Active [ROTIA-Niflheim Village]- The Hailrend Disorder

[Rev IX]

Arkham Koenig
​

Things continued to hit the fan more and more severely. Conveniently, the foreign fear his heart felt washed away as quickly as it appeared. The anger, however, merely scaled down. He was dragged deeper into the village, but he was swift to shake off the people holding him. The armored man took it upon himself to face the corpse wave. The swordsman found that to be better for him than hole up and wait it all to magically solve.

"On it!"

Arkham's voice rang to a side from Marcus. And as soon as the voice replied, Arkham was gone. Taking advantage of the gap Marcus' strikes likely offered. A swift and calculated sprint where he enveloped himself in fire and obscured his actual body within, the hunter got to the gate device and shut it as quickly as he possibly could.

Once the gate was set to shut, Arkham vanished again, turning into an apparently disembodied dark fireball rushing forward. Burning and pushing the horde out of the way. Materializing near Marcus. "Thanks for the save. I guess I'm up." He stated with agitation. Arkham was more of a duelist, but a helping blade is always welcomed in his eyes. Luckily, his mind was clearer now, since the ones who roped him into all of this weren't present.

From another perspective, he might have gotten in more trouble were he to face them and the villagers.

Actions
1 - Phantom Flaming Charge (-2) - Undetected [Sight, Hear] E, Fighting Style [Phantom Blade][Sword][Specialized] E, Aura E, Fast F - Grade E - 1 post cooldown
2 - Shut the gate through the mecanism.
3 - Phantom Flaming Charge (-1) - Undetected [Sight, Hear, Smell] D, Fighting Style [Phantom Blade][Sword][Specialized] D, Aura D, Fast F - Grade D - 2 post cooldown

Cooldown
C - 0/3
D - 2/2 x
E - 1/1 x
F - 0/0

 

[Lolory]

UMBRA BLACKWELL | Demon | Enticer
​

Marcus and Arkham were able to successfully hold back some of the hoard, though it would quickly become apparent that there would be far too many for just the two of them to handle. And they had inadvertently drew more of the awful creatures their way, what with Arkham's flame magic that seemed to attract those that had not burned from the attacks. The gate was slowly closing since Arkham had managed to reach the mechanism in time to stop more of them from storming the place, but the ones that had made it now burrowed deep into the snow, unseen and potentially waiting for anyone to stray to close to where they had burrowed.

The two of them would soon find themselves in another predicament, as every step towards the safety of the townhall could potentially lead them to being dragged or attacked at random by rotters that were hidden in the snow. All of the residential buildings were boarded and shuttered up, besides Orissa's blacksmithing shop. Her furnace was still on and burning, but not quite as hot as to attract any of the rotters away from them.

Meanwhile, inside of the townhall, Umbra found it was the perfect opportunity to finally strike now that he was alone. No chivalric fake knights breathing down his neck, or nosy Yakuza, or mysterious lone swordsmen, or oddly named bird beastkin. Just him, and the fools trapped in the townhall.

"I see, so this Aurora Dial... It can disperse the storm up above?" He asked Alyss, who nodded eagerly.

"Along the tracks, we installed special grade ore that resonates with the dial, so all you need to do is insert it in its proper place, start the train, and any weather around it will quickly be controlled momentarily until it passes completely." Alyss explained. Umbra thought that sounded interesting, but for a different reason all together. "We just need to put the train back on the tracks, and start it up. I don't think anything was totally destroyed when it was derailed."

"It's kind of strange that we haven't figured out what caused that yet." Umbra said, then stared pointedly at Bryn. "But I think I finally figured it out. You derailed the train, didn't you, Miss Regita?" He could tell from the instant nervous look she got in her eye, and the way she seemed to shrink away from his gaze that he had guessed correctly. He just wondered how nobody else had figured it out by then. But no matter, this was perfect. "No need to make any excuses, I can tell from your face that it's the truth. You derailed the train with your giant machine in the hopes of making us stay here...but why? is it because perhaps you knew the train had an Aurora Dial to begin with? You trapped us here under false pretenses, made it seem like you were saving us when really...you set that whole scenario up, didn't you?"

"M-mr. Blackwell, I don't think Bryn would do that..." Alyss said with a concerned look on her face. "Besides, she's right they do need the train-"

"Ah but that's where you're wrong, Miss Alyss. They don't need it, we do. And I think we should leave without burdening ourselves with people who cause us only more problems. Do you want to be stuck here, in this village with the rest of these sick people? Clearly this disease does not make people think rationally at all..." Umbra sighed, "I have...experienced it first hand as well. I visited the patients here, and they seemed on deaths door. And they weren't mentally well, much like Miss Regita. Does crashing and derailing the train seem rational to you? Of course it doesn't. When Marcus and the others return from outside, we shall leave this place, but not before the trains put back on its tracks."

Bryn and Orissa both shared a grim look before Bryn nodded resolutely. "I can't let you leave with that train. Not without letting the people in the village board."

"Then I guess we're at an impasse. I will tell the others about what you've done too and let them come to their own conclusions, unless you'd like to come clean first?"

---

In the mines, now a giant cavern yawned before the group of miners who had fallen. Griffin managed to scare away the few rotters that tried to follow with his attacks, but now another problem lay before them all. The giant cavern was full of bug monsters, busily working away to continue building up the ginormous hive that was smack dab in the middle of the giant space. The air was chilly from the odd fumes the bugs would release as they worked, and mysterious blue veins of magic pulsed all around the cave, upwards to the very roof of it, presumably where the surface was.

"What the...Is this where the bug monsters come from? I knew they had some kind of hive in the mines, but I didn't think it'd be this large." Brody said in awe as he stared at the sight before him. The monsters didn't seem aggressive like the ones in the mines from before, they were too busy working to care about the little humans that had fallen into their space. A giant bug monster, one larger and massive in size lay in the middle of the cavern below the hive.

This must be the queen, or king, or...leader? Whatever it was, it wasn't good as it was the originator of those blue pulsing veins of magic. Every so often the bug monster would squirm and breathe into the ground, and the blue veins would pulse sending whatever mysterious substance the bug queen was puffing into the ground and up above.

DarkKitsune Maxxob Rev IX Maverick Six ​