation. She wanted to rip her hair out. "Have some PRIDE, Vespera," she said aggressively, slamming her fists on the table. "Fight for your fucking self! It's PISSING ME OFF!! You're too strong to be this fucking pathetic." There was definite sarcasm in Ves's voice when she spoke but the sarcasm kind of gave way when she started talking about her existence being evil and deserving death
Ves initially recoiled in fear from her outburst, but then fired back "Why does it even matter to you?!"
"WE'RE. WORKING. TOGETHER!!" Elaina said through gritted teeth. "Like it or not, we are allies. If YOU think you deserve to die, you will fucking die out here. You want to see your family or not?"
"I want to s- wait how did you even k-"
"SEE. THEM. OR. NOT?"
Vespera relented in the face of an aggressive Elaina. "I want to see them."
"Do you? Or do you deserve death?"
"...............I will not die here. Not when I can leave." Ves finally said. Her will was low but not as low as it was before. "Why do you care about me all of a sudden?"
"I DON'T," Elaina said decisively and without hesitation, "I care about results, and you and Nancy are catalysts to saving this city from the inside." She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "The Stoneroses defending the city doesn't matter if the undead in this city kill everybody anyways."

Her eyes widened. It was that simple bit of words that put some actual fire under Vespera's ass. The Stoneroses were out defending the gates, with Demi flying the ship to do the same. What were they defending if these undead brought it to ruin from the inside? While they were connected, the Mozreliun fight and the defense of Toron were 2 different fights. Ves had been thinking about this all wrong.
"You're right," Ves said, this time without sarcasm, "I want to save my guild." Ves wasn't wishing death on anyone, even those that wronged her. Still, the thing she cared about most in Kraiven was The Stoneroses
"Glad you're picking up what I'm putting down," Elaina told her, "The truth hurts and I have nothing but it, because I have only seen it." Elaina was a woman jaded with humanity, no-manity, and divinity alike, jaded by holy and unholy. Her magic made her see/hear/taste/touch/smell all. All the good it came with also came with bad. Hell, knowing that was why she became a witch. If it's all the same, why bother with any? "You might not like me, but I am simply a woman as honest with you as I am with myself. We need you at your best, not some brooding emo who wants to die."

Making this vampire scrape up the will to live and fight in the midst of this demon fight was NOT something Elaina thought she'd have to do, but here she was. Tone-deafly sitting in a library full of refugees talking like there wasn't something they should be doing with their time. At least this street was safe thanks to the Kitsune Twins and the Kitsune Parents. It wasn't like Elaina cared either way. these weren't HER people she was defending
"You're a bitch, you know that?" Vespera didn't swear often. Not her in good Christian Creature of Darkness Seyres household. But to Elaina? ".........but I got it. I'm on board. What do you need me to do?"
Elaina smiled. "Now business can begin again." The duo took a look at the map and began to plan in earnest how to mitigate destruction.



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


Outside of Toron, things were heating up on in both the ground level and the sky level. As the undead invaded the holy city from within their own walls, our hard-fighting heroes had to figure out how to prevent a full-blown undead siege. At least at the Gates. The Forest/Vanguard had its own problems to deal with. The Shy Locathah was having to find his resolve after his Highly Deep Goddess bestowed onto him information that shook him to his bones, while the vulgar holy Deacon took charge since Elaina was out at the Church, seeking to carry out Elaina's orders to turn the Church into a bastion. At the end of the day though, that was all up to Nancy, whose prayer to the Deepest Deep could either make this a breeze or cause undue hardship.

The witch and the vampire were FINALLY planning their move after time-consuming yet necessary emotional talks, having reached some semblance of an understanding, but what about the troops OUTSIDE the capital city?

Arnold Asella
Gates​

"Troops, I want all defensive magic poured into the wall. It needs to withstand the demon's attacks, at least a few." he commanded to which the troops obliged. It would pretty much force a reliance on physical attacks which was fine. He just hoped that there wouldn't be some out there crazy enemy. If those walls were impenetrable, they could force a bottleneck which was very easy to deal with. A bottleneck was forcing many troops through a single small entrance, which made them easy pickings. Bulked or not, if it wasn't some large-scale war attack, that wall wasn't falling.

"My hope is that things ends before it gets here." By the time it gets there, it may very well be too late. If people could see that beast, that Gorgon Glare would turn them to stone on a massive scale. It was the single worst thing about that beast, and Arnold was glad that he damn near taped the Shades onto his face because he had already lost a few troops to exactly that: Looking at that fat beast. Yeah, wearing shades was fine and all, but how to keep that shit on your face while facing legions of undead?

The pirates readied their guns. Arnold had featured as much of an equivalent as possible: Holy Archers. The little Holy Magic they had, instead of being focused in sanctifying or healing, should be put into enchanted arrows to take out as many of them as possible. If they were ANYTHING like the 1st wave, they needed to be thinned as much as possible at range.

Avery Valencia
The Basenji- Skies above the Forest​

"Mozreliun! This is Raid Captain Avery." This was Avery's voice projecting from the Basenji ship. The catboy's voice was calm, almost monotonous. "I give you one warning and one warning only." There was a slight pause before he continued. "You will not make it through the forest as you are. I promise if I have to come down there, we are carving Lostrogret out of your heathen and reviled belly."
Mozreliun looked up and laughed. "AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA! YOU?! SOME BEASTMAN CHALLENGING ME!!!" It meant that he recognized Avery because of Lostro.
"You have been warned........"
"........AND YOUR WARNING MEANS NOTHING!!" He hissed and things conjured in the air. Spiked balls floating in the air. Seeking Air Mines, an anti-air spell. Given the largeness of the ships, a lot of them immediately sought out the destruction of their ships. "THE BALLS ON YOU, BOY! I WILL MAKE SURE TO SAVOR YOUR SOUL SPECIFICALLY!!"
"Be advised all ships, the demon has summoned anti-air measures. Dispose of it," Avery said, sounding extremely confident now. Almost smug
With that, he cut the intercom

Adonis looked at him, brow raised. "How'd you know he would go for the Seeking Air Mines?"
"A beast is a beast, and I know how to poke them." More simply, he knew Mozreliun wasn't stupid. With Evangeline on a ship, she was a powerful threat that needed to be disposed of. If she recharged, Mozza was done for. On top of that, without the ships, a sustained effort was impossible against an endless undead army.
"I guess we will watch and observe," Adonis responded with a smug grin
"Speak for yourself," he said in the same poker-face voice. "I will not watch and observe comrades dying." Avery didn't exactly take joy at bursting Adonis's bubble, but not only was he not happy with the captain for his nigh subversive actions, but they already had quite a few casualties as it were. Avery took that seriously because he felt like every death was blood on his paws. "My warning was genuine." Avery was not bluffing in the slightest. "That beast dies in the forest."


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


The skies were now ablaze with ship cannon fire and gunshots from above, as well as explosions as Seeking Air Mines now had to be defended against. Flying units were deployed to destroy as many as possible, and unlucky units became victim in their crusade to defend the ships. It was a sacrifice to protect quite simply the greater good. This fight was ramping to new heights as Mozreliun had effectively cut off requests between ship and ground by keeping them busy. Avery had provoked this to shift the focus. It was a load the ships could easily deal with too. With Vanguard and Reinforcements together and within the forest, bombardments weren't happening.

Below, the sounds of clashing blades resonated yet again as Mozreliun and the furious Basenjis clashed for round 2. The beefy skeletons had the same arsenal but were far more capable. Faster, stronger, beefier, and actually had some thought process in those skulls

Fatimah
Forest- Center​

"Consider it done," Fatimah responded to Fergie. As undead advanced fast and furiously. With Fergie leading the front, Fatimah took the rear. She had some troops fall back to nearly the center. "I will enchant your guns," she said and with a snap of her fingers, suddenly the troops' guns were glowing, enchanted with Holy Magic. The undead began to strike, and even then Fatimah decided to save her magic in favor of her rifle. Enchanted, it should still put a hole in even their bulked up skulls. She took aim and fired. Deflected!
"Hmmmmm........" That wasn't good. She fired again. Skull popped. She tested this on another skeleton. Same result.

Hypothesis: There was a shield up that deflected a hit.
Test: Use Dispel to eliminate the possible shield
Fatimah did this to the next skeleton. A wave of her hand to Dispel, then a bullet to the skull. Skull popped.
Conclusion: The hypothesis is correct. Fighting the enemy at range without taking out that shield was asking for ammo waste.

"Be advised all units," she said, her voice calm despite the troops probably being irate at not being to kill easily. "These skeletons have a weak magic shield that deflects a hit. In other words, you'll waste double the ammo if you fire. Operate in the mindset of ammo conservation. Resupply may not be possible." What was left in those resupply crates is what they had to do with given that the ships above were now preoccupied

• The Undead: Bulky, Fast, Strong, Thinking, Armed, and with a weak magic shield that deflected a hit

This wouldn't be a problem for Fatimah, as she could load her rifle with pure mana in the stead of physical bullets. Using her magic, she could conjure up another actual mag from their supply on the ship. Not all are Fatimah though. The Mystic decided to change their gun enchant to a blade enchant. Mozreliun is apparently too ancient-minded to conjure skeletons whose skulls can withstand a bullet. However, he wasn't too mindless to know that ammo was finite. Not that they would be running low any time soon............as a whole. However, they had to request resupply to keep it moving.

Sebas and Orabelle Deadeye
Forest- Front​

Upon hearing Fatimah's warning, Sebas instantly had a solution in mind. If it's a weak magic shield, it was a quick fix for him. He turned to the Triton girl. "Ora? Stick close and project a sanctification bubble that burns any undead we get close to." Ora listened intently and then her staff glowed. Sebas fended off incoming undead with his blade while Ora began her incantation. It started with a song, a beautiful short hymn in Piscean that Sebas was familiar with as one of many that she wrote and sang to the Goddess. Her love for the Goddess was as pure as she was. As she sang, she began to glow more and more. The hymn served the purpose of empowering herself. "Within this blessed field, may all lost souls find embrace within the Trench. Purify all within reach." A white bubble projected around them centered on Ora then faded out. It took effect immediately as the next undead stepped within her staff's reach started to burn, then Sebas whipped around and popped its skull in one shot. Orabelle's field burned their shield off, Sebas ended them. A dynamic duo

"Papa? Couldn't you just use Stillpiercer to pierce the shields?" she asked him after Sebas popped another one
Stillpiercer, one of like 3 spells he has, alongside Reload which..........reloads, and Aegis which projects a shield. Stillpiercer is literally made for this kind of situation. Still he played it off. "Easier to have this passive burning of all around rather than me using an individual spell." It wasn't like that was a lie. With this field, any melee enemy could be put down with extreme efficiency. "Plus, what would I do without you, Ora?" Hype her up a bit
Ora swung her staff at an undead and hit it in the skull. "Ordination of Blades!" 2 small holy blades conjured and impaled the undead's skull, ending it. "You would be drunk on mana potions using Stillpiercer!" she teased with a giggle, showing her pearly white yet razor sharp teeth.
The cuteness pierced Sebas's heart like his Stillpiercer blade just pierced this other skeleton's skull. Piercing spells did work, but they were inefficient in terms of mana usage as suspected. Despite the fact that she was sweaty, tired, and literally fighting for her life, her positive outlook never ceased to amaze him. "Oh, so you know what drunknness is, Ora? I'll have you explain it." he said feigning threateningly.
"If I save you, will I be preemptively redeemed?" Ora asked nervously.
"You're with a bunch of pirates. OF COURSE you know what drunkenness is!" Sebas finished with a laugh and another flourish of his blade as he severed it from another another spine.
WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Bogrum Mazoga ​

"And if it does come to us..." The air rattled with explosives and fire rounds that could be seen in bright flashes. Sebas was right when he said that shit was getting real now. "Our solace is that we'll be dealing with a very weakened beast." Unless Mozza had something diabolical under his sleeve, he was going to lose this fight. From what Bogrum could tell in the demon's brief flight above the treeline, Mozza looked thoroughly battered when Evangeline uprooted him. "He'll be at his worst in his death throes. Let's keep the troops mobile." In other words, no stationary formations. He didn't want them getting swept in one hit by a thrashing, dying beast.

"My comfort is that your city hasn't faced the worst of it." Ignorance was hardly bliss, but it was at least one step away from falling into despair.

Fergie​

"Mozza's actually tryin' now?! Finally." Despite the looming threat of this buffed-to-hell onslaught, Fergie decided that her first course of action was to scoop up a stone and hurl it at the nearest approaching skeleton. It bounced off harmlessly. LETHAL hits, dumbass! This wouldn't be easy, but Fergie knew how to give hell right back.

"Mates!" Fergie raised her sword, rallying the crew. "Spearhead! Dispel them shields, and leave the killin' to the gunners!" A full-out blitz to break their formation, melee troops spearheading and blocking off enemy support so the gunners can pick them off. The easy part was that they could keep hitting and running. The hard part was that these were bulky skeletons with physical shields too, so landing a good hit without getting clobbered themselves was going to keep them on their toes. But this is what she was keeping her crew warmed up for.

The enemy neared, and the troops were in position. When the time was right, Fergie directed the point of her sword towards their quarry. "CHARGE!!"

Nancy Noi​

Nancy reached the alter room to see refugees flooding inside, as well as whatever the hell they were running from before the Deacon shattered its skull. A dagger of terror pierced his resolve, if only briefly. "Oh gods, oh gods. THAT'S what we're dealing with?!" Those things were monstrous, and it was no wonder why the city guard was getting beaten back by them. It was beginning to settle how few people were likely to survive this without the divine intervention he was about to call upon, especially when looking over the faces of this paltry group of nobles.

Said nobles being beaten and bullied into contributing inflicted a notable sting of guilt for the man Ordained to live, but also a realization. Both Elaina and the Deacon were aggressive over perceived insubordination, and it had to be because any disagreement could cause the death of someone. Nellie had said that any petty dispute had to be settled before the fight, and he imagined that was the same with pirates. Difference was that Nellie was forced to hold her punches a lot more than these lawless folk...

... Which was a restriction he couldn't adhere to in these moments. Elaina was right in that defensive measures were doing nothing. It was time to fight fire with fire, Unholy with Holy. "Cover for me, Jack," he said as he knelt before the alter, hurriedly propping the Coin with shaking hands. Couldn't have it getting used up by taking an arrow hit, right before he could try to save this city.

"My Goddess," his prayer began, the delivery urgent but words articulate. "In Highest Heights, and Deepest Depths." The thudding of hammers on nails became white noise as he lowered his forehead to his clasped hands. "You know All, and see All. You know every soul in peril, and see every sword that seeks to strip them away." This was a proclamation of trust. Trust that the Holy Hazard this would turn Toron into wouldn't cause harm to his vampire friend. "Sanctify this city in Your name. Enforce your Will upon all who wishes its destruction." His hands squeezed tightly. "And let that gluttonous beast taste the fruits of its own labor."


----

Nellie Noi​

Spoiler: Don't Lose your Cool

Another round of refugees came rushing into the Twin Tails Library, more clad in lightly dirtied silks than stained workman's scrubs. It was still a mostly noble area, and commoners were hard-pressed to dodge the waves of undead to get to shelter here. But they were getting some unexpected help.

Two loitered just inside the entrance, and judging by their armored dress and off-hand weapons, they weren't planning to stay long.
"I can bring the next group alone. The Twins just cleared out this whole street, so this should be quick--"
"NO!" This was half of the other set of twins, and she was vehemently shaking her head. "I didn't defy orders just to burrow away like that COWARD of a king, and leave our people to be slaughtered again!" There was bite in those words that was from more than the heat of the moment.

Neither of the two should be there. Though the Sacrament was an independent guild, a few of the best battlemages and sorcerers were hand-picked by the Elite forces and stationed to defend the castle. Seeing the culling that was beginning NOT at the castle, Nellie couldn't bear to stand and watch.
"I just had to pull a hysterical man away from his wife while she turned to stone. With their CHILDREN watching." Nellie was accustomed to the deaths of her comrades in battle. Not families. A previous war didn't stop this from shaking her to her core. "The longer we sta-- --re, the m-- they pay the price!" Her voice was breaking, and it wasn't just from emotion. The crystal was sounding crackled, words fading in places.
"You can't help like this!" The other man's hands were on her shoulders, attempting to ground her. "You can't help if you put yourself in a magic coma!" The fact that her Trace relic was struggling to pick up her thoughts was the clearest sign she was nearing dangerously close to the ends of her mana reserves. "Take these potions and rest for a minute. I can handle this lot, then we can go back to the Commons when you're not about to collapse."
Resignation made her huff and switch off her crystal, now signing with her hands. <<Fine. Hand them over.>>

He trusted her fellow battlemage. He was one of her closest comrades, and it came to no surprise when he was the only one who agreed to go with her. They were risking everything by abandoning their posts. Their titles, their rank, perhaps their freedom or even their lives if the Court was to deem them traitors for their dissidence. Neither of them cared anymore, a revelation that was for all to see given the loud argument that had just broadcasted through the Library.

"If you want to help them, help yourself first. You can't be at your best at your worst." Words that had been spoken from him to her many times, and she was almost brought back to those similar times as she watched him leave. It marveled her, how over and over, things could just keep going so WRONG.

Nellie trudged inside, tail dragging limply on the floor, until she slumped onto the nearest lounge, chugging mana potions like a parched fish all the while. The embarrassment of being seen in this state was nonexistent. Civilian morale couldn't possibly be brought down lower than the current rock bottom. And she could admit, begrudgingly, that she wasn't going to be of much use with her vision swimming and head spinning like this.

When the potions settled in her stomach, returning some clarity to unfocused eyes, she swept her gaze over the Library's current attendance. Quiet for a different, darker reason. She was very quick to recognize the most familiar face. Ves? She waved her hand to get her attention, getting up and rushing to the table in disregard to her dizziness. Then she noticed the most unfamiliar face sitting across from the vampire. Nellie's stare hardened.

This woman was a pirate. It was easy to deduce, from the different clothes and the strange weaponry at her belt. But glancing down to the map on the table, she was very quick to realize what this was about. <<You're planning countermeasures?>> she signed to Vespera. She was awash with relief, to see that Ves was okay and that the pirates wanted to help protect the inner city. With the city guards scrambling to fight a force they were untrained for, and the two frazzled guildmates floundering to save who they could, everything was directionless.

With her mana reserves trickling back in, Nellie switched her crystal back on. This pirate likely wouldn't understand Kraiven Sign. "Vlad and I are trying to rescue who we can. Let us know how we can help."



Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Toron- The Capital City​

Elaina Melora and Vespera Marine Seyres
Twin Tails Library

As they spoke, another Locathah walked up and Elaina knew immediately who this person was associated with. Instead of being overwhelmed in her boundless curiosity, Elaina chose to play it safe. There was no way Nancy didn't warn this one about her, so she'd keep her name secret
Ves spoke to her though and Nellie did Kraiven Sign that Elaina wasn't familiar with. A 200 year old sign language? Yeah, no. "Nellie!" Ves exclaimed with joy. While Nellie was definitely not her brother, Ves did what she could to get in good with her as well. Why be friends with someone if you were an enemy with their family? "Yes we're planning countermeasures," she said in response to said sign language, "and your help would be appreciated."

Elaina could see that Nellie was low on mana which was why she used that ancient language, showing as to how she switched to her Trace Relic after a bit. She held out a potion. Given the blue glow of it, it was a mana potion. "I have Nancy in the Church praying to Goddess Mariana. It's a shitshow with corruption," Elaina said, "but my job is to turn the Church into a weapon again. My crew are working to defend it until the Goddess comes."
"The Sacrament of the Arcane is the most premier magic guild in the city, so we have good company." Ves said.
"The Sacrament of the Arcane?!" Elaina exclaimed, eyes widened, fangirling here. "I'm a fan! Such Amazing text! Such High Power! THE most powerful magic guild in this city!" It meant that the Sacrament went down in the text as a good guild. Elaina had many a book on her shelf written by members of this guild. "The script written on Magic is revolutionary 200 years later! I didn't know you were part of THIS-"
Ves had to keep her in check. "No time for this, we need to defend the city." It was those words that made Ves want to ask Elaina a bunch of questions.
"Correct!" Elaina said immediately, and then cleared her throat and it changed her from fangirling to serious in an instant, "If you're with the Sacrament, I'm surprised you're here and not there with the King watching this karma collection."
"You think this is Karma coming to collect?" Ves asked. She had struggled with this concept for a LONG time in the Spirit Sea and believed
"The entire defense of this city has reaffirmed why I think this is Karma collecting her deserved bounty," Elaina responded smugly and without hesitation. There was something Elaina wasn't telling them. "And this is outside my discoveries regarding the debauchery with the Church. But I will explain to you 3 after this is all over. The 3rd being Nancy.

With the places marked, the plan was simple: Draw the people towards holy-affiliated spots and defend them. When the Goddess comes, ALL of those locations should become safe spaces against the undead. Also, by consolidating the people and undead, it mitigates damage and allows the use of wider-area powerful spells to hit them all in a group. This street was one such location since the Kitsune Twins and Kitsune Parents had this location on lock. "Why are the Kitsune Quartet defending only this store?"
"It's the Kitsune Twins and Kitsune Parents. That's how they've always been. They care only about their store."
"ONE of them has the power to defend this entire street, yet they stick only with their shop. Interesting."

Nellie and Ves would be sent to stage the guards at the pointed out locations. Elaina couldn't tell the guards to do shit, but the words of Ves and especially Nellie should have enough pull to move them how they wished. Elaina had to go back to the Church first though.

Each woman setting out with their forces, it was time to take this city back.
"One more thing, I need you two to answer a question for me: Have you ever faced an enemy like this before entering the Spirit Sea?"
"No!" Ves exclaimed, kind of confused as to why she would even ask that question. "We're not exactly summoning Ancient Demons!"

After Nellie gave her answer, Elaina would set out with her troops to return to the Church

Steven the Deacon and Jack the Shotgunner
Church​

Nancy hurried to pray as the Shotgunner moved into defensive position. "Gotcha, fish!" he called at the command, "Get weapons! We got what we got! Live 'r die, yer call!" Urgent pirates gave the people here weapons. Not only their spares but whatever else they could find. With Jack in charge following off Steven's lead, he took to it. "No time tah argue. Shaddup an' fight!"

The Undead made their push and Jack was on it, leading the nobles and their own troops. The fish had asked Jack to defend him, and by god would he do it. "'Laina, we won't make it. 'urry up and come back!" he yelled into his crystal.
"We're headed back now. Hold out."
"Fuggin' 'ell!" Jack yelled as he slammed his fist into a skeleton to disable the shield and then his bowie knife to end it. They were already being overrun here. Steven was gone and Elaina had taken most of the other Deacons. Jack splashed his blade with Holy Water then slammed it in its skull. They simply didn't have the force necessary to take this on, but by god would he defend fish.

He didn't want to use his shotgun to conserve ammo per Fatimah, so he had nothing but pure brute force. As he looked out at the mounting number of skeletons showing up, Jack knew this was the last stand unless something changed quickly. Fuck it! Ammo was no use to him dead, so he picked up his shotgun from one of the benches and yelled "FUCK YOOUUUU!!" as he blasted a skull and threw a grenade into the fray. If the Church was in tatters, fine. They needed to live first and foremost, not protect some property.

Jack had only the few left of Elaina's force and then the ragtag group of nobles they had to intimidate into compliance armed with kitchen utensils, garden tools, and whatever the pirates spared for them. Mariah was out of ammo in the revolver Elaina had given her earlier and was panicking. "SHADDUP! Fish prayin' an' you'll disturb it." Jack didn't know how that worked but he was fighting for his life here.

An undead was charging a spell from the window. Jack jumped in and took the icicle in the hand so Nancy wouldn't take it to the head. Gritted teeth and one hand down, Jack blasted the culprit. Then he took the time to inspect his hand. Bones shattered and cold from the fact that it was an icicle that did it. Maybe Steven could heal it. He wasn't here right now though.

"'urry the fuck up, fish. Shit 'urts," he said as he punched another skeleton then stomped its skull to end it. Then pulled the icicle from his hand. THAT shit hurts more than the icicle that entered his hand in the first place. Oh well, the cold was mitigating some of the pain. A swig of whiskey kept him moving

Fish wasn't dying here today.



Meanwhile, Steven went downstairs to go treat the children. The fight was getting desperate, so his patience was low. "The fuck, Goddess? I don't got time for this shit." he said. He had heard a voice from the Goddess and it was the entire reason he was doing this.
"That's quite a way to speak."
"People are dying and you ain't here yet," Steven said gruffly, "What do you want?"
"Save those children. The Blight is about to kill them."
"Fine. Save the cryptic bullshit," he said urgently and without hesitation, like he wasn't even talking to a literal god. "I ain't prayin to you neither so if it requires that, the kiddies die." Steven wanted to save those kiddos but praying to another God was Shirk/Blasphemy and he would lose his Divine Favor
"Listen closely and you will purge the Blight."
"Make it quick. Jack's in charge and he ain't the sharpest," the Deacon said as he opened the door to the room containing the Blighted Children. Know you're afraid, kiddos, but I'm glad it makes you do what I say right now, he thought. "God, while I'm following the orders of another god, the Last Rites of any kid that passes here will be in Your name." I swear I don't have time for a prayer, he thought, hopefully this ain't blasphemy. He pointed his gun to the children. "Let's go! On your feet and against the wall!" The children, vocal chords destroyed from the Blight, red eyed and pale-skinned, still gave off fear, and obliged.

Why was he even bothering with this shit while a fight was going on? He should've told Mariana to fuck off, but he was in this too deep and this was apparently a church she was going to claim. "You should be in school, not dealing with me having to point a gun at you," he muttered, "We're gonna cure your sickness, kiddies." God, these kids looked freaky. His hands began to glow as he started following the instructions from Goddess Mariana





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

Arnold Asella
Gates​

"We have graveyards in our city," he said somberly, knowing that the city wasn't safe since they JUST took on undead that came from a nearby graveyard. If they took on these, others would be taking on more from a different graveyard. "I can only hope that the King's Elite and the other guilds like the Sacrament of the Arcane, can do something about it." The crazy thing is that the Sacrament had quite a few religious members about them. Maybe they prayed and got their Holy Magic back.
"But we are not they," he said, holding his blade, "The Stoneroses can't do everything."
"How will we defend if the skeletons got magic shields now?" a demoralized pirate said aloud.
"Magic shield?" the Stoneroses were not getting information that the Basenjis put out. If they weren't told, they were in the dark
"Yeah, Fatimah said theys got a weak magic shield that can deflect a hit to make us waste ammo."
Arnold didn't know who Fatimah was, but he assumed she was some kind of expert. "Then we disable it," Arnold said bluntly to him, "You always this easily demoralized? We got archery and sanctified ground."

At Bogrum's point about keeping mobile, it made perfect sense. If these skeletons drank their milk again, a stationary formation would get them killed. Their [the Stoneroses] biggest strength has been their ability to defend with shields unlike the pirates who only had Magic for any defense. "Archers! Enchant those arrows. We need as many disabling those shields as possible. We aren't doing another Phalanx formation. Keep moving, gents."

The next wave began anew as undead rose from the ground before them. While the last wave had the gimmick of being how the people were buried in the graveyard, these were fresh and new undead still being summoned and pouring out from the graveyard. They did indeed drink their milk, bones being STACKED, and were armed with blades, shields, and staves for magic.
"We licked our wounds!" Arnold declared, "It's round 2!"
The Stoneroses screamed a battle-hungry "OI!" and then the archers unleashed their volleys to disable those shields


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


Reaction


Forest

The demon regrew one of the heads. It charged up a black ball of magic in EACH HEAD. this was 8 heads now. "Incoming!" Sebas yelled into his crystal. The demon unleashed the beams and swept them across the forest. These beams had the devasting effect of petrifying what it hit. Be it flora, fauna, or Basenji, the beam was killing all of it. Sebas jumped in front of Ora and took the beam............but it didn't turn him to stone like it did everyone else. It was his little girl's favor keeping him alive. Others weren't so favored. It was this move that mounted the casualties to the skies

Then the Demon coiled up and whipped his tail at the crew, sweeping through the woods snapping trees if nothing else. Sebas couldn't dodge. He wrapped his arms around Ora and crossed his arms to activate the Aegis spell, shielding him in time. The tail smacked the shield and shattered it. While Sebas avoided the damage, it didn't avoid the knockback, which blasted the duo back into a tree. Sebas's back slammed into that tree with extreme force, making him cough up blood and putting him on the ground, the wind knocked out of him.
"PAPA!" Ora screamed, to which Sebas struggled to stand after. Better him than her. The attack was devastating after the beam attack since it prevented revival by shattered the now petrified bodies of those hit by it. "Heal!" she called desperately, healing the man from the hit. If there was ever anything that could make her panic, it was Sebas being hurt and by god did this shit hurt. Ora cast the most powerful version of Heal that she could muster on her. "Please don't die, Papa. Please don't leave me here alone again......"
Sebas chuckled through his pain even after Ora healed him. Seeing that level of fear splayed across his daughter's face gave him a shot of adrenaline. "I ain't dying here. We gotta save your sister," he said as Ora's Heal spell began to heal up his rattled body. "Stop crying, I'm good thanks to you." He could not thank Mariana enough for this girl.

Ash survived the attack because Mama Bear threw her of her back and put herself in front of Ash to take the beam. Ash got wide-eyed as she watched Mama Bear turn to a stone grey. "I love you. Continue the fight, my Cub," Mama Bear told her with a laugh as the petrification took hold
"MAMA BEAR!" Ash wailed, grabbing the now-stone beast with tear-stained eyes. "FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Ash could summon Mama Bear again in 10 minutes, her being a familiar instead of normal creature. Still, being without her?.......... Panic and rage filled Ash seeing Mama Bear killed before her eyes. Her eyes began to glow red with anger as Heartbreak overtook her. "YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!! I SWEAR I'LL CUT YOUR FUCKING HEART OUT, YOU DEMON!!" she yelled through gritted teeth, grabbing her axe and diving over the tail sweep attack. When more undead appeared, in one swing she destroyed the skull of one of the bulked up undead THROUGH its magic shield. The Demon had done it now

• Heartbreak: Passive ability. If Mama Bear is killed, Ashlynn goes berserk and her strength increases 5x and speed increases. This lasts until Mama Bear is summoned again
  • 10 agonizing minutes of having to fight a roided up faster Ash that's out for blood. Good luck

Mozreliun laughed in the face of the Basenjis, knowing this move turned the tide of the fight in one fell swoop. He began his advance into the forest. "YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE GONNA WIN?! DESPAIR!" He cackled as his scaled body slithered through the forest, a path forged forged by snapped trees and shattered stone bodies of Basenjis. He did the petrification beam to kill them and then the tail sweep to shatter their body, preventing revival. However, it was Laylah from above grabbing their souls and preventing their deaths from feeding the beast. The fight had gotten desperate but not impossible
"Any further and I'll be coming down..........." Avery came in over the intercom as calm as ever.
"COME DOWN, BOY!" Mozreliun bellowed to the skies as he kept trudging through the forest, "ALL THIS BARK! WHERE'S YOUR BITE?!"
"Cats don't bark. We pounce. Ship Captains!" Avery declared, voice focused. "It's time."




Church

"This city is too Blighted to make mine right now." Mariana responded to Nancy's prayer. "It runs not Deep in Kraiven, but Deepest Deep through Kraiven." She told him. "Fear not. You have secured an island in this church, and Elaina has recruited Vespera and your sister to secure more holy places." The Church was in shambles but the efforts of Jack the Shotgunner prevailed. "The fight has been an arduous one. Now that Steven has cured those children of Blight, I will step in." A bright flash of light and then demonic screeching. Nancy could feel it within his body, the power of the Goddess. It was absolutely overwhelming. A bright flash of light and then the sounds of demonic screeching as all undead around the Church was purged.

"Knowing the Deepest Deep of your vampire friend as well as the Deep of the Orphanage, should I save this city and make it my holy city, bringing it On High? Should I allow it to die? Or should I bring it to the Abyss?" That is the nature of a Goddess who could go high or go low. "Think about it, my child."

With that the connection severed and Nancy was plunged back into reality, still in the church. The pirates were embattled, Jack especially having taken multiple hits and bleeding. Still, the man stood. "Guess it worked," he said with a sigh as he took a seat, cigarette in mouth and hole in his hand from taking the icicle.
Steven emerged from downstairs with a line of children, finally looking normal and not like these grey-skinned red eyed freaks. "The kiddos are fine," he said.
"Thank you for saving us, Mister," one of the little boys said to him, a young elf. Their vocal chords were healed up as well
"S'all good. Live long lives, kids. Now........" Steven took in the scene of the church. It was in shambles but at least it wasn't in danger unless something big came. He saw his friend. "Lookin' uglier than usual, eh Jack?"
Jack gave a gruff chuckle as he puffed on his cig. "Aye. Outta ammo 'n down a hand 'tectin' Fish. Damn skulls almost got 'im." Jack was full of injuries. Cuts, burns, clothing becoming more and more tattered and blood-soaked. "I ain't let 'em."
"Did well, Jack. Owe ya a drink." Steven said with a chuckle as he began healing Jack's hand. The pirate casualties were high relative to their small number of forces, and quite a few nobles got cut down in their scramble. Steven passed Jack his shotgun shells. He had magic. Jack only had brass knuckles, Ol' Reliable, and a bottle of Jack

Elaina made it back and saw the embattled church. All things considered, they survived and that's what matters. "You all held out well," she said. Seeing them having barely survived, she wouldn't have them do anything else besides keeping this place protected. "Burn the dead then take a rest. I'll leave troops here to keep this place protected."
"Where ya headed now?"
"I got Nellie and Vespera taking more spots." Elaina shouldered her rifle. She said this more for Nancy than them. They didn't know who those people were. "I'm gonna go capture one myself."
"Can you request ammo?"
"No can do," Elaina said simply. "The demon put anti-air mines in the sky. We can't request anything." With that, she turned to Nancy. "I gotta question to ask you, Nancy. I'm gonna talk to you, Nellie, and Ves after all this is over but answer this for me: Have you ever faced an enemy like this before you went to the Spirit Sea? I imagine you've not fought much." After she got her answer, she'd set out and allow them a bit of respite.
WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Nellie Noi ​

When the pirate mentioned corruption, Nellie knew what she was referring to. "I've heard." A dry response, without a hint of surprise. Why was that? Because Churches were the perfect haven for secret acts of debauchery. Oh, the things she wanted to say. True to Nancy's thoughts, Nellie had needed to keep her innermost thoughts locked away, in fear of being regarded as a heretic. "Great" King Hemhart had enlisted a ruthless man of an Inquisitor to ensure any doubts towards their Church had been effectively squashed. Well, now they were paying the price for it! So why in the hell should she be surprised?

It roused an anger within that had wanted to claw out of its cage for far too long now, but Nellie had to settle with unleashing it onto the next wave of undead. What she wanted to do was chew out every man and woman that had forced her prior silence, but right now, she wanted to protect her civilians more. While it was a relief to hear that Nancy was still at the church, she couldn't let herself worry about him. He was hardly SAFE, as nothing in Toron was, but Goddess Marianna would ensure his refuge, if no one else's. The same couldn't be said for the rest.

Nellie downed the given potion, mental clarity returning just as the pirate woman starting gushing about her Guild. So the Sacrament was remembered after all this time? Did Nellie feel a hint of pride for it? Maybe she would have felt more than a mere hint a long time ago. She wasn't entirely jaded; she loved her comrades, and was proud of the accomplishments they made together. But there had been a bitter cost, as all great accomplishments came with.

And this pirate... she seemed to know something. What exactly, Nellie could only speculate, but she could confidently bet her left lung that it had to do with secrets the Elites had been burdened with. "If Karma wants to collect, then the throne room is right over there," Nellie said with a bitterness she could taste in her own motionless mouth, pointing in the castle's direction. This smug tone of hers wasn't appreciated, what Nellie interpreted as some sort satisfaction at having forbidden knowledge that most in this city were barred from. Well, good for her. It wasn't like SHE had anything to lose, a stranger with modern weaponry to back herself up with.

Her own personal feelings about this aside, it was time to take action. But before Nellie could leave to help Ves stage the guards, the pirate had one more question for them. "No," she answered quite simply. She had asked if they'd fought something "like this" before, specifically. Nellie had no obligation to elaborate. She had a feeling she knew what she was getting at.

Bogrum Mazoga​

Ah, of course. Bogrum wouldn't delude himself into thinking the city was SAFE. But surely his assessment that the worst of it was far away from here was true, yes? Mozza was miles away, so his sphere of influence could only be so potent. But Bogrum was no demon expert. Not even a demon greenhorn. But whatever the concern, if these Elites Arnold referred to were worth the title, Toron had the best warriors fighting for it on the inside.

That reassurance kept his thoughts with his own goal and crew. The latter of which, to his shock, already showing some wavering faith. Were pirates just used to fighting easy battles? "Then we'll thin them out into a force we CAN defend against," Bogrum assured this anxious crewmate. To the rest, "With the archers taking out their shields, it'll leave them open for gunfire. We have the firepower to mow them down just like before."

Bogrum was expecting this next wave to be much worse, and he'd be proven right. Observing their numbers, size, armament, and the formations the undead were assuming as they scratched their way from underground, he could tell right now that this was NOT an enemy they wanted to face head-on. Not full force, but if they timed it right, they could keep the inevitable clash to a minimum. "Wait for my word!" he told his gunners as the arrow volleys began. Hardly a skeleton was fazed by the attack, arrows deflected from warded skulls in droves. But that meant it was working. "Now! Fire at will!"

Fergie​

Her crew was killing it-- literally. With speed and precision, they heckled the stragglers left from the Vanguard, priming them to have their craniums blasted by the gunners at the tail. These skeletons had some decent substitute for brain cells rattling those skulls, so it was no easy fight as expected. But... easier than expected. Which was still too easy. And you know what too easy meant?

That's right. Hell was about to let loose.

Through the treeline, Fergie got a glimpse of not one, not three, but EIGHT building Dark spells. Sebas's warning couldn't have come faster. "GET COVER!!" she shrieked to her crew, throwing herself behind the nearest boulder. The moment her scrawny ass left the line of fire, every grass blade, bug, tree, and unfortunate crewmate in that several yard radius was reduced to stone. The destruction swept like a black, beaming laser, leaving petrified husks instead of charred crisps. Then, a tail whip that rattled the earth, and shattered every new rock in radius.

When she dared, Fergie glimpsed the damage over the boulder that saved her.
Bad.
The Reinforcements. They were LUCKY, being placed in the back of the fight. The Vanguard? They had taken the full brunt of it, and suddenly she envisioned the ship halls looking very empty after this battle.
Very bad.
Where... had THAT come from?! Had Mozza been saving that move for when he was in dire straits? Had he been holding back up to that point? Or...
"That demon's healin' fast." After getting popped by Evangeline's power move, that seventh head had recovered faster than what she'd expect. Not that she knew what was typical of a Hydra (Draconic beings were pretty off-limits for any fisher who had an inkling of self-preservation), and she hadn't seen what was Mozza's typical. But she had a hunch. One that she didn't want to give credence to, as Dr. Laylah had to be collecting the souls of the fallen here before they could get eaten. But Laylah couldn't be everywhere, not like Mozza's forces of marching undead.

Bogrum, yer ass better not be stone right now. Had his unit been wiped out, souls absorbed and replenishing Mozza? It had been a while since she heard him over the intercom, and the more she wondered, the more she--

The distance between him and the Fuck-Mozza Field was paper-thin. "Fatimah! Now!"

Nancy Noi​

Spoiler: From Ocean Depths to High Heavens

Deepest Deep. A term Nancy was growing rapidly familiar with. That meant the city of Toron was Blighted beyond the Orphanage. Beyond what he could dare to envision. Blighted to its very core. No wonder this place has been forsaken.

The balefulness that seeped Deep in his spirit was warded by an exponentially building energy, something of which he had only experienced a fraction of even in his Goddess's presence. Every sense was rattled, down to every scale, nerve, then fiber. It was everything he could experience, and nothing he could describe all at once. If time and its passing (and the lack of thereof) was something only a mortal could truly comprehend, then... whatever THIS was the antithesis of that. The raw power of a Goddess bringing Order to the land She'd claimed, siphoned through a fleshy vessel that was never made for it.

And in the face of that? What lingered in Nancy's mind as he was brought back to earth was what Goddess Marianna last imparted him with. Deep of the Orphanage... The lack of "Deepest" was not lost on Nancy, even as he reduced to an all-fours crouch before the alter, succumbing to a violent tremble. There was so, so much he was being kept in the dark about even still. How Deep did the horrors go?

His Goddess was going to lay claim over this city, if only piece by piece. Or She could forsake it, once the battle had ended. But whatever She decided? Nancy's hand was being invited. The fate of Toron was in his fins. "I need to know more. Everything. I can't give a proper judgement without it." He was only able to speak because of his crystal, breaths coming and going in heaves. "You've already shown me so much. I won't ask more of You." When he found the meager strength to, Nancy glanced up at the Coin upon the alter. "I'll find out for myself. I can't just hide away from everything anymore."

The pirates' voices made him redirect his attention, even though his body was still numb with weakness. Was that weakness because his mortal body couldn't handle the power, or because it felt weak in comparison after having experienced it? Marvels for later. "They're cured?" His Goddess had already confirmed it, but seeing the children with nary a hint of sickly decay about them let that relief settle in. Sister Mariah had said their condition was terminal... but again, his Goddess had stepped in to rescue them. Despite the evils that had been revealed of this city, She still salvaged what She could. His gratitude was boundless.

Just as boundless was it towards the two pirates. Steven for aiding in the children's rescue, and Jack, who was having his turn to look worse for wear. "I..." Nancy was biting back tears. Pirates couldn't have been the sentimental sort, especially not after the fallout of an attack. "Thank you. This city has a chance now, thanks to you." He loathed to see anyone hurt so badly on his behalf, but he had to remind himself, it wasn't for HIM. He had the Coin, and the sway of power. He was a catalyst, and knowing that was what kept him from apologizing profusely for the bloody injuries Jack was battered with.

Elaina returned, and with her the reminder that his secret was out. The spike of anxiety he had felt when his Goddess told him returned with vigor when Nellie's name was uttered by Elaina's mouth. But if they were working together, with Vespera at that, then they had to have come to some sort of agreement. That agreement being "let's put this aside (for now) in order to not die", he could safely chance.

Unfortunately, they weren't going to be done with her for a while by the sound of it. Elaina had some words for them after this. "Nothing at all," he answered immediately, though after some quick thought, went on, "not that I know of. I'm... not really the person to ask. I've learned more about Kraiven today, than the entire time I've lived here." Whatever he thought of Elaina, he wanted to hear her out. He meant it when he said he wanted to know all, as much as he wanted to put some good back into this place after the evils he'd seen.


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

(Skipping the Church in this post, as their objective is basically complete.)

Demestral Asella
Skies above Toron- The Caboose​

The moment Avery said it was time, she inhaled and her demeanor changed. "Acknowledged," she responded back and looked to the commander of the Caboose, here her co-pilot for this raid. "It's in your hands," she said, to which the co-pilot nodded and wished her well. Demi stalked out of the command office and up to the deck where Quincy was standing by. "How are the Seeking Air Mines looking?"
"Mostly gone." Quincy told her in Draconic.
"Good, because Avery is calling upon us."
"Good. Call the Royals and let us make this request."
Demi nodded and cleared her throat. "I REQUEST AN AUDIENCE WITH THE DRAGONS OF AVALON!" she declared with as an authoritative loud voice as she could. This voice projected to all around just like when the angels called ORDER, so those below at the Gates heard this declaration. Quincy began glowing giving out an incredible amount of magic energy, becoming a white silhouette in Quincy's image.
"Hello, my dear Demestral." This voice wasn't the gruff stern voice of Quincy. It was the aged elderly maternal voice of the Dragon Supreme, Elewynn, king of the Draconic Territories in Avalon. "All 13 of us have gathered and we've watched you and Quincy this entire time." Demi's eyes widened at the thought. "What is your request?"
"My Lord, I am humbled by the interest taken by you and the 12 other Royals," Demi said, actually humbled that they found her worth watching. Then again, it may mean the Fae Counsel were watching this as well. If they were being watched by the Fae and Draconic pantheons, they were definitely also being watched from On High by the Holy Gods and down below by the Daedric Lordship. This truly had to be the most interesting thing to happen across every realm there was right now. "We face an unprecedented enemy, an Ancient Demon who is so strong that the Angels had to sacrifice an unborn Dragon and then still ask their Gods for a full unlocking of their powers. I request a powering up of Quincy so they we may subjugate this demon."

Spoiler: Confirmation from the Dragon Supreme

"I understand that you gave up the Egg for this purpose, yes?"
"Indeed, my Lord," Demi responded, "It is for that reason if no other that we must succeed in this crusade. I have delayed my lifelong purpose FOR this purpose." It could not be understated how much shit Quincy gave her for giving it up. While Demi felt awful about it, she wouldn't hesitate to do it twice for the city full of people she loved so dearly.
"Hmmmmm......." Silence. They were deliberating. "Very well, Demestral. Given your favorable history, it is unanimous. We will grant Quincy a drop of Royal Blood. Burn that demon to the ground."
"Thank you, my Lord. The generosity of the Circle of Royals knows no bounds."
"Don't think of it as generosity. Think of it as an earned gift...........but there is something else we must inform you of, something you must not overlook."
Demi's voice grew dark, her breathing longer as her mind immediately went to a dark place. "............Is it about Quincy?"
"Indeed!" Elewynn's voice grew serious, "We have received word that Quincy's memories were befouled by a charlatan. I think you understand how we cannot allow this to slide."
"Indeed my Lord........" So it was confirmed. Her and Quincy's memories were indeed jammed. "I will handle it as soon as this situation is resolved. All I ask is that I attempt to handle it like a Fae before we handle it like a Dragon." This was an issue to Demi on multiple levels. On top of this on an official level, this was Quincy here. Her faithful partner and mentor for over 200 years. You weren't gonna fuck with her wyvern and she let that stand.
"I will allow it. Do not allow this to go unaddressed. If that is all, fair winds. Burn that demon down."

With that, the connection severed and the power radiating from Quincy increased even more then Quincy began to change physically. His teeth began to grow sharper his body began to bulk up, his scales grew harder and sharper, claws sharper. Quincy's anger increased more and more as he grew. Demi's own anger grew as well and her body started to heat up, a blazing furnace of malice stirring within her. This demon. Adonis. There was nothing more she wanted to do than burn them to where not even ash remains! This was clearly Demi hopped up on Quincy's almost berserk-like anger, but given the circumstances, there's no way this anger wasn't in large genuine to her.

Arnold Asella
Gates​

A second volley of arrows flew along with bullets. THESE had a better effect as they were enchanted, plus the bullets. It led to many of these enemies falling. However, there was a problem. THIS GRAVEYARD WAS RELENTLESS! Yeah they fell, but the issue is that they now seemed to come out in a steady stream after that initial spawning. Whichever head of that demon was controlling this spawn, it knew how to make them waste ammo. Coming out in steady intervals meant that volleys of arrows were less effective and wasteful. However, it was a trick Arnold had seen before on the battlefield. "Archers in the back, standby for an enchanted volley. Archers in front, take aim directly at individuals and use normal arrows!"
"I REQUEST AN AUDIENCE WITH THE DRAGONS OF AVALON!!" Demi's voice rang from the ship as if amplified by God Himself.

The Dragons of Avalon, a name that only invoked pain in him even before the Godless Realm. He had to seal off Demi's belongings along with her room because it reminded him of all the times she ended up asleep at the dining table or asleep on the living room couch with her Draconic Textbooks, or all the times he had to carry her inside from the Stables where they kept Quincy. Summers were one thing, but he couldn't have her sleeping in a stable on cold nights. After she left, it began to wear on his mind coming home in the evening and not hearing her practice Draconic Tongues, or not hearing her snoring on the couch, nor seeing her facedown in her book at the table. It began to wear on him when he noticed that he couldn't get onto her about leaving those books around, since now they would never again move since their owner wasn't around to move them.

He was familiar with the Dragons of Avalon though. He was there when Demi received her Divine Favor directly from the Dragon Supreme Herself. "Demi's calling on the Dragons of Avalon!" he exclaimed, nigh in fear. What would prompt such a thing?! "Whatever's happening out there with that demon, things must've gotten pretty bad."

Nakaos
The Canine- Skies above Vanguard​

"Acknowledged." Naka responded to Avery's call. It was time to end this beast there. "Men!"
"Laser Cannon, Drop Blade, ready to Deploy!" Unlike Demestral who had her god to request power of, Naka couldn't even fathom the concept of such things. She had her crew, the ship weapons, and a pair of gauntlets given to her by Avery. "It'll protect your hands," the raid captain had told her. She couldn't be breaking her hands if she had to fire that laser cannon. She would oblige if for no other reason than to not make him worry about her.
"Let us proceed," Naka told them, "Lead Foreman, take command of ship. Naka will return soon."
"Go get 'im, Boss!" the foreman responded before heading back to the command office

Naka was getting a tad irked as she thought about what just happened. This demon had just killed a ton of tiny allies. All lizardmen were on ships so it's not like she was close to any of who died. Still, they were part of the crew just as she was and she watched them get petrified and then decimated by that tail sweep attack. Their obnoxious guffaws had become part of her daily life, and she knew that her lizardmen did find friendship among those who died, and wouldn't drink with them again. This was not something she would let slide. This demon was about to feel her wrath, and she would indeed need those gauntlets

Avery Valencia
The Basenji​

As he cut the intercom, Avery looked to the table behind him with the battle map drawn up and etchings of plans. He grabbed his 3 weapons off the table. Silencer, a jet black monochrome bowie knife. He strapped this to its holster on his back to be pulled out with his left hand. Suppressor, a jet black monochrome revolver. This revolver was special in that it didn't make sounds when fired, yet retained its firing power. Suppressor was holstered on his back in a way that let him draw with his right hand. Lastly Shivarath, an oil slicked butterfly knife that, when given the command and thrown, would sprout actual butterfly wings the color of said oil slick. It could then flit and flitter about, and Avery could control where it divebombed, effectively making it his deadliest weapon of the 3, a flying knife. One would have to deal with the storm of movement that was Avery while keeping track of Shivarath, who would bury itself in your skull the moment there was an opening.

Avery put Shivarath in his pocket and then tightened the laces on his black boots. He had warned the demon and the demon chose to not heed that warning. No one could say Avery wasn't a man of his word............. Grabbing the spell scrolls he'd need for this and placing them in a holder on his hip. "I think an Ancient Demon that'd taken the form of a hydra would earn me my S rank Badge..............." he said. Maybe it would earn him the title of Dragon Slayer without making him enemy of the Dragons of Avalon and thus Demi. "Guess I'll take his heart as proof though."

Sebas Deadeye
Forest- Closer to Vanguard​

Sebas made it back to his feet, a concerned Ora damn near cleaning to him. He was fine thanks to her. It could've damn near broken his spine and she poured everything into mending him in that one spell. He took his mana potion and shoved it in her mouth. It wasn't like he'd need it besides using Stillpiercer or Aegis, 2 spells he wouldn't need often. Ora needed it far and away more than he did.

When Avery gave the Ship Captains the signal to prepare, he smirked. "It's time, Orabelle. Get to Fatimah!"
Ora inhaled deeply and then nodded, steeling her resolve. Tear-stained, she held an aura of false courage about her now. Seeing her Papa hurt actually hurt her morale. Sebas took her hand and blasted an approaching skeleton. "We talked about this," he told her, "When things get hard is when you are to demonstrate yourself at your most courageous. Staying calm and not panicking is how you keep bad from becoming worse." Ora using up an extreme amount of mana in healing Sebas was a move of panic and, while he wouldn't be hard on a literal child for expressing frankly necessary emotion, her role in this was too important for her to be without mana

"Right. Be safe, Papa!" Restored by the Mana Potion, the girl fell back along with the rest of the troops, leaving Sebas there with the shattered Vanguard. "Be advised forest units: Fall back! All Vanguard to Center Forest, Front Forest to Back Forest and Back Forest to the Gates!" That meant the Vanguard had to consolidate due to the casualties. That would put Fergie's troops assisting Bogrum at the Gates
"On your feet, men!" Damond called out, unaffected in spirit by the casualties. It was more than likely that he actually didn't care about the loss of life as much as the loss in firepower. "The demon isn't dead yet so unless you're dead, I don't want to see you on the ground. GET UP AND FIGHT!" he roared aggressively.

Ashlynn Thormdottir
Forest- Closer to Vanguard​

Ash was a blur of berserk movement. Sickles out, she made a mad dash towards the demon, an angry red aura covering her. In this state, Damond didn't have to tell her shit. Any undead standing before her in her dash to the demon got their buffed up skull cleaved through their magic shield, until she made it to the beast. Standing before it without a shred of fear in body, Ash resolved to have this down killed. Sickles unleashed, the viking lunge-jumped and slashed across the neck of one of the heads. With weakened scales always in the underparts, Ash easily busted through any resistance present there. She jumped again and slammed both her sickles into the side of the neck, busting the scales and implanting them in it as if it were an ice pick. That is exactly what how she used them, as when the injured head jerked up, Ash propelled herself off her sickles and left them there, pulling out her axe as she went high in the air. Her descent was glorious to behold as, in a spin to gain further momentum, Ash hacked off the head in that powerful downward slash.

This time, in the ADF, it wasn't going to regrow. At least not fast enough. Ash grabbed her sickles from the now severed head to look over and see a head charging up a petrification beam right at her. How long had it be charging?! For too long as it pointed right at her and then fired.
Wide-eyed, Ash knew this was the end for her. I finally get to see you and how our child would've turned out, Ash thought. She braced herself...........

...........It was taking too long to feel her body turn to stone. "ASH!" She opened her eyes and Sebas was in front of her using Aegis to block the beam. The bastard jumped in front to protect her. "If you're gonna accept death, don't risk mine too!" He yelled at her angrily, being pushed back by the beam. "If you can't follow orders, don't be a little bitch about it!" It was a similar sentiment that her husband often yelled at her about. Not following orders and then relenting in the face of it. Mama Bear the same sentiment. Recklessness yet flinching. She was still WEAK!!

It made her angrier. Why in the hell had she been training like this?! She picked up her axe. "You're right!" She growled, "I faltered."
"I know!" Sebas kicked her, sending her flying to the side, just as a head crashed into her position trying to bite her entire upper body off. Just out of range of being killed on the spot. "So FALL THE FUCK BACK!!"
Pain in her arm from the kick, Ash took off falling back as ordered. Having risked the life of a close friend with her faltering, being saved twice in the span of 10 seconds humbled her and knocked her out of her berserked state

Fatimah
Forest- Retreating to Back Forest​

Fatimah projected a magic shield to protect the troops in the rear, resulting in very few casualties from the petrification beam, a few unlucky ones who didn't make it into the shield in time. Fergie made the call to activate it, and perfectly so. Fatimah had her troops unleash the spell. A white sigil manifested on the ground and a spread of holy energy projected slowly across the center of the forest. It was a large bubble that stretched from the midpoint of the forest to halfway to the Gates/Vanguard, covering 75% of the forest centered on the dead center, which put Mozreliun was deep into the field when it casted.

Sebas gave the order to fall back, and Fatimah called to her troops. "Move according to the order. I assure you this is all according to plan." Not the Petrification Beam, but their movements here and now. She had to find Orabelle, as Sebas should be sending the child in her direction. Fatimah weaved through the forest in the opposite direction as the troops falling back. Then she felt Ora's magic presence and traced it back to her. She was panting and clearly nervous, but she had made it. Fatimah smiled at her. "Come now, Orabelle," she said, conjuring some cool water for her to jump through to refresh herself. "What we do will be incredibly important."
"I'm just worried about Papa." There was overwhelming concern radiating from her. "He's still up there with that demon."
"Of course he is, child." Fatimah told her immediately. She needed to get Ora to focus. "Who else but him can get Lostrogret out of there? Have faith in his ability. Your Papa is amazing, right?"
"Of course!" Ora exclaimed before jumping into the water, catching her breath in the coolness. Fatimah conjured a mug and plunged it into the water to then drink herself. "Thank you, I'm ready."
"Then let us get into position."


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


GATES REACTION

Archers in front unleashed an arrow to knock out the shield, then pirates blasted to put them down. The shift in strategy seemed to work fairly well...........

..............Then a trio of liches came out of the shadows of the graveyard while these skeletons still kept coming out.

• The 1st projected a dome shield centered around itself to deflect projectile fire. It slowly meandered towards the group, and any rushing skeleton that entered that dome was protected until it exited the dome again in their rush. In other words, as the Shield Lich got closer, so draining was the time before the rushing skeletons made contact.
• The 2nd began to fire back with magic. Mostly icicles towards their healers. This one moved like the last lich, with swishy swaying motions back and forth before quickly darting to a new location to fire back
• The 3rd? Well the 3rd was a lesser reaper telling by the scythe it had. It would disappear, reappear around a random member of the joint force, strike and kill that person, hold for a second as if on cooldown to move, then disappear and reappear back on the other side.

Bogrum was just thrown the only bone he could ever take. There was no way they'd win this fight as is, but Sebas gave the call for troops to fall back. This meant Fergie's troops should be heading to the Gates to reinforce them. The problem is holding out until they made it. The Objective? Survive

Bogrum's Leadership Options

1. Blitz Them: With the initial wave gone and them now coming out in steady intervals, there was no time to play defense with that Shield Lich out there. Take it down!
   • Advantage: All enemies down
   • Disadvantage: Devastatingly high casualties. Survive? Who? The remaining 10 troops?
2. Hunker Down: With the Reaper Lich out there and Shield Lich letting the rushers go, the best option is to hunker down and take out the Reaper Lich in the intervals when it was exposed
   • Advantage: Reaper Lich down, Sanctified Field may make defense easier
   • Disadvantage: A feared clash of buffed up skeletons vs their fractured defense, with the Lich Mage floating above unaffected by it
3. Holy Blitz: Their best hope for survival is to put every single mana point left into a Holy Attack to defend themselves
   • Advantage: They can take out the Mage and Shield Liches, and cull the current charging skeletons, resetting their arrow to bullet plan
   • Disadvantage: No more magic-based anything, ALL mages go into magic coma (effectively making them casualties); Remaining troops more exposed to Reaper Lich
4. Ranged Blitz: Damn the ammo! Ammo means nothing if they don't survive! Spread out the guns and make the archers fire as fast as possible without sacrificing accuracy.
   • Advantage: Mage Lich taken down, Reaper Lich taken down, charging skeletons behind Shield Lich culled
   • Disadvantage: ALL Ammo expended, Skeletal Center Charge due to the Shield Lich blocking everything in the center
5. Pass it to Arnold: Allow Arnold to make the call. He just made a call and it worked well. Let the one whose been in the fields of human war as a strategist make the call
   • Advantage: ???
   • Disadvantage: Arnold knew nothing about Sebas's call for troops to fall back
6. Call for Mayday: Reinforcements were already on the way. There was no need to call for Mayday
7. Request Air Support: Demestral was calling upon her gods. Er- Dragons. A request for Air Support wouldn't go in.

WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Bogrum Mazoga​

"Don't despair, Commander," were difficult words to speak, watching the freshly summoned undead continue to pour out. "The Ship Leaders are making their move. This may be about to end." Maybe not the best wording. Things didn't sound great, from what he could tell from the comms. Mozza had just made a desperate move, prompting a desperate move of their own. The outcome of the former was easy to see; for each skeleton that was killed, more marched in its place. It was staggering to witness. How old and deep were these graves? Was it the result of losses from the previous war?

The why didn't matter, not when the what was about to kill them. He wants into this city now more than ever. Bogrum could see those black heads bobbing over the treeline, closer and closer, followed by flashes of violet-black magic. Mozza was going to attempt a breakthrough, sending droves of undead to cull the remaining forces so he could barge his way into Toron and regain his power. It was an intense approach, but again. Desperate. If they managed this, Mozza would be tapped out.

But their defenses were already fractured. A force of this size was going to cleave right through them unless they retaliated with a massive ammo and/or mana expense, and they couldn't count on resupply any time soon. Until Fergie's unit broke through the forest line, they were on their own. All they could manage was simply surviving this, which was a daunting task in the face of THREE Liches, two of which were targeting their healers and culling their men one by one. Bogrum delegated between two options, until he decided. Ammo could be replaced EVENTUALLY. Mages being put in a coma was for the rest of the battle.

"Commander, reinforcements are on the way. But they won't reach us before they do," he said, referring to the shielded formation. "I recommend spreading out the guns, and having the mages cast a defensive spell on the front lines." So a Ranged Blitz, with a Magic Buff for the troops forced to contend with the Shield Lich's center force. But a recommendation was an invitation for Arnold to make the call here. Bogrum commanded his own men, but this was a Stonerose defensive effort. "You've fought against odds like this before, yes?"


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Toron- The Capital City​

With the skeletons finally starting to dwindle as the Goddess's Blessing culls more and more of them as they approach a holy place, this was turning into something they can finally manage. It only took the efforts of one scout from the pirates and her small number of troops to begin bringing order again to this destroyed city in a relatively efficient manner. While the number of casualties were high, Laylah was still out there capturing souls to prevent them from feeding the beast

"Vespera to Elaina."
"Yes?"
"Guards have been staged and locations captured. Have you captured yours?"
"Indeed," Elaina responded, "The ones I put in the graveyard will cull them as they rise. Get in contact with Nellie to see if she has staged her guards and put her troops in a graveyard." Elaina did it from her end, and if Nellie did hers from her end, it would effectively cut off skeletons charging into the city. "If she has, then you're on full time straggler duty, taking them out on sight as you find them around the city." It should be smooth sailing from here on as they're containing the source.
"How are so many undead rising from these graveyards?"
"The initial wave were the actual skeletons of the actual people," Elaina told her, "Now, Mozreliun is using the graveyards as an easy mana-cheap summoning ground, summoning unique ones." When an environment is conducive to a summon, summoning it is cheaper. It is cheaper mana-wise to summon a shark in the ocean than in a river That explains why there have been so many skeletons.
"Informative...........Ves out."


"Vespera to Nellie," the vampire said, calling through the crystal, "Elaina is asking if you've gotten your guards staged and your troops containing the graveyards. If so, we can begin cleaning up the ones still running around." Vespera couldn't help but admit that, from the beginning of the execution of Elaina's plan, it has flowed nothing but smoothly. The guards staged in the locations Elaina specified got people guarded and escorted with extreme efficiency. The holy places they secured would burn down most that came too close to them, and they were in high enough traffic areas to make a difference. The guards had finally gotten over their initial panic and realized that, 200 years or not, a skeleton was a skeleton was a skeleton. Absolutely nothing changed in terms of fighting them

Arnold Asella
Gates​

This seemed hopeless until Bogrum revealed that they were getting reinforcements soon. With that, Arnold's recommendation became clear. "Hmph!" he scoffed, not allowing the relative panic a few seconds ago to show. Opinions and demeanor changed when presented with new information. "You're still a pirate indeed." he said with a chuckle, "Attack attack attack........" Bogrum had it in his mind to defend and capable he was given the pirate's general lack of defensive measures outside of magic, but there was a vital detail that he missed. ".........Did we spend all this time reinforcing the walls and sanctifying the grounds just to not utilize them? Let's retreat, shut the gate and let them try to get through the walls. Get your guns to the top to assist the archers and let the sanctified field do its work. When reinforcements arrive, we have an easy dual-sided blitz."

He looked to his partner. "Your plan is solid, but our goal isn't to repel. It's to survive." he said, letting this be a learning lesson. "In scenarios like this, where time is on our side, we let our defensive measures buy us as much of it as possible. If we spend all our ammo and magic here, we won't be able to assist the reinforcements. In that case, we aren't assisting them. We're pawning it off on them." It was that multi-layered thinking that Bogrum had missed. Perhaps he forgot about them sanctifying the grounds and reinforcing the walls. It was far and away the easiest way to save lives AND ammo. "We can definitely use the defensive spell though to buy us more time."

That was his suggestion. Retreat and let them try to break through the walls and succumb to the Sanctified Field they'd have to walk on as they try, while having ranged attackers fire on them from atop the wall


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

Forest​

The troops began to move with a quickness, the Vanguard falling back to the center led by Damond, the Front Forest moving to the Back Forest led by Fatimah, and the Back Forest moving to the Gates led by Fergie. "Ashlynn," Fatimah said, "We need to be with the Vanguard at the Center. Take charge and lead the troops in my stead."
Ash was relenting. "Ash," Fatimah said to her calmly, sensing such hesitation, "We have no time. Whatever happened up front, deal with it after the fact."
Ash sighed. "Right......." With that, she took off running at full speed

"Fatimah and Orabelle in position."

Avery Valencia
The Basenji -----------------> Forest- With Vanguard nearing Center​

Avery quickly made his way to the bottom. Still, he projected his voice over the intercom crystal. "You wanted my presence? I'm coming down, demon."
The demon stopped his advance, allowing falling back troops to keep carving their way back. "COME ON BOY!" he roared, "LET ME SEE THAT RESOLVE!!" These words made Avery smirk again as he cut off the intercom. A flash of light from the corner and Naka and her group of lizardmen walked out of the deployment hatch. Naka was pushing the Drop Blade while her men were 3-man carrying the Laser Cannon. "Ready to Deploy," she told him
"I'll give you the signal."
"Right. Let us end this here, Raid Captain."
"Aye. Pride will be your fall, demon," he said as he leapt out of the deployment hatch. Feeling the wind fold his ears back and blow his tail as he free-fell, Avery knew this fight was over and he breathed deeply. It was showtime.
"Demestral ready!" Demi came in over the crystal in a voice that was nigh a growl.
"Wait until Naka passes the torch."
"Acknowledged." Demi sounded angry. Immensely angry at that.

The ground approached fast, but as usual the wind spell kicked in and he landed before the demon. In the clearing cleared by the Demon's tail sweep. This massive towering Basilisk imposing before this short cat beastman. "AAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!" All heads cackled before Avery. "THIS IS IT?!"
"Indeed, demon," Avery said with a purr, pulling out his butterfly knife and beginning to spin it in his hand while speaking. "Unpleasant to meet you. I am Avery Valencia, the captain of this operation for your subjugation."
"SUBJUGATION?!" Another reptilian cackle from the remaining heads. "YOU'RE DOING A SHIT JOB AT IT. I DON'T SEE MYSELF SUBJUGATED YET!!"
"Oh worry not," the Raid Captain responded, his mouth contorting into a smug cat smile. "We're getting to the main event." He stopped spinning his butterfly knife, ready to cut, and threw it into the air. "Fly, Shivarath!" In the air, the knife glowed then sprouted butterfly wings and began to flitter around. Then Avery pulled out Silencer, the Bowie knife.
The demon coiled, and lashed out with another tail sweep attack. Looking out, the demon cackled as he looked at Shivarath fall to the ground. "AAAAHAHAHAHA WAS THAT IT?! YOU PULL OUT 2 KNIVES ONLY TO DIE?!"
"No, your attacks are painfully telegraphed." One of the head craned around to see Avery standing on the tail. Avery placed 2 fingers out in front of his nose. A common ninja pose. "Activate......." then, like a blur, Avery disappeared


What followed was an enormous amount of white sigils manifesting all over the forest floor, all over trees and boulders, and then rocking the area with the power of 10 sticks of dynamite EACH. It was as if a mortar strike was on the demon's location, blasting the demon left and right and causing him to roar in pain at each explosion. The forest between the front and the center was being upended, being turned into a no-man's land of powerful holy explosions and all of this from within the ADF so those holy wounds weren't gonna be healing fast. Avery put his operation into play, delivering the first phase of it. A master saboteur, Avery's big operation last night was planting all of these traps all over the forest. Holy explosive traps registered with Lostro's signature so that the demon and ONLY the demon could ever activate them.

The front of the forest lay in ruins, trees burning in white holy fire, undead animal running around burning in holy fire until they fell over, souls burning up along with the body as it was reduced to ash. The Holy Smoke generated was salt in the demon's wounds, new and old. Large patches of scales busted and the exposed flesh underneath burning to prevent regeneration. Mozreliun was cocky enough to stay within this field and it was really costing him dearly after this new attack. Avery reappeared in front of the overturned demon, the smile starting to widen into the scary Cheshire grin. "The deck was rigged from the start," Avery said as one of the heads charged up another Petrification Beam. Avery jumped back and Shivarath darted forward to embed itself into that head's eye, causing it to close its mouth which made the spell misfire and explode, turning the entire head to stone. "Good luck getting out of this forest alive." Avery turned to walk away. "Naka, you're up."


The lucky thing in this attack is that since the demon was within the ADF, and that those were holy explosions, the copious amounts of black demon blood soaking the ground wasn't causing more skeletons to pop out, nor causing them to bulk. The demon couldn't bulk them up from within the ADF. Maybe it solidified in Mozreliun's minds that he had just slithered into a massive forest-wide minefield


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


Bogrum's Leadership Options

• Follow through with his own plan- Best keep them away from the wall at all costs. Hold the line!
• Follow through with Arnold's plan- Arnold was right. The wall was reinforced and the ground sanctified. They had to buy time, not win the fight

Whatever Bogrum's decision, whether to follow his own plan, or to take Arnold's advice and retreat behind the gates to let the wall and field do their jobs, it would be quite a bit of time before they were all greeted to a new sight: Lizardmen, and quite a few of them dropping from the skies yet landing gently. They were all armed with either rifles or shotguns, and they were wheeling around cannons from the ship.
"FIRE!" Boom! "FIRE!" Boom! "FIRE!" Boom! "Fire!" Boom! Right into skeletons these cannonballs went, decimating any skull unlucky enough to get in its path
There was very little delay in firing despite there being only 2 ship cannons. There was only one crew capable of moving with THIS much efficiency, and it showed as the leader yelled out "GET MOVING! GET TO THE POSITION! HURRY UP! BOSS AIN'T WAITIN'!" and a swath of them carrying the Laser Cannon began hauling ass as fast as they could carrying a weapon that heavy alongside its ammo. Others started taking shots at skeletons at all sides. They were escorting this weapon into the forest.

The cannon crew were left behind along with a box of munitions and another box containing Shades. These cannons and only like 3 small arms to protect them were all that was there for reinforcements. It was obvious that the lizardmen weren't there for full backup, but rather dropped because the big boss was about to do something drastic, and that drastic thing required the Laser Cannon........and the bombing of the forest made that place very unsafe to deploy directly to from the Basenji, so they dropped into this zone knowing it was also hot, but less literally hot

WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Nellie Noi​

"Yes. Our station is secured," Nellie's voice answered. All else was silent on her end, but only because it was just her telepathic voice Vespera was picking up. Judging by her next words, it was still quite the spectacle where she was. "Vlad's Holy Fire is keeping them at bay. Nothing undead is leaving this graveyard as anything but ashes." Spoken with calm confidence, a far cry from her earlier panic in the Library.

So that was the three graveyards taken care of, or at least in some semblance. No guards and civilians running around in aimless terror. "I'm not of much use here now. Let me know where to meet you, and I'll be there."


After Vespera gave her answer, Vlad approached Nellie from his post. "It's safe for now. The fires will keep those grounds smoldering until the demon stops summoning them."
"I take that to mean you want to come with?"
The beastman gave a nod, then morphed into his animal form. A huge, muscled lion with a golden mane padded to her side, presenting his back. "Conserve your mana. I'll get you where you need to go faster."

Claws extended, Vlad ripped through the torn streets in a blur, while Nellie shot Ice Spikes at the occasional straggler as they passed by.
"So you and Qeien are good now?" she asked, clinging tight to his billowing mane when he sped up.
"We were never 'bad'," he asserted through panting breaths. "But if you're asking if the sanction's been lifted, only until the demon stops summoning them," he repeated.
"Well, He should for good," she asserted back. "You're the only one who told me what really happened. You're the only one who actually DID anything." So much for the 100 Elites. The strongest powerhouse in all of Kraiven, and all besides her had refused join Vlad's rallying in fear of the king. The king only had power in part BECAUSE of them! If they all banded together against him, they'd be unstoppable! She couldn't understand it...
"That's arguable."
She was ready to scold him, before a thin wall of blockading skeletons demanded a rain of ice shards. "Never good enough for you."

Bogrum Mazoga​

Arnold's suggestion struck him. Bogrum had been so concerned with keeping everything out of the walls-- mainly, Mozza himself-- that he hadn't considered using it to their advantage. Mozza might not even become a concern for them at all, as he had just implied by mentioning the Ship Leaders. Their only concern was the skeletons, and it wasn't like any number of them could topple these walls. He was running a defensive effort offensively, even when he had no reason to. Just like a pirate... you're already becoming just like them.

No... Bogrum had always been this way. Positioning catapults had always been with the goal of repelling the enemy. There was no "survive" option for a machine that was built to destroy in droves and absorb hits all the while. Unlike the catapults from the era Kraiven was likely familiar with, the Orcish contraptions were modern, huge war machines, built for catastrophic ranged attacks as well as to be a functional battering ram for up-close persuasions. You weren't going to hide THOSE things behind a wall.

He felt a bit awful. These were PEOPLE. If he was so concerned about their lives, why was he still running them like they were objects? "And that's why you're Commander, sir," he told him with a smile, as hard as it was to muster one. The insight was appreciated, but it had been a blow. Not to his ego, but in his confidence that he could protect their men. "You're right. Let's fall back while we have ample time."

Fergie​

Holy shit. Fergie couldn't be more happy to get her crew away from that demon. Never mind the mass Petrification Spell, this forest was about to become a REAL warzone. She couldn't say exactly what Avery had planned from his recon last night, but she could guess that he had quite a few aces up his dainty little sleeves. And that was his deal, taking care of Mozza for good. Fergie's deal was getting her crew to the action they needed to be at. And AWAY from the action that was going to kill them.

"Faster! Pick up 'em feet!" They were weaving between tree, brush, and stone to reach the treeline. Still no word from Bogrum, so the urgency was more to keep falling back than to get him his reinforcements faster. If ye'd think for one damned second, ye'd know he's fine. If he'd been turned to stone, she wouldn't be able to tell how how musty his humid-ass pockets were through the lichen piece he still had. Gee, it's almost like fightin' a fuckin' battle makes ye work up a sweat! Or maybe he was sweating bullets over how many casualties they were having. Hopefully he hadn't been privy to those details yet.

He's FINE! Stop thinkin' about 'im! But she was going to have to a lot more, once they broke through the treeline. An absolute mass of skeletons was folding against the city walls in the distance, being pelted with gunfire, cannonfire, and arrows down at the bottlenecks they were forced into. Ridiculously outnumbered, but still outclassing them. She allowed herself a sigh. He's fine.

"Fergie to Bogrum. Reinforcements are here. Tell us your preferred flavor of sic, an' we'll serve."


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Toron- The Capital City​

"Vespera to Elaina."
"I see you're getting used to my name." Elaina's smugness could be felt from those words.
"Don't flatter yourself," Ves responded bluntly, "I still don't like you."
"You flatter me enough," Elaina said with a laugh, "Lighten up. What do you need?"
As if Ves could afford to lighten up in these circumstances. "Nellie's done on her end. The 3rd and final Graveyard is captured and she's wondering where to meet."
"Hmmmmm......" Some deliberation. "Let's meet at the Church."
She was making a joke at Ves's expense, and the vampire didn't appreciate it. "...........That's not funny."
"Ok ok. Let's meet as close to the Church as you're allowed to get," Elaina chuckled over the crystal, "Seriously, we need to be as close to the center as possible so I can search and mark the rest of the skeletons we need to cull."
"You can actually do that?"
"You still question my capabilities at this point?"
A sigh from Vespera. "I'll contact Nellie. Ves out."

Maybe the secret to dealing with Elaina was letting go any semblance of urgency unless Elaina herself expressed it. Her smugness and joking at a time like this was enraging, but Ves had learned that that was her, so she had to just let it go. She couldn't teach Elaina to care about the Capital City, not that Elaina was given a reason to anyways. "Vespera to Nellie. We're meeting near the Church as close as I can get without getting burned," she relayed over the crystal, "Elaina will mark the skeletons down and we'll seek out the remaining stragglers to destroy."


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

Gates​

By the time Fergie's troops arrived, the lizardmen were in a fierce combat with the skeletons utilizing the cannons along with rifles, shotguns, and their own flame and/or acid breath. While they put up a good fight, the relentlessness of the skeletons coming out in steady intervals kept them from ever catching a break and the added numbers would soon overwhelm them, so the reinforcements needed to strike fast and furiously, and do so post-haste. Even though the lizardmen were on the sanctified field, it wasn't like the skeletons were dying immediately.

With the bulk of the troops defended by the wall and the field, they were currently safe and sound, licking any wounds they didn't have time for before, and arming/rearming themselves. Still, with both munitions and Shades out there, it was imperative to go out and grab that shit, the Shades for the Stoneroses if not for them. "Let's initiate the flanking blitz as opportunity allows!" Arnold exclaimed. This was their chance as he laid eyes on the emerging Fergie's troops. As the skeleton horde turned towards the troops now behind them, there was no greater chance. Entire armies fell to smaller forces due to a flank. They would decimate these skeletons. With the ranged attackers up top popping shots and unleashing arrows to bust shields, the skeletons didn't know who the bigger threat were. Such confusion confounding the enemy was the power of a flank, and only options then were fight to the bitter end, fall back, or take down everyone with a massive kamikaze attack

When Bogrum gave the call, all would charge. NOW was the time for the full offensive


WayfaringWaaksian


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

Forest​

"Mercy escapes Naka's eye for those who kill tiny allies."- A ticked off Nakaos

Nakaos's attack was next. Draining a Defense Potion as well as the Strength Potion, she dropped out of the deployment hatch with the Drop Blade, her Lizardmen having moved to Demi's ship and deployed at the Gates. Given Avery's bombing of the forest, there was no way she was letting her men deploy in the midst of that. As she dropped far faster than most as her momentum was carried by the Drop Blade, Naka grew to full size, a full 12 feet tall, towering over everyone in the pirate crew by a long shot. In fact, the only person in the entirety of Kraiven taller than her was King Hemhart himself by 1 foot.

At full size, the Drop Blade was no heavier than a Claymore in the hands of a knight long trained in its ways. Naka let it carry her close enough to the ground over the demon before she brought it back and, carried by momentum, brought it down with all her might at the base of the demon's body. If not for the scales, Naka would've immediately severed the beast's spine.........well not severed as much as crushed it into powder on the spot. Still, the power was felt as the demon nigh vomited black demon blood from all remaining heads. Naka IS bombardment, she thought, her eye focused. With defensive magic all over her body, the fall only shattered the magic instead of breaking her legs. Avery really thought every detail through. Now on the ground, Naka grabbed the Drop Blade and slammed it again and again on the demon's body, like a thug beating a man in the street. A head tried to crane around and snap at her, only to get a face full of the massive pillar swung like a bat, sending it crashing into another head.

Naka jumped and brought the massive weapon down again across all of the heads, then spun around and swung it like a bat again. This time it was at the base, and sent the demon crashing through the trees into the center. This activated another wave of Avery's sabotage, and another round of holy explosions went off, wrecking the demon even more. Coughing from the smoke, the Omni-Sight Monocle she wore allowed her to see through the smoke as if it weren't there, so the giant woman jumped again and landed hard on the demon's tail, and with one final crack downwards, shattered the Drop Blade across the demon's spine. With most of the scales lining the spine now busted and most of the underbelly scales busted from the explosions underneath, as well as the ADF preventing it from auto-healing, Mozreliun was getting desperate, yet there wasn't much he could do. Every skeleton he summoned cost him one soul, and while those were a dime a dozen before, he needed to save them and consume them to heal, slowing down his ability to summon at the Gates and inside the City. Even with all those casualties, it took him quite a bit of time to notice that he wasn't getting any because Laylah was overhead capturing them before they could feed him

Mozreliun decided to downsize, consuming one of his own heads in order to heal some of those injuries and restore his back scales. The process took some time but he managed to succeed at the cost of one of his heads, bringing him down to 4 at this point: A trade of Firepower for Health.
"All units. Laser Cannon Deploying." In the time it took Mozreliun to heal himself, Naka wasn't just standing around. She had grabbed the Laser Cannon from her men and used the teleport crystal to get back to the Basenji, then redeployed. It was a deviation from the initial plan, but it was better to fire from above rather than firing this laser horizontally. This was what she did best, the expert. "Bombard."

Another beam from the heavens as Naka blasted the center of the forest from above with the devastatingly powerful Laser Cannon. The weapon that almost destroyed one of their ships THROUGH its magic shield, the blast was so powerful that Naka had to put full strength to control the recoil, a laser so strong that it suspended the Giant woman in the air from where she fired the laser. 5 agonizing seconds that laser bore into the ground in the center of the forest, wreaking havoc into the land of Kraiven on a level that could only be assessed when all this was over.

• Skeletons at the Gates and in the Capital City Toron are starting to falter in summoning interval

Fatimah and Orabelle Deadeye
Forest- Center​

Bearing witness to Naka using the Teleport Crystal to go back to the ship, Fatimah knew what was going to happen. Luckily, she began preemptively falling her troops back further the moment, the demon's body poked into the center the first time. More space was needed, and needed quickly. "Fall Back!" she called to the relative few troops remaining at the Center. While the clearing was quite large and they were at the treeline that would take them to the Back (nearing the Gates), Fatimah didn't feel safe enough. This feeling was solidified when the purple beam of power showed how terrifying it could be. "All this," Fatimah said in awe and terror, eyes widened, "Without even the blessings of the gods. Should such power even be allowed in mortal hands?" Fatimah served no gods, but she witnessed the Angels call upon their gods for power and she sensed Demi call upon hers and they would see it next. While the power of those 3 outshined the Laser Cannon, the fact that the Laser Cannon had comparable power to her herself using spells so strong that simply using them would put her into a Magic Coma from full Mana use............."What is the logical last step for technology?" she couldn't help but wonder. The Laser Cannon had something that she nor the Angels nor Demi had: Ammo. They had as many uses as they had cartridges which, if compared in battle, meant that the Laser Cannon had an actual shot at being their best best in terms of "Forbidden Spell" level power. The thought TERRIFIED Fatimah, her lifetime of study gave her a level of power that could be overtaken by a ship weapon solely based on the fact that she could go all out only once per battle. What good was 1,000 power one time in the face of 650 power 5 times?

Orabelle on the other hand, was thoroughly enjoying every second of what she was watching as the giant purple beam descended onto the demon she knew was there. Naturally attracted to the shiny as a girl raised in a place with very low light overall, such flashiness could only make her stare. She'd stare at the sun until she went blind if Sebas's weren't there to tell her that her eyes were burning. Instead, she spent many a night in her tank staring out at the moon, like a moth to a lamp. She was deathly scared of heights, but if she were to ever go anywhere in the sky, it would be to the moon. Awe aside, Ora's sole concern was of the location of her Papa. Still, with Avery definitely near him as worried about Sebas's safety as she was, she knew her favorite beastman wouldn't let him stay in danger.

"One more attack and we're up, Orabelle. Prepare yourself."
Ora nodded, trying to focus. "I will pour my all into it."
Fatimah laughed. "No need, child. I need only one spell from you, the Sanctification Sigil." The Sanctification Sigil. Think the Sanctified grounds, but instead of it being over the ground, one could cast it in front of allies so that every bullet/arrow that passed through it was now Holy. The spell didn't see all that much use this fight as it was only ever useful to projectiles, thus in defensive positions
"I won't half-ass my Sanctification Sigil."
"Language, young lady," Fatimah said in mirth. Clearly she was starting to take on Sebas's lingo

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Bogrum Mazoga ​

They were here; Bogrum felt a weight roll off his terse shoulders. The Defense unit, along with Naka's recruits down at the ground level, had kept the undead at bay long enough thanks to Arnold's expertise, but they couldn't keep this up indefinitely. It had to end, preferably with the enemy side losing.

"I think you know exactly what to do here, Fergie," Bogrum said with a relieved smile, looking to single out that tall spoke of a woman among the emerging unit. He hadn't let himself worry about her, along with everything else here. She was always capable, but when she had lives under her charge, she had a self-preservation instinct that actually worked. She'd leave this battle relatively unscathed, her naturally contagious confidence bolstering the crew in the face of these turned tables.

He could hear the murderous grin in her words as she replied, "One splintery bone-scrap sandwich, comin' right up." When she clicked off, her crew rushed forward, a wave of weapon-waving vagrants coming to crash into their foe. The skeletons with their Lich leaders were much more coordinated than the last wave, but now in the face of an oncoming flank, they were losing resolve, unable to delegate between the two assailants. Had they reached their limit, or did those boot-rattling explosions in the forest have something to do with it?

"30 seconds," he said to Arnold, estimating the time before the clash at the rear. "Let's finish this, Commander."

Nellie Noi​

"The Church," Nellie had relayed to Vlad as he bounded away from the graveyard. Though it was also murmured to herself in apparent concern. It made sense, as the Church was located in the general epicenter of Toron. Start from the middle, work their way outwards until they've covered all ground. But something about it struck her as off...

It couldn't have been the subject matter. It was Ves's voice over the crystal. She sounded tense, and she even looked the part when Nellie found her in the Library. A part of her wanted to write it off as the situation; you'd be a fool to NOT be tense in an actual war.

That's the problem. This Elaina person. She barely had a scent of anxiety about her. Despite all the effort she was putting into their countermeasures, the pirate woman acted very laissez-faire about the matter. Not like it was inconsequential as a whole, but perhaps to her? Ves and Nellie were stifling back fear for their friends, while Elaina reeked of smugness all the while. Nellie didn't expect these pirates to give a shit about civilian life, but Elaina in no subtle terms saying that Kraiven basically deserved what was happening to them rubbed her in all sorts of bad ways. Was she satisfied to have uncovered this place's secrets, or at being here to witness their suffering for it?

"The human named Elaina," she began to warn Vlad as they approached their meetup. "Take care what you say around her. I'm suspicious of her intentions."
"Because she's a pirate?" he chanced.
"Because she knows."


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Elaina Melora and Vespera Marine Seyres
Toron, The Capital City- Library​

Elaina walked into the library to be met with another newcomer. "Oh? A beastman with Divine Favor." Whether Vlad's human form was fully human, or like Avery who tended to keep an inbetween, Elaina noticed it on sight both him being a beastman and his Divine Favor. In one fell swoop, Elaina had more respect for Vlad already than most. Keeping Divine Favor meant one didn't stray in their morals and convictions for over 200 years. Vlad made 2 that she's seen keep Divine Favor. "I guess this must be the other of the 100 Elites that abandoned their post." Elaina knew about them abandoning their post.
She slapped a map down on the table. "I am Elaina Melora, scout for the Black Sea Basenjis," she said, looking at the map without looking up, "The pirate crew that would've shelled this city to the ground if we had listened to our captain."

She waved her hand over the map and her eyes began to glow gold. "Search. Moving Skeletons. Exclude. Graveyard." Red dots started popping up around the map and moving. There weren't that many, except by the castle, where there were a TON. The map showed that they were blocked by the moat though. "Looks like smooth sailing from here on," Elaina said with a yawn. "I need a nap. Just take out these few and then keep a steady supply of Mana Potions. The Demon is about to fall, so the dawn of a new era is upon you."

Ves growled. "Can you PLEASE take this seriously for once, and have SOME sense of urgency?" she asked, reaching her wits end.
"Do you expect me to be panicking like you two were?" Elaina said with another yawn, "I already told you I don't care about the lives of these people. Kraiven has to burn."
"Is that why you've been moving so slow all this time? You've been willing to standby and let people die as if they deserve it?!"
"As slow as I've been moving in your perception, I've moved with more planning than any of you," Elaina countered, brushing off the vampire's words with her own stinging words. "I don't have purpose to move fast. You all have the purpose but not the planning, so you're moving nowhere fast while I'm moving somewhere slow." Not slow as in snail-paced. Slow as in without a sense of urgency. "Why should I move urgently for a people who don't want to help themselves? If you require the minds of invading pirates to save your city, complaints about our speed is being a choosy beggar." Elaina's words were calm, without smugness and condescension but as honest as ever. "Stop expecting invaders to have the sense of urgency your king should have."

While her head stayed in the map still marking down skeletons, Elaina's eyes shifted to Vlad and Nellie. "If you two are part of the 100 Elites, then you were both aware of Hemhart's plan to hunker down from the getgo." Vlad for sure knew. Whether or not Nellie knew from the GETGO may be a different matter. Maybe Vlad told her and it explains why they were sitting among the archives of the library instead of scratch-free in the castle. Maybe she did know from the getgo and it explains why she went AWOL in the first place. "If you two are part of the 100 Elites, then you both knew of the impending first invasion before it happened, and Hemhart's plan to escape instead of defend." The answer to this was..........Vlad for sure knew unless there were extenuating circumstances around why he wouldn't know. Nellie didn't join the 100 Elites until AFTER they were in the Spirit Sea, where her skill could no longer be overlooked for being a Locathah. That meant unless someone told her, Nellie didn't know. If Nellie didn't know about the second plan, it meant that the sentiment that kept her from the 100 Elites in the first place still had roots sown.

Nellie wasn't joking when she said Elaina knew. Elaina KNEW, and she knew a LOT more than she was letting on. Elaina had information that, 200 years ago in Kraiven, would've gotten her targeted for assassination for having information she's not supposed to have, information that would get entire aristocracies burned to the ground by the people if released. She passed them the map. "If and only if you want to take out the skeletons trying to get into the castle, do so," she told them. Their locations were marked on that map. She moved back to business as if she didn't just call out the 100 Elites for something as BIG as the very invasion that caused them their 200 years of timelessness in the first place. "Otherwise, take out the ones roaming the city and we should be done here so long as the graveyards stay guarded."


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

Arnold Asella
Gates​

As soon as Fergie's troops clashed with the skeletons, Arnold drew his sword. "OPEN THE GATES! CHAAAARRGGEEE!!!!" He bellowed, a war cry to rally the troops, who returned with their own war cry as they charged out of the open gates. Arnold hopped off the stairs and charged out the gates himself, setting his blade on fire and feeling more alive than he'd been in a while. Things hit different when the situation didn't seem so hopeless anymore. With that destructive beam blasting into the forest, Arnold stopped worrying about both the demon and the pirates. Seeing that power, it was infinitely better to have done this (as hard as THIS was) than to have gone up against the pirates. He wouldn't venture as far as to say that the pirates were "on their side" but he would take the win in saying that he was glad they weren't his enemies

Arnold sensed a presence behind him. Whipping around, he blocked the scythe coming for his back. It was easy to block, and that was the weakness of this Reaper Lich, easily blocked attack along with the long pause before disappearing. Arnold hopped on it, slashing the lich with this blazing sword, who screamed and disappeared. It wasn't dead, but it definitely couldn't take many (if any) more of those. Arnold breathed and focused, and soon the blaze of his sword disappeared, replaced with a blade simply glowing a reddish-pinkish hue. Instead of leaking magic in having the sword blaze or to set one ablaze, why not focus all of that heat to create a sword so hot it could melt skin, bone, blade, and armor alike?

Big man as he was, his speed wasn't high but his technique was impeccable. He weaved through skeletons with decisive steps and quick flourishes of his blade, blocking with precise shield magic in specific locations to not only preserve mana but to make the shield stronger as it was smaller. Left hand flourishing the blade, and flicks of the fingers on his right hand controlling where his shield was, this man really put the knight in "retired knight." How many Basenjis could he take down in a strict sword-fight. Hell, once he understood how guns worked thus how to cast his shield, how many could he take down before he ran out of mana for the shield?

"WWRRAAAAAA!!!" Quincy roared from above, magic brimming from the ship. The Wyvern, beefed up and much bigger than the Quincy they saw earlier when they requested the airstrike, was setting off for their attack. He couldn't see his daughter, but he knew she was there. The angry aura around Quincy spoke for itself, and when Quincy was pissed, Demi was just as pissed if not moreso. They flew straight to the forest.

"Men! Away from the Woods!" Arnold called frantically. "She's gonna go Scorched Earth!!"


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

Forest​

"World's largest order of Fried Snake. Cooked to Order!"-Demestral Asella, a waitress saluting her customers

"Be advised, all units. Demestral commencing attack!"

The Dragon/Fae duo set off to unleash their attack as soon as Naka passed the torch to her through the crystal. The demon had to have been in dire straits after all this. They would end this. "Quincy, time to go Scorched Earth."
"But it'll burn down the forest!" Quincy countered.
"What forest?" Demi said aggressively, feeling the wind in her wings. After Avery's Sabotage and Naka's Laser Cannon, any fears of a forest fire was snuffed out a long time beforehand. "If we turn it into a radioactive zone, so be it. That demon will fry with or without batter."
"I wonder what Dragon tastes like?" Dragons had a policy about attacking other Dragons. Dragons didn't eat Dragons. If they get marked as a cannibal, they would be forever wanted dead. No different than someone who gained the title of Dragon Slayer, cannibals among Dragons were enemies of the Circle of Royals. Mozreliun wasn't covered by this rule though because he was a False.
"Demonic in this case. Don't eat it, you'll get sick." Demi was having a hard time maintaining her anger as she bantered with Quincy. "Now, let burn this demon to the ground."

As they came upon the forest clearing, they bore witness to the truly destructive power of the Laser Cannon. Damn near a sinkhole was created in the center of the forest, trees littering the sides where the clearing USED to end, now opened up by force. Like with Evangeline's attack, there was no flora or fauna remaining in the area, replaced with this ruined crater of an area with the sinkhole in the middle. If this is what it took to save the people of Toron and to subjugate this demon, then so be it. They had magic. Given enough time, they could terraform this back and make this land either fertile for growth again, or redevelop it back into the forest it once was. None of that mattered though if everyone died.

It was sad looking on this land. Demi could remember many a days camping in this exact forest clearing when she needed to get away from the air pollution the city produced as a city that attempted to industrialize, camping in the fresh air looking up at the stars with vision unhindered by street lights at night. It was in that exact clearing that she taught Quincy all about the Pixies of the Stars, Constellations, and how they affected Star Pixie's abilities as they drew upon them. Demi had cried her eyes out many a time in this clearing, with many forest sprites coming to her comfort. Demi could only hope that they left Kraiven before the Invasion, and were still taking refuge in Avalon. The tree she carved her name into was long dismantled. She sighed, Goodbye. I'm sorry I forgot such a wonderful place of comfort wrapped in the moonlight at night, she thought.

"HAIL, DEMON!" She called out below. Mozreliun had to consume 2 more heads to attempt healing. The Laser Cannon did a massive number on him and the bombing and ADF were wearing on him. "We of the Fae and the Draconic have a policy against interlopers, infiltrators, and imposters." Demi's lance began to spin like a drill, and her expression contorted in unnatural anger. "How DARE you take the form of a Dragon?!!? Giga Drill!" Demi flung her lance with all her might down into the sinkhole in which the demon resided. The lance blasted into the base of the heads and began drilling into the demon's spine. A massive eruption of Black Demon Blood and Demon screams spouted from the hole, along with the green of souls being released for the first time ever this fight.

The entire time Demi spoke and attacked, a bright ball charged in the air from Quincy, a second sun in brightness with a heat so intense, it dried the Black Demon Blood in seconds...........and then evaporated it. Demi's eyes and wings glistened in the artificial sunlight, her anger reaching its peak. "Quincy, burn this imposter to cinders. Ultra-Violet Nova!" Quincy unleashed the spell.

Like the impending Apocalypse, everyone from the Center throughout all of Toron to the Castle itself who looked in that direction could bear witness to a spell so devastatingly hot that trees set aflame as the ball descended. The heat only grew as it dropped slowly to the ground. With the spell unleashed, there was naught anyone could do to stop it. The demon couldn't burrow, being held in place after being pierced by Demi's Giga Drill, plus its spine was severed so it couldn't move. It could only watch as the UV-Nova began to descend upon it, the temperature growing hotter and hotter until it was sizzling..........and then its blood beginning to boil from within its body.

"All units. Get out of the Forest. You will NOT survive otherwise." Demi said to the units, her voice dark and malevolent, almost with evil glee. Without Shades, one would be blinded looking in that direction. If they DID and looked, they could see the evil red glow in Demi's eyes. This was the power of the Draconic amplified by the Fae. Like Evangeline with the urge to purge, Demestral was possessed with nothing more than setting this world ablaze.


This was far more powerful than any of them originally thought. The amount of collateral was about to make this attack a 1,000 degree double-edged sword if they didn't get some distance ASAP. Who in the FUCK did Adonis employ to this crew?!? Wyvern Rider? You sure she wasn't a fucking DEMON OF FLAMES???!! "FALL BACK! FALL BACK!" Sebas yelled over the crystal. "FALL THE FUCK BACK TO THE GATES!!" Troops began hauling ass out of the literal hot zone. "SHIPS! TO THE VANGUARD SPOT OR TO THE GATES! GO! GO! GO!" Sebas scooped up Orabelle, who casted a line of water. Sebas jumped into it, went full Triton form and propelled them through it, heading to the Gates with a single-minded focus to get the hell out of dodge THROUGH the forest fire now raging. This was not the time to fall out from overheat. You fell out, you were DEAD. There would be no ashes.

The ships kicked themselves into high drive, with the Canine heading over to the ruined area that was the location of the demon summoning. The Basenji hauled itself over to the Gates, Adonis actually getting off his ass and doing something before the extreme heat blew up the high explosives present on those ships, if not full blown destroying the engines.


Over at the Gates, while the temperature reached massive highs, they were lucky to be out of the woods as all of those trees were on fire. Everyone began to get sluggish as the heat struck them, but the skeletons were suffering a glitch in the system. Since their summoner was the demon and the line of connection was now suffering volcanic temperatures, it introduced many problems with them. Staggering, some attacking randomly, some attacking each other, some moving as if they were having a seizure, some screeching somehow. The immense heat was messing with their ability to operate in peculiar almost creepy ways


A Taste of Dragon Fire

"Now Mozreliun, reflect on your crimes as you do the time." Demi said.

The UV-Nova finally made it to the hole, a slow agonizingly hot, tense buildup. Then the explosion happened. To the lands down below, if there was any reason to begin begging their respective Lords for mercy and forgiveness of sins, things like this would've been what put the fear into them if Evangeline's legendary Sword in the Stone move didn't.

The earth, the flora, and the fauna alike in the forest howled in the wake of the nova, the latter 2 going blind from the light before feeling their bodies melt away in the now literal scorching winds of the blast, turning to ash. The earth wasn't lost, only transformed. Liquified into magma and becoming one with heat, the earth sunk in, taking and consuming any and all to either ash or magma. If there were any skeletons under the ground, any dead buried, any dead pirates in this forest, their bodies were taken in as well, an unofficial yet fitting cremation to stoke the erupting volcano Demi had turned this crusade into. Pirates always talked about going out in a blaze of glory. Well here it was in the most literal sense anyone could ever imagine, though saddening that the ones who wanted to go out in such a blaze weren't there to bear witness to THE most glorious blaze any of them would have ever seen, and going out in such a blaze as to take down the greatest enemy they had ever faced, the enemy that struck them down. In this way, no normal funeral procession or Basenji funeral could ever top something like this. Not many souls could ever say that their body was cremated in a supernova avenging their deaths at the hands of an Ancient Demon.

There was no more fitting a show of wrath towards the demon that had slaughtered their ranks, impersonated a Dragon, attacked her homeland, forced her to give up the Dragon Egg she had spent so much time searching for, and forced them to SACRIFICE it all to take him down. Demi wanted him to burn. Demi wanted ALL OF IT to burn, and burn it did. It would've been so poetic that what she searched for, her life's purpose, brought her all the way back full circle into the arms of her long lost father and Guild. Instead, it was stripped from her and this demon was to blame. So let it burn



The Gates were fine, the skeletons all decimated. Hopefully they had their magic shields up at full power. The entire ranks of the Basenjis were either at the Gates or on a Ship at this point. The remaining few were Elaina's troops in the city. All they could do right now was watch this Nova wreck this land and be happy that this didn't go down on the Earth below. It would incur a bounty so large that it would prompt entire continents of kingdoms coming for their heads. Still, the attacks dispelled the clouds under them, so any that weren't directly under this 400 mile floating rock could see this Supernova. There would be news about this. Speculative news but news nonetheless.
"See Sebas," Avery told him, taking a seat and turning to cat form to begin grooming himself. "This is why I would never kill a Dragon. I would have to fight THAT if I got marked as a Dragon Slayer." He would jump on Sebas's shoulder but..........
"Yeah, let's not piss off the Dragons of Avalon," he said, squeezing Orabelle's hand while submerged in a bubble of arctic cold water. The child would have died from overheat if that water wasn't as cold as it could possibly get without freezing, either from overheat from not being in the water, or from the water boiling them alive if she weren't pouring ice magic to keep its temperature that low
WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Nellie Noi​

The moment Elaina recognized Vlad as a beastman and having Divine Favor, a spike of anxiety emanated from him and caught Nellie's nose. It couldn't have been because she noticed his species; he was as proud as any lionfolk, who displayed his shining mane in all forms. What was the point of grooming that thing if he wasn't going to show it off? But he was ALSO a proud follower of his God, happy to share the gifts he was given...
Perhaps he noticed something about the pirate she couldn't. It wasn't like him to be nervous, of all things. Maybe it was just the terrible circumstances they were in.

"Vladimir," the man returned, not a prick of fear shaking his voice. How he appeared so calm and poised even in these dire straits was a source of envy for her. "Pleased to make your acquaintance." Sort of true? Better to have a shaky, grudging alliance with these people over them turning their weapons of war towards Toron. As for his poise, a crack in his mask appeared when Elaina performed her... scrying spell? It wasn't quite like anything either of them have seen, and Vlad took in the sight of the highlighted enemies with fascination. "So this is the innovation of the New World?"

Of course, they both were intrigued. Battle scars aside, they were just buff nerds who knew how to fight at the end of the day. But Nellie was more reserved about her interest, flicking away a fleeting urge to smack Vlad with her tail for feeding Elaina's already voluminous ego. In fact, she was fighting a lot of urges right now: an urge to order Vespera to swallow her complaints, an urge to give Elaina quite a few smacks for... well, all of the same reasons Ves had expressed, and more. But Vespera had every right to question, and Elaina spoke a sour truth. They were fortunate that this vindictive pirate was giving her help at all. With the Church and Graveyards secure, what reason did she have to pick off the stragglers? It was surprising that she didn't just let a bit more carnage ensue on the population. Yet here she was... not for selfless reasons, Nellie could guess. But help was help, and they needed every ounce of it.


As for the acknowledgement of the Elites' prior and current missions, Nellie gave another simple, "Yes." Vlad only gave a nod, heeding her earlier warning. Vlad had always known much more about the King's apparent cowardice than Nellie, and was the source of most of her information. Her own sleuthing had turned up more details, but they were secrets closely guarded, and Nellie always had to take care to not stick her hand too far into the hole lest she be bit with an assassin's poison. At the start of their timeless era, Vlad had even warned her NOT to join, that the Elites' values wouldn't align with her own. Nellie still insisted. It wasn't power absolute, but it was power. Power to protect the people from harm her peers would endorse.

What a fool she had been. All that effort. A Locathah woman worming her way into the highest force. A Locathah with no family. Who ABANDONED her family. Someone who ought to have been shameful to name, rising the ranks among the greatest of warriors. Only to end up right where she started! A lowly subordinate with a fancy title, running the selfish errands of a selfish leader. Why even leave the Springs if it was going to be more of the same?
You trained hard for 230 years. You have a bite to back up that bark. Let them try to take it from you now.

"I'll cover the Residential district," Nellie proclaimed, not even giving acknowledgement to the skeletons surrounding the castle. They had 98 of the best warriors in Kraiven there, let them protect their cowardly king.
Vlad's golden eyes looked to her, wide with worry. "Are... you sure?" He began shaking his head. "I promise you, it's not a pretty sight."
"I'm not going there to sight-see," she snipped back. She had already helped enough of the nobles. Though she swore to protect all citizens, her worry was geared towards the commoners who had even less of a say in the terrible state of this city. And if she saw more horrors... all the more fuel to stoke her fire.

Bogrum Mazoga​

When the Stoneroses rushed out of the Gates, Bogrum and his melee fighters joined, weapons raised and eager to shatter bones. His axe, Scorchclaw engraving flashing in the beating sun and distant forest explosions, wouldn't be wet with blood this battle. But it was slick with Holy Water, and when he swung it before a line of skeletons, it cleaved through the lot like a hot knife cutting butter. With his orc's strength, if these were like the first batch of skeletons, he could have cut through them easily with muscle and inertia alone. But with this wave being beefed to hell and back, he didn't want to risk his blade catching on thickened bone. The goal was to cull, and cull fast.

And with this crew? He didn't have to worry about that. Even Arnold was a menace in battle. As every commander should be, but any preconceived notions Bogrum had about the man's ability due to weight or age was also struck down like the many undead that fell at his feet. He had something these skeletons didn't have, something even many of the pirates lacked, and that was technique. Pirates seemed to have a versatility to apply their limited assets to many circumstances, but most didn't have the training and discipline that this man showed. 200 years have dulled the Stoneroses' blades, yes, but skill wasn't something that easily withered away.

As for Fergie? Yeah, few enemies lasted long when faced with her fury. This round was theirs to win. Always marveled him, how the simplest things in the shortest of time frames could turn the tides of battle. But Bogrum ought to not let himself get cocky yet. That included not having meandering thoughts when fighting for his life.


But distracting enough was the newly formed sun glowing just above the forest. Demi's warning came through the crystal, just as that globe of eye-burning flame began to descend. NOW you warn people to fall back?! Bogrum could feel its heat coaxing more sweat on his face from even this distance, and that was before the... "explosion" didn't do what happened next justice. What to even call it? A burning forest was in the backdrop for a second, then a flash of piercing light later, there was a volcanic crater of bubbling magma. The shock wave that hit him nearly staggered him, drying that sweat right off his face in the unfathomable heat. Arnold called this Scorched Earth? Bogrum wanted to call it Hell on Earth.

Please let everyone have gotten out of--!! A sharp pain to his side made him lurch away, twisting away from the sight that had tantalized him as much as it terrified. His assailant? A sword-wielding skeleton, though the wielding part was being generous. The thing was jittering in place, slashing wildly without a single wit behind its attacks. It was easy to guess why; their summoner was preoccupied with being literally cooked alive in these moments. Not even Bogrum could find the compassion within to feel bad for him.

"I almost feel bad for you," he did grant to the skeleton, raising his axe to lop its rattling head off. But before he could, something shattered its skull, bone fragments scattering. Its assailant? None other than the beanpole herself.
"That's five!" she declared, stepping down from her high-kick stance. "Think I'm gettin' the hang of this clunker."
Enthusiasm in the face of this destruction? Bogrum couldn't not smile. "Show off."
"Oi! Let me have fun!" Fergie grabbed the discarded sword, red with Bogrum's blood, and flung it towards a group of skeletons who were doing nothing but having a spasmodic seizure party at this point. The needlessness of that action cemented her point. "Next time Ash breaks a leg, she's got one hell of a record to break."
"Aren't you eager to please?"
"Eh? ... Uh. Bogrum, that looks kinda bad."
The wound? He inspected it proper, and agreed. It wasn't a visceral cut, but quite a bit of blood was running down his armor. Explained why it hurt like a real hit, rather than some pinprick. "Aye. Let me see a healer before this heat cauterizes it."


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Elaina Melora
Library​

"Vladimir? Pleasure's mine especially when it comes from a magic enthusiast," Elaina said with an actual genuine smile. They were indeed nerds, and Elaina would never pass up an opportunity to nerd out about magic. "This innovation is an improvement on the Omni-Sight spell." Omni-Sight: An advanced scouting spell that revealed every sign of life in a radius centered on the caster. Elaina's version allowed her to filter out what she's seen, and when given a map, mark them on the map. Elaina gave the name of the spell because it's a spell both Nellie and Vlad should be familiar with regardless of whether or not they've trained it themselves. "Think of it as querying a database, and think of querying a database the same as condensing your spell to make it stronger in a smaller area." When things are excluded, narrowing down to the specifics made effects stronger. She could either search for every Skeleton within a mile, or a specific magic-using Lich in a radius of like 10 miles. "An area of effect with distributed damage? Or a single target spell with immense power? Same concept." Unlike every single other time Elaina spoke, when nerding out, Elaina was more than happy to teach concepts of magic.

Nellie was getting down to business though. Elaina made it clear that she wasn't urgent about it, so it took someone WITH some urgency to keep her non-urgency focused on the prize. "Now, I'll mark them in your vision. Everyone place a hand on the map." When everyone placed their hand on the map, Elaina waved her hands over it as if waving over a crystal ball. "Apply Results to Party." A flash and now in the vision of each of the three, red hues began to pop up in their vision. Obviously the skeletons given that this was an outline of them, and these red hues populated their vision, visible through any and all obstacles between them. "Now you'll know where the skeletons are through walls. If the hue is too bright in your vision, take a finger to your forehead and drag your finger down. It'll lower the hue. Back up to raise the brightness again." It was such a minute detail, more than likely a big time quality of life improvement she thought up herself. "All to your comfort, courtesy of your resident nerd. Now," She got serious as she looked at the trio, "This is the end of the line. None of you may have noticed it, but Demestral has unleashed hell in the forest, a spell called Ultra-Violet Nova." This spell was of course familiar to the duo. Not really Ves as she didn't study magic. To these other 2? They knew full well the destructive power that spell imposed. "You may not have noticed it because we are in Kitsune Domain.........." Thus the effects were effectively nullified by their power. They felt nary a tremor, nor a single degree of temperature rising from within that library. "........but when you all leave, it's going to be very very very HOT outside." For a Locathah like Nellie, hopefully she had a way to stay hydrated. She would dry and then die within 10 minutes if she didn't. "That demon is going down VERY soon. In the midst of extreme heat, summons can get weird unless they're built for it. Keep that in mind. Throw predictability out the window. It's the final push."

"I must stay here and keep this spell running," Elaina told them, "Drop the stragglers FIRST, then go around and make sure the troops have a way to beat the heat at the graveyards." She couldn't have troops passing out from the heat, not while that demon was still living.

Sebas Deadeye
Gates​

"Elaina to Sebas. How are things going out there?"
Elaina reached out to him. Sebas did wonder how things went on her side. He felt when Mariana took over the church, but what about the city itself. "We're about to go in for the kill. With our troops all at the Gates, we can send Arnold's peeps back in and some of our own if you need it."
"I should only require Arnold's troops. They can defend their own city."
"Suit yourself."


"Ora, Fatimah, Avery," Sebas said as the troops began celebrating victory over the skeletons and prematurely over the demon. With Fergie/Bogrum's systematic dismantling of the skeletons, and the demon about to die, this was all a foregone conclusion at this point. "Time to finish this." My child has been bathing in black demon blood for too long. Time to get her out of there, he thought.
Avery flipped back into human form and pulled out Shivarath and Silencer. "Fly, Shivarath," he said before throwing it up and it again turned into a literal butterfly knife. "Find the demon. I want visual." he said to the knife above, and it flittered off.

"Heat Resist (HR) Potions inbound." Another munitions crate dropped to the crew with said provisions. Heat Resist potions were not the same as fire resist potions. Heat resist protected lightly against fire, but mostly against raw heat. Even with a Heat Resist Potion, you couldn't stick your hand in fire and not get burned. You COULD if you had a Fire resist potion. As a result, Heat Resist Potions were less used than Fire Resist as Fire Resist was frankly better. However, since there was no more forest fire as there was no more forest to set on fire, Heat protect was what they needed
"Thanks, Naka." Sebas said back as he passed one to Ora and drained one himself. Feeling the heat dispel in an instant, he didn't feel itchy all over anymore. The man's clothes had both Heating and Cooling runes sown in it to regulate his body against extreme temperatures either way, so it just went to show how extremely hot Demi's Nova was if those weren't enough. He grabbed multiple in case they'd be spending extended time in the devil's anus

Avery turned fully human now, getting rid of his cat parts and draining a HR potion. He couldn't have the extreme heat singe his fur. "I'm ready."
Fatimah drained one herself along with a Mana Potion. "I'll keep us off that ground. It's more magma than earth." With that, she cast a spell on all 4 of them and they levitated.

"Basenjis," Sebas declared, "This is our finest hour. We're going in for the kill. Time to end this bullshit." This charged the air with loud resolute cheers. "Arnold, get your troops back in the city and assess any damages. We got the rest out here." There was no reason for the Stoneroses to remain here. 99% of the remaining troops were there.
"I won't be risking any more lives here. Unless that beast has some trump card to prolong this fight any longer, it dies soon." With the entire area turned into magma, that demon wasn't healing. Even if it could, it wasn't a fire dragon so its scales would just melt again anyways. It was a good call by Avery to put Demi last...........on multiple fronts in fact. Had she launched her attack first, no one else would've been able to launch theirs.

"Bogrum, if you feel the need to accompany the Stoneroses, Fergie's troops can take over here." With that, the 4 set off in the air to finish off this fight.



The Final Countdown- The Danse Macabre

A massive roar from the forest. It was audible but noticeably weaker in strength. "Guess he's gonna put his all into surviving," Sebas commented with a sigh. "Why won't this bitch just die already............ One last desperate push." It was the final fight effort from Mozreliun. There was no flight for him. If he gave it anything less than everything he could possibly muster, he was done for. He underestimated these pirates and maybe he wouldn't recover, but he would damn sure take as many with him as possible.
"Be advised all units." This one was Elaina, her voice urgent. "I'm detecting massive summoning signatures coming from the graves both inside the city and outside at the Gates. Requesting some troops in the city to help contain the 3 graveyards." This flew in the face of what she told him like 5 minutes ago, but then again, this demon wasn't doing this shit 5 minutes ago.
"Sebas to Demestral. Go help Elaina."
"Acknowledged! I'm on myyy way!" she responded, now back to her happy bubbly self. Sebas could almost see Demi doing one of those unnecessary rigid salutes she tended to give all the time
WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Nellie Noi​

Marvel towards these modern spells aside, Nellie had a more grim realization. The efficiency and mana conservation outclassed their own capabilities. Kraiven had more of it, strong spells and huge mana reserves, but it seemed like these pirates made up for their lack by limiting where mana was spent. Elaina had said that the crew went against their captain. What would have become of this city had they followed orders?
Better to deal with a smug, self-satisfactory pirate than one that was trying to kill you. But at least Elaina was being a lot less agitating right now, talk of spells bringing out a more genuine joy that wasn't at the expense of others.

The mere mention of the Nova spell made both of the mages go rigid. "She did that right outside of the city?!" It was a wonder of Kitsune power that they hadn't felt a single thing from something of which the closest comparison was a meteorite striking the earth.
"For Avalon to have approved it, things must have gotten bad." That aside, there was little doubt that the demon would survive that attack. It was the sort of thing you'd hear in tales of terror, entire landscapes reduced to magma and reshaped to something that bore no resemblance to the old land. Poetic, especially, knowing that this battle would change Kraiven permanently. Fleeing to the Spirit Realm had only postponed this inevitable.


It was time for the team (sans Elaina) to clean up the rest of the mess. Stepping out of the Library doors, they were hit smack in the face with a radiating heat that Toron had never seen in its entire life. Vlad, being a Fire Mage, was merely surprised by its intensity. One of his signature moves was lighting himself ablaze and striking his enemies with fiery claws, so this was nothing. Nellie, however, recoiled as if the very air burned her, immediately summoning a water bubble to submerge herself in.
"Take my potions," Vlad said, pushing two of them through the bubble wall. "You'll have a hard time summoning in this heat." If summoning creatures in the proper environment spared mana, the same applied to elements. Vlad would have no trouble summoning fire, but a polar opposite like ice was going to be a hassle. Especially since Nellie was going to have to kick her summoning into overdrive, keeping herself cool whilst picking off undead. "Do what you can. If you start getting sick, head to the Church. We can take over from here."
Despite the battering the Church had taken, and the complete lack of insulation all those broken windows would cause, Goddess Mariana's claim over the building ensured it would be safe from the heat. "I'll be fine."
"Just don't make me drag you there myself."

Fergie and Bogrum​

While Bogrum received a simple healing spell, he and Fergie looked out at the glowing remnants of Demi's attack. "If that doesn't secure victory, I don't know what will."
It damn well better, Fergie thought, anger furrowing her brows deeply. Bastard killed so many. She wasn't about to break it to him, but Bogrum was bound to realize it soon. The troops that had returned from the forest were thinned numbers. "I hear snake tastes like chicken."
"Somewhat. It's gamier than chicken, though," Bogrum said, taking the joke as genuine curiosity. "I wouldn't call it a delicacy, but it's decent eating." In the grassy plains of his homeland, you had a 50/50 chance of feeling something slither against your hand if you reached down into the tall blades. For troops traveling to the next fort, they made for a quick and easy meal if rations were limited.
"Shit, now I'm hungry." All they had were HR potions to chug, and those had a nasty metallic aftertaste. There would be a celebratory feast after all was said and done, but... Gonna be damn quiet in the Mess tonight.

At Sebas's prompting, Bogrum took the opportunity to stay with Arnold. "I just want to make sure everyone's okay," he told Fergie, wiping more sweat off of his brow. She could assess an ulterior motive of getting further away from the heat, his muscled body retaining it much more easily. But knowing Bogrum, the given reason was the one on the forefront.
"Aye, we got it covered. But remember." She tapped the side of his chest armor, just above the closed-up wound. "These be the real death throes. Don't drop yer guard again."


Just as Bogrum's troops and the Stoneroses filed through the Gates, Elaina's notice came through, quickly lighting a fire under Fergie's ass. She wasn't talking out of it when she warned Bogrum. "Look alive, lads n' ladies! Ain't outta this yet!" Everyone needed to heal up and reload quickly. "That demon's gonna try an' take as many of us down with it! Let's not give it the satisfaction, aye?"

Since Bogrum was assessing the inner city, Fergie was down a co-coordinator. No issue. With Bogrum and Ash on her right and left hands, she still had one to wield. "Fergie to Ash. We got a crew to wrangle up for one more round. Care to help out a lass?"


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Toron, The Capital City​

The city was about to be alight again with activity all to cull the final wave of darkness to try and topple it and feed the beast. This wasn't a race to the finish. This was a survival until the timer ran out. While there was quite an extensive list of damages to rebuild on, things could be salvaged. This list of damages startled the Guildmaster of the Stoneroses. "Arnold to Gormon."
No answer. Gormon was the Guildmaster of the Sacrament of the Arcane, an Elf man and one of the most magic-knowledgeable in the city. Stronger than Fatimah in terms of magic power. However, Fatimah being a pirate made her become about 100x more efficient in terms of using it than Gormon
"Arnold to Predea?"
No answer. Predea was the Guildmaster of the Crimson Embers, a minotaur woman and one of extreme few who can actually beat Azure in close combat
"Arnold to Azure!!"
No answer. Azure was the Champion Warrior of Kraiven, King Hemhart's daughter, and the Master of Mercenaries (the one in command of all Guilds)

None of them were answering. "Where are the 100 Elite in this city?!" he exclaimed urgently. "Arnold to Vespera!?!"
"Ves here."
"Ves! Where are the 100 Elite?"
Ves scoffed. "They're all in the castle with His Highness." She said that last bit with nigh a spit. "The bridge is up. According to Elaina, King Hemhart had a plan from the getgo to let the city burn while he and the 100 Elite bunker down. We only have Nellie and Vlad out here and they confirmed Elaina correct and they abandoned post to protect this city."
Arnold didn't know who Elaina was, so he assumed it was a pirate. "But they could be tried for disobeying the King!"
"Then I'll whistleblow all over Toron," Ves said flatly, taking him aback with her lack of hesitation and seeming contempt. "Anyways, what do you need?"

"Elaina to Party." This was Elaina coming in the crystal to Ves, Nellie, and Vlad. Talking to multiple specific people was something new. "I'm picking up a massive influx of summons from each graveyard as well as the graveyard out near the Gates," she said calmly, "Remember when I said this was the end of the line? This is his desperation move, so change of plans. Move to the graveyards and occupy them as much as you can. We have the Stoneroses and support Pirate crew rushing in for backup. I'll be at the Church for the best eyes possible. Elaina out." With that, the connection severed.

"Hmmmmmm........ I just got word from Elaina that another wave of undead are starting."
"Right!" Arnold said, focused now, "What do we need to do?"
"Head to the Graveyard in the Noble District. You might find skeletons at the castle moat. Leave them be." With that, the connection cut

​

Arnold looked over to Bogrum. "Noble District Graveyard. Let's move, men!" Arnold conjured ice at his feet and began to ice skate over the ground. What? Arnold is too fat to be running. His best bet is to find another way to get around at a speed comparable to running and this was a hella clever way to do it. Ice-skating in a blazing hellscape. As he surveyed the damages as he moved, it was staggering. It was just skeletons! Granted, they ended up bulked up after a time, but the skeletons didn't even TOUCH the wall until they allowed them to as part of the defensive plan. How could this have happened?! "This was avoidable on part of the King. If we stopped them with our force, the 100 Elite could've easily defended this city ALONE................Let alone with the Sacrament and the Crimson Embers as well."

Steven the Deacon and Jack the Shotgunner
Church
​

"Steven to Demestral. If you're coming here, we need to request resupply for this last wave. We won't hold out otherwise."
"I'll send the request to the ship." An instant answer. "Where are you?"
"At the Church with a small force and Nancy."
"Aye. Sending flash priority request. I'll be crashing down soon, but I'm at the Forest so give me some time to get there."
"Aye. Steven out."

• In the military, Flash Priority is the highest priority message, made to be addressed over everything else

"So? What'd she say?" Jack was smoking another cig. He would've taken it outside, but damn if he was about to sit out there in that heat.
"Resupply coming soon. Til then, we're down to our last mags." Steven stalked the Church center. They had boarded up everything they could with the destroyed pews. The nobles there were relaxing a bit, but he was about to burst their bubbles. "Alright folks, on your feet. We got one last rodeo."
"We're STILL not done?!" Some guy perked up indignantly. "What are you DOING out there?!"
"No we ain't," Jack fired back, "Ye been yappin' nonstop. Shaddup fer once an' get ready." Jack and Steven both were growing tired of the incessant whining of these nobles. Not that none of their complaints were legitimate, but when you've been doing this shit for this long, their never-stopping yapping about their situation would wear on anyone's patience. They didn't particularly HATE nobility or aristocracy. They'd treat them like they treated everyone else. Nobility, aristocracy, royalty. They didn't give a shit about any of that. "Earn somthin' fer once in yer life."
"Jack, please. I know you see how scared these people are," Mariah said, desperately trying to mediate.
"An' we ain't?" Jack scoffed, "Ye think we stare death in 'a face an' laf? I gotta 'sicle in me 'and 'tectin Fish an' this Church." (You think we stare death in the face and laugh? I got an Icicle in my hand protecting Fish and this Church)
"Mariah, stop playing the goody," Steven reprimanded her, "Spared feelings mean nothing if they're dead. When are you going Angel?"
"I........" Mariah hesitated in the face of Steven. Jack used to be the most intimidating, but Steven is the de facto leader in Elaina's absence. Mariah was actually kind of missing Elaina right now. "......I don't know yet."
"Then get your ass to the alter and tell your God to push express shipping on that shit." Steven commanded. Mariah was useful throughout all of this as the voice of reason to these nobles, but they didn't need that right now. They needed OFFENSE and with Mariana claiming this Church, Mariah could get the power. After unleashing the wave that destroyed the undead, the Church was a defensive bastion right now, not an offensive. It would get more destroyed again against the strongest skeletons of this fight.

The Church couldn't take another wave. Holy or not, defensive bastion or not, the building was in rough shape, It would fall against a massive horde of even more bulked up skeletons if they didn't get equipment or holy firepower.

Steven sighed. "Nancy, this is the final push," he said. "Demi unleashed hell in the forest and the demon is in his final act of desperation. He knows he ain't surviving so this is his final stand. Ya's shown a pirates mettle throughout all this." If there was anything Steven could praise Nancy for, it was holding his tongue and letting them do what needed to be done. "Let's hold out a bit more. Ya got some of that alchemy shit?" Nancy did bring some stuff with him, but did he have enough to bring his own flavor of support for this fight? For the first time, Steven was looking for him for HIS ability, not the boon his Goddess gave him. "If ya's got it, we're low on Holy Water and Health Potions." With the place sanctified, all Nancy needed was access to purified water.

Vespera Marine Seyres
Commerce District​

Vespera, in her rarely used bat form to counteract the effects of heat on her porcelain-esque vampire skin, flew up high first to survey the scene. With Nellie taking on the residential district, Ves would take on the Commerce District. Since Vlad was getting Nellie around, that left the Noble District on its own. Fine. From what Elaina was saying, confirmed by Nellie, all of the nobles of means were in the castle knowing from the beginning, the FIRST INVASION, that they would be given free passage while the rest were SOL. How many nobles were outside the castle? How many thought they were in good favor as a family name only to have the gates raised in their faces?

Ves was...........hating Elaina less and less. As infuriating as she was, Ves had taken a massive black pill about Kraiven through her. Information that, as much as "good will" as she had in the eyes of King Hemhart, didn't earn her a place among the favored. Not that she would've taken it and let her Guild burn, but it drove home how them SAYING she was beloved didn't translate into treating her like she was beloved. She made her contributions. She turned herself into a massive workaholic to cover her depression, helping others to distract from how she herself needed to admit that she needed help. Now? Now all of it was pouring back into her mind, how much of a shaft she had been taking, how much a cow she had been, milked to provide nourishment, praised for how important she was, then being beaten like a coyote trying to eat someone's pet.

Also, she was right about them needing to stop expecting her to have a huge sense of urgency about a land that wasn't even hers especially since her help has been so vital. Hell, Elaina made a good point when she asked Ves why she was even protecting this place given her own past due to this place. Every time Elaina spoke, it was some solid truth that Ves seriously wished she'd heard from ANYONE else.

She charged into the Commerce District, now redirected to the Graveyard and leading her force in bat form. "Does anyone have a way to beat this heat?"
"I can give you a frozen aura, which should keep you cool in this heat."
"Please do so." Ves never had problems with heat in the past 200 years unless it was fire magic.......and this certainly was but on a whole new level. Just the AIR felt hotter than an intermediate fire spell. Given that Nellie said it required approval to use, it was understandable then that it was this hot despite the forest being that far.

Her body became covered in a light blue outline and almost immediately her temperature began to cool to the point where Ves could turn back, and just in time for them to reach the Graveyard. "Thank you very much. If you want, just focus on support magic." If that aura went out, she was basically racing the clock to kill them before the heat kills her.

Ves took a swig of her blood-filled Everquench Canteen to activate Blood Empowerment, then charged into the fray with baton in hand and determined fury in her eyes


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

Ashlynn Thormdottir
Gates​

Ash had been struggling with pride up to this point, but to hear Fergie looking to her instead of looking to Damond to help her finish, it made her feel a bit better. "Hello, my cub." An oasis in this blazing hellscape. It was Mama Bear! The 10 minutes passed. It felt like an eternity. Maybe more than 10 minutes have passed and Mama Bear let her sit for a while. Ash lost all sense of time when Mama Bear was gone. "Let's hope you didn't lose yourself in my absence."
"Well Sebas had to save my ass twice."
A chuckle. Of course she had to be saved "Get your paws on a Trace Relic then, so I can thank him personally. Now summon me back in. I have rested enough." Her Cub for some reason never thought to either learn the Trace Spell or get the extremely common Trace Relic.
Ash nodded and then sheathed her sickles. Clapping her hands twice, the sigil tat on her back began to glow. "Until we fall and enter the halls of Valhalla or the fields of Folkvangr, we rise and fight together," she declared, voice echoing at the magic words of power. "Come forth my loyal spirit animal!" It always felt weird to use magic. Ash's magic all went to Mama Bear, and even if Ash had magic to buff her familiar, even then she only ever used it in emergencies. Like Sebas, she learned only the bare minimum magic necessary

A sigil formed along the ground, and out jumped Mama Bear, who roared. "Geez, it's hot out here."
"Yeah I know," Ash responded, draining a HR Potion. The Heat Resist came over both Ash and Mama Bear together, an effect of having Mama Bear be a familiar instead of a real animal like Quincy. "Better?"
"Much better."

Ash had a new fire under her ass now. She felt like a disgrace for ever getting to this pointing the first place, especially in front of her troops. She would do better starting right now. She was glad Fergie hadn't noticed it since they were fighting on different fronts up to now. "LET'S GO, LADIES AND GENTS!" she yelled out, back to her infectious battle-hunger. She had something to redeem now. "DEMI GAVE OUR TROOPS A WARRIOR'S BURIAL, SO NO DYING, THAT'S AN ORDER!!"
"HOOIII!!" the troops yelled. There was no better person to rally the troops than Ash
"AND WHEN THIS IS OVER, YOU BETTER DRINK DOUBLE FOR YOUR BROTHERS AND TRIPLE FOR YOUR SISTERS. THAT'S AN ORDER!!" Not that women got special treatment but............well let's say this was a massively male dominated crew like most pirate crews. Women were relatively few and far between in the grand numbers of the Basenjis, outnumbered an easy 7:1. Now that Ash was thinking about it, she was getting pissed off at the demon for different reasons. While she was ready to follow through on her promise to rip that demon's heart out, now added to the reason was every single life Mozreliun claimed.

"HOOIII!!!" They yelled again as hands began to break out from the ground in the graveyard. A TON of them, bulked to the highest point while keeping it actual bone and not some steel rod masquerading as mortal bone. Mozreliun pulled out as many punches as possible while keeping it to skeletons. This was the work of a master summoner. Hell, a master MAGE. When one honed their craft to perfection, they didn't need giant powerful high tier spells. They only needed simple spells they could bulk up to the same level at 1/10 of the mana cost.

With the Viking back in business, she was ready to put axes in skulls in the most literal sense of the word

WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Bogrum Mazoga​

Seeing the destruction that awaited, the battered buildings, scattered bones, and stone statues locked in perpetual terror and agony, made Bogrum's heart sink to his feet. Arnold's reaction and frantic attempts to call anyone cemented how dire this looked to him. "Good gods..." Had Mozza focused his summons within the city without them knowing? Why hadn't they been warned?

When someone finally answered, the truth came spilling out, and suddenly things made a lot more sense. Not just what Bogrum was seeing with his eyes now. To this moment it still bothered him, the fact that they were told they'd siege a ruined castle with only the King, his favored, and his 100 elites. Being met with the kingdom's still beating heart had thrown him off. Surely the records Adonis found were misleading, he had thought, but now? Bogrum was getting the sense that this wasn't the first time King Hemhart abandoned his people.

With a new wave of undead on the way, Bogrum was glad he decided to stick around, as much pain it brought to see what came of the king's negligence. Indeed, Bogrum did notice how thin their pirate numbers were after they fell back. They were much greater than their usual losses, but he had known to expect that against Mozza. But that, on top of these civilians...

"If the Elites could have prevented this, why bother hoarding so much manpower?" Bogrum asked as they ran, plodding footsteps keeping him close behind Arnold's skating. "What does your king hope to accomplish?"

Nancy Noi​

Hearing word of one last attack broke Nancy's meditation, ears flicking as he swiveled around. Honestly, calling it "meditation" was a stretch. Nancy could barely keep his mind from running a mile a minute in the best of circumstances, let alone an actual damn battle. How much more could this city take? ... He wouldn't let himself worry about that. He couldn't. His station was here, until it was all over.

The unfortunate thing? This station was becoming frustrating to be in. "These pirates are risking their lives for us, despite having no loyalty to this kingdom," he added from behind, trying hard to keep the bite out of his words. "Please show them some gratitude." The ungrateful attitude these nobles were displaying chafed him beyond a jagged rock against scales. They didn't know just how lucky they were, the fact that they weren't being gunned down by these same people in their own homes. Nancy wouldn't dare make them privy to that information, however. It would not be taken with a pinch of appreciation. Not that he'd expect anyone to thank someone for NOT killing them, but the fact that they were meeting this grim circumstance with constant complaints made him wonder if they had even been around for the last war.

Steven asked for his assistance with his alchemical skills, so Nancy began emptying his bag immediately, potion by potion. "I have Stamina, Mana, Health, and Swift potions." Crouched down, he set them on the floor in order. Despite the larger variety, there weren't many of each, very much an emergency supply. "I have flasks and ingredients to make more Healths, and I know how to Bless water." He looked up, searching for their Primed Angel. "Sister Mariah, is there an alchemy lab in the Church?"

Nellie Noi​

Redirected to the Residential District's Graveyard, that took the duo away from the center, where surely most of the damages were in plain sight. Relief emanated from Vlad even through the water bubble, which made Nellie's barbels curl in irritation. "Why are you so determined to keep me away from there?"
"I'm telling you, it's bad."
"I KNOW it's bad. Do you think I can't handle it?"
A huff of cinders flew out of his nostrils. "After that little panic attack you had in the Library?"
Just like that, Nellie was humbled, venom sucked out of her words. "Fair."

"The moment the demon dies, its summons should dispel, and there'll be no stragglers to pick off," he said, revealing what was probably his biggest source of relief. "We just have to hold out until then."
"If it's wasting energy on this, it won't last long at all," was her reasoning.
"It doesn't have to. Look!"

When they arrived to the graveyard, they could see the mob of skeletons growing and growing, pushing against the force of guards stationed to keep them inside. They were going to start breaking their formation and spill out at this rate, the guards sluggish in this great heat.
"You give support from behind! I'll take them on!"
After she climbed off his back, Vlad shook the water out of his coat and rocketed towards the fray. "Ord of Flames!" he roared, white fire sprouting from his claws and shooting up his front legs, lighting his mane afire. Not a single hair of his singed, but for these skeletons, he was a walking mortar. His massive paws battered the first row he encountered, sending a wave of fire behind the next and smoldering the ground below them. These Holy Flames hungered for Unholy fuel, and the demon was providing an abundance of it.
Behind the guards, Nellie conjured a line of ice above them, which crackled as she shattered it into pieces. The pieces became smaller and numerous until it was fine enough to be snow, and in the heat, melted and rained a cold mist onto the guards. It wasn't a Heat Resist potion, but it would do.

Fergie​

"That's how ye do it," she said to herself, happy to see Ash kick things into gear. How quickly the crew was rallied into action was exactly why Fergie enlisted Ash's help. She made it about the crew, inspiring them to stay alive to honor the fallen. Damond just barked at his crew to keep fighting, to get rid of the thing he wanted gone. He was good at reminding them WHAT they were fighting, but Ash reminded them WHY they were fighting. With Mozza's death a certainty, their new goal was to prevent any more losses on their end. Someone had to stay behind to tell the tale, after all.

As the last wave began clawing its way from underground, Fergie made some quick assessments before deciding on a game plan. With most of the leaders gone to take care of Mozza and seeing to their other stations, a lot was on her shoulders. She checked to see if the Gates were still open, or if they had been closed after the Stoneroses left. "Mages! Check 'em for shields!" With how bulked up they were, it was already going to be a pain popping their thick skulls shields or not.


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Toron, the Capital City​

"Nothing," Arnold said darkly. "I can only think it malicious to withhold the kingdom's top firepower when it could easily defend this city." Arnold could not wrap his around this and explain it away in a way that painted the king in the good light. He may be a retired knight, but the fact that he was former aristocracy meant he knew enough about politics despite no longer being in good with them, and this is even after he earned a good portion of his former glory back by making the Stoneroses a famed guild in the city. "It means he's looking out for himself and his favored. The Stoneroses became the premier guild of the city, but it looks like becoming the city's top guild and the king's top guild was always 2 different things." The Stoneroses was a group of misfit mostly non-humans who scraped themselves from the bottom to become the go-to guild of the capital city. Efilisa became a seamstress so good that even nobles bought from her, her Arachne silk the most highly prized cloth material from her being the only Arachnis in the city. Vespera made the guild the go-to for all mail. GP was truly the Jack of all Trades after he finally got control over his ability to shift. Arnold himself developing the guild and their brand, and taking the Stoneroses HQ from a rundown decrepit building into a livable place with an actual in-house tavern with rooms to rent for the general public.

"I can see why Vespera wanted us to leave the skeletons by the castle alone," he said somberly. If they weren't targeting the cityfolk, they weren't a threat to be dealt with. It wasn't like they'd ever infiltrate the castle anyways with 98 of the 100 Elite keeping it secured. "We can ask questions later though. Let's defend this city."

"Mages! Check the skeleton's magic composition!" In this heat, he could imagine that ice-magic using liches wouldn't be a thing, nor would there be any ice-magic using skeletons. At least not any that could be a threat in this heat. The moment a skeleton ran out of mana, they would destroy themselves anyways and they had at least that one sense of self-preservation.

Steven the Deacon and Jack the Shotgunner
Church​

Steven smirked at the additional alchemical provisions. "Excellent." he passed the mana potions to the magic-users while Jack passed some over to the non-magic users.
Mariah knelt down at the alter as Steven commanded. "Upstairs right across the pastor's office. It's where we create the water used in baptisms. Now......I must commune with my God." So the Church had an alchemy lab. Seemed legitimate given that the Church did sell Holy Water back before their long time vacation where the gods didn't see. How in use was this alchemy lab over the last 200 years though?

Steven nodded. They had to move quickly. There was some defense effort out there already so it should buy them some time, but they still needed to get things set up if things took a turn. "Anyone here a conjurer?"
"I got a bit in me." Someone perked up
"Can you conjure bullets?" This was the important question here.
"Not whole ones, but I can take spent shells and conjure them back up to usability. I can't do it that much though." Alright so they SOMETHING before Demi came with the ammo drop
"Fine," Steven responded, "You're on that duty. Get those shells and I don't give a shit if it takes time or uses a lot of mana. Do it. We need the ammo." With him getting a chair and grabbing some of the spent shells, Steven nodded. "We're in business. We're struggling but we're still in business."

Elaina made her return, opening the door to the Church and looked out over the people again. Nothing really changed from the last time she was here, except that they looked rested enough for people who had been fighting for their lives for quite a while. "Look alive, people. I'm gonna mark skeletons who are pulling close to the Church. Let's make our shots count."
"We got Demi coming in with a drop and close air support soon, so we just gotta hold out."
"Good. If all goes well with Nellie, Ves and the support crew that just came in for backup, defending this Church should be easy work," Elaina told him and looked over at Mariah. "She communing?"
"Yup. If her God decides to stop being lazy, we'll have an Angel over this Church."
"No, if she becomes full blown Angel, we need her on offense, not defense," Elaina countered, "She can occupy a graveyard alone so we split the team to help the others occupy the other 2." It sounded solid enough. An angel would never have issues defending from even the most beefed up of skelly boys.
"Can do. Time for one last tango." he looked to his right hand man. "You good, Jack?"
"Aye," Jack said gruffly, "You folk ready?"

They were still seething at being told off by a Locathah. "No matter what that walking fish says, we can't fight!"
"Oi, the walking fish has a name. You'll use it." Steven said darkly, conjuring a flame in his hand threateningly, "I hear it again, you get a 3rd degree backhand."
The noble pointed to Jack. "He doesn't even use his name," he said almost pleadingly, thoroughly intimidated. "Why is that fish so important?"
Elaina stepped up and delivered on Steven's threat, though instead of the 3rd degree backhand, he got a pistol whip, which sent him sprawling. "You were just warned, you ungrateful oaf," she said aggressively and full of her standard condescension, "Damn what Mariana says. Damn what Mariah says. If my crew tells you to do something, you will do it. My crew and Nancy are why any of you are alive. You WILL show some respect or my crew WILL use you as bait."

Elaina's eyes widened for a second. "They're coming! Get ready!" Elaina charged out of the Church and hopped on her Alicorn to take off to the top of the Church while Jack and Steven closed the doors with the rest of the crew rushing to the windows, their almost empty weaponry at the ready.

Maybe there wasn't a defense effort out there buying them time.................


Reaction

The graveyards were already starting to be overrun. Over at the Residential Graveyard, Nellie was finding herself straining to maintain any semblance of ice. The mana cost was skyrocketing as Vlad's fire mixed with the already heated air made conjuring ice MUCH more mana expensive to do. They had tons of firepower with Vlad's Holy Fire returning the skeletons from whence they came, but it came at the cost of most the others. If one weren't resistant to heat/fire, they were absolutely suffering in the graveyard.

At the Commerce Graveyard, things were looking worse as they didn't exactly have members of the 100 Elites NOR pirate crew. Their bulked up bones made arrows effectively useless and, while pyromancy was much mana-cheaper under this heated air, it was in general still not the most efficient since it wasn't HOLY flames like with Vlad. Vespera was crushing skulls left and right with her baton empowered by her Blood Empowerment, but there was only so much one non-magic using person could do.

By the time Bogrum/Arnold reached the Noble Graveyard, things were already looking awful. Every guard there was killed and skeletons had been spilling into the streets unimpeded. While some were being lured to the inaccessible drawbridge leading to the castle, most of them were destroying property easier than ever. Dead bodies of civilians started to add up, and the smell of hot blood filled the air of the Noble District as the aftermath of Demi's UV Nova continued its Heat Wave over the city.


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

The Gates of Toron​

"Report!" Fatimah's crew of mages were now reporting to Fergie in the absence of Fatimah. "The skeletons no longer have the magic shield!" To supply each skeleton with a magic shield cost too much mana for the demon at this point, so he just bulked them up to the max. "Since they're bulked even more though, I still recommend checking if bullets pierce." With the skeletons suckling the demon milk straight from Mozreliun's teat, their bone composition at this point was more akin to Naka's than that of Orcs. Arrows certainly wouldn't pierce the bone at this point, but the Stoneroses were no longer there.

Ashlynn Thormdottir​

Tch! Ash didn't carry guns with her, preferring to rely on melee combat. She was at a disadvantage. "Guess I'll toss the sickles aside and whip out my motto's sake." Doing just that, Ash was free of her sickles and wielded her axe. Then she drained 2 potions at once: Strength and Speed. The bitterness of the Speed potion cancelled out by the sweetness of the Strength potion, both her and Mama Bear began to brim with strength. Her sickles would definitely get stuck in a skull. Her axe was more likely to crush it. Even if it didn't, she had the strength to completely rip the skull off and add bluntness to crush another. Sickles required too much technique, and Ash needed to put herself on autopilot if she wanted to jump into any kind of fray.

The positive? No liches right now. The negative? More skeletons than ever, and masters of the bulk diet.

Like a pack of ghouls having smelled flesh not quite decrepit yet, the final desperate act of Mozreliun unleashed in full force as they made a mad rush towards the Basenji crew. The path from the graveyard to the gates was a long now trodden path, but the fleshless were closing the gap by the second. "Here they come, boys!" she yelled out, axe standing beside her. She lusted for the battle but she DID give the order to her troops to not die. A blitz never went without casualties, so she'd wait until the time was right. Standing out in front of all her troops, only Mama Bear stood closer than she. Mama Bear was pissed at having been defeated so her claws longed to bathe in black demon blood. It further ticked the bear off that she wouldn't be getting that since they were taking on skeletons, so Mama Bear was one stray cut from going berserk. Ash's axe may or may not destroy skull. The power of an angry bear roided up on a Strength potion? She could maul NAKA to death at this point. "Blade wielders! Hold your ground and brace to intercept!" Ash was the master of melee troops, so Fergie could rest assured that dominating on the physical front was all hers. However, as the resident blitzmeister, ranged/magic strategy were not her areas to lead.

WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Nancy Noi​

Being complimented for his mettle after being a moral irritant to these pirates was a strange feeling. Being defended by the same woman who had regarded him as a science project and threatened to dissect was also strange. But hell, he'd take it. It felt good to be wanted, after worries of being burdensome after his Goddess's boon wore out. It felt good to be among the few citizens in this Church who wanted to help. And it especially felt good to watch the same noblefolk who had shown him so much disdain for over 200 years get absolutely whacked for it, finally.

But pettiness aside, Nancy had a lot of work to do. No time to cement to these people that "that fish" was important enough to play a role in the fate of the city their beloved Gods had turned their backs on. With everyone rushing to their stations, Nancy found the stairs and ascended quickly, taking his bag of reagents with him. Seeing the urgency on Elaina's face shot nervous ice through his veins, letting him know that things were about to get bad again. But Demi on Quincy's back should keep their waiting brief.

Demi... My Goddess, what will I even say? It was poetic, that among the people who brought them back was the one who left so long ago. She had her reasons for leaving, and even after the fall, Nancy had held out hope that they might see each other again thanks to her Pixie's timelessness. But among pirates? What was she thinking?
Nancy had to remind himself that neither Pixies nor Dragons played by the rules of most mortals. Death, killing, punishment, were all things regarded in ways he still didn't fully understand. Besides, criminals they may be, they couldn't have been the worst of the bunch. Demi was a good person regardless, and to have Angels aboard? Despite his soured view of them right now, he knew they couldn't tolerate the presence of certain reprehensible people. Hence why a good portion of the clergy were currently charred remains.

Nancy bit back a great deal of anticipatory illness upon reaching the alchemist's door. Right next to the pastor's office... a man who had been put to a terrible death equivalent to his terrible crimes. Seeing the debauchery of this Church made him wonder what sort of vices he'd find in this room as well.



Graveyard Shift

Deeply disturbed by the revelation Arnold got, Bogrum felt his mind numbing by the time they arrived at the Noble Grave site. Why... just why? How could a king abandon his own people so willingly? One man's indifference was causing a massacre of hundreds. The sickly tang of blood was so seeped into his nose that he was starting to feel dizzy. Bodies lined the red-stained streets, some locked in stone and others in bloodied heaps. Things were going so well for the Gates effort, that he hadn't thought...

Are you used to fighting easy battles? he scolded himself, like he had mentally scolded that crewmate earlier. If you lose resolve now, even more will die. Nauseated to the point where he felt like he was back on the airship, Bogrum swallowed down that bile and steeled himself. "Mages, enchant our gunmen! We need Holy Bullets to thin out this mob!" Arnold's requested report found that they weren't protected by shields, but they were so bulked up that they might use up regular bullets trying to pierce their thick bone anyway.

---

Meanwhile, at the Residential Graveyard, Nellie was giving herself a scolding of her own. Idiot. Why did you even try summoning ice in this blasted oven? Her mind felt full of static just from that strangled ice spell alone. If not that, then the anxiety of seeing this skeleton hoard grow and she be unable to do a damn thing. Nellie was too much of a glass cannon to be taking these beefed up skeletons toe-to-toe, and even if she could, she relied on ice shields and water bursts to defend herself and evade strikes. She had never fought in this sort of heat before, and was woefully unprepared for these conditions.

I'm not hiding away, was her resolve, water bubble thinning to a form-fitting sheet around her body. Not until these streets are safe. Switching to water purely, she rained a fine mist over the guards. Water was still in the air and easier to summon, but it was still taxing to keep it in a condensed form, even when not ice cold. Too much rain would make their weapons and boots slick, causing slips, but in the heat of the air and Vlad's destruction, it should even out.

Fergie​

No shields? "Hell yeah!" Finally, they could mow down these bony fucks with hardly a care. That one care being a smidge of tactical thought, as to not get completely wiped at the tail end of this battle. That would be an embarrassment too great to bear.
Fergie took it upon herself to shoot a round, though at this distance, could only hit a general headshot. It fractured and splintered the skull, but it still trudged forward. "Aye. Need to aim for weak points. A good shot through the eye socket should put 'em out." They were so bulked up that the eye and nasal cavities were much narrower, which would made such a shot more difficult. It sort of gave them a seething, scowling look, which was honestly intimidating.

She couldn't count on her crew showing absolute precision. They weren't all Naka's team. So they needed something to shake them up, weaken them so they'd tank less hits. She looked up to see which ships were idling by the Gates. The Caboose was without Demi, so no bombardment available there. And of course the Basenji was here instead of the Canine, and like hell she was going to ask Adonis's lazy ass for assistance again. So no big guns, but she did have Fatimah's A Team.

"Feelin' up for another blitz?" she asked, though knowing they were well rested up at this point. "I want as many of them skellies lookin' like they fell off the mainmast." That is to say, fractured to hell and back. "Then Ash and the guns can sweep up the rest, no sweat."


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Toron, the Capital City​

Arnold was frustrated. "I said earlier that they couldn't expect the Stoneroses to handle everything," he said with an air of defeat upon looking upon the devastation of the Noble District. "WHERE IS THE SACRAMENT!!!?!? WHERE ARE THE CRIMSON EMBERS!?!!??" he yelled out angrily as the Basenjis popped off Holy Enchanted shots, "WHERE ARE ANY OF THE DAMNED MEMBERS!!?! ARE THEY ALL IN THE BLOODY CASTLE?!?!?" No, Arnold's mind was a speeding bullet. Destination? Wit's End. This didn't make any sense. Was the deck rigged from the start?

Something snapped in the head of the Guildmaster

"YOU BETTER HOPE WE ALL DIE!!" Arnold yelled out as he charged into the fray. He was thoroughly enraged at all of this, and it reflected in his blade as the concentrated hot blade was absolutely blazing, empowered by the superheated air. "THE ONLY CURE FOR CORRUPTION IS THE GUILLOTINE, YOU HERD OF COWARDS!!" Arnold was a lot of things in his life, both good and bad. One thing he was NOT though was a coward. "I GAVE UP MY FAE BLOOD FOR THIS COUNTRY AND LAID DOWN MY GODDAMN LIFE FOR THESE PEOPLE!!"

Arnold's men were galvanized and they charged in as well, spouting an aura of anger about them as they started decimating skeletons. It was this sight that was most familiar to Bogrum. Arnold wasn't simply a commander...........he was a Warlord. This exact thing, galvanizing his men like this, was the exact type of thing Warlord Sheris did with the Scorchclaws in certain situations. Being the master of charisma Sheris was, her crew reflected her own emotions. "I WILL AVENGE EVERY LITER OF BLOOD SPILLED BY YOUR COWARDIC NEGLIGENCE!!" Arnold had been through too much for this to happen. He knew politics was always a game of corruption for all but the most naïve of well-intentioned, but for it to result in this preventable massacre was...............just no.

"DAMN THE DIVINE FAVOR! I WILL BOW TO ANY GOD THAT ALLOWS ME TO BE THE GUILLOTINE TAKING YOUR TREASONOUS LIFE!!" Arnold was turning from a knight to a battle mage as his magic leaked out, making his attacks explosive. This entire thing had thrown him into a existential crisis, and it reflected in his men who were striking out with a mixture of anger and despair. "WHAT A STUPID STUPID STUPID MAN!! DEMESTRAL!! LUCILLE!! WRAAAGGGHHHRH!!!" Arnold was showing his power in full force and it was POWER. However, as he was decimating skeletons, he was also causing extreme property damage himself. The sacrifices he made he was finding wasn't worth it. Yeah, he gave up his Fae blood for this and it was due to pride, but damnit it was also due to loyalty. For king and country? THIS king?

Bogrum didn't have time to waver though. In the midst of Arnold and his men going berserk in the face of this situation, Bogrum and his troops had to confront other skeletons trying to bum-rush them with bulk and superior numbers

Church​

As Nancy opened the doors to the alchemy lab, what he found was............a science lab full of beakers and burners. To his joy, there were some absolutely timeless ingredients that Nancy hadn't seen in 200 years since they were foreign to Kraiven, thus non-existent from the time they went into the Spirit Sea. They could make some unique and POTENT concoctions that he hadn't been able to make. There were foreign reagent plants in full bloom in the lab as well, meaning that this lab was actually maintained and magic used to pass time on the plants to make it grow. To the side was a bookshelf full of journals of different titles. As someone who had been there for 200 years, Nancy could easily assess that he had never seen these before meaning that they were written BY researchers in the Church

Then the less wholesome stuff revealed themselves to Nancy's eyes. A cell with another dead pregnant nun and another dead child. However, the interesting thing to note here is that they WEREN'T blight-infected or rotting. In fact, they were completely recognizable. It was to the point where would question if it's a "fresh" dead body. Then again, how "fresh" could it be if this was a timeless realm? These dead bodies could be minutes old or 200 years old. Were they warm or not? Was the baby in the pregnant nun still alive? The other interesting thing to note was that there was no sign that either of these had risen with the undead. Maybe they had been purified before and the Timelessness had prevented them from rotting while the purification had prevented them from rising as undead?

Nancy had a fully stocked science lab in this Church. There was no way a Church could have something THIS thorough on their own. This wasn't just to create Holy Water or Purified Water for baptisms. This was a legit research zone and only looking through the notes would Nancy be able to assess what discoveries were made in this lab. "Deeper, but the Deepest Deep is found at the Crown, my Child. For now, stick to the Surface lest your allies find themselves in my Trench while you swim." Easy words from his Goddess, who knew what rabbit holes Nancy would throw himself into if he started reading the notes. Still, if his Goddess felt the need to tell him to NOT look at it yet, it meant he wouldn't like what there was to read.

Banging against the Church reached Nancy's ears. The siege on the Church had begun and the sounds of gunshots reached him even though they were muffled by the walls. He needed to get moving quickly


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

Gates​

"One Magic Blitz coming up," the mage said, clearly the leader of the mages in Fatimah's stead. Likely her top disciple. "With no shield and this being the last wave, let us destroy without regard to mana." he said, his words articulate and ominous. With the chains of mana conservation broken, he began to brim with power as he began an incantation while waving his wand, creating symbols in the air that very few would be able to actually understand. "On my word as a mage, I curse this land for all fleshless that dare trample these sanctified grounds." He then waved his wand to form a dark green cross sigil in front of him. "Feed on the calcium in their bones........kánoun ta kókalá tous san gyalí. Osteogenesis Imperfecta."

With this spell, the sanctified field under the crew manifested as the holy white but became tinted with the hue of a dark green before disappearing again. The skeletons began to falter immediately as their weaponry and armor got heavy, some of them being unable to carry their weapons or walk with their armor on. Neither Fergie nor Ash had any idea what the hell the last thing he said, but judging from the phrase of "feed on the calcium in their bones" as well as the fact that the skeletons were starting to shrink in bone girth slowly, it was POTENT.

• Osteogenesis Imperfecta is the medical term for Brittle Bone Disease. The spell literally inflicts Brittle Bone Disease on any skeleton that steps on it. Due to the phrase "for all fleshless", this spell only affects skeletons/skeletal creatures and ONLY those that "trample upon sanctified grounds." This means it affect only skeletons that physically touch the sanctified field created earlier. This makes the spell incredibly strong in exchange for being incredibly restrictive.

Another mage stepped up, finishing charging her own spell. "You're messing with dedicated mages here," she whispered, conjuring her wand. "Let my voice traverse the past and the future to deliver these words here and now!" It wasn't often that mages ever did a full incantation among the Basenjis. It was time consuming and dangerous when bullets were flying. Here and now though, with the time to do it in the face of these staggering weakened skeletons, they would unleash hell. "Air of the past........" a bubble spread out around all of the gates. "........Compressed into space of the present........" The bubble began to shrink more and more, until it covered the space before the troops. Relief passed over the Basenjis as the air cooled down to a normal temperature, and the bubble in front of them took on an incredibly deadly red haze with heatwaves so potent, it was hard to clearly see the skeletons inside this. These skeletons were in a literal oven at this point, trapped in that bubble with the already high heat being compressed to make it hotter. It was making the skeletons start to malfunction as if they were suffering glitches in their system. "..............Deliver an explosion strong enough to shake the future. Convenire et Disperdere."

"PROTECT THE TROOPS!!" one of the mages yelled out and most of them put their mana into a wide magic shield over the explosion. Fergie recognized this action as exactly what they did to bust open that reinforced vault in the Golden Guns raid. They were pulling the same thing, only with a massive horde of skeletons instead of a strong locked vault. An earthquake struck the gates area as the explosion went off, shaking the ground fiercely and throwing troops to the ground. They could stop the explosion itself but not its effect on the earth


As the shaking in the earth finally subsided and the brutal punch to the stomach that was the shock of the explosion finally subsided, there would be a complete lack of skeletons and a group of mages all belonging to Fatimah lying on the ground, eyes glazed over, all in magic comas. From there, the skeletons would be pathetically weak. Stricken by Osteogenesis Imperfecta, their incredible bulk would be drained from them fairly fast. If enough time passed, even a punch would shatter the skull, let alone a bullet which could now destroy multiple skulls per bullet

This could qualify as a magic blitz, destroying everything daring to oppose them while leaving the rest/newcomers weak to an easy blitz and Graveyard occupation.
No more magic. Only Physical attacks and potions.


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

Sebas Deadeye
Forest- Center​

The quartet looked down at the demon from above, floating. This was not a forest like it was 10 minutes before. This was not a wasteland like Evangeline turned the Vanguard location. This was the inside of a volcano, the aftermath of its eruption. It was absolutely SCORCHING hot even with the Heat AND Fire Resist Potions drained. Without these potions, they would be legitimately burning here. Like full blown on fire

Mozreliun was down to 2 heads, having to sacrifice almost everything to heal the scales on his back and keep himself alive. He consumed too many souls to make any effective counter-attack. "Need a cooldown, demon?" Sebas called out tauntingly. A petrification beam blasted at them, but an easy movement from Fatimah dodged it. "All you had to do was stop inhabiting the child and you'd have been free to roam. I guess isolating Lostro had some benefit........" Realistically, they wouldn't have won without the Angels. Without Evangeline, the demon would've certainly burrowed all the way to the Gates. Without Laylah, the Petrification Beam + Tail Sweep combo would've had every life lost heal the beast.

Spoiler: Sebas's Deliberation

Still, even having said that, Sebas hadn't noticed that until it spilled out of his mouth. He sincerely wondered why this demon was woefully unprepared, and this was the explanation that made the most sense. Lostrogret was isolated from the rest of the crew due to how unwittingly dangerous she was. Since their knowledge was shared, it made sense then that Mozza didn't know how take on this crew because he literally didn't know how strong they were. If that demon knew the full capabilities of the crew, he would've won this. The Basenjis won off the pre-emptive strike and the demon's ignorance.

Adonis............was correct in having to keep Lostro isolated as long as possible. Sebas didn't want to admit it. Giving Lostro what was likely permanent mental scars and crippling abandonment issues towards even simple things like a timeout......won this fight. Then again, Sebas thought angrily, none of this would've happened had you let her rest in peace anyways. It was this contrast that made him frustrated when dealing with Adonis. Now with this revelation, evidenced by the demon's lack of ability to fight them smartly, it made Sebas believe that Adonis knew all along how to deal with Mozreliun.

Sebas didn't know what to think. With him knowing that this was Kraiven given that he likely altered Demi's memories, did he account for this entire thing? If all he wanted was the secrets to get to the Spirit Sea, did they REALLY throw anything off? How important was this fight to him? How important were the people of Kraiven? If he wanted the secrets, did it matter whether or not they fought Mozreliun as opposed to Kraiven?

Sebas sighed. That was a problem he would worry about in the future............."Fatimah! Ora! Let's cool him down," he declared
"Aye. Ready, Orabelle?"
"Ready!"

Ora began an incantation. "My words are Blessed. Blessed by the one who grants a Holy Light in Oppressive Daedric Darkness........." she said slow and steadily, "As courier of Her will, I bless all that pass through this Sacred Sigil to the highest Order granted to me by my Goddess." A large white sigil appeared high in the sky, brimming with Holiness. Sebas looked at it. Sturdy. Strong. Laylah had been teaching her very well.

Fatimah was next. "The depth of the Ocean, deep and blue. An unfathomable amount of pressure unable to be withstood by our fragile mortal bodies." A large blue sigil appeared right above Orabelle's, taking on a shining baby blue from all who looked up at it from their position on the ground. "From the top of the Surface to the bottom of the Trench, burden this earth with pressure found only in the depths below." She brought her index and middle finger to her lips and kissed them. "Jasan Sakonenaren zama," she whispered, then raised them to the sky. "Cascada."

One couldn't call it a waterfall as much as one could call it an orbital pressure washer from the heavens. The waterfall blasted from above with such pressure that it could bore deeper into the ground. To make things worse, the water was being recycled back to the top as if put through a portal, putting the water in the loop of a never-ending freefall, increasing its velocity and pressure immensely as time went on. Worse still was the fact that it was all being filtered through Orabelle's Sanctification Sigil, turning it all into Holy Water

As if being floored by 100x gravity, the demon couldn't possibly move. Only lie there as the water started to melt his scales again and maybe scream internally as the water pressure mixed with its holy nature burned exposed skin. If a human put their hand in this, they were losing their hand. They'd be lucky to not have their hand pretty much dissolved on the spot


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

Reaction

There was no scream from the Demon. The sounds of the rushing water mixed with the fact that the demon was under said water prevented any and all sounds possibly coming from it from being heard. What was more notable was that from the Forest to the Gates, everything became awash in white steam as water met magma, obscuring everyone's vision. The sole silver lining to this was that with the forest-turned volcanic crater being assaulted by Fatimah's Cascada, the temperature could finally begin lowering again. Slowly but surely. First though, the Gates would have to go through a period of absolutely extreme humidity in heat before it finally began to lower.

• Fergie's troops are now fighting blinded by steam on uneven ground rocked by the explosion-induced earthquake
• The skeletons are now incredibly weak due to the Magic Blitz

Even from out at the Residential Graveyard, the closest to the Gates out of the 3 Graveyards, Nellie and Vlad could see the steam rush coming in. It wouldn't hit them............yet. Once it did, Vlad's fire would be suppressed from the immense steam, yet Nellie wouldn't be able to conjure ice AT ALL. In fact, it would suddenly become a dangerous place for a Locathah period if she couldn't take high heat. A side of rice and she would literally start becoming a steamed dish out here.
WayfaringWaaksian




"Sebas.........." A voice called out to the Canine captain. For the first time since they brought this demon out, a voice that didn't belong to the demon spoke from it into his head. "Where am I? What's happening? Auntie Ash?" A voice full of longing for SOMEONE. It was her. The demon was weakened enough. "It hurts.......IT HURTS!!" she shrieked. "Don't leave me please...........I'm scared. Where am I?" she whimpered now.
The words immediately stabbed into his heart. "Sebas to Laylah. I hear it now." he said urgently
Laylah, flying above, spoke back. "Then it's time for the attack. IN. HER. HEART, Sebas." Doc delivered these words with an incredible air of dominance and decisiveness, her demeanor more serious than it's been in a long time. "You will pierce it. You will destroy it, and Goddess Mariana will make her whole again. Destroy the tainted heart."

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

Bogrum Mazoga​

When Arnold exploded with rage and despair-- literally exploded, his blade white-hot and shattering all it bore down upon, bone or stone or wood-- Bogrum's own distress began to push back behind it all. This wasn't HIS tragedy, he realized, watching the Stoneroses tear away at everything around them in an uncoordinated frenzy. He had seen Arnold's state in his own Warlord years ago. He had seen the similar resulting massacre that was left behind that battle. THAT had been Bogrum's tragedy. But these people here and now? They needed support and direction that they were in no state to provide. Bogrum could provide. He HAD to. He had to be okay... just long enough.

"Men!" Bogrum directed his crew at the tight formation of skeletons ready to blitz them. The Stoneroses weren't in the state to prepare a defense, so Bogrum had to be that defense via offense. "Keep firing!" Though even with Holy Bullets popping skulls, Bogrum was still having to swing his axe to carve skeletons away. There was too many of them, plain and simple. Both the Stoneroses and Basenjis were powerhouses right now, but at the sheer rate skeletons were pouring out that graveyard and filling the streets, he wasn't sure how long they could keep this up before Mozza finally went under. But if the Noble Graveyard was this bad, how much worse were the others? Could Elaina even afford to send backup?

Nancy Noi​

Relief at seeing a well cared for lab, filled with plants glowing with health that he almost didn't recognize from having not seen them for 200 years, was very quickly soured by the pair of bodies kept in a cell. Another pregnant nun and a child. How lovely. "The most vulnerable of people. Figures they had to make this as depraved as humanly possible." But it couldn't have been simply for the sadistic cruelty of it. Not even because the deceased were vulnerable, he chanced. There had to be a scientific reason that there were so many children involved. It was all very intentional, and the perfectly preserved bodies, to the bookshelf filled to the brim with books and notes, were proof of that.

Despite his need for answers, Nancy heeded his Goddess's words. "Right. I'll make sure these books won't go anywhere." The immediate people who didn't want them seen were dead, anyway. An investigation was due when the battle finally subsided.

Taking note of this lab's setup, Nancy gathered his ingredients and set to work, spurred on by the battering and gunfire sounding from downstairs. He hadn't brought any of his alchemy books with him; again, where was the time to read? So he hoped he could remember how to make potions with these rare ingredients.

Fergie​

Much like the raid from two weeks ago, Fergie was picking herself off the ground along with her crew, rattled to her bones from that explosion. But she was satisfied. Mostly anyway. Didn't want 'em throwin' themselves into another damn coma, she thought, looking over the mages' heaving bodies, all breathing rapidly though otherwise deathly still. But she couldn't deny that the sacrifice earned them a guaranteed win against this coming round. If anyone managed to get themselves killed by these brittle bois, she was going to smack them around in the Spirit Sea once she'd died and found them.

Though of course-- of BLOODY course-- the gods decided to laugh at her for that very thought, when steam erupted from the magma pit's epicenter and hit everyone in the face with humid heat that would have burned them had it not been for the HR potions. "Gods-fucking-dammit," she muttered in hissing retort. She could barely see past her stretched-out arm, and with all the mages clocked out, they wouldn't be getting any magelight to help cut through this fog.

"Use your ears!" she instructed the crew. "Can hear them things rattlin' from yards away, so don't let 'em get the jump on ye's!" And with how the strength sapped out of them when the skeletons touched the sanctified field, they were making a racket trying to carry their laden armor and weapons. "Ash, keep holdin' on that blitz. Let 'em come to us!" The ruined terrain from that explosion, mixed with the impenetrable fog from the steam, made it unfavorable circumstances for a charge.

Nellie Noi​

Nellie felt it before she saw it. An immense change in the air pressure brought her to turn around, witnessing that great sheet of white growing over the city walls. It whipped and twirled at its edges like clouds, but it was too clean to be smoke. Someone, the pirates or the demon, was cooling down the Nova spot, and violently. She had felt steam burns before, fighting alongside Vlad and his Fire Magic. There was still scarring under her scales from those battle mishaps. So she knew it in her head, as well as felt it in her gut, that this wave was going to cook her alive.

"Nellie!" Vlad knew it too, noticing the approaching wall and shouting over his shoulder. "Go! Get to shelter! We can handle this!"
Any urge to protest was strangled by enough self-preservation instinct to follow through on his order. Besides, it was time to admit that she was of little use in this heat anyway. Getting a running start, she conjured a line of water in the air and leaped inside, speeding above the ground in her summoned current. This wasn't a race against the steam wall. It had already climbed over the walls, and was cascading down buildings to the ground. It was GOING to hit her, so it was a matter of reaching the nearest holy site before her preexisting heat cramps quickly developed to heat exhaustion, then worse. Simply casting more water in front of her was making her arms ache, and there was no way she could waddle to safety with her short legs. If she lost the ability to cast before the holy site was in reach, she'd die out here.


Kylesar1

 

[Kylesar1]

Toron, the Capital City​

Noble District

A roar in the air as Quincy came barreling in on Bogrum's position, unleashing blasts of flame upon the skeletons, flame so hot it took on a pinkish hue, charring the bones of the skeletons and causing them to glitch out in the midst of the extreme heat if they didn't immediately become ash. "DAD!" Demi yelled out as she jumped from Quincy's back, who continued his draconic assault. "DAD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!??"
The man was lost and not even the voice of his daughter was reaching him. He was still unleashing hell, but the bad part was that his explosiveness was starting to cause friendly casualties.
Demi didn't have time to think. She needed to act in the face of her father putting his unit in danger on multiple levels. "Bogrum!" Demi called urgently, "I'll take over for my dad! Quincy, incapacitate my father and stop these troops!"

Quincy landed between the bulk of the troops and the bulk of the skeletons. Demi focused as Quincy unleashed a powerful fireball, and the woman took care to shield troops as the fireball blazed through them. Luckily, as her master, Demi's shield provided complete immunity to Quincy's fire.

Then Quincy looked over at Arnold, stopping him in his tracks. Berserk or not, you're not gonna look a massive draconic beast in the face and not stop in your tracks. With an easy swipe of his massive hand, Quincy blasted Arnold into a building, then roared at the troops in front of him, immediately making them drop their weapons and drop, trembling. It was a simple Fear Spell because they may have ran in fear. Instead, Demi had them paralyzed with fear.

"My dad will be fine," Demi told Bogrum with a salute, "I'll provide my support. Quincy! Go drop off the supplies, help there, then come back when things are under control."
A roar of acknowledgement, and Quincy flew off.
Demi walked forward to the troops. "On your feet, men." These were Stoneroses. While she didn't know all of them, she knew a good amount of them. "I'm sorry I wasn't here before.........." she said sorrowfully, "but at this point, we're not protecting the city. We're here to save lives."
"King Hemhart has abandoned us. He's locked in the castle with the 100 Elite." The man sounded as in despair as he was angered. Like a hopeless
"Instead of sending the best of the best to save the city, he's withholding them?" Demi asked incredulously. It..........it explained why all this happened. Between managing the forces at the Gates, her Rider Squad, and the ship operation, Demi was stretched too thin to worry about the internals of the city. It didn't sound too much to ask to send your best troops to defend the city. "I'll be picking Elaina's brain," she whispered after a bit of thought, "Well men, I have over 200 years of training and a Wyvern with over 200 years of training. The 100 Elite's got nothing on me." The UV Nova basically demonstrated that only someone with Divine Favor could actually beat her.

Demi surveyed the scenes, heart breaking at every inch of destruction she took in. It made her realize that they basically failed the mission. She looked to Bogrum tearfully. "This district is beyond saving," she said, looking at the destroyed Elegant Dove restaurant specifically. She remembered showing Ves that restaurant when they first met, and she carried on that tradition, having taken Efilisa and Nancy there upon completing their first mission (in Nancy's case, it was a mission cancelation). The Elegant Stew was to die for, and she was willing to die to taste that nostalgia once more. "So........don't worry about property damage anymore. Anything and everything you have, use it. I will search for signs for life and we will save them." Between the skeletons having run wild in this district and Arnold losing his mind, there was no point in saving anything that wasn't sentient.


Residential District

Nellie........didn't make it. Close but not close enough. Her magic ran out, drained because of her attempts to conjure ice in that heat. She could've pulled through arm ache to save her own life, but it amounted to nothing in the face of literally not having enough mana to conjure it anymore, and she fell uselessly to the ground before the steam cascaded onto the field. There, the agony began as the steam started to burn her horribly under her scales, not helped by the fact that she just fell out of water, making the steam full body burn as it heated the water that was on her body. 20 long seconds of being steamed alive, legs too short to be effective, Nellie was having a repetition of her fights alongside Vlad, steam becoming the thing to fear more and more.

Suddenly, she was picked up by her robe and thrown into the Holy Site. Nellie's mystery savior didn't remain a mystery for long as it left with a neigh. There was, of course, only ONE WAY a horse saw her in that steam, knew to grab her and then throw her into the site. Hell, the fact that she was seen through that thick steam PERIOD meant that eyes had been watching, and there was only one pair of eyes capable of seeing through any of this. Like it or not, Nellie had just eaten a massive serving of crow for not listening to her regal companion the first time

Since Nellie didn't have Divine Favor like her brother or Vlad, the holy site didn't soothe her pain or heal her. It DID keep her from cooking anymore though. While it didn't keep the steam from obscuring their vision, it did also keep the steam from burning while under its influence, as if all heat was drained from it

(If you had other plans for Nellie, lmk and I'll retcon this. She is absolutely taking damage from the steam though)

Steven the Deacon and Jack the Shotgunner
Church​

The group was not holding up well. For some reason, while most of them were coming from the same direction, they were coming in so fast that they surrounded the church easily, banging on the doors and trying to force their way in. The nobles, not having the ability to fight, pressed themselves against the doors with all their might, while pirates took careful shots from the windows. Demi hadn't shown up yet and the conjurer was doing great but this obviously wasn't the least bit sustainable. A few had already run out of ammo. The non-magic users were watching the windows and keeping skeletons from entering

Steven didn't have the ability to buff his fellow troops. THAT wasn't part of his divine favor. He served The Paragon, the God of Virtue, Obris. None of the power he was granted made him able to buff troops. Only make bullets holy, or heal the troops. Still, he would push on and send them back to dust. "My God, I ask not for strength for my hand. I ask for the strength to persevere through these times," he said as he blasted another skeleton with his shotgun loaded with holy magic, "Nah, not me. Give Jack the strength of mind," he muttered in prayer on the move. "He ain't the smartest, he ain't yours yet, and he got only one virtue, but you know he got respect for You." Jack was definitely Steven's right hand and best friend. "I can't deny that Jack aint got many virtues.......but YOU can't deny that the few he got, he gots better than me. "


Jack meanwhile had run out of ammo. Now resorting to brass knuckles in one hand, Jack was a full blown brawler. Gritted teeth and full of injuries, any skeleton that popped through the window got their skull either punched with full force, or got their spine grabbed and ripped, which also killed instantly since it severed the connection to the orb in the skull. He grabbed one of the shields off a skeleton and equipped it in his non-brass arm, using it to block attacks. With none of these having a big axe or hammer, it was pointless grabbing a weapon from them. A sword would get stuck. Fist, Shield, or Boot, Jack was running the frontlines like a Paladin here. The Church wasn't healing him, only helping fight the fatigue that was building up, slower than normal but still surely.


Lab

If Nancy took a look at the shelf, he'd find the names of 2 familiar alchemy books that he'd read a thousand times. In his 200 years of alchemy, he pretty much had his craft down to an art. However, in dealing with more rare ingredients that he hadn't handled in a while, the reluctance was called for. Between time consideration, known knowledge, and knowledge to be gained/reinforced by reading these books, Nancy had decisions to make.

Nancy's Decision

1. Alchemical Autopilot- Use the ingredients he had handled thousands of times to make potions he knew everything about.
   • Advantage- Potions of reliable effect
   • Disadvantage- Less potions due to using fewer ingredients
2. Use the Books- Look in the books for uses for the rare ingredients. Quantity over Quality
   • Advantage- Many more potions
   • Disadvantage- Due to inexperience with some ingredients, side-effects may pop up
3. Extensive Research- Use the time to research and then make few of the strongest potions he could muster. Quality over Quantity
   • Advantage- THE most powerful potions
   • Disadvantage- Precious few

Nancy's Decision 2

After choosing how he would go about making the potions, he would need to choose what potions specifically to focus on making

1. Go Offense- Focus on potions around Physical/Magic Strength
   • Advantage- Troops more able to push back against the bulk
   • Disadvantage- Akin to a Blitz, meaning more casualties as they keep fighting
     • Side Effect (If Taken Option 2): Numbs the body to strain and overuse, making them less cognizant to damage, and more likely to put themselves into a Magic Coma
2. Go Defense- Focus on potions around Physical/Magic Resistance
   • Advantage- Bulkier troops taking less damage overall and able to hold down the inside better
   • Disadvantage- Bulky doesn't speak for much in the face of fatigue
     • Side Effect (If Taken Option 2): An effect comparable to severe Food Poisoning
3. Go Health- Focus on potions for Health and Stamina
   • Advantage- Keeping troops alive and well, able to keep fighting
   • Disadvantage- Healing them wouldn't improve their ability to fight against bulked up troops.
     • Side Effect (If Taken Option 2): Weakened Magic; Prevents mana recovery without mana potion
4. Well Round- No specific focus. Keep the numbers even. Quantity over Quality
   • Advantage- Generalized potions able to do every
   • Disadvantage- It can do it, but it can't do it all well on a large scale concerning the the troops
     • Side Effect (If Taken Option 2): Absolute Bedlam of unknown and potentially unsafe effects that Nancy couldn't pinpoint due to not having researched enough

The Gates of Toron

Ashlynn Thormdottir​

Shrouded in steam, Ash didn't have anything to counter this. With all mages out, they didn't have any Wind Magic capable to blowing this steam away. Sweat soaking her clothes, she stuck by Mama Bear and pulled out her sickles. Their bone density reduced to that of a child, her heavier axe wasn't needed. Having to depending on her ears wasn't ideal, but she could hear the shambling of the skeletons as they meandered through the smoke. Could they see? Probably. Their sight wasn't exactly that of human eyes.
"Can you see them Mama Bear?"
"I can. I am a magic being afterall," MB grumbled
"Then go maul. Protect these men," Ash commanded, "I gave them orders to not die, but they will if they have to use their brain."
MB sighed. "You're a troublesome Cub," she remarked before bounding off. Then came the sounds of a bear's roar and bones crunching.

Ash stood still, sickles at the ready. Even if she gave MB the command to focus on troop protection, she knew her familiar would be focused on her first and foremost. A shambling too close. Ash hopped forward then faced the skeleton who came behind her. Ash dashed forward and slashed down, severing both skull and orb immediately without her sickle getting stuck


Fergie founded herself surrounded with brittle skeletons, and they all jumped on her at once

Vanguard- The Forest

Sebas Deadeye​

Sebas dropped to the bottom through the steam with his daughter in hand. It was time to end this while the demon still couldn't heal. He couldn't see a thing. "Can you see, Ora?"
"Not at all. Goddess lets us see the dark of the waters," Ora expressed calmly.
"You calm?"
"Inside yes," she admitted. "I'm more scared than I've ever been." Sebas wanted to laugh at how she got him with the first part of that, making him think she was calm. Never was she actually calm. She'd been scared the entire time, yet persevered and without complaint.
That admission gave Sebas courage, and he squeezed her hand as he drew his blade. "I gotcha. Stick close."
"I will," she breathed, squeezing his hand back as she peered into the fog. It wasn't like her vision was good enough to see anything Sebas couldn't. "I love you, Papa......."

"I will enhance your vision," Fatimah told them both over telepathy, "Elaina has the strongest, but she isn't the only one who has such magic." Both their visions enhanced but...........yeah he could see what Fatimah meant when she caveated that Elaina had the strongest. This was the magic MASTER, yet this was like 1/50th of what Elaina did. It gave him new appreciation of how potent Elaina was at what she does. Sebas wouldn't burst Fatimah's bubble, especially since eh knew that if he knew, SHE knew.

His vision enhanced enough to see the demon, which is why he couldn't bash it too much. The obsidian floor was warm under his boots, bordering on hot. Ora didn't wear such boots so she had to use ice magic on her leather shoes to counter the heat. Sebas's blade was shining, but there were skeletons between the duo and the demon. "Ora."
"On it!" she exclaimed, spinning her staff. Being blessed by the Goddess and having Sebas there to empower her. One smack of her staff would melt bone so as long as she hit them in the head, it would insta-kill without that shield. In cases of those wearing armor or shield, Sebas would assist with an easy parry to blast into the skull to hit the orb, decommissioning the skeleton instantly. Mozza was desperate enough to try and keep him away, but it wouldn't work. Avery and Fatimah both were there to take on the horde.

"Ready, demon?" Sebas said as he stalked forth, confident with Avery taking Silencer, Suppressor, and Shivarath to any and all around him and Fatimah being so incredibly precise with her magic that it was naught but a laser that instantly put the skelly out of commission. "Should've left when ya had the chance."

"NO! I REFUSE TO DIE HERE!!" Mozza roared
"Whine more for me," Sebas responded as he stalked forward
WayfaringWaaksian

 

[WayfaringWaaksian]

A Grave Disaster

Before Demi and her Draconic steed arrived, even Bogrum in the middle of battle could see that Arnold was disintegrating. Elaina had to have drained all his senses to NOT notice the increasingly powerful hits, the rubble it flung back as well as fellow troops. What was a boon against this mob at first was becoming cataclysmic to everyone around, friend and foe. "Commander!" Axe carving away line after line of rushing skeletons, he couldn't fall back to try to stop the man. "Asella! ARNOLD!!" Bogrum didn't think he could even if he had the chance. The man was too far gone.

So when the Beastmaster arrived, Bogrum silently thanked whatever nondescript gods were watching over them. The Wyvern's simple presence turned the tides of this fight, reducing all the immediate skeletons into char and ash, and incapacitating the rogue Arnold with one swipe of his mighty paw. He'll be fine?! Bogrum held back his disbelief at Demi's reassurance. Not even Bogrum would have been fine after a hit like that, so surely there was some Pixie magic at play here, or Draconic. It was sort of hard to process everything that had just happened. That Fear Spell hadn't even been directed at Bogrum, yet he was fighting just as hard as he was against the skeletons to keep his nerves from being rattled. Dragons? No thank you, I'll take the giant frogs next.

Watching Demi's sad gaze pass over the destruction grounded him again, secondhand grief touching his brow. This wasn't the state she wanted to come back to her beloved city in. Being the Noble District, what was surely a grand and beautiful place was reduced to a crumbled, cracked waste. "You know the layout of this place. You and the Stoneroses are best suited to search for survivors," he agreed. "We'll keep the rest of the undead at bay in the meantime."

---

Nellie had her escape well planned out. When the steam hit, the humidity of the air would be so high, summoning water would barely take a drop of mana. All her concentration would be on condensing it and keeping it flowing in front of her. Cooling it more with some ice would be an unnecessary risk, since at the new speed she would take, she'd reach the Holy site in no time. The super hot water would be a brief pain.

However, this all hinged on her mana not running out period. Which is exactly what happened.

Before she fully registered it, the water stream began to collapse, taking her with it as it all splattered to the path below. She barely registered she was upright, let alone on the ground, her head was spinning so badly. Was it the heat, or the overexertion? Nellie had massively overshot how much mana she lost from her earlier spells. When she realized what was happening, she swore at herself for not taking those potions when--
She fumbled her hands at her belt. It wasn't too late; if she could down just one, it would be enough. She could ride out the steam wave until it started acting--

Mid-drink, the steam hit, her hand reflexively dropping the potion. It didn't shatter, but the rest of its blue contents spilled and bled into the cobbled stone. The pain was immediate, potent, and unbearable. One wasn't immune to pain in the Void, but dying? That was what was happening to her, and rapidly. Breath wheezed from her lungs, unable to scream in any way with her crystal mute from lack of mana. She'd be shrieking in agony if she could, wanting to close in on herself to protect any inch of her body she could, but the simple knowledge that she would die in over a minute was enough to make her put one foot in front of the other, a hand before the next. She was crawling, barely able to muster the mustelid-like gait Lungborne took when really getting the hell away from something. Where was the Holy site? Was it a few paces away? A few yards? She had to try. Not because of some slim chance of survival.

I won't lay here and accept it! Nellie had spent every waking moment of her life fighting, fighting circumstances, fighting fates decided for her. She'll go out fighting if she had to. Goddess... Nancy... protect him. They'll kill him. He's seen too much by now.

Instead of passing out onto the ground and being pulled into the Depths Mariana now dwelt in, Nellie felt herself lifted up, tossed through the air, and left somewhere the heat didn't touch her. It all happened so quickly that she wondered if she really had been close to the Holy site, or the agony under her scales was warping her perception of time. What had happened? Nellie's ears twitched. Was that a neigh? How... how in the hell did a horse, of all things...

Spoiler: A Glacial Meltdown

She saw a wisp of steam around a horn. Heard a fluttering of wings. ... No.

The creature Nancy had warned her about. How the hell did it know to save her, let alone see her in this impenetrable fog? It all clicked then. Elaina's smugness. Vespera's combativeness towards her. The fact that Nellie had been saved at all.

That... BITCH! Another rush of adrenaline let her push herself up by her arms. Invade our lands! Demand an audience! Lie about your intentions! One arm trembled as the other abandoned support, reaching for her last mana potion. Threaten our lives! She downed it in a few quick swallows. Threaten MY BROTHER!! The potion was thrown with all her meager might, a splash of glass against the wall. Then have the AUDACITY! To say WE DESERVE THIS?!?

Her teeth were grinding, baring to the world. She didn't care. Maybe it was the mana drink, or the flash of rage, but something brought her to a shaking stand. YOU COME TRYING TO FIX OUR PROBLEMS WITH ALL THE ARROGANCE OF THE MAN YOU DESPISE, HAVING RISKED NOTHING!!! She pivoted and swept her tail under the legs of a side table. The shattering of the pot that sat upon it gave her no reprieve. I DIDN'T SUFFER WITH THIS KNOWLEDGE FOR 200 YEARS, UNABLE TO DO A DAMN THING, JUST FOR YOU TO BELITTLE US BECAUSE YOU-- "HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE!!!"

Burns scrawling under her scales and relieved only by the relative cool of this sanctified air, the sudden strength abandoned her limbs just as quickly as it came, Nellie falling to her knees, then to her hands. "Goddess. Forgive my ingratitude." The sobs that came racked her battered body, tears dripping between her webbed fingers. "Forgive me..."

Nancy Noi​

A pair of names on two book spines caught Nancy's attention because he actually recognized them. Of course, it made sense that some basic alchemy reads were kept in a lab, yet still his relief was insurmountable as he pulled the books from their shelves. Flipping through them to the pages he remembered that detailed those rare reagents, his excitement dropped to nigh dread as he skimmed them over. "Oh, this is a lot more complicated than I remember..." They were hardly Master level concoctions, easily learned within a few hours time, or less if one was simply stretching some mental muscles. But it wasn't time he could afford, considering the horrible racket downstairs. If he did spend the time relearning these properly, he could make something very potent, but did potency matter? Not if there were many mouths in need of healing drink.

And he could produce many potions with the amount of ingredients cared for in this lab, but the less time he spent studying, the more potential for side-effects increased, and that could be the difference between life or death for someone in the thick of it. He was ready to forgo the rare stuff entirely, just work with what he knew to produce reliable supply, but a twinge of something made him open one of the books back up. "I've done this far too long to doubt myself." They weren't Master potions, but he was a Master alchemist. If he couldn't create the perfect potion in quick time, he could at least control the kind and severity of side-effects that would crop up.

Nancy's Decision:

• Use the Books - Quantity over Quality, to make do until Demi's resupply arrived​
• Go Health - Steven had requested more Health, so that would be Nancy's focus. Potential side-effects lean towards Mana stunting, which he expects to be less of a problem for the melee/firearms focused pirates.​

Fergie​

Unable to look over her crew as the clash began, Fergie was alerted to a sound. Then two. Three. Four. Five. All in unison. Limbs tensing like a startled cat's hindquarters, Fergie sprung forward and escaped the attempted pile-on... almost. Her damned clunker of a leg slowed her just enough for one set of dinky hands to grasp her, which proceeded to do to her like they did to the ground they sprung up from. Yeah, those claws hurt like a FUCK.

Letting out a howl that probably ought to have come out of a cat too, she spun and threw the thing's child-weight off her ass and into the ground, crushing its skull under her boot. The next that came after her got fractured in the face by her sword's hilt. The third, beheaded by the blade. Forth, a boot to its sternum, which caused it to simply fall into pieces from the force of it. The fifth got an extra vindictive treatment when Fergie picked an arm from the last skeleton mid-fall, used it to slap the shit out of it and send its skull spinning, then swept its legs underneath and severed skull from spine with a stomp.

"Damn!" Not at the assaulting party she just took out, just the claw marks the lucky one left down her rear and thigh, useless sweat in this humidity only making it burn worse. Ass scar #4, I guess. Surprisingly low number for her, but better to have scars in the front than in the back. That showed that you faced your battles face-on, rather than fleeing like a coward. She had thought it embarrassing if they lost more substantial numbers to Mozza's death throes, but equally embarrassing would it have been for Fergie to take no hits at all. A leader hiding away in the bulk of the crew wasn't a good look.

That aside, she noted that the skeletons had changed tactics. Instead of rushing them with strength and bulk before touching the sanctified field, their approach was cautious and quiet. They had gotten pretty close before she heard their shambling, so despite Mozza's state, the skeletons must have enough wits about them to alter course in regards to new circumstances. The skellies were weak, but when ganging up like that? Those sharp finger bones were a Death by A Thousand Cuts deal, and the reason why Fergie had Fatimah take out those mobbing rodents earlier. "Oi! They're gettin' smart! Stay huddled and don't stray from each other!" Mama Bear was an exception because what the hell was a bunch of brittle bones going to do against a live bear?


Kylesar1