Fantasy Royal Witches

[The J]

Georgio's arrows made an almost clockwork-like rhythm as they took down blightling after blightling. He was down to half of his cheap wooden-tipped arrows, and he didn't have many of his more valuable metal ones to start with. The blighted horde was beginning to overcome them, just as Eva used an incredibly powerful spell to either extinguish their life or turn them into even dumber things than they were before, stumbling over each other and falling into the mud.
It wasn't a large enough range to stop the ones nearer to Georgio and Carmaline, though. The house they were standing atop was completely surrounded, and the blightlings beneath were clawing at the eaves of the roof that Georgio had used himself to get up there just minutes ago. If they didn't get moving, they'd soon be overrun.
"We need to move," Georgio said, "before they climb up here with us."
That said, he turned to look for somewhere to move. There was an alley only a few feet wide between them and the closest house, though it was about a foot higher as well - one slip would toss them into the maw of the horde below.
Confident, Georgio took a small run-up before leaping, and he didn't even need to use his hands for anything but balance on the jump over. He looked back to Carmaline behind him.
"Come on!"

 

[Poe]

Eva Fay

”My father was a Warden, made sure I held a sword long before I was allowed a wand,” Eva let a small smile find her lips as she found the strength to push herself back up onto her own two feet. What she wouldn’t give for a stiff drink and a warm bed, but for now their focus needed to be on the Blight. Her mana was edging at being too low for comfort, but she had another spell or two in her before she was entirely useless. Hopefully she wouldn’t need them and they could make it back to camp with the survivors with what time she managed to buy already.

It was the latter part of Bruno’s comments that caused a warm chuckle to reverberate through her. “I would hardly say expendable with that sort of bravery, but if its swings you are looking for, I am happy to oblige.”

RJS

 

[Epiphany]

The enormous bonfire of magic Eva put to the horde of Blightspawn brought a smile to Carmaline's face.

She glanced at the archer on the roof beside her before giving a brief approving nod of his accuracy. His shout to her drew her back to the immediate situation and Carma grimaced at the numbers. They could very well overwhelm the house itself and bring down the roof the two perched on given time.

The Warden took the lead, vaulting the alley way and the horde of death below. Carmaline narrowed her eyes in concentration, took up her staff of white ash, and sprinted down the side of the roof before making the same leap. She landed somewhat less gracefully than the archer had. Gathering her robes and staff up once more, the Red Witch glanced behind her and urged the two of them up and over this house's rooftop as well.

Beyond, the Wardens and Witches had pulled back from the holocaust of Eva's magic, evacuating the survivor or two picked up so far. Time to go. Before they jumped to the next house, Carmaline briefly peeked over her shoulder to make sure nothing had climbed the roof after them.

In Ormount's heart lay the Matriarch's Hall. And at the moment she looked, every window in the biggest structure in town blew out at once. A moment later, part of its massive roof sagged in.

"...We need to regroup. Right now!" And Carmaline leaped for safety before looking for a clear alley to drop down into. Whatever that was, she didn't want it to catch them and she didn't dare use magic or risk drawing it before the Royal Army was ready.

 

[RJS]

A discordant, yet muffled humming could be heard along the empty street, mingling with the sounds of battle from a few streets over. Alberto lurched along the street, the humming much louder inside the head of his suit. With every step, the weapon strapped to his back bounced against it, providing a beat to which the hum was set. The street had been so busy earlier, lots of test subjects. Too many test subjects, the mere concept so ridiculous that his hum was interrupted by a high-pitched giggle. Thankfully the Royal Army had drawn their army and so there was no risk of losing his arm-ies. Quite handy all round. And so he could stroll down the streets, shopping for specimens. Thank goodness the army had the sense to not burn down this treasure trove.

Slumped in the doorway was a motionless figure, with a beautiful right arm. Around a series of bite marks were a fantastic array of pustules, some ruptured and oozing sweet nectar. There was a beautiful blush of inflammation, highlighted by the darker tones that could only be tissue necrosis. He would have jumped for joy, were it possible in the confines of his suit. Nevertheless, he grabbed a large hessian sack from the pouch at his waist, and carefully withdrew a scalpel from a small kit on his chest. He crouched down, tracing the path of the cut delicately along the surface of the arm. Couldn't damage any of the good stuff, no no no. Satisfied that his precious specimen would not be harmed, he sliced deep into the arm, above the point of infection.

"YEAAAAARGH!!!"
​

Alberto recoiled, the lack of mobility in his suit causing him to fall over backwards. He looked up to see his specimen being flailed around by its current owner, who seemed displeased with his opportunity to assist the fight against the blight. "Sir! Please! I know this is a surprise, but your arm is a sure prize!"

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU!?"
​

"Now, now, now, now, now. This is a calm peaceful street, and your yelling may bring competition. It's not like you need the arm anymore, and surely you'd like to put it to good use. Take up arms against the Blight with it, as it were?" As the man continued to shout at him, Alberto sighed. People could be so unreasonable. He couldn't shoot him, that was for sure. Might damage the arm. Time for Compound #4023. Pulling a vial from his belt, he uncorked the stopper and flung it over the man's face, prompting even more outrage. Alberto merely stood motionless, waiting. The man's speech began to slur, and he staggered, before crashing down to the ground with a confused look on his face. The confusion was soon replaced with the slackjawed vacancy of a coma. Alberto checked his pocketwatch. THREE MINUTES!? That was only 20% of what it should have done...unless...what if the blight interfered with it? Alberto made a mental note to test #4023 on both healthy and varying stages of blight, before resuming his surgery. Soon, all that was left was the bone. Alberto had little choice but to brace the unconscious man up against the wall, before kicking him repeatedly, each one bringing a laboured grunt. Soon though, he was rewarded with a sharp snap, and the arm fell loose. Laughing with an innocent glee, he stuffed the arm into the sack and scampered back towards the camp. Needed to make sure his legsies beat the army.

 

[Aldur]

Maxima Horatius & Murdock MacÀidh

Overview

Location	Middle of a dead Horde
Company	An amalgamation of corpses and the living

The horde remained still at the command of one witch. Murdock sighed with relief and Maxima snapped back into a neutral position, her sword finally resting. It was dirty; black ooze lingered on the blade. The girl, Isabella had long covered her face with a piece of cloth. She jumped off Maxima and hugged her tin-man of a father. His rough audible breaths were then dampened by a:

"Good Goddesses... Don't run from me like that e'er again." He scolded. "It's still not over, you know?" Isabella nodded, the sadness radiating from her eyes like light off a candle. Murdock turned towards Maxima and leaned forward enough to grab her right arm. Max was surprised and recoiled backward. "Thank you greatly for keepin' my daughter safe! I cannot ever repay you." His eyes could still be seen through his visor. The bore a frown and betrayed more than a concern. Isabella wasn't wearing any protective gear, except for the piece of cloth.

"Save your thanks for the doctors, man. We all need to be quarantined after this. Including your daughter..." She said dryly. Murdock replied by subtly shaking his head. He wouldn't have wanted her to say it out loud to Isabella.

"We have a few more survivors... and some unfinished business to take care of." Murdock continued."It's not far from here, although, I'd like to take my daughter to safety first. Wardens? Witches? What do you propose?"

Poe @St Sin RJS Epiphany thoughtless

 

[thoughtless]

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aurelia boveri

i hold the past like a knife

[div class=tab]Location

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[div class=text]Ormount Village (Surrounded by Blighted)

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[div class=tab]Tagged

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[div class="tabsContent tabsContentTag" style=display:none]

[div class=text]Eva Fay Poe | Damon Dragoslav @St Sin
Bruno Fidele RJS | Carmaline De Lancret Epiphany
Maxima Horatius & Murdock MacÀidh Aldur

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Aurelia had let her own fireballs, which had rapidly begun losing their shape and threatened to burst with uncontrolled magical energy, fly into the horde of blighted that she had managed to separate from the rest of the team. They were quickly consumed by the untamed flames, and soon the air was filled with the repulsive smell of burning flesh. Taking down the remaining few with nothing but her blade, she turned to the others just in time to see Eva wipe out a good number of the horde as well.

Aurelia used the new opening as a chance to regroup, and it was then that she caught a glimpse of the little girl that was amongst them and some other man that had joined the group as well. She failed to stop her from brows from curving into a frown. She had hoped they could do away with the horde and refocus on their initial objective of reaching the Matriarch's Hall, but the fact that there were survivors made everything all the more complicated.

Readjusting the cloth that covered her face, she watched as the horde started to regain their footing after their previous fumble. Chanting a quick incantation, her hands and her sword where engulfed in flame and she turned to the others. "If we're going to return back to camp with survivors, we should take out as many blighted as we can right now so they don't have a chance to follow us back, otherwise we run the risk of the camp being overrun as well.

[/div]

 

[RJS]

"May well get the chance if we don't hurry up and decide." Bruno stared as those Blighted that had not been purged by the magical barrage began to stir themselves once more. The piled corpses of the dead were an obstacle, but were far from impassable, and it wouldn't be long until their window of opportunity closed. If they were to pull out, or move on, it would have to be soon else they would be swarmed with Blight once more.

"With all due respect, we've not got long until the Blight comes again. We need to make a decision, and it needs to be made now - otherwise we're back where we started with only a pile of bodies to show for the amount of effort that we've expended. We need to decide now: the camp or the survivors. I don't like leaving the survivors longer than we have to, but I imagine most of the Blight is coming towards us right now."

He turned to look at Eva. "The command is yours, my lady."

 

[The J]

Georgio was mildly amused with the witch's attempt at a graceful leap - slightly inappropriate given the current situation, he knew, but he turned away to hide his small smile from her. What no one knew wouldn't come back to bite him.
When he turned, he was looking straight at the town hall, which immediately blew all of its windows out of their panes, showering the ground and buildings beside it with glass, and a chunk of the roof fell inwards with a crash.
"What the hell was that?" He asked Carmaline, hoping this was something a witch would know about - he'd never seen an explosion that powerful that wasn't magical.
She was right, though, they needed to get the hell out of here. It wouldn't be too long before the blightlings would overwhelm this house as well, and it would just take one slip, once the horde was beneath them, to fall to a grisly fate.
"I agree, whatever that was can't be good. I see the others, come on!" He said, already leaping to the next rooftop to join Eva's squad.

 

[Poe]

Eva Fay

"I am not abandoning those survivors," Eva said firmly, her crystalline blue eyes scanning the wall of bodies they'd managed to accumulate. Blight were already beginning to stumble their way over it and she knew they didn't have much time. Bruno was right - they did not have time for this. A decision needed to be made. "But we cannot do them any good like this. We need to regroup, figure out exactly how to best access the Matriarch's Hall without being overrun, and return with reinforcements."

"Fall back!" Eva called out to the rest of their group. "Put as much distance between us and them as you can."

Her entire body was exhausted. The mana use had depleted most of her energy, but they still had a long way to go. She tightened her grip on her sword and let out a deep exhale. If there were survivors in that town, they could have gotten to them, but there was no escape plan. It was stupid to run in blind, to hope for an exit, and Eva couldn't guarantee one. She had another small spell or two in her before there was something to worry about and she did not intend to die here - not when there were still so many who required their help.

It wasn't a surrender, they just needed to regroup.

"Make way for camp!" she called back, "Now!"

 

[Epiphany]

Carmaline heard the order to pull back and nodded in silent approval.

"No idea what that was," she said back to Georgio. "Could have been something explosive in there set off by something with the Blight. Might have been a Witch pull out all the stops on something with the Blight." She squinted as the Witches and Wardens put distance between the Hall and the village, making for their base camp. "Probably not either of those things, though. It doesn't look like anything we faced is heading towards it, and you'd expect someone throwing magic would draw some heat from the Blight. Which means it's probably something really nasty."

The Warden led the way off the rooftop once they'd reached a clear exit point and the pair sprinted for the camp, outdistancing whatever was left in the village in their haste.

Panting, Carmaline smiled as they rallied with Eva's squad. "Nice work there, Warden. I'm Carmaline de Lancret. You've probably worked with my husband, Archie. Thanks for watching my back out there. Now, any ideas on dealing with what's left? Besides burning the whole place down?" Her smile widened slightly, her tone playfully poking fun at herself for having been the one to publicly suggest doing exactly that before all of this began.

The J

 

[RJS]

Bruno checked over his shoulder to see if the way was clear, only to see a group of Blight that had obviously circled around the streets starting to shamble down the street they had come from. Swift action was needed to prevent them being surrounded. Lifting his sword to rest against his right shoulder, he charged forwards, decapitating three with a mighty swing. The backswing removed their legs, dropping them out of the way to allow Bruno to strike at the next row of the shambling horrors. A series of scything slashes cleared the rest out, Bruno now audibly grunting with the effort as the force of the impacts began to tell on his arm muscles. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the Blight starting to crest the wall of bodies. "Come on, we've no time left!" he yelled, heading back the way they had come, the rest, as far as he could tell, following in his wake.

 

[Aldur]

Maxima Horatius & Murdock MacÀidh

Overview

Location	The Camp
Company	Witches, Wardens, Isabella

Murdock took ample care when returning to camp. No blightling was to get close to Isabella, so he urged the she-Warden to keep close in case he'd need to walk further away from his daughter. Maxima was reluctant, at first, but she agreed nonetheless. Isabella eyed her up and down and was a bit confused about Max. With a bit of a puzzled look on her face, she said: "Miss? I would like to thank you for saving me. You have my gratitude and I am in..."

"We are in your debt." her father completed. Isabella nodded, letting loose a bright smile and a sincere glance. "If I could repay you in any way, just say the word." Murdock continued. Maxima then turned to him and replied in a dispelling tone: "Don't worry about that now. You can both thank me after we're safe and done with this." He nodded and brought himself back to the voyage at hand.

After what felt like a significant amount of time they had returned to the camp. Murdock took a deep breath and sighed in long-needed relief. They would need to go back to the village, but at the very least, his daughter would be safe. It was not exactly a fitting place for a teenage girl, but it had to do. Isabella did not protest.

Murdock then reported to the WItch whom the other Wardens reported to. From what he gathered, her name was Eva: "Hail, madame! I am Murdock MacÀidh, Warden. I wish to state that I was in the town before the outbreak, visiting my family. I would like to know if there is anything expected of me aside from aiding in completing the task at hand."

Poe @St Sin RJS Epiphany thoughtless